Hip-Hop Pedagogy as Production Practice: Reverse-Engineering

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Hip-Hop Pedagogy as Production Practice:

Reverse-Engineering the Sample-Based Aesthetic

Mike Exarchos (a.k.a. Stereo Mike) | London College of Music (University of West London)

Introduction

Hip-hop

production practice contains a rich matrix of creative methods within its

paradigm, which have the potential to inform and inspire music production pedagogy in higher

education. The techno-artistic trajectory of rap production consists of numerous phases that may

involve live performance, recording, sampling, synthesis, programming, mixing and mastering.

Furthermore, it is not rare for self-contained processes—such as interpolation

and the creation of

content for sampling—to be actualized as developmental phases within the larger production

trajectory. The well-documented issues affecting phonographic sampling have given rise to

alternative practices, inviting live instrumental musicianship within hip-hop music-making, but

also a dependence on synthesized sonics (often as signifiers of geographical and stylistic

divergence). As a consequence, contemporary hip-hop production—arguably more than any other

commercial music-making form—can provide a dynamic, applied context for the exploration,

implementation, interplay and interaction of most phonographic stages conceived of and

practiced within popular music production. This is not to say that other musics do not deploy

multiple methods within their production processes, or that Hip-Hop exemplifies a sole case of

multi-layered—or bricolage—production. After all, many popular musics have borrowed from

hip-hop practices, and the rap production paradigm can be traced outside of strict stylistic barriers

The terms ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘Rap’ will be used interchangeably throughout the paper, referring to the

musical genre, outputs and practices associated with hip-hop culture and art. To orientate the reader, the

paper will use capitalization when referring to Hip-Hop and Rap as a musical genre (noun), and hip-hop

and rap in lower case when the terms are used as adjectives describing activities related to and deriving

from these.

Interpolation refers to the studio re-creation of the performances and sonics of an existing recording,

which avoids breaching mechanical (phonographic) copyright, whilst still in use of the original

composition.

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Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

(a fact that widens its appeal and potential as a driver for pedagogical design). But Hip-Hop

offers a hybrid production vehicle par excellence, both acoustic and electronic, performed and

programmed, modern and vintage.

This paper explores the space between these apparent polarities designating a field of

creative opportunities, in order to fuel pedagogical design, explore creative problems (for

academics and students alike) and locate potential synergies in complimentary fields of popular

music curricula that may benefit from further integration. The theorizing and design

extrapolations are inspired by my parallel careers as academic and rap practitioner. On the one

hand, these reflect my contribution to numerous programme and module designs in the areas of

music production, technology, composition, performance and synthesis; and on the other hand,

they reflect my experiences as a self-producing hip-hop artist spanning a ten-year career, initially

independently, for the most part signed to a major label, and currently deploying creative practice

as professional context for doctoral research. The investigation aims at enriching curricula with

aspects of scholarship acquired through these experiences, infusing music production teaching

methods with knowledge gained from real-world hip-hop making practices, whilst exploring the

creative and pedagogical potential in rap production curricula.

The questions, therefore, guiding the rest of this paper are as follows. What aspects of

contemporary music production could be addressed which are now under-represented in higher

education? What are some of the unique synergies that can be discovered converging live

performance, the sample-based process, and various notions of ‘composition’ as encompassed

within the hip-hop paradigm?

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Sampling: facing the music

At the heart of hip-hop music production lies sampling, both as aesthetic ideal and

problematic practice. Much has been written about sampling as composition (Demers 2003;

Harkins 2008, 2010; Moorefield 2005; Morey and McIntyre 2014; Rodgers 2003; Swiboda

2014), the ethics and legality of sampling (Collins 2008; Goodwin 1988; McLeod 2004), and

sampling as a driver of stylistic authenticity in Hip-Hop (Marshall 2006; Rose 1994; Schloss

2014; Williams 2010). In his extensive ethnographic study, Making Beats: The Art of Sampled-

Based Hip-Hop, Schloss (2014: 72) states that “the idea of sampling as an aesthetic ideal may

appear jarring to individuals trained in other musical traditions, but it absolutely exemplifies the

approach of most hip-hop producers”, and he later adds that “this preference is not for the act of

sampling, but for the sound of sampling: It is a matter of aesthetics” (Schloss 2014: 78). Schloss

here is referring to Hip-Hop’s Golden Era (circa 1988-1998), which was largely exemplified by a

sample-based aesthetic associated with New York (the East Coast) and a production style known

as Boom-Bap

. Mike D’Errico defines “boombap” as a sound characteristic of Hip-Hop’s

“golden age” and provides a representative list of producers and creative approaches:

