Awwww yeah! Y'all know what time it is!
It's our first digging in the crates. Make
some noise! [lasers and applause] I'm excited!
You guys excited? I need a louder noise than that.
Come on, make some noise. [cheers and blasters] All right. Welcome.
Welcome, everyone. This is our first digging in
the crates of our 2018, 2019 semesters. We're
really excited for everyone to come out before we begin,
I would like to just introduce some of the
student organizations that help set up this lovely event.
First up, we have students of Hip Hop Legacy
, aka Soul coming up to speak. What's
going on everyone how're you doing. All right.
My name is Ose. I'm with the students
of Hip Hop Legacy. And we're an organization that
works to foster hip hop and rap music on campus.
We do so through events like this. Uh
we are co-sponsoring digging in the crates,
a couple announcements. So our first general body meeting
is coming up. We have a general body meeting on September
27th. Excuse me. Thursday, September 27th
, In handling to go to, uh, this
will be a great opportunity for you to get to
know us on. Learn more about the organization.
Thank you so much. Six o'clock. 6 p.m.
Thank you. Next up, we have Ethan representing
expressions. Hey, how you doing? Uh,
all right. Uh, s Oh, my name
is Ethan. I'm currently the treasurer of BT Expressions
, and we're an organization. Um, that's dedicated
To students expressing themselves on any art form. We
meet Tuesdays at 5 p.m. In the intercultural engagement center,
and we host open mikes. Talent shows,
poetry slams, you name them. Thank you all
for being out here. Okay, Next up,
we have the Flowmigos, a k a
the break dancing club here at Virginia Tech.
Hey, guys, I'm Zach Monheim, part of Flowmigos.
How are you guys doing today? Good to
hear. Flowmigos is a break Dance group. We just
wanna cultivate the culture of hip hop here by through
break dancing And we meet Mondays, Thursdays, seven and
nine. Talk to one of us. If
you wanna come by, we'll let you know where
I think they're mostly in Johnson. But we'll let
you know if you are interested. So that...
One of our last student sponsors is wounded 90.7 FM.
Sadly, we don't have any representatives. But
there the local radio station led by students and faculty
Hey, Josh, would you like to speak?
Josh? Josh says we're good. Clap it
up a bit. All right. Next up,
I just wanna shout out to some of our campus
sponsors. We have university libraries, black cultural center
, Department of English. That was a pause without
one, uh, Institute of Creativity, Arts and
Technology. A triple threat, The LGBTQ+ Center
The fancy shmancy Moss Arts Center.
Department of Religion and Culture. You
just told me Residential college at West Ambler Johnson, Student
Conduct, the University Libraries Diversity Council. Oh,
you and lastly, the VT Women's Center. And
then, most importantly, thank you all for attending
this event would not have happened without any of you
guys. So a couple more things for groundwork
for tonight. We have pizza coming out at 7:45
so make sure you stay around for that.
Everyone loves that Free price free-99. Second up,
I just want to explain what we do.
What is what is digging in the crates? What
is this event that you all come here to spend
your lovely Thursday night with so digging in the crates
. Hip hop studies at Virginia Tech or V.
T. D. I. T. C.
Exists to foster A sense of community among hip hop
fans, artists and scholars on campus way hope to
model that student's personal interests are worthy of academic study
and further institutionalize hip hop studies presence on Virginia Tech's
campus. Our monthly hip hop seminar series seeks
to celebrate hip hop scholarship through community creation and experiential
learning. We also offer free, open studio hours
in Newman Libraries Media Design Studio B, which
we have tomorrow from 12 to 2, trying to
spit on fire rhymes, media, literary instruction for
the community and hip hop study hours at the West
Ambler Johnson First Floor Media Student Center Yeah, senior
Commons from 4-6 P.M. Secondly, Yes
, on Wednesday. Secondly, hip hop study courses
have existed on VTS campus for approximately 15 years.
Craig Arthur, Right here, Make some noise for
Craig Arthur, D.J. He first
took a class with Dr Kwame Harrison - 2003?
So approximately once again, 15 years ago.
So make sure to be. Check out the hip
hop at BT exhibit on the second floor upstairs.
If you haven't seen that you've been living under a rock
as a whole. The whole history of Virginia Tech
hip hop and we've got a lot of good goodies
in there were representing a lot of good organizations that
we've talked about tonight like soul move it, Expressions
and Flowmigos. And secondly, I want to kind
of explain what digging in the crates means. Does
anyone kind of have an idea of the definition?
I'm seeing a no. So I think it's
my time to explain. So crates is, uh
, basically where when you go into a record store
where a lot of the records are held, So
when you're digging in the crates, what that essentially
means is like as a d. J. You're
gonna go into the record store, you're gonna try
to find some good records you're gonna learn about the
records history. Basically, if you find a good
producer that you like, you're trying to find all
their records and essentially, from there you're kind of
building up your library of like, good records.
