Everything Louder

DJ Shadow sampled over 70 songs to make Endtroducing. Including James Brown, Isley Bros, Jimi Hendrix and the Beastie Boys.

RJD2 writes on the net about sampling and implies that clearance is bullshit. He says De La Soul & DJ Shadow don’t clear samples, or at least didn’t on their breakthrough albums.

….

“my views on this are directly related to the current state of the music industry. namely 2 big things:

1-your average indie record is lucky to recoup expenses. if it generates 10-30k, that’s an indie win.

2-big labels are slashing staff left and right, with not much hope of this turning around.

SO, with that said here’s how i feel: dont bother clearing a sample if you would be the one paying for it. i think its insane, personally. if a LABEL would be paying for it, then it makes sense, cause they will have the money, and more so, they will have PROJECTED SALES TO COVER THIS COST.

i am going to open myself up here for a huge flame war, hopefully not, but when i see people advise to “always clear samples”, i see them as speaking from a POV that has a dog in the hunt either way. they probably have more experiences with-or AS-folks who wrote music 30 years ago, hear sampling, and think of puffy/diana ross, and ASSUME THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER IS STILL GETTING SHAFTED.

i dont care to enter into a semantic debate about “art and sampling”. im strictly speaking from a POV of the simple economics of it.

and the simple economics of it are this: if you are releasing an indie project, bottom line, its easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. and this has to mostly do with the fact that 90% of copyright holders want an advance on sales to sample something. but it just doesnt make sense in this economy.

now, the other side of the coin: if you actually generate some money on a record, and manage to get it out of the label, then i feel it is only right to do what you can to reimburse, or try to, the copyright holder(im calling them CH’s from now on). at the very least, dont be surprised if they find out and come after you.

i know this all might sound very ****ed up and immoral to some people, but the bottom line for me is that i hold the artistic statements of things like nation of millions, endtroducing, de la soul is dead, etc in a higher creative regard than i do their power as a commodity. so, if a few CH’s might get infringed upon (in a global sense) for our culture to produce works of art like that, i consider it a net win from the utilitarianism standpoint. they, in highsight, shouldered a huge litigious burden, but in turn, gave us something that solder boy tell them will never ever even bother to give us, and technically, CANT.

i want to be clear-i have no disdain for any CH’s, and i hope they are all filthy rich already. BUT, im a touring musician. i never had someone spend a quarter mil promoting an album of mine. i know that if a record wins or loses, its because i A)busted MY ass, toured all year, promoted the record, handled my biz, didnt waste time getting ****ed up every night, etc, NOT cause i was a lazy **** who happened to find an unused bob james loop first.

lets flip it around: FF. im now 55-60. i’ve had 25-35 years to tour, sell, license, and generally profit off of my own record. some young kid samples a portion of my record, makes a song out of it. if it generates $500k, then yes, i think i deserve a portion of that. but 50k? 5k? at which point are you just splitting hairs?”

New-millennium instrumental hip hop is still so hot. Look below for my favorite track from each kingpin.

P.S. Caribou is not Hip Hop. I wont let you guys hurt him.

P.P.S. If I had planned better I’d have posted these in the opposite order. I’m trying to tell you the Ratatat track is better than the others, OK?