As sampling technologies developed and became more affordable in the late 1980s and

early 1990s, hip-hop entered what became known as it’s “golden age”, defined by a solid

“boombap” sound that was shaped by the interactions between emerging sampling

technologies and traditional turntable practice. Producers such as DJ Premier from Gang

Starr, Prince Paul from De La Soul, and producer-auger DJ Shadow used turntables

alongside popular samplers such as the Akai MPC and E-Mu SP-1200 to create

instrumental mixtapes with gritty, lo-fi audio qualities (12-bit sample resolution, as

Boom-Bap is a hip-hop production style referring onomatopoetically to the sound and rhythm of a

prominent bass and snare drum typically programmed over sparse, sample-based instrumentation.

Frequently, a sampled break-beat would be supported by additional kick and snare drum layers either

sampled, or synthesized courtesy of a Roland TR-808 drum machine.

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

opposed to 16-bit CD quality audio) and innovative performance practices that continue

to define the sound of “underground,” “old-school” hip-hop. (D’Errico 2015: 281)

The author here highlights a useful link between emerging sample-based production practices and

the aural, performative tradition of Hip-Hop exemplified by DJing. He also points out that the

sonics and utterances of this modus operandi continue resonating in current production outputs

when an underground or retrospective aesthetic is being called for. At this point, it is important to

make a distinction between sample-based Hip-Hop and other production styles, eras and practices

in hip-hop music, in order to explain why this investigation focuses on the sample-based aesthetic

as the basis for inspiring rap production pedagogies.

The sample-based aesthetic: a review

Hip-hop music production did not commence with a sampler, although—if we refer to

Kvifte’s (2007: 107) definition of sampling as “the process whereby a musician/ composer

includes part of an earlier recording in his/her own music, as a more or less recognisable

citation”—it could be said that Hip-Hop started with sampling as a process. Initially, however,

the ‘citation’ would have taken place via turntable performance in the hands of pioneering Bronx

DJs, who extended the drum breaks from Funk and Soul records to provide the instrumental

foundation for MCs to rap over (Chang 2007; Toop 2000). Hip-Hop’s original instrument was

therefore the turntable (Katz 2012: 43-69) and the significance of the practice is that the music

was built on the ‘citation’ of other recordings even if, phonographically, this potential remained

idle until the availability of affordable sampling technology almost a decade into the art-form.

Conversely, early hip-hop records featured live disco, funk and soul musicians to provide an

instrumental backing, and the following—electro—phase was characterized predominantly by

electronic productions courtesy of drum machines, synthesizers and sequencing technology

(Howard 2004; Kulkarni 2015; Serrano 2015). The two contrasting aesthetics are respectively

exemplified by the first successful rap record, Rapper’s Delight (1979) by Sugarhill Gang, and

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Arthur Baker’s futuristic production for Planet Rock (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa. Between them

lies a prime example of turntablism committed phonographically in the form of The Adventures

of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (1981), while the New School era was kicked off

with minimal drum-machine Electro, courtesy of Run-D.M.C.’s Sucker M.C.’s (1983). By 1984,

pioneering producer Marley Marl had started experimenting with affordable samplers,

manipulating drum breaks (Kajikawa 2015: 164-5) and kicking off a sample-based approach that

would be adopted by The Bomb Squad (the production collective behind Public Enemy) and

producers such as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Q-tip (of A Tribe Called Quest), RZA (of the Wu-Tang

Clan), Prince Paul, DJ Shadow, J Dilla and Madlib; producers who would become associated

with the boom-bap style and would go on to define the sample-based aesthetic of Hip-Hop’s

Golden Era.

Sample-based rap production evolved into rich and complex multilayering, and the art-

form arguably reached its zenith with albums such as It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us

Back (Public Enemy 1988), Paul’s Boutique (Beastie Boys 1989) and Fear of a Black Planet

(Public Enemy 1990), containing hundreds of juxtaposed phonographic samples akin to a rap

music concrète (LeRoy 2006; Sewell 2013; Weingarten 2010). This maximal sample-based

approach received a major blow in 1991 in the form of a lawsuit involving Biz Markie’s Alone

Again, which resulted in the banning of the record and resonated loudly with the hip-hop

community. The ruling inadvertently affected producers’ future practices and styles in response

(Collins 2008; McLeod 1999; Sewell 2013), triggering a number of alternative production

approaches. Such reactions included a reliance on more synthesized—rather than sample-based—

instrumentation, the interpolation (reverse-engineering, mimicry) of phonographic samples, and

the formation of live, performance-based hip-hop collectives. Dr. Dre’s 1992 album, The

Chronic, represents a commercially successful case-in-point for the new-found reliance on

synthesizers and interpolation, assisted by the fact that his earlier success with N.W.A. afforded

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

him access to the original musicians and instruments of the P-funk era that he was referencing.