You're becoming a better deejay by being more informed.
So what we're doing here, at Virginia Tech is we're
digging in the crates. We're going deeper. We're
going beyond the surface level of hip hop, trying
to explain it to the bigger culture here on campus
. And we're trying to expand what hip hop means
to a lot of people here because they don't know
because they haven't dug into the crates. We got some
fancy shmancy lanyards up in the front, and you
may be wondering why they say no photos. So
essentially, at Virginia Tech, in the most PG
way possible, we wanna express Virginia Tech's interests honestly,
, so often times people of color people of different
diverse backgrounds are kind of misrepresented or used with
an ulterior motive here at Virginia Tech. And if
you wanna wear this lovely lanyard we're basically supporting you
in the sense that we wanna make sure you're in
a safe space. We wanna make sure that like
you're here and you're here peacefully without having to
worry about anything else. So you pick up these
lovely lanyards up at the front. They're great.
Get if you want it, get if you don't
want it. It's your choice. And that's what
matters. I've been talking about for like, a
little bit too long. So I'll go really quickly.
We have our next events. Our first one is
tomorrow. Once again, it's the hip hop open
studio hours in media design Studio B, which is
on the second floor. That's from 12 to 2
. If you're trying to spit trying to make the
beats all that good stuff, that'll be tomorrow.
On Wednesday we have a hip hop study hours again
in the West, AJ Commons from 4 to
6. And then our next event is on Thursday
, October 11th from 7 to 9. He's in
. Hopefully everyone else's in. It's gonna be our
second annual beat battle and music production workshop. We
have a wonderful producer and sampler. His name is
, uh, beats by J. Black. And
we're gonna quickly show a little snippet of some of
his - Some of his stuff.
[🎵 beats 🎵]
So yeah, J black will be there. It's
a beat battle and music production workshop. So first
place gets a whopping 2 50. That's crazy Claiming
it. Kwame is claiming it. He's been in
the game for 15 years. Take out the O
G. Do not touch. But, you know
, if you lose the Kwame, it's all good
, you know, because second place gets 100, too.
Think about how many students we have here. They're
gonna pay the students. That's crazy. So,
yeah, make sure to come out October 11th.
That will be a Thursday 7 to 9, free pizza
again. So if you're trying to get two free
meals and this whole semester there you go, tonight and
October 11. Yeah. Make sure to sign up
if you're interested. We got the email up here
. V t D I t c at gmail dot
com Make sure to sign up by October 4th,
and I'm gonna give it away to Craig.
Gotta clap for Eric, right? I'm gonna be multitasking.
So I got the mic. Get one of those
like Britney Spears. Madonna headset mic,
that's doesn't feel really hip hop, I guess
though. All right, so yeah, So,
basically....
[inaudible]
There we go. All right, so we got
student orgs we just talked about, but yes
. So we're gonna jump into what we're talking about
tonight. So we're talking about deejaying, right?
And deejaying is the foundation of hip
hop. And I'm not saying that just because I
am a d.J, But who am I to
say that anyway, Right? But that's the essence.
That's where all this stuff started. Without the
deejay, there would be no b. Boys be
girls, be people. There would be no FCS
. None of that because somebody had to play the
music first. So we're talking about that. We're
gonna jump into a little bit of history. We're
gonna talk a little bit about technique. We're gonna
talk a little bit about fair use and sampling and
all that sort of stuff. But before we do
that, I think we need to consider like what
Virginia Tech is talking about and kind of like some
programs that are going on campus and how that meshes
with what we're doing, right? So how many
people know there's something called a digital literacy program on
campus? Alright, cool. So we got,
you know, a few people. Right on.
Alright. So does anybody wanna try to describe what
that is? Yeah, I hear you. It's
tough, but what it is is basically talking about
how we consume and produce information and how we could
do that ethically, How we could be creative and
yeah, So this really lines up this deejay thing
with a few of the frames from the digital literacy
program. Right? So basically, we're talking about
discovery, right? So that's defined by the digital
literacy program as: what are the questions driving your creative
, academic or professional work? What kinds of strategies
and tools could be used to explore and access,
data, information, media and other content? Does
that sound like D. J? You know what
is DJing if not accessing media,
Right. Working with great. Alright. Next we've
got evaluation. So what criteria to use to assess
and select digital content and tools? I don't know
. Maybe it sounds good or not. That might
be a criteria. All right. And then how
does the criteria change in different context? Right?
So when a d. J. Is putting together
records. That's really not that dissimilar from when a
student is putting together research papers, right, finding
different sources and cobbling together make something new. Then
we got ethics, and this is where as a
library and I'm a deejay. But I'm also a
librarian, and this is one of the emphasis.
I guess one of the reasons why we decided to
start this program is because a lot of times folks
that aren't in the culture, don't understand Hip hop,
misconstrue things, right? And a lot of times people
that don't know about hip hop think of sampling as
stealing. And no, that's not the case at
all. It's just a different context, right?
