Arts, Faculty of
Music, School of
DSpace
UBCV
Spivey, Ayano
Master of Arts - MA
University of British Columbia
Sampling is quintessential to the genre of hip-hop. From its inception in the early 1970s to the bedroom producers of the present day, DJs and producers alike have used this musical technique to turn already existing music into something different. The source of sampled music is often rooted in inspiration, but what draws these inspirations varies. For some, it might be an album cover, catchy drum break, or a record that was played around the house. Using Christopher Smallâs âmusickingâ framework, this thesis explores the lineages of sampling and the intergenerational bridges that form between hip-hop and the genres that preceded it. Chapter 2 analyzes technology and its contributions to music, sampling, and the way the hip-hop community engages with sampling through online spaces. Chapter 3 analyzes how sampling creates lineages and connects community through intergenerational relationships. Chapter 4 explores legality, racism, and the ways that it affects sampling and how we engage with it, while Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion. Throughout this thesis I explore personal connections with the music through an autoethnographic approach.
SAMPLING IN HIP-HOP: AN ANALYSIS OF AESTHETICS OF COMMUNITY AND INTERGENERATIONAL LINEAGES by Ayano Spivey B.A., Western Washington University, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Music â Ethnomusicology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2025 © Ayano Spivey, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Sampling in Hip-Hop: An Analysis of Aesthetics of Community and Intergenerational Lineages submitted by Ayano Spivey in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology Examining Committee: Nathan Hesselink, Professor, Music, UBC Supervisor Michael Tenzer, Professor, Music, UBC Co-supervisor iii Abstract Sampling is quintessential to the genre of hip-hop. From its inception in the early 1970s to the bedroom producers of the present day, DJs and producers alike have used this musical technique to turn already existing music into something different. The source of sampled music is often rooted in inspiration, but what draws these inspirations varies. For some, it might be an album cover, catchy drum break, or a record that was played around the house. Using Christopher Smallâs âmusickingâ framework, this thesis explores the lineages of sampling and the intergenerational bridges that form between hip-hop and the genres that preceded it. Chapter 2 analyzes technology and its contributions to music, sampling, and the way the hip-hop community engages with sampling through online spaces. Chapter 3 analyzes how sampling creates lineages and connects community through intergenerational relationships. Chapter 4 explores legality, racism, and the ways that it affects sampling and how we engage with it, while Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion. Throughout this thesis I explore personal connections with the music through an autoethnographic approach. iv Lay Summary Sampling has played a pivotal role in hip-hop instrumentals. From the earlier days of hip-hop to the present day, sampling has remained as a core technique in the creation of the music. This thesis explores the way different generations connect through sampling, how hip-hop beats and beat makers have been inspired by the genres that come from before hip-hop, such as funk, soul, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Chapter 2 focuses on technologyâs role in sampling, hip-hop, and the internet. Chapter 3 focuses on community, using fieldwork and an analysis of Earl Sweatshirtâs music as an example. Chapter 4 explores the laws around sampling and how the law and race affect the way we can engage with it. Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion. Much of this research comes from personal experiences growing up in a household that played these genres while hip-hop became âmyâ genre of music, simultaneously noticing how generational connections are forged through personal relationships. v Preface This thesis is the original, unpublished, and independent work of Ayano Elisabeth Spivey, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree âMaster of Arts, emphasis Ethnomusicology.â In addition, this thesis required the approval of The University of British Columbiaâs Behavioural Research Ethics Boards. All interviews were conducted by the co-investigator, Ayano Spivey. The Principle Investigator (PI) was Nathan Hesselink. The number for the certificate of approval is H25-01803. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) was not used in any way for any aspect in the research described, including the drafting of, and or the preparation of the thesis. vi Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv Preface .............................................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi Glossary ...................................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... ix Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1 Positionality .................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Sampling as Musicking ................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Themes and Chapter Organization.................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2: Technology ................................................................................................................11 2.1 The Role of Technology in a âMusickingâ Framework ............................................... 11 2.2 A Brief Overview of Music Recording Technology..................................................... 12 2.3 Technologyâs Role in Hip-Hop Sampling .................................................................... 15 2.4 The Internetâs Influence on Hip-Hop ............................................................................ 17 2.4.1 The Blog Era ............................................................................................................. 18 2.4.2 TikTok....................................................................................................................... 20 2.4.3 Further Online Spaces ............................................................................................... 22 2.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 25 vii Chapter 3: Community and Intergenerational Connections ...................................................26 3.1 Intergenerational Connections to Sampling .................................................................. 28 3.2 Earl Sweatshirt .............................................................................................................. 34 3.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 4: Legality ......................................................................................................................43 4.1 Sampling, Legality, and Musicking .............................................................................. 45 4.2 Parental Advisory Stickers ............................................................................................ 47 4.3 Sampling Laws.............................................................................................................. 49 4.4 Ethical Concerns of Sampling ...................................................................................... 54 4.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 5: Conclusion .................................................................................................................59 5.1 Potential Research ......................................................................................................... 60 5.2 The Personal is Political................................................................................................ 62 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................65 viii Glossary Beat: An instrumental track of a hip-hop song. Beat tape: A finished project (album or mixtape) of a producer that consists of solely instrumental tracks. Beat maker: The artist who composes the beat. Cook: Creating a beat, usually in the context of sampling. Chop: To splice an existing audio track to turn into a new melody, beat, or chord. Cratedigging: To dig in the crates of records; activity in which beatmakers/producers look for the best, rarest records to find. Drop: To release music, most notably used in hip-hop. This usage has extended beyond hip-hop. Mixtape: A free (usually) musical project with less constraints compared to an album. This could also be a compilation. Producer: In the context of hip-hop, this is the person who makes beats. While interchangeable with beat maker, producer is more common used in todayâs age of artists. Sample Snitching: To reveal a sample of a produced hip-hop beat. This term has much debate in the hip-hop community, which is discussed in my thesis. ix Acknowledgements I would like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have supported me throughout my studies and the development, research, and writing of my thesis. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Nathan Hesselink, whose guidance and advice through this process was critical in the fruition of my thesis. My concepts were met with encouragement which gave me the confidence to follow my visions that were true to myself. Dr. Michael Tenzer was supervisor chair for my thesis and a professor who has supported and challenged me in my analyses. Part of the conception of this thesis started in his âIntroduction to Ethnomusicologyâ course. Dr. Kofi Gbolonyoâs lectures and courses on African diasporic music has further deepened the way I understand the musical lineages of my ancestors and this connection to the music that is so deeply personal to me. Dr. Dylan Robinson, whose work as an Indigenous scholar, writer, and artist, has left a deep impact on my own writing and art, ultimately changing the trajectory of my scholarship for the better. Much of my thesis has also been a culmination of the work I did in his sound studies and creative writing courses. Thank you to my colleagues in the ethnomusicology department, School of Music, and other departments whose passion and support also kept me inspired. I also would like to thank my undergraduate professor, Dr. Mark Miyake, who was the first to tell me of this field called âethnomusicologyâ and helped with the graduate school application. Thank you for your mentorship over the years. A big thank you to my parents who have endlessly supported everything I do. First is my mother, who always reminded me throughout my time in grade school that âas long as you try x your best, thatâs the most important thing.â This advice has stuck with me through the years into my time as a graduate student. Next is my father, who instilled in me my passion for music, politics, and learning. In a society that continuously diminished Black history and culture, he was insistent on being educated. To my friends, thank you for the quality time, vent sessions, and laughter when I needed it the most. I deeply appreciate the check-ins throughout the difficult times during studies and my thesis writing. Lastly, thank you to my partner, best friend, and fellow hip-hop head, Koren, whose words of encouragement and delicious home-cooked meals kept me going. It makes it all the more better getting to share this experience with someone who is part of the music and culture and loves it as much as I do. I would not have been able to do it without him by my side. xi Dedication To my dad1 Chapter 1: Introduction Sampling is essential to the genre of hip-hop. From the beginning to the present day, DJs and producers alike have used this musical technique to turn existing music into a new song. The source of sampled music is rooted in inspiration, but what draws these inspirations varies. It may be an album cover, drums, or a well-loved record. Using Christopher Smallâs âmusickingâ framework, this thesis explores the lineages of sampling and the intergenerational bridges that form between hip-hop and the genres that preceded it. Sampling is an encounter between human beings, showing off more than just the technical skill of a beatmaker. In many ways it tells us about the artist and listeners. We may have a fondness for the original song in a sample, whether it is the artist or genre. It can also show a glimpse into our relationships with the musical influences in our lives, such as our family, friends, or community members. As such, it is a marker of the communities and cultures we are a part of, even our ancestral lineages. Sampling in hip-hop has the potential to help listeners or artists understand the complexity behind the music and how we interact with it. This thesis is an exploration and celebration of the little-researched but central role of sampling. 1.1 Positionality I was born in 1997 in Tacoma, Washington. Outside of my parentsâ music, the first CD I received was by Hilary Duff. I owned a stereo player, which could play CDs, cassettes, and the radio, and it became my prized possession. My CD collection was comprised of mostly 2000s era music, which I had received for various birthdays and Christmases over the years. I also regularly listened to Seattleâs hip-hop radio station KUBE 93 FM, which sadly no longer exists 2 and has now become a sports radio station.1 Listening to my CDs and KUBE 93 on my own felt like a pivotal moment in my lifeâs musical journey, as this became the first time I had some autonomy in the music I listened to. This was where I started to really have some of my first favorite artists that I discovered on my own and not through the adults in my life. If I was not outside riding my bike with my friends, I was usually in my room listening to music, whether it was KUBE or listening to CDs. When I was 10 years old, my parents gifted me an iPod Nano along with a $25 iTunes gift card for Christmas. This was a catalyst that really led me into my own musical exploration. The iPod gave me further autonomy around music as a different space because the device was my own. By the time I was a teen, I would come home from school, listen to music, and browse for new things to listen to (and avoid homework). This exploration eventually led me to websites like HotNewHipHop and Datpiff, two large pillars of the blog era of rap music. These sites led me to the more underground scenes in hip-hop of the day. It was sometime during this period when I came across the website WhoSampled. I loved going on this site and seeing what songs were connected. Some call it âsample snitching,â2 but I loved seeing the connections because I saw the musical lineages between artists. I cannot quite pin down when I first became interested in samples in hip-hop and rap music, as it was always around me. I recognized the songs I grew up listening to because of the adults in my life in the different beats, instrumentals, and rhythms. The different ways that DJs and producers manipulated a song to their liking into a new song with a different sound 1 âKUBE Makes Flip To KJR Simulcast.â 2 There is much debate about snitching, or revealing, a sample. Some think it ruins the integrity of the song or the work the artist put in to find the sample, especially if it is an obscure song. There have also been plenty of recognizable samples. In the interviews I conducted, the participants all talked about how often they find a song, then later realize it has been sampled by well-known producers. There is some (lighthearted) discourse around this and how all the âgood songsâ have been taken; thus, the desire to find more obscure samples. 