How Slik does it withe saw tooth joint it changes it and makes it unrecognizable but most people sample "wanting" the samples to be some what recognizable. That's the difference.
This statement sums up the the point of my post. The money is in clearing recognizable samples. To me - hip-hop was based on that form of expression. For example, taking dope James Brown samples, fattening them up with some kicks and rapping over it WAS hiphop.
Also, a sample from a hit-song that is recognizable - like Puffy used to do with "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" or The Police samples he used - is the whole point of using a sample. It is using one hit song to create another hit song... the hiphop song "borrowing" the chorus/hook from the older hit. That's instant social proof for the song, and instant money in the bank because people liked the original song, and a new audience will like the hiphop cut.
Dre used a ton of awesome samples from various RnB artists for one of the most important albums in history: "The Chronic".
I don't see how one can clear that many samples anymore at a low cost or with the mentality "just release it - and let them sue us - we'll force them into a bargaining position". The budget on that album would be insane now - think of how much Dre would have to pay for clearing all the samples. If "The Chronic" was released now, the cost/benefit of clearing the samples would probably make the album unprofitable, or a decision would be made that it would be unreasonable to release it expecting a proper return on investment.
This is why there is a resurgence in songwriting and original production in hip-hop. Which begs the question - wasn't the whole point of hip-hop in the beginning... the novelty and coolness of rapping over a recognizable sample? It was fresh and new. Eric B. and Rakim was fresh and new. Now it's stagnating.
It comes down to the crux of hiphop. Hiphop was created by cats in the ghetto that didn't have access to all the musical equipment, but they had tons of natural talent. How can they express it if they can't even afford a good drum kit or guitar rig? They started with an MPC and sampled shit - then rapped over it. It caught on and became a popular artform. In its "golden years" people on the outside viewed hiphop as a fad. They didn't take it seriously and didn't sue for the samples - until the Biz Markie case. It ain't a fad anymore, hiphop is a multi-billion dollar industry.
(Actually - anything "borrowed" from the original hiphopheads... Southern bluesmen like Howlin' Wolf, etc. is a multi-billion dollar industry. Any form of modern music using a three chord basis or the minor-pentatonic scale needs to respect the blues who do not get credit for the music. In fact, people need to know the real roots of the blues and why it's called that... but that's a different story. It's ironic to see how music used to express a people's pain and suffering can cause an entire industry of self-infatuated artists and agents minting billions.)
But now hiphop to pay the big bucks to clear the sample... for real.
I don't like what's going on. But guess what? My opinion doesn't matter, since hiphop is marketed to kids - who don't generally know shit about the generation before them (except for a few), and as kids - they're generally self-focused. So what they hear now is "new" and "fresh" to them. It's validated by the radio and TV, and then the kids internalize the marketing.
20 years from now I'll hear people saying how Lil' Jon was a genius for using a Nord-lead synth and "borrowing" lines from techno and that those were the good ol' days.
(Shakes head.) It's still a business - and the point is that recognizable samples, samplers and creativity brought hiphop to where it is today. Where will it go next?