📅&Բ;Date: Friday, November 14, 2025
🕒&Բ;Start Time: 4:00 PM
📍&Բ;Location: Harkness Chapel, Classroom
👥&Բ;Who: Free | Open to the public
Our weekly Friday colloquia showcase current research by distinguished visiting scholars alongside our own faculty and graduate students in musicology, historical performance practice, and music education. All are welcome!
A brief reception follows each talk to keep the conversation going.
About The Talk
“‘One for Ghosts’: Conjure, Black Temporality, and Self-Expression in Instrumental Sample-Based Hip Hop”
Digital sampling is a foundational form of composition within hip hop and remains a vital force in contemporary music production, hip hop or otherwise. While scholars continue to probe the treasure trove of hip hop lyrics for insights into the Black experience, few have delved into the powerful messages conveyed through the sampling process itself. Tricia Rose noted in her foundational work Black Noise (1994) that sampling is “an invocation of another’s voice to help you say what you want to say.” This presentation explores how sampling extends the tradition of Black American “conjure culture” through the ritual transformation of past sound recordings into dynamic productions for a present-day sociohistorical context. This includes the conjuring aspects of ancestor reverence and the seeming overlap of past and present experiences by Black people. I will also discuss my own digital sampling rituals and techniques as employed in my dissertation project, and how it continues the instrumental, sample-based lineage of “speaking” through sound recordings to convey the thoughts, sentiments, and emotions of the producer.
About The Speaker
Rafique Illyas-Watson is a PhD candidate in Historical Musicology at Case Western Reserve University and holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Ursuline College. His research explores the effects of digital sampling on contemporary popular music production and aesthetics. He is an experienced sample-based hip hop producer and former educator for the Center For Arts-Inspired Learning. His compositions have appeared in the films Make Your Mark! (2022) and The House Next Door (2022), an art installation for the Cleveland Institute of Art, and for a number of local and international recording artists. His educational program, “Something From Nothing: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop,” was implemented in several Northeast Ohio school districts from 2012-2020. He continues to be passionate about hip hop composition and the genre’s cultural impact in curriculums at every educational level.
Venue
Harkness Classroom, located inside Harkness Chapel, serves as both a lecture hall for large classes and a backstage area during events. It is also the meeting location for the CWRU Music Colloquium Series.
Health + Safety
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