The Sample Police: Evolution of the Beatmaker

Though I will never get tired of flip after flip of obscure soul samples and sample-based hip-hop records, and I mean NEVER, I completely understand when some of my favorite producers decide to avoid lawsuits and try to create new songs from scratch. I know that there are plug-ins that can mimic the OG equipment that folks used back in the day and plenty of 808 kits floating around for people to do all of this, but I will always respect the origins of the culture first.

Though it seems to only be something that people with sky-high budgets (Kanye west, etc.) can afford to do these days, part of the reason I keep checking for underground acts is because they still carry the torch for the sample-based stuff that I like.

The video above is a brief rundown of Rhymesayers artist Blueprint and his own evolution as a producer/rapper.  It is interesting to see that folks who seem to never get any shine, can still be nailed for sampling these days. I don't know that I could ever "not sample" when making my own stuff, but I try to chop sounds up so much that no one recognizes it anyway, unless it is too fresh as is.

Check it out and feel free to share your own thoughts about it.

EXHIBIT A
Danny Brown takes a beat with ill, boom-bap samples ("Get out of my life woman" drums for instance) and makes an underground classic of the "when I was a kid" type of reminisce rap. Samples will hopefully never die!