Wesleyan is pleased to present Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop, a much-needed look at the social, artistic, and political issues surrounding the use of digital technology in Hip Hop music. 

Based on exhaustive ethnographic fieldwork, Making Beats examines the process of sample-based music, the practical steps that must be taken to produce a finished product, and the ways in which technology interacts with the genre. Author Joseph Schloss also addresses the reasons musicians choose digital sampling over live instrumentation, the social importance of collecting rare records, and the legal and moral issues involved in producing new beats from copyrighted sounds. 

Schloss interviews emcees, DJs, journalists, industry insiders, Hip Hop enthusiasts and producers from diverse geographic and ethnic backgrounds including Harry Allen, Steinski, Jake One (G-Unit, De La Soul), Oliver Wang aka DJ O-Dub, Prince Paul, Mr. Supreme (Sharpshooters/Con Men), Phill “The Soulman” Stroman, Wordsayer (Jasiri Media Group), The Angel, Beni B (Bay Area Hip Hop Coalition), Karen Dere (Giant Peach), DJ B-Mello, DJ Kool Akiem (Micranots, MF Doom), DJ Topspin (Tribal Productions), Domino (Heiroglyphics), King Otto (True Believers Crew), Kylea (Jasiri Media Group), DJ Mixx Messiah, Negus I (Source of Labor), Samson S., Specs (True Believers Crew), Strath Shepard (Conception Records) and Vitamin D (Gift of Gab). He includes new artists as well as professionals within the field in an attempt to correct the tendency within pioneering Hip Hop scholarship to focus on high profile, Rap industry celebrities. 

Making Beats also explores the relationship between Hip Hop and the cultures of African diaspora, arguing that all producers, regardless of race, make African-derived Hip Hop, but those who do it well are respected largely without regard to their ethnicity. Schloss comments on the significance of Hip Hop’s multiethnic constituency, especially given the charged nature of many multicultural interactions in American society today. 

Written clearly and vividly, this book successfully contributes to the emerging field of Hip Hop studies, and will appeal to scholars and fans alike. Ultimately, Making Beats emphasizes the artistic genius and fierce continuity of sample-based Hip Hop.

Table of Contents
“It’s about playing records”: History 
“It just doesn’t sound authentic”: Live Instrumentation vs. Hip Hop Purism 
Materials and Inspiration: Digging in the Crates 
Sampling Ethics 
Elements of Style: Aesthetics of Hip-Hop Composition 
The Outer Circle: From Samplers to Ears 
Interviews by Author 
Discography

Joseph Schloss is currently a Visiting Professor at Tufts University. He received the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Charles Seeger Prize in 2000, and his writing has appeared in URB, The Seattle Weekly, The Flavor and the anthology Classic Material.

Making Beats - The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop
by Joseph Schloss

Wesleyan University Press

240 pp. 10 b/w illus. 6 x 9”

$65.00 unjacketed cloth
ISBN 0-8195-6695-0

$24.95 paper
ISBN 0-8195-6696-9

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