3 fascinated me. But what gripped me even more than the technical skills was the sense of familiarity. This familiarity was more than just recognition, but a mixture of coziness, nostalgia, and ease. There was a clear connection between what I considered to be âmyâ music and the prior generationâs music. In my case, it was the tastes of my father, whose music collection was largely from the 1970s when funk emerged in the midst of the peak of soul and R&B. My father is African American and German, and my mother is Japanese. My mother immigrated to the United States in her early 20s to go to university. My dad immigrated to the United States at 5 years old from Germany. As two people with experiences with racism, discrimination, and immigration, they were always honest with me about their life experiences and hardships. Being raised by my parents in the United States, my life there as a first-generation woman of colour played a role in shaping my attitudes, beliefs, politics, and popular culture. While Japanese is my mother tongue and my heritage plays an important role in my life, my dad has greatly influenced me, especially in regard to music and art. My father was born in Germany in 1953 to a German mother and African American GI soldier. He was never close to his motherâs side of the family in Germany; the story that we were told was because he was Black. My great-grandparents were discontent with my grandmotherâs relationship to a Black man and having Black children. He was considered a minority âotherâ in Germany, one of what are sometimes called âbrown babies.â3 Because of this, my father did not retain much of his German side nor his mother tongue. Coupled with his complexion, features, and how he had been treated over the years, he has always remained closer to his African American heritage, from his politics to music. 3 Lemke Muniz de Faria, âTransatlantic Adoption & âBrown Babies.ââ 4 My father was a blue-collar worker who worked at the port. This allowed some flexibility with his hours, but he often took advantage of this by working whenever he could, which meant a lot of odd hours that went on into the early mornings. Nevertheless, on his days off he was always playing music around the house or in the car, especially jazz, soul, R&B, and funk. At family parties and BBQs, he would bring out his favourite CDs to play on the boombox. Such listening usually led to in-depth discussions about music, culture, and politics. This was integral to how I came to understand the world and the things around me, including the music I listened to and how I listened to it. Our garage was separated into two sections. The first section allowed a space to store our family van, bikes, toys, and other miscellaneous items, while the other side became my dadâs section. This was where he stored all his tools and gadgets, old VHS tapes, books, and other items he had collected over the years. Between these sections were storage shelves. For many years, this was where hundreds of his records sat untouched in several old Peaches Records and Tapes crates. I was constantly curious, wanting to take a browse. As I got older and music exploration and collection became more of a hobby, the more that curiosity grew. He was always reluctant to pull them out, as he wanted to have the proper set up to be able to listen to his records. He was also doubtful they would still be in good condition. In a world before streaming and easier access to music online, Earth, Wind, and Fire and Sly and the Family Stone are two groups he played around the house regularly. He had both of their CDs from the Essentials collection that made its way with us on long car rides and road trips. Other groups included the Isley Brothers, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, Gil Scott Heron, and Curtis Mayfield. 5 When I was about thirteen sitting in my parentâs living room there came a pivotal moment that resonated with me down through the years. I was listening to âTouch the Skyâ by Kanye West when my dad took an interest in the song, after recognizing the sample in the beat as Curtis Mayfieldâs 1970 hit âMove On Up.â We had already had some discussions around sampling before; I thought sampling in hip-hop was a way to keep the music of the generation before alive, but my dad was not always a fan and thought of it as copying (though that has changed over the years). I understood where he was coming from, as someone from a generation before hip-hop really took off. While we had always bonded over music, this moment was where our music and our lives, in a generational sense, met. My dad graduated from high school in 1972, and lived his late teen years and majority of his twenties in the 1970s. At the time of writing this, I am 28 years old. When I was about 20, he passed down his record collection to me, consisting mostly of albums from this era. When I listen to the music he was listening to when he was my age, I reflect on how tremendously formative these years can be, including on a musical level. This includes the stories about waiting in line for different records, memories they bring back, or the concerts he attended. Even more so, crate digging through his connection made me feel a connection between our music generationally. Getting his record collection was the biggest honour, and it remains my most prized possession that I am deeply grateful for. It was a moment I had waited for for many years, but has also unexpectedly served as an inspiration for much of my writings through my time as a graduate student in ethnomusicology and sound studies more broadly. I went into academia with the goal to research hip-hop, but found myself exploring the ways we connect with the music, particularly through sampling. 6 1.2 Sampling as Musicking âMusicking,â according to British musicologist Christopher Small, is âto take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance, or by dancing.â4 Notably this definition is less about music as a noun than it is as a verb. The fundamental nature and meaning of music lies in the action, which he argues is central to our humanness. This includes all participation where everyone present is involved and engaged in the activity together. I use Smallâs framework to include sampling in hip-hop as musicking because of the way sampling helped me understand and engage with hip-hop through my own personal experiences and relationships. Smallâs framework of musicking includes three aspects to help us better understand how and why we take part in musical performances in complex ways. The three he mentions are: 1. the Individual 2. the Social 3. the Political While I agree that these three parts are essential, I propose a slightly different approach to better understand the musicking framework in the greater context of sampling in hip-hop: 1. the Technological 2. the Individual 3. the Communal 4. the Political 4 Small, âPrelude: Music and Musickingâ (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), pp. 9. 7 Smallâs original understanding of musicking lacks an engagement with technology that I believe plays a key role in the way we understand and take part in sampling. On some level, all instruments are a type of technology. While that still remains the case, technology has changed and progressed over time that allows for musicking to proceed in different ways in various settings and contexts. Within the recording music industry alone, we can musick in ways we previously did or could not, simply because the technology was not there. I also extend this to the internet and how the age of new connectivity has ushered in a new way to musick. In addition, I decided to shift the individual aspect to the communal to dial in on what I believe is the strongest part of the social aspect of hip-hop. In the context of sampling, I use community to refer to the sonic lineages between hip-hop and its predecessors. This choice was not made to passively dilute each framework to form one generalization over another. It is an intentional choice to present an interconnected relationship of synergy that makes hip-hop what it is. We make up our own unique individual identities, but those identities are a combination of those around us and who we are in community with. It reflects the relationships we hold with people, the conversations we have, and those who have inspired, nurtured, and raised us. 1.3 Themes and Chapter Organization I had my own personal experiences and thoughts on sampling regarding how I listened to music and how it made me feel. This led me to find out if maybe others felt the same way. When I first started researching, I found an overwhelming amount of academic literature around sampling that focused on its legality. However, online hip-hop spaces or conversations between friends made me believe there was more to the beat-making process that I felt had maybe been less explored. 8 Over time I began to notice, whether it was Instagram or TikTok, that people were sharing samples in short form videos with comments reflecting on them. I do acknowledge the algorithm and its attempts to share material I would be interested in, but nonetheless, there were still dozens of these videos with thousands of people engaging with them one way or another. It had to count for something. Between friends, I had similar conversations about recognizing samples and any connections and emotions they had with them. Though not as plentiful, a literature around the aesthetics of sampling does exist. Joseph G. Schloss focused on the artistic elements of beat making,5 Beza Fekade wrote about sonic temporalities between A Tribe Called Quest and Minnie Ripperton,6 and Emery Petchauer proposed sampling aesthetics as a way for education.7 In Jeff Changâs Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, Robert Karimi describes the idea of sampled consciousness (noun): A state of self (being) created by the act of sampling different experiences: education, stories, interactions, and observations. The individual takes these experiences, knowingly or unknowingly, and makes them part of their worldview, the way they create/interact. The consciousness is continually in flux, alternating, adding, subtracting, choosing. Self (being) is negotiated. We sample, blend, fade in and fade out the various experiences, remixing the self in service to its goal: zeroness.8 In the same book, Eisa Davis discusses the intergenerational dialogue happening within hip-hop theatre: Sometimes itâs a screaming match, sometimes itâs a passing of the torch, sometimes itâs an active collaboration. But itâs a dialogue that is entirely welcome, and it has to do with the conscious relationship that hip-hop has always had to the past. When you sample old records and quote lyrics, you're not just stealing; you're showing respect. A DJ is doing her job when she generates nostalgia for music itself. And tradition is strengthenedâour 5 Schloss, Making Beats. 6 Fekade, âFrom Riperton To Tribe, and Back Again.â 7 Petchauer, âSampling Memories.â 8 karimi, âHow I Found My Inner DJ.â 9 parents may not know their parentsâ songs, but we know our parentsâ songs like they're ours.9 My goal is to contribute to this larger discussion around the aesthetics of hip-hop and community, particularly through sampling. The thesis is structured around the modified categories of Smallâs musicking framework. While hip-hop emerges amid political tensions in New York City, the development of the genre required the growing interest and demand in music technology among urban youth. This is the subject of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 combines the individual and community aspects to show the relationship of sonic lineages between generations, such that the individual will always be part of some community. Chapter 4 addresses the legality of samples. When I decided to draft my thesis, I initially wanted to avoid legal issues and copyright because I wanted to focus solely on the aesthetics of sampling. However, legality kept coming up in my research and interviews, which made me question my original exclusion of it. In this chapter, I discuss different court cases, including the complicated precedent that set legal proceedings against hip-hop and how it affects the ability to sample. Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion, where I explore potential future research and briefly discuss Smallâs political category within the context of the personal. The fieldwork that makes up the bulk of the research in this thesis was conducted online through forums, social media, and videos. I also held personal interviews with friends who are musicians, beatmakers, DJs, and a practicing music law attorney. Through this integrated 9 Davis, âTotal Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.â 10 approach, I analyze the ways we musick with sample-based beat making and the connections we form with the practice. 11 Chapter 2: Technology Chapter 2 analyzes technology and its contributions to music, sampling, and the way the hip-hop community engages with sampling through online spaces. The story begins with the development of modern recording technology in the creation of vinyl records, home stereo equipment, and drum machines. It continues with the introduction of the internet and the occupation and manipulation of virtual spaces. 2.1 The Role of Technology in a âMusickingâ Framework Christopher Smallâs definition of musicking encompasses multiple aspects of a musical performance, whether it is âperforming, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing materials for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing.â10 He views musical performance as an encounter between human beings that takes place through the medium of sound in an organized way. However, much of this organized sound that Small describes would not be possible without technology and its advancements that allow us to perform, listen, rehearse, provide materials, or dance. The invention of recorded music has allowed for music to become more accessible, entering peopleâs private dwellings whether listening to music on their own or together in a gathering. People no longer need to attend or be part of a live performance to participate in musicking because of the advancements of music technology and recorded music. Furthermore, the internet age has created a new way to consume media, shifting the cultural landscape of all arts, including music. I would also argue that a large portion of the 10 Small, âPrelude: Music and Musickingâ (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), pp. 9. 12 musicking we see today is done online. Some argue that the online world has also become a sort of âthird space.â11 Although much of this argument is in the context of politics, reality tv, and media, I would extend this âthird spaceâ concept to include music communities in online spaces. While age, demographics, class, and internet access varies across the global population, the internet has made us more connected than ever before, allowing us to also communicate, share, and engage beyond past capabilities. While there is much to be critical about the internetâsuch as persistent racism in online spaces12 and internet addiction13âit is also allowing people to explore, consume, and listen to music that is worth substantiative exploration, hence the addition of technology to the framework for musicking. 2.2 A Brief Overview of Music Recording Technology Susan Schmidt Horning outlines the history of music technology, culture, and studio recordings in her book Chasing Sound.14 She notes that the recording studio belongs at the center of any analysis, because this was where âmusic began the shift from live performance art to a technologically mediated artâ¦.â15 Before this, musicians were only dependent on their instruments, by themselves or in front of an audience. Horningâs argument is that sound recordings changed the nature of musical creativity and made non-performers such as sound engineers essential to music. I begin by providing a brief history of recording music technology 11 Graham et al., âFrom Everyday Conversation to Political Action.â 12 Daniels, Jessie. âRace and Racism in Internet Studies: A Review and Critique.â 13 Kardefelt-Winther, âA Conceptual and Methodological Critique of Internet Addiction Research.â 14 Schmidt Horning, Chasing Sound. 15 Schmidt Horning, âIntroduction.