The Creativity of Deejays

In re-reading Joseph Schloss's Making Beats for one of my classes, I was reminded just how much creativity, knowledge, and work goes into deejaying and producing hip-hop music. Anyone who thinks either hip-hop is mere copying or that it isn't music must engage with Schloss's book. He tries to show just how much goes into producing hip-hop. Another element of his argument is that many critics of music assume that live performance is the exemplar of what music is. While that may have been true, it may not be so true anymore. Schloss, I think, demonstrates that the studio is much more significant to the music that folks listen to today. I even got the impression that Schloss hints that technology has affected blues, jazz, classical and even folk than most people realize.

I also think that Schloss's interviews with a pretty wide range of producers and deejays is really great model of what hip-hop or cultural studies scholarship should be like. Check out his book!