An interesting quote by Paris (producer for Rebirth of a Nation) from an article/interview with Chuck D in the new Guitar Player magazine titled Fight The Presets.

Most hip-hop is now keyboard driven, because the majority of hip-hop workstations have loops and patches that enable somebody with marginal skills to put tracks together,...

Unfortunately, most hip-hop artists gravitated towards the path of least resistance by relying on these pre-set patches. As a result, electric guitar and real musicians became devalued, and a lot of hip-hop now sounds the same.
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Excerpts from responses by Chuck D...

Describe the significance of electric guitar in Public Enemy's music.

We've used live guitarists since our first record, Yo Bum Rush the Show, in 1987, which had Vernon Reid on it.

We got involved with electric guitar because we were educated with a sense of what good music was. When I grew up in the '70s, I would listen to AM radio and hear stuff like Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the Years," the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction," and James Brown's "Doing it to Death," which all start off with great guitar licks.


Who were your favorite guitarists to sample?

We never went wrong with Albert King, because he brought some really funky guitar to the table on those classic Stax records. We also liked to use James Brown's guitarists-like Jimmy Nolan-because of their great rhythms...

Then we'd use '70s guitar riffs from people like Leslie West and Billy Squier. They had a big beat happening, and the guitar was never that far away from it. Most hip-hop cats turned off the record as soon as the guitars came in, but that's pretty much where Public Enemy always started.


What's your perspective on the prominence of electric guitar in African-American music today?

It troubles me that black music is now largely devoid of guitar.

So, we have this situation where we have great black guitarists like Vernon Reid, Eric Gales, and Ernie Isley getting ignored by both the rock world and the black urban music community.


What would get African-American listeners interested in guitar again?

It's related to improving education during elementary and high school. People inherently love music, but if you don't give people knowledge when they're first drawn to music, you're putting their musical interests in the attache cases of business. The worst situation is having businesspeople tell you what to like. Educators try to tell you something. Businesspeople try to sell you something.


In 2002, Public Enemy went on tour for the first time with a live band featuring Khari Wynn on guitar. Tell me about the decision to expand beyond turntables and microphones.

We added the band so we could have a lot more flexibility. It was Griff's idea. He said we need the ability to do our classic songs, but not be locked into the recorded versions. With a band, you can take the live performance into a lot of new areas. It adds a fuller sound that you can't get from just playing back a recording. The band also allows us to improvise like you wouldn't believe.

Public Enemy now represents the best rap situation ever, because of the band's musicianship, knowledge, and ability to add to the aura of noise.

Guitar Player - July 2006
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tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

is there hope after all?

to this day PE has had some of the baddest guitar samples! i still remember how AMPED i was when they used a Slayer loop!

i was really disappointed with the way Mos Def's last album The New Danger was received. We need more shit like that, fuck being labeled crossover and consider it being an innovator! out of all the hip-hop/rock wannabees Mos is the only one that got it right. i'm hoping he's gonna do some mo' stuff like that.

sinisterpentatonic said:

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

My boys Blackalicious are very good at using the nice creamy distorted wah guitar in their sound and have a very talented band to support them including a fellow named Vincent Segal who can play guitar, bass, cello and violin. I've always liked it when Hip-hoppers aren't afraid to rock out, hell it's gone back at least to RUN-DMC's Rock Box, which really is among the best rock songs of the era, regardless of whatever semantic, genre-picky people might say.

In Common's "Faithful" was there a giutar styled ring used in that voice sample? It was very impressive...

Chuck again....on point.

don't forget "Let's Go Crazy" in "Brothers Gonna Work It Out"

Sophisticated Bitch is stuck in my head, that is a killer guitar loop and excellent use of guitar in a hip hop track, that song slams heavy.

CinisterCee said:

a bangin' track

...


btw, I think Q-tip's done some very interesting things with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, both on Kamaal, and on Open/Live at the Renaissance...but then again, they don't seem to want to release this stuff officially....



...
[Edited 5/25/06 7:48am]

There's tons of rock/metal riffs that will work great as hiphop samples.
The riff on Metal Church's self title song would be great, I'll give that one away for free.

lilgish said:

Yoink!

CinisterCee said:

Transylvania and Genghis Khan by Iron Maiden also have some great drums that good be sampled.

Paris used a lot of rock guitar in his samples.

So does MF Doom.

Rick Rubin is the master of a guitar hook in a hip-hop cut. Some of my favorites . . .

"Brothers Gonna Work It Out" -- Public Enemy

"The Devil Made Me Do It" -- Paris

"Rapp Snitch Knishes" -- MF Doom feat. Mr. Fantastik

"99 Problems" -- Jay-Z

go on Chuck !! I cant help but respect that dude´s knowledge of history !! Cool...thanks T.A

theAudience said:

Hell yes, there is hope. Some serious hope, actually, from what I'm told. But uh, to keep from thread jacking, (I just like saying "thread jacking"), great thread, Aud. Things ARE coming full circle. There is NO denying that and no stopping that. GOD doesn't WASTE his gifts on folks. And for those who know what I mean, then cool, that's for you. On a playground note, I suspect Aud was a little more motivated to print this article cuz there was a Steely Dan reference!

blackguitaristz said:

And Albert King
And Jimmy Nolan
And Leslie West

...

And btw, already copped my tickets for SD in Irvine 7/19.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

theAudience said:

Damn....I can dig it!

namepeace said:

That was the first track that popped into my head when I read the thread title.

Nice, bro. Thanks.

*gotta renew my subscription*

theAudience said:

theAudience, if you're familiar with Tom Morello(now with Audioslave), he has always used elements of hip hop in his guitar playing. Of course, Public Enemy was a big influence on Rage, too.

No one mentioned "Walk This Way"?

Ice-T - Bodycount

anon said:

UGH!!

sinisterpentatonic said:

New Danger was horrible, and Mos has not gotten anything right since he was in Blackstar

CinisterCee said:

Yeah.....THAT ONE WAS BANANAS!!!!!

workingupahiyellasweat said:

Pffft!!! Rubbish!!!

anon said:

Not hip-hop, though. That was straight rock. Ice-T definitely brought rap elements to it, but that was a rock band.

On a side note, boy did I wear that tape out! Mommas gotta die tonight!!

sinisterpentatonic said:

It was a disappointment. It was basically a Black Jack Johnson demo with a few Mos Def tracks sprinkled in. I rarely play it. It's a lazy followup IMHO. Not terrible, but I expected better.

But anyone who listens to "Hip Hop," "Rock and Roll" and "Umi Says" from Black on Both Sides can't possibly believe that Mos "hasn't done anything right since he was in Black Star (whose first and only CD is mildly overrated)."
[Edited 5/26/06 12:27pm]