Jay Love Jonny: Student Uses Sampling to Make Musical Magic

Photo by Conor Gillies.

Musical sampling is a hot topic. It’s become a fact of the music industry that at any given time, a great deal of the top 40 includes snippets from pop hits past. Boston University student Jonny Flood defends sampling in hip-hop saying it’s a fact of the evolution of African American music. “Sampling isn’t theft,” he says, “it’s an homage to the roots of the music that exists today.” He feels that, while it speaks more to make something from scratch, songs featuring samples are fresh, different and new. And Jonny should know: he’s just crafted a musically infectious EP made up of entirely Jay Z-centric, sample-based tracks.

The BU junior, who hails from Woodbury, Vermont, has taken his talent, his musical interest and his Mac into the world of production. Presently, Jonny is working on the albums of artists from New York, Philadelphia, Texas and Florida. He’s been dabbling in the projects of MCs for about two years. These rappers, he says, have to spend more time on their end of the process, placing greater emphasis on the artistic value of a song. About a month ago, Jonny wasn’t getting finished tracks back. His restlessness mounted. Born of impatience, his solo EP entitled Jay Love Jonny became a diversion of his attention and an outlet for his production passion.

Jonny’s creative process begins with “crate digging.” In the old days, revered producers would dig through crates of vinyls, listening to the records until finally finding right song to sample. Jonny’s modern crate-digging is a trip to YouTube, which he calls an invaluable and vast domain of music. Once he finds “something that sticks,” he uses Garage Band on his Mac to chop it up. He continues by pairing the snippet of the track with drum samples from online, then edits and tweaks the song to his liking.

SED Junior Jonny Flood Hanging out around Myles Standish Hall. | Photo by Conor Gillies.

Jay Love Jonny is a compilation of songs that pair the work of Jay-Z with more unexpected samples, such as Birdy’s cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” on the track “Moment of Clarity.” The EP’s title, Jay Love Jonny, refers to the EP Jay Love Japan of the late producer J Dilla, as well as an obvious reference to the Jay-Z theme of the songs. “Puns are good things,” Flood joked. Jonny chose Jay-Z as the focal source of his samples because he has the most available a capella. Jay-Z’s Black album, for example, was made in part with the intent of ease of sampling. While Jay-Z’s work is easy to manipulate musically, it’s also right up Jonny’s alley. The producer’s primary musical interests lie in the hip-hop and electronic genres, but he also listens to soul, jazz and the likes of Edith Piaf and Esperanda Spalding. Recently, he’s been listening to Flying Lotus, Brother Ali and Freeway. The producer doesn’t discriminate musically; he pulls inspiration from all over the map.

While he hasn’t thought about another project, he says it’s always a possibility. When creativity sparks, Jonny can sit down at his desk in his Myles dorm room and manufacture a fresh sound in a matter of a few taps and clicks. In an ideal world, his college experience aiming for a degree in secondary English education would simply be a back-up. An up-and-coming producer such as Jonny’s ultimate goal is to be signed as a label’s house producer, the path Kanye West took for four years before becoming an artist in his own right. For now, Jonny is focusing on exposure which means getting his beats into the ears of as many people as possible.

To listen to Jay Love Jonny and other music from Jonny Flood, visit soundcloud.com/jonny_flood.

About Ingrid Adamow

Ingrid Adamow (COM '14) is Editor-in-Chief and also a writer for The Quad. Ingrid is an advertising major and enjoys reading, writing, good music, fashion, coffee, and adventures around the city of Boston. But mostly coffee.

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