Digging In the Crates Is Cool, But E-Digging Is Great Too
While the number of vinyl record stores continue to dwindle, e-digging makes digging for records accessible to anyone with a working internet connection.
There are a number of beatmakers (some of them very notable) who view e-digging as some sort of bad or inferior process. Inasmuch as e-digging is, fundamentally, a means for searching for and finding new music, I don’t see how anyone can dislike it. I think that the basis of opposition towards e-digging lies in the fact that it does not correspond with the nature and unwritten protocol of digging for vinyl records. But let’s be clear here: Digging for or possessing vinyl records doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not someone is going to be a dope beatmaker. Knowledge, skill, and creativity determine that.
Thus, the rants against e-digging itself are actually off base. I’ve been digging, consciously, for records for more than 30 years. As a result, I, like many music diggers, am a de facto collector of vinyl records. And not just any collector, perhaps you could say that I’m a preservationist preserving otherwise forgotten music. But I don’t allow my slant as a collector/preservationist of vinyl records to interfere with my interest in searching for and discovering “new” music, especially those recordings that I would never be able to find in the rapidly dwindling number of vinyl record stores.
Spending long hours in record shops, flea markets, yard sales, vintage stores, record exchanges, used book stores, or the basements, attics, and storage spaces of friends and relatives (all of which I have done) does not equate to any superiority in the area of musicianship, nor does it necessarily make anyone more skilled at the art of sampling. Instead, it mostly equates to the desire for that particular process and experience. It is also simply a reflection of one’s “collector’s slant”, because the reality is, most beat diggers with large vinyl record collections will most likely never sample even 25% of their total collection. There are many people (myself included) who have upwards of 2,000 or more vinyl records that they have never sampled. (I can assure you, out of my own 3,000+ vinyl record collection, I have yet to sample 2,500 of them.) And if those who have 10,000 and 20,000 vinyl records in their collections have really sampled even 15% of those records, then it stands to reason that there should have been a much larger number of classic sample-based beats in rotation over the past 40 years.
Furthermore, as I stated earlier in this chapter, technology serves at the command of the one who uses it. So it matters less how I came to discover “new” music. As long as I discover it, I’m fortunate. After all, I can’t flip something that I can’t hear; and I can’t hear something that I don’t have access to. And whether I prefer to handle vinyl in my hands or stream a song on YouTube, I still can’t ignore the fact that e-digging gives me much more access to “new” music than digging for vinyl records ever did or ever could. I also can’t ignore the fact that the e-digging search process generates, on a whole, more suggestions for similar findings than any cross-credits referencing I’ve done reading the credits or liner notes of vinyl records that I’ve acquired.
Still, I certainly do recognize that there is a difference between digging for vinyl records and e-digging. There are some nuances that come with sampling a vinyl record. Perhaps most notably the sound quality of a vinyl record, or the sort of connection to a music past that a vinyl record can offer, or the connection to the traditional method of sampling in the beatmaking tradition. That being said, the notion that someone is lazy and uncreative, or that someone is doing it (i.e. sampling) wrong just because they use source material (music) that they’ve found (discovered) online, rather than a vinyl record that they’ve acquired, is ridiculous and completely out of tune with the realities of the day.
In most cases these days, e-digging is the only choice for would-be sample-based beatmakers; it’s the only way many people have access to valuable music from eras gone past. And accessibility to the music (source material) that is to be sampled has always been a key factor of the art of sampling. Because sample-based beatmakers have always been distinguished not only by their skill, but also by what they actually sample, it should be understood that sample-based beatmakers are also often distinguished by the music (source material) that they actually have access to.
But because of the limited accessibility of vinyl records, the playing field for sampling has been largely uneven. For years, those who lived in or near hot-spot centers for vinyl records have had an advantage of access over those who did not live in those centers. But e-digging virtually makes an indefinite number of hot-spot centers available to anyone with a working internet connection. In this way, e-digging has removed the “advantage of access” that some sample-based beatmakers previously held. Through this new level of access to the same music most privileged by veteran vinyldiggers, e-digging has leveled the playing field for sample-based beatmakers. Moreover, because of the scarcity of vinyl record shops and the like, e-digging is providing a pivotal link to the sampling tradition — a link that many people might not otherwise be so fortunate to have.
Finally, any capture method — whether it be through the vinyl digging or e-digging process — that adheres to the fundamental tenets of the art of sampling, while also bringing to light the elements of valuable music from older eras, should be embraced, not spurned. Beyond that, we should remember that no one judges sample-based beats according to the original audio format of the music (source material) that was sampled. Besides, there’s no way for anyone, other than the sample-based beatmaker who sampled the source material, to be absolutely certain which audio format was actually used. One can just as easily say that they sampled a piece of music from a vinyl record when in fact they sampled it from a source online. Who’s to know either way?
But the basis for how we judge sample-based beats is still the same for how we judge any style of beat. Our personal tastes, the level of quality of a beat, and the beat’s cohesion with the lyricist, are all the main factors that determine how we rate a beat. Therefore, if e-digging plays any role in the creation of a beat that suits our taste and measures up to our individual and collective perceptions of quality, then we have no choice but to support it.
For a more in-depth discussion of the art of sampling, read my book The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music and Copyright Law, 3rd Edition.
