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Del the Funky Homosapien Defends the Art of Sampling
- Posted on May 7th 2010 3:00PM by Pat Pemberton
While James Brown often complained that rappers didn't pay him when they sampled his music, Del the Funky Homosapien says the soul legend should have been grateful for the attention."That brought him back, actually," Del tells Spinner. "There wasn't anybody thinking about James Brown. The fact that people sampled his music so much was more honor than anything."
Brown's last Top 10 hit was in the mid '80s but he eventually became one of the most sampled artists in the world, with acts like Ice-T, Public Enemy and the Fat Boys using pieces of his songs as a foundation for their own derivative works.
"You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," Brown told the Associated Press in 2003. Brown, who once spoke against music piracy before the Department of Commerce, always believed he should have been paid any time his song was used. But Del, a frequent sampler himself, says the practice actually introduced Brown to new generations of music fans.
"There's a whole time frame of hip-hop that's all based on James Brown," he says, noting that hip-hop showed music listeners that Brown's music was superior to others. "So that was bringing back the real, like, 'We don't want the weak fluff.'"
As for other sampled artists, Del says Parliament Funkadelic frontman George Clinton had a better take on the practice.
"He's seen it the way I would see it," Del says. "He looked at it like, 'This is an honor that you want to use my music like that and bring me back.' And it brought him back to the point where our generation looked at him like the Godfather. He was revered. He got to be in a video with Snoop."
While Del doesn't think there's anything wrong with sampling, he says that it has to be done with moderation.
"People started abusing sampling, and it made people more aware of sampling," he says. "And then people got the bright idea that, 'We've got to get some money out of this somehow. There's got to be a law against this.'"
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henry burgwyn
defending samples is retarded. its like taking something that already popular and using it to make yourself popular, no wonder you got a hit with a sample that song was already a hit, all you did was rap over it, thus your talentless thief. its like drawing a mustache on the mona lisa, yeah what you did was amusing but the true art lies in the work of da vinci. the new trend is making classic rock songs into dubstep songs, all it does it ruin the intregity of the song and makes someone who can't compose music money. its bullshit
August 29 2010 at 8:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Anthony
So...here I am reading this article and the comments below it. Nothing but fighting. Well, here are my two cents...
Rap IS music. The biggest argument against this classification is that is uses pre-recorded works as a basis. Have all of Rap's proponents forgotten that Rap started with a dj and a lyricist? Why a dj and not a band? Musical instruments are EXPENSIVE! Rap started in this nation's poorest neighborhoods. The easiest way to play music was to grab mom's turntable and borrow another one so that 15 seconds of music could be played over and over so your friend could rap over it. Once Rap began to get noticed as an art form, and then began to be recorded by record companies, this tradition went with it. It WASN'T laziness. It WASN'T unoriginality (Aerosmith and Run DMC!! Freaking ORIGINAL for it's time!!). It was necessity. Please please please, Rap's detractors-you don't have to like the music, but at least do some research as to WHY you don't like it before you speak against it. (For the record, I'm not black, I'm Mexican-American and I don't even like today's rap. Anything before 1998 is gold to me though!)
Holly
These little twerps up and coming wanna-be's make me sick. James brown was and is The Godfather of Soul. Who does this little puke that I've never even heard of think he is? He's nothing. Shit on James brown shoe, thats what he is.
May 08 2010 at 8:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
CAROLYN
I would like to ask Joe why does he say that whoever think that rapping is music must live in the ghetto or be on welfare? I am sure this rap music is making more money than he does at whatever it is that he is doing or whatever job that he has stop playa hating if you dont like rap dont listen to it
May 08 2010 at 8:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Chaz
The reason for me liking Frank Sinatra's (THE MAN) music? I could understand every word,not just 2 or 3 words.
May 08 2010 at 8:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Wewillallseeoneday
What makes Rap music better than any other form of music. ONLY YOUR OPINION. Why is Rap music better than Hill-Billy music? ONLY YOUR OPINION.
What makes Rock music better than Rap? ONLY A PERSONS OPINION. Style of music is all about preference and prejudice in a persons or peoples opinion. Just because a style of music might be more popular than another style of music does'nt mean that form of music is better.
