At Waxy.org: Double Dee and Steinski’s “The Lesson.” Masterworks of sampling from the early 80s, done by Doug DeFranco (Double Dee, a sound engineer in a commercial studio) and Steinski (Steve Stein, a TV producer who worked for an ad agency). The article helpfully points not only to a Village Voice article from 1986 about the pair, but also MP3s of all three classic “Lessons,” which are notorious for being basically one sample from beginning to end and therefore having no chance of being released legally. The pair were so influential that there are Lessons 4, 5, and 6, recorded by DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, and Jurassic 5.
I think I remember hearing Lesson 2 or Lesson 3 in middle school on the bus—they certainly punch some buttons in my memory. But mostly the lessons are just jaw droppingly amazing, including Lesson 3’s transition from Mae West’s injunction to “pucker up and blow” into the Human Beat Box. Go get ’em before they disappear…