The resulting G-funk sound represented a major stylistic divergence for the genre, becoming

synonymous with the US West Coast. The Roots’ 1993 album Organix, on the other hand,

represented a distinctly live take on the genre, just as the album’s title implies.

The next notable stylistic divergence came from the US South, referencing earlier dance-

floor orientated local subgenres—such as Miami Bass and New Orleans Bounce—and fusing live

performances with increasingly synthesized instrumentation (Grem 2006). From OutKast’s 1994

album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik to Lil’ Jon & The East Side Boyz’ Get Crunk, Who U

Wit: Da Album (1997), the instrumentation became increasingly electronic, soon featuring little

more than Roland TR-808 drum-machine programming, synthesizer layers and keyboard

workstation presets (Twells 2016). Lil’ Jon’s production style signified the new subgenre of

Crunk (Oldboyentertainment 2005), which gradually morphed into Trap by 2003 with T.I.’s

album/single release Trap Muzik. Crunk and Trap remained largely sample-averse in their

production methods and, to this day, Trap continues to be the prevalent style of hip-hop music in

the mainstream.

Nevertheless, the sample-based aesthetic continued evolving in parallel to these

divergences, as an East Coast production reference, a reaction to mainstream stylizations and a

signifier of hip-hop authenticity (Kulkarni 2015; Marshall 2006; Serrano 2015). A number of

mainstream artists tapped into the production style in order to support lyrical content that was

more personal or conscious, or as a way to stand out from the over-populated Trap crowd. Artists

working under the mainstream radar continued practising the form consistently, and the last few

years have seen a resurgence of boom-bap outputs crossing over into the mainstream—a

phenomenon described by Pitchfork as “a nostalgic sonic wave currently being surfed by NYC

… rappers doing their best to embody the spirit of New York hip-hop without getting stuck in its

past” (Ruiz 2017). A plethora of releases since 2015 have relied on boom-bap practices,

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

demonstrating the contemporary vibrancy and relevance of the sample-based aesthetic; artists

releasing these recordings include Action Bronson (Mr. Wonderful, 2015), Apollo Brown &

Planet Asia (Anchovies, 2017), De La Soul (And the Anonymous Nobody, 2016), Fokis

(Underground with Commercial Appeal, 2017), Joey Bada$$ (B4.DA.$$, 2015), Kool Keith feat.

MF Doom (Super Hero, 2016), MC Eiht (Which Way Iz West, 2017), Sam Brown (Ode To Gang

Starr, 2017), Statik Selektah feat. The LOX & Mtume (But You Don’t Hear Me Tho, 2017), The

Alchemist & Budgie (The Good Book, 2017), Vic Spencer & Big Ghost Ltd (The Ghost of Living,

2016), Joell Ortiz (That’s Hip Hop, 2016) and Your Old Droog (Packs, 2017). On the futuristic

end of the retro-inspired spectrum, producers such as Prefuse 73 and Flying Lotus have been

pushing the envelope of the sample-based approach pioneered by Madlib, DJ Shadow and J-

Dilla, into new, predominantly experimental subgenres (D’Errico 2015; Hodgson 2011).

Sample-based Hip-Hop today: an unexamined opportunity

Practitioners have reacted to the legal landscape surrounding sampling through a number

of alternative approaches, and it is important to consider current practices in this domain. From

Dr. Dre’s interpolation practices, via Southern (T)Rap’s synthetic dependence, to The Roots’

predominantly-live Hip-Hop and—most recently—to De La Soul’s sampling of “more than 200

hours of the Rhythm Roots Allstars, a 10-piece funk and soul band” (Cohen 2016) for And the

Anonymous Nobody album, rap practitioners have assumed a number of positions towards

sampling: from denial and avoidance, to phonographic mimicry and reverse-engineering their

own samples (explored below). Currently, hip-hop production collective J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League

meticulously reverse-engineer samples to fuel a plethora of contemporary rap hits (Law 2016),

while producer Frank Dukes records and mixes original music segments infused with vintage

phonographic sonics to create source content that frees him from both mechanical and publishing

restrictions, allowing him to push the boundaries of sample-based Hip-Hop (Whalen 2016).