Um, just like when you're writing a research paper
, you're going out and finding source material. You're
citing your sources. You're making something new out of
it. That's exactly what DJs and
Hip hop producers do as well, right?
So this is just a different way to kind
of approach this topic and also shift the narrative that
how academia is often dealt with this topic right and
then finally, creation and scholarship. How do you
synthesize learning and research in order to create something new?
Sounds like that's what I was talking about.
And what are your rights and responsibilities when participant and
participate in a scholarly, creative or professional community?
So that's what we're talking about today. And that's
how Virginia Tech talks about it outside the culture.
And we're bringing this into the culture, right?
All right, so next. So we're gonna talk
a little bit about what's going on up here.
So we got a few pieces of equipment that
I kind of need to explain before we get too
far down the road. So what is this thing
right here? You know this thing? I'm lifting
up. It's kind of heavy, so somebody speak
because I wanna put it back down, alright?
It's a turntable, right? All right.
So DJs basically started with records, because why
did they start with records? That was what media
? That's what music was consumed on. That's how
media was commercially. Our music was commercially distributed,
right? Either that or the radio. That's what
people had. Then we've got this thing right
here. Anybody know what this is called? It's
a mixer, right? Alright. And then we've
got these things right here. These are called cartridges
or needles, right? And we've got records.
All right. These are a little special records.
I'll talk about that in a second. And then
over here, my man Tyson. What's that thing
is sitting on the table in front of him.
Does anybody now? Okay, sure. It's called
a controller. Right. So that's kind of like
, if I hadn't started deejaying in 1997 I'd probably
be using one of those. But I started 20
years ago, and this is what we had,
you know. So, like, pretty much any
D. J you meet that started with the last
, Like, 10 years. 15 years probably is
gonna use the controller. It's good to be able
to use both right. And then finally, the
last thing that we're gonna talk about real quick is
this little tiny turntable up here. So this is
like a little toy turntable. People call
it portable ism now, right? So what they
do, they get these little, like,$75
turntables. They hack them up, solder batteries
in them, all sorts of stuff, and you
could basically like on your lunch break in the park
, Scratch it up on a turntable, now, right?
It's a technology school. You can do that. But
before we talk too much about D J technique,
I wanna make sure we know the history. So
how old is what we conceive of hip hop, like
how old do you guys think that is?
30 years? 38 years? That's a good guess
. A little bit older. Alright, so hip
hop. I mean, it depends on the origin
story, and we got this great man in history
kind of theory. But a lot of people say
hip hop just turned 45 this summer, and how
we cite that, right, the date we cite is August
11th, 1973 in the South Bronx. So there
was this teenage D J. His name was D
J. Kool Herc. He's still around. Still
DJing. Jamaican immigrant. Basically, What
he did is he was having a back to school
party for his sister's birthday in his housing complex rec
room. Right? And people say that's the first
hip hop party, and the reason why they say
that is you know DJs have existed, you know,
more or less people than mixing records together,
making, you know, having two songs, combining
them together, probably since about the late sixties.
But what Kool Herc did that was unique is he
would take two copies of the same record, and
he would basically, um, figure out, alright,
There's this really good part of the song that everybody
likes to dance to, like the intro might be
whack, the outro might be, you know, this
super lame whatever. But people really like this one
part of the song. So if I take two
records and extend that part of the song, then
people will continue to dance, right? So that's
the origin of hip hop DJs. And a lot
of people say the hip hop culture. And of
course, obviously hip hop comes out of black and
brown working class communities, and it's hard to like
, say, there's like this one date. But
that's the one. If people are gonna say there's
one day, that's what they say, right?
All right, so I'm gonna show you real quick
what Kool Herc was doing and kind of explain this
and then we'll move on to the next thing.
All right, so this song has a super long
intro. You might not recognize it at first,
but once we get into it, you'll probably recognize.
♪ [Think (About It) plays] ♪
♪ Cause we realize two things ♪
Craig: So the beat drops, right?
Craig: So now people might start dancing
Craig: to that 30 second intro. So about another 20 seconds.
Craig: The break is gonna start. You'll be able to
Craig: catch it when it does.
♪ It takes 2 to make a thing go right. It takes 2 to make it outta sight ♪
[scratches, beats mixed with doubled song]
Two copies moving back and forth instead of having like a
10 sec. part that people would dance to and then the
10 sec. part's over and everyone sits down And the
D. J has a low self esteem, and
it's no fun. Instead of that, he could
continue that break forever and ever and ever and ever
and ever, right? So when we talk about
sample based music, this is the original sampler.
Before digital samplers that came around like the early eighties.
Before that, before drum machines, it was
the D. J. looping breaks, right?
Just continuing that one part of the song over and
over and over again. So did anybody know what
song sampled that? And you guys got this.
