Hip-Hop Beats, When Music Producers Steal...
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Sampling Or Stealing...
Sampling is a common practice among producers. But where is the line between sampling and stealing?
I found this interesting video running on the web about the famous hip-hop producer Timbaland. It seems he hasn't been very honest about the source of his inspiration, taking large portions of arabic (and other) music songs and claiming it to be pure original production.
It raises the question of todays music artist not putting alot of work into the music they deliver.
Timbaland charges around 100 000$ for one of his beats....that's alot of money, considering he doesn't really come up with the melodies.
List Of Songs That Where Sampled Without Permission
- "Do It" - Nelly Furtado (2006) Original song: "Acid Jazzed Evenings" Jane Suni (2000)
- "Don't know what to tell ya" Aaliyah (2001) - Original Song: "Batwanness Beek" Warda (1986)
- "More Than A Woman" - Aaliyah (2001) Original Song: Mayada El Hennawi - Aloly Ensy (1994)
- "Big Pimpin " - Jay Z (1999) Original Song: Abd El Halim - Hafez - Khosara (1960)
- "Exodus" - Utada Ikaru - (2004) Original Song : "Meshkeltek" - Aitha Al Menhali- (2002)
- "Wait For You" - Nelly Furtado - (2006) Original Song: "Asik Olan" - Muhlis Akarsu - (1998)
Some Links About The Controversy
My Horrible Beats
After seeing this video I thaught I could start making music myself ...with "samples" ... and charge a $100,000. Hey, this might be the begining of a new career! ;)
I made this using FL Studio. On second thaughts, I think I should abandon this music production thing. I'll let timbaland keep stealing. He does it better.
Try this one, it's good for beginners and cheap...
 | Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $29.95 |
Too Expensive...
 | Amazon Price: $24.99 List Price: $59.99 |
CommentsLoading...
The beat isn't that bad; I would omit the hi-frequency sweeping note and be more creative with the synth tone.
Thanks a lot!
I havea question though: which is the "high frequency sweeping note?
I'm clueless when it comes to producing... but I could still guess the "synth note" you're talking about is the whistle... isn't ?
Ah man you aint that bad, I started off recently using FL and shit is difficult, I would change that alarm sounding thing though to something weaker.
Thanks for the feedback. FL studio is hard for real, but use reason and you'll think FL is just a piece of cake... anyway, with practice everything becomes easy i guess. Here's a website you might want to check out: http://www.beatsbybeats.com it supposed to open soon.
Im a sampler myself, and no i dont think it stealing, when i have sampled a beat and come to my final project, and someone listins to it, and they say wow that piano or whatever is awsome did u do that, i say no, I "sampled" it, fliped it added slicker drums, qweeked it out" i do not say that is me on the piano or whatever it may be, sampling is an art, taking peices of say. old jazz music that maby alot of people didnt like back then but had a good sounding part in it..... flippin that lil peice of greatness into say a hiphop beat that is just smooth and so fresh. and u call me a theif.....if in a hundred years down the road somone, diggs up a grey albums from some music store and find this so called hiphop (puttin in point of view that say they have come up with some new type of music) and listins to it ans say wow i realy like that tiny lil part in it, i think ill sample it, well thats ok with me, sample on my brother. im no theif im an artist
Hip-hop was created by from an old funk record being looped over and over again, and thus sampling is born along with hip-hop. almost every hip hop record you hear has its origins somewhere in the past, so to discredit sampling is to discredit hip hop. FL studio, ain't so hard once you get it down, but it may take a while. Problem with that weak shit today is that hip hop producers often try to be edgy and play their "own shit" and think they are cool, but they lack knowledge and skills in the arts of instrumentation. Its mostly the R&B producers (R. Kelly and his team) that have knowledge in this area, that have gone through schooling and been educated in these areas. So why try to make some piece of shit melody when someone like Earl Klugh has a masterpiece composed? Sampling producers are modern day midi composers. Listen to grey, he knows whats up.
why you put all the tracks up there like that? stop snitchin
I know I'm a bit late in this but...The issue isn't about whether or not the music came from an original source, its 'give credit where credit is due'. I was excited to hear music from my end of the world in Timbaland's album, but it sucked not to see him give credit or royalties to those who still own the songs. These aren't some 'dusty and forgotten grey albums' in some record shop around the corner. These are popular songs made by some of the most famous people in the Middle East (especially Abdel Halim Hafez). I am all for combining music from all over the world, but do it with some /class/ man. Give them their credit, that's the difference between plagiarism/stealing and referencing/sampling.
Its easy to call it stealing, people that aren't in the music industry or have never made a beat in their lives are the worst culprits for this, there are producers who do not sample that will also make this statement and call it "uncreative". Like Scott stated hip hop was created from sampling. Hearing something and remixing it to how you like it is hip hop. It's easy for people not involved in music or producer that aren't a fan of sampling to say this. Think of the guy that's sampling though. A young kid who's parents couldn't afford to send them to a music school or have piano, or guitar lessons and buy him these instruments after. Someone who can't afford to take years of classes to learn how to mix or master Or afford to but a studio set up to create he's own music. Now think from he's angle if he can save a few hundred to by a drum maschine/sampler and samples one Ahmed Jahmal song from one of he's family's records that's already mixed and masterd, and then chop up each note from that song and create a completly different melody? That's not taking anything from the artist, all he's done wrong is used my jamals piano without permission. And has the potential to make some money to give hes family a much better life. I think when people mention sampling it all depends on the type of sampling they are doing. When someone takes an 8 bar loop they heard from a record and just sticks a drum, snare and hi hat over the top, no that's not exactly creatives.
But if your sampling individual hit (chopping) and re arranging the song completly differently into
A real nice Melodie adding percussion, bass lins, keys etc from vst's and making them work with your samples how is that not creative?
FreeMusic Hub Author 4 years ago
PS: timbaland did not give any credits to the songs he "sampled" from...