Double Dee and Steinski

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Doug DiFranco and Steve Stein were Hip-Hop producers who achieved notoriety in the early 1980's for a series of sample-based collages known as the Lessons, which are still well-regarded today as early underground Hip-Hop classics. Although they never had a hit record, they proved highly influential for subsequent artists such as Coldcut, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and the Avalanches. Their music has never been widely available on CD due to their use of copyrighted material, but there have been occasional illegal re-issues, and several internet sites have mp3s of their music available for download.

Contents 1 History 2 Sequels and Follow-Ups 3 Recent Years 4 Miscellania

[edit] History

In 1983, Tommy Boy Records held a promotional contest, in which entrants were asked to remix the single Play That Beat, Mr. D.J. by G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid (members of Afrika Bambaataa's Soulsonic Force). By day, Double Dee (DiFranco) worked in a professional music studio, while Stein (Steinski) was a copy supervisor for Doyle Dane Bernbach; although they were older (27 and 32, respectively) and whiter than much of the Hip-Hop scene at the time, they were both Hip-Hop enthusiasts; Steinski, in particular, had been attending downtown rap clubs for years and had an extensive knowledge of Hip-Hop's history (although the first Hip-Hop records didn't appear until 1979, DJing was a phenomenon that had been around since 1973).

Their contest entry, Lesson 1 — the Payoff Mix was packed with sampled appropriations from other records -- not only from early Hip-Hop records and from Funk and Disco records that were popular with Hip-Hop DJs, but with short snippets of older songs by Little Richard and the Supremes, along with vocal samples from sources as diverse as instructional tap-dancing records and Humphrey Bogart films. As critic Robert Christgau noted, [1] "[the record] was pieced together in DiFranco's studio in 12 or 14 hours over two days. What was most striking about it wasn't the plethora of quotes, 24 in all [...] It was the specificity and catholicity of their references." The jury, which included Afrika Bambaataa, Shep Pettibone, and "Jellybean" Benetiz awarded Lesson 1 the first prize.

Double Dee and Steinski followed up this success with Lesson 2 — The James Brown Mix in 1984, which began with a sample from The War of the Worlds before quickly running through a montage of memorable breaks from classic James Brown records, with sampled appearances by Dirty Harry and Bugs Bunny.

In 1985 came Lesson 3 — the History of Hip-Hop Mix which attempted a survey of the great breakdancing favorites, along with snippets from Johnny Carson and Hernando's Hideaway.

[edit] Sequels and Follow-Ups

Since the 80s, many Hip Hop artists have added their own contributions to the series of Lessons - a partial list is included below:

• The De La Soul song The Magic Number from their 1989 album 3 Feet High and Rising begins with a tribute to Double Dee and Steinski's Lesson 3 — it contains many of the same samples, arranged in a similar, although shortened, sequence.

• DJ Shadow - Lesson 4 (1991)

• Cut Chemist - Lesson 4 — The Radio (1993) At the time, Cut Chemist was apparently unaware of the existence of Shadow's similarly-titled Lesson 4 from two years earlier; the two would later collaborate on several "Live Lessons."

• Cut Chemist - Lesson 6 — The Lecture (1997) This track appears on the first Jurassic 5 EP. Many editions of the EP contain slightly different versions of the song, due to copyright issues. Most notably, samples of the "Jawa Theme" from Star Wars are missing from most of the re-issues.

• DJ Format - The English Lesson (1999)

• DJ Bombjack - Lesson 7 (1999)

[edit] Recent Years

Although Double Dee currently pursues a career in sound design for television, Steinski has remained active in recent years, doing occasional remix work and longer old-school mixes, as well as DJ'ing regularly in Europe and the UK using a laptop and midi gear. The pair reunited in 1998 to remix Afrika Bambaataa's Jazzy Sensation, in 2002 for a live performance at the Roseland Ballroom in New York opening for DJ Shadow and again in May of 2006 opening for ColdCut at Irving Plaza. Steinski is interviewed in the 2001 documentary Scratch.

In 2002, all three of the original Lessons were re-released on vinyl, as well as for the first time on CD, on a collection entitled Ultimate Lessons.[2] This compilation also featured DJ Shadow's Lesson 4, as well as several live collaborations featuring Shadow, Cut Chemist, Steinski himself, and Shortkut. Although it was widely available at the time shortly after its release it can be difficult to track down today; this is most likely a bootleg or unlicenced recording due to the dozens of uncleared samples — it is common practice for such releases to be printed in small numbers to avoid the unwanted legal attention of the copyright holders.

Two more compilations soon followed, and although these sequels contained few, if any, contributions from Double Dee and Steinski themselves, they follow the same tradition of sample-heavy dance-collages reminiscent of Old-School Hip-Hop. Some of the more well-known artists to appear on Ultimate Lessons 2[3] and Ultimate Lessons 3[4] include Coldcut, DJ Nu-Mark, Kid Koala, DJ Red Alert, and Fatboy Slim. As of 2006, they are relatively easier to find than the original Ultimate Lessons, although it is likely that they will go out of print very soon.

They expect to perform again but no dates are available as of August 2006.

[edit] Miscellania

• Steinski has claimed to draw inspiration from the Flying Saucer records of the 1950's.

• It is interesting to note that although the Lessons were highly influenced by early Hip Hop DJs, and have in turn greatly influenced the practice of Turntablism, neither of the duo were proficient as DJs; instead of being mixed live, the Lessons were created piece by piece, by editing together short samples using a turntable an 8-track deck and a stereo deck. They do not contain any scratching. Currently they are using Ableton Live as well as ProTools software.