Someone should tell this to the RIAA because as I was saying, I’m not so much getting pissed at Timbaland sampling (or even ripping) as much as his record companies using their muscle against independent artists that sample and people that download their commercial musics. It’s the glaring hypocrisy I hate… not the “stealing” … if they (timbaland’s record companies, riaa, etc) never sued another artist for sampling, this shit wouldn’t be an issue at ALL. But they have… and they do… repeatedly… regularly… and it’s for that fact that Timbaland continues to get attacked. He’s the figurehead of a corrupt industry.
I like some of Timbaland’s beats, but I do have to say, they really don’t impress me that much. All he’s done in most cases is simply taken some middle eastern samples (hasn’t even changed a note of them) and added some (albeit well syncopated) drums top of them. Then, he gets a talented rapper/vocalist like Missy Eliot, Nelly Fertado, or Busta Rhymes to lay down the vocals that make the track shine. It’s nothing that in my mind qualifies as “skill” … Unless of course you identify skill is the ability to shuffle through some music from a previously untapped genre looking for something played by truly skilled musician, using it in your own song, calling it your own, and then taking the spotlight away from the talented vocalist that you hand picked to work with. Oh wait, I’m kinda sounding redundant there… perhaps it’s because THAT’S ALL HE DOES!!!
… does he do it well? Yep. Could we do it well too if we had all the money and resources he has, and if we had enough amorality to sample large chunks of any great song we heard without attribution? Yep. But most people don’t have those circumstances. Most people have too many morals to sample large chunks of other songs and call them their own… most people don’t have the lawyers needed to fend off the resultant angry peasants… most people don’t have a large pool of talented singers to work with.
I wasn’t talking about you in particular… but then again, I used the harsh words I did… but c’mooon, his beats are SICK and not just
because he has the resources. Besides, few people know it’s Timbaland
behind most of Missy Elliott’s roughest stuff.
Neptunes and Timbaland are not comparable. Neptunes were always more on the “compositional” side of hiphop-beats while Timbaland is simply a “intro/loop-ripper”. Didn’t we have this discussion about sample-ethics some time ago? If you really want to know how good of a producer he is go to your favourate P2P program and look for some “as sampled by”-collection, there are alot of geeks out there who put archives together with the originals tracks that certain artists sampled.
For example DJ Shadow looks pretty stupid when you had a listen to the originals (giorgio moroder is all I say), it’s the same “2-bar loop + new drums”-bullshit. Buying “obscure” records, ripping 2bar loops (leaving them untouched) and simply adding drums is not a creative process that deserves much credit. Especially if you take the fact in consideration that even the “digging” and “sample-spotting”-process is done by interns meanwhile, not the “big producer”.
Look, sampling is something I personally dislike to do because I’m a synthcunthead. But some people can make decent and nice music with it, most of what we ear and enjoy are based on sampling without any sort of works behind, seriously, listening to daft punk is like listening to some old vinyls with a bit of EQ behind and a 909 rhythmic layered. MrScruff is often labelled as “omg original” because he is less mainstream than Timbaland, but hey, listening to most of MrScruff song is like listening a jazz mixtape. But since he’s less mainstream than Timbaland, he is WTF ORIGINAL. See, this the double standard.
Now you may like or dislike what Timbaland does, personally I dislike, but it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s awfully GOOD at what he does. And he’s one of the most original mainstream hip hop producer. People are just picky about him because he sampled someone from the Tracker scene, that’s all, and got caught.
Also, he’s been behind most of the hiphop/rnb hits even considered by people who dislike mainstream music as “good stuff” (i.e: Missy Elliott). His recent popularity just turned on some angry and jealous “bedroom PRODUCER”, who were acclaiming his song before he was well known.
For the record, I never liked Timbaland, Daft Punk or any of those “loop-samplers”. And what is he good at exactly? EQing and pushing the buttons of his MPC. And it’s not a problem of “HipHop” either, there are alot of great producers who really flip their samples (as it’s called in HipHop-Sprech).
I think the problem is that most people listen to those great parts of a song and go “thats a great piece of music, I enjoy it and bow to the artist for doing this” while some hiphop-producers go “thats a cool piece of music, lets rip it and add some drums and make money”. And when they ripped it they tend to think like they have put the original music “on a higher level” or made it “worth even more” or something, which I do not agree to.
Good show old chap… I didn’t even consider that one… but I bet it’s probably the case in a lot of big music shops
As for other artists that simply rip large samples and layer them, I’m not too impressed by their process either. Daft Punk is no better than Timbaland. I still like the resulting unoriginal music, because I never heard the original, and I do think a lot of old music needs a better beat, but don’t think for a second that this means I respect Daft Punk’s “creative process”. I don’t think they’re amazing producers. The majority of people that do think they’re amazing producers have no idea what their creative process consists of. And if they did it, this would probably be the reaction: “OMFG HOW DID THEY ADDED THOSE DRUMS TO THAT OLD FUNK?!”
