FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
Japanese Jazz is the fukking truth.If nikkaz only knew about that Japanese heat
How The F*** Does Alchemist Dodge Sample Clearances?
- Thread starter u mad son?
- Start date
bigdaddy88
The King Of Power
Unless i misunderstand its the label and the rapper's responsibility to clear the sample. I could be wrong
Poetical Poltergeist
Precise and cold hearted
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
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.
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.
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TheDarceKnight
Veteran
One other very important detail is that a lot of sample holders are getting to an age where they're happy to let their music be sampled because it brings a new audience to their music and can help spark new interest in their catalogue from a new and younger audience. 9th Wonder for example has gotten calls from the kids of some famous Motown singers that have said, "Since you sampled my dad's song for this track, his streaming numbers for that song and that album are up. We really appreciate it, and if you sample us again could you just list my dad as a co-producer?"
That's what happened with this joint.
Also, if you sample you start to learn what is and isn't cool. For example Bob James is usually cool with being sampled and you can loop it, chop it, whatever, as long as the tempo of the record isn't fukked with. He doesn't like the tempo being sped up or slowed down. You'll notice most Nautilus samples that were actually cleared by him don't have the tempo drastically altered.
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.
Al and Madlib are also legit friends with a lot of the cats they sampled. Madlib is friends with Ayalew Mesfin, who he has sampled quite a bit. Alchemist is friends with one of the Novalis cats that he sampled a lot from in the early 2010s, and also I think the Japanese guy he sampled for Fork in the Pot. So these producers also make sure to try and build some relationships with people that they sample.
Finally, sometimes they sample from pre-made music that was designed for sampling. Oh No and Alc did that for the Grand Theft Auto soundtrack. A bunch of people made music designed for them to sample from.
That's what happened with this joint.
Also, if you sample you start to learn what is and isn't cool. For example Bob James is usually cool with being sampled and you can loop it, chop it, whatever, as long as the tempo of the record isn't fukked with. He doesn't like the tempo being sped up or slowed down. You'll notice most Nautilus samples that were actually cleared by him don't have the tempo drastically altered.
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.
Al and Madlib are also legit friends with a lot of the cats they sampled. Madlib is friends with Ayalew Mesfin, who he has sampled quite a bit. Alchemist is friends with one of the Novalis cats that he sampled a lot from in the early 2010s, and also I think the Japanese guy he sampled for Fork in the Pot. So these producers also make sure to try and build some relationships with people that they sample.
Finally, sometimes they sample from pre-made music that was designed for sampling. Oh No and Alc did that for the Grand Theft Auto soundtrack. A bunch of people made music designed for them to sample from.
he samples from obscure records not from these parts but from area's in easdtern europe & russia that's pretty much undiscovered.
he is a collector by nature.
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
You are not wrong. I worked on The Minstrel Show for Little Brother, and we had one person on Atlantic who got paid a great salary just to get all the samples cleared for that album. It was not on 9th Wonder or Khrysis to clear any of their work on there. The bytch of the sample to clear on that album was the Jackson 5 sample that Khrysis used on Watch Me. Same joint Pun sampled for You Ain't a Killer.Unless i misunderstand its the label and the rapper's responsibility to clear the sample. I could be wrong
That being said, 9th did do a cool thing for that album, which will lead me back to Alc and Madlib. 9th and LB for TMS actually wrote letters to everyone they sampled, telling them why they did so, and asked them personally if it was cool. it helped the person clearing the samples a lot, and I'm not sure if some of the samples would've been cleared if they didn't do that.
So that's another thing. Sometimes all you gotta do is ask. I know Alc, Madlib, Nottz, Black Milk, and a few others sometimes just straight up reach out to the artist they sampled if they think it's an important record and asked heart to heart if it's cool and what it would take to get the sample cleared. Some people surprisingly just go, "fukk it. Use it. I don't mind. Just make it sound funky."
You'd be surprised....
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TheDarceKnight
Veteran
Some shyt is very diced up.
There's stuff from a lot of our favorite producers that also sounds like loops that aren't. Everyone thought 9th Wonder's Threat beat was a loop and not only was it a chop but it's a very difficult chop and very hard to recreate even if you know what part of the song to use.
All producer's stuff can get repetitive. But for example Scottie Pippens by Al's is 2 or 3 loops that make up the melody of the song layered on top of each other. It's crazy that they don't clash with each other and make sense musically. Pete Rock was the OG master at this.
I do agree that Al absolutely has at least a couple lazy loops every year though that gets props because of his name and not because they're dope loops.
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
Me too breh. He broke out the ASR-10 for Evidence for the 1st time in 5 years or so on this and IMO you can tell.Thread makes me miss the old ASR 10 Alchemist sound
This joint is chopped up lovely too
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
Wow....I never would've guessed the joint that Daringer used this for for would've been taken from a record like this.
I assume you work in the industry?
