Pete Rock has thrown a little shade in the direction of today’s Hip Hop producers for not being creative enough when it comes to digging for samples.
Rock has long established himself as one of Hip Hop’s most prolific producers — alongside the likes of DJ Premier, RZA, Q-Tip and J Dilla. And, as half of Pete Rock & CL Smooth, the Bronx native became a pioneer of sorts of the 1990s East Coast sound due to his partiality for sampling heavy, jazz-infused beats alongside numerous iconic collaborations with artists from Redman and Run-DMC to Skyzoo and Kanye West.
But on Thursday (March 16), the Chocolate Boy Wunda had few words of wisdom to offer and instead opted to criticize the direction producers have taken, in which they are flipping more recent tracks — many of which were already hits to begin with.
“They are resampling rap and r&b records that was made only 3-4 years ago [crying laughing face emoji] no diggin for the hits they sampling what was already a hit recently lol [shrug emoji],” he wrote via Twitter.
A sentiment that resonated with fans. “Rap these days is a joke. Marketing machine$,” wrote one Twitter user, echoing his agreement with Pete.
Another suggested Diddy was to blame for the current state of sampling, writing: “I blame Puffy [shrug emoji] sampling used to be one of the most creative aspects of good Hip Hop [one hundred emoji]. Taking a sound, beat, whatever and looping it, til it sounded completely different.. then Puff said F it and just started hijacking entire tracks and just flipping the lyrics, [skull emoji].”
This isn’t the first time Pete Rock, a veteran in the game, has sounded off about the new era of Hip Hop. In 2020, he shared a clip of Tory Lanez explaining how “rap is in a horrible place,” — a concern he echoed in a lengthy caption, via Instagram.
“Horrible! This new shit is forced!” he wrote. “No Leadership just Followers! what happened to the actual artist who gave you official inspiration for real to become something in music? for me it was marley marl, teddy riley, howie tee, 45 king, Larry Smith (RIP). This new generation shits on that, leading music to a bad place.”
He continued: “Where i come from if your talent wasnt for real you had no chance. The music business is built for music people not just any artist, any DJ or any producer. God had to bless you with something real to share with the world in order to be seen or heard your true talent had to shine through.”
“Today you dont have to have talent no more. just a look, a instagram page or some sort of social media presence or you can also act like an idiot too and get on today,” he added. “Integrity of hip hop is out the window due to greed and thirstyness to be popular. Thats today’s generation. Minus the real dudes yall know who yall are, my 90’s torch bearers and dudes who keep the music real. Even some artist from my generation can be annoying. i got love for them even when they dont show it back to me.
“Mainstream radio sounds really bad and nobody in that world cares about real music anymore. they big up this new shit like its talent involved. Mofo’s hate the truth, and thats a gotdamn shame man. Big up to all real artist who make real music from new to old. Mainstream world [thumbs down emoji].”
I think what he is pointing out is a persistent problem with the younger generation. They dont want to create, they want to remake shit that was already created but do it their way. I think its even worse in the movie industry with all the reboots happening.
That’s cause money is first and making things you know will sell is safe. Same goes, like you said, for movies and or gaming industry. Making a triple A game or film is expensive is duck so we will definitely see a Red Dead Redemption 3 before we see a new IP from Rockstar Games. Pete Rock had his time, now it is a new time. Either he adapts and accept it or make a move to change the way things are, but, who listens to Pete Rock nowadays? Me, you and those three other people
and btw I love you Pete rock but maybe you should check out some dope and creatve music. Only in 2023 we had albums like: Skyzoo / The Other Guys : The Mind Of A Saint, Boldy James / RichGains : Indiana Jones, Oddisee : To What End, Shane Sounds : Apostolos, Reuben Vincent : Love Is War, Jehst : Mork Calling Orson, Maxo : Even God Has The Sense Of Humor, Rome Streetz & Big Ghost Ltd : Wasn’t Built In A Day, Cappadonna / Shaka Amazulu The 7th : African Killa Beez, which are all dope as a flock of ducks, and this even not everything
I think he’s talking about the mainstream tho. The “new wave” as they call it. All the artist that u named have substance. The shit they play on the radio and promote heavy is mostly drill and thot style r&b. Every rapper that’s heavily promoted today sounds the same too. No creativity at all.
Pete is dead on here. Not saying you cant sample something new, but if you’re not actually doing anything creative or different with it, simply reworking it, or “modernizing” a sample, melody, groove, etc- whats the point? What are you adding to it? Incredible bars or singing? Ok, cool, for that I’ll listen… but if you’re not adding anything and your rhymes or vocals are trash, which they probably are, I’d rather just hear the original song. Its like a cheat code- lemme just use this as a way to get an instant hit for the mere recognizability of it.
This is where you little dumb mf would say “FACTS”!
This is where you little dumb mf would say “FACTS”!
He is right. Great producer.The main ingredient
one of my all time hip hop classic albums. Only thing against Pete Rock was he used sampled baselines and they didn’t sound as good as let’s say Eric Sermon baselines. When your playing that music in a system with base you can tell the difference bad.
pete rock is not saying folks don’t make good music anymore. he’s saying they promote the garbage in the black community on purpose and so it’s hard to hear what’s good where they play music.
as far as sampling newer beats Pete Rock knows that’s something been going on in reggae/dancehall for 60 years. Guys hop on a hot riddim some riddims been hot going on 50 years now. similar to how emcees will just get loose over a James Brown sample to this day just because it sounds good. but still I get where Pete is coming from. the original sucked too
It’s just business, these record companies are encouraging rappers and producers to pull samples from the publishing catalogs. Generate revenue from the new song while boosting revenue on the old song they already own as well.
It’s just business, these record companies are encouraging rappers and producers to pull samples from the publishing catalogs. Generate revenue from the new song while boosting revenue on the old song they already own as well.
Also bigger artist sampling a good song by an recent but smaller artist, and the smaller artist won’t complain because they want to make money lol.
It’s just business, these record companies are encouraging rappers and producers to pull samples from the publishing catalogs. Generate revenue from the new song while boosting revenue on the old song they already own as well.
Also bigger artist sampling a good song by an recent but smaller artist, and the smaller artist won’t complain because they want to make money lol.
See ass hole everyone has got one. I know 😏 would think he made a point. Zero silt.