Classic CratesResearch Project

The Diggin' Culture

Brian (Raydar) Ellis

If you start from the beginning, the very first thing you will encounter on De La Soul’s 4^th album “Stakes Is High” is not music, but a skit created from multiple conversations where random people respond to the question

“Where were you when you first heard “Criminal Minded” by Boogie Down Productions?”

“When I…”
“First heard…”
“Criminal minded…”
“I was in…”
“Damn where was I??”

On the surface this is a question that could be asked to any Hip Hop fan with any number of albums substituted for “Criminal Minded”. Below the surface however is a more in depth conversation; a conversation not just with words but with a feeling of a specific time period being recalled by the listener. A moment that shows up like a knee jerk reaction rooted in the recollection of their past and everything that was good or bad about it.

Though there are many components in music that can take a listener on this journey, it would be hard to find a case where this stroll down memory lane was achieved sans the instrumental. The instrumental (or beat/track) serves as the music the Emcee (or M.C. “Master Of Ceremony”) raps to. The person who makes the instrumental is the beat maker. This role has often been but not limited to the DJ, who would often play a dual role as a songs producer.

Traditionally the practice of creating an instrumental began with the DJ playing vinyl and juggling (manually looping) sections of songs from their record collections, specifically the open drum breaks. A Drum break is a part in a song when every member of a band rests except for the drummer. An enormous catalogue of artists that reads like a “Who’s Who” of musical legends mostly rooted in the genres of Jazz, Funk, and Rock & Roll served as the backdrop for the emcee to deliver their poetic stances on love, current events, and staying “Fresh to def”. Though the standard practice in the parks and clubs was vinyl based, the first Hip Hop recordings to receive world wide attention utilized live bands in the studio.

Spring records would release the first recording of an emcee (King Tim III) on a single by The Fatback Band entitled “Personality Jock”. This record debuted months before The Sugar hill Gang released “Rappers Delight” on Sugar hill Records. Other Artists like Kurtis Blow (backed by Orange Krush) and the Funky 4+1 all recorded their first classic records with live bands.

The early 1980s saw the rise of the personal computer. This evolution signaled a huge tech boom worldwide across many platforms. The music world was no different as the rise of the drum machine helped to evolve the way a composition could be approached. Artists like Herbie Hancock, Prince, Madonna, Phil Collins, & Stevie Wonder would all use drum machines like Linn Electronic’s “Linn Drum” and Roland’s “TR-808” on their records. In the world of Hip Hop, the drum machine would become an essential tool in creating a new spin on production; becoming the backbone of records like Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”, RUN DMC’s “It’s Like That”, and T La Rock’s “It’s Yours”.

Larry Smith and Russell Simmons specifically changed the perception of what a Hip Hop record could be on the B-side of “It’s Like That” with a song called “Sucker MCs”. This sparsely accompanied record complete with a repurposed rhythm by drummer Trevor Gale from the aforementioned Orange Krush’s single “Action” gave the youth in the streets of New York a new way to rap, dress, and live. Larry Smith would go on to be a strong musical force in the new track based era of Hip Hop production, going on to co-produce RUN DMC’s first two albums and five out of six Whodini albums. In many respects Smith could be seen as the bridge between the live band recorded rap songs of the late 70’s and drum machine sampling 80’s.

Since it’s humble beginnings the production side of Hip Hop has constantly embraced the sound and feel of live musicians. The often sampled James Brown provided the funk and emphasis on the downbeat that gave an emcee the extra boost of confidence to deliver their rhymes; his signature grunt looped into the background of the drum break acting almost like a hype-man on the record. For many DJs turned producers, sampling James made the most sense because he was already a proven dance floor favorite in the park jams and nightclubs. By the end of the 80s James had solidified his legacy as a crucial ingredient in Hip Hop production.

As a DJ, part of the career requires constant consumption of new music from a vast array of genres. No record store was left un turned, no label too irrelevant to be given a quick listen, in the hopes of unearthing an old popular or unpopular gem to a younger generation of inner city youth. At the onset of the 1990s, not only had the pool to fish sounds from expanded, the amount of samples used in the average rap song had expanded, as new drum machines/samplers like the E-MU SP 1200, Akai’s MPC series, and Ensoniq ASR-10 provided longer sampling times and easier ways to sequence ideas. Producers like Q-Tip, D.I.T.C. (Diggin In The Crates) and Large Professor gravitated towards sounds from upright basses, rhodes pianos, and other instruments not used in the production of the 1980s.