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

It is at this crossroads between Hip-Hop’s archetypal dependence on phonographic

citation, and practitioners’ innovative approaches to creating new source content fueling sample-

based processes, where a need for study exists. The parameters that grant effective interaction

between new source content and a sample-based aesthetic have not yet been investigated, and this

is both an under-researched area in the evolution of hip-hop production and an opportunity for

pedagogical design to address authentic contemporary practices. A further, important problem

concerns the democratization of the sample-based art-form and the kind of source material that is

available to future makers. Marshall sums up the issue accurately in his article ‘Giving up Hip-

Hop’s Firstborn: A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling’:

[D]espite a rise in synthesizer-based production concomitant with the decline in sampling,

many hip-hop producers have continued to make beats using samples. Some, such as

Kanye West, Just Blaze, P. Diddy, and other producers working for large record labels,

enjoy production budgets that permit them to license any sample they like, including the

biggest pop hits of previous decades, hence affirming the legal status quo. Some

producers and acts, especially independent and largely local artists, operate well enough

under the radar to evade scrutiny or harassment and continue to sample with impunity.

And some—in particular, acts with a sizeable national, if not international, following but

who lack the resources of a “major label”—find themselves in a tight spot: to sample or

not, to be real or not, to be sued or not? (Marshall 2006: 869)

Marshall here maps rap authenticity claims (“to be real or not”) to the sample-based

process and his paragraph reads like a call to action for investigating alternatives against

“affirming the legal status quo”. Indeed, the conundrum between stylistic authenticity (aesthetics)

versus legal implications (pragmatics) raises important questions, and puts academics in an

awkward place when advising students. In the following sections, a number of these questions

will be addressed, such as: What processes and methodologies should be required or accepted for

pedagogical design involving hip-hop production coursework as output? Should phonographic

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

content be acceptable as source material for sampling or not? What are the implications of either

strategy? Are academics training student practitioners leading them head-on into legal battles, or

are students being denied an industry paradigm? Can academia even begin to discuss hip-hop

aesthetics if the raw materials of the art-form are not fully considered? And finally, how effective

can students’ portfolios be if they cannot become public-facing (due to copyright infringement

embedded in the work)?

Sample-based aesthetics and pedagogy

It is an academic responsibility to explore alternatives and—going further—to set in

motion pedagogy that will continue to explore alternatives through future actualization and

critical analysis. But these alternatives should reach beyond the existing polarities of live-versus-

sampled, or sampled-versus-synthesized. Is there a way to merge the sample-based aesthetic with

the production of copyright-free content? Can this content be sourced from within the student

output (i.e. through collaboration between production and performance cohorts)? What are the

synergies between different fields of popular music curricula that can feed into this interaction?

And in that case, what differentiates a phonographic sample from the inclusion of—newly

conceived and recorded—live musicianship? This set of important questions requires asking and

subsequently theorizing about before any pedagogical design can be set in motion, as they have

implications for the exercises set and the overall alignment of the curriculum.

The pedagogical design proposition in this paper is both a reaction to the under-

researched contemporary practice of reverse-engineering original sample content to serve a

sample-based aesthetic, and a response to Kruse’s (2016b) proposed framework of potential

applications for hip-hop pedagogies. Kruse (2016b: 248) builds on Hill’s (2009) previously

proposed categorizations of hip-hop pedagogy by methodically grouping existing literature under

the descriptive labels of “Hip-hop as a bridge, Hip-hop as a lens, and Hip-hop as practice”. In

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Kruse’s literature review of “hip-hop as practice” (2016b: 251-252), the majority of approaches

noted utilize beat production and sampling practices as points of access into teaching literacy,

writing, research skills, critical thinking and scholarly analysis (Irizarry 2009; Mahiri 2006;

Petchauer 2011; Rice 2003; Rodríguez 2009; Wilson 2013). Snell and Söderman (2014: 167-

170), furthermore, celebrate on the potential of Hip-Hop in a range of academic contexts by

highlighting its effective illustration of critical pedagogy and democratic theory, its relationship

to a multitude of other musical genres, and its fluidity demonstrated in the construction of

identities, but little detail is spared on the inter-stylistic dynamics (and dangers) of how new

cultural (music) production can be actualized. Kruse proposes that:

