two new hip-hop releases - Kanye West and Talib Kweli

[nobody]

I think you have to go back to the origins of sampling to get an idea of its importance to hip hop. It evolved when you ended up with DJ parties where people would rap over instrumental tunes...similar to what was already happening with DJs in Jamaica where the soundsystem guys would talk over the instrumental B sides of records to make new songs. (In fact, early hip hop pioneer Kool Herc was actually a Jamaican who relocated to the Bronx and brought this concept with him.) Hip Hop took things a step further by creating whole new songs out of snippets of songs or multiple songs strung together. It was a whole culture where guys didn't generally have funds for a whole band full of instruments, but they had old turntable lying around and cold hook up a mixer and throw a big party. You had people with limited resources doing something creative with what they had.

Sure, there are arguments that it is wrong, although from the business end things have evolved to where all the samples on any mainstream release is paid for and approved by the owner of the song. And, it can be a cheap way to drive a hit or two. But, examples abound of how artists have used sampling creatively, to the point where the original samples are barely recognizable...things like the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique or stuff by DJ Shadow and others.

I should also mention that there are still plenty of hip hop groups that either play their own stuff or have original music created for them to use in making music. In fact, with the high cost of using samples nowadays, it's probably more common for an artist to use music specifically designed to be used as a sample or to create original music than use a popular song to sample anyway.

[DariusNYC]

I don't have the new Kanye yet, but I have always found College Dropout to be much more likeable than Late Registration (even though the latter album is more "impressive") and I have some expectation that this will continue with his new one -- although of course I will reserve judgment until I hear it.

What is it about great or important artists before they know, or it is univerally acknowledged, they are great or important, that just makes their earlier stuff better, or at least more endearing (or at the very least less pretentious)? I was reading a Phillip Roth novel from a few years back (Human Stain), thinking fondly back to his less pretentious early novels (Goodbye Columbus, e.g.), and thinking the same thing (not that I'm trying to compare someone with three albums to Phillip Roth).

[Rae]

Okay, I revise my earlier statements to say that "Good Life" is catchy as hell. But I haven't decided whether that's due to Kanye or just T-Pain.

~Rae

[jrhymeammo]

Earlier this week, I finally purchased :
I'll Sleep when you are Dead by EL-P.
If you think every hiphop is about mediocre beats and WhoddyHooo!!!(whatever that is...) then you havent heard this one. Superb lyric and depths of beats. I can't remember the last time I spun the same HH disc over and over again.

Hey Rae, you should go snag a copy if you are ready to step up from Kanye.

Regards,