This document summarizes a presentation on the relationships between technology, ways of thinking, and institutions as seen through sampling in rap music. It discusses the history of sampling from vinyl records to modern digital sampling tools. It also examines legal issues around sampling as copyright infringement in the 1990s. The document presents perspectives from Polish rappers both advocating for and against music piracy. It explores paradoxes in rappers arguing for copyright enforcement and proposes explanations through theories of amateur vs professional music and incremental institutional change.

1. On relationships between
technology, ways of thinking and
institutions
Sampling in rap music
Tomasz Kukołowicz
Institute of Applied Social Sciences
University of Warsaw
Culture, Communication and Cognition (International Conference)
Poland - Lublin - 8 May 2012

2. Sampling
1971
Urszula Sipioska
Nim zakwitnie tysiąc róż
[Before a thousand of roses come
into bloom]
2000
Grammatik
Friko [For free]

3. Vinyls as a source of music samples
A screenshot of the music video
Ortega Cartel, To historia [This is history], prod. Sixteen Pads Films

4. Sampling as a technical solution
AKAI MPC 60
A ‘legendary’ sampler
FL Sutio
A computer programme which offers
similar features to samplers

5. Sampling as copyright infringement
in the USA
1990-1994
2 Live Crew v. Roy Orbison,
Oh, Pretty Woman
1991
Vanilla Ice v. David Bowie
& Queen, Under Pressure
1991
Biz Markie v. Gilbert
O'Sullivan, Alone Again
Source: en.wikipedia.org
(Naturally)

6. Polish rappers against music piracy (1)
If you play it as an MP3 file and this is the first time this rap
may be not much good. But this toast may be better if you
listen us in a better version. Rap will not please you as long
as you don’t devote something. And if you devote two
grams of marihuana the sound will not be opaque. Devote
two grams and you know what you may buy? See, you may
have a record singel, an album, half a gram of marihuana
and a beer. You may put an original [recording] on you
headphones and this original will be yours as your family is.
Only an original has this good climate, only! Only once you
may listen to it for the first time ! Let it sound clearly. Paweł „Pezet” Kapliński
source: muzyka.one.pl
Pezet, To tylko raz, [It’s Only Once]

7. Polish rappers against music piracy (2)
Grammatik, Friko [For free]
Buy Polish rap CDs!
Leszek „Eldo” Kaźmierczak
You know – nothing for free.
Maricn „Jotuze” Józwa

8. Polish rappers against music piracy (3)
[In Poland] Everything should be given
for free and above all mp3. So there is
a traffic on the net like in Hel*. I feel
sorry that they nastily rob us.
* Hel - a popular seaside resort
Łukasz „L.U.C” Rostkowski, Co z tą Polską? [What’s with Poland?]

9. Paradox of rappers arguing for copyrights enforcment
Explenation 1
Amateurs Professionals
Non-commercial recordings Commercial recordings
Lack of appropriate formal Intellectual property rights
regulations (Lessig) Fair division of profits (Towse)
1999
fot. Maranna Sosnowska, cjg.gazeta.pl
2009

10. Prophetic nature of music?
Jacques Attali
Noise: The Political Economy of Music
Changes in music preceeds social changes
1979 2002
Rap music Creative commons
Free culture
Prophetic nature of music?

11. Spurious relationship
Technological
innovations - ?
C
Causality
Causality
Rap music A
Correlation B Creative commons
Free culture

12. Paradox of rappers arguing for copyrights enforcement
Explanation 2
Neo institutionalism
Path dependence (Douglass North)
Institutional change is incremental
Rappers
Record music Sell music within
according to the the old institutional
new logic framework

13. Concluding questions
• What is the common source of rap music and
creative commons licenses?
• Why new art forms are accepted faster than
new social rules?
Thank you for your attention!
tomasz.kukolowicz@gmail.com