Don’t know how much engagement this will get. But I was really hoping to potentially lean on the remarkable collective knowledge and memory here. As the thread title suggests looking for sources (text, video, etc.) on how the development of sampling technology and the progression of music genres like Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, etc intersect.
In terms of context I am currently a doctoral student in a critical theory program and I am finally getting around to a research idea I have had for a long time looking at the larger theoretical and cultural dimensions of sampling as a mode of alternative production. Though I have found some really wonderful more abstract sources, I find I am lacking sources dealing with actual concrete history of how urban artists discovered, interacted and related with the music tech space where the relevant devices were created. I am specifically interested in the hip hop context but open to any recommendations across the board. So for example, my understanding is Roger Linn never could have anticipated that the MPC would become synonymous with Hip Hop, and I find the story of producers discovering and adopting the MPC 60 (and subsequent models) super interesting.
If you see this and are in doubt please pass along anything interesting even if it’s left field. I am not doing a history or sociological study, so am super interested in even seemingly tangential sources.
It’s been a long time since I read it but the first volume of David Toop’s book Rap Attack is a really good overview of the early development of hip hop. It must cover sampling.
I think they’re kind of hard to find and somewhat collectible but old issues of Wax Poetics magazine are a great resouce. Maybe you can find pdfs.
Simon Reynolds “Rip it up and start again” might be a useful resource if you haven’t already come across it. Looks at the development of early postpunk diy culture into a bunch of different genres as we know them today
Also old Keyboard magazines were really good if you can find copies or scans. A quick search shows they had cover features on DJ Premier and Public Enemy and in the later '90s they were covering stuff like jungle and dnb as it was happening. They always had a good balance of interviewing artists about influences, etc but also digging into the gear and techniques.
Greatest living music writer for me. I only read Ocean of Sound relatively recently and it absolutely blew my head open, his latest one on Dr. John is also fantastic.
But I don’t think Rap Attack is much focused on the technical side, it’s more about connections and continuities with other earlier forms and telling the story of rap emerging. Again, just that I remember and it is an essential read either way. As is pretty much anything Toop has written imho.
Edit: this recent-ish piece caused a bit of a stir (for various reasons) but kinda pulls at some of those same threads: Client Challenge
Also, I’m not sure if it’s quite on point for what OP is looking for but Kodwo Eshun’s More Brilliant than the Sun is worth a look in terms of what was happening in 90s UK.
Depending on where you’re going with it, Dilla Time by Dan Charnas is a lot more in the weeds of gear and techniques.
Also +1 for Wax Poetics in general, I’m not sure if they are still doing it but I got a lifetime subscription to their archive for pretty cheap a while ago, although I’d been buying the magazine in its last few runs so maybe I got a deal to do with that, can’t really remember.
Thanks man - have read Eshun and Dilla Time and deeply enjoyed both - though the latter is probably more useful for my research at this point. Appreciate the other recommendations and will follow up as well. Gonna see if my library can get access to Wax Poetics somehow
Groove Music by Mark Katz and Making Beats by Joseph Schloss also come to mind.
Although maybe not directly on point I’d recommend Ocean of Sound to anyone in any context, it ties together all kinds of currents in all kinds of 20th century music.
Slightly off topic but for me Toop is also an incredible compiler, Sugar and Poison is probably my personal favourite but they’re all great - Electro for Droids is the most hip hop focused.
there’s a handful of books and documentaries i can throw your way that might definitely be of some help!
Scratch (2001, hip-hop, documentary)
Talkin’ Headz (1998, jungle/drum ‘n bass, documentary)
Beat Diggin’ (2003, hip-hop, mini-doc) (more on the vinyl side of the whole phenomenon)
cTrix - Amiga Samplers: Budget dance music in the 1990s (2020, hardcore/rave, YouTube doc)
For books:
Jonathan Abrams - The Come Up (hip-hop)
Jeff Chang - Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (hip-hop)
Dan Charnas - Dilla Time (hip-hop)
I would also heavily recommend checking out Wax Poetics magazine’s Editorial section of their website. They interview artists from the hip-hop and jungle scene, as well as artists that have gotten their second wind because of sampling, and have extended retrospectives on albums that might help you out.
edit: i didn’t even notice multiple people had already recommended Wax Poetics and Dilla Time, sorry about that
The MPC 60 was the first midi device to record a performance but didn’t have much memory.
The SP-1200 followed and has 10 seconds of sampling at 12bits and this is in my opinion where Hip Hop went to the next level. Ultramagnetic MCs “Critical Beatdown” is all you need to know about and you probably do. That was 1988 and the producers name is Ced Gee. As for Jungle… just take a beat from that album and speed it up 2x then add a dub reggae bass line to it
After that it shifted back to using the MPC as controllers and the S900, S950, S1000 etc to make more and more complex tracks until computers took over.
Then there was the '00s Stones Throw / Nujabes era with Boss and Roland samplers.
to all of you - these are really useful recommendations. Appreciate it