Records that play: the present past in sampling practice

Much of the discourse surrounding sampling practice has been couched in an archaic rhetoric of originality and creativity, predicated on the reproductive mode of creation rather than the practice’s own creative logic. These notions have emerged from a metaphysics which privileges the origin as the centre of semantic production. However, this discursive preoccupation with the past is not entirely irrelevant in sampling practice. Rather, the historically inscribed aura of the original holds a redefined, but necessary, place in the practice. This essay examines the theoretical underpinnings of the discussion so far, then reconciling these with the specific culture of sample-based hip-hop production. Through close readings of some musical examples, it posits a theoretical framework for sampling practice which takes its unique properties into account. By mapping the trajectory of several samples from source to new incarnation, the sample is revealed as the space of simultaneous play and rupture, where the past both defines the present and is effaced by it. As such, sampling creates a tradition that involves the past without deferring to its structures and limitations, restoring a revised mode of agency to the practice.