Yeah, right. Rob Base and EZ Rock, It takes
two, right? Yeah. So that was basically
the drum machine version of Kool Herc or whoever whooping
it up. Alright, cool. So we'll see...
. Yeah, So, basically, you know,
basic history of D. J. Um, so
you know, music was put out on records that
was was available there. You know, I guess
eight tracks were coming along shortly thereafter. Cassette tapes
, probably a couple more years. So, you
know, that's what people had, right? So
a lot of times D j.s Started digging through
their parents records, finding records in their parents house
. Maybe, you know, stealing their aunts records
, whatever the case may be, right. They
were finding records wherever they could, and ah,
whole kind of culture developed around that, right?
So DJs would actually a lot of times they would
even soak the records in the bathtub so the labels
would come off right? So they kinda information was
super powerful. And like, if you had records
, nobody else had, you were probably gonna be
better D j and people would want to book you
on that sort of thing, Right? So this
whole culture kind of sprung up and like when I
first started deejaying, thankfully, I was kind of
At the tail in the record culture. It wasn't really
digital music was still, you know, it's coming
along, But like, if you could get,
I guess I'm dating myself here. But if you
could get like a 30 second sample of a song on
the Internet, that was That was pretty impressive,
right? It's still really You had to have the
physical media and to get knowledgeable about music, you
basically as a young d. J. You had
to sit at the feet of another D. J
. Right. So it was basically a mentorship
sort of program and this whole concept of paying dudes
you couldn't just hop in if you had a little
bit of money. And just buy the whole music
collection, you had to go record for record and
build it up. So yeah, so that's basically
what was going on. And a lot of DJs.
- they're still active now, basically started off moving
other DJs equipment before the party moving the records before
the party, that sort of thing, paying those
dues. So this whole kind of culture of like
being what they would call quote unquote a record boy
, you had to pay your dues before you could
actually D j. And then you work your way
up. And maybe when the deejay went to the
bathroom, you might be able to hop on for
a couple of minutes, that sort of thing,
right? So, like in academia, we call
that sometimes of a community of practice people that get
together and they all kind of work on this thing
. And, uh, yeah, that's another way
to look at it. Alright, So next we're
gonna talk about fair use. So what even is
fair use? Does anybody know? It's better than unfair
use, right? I don't know. All right
, so basically what fair use is, it's a
way where you can use other people's work and,
you know, put it in your own work.
Essentially, Um, So I want a big caveat
. I'm not an attorney. My wife went to
law school. I know how hard that is.
And it couldn't have been me. So salute to
her. But I'm definitely not one. And
Basically, you know, I'm not trying to give
legal advice, but I am trying to give you
a framework to where, If you do make sample
based music, if you do, maybe even make
collages or whatever, whatever you do that where
you use other people's work in your own work.
There's some things that considered toe where you can kind
of avoid those season two citizen takedown notices. And
if you do get one, you can respond,
you know. So here's the definition. Not going
to read it to you, but it's basically,
you know, a basic outline, according to Stanford.
Yeah, all right. So the things to
consider when you're trying to decide if you can use
somebody's work in your own, is this thing called the
four factors test. That's what I would recommend
considering. So basically how that works is, uh
, the first thing you consider is like, What
is the purpose? Why are you doing this thing
? Are you doing it, to, you know,
blow up and, like, make a whole bunch
of money off YouTube views. Are you doing it
just because it's an artistic endeavor? And you're like
, Oh, I want to try to make some
cool. Whatever. Um, that's what you gotta
consider first, right? Is a commercial or is
an artistic nature of work on. Then you also
have to consider and the nature of the original work
, right? So, um is if you're basically
if you're sampling some music that you got, maybe
that was never released, you're probably never gonna be
in good standing with that, right? But if
it's something that's commercially available, then you might be
alright, but yes. So the nature of the
original work is super important. And then also the
amount - the amount that you're using. So are you
using like, a big piece or using little tiny
pieces that are cut up and rearranged? What are
you doing? And then, finally, the last
thing to consider is the effect of what you're doing
on that original work and the market for that original
work. So, like if you make a remix
of a song and the original artists, everybody's like
all right, we're off That original were off that
original song. We only want to hear the remix
, the original artists Nobody's trying to buy their song
off iTunes anymore. Whatever the case may be,
then you know you've hurt their market for that original
songs. That makes sense. So it's kind of
like the effect of what you've done, right?
So this is four things to consider, and I
want to kind of give you an example of this
in practice and how scratching, which is something that
originally came out of hip hop culture as well.
Now you hear it, like in pop songs,
you hear it all over the place. But,
yeah, how this is very used in practice. So
scratching was first started by this guy named Grand Wizard
Theodore. So he was about, if I'm not
mistaken he's about like 15 years old. It's 1977.
He's in his mom's house, you know, obviously
15 not on his own yet, but he's practicing
in his bedroom, D. J.ing. And he's
listening his headphones right. So with a mixer,
you can hear what's playing or what's gonna play.