â 13 to provide some context for the American popular music industry and the precursors that led to hip-hop. Starting from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century were primitive experiments with how far technology could go to capture and play recorded sounds. Rather than the glamorous music studios that we see in the present day, the studios of the early years were laboratories where inventors and mechanics experimented with different methods of capturing sound. Due to demand, technicians and performers made multiple copies by recording around a dozen phonograph cylinders at a time. This is how Cappaâs Seventh Regiment Band recorded âMy Country âTis of Theeâ for the New York Phonograph Company in the early 1890s. The recording industry reached the âgolden eraâ in the 1910s due to popular dances such as the turkey trot and foxtrot which emerged by World War I. During this time, recorded music started to expand to other genres such as jazz, gospel, blues, and hillbilly music. New record labels also began to emerge around this time. Okeh Recordsâ release of âCrazy Bluesâ (1920) by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds pressured Columbia to start making blues records. By 1923, they had a handful of jazz and blues artists including Bessie Smith, Fletcher Henderson, and Ethel Waters. Victor focused on selling catalogs to the African American markets. There was also more global music due to the growth of immigration in the United States. This continued into the 1920s with recorded music during the jazz age. Records became the most popular form of home entertainment until the radio boom in 1922, which caused dwindling record sales. Electrical recording equipment transformed the recording studio, making recording easier, faster, and higher quality than the earlier phonograph recordings. Record sales rebounded in the years leading up to WWII. With the consumer demand, companies paid a new focus to the sound of records and the acoustics of the studio spaces they 14 were made in. Recorded music of the 1920s faced issues with the reverberation of sound, which made studios follow the model of broadcasting studios to create acoustically dead spaces. From then into the 1930s, radio stations began âlive endâ and âdead endâ studios to enhance the broadcast to be higher quality than the generation of recorded music before it. World War II brought an influx of technological innovations, economic prosperity, increased leisure time, and a demand for entertainment and goods. Post-World War II, amateurs played a huge role in the development of recording technology. There was a new generation of audio engineers that came with experience as signal corpsmen during the war. They then pursued careers in radio, film, and television. By the 1950s, pre-existing spaces such as churches and halls with more reverb became desirable for recordings. These acoustical environments became signature to each recording, distinguishing each record by the space it was recorded in. Some argue that recording during this period came the closest it has been to recreating the live musical experience. It was in this era that a shift in studio technology occurred, highlighting the shared importance of the producer, engineer, and studio which resulted in a better experience for those listening at home. Technology was always integral to the music making process, because the first musical instruments humans created (besides the voice) were a type of technology. Before sound recordings, music was made in real time for audience members to listen, watch, and participate in. If musical instruments were around, people musicked. It is important to note technologyâs role in musicking for this reason. Furthermore, the recording technology since the late 1800s not only shows the rapid increase of technology that increased the demand for recorded music, but also how accessible music became. The radio allowed music to be broadcast to the masses. Pressed cylinders and vinyl records distributed music to people to play at home leisurely on their 15 own or at hosted gatherings. This desire to create the most high-fidelity records adds weight to the emergence of music technology and recording technology. These sound recordings changed the relationship that the audience had with music. It is for this reason I place emphasis on technology because this sets a precedent in how we understand âmusicking.â It is because of this growth of music technology that we see how technology aids the evolution of Black American popular music and the emergence of hip-hop. 2.3 Technologyâs Role in Hip-Hop Sampling While hip-hop has been part of a gradual evolution of African American music and other secular traditions,16 it is also a genre that was heavily shaped by the political and economic conditions and policies of New York City in the 1970s where it began. Federal funding of New York public schoolâs art programs and extra curriculars saw significant cuts to school music programs. Because of the decreased funding, inner-city youth were not participating in classroom-based music activities as before. They countered this by relying on their voices, where street corner a cappella singing and the human beat box became popular. As disco became popular, there was also a growing interest in music technology leading to more people purchasing turntables and synthesizers.17 New York saw deep social services cuts, causing unequal wealth distribution and a housing crisis. This housing crisis affected people of colour the most, who comprised more than half of the inner cityâs working class and underclass. By the 1970s, most federal funding 16 Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora, âWill the Circle Be Unbroken?â 17 Keyes, Rap Music and Street Consciousness. 16 allocated to inner-city housing were transferred to upscale suburbia. During the 1977 World Series, sportscaster Howard Cosell supposedly announced that âthe Bronx is burning.â It became a feared place and a âsymbol of all that was wrong with urban America.â18 What was happening was blamed on the people who lived there, that the residents were the ones that were failing themselves. In the midst of devastation of racist policies and government neglect, DJs in the South Bronx hosted outdoor parties to bring the community together and keep kids safe off the streets. Hip-Hopâs roots are in such community care. One notable DJ was DJ Kool Herc, who noticed at these parties that people were dancing at the most percussive points of the songs. Taking his traditional knowledge of outdoor entertainment in Jamaica, he brought it to the Bronx bringing these systems to the public. He would bring two turn tables and duplicate copies of a record to his parties to keep these âbreaksâ going, coining the technique as the âmerry-go-round.â Herc was known for playing old R&B and soul records, reintroducing the music to a younger crowd.19 Other influential DJs include Afrika Bambaataa, who was known for his massive record collection, playing danceable rhythms, and as a collector of beats. He is also credited as the one to offer alternatives to gang culture to the youth. Grandmaster Flash was technical, creating new mixes that deviated from disco DJs. Instead of playing music, he used the equipment as an instrument to make new music. This is where the term âdigging the cratesâ started, because to be a DJ, it was necessary to have the best music finds to collect obscure music. Crate digging to find 18 McLaughlin, âWhy the South Bronx Burned.â 19 Orejuela, Fernando Orejuela. Rap and Hip Hop Culture. New York, vol. 27. 17 the best samples become an important part of the beat making process, with artists today still participating in the process. As technology advanced, the set ups got bigger and more complex, consisting of several items: a mic, two turntables, mixer, drum machine, sampler, an amp, and two bass-heavy speakers. Along with this, DJs had their catalogues of curated sampled music that were played for dancers and partygoers. While many DJs listened to and played all kinds of music, funk and R&B were the most popularly sampled genre for beats. Funk emerged from soul music in the 1970s and became extremely popular because of its polyrhythmic grooves. It was also a counterculture to disco, which was the pop music of the time. Funk became the most sampled styles of music by DJs during the late 1980s and into the â90s, which was oftentimes the music of the DJâs parents. 2.4 The Internetâs Influence on Hip-Hop In recent years, the internet has come to play a large role in music and musicking through platforms such as YouTube. There you can find tutorials for DIY crafts, how to make recipes from scratch, watch highlights of your favorite NBA teams, and catch up on news around the world. It has become an important fiber of the online music world: Little could we have imagined that fifteen years later that, not only would YouTube still exist, and not only would it have become a culturally dominant platform, but also that there would still be so much more to say about itâas a digital media institution, as a cultural shaper and as a site of everyday consumption and creative practiceâ¦It is wonderful to see this fine collection of contemporary work on YouTube and its role in music culturesâincluding cultures of production, performance and consumption or fandom, as well as its role in the ongoing digital transformation of the music industries and in the careers of musicians.20 20 Burgess, âPreface: âLike, Share and Subscribeâ: Finding the Music in YouTubeâs History.â 18 One of those videos that went viral was the 2007 music video for âCrank That (Soulja Boy)â by the rapper Soulja Boy Tellâem.21 This played a major role in how a part of hip-hop culture shifted to online spaces. Soulja Boy, named DeAndre Way, was 17 years old at the time of the songâs release. Way had uploaded the song to a website called SoundClick, a platform where unsigned musicians could share their music. The song gained some traction but started to pick up quicker once he had attached a dance to it, following the trend that several Atlanta rappers had done to make their music go viral. The dance remains popular to this day, with TikTok creators and content streamers still doing the same dance from over fifteen years ago. It was in this period that hip-hop made its way into spaces on the internet, creating new spaces for people to consume and engage with the culture. 2.4.1 The Blog Era Part of this culture on the internet includes an extremely short-lived but influential time for music that many people have coined as âThe Blog Era.â In the ways that TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and Soul Train or channels like VH1 and MTV influenced the way audiences discovered music, The Blog Era served a similar purpose online. Rappers could post their music online, build a fanbase, and become successful independently without a label or record deal: Before streaming took over, getting your hands on your favorite new music took a bit of work. In this environment, during the years of 2007-2012, a new hip-hop golden age was realized from the bottom upâthanks to a powerful handful of blogs and the Internet-savvy artists who leveraged them for success. NahRight, 2DopeBoyz, The Smoking Section, Pigeons & Planes, and Hot New Hip Hop (to name just a few) were some of the major rap blogs of this era, created and run by hip-hop heads, for hip-hop heads; they 21 Jurgensen, âBut Can You Dance to It?â 19 circumvented traditional structures for discovery and ushered in a new media landscape in the process. 22 Up until this point, the American hip-hop market was primarily concentrated in major cities and regions: the East Coast (New York City), West Coast (Los Angeles and Bay Area), the Dirty South (Atlanta, Memphis, Houston, New Orleans), and the Midwest (Chicago and Detroit). Because rappers could promote their music in these online spaces, this allowed for new artists to emerge from different cities and regions. These cities include Pittsburgh (Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa) and Toronto (Drake). It also allowed for different sounds to come out of already prominent regions, like New Yorkâs A$AP Rockyâs Houston chopped and screwed sound and Los Angeles based Odd Futureâs alternative West Coast sounds. Sampling has always been an essential part of creating a mixtape. This is the way that many people heard hip-hop live at a party in the earlier years. In an interview with NPR Music, DJ Drama explained the complicated area that mixtape artists straddle with the art and legality (which will be discussed in a later chapter) of creating a mixtape: You know, when it comes to hip-hop, you know, a lot of the music normally starts in the streets. Meaning that before you know, the mass has heard it, you know, the hardcore hip-hop listeners normally has already got their hands on it and that's where I come into play. So, you know, for me to put together a mixtape is basically, like, me putting together a mini album with an artist. You know, we go through a lot of the songs and the concepts and, you know, choosing beats and, you know, direction on where the mixtape is going. And you know, I pretty much handle all sides of it.23 While mixtapes of The Blog Era have shifted from physical ones to online downloads, the concept remains similar where artists take existing songs to sample in their works. Mac Miller had originally released his fourth mixtape K.I.D.S. (2010) by Rostrum Records through 22 Gorham, âThe Blog Era.â 23 Chideya, âThe History and Legality of Mix Tapes.â 20 DatPiff.24 Many of these songs contain various samples, including the song âKool Aid and Frozen Pizzaâ which samples âHip 2 Da Gameâ (2015) by Lord Finesse. Other samples also include taking a songâs instrumental and freestyling over the beat. Some of the more notable rappers to do this was Lil Wayne. Sorry 4 The Wait (2011), like many of his mixtapes, are all remixes of well-known songs, including Adeleâs âRolling in the Deep,â Drakeâs âMarvinâs Room,â and Beyonceâs âGirls Run the World.â25 2.4.2 TikTok In the last few years, TikTok has quickly grown to be what YouTube was about twenty years ago. As of 2020, download numbers hit more than two billion globally on both the App Store and Google Play.26 Much of this success was due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, as lockdowns forced many people to stay at home and look for ways to stay entertained and connected with the world. According to the Pew Research Center, a third of U.S. adults and majority of U.S. teens report using TikTok.27 TikTok user @jarredjermaine is a well-known music content creator. His content varies from demos of popular songs to videos such as âautotune vs no autotune.â Many of his videos involve samples, showing the original then the sampled song. While some of these songs include songs by hip-hop artists, many of them are beyond the genre. In a video posted on July 28, 2025, he shares a song by Chinese rapper SKAI ISYOURGOD sampling a song from Korean artist 24 âMac Miller - K.I.D.S Hosted by Rostrum Records & Most Dope // Free Mixtape @ DatPiff.Com.â 25 Genius, âSorry 4 the Wait by Lil Wayne.â 26 Chappele, âTikTok Crosses 2 Billion Downloads After Best Quarter For Any App Ever.â 27 Eddy, â8 Facts about Americans and TikTok.â 21 Insooni.28 He also has a series where he shares the evolution of songs. A video posted from December 15, 2023 shows the evolution of Aretha Franklinâs song âOne Step Aheadâ (1965) being sampled in Mos Defâs song âMs. Fat Bootyâ (1999), to J.I.D feat. 21 Savage and Baby Tateâs âSurround Soundâ (2022) to XGâs âGalz Xypherâ (2022). As of October 2025, @jarredjermaineâs account has amassed 6.4 million followers, covering songs and artists and their usage of sampling, interpolations, and evolutions that span across various genres, ethnicities, nationalities, and languages. This sort of reach with such a broad audience has been used to educate not only what sampling is, but how widely used of a technique it is. Not only has the usage of sampling spread outside of hip-hop, but so has the knowledge of sampling. DJ Precise (@djprecise) is another TikTok user who has amassed a large following in a similar fashion as @jarredjermaine. He makes videos of himself deejaying different challenges, such as âTry Not to Singâ where he plays different songs encouraging viewers to not sing along, or âHow Many Do You Know?â quizzing viewers on a list of songs. However, some of these videos share how different artists have sampled the same song. In a video posted October 13, 2023, with the title âHow Each Decade Influenced Todays Music,â DJ Precise plays two songs from each decade showing the original song, then the sampled one. For the 1960s, he plays Dionne Warwick âWalk On Byâ (1964), then Doja Catâs âPaint the Town Redâ (2023). The Emotionsâ âBest of My Loveâ (1977) is next, with Paul Russellâs âLil Boo Thangâ for the â70s. For the 1980s is Grandmaster Flash âThe Messageâ (1982), then Coi Lerayâs âPlayersâ (2023). The 1990s is Vanilla Iceâs âIce Ice Babyâ (1990), then Tygaâs âBops Going Brazyâ (2023). And 28 WhoSampled, âæ¬ä½¬SKAI ISYOURGODâs âå «æ¹æ¥è´¢ (Stacks From All Sides)â - Discover the Sample Source.