Change the Beat
{{Short description|1982 single by Fab Five Freddy}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Change the Beat (French and English Rap)
| cover = Changethebeatfab5.png
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Fab 5 Freddy
| album =
| B-side = "Change the Beat (French Rap)"{{efn|Also referred to as "Change the Beat (Female Version)".}}
| released = 1982
| recorded =
| studio = OAO Studio, Brooklyn, New York City
| genre =
| length = 7:40
| label = Celluloid Records
| writer = {{hlist|:fr:Bernard Zekri|Material|Fab 5}}
| producer = Material
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title =
| next_year =
}}
"Change the Beat (French and English Rap)", also referred to as "Change the Beat (Male Version)", is a song written and recorded by Fab Five Freddy and produced by Bill Laswell’s group Material. The remix by female vocalist Beside (Ann Boyle) of the band Time Zone is one of the most sampled songs in music history.
Side A
It was recorded at Martin Bisi's OAO Studio in Brooklyn, New York, United States, (later, BC Studio) and released as a 12" single on the Celluloid label in 1982. This release and all subsequent pressings of the single feature two versions of the song, one on Side A and one on Side B. The official length of the tracks varies depending on the specific pressing of the single, with some releases mislabeling the running times entirely. The Side A version is 7:40 minutes in length and features Fab Five Freddy rapping in both English and French. He also performs the chorus of the song, utilizing a vocoder with a white noise carrier to achieve a gritty, robotic effect.
Side B and sampling
The version of the song that appears on Side B is considerably shorter than the A-side track, clocking in at 3:42. Aside from the chorus, which, like the Side A, was performed by Fab Five Freddy through the vocoder, the lead vocals are performed by rapper Beside and rapped entirely in French, making this single one of the first multilingual hip-hop releases.
At the end of the Side B version, there appears the phrase "Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh", spoken through a vocoder. The first and last words are two of the most widely used samples for scratching. According to WhoSampled, a user-generated website cataloging samples, Change the Beat is one of the three most sampled tracks in history, appearing in over 2900 tracks as of 2025.{{Cite web|url=http://www.whosampled.com/Beside/Change-the-Beat-(Female-Version)/|title=Change the Beat (Female Version) by Beside on WhoSampled|website=WhoSampled|access-date=18 April 2025}} The earliest of which was the 1983 Herbie Hancock single "Rockit", which featured scratching by pioneering DJ and turntablist Grandmixer DXT (then known as GrandMixer D.ST).Technikart, (April, 2005), 91
Although most people familiar with the record believe the sample comes from the processed voice of Fab Five Freddy, that account is disputed by producer Bill Laswell, one of the musicians credited on the record.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwmmDe53nSU |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/HwmmDe53nSU |archive-date=2021-12-20 |url-status=live|title=The Celluloid Records Story (part 1 of 2) |publisher=YouTube |date=2013-03-11 |accessdate=2016-10-26}}{{cbignore}} Laswell states that it was his manager Roger Trilling who recorded the sample during earlier sessions for another project. According to both Laswell and Trilling himself, Trilling was imitating a record executive who would reportedly exclaim "this stuff is really fresh!" whenever he heard a song he liked. The sample, then, is an imitation of this executive by Roger Trilling and spoken through a vocoder.{{cite web |last=Graves |first=Jen |url=http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/11/02/the-origins-of-that-aaaaahhhh-fresssshhhhh-sample |title=The Origins of That "Aaaaahhhh... Fresssshhhhh!" Sample - Line Out - The Stranger |website=Lineout.thestranger.com |date=2010-11-02 |accessdate=2016-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925144007/http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/11/02/the-origins-of-that-aaaaahhhh-fresssshhhhh-sample |archive-date=2016-09-25 |url-status=dead }}
Notes
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References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.whosampled.com/Change-the-Beat-(Female-Version)/Beside/sampled/ Listing of sampling songs]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160925144007/http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/11/02/the-origins-of-that-aaaaahhhh-fresssshhhhh-sample Origins of the sample]
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Category:American hip-hop songs