Punk and hip hop are close siblings in age. Hip hop was born in 1973; punk rock came 2 or 3 years after that (depending on who you consider as "first"). The first rap records were released in 1979. Post punk and hip hop quickly cross-pollinated in NYC. Liquid Liquid's "Cavern" was the basis for Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines", and ESG's "UFO" was heavily sampled. (Both tracks were released on 99 Records.) Afrika Bambaataa utilized the synths of Kraftwerk and Gary Numan. A hugely popular record to sample was "Change The Beat", a 1982 track produced by Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn of Material. Even Malcolm McLaren got into hip hop culture.
Anyway, here are the results of another dig through the digital crates at WhoSampled.com. Searching the names of punk and new wave artists produced some surprising results. For example, would you have guessed that one of the most sampled songs of The Police is "Voices Inside My Head"? But it makes sense when you listen to the song from the perspective of a producer or DJ looking for a funky rhythm or bassline. You want a deep cut that not everyone can identify immediately. With that in mind, it's easier to imagine Madlib and Dilla checking out Throbbing Gristle, or Ice-T's producer and DJ Afrika Islam sampling 23 Skidoo and Tuxedomoon.
https://tinyurl.com/PostPunkSamplesPt2 -- please enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonder, more musical education is always welcome!
DeleteIt's a hard nut, but someone has to crack it. Well done, thank you. Where reggae remakes every tune deemed fit into a reggae vibe, hiphop uses every inch of music sample-worthy. And even when it is not likely there is an attitude resembling "look what I can get away with". And as often in music, if it works, it works. For me, the biggest difference is that I do not like much rap/hiphop etc. And I love reggae (with a rumboon)
ReplyDeleteI would NEVER have guessed that Voices Inside My Head was The Police’s most-sampled track, but the reason you gave for its popularity with DJ’s makes total sense.
ReplyDeleteI watched a documentary on YACHT ROCK that explained why the always soulful Michael McDonald is so often sampled. Apparently The Michael McDonald-helmed version of the group appeared on What’s Happening & Soul Train, were embraced. Years later, MMcD was added to the mix by a lot of producers!
I was also surprised to learn that the term YACHT ROCK was coined by a group of comedians on YouTube. - Stinky
That's the funny part about these samples. On the one hand, there's the music that you grew up hearing on the radio and TV, and stuff you raided from your parents' record collection. That accounts for some of the soul, funk and pop samples. On the other hand are the DJ's "digging in the crates" for the most obscure and otherworldly sounds they can find in order to make records that were nothing like anything anyone had heard before: the futuristic funk of "Planet Rock" and "Searching For The Perfect Beat" or the wall of sound that the Bomb Squad created for Public Enemy. As Richard said, there's a competitive element of "look what I can get away with". Hip hop DJ's (like the Jamaican sound system DJ's before them) would soak the labels off the center of their records to make it harder for their rivals to identify the songs they were using.
DeleteFascinating -- never would have imagined that The Slits, Chrome, Snakefinger, etc would have been sampled by rap & hip-hop artists though I guess these lean towards the less mainstream side of things for the most part. Leave it to Jokonky, Inc. to illuminate the darkest recesses of the music industry.
ReplyDeleteThank you, a wonderful effort, when i saw PIL sampled by the Jah Wobble bassline in Poptones i was sold, keep up the good work. One can always hope for a third post, to my knowledge Kayne West sampled Section 25 .
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments, MrDave and Nimrod! I don't have a third post planned at the moment, but there's certainly more out there (like that Ye track).
DeleteNimrod, you might also like this track, where Elucid raps over a sample of "Socialist":
https://soundcloud.com/backwoodzstudioz/05-tell-me-how-long-the-trains-been-gone?