SAMPLING BASIS
I propose you letting go way back before the beginning of the Hip-Hop History, in the late 70s, when the manufacturer Fairlight introduced a synthesizer: the Computer Musical Instrument (or CMI). With it, the musician is able to record short sounds to then play it again: the term sampling was born. Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock were ones the main pioneers of this technique.
However, the most popular machines which have made the history of beatmaking were not created by Fairlight but by two other firms: The Japan AKAI and the American E-Mu Systems. Indeed, the first one's renowned instruments were the MPCs, with different models (MPC60, MPC2000XL,…) with their different memory capabilities, containing the famous matrix of 16 squared pads which has made their notoriety. Producers such as Dr. Dre, Pete Rock or even Kanye West made their albums with these machines.
The other brand on their side especially gave us the SP12 and SP1200, some iconic samplers, mainly used by the late J Dilla.
Nowadays, the company Native Instruments followed the design of AKAI’s MPC to make their ‘’Maschine’’, a hardware sampler firstly thought to be connected to computer’s softwares, which recently has been optimised to fit in a standalone mode - without the need of a computer - with its model: Maschine+. AKAI also opted to conceive hardware mixed with software.
But finally WHAT is sample and moreover what CAN BE sampled?
If you may think not knowing it at all, you’re wrong.
Do you remember the theme of the 1997 blockbuster Men In Black, or at least the hook, sung by Will Smith himself?
‘’Here come the Men in Black,
Galaxy defeeender,
Here come the Men In Black,
They won’t let you remember’’
Okay, now let’s change the lyrics by: ''Sending you forget me nots,
To help me to remember,
Baby please forget me not,
I want you to remember’' And you got Patrice Rushen’s Forget Me Nots.
Actually, the opposite happened, the funky piece of Patrice Rushen was released in 1982 and then the melody, rhythm and lyrics were sampled and rearranged to fit on a new track, the Men In Black Theme.
To be honest with you, Will Smith and his team, mostly DJ Jazzy Jeff - whom appeared as Will’s best friend Jazz in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the TV show who made Will Smith famous - often used sampling in an obviously way: in particular in Miami using And The Beat Goes On by The Whispers and in the Wild Wild West movie theme with Stevie Wonder’s I Wish. However, not everybody can sample this way because of laws. Will Smith and its entourage being rich enough to buy the rights of the songs, they could do everything they want without risking anything. These rights became obstacles to more little producers, so they began finding new techniques of sample, they had to adapt to hide their samples, considered as thief. We may talk about some popular cases on later posts.
But let’s go back to the question, what can be sampled? In one word, EVERYTHING.
And I mean really every noise which can be recorded by a microphone. The only fence is your creativity. Back then we were limited on length of sample due to memory disks, now we’re free on this side. And when you got that idea, you reach a Sampling State of Mind.
To finish with this post, we'd like to share with you a video from Mass Appeal, a label made by Gang Starr's producer DJ Premier, entitled Rhythm Roulette. Its concept is to let producers pick 3 vinyls in a record store with something on their eyes, letting them blind for the choices, to finally let them sample and do whatever they feel with. We propose you the version of Mac Miller to also pay a tribute to an artist gone too soon. PEACE.
-W - Rapology