You can hear what's playing in the mixer before you
hear it on the speakers, so that's what he's
doing is queuing up a record, right? So
, yes, you would go So basically, he
was just queueing up this record in his headphones,
So he has like a beat
, playing on the other turntable and just in his
headphones. He's moving the record back and forth,
getting ready to release it, getting ready to play
the next song and his mom goes, hey Theodore,
Turn that down. Turn that noise down. Dinner's
ready or whatever you know. So he's basically alright
, Mom, hold up. I'll be there in
a second. Chill out, Whatever. Whatever you
could get away with. I don't know how he
could talk to his mom, but hopefully probably not tell
her to chill out. That might have been a
recipe for disaster, especially in 1977. But anyway
, so he's moving the record back and forth,
and he's like, Oh, man, that actually
sounds pretty good. That sounds kind of cool.
So, he figures. Maybe I'll try this in
public. Maybe I'll actually play this over the speakers
. Next party I do. So he spent a
few months working on it, and he did it
. People liked it, and now it's, you
know, kind of a big part. Or maybe
maybe not as much as they used to, but
arguably a big part of popular music and hip hop
. Right? So There's all sorts of different techniques
I'll talk about in a second. But before we
do that, I just want to talk about kind
of this record I was just scratching. Right.
So this is kind of the original sample scratch
fodder for DJ's. If you hear any deejay practice
, this is probably the sound they're gonna use.
Is that is that true? DJs You agree with
me? Alright, cool. All right, So
what it is, it actually comes from a really
kind of obscure record. Man, this is really
gonna date mee too. But does anybody know
who Fab Five Freddy is? Okay, Right.
So he was kind of like one of the original
hip hop promoters kind of businessman. Um, you
know, I mean, I guess he dabbled a
little bit in graffiti, dabbled a little bit
of music, but he was more a business person.
Agree? Yeah. Okay. All right. So
he put out a record, and I think it
was 82 if I'm not mistaken. And it was
really kind of obscure even at the time, right?
So I'm gonna play it for you. And
I'll be curious if you've ever heard this in your
life. Not that that means it's bad or anything
like that, but just curious. Have you ever
heard it?
♪ [Change The Beat plays] ♪
♪ [French lyrics ] ♪♪ Heard that before? Other than DJs,
, I mean, that's kind of your job,
but anybody? All right, So yeah, so
it was kind of obscure record. The story goes
that the record producers partner, that was the woman
that was rapping in French. Um, just kind
of like happenstance like, Oh, we got some
extra studio time. Let's just see what happens.
And they recorded this thing and it really didn't do
much right. But about a couple of minutes into
the song, you got this right here:
Album: This stuff is really Fresh!
Way the very end of the song, like,
what can we put on the end of the song?
You know, we got some extra tape or
whatever. So what they did is they had somebody
go in the booth then they put, like,
what's called, like a talk box or
vocoder effect or whatever to kind of make it sound
robotic, right? So deejays somehow found this
sound, and now it's all over the place.
Right? So I'm gonna play some examples for you
real quick. All right? The first one is
Rocket by Herbie Hancock. This was the first song
that I'm aware of. It was also, I
think, pretty much the same year I was born.
So somebody's it'll be correct me But it was
the first song to have scratching on like a commercial kind
of big song. Right? And Herbie Hancock is
like the triple OG jazz musician. I mean
, this guy has been around playing since, probably
the early fifties or late forties,
probably still around still making music. But this is
what he did [♪ music ♪] So he got a D. J called
Grand Mixer DXT. Yeah, so that's
probably the first time a lot of people that weren't
around hip hop like in person probably heard scratching.
So it's kind of cool to think like,
you know, just what is that? Six years
after Grand Wizard Theodore invented this thing, a 15
year old kid invented this thing in his mom's apartment
at Mom's house whatever. You know, a jazz
legend is incorporating it into a big commercial release,
right? I don't know. It's kind
of cool. But also, I'm a D.J. nerd so
whatever. All right, so the next one we
got just another example of this is Eric B and
Rakim. Show of hands. How many people have
heard of Rakim before? Okay, everybody else,
listen up. It's not too late. Yeah,
one of the best to ever do it. All
right, so we got paid in full. This
came out in 1987 with his hair. That's a
good question. So Eric B Way could talk about
that. Maybe back channels. But the legend is
, it was actually Biz Markie, that did the cuts.
♪ Yo Rakim, what's up ♪
♪ Yo, I'm doing the knowledge, E. ♪
♪ I'm trying to get paid in full ♪
♪ Well check this out since Nobry Walters is our agency. Right? True ♪
♪ Kara Lewis is our agent ♪
♪ Zakia on Broadway is our record company. Indeed. ♪
♪ so who we rolling with? We rollin with Rushtown ♪
♪ Check this out because we're talking over ♪
♪ this def beat right here ♪
I wanna hear some def rhymes ♪
♪ You know what I'm saying? Together, we'll get paid in full ♪
Craig: Alright, so long Intro. People
Craig: have attention spans back in 1987.
