Sampling: The Foundation of Hip Hop

How is the re-use and re-purposing of existing music at the heart of the Hip Hop recording experience?

Know (knowledge):

• That as a concept, “sampling” can take different forms and has a long history
• How early Hip Hop reflected the cultural influence of Caribbean immigration to the Bronx in New York City
• How the recording “Rapper’s Delight” took a musical movement associated with live events and parties and turned it into a recorded form of music
• How changes in technology expanded the range and use of sampled music
• How during the so-called “Golden Age” of Hip Hop sampling evolved from the practice of isolating beats for a rhythm track to the layering of sounds to create sonic collage
• How the evolution of Hip Hop has been integrally connected to the evolution of sampling

Be able to:

• Make connections between artistic movements and the social and economic conditions from which they emerge
• Evaluate the cultural influence of immigrant communities on the dominant culture
• Integrate information from texts and videos to make thematic connections and create deeper understandings
• Make connections between popular music and historical events
• Evaluate the effects of technology on history and culture
• Make connections between the history of sampling and their own musical experiences

In many ways Hip Hop is quintessentially American music. It was first created in the Bronx, NY, a borough of New York City that at the time was economically depressed, dangerous and mostly forsaken by the local government. The pioneers of Hip Hop, young people of color living in struggling communities and limited in their opportunities, embraced modern music technologies (first turntables, then drum machines and later samplers) but used them creatively, often in ways their manufacturers never intended. Indeed, the origin story of Hip Hop is one of opening doors that seemed tightly shut.

To many listeners, the first commercial rap releases were surprising, something that seemed new, even unexpected. Many of the early rappers who performed at the block parties that spawned the genre had not themselves conceived of Hip Hop as something one could record and sell. For instance, in Soundbreaking Episode 6 Public Enemy’s Chuck D recalls that before the Sugar Hill Gang’s breakthrough release, “we couldn’t even imagine a rap record.” However, as radical as it sounded to the average American listener in 1980, Hip Hop had deep connections to African-American and Afro-Caribbean music traditions in its performance style and in its use of turntables and prerecorded material as the primary “instrument” in the band.

In this lesson students explore the creative concepts and technological practices on which Hip Hop music was constructed, investigating what it means to “sample” from another style, who has used sampling and how. Then, students experience the technology first hand using the Soundbreaking Sampler TechTool. Students will follow patterns of Caribbean immigration and the musical practices that came to New York City as a result of those patterns, finally considering the ways in which Hip Hop reflects them. Moving forward to the late 1980s and early 90s, what some consider Hip Hop’s “Golden Age,” this lesson explores how sampling might demonstrate a powerful creative expression of influence or even a social or political statement. Finally, this lesson encourages students to consider the conceptual hurdle Hip Hop asked listeners to make by presenting new music made from old sounds.