Literature Review on "Importance of Sampling in Authentic Hip-Hop"

Literature Review 10 pages (3167 words) Sources: 10 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Sampling in Authentic Hip-Hop

According to J.D. Williams, "DJs and producers have always used sampling in hip-hop and, as a result, it has become synonymous with authentic hip-hop" (Williams 2007:12). Yet, according to 50 Cent, hip-hop "is in a struggle of being artistic or [having] authenticity" (Conway 2010). For 50 Cent, hip-hop's authenticity is not in its artistic delivery but rather in its lived experience: "When I offer aggression, I offer it from an author, a real place" (Conway 2010). Hip-hop, therefore, may be viewed in two different lights: first, as an artistic medium; second, as a mode of musical expression used to convey real life histories. At the center of hip-hop is, then, a problem: does the music (whether or not it uses sampling) make it authentic? -- or does its authenticity come from some other place, like, for example, the street? This paper will show that authentic hip-hop can be seen in either way -- as a music genre that fits a precise style (i.e., uses sampling), or as a music genre that exposes something real and true about a particular rapper's struggles and real-life experiences.

Discovering the Root of Authenticity

Olufunmilayo B. Arewa observes that "since music borrowing is a pervasive feature of musical composition across various traditions and times, the derivative work concept, combined with the emphasis on originality…is at times problematic when applied to music" (Arewa 2006:571). What this means is that "sampling" is nothing new to music, even if it is particular to hip-hop. Musical artists have borrowed or sampled other passages of musical compositions from other artists since music began to be recorded (whether on page or on record, tape, CD or digital medium). Arewa notes how, since the time of Bach, musicians have built on one another's compositions without in any way reducing the authenticity or originality of the artist's work. In other words, sampling does not invalidate authenticity, according to Arewa. In a sense, sampling is essential to the nature of composition. Brahms did several variations on a theme by Haydn. To suggest that composers not absorb other composers' work into their own oeuvre would be like saying Brahms violated some sort of copyright law by building on his predecessor's body of music.

Thus, to say that hip-hop is in anyway unauthenticated by sampling would be illogical. But a separate question arises which takes the problem to its alternate extreme: What if hip-hop does not use samples? Can it still be authentic?

This question compels us to look at the very nature of hip-hop itself to discover the source from which its authenticity is derived. If it is derived from its particular adherence to the tradition of sampling, then one must answer that hip-hop cannot be authentic if it does not use sampling. However, if, as 50 Cents describes, hip-hop's authenticity is derived from lived experience, then particular adherence to genre styles and traditions is not necessary for authentication.

For, by, and From the Street

50 Cent argues that the lived experience is more necessary for composers of hip-hop to be authentic than the artistic style of sampling that is used in the music: "A lot of them that write music that has a street-life theme to it haven't actually been exposed to very much of that. it's starting to feel like it doesn't matter. I'm watching it, and I'm like, Okay, it sounded great, but ya lyin'" (Conway 2010). Lyrical honesty and sincerity are what make hip-hop authentic. Being grounded in the urban upbringing that so many young people experienced in the latter half of the 20th century is what gave hip-hop its sense of identity. To deny its roots is to deny authenticity -- at least according to an artist who observes that there is altogether a good deal of posing going on in hip-hop.

Walter Fluker states that "rappers often point to Malcolm X's phrase, 'no sellout, no sellout, no sellout,' as the touchstone of a black cultural consciousness intent on preserving the authenticity of black cultural expressions, and as the basis for a true black nationalism" (Fluker 1998:100). What Fluker expresses is the fact that hip-hop is a kind of cultural/artistic extension of the social and political message of Malcolm X More than a mere genre of music, hip-hop represents (in one sense) the oppression of urban blacks at the hands of white elitists. As Steven Best and Douglas Kellner observe in their essay "Rap, Black Rage, and Racial Difference," the race war between whites and blacks in post-war America is far from extinguished and rap artistically illustrates and comments on its continuance: "A significant part of hip hop culture, rap articulates the experiences and conditions of African-Americans living in a spectrum of marginalized situations ranging from racial stereotyping and stigmatizing to struggle for survival in violent ghetto conditions" (Best, Kellner 1999). Hip hop is the artistic expression of the ongoing violence (economical, social, and political) against blacks -- but it is also an assertion of racial solidarity. Like the Malcolm X approach, which was a call for unity and solidarity, hip hop attempts to unite blacks with a post-war racial identity whose common ground is rooted in suffering at the hands of a racist and unjust social system.

