Joshua Pablo Rosenstock's blog

Here's the video that I showed at my closing reception at Mass Art on 6/24. What a great evening!

In the past few weeks of digging in the (mostly internet) crates, I've found a lot of useful materials. I'm going to use this post to document the best stuff.

Thanks to a response to a post on the hiphop/turntablism blog The Essential Elements, I was alerted to the presence of this video:

This is a bonafide hip hop holy grail! It documents an early freestyle battle between the young Lord Finesse and Percee P. They're rapping over a Mark the 45 King loop of the Funky Drummer! Although it's pretty low-fi (I actually like that about this) it really captures the ambience outside the Patterson Projects in the South Bronx.

Somehow I missed this one in my previous combing through youtube. It's a James Brown live medley from 1968 that has the best Clyde Stubblefield footage I've found yet. He's so young! Look for the drum break in Cold Sweat at around the 6:00 mark.

When I was researching Creative Commons, this interview with Negativland's Mark Hosler (an early and important influence on my own use of sampling as an artist) was really useful in helping to understand the limits of the CC model.

By comic artist Kagan McLeod, here's a great artistic representation of the Think break, another James Brown-derived sample that has an even richer history than the Funky Drummer. This is kind of another version of what I'm trying to do.

(click for full size)

This blog post by Ethan Hein has a nice visualization of the FD loop:

 I found some great info and images of King Records, which is both the studio where James Brown recorded the Funky Drummer, and the company that put the record out, here and here. It turns out King was a model of both a racially- and vertically-integrated company (they specialized in both country and r&b recordings).

 Jesse Kriss has a cool interactive visualization of famous samples.

This company "replays" or recreates samples as a way for companies to avoid paying royalties for them. This is so postmodern it blows my mind! 

The amazing and very helpful Larisa Mann/DJ Ripley shared her annotated bibliography on Intellectual Property with me.

Through her blog I found this great article by Simon Reynolds, a music writer I've been a fan of for a long time, entitled What Is Your Sampling Epiphany? 

I'm finally meeting up with Wayne Marshall! This is exciting because not only were his writings some of the first texts I looked at as part of my research, but also pretty much everyone I've talked to since starting this project has asked, "have you talked to Wayne?" He's a busy guy so I'm glad he found time to join us for a conversation.

The following are some questions/ideas for topics I hope to explore with him. 

 -what is the relationship between the afro-diasporic tradition of Versioning and sampling?

-to what extent do particular samples engender bodies of musical work or even entire genres? Can those samples be seen as "folk music" or part of a creative commons?

-to what extent is remixing or using a formulaic repertoire of samples an open, democratic, participatory culture? How do notions of authenticity figure into this? (ie can a white guy from sweden make "real" reggaeton just because he has access to the same ingredients?)

-how does the illegality or high cost of licensing affect how artists can work? And, what kind of creativity is engendered by a copyright-free environment? Is "creative commons" really an adequate solution?

-is a sample just a musical "means to an end", or are the historical associations that go along with it an essential part of its signification? How do sample "replaying" services figure into this? What about uninformed artists and/or audiences?

-why does the original performance context of the sample matter anyway? :-)

-what is the trajectory of value and commodification that the sample goes through, from original studio performance, to vinyl record, to forgotten thrift store artifact, to rediscovery by hip DJs, to being sampled, to being cleared (or sued) by the record companies?

-what is the role of specific technologies in the aforementioned process, and what types of novel creative and/or commercial uses are enabled by them? 

-what are the implications of codifying musical performances as "property" and what are the connections to other past or present formulations of humans and their activities as property?

-does the notion of "digging in the crates" apply in the youtube/sharity era? There is lawsuit-avoiding value in obscurity, but how does this balance against the more allusive/versioning/re-licking aspects of using samples?

And also, on a more meta-project level:

-as an "amateur ethnomusicologist", what kinds of rhetorical strategies should I be using to fairly represent cultures to which I don't belong? How do I balance this with an approach that is largely based on appropriation? 

-how has the "sound of the machine" been theorized? I'm interested in looking at James Brown's "Sex Machine" as a notion that prefigures drum machines and sequenced/on-the-grid music. 

-part of my project is to sample/compile everything I can find that relates to the history of the funky drummer sample, as well as things that can be seen as evolving out of it. Are there particular sources you can think of that I should be sure to include, or things that you think should be part of that history?

-are there other notable artists/musicians that have obsessively reworked a single sample? 

-in *your* view, how should the Funky Drummer be enshrined? :-)

Here's a video sketch I put together last week... still some things to be worked out, but it gets across some of the ideas I've been thinking about.

More coming soon!

Henceforth, H*H* is that which must never be spoken.

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I spent some time this week ruminating on SAMPLING. What is the essence of sampling? I came up with a "trinity" of essential metaphors:

THE HUNT
finding the hidden gem - Digging - all the markers of "vintage" - kitsch - irony - artifact - dusty grooves - nostalgia - memory - rare treasures - hidden labels - open breaks

THE LOOP
microscope - rhythm - repetition - changing same - grain - texture - gesture - cycles - eternity - infinity - ecstasy - abandon - breakin'

THE CLASH
collision of unexpected elements - time & space collapse - friction - tension - recombination - cross pollination - synthesis - call & response - counterpoint - filling in the spaces (funk) - dialogue - conversation - clash - soundclash - battle - lawsuit - crusade

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I also looked at the idea of SHRINES.

