0's/90's Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul & Funk Thread
06-07-2017, 08:32 AM
I want to bring up a point relating to "father son" jams (great term!)
- Interpolation vs Sampling
Sampling is sampling as we know it... record it, filter it, maybe play some layers over it (drums, bg percussion, some synth pads). Early 90's NY was pretty blatant in not covering up the underlying sample. This is actually more true to the original Bronx hip hop roots of Jamaican DJ's spinning the instrumental breakdowns of songs while an MC rapped.
Interpolation is "re-playing" aspects of the sample with actual musicians (or composers / sequencers) -- ala most early 90's LA hip hop. This was largely pioneered to avoid sampling lawsuits, but also resulted in an exposure of rap to great musicianship, studio guys, etc.
(Unfortunately the avoidance of samples also lead to the early 2000s "workstation sound" as I call it -- where popular workstation synth/sampler/sequencer combo keyboards -- the Yamaha Motif was big here! -- became the dominant sound -- lots of shinier sounding drums, "fake guitars", and now dated-sounding digi synths. Think of some R Kelly, 112, classic Usher. This sound was "rescued" by the gritty self-sampling of Pharell, who obviously went on to define Top 10 radio for years and to this day.)
Example of interpolation plus some sampling of same "source" material
Things get really crazy when you sample AND interpolate, as with "Let Me Ride" by Snoop -- it's an interpolation of Parliament - Mothership Connection (title track), with actual samples interspersed throughout of the Parliament song live version (with Glenn Goins singing "let me ride").
'92: Let Me Ride by Snoop Dogg:
It interpolates:
'76: Mothership Connection by Parliament (the breakdowns / last 30 seconds)
... and samples from '76 Live version: (too many embeds, so here's url
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT3ecv01xDE
It really just samples from the late Glenn Goins' voice, they (Dre / producers) layer that over their interpolation.
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A "juicier" example of original -> sampling -> interpolation spanning almost 4 decades:
Mtume - Juicy Fruit (from '83) ==> sampled as Biggie's Juicy ('94) ==> interpolated as Joey Bada$$ - Land Of The Free (recent track).
'83: original Juicy by Mtume (who was once a Miles Davis percussionist!)
'94: Biggie's sampled version, Juicy Fruit
'16: Joey Bada$$ -- produced by Kirk Knight and Adam Pallin -- who I believe I've seen on the credits of some funky gospel stuff.
^-- the producers are interpolating all kinds of synths, rhythms, and other elements from the original Mtume version of Juicy. Very cool "in spirit" ""version"" of the song. Basically a new joint.