Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop

As a producer and music fan, I was inspired by this book. It's an academic study, but unlike other such works, it's also a page-turner. The author does a great job of mixing data with anecdotal evidence that comes from his field work, and the result reads like a well-organized historical narrative. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this book was that it denies all the nonsense that other writers have asserted about hip-hop's use of sampling as only an ironic way of referencing the past. This book instead puts forth the idea, which I agree with as a music producer, that sounds are chosen because they simply sound pleasing when combined with one another. In this respect, sampled-based hip-hop is really no different from many types of electronic music: Compositions are built up by putting sounds into the mix that work well with what is already there, and this process continues until you have some kind of groove or atmosphere established. All this patronizing stuff about hip-hop producers all being street philosophers from the school of hard knocks needs to stop. The truth is that they are composers like the rest of us, and they dig stuff that sounds good in their tracks. Thus, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to read about the nature of sample-based hip-hop as a musical genre rather than as purely a method of recontextualizing the past to pay some mystical homage to those who came before. A refreshing, realistic book that gives proper respect and validity to a genre that is too often misunderstood and marginalized.

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Quality Material............................ If I Have To Say What is Lacking I'd Have to Say Some Example Pics..But Not Much Else... The Sampling Ethics are GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Diggin Info is GOOD ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The DJ History/Info is KOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A Very Well Spent $20----- Trust That!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!