Change the Beat

Last updated

"Change the Beat" is a song written and recorded by Fab Five Freddy, and one of the most sampled songs in music history.

It was recorded at Martin Bisi's OAO Studio in Brooklyn, New York, United States, (later, BC Studio) and released as a 12" single on the Celluloid label in 1982. This release and all subsequent pressings of the single feature two versions of the song, one on Side A and one on Side B. The official length of the tracks varies depending on the specific pressing of the single, with some releases mislabeling the running times entirely. The Side A version is 7:40 minutes in length and features Fab Five Freddy rapping in both English and French. He also performs the chorus of the song, utilizing a vocoder with a white noise carrier to achieve a gritty, robotic effect. The version of the song that appears on Side B is considerably shorter than the A-side track, clocking in at 3:42. Aside from the chorus, which, like the Side A, was performed by Fab Five Freddy through the vocoder, the lead vocals are performed by rapper Beside and rapped entirely in French, making this single one of the first multilingual hip-hop releases. Beside was credited as 'Fab 5 Betty' on the earliest pressings of the vinyl. [1]

At the end of the Side B version, there appears the phrase "Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh", spoken through a vocoder. The first and last words are two of the most widely used samples for scratching. According to WhoSampled, a user-generated website cataloging samples, Change the Beat is one of the three most sampled tracks in history, appearing in over 2600 tracks as of 2022. [2] The earliest of which was the 1983 Herbie Hancock single "Rockit", which featured scratching by pioneering DJ and turntablist Grandmixer DXT (then known as GrandMixer D.ST). [3]

Although most people familiar with the record believe the sample comes from the processed voice of Fab Five Freddy, that account is disputed by producer Bill Laswell, one of the musicians credited on the record. [4] Laswell states that it was his manager Roger Trilling who recorded the sample during earlier sessions for another project. According to both Laswell and Trilling himself, Trilling was imitating a record executive who would reportedly exclaim "this stuff is really fresh!" whenever he heard a song he liked. The sample, then, is an imitation of this executive by Roger Trilling and spoken through a vocoder. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fab Five Freddy</span> American artist

Fred Brathwaite, more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown underground creative scene in the late 1970s as a graffiti artist. He was the bridge between the burgeoning uptown rap scene and the downtown No Wave art scene. He was immortalized in 1981 when Debbie Harry rapped on the Blondie song "Rapture" that "Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly." In the late 1980s, Freddy became the first host of the groundbreaking hip-hop music video show Yo! MTV Raps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rapper's Delight</span> 1979 single by The Sugarhill Gang

"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 hip hop track by the Sugarhill Gang, produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by the Fatback Band's "King Tim III ", "Rapper's Delight" is credited for introducing hip hop music to a wide audience, reaching the top 40 in the United States, as well as the top three in the United Kingdom and number one in Canada. It was a prototype for various types of rap music. The track interpolates Chic's "Good Times", resulting in Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards suing Sugar Hill Records for copyright infringement; a settlement was reached that gave the two songwriting credits. The track was recorded in a single take. There are five mixes of the song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scratching</span> Turntablism technique

Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two records simultaneously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Laswell</span> American musician (born 1955)

William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub, and ambient styles.

Newcleus was an American electro and old school hip hop group that gained popularity in the early 1980s. The group is primarily known for its 12-inch single "Jam-On's Revenge" and "Jam on It" (1984), which began as an anti-rap joke, according to founding member DJ and producer Ben Cenac.

At the time (1981) we were going by the name Positive Messenger and were making music that had a purpose, either messages of love or faith or talking about the conditions of the world. However, we were still doing lots of Hip-Hop jams with our DJ crew Jam-On Productions. So, one of our DJs, Salvador Smooth, kept nagging me to do a Rap song. Having come out of Hip-Hop street battles in Brooklyn in the ’70s, I didn't really think much of the Rap records that were playing on the radio, so I figured as a joke I would make a parody jam ... I threw in an idea from an [event] that actually had happened in the ’70s, when a DJ who we had just blown out in a battle said to me "Yeah, you guys are bad, but you can't do this… wikki wikki wikki wikki," meaning how we didn't scratch on the turntables.

I used to play "Jam-On's Revenge" at our parties and it would fill the dance floor, so even though I had never planned to release it, when I was shopping Positive Messenger for a deal I put it on the tape just to fill out space at the end. Turned out it ended up being the track that drove everybody crazy! So, we went with it and changed our names to Newcleus."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockit (instrumental)</span> 1983 single by Herbie Hancock

"Rockit" is a composition recorded by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and produced by Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn. Hancock released it as a single from his 1983 album Future Shock. The selection was composed by Hancock, Laswell, and Beinhorn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorhead (song)</span> Song by Hawkwind

"Motorhead" is a song written by Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister while he was a member of the English space rock band Hawkwind. It was later recorded by Motörhead, as he called it this instead of Bastard on his then manager's advice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rapture (Blondie song)</span> 1981 single by Blondie

"Rapture" is a song by American rock band Blondie from their fifth studio album Autoamerican (1980). Written by band members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and produced by Mike Chapman, the song was released as the second and final single from Autoamerican on January 12, 1981, by Chrysalis Records. Musically, "Rapture" is a combination of new wave, disco and hip hop with a rap section forming an extended coda.

