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Shared DNA in Music

(pudding.cool)
248 points ksampath02 | 3 comments | 01 Apr 25 21:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.633s | source
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crawsome ◴[02 Apr 25 03:23 UTC] No.43553354[source]▶
Why is it "Shared DNA" if all rappers do is sample and totally rip-off music (Logos, artist names etc) before them?

The concept of "DNA" with music goes much deeper than some lucky nobody who sampled someone's life work so they could pollute it with lowest common denominator poetry and a Roland Drum Machine.

I submit that oogling over people who steal music by sampling is not that deep, and there's deeper methods of musical analysis than "This band sampled this beat, this means they're a natural progression of art".

Every example I skimmed over was some hiphop artist who ripped off music before them.

Other artists have some shame and just copy chord progressions, but rappers went so far to just completely steal parts of the song.

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1. emmelaich ◴[02 Apr 25 06:26 UTC] No.43554150[source]▶
The very first rap/hip-hop song, Rapper's Delight is itself ... inspired by previous a song or two.

But that's ok, since they absolutely added improvements.

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2. Applejinx ◴[02 Apr 25 11:44 UTC] No.43555672[source]▶
The 'haha! ha!' from Genesis's 'Mama' is quite literally taken out of 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (the first rap hit song): I just think it's neat Genesis were listening to that. They don't seem like they'd be listening to rap and yet it's well documented in their own words that they'd not only heard it, but were that into it that they kept sticking that riff in 'Mama' and it stuck.
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3. abap_rocky ◴[02 Apr 25 13:48 UTC] No.43556652[source]▶
I'm glad you mentioned Genesis because they're the subject of one of my favorite samples. OutKast's famous track "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" contains a sample from Genesis's "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" and upon learning this, I just thought it was so cool that OutKast listened to Peter-Gabriel-era Genesis when Genesis was very much a progressive rock band rather than the pop powerhouse most know them as today.