Fab 5 Freddy - Change The Beat

Celluloid Records returns to the fray with a stunning re-issue of the arguably the most sampled record of our time: Fab 5 Freddy - ’Change The Beat.’ Graffiti Artist, Hiphop pioneer and now a Hiphop historian. Fab 5 Freddy’s contributions to hip-hop culture have been numerous (he’s even name-checked in Blondie hit ’Rapture’) . In the late 1970s and early 1980s he became an unofficial bridge between the uptown graffiti and early rap scenes, and the downtown art and punk music scenes, bringing the whole ’music, hip-hop, art, break dancing and urban cultural thing to the downtown table.’ The original 1982 release was one of a series of five 12“s each to feature interlocking poster art from Futura 2000. Recorded and produced by Bill Laswell. Jean Karakos, founder of Celluloid Records, recalls the party-atmosphere filled evening when it was recorded, “Freddy was singing in English and some French but couldn’t quite nail the whole song. We were trying lots of experimental ideas even some rapping in Japanese. It was an evening of pure energy and creativity. Eventually the wife of Bernard Zekri, B-side, sung the whole song in more or less one take. It was so good that became the B-side of the record“. Possibly one of the most famous moments comes at the end of the B-side version. Here a vocoder / white noise effect is used at the end when the beat stops. Freddy says “Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh“, a line which is quite possibly the most scratched sample in the history of hip-hop music. It was first used in the 1983 Herbie Hancock single Rockit and has been used in countless hip-hop tracks ever since. Now, digitally restored with original artwork, Change The Beat is set to get juices flowing once again in our continuing series of re-issues from the gargantuan Celluloid catalogue. Your can hear an interview with Jean Karakos (founder of Celluloid Records) on our website; Here Jean talks about the night this famous track was made and other words of music legendry. Get excited.