A seemingly obvious suggestion (though still worth stating) is that students in a music

classroom could actually compose and/or perform hip-hop music. This might include

composing and/or performing vocally or instrumentally over prerecorded backing

(accompaniment) tracks, composing original backing tracks, or both. As the technologies

involved in hip-hop beat production and live audio recording continue to become more

affordable and easier to use, the possibility of music classrooms functioning as legitimate

hip-hop recording studios becomes more realistic. With no more than a single computer,

the processes of composing an original backing track, sampling new or previously

recorded material, and adding multiple layers of live instruments and/or vocal parts are

entirely feasible in a classroom setting. (Kruse 2016b: 256)

The author’s suggestion above is indeed welcome and Kruse goes some way to envision the

specifics and mechanics of hip-hop production in a pedagogical setting. Kruse (2016a, p.15)

expands on the technical detail by suggesting “using genre-appropriate hardware and/or software

(e.g., FL Studio, Akai MPC, Native Instruments Maschine)” in classrooms specifically designed

for teaching hip-hop music-making.

Overall, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the lion’s share of education

scholarship related to Hip-Hop deals with rap production practice either as a point of access for

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

impacting further learning experiences or simply as an area with welcome potential for future

pedagogies. Kruse comes the closest to considering the applied context for hip-hop production as

practice in a pedagogical environment, and this article responds by synthesizing the need for

exploring this pedagogical gap, with that of examining the alternative contemporary practice of

providing interim content for the sample-based method. By studying the specifics of the practice

and investigating the techno-artistic phases that complete this alternative production approach, it

will be possible to extrapolate a model of the phenomenon, which can then be mapped to

opportunities available in an educational setting. For the purposes of this mapping the article will

consider universities in UK Higher Education (HE) as a context.

Reverse-engineering: the practice

To analyze the practice of reverse-engineering samples, this paper considers the

approaches of three contemporary acts—De La Soul, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Frank Dukes. In

the work of De La Soul and Frank Dukes the objective is not to interpolate (that is, not to mimic

the musical motifs and sonics of previously released music), but to create original segments of

music that could function effectively as source content in a sample-based context. The first point

for consideration, then, is what the parameters of an effective interaction between source content

and—not only sampling practices but also—the sample-based aesthetic are. Testimonies by De

La Soul, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Frank Dukes point our attention to two areas: the musical

(motivic, rhythmic) and the sonic (textural, production) variables. On the one hand, De La Soul

(2017) inform us that their “first album in 11 years was born of 300 hours of live material,

converging bossa nova, soul and hip-hop to funk, disco and reggae”. This short promotional

statement from their And the Anonymous Nobody (2016) album campaign is important as it

demonstrates that the artists have attempted to create a sizeable pool of musical content to serve

as an interim phase, facilitating the album production proper. For the deluxe edition of the album,

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

they have additionally included “both the studio and instrumental tracks” (De La Soul 2017), and

although the bonus content represents a very small ‘sample’ of the 300-hour pre-production

process, it is worth noting that it evidences the construction of full musical ideas, not just short

segments aimed at sampling. This differentiates the artists’ approach from that of sample library

companies in a number of fundamental aspects. The focus appears to be not on providing neat,

user-friendly sample content for the end user (themselves) to consume, but rich, dynamic and

varied musical material, requiring critical listening, selection and manipulation to fit into new

appropriate contexts; a process akin to “digging in the crates” as mentioned by Schloss (2014: 82-

91) in relation to Golden Era practices. The sheer volume of content created for this purpose

implies that De La Soul want to allow for a certain distance from the source content, and perhaps

be surprised or inspired by its variety and potential for interaction with sampling processes (once

brought into a hip-hop context). Furthermore, the multitude of musical styles and rich

instrumentation created for their interim phase are congruent with the sonic

(tracking/mixing/engineering) signatures evident on the record and the bonus/instrumental

material, revealing a carefully matched textural approach to the musical stylizations.

J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League—who are responsible for a plethora of contemporary rap hits for

artists such as Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Drake and Lil Wayne—provide further insight into the

sonic aspects of the reverse-engineering approach; their process lies somewhere between

interpolation and a convincing re-interpretation of referenced samples (Law 2016). In an

interview with hotnewhiphop.com they shed light on their process:

[It’s] about deconstructing the sample, and deconstructing really what went into recording

those original instruments (…) Ok, we have a guitar – what kind of guitar was it? What

was the pre-amp? What was the amp? What was the board that it was being recorded to?

