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View Profile YunVeroz

Age 35, Male

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University of Miami

Miami, FL

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Zen & The Art of Hip Hop

Posted by YunVeroz - July 18th, 2008


Sampling is the bastard, inbred child of music. It is a recluse, cast away by the tight clique of so-called "legitimate" genres, forced to wallow through a dusty sea of modulated spiral grooves cut into vinyl acetate. There, it is left to drown, subsequently buried in an underground chamber of veritable appreciation.

There are a few rules to sampling, however:
1. There are no rules to sampling.
2. You may sample whatever the fuck you please.
3. Refer to rules 1 and 2.

Regardless of what goody-two-shoes proclaim, sampling is an art. It is the creative process of taking someone's artistic vision and combining it, both with others and one's own, to paint a lush landscape of sound only your ears can see. It brings to light a plethera of records that have been set aside only to collect dust and grow old. The sampler's duty lies in reinventing these songs, these sounds, these visions, and bringing them to the surface.

Copyright infringement? Nay, instrinic art form. Potato potahtoe. Two peas in a pod that will continue to rot slowly. The lowly art of sampling is not unlike allowing the music of old to be reborn in a way, to be given a fresh start, a new audience to cherish it. Then why prohibit this bastard child of the music world from being adopted by a loving family?

Speaking of bastard children, the hiphop community has to deal with a wave of them that are for reason invading the mainstream. Hiphop used to be about the art. The art of expression. Expressing your anger at the government, at society, at the cops, your mom, your pops, whoever. And somehow, over the past decade it's degraded into a radio-wave bitch fest infecting car stereos near you.

I'm glad you can express how you want to lick people like lollipops, how your boots are covered in fur or how you party like a rockstar, but shit, man, what happened to the real hip hop music? The one that actually delivered a message that wasn't just about entertainment?

We are watching the degredation of the music "industry" into what is really just one big entertainment industry. And then the government wonders why so many people are bootlegging shit. I'll tell you why: because it isn't worth dropping $15 on an album that's got maybe 1 or 2 tracks that aren't utter shit. Bootlegging has become practically the only way to find the true artistic creations of hiphop. It's as if there's a complete lack of quality control above ground, of filtering out what is crap and what isn't.

Ironically, the hiphop that actually contains a message, what the genre was truly about, is now found almost completely underground. Instead of defining the genre as what it truly is in the limelight of the mainstream, it has just been cast aside like the countless old records that continue to be sampled for the sake of the art that is hiphop.

Therefore, I challenge you, the fellow hiphop artist. Prove to yourself and to the rest of the community that hiphop is still an art. Prove that not everyone is in it for the money and fame, but for the passion they have in creating truly creative visions for others to share and enjoy.

best,
yun

*The author of this article condones piracy, sampling, copyright infringement, graffiti, defacing property, loitering, and bringing the fuckin ruckus.*


Comments

There's only a few people off the top of the head who I can say truly makes hip-hop for the love of the art. Even some of the better people on this site make instrumentals just to sell them, not for the actual love of it. Kinda depresses me... So for that, let's bring the fuckin ruckus.

Amen. 'nough said.

There are a few rules to sampling, however:
1. There are no rules to sampling.
2. You may sample whatever the fuck you please.
3. Refer to rules 1 and 2.

Lmao.

.....BRING THE FUCKIN RUCKUS!

I'm torn between both worlds, frankly. I come from the state that had a HUGE hand in the glam/glitz/bubblegum/bling rap movement, and I know that for most of those who actually made it out of the underground in TX, it's the money that pushes the music, not the other way around. But then again, I watched alot of these cats come up from sleeping in their Datsun outside the 250 max occupancy bar they just played a 20 person hour long set to...and now they have every right to the cash they are making since they found their niche.

But, at the same time, I can't condone selling out your music and personal tastes just to make a buck. I refuse to make snap beats or crunk tracks because they are part of that mainstream nonsense to me. The "hot" tracks everyone wants, I don't make that kind of music. I do what I want when I want.

But I will be the first to admit, if I could make a comfortable living off of music, I would in a heart beat because I love music so much I don't like it when my 9-to-5 gets in the way of making my music. And without producing or engineering becoming my "job", so to speak, I'll always have that drudgery job pulling me away from creating music. So, again, I am torn between the money and the art, but I never give up my artistic tastes solely to make money. I have merely searched for the niche artists who want to pay me for my art, and don't want me to be something I am not, which is Lil Jon.

As for sampling, too many people think it's "easy" to just sample a track and make a new one. Any of you "original" artists that think creating a GOOD sampled track is easy, I invite you to challenge one of the sample using producers on this site to a battle. We'll pick the original track to sample from and then both will create their own take on the sample. I guarantee the producer who has the experience sampling will win hands down everytime, because it isn't easy and it takes alot of practice to pull off a good flip.

My .02$ and the other .98$ to go with it.

Peace

Well said, sir.

*bringing the fuckin' white boy ruckus since 1983*

"I have merely searched for the niche artists who want to pay me for my art, and don't want me to be something I am not, which is Lil Jon."

WHAT! =[ my whole life...is a LIE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE LIL JON!

Shhhhh! Keep it on the DL. YEEEAHHHHH! WHATTTTT???1eleven?! OOooh-KAYYYY!

YO....

I almost cryed to this

Well..

Until that last part about "Bringin da fuckin Ruckus" then i just Laffed my ass off

That some real shit Yun. There's prob nothing else that I can add to this so I'm gonna just shut up.

naah...SAMPLERS STAND UP!!