Change the Beat
by Fab 5 Freddy & Beside
“Not so many people are aware that a little-known rap song with lyrics both in English and French is one of the most influential songs in hip-hop and one of the most sampled songs in music history. ”
Fab 5 Freddy is an absolute hip-hop legend and innovator and its most prominent advocate. He is a graffiti artist, rapper, actor, and painter. He brought hip-hop from the Bronx to NYC downtown, helping the growth of hip-hop as a culture since its very beginnings. He was also involved in creating this seminal hip-hop electro tune and became the voice behind one of the world's most-used sample and DJ tools of all time: Change the beat.
The French label Celluloid released this track in 1982. The A-side track features Fab 5 Freddy rapping in both French and English, and the B-Side features lead vocals by a female singer named Beside, rapping in French. The lead vocals performed by Beside and rapped entirely in French make this song one of the first multilingual hip-hop releases (The first were "Disco Dream" by the Mean Machine and "Spanglish" by Spanish Fly and the Terrible 2).
“The French version (side b) it’s the track that all DJs use during their scratch sessions. All DJs worldwide know the track because of the catchy vocoder phrase created with a white noise carrier to achieve that robotic sound, which can be heard at the song’s end, “Ahhh… this stuff is really fresh!” This phrase changed DJ history forever. ”
It's very popular among turntablist, especially for the "Aaah" and "Fresh" part scratched for the first time in another seminal hip-hop electro record by DJ Grandmixer DST (The grandaddy of all turntablists) called "Rockit" produced by the legendary keyboardist and composer Herbie Hancock. The Vocoder used to create that particular Robotic effect was a Roland SVC-350.
French producer and Celluloid label founder Jean Karakos (RIP) asked a French Journalist named Bernard Zekri to bring back to France some hip-hop records. He wanted to export this new style of music outside of the Atlantic.
Zekri had already been talking to Karakos about this new exciting urban scene emerging in the Big Apple at that time. Karakos was in touch with bass player and producer Bill Laswell of Material, and through Zakri, he asked him to work on this new song with rapper Fab 5 Freddy. Although skeptical initially, he then accepted the challenge.
The idea for the song started in Zekri's NYC apartment. He asked Fab 5, Freddy, to rap in English and French. Freddy agreed, and then they all went into the recording studio where Zekri's wife Ann was teaching him how to sing in French while Bill Laswell and the band were creating rhythms using a drum machine.
“While stuck on creating the track, and after shelving different takes, they asked Ann, aka Beside, to rap something in French. She was not a rapper, plus that was the first time she’s been in a recording studio. But she had a sexy voice, and they thought it would sound great, and it worked.”
When the song was almost completed, Bill Laswell's manager had a brilliant idea and asked Zakri to sing something on the Vocoder to add at the song's end, suggesting to say something like, "This stuff is really fresh." It was the perfect ending for a great tune, and it ended up becoming one of the key elements of a new music revolution called turntablism.
This song is still super influential today and can be heard even in some recent songs like Drake and Justin Bieber's hit "Right Here," "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and "Emotional" by Saweetie feat. Quavo!
