Author
Amir Said
Amir Said (aka Sa’id), is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Art of Sampling and the creator and series editor of the Best Damn Hip Hop Writing book anthology. A writer, publisher, and beatmaker/rapper from New York (now living in Paris, France), Said is also the founder of BeatTips and the co-founder of the publishing company Superchamp Books. He is an author with a number of books to his credit, including ‘The Art of Sampling,’ ‘The BeatTips Manual,’ ‘Ghetto Brother,’ and ‘The Truth About New York.’ He is also a recording artist with a number of music projects, including the albums 'Soul Review' and 'The Best of Times.' Follow him on Twitter at: @amirsaid and @Art_of_Sampling.
It’s during the Pioneers/Avant-Garde Period that hip hop/rap music experiences a second art-based renaissance. By 1988, the modern hip hop/rap music era was two years old, and hip hop/rap music had shifted from a mostly dance-based music to…
Sample Flips: Diamond D – “The Hiatus” (Prod. By Diamond D)
Diamond D is a producer and a rapper from The Bronx, New York who came up in the '90s. He is one of the original members of the hip hop collective D.I.T.C. The collective featured Lord Finesse, O.C., Big L, Fat Joe, Buckwild, Showbiz and…
Digging In the Crates Is Cool, But E-Digging Is Great Too
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…
Sly Stone — Pioneer of Machine-Made Music and O.G. Beatmaker
Of all the early adopters of drum machines, as part of the recording process, nobody used the drum machine like Sly Stone first did in 1969. His use of the drum machine is the precursor to what beatmakers (producers) in the hip hop/rap…
TAOS Sample-Based Beat of the Day: Lloyd Banks – “Endangered Innocence” feat.…
You hear a sample. Then what? What's the next step? Do you leave the sample as is? Do you change its pitch? Do you chop it? If you chop it, where do you chop it? Do you leave this up to "auto-chop" functionality to decide? Do you add…
Handel’s Impact: The Well-Funded DYI Composer Who Set Everything Off
Of the three English musicians who were able to earn a solid living solely or primarily from their compositions, not performance, George Frideric Handel was the most important in terms of the composers’ fight for copyright. Handel made his…
The Truth About the Revival of Sampling: It Was Never In Danger of Dying, and the Internet Didn’t…
In The BeatTips Manual (2015) and previous editions of The Art of Sampling (2013, 2017), I noted that the sampling tradition of hip hop/rap music was never in jeopardy of dying. In view of recent commentary that continues to suggest that…
Sampling Is Its Own Art Form and Music Process; Sampling Is Not A Bastard Stepchild Unwanted By…
Some people think that sampling is only for people who can’t play “real” instruments and people who don’t know music theory. But this is a terrible lie! Sampling, which represents its own art form and music process, has been chosen as a…
Drumless Loops, Rhythm, and Groove
Drumless Loops Defined
“Drumless loops” marks a minimalist, deceptively simplistic style, sound, and aesthetic of beatmaking that also emerges in this period. Typically with this style, sound, and aesthetic — the seeds for which appear to…
Fair Use Ensures That Copyright Protection Is Not Excessively Broad
While copyright owners hold an exclusive monopoly over their works, copyright law maintains that this exclusive monopoly is limited. This limitation manifests in two critical ways. First, authors (creators) are granted exclusive control…