Sound Field

(jazzy drum music) - Jazz and hiphop, it's a relationship that's ancestral, two of the most influential music genres to ever come out of the United States.

The improvisation, grooves, rhythm, and sound of jazz continues to influence hiphop to this day.

- Hiphop is indebted to jazz.

That's not up for debate.

But let's not act like hiphop hasn't influenced jazz either.

Later, LA and I are gonna work together to create our own jazz hiphop track, but first, let's talk about how these genres continue to crosspollinate today.

- Before we get into the history of how this crosspollination came to be, let's test your knowledge on some jazz and hiphop trivia.

Who's the jazz artist behind this go-to sample in hiphop?

(soft hiphop music) If you guessed keyboardist Bob James, you're correct.

James has been called hiphop's unlikely godfather, and has been sampled in over 700 hiphop songs, making him the most sampled jazz artist of all time.

Next is true or false.

Is Nas's father a trumpet player?

(jazzy hiphop music) That's true, Olu Dara is a trumpet player who has played alongside Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and, of course, his own son, Nas, appearing on the rapper's seminal debut album "Illmatic."

Now, one more.

Who's the legendary jazz artist that has referred to Kendrick Lamar as a genius?

(lively jazz music) Yep, Herbie Hancock described Kendrick as such in a 2019 New York Times interview.

So, did you get them all right?

If so, good job.

If not, that's fine, you're gonna learn more now.

- Today, jazz and hiphop are like peanut butter and jelly.

Their relationship is so well known that it's hard to imagine one without the other, and despite their musical differences, they're both an artistic expression of what it means it be black in America, but the pairing of jazz and lyrical wordplay existed long before hiphop was created in the late '70s.

Let's go back to 1920s Harlem, where black art and literary figures were leading a renaissance.

There were many figures pivotal to the Harlem Renaissance, among them the legendary poet Langston Hughes.

Hughes is credited as the creator of jazz poetry, which means poetry that demonstrates a jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation.

Take this live rendition of his classic poem "The Weary Blues" for example.

- [Langston] The singer stopped playing and went to bed while the weary blues echoed through his head.

- [Linda] 40 years after the Harlem Renaissance, figures like Amiri Baraka would take the idea of jazz poetry further during the Black Arts Movement of the '60s and '70s.

- [Amiri] Against his lost white children, Black Dada Nihilismus.

- By 1970, jazz poetry had found itself in the hands of people who are now regarded as hiphop's godfathers, Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets.

A continuation of what Hughes and Baraka did, Scott-Heron and the Last Poets used cadence, improvisation, and rhythms of jazz to create poetry that spoke on the black American experience.

However, where Hughes and Baraka performed with full jazz ensembles, Scott-Heron and the Last Poets sometimes performed alongside just conga players, percussion, and nothing else.

When the revolution comes White death with froth the walls Of museums and churches Breaking the lie that enslaved our mothers When the revolution comes As the 1970s came to a close, hiphop was born.

The new genre would borrow less from jazz and more from upbeat disco and funk, but jazz remained influential, as you'll soon find out.

- So when did jazz and hiphop's crosspollination really begin?

Well, you can say it traces back to hiphop's beginnings, with this 1979 hiphop classic.

You don't stop the rocking To the bang-bang boogie Say up junk the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat Yes, that's the Sugarhill Gang's historic "Rapper's Delight" that begins with a scat rap delivery from Wonder Mike.

Though "Rapper's Delight" made this phrase popular, old school historians would likely credit its origin to Keef Cowboy and Lovebug Starski.

(Keef scats) This style of rapping is similar to scatting, a jazz vocal style that uses emotive syllables instead of words in solo improvisations on a melody.

Scatting was popularized by Louis Armstrong in 1926 when he released his song "Heebie Jeebies."

Although scatting had already existed before "Heebie Jeebies," the song is credited with pioneering the techniques that became a part of modern scatting.

(Louis scats) Fun fact, the scatting on "Heebie Jeebies" was not intentional.

Armstrong claimed that his sheet music for "Heebie Jeebies" fell off his stand, and, not knowing the lyrics, he instead just made up a melody to fit.

Another hiphop classic to use scatting is "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaata and the Soul Sonic Force from 1982.

(Pow Wow scats) Just like Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies," the part wasn't supposed to happen.

According to Tom Silverman, Soul Sonic Force member Pow Wow had forgotten the lyrics he had written down going into the fifth verse of the song, so he improvised instead.

