Hip-hop music has been and forever will be based on the break-beat. The use of the break-beat became popular during the seventies when groups such as Sly and the Family Stone would incorporate complete instrumental breakdowns in their songs, which gave their band members some time to showcase their skills on their particular instrument.
Then as hip-hop came along at the end of the seventies, DJ's would loop these catchy break-beats using two turntables and a mixer, eventually giving way to what would be known as sampling.
Sampling became a staple of rap music production ever since its first hit single, "Rapper's Delight," by the Sugarhill Gang was released in 1979. The trio from New Jersey rapped over a looped instrumental break from Chic's "Good Times" song, which paved the way for how rap music was produced.
From the time period right after the Sugarhill Gang released their single until about 1991, hip-hop producers basically had free range to take any pre-recorded sound and manipulate it to create an instrumental track for their artists to rap over. Rap music was so new and inventive that no one ever thought that royalties should be owed to those artists whom the producers were sampling from. Groups such as the Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Public Enemy were sampling from a variety of different music genres and never really thought twice about having to repay the artists for using their work.
Then in 1991, the way rap producers sampled music was forever changed when Gilbert O'Sullivan sued Biz Markie for sampling his 1972 song "Alone Again (Naturally)" to make his own song "Alone Again." The US Attorney's Office came to the decision that unlicensed sampling was a crime and that Biz was forced to pay a fee to O'Sullivan for the rights to use the song.
The problem with charging rap artists a fee for sampling is that sampling is what rap music is based upon and charging them is basically limiting their ability to create their craft.
Many producers such as Pete Rock, Large Professor and DJ Premier have found ways around paying artists fees for sampling their songs by using a production technique that all but makes those samples unrecognizable. These production geniuses will take an instrumental break from an old rock, soul or funk record and chop it up so precisely that it's almost impossible for anyone to know where they got the sample.
Other producers don't make any attempts to hide the obviousness of their samples and basically just loop an instrumental break in its original form to make their beats. Puff Daddy is the most notorious beat-jacker as he has taken samples from David Bowie and the Police and did nothing else but loop these beats to make his "own" music.
Whether a sample seems really obvious or the producer makes great attempts to hide their sources, the point is that these men are paying tribute to those artists that they sample. For example, when producer Buckwild samples the break from David Axelrod's "Holy Thursday," he is basically expressing that he is inspired by Axelrod's music and wants to reconfigure his work to form something that he can use as his own form of self-expression. The same thing rings true when producers sample James Brown, Issac Hayes, The Doors or any artist who provided inspiration to them.
The point is that hip-hop music was founded on the DJ looping a popular instrumental break to create a beat that was easy to listen to and more importantly, fun to dance to. When hip-hop producers are charged enormous fees by some artists it's almost like a slap in the face because all they are trying to do is show respect to that particular artist. It's extremely difficult to advance an art form that is continuing to be held back by what it was initially founded upon.
Eric Goodman is a Collegian correspondent.
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