♪ I hear what you're saying. So let's just pump the ♪
♪ music up and count our money. Check this out ♪
♪ Yo Elai turn the bass down just let the ♪
♪ beat keep on rockin. We outta here ♪
♪ Yo, what happened to peace? ♪
♪ beats, scratches, echo effects] ♪♪
Craig: So it even showed up, though in
other songs outside of the genre, right? Like
outside of hip hop. So the next song I
got is actually by Nine inch nails or the [???]
People were probably really excited, right? No,
there's a [???] classic. Anyway, whatever. Josh
didn't like that. Sorry, Josh. So Nine
Inch Nails like industrial goth kind of like early nineties.
I bet you if you check some playlist from
1990, Nine inch nails is all over. Kimberly likes
nine inch nails, right? Yeah, Exactly
. Okay. Somebody likes them. Alright, cool.
. All right, so here we go. 1990 [Music plays]
Craig: So it's not using our the freshest using
stuff from this stuff is really fresh. I
think this one's for Andrea. Is she still here?
No. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Yeah
. All right. So it made it to also
the dancehall reggae. Right? So you know,
like, why Why are you missing my name?
Now you get it? Okay. Cool. Alright.
I couldn't find any clips. So with it
it maybe that's probably out there, though. Anyway
. So, um Louchie Lou and Michie One, they
were actually from the UK But they remade the song
from Fiddler on the Roof. If I was a
rich girl, you all know that. Alright,
so 1993 big dancehall reggae hit.
♪ [Fresh music plays ] ♪
Sorry to drop it. Like, cut it out before the
beat dropped, But anyway so yeah, So the
fresh showed up there. Right? So that's what
, 10 years later, give or take. I guess
10 years later and then it's shown up even more
recently than that. So Eric's favorite artists, Britney
Spears, used it in 2001. Eric: Number one baby!
♪ [Britney Spears music plays] ♪
So somebody thought it was good
for Britney Spears to include some scratches and whatever.
I hope the deejay got paid. All right
, the next one. We've got Justin Bieber and
Drake from 2012. ♪ [ music ] ♪ So yes, So, basically
we start off with.... ♪ [Change the Beat plays] ♪
♪ Oh, this stuff is really fresh! ♪♪
Craig: Just probably somebody's, like, afterthought.
Like, What's something we could put on the end
of this record, Right? Let's let's see what
happens. And it makes it all over the world,
right? All different genres, all different types
of music. Um, all different countries, all
different artists, right? And it's interesting to think
why would Justin Bieber in 2012 use that sound on
a pop song like, What does that Communicate
right? What is the aesthetic he's going for,
Right, But yes. So we're talking about
that four factors test, right? Purpose, nature,
amount and effect. And, you know, I
think there's no way to argue that if anything,
the effect of all this like more DJs, they're
trying to find this record right. They might also
sampled and put it on other records or whatever,
but probably it helped out Fab Five Freddy when people
were using his work. But the amount is
a lot of weight. It's a really small amount
In the nature of Fab Five Freddie's record. It
was commercially released, and the purpose of people are
making new stuff right there being creative with this little
bit of sound. So yeah, so I really
think, like, if nothing else, you know
, a lot of times, academics talk about hip
hop and sampling and d. J and they
got it all wrong, right? It's actually,
if anything really, really creative. And it's just
a different kind of convention. But people are just
maybe not familiar with the culture. They're not familiar
what goes on and they're projecting who knows what onto
the artistic practice. Oh, alright. So I
got one more example for you that I'm gonna quit
yapping and you guys are gonna get actually get to
use some D J equipment. And the pizza will
be here any minute too. So yeah, So
who grew up in the nineties? Anybody? All
right, who grew up in the south in the
nineties. Alright, cool. So have you heard
of Goodie Mob? Okay, cool. So Goodie
Mob was a part of this big conglomerate out of
Atlanta called the Dungeon Family and you might have also
heard of OutKast. Right? Okay, cool.
So Yeah, so good. He was like a
kind of super group out of Atlanta. If you
think about it on, does this guy that you
might be familiar with the little green wasn't Goodie Mob
, right? But there was also some other heavyweights
. My personal favorite Khujo, I think. Mommy's
favorite gift. Right on also the team. Oh
, but yeah, they were formed in 1991 in
Atlanta. They were on this record label called LaFace
And they were produced by organized noise. So
organized noise that a lot of work for cast that
had a lot of work for the rest of the
dungeon family. There's a really super dope documentary on
dungeon family that I recommended checking out. Um,
they were actually like - it was called dungeon family because
these folks were creating music in a basement.
Like it was like a dungeon, you know
And really incredible work that I think changed hip
hop in a lot of ways. Um, but
yeah. So this record came out in 1995 in
September. Um, it reached the Billboard top 40
and it was number one on the Billboard rap charts
, Right? So I'll play it for you.
