What does it all mean?
That is Steve Stein, aka Steinski. It’s an old picture, maybe from when he first started making music, I don’t know. I found out about him a couple of weeks ago on Emusic via this retrospective. I posted a much smaller thing about him at Metafilter. However, I am still freaking out about how awesome his music is and how crazy his story is, so I’m going to post more stuff (including more music) here.
Steinski’s origin story is, to me, irresistible: back in 1983, white dude in his mid 30’s, hip-hop fan, ad guy, spends a weekend with his pal Doug “Double Dee” DiFranco in Doug’s recording studio putting together an entry for a Tommy Boy Records remix contest. Sort of on a goof, mostly because they wanted to meet Afrika Bombaata and the rest of the judges. The record they create becomes one of the most influential tracks in hip-hop and today’s remix/mashup culture: it’s the first pop record made up entirely of bits of other people’s music
Here’s that track. If you want immediate proof of its present-day influence, skip to about 2:30 and think, “Girl Talk.”
Back in ‘83 there was simply no mechanism for clearing 60+ samples, so the record was never commercially released. Nonetheless, it became a club hit and was followed up by two similar, and similarly awesome, records: Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix) and Lesson 3 (History of Hip Hop), my pers fav and with a great video to boot:
I’ve been a fan of hip-hop since I made my dad take me to see Breakin’ in the theater, and listening to The Lessons (as these records became known) has been a complete revelation, in no small part because hip-hop has referred back to these tracks over and over again. A couple of obvious examples: the final “What does it all mean?” sample in the Play That Beat remix (which became a Steinski trademark drop and came from here at 1:25) can be heard in countless hip-hop and techno tracks. The sample at 3:48 in Lesson 2? Yup (original original source).
As to the 2-disc What Does It All Mean? retrospective itself, he Lessons make up the first three tracks. The rest of the tracks on disc one are all clever, mostly good, some great, some intentionally unsettling (the JFK-assassination dance party of The Motorcade Sped On being a prime example). Initially, disc one is all I picked up from Emusic because two discs by someone I wasn’t familiar with was too big a commitment, amirite? When my credits re-upped, I grabbed disc two.
Holy. Shit.
Turns out that disc two is an hour long mix Steinski created for Coldcut’s Solid Steel radio show, and it may be the best hip-hop mix I’ve ever heard. Maybe. Certainly one of the most incredibly dense and entertaining. New samples, punchlines, ideas are thrown into the mix every few seconds. He told me via email that it took him a year and a half to put the whole thing together and it fucking sounds like it (I was dumb enough to ask him whether or not it was performed live).
Oh, and Steinski was 52 years old when this aired in 2003. I don’t know exactly why that blows my mind, but it does. Dunno, to me this doesn’t sound like the work of an almost-AARP-eligible white dude. This doesn’t either (btw, from 1:20 there into the next verse cracks me the fuck up every time).
For real, the What Does It All Mean? retrospective is one of the most bad-ass, entertaining recordings I’ve heard in I don’t know how long. I’m obsessed. Get it. Get it. Get it.*
Bonus material cribbed from my Metfailter post:
DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist & Steinski recreating The Lessons live: Part 1, Part 2
Steinski talks about the origins of The Lessons
Download all three of The Lessons at waxy’s blog
Steinski on NPR’s Sound Check
*although since most of this material existed as bootlegs for so long, much of it can be found on the web. still. pay the dude.
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