The first and last words are two of the most widely used samples for scratching. Beside was credited as ‘Fab 5 Betty’ on the earliest pressings of the vinyl.Īt the end of the Side B version, there appears the phrase “Ahhhhh, this stuff is really fresh,” spoken through a vocoder. Aside from the chorus, which, like the Side A, was performed by Fab Five Freddy through the vocoder, the lead vocals are performed by female rapper Beside and rapped entirely in French, making this single one of the first multilingual hip-hop releases. The version of the song that appears on Side B is considerably shorter than the A-Side track, clocking in at 3:42. He also performs the chorus of the song, utilizing a vocoder with a white noise carrier to achieve a gritty, robotic effect. The Side A version is 7:40 minutes in length and features Fab Five Freddy rapping in both English and French. The official length of the tracks varies depending on the specific pressing of the single, with some releases mislabeling the running times entirely.

This release and all subsequent pressings of the single feature two versions of the song, one on Side A and one on Side B. It was recorded at Martin Bisi’s OAO Studio in Brooklyn, New York, United States, (later, BC Studio) and released as a 12″ single on the Celluloid label in 1982. “Change the Beat” is a song written and recorded by Fab Five Freddy, and one of the most sampled songs in music history. Courtesy of Wikipedia, for those of you who want to dive deep and know your history:

Dj scratching loops and samples