What kind of tape was it being recorded to? What kind of room was it in? (J.U.S.T.I.C.E.

League, cited in Law 2016)

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League’s process reveals the importance of the sonic variables that lend a sample

its particular ‘aura’. A phonographic sample contains textural ‘marks’ of the layered processes

and record-production phases that eventually gave birth to the sampled record, differentiating it

from a new recording. Their meticulous re-engineering attempts to infuse convincing (vintage)

sonics on their referential, yet newly recorded, source content.

When this level of reverse-engineering is applied to completely original creations, the

potential exists for musical innovation that, nevertheless, adheres to the sonic requirements of the

sample-based aesthetic, but frees up the art-form from both mimicry and legal complications (or

high clearance costs). Interviewed in Fader magazine, Adam Feeney a.k.a. Frank Dukes (cited in

Whalen 2016) explains in his own words: “I’m still using that traditional approach, but trying to

create music that’s completely forward-thinking and pushing some sort of boundary”. Describing

his production for Kanye West’s “Real Friends” Whalen explains:

Feeney and fellow Toronto producer Boi-1da contributed the song’s “sample,” a delicate

piano loop that sounds like it’s lifted from a dusty jazz record, but that Dukes found

without having to dig for anything, because he made it himself (…) Manipulating his own

compositions like they were somebody else’s is a technique that has brought Feeney—an

avowed crate-digger turned self-taught multi-instrumentalist—from relative obscurity to a

go-to producer for the industry’s elite (…) By reverse-engineering the art of flipping

samples, Feeney is looking at the past, present, and future simultaneously. (Whalen, 2016)

The process of creating and reverse-engineering new source content to enable a sample-

based approach is therefore a complex but worthwhile practice, requiring research, multiple

phases of actualization and an abundance of music production skills (acquired by an individual

producer, or brought together by a collaborative team). The different phases of the practice are

presented schematically in Figure 1 below:

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Figure 1: The different phases of a sample-based hip-hop process built on reverse-engineered sample content

are presented schematically. Note that each of the four developmental phases requires a number of sub-

processes in order to function. Manufacturing—which appears in phases 2 and 4—implies consideration of

mechanical and media sonic artefacts at the end of respective engineering cycles.

The model in Figure 1 highlights the processes necessary for the practice to function.

Sample-based Hip-Hop was traditionally built on the convergence of sampling affordances

interacting with previously made phonographic content (records). Crucially, the aesthetic is

defined by the digital, mechanistic re-organization and manipulation of previously recorded live

performances functioning as source content. When the vintage sonic signifiers infused on records

made in previous decades are not present in the process, the onus is on new practitioners to re-

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invent a convincing phonographic aura for their source content. It seems that a crucial ingredient

for the sample-based hip-hop aesthetic to function is this interaction between sampling processes

and phonographic context. The practitioners in question achieve this by working tirelessly to

ensure that suitable (vintage) sonics are embedded onto their new source content, and the

musicality of the ideas is either referential to past styles or—stylistically, texturally,

dynamically—varied enough to allow for new opportunities in sample selection, manipulation

and re-contextualization.

Producers such as Frank Dukes and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League have gradually acquired all the

essential skills to be able to carry out the phases necessary for this large developmental

production trajectory to be brought to completion. De La Soul, on the other hand, are employing

a large collaborative network for the making of their latest magnum opus. For the practice to

function, there are essentially three distinct areas of expertise that need to interact effectively: (a)

live musicianship (creation, performance); (b) sound engineering; and (c) sample-based

composition. By flipping the model into a pedagogical paradigm, a rich spectrum of educational

opportunities comes to fruition, in line with Kruse’s call for a pedagogy of Hip-Hop as practice.

But as he warns, it is important to investigate whether the possibility is realistic, by ensuring the

technical resources and academic affordances are all in place. I turn my attention next to the UK

HE landscape, and specifically universities, in order to explore the feasibility of such a

proposition.