Scatting's influence can be felt throughout hiphop's evolution.

Think of the fast raps of Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Busta Rhymes, Twista, and Tech N9ne, or even the hook from this 2014 hit by Rich Gang.

(Young Thug scats) There have also been rappers who have shared how jazz influenced their delivery flow.

Check out the track "Inner City Boundaries" by Freestyle Fellowship.

I'm me, I'm y'all The enemy, friend, and the law The beginner then end-all The final call, the raw The phrasing is irregular throughout, his delivery bouncy and not glued to the tempo of the track, making for moments when he's slightly ahead of the beat.

Listen to their track "Six Tray" where P.E.A.C.E.

raps over a six-four time signature in the song's first minute.

Blue-eyed devil killer Black man, a nine millimeter In a president's residence, false evidence is evident Black six tray Who outta shape - Now that we've offered some examples on how jazz influenced rapping styles in hiphop, let's move on to another example of the two's crosspollination, improvisation.

Going off the dome and creating in the moment is built into the fabric of both genres.

Jazz wouldn't be what it is without soloing, and hiphop wouldn't be what it is without freestyling.

What's the difference between saxophonists Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervin trading two- and four-bar solos and rappers Skyzoo and Torae going back and forth?

I never wrote this at the top You know what we like Let's do it, baby You got the Bowery brothers chilling On Sway in the morning Listen to it early in the day while you yawning Now, let's finally address the topic you're all thinking about, sampling.

Sampling is the bread and butter of the pair's crosspollination, and honestly, we could devote a whole episode to jazz samples in rap solely from the late '80s and early '90s, but first, we have to acknowledge how the breakbeats of hiphop's early days predated the rise of rap sampling jazz, because those breakbeats were also taken from jazz cuts.

(lively drum music) You might remember Bob James from the quiz at the top.

This is Bob James's "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," his 1975 cover of Paul Simon that became one of hiphop's most recognizable breaks.

In hiphop, the break is all about the drums and percussion.

Hiphop founding figures like DJ Kool Herc are credited with creating the breakbeat, which he did by playing two copies of the same record, and looping its break.

Fellow legend Grandmaster Flash took this further in his own way, and often used those first 10 seconds of "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" to showcase his talent.

This break has been sampled by everyone from Run-D.M.C.

to Missy Elliot.

Little Bo Peep cold lost her sheep And Rip van Winkle fell the hell asleep Ladies Woo You sure know how to work that In the '90s, hiphop producers took it a step further.

Producers like DJ Premier, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, and J Dilla, as well as groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets found melody and rhythm through looped drum grooves and saxophone and upright bass parts from jazz tracks.

Now, the MCs were the soloists, rapping over an array of songs spanning different eras and sub-genres of jazz.

- I think, like, especially this era that I came up in music, listening to records like "De La Soul," and "Low End Theory," and "Midnight Marauders," a lot of these records introduce a whole new generation to jazz music.

- Take the track "Jazz (We've Got)" by A Tribe Called Quest which sampled jazz organist Jimmy McGriff's recording of "On Green Dolphin Street."

(soft jazz music) McGriff's organ and Sam Jones's bass line are looped.

Lucky Thompson's saxophone melody is borrowed for additional color, giving it a gritty and moody feel that complements the punch of the drums The jazz The what The jazz can move that For the Tribe originates that feeling of pizzazz - Can you guess which hiphop song samples this song, "Stretching," by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers?

(lively double bass music) Yet another hiphop classic that wouldn't be what it is without an upright bass sample.

Here's "Rebirth of Slick" by Digable Planets.

He touch the kinks and sinks into the sound She frequents the fatter joints called undergrounds In "Rebirth of Slick," "Stretching" literally becomes stretched.

It's fast-paced bebop is much slower in the rap classic.

Okay, but where are the samples that use one of jazz's most recognizable instruments, the saxophone?

Fear not, my fellow woodwind enthusiasts,?

Recognize this one?

They reminisce over you My god That's Pete Rock and CL Smooth's "They Reminisce Over You," which samples saxophonist Tom Scott's cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Today."

(lively jazz rock music) - Now, I'm in Pete Rock's band, Soul Brothers.

It's interesting now, because, now, when you play with him, he's trying to get you to sound like the out-of-tune sample.

The goal is for the drums and everything, that broken kinda programmed feel that they had, the goal is to emulate the things that weren't real from real people.

