Beats: and the Filthy Biters Who Jack Them

I would like to discuss beat theft today.

Please excuse all the videos. I didn't know any other way to demonstrate my point...

There is an interesting paradox within Hip Hop that goes undiscussed. This paradox is a difference between sampling and stealing. At the heart of Hip Hop, you find that many songs in the genre are made from parts of other songs. This is very prevalent. But this I would not consider theft. It is not theft because it does not claim to have created the song it is sampling, instead just using it in the creation of another work of music. This is similar to citing a source in a paper. But, also within Hip Hop is the idea of "beat theft." This would in fact be considered theft. Why? Because the producer is trying to pass off another person's work as their own. I will cite DJ Khaled's song "Holla at Me" as a wholesale theft of Afrika Bambaata's song "Looking for the Perfect Beat." Why is this theft? Because although the song is fairly well known to die-hard Hip Hop fans, the average fan, whom DJ Khaled is targeting, does not know this song ever existed, and Khaled is attempting to pass off the spectacular beat as his own.

Now, beat theft does not intrinsicly occur when the same sample is used. I present MF Doom's "Anti-Matter" and Nas' "You Can't Stop Us Now" as evidence.




Although these two songs share the same sample, even the sound of the sample is different. Nas' is clearer, as if a band came in a redid the song. MF Doom's has that slight crackle to tell you it was taken straight from the record.

I know present the reason I bring this to your attention today.





These two songs take from the same source: Na Boca Do Sol by Arthur Verocai



Note that the two parts of both samples are not close to each other. One sample occurs at the very beginning and the other at the end of the verse/chorus(?). This adds to the idea that 9th Wonder (the "producer" of the second song) stole the beat from MF Doom, first beat. Also, the only thing that actually seperates the two beats from each other is bars. MF Doom's beat allows each part to go on for 4 bars, while the 9th Wonder beat goes for 2 each.

Point is, quit jacking beats!