â 22 finally for the 2000s is Lumideeâs âNever Leave Youâ (2003), being sampled in Nicki Minajâs âRed Ruby Da Sleezeâ (2023). As of October 2025, this video has over 733,000 likes, 1900 comments, and 85,000 bookmarks. A few commenters chimed in to add that Vanilla Iceâs song was a sample of âUnder Pressureâ (1981) by David Bowie and Queen, correcting DJ Precise that âIce Ice Babyâ was not the original and contained a sample. A few others praised Nicki Minajâs version of the song. A few people commented with the sentiment that they are bored of recycled music, not understanding how artists can steal someone elseâs beat and that nothing is original nowadays. The comment sections in many of these videos share a lot of discourse and a wide range of opinions and takes from different people. 2.4.3 Further Online Spaces Outside of video-based social media sites, forums such as Reddit have become a place where users can join for many kinds of topics and special interests. Within the world of hip-hop and rap music, this includes subreddits (subforums) dedicated just to hip-hop (r/hiphopheads), hip-hop subgenres like lo-fi music (r/lofihiphop), or regional scenes like Atlanta (r/Atlantology), and artists such as MF Doom (r/mfdoom). There are also subreddits for beatmakers, lyricists, samplers, or digital audio workstations where people use these spaces as resources to share with one another, exchange feedback, or start discourse about certain topics. Other social media platforms, such as Twitter29 and Instagram, have become viable spaces for people to find 29 I use Twitter colloquially instead of X. In many hip-hop circles, including those I interviewed for my research, âTwitterâ is preferred over X. Many posts on Twitter also refer to tweets still as âtweets.â 23 community with one another. This is where cultural insiders can hold discussions and contribute to trending topics, songs, and moments in the world of hip-hop and sampling. As mentioned in the introduction, WhoSampled.com is another popular website to identify samples, covers, and remixes. This was (and still is) one of my favourite sites to click around on. The front page of their website reads: Dig deeper into music by discovering direct connections among over 1,225,000 songs and 379,000 artists, from Hip-Hop, Rap and R&B via Electronic / Dance through to Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, Classical and beyond. WhoSampled's verified content is built by a community of over 39,000 contributors. Make contributions to earn Credâour very own points system. Join us now to add more knowledge and share it with the world!30 Because it is community run by users (like Wikipedia), not everything has been fully accurate, nor does it show every song or artist. Although many songs are confirmed through sample clearances and album credits, some are not listed for various reasons. Some artists look to use extremely niche samples that can be hard to identify, making some songs or artists completely unavailable to search. But it ultimately serves as a rough database that users and listeners can use for fun. With WhoSampled.com you can search by artist, song, or album. For example, if you search James Brown, who is often credited as the most sampled artist (along with George Clinton),31 a total of 17,341 samples show up. If users click on âFunky Drummerâ (1970), it lists 2015 songs. From there, users can click on the songs that sample it, such as âLet Me Rideâ (1992) by Dr. Dre or âFight the Powerâ (1989) by Public Enemy, where users can jump to the time stamps where the sample appears. WhoSampled also shares news, videos essays, and 30 âDiscover Music via Samples, Cover Songs and Remixes | WhoSampled.â 31 There is some debate over this in the hip-hop community. âFunky Drummerâ has been argued as the most sampled song, while some think that it is technically George Clinton. 24 sample packs that producers can download for their DAWâs digital library. There are also some artists who have been verified on WhoSampled, such as Charlie Heat, Karriem Riggins, and Rodney Jerkins. These verified artists share verified facts and stories about the songs they have worked on. Detroit-born jazz drummer, record producer, DJ, and songwriter Karriem Riggins shares on Slum Villageâs â2U4Uâ (2000): I initially met Dilla at this club in Detroit called The Shelter and it was a party that House Shoes used to DJ at and we met and exchanged numbers then, but never really linked until Common came to Detroit to get some beats from Dilla and I went and tagged along, and that's when we really clicked. He was working on Fantastic, Vol. 2 around that time and called me to the studio and I listened through the album and he said âI have one song for you to play drums on if you're down?â and I gave it a listen and I tried one take on it and he kept it and that song was '2U4U'.32 This provides some legitimacy for fans to learn more about the artists, their backgrounds, and the relationships they have with the song. While it mainly serves verification purposes, it also adds a personal touch allowing fans to peek into a recording or beat making session that is usually private. Regarding privacy, the YouTube series Rhythm Roulette by the channel Mass Appeal allows viewers to step into their favourite hip-hop producersâ studios as they make beats. The producer in each video chooses a record store, gets blindfolded, picks three random records, and then makes a beat by sampling those records. A personal favourite of mine was the 9th Wonder episode where they join the producer in his home state of North Carolina at the record store The Record Crate in Raleigh. The three records he grabs are Charly McClain, Jermaine Jackson, and The Temprees. He starts sifting through the records, finding the right part to sample. He loads 32 WhoSampled, â2U4U by Slum Village on WhoSampled.â 25 the instrumental into this drum machine and starts cooking up a beat. He says with satisfaction, âShe came throughâ¦She came through! Like we thought it was going to be the messed up record but she came through, she came through! Thatâs amazing.â He excitedly bops his head up and down with a grin on his face. âMan! Itâs a, itâs a country single boy, we turn it into some soul. It lets you know manâsoul is universal dude.â33 He continues with the other two records. At the end, rapper Rapsody comes through during the session to add a verse over it. This is how most Rhythm Roulette videos go. Each producer has a different set of records to use, but how they use them varies while each producer puts their own spin on it. 2.5 Conclusion This is just a small glimpse into the online world of hip-hop and sampling. Such considerations led to my expansion of Smallâs framework to include technology, because so much of hip-hop culture, its figures, and communities are also online. Many cities and regions around the world continue to have rich and vibrant scenes participating in hip-hop offline. However, the Internet has such a grasp on the culture and where the pulse of it is. So much of how we share, listen, grieve, and celebrate happens because of these online spaces. 33 This beat later turns into his song âCHARLYSOUL!!!!â off his 2020 beat tape Zion V: The Ballad Of Charles Douthit. 26 Chapter 3: Community and Intergenerational Connections While Smallâs original framework of âmusickingâ includes the âindividual,â I decided to combine this with âcommunity.â This is not to reduce the importance of the individual, but rather show the way that the individual is always part of a larger community in one way or another. I believe individuals and their individualityâJ Dilla being a great exampleâhas been important to the progress of hip-hop and the shifting changes of the music. But even those notable individuals who are considered the greatest in hip-hop come from somewhere. Alongside external research, in this chapter I draw on the expertise and perspectives of four people, all of whom I am in community with and have had personal relationships. Three of these individuals sat for a group interview: Koren Kent, Khiry Brown, and Omar Lee. All three are producers, who go by the names of Saint Lavelle, DBCouper, and Omar Justice Lee, respectively. Koren, my partner, was born and raised in Houston, home to the chopped and screwed sound. Over the several years we have been together, I have had the pleasure of seeing and participating in his day-to-day creative process making beats, going to our favourite record store to crate dig, and sampling. Khiry and I first became friends because we graduated from the same high school. He was two years older than me in the 12th grade while I was in the 10th grade. We bonded quickly over our taste in music and as the older one between the two of us, Khiry played a big part introducing me to a different side of hip-hop (I need to give him credit for my love of MF DOOM, Madlib, and J Dilla). Over the years, we have shared a passion for beats and crate digging. I introduced Koren and Khiry, who have become best friends and close musical collaborators over the years. 27 Omar is also a producer. I first met him because he was friends with Koren regularly making beats together. He has come to visit and stay with us a few times with the sole intention of making beats with Koren. If I am home, I usually hang out and observe their beat making process. During these visits, I have gotten to know Omar by talking about hip-hop, beats, and music in general. Omar and I have found commonality in the music we grew up listening to, as our dads listen to a lot of similar artists. I also conducted a solo interview with Janelle Nardone (they/she). They are a DJ born and raised in Los Angeles but based now in western Washington. Janelle is a DJ, songwriter, and beatmaker/producer. We went to the same university, had frequently heard of one another, and finally met through our professor Mark Miyake in 2023. We have remained in contact over the years, discussing music and hip-hop. She comes from a musical background, where her father was a prominent DJ in the Los Angeles hip-hop scene and mother was also a lover of music. We share similar influences in our lives with a lot of overlap in our taste in hip-hop. In this chapter, I begin by identifying and discussing a few examples of sampling that show the intergenerational connections found between hip-hop and preceding genres and artists. Here I discuss a few recent examples of sampling and the comradery that has been formed between various artists. I also explore a few interviews of artists and their connection to the music. This analysis is done through ethnographic work, interviews, and personal experiences. Lastly, I focus on Earl Sweatshirt, whose usage of sampling both music and spoken word tells a complex and unique story of community and lineage. 28 3.1 Intergenerational Connections to Sampling Roy Ayers Jr., the well-respected and well-loved vibraphonist, record producer, composer, and pioneer of jazz-funk passed away March of 2025.34 Tributes poured in from all over the internet by fans, music lovers, writers, and musicians alike. A few days after his passing, I came across a video that hip-hop based Instagram account @istillloveher.de shared from an interview YouTube channel Out Da Box TV did with Roy Ayers from Aug 1, 2011. The video was captioned âHip-Hop loves sampling Roy Ayers and rightfully so [heart]â. As I was reading the comments, I came across one from Instagram user @muaadib who commented on the post: Roy Ayers stuff was so important to a lot of us because it was a bridge from our parentâs music to hip hop. Especially growing in Brooklyn and hearing his stuff at bbqs or seeing him in the street or him doing shows at prospect park or wingate park for free.. his music is such a sound of the era. It gave me my love of music of all genres. My pops loved Roy Ayerâs music and this was one of the things he and I bonded over when I was young and we really didn't have much in common. Thank you Mr. Ayers for giving us your craft and bridging generations. Roy Ayers Jr. was, of course, a legacy in his own right, known for songs such as âEverybody Loves the Sunshine.â While he might be the music of an older generation, he also found a second home in the world of hip-hop. He was a frequently sampled artist among hip-hop producers such as J Dilla, Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Madlib, and many others. He has also been regarded as âThe Godfather of Neo-Soul.â He has been sampled throughout the generations, including from the â90s like A Tribe Called Questâs âBonita Applebum,â Junior Mafiaâs âGet Money,â or Common and Erykah Baduâs âCome Close.â Heâs also lived into the modern era through Kendrick Lamarâs âGood Kidâ and âShineâ by Joey Bada$$. 34 Gotrich, âRoy Ayers, Whose âEverybody Loves The Sunshineâ Charmed Generations, Dies at 84.â 29 A large part of this sort of respect in hip-hop comes because of Ayerâs enthusiasm to work with younger artists. One example of such a contribution is on Guruâs âTake a Look (At Yourself)â (1993) from Jazzmatazz Vol. 1. In the liner notes Ayers writes, âJazzâs mellow tracks, along with the hard rap beat, go hand-in-glove with my voice.â Ayers later toured with Guru and late jazz musician Donald Byrd on the Jazzmatazz Tour.35 Ayers also contributed to Tyler, the Creatorâs âFind Your Wingsâ playing the vibraphone, as well as playing a set at his music festival Camp Flog Gnaw. It is my presumption that this live performance only popularized him further, exposing him to a younger crowd. In the same interview with Out Da Box TV, he realized he was being sampled when his kids told him about it. He stated, âIt was a wonderful experience because I was wondering how they all knew about my music.â36 Another artist well known and embraced by the hip-hop community is Charlie Wilson of The Gap Band. Endearingly also known as âUncle Charlie,â in an interview with Okayplayer he is asked which sampled work of his is his favourite. He mentions George Michael, unable to recollect which song it was, but continues to explain how âelatedâ and âhappyâ he was that they took something of his and made something out of it.37 He states âOutstandingâ alone has been sampled countless of times.38 This admiration between artists displays a cross-generational and cross-racial appreciation between one another and the lineage each genre plays. While many artists have gotten in trouble for not properly clearing samples, there is also a side of sampling that is embraced and welcomed by people such as âUncle Charlieâ who are considered by many 35 Gotrich, âRoy Ayers, Whose âEverybody Loves The Sunshineâ Charmed Generations, Dies at 84.â 36 ROY AYERS Talks Hip Hop Sampling and Music Longevity. 37 The original song was âBurn Rubber on Meâ (1980), and the George Michael song that sampled it is âStar People â97â (1997). 38 Moments With: Charlie Wilson. 30 in hip-hop as one of the greats. The embracing by older generations also challenges the idea that sampling is âwrong,â focusing rather on it as a relationship based on mutual respect and appreciation. On a personal level, hearing the music I grew up on being sampled in a recent song from someone closer to my generation makes me feel like âmyâ music is part of a deeper part of sonic Black musical lineages. At times, hip-hop can be misunderstood and maybe even disrespected, with harsh racial undertones that overly generalize the music. The meaningful relationships between the sampled and sampler feels like a co-sign, almost a sense of legitimacy to the critics (although I believe hip-hop should not need one). In my interviews, we discussed the stigma around sampling. Koren believes this stigma is rooted in racism because of its association as a Black genre of music. Omar (Omar Justice Lee) agreed, believing people misunderstand sampling and hip-hop. Khiry thinks reworking music is like an instrument. The legal ramifications of sampling will be discussed in the next chapter. Track Star* is an internet music show where host Jack Coyne quizzes people on the streets of New York City on their musical knowledge. Many of these people include rappers, pop stars, and athletes. On their YouTube account, they shared a video putting Pos and Maseo from De La Soul in the hot seat. Jack plays them The Isley Brothersâ âShoutâ (1959) with Maseo chiming in with the correct answer. Maseo shares his background with the song: his first time listening to it in a movie unaware it was an Isley Brothers song until he started digging for records to purchase for samples. Jack asks them how the sampling and crate digging process works.39 39 Testing De La Soulâs Music Knowledge | Track Star*. 