Cut and Paste 2: Lessons Learned

Lesson 4: The Radio – Cut Chemist
from CD Return of the DJ, Vol. 1 on Bomb Hip Hop (1995).

English Lesson – DJ Format
from the English Lesson EP on Bomb Hip Hop (1999).

Like I said last time, the Double Dee & Steinski cut and paste mixes were very influential. They lead to numerous other Lesson’s being constructed (of varying quality) in the early 90s and beyond. Most legendarily DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist nearly simultaneously and unbeknownst to each other made a “Lesson 4.” Kind of like when Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga separately developed the ground work for Quantum Electrodynamics, right? Well close anyways.

Cut Chemist’s “Lesson 4: The Radio” appeared on the B-side of a Unity Committee’s (ne Jurassic 5’s) 1993 single “Unified Rebelution.” The original vinyl is crazy rare and even the bootleggers haven’t gotten this out on vinyl much. It also appeared on Bomb Hip Hop’s Return of the DJ, Vol. 1 CD, which I recommend to those who aren’t turned off by lots of scratchy tricknology. Cut Chemist later went on to make another classic mix-up called “Lesson 6″ (from the Jurassic 5 EP) saving him against anyone else simultaneously making a different Lesson 5.

Much later the UK’s DJ Format put together the aptly titled “English Lesson.” While clearly following in the footsteps, and paying homage to the original Lessons, it is interesting how each producers taste comes into play. Cut Chemist’s humor, feel for a good scratch, and taste for instructional records is definitely clear in both “Lesson 4″ and “Lesson 6.” And Format’s passion for ginormous, full bodied breaks and b-boy tracks is definitely also notable.

There are lots of these style of tracks out there although the idea of these kinds of tracks being commerically released with sample clearance as it is today seems unlikely. Still lots are being made by Z-Trip (he has a Motown track that is killer), a few dudes at GAMM, and even the folks taking it to mix CD length execution (I’m thinking of the Three Sinister Syllables mix in particular). For bandwidth purposes a few bonus tracks are stuck over at critical beatdowns. Next look for the major (force) reason I originally decided to post up these tracks.