Scratch Video a mutant hybrid of scratch DJ music and guerrilla TV

scratchvideo/evolution/hiphop_and_electronicmusic/sampling

Sampling is copying content to use in a new context. The evolution of both hip hop and electronic music involved DJs and producers who were no longer just listening to music, but searching for potential new sounds to work with. Old records became food for sample hungry DJs.

When early rap was recorded in studio, there were no DJs involved: musicians were brought in to play the backing tracks underneath the rapping of MCs. Hip hop was reaching a wider audience but was distancing itself from its roots: using two turntables to make a beat. The group Run-DMC changed all of this when they used a scratchy sample directly from vinyl in their track Peter Piper. Using a sample directly from another record was violating copyright legislation and this growing practice would eventually end up in court with a lawsuit against the group De La Soul.

"Tommy Boy Records and De La Soul found problems with the first album's (3 Feet High and Rising) cavalier approach to sampling when The Turtles sued for $1.1 million for the unauthorized use of a looped section from their 1969 track 'You Showed Me'. The lawsuit was settled out of court for a sum said to be in the 'the low 5 figures' but companies were getting less inclined to take chances on infringing copyright." (Toop 191)

When De La Soul released their next album, De La Soul is Dead, they paid for all of the samples and breakbeats they used. U.S. District Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy quoted "thou shall not steal" in his decision against rapper Biz Markie in a 1991 landmark case which challenged copyright law. His lawyers had tried to apply the "fair use" clause, which makes it legal to use copyrighted material if it is for educational purposes, for a parody, or as an aid in commentary. (Horwitz 85)

Copyright 2000© Hart Snider