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Renegades of funk. il Bronx e le radici dell’hip hop

December 28th, 2009 Comments off

Nuovo volume sulle origini della cultura hip hop edito da Agenzia X a cura di U.net. Il libro è scaricabile gratuitamente in formato pdf dal sito della casa editrice.

fonte: http://www.hiphopreader.it/renegades-of-funk/ 

Renegades of Funk
rappresenta un viaggio indietro nel tempo; un viaggio che vi
catapulterà nel Bronx della prima metà degli anni settanta, agli albori
della cultura Hip Hop. Il testo è un vivace affresco di riflessioni,
indagini storiche, interviste e contributi dei protagonisti; un viaggio
nelle strade del Bronx di oggi nel tentativo di ricostruire le
dinamiche e gli accadimenti di quei giorni attraverso ricordi,
esperienze e riflessioni; un percorso d’immersione totale in un’epoca
dimenticata dai più, idolatrata da pochi fan hardcore, e della quale vi
sono pochissime testimonianze scritte e ancor meno fotografiche.
Renegades of Funk racconta delle gang, delle feste di DJ Kool
Herc, di Bambaataa e di Grandmaster Flash, dell’inclusione di forme
espressive come il DJing, Graffiti Writing, Bboying e MCing in un unico
movimento culturale in lenta ma inesorabile conquista della scena
artistica e underground di Manhattan. Renegades of Funk racconta dei
primi dischi e della rapida commercializzazione che stravolgerà lo
spirito iniziale, ma anche dell’enorme debito dell’Hip Hop nei
confronti della disco e del punk.
Renegades of Funk è anche una storia musicale. L’esperimento
intende superare i limiti imposti dalla pagina scritta, contaminando
altre forme espressive, per creare un percorso musicale che
ripercorrerà le principali tappe dell’evoluzione di questa cultura.

Dallo skit di Popmaster Fabel:

Mi svegliavo la mattina durante il periodo estivo pregando il
Signore affinché ci fosse una Jam! Verso le tre o le quattro del
pomeriggio iniziavi a sentire la musica rimbombare tra i project anche
a svariati isolati di distanza.

Dall’intervista a TRAC2:

In quel periodo, l’abilità come writer, come Bboy, come DJ o MC
garantiva la popolarità e la reputazione nel quartiere. Si guadagnava
lo status di celebrità del ghetto. Cercavamo proprio questo e lo
potevamo ottenere solo attraverso la competizione.

TKID170:

Le feste nelle strade erano una celebrazione. Dai graffiti, alla
Danza, dal DJing all’MCing e nelle jam cercavamo di affermare la nostra
identità! Siamo qui! Esistiamo anche noi! Non ci facevano entrare nei
club per via del nostro abbigliamento, del look e dell’età. Così
iniziammo a fare i nostri party.

The Chief Rocker Busy Bee:

Dicono che la musica calmi gli animi insoddisfatti e ribelli e
questo è ciò che abbiamo cercato di fare all’epoca: calmare i nostri
fratelli con la musica per evitare che facessero delle sciocchezze che
avrebbero pagato per il resto della loro vita. Suonavamo e la gente
ballava, si divertiva godendosi il momento senza pensare al peso della
vita nel Bronx.







info: http://www.hiphopreader.it/

Categories: hip hop kulture Tags:

The Winstons “Amen Brother”

December 27th, 2009 Comments off

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM  

The most famous
loop af all times! "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the
b-side of this chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used
extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the
basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that
spawned several entire subcultures.
 



Watch this video about the Amen Break, I´ve learned alot from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm…

The Winstons – Amen, Brother ( http://www.myspace.com/amenbros )

Label : (Metromedia Records, BMI)

Biography by Ron Wynn & Bruce Eder :

A
Washington, D.C.-based soul act led by Richard Spencer, the Winstons
signed to Curtom in early 1968 and lasted there for one single, the
rousing "Need a Replacement." They had a sound that was somewhat
similar to the Impressions, but were unfortunate enough to have signed
with Curtom before the label had national distribution, and the single
never got the play it should have. A year after leaving Curtom, they
hit for the Metromedia label with a huge single called "Color Him
Father," which became a Top Ten R&B and pop hit, just missing
number one on the R&B list, and also earned a Grammy for Best
R&B Song. It was both a great tribute number and outstanding lead
vocal from Richard Spencer, along with Ray Maritano, Quincy Mattison,
Phil Tolotta, Sonny Peckrol, and G.C. Coleman. Mattison and Coleman
were veterans of Otis Redding’s band. The Winstons eventually toured as
the backup band for the Impressions, but never again made any noise on
the charts.

