>I don't understand your characterizations here:
>
>"like, to me, isn't that the essence of black folk music?
>we hear some shit we like
>and think we can rock it better, the way we like
>so we take some song, and treat them like they're our session
>musicians
>and we go in over it"
>
>Firstly, 'black folk music'? What do you mean by that?
>
>Secondly, you seem to be describing the artistic method of
>recontextualizing and fusing different, pre-existing works. I
>don't see how this is specific to black people. Cultural
>exchange and reinterpretation happens everywhere.
>
>However, I agree with what I THINK your saying and I've made
>that same argument before. In my version...I liken a certain
>type of hip hop producer to an arranger and the source
>material as session players.
>
>There is a distinction that has to be made though....some hip
>hop songs are more aptly described as 'cover songs'. Like the
>use of Chic's 'Good times' or Puff Daddy using Kool and the
>Gang's 'Hollywood Swingers'. In those cases....the source
>material cannot be adequately compared to session players
>because they're basically just remixing a pre-existing
>song/groove....and they're intention is not to create
>something 'new'. The intention is to, unashamedly, reference
>something from the past.
>
>But there's another type of hip hop that goes beyond that.
>Guys like Jay Dee or DJ Shadow or Pete Rock....they are not
>'covering' the songs they sample. They're attempting to make
>something 'new'. Take a drumbeat from here, take a string
>stab from there, take a bassline from here, take a horn sample
>from there. And the end product is not recognizable as
>something pre-existing. In those cases, I think your
>comparison to a producer hiring session musicians is perfectly
>legitimate.
>
>And BTW, I think there's a place for both of those approaches
>in hip hop music. But the distinction should be made and in a
>perfect world....it should also have repercussions in the
>costs of using the material. Put simply....Puff Daddy should
>pay a fortune to K and the Gang for his use of Hollywood
>Swingers. But Jay Dee shouldn't have to pay much, if any at
>all, for sampling a quick stab from a song that isn't
>recognizable in his final product.