- I've got to fit one more sampling example before we move on, Nas's classic debut "Illmatic."

Released in 1994, the album features jazz samples by drummer Joe Chambers, bassist Stanley Clarke, the Heath Brothers, and pianist Ahmad Jamal, the latter of which is the foundation to one of the album's best songs, "The World is Yours."

Whose world is this The world is yours, the world is yours It's mine, it's mine, it's mine Whose world is this Right from the jump, you're hit with a sample from Jamal's "I Love Music," taken from the Ahmad Jamal Trio's 1970 album "The Awakening."

(soft jazz music) - So, even before tuning in, you knew jazz influenced hiphop, but what about hiphop's influence on jazz?

Well, throughout the '80s and '90s, some of jazz's most popular figures were exploring this crossover.

("Rockit" by Herbie Hancock) Jazz icon Herbie Hancock dove into the world of hiphop with his 1983 hit "Rockit."

This track is important for its use of scratching, courtesy of Grand Mixer DXT.

The moment validated DJ setups as musical instruments, and showed its capabilities as a tool for improvisation.

(intense scratch music) Then there's Miles Davis's "Doo-Bop," the trumpeter's posthumous album from 1992.

Davis and Easy had some interesting ideas on here, most notably on "The Doo-Bop Song."

Just kicking that doo-bop sound Just kicking that doo-bop sound The track had that boom-bap drumbeat that had become a staple in NYC hiphop, as well has a feature from Easy himself.

Backdrop of doo-hop And this is why we call it the doo-bop, the doo-bop In the jazz world, do you feel like there has been a big influence from hiphop to jazz?

- Absolutely.

You know, across three generations, '80s, '90s, you know, early 2000 kids, that's, like, your experience.

Your experience is growing up listening to hiphop.

It's not growing up listening to Duke Ellington, or Cab Calloway, or Charles Mingus.

The first experience you get with music is hiphop, R&B, and soul, and, you know, you may get your second experience when your mom drags you off to church.

(Linda laughs) - Today's jazz artists are students of both jazz and hiphop.

And there's one hiphop producer in particular that left a massive impact, J Dilla.

(soft hiphop music) - I think just mainly, like, just Dilla, the way he heard rhythm, like, syncopation, melody, harmony, chords, a lot of that stuff was, like, heavily influenced from, like, Herbie Hancock.

- Yes.

- You know, he embellished on those ideas, and it just kept elevating him to use a whole fusion of that stuff by the time he made it to "Welcome to Detroit," it was like another level of just musicology.

- I was listening to Herbie's album with "Come Running to Me" on it.

- Oooooo.

- And, like, the little bridge part.

(LA sings) (soft jazz music) I was just like, oh my god, this is "Get Dis Money."

- Right, right.

(LA laughs) - For sure.

You probably know of J Dilla's influence in hiphop, but did you know he influenced modern jazz too?

It all begins with Dilla's approach to beat making, and the fact that the late producer didn't quantize every aspect of his beats.

Quantizing allows beat makers to perfectly subdivide electric drum machine sounds into positions within a measure.

If things are slightly off beat, quantizing lines everything up, but like his jazz ancestors, Dilla was all about the feel.

Instead of quantizing, Dilla manually did his own drums on his trusty MPC3000, and also like jazz, a lot of Dilla's drums were swung.

Notice the difference between drums that are played straight, (intense drum music) and drums that are played swung.

(lively drum music) (lively hiphop music) Let me entertain you And interphase you With the new sound Sound is the side Questlove specifically highlighted this drum pattern in a Red Bull Talk, referring to the track as that drunken song when he first saw the Pharcyde perform it.

- He found his favorite parts of the record that a lot of people would consider mistakes, or like a drummer slipping up, or something, and he'd be like, woo, that's crazy.

Like, but it never happens twice.

- Right.

- Found those places that he really loved, and he'd add on a style after that, you know what I mean?

I feel like that's where Dilla came from, and a lotta that had the swing, like, you know, a drummer playing, swinging with the hihat, and the kick late, and the snare early, that type of thing, you know what I mean?

- Word.

- That's the way he heard it, and he would actually play it on the pads that way.

- Well, I know you're a huge fan, so I wanted to know, how was it talking to Karriem Riggins?

Like, what was that experience like for you?

Just, tell me about it.

- He was mad cool.

He was super cool.

- They're always so cool.

- I know, that's the craziest part.

- That's the thing...

They're so cool.

- That's the craziest part.

