Thats wa**up.. Countless house cats be sampling crazy. And their taking long a$$ loops and just adding to it.
Too me a cover version of a song is like sampling. But i guess because cats replay the stuff, its more credible to people. Theres countless, Rock, Pop, cla**ical and R&B music covers that go unnoticed.
For the most part hip hop sampling is not even making a cover song. Its taking a few seconds from a break in a song, and creating a whole new thing out of it.
If some one like David Axelrod, a monster composer and producer, gives props to the renditions that some of the hip hop guys, theres got to be a ton of other musicians that appreciate the life line that sampling has given them. Sampling has given some ol timers a life line in music. Some artists have actually come back into existence because sampled tracks of their music, reminded people of them. Goerge Clinton, David Axelrod, Miles Davis, Bob James, James Brown, Al Green just to name a few, have benefited from sampling.
But i do agree that some people have lost out, by having uncleared songs blow up and not receiving a cent, not something i condone but something that is a reality.
Because of Sampling.. I know who David Axelrod is, and a host of other magnificent icons i would never ever have come across.
Check out this interesting piece From URB Magazine
Thanks to the serendipitous routes through music that sampling encourages, David Axelrod has enjoyed a renaissance some 30 years after his career peak. You may not have heard the name before, but you've heard his indelible compositional style - dissonant and dense, yet delicate and funky - on songs including Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode," Mos Def's "Hip-Hop" and DJ Shadow's "Midnight in a Perfect World." He's not the most sampled artist in rap history, but he's become one of the most respected for his brilliant compositions and insights into the breadth of funk.
His newest album is actually 31 years old, a revisit of a lost 1968 acetate, but you'd never guess its age by listening. All of Axelrod's timeless elements and key players are beautifully front and center: Carol Kaye's stirring, rich ba** lines; drummer Earl Palmer's crackling breakbeats; and a bellowing horn section arranged by H.B. Barnum. On the contemporary tip, Ras Ka** appears on "Little Children," one of the two new songs on the album. Axelrod's longtime collaborator Lou Rawls offers vocals on "Loved Boy," the other.
The best songs, though, are the ones dedicated to the hip-hop artists responsible for Axelrod's resurgence. "Dr. and the Diamond" (for Dr. Dre and Diamond D) is dark and dramatic like a winter storm, but the prize gem is "The Shadow Knows" (for DJ Shadow), a seven-minute epic of immense grace, beauty and weight. In times like this, it's clear that Axelrod is as essential to music now as he was 30 years ago.
Oliver Wang
