This episode of multi-generational sampling is emblematic of the nuances of the system. It is possible to sample legally, but many artists are not cognizant of the laws regarding sampling or do not understand their scope.

A COMPLEX HISTORY

Although sampling as we know it today is associated with the beginnings of the hip-hop movement, rap cannot take all of the credit for sampling as an art form. According to Ingrid T. Monson, a Harvard professor of African-American music, “Sampling is an extension of older ways of borrowing and reinterpreting. [Jazz musicians] used recordings to learn various kinds of licks and melodic ideas from other musicians. They then went on to use them as sources of creativity.”

What is now called sampling has always been inherent in collaborative music. In fact, until the early 1990s, there was no precedent for applying established copyright laws to the practice. This changed in 1991, when the record company Grand Upright sued Warner Bros. Records for Marcel “Biz Markie” Hall’s unlicensed usage of Irish-English singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” in his track “Alone Again.” This landmark case turned the field of collaborative music on its head, irrevocably wedding sampling to litigation by establishing that sampling without approval from the owners of the original copyright was grounds for suing the sampler.

Instances of sampling vary widely with respect to the amount that is taken from the original track. Though Jackson only borrowed a short segment of Dibango’s song for use in “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” it is not unusual for artists to appropriate entire melodies or choruses from the songs that they sample.

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In 2013, Robin Thicke was accused of lifting the entire structure of his inescapable summer hit, “Blurred Lines” from Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” At the other end of the spectrum, producer Timbaland was sued in 2007 for looping three musical notes that he took from a song in the 1969 Bollywood classic “Aradhana.”

The legal risks present at all degrees of sampling have not hurt its popularity. Artists ranging from Jay-Z to Jessica Simpson, Skrillex, and Cher have all utilized sampling. While the practice spans genres, it has gained a central place in hip-hop and electronica. “Bound 2” was not the first time Kanye West ran into trouble for sampling, nor is it likely be his last. As a contemporary hip-hop producer, such run-ins with copyright law come with the territory.

DERIVATIVE OR INTEGRAL?

Clearly, sampling is here to stay. But that has not ended debate over its artistic validity. Opponents of sampling argue that it is an unoriginal and derivative way of making new music; its supporters hold that it is a process of considerable merit, not unlike intertextuality in literature, that allows for productive interactions between the old and the new.

Onyeka “Hoji” G. Nnaemeka ’16, an aspiring DJ and head of the Jazz Spectrum and the Darker Side departments at Harvard Radio Broadcasting, says that sampling takes considerable creativity. “If you go through [the work of] any major artist who has sampled, you can see all of the things that they can do with minor sound bites,” Nnaemeka says. “It’s not as if they’re just taking someone else’s song and putting their name on it and selling it as their own.”

Nnaemeka, who makes his own music but has yet to sell it, says he believes sampling can help new producers learn the tricks of the trade. “If you want to start off making beats, then sampling is the way to go,” he says. However, he acknowledges that the situation is different for artists trying to make a profit. “If I ever got to a place that I was willing to sell, something would have to change…. I’d keep sampling though.”

When amateur beatmaker and former department head at WHRB Parker M. Crane ’13 began selling his music, the legal implications of sampling were enough to make him give up the practice. “There’s a high cost to clearing to a sample,” he says. “There’s all sorts of paper work that you have to go through.” Now when Crane wants to sample a track, he brings in musicians and recreates it legally from scratch.