Re: Fujees sampling ABBA

Michael Bolotin (mlb6c@server1.mail.virginia.edu)
Sat, 8 Feb 1997 18:04:08 -0500 ()


On Sat, 08 Feb 1997 16:24:40 -0400 (EDT)
Zachary.Cutler@oberlin.edu wrote:

>
> I don't think you guys are really being fair. Personally, I don't think
> the Fugees are all that. However, to say that they only know how to rap
> is untrue. I think it's Wyclef who plays guitar and keyboards for the
> band, and isn't all too bad at playing. Additionally, I know one of them
> (I think Wyclef again) is a talented remixer, retracking all his stuff
> with live instrumentation.
>
> Also, although I do agree the Fugees sometimes sample a bit too
> liberally, I don't think that invalidates them. Rapper's Delight,
> considered to be the second rap record, (The Fatback Band beating them by
> a week...) uses Chic's "Good Times" completely undisguised. The tradition
> of recontextualizing older music isn't a new one in african-american
> music, either. When Charlie Parker reworked "How High The Moon," or
> completely distorted "My Favorite Things," he was putting the music in a
> new context that forced you to re-interpret it as a juxtaposition to the
> the original composition. Similarly, when the Fugees do Bob Marley or
> Roberta Flack, or when US3 uses "Song For My Father," the music becomes a
> completely new vehicle for the artist. Although the Fugees may uses
> easily recognizable resources for their music, people often don't notice
> the more obscure music used in hip-hop used to as obvious an extent.
> Coolio is public Enemy #1 in this area - not that I dislike coolio. But
> he does completely use old funk songs as simple loops in his music:
> Lakeside's "Fantastic Voyage," Kool and the Gang's "Too Hot," etc.
>
> Anyway, I've said enough. Forgive me, but i just feel it's easier to get
> wrapped up in the technicallity of the music than try to really
> *understand* it. Off the soapbox, back on the dancefloor for me...
>
> Peace always -
>
> Z-Love
> Jazz/Funk director WOBC
>

I totally agree with you on this issue. Hip-hop is an art of musical
tinkering. It is cool to see how hip-hop musicians interpret and recreate
classics. In my personal opinion, the music sampled from is always the
original, and is better than that music which uses the samples.