(Linda laughs) - Seeing, like, okay, he's a super hiphop dude, but, like, he's a legendary jazz drummer.

He's like the perfect person, and PBS always gets, like, the perfect people to talk to, right?

(Linda laughs) But he was, like, the perfect person because, when we're talking about hiphop and jazz, like, that's exactly who he is.

(lively drum music) One of my mentors tells me, he was like, oh, no, Dilla, like, gave Karriem the formula.

Like, he was there next to Dilla when he was doing a lot of that stuff.

- That's so awesome.

- Dilla's style has not only inspired other beat makers, but jazz musicians too.

On his 2007 album "In My Element," Glasper included a tribute to Dilla titled "J Dillalude," which found him reinterpreting melodies that Dilla looped in his production.

(jazzy hiphop music) Through Dilla, Glasper found ways to bring hiphop and jazz together, both on recordings and live performances, but he took that even further with his Black Radio series, which pairs jazz musicians like himself, Chris Dave, Casey Benjamin, and others with rappers ranging from Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey to Common and Snoop Dog.

Vicariously in every rap I speak with I hope you speak it for me If I'm ever speechless - Now, this brings us to the present, where the line that once separated jazz and hiphop has become very blurred.

We're in a post-genre era, and many artists don't wanna be put in a box.

- I'm so not into now the label of these genres blending because it's so, like, I listened to hiphop growing up, I listened to jazz, and classical, and all these things that I love.

I feel like it is one thing.

Like, what you listen to is just like a soup, and you can't really define one thing in a soup, but it all makes incredible.

Pat Dawg, Pat Dawg, Pat Dawg, my dog, that's all Bick back and Chad, I trap the bag for y'all - Kendrick Lamar's groundbreaking "To Pimp a Butterfly" is a testament to how far that crosspollination has come.

"To Pimp a Butterfly" was a melting pot of black music, and he used jazz in such a creative and meticulous way thanks to musicians like Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, and Terrace Martin.

Pipe pressure, bust 'em twice Choice is devastated, decapitated the horseman Oh, America, you bad ***** I picked cotton and made you rich The album does more than just bring jazz musicians and rappers together.

It explores the musical nuances and sonic subtleties between the two genres.

- But "To Pimp a Butterfly" is but one example of how varied this crosspollination is today.

Noname, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Louis Cole, Shabazz Palaces, Hiatus Kaiyote, Moonchild, Standing on the Corner, Masego, Nubya Garcia, Melanie Charles, BadBadNotGood, Nujabes, so many artists and groups across the world are defining and redefining that relationship.

Even internet sub-genres like lo-fi hiphop play a part in this.

Lo-fi hiphop livestreams on YouTube utilize jazz's distinct chord progressions and the drunken swing of Dilla.

- The crosspollination of jazz and hiphop isn't just a fad, but it's something that continues to have an impact.

It's constantly evolving, and it's moving to its own beat.

Now, let's check out the jazz and hiphop-inspired track that Linda and I have been working on.

- It's interesting because I was expecting something that was... Like, okay, so, when I think of hiphop and jazz, the people around me, it's very, like, jazz hop, and that's not what you did, not in a bad way.

Like, I feel like the way you did it was so creative, and, like, unique to you.

- I was really struggling, you know, but I think, like, the pressure of, like, okay, Karriem is gonna hear this, Robert Glasper might hear this, Terrace might hear this, like, so it has to be good, but then I just settled with the idea, like, well, if I like it, if I dig it.

- Mm-hm.

- You know, if I like what happens, like, it'll be fine.

La la la la La la la La la Ah All my keys be like this, played like this.

I don't play, like, full fingers, full hands.

All my joints be, like (grunts) - Yeah (laughs) - Layer, layer.

- Same.

- I call that cheating.

People be like, no, that's producing.

That's how you get it done.

- It is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah - I was up at, like, 4:00 in the morning thinking about, like, okay, what am I gonna do for this song?

- [Linda] Mm-hm.

- I just did a groove that I dig kinda in between swung and straight.

If you listening, you can't really tell if it's swung all the way or straight all the way.

I like that cloudiness.

- I ended up, like, writing in the spaces in between as opposed to, like, on top of the melodies that existed, intentionally, for rhythm's sake.

I think, you know, I could've added, like, six different harmonies, and that would've been very jazz, I think.

- Right, super.

- [Linda] Yeah, but I was like, I'm gonna just have this one harmony.