Copyright Criminals, a film that takes on the tough topic of sampling, and where it fits in both the legal and artistic realms, comes to the Tivoli on October 22, at 7 p.m. Executive producer and writer Kembrew McLeod will be on hand at the screening. (Thanks to DLC for the tip.)
It's something that has many facets, such as Biz Markie's use of of a Gilbert O'Sullivan sample or the Verve's notorious tussle with the Rolling Stones over "Bittersweet Symphony."
Interestingly, it seems that the film focuses mainly on the influence of sampling on hip-hop, as opposed to the plunderphonics currently engaged in by guys like Girl Talk and E-603, to say nothing of pioneers like Negativland. The focus on one particular facet of the discussion promises to be interesting.
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I'm not surprised that they ignored Girl Talk, but Negativland's work with actually cutting and pasting hundreds of pieces of tape together to create collages is amazing. Barely listenable, but amazing.
This looks like a great movie, gonna have to check it out. Wax Poetics did an issue focusing heavily on Public Enemy, The Bomb Squad, Hank Shocklee, etc and it was really fascinating to hear the creative process behind Public Enemy, especially on the production side.
The labor that went into finding and cutting up samples and laying those tracks out in the days before software sequencers and Ableton Live is just mind boggling. They only had a few seconds of sample time to work with.
Can you really be surprised the producers ignored Girl Talk? P.E., De La Soul, those guys made a mark that has lasted 2+ decades and will last much longer. Girl Talk is some disposable, hipster mashup bullshit and while he is really fun live, he doesn't even deserve to be spoken in the same sentence as a genius like Hank Shocklee.
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