Callaloo

Marshall, Wayne.
Giving up Hip-Hop's Firstborn: A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling
Callaloo - Volume 29, Number 3, Summer 2006, pp. 868-892

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Wayne Marshall - Giving up Hip-Hop's Firstborn: A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling - Callaloo 29:3 Callaloo 29.3 (2006) 868-892 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Giving Up Hip-hop's Firstborn A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling Wayne Marshall In a December 2000 post to an online forum at Okayplayer.com, the Roots' website, producer and drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson (pronounced "Questlove") responded to fellow posters' queries about the state of sampling -- the use of elements from other performers' recordings, for example, funk records, to make hip-hop beats. The discussion centered on sampling's status as essential to the production of real, or authentic, hip-hop. Titled "we all gave our firstborn up," ?uestlove's reply began on a sober, sincere note: not saying this is the primary reason why we [the Roots] did original material but you don't know the pain it is to give up mid 5 figures to a group of people (record label/publishing company) who ain't even the artist. the pain. Thompson thus attempted to explain his own group's alternative approach and to communicate the woes of a hip-hop artist in the age of copyright commerce. He agonizes over the often-illogical system of usage fees and publishing credits. Such strictures not only impinge on hip-hop artists' creative options, he notes, they frequently fail to benefit the performers whose music is sampled. Most significantly, he mourns the loss of what many...