31 Pos: It could be likeâ¦knowledge of-of the artist. It could be, âYo the cover looks interesting,â yâknow? Maseo: Being able to go into the store and actually play it in a designated set for yourself. And having all these feelings and emotions behind this music around strange people in the store [laughs]â¦losing your cool, yelling, having loud outbursts âYO! THIS IS CRAZY!â [laughs] The next song plays, this time itâs The Ohio Playersâ âLove Rollercoasterâ (1975) and Pos guessed this round, correctly. He starts to reminisce on his connection to the record: Pos: Funky, innovative. It brings me back toâ¦I think I was still in the Bronx, maybe, and my father just having that record and playing it a lot, andâ¦I just love how one of the, the dudes had that- [Pos starts imitating as Maseo identifies the vocalist as Sugarfoot. The three laugh and talk about Sugarfootâs influence on funk vocals] Pos reminiscing on the music his father played around the house invokes a familiar feeling that I think many people can relate with. The presence of a parent, grandparent, or other adults playing music around the house can elicit fond memories, and sometimes with that, influencing our taste in music. In a video done with RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Jack plays âTrampâ (1967) by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. Jack asks him to tell him about this song and RZA dives in with: Man those drumsâthatâs been sampled in hip-hop so many timesâ¦yâknow we donât like to sample snitch they say but the drums in this song whether itâs this version of it cuz Otis Redding did a version then you got like thereâs like 20 versions of this song and itâs always thatâ¦that..boomâ¦bop [vocalizes drum pattern]â¦which is the âJump Offâ Wu-Tang.40 I find it interesting to note the acknowledgement of sample snitching while still essentially sample snitching. This is not to be critical or point this out as a âgotchaâ moment, but rather acknowledge that the culture around sample snitching might be shifting as time goes on. As the 40 Testing RZAâs Music Knowledge | Track Star*. 32 song that uses this sample gets older and more noticeable, I think eventually it becomes inevitable for people to recognize the origins of the beat. It is also a song that has been sampled so many times that familiarity or nostalgia may be outweighing the type of gatekeeping that used to come with sampling. I think this nuance is worth exploring, especially as hip-hop shifts and changes as the years go on. In my personal interviews, I asked what my colleagues thought of sample snitching. Khiry (DBCouper) thinks that sample snitching depends on the context. Generally speaking, he believes that people should not do it, but thinks it is different when it might be a well-known, recognizable sample because the beatmaker has probably seen the money and âmade it.â He also thinks sampling drums is different than sampling a melody. Meanwhile, Koren (Saint Lavelle) does not care about sample snitching too much: I think, personally, if youâre doing your job, it shouldnât matter if people know what youâre sampling or not. Cause if youâre gonna flip it, youâre gonna flip it the way you wanna do it and somebody else gonâ hear it and do it a different way. Even if itâs obscure, itâs less about having the same sample but having the ear for it.41 This also reflects a wider discourse within hip-hop communities about sample snitching and whether it is ârightâ or âwrong.â Omar thinks the act of sample snitching can make the beat disposable. The effort of digging around for a record to sample and re-working the sample into its own instrument makes it into a fresh beat. Omarâs comment echoes the early days of hip-hop, where DJs purposefully took stickers off of records so other DJs would not be able to find what the record was; if so discovered, they would go out and find something new. Generally speaking, people are either against sample 41 Khiry Brown et al., âGroup Interview,â August 1, 2025. 33 snitching or they do not have a problem with it. Some samples are immediately recognizable, being sampled over and over, while some samples are chopped up and completely reworked. In a video interview with DJ Premier he was asked about sample snitching. While he understands the reasons behind peopleâs curiosity, he still thinks it is snitching.42 One user in the comment criticizes this take, saying producers always say they show love to an underappreciated record by giving life to it, but at the same time want to gatekeep the sample. Other replied back to this in agreement, while others disagreed. Jack continues on playing the game with RZA, this time playing Curtis Mayfieldâs 1972 record âPusherman.â RZA gushes about Mayfieldâs talents and admiration for him. He asks RZA where his first love came from, to which he answers: I guess my first love will come from, yâknow, family members having records, my uncle always walking and singing something in the room. Yâknow I heard hip-hop in the streets of New York City on Staten Islandâ¦my cousin GZA took me to a block party and I heard thatâ¦those break beats drop and all that and I just was addicted and it sent me on a journeyâ¦that I realized that the journey of music, of course itâs lifelong but it, it itâs multi-genre, multi-raceâ¦.43 Janelle Nardone is a mixed-race, Mexican Indo-Fijian person, who grew up in Los Angeles. As a child, her family threw kickbacks44 where music was central to these social events as a way to connect with the people and community around them. When they recognize a sample, they hear the sampling as respect or homage to the artists. It is also, in some ways, a way for them to maybe see the connections that artists have with their upbringing. Omar had similar experiences to a family connection with sampling. His family played a huge role in his musical 42 Producer CEO. 43 Testing RZAâs Music Knowledge | Track Star*. 44 âKickbacksâ are typically referred to as a smaller party. They are more relaxed and intimate. 34 background, with his parentâs music collection mostly consisting of his dadâs funk and momâs gospel records leaving an early impression on him and the type of beats he produces. 3.2 Earl Sweatshirt Earl Sweatshirtâs connection to Black expression through poetry, hip-hop, and jazz is unique. In this section I will discuss two songs from Earl Sweatshirtâs third album Some Rap Songs (2018) consisting of different samples that tells a complicated story of a parent-child relationship with connections to Black poetry, music, and art that date back further than what we now know as rap and hip-hop. My first introduction to Sweatshirt was when I was about thirteen years old from his involvement in the Los Angeles-based collective Odd Future. When Odd Future blew up on the internet, Earl had been away after being sent to boarding school in Samoa by his mother.45 His âdisappearanceâ away from the internet while his rap collective took off created a sense of mysteriousness that was fascinating to witness at the time. Eventually, he came back from Samoa to release two critically acclaimed albums, Doris (2013) and I Don't Like S***, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt (2015). Earl Sweatshirt was born Thebe Kgositsile in 1994. His mother is UCLA law professor and critical race theorist Cheryl Harris, and his father is South Africaâs National Poet Laureate and professor Keorapetse Kgositsile. His fatherâs best friend is the musician, Hugh Masekela. In an interview with Pitchfork magazine, Earl talks about what it was like being raised by writers. He jokingly called his childhood oppressive because his mother would make him write essays to 45 Caramanica, âAfter Exile, Career Reset.â 35 explain why he should get what he wanted. âBeing raised by educators, there was a point where my stupid ass made that an enemy,â he says.46 Earl has pushed back on the idea that he is carrying on a legacy, feeling it takes away from the work that the people before him put in. He compares himself to his father and Masekela at 21 years old, both who were exiled from South Africa while he was at SXSW (South by Southwest Festival) at the same age. For this reason, I want to be careful and respect how Earl, as the artist and direct descendant to his father, feels about this âlegacy.â At times, âlegacyâ may add some expectancy to live up to, whether it is accomplishments, reputation, or impact. For this reason, I find âlineageâ is more fitting in the context of Black culture, arts, and music as a generative term. As for the wider scope of a sense of community, this lineage of Earl Sweatshirt and his father extends into hip-hop and rap music that is worthy of a thoughtful discussion. In November of 2018, Sweatshirt released his third studio album, Some Rap Songs. This album had a shift in its sound, acknowledging himself that this album seemed to come out of left field. The album was a result of meeting rapper MIKE and produce Adé Hakim after the two stopped him on the street to tell him they were fans. A few months later, Earl coincidentally bought MIKEâs album on Bandcamp. Earl started working with their collective sLUms, including pro-skater Sage Elsesser turned rapper who goes by the name of Navy Blue. Their collective, whose sound relies heavily on samples and lack of hooks, influenced Earlâs new sound. By summer 2017, they all became friends. Pitchfork gave this album a score of 8.8, sharing: His followers tend to come in two flavors: those who gravitate to Earl, the spitterâthe guy who dazzles with multisyllabic couplets and clever similes; and those come for Earl, 46 Pearce, âEarl Sweatshirt Does Not Exist.â 36 the relatable mopeâan avatar for their own emotional pain. But on Some Rap Songs listeners are challenged to take him not in parts but as a whole, in the form he is in now: a poet philosopher who is also the face of an emerging sound and sceneâ¦Itâs where the concept of Blackness is radical and the practices of soul-searching are channeled through a lo-fi sound replete with off-kilter loops, samples that get chopped beyond recognition, and audio clips that feel both random and aproposâ¦ The project is distinctly rough around the edges, to great effect; thereâs the sound of dust popping off vinyl and cassette hiss throughout. With these imperfections, Earl and company tap into the same sort of illegible, yet undeniable, feeling jazz musicians capture in slurred notesâ¦47 In a 2018 interview, this time with NPRâs All Things Considered, he is asked about this same Pitchfork interview:48 NPR: Pitchfork said that this album âblurs the line between avant-garde jazz and hip-hop,â which doesn't sound like a description of an album that would be called Some Rap Songs. Sweatshirt: I mean, then you gotta look at really like what is rap. That s*** is black expression, bro. And what was jazz? The one that got copied, the one that got over-produced, over-criticized, over-made a victim of like nomenclature. Itâs black expression, bro. NPR: Are you trying to expand the definition of rap? Sweatshirt: No, Iâm going back to what it is. Look at what it is like from the documentaries. I think, when I was getting into rap music, my mom made me read the Jeff Chang book [Can't Stop Won't Stop], my mom made me watch all the rap documentaries. Itâs like, bro, somebody gotta watch that s***. I be thinking that things are matter of fact, like for all of us. Like, the definition of this means this, but it's like, that's where you get into when consensus realities are different. Because if Iâm like, âThis comes from black expression,â black expression is directly related to pain â at least this black expression is. And then if you want to compare it to jazz, when it started getting avant-garde, when it started getting whatever, n***** was wailing. N***** using these instruments to express very crazy emotions, like that come as a result of the sometimes cursed existence. So, like, thatâs whatâs tongue-in-cheek kind of about rap. NPR: Youâre not expanding the definition, you're reminding us of what itâs always been. That people have forgotten. 47 Aku, âSome Rap Songs.â 48 Shapiro, âEarl Sweatshirt On Resentment, Growth And Giving Yourself A Chance.â 37 Sweatshirt: Yea, man. Exactly. I feel like thereâs this really subconscious push away from... I mean, weâre like three years into this presidency, so I don't know if people still want to do things like categorize this time as like post-racial or whatever, but weâre in this time where things are moving forward really quickly, like the next generation is coming. I donât even mean like musically, I mean the generation. And a lot of things, culturally, can disappear with forward motion without concerted efforts. Unfortunately, his father Keorapetse Kgositsile passed away on January 3, 2018, in Johannesburg, South Africa at 79 years old.49 His poetry, writing, and activism was instrumental in bridging South African freedom with the Black Arts Movement50 that was happening in the United States. Kgositsile was also known as Bra Willie and first became known while living in the United States in the 1960s. His poetry explores themes of black solidarity, displacement, and anticolonialism, often in resonance with the music of Black America and Africa. As the son of a poet, Sweatshirt has also been serious about âthe stewardship of the oral traditionâ as rappers descend from the African griot. 51 Returning to the Pitchfork review, they write: If the fact that Earl is a product of his circle of friends is the explicit story being told here, the implicit one is that he is a product of his parents. Though most of the album was written before the death of his father, South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, in January of this year, his presence looms in a way it hasnât on past Earl projects.52 The thirteenth track of Some Rap Songs, titled âPlaying Possum,â is a chopped-up duet that Thebe composes using sampled recordings of his mother Cheryl Harris in a keynote speech and an audio of his late father reciting part of a poem called âAnguish Longer Than Sorrow,â weaving layers of his parentsâ words into one another. His motherâs words are in the plain text while his fatherâs words are in the parentheses: 49 Russonello, âKeorapetse Kgositsile, 79, South African Poet and Activist, Dies.â 50 Trodd, âPolitical Activity, Migration, and Urbanization.â 51 Jenkins, âEarl Sweatshirt Fights Off Bad Vibes.â 52 Ibid., 47 38 (For some children) To my son Thebe (Words like) Cultural worker and student of life (Home) Whose growth and insights inspire me, a thousand kisses (Could not carry any possible meaning) Thank you to my brothers (But displaced) 53 Sweatshirtâs father was also best friends with jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela, pioneer of South African jazz, with Sweatshirt referring to him as his uncle. Masekela passed away at age 78, a few weeks after Keorapetse Kgositsileâs passing. The last song on Some Rap Songs is titled âRiot!â, containing a sample of Masekelaâs âRiot.â The song before ends with ââ¦my uncle Hughâ before fading into âRiot.â Hearing this sample after knowing their relationships tells a story of grief, love, and connection to people in his life. Itâs short and thereâs no rapping, but it is a nod to someone who was the best friend of his late father and like an uncle to him. While none of us can directly relate to who Earl connects with through these samples, people can relate in how we connect with sampling. Furthermore, these samples done by Sweatshirt, first of his parentsâ spoken words, then Hugh Masekelaâs trumpet playing, are juxtaposed in two different ways as samples. It is also simultaneously an expression of love and grief. It shows the complex ways that artists can sample into these personal stories. The mourning gives way to catharsis on the Masekela-sampling finale. At the very end of the album, the second-hand guitars begin to wobble before glitching into silence. His uncle and father are gone, but Earl is still here, carrying on their artistic legacyâand, with the help of his collaborators, building his own.54 Earlâs father also has a connection to The Last Poets, an African American music and spoken-word group formed in the late 1960s in East Harlem, New York.55 Their name âThe Last 53 Sweatshirt, Earl Sweatshirt (Ft. Cheryl Harris & Keorapetse Kgositsile) â Playing Possum. 54 Aku, âSome Rap Songs.â 55 âThe Last Poets,â The Poetry Foundation. 