I'm fascinated by appropriation within art, and in particular music.
This is a series of illustrations relating to the use of sampled motifs from older music, such as old soul and funk records. Some passages of these music have in themselves become hugely notorious – such as the sinister rhodes chords from Bob James jazz-funk classic Nautilus – within the hip-hop community, some, such as the incredibly widely used Amen break, a drum breakdown from the b-side of an otherwise uncelebrated 7 inch, have spawned entire musical sub-genres, such as Jungle.
I was also interested by the questions of morality that arise from using these passages of other people's tracks. Is it creative appropriation, or theft?
