There’s a destructive opinion going around, among people who aren’t hip hop heads. The opinion goes: sampling takes no talent and that rappers / producers in hip hop just steal their best songs from better artists in other genres.
The Double Face Palm.
If you peruse enough comment sections on rap videos, you will no doubt run into a few of these. It usually doesn’t get under my skin; until recently, when someone I know said those exact words so nonchalantly that it makes me question their intelligence.
So is sampling stealing?
Yes. And No. Stealing implies taking something, not changing it, and putting your name on it. Sampling on the other hand, is something much more finessed. When a song contains a good sample, the final result transcends the original and something entirely new is created (ex: Mos Def’s Mathematics). Or in some cases, the original sample is left intact, but through contrast with the new music, the sample is given a new meaning (ex: Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life).
The sampling aesthetic isn’t just unique to music though. Checkout how it translates in visual art:
Napoleon Crossing The Alps (1801) by Jacques-Louis David
Napoleon Leading The Army Over The Alps (2005) by Kehinde Wiley
These days, music sampling is the furthest thing from stealing. On big album releases, the original song samples are credited, so the original sample’s artists get royalties from sales. Sampling isn’t stealing. Sampling is Sampling. It’s an art form all its own. And if you ever hear someone utter those dreaded words above, go easy on ’em. Just give them a few hip hop recs and they’ll see the light.
“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” – Picasso