Michael Beinhorn is a North American record producer, composer, author and musician. He has produced albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Violent Femmes and Marilyn Manson.

Celluloid Records, a French/American record label, founded by Jean Georgakarakos operated from 1976 to 1989 in New York City, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the early to late 1980s, largely under the auspices of de facto in-house producer Bill Laswell.

Double Dee and Steinski is a duo of hip hop producers, composed of Doug "Double Dee" DiFranco and Steven "Steinski" Stein. They achieved notoriety in the early 1980s for a series of underground hip-hop sample-based collages known as the "Lessons".

<i>Built from Scratch</i> 2002 studio album by The X-Ecutioners

Built from Scratch is the second studio album by New York City DJ group The X-Ecutioners. It was released on February 26, 2002 through Loud Records and Columbia Records. The album was produced by Beat Junkies, Chris Frantz, CJ Moore, Dan the Automator, DJ Apollo, DJ Premier, Kenny Muhammad The Human Orchestra, Knobody, Large Professor, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Mike Shinoda of American rock band Linkin Park, Sean Cane, The X-Ecutioners, Tina Weymouth, and was executive produced by Peter Kang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Nightmare on My Street</span> 1988 single by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

"A Nightmare on My Street" is the third single from DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's second studio album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. The song became a crossover hit in the US, reaching #15 on the Hot 100. The song was released as a single in early 1988. The single was released on vinyl and audio cassette tape. The song humorously describes an encounter with the horror film villain Freddy Krueger and was considered for inclusion in the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but the producers of the film decided against its inclusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrika Bambaataa</span> American DJ, rapper, and producer

Lance Taylor, also known as Afrika Bambaataa, is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.

<i>One Down</i> 1982 studio album by Material

One Down is a 1982 album by the New York based no wave music group Material, produced by Material, recorded by indie producer/engineer Martin Bisi in Brooklyn and musician/engineer Robert Musso in Manhattan. The album sees the band reduced to a duo of keyboardist Michael Beinhorn and bassist Bill Laswell, collaborating with different musicians and singers on each track. Whitney Houston made her recording debut as a lead vocalist on this album, for a version of the song "Memories".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paid in Full (Eric B. & Rakim song)</span> 1987 single by Eric B. & Rakim

"Paid in Full" is a 1987 song by American hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim. Written and produced by group members Eric Barrier and Rakim Allah, the song was released as the fifth single from the duo's debut studio album, Paid in Full (1987). It became one of the group's most successful singles, owing heavily to a popular remix of the song by English electronic dance music duo Coldcut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)</span> 1991 single by Black Sheep

"The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)" is a song by the Native Tongues affiliate Black Sheep, from their debut album A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. It was released in October 1991 as the second single from the album. The song quotes the Roger Miller song, "Engine Engine Number 9".

<i>Wild Style Original Soundtrack</i> 1982 soundtrack album by Various Artists

Wild Style Original Soundtrack is the official soundtrack to the 1982 hip hop film Wild Style. It was originally released in 1983 via Animal Records, and re-released twice: in 1997 via Rhino Entertainment, and in 2007 as 25th anniversary edition via Mr Bongo Records. The album was produced by Charlie Ahearn and Chris Stein with Fab 5 Freddy, who served as musical director of the project. It featured appearances from Busy Bee, Cold Crush Brothers, DJ Charlie Chase, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Mixer DXT, Grand Wizzard Theodore & the Fantastic Five, Double Trouble, Prince Whipper Whip, Rammellzee, AJ Scratch, D.J. Stieve Steve and Shockdell.

<i>Deconstruction: The Celluloid Recordings</i> 1993 compilation album by Bill Laswell

Deconstruction: The Celluloid Recordings is a compilation album by American composer Bill Laswell, released on January 19, 1993 by Restless Records. It comprises solo recordings alongside his work with artists such as Material, Massacre, Time Zone, Fab Five Freddy, Tour‚ Kunda, the Last Poets, Manu Dibango and Fela Kuti.

Luv(Sic) Hexalogy is an album collaboration created and finalized posthumously by the Japanese producer Nujabes, who died before the completion of the album, and Japanese American hip hop artist Shing02. It is a jazz hip hop album (hexalogy), that incorporates latin jazz/soul samples and drum beats to create the instrumentals. The scratching was performed by various DJs and the vocals/lyrics were created by Shing02.

References

  1. "Fab 5 Freddy / Beside* - Change The Beat (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  2. "Change the Beat (Female Version) by Beside on WhoSampled". WhoSampled. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  3. Technikart, (April, 2005), 91
  4. "The Celluloid Records Story (part 1 of 2)". YouTube. 2013-03-11. Archived from the original on 2021-12-20. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  5. Graves, Jen (2010-11-02). "The Origins of That "Aaaaahhhh... Fresssshhhhh!" Sample - Line Out - The Stranger". Lineout.thestranger.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2016-10-26.