A TYPOLOGY of SAMPLING in HIP-HOP Amanda Sewell Submitted to the Faculty of the University Graduate School in Partial Fulfillmen
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A TYPOLOGY OF SAMPLING IN HIP-HOP Amanda Sewell Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Musicology Department of the Jacobs School of Music Indiana University May 2013 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ___________________________________ J. Peter Burkholder, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Phil Ford, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Daniel R. Melamed, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Kyle Adams, Ph.D. Dissertation defended April 25, 2013 ii © 2013 Amanda Sewell iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am unspeakably grateful to the members of my dissertation committee. J. Peter Burkholder, Phil Ford, and Daniel R. Melamed spent countless hours advising, counseling, challenging, and encouraging me throughout this project. These advisors not only supported me with the research but also with many dimensions of my professional life. I feel incredibly blessed to have had so many people care about my work and me so much. I also thank my outside reader, Kyle Adams, for his perceptive comments and bottomless knowledge of the repertoire. The remaining members of the Indiana University Musicology Department supported me in a variety of ways during my time as a graduate student, so I am indebted to Halina Goldberg, Michael Long, Kristina Muxfeldt, Massimo Ossi, and Ayana Smith. Thanks also go to Fernando Orejuela of the folklore department and to Portia Maultsby of the ethnomusicology department for their feedback on various stages of this project and other hip- hop endeavors. To my fellow hip-hop scholars Loren Kajikawa, Mark Katz, the late Adam Krims, Felicia Miyakawa, Joe Schloss, and Justin Williams: I am so grateful for your time, feedback, and support on this project, and I am honored that you have welcomed me into your community. I thank the Musicology Department and the Music in General Studies Department at Indiana University for allowing me so many teaching opportunities while I was in residence. A special note of thanks goes to the University of Redlands and to Katherine Baber. It was a pleasure to join their music faculty for a semester, and I am grateful to Katie for recommending me and to them for taking a chance on me. The members of my writing support group—Dan Bishop, Lisa Cooper Vest, and Kerry O’Brien—were a vital part of the dissertation process. I may not have appreciated their comments in the moment, but their perspectives and suggestions helped me shape the initial versions of several chapters. I owe special thanks to Kerry, who has been my first reader on nearly every dissertation chapter, abstract, and conference paper that I have written in the last few years. I am iv also grateful to her for reminding me that, even when I have problems, “they’re great problems to have.” I am also indebted to Sherri Bishop, Kunio Hara, and Katie White, my fellow recent Ph.D. recipients, for patiently answering all of my questions about this confusing and exciting process. I am beyond fortunate to have so many amazing people in my life who love me regardless of my dissertation topic or job status. My weekly decompression and puppy therapy sessions with Alexis Witt kept me sane over the last few years. To Allegra, Betty Rose, Carol, Georgia, Melanie, Rebecca, Shannon, Sonia, Tracy, and Vicki: you have all saved my life individually and collectively. Phil Kurasz and his two crazy dogs make me laugh without fail. To Trent Bruce, my editor, chef, fixer, and lover of 12-bar blues, I am thankful every day to have you in my life. And even though they often tell people I joined the circus because it’s much simpler than explaining that I’m getting a Ph.D. in musicology and studying sample-based hip- hop, Mom and Dad are my first, my last, and my everything. Their unwavering support in every aspect of my life is often difficult to comprehend. I dedicate this dissertation to them. A wise person once told me that gratitude is an action, not a feeling. I hope that I can show my gratitude to all those who have helped me through my personal and professional actions for the rest of my life. v Amanda Sewell A TYPOLOGY OF SAMPLING IN HIP-HOP Hip-hop producers rely on several specific formulas to create sample-based hip-hop. Developed with a combination of analysis and ethnography, this typology of sampling is a systematic terminological and conceptual approach to this repertoire. There are three main types of samples: structural samples, surface samples, and lyric samples. Each of these types has a distinct function in a sample-based track: structural samples create the rhythmic foundation, surface samples overlay or decorate the foundation, and lyric samples provide words or phrases of text. The typology offers a consistent approach to identifying the sounds in sample-based music, allowing recognition of historical trends and generalization about musical style. For example, hip-hop producers have sampled lyrics from Public Enemy’s 1987 “Bring the Noise” over 100 times, and those samples show striking similarities both in the material sampled (Flavor Flav’s “yeah, boy” and Chuck D’s “bass” are favorites) and how the sampled sounds are treated in new tracks. The typology is a way to differentiate producers’ treatments of sampled sounds. Additionally, the typology is a tool for distinguishing the musical styles of artists. Released within a year of each other, Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique each contain over 100 samples. The typology offers a way to describe the groups’ sampling styles. Further, while hip-hop artists and scholars agree that sampling changed after the 1991 lawsuit involving Biz Markie’s “Alone Again,” until now, there has been no way to quantify these changes. The typology is a concrete way to demonstrate how hip-hop groups such as The Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Salt ’n’ Pepa, and A Tribe Called Quest modified their approaches to sampling when samples became difficult to license. Ultimately, a typology is a systematic analytical approach to the genre of sample-based hip-hop. vi CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 Why a Typology? .................................................................................................................. 5 Overview of Existing Scholarship ....................................................................................... 11 On Race, Perspective, and Legitimacy ................................................................................ 14 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 17 Study Parameters ................................................................................................................. 21 Chapter Overview ................................................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 1. A TYPOLOGY OF SAMPLING IN HIP-HOP...................................................... 26 Structural Samples ............................................................................................................... 26 Notes on groove ........................................................................................................ 27 Percussion-only ......................................................................................................... 36 Intact structure as sample .......................................................................................... 37 Non-percussion sample ............................................................................................. 40 Aggregate structure derived from multiple component samples .............................. 43 Surface Samples .................................................................................................................. 48 Momentary surface samples ...................................................................................... 49 Emphatic surface samples ......................................................................................... 51 Constituent surface samples ...................................................................................... 52 Lyric Samples ...................................................................................................................... 54 Intersections ......................................................................................................................... 57 vii viii A note on notation ..................................................................................................... 57 Interaction of sample types ....................................................................................... 58 Alternation of sample types within a track ............................................................... 61 Mixing samples and live instrumentation ................................................................. 61 Sampling and other kinds of musical borrowing ...................................................... 62 Samples and rhythmic modeling ............................................................................... 64 Sample exchange......................................................................................................