IN STEINSKI WE TRUST

Is Steve Stein this ruthless sample gangster who shows no mercy for any recorded material that he can get his hands on, and has no respect for copyright rules?

Or, is he just a man on a mission of self-expression, who strongly believes in freedom of speech, and it's not afraid of sharing his thoughts?

Or, both?

I was recently  listening  to an older Cut-Up documentary style made out of hundreds of samples, and put together by Dj Food ; which included a brief interview with Steinski.
This is what the man had to say for himself:

Interviewer: " You respect copyright? "

Steinski: " Well..I respect it in theory, I obviously don't respect it in fact. "

Interviewer: " How do you justify that then? "

Steinski: " I don't, this is what I do Man, God put me on Earth to make these records you know?; so the rest it's just commentary, I'm gonna make the records. I don't even think about it too much to tell you the truth "

I've been a fan of Steinski's work since the early 90's, and I've been collecting his music ever since.
It all started during a day trip to the city of Toronto, Canada. I flew over from Montreal, and I was there for one simple reason...finding  records.
I decided to treat my self for a day, so I bought a return plane ticket  for my birthday.  I arrived in Toronto very early in the morning, and none of the local record stores were open at that time, so I
went to hang out around down-town to get a quick breakfast before moving on with my plan. I found a phone booth on the street near this coffee shop that I was at; I picked up the yellow pages book, and ripped off one of the pages that contained a list of all the local vinyl record stores in that area.

Soon after my fourth or fifth stop at a record store I found this "Promo Only" 12" record under the Tommy Boy label, and it was by this duo called Double Dee & Steinski.
I dropped the 12" on a record player that played out to the main sound-system of the record store.
At first, I was confused by the amount of different vocals and beats playing simultaneously, but I  was  fascinated with what I was hearing.
 A perfectly blended collage of all kinds of sounds and multiple styles of music were playing harmoniously topped with some fat breaks provided by the Godfather of Soul (R.I.P).
I automatically fell in love with this fascinating record that I'd just found...but before I could take this record off the turntable in order to go pay for it, there was this guy who asked me "where did you find that?", so I gave him my honest reply and said: "inside a milk crate, under the record bins".
This guy then offered to buy the record off me for 3 times the price listed for this record (I think it was listed for $12 dollars). At first I thought "Uhhmm...that's a really nice offer", but I simply said "sorry, but I can't sell it!"... since I didn't know If I was ever going to find another copy of it elsewhere...and it was clearly marked "for promotional use only".
My day came to an end in Toronto, and I had rush back to the airport in order to be able to catch the last flight back to Montreal.

So here I am on my birthday, 20 years after that day, listening to some of my favorite records, and remembering about that trip to Toronto when I was first accidentally exposed  to the sounds of
Steinski.

His music style hasn't changed too much over the years, but his sound has surely evolved over the last decades.
He has done countless of great collaborations with other great artists alike over the years; his radio broadcasts at WFMU are nothing but the work of a true artist who is not shy to explore and experiment.
Steinski's music continues to influence, and inspire new generations in what has been nearly 3 decades of his career.
Whether it's his music, or his point of view in politics that are openly demonstrated on his website. This is a man whose passion is greatly reflected in his music, and lets not forget that he's a freaking walking encyclopedia of music.

If anyone out there is as fascinated as I am about the art of sampling, here is a link to an interesting DVD about sample based music.

Here are the original copies, plus their test pressings; starting with the "Lessons" on the Tommy Boy label, plus Double Dee & Steinski's private pressing of the "Mastermixes", and finally "The Motorcade Sped On" under the Tommy Boy label as well.