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Exclusive analysis of and insight to music sampling, copyright law, and more from The Art of Sampling.
The Art of Sampling MusicStudy: Bobby Boyd Congress – “Dig Deep In Your Soul”
Early funk from obscure, little-known band from Long Island, New York offers a great education on the relationship between the drum patterns of modern beatmaking and that of those found in early funk music.
Why A Compulsory License for Digital Samples of Sound Recordings Is A Bad Idea
“The Framers of the Constitution were excellent social psychologists.” Their premier foresight was about the balance of power, the establishing of checks and balances, so that democracy could prevail and a monarchy could never take hold.…
The Music Industry’s Policy On Sample Clearance Is Prior Restraint, and the RIAA Must End It
With regards to sampling, the Constitution already protects our right to the freedom of speech. The public is also shielded from what is legally known as prior restraint. According to the definition by Cornell Law School’s Legal Institute,…
MC Lyte – “Paper Thin”: An Example of Avoiding Overproducing
You’re in the lab making a new beat. You’re nodding your head to it. The beat is dope — almost, you think. You just have to add one more thing.
Hold up, wait a minute!
Before you add that “next thing,” always consider whether or not…
An Ear for Music & Samples: Kool G Rap – “Cakes” feat. RZA (prod. by RZA)
Whether it’s a beat that’s built around multiple micro-chops or a 2-bar loop, what’s always in play is a beatmaker’s (producer’s) ear for music. In Chapter 9 of my book ‘The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music and…
All Sampling Is Creative: A Critique of the “Lazy Sampling” Misnomer
After reading this article "The Dangers of Lazy Sampling for Producers" by Sample Hunt, I was compelled to write a corrective. You see, Sample Hunt uses the moniker “lazy sampling” to essentially describe any sampling that’s not intricate.…
The Sample Clearance “Tax” and the Primary Beneficiaries of the Sample Clearance System
The following is an excerpt from 'The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music and Copyright Law, 3rd Edition' by Amir Said.
When the music industry first took notice of sampling, their burning question had to…
On “Genius” and the Notion That Art Happens Without Work
Both Michelangelo and Mozart are recognized today as geniuses, just as they were recognized as geniuses in their own the time. One parallel among these two geniuses is how self-aware they were about the “work” that went into the “mastery”…
How Black Music Saved the Music Industry; and How the Music Industry’s Culture of Robbery…
“𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐑𝐚𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 ‘𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐈 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬,’ 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 ‘𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬’” (Variety)
If you’ve ever worked in any industry, then you did business in the *music industry*, you know it’s one of the worst…
Sample Flips: Three Times Dope – “Funky Dividends” (Prod. By Chuck Nice and Lawrence…
Three Times Dope was a hip hop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who had a run in the late '80s. The group included rapper EST, producer Chuck Nice, and DJ Woody Wood. They were apart of The Hilltop Hustlers, an infamous crew from…