39 Poetsâ was inspired by none other than Keorapetse Kgositsile and his poem âTowards a Walk in the Sun,â leading to them to name their first album âThe Last Poetsâ as it was fitting for their purpose. This album reached the US Top Ten Chart, which was unusual for an unpopular genre referred to as âchanted rap poetry classics.â Their early poetry and music albums are heavily influenced by the writers of the Black Arts Movement rooted in a revolutionary approach in Black Nationalism and the Black power movement. They have also been credited as the bridge between the Black Arts era of the 1970s and the emerging era of rap culture in the early 1980s,56 eventually laying down the foundation for rap, including artists like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Give, the Sugarhill Gang, the Fat Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Run DMC, and Big Daddy Kane.57 Their poems have also been sampled by NWA, A Tribe Called Quest, and Public Enemy.58 The Last Poets later influenced another genre of hip-hop artists while also collaborating with various individuals such as Nas, Common, Erykah Badu, and Kanye West. The Alchemist, a producer who is a contemporary of this generation, is also a close collaborator with Earl Sweatshirt. I believe this pathway is more complex than a direct linear connection, though; I envision a tree where the seeds are those who came before: musicians, writers, poets, and artists. These seeds grow into trees with branches that offshoot into other branches. Some branches connect with others, some do not. Regardless, they are all part of the same tree held together by the roots. 56 Phalafala, âBlack Music and Pan-African Solidarity in Keorapetse Kgositsileâs Poetry.â 57 Powell, âRap Music.â 58 Bengal, âThe Last Poets.â 40 When Kgositsile was asked about his sonâs rap career in 2011, he answered, âWhen he feels that heâs got something to share with me, heâll do that. And until then I will not impose myself on him just because the world talks of him.â59 He also pushed back on the suggestion that his son is continuing the family business through hip-hop, even going as far to say Sweatshirt being a lyricist himself might be a coincidence. While heâs not a fan of commercially promoted hip-hop, he also quotes Frantz Fanon who âsaid each generation must find its own mission. If heâs part of those that have found their mission, then Iâm very happy.â60 This reflects a deeper, more complicated relationship between Kgositsile and his son. In Earlâs early music, the pain of his fatherâs lack of presence is evident throughout his music. During an interview with Vulture, Earl shares a bit about his relationship with his father as complicated and up and down over the years. The interviewer, Craig Jenkins, notes how the way his dad comes up shows a sense of pride in a way that was not always present in his older music. Everything, except âPeanutâ and âRiot!â from Some Rap Songs, was recorded before his father passed. Earl adds, ââRiot!â is my uncle Hugh [Masekela], who died two weeks after my popsâ¦Yeah, âPeanutâ and âRiot!â were the only two I added. But that album, even the shit where my dad is speaking, I was gonna just drop that, not tell him, and tell him to send a cease-and-desist if he wanted.â 61 Jenkins asks further, âSo, you were working through the relationship in your head and in your music, and you were just going to present it to him. Did he ever get to hear it?â Earl replied, âNo. Itâs rough. It was a crazy one, bro.â The usage of his parents being 59 Sanneh, âWhereâs Earl Sweatshirt?â 60 Ibid., 56 61 Jenkins, âEarl Sweatshirt Fights Off Bad Vibes,â November 28, 2018. 41 sampled was beautifully made into a new poem, yet an unfinished story, one of grief and the unexpected loss of his father. Nonetheless, in an analysis of pan-African solidarity through Kgositsileâs poetry, Uhuru Portia Phalafala observes: Kgositsileâs citation of Fanon is layered and reveals the ideal of finding your mission as tantamount to bridging the mission of past and future generations. And art, particularly of the black tradition, tethers on a specific âbelongingâ and âbecomingâ that inevitably links the future with the past. He is happy because in the wheeling, whelming, and assessment of art as life, Thebe Nerudaâs voice will be shaped by the black historical archive. As Sterling Plumpp puts it in his poem âPoet: for Thebe Nerudaâ: âYou / were born with blues. / With an ANC imprint / on them. How you gon / do anything but rule?â This poem is published in the anthology, The Best American Poetry, which through naming propagates the continuum in the cycles of black expressive cultures.62 The lineage he comes also from does not go unnoticed among fans through these samples. Some fans shared tweets about this lineage as a child of educators and writers. While it is a more recent song, a fan shared lyrics from âSentryâ (2023) by Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, and MIKE63 with the following words: Earl Sweatshirt always embraces his heritage even through raps, the death of Keorapetse put him in a dark place hence his albums starting from Some Rap Songs until Voir Dire are intensely deep. I just wish he can go to Mafikeng and connect with his roots more and be with his fatherâs family [heart]64 Another fan shared similar sentiments: Earl Sweatshirtâs dad, Keorapetse Kgositsile, wrote a poem titled, âAnguish Longer Than Sorrow.â 62 Ibid., 56. 63 âEarl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist â Sentry Lyrics | Genius Lyrics.â 64 Dr.STAN_KRUGER ð®ð¹ [@krugersville], âEarl Sweatshirt always embraces his heritage even through raps, the death of Keorapetse put him in a dark place hence his albums starting from Some Rap Songs until Voir Dire are intensely deep. I just wish he can go to Mafikeng and connect with his roots more and be with his https://t.co/1rek0ao6hJ.â 42 Earl sampled it for a song called âPlaying Possumâ that also sampled a speech by his mom, Cheryl Harris. it is a haunting sound collage & a beautiful familial homage65 Earl Sweatshirt, his music, and his usage of samples tells of a lineage of who he is, where he comes from, and the intergenerational connections. While Earl Sweatshirtâs use of sampling expresses the connection between his community, it also tells how he came to be his own individual, coming up off the virality of the era collective Odd Future, paving the way to create a sound that is âEarl Sweatshirt.â He cemented himself as a potent, methodical lyricist, with a unique sound that is also shaped by those around him. This deserves a more fully fledged, critical analysis, but for lack of space, I leave this introduction to Earl Sweatshirt and his lineage here for further thought and exploration of what it means to create these lineages in Black music and art. 3.3 Conclusion Sampling is beyond just a technical skillâit is an intimate look at something deeper into the connections, stories, and emotions behind the sounds. Beyond just a good rhythm or melody, samples often connect producers and listeners in profound ways. It is a bridge that connects different generationsâ music, serving as a way to introduce older music to a newer, younger crowd. It can also foster the opposite, with older musicians feeling connected to a newer genre and its younger artists. The execution can also be slightly unconventional, like Earl Sweatshirtâs spoken word poem, diving deeper into the complexities of love and grief. 65 q [@xolodelic], âEarl Sweatshirtâs dad, Keorapetse Kgositsile, wrote a poem titled, âAnguish Longer Than Sorrow.â Earl sampled it for a song called âPlaying Possumâ that also sampled a speech by his mom, Cheryl Harris. it is a haunting sound collage & a beautiful familial homage.â 43 Chapter 4: Legality As a hip-hop fan, I noticed how taboo sampling was to many people. Even with how large and popular hip-hop is today, there still seems to be this idea that the music is just a collection of machines with buttons that lack an intentional creative process. I have heard people claim it as copying the original artist or that it was a lazy attempt at making music. The treatment of Black artists, especially Black hip-hop artists, by record labels and the industry only added to hip-hop/sampling not being taken seriously as a genre of music, let alone as a real culture or art form. It was clear to me that we were listening to different things based on what I read, heard, and noticed by critics over the years. Often, I felt people misunderstood sampling because their reasonings were void of the cultural and racial contexts important to local cultures. From a personal perspective, I feel that sampling has enriched the way I listen to and understand hip-hop and the genreâs predecessors like funk, soul, and jazz. People sample from different genres and artists; they also sample for varied reasons and use different techniques. Some of those reasons are informed by the people around us and our cultures, which is how I viewed my own love and interest for sampling. When I recognize a sample, I envision a sonic lineage between the sampled and the artist, but also every artist, person, and ancestor that came before. It is a microcosm of our cultures and communities we are part of and the different relationships, inspirations, and interests we have with music. When I recognize a sample, I wonder what inspired the artist to choose the song they did. Was this a song they grew up listening to? Is this their grandmaâs favorite song? Maybe it brings back memories of a loved one who has passed on. Was it something else that drew them in? The title? The album cover? Does the album cover remind them of 44 something? Or was a good song with a perfect section to chop? What sort of emotions were elicited when they chose to sample this? Ignoring the legality around copyright and sampling in hip-hop, however, raises a few concerns that came up throughout my research. I noticed an overwhelming number of academic essays, articles, and op-eds about sampling focused on legality and copyright laws. I felt that focusing on the legality is a way of undervaluing the creative process and the intergenerational connections artists and listeners have with the music. For this reason, I initially did not want to discuss copyright in my thesis, because I wanted to focus on the aesthetics that I felt may get overlooked in discourse around the law. It was with this decision that I went ahead with my fieldwork, interviewing each person to focus more on the aesthetics. However, in both my group interview and my interview with Janelle, the legality of sampling was mentioned and how it is treated differently than covers or sampling instruments. In both interviews, participants believed racism was a force with hip-hop generally being associated with Black artists and audience. This is what made me question how legality affects sampling and the ways it might hinder the process of music making and community building. In this chapter, I discuss how race impacts the legal proceedings of sampling. I start with the case of the parental advisory sticker and how the legal battle spearheaded by the Christian right targeted Black artists and music the most. I then talk about how laws around sampling differ from those around covers, with the issue of sampling emerging around the time hip-hop emerged in the mainstream. I also discuss how legality hinders the creative process. While my thesis is about the art of sampling, I address ethical concerns around sampling and its nuances. Throughout this work, I continue to use Christopher Smallâs âmusickingâ framework to discuss 45 the complexities around the legality of sampling and how legal proceedings, while they happen in court, is still âmusicking.â 4.1 Sampling, Legality, and Musicking While I was on the fence about the discussion of legality, I began to ask myself if the legal proceedings around the sampling of music are in fact an extension of musicking, because sampling is a process involving organized sound. Regarding musicking, Christopher Small writes in the Prelude: If everyone is born musical, then everyoneâs musical experience is valid. That being so, a theory of musicking, if it is to have any basis in real life, must stand up to being tested against the musical experience of every human being, no matter who he or she may be or how the experience was acquired. 66 He continues with: The act of musicking establishes in the place where it is happening a set of relationships, and it is in those relationships that the meaning of the act lies. They are to be found not only between those organized sounds which are conventionally thought of as being the stuff of musical meaning but also between the people who are taking part, in whatever capacity, in the performance; and they model, or stand as metaphor for, ideal relationships as the participants in the performance imagine them to be: relationships between person and person, between individual and societyâ¦.67 If Smallâs sense of musicking includes the people who take tickets at the door, tune the piano, do sound checks, or the cleaners who clean up after an audience leaves a venue, then it could also extend to the actors involved in music law: the artists, agents, lawyers, and recording companies. By this definition, I propose that legality surrounding sampling is also musicking because: 66 Small, âPrelude: Music and Musickingâ (Wesleyan University Press, 2012). 67 Ibid., 66. 46 1. It is happening as a set of relationships. In the context of sampling, I argue these relationships are those with a racial and cultural hierarchy between record label executives and musicians; some music critics draw parallels with the model of sharecropping.68 2. It is between the people who are taking part in the performance and ideal relationships that the participants in the performance imagine them to be. This could be the artist, the music labels, recording executive, the sampled artist, a legal representative, or a person with political power such as Tipper Gore. For Black artists, making music in the United States in a society with racist power structures including the legal and justice system. Christopher Small also clarified two additional points about his theory on musicking: The first is that to pay attention in any way to a musical performance, including a recorded performance, even to Muzak in an elevator is to music. The second is related but needs to be stated separately: the verb to music is not concerned with valuation. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. It covers all participation in a musical performance, whether it takes place actively or passively, whether we like the way it happens or whether we do not, whether we consider it interesting or boring, constructive or destructive, sympathetic or antipathetic. The word will remain useful only for so long as we keep our own value judgments clear of it.69 There is meaning where we as human beings take part in these performance (as listeners, musicians, composers, academics, and so forth) and the complex conditions that we as participants live under. The overall proposed framework of âmusickingâ is to understand it as a human activity and how and why we take part in musical performance in complex ways individually, socially, and politically. This also includes the complex ways that colonialism, racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism affect the ways in which we musick or 68 Arewa and Stahl, âProspecting, Sharecropping, and the Recording Industry.â 69 Ibid., 66. 47 violent conditions we may be living in such as apartheid, segregation, genocide, and war. In the context of the United States, this includes the way anti-Black racism has been embedded in the fibers of our society and the law,70 which in turn affects the way we musick within music laws. 4.2 Parental Advisory Stickers The battle for parental advisory stickers started in 1985 after Elisabeth âTipperâ Gore, former wife of future Vice President Al Gore, bought Princeâs Purple Rain (1984) record for her daughter and heard the lyrics to âDarling Nikki.