A sampling sport
2010/01/25
If you are only going to see one documentary on the pracitcalities, legalities and spirit of sampling this year – you should probably make it Copyright Criminals. I haven’t seen it yet, but this trailer featuring mr. Funky Drummer himself Clyde Stubblefield and others has really whet my appetite!
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I saw this one yesterday and it was pretty good. It’s a very intersting subject.
I think it’s pretty logic that it’s not legal to sample whatever you want, and I think that’s contrubiting to the charm of sampling – to find a sample that’s not too recognizable and not too expensive if you want it cleared.
Well…in a capitalist economy where everything costs money, of course samples are gonna cost as well. Yes, there’s a certain logic to that. But as always in a capitalist economy, it’s not democratic. So really big artists with backing form big companies can keep sampling each other w/o risk. Whereas a small independent artist can’t really sample anything and get away with it. They just can’t afford it. And as we can see, even when big money changes hands over these deals, it seldom goes to the true pioneers and geniuses anyway, it just gets stuck somewhere in corporate business.
The question that Q-Bert brings up at the very beginning of the trailer is relevant too. There are lots of samples that bear so little resemblance to the OG piece of music used. Should the composer still get payed?
And I do share your admiration for non recognizable samples. And flipping stuff into obscurity if you know what I mean. Definitiely tired of people just sampling the whole rhythm track off of anything Nile Rodgers ever produced.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I’ve read somewhere that Curtis Mayfield said it was okay to sample his songs, do you know anything about that? If it’s true?
Nah, man I don’t know. I’d have to google that. I know Barry White was one of the costliest artists to sample. I know a looot of people sampled that intro from If There’s Hell Below. Pete Rock alone must have used it like three times, hehe…