The Winstons line-up included:

Gregory C. Coleman (vocals, drums)
Ray Maritano (vocals, alto saxophone)
Quincy Mattison (vocals, lead guitar)
Sonny Pekerol (vocals, bass guitar)
Richard Lewis Spencer (lead vocals, tenor saxophone)
Phil Tolotta (second lead, organ)

Categoria: 
Musica
Tag: 

These Are the Breaks: The Motown Sound’s Influence on Hip-Hop Sampling

December 27th, 2009 Comments off

source: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/69528-these-are-the-breaks-the-motown-sounds-influence-on-hip-hop-sampling/

Stevie Wonder and the Funk Brothers

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50

These Are the Breaks: The Motown Sound’s Influence on Hip-Hop Sampling

[28 January 2009]

For any influential
group in the hip-hop game, specifically in the early 1990s, Motown’s
stamp of approval and its variety of subsidiaries were undeniably
influential.

By John Bohannon

Talking
about the art of sampling without including Motown is like talking
about soul music without Otis Redding or rock ‘n’ roll without Elvis—it
just doesn’t quite complete the puzzle. The house that Berry Gordy
built has been integral to the conception of hip-hop, its
implementation of sampling, and the growth patterns of a music that
advanced the urban streets of New York and slowly but surely took over
the streets of the world.

While sampling has held its niche in the underground of hip-hop,
legal problems have forced it out to the forefront, unless an artist
with stature like Kanye West or Q-Tip takes the time to get his samples
cleared. For any influential group in the hip-hop game, specifically in
the early 1990s, Motown’s stamp of approval and its variety of
subsidiaries were undeniably influential. Everyone from alternative
groups such as A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, to critical
darlings like Common and the Roots, to mainstreamers like Tupac and
Biggie have all had their hands in Hitsville U.S.A. This is partly due
to the volume of records Gordy’s empire was pressing by the late
‘60s—enough for every beat digger to get his fair share of obscure
breaks.

Although said obscure breaks often dominate, some of Motown’s best
sellers would go on to provide the foundation for some of the most well
known breaks. If it was a big seller the first time around, might as
well try it again, right? The originators of mainstream hip-hop, Run
DMC, found chops in the Temptations’ classic “Papa Was a Rolling
Stone”, while Public Enemy used some of the band’s lesser known cuts,
such as “Psychedelic Shack” and “I Can’t Get Next to You”. There are a
number of reasons why these prominent hip-hop artists found comfort in
the grooves of the Motown sound.

For one, Motown always stuck to the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple,
Stupid) philosophy. One of the most important aspects of a legendary
break comes from its ability to be used in repetition; if it becomes
too complex, then it is less likely to work its way into the mind of
its listeners. A strong backbeat begets an optimum break, and Motown
had strong backbeats in spades. The Motown Sound always revolved around
the backbeat of drummers like William “Benny” Benjamin, Richard
“Pistol” Allen, and Uriel Jones to carry everything else forward, and
it was typically accented by Jack Ashford’s tambourine and the rhythmic
basslines carried by the legendary index finger of James Jamerson.

The collective of musicians known as the Funk Brothers forever
changed the face of music up until Motown’s move from Detroit to Los
Angeles in the early ‘70s. Both throughout their heyday and through the
art of sampling, the Funk Brothers’ style of layering several guitar
lines atop a syncopated drummer affords their records a sound unlike
anyone else’s. When sampling drums, the feel and volume are of utmost
importance—this is why John Bonham has always been one of the legendary
sampled drummers. Though Benjamin, Allen, and Jones didn’t pound the
kit, they played it with a pure finesse that, when syncopated with an
overdub of the same break, truly comes to life. For example, the drums
on the Four Tops’ classic “Reach Out I’ll Be There” are crisp and at
the front of the mix, something that legendary producer Norman
Whitfield had a golden ear for.