You might recognize it might not. I don't know
. I hope so. If not download or purchase
, preferably the album. Soul Food is a really
great album, but I play it real quick.
And then we'll talk about Travis Scott after that.
Show of hands. How many people heard this before?
♪ The scene unfolds ♪
♪ Young girl 13 years old ♪
♪ Exposed to any Tom and Hank ♪
♪ More stretch marks than Gumby's horse Hollerin' they got rank ♪
♪ SEGA ain't in this new world order Experimenting in Atlanta, Georgia ♪
♪ United Nations oversees trained assassins Do search and seize ain't knocking' or asking' ♪
♪ They're coming for niggas like me, Poor white trash ♪
♪ tricks like her, back in slavery ♪
♪ Concentration camps laced with gas pipes Infernos outdoors like they had back ♪
♪ Like Adolf Hitler livin' in 1945 ♪
♪ Listen to me now, believe me later on In the future look it up where they say it in the constitution ♪
♪ In the event of a race war, Places ♪
♪ like Operation Heartbreak Hotel moments tear until air tight vents sealed off despair ♪
♪ They say expect no mercy ♪
♪ Fool you should be my least worries Unmarked black helicopters swoop down ♪♪
Craig: Travis Scott came out, I
guess last month. This year.
♪ Who's that creeping through my window before you come outside I got the M4 ♪
♪ Took her to the end zone from the ends though ♪
♪ Know I love to smoke you love to lick more ♪♪
Craig: Sounds a little bit different when I
play it, though, because if we actually play
as it was released...
[similar track plays, slower]
So Astroworld
came out Number one on Billboard Top 200, just came
out, I guess last month, but yes.
5% Tint is on this record, right? And
you got to keep in mind that Travis Scott produces
records. He actually didn't make this beat. Somebody
else did. And dude that made it was
FKI 1 or whatever, but he was
from Atlanta, right? So Travis Scott was born
in 1992 and this came out in 1995 Southern hip
hop. I don't know why. Why do you
think Travis Scott would maybe use that sample? Has
anybody got any guesses Any thoughts. Freddie in the
back? It's dope, right? Okay. Anybody else?
Paying homage, right? What do you think, Kwame?
I mean, uh, right. It's Atlanta anthem
, right? So you know, OutKast, Goodie
Mob. They really And I guess you could also
say, like UGK and a few other Ghetto
Boy's a few other Southern rap groups were super important
and kind of considering, I guess, kind of
making people shift the focus from New York hip hop
to the rest of the country in the South and
that sort of thing, Right? So, Travis
Scott, being a Southern artist that grew up in
the nineties, he probably heard this a lot,
and he's kind of paying homage, right? So
a lot of times we think about sampling, as
you know, stealing somebody else's work. But I
think this is an example where he was actually like,
citing his sources, if you think about it
, right, like he's giving a nod to dungeon
family, he's giving a nod to organized noise.
He's giving a nod to goodie by doing this,
So yeah, so, uh, I don't know
any questions or anything. Does that make sense?
Yeah, but so, like, usually, like
when I was down here and I used to read
little booklet on the inside, right. Hello.
Uh, so my understanding of this and I might
be wrong, but this is my understanding. So
interpolation is basically you're having someone instead of, like
, taking the original work and recording it and put
it in, like, a software program nowadays.
Or like a drum machine back when you know you're
having other musicians play the same song over, basically
incorporating some of that song into your work. But
you're not actually using a digital recording. Does that
make sense? Right? So with that, a
lot of times Freddie, Freddie's give me the thumbs
up. All right, cool. But with that
is a lot of times for someone that's an artist
for record labels, it's less expensive to do
that because you're you're paying. Um, you don't
have to pay for all the rights, right?
It's basically you're paying for song songwriter credit.
Yeah, exactly. Kwame. Yeah, I was
clapping up for that musicologist. He
, explained that a lot better than I could.
Thank you. Yeah, but yeah. So instead
of this recording, it's the music I guess being
replayed? Yeah, Cool. Any other questions?
Pretty correct. Writing found according right. Cool.
All right, so I think I'm done. You
have it. You guys happy that I'm doing talking
Cool. Alright. So Eric is gonna come up
and talk a little bit about how this looks in
his artistic practice, I guess, right? So
real quick. We just went over like a lot
of aspects of DJing and like the whole culture
behind it. But once again, we want to
tie everything back to hip hop as a whole.
Deejaying is only one aspect of it. I am
personally like involved in breaking, break dancing. And this
also aligns with hip hop's values. So in breaking
if you have someone create a move, let's
say a windmill. So that one move where it
looks like someone's defying the air or the head spin
, for example, right? If someone created that
move, who's to say that person is a real
creator? When somebody else across the world who learned
the same foundation made the move themselves because they just
suddenly came across it? Is it their move,
the person who originally created it? Or if the
person across the world, naturally came
upon that move and created that move, are they
the creator? Who's to say, On top of
that, there's another layer of like cultural history within
local communities. So let's say I'm in Richmond,
Virginia, and I learned how to do the windmill
But I learned from the original creator.
