Steinski & Double Dee: Marketings positive effect on Hip Hop and Dance Music

The Soul Kitchen
September, 21 2009

Tough Break: in this episode we delve even further into hard classic breaks, and maybe even learn some new ones.

Set list below: here is some story on a few of these tracks:

-Steinski and Double Dee-

I played Steinski tonight and then I played him again. Now I will explain why I did that and why tonight, on the show I said that he represents the best influence the marketing industry had on Hip Hop Culture.

I got a couple of calls on Steinsky’s BBoy Breakdown (You got the Job Mix) so I decided to play Steinski & Double D’s: Lesson 1 (The Payoff Mix). These were the first examples of sampling, as we know it.

Of course some might say it was Pink Floyd in their intro to Money or The Beatles Revolution No. 9 that were the first “samples”. The Payback mix is how Sampling started, in the context that we understand it today. Floyd’s Money for instance, was more of a predecessor to Tom Moulton or Shep Pettibone’s Disco Re-Edits, in theory and practice, but that’s another story. Revolution No. 9, maybe more proto Throbbing Gristle, also another story (and mostly joking.)

When Double Dee and Steinski created these tracks, the first Hip Hop records were still unfathomable and incomprehensible to most people. That is unless they lived in New York and went to certain discos or uptown block parties. The vast majority of folks had no idea what a Hip Hop record was. Forget about understanding what all the cuts and sounds were.

Hip Hop DJing had really just been perfected late in the 70’s and Steve “Steinski” Stein had a real job and no time to perfect his turntable techniques. Although he was an obsessive record collector, he was too busy as an advertising copywriter to learn to rock breaks like the Hip Hop DJs of his day. His career however gave him access to a different way of looking at sound clips and the tools to manipulate them.

In 1983 Tommy Boy Records sponsored a remix competition to see who could come up with the best remix of G.L.O.B.E.’s Play That Beat Mr. DJ. They expected DJ mixes as entries. Stein got together with his sound engineer pal Douglas “Double Dee” DiFranco to record their submission. They took six creates of records in to the studio plugged in the eight-track recorder and eventually came back with Lesson one. It was a masterpiece unparalleled by contemporary DJ’s. The track included samples from, Adventures on the Wheels of Steele, Buffalo Gals, James Brown, The Supremes, Herbie Hancock and even Humphrey Bogart and about a million more.

Six weeks later they found out that they won the contest. The judges included, Afrika Bambaataa, Shep Pettibone, and "Jellybean" Benitez. Steinski and Double Dee were now Hip Hop legends.

This is the point where Hip Hop expanded into something where you didnt have to be DJ or MC to make. Hip Hop could be more of a piece of music of symphonic proportions. Tracks like these paved the way for more pioneers to expand the borders of Hip Hop and plant the seed for the post-Hip Hop music.

Another track that I played tonight that fits into this story was M/A/R/R/S’s Pump up the Volume. This is a track that was commissioned for MTV’s European Launch in 1987. This was another early sound collage that is probably more recognizable to most. It reminds of the days when MTV was groundbreaking. More importantly this track exemplified the roots of most of the electronic music sounds of techno and house that would flourish by the dawn of the ‘90s.

The tracks that I played the Steinsky were from: What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective. 2 Discs of Steinski.

Also check out his blog Steinski.com
-Adam “Bomb” DeVore

09-21-09


Soul Kitchen, WRAS Atlanta, 88.5 FM -092109
Episode: Tough Break

1) RHYTHM HERRITAGE - THE THEME FROM SWAT
2) EUGENE BLACKNELL - GETTIN DOWN
3) MUSTAFA OZKENT - BURCAC TARKLARARL
4) THE INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND - LET THERE BE DRUMS
5) THE DAKTARIS - MUSICAWI SILT
6) EMILIO SANTIGO - BANANERA
7) EL MICHELS AFFAIR - SHIMMI YA
8) SAROLTA ZALATNAY - HADD MONDJAM EL
9) SKORPIO - SZEVASZ HAVER
10) JAMIROQUAI - DIJITAL VIBRATIONS
11) JURASIC 5 - ACETATE PROPHETS
12) IN SEARCH OF ORCHESTRA - PHENOMINA THEME
13) DENIS COFFEE - THE THEME FROM BLACK BELT JONES
14) STEINSKI - BBOY BREAK DOWN
15) MARRS - PUMP UP THE VOLUME
16) MC LYTE - FUNKY SONG
17) STEINSKI - THE PAY OFF MIX

17) DENNIS COFFEY - GETTIN IT ON
18) BANBARRA - SHACK UP
19) BETTY DAVIS - OOOH YEAH
20) THE MOHAWKS - CHAMP
21) THE PEPPERS - PEPPERBOX
22) THE BUDOS BAND - BUDOS THEME
23) THE BLOODS BUTTON UP
24) MAGIC CIRCLE EXPRESS - MAGIC FEVER
24) MARVIN GAYE - T PLAYS IT COOL
25) DEXTER WAINSEL - THE THEME FROM PLANETS
26) THE GALACTIC FORCE BAND - SPACE DUST
27) SHARON JONES AND THE DAP KINGS - PICK IT UP AND LAY IT IN THE CUT
28) DONNY HATHAWAY - SUGAR LEE
29) L DANIELS - NITECAP
30) GOW DOW EXPERIENCE - PSYCHEDELIC SALLY
31) THE NATURALL BAND - THERE WAS

32) DEE EDWARDS - WHY CANT THIS BE LOVE?