Hip-Hop’s Origins: The Art of Sampling, Genre-Mixing and Cultural Politics

By Isabella Kooch

In 1973 The Incredible Bongo Band created “Apache,” still considered a well-known classic that helped initiate the beginning of sampling within Hip-Hop. It wasn’t until Kool Herc, a famous DJ from the Bronx, found the track while shuffling through bins in a local record shop and decided to twist the classic jazzy bongo instrumental into a more party-centric style beat. “Apache” has since been used in famous songs from Nas’ “Make You Look,” (2002) to Amy Winehouse’s “In My Bed” (2003). The traction that brewed from this phenomenon was no surprise—“Apache” was the catalyst to a movement of genre-mixing and sampling. 

Artists take inspiration from others’ work to create their own pieces, in turn granting artists the ability to create their own narrative based on personal experiences with influence from the previously made story by another artist, or choosing to continue with the initial influence the previous artist used. 

One sample that always catches my attention is “Walk on the Wild Side” (1972) from The Velvet Underground’s lead singer, Lou Reed. The song was quite progressive for the time—it defied the conservative stereotypes around sexuality and focused on the life of a transgender woman. Questionable lyrics are embedded throughout the song like referring to POC Women as “colored girls”. This song has been sampled 27 times since its release, the first being A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” (1990), which featured a more party-centric tone that carried on the progressive legacy. Within the song, Quest makes several references to society, though the meaning of both don’t correspond beyond the instrumental gateway. For example, Quest references David Dinkins, the first Black mayor of New York City, which explains citizens’ needs for representation in efforts to assist oppressive and systemic issues occurring within the city during the ’90s. This was also a time where Hip-Hop musicians were inspired by the turn of this genre in the 80s: Musicians like GrandMaster Flash who released “The Message,” in 1982, gave Black musicians a voice by describing the Blaack community’s perspectives and arguments in response to what white broadcasters were reporting on the news. This provided a more political and social commentary over a beat  used more traditionally as a party-centric sound. 

Sampling and genre-mixing is still present today. There’s no doubt Kanye “Ye” West has some of the music industry’s most iconic uses of samples in his discography. Although sampling allows artists to spark new ideas from previous stories, there is controversy within this idea as well. Ye’s girl problem-esque song “Blood on the Leaves” (2013) samples Nina Simone‘s cover (TKyear) of Billie Holiday‘s “Strange Fruit” (1965), though he remixes Holiday’s original metaphor about horrific acts of lynching and racial violence into lyrics about money, naked girls, and drugs. Some listeners found the use of this sample offensive as many would argue Simone’s vulnerability and metaphorical truth were robbed, but just as many agree with the usage because Ye’s taking his own experiences with cultural struggles to produce an additive to “Strange Fruit,” rather than muddle the original meaning of the song altogether. This sparked debate about what cultural politics and struggles truly are, and how they can be used. 

Hip-Hop artists continue to defy the odds by using different genres to promote their own struggles and by utilizing their voice and art to promote situations of cultural struggles and politics. Of course, there are iconic instrumentals like Mac Miller’s “Diablo” (2014), who sampled Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s “In A Sentimental Mood” (1963), or Tarika Blue’s “Dreamflower” (1977) that turned into Eryah Badu’s iconic “Didn’t Cha Know” (2000). 

Art is meant to be defined by personal experience—no two people will see the same thing because personal experience has molded both the viewer and the creator into who they are. Sampling is a wonderful way to add on to a previous experience, develop one’s own, or work together through personal cultural experiences.