Sample Based Hip Hop: De La Soul

Sample Based Hip Hop: De La Soul

Introduction to De La Soul

  • De La Soul emerged as a prominent group in the late 1980s known for their sampling techniques.
  • Members included:
    • Poznas
    • Trugoy the Dove
    • Maseo
    • Producer: Prince Paul

First Album: Three Feet High and Rising

  • Release Year: 1989
  • Title Origin: A play on Johnny Cash's song, Five Feet High and Rising (1974).

Sampling Techniques

  • De La Soul was known for their generous use of sampling, incorporating sounds from:
    • Funk
    • Soul
    • Hip Hop
    • Country
    • Stand-Up Comedy
    • Pop
    • Jazz
    • Foreign Language Instruction Records
  • Artists frequently sampled included:
    • Kraftwerk
    • Sly and the Family Stone
    • The Monkees
    • Led Zeppelin
    • Funkadelic
    • Wilson Pickett
  • The result was a "sonic blender" creating a completely new sound from fragments of various recordings.

Notable Song: "Three is the Magic Number"

  • Features layered drum samples from Led Zeppelin's The Crunch (1973) and instrument samples from artists such as:
    • Cyll Johnson
    • James Brown
    • The Fatback Band
  • Incorporation of diverse sources for voice and lyrics included:
    • Johnny Cash
    • Eddie Murphy's Stand-Up
    • 1940s Radio Advertisements
    • Children’s Television Show: Schoolhouse Rock
  • Lyrics Theme: Each member asserts that "three is the magic number" using various pieces of evidence, including the composition of the group itself (three rappers).

Distinctive Style

  • De La Soul's lyrics often revolved around offbeat and quirky themes.
  • Their sampling and lyrical style garnered them recognition as one of the distinctive hip hop groups in the late 1980s.
  • Critic Robert Christgau commented on their influence, calling De La Soul's music a new wave compared to Public Enemy's punk approach.

Decline of Sample-Based Music

  • The sample-based sound popularized by De La Soul, Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy faced challenges as hip hop grew in commercial viability.
  • Record companies became stricter on sample licensing, resulting in:
    • Lawsuits for unlicensed use of samples.
    • Many early albums either lacked sample licenses or only secured a few.
  • Notable cases:
    • De La Soul and the Beastie Boys faced lawsuits leading to out-of-court settlements for undisclosed amounts.

Financial Implications and Change in Style

  • By the early 1990s, licensing costs rendered it financially impractical to produce albums like:
    • Fear of a Black Planet
    • Paul's Boutique
    • Three Feet High and Rising
  • Musicians had to adapt; consequently, styles shifted toward fewer samples in their music as the decade progressed.

Conclusion

  • The sampling practices of groups like De La Soul propelled the evolution of hip hop but faced drastic limitations due to financial and legal constraints as the music industry transformed in the 1990s.