Sampling is not stealing rite? But when does it cross the line?

[TheRemedE]

I've noticed alot of people making sample based hip hop (which is cool, no problem) but not putting much effort in.

How many times have you checked out a beat on e.g. youtube, and all it is, is a marvin gaye sample and some stock fruity loops drums which loops over and over for 3 minutes?

When people don't even take the time to find out what key the sample's played in (to add e.g. bassline), should they even try to be a (successfull) producer? I know when I started makin' beats I didn't know how to do this, but I took the time to learn.

What Im tryin' to get at is,
Sample based hip hop is like making a collage. But can you take a picture of a person from a magazine, stick a different face on it and call it yours? - Take a sample, stick drums on it and call it yours?

Is this (^) just laziness? or lack of creativity?


I know people on this Forum don't do this (hopefully).

[Downstroke]

H-ha, the old is sampling loops creative debate again. Well, yes, a lot of producers don't seem to be making the effort, but also, I think the real art of beatmaking (not production, cos that encompasses so much more) is knowing when enough is enough. I've made beats where I've chopped them to an inch of their life, got all experimental on them, arranged & re-arranged, and in the end, just gone back to a basic loop with a bit of variation, because damn it, it sounded better!

Sometimes simplicity is the key, and if you work with rappers, 9 times out of 10 they're happier to work on a beat that gives them room to flow over without competing with the beat. I'm a great believer in whatever you add to a beat has to be there for a reason, not just for self indulgences sake. Obviously you should take the effort to make sure all the elements are in tune with each other, but equaly important is knowing when to say "that's it!"

[advital]

There are far too many examples of idea-thefts or rip-offs in our day to day music. It's hard not to get hip-hop sampling bundled in there because we're blatantly recording part of an older recording and using in our own production. But above all of the statements like "We're using it in our own way", "We chop it" and "It's making something out of nothing" (all of which I think are true by the way) remember that we never claimed it to be original work. Unlike some uninspired "musicians", We all know that the original music came from a source that wasn't us.

[Kick Rocks]

you cross the line when you get paid and not cite your soucre...

[figment]

You cross the line when you sample trance

[wallsauce]

Well honestly it all depends on the producers views on the topic of sampling. Like me, I will never sample Marvin Gaye, unless its some rare shit that hasn't been sampled. But I will say, I don't like the producers that just take well known joints, put drums over the same loop and call it a "hit". Again, its what the producer envisions though, cause sometimes it works, sometimes it just doesn't. I for one CAN NOT just loop the same sample over and over, shit bores me.

But yeah, like Downstroke said, simplicity is the key sometimes. My beats are simplistic, I use FL Studio (I don't use stock drums though, I chop my own drums) and when I'm workin' with a artist I make something that never overpowers them. Cause the song is for them, not to showcase my work, my job is to compliment them from the back. But not too simplistic aka loop, hi-hat, kick, snare, repeat.

[Kick Rocks]

yall crazy, theirs some loops I can listen to all day if the MC is ripping it to peices...

[Dj Rybe]

You Can Loop Or You Cant Chop, It Dont Matter Its All About How You Rock Your Shit.about 90 Percent Of The Greatest Hip-hop Songs Are Loops.

[[grimeshine]]

yo man, not everyone starts out blendin samples and shit out the gates like pete rock. Everyones gotta start somewhere and start practicing. Who cares if someone put up a video on youtube with some FL drums behind a loop. Hes not making millions of dollars off of it.

You gotta start somewhere man

[archdukezeb]

I guess more then to get mad at people making lazy beats is people who would pay for a lazy beat like that. In this day and age where it's so eazy to get information and to produce anyone who would pay for a 2 bar loop of a song instead of just making it themselves is a fool.

and I'm not totally discounting old classics that did beats like that. It's just like the three stooges is classic slapstick humor but if someone made a modern slapstick movie people would say it's low brow and retarded.