With more DJ’s digging for music outside of the funk delivered by James Brown and similar acts, the newer drum machines/samplers allowed them to trigger the sampled parts of records outside of their original order. “Excursions” by A Tribe Called Quest off of their sophomore album “The Low End Theory” sampled Art Blakey’s “A Chant For Bu” transposing and converting it from a song in the key of F minor with a 6/8 time signature to a song in Eb minor with a 4/4 time signature. Groups like Main Source, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, and Gang Starr would also be highly influential in unearthing new and interesting records to sample throughout the decade. The wider palette of sample sources expanded the vocabulary of records those DJs could use also use in their live sets.

For example, a record like Donald Byrd’s “Think Twice” gained a new found fan base on the dance floor when DJs used it as a segue into records that sampled it like Main Source’s “Looking At The Front Door”. They achieved this segue by beat matching/blending “Think Twice” on one turntable while “Looking At The Front Door” was on the other. The crossfader, a part of the turntable that decides what song the crowd is hearing, would be in the middle allowing both records to play at the same time, creating the blend.

The impact from DJs creating this link between different time periods is embedded in the mind and heart of the party goer so much so that records that weren’t big successful hits decades ago have found new life as standards needed to get a room full of people to dance. New memories being made in the moment are paired with old records that are then recycled in a number of sample-based songs. Records like Gap Mangione’s “Diana In The Autumn Wind” reaches new ears when blended with Slum Village’s warm filter of the rhodes in “Fall In Love” (produced by J Dilla). Joe Chambers “Mind Rain” plays host to the suspenseful drums of Nas “N.Y. State Of Mind” (produced by DJ Premier). The ability to use these recordings provides a limitless amount of combinations for DJs to keep a crowd entertained. Because of this newfound fame, many records have gone on to command enormous price tags for their purchase. The previously mentioned Gap Mangione commands over $150.00 for a mint condition copy.

“Rap is an art you can’t own no loops” – Gang Starr “Take It Personal”

“I hook a beat up convert it into Hip Hop form” – Eric B & Rakim “I Ain’t No Joke”

There are many ways to alter a song into a Hip Hop beat. Upon recording a musical passage to a sampler, a beat maker would be faced with the popular options of looping (vamping) or chopping (isolating musical phrases) a sample. From there a sequence is made when the beat maker chooses and records the order the samples will play corresponding to the tempo selected. Layering the repurposed sample with other samples is common practice especially when what is being used comes from different instruments (drums, guitars, keyboards, etc.) The combination of all these sources contributes heavily to the overall feel of the beat being made. This is due in no small part to the sound of the room the samples were recorded in, creating a sonic texture.

Kendrick Lamar’s “Rigamortis” samples the horns from Willie Jones III “The Thorn”. The horn loop contains some snare rolls and cymbal work from Willie Jones in the background that upon looping stand out more in the mix. Willie B & Sounwave adding the sampled drums and Kendrick’s vocals combine to make the record incorporate a lot of different room sounds. Comparing this approach to the process of the 60s and 70s where the entire band was in the same room blocked off with sound proofing, now beat makers were able to make hotels out of houses and use the previous engineers mixing and mic placement of the older records to convey their ideas. Using the sound of the room became an imperative part of beat making and a substitute for what other genre’s had that Hip Hop at the time didn’t; light bleeding into the microphones from the surrounding instruments.

With so much drama in the industry, it’s kind of hard clearing samples with tremendous fees. Artists in Hip Hop today still get approached with lawsuits for records that they didn’t clear. Clearing a record involves getting permission to use the song from its writers and the owners of the master recording. There is no legally regulated price that specifies how much it would cost to use a certain length of music in a new composition. Many artists still don’t get their samples cleared simply because they can’t afford it. The amount of sample sources used to make albums like Public Enemy’s “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back,” The Beastie Boys “Paul's Boutique,” and De La Soul’s “Three Feet High And Rising” are nowhere near affordable for todays major label artists sample budget. For that reason, the creation of sample based Hip Hop has been a game of cat and mouse between producers and lawyers with the producer trying to find new ways to sample without getting caught; a vigilante artist not unlike a Graffiti artist getting up (spray painting) a train in the subway yard at night. All of this happened in hopes of being seen by as many people as possible.

The Hip Hop of today houses many more instrumentalists who grew up with rap their entire lives. The children of the cd and download era haven’t known a world without samples and these musicians are no different. Producers like Salaam Remi, Mark Ronson, Adrian Younge, and Frank Dukes have studied the sonic texture of records from the 60s and 70s and made their new compositions sound like the music of that time without having to clear anything. Sub genres like Crunk, Trap, and the Hyphy movement were driven more by the work of synthesizers and the TR-808 so clearance wasn’t any problem.

In the modern streaming era, the work created by these DJs/Producers and the digging culture they cultivated helped push vinyl as a reliable source of income for the music industry where other efforts failed. People are connecting with the moment and want to hold it in the form of tangible records again.