the art of sampling

"It's the exact same song. He just rhymes over it."

This is a popular opinion when it comes to sampling. To an extent it's true. Some hip-hop songs don't even try to hide the fact that they're taking the catchiest part of a song and looping it. I don't know if anyone remembers P-Diddy back in the day when he was just a little Puff took the riff to Led Zeppelin's classic rock opus Kashmir, looped it and spit hot fire over the beat for the Godzilla soundtrack. It was pretty bad and the only reason the song was ever popular was probably because of the hook. But, we can't chastise an entire art-form for one of its less than adequate perpetrators no more than you can hate landscape painting for all those cheesy Thomas Kinkade paintings that your mom hangs in the bathroom.

What I disagree with most about the above statement is the word "just," as if rhyming, flowing and being a lyricist is such a trivial thing. The quote is real and is something I found under a youtube video for Herb Alperts forgotten classic Rise.



18 years later one of history's greatest MC's, Biggy Smalls, managed to just rhyme over a sample of the before mentioned song. Whether you think he was one of the greatest or not, the track Hypnotize does a pretty good job of finding the middle ground of sampling. It's not completely unreconizable from the original, but different enough to never be confused for the other. The lyrics are good, have a nice flow and do some interesting things rhythmically. To say there is no talent involved is pretty short-sighted. This song goes to show that even somewhere in P-Diddy's over-paid body existed talent when he was working with the right people and not doing his own shit.

The sun ain't gonna shine anymore

Back in 1965, this song was a sort of throw away hit for the boy band-ish group The Walker Brothers. Long before I ever knew who Scott Walker was, I knew this song and didn't really think too much of it other than that it was fairly catchy.

Today more than anything, Scott Walker has a reputation among the indie-scene (as broad as that sounds) for his more recent avant-garde albums Drift and Tilt which are admirable for his continued emphasis on music growth and experimentation, but lack any kind of major impression other than that he just doesn't give a fuck about what anyone wants out of him. But, that's what those crazy indie-kids like, right?

Long before his first five solo masterpieces Scott 1, 2, 3, 4 and Til' the band comes in Scott was the enigmatic frontman of The Walker Brothers who from most accounts back in that time could have rivaled The Beatles in popularity if only they had played the game right and broke out more in the States.

Even in this 1965 video of The sun ain't gonna shine anymore you can see that Scott Walker had a sort of darker carisma at work and a voice that that shames any of those big-time crooners of the era.

Wearing my rolex

I've kind of come to the conclusion that for now I need to broaden my blogs musical focus. There are only so much great music coming out of Portland at a time and I don't really like to focus too much on the ones already being written about.

Here's a track that I recently came upon from U.K Grime pioneer Wiley. He's a pioneer for sure, but until he dropped "Wearing my rolex" the majority of his recognition came from being linked with Grime phenomenon Dizzee Rascal. If you haven't heard of Dizzee then you're really out of the Grime loop.

This track isn't really true Grime by the standards of those who consider themselves the "Grimiest." But, it's very British and I'm a sucker for a good beat and a good cockney flow. One thing I really like about this one is that it's very much in the vain of old school hip-hop. It's focused around one material item, such as shoes or a watch rather than going on about having everything. It's very reminiscent of Dizzee's track off of last years "Maths and English" titled "Bubbles" where he flaunts his pair of Nike's. Also, I like the fact that Wiley is admitting to letting the female getting the best of her rather than demeaning her. A little different vibe than a lot of mainstream hip-hop.

Wiley - Wearing my rolex



Dizzee Rascal - Bubbles