And so because I learned from the original creator and
he said, Hey, Eric, you can have
this move and that I learned the windmill and I
do it at a competition with a lineup of judges
and they don't know my history. Is the judge
gonna say, Eric, you are biter. A biter
meaning like you copy that move. Who's to
say that judge is right. So once again,
copyrighting and fair use and biting and creating your own
original content is always so subjective. There's always so
much gray area, and we're only giving two examples
here of two artistic expressions. But this can go
into anything. We're talking about writing literature, what
we're talking about creating other aspect of art like
mm D j. Right. But I think it's
like it's a very artistic thing. I couldn't think
of any examples right there. But it's the whole
idea of whose original creator, if you come to
it honestly. And in a genuine manner, all
right? I think as long as
you always give credit to the people that inspired you
will be good. So whatever that looks like,
whatever context you know, Uh, yeah, but
that's about it. All right, so this point
we got some pizza in the back. I really
am done yapping. We're gonna play some music,
and if you guys wanna learn how to d J
now is excellent opportunity. So we've got over here
my fraternity brother, Tyson. Let's clap it up
for Tyson. So Tyson's got a Numark controller,
Numark NS6. And he's got a
software program called Serato. Yep. And he's happy
if you got any questions. You want to see
how he does this thing? Come over and talk
to him. Really, really friendly guy.
Promise. You know, talk to him. He'll show
you all about DJing and that sort of
thing. Then we've got court over here in DJ
King Court. So, uh, Court is
using some techniques. 1200 turntable was just kind of
like, these and he's using. I think we've
got pretty much the same right. He's using a
Pioneer DJM S9 mixer, and he's also running
Serato d. J. One thing I forgot to
explain, right? So you think of turntables,
You probably think like the records got music on them.
But with Court and my, um, equipment,
that's not necessarily the case. So what's on these
records? That's a little loud. I apologize.
All right, let's try it again. That's the
only thing that's on these records, right? Is
just this tone and what that does. It goes
through the mixer and communicates with the laptop, and
that allows us, Court probably remembers these days of having
to bring a whole bunch of records with you.
And, you know, when you get old,
your back hurts, your knees hurt, it's not fun.
So instead, you could just bring
a laptop. I've got, like, 50,000 songs
on my laptop. You know, it's a lot
better than bringing records, and it's pretty close to
the old vinyl feel, right, all right,
and then we also have Elena. So Elena has
a piece of equipment that the library actually owns and
you can check out for free My favorite price.
So what that is, that's a Pioneer DDJ-SX2.
Yeah, it's a controller.
Thank you. Yeah, And when she's
running a different piece of software, the software is
called Virtual D. J. But what's cool about
this equipment is you could go up to the media
design studio that's on the 4th floor Torgersen Bridge,
you say, Hey, I want the deejay controller.
You give them your Hokie P and they will
check it out to you for free for five days.
Just remember to bring it back. It'll be
good to go. Um, yeah, so we'll
show you how to use that. And then finally
, we've got Chris a k a DJ Gee Whiz.
So, uh, you can catch
him at the park every Saturday. Is that right?
Every, every once in a while anyway, you
can. He DJs out a lot, all these folks
do but yeah, so he's got a pioneer controllers
similar to what Elaina's got, but he's also running
Serato Dj yeah, so just, you know
, talk to folks. They're happy to show you
how to do the thing you know and break down
the equipment and all that. Have some pizza.
Enjoy yourself. Talk to somebody you don't know,
you know. All right, maybe get out your
phone. Whatever. Get out of your phone.
Don't get out your phone and put your phone up
And I'm also gonna play some music, and
the Flowmingos are gonna rock, and hopefully we'll eat
some pizza at the end. Yeah, we're good
to go. So we're gonna be here till nine.
An again. This real quick. Our
next event is this beat battle. October 11th.
First place gets 250 bucks. Um, yeah,
yeah, of course. You want the mic?
I don't need the Mike. I just might say,
if you're part of a community, you think you're
part of an organization or something. Another thing to
do is to support your deejay. We have great
DJs here and really having people who were there and
have the equipment and know what they're doing and know
how to read a crowd and know how how to
just set the right atmosphere. So sometimes these days
, someone says, Well, just make a playlist
. But especially if you have an organization if
you have funds. And if you have to have
the ability to think about the importance of music to
what you think about the people who take music seriously
, think about trying to incorporate supporting your DJs at
good prices. Yeah. Thank you. I got
to get some air horns for that. All right
, Cool. So, yes, we're gonna play
some music, have some fun. And just community,
that sort of thing. Everybody have fun.
See you soon..
Z thing? No. Can you dig it?
You know?