I’m about to do something that I really shouldn’t — rap in writing. “Writing” may be a misleading qualifier. I should not be rapping via any terrestrial medium. But, I was just on the verge of some poignant truth when I replied to a text message. Then I forgot what I wanted to say. That groove in my cortex has been smoothed over like a crease in clay.
I do remember that it had something to do with rapping. So, I’m going to rap until I remember what I wanted to write. For the next few moments, just be dazzled. In fact, for now, that is my rap name: Bedazzle!
Penultimate by any standard I’m the best … of the worst My rhyme-style could be no grander Notorious like Patty Hearst I get mileage like a Prius with the trunk-space of a hearse I’m out of here like wet-socks. That was short and terse.
NOW I remember! It didn’t have anything to do with me rapping. I was thinking about hip-hop and sampling. Wow. Sorry to put you through that - my bad.
So, back to my so-called point.
In music, sampling is the act of recording audio from one composition then replicating, truncating or modifying its arrangment and structure to use in another recording. Contemporary digital media production posits visual and audio sampling as integral to content-creation. Derivative-works are ubiquitous. It’s everywhere — from commercials to film scores to popular music. There are archives devoted to the practice. Check out Paul’s Boutique and Who Sampled.
Oft-derided as musical-theft, sampling has been a tool for alternative, punk-rock, hard-rock, reggae, electronica and hip-hop artists for decades. Old-school faves like Sex Pistols and Bob Marley experimented with it long before Sublime, Depeche Mode, Black Keys and every other rapper got their hands digitally-dirty. Derivative-works are ubiquitous.
It wasn’t always accepted though. Standards change. Humankind is still evolving from analog to digital sentience. Musicians and their fans can be critical, fanatical and litigous. Sampling has been the subject of many lawsuits. Remember The Grey Album mashup?
Sampling myself, in my last blog post I said:
Coding is good writing. It is inherently focused and functional; purpose births utility. Test driven development is an unambiguous self-editing process. Accuracy, efficacy and elegance are the standard.
I was so ambitious. I actually thought I was going to be writing elegant code like some keystroke-savant. That is not what happened. I stumbled through my Tic Tac Toe labs without a hint of elegance. I cobbled together solutions that ultimately worked. But I know that there are better ways. I know that there is better coding in my future.
I’m humbled to a degree. But I’m more amused that I thought I would be better at this…sooner. It is happening. I am getting there. I love it. I feel the knowledge taking hold. I find myself constantly thinking about function and design.
I enjoy Ruby. It’s a strong foundation for programming. HTML and CSS properties fascinate me with their specificity. I literally dream about coding and look forward to being able to deconstruct problems well enough to create useful and beautiful code.
I’m pretty sure my rap career is over. Thankfully, I am hooked on coding. Almost anytime I spend at work, working out or relaxing ends with me looking forward to my next round of Learn labs.
Hopefully, someone will want to sample my code.