What truly matters is the lyrical content of the music. What does the music say? What is the message in the music? Unethical and immoral words to a song show the immoral and unethical content of the character of the artist writing and singing or RAPPING the lyrics.
IN TRUTH what is most important in music is not the style but the message of the words. That's what matters to God. What does God think about your music. Think your tunes are o.k.? We will all see one day. Is Rock or Rap your God?
Judgement Day coming soon to the earth near you. Will you be ready? Jesus is looking for you with love.
Tiresias
Not all 'rappers' are 'gangsters', and any such generalisation seems rooted in this mad belief that hip hop is all gangster rap which is total fucking bollocks, and if you think that you clearly haven't heard any. Equally any accusations of laziness are total madness, probably coming from people who have heard Kanye West songs which are extremely lazy in their sampling.
Early hip hop from the early nineties is incredibly brilliant goldmine of music, and I challenge anyone to listen to Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys and think that sampling was lazy, some of the stuff on their is absolutely incredible, and it is a masterpiece of sampling. Equally De La Soul's first album onwards are brilliant.
What harm has been done by it? I want to meet someone who has heard The Sound of Science by the beastie boys and thinks hmmm i don't want ot listen to the beatles now...that's madness. Without De La Funkie Homosapien (admitably stupid name lol) we wouldn't have first gorillaz album for starters. This whole rap are artistically challenged coming from people who so obviously haven't head any have cleary listened to 50 cent and dismissed a whole genre, like listening to scouting for girls and dissmissing any music involving guitars.
The death of sampling in music has been one of the greatest blows to music as a whole, and it has forever famished our cultural landscape.
l1a1h1
1 reply to l1a1h1's comment
I don't remember which (popular) rapper it was, but I went on line to read his lyrics. What I saw made me want to puke! He glorified gangs, killings, abuse, prostitution, drugs, theft, graft and corruption! And that was just one song! Ever since then I have had no urge to listen to any of these so-called street smart singers.
May 08 2010 at 7:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Tiresias
so because one rapper was offensive they all neccessarily are? Katy Perry's ur so gay offended me as a gay man THEREFORE ALL POP STARS ARE HOMOPHOBIC. Your point is ridiculous beyond belief.
May 08 2010 at 7:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Ruben
1 reply to Ruben's comment
Rap music isnt what you ignorant people think that it is, its nothing easy, it takes the same skills that any song writer must have just it doesnt appeal to you because of the way its presented, just because its not sang doesnt make it anything less than music, rap just took music to a new plateau its the new thing that has taken the industry by storm its literally everywhere. designer clothes, sports drinks, movies, tv shows, even in politics, so what if some rappers sample they dont completely redo the song they just take a part of it and make it their own version its just a new form of originality. quit being one the ignorant masses and just accept the fact that sampling is ok, people from all genres of music do it,
May 08 2010 at 6:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Dennis
Any two morons with a crayon can pen a rap tune.
May 08 2010 at 7:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
Charlie Campi
1 reply to Charlie Campi's comment
let me tell you about 'rappers'i am a sound engineer in a well know recording studio. when the little stains show up in there limos, if there not to pissed off, they move in and take over the place for oh two weeks..
damn the long hours tracking a buntch of unoriginal,
sysnithized, garbage,with all the gluttonous vices to boot. two weeks of angry pissed off, hot tempered
'cut n' paste' inananity...we also remove the $10,000
studio monitor so they don't blow out the cones...(they rent some big woofer getto blasters) i would like to thank the last band of losers for tearing up some studio gear after your drunken controlling tyraid...get a life
DasStorm
You are right in so many ways. I really feel sorry for you. I've seen the recording process these days, and yes, the majority of rappers are ignorant and love to cut n paste like crazy. Not to mention all the drug use, and then doing the "bare minimum" to make a song. But, that's TODAY's rappers. There are a lot of us out there that are not like that, but like I mentioned in an earlier post, we are the silent minority. One day, I hope you get to track and mix music from some REAL hip hop artists. You'll enjoy the experience, trust me.
May 08 2010 at 7:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
31 Comments