The orchestral arrangements used to elaborate many of the classics
on Motown became another backbone in the hip-hop sound. Providing
atmospheres to a beat unlike any guitar or bass could ever achieve, the
sweet sound of strings layered behind thick beats led an entire new
generation of hip-hoppers to different sonic territory. Elements like
the string arrangements on Motown records, the horn arrangements that
followed James Brown, and the sparseness found in jazz contemporaries
such as Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, and Sonny Rollins helped put
hip-hop on a new scale. It allowed the beats to take on a life of their
own, creating atmospheres to get lost in behind the lyrics. This may
have been what opened up a world of beat records and gave labels like
Stones Throw a lifelong supply of influence. It was about getting past
drums alone and into a world of atmospheres where the beats no longer
needed lyrics to be a creative force.

While we could go into a book-long discussion on the quintessential
samples used by artists of Motown songs and artists, that could become
irrelevant to a certain extent. What’s important to realize is how the
aesthetic territory explored by the Funk Brothers, Whitfield, Gordy,
and the wonderful recording artists for the beloved Detroit label and
its subsidiaries influenced the aesthetic process in the world of
sampling. The sonic territory explored in the Motown lab is a
cornerstone in the similar territory explored decades later by a new
generation of African-American innovators. For one, the late J Dilla,
producer of classics by A Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde, and
countless other underground icons, is a man of Detroit blood and holds
the sounds of Motown near and dear to his heart and sound. It may not
have been his samples per say, but his aesthetic approach is very
similar to that of the Motown Sound. His beats have always been based
on the K.I.S.S. method, and his drums always crisp (even when they were
raw-sounding drums).

Motown will forever stand on its own as a timeless entity in the
realm of popular music. For a younger generation, knowing about Gordy’s
legacy may not be at the top of one’s priority list. But for a
generation of hip-hoppers that have been exposed to the music of Marvin
Gaye, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, et al through a new
styling of music suited to their tastes, the sound of the cut-up beat
is one that sends them headlong into a world of wax. Through this, they
are exposed to a sound unlike any other, a sound that is gracing the
radio each and every day and staying relevant through a new medium—one
method sustaining another.

—end of phile—

“A Beautiful Mess” video. dj Kool Breeze

December 26th, 2009 Comments off

fonte: http://www.youtube.com/user/broolkeez

My channel is mainly aimed at the art of break digging. I try to help
guide those up and coming diggers / producers to that perfect break. I
also bring light to some of the most hunted breaks in the history of
digging. I only show, use & play original, 1st run pressings of all
records. I am proud to say that I am DO NOT use bootlegs or reissues. I
feel any one can go buy a recently pressed piece of vinyl, but only a
true beat head will take years and what ever else to find that one
original copy. So, I hope my vieos and collection is viewed and
appreciated by the world and all those who eat, sleep & shit music.
Peace, Love & Break Beats!!

Categories: crate digging, hip hop kulture, varie Tags:

scratch casette malbert skratch7 (all-in-one)

December 26th, 2009 Comments off

fonte: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BItoCS3Evo

This is a video containing some scratches , which were done using a cassette player instead of turntable ;]

Enjoy! 🙂

Additional soundtrack, subtitles & merging all these pieces together by me :)Videos recorded by : alexismalbert

——

thanks to NomE for the link

Categories: varie Tags:

4 beats

December 26th, 2009 Comments off

4 beats -2009-

http://www.jamendo.com/it/album/46888

click to go to the jamendo page and listen to the album

enjoy

Categories: beat making Tags:

Christmas Looper 2

December 24th, 2009 Comments off
Categories: arte, beat making, deejaying, flash looper Tags:

SP1200 – ZULU BEAT – circa 1994 (Photo’s Zulu Nation Anniversary, NYC, 2009)

December 24th, 2009 Comments off

source: the MrSP1200 youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWqmXzZ5kqc 

Stills I took at the Universal Zulu Nation Anniversary Jam 2009, NYC.
I made the beat circa 1994 on the mighty 12 bit grit machine
"THE EMU SP1200".
Zulu chants overdubbed live through a ROLAND SPACE ECHO.
Peace to all Zulu’s, B-boys & B-girls worldwide who still love & represent True School Hip-Hop & Raw Funk culture,

KEEP THE FAITH!

