Any discussion about the historical background of rap music will likely emphasize the almost sacred tradition of sampling, which involves taking older songs and using them as the foundation for new hip-hop tracks. It is commonly mentioned that the musical roots of rap came from the records owned by the parents or older siblings of the first DJs and MCs.
Although this is indeed accurate, as I will elaborate on shortly, I also believe there is additional context that needs to be considered regarding how sampling, particularly within hip-hop culture, has always been connected to a broader community that significantly influenced the initial sounds of the genre.
Although searching through crates is definitely the core activity in hip-hop sampling, typically, especially in the early days, the digging was not for any random record.
The orchestra support from years ago
I will argue for two distinct types of sampling in rap music. Imagine you’re a producer selecting samples for a beat, and you use one or two seconds of a horn riff from five minutes into a nine-minute J. J. Johnson track from the mid-1960s. In my view, this represents a related yet significantly different form of sampling compared to choosing to sample “Scorpio” by Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band.
The reason for the variation is that “Scorpio” was a well-known and popular b-boy track in hip-hop, frequently played at the initial hip-hop gatherings hosted by DJ Kool Herc in the Bronx. The J. J. Johnson song could certainly be sampled, for instance by someone like DJ Premier or Pete Rock, but this would occur during a time when rap records and albums had advanced to a stage where production emphasized more obscure and rare samples.
To clarify, artists from that time still drew inspiration from early hip-hop. Pete Rock incorporated vocals from T La Rock and Jazzy Jay’s “It’s Yours” released in 1984 into the chorus of Nas’ “The World Is Yours,” which came out a decade later. This is one of many instances where ’90s musicians used lines and audio from ’80s rap to shape the theme of their songs. This is significant not only because Nas and Pete Rock were raised on ’80s rap, but also because ’80s artists established the initial blueprint for creating a rap track.
Over the course of more than 50 years, hip-hop music originally revolved around the DJ. Because the DJ had to react to the audience and comprehend what energized them, this implies that hip-hop music was also influenced to some extent by the preferences of the audience and the records that were popular on the streets during that era.
In the initial period of rap recordings during the late 1970s and early 1980s, this dependence on popular tracks was quite evident. Record companies such as Sugar Hill, Enjoy, or Profile, among others, frequently employed producers and/or in-house musical groups capable of re-creating and closely mimicking beats from well-known disco, funk, rock, and electronic songs. These included tracks that had mainstream success as well as those that were more favored within the hip-hop scene, songs that would typically be played directly from the record by a DJ at a party.
James Brown’s “Funky President (People It’s Bad)” from 1974 was a well-known track within the hip-hop scene, serving as the basis for Spoonie Gee’s “Spoonie Is Back,” released in 1981. The production was credited to Sylvia Inc. (likely referring to Sylvia Robinson) and Jigsaw Prod. Inc., although the musical elements might have been created by Sugar Hill’s in-house band, which included guitarist Skip McDonald, bassist Doug Wimbish, and drummer Keith LeBlanc, among others.
Since 1981, “Funky President” has been reused many times by various rap artists who came after Spoonie Gee. However, as you might be aware, many of the rap groups that followed Spoonie Gee did not have to rely on live musicians to recreate the track. Although the influence from these early recordings remained, the method of doing so changed.productionevolved, by the late 1980s it was common to directly sample “Funky President” into your own track.
I will refer to JayQuan, the Hip-Hop Historian, video about the “Golden Era” of hip-hopTo clarify the evolution of hip-hop production in the 1980s, he provides an insightful analysis of all the contributing elements. In short, the legal challenges surrounding hip-hop sampling have existed since the start, although initially, it was less of a concern because most early hip-hop records didn’t achieve widespread popularity or commercial success.
There were definitely legal repercussions if a track gained popularity, like the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” Due to its clear sampling of Chic’s “Good Times,” which had been released just a few months earlier in 1979, Sugar Hill Records eventually had to reissue the song with credits given to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.
However, perhaps even more significant than this ongoing debate about legality, the major change in hip-hop production during the 1980s was likely influenced by the development of new sampling tools and the decreasing cost of these technologies.creativity of the hip-hop artists themselves.
