[Plays Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’  “I Put A Spell On You”]
DJ PREMIER: How could you not wanna mess with that?
Sampling is a dope way of making hip-hop records that sound pure to the way I was introduced to it.
It's just nothing more pure than the sampling format.
RODNEY CARMICHAEL: In hip-hop, sampling is like alchemy.
It’s an art form that rearranges space and time.
And the producers who build on the tradition use sonic DNA from the past to cook up the future.
Even when you know how it works, it can still feel like magic.
DJ Premier is a purist at heart.
The man synonymous with the sound of boom-bap
has always searched for samples that give him the same feeling he got
from his parents record collection growing up.
That tradition spreads throughout a 30-year discography
so definitive that Pharrell [Williams] even refers to him as the teacher.
[Plays Steve Davis’ “ It’s All Because She’s Gone”]
Right there I was like, “Yo.”
I didn't have to go any further.
[Plays Gang Starr’s “Hard To Earn”]
With Gang Starr, it's always title first, and then the music has to mimic the theme of the title.
So Guru. He'll already have ideas like,
"I want to do a song about how I took my trip from Boston to New York
and finally made it and how it was a dream to make it here in New York."
So I felt like it needs to be like a driving–
like just ride with that one hand on the wheel, not two, just one hand on the wheel riding.
And I could just visualize Guru saying those lyrics about how he had to move,
why he's just telling the story with one hand on the wheel.
[Plays Gang Starr’s “Hard To Earn”]
[Plays Screamin Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”]
These records that we usually sample, your parents usually have them.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was one the records that was in our household.
But I knew his style is not normal, and I'm not normal.
I'm very left field.
[Plays Screamin Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”]
How could you not wanna mess with that?
“Pum pum pum pum pum pum pum pum pum.”
We could do a waltz, you know?
So how do you make that go, [beat boxes riff from "I Put A Spell On You."] ?
You know like, that's when the scientific part comes in.
[Plays The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Kick in the Door”]
With “Kick in the Door,” I was just making beats that I felt like would work with Big.
Puff wasn't really too crazy about it at the beginning.
I said, "Well, let Biggie hear it before you turn it down," because Puff is the boss.
I showed up like eight o'clock, and he just, "Your reign on the top was short like leprechauns."
It was traditional Biggie.
[Plays The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Kick in the Door”]
[Plays Curtis Mayfield’s “Kung Fu”]
You know, Curtis Mayfield tapped into the neighborhood you know.
It's that groove, man.
I mean it sounds like the neighborhood.
You know, when I was little, you know people in my neighborhood had big afros.
They had platform shoes and dashikis on, and everything was, "Right on, brother."
You know, and "Get down. All right now."
You know that's how they talked. You know, so the music was the same way.
And I wanted to have that same connection with the streets you know.
[Plays Curtis Mayfield’s “Kung Fu”]
That tone just sounded better to me than the original tone.
So the Gang Starr version, it's more stab-oriented– just, “Boom bap. Boom boom.”
You know not the whole loop.
[Plays Gang Starr’s “Nice Girl, Wrong Place”]
One of the most important parts is you know, the respect of the artist that made the music that we sampled.
A lot of us producers were like, "Man, why we gotta pay for that?” or whatever.
The sample industry clamped down a lot, and you know I've been sued many times.
I mean many times for samples I didn't clear.
There's been people that have been straight haters,
and I get on the phone with them and totally clear up they're like,
"Man, you know, I like you. We need to hang out or something. Matter of fact, I got some stuff that I've never even released that I'll let you sample."
Because I'm not going to let them put down the sampling as an art form because it is an art form.
[Plays Gang Starr’s “Nice Girl, Wrong Place”]
Just from me digging in the store it's crazy because even when I dig now,
I don't know why we whisper on the phone but Alchemist will call me and go, "Yo, found a new digging spot."
And you know it's like, “Why are we whispering?” when it's just me and him on the phone?
But that's just how serious we take it.
It's like, "Yo, I found this new digging spot. You want to go?"
"Yeah let's go tomorrow."
"Cool. I'll meet you at 12."