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Synergies: between live performance and the phonographic sample

A number of UK universities provide some flavour of a popular music programme with

elements of both production and performance

. Composition or song-writing are either

implemented in both of these areas, or treated as separate entities. Whichever the case, an

obvious creative opportunity seems to be staring academia in the face with regard to the above

hip-hop paradigm: a music/rap production curriculum informed by sample-based Hip-Hop can

potentially interact with the creation, performance and recording of new music, which may—in

turn—function as source material for further sampling. The integrated production of original

content for the purposes of sampling in such a synchronous, or near-synchronous, context creates

scope for further synergies. Given an interdisciplinary or collaborative coursework activity—

where production and performance students work together towards a hip-hop output—the

sample-based process presents the potential to shape the production of the source material with

‘meta’ considerations in mind, avoiding some of the limitations imposed by working with

material from the past. The students may opt for tracking new content to a metronome, expanding

the sampling pool with extended instrumental sections, and implementing exaggerated structural

and dynamic variations for future exploitation (similar to the 300 hours of source content De La

Soul have employed). Important considerations can be pursued as part of the pedagogical design

and opened up for experimentation by the student body, such as the degree of ‘self-

consciousness’ practiced when creating new source material.

Sample-based Hip-Hop is a form of ‘meta’ record production process, as it involves the

application of phonographic processes upon material that has itself been the result of a

At the time of writing, there are seven UK Universities offering first degrees with Popular Music and

Production in their title, six offering first degrees with Music Production and Performance in their title,

and three offering first degrees with Music Technology and Performance in their title (source: Unistats

2017). However—in relation to first degrees—, there are references to Music Production by 150

Universities, to Music Technology by 146, to Music Performance by 140, to Commercial Music by 122, to

Music Composition by 113, and to Popular Music by 113, which indicates that while a smaller number of

these institutions offer the discussed topics in combination, the subjects do take place on the same

locations/campuses, likely also sharing the same studio/rehearsal facilities.

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

phonographic process (from a different era). Part of its mechanics is this very manipulation of

content that was created without the meta-genre in mind: a funk or soul record made for its own

sake, with its inherent syncopation used or abused, exaggerated and over-exposed through

repetition and re-programming, chopping and truncating within the new context. This raises

important questions about the amount of distance that should be practiced when creating source

content for incorporation into a sample-based hip-hop approach. And this should be left open for

the practical exploration to investigate, and for the critical reflection to evaluate, enabling

pedagogical design that is open-ended and incubates further knowledge, both for academics and

the student body.

From synergy to design

If it is in the space where sampling practices interact with phonographic sonic signatures

that a sample-based hip-hop aesthetic is born, then—from an educational standpoint—it becomes

essential to consider the exploration of such an aesthetic as central to the pedagogical design. A

constructive alignment (Biggs and Tang 2007) of coursework can then take into account such

aims for the pedagogical design as learning outcomes. These may include, for instance, the

infusion of phonographic characteristics upon newly created work; the production of samples as

phonographic segments; the exploration of vintage production techniques pertinent to a chosen

era; investigating phonographic context; or the ‘production’ of live performances with stylized

sonics and referential musicianship as objectives (see Learning Outcomes 1-5 in Table 1, below).

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Table 1: Learning outcomes.

The focus of these objectives is understandably practice-based given the phenomena

inspiring the design, but also in response to Kruse’s Hip-Hop-as-practice proposition. Yet the

place of theory has to be carefully considered in such a predominantly practice-based design. The

theoretical issue is two-fold, as it affects both the hypothesis and questions that drive the design,

but also the place of theory within the design itself. There is undoubtedly a theoretical foundation

at work here that enables a framework, facilitating the alignment of learning outcomes,

coursework and activities that may shape the design. Yet, in line with a democratic and critical

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

vision, it would be a mistake to let the designer’s theoretical (or practical) findings rigidly

predetermine the shape of students’ creative outputs. The role of the instructor in this context is

envisioned as that of a mentor-practitioner who oversees balanced, informal learning—this may

be the designer herself or a practitioner contributing to the teaching/delivery—in line with

Söderman’s (2011) recommendations for learning through Hip-Hop (master-apprentice and peer-

to-peer/disciple learning models, learning through workshops/activities and acknowledging

pedagogical lessons already embedded in hip-hop practices). Although it is important to guide the

design with research and industry experience, it is also essential to allow students the opportunity

to reach their own findings, which will in turn contribute to the communal knowledge and future

development of the pedagogical design. This is where the second consideration of a theoretical

underpinning becomes relevant: that of the place of theory within the design. This can take the

form of historical, technical or musicological research set as coursework for the students, but also

as theorizing borne out of reflexive analysis upon the practical experimentation carried out by

students (these aspects are reflected in Learning Outcomes 5-6 in Table 1, above).

