Quick Bite #1- sampling and remixing with vigor

chewing on some chatting about the usage of musical tools in Black music forms

A note: This post was 90% done back in 2022, but I did not release because I don’t like releasing writing that feels incomplete. 

There are some intriguing observations regarding what we know and hear as sampling, interpolating, remixing, and/or covering songs when discussing these tools of composing/creating music. When I taught a song analysis course, students commonly struggled with identifying how and which was being used. One of my observations I want to parse through is how Black musicians employ these tools to change the feel and sometimes perceived meaning of a song's original message. I guess where we should first start for the folks who might be uninitiated: what are distinct differences between these tools exactly?

When I initially made my music Instagram page, BlackMusicBeEverywhere, I wanted it to be a place where I would introduce Black musical language & culture to my audience. It’s important for us all to listen and have an idea of what we are listening to. Might this make us more attentive to what we hear in our everyday lives and how we respond.

Many Black musicians made claims to fame from cover songs. I think of Maxwell singing a cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” What was once a soft rock tune became a slow souled-out jam, sung in a falsetto, emotionally intensified by delicate harp melodies. The song which originally was featured in a scene about childbirth [See: She’s Having a Baby (1988)], is commonly confused as a traditional romance song because of the cover’s vocal arrangement. It too was featured in what some consider a Black romantic drama, Love & Basketball (2000). Our perception of genre shapes our perception of songs: meaning and otherwise.

 

 Perhaps Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata” comes to mind. It was first performed by Makeba’s girl group, The Skylarks, in 1956. Makeba’s version that reached critical acclaim around the world was recorded in 1967. Makeba mentions in a an interview how the song became a global sensation saying, 

It was my first truly big seller. All of a sudden, people who never knew I had been in America since 1959 were asking me to be on their television shows and play at their concert halls during 1967. In the discotheques, they invented a new dance called the ‘Pata Pata’ where couples dance apart and then reach out and touch each other. I went to Argentina for a concert and, across South America, they are singing my song.

To be clear, fame is not necessary for boundless creativity to flourish. Producers use these tools with play and risk in mind. A top ten Billboard hit from Major Harris (of The Delfonics), “Love Won’t Let Me Wait,” is the inception of a groovy time travel from the 70s to the 90s. I heard Luther Vandross sing “Love Won’t Let Me Wait.” His butter-scotch voice never missed the mark and then the multi-hyphenate entertainer Jamie Foxx covered the song, crooning Luther’s “love’s got me hiiiiigh, *hits an imaginary joint* ooo this is some good shit” during his 90s HBO comedy special. From love to laughter to the house mix of Detroit DJ, Terrence Parker’s mix board, the magic of Jamie’s cover of “Love Won’t Let Me Wait” became the perfect sample on “Love’s Got Me High.” Terrence Parker recalls while speaking to Attack Magazine, 

I was watching a Jamie Foxx comedy special on HBO. Towards the end of the show he sits down at the piano and begins to play and sing. I was taken by surprise because I had no idea this guy could play and sing so incredibly well. But when I heard it I immediately got the idea to sample it and make a track from it.

House music is one of the best examples of the journey that producers using these tools take listeners on. The mind of a composer uses what might be perceived as simple jokes and turns it into a remarkable sound. These artists demonstrate the connections between genres and artistic mediums. 

 

 The 2018 cover album Ventriloquism from Meshell Ndegeocello demonstrates this well too. Meshell sprinkles her emblematic funky folk sound throughout 80s & 90s hits. One of my favorites from the album is “Waterfalls.” While TLC provided a smooth soulful hip-hop flare, Meshell used a folk basis to tap me even closer into the stories in the song. I could feel myself listening harder. I would attribute this partially to Meshell’s vocal tone, but also the production choices here are very airy. There’s a humming, buzzing sort of synth sound¹ that is lying heavy in the background. It won’t let up and it makes the other instruments feel like they are floating above and beyond it (I think towards the future). 

 The act of remixing or covering songs allows artists to “re-arrange space and time,”² similarly to sampling, in unlimited ways. Even more, how Black artists use these tools could be interpreted as African retention. The sample, for example, is like a proverbial head nod to whoever’s musical essence came before you. This sort of communal and ancestral interaction, relationship is essential to many forms of African diasporic musics. They are a central part of Black music making, our cultural survival, our innovation. All of these actions build and form new sounds and vibrations to attach meaning to no matter what place we reach in time.

Alright y’all: Let me know what you think. This is an oldie, but I just needed to let it out of the drafts. Oh also, I do love dub and I’m hoping to write a bit about it soon (Black folks making ambient- I beeeeeeeen started this one and… i need to go on head and just finish it lmao). So if you all have ANY readings or good cuts of that, I’d love to dive into it. 

Sources:

Terrence Parker - Attack Magazine

Definitive remastered edition of Miriam Makeba’s ‘Pata Pata’ | !K7 Music

NPR Music- The Formula with Rodney Carmichael

The Power of Black Music- Samuel Floyd

1. (I truly can’t pinpoint what that sound is: HELP)

2. Rodney Carmichael on NPR Music- The Formula