Steinski Version Excursion

As all you regular readers will know, one of the many things we like to highlight here on the BALLS are the origins of sample sources. We know that some folk dont appreciate letting breaks go, that’s a fair comment if you are DJing at Zulu nation B-Boy battles/ are a serious collector or you still soak the labels off your vinyl [can you soak the label off a Serato disc?]. Anyways, I very much doubt that the pioneering Mr Steve Stein is going to be on the phone complaining about us letting this one go.

Most of the time it’ll be a version excursion [as we know them], featuring the Rap song that utilised a break, then the break et cetera, our Mothers taught us well, our Mothers taught us to share and share alike. It’s mostly as simple as poppin a Youtube clip up and being done with it, but sometimes it’s more than just a musical issue…

The track above by Steinski & Double Dee ‘Hip-Hop is not Rap’, is a short singled out cut culled from an incredible live set by the pair, recorded back in January 2008 at the Irving Plaza in NY. The mix is called Who Owns Culture and the title is based on the 2005 Wired magazine article of the same name by writer and copywright activist Lawrence Lessig, author of this, which you need to read.

Until recently, I’d not heard the mix, but when I did get to listen to it, I instantly recognised a vocal that was also incorporated into the model Steinski mix, Nothing to Fear [one of the finest and most detailed mixes in mash-up/ megamix/ cut and paste history]. I had heard the same voice utilised and sprinkled over the top like an aural hot sauce on WOC, but it puzzled me every time, pondering its origins, which it transpires, are from 2002. Motherfucker !

Thanks to the good people at unheard78.blogspot.com, I’ve now learnt that the distinctive voice belongs to a playwright, poet, Hip-Hop purist, founder of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and all-round outspoken good guy Danny Hoch. Fundamentally, it’s just another piece in the puzzle confirmed, thanks again to DT@Unheard. For the record, I watched the odd Def Comedy Jam, never Def Poetry Jam, seems there was somethin in it…

It seems that Danny Hoch has had a few run-ins with Hollywood and the industry in general, even going so far as getting readings for the Seinfeld show and poo-pooing their stereotypes in favour of raising awareness of racial oppression. Stay true to the game eh…

Give Mr Stein a shout if you wanna buy a copy of the alblum, im not sure if it’s available anywhere right now, but he’ll be more than happy to point you in the right direction if it is.

Head over to Unheard for a shed-load of Steinski doozies and a recent interview with the good man himself…