Hip Hop News | PBS Spotlights Hip Hop | The Battle Over Sampling

The Battle Over Sampling
06:00AM ET December 10, 2009
Contributor : Hip Hop Blog Staff
A Rocky Williform Company

In January 2010 PBS will air the critically acclaimed documentary Copyright Criminals. Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of sampling, including the long standing debate of artistic expression versus money.

The film showcases some of hip-hop music's founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground—while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux and Rhymesayers. It also provides an in-depth look at artists who have been sampled, such as Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown's drummer and the world's most sampled musician), as well as commentary by funk legend George Clinton.

Check out the trailer below:

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hymn

2 years ago

As an artist I have to say that at the end of the day sampling is a form of theft if you do not pay for it...simple and plain! Let someone come into your house and take certain items you bought or created and then say since they added it a house they created (along w/ other stuff they stole or bought themselves) it's not stealing! That would be absurd! If/as you use someone elses stuff just pay them for it or ask their permission to use it! If, after you warped it to death or chop it up so that you think it is more yours than theirs, why did you use it in the first place? Go play your own drums or horns or strings...make your own claps or bass line etc. You stole (sampled) a given thing b/c you liked the way it sounded! So pay up! Buy some Nestle Toll House choc chips but take the name off and then try to sell them as your invention and see what happens! Lol! Folk that don't pay up are lame and lazy simple and plain! If someone else does the work for you you should compensate them or just do it yourself!

Hymn