POSTED ON January 19th, 2010 BY Calvin
UPDATE: You can watch the entire thing streaming online here (and it has an introduction by Maggie Gyllenhaal).
If we choose to believe Kool Herc (which is generally a good idea in my book [oh, and he was mentioned here in the New York Times today]), then the “b” in “b-boying” came as a result of the “break” in music that was looped and extended for the dancers.
Fast forward a few decades, and many those same breaks — whether sampled or otherwise — still get played as anthems for b-boys and for hip-hop in general. But how does that impact the original artists who played those songs?
While it’s focused more on the production-side of hip-hop, the parallels to b-boying in Copyright Criminals are hard to miss. Adding to an already-impressive list of interviewees is Clyde Stubblefield, the original “funky drummer,” arguably the most sampled man ever, and a guy whose rhythms you’ve probably b-boyed to whether you know it or not. And, according to this trailer, he’s not getting paid squat.
It’s a delicate issue that can be argued either way. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Click here for more information.
SOURCE: Creative Loafing
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Great Post!!
CREATIVE COMMONS!
Freshh
It wasn’t until money got big, that the lawyers moved in…corporate america.
now thats just crazy talk….1:20 to 1:24 makes so much sense…..its like you cant to do a collage with out pictures, i remember in high school or middle school we would do cutouts from magazines and mash them up for projects, so does that mean its copyright?? am i going to jail for a school project? its stupid in my opinion and dj qbert in the beginning just grabbed my attention with that sound…..ooo man what is america coming to
On the other side of things, if you took that collage and sold 100,000 of them and made a ton of money, the people whose photographs you used might think you owed them something.
It’s all good when it’s a school project and you aren’t making any money, but start making a business out of it and you’ll piss some people off.
I understand both sides of it, but I can understand being a bass player and hearing my bass line in a hip hop song and thinking that either they should have gotten my permission to use my music or they should pay me.
In “the freshest kids” Kool Herc says that the b in “bboy” didn’t come from the break on the record, but from the term “break” which meant to start trouble (or something like that).
Word, if you watch our interview with Kool Herc at about the 2:15 mark he explains where it came from. He seems to imply that what the “b” literally stands for really isn’t that important, saying that it means “the artform of it, freestyling.”
Check it out here: http://morethanastance.com/features/of/2009/11/kool-herc-the-uncut-interview/
Oh okay, thanks. I’ll have to agree with him, it doesn’t really matter in the end. I guess all the arguments about where it comes from are getting to me.
And btw thanks for posting the trailer!
Word, thanks for contributing and clarifying. I was aiming more along the lines of trying to show that b-boys danced on the break and that the “B” in “b-boy” doesn’t stand for “Bronx” or “beat” (according to Herc anyway) — I probably could have written that more clearly.
But yeah, it’s easy to get frustrated with all the people arguing in circles about stuff like that, especially online. Glad to have your feedback!
Post updated with a link where you can stream the entire doc. from PBS.
Theirs a term for it in the B-Boy world!….Its called biting!…As a matter a fact. Thats known throughout Hip Hop!…but comin from a music stand point. I say do it till you don’t get caught, but if you have respect from whom you sample from or bite from. you get their blessing or break them off. Thats Music, Money and politics when it comes to goin big or making a name for yourself!…plus some!
its not biting if you flip the script tho is it.
ironically i cant watch the whole thing here in the UK because of regional rights…bollocks!
GREAT POST!