Puffyisms and Samplin, etc

["John Price" <jprice@intcpi.com>]

In general, most people could care less if an "artist" or "musician"
actually plays an instrument, says something new, breaks molds etc.

No one really cares if someone just used samples or actually played the
instruments they hear on a groove. And most kids have no clue about the
sources of Sampling. Its both beautiful and Sad.

Musicians tend to be the only ones who get the attitude of "its ok if u
do this or approach it from that sorta ,... perhaps more musical way",
etc. So what ???

Puff Daddy is about that quick easy connection/disconnection grooving to

the audience and the images he knows very well he can conjure.

I would not call Puff daddy a de facto hack - rip off artist. But I also

would hessitate to call him a messiah.

One could easilly say other great hack rip offs were Elvis, The Beatles,

The Stones, The WHO, The Animals, Yardbirds/Jimmy Page, Led Zepp,
Clapton, Jeff Beck, &...hell even Mozart in some instances!!

For instance, all of the stalwart Black Bluesfolk/early rock-n-roll
pioneers they never got a dime in royalties or worse in The Page/Plant
Situations the original artists saw whole bars and verses of their stuff
with their exact word for word lyric lifted without any mention of them
in the credits let alone any thought of
compensation.

People do need to get paid whether its the artists or the Publisher who
holds all the rights. And Fair Use does apply. You cant have total
control of anything in this life.

But Overall the Rock-n-roll mentality has never been about being
original. Its about the collision of cultures and profit in the
manipulation of images and reactions that those sounds could conjure.
The best any music can ever hope for is an Original Perspective - There
aint no New Notes Miles Davis once said.

Puff Daddy is good at what he does and is in the very same tradition as
the aformentioned "borrowers", although he is functioning and
approaching things in a manner that is not the way most people on this
list have grown up appreciating and valuing music(s).

BTW, Puff Daddy can also write some damn sweet original R&B Ballads and
he does a good job as a Bass Player ( Ck out the 1st 2 Mary J Blige
Disks )

Puff Daddy was put in the place he's at cuz of what he chooses to do
with the
sounds he has chosen to lift or moreover, what he can do with what he
gets offered
up tohim on a royalty sharing platter from the original artists
management.

The virtuousity he holds comes where he can reintrepret someone elses
"Familiar"
chart topper or classic jam of yesteryear into modern chart toppers.
Jimmy Page &
Kashmir is a - prime example of that eagerness of the original artist to

be reinterpreted ( Which is very wise ). Page was frothing at the mouth
to get that track out cause Puff is ring leader at doin that sorta thang

- all guranteed to sell and possibly endear Zep to a new and blank
"page" audience.

IMHO - Puff Daddy and the like are yet another example one of those
logical "next steps"  along the breakdown in the importance the general
public places on Music and Musicianship/Virtuosity.

Eno was dead on in that wired interview where he talks about how
unimportant music is to us anymore. The buzz we used to get from Music
we get elsewhere now in different contexts that are more superficial
than firmrooting or entrenching.

But what has not changed is that its still the song that people look to
over and over again. But in a late 90's scenario the song is deeply
connected with the familiar image you or someone else creates around
it.  Tell me bout da
Benjamin's baby !.

Most Loop Folk or other "serious thinker musician types" cringe at the
thought of such enormous displays of Ego - Cash - Fashion and brash
disregard for musical sensitivity and respect ( as they view respect and
original music from their own  dug in and entrenched perspectives ).

What I think is really interesting about the whole "lift a whole song
phenom" is when ya think about the publishing on the Puffed Stuff of
this decade. Who's gonna wanna play songs that are covers of a cover &
or a sample of
another set of song pieces 20 yrs from now ??

Termninator X is still missing :)

JP

trevor bajus, digital surgeon wrote:

> You know, I find it amusing that hack rip-off artists like Puff Combs
have no
> problems with this sort of stuff, but people who use samples in a
creative way,
> altering the intent, content, and concept of the samples, get crushed.

>
> Besides, there are few things as funny as listening to Casey Casem
cussing a blue
> streak about the insignificance of U2.
>
> Terminator X, where are you?
>
> trev