It’s unclear how exactly the final beat was created, but it seems to be a blend of sampled and live elements. Timbaland, who produced the record, came across Punjabi bhangra music while travelling through India, and instantly knew he had to use it on the album somewhere (hip-hop and bhangra have a few other affinities too – the name of the folk style may derive from bhang, an edible cannabis preparation popular in the region). Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott’s Get Your Freak On, a latter-day hip-hop anthem, found mainstream success in 2001. By the 1990s, producers were expected to search far and wide for their inspiration, with fans lionising those who took the art of ‘diggin’ in the crates’ seriously. From its earliest origins in late-70s New York, DJs were rejecting the sounds of the Billboard charts in favour of sampling from jazz, funk, soul, and other African-American music.
Hip-hop’s resistive, countercultural spirit takes many musical forms – often including such things as heavy basslines, powerful kit drum loops, and forthright, politically-charged (and yes, sometimes grossly violent and misogynistic) lyrics. Here, we sample a few unique uses of Indian timbres in sampled music.
Despite being a pretty regular occurrence nowadays (laptop production has created a wide world of sonic overlaps…), stumbling across instances of this always feels somehow fresh and unexpected.
Unsurprisingly, open-minded beatmakers from around the world have long been turning to the Subcontinent in their search for new sounds. India’s traditional instruments are famed for their vivid, captivating textures.
0 kommentar(er)
