How The F*** Does Alchemist Dodge Sample Clearances?

[FunkDoc1112]

Other artists don't want cursing in the song. I know one of the Isley Bros is cool with it and if you approach him it's all good, but not as much with the others.

Jay-Z - Streets Is Watching is an odd example of this...the original artist would only clear it if the cursing was censored...yet that same song was also sampled and cleared on Emimen - My Name Is a year later

 

[Magnum P.I.M.P.]

Funny about Alc and other skilled producers in general (though I’ve never met Alc), but when you watch him and listen to him on ‘fukk That’s Delicious’ or any tv show/interview, etcetera, he’s always so bland and uninteresting. Guess that’s why he can’t rap for shyt but still does his thing in the studio behind the boards. Just goes to show that personality doesn’t mean shyt when you dedicate yourself to your craft. He’s a real blue collar gangster on the boards. Grinding every single day.

 

[ShaDynasty]

^ Hard work pays off so I take no days off.

That being said, when he does rap, he doesn't embarass himself. He's better than most of the guys who do it full time.

 

[I love Latina women]

He sampling a lot of obscure music and none of the songs are popular singles.

 

[WhiteDawg3000]

Side note, I peeped that Russian Roulette album of his, when it dropped, IMHO,
damn near unlistenable to me, in other words; I wasn't feelin it... AT ALL.

 

[Yoda]

Side note, I peeped that Russian Roulette album of his, when it dropped, IMHO,
damn near unlistenable to me, in other words; I wasn't feelin it... AT ALL.

Well I'm not feeling this pizza I just ate at 5 a.m.
I'm gonna a vomit in a minute
So what do u think of that?

What I'm saying is, flukk you. Alc dont know how to drop wack shyt....its up to the listener to clean the ear wax and LISTEN to the production.

 

[Magnum P.I.M.P.]

^ Hard work pays off so I take no days off.

That being said, when he does rap, he doesn't embarass himself. He's better than most of the guys who do it full time.

Ehh... He sucks as a rapper. But he makes good beats.

 

[u mad son?]

The short answer is that he often doesn't.

Also it's not a producer or beatmaker's responsibility to do this. He makes the beat. It's on the artist and the label to clear the sample. The producer never has to clear any samples unless it's their project. Cool producers keep track of what they sampled to help and artist and their team out, though in case they do want t clear it.

Some of the info in here is legit and some is way off base re: Alchemist and Madlib too.

So on the projects they actually try to get samples cleared, they very often don't. The last few joints Alc bothered to clear through TDE, he had some that where they had to pay 100% of the publishing to the sample holder, and that's what happened with Brreak The Bank, but he and Q took the L on that because they wanted people to hear the song. Other sample holders straight up said "you can't use the beat." That's what happened with Alc on Hoover Street for the same Q album.

And on the Bandana album, Gibbs and Madlib had some songs that didn't get cleared as well as some sample holders that also wanted 100% of the publishing. John Gotti Karate was a song everyone wanted to hear and that didn't get cleared at all. BTW I'm very surprised they even got the Bandana samples cleared officially and cleanly.

A lot of stuff you don't hear about is shyt they don't bother to get cleared. For example, Benny released Plugs I Met for a few hundred copies on CD. That's it. Besides that it's streaming numbers. Assuming whoever Alc sampled even finds out about it, it's not even worth the lawyer fees for them to sue. They could reach out and ask for a little cash under the table, and that does happen from time to time.

Also, Alc and Madlib sample more obscure shyt these days. They aren't looping up Thriller by MJ. Alc is sampled Japanese jazz fusion records and Hungarian prog rock. Madlib has been in foreign underground vinyl crates for a long time.

Alc used to dice and chop up more samples and now does collage more loops on top of each other, but for the most part they're foreign and rare loops, and they're going on projects that are selling small quantities of vinyl with high profit margins, but not a high dollar value at the end of the day worth pursuing for anyone that may realize they've been sampled.

Again, a lot of the shyt that Alc and Madlib sample is only obvious when you go to Whosampled afterwards and hear it. But most Japanese jazz fusion artists from the 70's and 80's are not streaming Yacht Rock 2 in 2019 to see if they got sampled or not. And Alc still throws out some crazy chops that are hard to find, although his current phase definitely is more multi-layers of loops like you said.

And check 1st Infantry. Most of that shyt is chopped up real good, but the label only had to clear like 3 samples for that entire project.

Salute, dope post

 

[u mad son?]

Funny about Alc and other skilled producers in general (though I’ve never met Alc), but when you watch him and listen to him on ‘fukk That’s Delicious’ or any tv show/interview, etcetera, he’s always so bland and uninteresting. Guess that’s why he can’t rap for shyt but still does his thing in the studio behind the boards. Just goes to show that personality doesn’t mean shyt when you dedicate yourself to your craft. He’s a real blue collar gangster on the boards. Grinding every single day.

lol yeah, its probably because he lives his life indoors behind computer screens for the most part. Heard from multiple rappers that the dude doesnt even eat, just drinks coffee and smokes weed

 

[Amor fati]

Let him go after a marvin joint. Or a prince joint. See how fast they eat his ass up. He and madlib find that heat deep in the crates.

