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

[FunkDoc1112]

just a fan of the music lol

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

It was always strenuous after the lawsuit, but a lot of cats were chopping stuff enough that they wouldn't clear it. Promo and RZA got a ton of uncleared stuff. But then when people like Swizz Beatz came around with that Casio bullshyt people realized that was easier than playing Russian Roulette with samples. Hell even Just Blaze was a Swizz copycat when he first got in the game before Bink gave him the sampling blueprint (pun somewhat intended lol)

Truth be told, I've never really fukked with the synthesized sound aside from Funky West Coast shyt and old school southern rap. A lot of those East Coast beats with synths were super cheap sounding in the late 90s. I appreciate a studio like Top Dawg or a producer like Ski who don't sample but work with real bands and instruments to get that organic sound.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

just a fan of the music lol

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

I'm actually not sure about the 90's.

I actually think it's better now than it was in the 00's though. I mean there are definitely lawsuits and stuff, but 2 big factor have come together this decade that no one really talks about. One factor is just the huge decline in sales, and artists are making less money. The other factor is a lot of artists that are popular to sample (from the 60's and 70's especially) are making less money on their back catalogue, because even millennials that were interested in their music are starting to get into their 30's now and aren't spending money on music like they did in the 00's. As a result, a lot of estates are really happy to see their music getting sampled because they're seeing boosts on their numbers when people find out what the sample was. A lot of kids are being introduced to older artist's catalogues through sampling, and some old-timers are really appreciating that now that a lot of their royalty checks are looking smaller.

Honestly there's more sampled hip-hop in the 2010's than there was in the 00's.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

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

This.

I tried watching his Red Bull Music Academy lecture and could barely get through it. Yeah, he hates talking. I think he's got a house phone. Even then I'm sure he rarely answers it. I know Alc does have a cell phone but if know him and you wanna talk to him it's probably best to just show up at his house. Most of these dudes hate talking to people.

Oh No seems like one of the weirdest. Does this look like a dude that makes it outside? His setup is mad grimy too.Dude is using his thigh as a mouse pad

 

[Amor fati]

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.


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

You make a good point, another weird guy that comes to mind is DJ Quik.

 

[Vandelay]

I'm about to listen to Yuji Ohno's whole catalog for samples

Japanese do jazz and RnB well.

 

[Zero]

^ 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.

What is your standard because Alchemist is absolute trash on the mic

 

[IntellectualViolence]

Obscure records and records in the public domain. He is not pulling a Puff and sampling hit records.

 

[Awesome Wells]

He's been using a lot of foreign shyt lately from the 50's and 60's, some 70's. A lot of those labels aren't even around anymore, so it's easier to flip those samples and let them rock without worrying about people coming for a cut. A lot of his stuff is also used for mixtapes, so as long as he's not trying to sell anything, they can't cite him for trying to profit from the work. He spoke on this before. He's definitely clearing the bigger samples, but he's operating on the same flow as a lot of producers did in the early 90's after the Biz debacle. You clear the samples that you have to, and let the rest of them fly.

Madlib is another one that's been doing the same for years.

 

[ShaDynasty]

What is your standard because Alchemist is absolute trash on the mic

He can stay on beat and he doesn't have the voice of Gilbert Gottfried. His lyrics are solid although generic. I'd put him right in the middle on the scale of rap skill.

He's not Nas, he's also not absolute trash - you can look through a few dozen random soundcloud rappers music if you want proof that the bottom is waaaay lower.

 

[Awesome Wells]

just a fan of the music lol

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

In the 90's, after the Biz situation, labels and publishing houses wouldn't even do business with a lot of rappers unless they cleared samples and showed proof. Producers were quitting the business because they were scared of being sued. Up until '91, dudes were sampling whatever they wanted and not clearing anything. So Hip Hop saw a lot of new producers who relied on samples and would loop everything and not have to pay on any of it. The Turtles came for De La for like $1.7M, for a chop that was only a few seconds long, right before the Biz case. And that's when everything started to change. They would pull your whole album from the shelves if you didn't clear shyt. And then they'd sue the label too. So a lot of artists ended up getting dropped by labels because they owed the label for the suit. The 90's were wild, because everything was sample-driven back then, and everyone had to adjust to the changes and learn how to either get around them, or start working with the original artists on splits for royalties. Which meant way less money for the labels and artists, in the end.

 

[Greenhornet]

Well coli scholars, let me know how you upload to streaming sites without clearing samples
because as soon as you submit any tracks, they immediately want paperwork before its uploaded to all of the main apps
What is the work around to that?

 

[Tribal Outkast]

One of the goats

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Well coli scholars, let me know how you upload to streaming sites without clearing samples
because as soon as you submit any tracks, they immediately want paperwork before its uploaded to all of the main apps
What is the work around to that?

Yeah the notion that you have to profit on something to have to clear a sample isn’t true.

I got out of the game before SoundCloud. I wish I could help man.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

He can stay on beat and he doesn't have the voice of Gilbert Gottfried. His lyrics are solid although generic. I'd put him right in the middle on the scale of rap skill.

He's not Nas, he's also not absolute trash - you can look through a few dozen random soundcloud rappers music if you want proof that the bottom is waaaay lower.

There are three instances where I like Al rapping in small doses. When he’s saying something heartfelt. When he’s telling a story/concept track. And most importantly, when he’s rapping in his normal voice.

He had this thing he did (especially on tracks with Prodigy, Havoc, Twins, and often with Oh No) where he sort of takes on this exaggerated violent crazy person persona. There’s often Looney Tunes levels of exaggerated violence and he uses a really fake ultra deep voice.

Its a stylistic choice and honestly (I might make a thread on this) a lot of producer rappers do this.

Madlib has the Quasimoto alter ego. Dilla used to refer to his rapping persona as n—- man. 9th Wonder has his 9thmatic persona. Pharrell has the Skateboard P rapping persona. Alc has a rapping alter ego but just no name for it. So does Nottz by the way.

Anyways, I like Al’s raps much more when he’s not rapping like the long lost 3rd member of Mobb Deep on PCP.

 

[ShaDynasty]

Some of his verses on the gangrene stuff are pretty dope.

Also Different Worlds is an all time Hip Hop classic. The concept and execution of that record was perfect.