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"Bring That Beat Back: How Sampling Built Hip-Hop is a proposed history of how sampling, as a wholly new form of creating and commenting on music, became a vital part of hip-hop's DNA, from the NY DJs in the late 1970s to today. The story will arc across four DJs who pushed this technology and approach into new territory: Grandmaster Flash, the pioneer; Prince Paul, the innovator; Dr. Dre, the mogul; and Madlib, the left-field curator. Alongside that arc, Patrin will do a deep dive into songs that were heavily sampled and represent/illuminate the power, complexity, and rich history of how sampling has helped build and evolve hip-hop. Throughout, these sections will be far from insular, and instead, reach and pull in the many DJs, producers, and moments that tell this wide-ranging story. Utilizing a wealth of extant interviews and archival material alongside new interviews with people who were there, other critics, and Patrin's own narrative of this history, Bring That Beat Back would be both a geeky dive for music fans and hip-hop heads but also a highly accessible introduction to a form of music that turned power dynamics upside down, made back-row session musicians more iconic to creators than the mega-watt stars at the front of the stage, and how this continual boundary breaking in production and its reshaping of the musical "canon" is very much an extended riff from the history of pop music itself"--… (more)
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I came to this book unsure what to expect. I have been listening to what is now known as hip-hop from just after the beginning (I wasn't living in NYC
While the book description almost makes it sound episodic because of the emphasis on four people, there are not a lot of gaps in the overall history. Patrin covers the artists, the technology, the styles, and in doing so never loses sight of the reason we are reading the book: the music. In fact, on the University of Minnesota Press page for the book there is an extensive Spotify playlist. Between the book and the playlist, I felt like I was reliving some of those days, as well as being introduced to many songs I only knew from a few beats.
So far, I have concentrated on how fun the book is. But it is a thorough and very well researched history. The fact that it is written in a manner that is often lacking in academic books does not detract from the wealth of details.
I would recommend this to fans of music and especially those who like hip-hop.If you don't already have an appreciation for the genre, you will after reading this. Understanding breeds appreciation and Patrin makes all of the technological as well as the legal history understandable all in service to better understanding the music. Understand?
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.