a brief history of sampling in hip hop

The sampling of music has been around since the 1940's, but back then it took a much simpler form. Artists would borrow music from other musicians. Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry were some of the first to do this in the pre-tape recorder time. They would use disc cutters to sample many sounds from music to anything such as train noises.

The first sampler was a mellotron that used magnetic tape and was very expensive but as the 70's and 80's rolled around, there began to be more machines that were more affordable and easier to use. And in the 70's and 80's is when sampling really took off in hip-hop. DJ Kool Herc, considered the godfather of hip-hop, was the first to do this by using a technique he created called the "merry-go-round" by continuously playing music by using two vinyl records and playing music during the break in the beat, creating a constant sound for people to dance to. DJ's like grandmaster flash and Africa Baambata further perfected the technique of sampling in this music. And ever since the birth of hip-hop, sampling has only become a bigger and more important part of hip-hop as the genre has progressed and grown into one of the most profitable music genres in the world.