I’ve been compelled to write this blog post after recently watching the Christopher Nolan movie Inception.  Without digressing too far into the role of movie critic, I’ll simply say I really enjoyed the film and it garnered up the same feeling I had when I first saw the Matrix, this kind of adventure sci-fi oozes authenticity and for the duration of the picture has your inner child believing that what you’re seeing is not outside of the realms of possibility.

Inception is basically a film about intellectual property theft and the characters within the film are highly  skilled thieves who move within victims dreams and extract valuable secrets.  As an act of redemption in the film the lead character is required to carry out a procedure of planting an idea in the mind of a victim.  Such was the height of my engagement with the film; its ideas and themes impregnated my mind and kicked about their tentacles like an over-active octopus foetus.  I began to question the basic notion of an ‘idea’ and what it even means.  Is there ever an original idea? A virgin thought free from the effect of external factors or previous experience.  Then I realised what a pompous, self-indulgent bunch of philosophical tosh to which I was lending valuable time and decided to think again.

In order to remain optimistic and refrain from the belief that it’s impossible to create something original I’ve attempted to relate this theory more pertinently to something I know and love.  Growing up as a fan of Hip Hop music, I’ve learned to respect and appreciate the art displayed by the mother-genre of copyright criminals.  This art is of course sampling.  So what is sampling?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary: Sample

record or extract (a small piece of music or sound) digitally for reuse as part of a composition or song:riffs sampled from other musicians (as noun sampling) *sampling is bringing older music to younger ears

In the case of Hip Hop it’s taking an old record and making it into a new record. Using other people’s ideas and adapting them with tools of modern technology into an innovative piece of art.  Obviously there are different levels application and skill involved, some can be as blatant as taking the whole track, others can be intricate parts of a song chopped up and re-arranged to make a whole new melody, added to an original drum sequence with effects and the original specimen can be unnoticeable.

In the early days of hip hop, records were cut and pasted together in live DJ sets at parties and Grandmaster Flash was one innovator of this technique.  The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (1981) is basically a recording of a Flash cutting and scratching several old records.

Before the age of dedicated samplers and computers, musicians would still ‘appropriate’ elements of other musicians.  The Beatles were one of the originators of the art of sampling. In the early 60’s many artists we’re cutting up and manipulating copyrighted recordings with tape recorders.  The Beatles adopted a technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs in which he would record radio broadcasts and dub over certain parts at random, stuttering and distorting the original recording.  This technique is evident on Beatles songs Yellow Submarine, Revolution 9 and I Am The Walrus.

In Hip Hop, sampling soon became an art-form of its own and the sampler became an instrument that was to be learned and mastered the same as any other.  The weapon of choice that would become most popular was the Akai MPC in particular the MPC60 in the late 80’s and the MPC2000 in the 90’s.  This machine combined both elements of a sampler and sequencer meaning that sounds could be recorded into it and then edited and arranged live into a recorded sequence.  The 16 large grey pads on the right hand side allowed particular samples to be played individually; therefore the pads could be played like a musical instrument opening up new worlds of creative possibility.

From artists like 2 Live Crew crudely sampling Joy Orbison’s Pretty Woman to Aussie electronic band The Avalanches who’s critically acclaimed album ‘Since I left You’ comprised of around 3,500 vinyl samples, the impact of the phenomena of sampling has been colossal.  The ability to record and archive sound has made it possible to stock-pile ideas.

Here’s a few of my favourite tracks containing samples and their originals…

Wu Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M (1993) Samples: The Charmels – As Long As I’ve Got You (1967)

Outkast – Babylon (1996) samples: Vangelis – 12 o’clock (1975)

Biz Markie – Just a Friend (1989) Samples: Freddie Scott – (You) Got What I Need

Kanye West has just recently revived this Freddie Scott sample with this…

*sampling is bringing older music to younger ears

*I like this bit of the dictionary definition especiallly.  The power of the dictionary! This simple act of bringing older music to younger ears the single most important part of sampling for me, it suggests a power to educate in music and for this we will all benefit.  Artforms of decades gone by can be re-born in a modern context, keeping the spirit of older genres alive.  This promotes listener participation and those that actively seek the origin of samples within some of their favourite songs will widen their breadth of musical knowledge and have endless fun doing so.

One of my favourite websites at the moment is Who Sampled.  They’re building a comprehensive user generated database of songs and the samples they have used.  This is an excellent first stop when digging through the sample archives and a fantastic tool for discovering music.