Alc dope tho. A legend. Who cares

2Pac and Mobb Deep both sampled directly Prince's If I Was Your Girlfriend and nothing happened.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I assume you work in the industry?

I used to be an A&R for an indie label for most of the 00's. Been out of the game for a little while though. You?

Good posts BTW

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Funny about Alc and other skilled producers in general (though I’ve never met Alc), but when you watch him and listen to him on ‘fukk That’s Delicious’ or any tv show/interview, etcetera, he’s always so bland and uninteresting. Guess that’s why he can’t rap for shyt but still does his thing in the studio behind the boards. Just goes to show that personality doesn’t mean shyt when you dedicate yourself to your craft. He’s a real blue collar gangster on the boards. Grinding every single day.

lol yeah, its probably because he lives his life indoors behind computer screens for the most part. Heard from multiple rappers that the dude doesnt even eat, just drinks coffee and smokes weed

This is all generally true. Not to be a dikk because I'm a nerd about production, but most of the dudes that are actually 24/7 grinding at beats and some of our favorite producers tend to be really eccentric and strange, or have weird and quirky personalities. Most of them are more introverted in the most introverted people you know. That or they're kind of bland and just not interested in anything else besides music, and it's hard to talk with them about much else. Like, most of the people that like Madlib or Alchemist would get really tired of it if they had to hang out with them for more than day. They'd need a break for sure. It ends up being this weird voyeuristic thing where you're just watching an animal in their natural habitat or some shyt and you end up feeling like you're looking in an aquarium or something.

When I lived with Khrysis making beats was really 95% of his focus. I mean he'd try to hook up with chicks after live shows and stuff, but in general anytime people were over and shooting the shyt or just chilling, he was plugged in upstairs making beats. I want to be real careful to throw the "spectrum" word around, because I think it gets overused, but a lot of producers that stay in the crates and on the pads non-stop, and never come up for air...IMHO if they're not on the spectrum, they definitely have something different going on upstairs than most of the population. I love beats, and for a civilian I think I like being in the studio, but I used to get exhausted always having to be in the studio. We'd hit like 36 hours and I'd be going fukking nuts bouncing off the walls ready to leave for a couple days and Khrysis would just be getting settled in and warmed up.

And also, many of the producers that seem more social and more balanced in life still have just managed to hide some of those weird ass tendencies. And some of them do a decent job. Guys like 9th, Tip, and Pharrell come to mind. But if you get with them in the studio in their space then some of their eccentricities will start to creep out.

@Magnum P.I.M.P. EDIT: The funny thing about Al's rapping is he used to be an English major I think, and you can tell. Some of his storytelling verses are incredibly vivid, and the ones that aren't still often have a lot of clever wordplay. His delivery just often misses the mark entirely for me. He does a few verses that I like though. But not a ton.

Side note, I peeped that Russian Roulette album of his, when it dropped, IMHO,
damn near unlistenable to me, in other words; I wasn't feelin it... AT ALL.

It's not my favorite either. I tried to get into it too.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Let him go after a marvin joint. Or a prince joint. See how fast they eat his ass up. He and madlib find that heat deep in the crates.

Alc dope tho. A legend. Who cares

Dope post, and I get your point but in my experience and from stories I hear, Marvin's estate seems to be pretty cool and very reasonable to deal with (obviously not counting the Blurred Lines joint).

I'm not sure about Prince, but I know Big Pooh and Black Milk did an entire project with all Purple Rain samples, and I can't remember if Prince went after them or not. I don't think he did but it was a mixtape and probably not worth it anyways.

 

[Supa]

This is all generally true. Not to be a dikk because I'm a nerd about production, but most of the dudes that are actually 24/7 grinding at beats and some of our favorite producers tend to be really eccentric and strange, or have weird and quirky personalities. Most of them are more introverted in the most introverted people you know. That or they're kind of bland and just not interested in anything else besides music, and it's hard to talk with them about much else. Like, most of the people that like Madlib or Alchemist would get really tired of it if they had to hang out with them for more than day. They'd need a break for sure. It ends up being this weird voyeuristic thing where you're just watching an animal in their natural habitat or some shyt and you end up feeling like you're looking in an aquarium or something.

Madlib sounds like a real strange individual. Watching his interviews is a chore because he doesn't seem to enjoy talking or articulating his points. He doesn't even own a cell phone

 

[Alvin]

I used to be an A&R for an indie label for most of the 00's. Been out of the game for a little while though. You?

Good posts BTW

just a fan of the music lol

It seems sampling is more strenuous nowadays with lawsuits, was it like this in the 90s?