In either case, the time-mapping of the curriculum has to portray an effective interplay

between theory and practice, respectful of the potential for emerging knowledge and the

contribution of students towards it. The alignment of coursework tasks in the design thus

becomes essential not only in balancing practice-based work with theory, but also in providing

creative freedom that is nevertheless structured with guided activities. Specifically for music

supervision, Madsen (2003: 79) underlines the benefit of breaking down larger phases into

manageable components, asserting that, “if actual learning is to culminate in a substantive

product the entire process needs to be completed by successive approximations from beginning to

end”. Furthermore, Hamilton, Carson and Ellison (2013: 9) point out the “importance of a

student-tailored approach that combines a sense of routine and regularity but also allows students

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

who prefer to work independently to be able to do so”. Lebler and Weston advocate for an

assessment of creative work where:

Students are required to submit recordings of their original work as a substantial

component of their major study (…) along with a clear statement as to their intentions for

the recording, details about the contributions of others who were possibly involved, and

their observations on the outcome. (Lebler and Weston 2015: 126-127)

Table 2, below, proposes how this interplay between practice-based work on the one hand, and

research and analysis on the other, could be effectively aligned. Further aims portrayed in the

coursework alignment are to provide structure in the form of milestones (whilst allowing a high

degree of independence in the creative practice), and to enable and inspire collaboration (whilst

safe-guarding individual contribution and ensuring progression). The suggested timeline

highlights blended activities mapped against the practice-based alignment, in support of the

parallel theoretical/critical underpinning discussed above.

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

Table 2: Assessment methods.

Outroduction

Hill and Petchauer point out limitations in existing Hip-Hop pedagogy scholarship and

suggest that:

HHBE [Hip-Hop Based Education] scholars must (…) understand the ways in which hip-

hop culture functions at more complex aesthetic and epistemological levels. For example,

HHBE scholars must consider the ways practices like sampling, battling, and freestyling

reflect unique sensibilities and worldviews (…) Such insights are critical for reimagining

educational spaces in ways that take seriously the cultural orientation and lived realities of

students. (Hill and Petchauer 2013: 3)

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

This investigation is inspired by the contemporary hip-hop practice of reverse-engineering source

content in service of an evolving sample-based aesthetic. The paper examines the practice and

explores the pedagogical potential of its application in an educational setting. This examination

locates the creative challenges faced by practitioners in attempting to replace phonographic

samples (traditionally functioning as source content for hip-hop composition) with newly

constructed material. The process reveals a matrix of complex developmental phases and unique

interactions between composition, live performance, sample-based creation and engineering. The

importance of the practice is that it enables an evolutionary mechanism for the survival and

morphing of a historical aesthetic (sample-based/Boom-Bap), which also represents an innovative

and creative re-negotiation of the legal landscape surrounding sampling. The revival of the

style—and the perseverance of practitioners to pioneer alternative, if time-consuming, solutions

for its function—indicate a reaction to the mainstream reign of synthesized Hip-Hop, which may

predict further inter-stylistic experiments and hybrid future production, merging live performance

with electronic music-making. Admittedly, this way of working represents, for the time being, a

small percentage of hip-hop outputs, but the stature of the practitioners attempting it and the

impact of their results indicates promising potential.

From a pedagogical perspective, this may be an overly specialized response to the call by

Kruse, Hill and Petchauer toward hip-hop pedagogies as practice—especially as there is a gap in

educational scholarship dealing with more introductory aspects of rap production and sampling—

but the potential lies in mapping the multi-faceted aspects of the practice to institutional contexts

that already tackle the component parts (in curricula and technical resources). The mapping of

practitioners’ aesthetic pursuits to learning objectives, and the mirroring of the developmental

phases of the practice to coursework alignment are only initial steps toward potential pedagogies

of Hip-Hop as production practice and, of course, the notion could be applied to other rap

subgenres, styles and production methods. Prescribing learning outcomes at this early stage also

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

stands as a challenge for the otherwise critical and democratic vision of the exercise. Considering

learning outcomes in order to shape the design is therefore acknowledged simply as a starting

point—stemming from the analytical and aesthetic pursuits of the practice—but one which

should be subsequently shaped by student feedback, practitioner/mentor participation, and

“staying in sync” (Lebler and Weston 2015) with the evolution of hip-hop practice. A practice

that adopts a multitude of contemporary approaches to ensure its future cultural production and

one that can offer meaningful pedagogical paradigms for academia; amongst them, the process of

reverse-engineering the sample-based aesthetic.

Journal of Popular Music Education Special issue on Hip-hop

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