Hip-Hop's Authenticity in Its Message

In the opinion of Derrick Alridge, hip-hop is the link between the militancy of social rights crusaders like Malcolm X and the struggles of minorities today. Hip-hop is the medium by which authentic life experiences are shared with others and a message is conveyed. "Since the early years of Hip Hop, SPC hip hoppers have continued to espouse many of the ideas and ideology of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Freedom Struggle, but in a language that resonates with many black youth of the postindustrial and post-civil rights integrationist era" (Alridge 2012:226). Alridge notes that hip hop uses rhyme and rhythm to describe inhuman atrocities: Michael Franti, he notes, raps, "Oh my, Oh my God, / Out here mama they got us livin' suicide…" (Alridge 2012:226) and the lyrics "are potent, analytical, and reminiscent of the critiques and ideas of…Malcolm X" (Alridge 2012:227). Hip hop emerged, like the Phoenix, out of the ashes of the works and message of Malcolm X

Yet, what separates Malcolm X from some of his hip hop descendants is that while Malcolm X rejected a Christian spiritual message, many in hip hop fall back on a Christian creed of ethics and find their strength in spirituality. For Malcolm X, strength came from a different source. In a sense, his strength came from the image he held of his father preaching to a congregation: "The image of him that made me proudest was his crusading and militant campaigning with the words of Marcus Garvey. As young as I was then, I knew from what I overheard that my father was saying something that made him a 'tough' man. I remember an old lady, grinning and saying to my father, 'You're scaring these white folks to death!'" (Malcolm X 1999:8). Malcolm X would embrace the militancy of his father and use it to confront the social order that oppressed his people. But hip hop -- especially in the music of Tupac Shakur -- would embrace a different aspect of the black experience: its suffering and the fact that suffering was the one common element that united all people everywhere on earth.

As Jake Brown observes, "Tupac Shakur was a holy being -- omnipotent in Hip Hop, the 'Black Jesus.' He spoke for his people in motion picture, lyrical scripture…in Tupac's second coming as hip hop's first prophet, he would raise a generation up on his shoulders and carry them to a promised land…his music was his generation's heaven…he spoke a universal language" (Brown 2005:xv). In other words, Tupac's hip hop was a kind that emphasized togetherness rather than difference. Tupac, like the Black Panthers, wanted to be a positive force in the black community. Like Malcolm X, he believed in a righteous way: "We don't part the Red Sea, but we walk through the 'hood without getting shot. We don't turn water to wine, but we turn dope fiends and dope heads into productive citizens of society. We turn words into money -- what greater gift can there be? So I believe God blesses us, I believe God blesses those that hustle. Those that use their minds and those that are overall righteous" (Brown 2005:xxi). Tupac, like Malcolm X, recognized the plight of his people, and like Moses he wanted to lead them out of their servitude in a system of social, economic, and political slavery and into a promised land.

Sampling an Identity

Yet, hip-hop also has a style that is at times more viewed as equally as important as the street essence that gives the genre its particular quality. As William Eric Perkins states, "It is sampling and mixing that gives rap music its self-renewing character" (Perkins 1996:8). On the other hand, there is the… READ MORE

How to Reference "Importance of Sampling in Authentic Hip-Hop" Literature Review in a Bibliography

Related Literature Reviews:

Hip Hop Culture in Saudi Arabia Research Paper

Hip Hop Culture in Saudi Arabia

Culture and globalization

Culture which refers to the symbolic systems Williams 91()

through which human beings exist and coexist has been globalized by taking… read more

Research Paper 15 pages (4627 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Hip-Hop: The Greatest of All Musical Art Research Paper

Hip-Hop: The Greatest of All Musical Art Forms

"Woke up in the morning, feelin' like P. Diddy." The nation collectively chuckled as the suburban, white teenage rap star Kei$ha styled… read more

Research Paper 3 pages (1308 words) Sources: 6 Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Hip Hop Speaking Truth to Power Essay

HIP HOP

Speaking truth to power in a different voice: Hip-hop and Black lesbianism

The urban musical style known as hip-hop has long presented itself as an 'outsider' movement. Particularly… read more

Essay 4 pages (1674 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Hip Hop Music Term Paper

Hip Hop as a Fundamental Cultural Force

Far from being the marginal subculture it started out as, hip hop has since grown to become a fundamental aspect of world music… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1152 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

Hip Hop as a Co-Culture Term Paper

Hip Hop Culture

The hip hop cultural movement began in the early 1970s, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Since this time, hip hop culture has spread to… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1652 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA Topic: Music / Musicians / Instruments

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>