Monday, Aug. 11 is National Hip-Hop Celebration Day. It recognizes a genre that is innovative, expansive and built upon that which came before it.
Hip-hop originated during dance parties in the Bronx and Brooklyn in the 1970s. High school kids would meet in community centers and play funk, soul, R&B and other grooves from their parents' record collections, says Kiran Vedula. He's a Milwaukee musician, producer and educator through efforts like Hip Hop DNA and Flutes at Dawn.
LISTEN: Milwaukee's Hip Hop DNA is about beats, rhymes, and cross-cultural understanding
In 1973, at a back-to-school party, 16-year-old DJ Kool Herc first used a merry-go-round technique by which he took two records and extended the break — a drum section of a record that usually got the crowd the most hyped.
"So while the break is playing on the first record as it's coming to an end, you can quickly switch over and play the same break on the other record," says Vedula. "So it's kind of extending that drum break."
In the decades that have passed, DJs and producers have innovated in other ways, including by using drum machines and samplers.
Vedula explains that you can follow a sample through the generations.
1. Baby This Love I have by Minnie Riperton (1975)
2. Check the Rhime by A Tribe Called Quest (1991)
3. K.O.S. (Determination) by Black Star (1998)
And sometimes samples can show up in pop music:
4. Candy Rain by Soul for Real (1994)
Another example is the guitar riff and vocals from an Aretha Franklin track.
1. One Step Ahead by Aretha Franklin (1965)
2. Ms. Fat Booty by Mos Def (1999)
3. Surround Sound by JID (feat. 21 Savage and Baby Tate) (2022)
If someone's not necessarily schooled in hip-hop, Vedula says you can check out the "Grand Master of Sampling," a producer by the name of J Dilla. He had a prolific but short career, dying of cardiac arrest in 2006 at the age of 32.
"So if you look up J Dilla's music — and he's produced for so many classic artists, including Mos Def and A Tribe Called Quest and some of the other artists that we mentioned — that's a great starting point to hear the range of sounds that we get out of samples," notes Vedula.
