Introducing : The Art Of Sampling | The History of Sampling in Hip Hop Music | Sampled or Stolen?

Introducing : The Art Of Sampling | The History of Sampling in Hip Hop Music | Sampled or Stolen?

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Have you ever heard a new song on the radio and felt that it sounds familiar? It's not really a cover of an older song, but perhaps it uses familiar sounds, harmonies or a bass line that you might have heard before but it sounds different.

This is called Sampled music, we're going to discuss about sampling and shed more light about this art and topic that has a lots of debate between Labels, Producers, DJ's and music junkies.

To explain what is sampling in an easy way, Let's take for example Kanye West Feat. Jamie Foxx - 'Gold Digger' he sampled from Ray Charles' 'I Got A Woman', "released in 1958".
Another good example is The Fugees - ‘Ready Or Not’, they sampled from The Delfonics’ ‘Ready Or Not Here I Come’ another good example Vanilla Ice sampled the bass line from the famous Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure", released in 1982 for the hip hop song hit, "Ice Ice Baby"

Kanye West - Gold Digger ft. Jamie Foxx

Ray Charles - I Got A Woman

The Fugees - Ready or Not

The Delfonics - Ready Or Not Here I Come

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Also we see a lot of sampling in today's modern hit songs, could have taken a 6-second drum sample from a lesser-known 40-year-old funk recording, this is the case is of literally thousands of songs out there, especially in the the hip hop and rap genres, a good example the drum break from 1969's "Amen Brother," a B-side song from a group called the Winstons. Another one of the most sampled pieces is the drum break from James Brown's 1970 song, "Funky Drummer."

The Winstons - Amen Brother

James Brown - Funky Drummer

This kind of borrowing in music is known as sampling.
We should take note that the term "sampling" can also refer to the process of turning music into digital data. But in here we are talking about the sampling as the process of taking pieces from a previously recorded song and turning it into a brand new song.

For example LL Cool J. looped a section of the drums from "Funky Drummer" throughout his 1990's hit song, "Mama Said Knock You Out." Sometimes artists sample more than one song at once.
That same LL Cool J song song, for example, sampled several other tracks, including a loop of some background vocals from the 1967's "Trip to Your Heart" by Sly and the Family Stone. Sampling can also go through creative manipulations, such as changing the speed or pitch of the original sample.

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

Sly & the Family Stone - Trip to your heart

Few deny that it takes a lots of talent to sample a classic song effectively and use it in a new, creative way. These practices has played a major role in shaping the entire genre of hip hop and rap music. But sampling has had a longer history and more complex legal implications than many people realize.

Some modern samples songs examples:

Drake - 'Hotline Bling'

Drake's colossal 2015 single caused some controversy in the Hip Hip world for its similarity to DRAM's 'Cha Cha' but few people will recognize the actual sample used throughout.

'Hotline Bling' used samples from Timmy Thomas' 'Why Can't We Live Together' released 1972

The catchy melody and bassline on 'Hotline Bling' is all a sampled!

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After reading what are your thoughts on Sampling? Do you encourage Sampling in music?

If you have any questions, or need further information on this topics or just want to share your thoughts please do Leave a comment, Thank you for reading!

Salute!
DJ Lethal Skillz