A place of reverence for the past.

Relic, Ritual, Invocation

Sense of continuity/unbroken chain/"eternal flame"

To ENSHRINE - "to place a revered object in an appropriate receptacle", "to preserve in a form that ensures it will be respected"

to preserve, entrench, set in stone, contain, include, treasure, immortalize, cherish

This led me to a sense of the underlying CONFLICT in the piece: Enshrinement (and a religious position in general) typically refers to a place of Unity, a single coherent universality. Sampling and Appropriation contaminate this sense of self-contained totality, presenting a fractured consciousness with a multiplicity of voices/sources in collision with one another.

The "eternal" that is being enshrined is not a static, unified whole, but an evolving, participatory, open-ended process. The work depicts both the "grand narrative", the order of things, but is also disorderly, changeable, allowing for playful reconfiguration of old sources. It remains open and active for interpretations and associations by the viewers.

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The QUESTIONS I see in the piece at this point are:

How can something be at once "enshrined" and constantly in flux?

What is the essence of sampling? What kinds of metaphors does the practice of sampling engender?

What are the implications of sampling as a way of knowing, interpreting, interacting with the world of representations?

What kinds of conversations across space and time does sampling produce?

To whom do samples belong, and for what ends?

What are the legal and economic pressure on artists who use sampling? What is the relationship between legality and creativity?

What are the pleasures and pains of collecting?

How does a moment of music become a commodity, and how does sampling effect its value?

What is authenticity in an environment of appropriation and reinvention?

What is the smallest unit of funk? How is its power distilled and "reconstituted"? What are the products of this reconstitution?

What does it mean intellectually and experientially to have a machine playing a beat instead of a human?

What is the role of transgression and orthodoxy in H*H*? Are the two forces in tension?

From my perspective, my "opening" presentation was a success. I felt like I was able to put together an interesting overview of my body of work that deals with sampling and remixing, and present my project vision and the questions I'm grappling with in a way that facilitated the subsequent discussion.

And discuss we did! The attendees from the Berwick circle of folks were very generous in their feedback, offering lots of responses, questions, and great suggestions for the project. All in all it was highly stimulating and definitely gave me lots to ponder and plenty of ideas to work with.

I'm going to list here some of the thoughts and issues that came up, as best as I can reconstruct them, aided by Phil's and Bonnie's notes. 

• Focus on the part of me that is "Pablo" and/or create an identity as Pablo to personify in this project
• There's an established dialogue about authenticity within the lyrics of hiphop already - disses, Eminem, etc - I can insert myself into it. Also, I need to talk to some other/"actual" hiphop practitioners.
• Religion/orthodoxy seems like a tricky quagmire wrt identity/appropriation. Complex relationship to people's voices - giving/taking away agency
• The "ecstatic moment" that I refer to in terms of lengthening the breaks/b-boying seems like it can stand in for religious ecstasy
• "Fetish object" idea - should draw on ethnographic practice and investigate before choosing imagery. Try to avoid tokenizing. Look at participants in hiphop culture - what do they treat as fetish objects? I may have a role as a bridge builder.
• There is a capitalist aspect to the idea of fetish objects as well. Scarcity, how copyright makes certain sounds more valuable...
• Need to incorporate the context of doing the project work here in Dudley Square. What about getting in touch with Project Hip Hop? (youth program down the street)
• Records in particular are used to tell the mythography of hiphop - I should make a test press/dubplate of myself telling the stories and mix myself into the sonic history
• A specific aspect of the experience of hiphop music is the sound itself, meant to be played bass-in-your-face through big speakers. There is a parallel to churches and pipe organs.
• A past Berwick artist did a performance with a giant speaker you climbed into. Maybe it's still around somewhere and could be used?
• I seem to be preoccupied with artifacts that freeze hiphop in the past. What about current stuff happening now, especially internationally? I need to get over the idea of authenticity and ownership - there are people all over the world, including plenty of white people, who claim hiphop.
• Shrines have actions you have to do to invoke the deity (James Brown?). In Shinto, you clap three times to bring them down.
• Also, people leave something of themselves at shrines. Makeup, food, sounds... Opportunity for people to take over project, bring something of themselves, respond to what's triggered
• About sampling: what is Clyde S's reaction? The landmark suit against the Beastie Boys found that since the sample came from an "improvised" passage it was not subject to copyright. Jay-Z re-recorded samples. Sample licensing perpetuates the haves/have nots division - only the megastars can afford to sample.
• I should try to license the funky drummer sample - see how much it would cost, what it would take, "what it's worth"
• In song "Funky Drummer" James Brown seems to give prophetic instructions on what to sample! Gives directions to the drummer - keep on doing what you're doing. James as Messianic figure. Ask Clyde - how did he feel when JB called that song the funky drummer? Also, what's left out the song besides thee sample? What's the 1st thing that comes to mind for people when they hear that sample? It's versatile - from NWA to George Michael!
• Why funky drummer in particular? There are 1/2 dozen other beats that are just as elemental. Would be interesting to trace the lineage of each one - like family trees.
• In terms of the religious connection, I could position myself as a medium - "James Brown is speaking through me!" Speaking in tongues. People "possessed with the spirit" writhing on the ground akin to breakdancing? Maybe my character is a televangelist/hiphopologist. (this kind of role gives me some of the ironic distance I'm looking for) What about a car as the shrine? with stained glass album covers of saints?
• On the question of my presence/absence from the piece: the most authentic move is to put myself in as a person asking "what right do I have to be here?" Someone who's been inspired and is asking "where do I fit?" I could collect positive/negative feedback as a comment on my "right" to the content...