Categories: beat making, hip hop kulture Tags:

Vinyl has been eliminated

December 20th, 2009 Comments off


‘Vinyl has been eliminated’

In Jamaica, seven-inch singles are completely extinct; DJs have ditched
their turntables. Will the digital revolution mean the end of
traditional reggae?

Dave Stelfox

The Guardian, Friday 18 January 2008

Reggae’s already had one digital revolution. On the night of
February 23, 1985, at a packed venue on Waltham Park Road in Kingston,
Jamaica, the producer Lloyd "Prince Jammy" James used a soundclash
against the Black Scorpio Sound System to unleash the song that changed
Jamaican music forever. Wayne Smith’s Under Mi Sleng Teng was based on
a stripped-down Casio keyboard loop, with a thunderous computerised
bassline. It was the first wholly electronic reggae recording, and its
distinctive rhythm marked the birth of the style that came to be known
as dancehall.

Now Jamaican music is in the midst of a second, further-reaching
technological revolution. This time it’s not how reggae sounds that’s
being turned inside out, but how it’s being consumed. In a strange
anachronism, reggae has long offered groundbreaking music – its
experimental impulses explored through roots, dancehall and dub – but
for the past two decades that music has been dependent for exposure on
what, in most of the rest of the world, is considered the preserve of
collectors only: the seven-inch single. For years Jamaica has been the
world’s most prolific manufacturer of vinyl, with antiquated pressing
plants working full tilt to keep up with the warp-speed productivity of
Kingston’s studio system. However, over the past year fans have noticed
a startling drop in the availability of new music on hard-copy formats.

"The reduction in vinyl production in the West Indies has
dramatically affected the way I access music," explains the legendary
DJ – or selector – David Rodigan, host of the weekly Rodigan’s Reggae
show on London’s Kiss 100 FM. "In a nutshell, vinyl has been eliminated
by the people who play the music to the public. The key players – and
by that I mean the sound system selectors that people go to see every
weekend, who can make or break a song – are no longer dealing with it
in any shape or form and have all switched to CD. Now if someone wants
to send me a song, they just email it to me as an MP3. This process has
been gradual, but it’s now absolute."

The slump in vinyl releases actually turns out to be more or less
irrelevant to the industry’s health on home turf. As Rodigan says: "The
domestic Jamaican market for singles has been negligible for quite some
time. Turntables are no longer available there and the home audience
buys sound system mixtapes and DVDs of live shows and dances instead.
Then there’s the matter of piracy, meaning that people can now purchase
burned CDRs of new music on the streets at a fraction of the price that
legitimate releases would command. It’s a reflection of the economic
realities in Jamaica that the emotional motivations of overseas
collectors have for years propped up vinyl manufacture. Particularly in
Europe, people still want to own reggae in that form because it helps
them connect to the music’s original roots and culture. Now that’s
coming to an end, though."

A better gauge of the health of reggae, however, is the demise of
another phenomenon specific to Jamaican music. After recording a new
backing track, reggae producers have traditionally asked several
different singers to record their own vocal interpretations of the tune
– so each could be released, and the producer would be able to make as
much money as possible out of each studio session. That process, known
as "voicing", was then followed by each version being released as a
separate single. The more popular the instrumental proved, the more
songs were cut. With each new production averaging around 20 different
versions, labels such as London’s Greensleeves and New York’s VP
Records began to collect these songs on individual "riddim albums", a
signature format that became pivotal to reggae’s international
infrastructure – until now.

Dan Kuster, Greensleeves’ head of A&R, says things are changing
fast. "We’ve scaled back our release of dancehall riddim albums because
they don’t sell any more," he says. "Reggae is in a period of
transition and the way people consume music has undergone huge shifts
lately. It used to be that producers cut test pressings of new music to
give to sound systems and radio DJs, then, if the songs received a good
reaction, they’d be released as proper singles. Now, with everyone
playing from CD, it’s much easier and quicker for people to burn a copy
of their work and pass it directly to the guy they want to play it.