â71 With the help of the emerging Christian right during the Reagan administration, she went after this label in the United States, eventually leading to the creation of the parental advisory sticker. However, the first album to bare the black and white sticker was 2 Live Crewâs 1990 record Banned in the USA. In June 1990, the members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were arrested and charged for obscenity for a performance in an adults-only club in Hollywood, Florida. Two days prior, a United States federal court judge ruled their 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be as legally obscene, becoming the first album to be determined as such by the U.S. government. Black Feminist scholar Kimberlé W. Crenshaw in her essay âBeyond Racism and Misogynyâ addresses the racial and gender dynamics of this process. Crenshaw uses this event to make a case for the need for a concept of intersectionality, that Black women not only experience racism but also misogyny. However, Crenshaw argues an intersectional approach to analyze the case of 2 Live Crew to point out the selectivity with the prosecution: 70 Irons, White Menâs Law. 71 Thibault, âParental Advisory.â 48 A comparison between 2 Live Crew and other mass-marketed sexual representations suggests that race played some role in distinguishing 2 Live Crew as the first group ever to be prosecuted for obscenity in connection with a musical recording, and one of only a handful of recording artists to be prosecuted for a live performance. Recent controversies about sexism, racism, and violence in popular culture point to a vast range of expression that might well provide targets for censorship, but that have not been targeted. Madonna has acted out masturbation, portrayed the seduction of a priest, and depicted group sex on stage, yet she has never been prosecuted for obscenity. While 2 Live Crew was performing in an adults-only club in Hollywood, Florida, Andrew Dice Clay was performing nationwide on HBO. Well-known for his racist âhumor,â Clay is also comparable to 2 Live Crew in sexual explicitness and misogyny. In his show, for example, Clay offers: âEenie, meenie, minee, mo, suck my [expletive] and swallow slow,â or âLose the bra bitch.â Moreover, graphic sexual imagesâmany of them violentâwere widely available in Broward County where the performance and trial took place. According to the trial testimony of Vice Detective McCloud, ânude dance shows and adult bookstores are scattered throughout the county where 2 Live Crew performed.â But again, no obscenity charges were leveled against the performers or producers of these representations.72 While 2 Live Crew, a rap group made up of Black men, had been controversial with their violent and overly sexualized lyrics, they were not the only entertainers to be making this sort of explicit content. While their White counterparts were making equally offensive jokes and lyrics, 2 Live Crew were found in the crosshairs of a legal battle for the content of their lyrics. As more albums were released after the creation of the parental advisory sticker, it has been argued that this labelling has been generally unfair with White artists getting away with explicit content while Black acts are treated more harshly.73 The label was seen to be enforced increasingly in genres such as rap and R&B, producing the argument that this sticker label was viewed as racist. While this case focuses on lyrical content, it provides the necessary context to understand how it set a cultural precedent against rap and hip-hop artists. 72 Crenshaw, âBeyond Racism and Misogyny.â 73 Hunter, âWhat Was the First Album to Be Slapped with a Parental Advisory Sticker for Explicit Content?â 49 4.3 Sampling Laws I use parental advisory stickers as an example of how the record music industry has treated Black artists and genres to parallel the similarities of how sample clearance in hip-hop receives the most attention and criticism regarding copyright. In my group interview, Koren (Saint Lavelle) posited that there may be a racial aspect to the tenuous process of getting a sample cleared because of the negative connotations associated with hip-hop as a Black genre of music. Everyone nodded and chimed in agreement that they felt racism was a strong force. Khiry (DBCouper) pointed out the difference between sampling and covers, saying how across different generations, races, and genres, people have been doing covers of different songs. A cover song is made when a previously recorded musical work is rearranged into a new sound recording. According to the United States Copyright Office, to make a cover you can either secure a license from the musical works copyright owner or secure a statutory mechanical license. With a statutory mechanical license, the copyright owner cannot normally say ânoâ for musical works as long as all legal requirements are satisfied. With sampling, however, the United States Copyright Office states: In many cases, samples, remixes, and mashups will infringe a copyright ownerâs exclusive rights, unless the use is authorized or qualifies for a legal exception or limitation, such as fair use. Because samples, remixes, and mashups all use preexisting sound recordings, not only are those recordings themselves implicated, but the underlying musical works they embody may be implicated as well. Consequently, licenses from both the sound recording and musical work copyright ownersâwhich in many cases can be differentâmay be necessary.74 Janelle also brought up an important point about law in general: 74 âSampling, Interpolations, Beat Stores and More: An Introduction for Musicians Using Preexisting Music An Introduction for Musicians Using Preexisting Music.â 50 I think a lot of people talk about copyright like itâs the end-all-be-all because itâs a law and I personally donât believe a law is the same thing as morally or ethically correct. I think laws are placed in a very systemic wayâ¦. And I think you see that with what the differences between covers and copyright versus, like, samples and copyright.â¦75 I reached out to my good friend and former roommate, Gabe Li, who just finished his law degree in May 2025 and became an attorney-at-law in September 2025. Gabe is also a musician who listens to a wide array of music. We were in the same undergraduate program in university, where we both went through the Audio Technology, Music, and Society program. With his diverse musical experiences and his interest in intellectual property, I wanted to get his honest opinion on this matter. In an email sent to me, he broke down the law around copyright. Copyright clause seeks to protect original works in the interest of furthering the progress of arts and science: There have been cases in which an alleged infringer asserted that they put in work and spent money/time on their art and therefore, it should be exempt from copyright infringement liability. Courts have consistently (over various jurisdictions) agreed that the Constitution does not protect âsweat of the browâ in copyright law; it is only meant to protect originality and the creation of new compelling art by affording to artists/inventors/pioneers legal protections in their (hopefully) groundbreaking work.76 Gabe also pointed out the infamous case of Frank Oceanâs lawsuit filed by The Eagles for his usage of âAmerican Weddingâ for his debut mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra. Lead singer of The Eagles Don Henley called Ocean a âtalentless little prickâ in an interview. He stated that Ocean âdid not understand or respect intellectual property,â and that younger artists looked at songs as âinteractive playthings.â77 Ocean released Nostalgia, Ultra as a free mixtape, meaning he also did not make any money off of it. Gabe writes: 75 âPersonal Interview with Janelle Nardone,â August 1, 2025. 76 Li Gabriel, pers. comm., August 21, 2025. 77 Starkey, âThe Musician Don Henley Called âa Talentless Little Prick.ââ 51 When I listen to âAmerican Weddingâ and âHotel California,â I hear two totally different stories told over the mostly unchanged musical track. Like two different paintings on the same canvas. Henleyâs a hypocrite. He accuses Frank of not understanding intellectual property, but it seems like he doesn't understand the basic fundamentals himself: that the Constitution protects ORIGINALITY, not âsweat of the brow.â While âHotel Californiaâ was original in 1976, it lost that cutting-edge-new value by the time Frank did his very original track 35 years later. Whatâs even more ironic is that Frank intended it as an homage to the Eagles.78 Central to this discussion has been the question whether âHotel Californiaâ is an original song itself, as some fans have noticed it sounds extremely similar to Jethro Tullâs âWe Used to Knowâ (1969). The frontman of the band, Ian Anderson, explained the possible reasons for these similarities. When Jethro Tull was on tour in the early â70s, the Eagles were their supporting act where he suggests they probably heard it on tour. He also defends them saying they might have picked it up subconsciously as they created the chord sequence of âHotel California.â He clarified his comments as a joke, but dismissed any ideas around the plagiarism because itâs the same chord sequence and it is difficult to find a chord sequence that has not been used.79 Gabe states there is something vital in the discussion around sampling, namely that one who samples draws on all the influences and experiences with that art, including those that have already been consumed: Art doesnât exist in a vacuum, like you say: covers, interpolations, references, quotes, and sampling are all channels through which new, original works of art (and science, based on the Scientific Method which is 1) observation -> 2) question -> 3) hypothesis -> 4) experiment -> 5) analyze -> 6) conclusions -> 7) peer review -> 8) repeat) come from. Thatâs why reference to that which came before someone within a sonic lineage is so essential to the progression of the artistic process and therefore, art itself.80 78 Ibid., 76. 79 Scapelliti, âDid the Eagles Get the âHotel Californiaâ Chords from Jethro Tull?â 80 Ibid., 76. 52 As a longtime listener of Frank Oceanâs music, it has been evident to me that his influences come from various artists and genres. While he is not solely a hip-hop artist (he is commercially labelled as an R&B artist), he has close proximity to hip-hop and the culture. He often fuses his music with hip-hop sounds, has released a few rap songs, and has been featured on hip-hop songs. He was also part of the collective Odd Future with prominent rappers, such as Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. Whether âHotel Californiaâ was inspired by another song or not, it highlights the significance of inspiration and how legality threatens a crucial part of the creative process which is that art inspires more art. The comment by Henley that younger artists use music as âinteractive playthingsâ minimizes musical inspiration, especially of those younger musicians who admire him, his band, or his generation of music. In light of the discussion of sampling and its taboo associations, I also question if the reason for the strong disdain towards the sample was Oceanâs proximity to hip hop. If it was about money and royalties, it simply would not make sense, as Ocean released the song on a free mixtape. He did not directly make money off this sample. In my interview with Janelle, she addressed the impact of living in a capitalist society where the music business falls under that same system. The way we share and exchange ideas is impacted by profit, which limits our creative freedom to some degree. As an example, she points out Public Enemyâs legacy and how their discography and sound had to shift due to copyright laws. In Kembrew McLeodâs five-part chronological history of sampling, Public Emenyâs use of sampling is examined: As with the sharing of MP3 music files today, many artists and record companies believed that the practice of digital sampling was the equivalent of stealing. Others, like Public Enemyâs Chuck D, argued that there should be more freedom to recontextualize found sounds. However, Chuck D and other similar artists lost this particular argument after Gilbert OâSullivan won the lawsuit he filed against Biz Markie and Warner Brothers 53 Records in 1991 (Markie sampled and looped the hook from the hit âAlone Again (Naturally)â). Subsequently, the music industry began to enforce more vigorously copyright law as it related to sampling. The industry developed a cumbersome and expensive âsample clearanceâ system in which all samples, even the shortest and most unrecognizable, had to be approved and paid for. Since this period, the cost of licensing samples has continued to increase, as have the costs associated with negotiating those licenses. 81 Due to copyright licenses, it would be extremely expensive to clear samples for two of Public Emenyâs critically acclaimed albums It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) and Fear of a Black Planet (1990). If Fear of a Black Planet were to be released today, they would have to sell it for $159 per CD just to pay for all the licenses. In the examination of these two records, it is found that artists pay out more than they end up receiving and that, simply put, it would not be commercially realistic to release.82 McLeod also highlights what many critics believe: the licensing system had a negative impact on African American artists the most. Before hip-hop, jazz artists regularly riffed on each otherâs songs. If these similar copyright laws existed in the era when jazz and its artists were thriving, it would have severely hindered the growth of jazz. Sampling is a continuation of such African American referential practices, but in a new technological context. Music does not come out of thin air, raising the question of what is truly âoriginal.â When I asked Khiry what he thought about the legalities of sampling, he responded: Let n*ggas cook forrealâ¦the same way the artists were influenced to make whatever the song is, they helped spawn the influence to another piece of art so beinâ strict with sample clearance weak.83 81 McLeod, âAn Oral History of Sampling.â 82 McLeod and DiCola, âConsequences for Creativity: An Assessment of the Sample Clearance System.â 83 Khiry Brown et al., âGroup Interview,â August 1, 2025. 54 If we do not exist in a vacuum, then neither does the music, as music exists in the contexts it is created, whether it is cultural, linguistic, historical, or political. 4.4 Ethical Concerns of Sampling While I and many others hold deep personal and cultural feelings and experiences around sampling, I also understand there are more issues around the action of sampling music that complicate such views. Much of the sampling that is discussed throughout my thesis is largely focused on intercommunal relationships and the intergenerational connections between them. Context matters, however, in the way that samples are used. Chuck D of Public Enemy said if someone sampled his work without permission, he would be mad if his voice was used in a context he doesnât believe in, such as a Nazi song, as it would represent a defamation of his character.84 This is where the laws around sampling can protect artists and their character. British singer-songwriter Labri Siffre has been used many times for various samples, with âI Wonderâ (2007) by Kanye West being one of the most well-known. His music has been popular again with younger generations because of the use of sampling. When asked how it feels for his music to be sampled over the years, Siffre remained critical of the lyrical content of a number of artists, whom he declined to give permission for those very reasons. This forced artists to revise their words to get the sample cleared for which he sometimes changed his mind. He mentions his identity and perspective as a gay Black man, remaining critical of the lyrical content of certain songs because of misogyny, homophobia, and violence.85 Kimberlé W. 84 McLeod, âAn Oral History of Sampling.â 85 Labi Siffre Talks about His Songs Sampled by Other Artists. 