Robert Glasper: “Jazz is the mother of hip-hop” | JAZZ NIGHT IN AMERICA

Why do hip-hop producers gravitate towards jazz samples?

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by ALEX ARIFF

For a mood, for sonic timbre, for a unique rhythmic component. Swing is a precursor to the boom-bap. "If you're a hip-hop producer that wants a lot of melodic stuff happening," pianist Robert Glasper says, "you're probably going to go to jazz first."

Glasper has lived in an area of overlap between jazz and hip-hop for more than two decades — and you can hear it in his piano playing, which often drifts into cyclical rhythms akin to a beat-maker's loops. It's all one and the same to Glasper: recasting the music of Miles Davis for an R&B audience or rocking live shows with Q-Tip; playing acoustic jazz with his trio or streamlined soul with his Grammy-winning Robert Glasper Experiment.

In this short doc, Glasper identifies three jazz samples, from tracks by Ahmad Jamal and Herbie Hancock, that have served as source material for famed hip-hop producers J Dilla and Pete Rock.

MUSIC:
Ahmad Jamal Trio, "I Love Music," The Awakening (1970)
Nas, "The World Is Yours," Illmatic (1994)
Herbie Hancock, "Come Running To Me," Sunlight (1978)
Slum Village, "Get This Money," Fantastic, Vol. 2 (2000)
Ahmad Jamal, "Swahililand," Jamal Plays Jamal (1974)
De La Soul "Stakes Is High," Stakes Is High (1996)

*Correction to the video: Slum Village's album Fantastic, Vol. 2 was released in 2000, not 2009.

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[fisher]

Can you make a two hour version of this please? Sooo good.

[williammacdonald]

So the artist Nas' dad was a jazz musician called Olu Dara.... I guess Jazz really is the father of Hip Hop

[Aleph_Null_Audio]

The graphics in this video agree with my synesthesia.

[MeMyHustleN-I]

My younger brother is Ali Shaheed the DJ and Producer from A Tribe Called Quest...we were raised on all types of music but Jazz has genres within it as well. RIP DILLA

[Paulsicles]

J. Dilla was the missing link between Hip-Hop and Jazz. RIP Dilla. 🙏

[jordanleng]

I came back to this video after Ahmad Jamal passed away. Watching this for the first time sparked my interest in jazz, and rekindled my love for music as a form of expression and therapy as a young musician. Years ago, listening to "I Love Music" and "Swahililand" for the first time absolutely blew my mind. I owe it to this video for the exploration that resulted. Thank you Jazz Night in America. RIP Ahmad Jamal.

[rapaeng]

Jazz meeting the hip hop is like mother and daughter having tea time. Two beautiful people talking about the small things in life that overall weave a wonderful story.

[cleetus]

dont underestimate soul funk and r&b too,

[martinlutero]

jazz is the father of every conteporaney music

[ExemploBeats]

So...
Now we want the 2 hour documentary!

[rodneycampbell]

The way he casually dropped that knowledge was pretty fly

[mongoslade]

I’ve probably watched this video 15 times over the years. Never gets old

[IronMan-tkuc]

Come on, this is too good, I think I hit the jackpot here, one of my favorite musicians of modern times, Robert Glasper, explaining the beauty and the origin of samples. Awesome video!

[darkhalo]

Glasper is leading the way in Jazz!!! He's THE TRUTH!!

[bthepreposition]

Robert just seems so cool. What an amazing guy; love what he's doing for music in general. This dude's stuff breaks so many genre boundaries, all the while making it perfectly natural.

[jannmikoingelrabagogamingc]

Ah, just reading through the title...it reminds me of the time when Roy Hagrove, one of the greatest jazz musicians in our generation, once pioneered in combining the role of jazz in the modern hip-hop scene.
It kickstarted my love for jazz and finding different ways of combining other genres, really.

[Bby_ye]

I can't even explain how long I have been looking for a vid like this. I play the sax and I love jazz, I also listen alllooott of rap and I love those jazzy r and b cords in music. Please make a longer vid, myself and many others will be able to connect with what we truly love.

[RelaxingSpringAmbience]

I am playing this music every morning welcoming my kindergarten students to classroom. The music brings calmness as they enter and play quietly waiting for class to begin. Thank you.

[Hamuelin]

Life goal: Get good enough at piano to justify owning a Steinway (and have the room and money for one).

[jaboojaboo]

I'm 4 months into beat making, and was at the studio over the weekend (Saturday) with my producer having not seen him for a long time and also for him to check out my production skill. We were discussing about beat making and he was like mentoring me discussing on beat production. One thing he was saying over and over was that jazz is the mother of hip hop (music), that i should go learn jazz music I'll be good at making hip hop beats (any beat). Fast forward to right now. on getting to the office and opening YouTube, wholla! in my face is this video! I was like wow, this is definitely divine, lol... thanks gamie for this video. I'm digging deep....