"It’s got to the point that when producers say that a song has been
released in Jamaica, they don’t actually mean that it’s been pressed.
They just mean that it’s being played. In fact, a vast amount of music
never sees a conventional release at all now. While seven-inches have
mainly been an export business since the early 1990s, they still
functioned as a valuable barometer of a tune’s popularity and were
difficult to duplicate, too. Now, as soon as a song is in someone’s
hands it can be copied and sold in Jamaica in days and, thanks to
peer-to-peer platforms and certain pirate websites I’d rather not name,
all over the rest of the world in a matter of hours. By the time we get
to put a riddim album out, everyone has it already, so it’s not
worthwhile. Also, while the older people who listen to roots reggae may
still want to own music, dancehall is pop music with a young audience
that, typically, just wants to be able to hear it and is not concerned
with being able to hold the actual record."

That is a problem faced by record companies around the world, but
its impact on reggae is more immediate. There’s no legitimate domestic
market – and increasingly there’s no international market, either,
thanks to illegal downloads. But in Jamaica, it’s not the artists who
are suffering.

When voicing a riddim, artists are usually paid a flat fee by
producers, not royalties, regardless of how well their song sells.
Instead they make their fortunes from live performances and the
recording of dubplates – custom versions of big hits calling out the
name of a specific selector or sound system that are then played at
dances or competitive sound clashes. The more in demand the artist or
song, the more these dubplates cost, and with professional DJ teams
around the world hungry for exclusive tracks, it’s a lucrative trade
for top-tier performers. It is, in fact, the producers who are finding
themselves cut out of reggae’s economic loop.

"The people behind the scenes are the ones who are really feeling
it," says Jeremy Harding, head of Kingston’s 2 Hard record label. "The
artists aren’t noticing any change at all. They can still get paid well
for performing and cutting dubs, but Jamaican producers have always
been responsible for generating their own income. It’s not like
hip-hop, where someone like Timbaland is paid thousands of dollars for
a beat. We actually pay people to feature on our music. For a long time
producers made their money from singles sales and overseas licensing if
a tune got big, but the riddim albums really kept the scene afloat. Now
that’s finished, people don’t know what to do."

Kuster is cautiously optimistic, and takes a pragmatic view of the
downturn in Jamaican musical production. "No one wants see this
industry in decline," he says. "But the one good thing is that the days
of ridiculous amounts of versions of mediocre rhythm tracks are at an
end. No one needs 20 versions of one tune because, of those 20 songs,
people probably only ever wanted to hear five or six anyway. Now, with
fewer voicings being made, a lot of substandard material has been cut
out. The way ahead now is to concentrate on the value of individual
songs and place emphasis on quality over quantity."

Harding agrees, likening the forces bearing down on reggae to those
of natural selection. However, he also sees opportunities for growth.
"To get by, people are going to have to be smart," he says. "They will
have to take a longer-term view and this can be done by paying
attention to things like artist development." As the manager of
dancehall superstar Sean Paul and a number of rising producers,
including Craig "Leftside" Parks, he speaks with authority. "From now
on, we will see music makers looking into alternative revenue streams,
investing more heavily in individual performers, building ongoing
relationships with them, and crossing over into management roles."

Should any music be able to weather such a storm, it’s reggae. If
nothing else, its largely informal economy allows it to adapt much
faster than the major labels in the US or Europe. In fact, as Harding
points out, attitudes and expectations are already beginning to alter
on the island. "People are starting to think differently. They’re
realising that they can’t rely on easy money any more and taking steps
to change the way they work," he continues. "Whatever happens, though,
reggae and dancehall will never go away. This is our culture so, as
long as new generations of artists keep coming through and people want
to dance to it, it will always have a future."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jan/18/urban.popandrock1/print

———– 

immagini tratte dal libro "Dancehall. The rise of jamaican dancehall culture" edito da Soul Jazz Records 

Categories: beat making, crate digging, deejaying, varie Tags:

Gruff e Clementino live al CSA Intifada

December 19th, 2009 Comments off

stasera sabato 19 dicembre 2009 DJ Gruff e Clementino MC si esibiranno al CSA Intifada di Ponte a Elsa

CSA INTIFADA
via 25 aprile 1 – Ponte a Elsa – Empoli
http://www.ecn.org/intifada – intifada [at] ecn.org

come arrivare
superstrada Firenze Pisa Livorno uscita Empoli Ovest
alla rotonda a destra _ allo stop a sinistra
semafoto a dritto _ seconda strada sulla destra

link:

http://www.gruff.it/ – sito ufficiale di Gruffetti