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.
"Soulsville," from the movie Shaft. This is my favorite Isaac Hayes joint. The scene in Shaft where this song plays is so appropriate. The images — which are certainly no Hollywood props, but instead real glimpses of early 1970s…
Sample Flips: Jay-Z – “Imaginary Players” (Prod. by Prestige)
A sampling gem from Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
After the release of 4:44 I had a newfound interest in revisiting Jay-Z's catalog, especially because of the sampling. I started with In My Lifetime, Vol.1 because it was the…
The Old New: Bronze Nazareth’s ‘School for the Blindman’
BeatTips Rating: 5/5
"Roll dice in old piss" —Bronze Nazareth
We often like and celebrate an album because of its power to take us somewhere. The vivid images that it calls up; the memories that it inspires; the emotions that it…
Marco Polo: The Journey of a Sampling Pioneer
Editor’s note: This is an epic long read! But worth it. This interview contains a combination of a series of interviews I conducted with Marco Polo (on several dates) over the past four years, the lengthiest and most recent being in…
John King and the Story of Chung King Studios
Chung King Studios is quite possibly the most important commercial recording studio in rap’s history. Indeed, before D&D or Unique, or any other top flight New York City recording facility, it was the Mighty Chung King that mostly…
Kendrick Lamar Sued for Bill Withers Sample
A rapper uses a sample from a song of another artist to create a new song — said rapper places new song on their free mixtape, then gets sued for copyright infringement by the copyright owners of the song that the rapper sampled. We’ve been…
Marquee Names: John Klemmer – “Free Soul” and Jazz Fusion
John Klemmer's "Free Soul" was one of the very first records I ever hunted down and bought at a record convention. I first heard the song when I was 19 on a now defunct jazz program that used to air on WNYC in New York. I remember…
Why You Should Never Discard Records After You Sample Them
The question of “What to do with the music that you dig after you’ve sampled from it” is often asked. So here, I’ll introduce a question and answer exchange that took place between a regular member of The BeatTips Community (TBC) and…