55 Crenshaw and her intersectional analysis of 2 Live Crew parallels this issue in that while Black artists are unfairly targeted by sampling laws, they can also perpetuate violence in a way that other Black artists do not align with. There is also more to be said about sampling in the context of capitalism and power imbalances, and the way record labels complicate this matter. Hip-hop has become and continues to be commodified in the commercial music industry by many outsiders who are not part of the culture looking for someone to become a stable revenue source for their catalog.86 Many artists did not or still do not own their masters,87 meaning they do not have a say over their own music and what happens to it, including the usage of samples. These power imbalances also emphasize the ways music critics and historians have also drawn parallels between the structure of sharecropping and recording music industries,88 perpetuating a predatory industry preying on African American artists, especially those signed to big labels. Vanessa Carlton, the artist behind âA Thousand Milesâ (2002), came to the defense of the rappers who sampled it for their song âWho I Smokeâ (2021) after fans of the original criticized the rappers for creating a âviolentâ song about the rappersâ deceased enemies.89 Carlton shared a message on social media along with a link to the article from the McNair Scholars Research Journal called âShare Cropping Blackness: White Supremacy and the Hyper-Consumption of Black Popular Cultureâ:90 To the white folks that have expressed anger/shock over my approval of A Thousand Milesâ usage in the Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, Yungeen Ace, & FastMoney 86 Postscript Magazine, âGoing Black.â 87 Herman, âYOU BELONG WITH ME.â 88 Tharpe, âSteve Stoute on Disrupting the Culture, the Grammys, And ...â 89 Caraan, âVanessa Carlton Defends âA Thousand Milesâ Sample on Rap Song âWho I Smoke.ââ 90 Njee, âShare Cropping Blackness: White Supremacy and the Hyper-Consumption of Black Popular Culture.â 56 Goon song Who I Smoke, I invite you to ask yourself why you feel this way & then read this. She continued by attaching a clip from Quentin Tarantinoâs Reservoir Dogs that showed Mr. Blonde cutting off Marvin Nashâs ear with a straight razor, with the following explanation: Here we have âStuck in the Middle of Youâ playing while a guy gets his ear cut off. Reservoir Dogs. These tweets have since been deleted, but it highlights the difference in usage of music between Black artists or White artists, whether it is music or film. As a white artist herself, her defense contributes to the existing critical analysis of the music industryâs sharecropping models along with the double standard of what violence is deemed more acceptable than the other. This sort of double standard is also evident in sampling credits and profits from samples. The Los Angeles Times did a profile on Liberian-born singer Eddie Johns, whose sample has been used by French techno duo Daft Punk.91 Johns released an album More Spell on You (1979), with a single of the same title. âMore Spell on Youâ did not receive much attention until Daft Punk sampled it for their song âOne More Timeâ on their 2001 album Discovery, which received high praises from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone; it became their biggest hit as their first million-selling single, launching them into stardom. Meanwhile, Eddie Johns has been unhoused in Los Angeles. At the time of this article in 2021, he had been unable to work after a stroke he had 10 years prior, forcing him into the streets and in shelters. His case manager, Alyssa Cash, said she helps him use the computer sometimes, showing her some of his music. She found a video talking about the sample used by Daft Punk where she made the connection that it was Johnsâ music. All he wanted was some credit, wanting 91 Brown, âA Homeless L.A. Musician Helped Create a Daft Punk Classic. So Why Hasnât He Seen a Dime?â 57 his family and the world to know that his music was important, stating âIâd like to have something to give to my daughter.â However, a representative for Daft Punk confirmed they had been paying royalties to officially license the sample of this song, paying twice a year for the producer and owner of âMore Spell on You,â as the agreement requires semiannual payments to Eddie Johns. What has complicated the payment process is that âMore Spell on Youâ was originally released in France on the label Président but then acquired by the French label and publishing company DM Musipro. They have been the receivers of Daft Punkâs royalties instead of Eddie Johns. The founder of the firm, George Mary, has confirmed this with the Los Angeles Times: We have not heard from [Johns] since the day we acquired in 1995 a catalog from another label that featured this title. We have tried to do research on him, but without any result. For our part, we are going to study his file and do the accounts to his credit. We will get back to him immediately on this subject, at the same time as we will inform him of his rights.92 Erin Jacobson, a Beverly hills attorney who specializes in music industry intellectual property, estimated that a song like âOne More Timeâ would be seeing six to seven figure ranges on streams alone, not including the 500,000 copies sold in the U.S. and millions in Europe. Jacobson also stated that smaller artists are more vulnerable in these cases. In contrast, rapper Juice WRLDâs breakout single âLucid Dreamsâ (2018) contains a sample of Stingâs âShape of My Heartâ (1993).93 In a tweet, the producer of this song, Nick Mira, shared online his frustration: Fuck @OfficialSting and his WHOLE team. After taking 85% of Lucid Dreams (for interpolating Shape of My Heart, NOT EVEN sampling) he threatened to take us to court for trying to get any %. 92 Ibid., 91 93 Jean, Sting Owns 85 Percent of Juice WRLDâs âLucid Dreamsâ... But Heâs Not Mad About It. 58 Juice WRLD, nevertheless, tweeted that he was happy with the impact this song had on people. It is important to note the difference a touring artist makes over a producer, as portions of income can come in from touring. Sting has spoken highly about the song, saying that it has been âfaithfulâ to the original and will help put his grandkids through college. He has also incorporated the chorus on this song when he performs âShape of My Heart.â This appreciation towards Juice WRLD crosses race, genre, and generations in a considerable way. However, it also shows the contrast between royalties of a well-known White artist versus a smaller Black artist. It also highlights the royalty payouts between producers, rappers, and the sampled, showing an inequity in payments, especially in the streaming age of music. 4.5 Conclusion The way we share music, listen to it, and find inspiration from it matters. For many generations, openly and freely hearing, creating, and sharing music was the norm before it became a business. Looking at the example of Public Enemy, the group has made tremendous contributions to the world of hip-hop with their politically charged messages, altering the sound of the genre and influencing many artists after them in the process. Had they not released those albums because of lawsuits and copyright laws, it ultimately would have changed the course of the sonic qualities of hip-hop. I also believe this is the case with Frank Ocean and the Eagles. His covering of âHotel Californiaâ out of admiration and respect was reduced to a plaything. There remains a lot of nuance and ethical concerns around sampling that should be carefully considered, where the law can protect or harm artists. 59 Chapter 5: Conclusion The British government did not permit African Americans to have musical instruments in colonial North America.94 This made African American early musical traditions largely dependent on the rhythmic body: the feet against the soil, hands against the body, the vocal cords. So much was taken from the enslaved, everything from cultural traditions, family lineages, names, and mother tongues, down to the instruments. Yet music, although reshaped and reformed, remained alive. This resilience and musicality of the early enslaved Africans remained even when traditional instruments were not available. This made much of the music of African Americans rhythmic and oral. Hip-hop is an extension of this legacy with parallels. The slashing of New York City public school funds impacted the extracurricular music programs, leaving kids to create new avenues of making music. Without accessible music classes and instruments, people reverted to being dependent on the rhythm of drums and beats. While the contexts differ, they both ultimately show the resilience of humans and musical creativity. Hip-hop is a musical tradition that comes from a lineage of African-Centric rhythm and music. Lack of instruments turned into sampled beats and rhymes, taking this genre and culture that started in the streets of New York across the globe. While sampling started with turntables and outdoor entertainment systems, the way we listen, dance, and engage with samples have transformed into something more. People connect with sampling and always will. 94 Sarah J. Dietsche, âSlavery and Music,â in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, vol. 5 (SAGE Publications, Inc., 2019), https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n654. 60 5.1 Potential Research As I wrote this thesis, I discovered other potential avenues of research. Hip-hop holds traditions in African American music, but it is also an amalgamation of the multiculturalism and immigration history of New York City. This makes room to explore sampling through a pan-African, diasporic framework. More globally, hip-hop has reached an international scale; it would be feasible to analyze sampling that occurs within other communities and the phenomenon behind it. During my group interview with friends someone said something that piqued my interest regarding samples on a regional scale. Mikey Vasquez is a Mexican American artist and clothing designer based in South Texas. While the rest of our group discussed sampling from their perspectives as Black Americans, Mikey lived among diverse populations of a mostly Latino and Black American community. While his parents were influential in his taste in hip-hop, his connection to sampling was more about regional prideâspecifically, DJ Screw pioneering the sound that is known as chopped-and-screwed. There is scholarship around hip-hop in Houston, with certain scholars such as Langston Collin Wilkins making great strides. In a book review about Wilkins work, Lavar Pope writes, Wilkins pushes this level of analysis from a local level to a neighborhood levelâ¦. The book will likely impact the field in two important ways. Welcome 2 Houston will likely lead to new approaches focused on looking at local music scenes much more seriously (e.g., at city section, neighborhood, or even block levels); it will likely push additional approaches beyond rap music by also looking at the cultural production of other Hip Hop elements on scenes.95 95 Pope, âWelcome 2 Houston.â 61 It would be interesting to explore the phenomenon around sampling in more localized scenes, especially within distinct regional sounds. Another topic to explore is the growing usage of artificial intelligence and the role it plays in art, including music. Janelle and I had briefly talked about this when discussing copyright laws and how AI could change the laws around intellectual property and creativity. Recently, music labels such as Universal and Warner were reported to be nearing AI licensing deals. This report has officially been confirmed with Spotify partnering with Sony, Universal, Warner, and other labels to develop AI music products, claiming to be artist-centric progress.96 While the claims ensure a more regulated system, it raises a growing number of concerns about the use of AI, human creativity, and the ethics behind it. In the context of sampling, what would the use of AI mean? Rapper Metro Boominâs âBBL Drizzyâ (2024) is the most notorious use of sampling AI music. In the 2024 feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, Drake told Metro to go and âmake some drums,â responding with a viral song with 808 drums and a sample of a soul vocalist. Later, it was revealed that the voice was AI-generated.97 This ultimately raises many concerns around ethics, culture, philosophy, and legal issues as generative AI music requires analyzing already existing music and data. As this technology grows, more and more people have a growing concern around its use. On a personal level, the artists and musicians in my life have been critical of the usage of generative AI and the threats it has on human creativity. 96 Horowitz, âSpotify Partners With Sony, Universal, Warner and More to Develop AI Music Products.â 97 Robinson, âMetro Boominâs âBBL Drizzyâ Is More Than a Joke â It Could Signal the Future of Sampling.â 62 Simultaneously, as hip-hop DJs were sampling their parentsâ records, Sly and the Family Stoneâs 1971 record Thereâs a Riot Goinâ On used a primitive drum machine: the Maestro Rhythm King MRK-2. âFamily Affairâ was released as a single, introducing millions of listeners to a drum machine for the first time, hitting Number 1 on the Billboard charts on December 3. Sampling technology existed for decades before with extremely early models, but this move popularized the use of drum machines.98 The focus of this research is the occurrence of sampling already existing songs and its aesthetics and connections that required studio recordings, home stereo equipment, and vinyl records. Drum machines, such as the one Sly Stone used, were rhythmic machines with pre-loaded sounds that simulated instruments. Sample-based beat makers, however, load pre-existing songs into a drum machine to make a beat. This leaves room for an area of potential research of the combined impact of Sly Stoneâs drum machine usage and early hip-hop DJsâ contribution to shape the landscape of sampled-based beat-making. 5.2 The Personal is Political Small describes musicking as a political act, understanding âpoliticsâ as a noun that covers government or governing bodies, actions such as rallies and rituals, and, of course, power. Growing upâand still to this dayâmy father has been an open book about his life and his experiences. Most of his life was spent in the Seattle metropolitan area, besides a few years in Oklahoma and Texas, before the Civil Rights Act was passed and while de juris segregation existed. The experiences he would share included how it was to be a Black kid in the United States during and after segregation, especially in Texas, where he was getting bussed into school 98 LeRoy, âBeat Brothers: Sly Stone and J. J. Cale.â 63 every day. Tacoma was not much different. From grade school to adulthood, he found himself dealing with racism regularly from his peers, teachers, and colleagues. There were several stories he would share with me when I was a kid on these experiences he had. His approach to sharing his lived experiences with racism were always realistic and honest. He was also a young adult during the Vietnam War, opposing the policies of the government and narrowly missing the draft by a few numbers. My father was the one who educated me on Black History at home while my school district taught a digestible, sometimes inaccurate, version to us. Something he would say to me was that âeverything is political.â As a child, I never understood what he meant by this. Every time he would try to explain, it usually went through one ear and out the other, because my understanding of politics was Red and Blue/Democrat and Republican. As I got older and complained about my own experiences, I slowly started to understand what he meant by this because everything is political. This is why I use politics with a lowercase p and distinguish it from Politics with a capital P, because hip-hop is both Political and political.99 As for hip-hop, it will always be political. Regardless of whether the music discusses Politics, it will always be political because of the conditions that created the music, the dynamics, and the communities around it. I decided to not dedicate a chapter to politics because I felt each chapter was political: technologyâs role is Political and political because of the negligence of New York City, intercommunal connections are Political and political, and legality is both Political and political. While politics and Politics are intertwined with my thesis, I also think this could segue into more 99 Janks, âThe Importance of Critical Literacy.â 64 explorations of the role of politics and Politics regarding sampling within each of these topics, deserving a more thorough analysis that is solely dedicated to this topic. This sort of connection also cultivated my interests in the sort of scholarly work I have been focusing on in my current studies in ethnomusicology, sound studies, and writing. 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Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Music - Ethnomusicology
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
Hesselink, Nathan
Tenzer, Michael
Sampling in hip-hop : an analysis of aesthetics of community and intergenerational lineages
Text