Is Sampling Art or Theft?
What is Sampling?
Sampling is omnipresent in music today, but it has been the source of tremendous controversy. Sampling is the act of taking a portion of a sound recording, often another song, and incorporating it into another song. This technique is most popular in hip-hop, where producers often take a sample and loop it, chop it up, adjust the speed or pitch or otherwise manipulate the soundbite until it is unrecognizable. This approach to sampling was pioneered in the 1990s by hip-hop producers such as DJ Premier, J Dilla, Q-Tip, and Madlib. Today, sampling can be heard in nearly all popular music, with artists from Ariana Grande to Kanye West using samples in their music. While sampling is legal, restrictive copyright laws make the process of “clearing” a sample a lengthy and expensive process, which ultimately discourages many artists from attempting to use samples at all.
Supporters of sampling assert that it is a crucial way for musicians to express themselves artistically. However, many music traditionalists maintain that sampling is merely a shortcut used by unimaginative producers who would rather rip-off previously released music than make their own. Defenders of the technique assail this view as out-of-touch, arguing that advances in technology have changed the state of music drastically and that in the current digital world of music, prohibiting sampling would be unproductive and impossible to enforce.
History
Hip-hop music and sampling have been intertwined since hip-hop’s inception in the South Bronx in the 1970s. DJs would loop the drum breaks of popular funk songs while MCs rhymed over the newly made instrumental. As hip-hop grew in popularity, producers turned to fresh and unexplored sources for samples. Q-Tip, of the group A Tribe Called Quest, helped revolutionize hip-hop production, turning to jazz music for samples. Another producer who significantly influenced hip-hop with his sampling is Kanye West.
Kanye emerged on to the rap scene in 2003 with his debut album “The College Dropout”, which popularized his signature “chipmunk-soul” production style. However, Kanye’s sampling fame did not come without controversy. A quick google search of “Kanye West copyright infringement” yields a half a dozen lawsuits against Kanye West alleging that he unlawfully sampled their music. Many high profile artists are often defendants in copyright infringement lawsuits.
Copyright laws concerning digital sampling allow copyright owners to claim that all unlicensed musical quotations are theft or charge exceptionally high fees to sample their music, effectively allowing owners to prohibit sampling of their work.
Opinion
My personal opinion: I believe that sampling is an important part of the music and that the sample-licensing system must be amended to make sampling easier while continuing to compensate copyright-owners for the usage of the samples. While I am not asserting that artists shouldn’t have to pay for any samples, the sample-licensing system is maddeningly complex and restrictive and should be altered to avoid suppressing the creative expression
Article written by A.E / @rappcculture
