Sampling has been criticised as ‘a mixture of time-travel and seance’, ‘the musical art of ghost co-ordination and ghost arrangement’, and a process that ‘doubles (recording's) inherent supernaturalism’ (Reynolds, S., 2012,Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past, London, Faber and Faber, pp. 313–14). Yet out of all the sample-based music forms, hip-hop receives the lion's share of attention in popular music literature; critics are puzzled by its appeal, scholars identify a plethora of problems in its function, and practitioners and audiences alike are mesmerised by its effect. Rap producers attribute an inherent ‘magic’ to working with past phonographic samples and fans appear spellbound by the resulting ‘supernatural’ collage. The author examines the music's unique recipe of phonographic juxtaposition, exploring the conditions of this ascribed ‘magic’, investigating gaps in perception between emotional and intellectual effect and deciphering parallels in the practice and vocabulary mobilised against a range of genres in performance magic.

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Rap, the musical element of hip hop culture, has depended on the recorded past to shape its birth, present and, potentially, its future. Founded on a sample-based methodology, the style’s perceived authenticity and sonic impact are largely attributed to the use of phonographic records, and the unique conditions offered by composition within a sampling context. Yet, while the dependence on pre-existing recordings challenges traditional notions of authorship, it also results in unavoidable legal and financial implications for sampling composers who, increasingly, seek alternative ways to infuse the sample-based method with authentic content. But what are the challenges inherent in attempting to compose new material—inspired by traditional forms—while adhering to rap’s unique sonic rationale, aesthetics and methodology? How does composing within a stylistic frame rooted in the past (i.e. the Blues) differ under the pursuit of contemporary sonics and methodological preferences (i.e. hip hop’s sample-based process)? And what are the dynamics of this inter-stylistic synthesis? The article argues that in pursuing specific, stylistically determined sonic objectives, sample-based production facilitates an interactive typology of unique conditions for the composition, appropriation, and divergence of traditional musical forms, incubating era-defying genres that leverage the dynamics of this interaction. The musicological inquiry uses (auto)ethnography reflecting on professional creative practice, in order to investigate compositional problematics specific to the applied blues-hop context, theorize on the nature of inter-stylistic composition, and consider the effects of electronic mediation on genre transformation and stylistic morphing.

Borne out of a wider exploration of hip hop music practices that substitute copyrighted samples with the creation of original source content, the chapter questions what qualities render new sonic constructs into phonographic objects that are aesthetically desirable for-and usable in the context of-sample-based hip hop record production. Furthermore, if all digital audio recording can be described as a form of sampling, then what mechanisms, processes, and practices imbue sonic signatures of phonographic 'otherness' into these objects, and how can this 'otherness' be defined? Extending beyond a deterministic approach that simply maps signal flow variables to the forging of phonographic signatures, the chapter deploys an autoethnographic approach to illustrate the effect of phonographic 'context' on contemporary beat-making. By synthesizing the technical with the aesthetic, the chapter uncovers nuanced mixing phenomena at the heart of how this 'otherness' is negotiated and constructed in practice, extending our understanding of record production as (a form of material) composition.