Lesson learnt

Here's something of historical value to start the week with. Illegal Art, the property/theft traversing label that puts out Girl Talk and Negativland, are at the end of the month releasing What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective, a grab bag of the career of sampling groundbreaker Steinski, much of it appearing on legal(ish) CD for the first time.

Now, we could leave it there and entrust those reading who don't know of Steinski to head for Google or Wikipedia, but we've all got busy lives to lead, so... Steinski is Steve Stein, a former advertising copywriting hotshot who invented cut and paste sample turntablism. More precisely, in 1983 he entered a Tommy Boy Records remix competition along with his studio working friend Double Dee (Doug DiFranco, if you must know). Both experienced hip-hop heads with enviable collections, they pieced together Lesson 1 – The Payoff Mix, decorating the original song with samples from all over rock'n'roll, disco, funk, soul and early hip-hop, as well as film and spoken samples. Not only did it win, but once served to radio a lot of people suddenly paid attention. The pair followed it up over the next couple of years with Lesson 2 — The James Brown Mix and Lesson 3 — The History of Hip-Hop Mix, both of which were bootleg gold. Although Double Dee threw it in after that, bar a short reunion a decade later, Steinski continued in his own time with original works and remixes of carefully patched together collages and sampledelica, even ending up on a major label for a while, collaborating in recent years with Coldcut, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, who've all acknowledged him as a major influence. In fact, CD2 of this retrospective is an hour long mix made for Coldcut's Solid Steel radio show.

Steinski - Lesson 3 (History Of Hip Hop)

This isn't on the album as it was during his tenure on 4th And Broadway. Ovaltine later licensed it for advertising. Ah, sweet irony.

Steinski - We'll Be Right Back