After last week's intensive immersion into hip hip history, I'm actually feeling like I need to move away from "retelling history" as a model. That approach feels too restrictive - there's a kind of "heavyness" to history - and raises too many concerns for me about authenticity and representing other people's experiences.

History will certainly continue to frame what I'm doing, but the project needs to have a more lighthearted and playful relationship with the past. So I've been letting go of that a bit and moving instead towards a more experiential and metaphorical way of thinking about things.

One of the "big questions" I came up with last week had to do with the value of the shrine concept. On further reflection, the shrine frame/metaphor is still quite useful to me. Over the last year I've traveled to Japan and India, where shrines of all types and faiths dot the landscape and are integrated into daily life and urban space. In Japan in particular these shrines made a strong impression on me, and I was impressed by how they are not only used as a means for devotion and paying tribute to higher powers, but also can express an entire cosmology and worldview through their symbols and associated rituals.

Hip hop too can be said to have its own creation myths, major and minor deities, things it holds sacred, fetish objects, and ritualized actions.

I'm definitely still concerned about religious overtones and unnecessary baggage that comes with this territory, but for now I intend to just move ahead irreverently and see how it works out.

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What I want to do is create objects that are larger than life and monumental to express their importance, but also tiny, miniature elements to illustrate the constellation of attendant artifacts that make up this domain.

Also, I'm seeking to codify a series of ritualized gestures that visitors perform at various stations - something like that hand washing that is performed at Shinto shrines. I'll use these gestures as the principle for interactive interfaces that can be used to trigger the audiovisual content of the pieces.

 Some possible gestures I'm imagining:

• Touching the surface of a giant record (along with stern warnings admonishing against touching the record - in exaggerated, technical language). This could trigger a scratch, a beat-juggled loop, or a looped video...
• Placing an enormous needle on the record 
• Flipping through an immense box of records ("deepest crates")
• Pressing giant rubbery mpc pads - trigger video clips

To help get in the swing of things with this here "research" I have pulled together some words, songs, and flickering images.

I put together a listening page over here.  

Here's my youtube playlist:

Also: 

Rap Sample FAQ search results for "funky drummer"

Beat This: A Hip Hop History (BBC 1984 documentary) 

The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism - Harper's piece by Jonathan Lethem

If you can Hear it, you can Have it (2) - Blog post at diagonal thoughts 

Giving Up Hip Hop's Firstborn: A Quest for the Real after the Death of Sampling - Wayne Marshall 

 Hello imagined readers, here goes my first post. I've been thinking long and hard (perhaps too much so) about this project and what I want to do with it. Although there are more uncertainties than than things known at this point, I've compiled a list of questions, as well as a bunch of ideas and themes that I want to "get across" in my work. It will be interesting to refer back to these lists as the residency progresses, to get a sense of my own evolution and also to see if what I end up with has any connection to what I'm thinking about at the outset!

 What I'm starting with is a desire to tell a story with 3 chapters:

1969 - "The Funky Drummer"

1979 - Digging, Looping

1989 -  sampling: Versioning vs Intellectual Property

Questions:

•  How do I tell history and what is my relationship to the stories I'm interested in telling and the people that inhabit them? This is a biggie. I feel like I need to either actively put myself as a character into the work, or else perhaps totally distance myself and try to really let the participants speak for themselves. What I don't want to do is present an omniscient historical voice that tries to represent "truth" about these historical moments, none of which I've lived through myself!
• How to responsibly represent another race/culture? This is the affluent white guy from New Hampshire thing. Or, "White boy, what do you know about hip hop?!" I think I need to talk to Wayne Marshall or some other Anthropologist type about this. 
• My ideas about "myth" and "shrine" and "holy relics." Do these add an interesting frame through which to play with history? Or does bringing religion into this add a whole layer of irrelevant associations that I don't really need?
• Even though I'm really interested in Hip Hop, I'm not really thinking at all about whole elements of the culture like Rap and Graffiti. What's up with that?
• How can I clearly articulate the connections of this project to my existing body of work? (this will be kinda moot once I actually start making stuff, and inevitably do what I do!)
• Is it OK to take an "experience designer" role and hire other people to make stuff for me? This makes me uncomfortable, but i'm probably just insecure.