In the early 1980s, musicians like Kurtis Blow, rap’s initial solo superstar, who signed with Mercury/Polygram, had the opportunity to use technology like the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument), an advanced and costly device that could sample sounds.
Another pair was Just Allah the Superstar and Sedivine the Mastermind, collectively known as the World’s Famous Supreme Team, who hosted a radio program on WHBI-FM 105.9. They gained recognition by traveling to the United Kingdom in the early ’80s to collaborate with Malcolm McLaren and Trevor Horn, who utilized high-end technology such as the Fairlight CMI and several Oberheim devices on tracks like “Buffalo Gals” and “Hobo Scratch” from 1982.2013 piece by Trevor Horn for Red Bull has more information.
From what I understand, it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that more economical and/or user-friendly samplers like the E-mu SP-12, and its successor the SP-1200, started to become available. These sampling drum machines are considered icons in the hip-hop scene, as they were widely used by numerous artists to loop drum breaks and other sounds directly from records.
However, one of the early figures in this change in sampling during the mid-1980s, DJ Marley Marl, was not using either of those devices in 1985. According to a2013 video with “Dubspot” in which he reinterprets the beat from MC Shan’s “The Bridge,” his setup for creating the track included two SDD-2000s (Sampling Digital Delay units), manufactured by Korg, along with a Roland TR-808.
Marley also did not loop the drums for the track, but followed his friend Claudio’s suggestion to use his two samplers to store the kick and snare sounds, respectively, and activate them via the TR-808, which I think the sampler was capable of connecting to. Notably, the drum elements for “The Bridge” were sourced from “Impeach the President” by the Honey Drippers, while the other sample is a reversed sound from “Scratchin'” by the Magic Disco Machine.
Just like the first hip-hop recordings, Marley’s decision to include “Scratchin'” and “Impeach The President” came from his belief that audiences enjoyed these tracks. He obtained his copy of “Scratchin” from his brother, I think it was Larry Larr from the High Fidelity Crew, as he recalled how the crowd reacted when that group played it. “Impeach The President” was one of a set of records he received as payment for production work from Aaron Fuchs, the owner of Tuff City Records.
Marley was aware that “Impeach The President” was widely popular on the streets, and the rest became history. I bring up Marley Marl as an example to show that even as hip-hop progressed and evolved, it always maintained a strong link to its earliest days and sounds. Other figures recognized this too, as seen in 1986 when Street Beat Records started releasing classic break beat compilations titledUltimate Breaks & Beats,curated by Leonard Roberts (“Breakbeat Lenny”) and Louis Flores (“Breakbeat Lou”).
Ultimate Breaks & Beats became highly valuable to a new wave of hip-hop producers and DJs, not only on the East Coast, who now had access to numerous beats that defined the genre. Breakbeat Lou also modified and enhanced the breaks on these collections, making them simpler to use and loop for up-and-coming DJs and producers. In essence, what was started by New York DJs in the 1970s was being actively shared with a broader group of hip-hop artists by the mid-1980s.
I don’t think this link to the past can ever be broken, but it’s reasonable to say the connection is most evident in those earlier periods. In a way, the heavily sampled production that the Bomb Squad was creating in the late ’80s wouldn’t have been feasible if Grandmaster Flash hadn’t already showcased his skill in mixing records as a DJ in 1981’s “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.”
Although the Bomb Squad’s contribution to “Night Of The Living Baseheads” mainly involves sampling gear along with some scratching, and “Adventures of Grandmaster Flash” centers entirely on Flash’s abilities with the turntables, their methods of combining elements from various songs are clearly connected.
To maintain this concept of connections across time periods, years prior to Marley Marl directly sampling “Ike’s Mood I” for Biz Markie and T. J. Swan’s “Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz” in 1986, the Disco Four had rapped over an adaptation of the same part of Hayes’ song in 1982’s “We’re at the Party,” produced by Eric Matthew.
In the end, I think innovation in hip-hop is driven by inspiration, and inspiration always originates from the community, since that’s where hip-hop began. The creativity of individuals will always be evident, but the base they rely on is the people who helped shape them and their musical tastes.
This piece was first released on Muara Digital TeamasThe Rhythm at the Root: The Collective and Audible Heritage of Hip-Hop’s Music.
