The social media revolution of the last 10 years has made scarcity irrelevant you can download a file containing every sample Mobb Deep used on “The Infamous” in less time than it takes to listen to “Shook Ones Part II.”Įthnomusicologist Joseph Schloss, author of “Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop,” suggests that the Internet-powered ubiquity of sample information has diminished its value. The cultural capital that came with mastering sample knowledge was premised on scarcity, both of the records themselves and simply knowing about them. However, what the Internet giveth, the Internet can taketh away. ![]() ![]() It was a database of original samples sourced from his record collection, album-liner notes and user contributions culled from the pre-By the time Armsterd turned the FAQ into in 2003, it had documented almost every major rap sample of the ‘80s and ‘90s, save for a handful of famous holdouts, including “Shook Ones Part II,” Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” and Nas’ “Nas Is Like.” Armsterd had ceased doing much sourcing but his forums’ users stayed vigilant and one by one knocked most of these mysteries down. This quest for knowledge inspired self-described “professional computer geek,” Blaine Armsterd to create the Sample FAQ in 1994. The adage that “knowledge is power” gave samples cultural capital - DJs could build sets using “originals” while vinyl sellers could mint small fortunes by selling records sporting “known” samples. They sought out unused sounds on increasingly obscure records to stay ahead of their peers - and possibly copyright attorneys - and sample hounds followed just as intensely. In the late 1980s, as affordable digital samplers such as E-mu’s SP-1200 and Akai’s MPC-60 entered the market, beatmakers discovered the creative potential of looping and manipulating bits and pieces of music from other artists’ recordings, called “samples,” to build new songs. In solving this cold case, Bronco (born Timon Heinke) and his revelation harkens to a seemingly bygone era of competitive sampling and sourcing. The longer “Shook Ones Part II” kept its secrets, the more it became a holy grail for sample seekers, complete with debated theories and false leads. ![]() Except, it turns out, the source of that bass line wasn’t a bass line at all, one reason the sample eluded discovery.
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