Why Producers Kill Their Neighbors
July 17, 2008
The flood. After the fire it is the most feared and common source of pain for music collectors and producers. It’s even worse when it’s not a natural flood brought on by rain. QN5 producer/MC Tonedeff had his home studio ruined by an absent-minded…ok…STUPID…upstairs neighbor:
Water raped my studio in the rectum on Tuesday night. Sans KY.
In a twist only Stephen King himself would’ve been able to conjure up, one of my upstairs neighbors decided it would be a good idea to thaw out some meat with hot water in his kitchen sink while leaving the stopper in it…and then leave the apartment.
The results?
Basically, it rained on my entire fucking studio. Water came through the floorboards and basically made a bee-line through my ceiling and completely drenched my entire system, cords, monitors, speakers and worst of all – my external hard drives.
Read the rest of his lament HERE.
Scott Storch Owes Half-A-Milli in Taxes
July 17, 2008
It’s hard to imagine that a hit-maker with Scott Storch’s enviable discography is falling on hard financial times. However, reports show that the Miami-based producer owes almost $500,000 in real estate taxes and has fired his manager and publicist. [Read more]
Dilla’s Brother “Illa J” Dropping Album With Unreleased Beats
July 16, 2008
July 16, 2008, Brooklyn, NY) John “Illa J” Yancey, younger brother of late great genius producer James Yancey (AKA Jay Dee AKA J Dilla), is currently completing his debut album for Delicious Vinyl. With the multi-talented Illa J rhyming and singing over a treasure trove of previously untouched Jay Dee gems, the project represents both a full-circle collaboration and a whole new beginning in the story of the musically exceptional Yancey brothers. [Read more]
DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist Present “The Hard Sell”
July 15, 2008
Following in the footsteps of their now-legendary “Brainfreeze” (1999) and “Product Placement” (2001) sets, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s “The Hard Sell” is almost music history…just five shows remain, all back home in North America. Incorporating eight turntables, two guitar loop pedals, & only using original 45rpm seven-inch singles, “The Hard Sell” features tricks and complexity rarely attempted by a DJ duo.
As with the two previous sets, the pair eschew their own material in favor of an amalgam of music from all eras and styles, providing for amusing and provocative mash-ups; rap mixes with fiddle music, doo-wop with new wave, and every thing in between…all while avoiding the obvious, “been there, heard that” stuff you get from most DJs.
The first time “The Hard Sell” was performed in the United States was in front of 15,000 people at the world famous Hollywood Bowl (2007). As demand for the show has grown, the pair have continuously refined and reworked the song selection, so that aspects of it are different every time. In the words of Shadow himself, “If you happened to catch one of the earlier shows, never fear…you won’t be disappointed!” Don’t miss these final appearances by two of California’s most cutting-edge DJs.The Hard Sell exists as a result of a unique combination of the duo’s shared passions –for records, for playing them to people, for collecting them as objects and understanding their tactile properties as well as loving, appreciating contextualising and recontextualising the sounds they were designed to reproduce.
This is the third part in the trilogy of Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow collaborations and is probably the most ambitious in its execution.
The Hard Sell Dates
16-Jul-2008 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
17-Jul-2008 Brooklyn, NY McCarren Park Pool
18-Jul-2008 Atlantic City, NJ HOB
19-Jul-2008 Mariaville, NY Indian Lookout Country Club
25-Jul-2008 Portland, OR Roseland Theatre
26-Jul-2008 Seattle, WA Showbox SoDo
27-Jul-2008 Pemberton, BC Pemberton Festival Site
Hydrosonics: Base Jase
July 15, 2008
Name: Base Jase
Representing: Illinois
Contact: www.rapproduction.com
1) Your site is impressive. How long have you been selling your beats online?
I’ve had my music online since 98, but I didn’t officially have a store until 2006. That’s when Paypal made it easy to setup a site where I didn’t have to physically email tracks to clients. There are still a lot of clients who don’t have the net and want beat cd’s, but I refuse to give them out unless it’s someone that I’m really cool with. I’ve probably lost money by not giving out beat CD’s, but selling beats online is not where my main income is from, it’s from TV Licensing with MTV and Viacom. I would rather do that any day!
2) Sounds like interesting work. How did you get involved in that?
An intern was going through websites back in 2001 or so and ran across illynoise.com (my studio’s website) and I had an flash intro that was playing, they liked it wanted to use it on The Real World. After a few years it just started growing and they started playing more and more. Finally, the music supervisor at The Hills on MTV got me onto a license with the whole network, and I just put everything under my publishing company ILLYNOISE Music with BMI. Now I have some staff producers that I’m sending music out for also, and I’m always looking for new producers and more music!
3) You have established producers selling beats on Myspace on the cheap. Does that make your life harder?
No, it’s the mixtape producers that are making life hard selling (hot) tracks for 10 dollars! My experience with MySpace is that it’s not worth the time for trying to sell beats there. Youtube has brought me more business with beat making videos than MySpace. Having my own site where people focus on just my production and not thousands of other producers gives me a better chance of selling my brand and keeping loyal customers who come back. The difference is that I only sell exclusively and I don’t lease tracks, so when someone buys a track I immediately take it down. I tried Soundclick but I felt like I was trying to compete with a bunch of mixtape producers, selling downloads for 99 cents or whatever. I just wasn’t feelin that! Boon Doc is someone who learned from me in the studio, before he was into making beats, and he has done very nice with Soundclick and Youtube so I’m not putting that hustle down by any means!
4) You charge between $50 and $200 for a track. How do you determine what to price it?
I used to get 400-500 a track and maybe only sell a couple a month, but when I started selling more and having a bigger stockpile of tracks the law of supply and demand came into play, so I was able to sell them cheaper. It’s really a shame that I’m not getting more money, but I’m selling more and my name is getting out there. A 50 dollar track is usually something that I’ve had for a few months or something that hasn’t gotten enough attention. A 200 dollar beat is something that I think is hotter, newer and something that has more demand to it. I look at beats as a commodity and I don’t have an emotional tie to them. If I love a track I don’t put it up for sale.
5) Did you replay the sample on your “Taxi Driver” beat?
No it’s a sample, I always try to hide samples to a point. “Taxi driver” was originally something I sampled back in 92 for a group called PKO. They didn’t like it so I just held on to it, and remade the beat in 2004 on a ASR-10. I only played the bassline over the top of it and played the chopped up drums live on an MPC. I never play the main drums on separate takes, I always play the kicks, snares and hi hats in real time, unless it’s a dirty south beat. The other sounds are from an old Isaac Hayes sample.
6) When did you get started and with what equipment?
Back in 87 I got a Casio Sampler, with the yellow pads, then in 88 I got my first pro sampler, an Ensoniq Mirage. After that I just started building my equipment arsenal, mainly with samplers and drum machines. When I started getting really serious about production, I got a job at a label doing music for 100 dollars a week, and they had a EPS16+, and a SP12, so I just learned on the EPS16plus and sampled everything I could cause it had so much more sampling time. These days I’m using Logic 8 and all virtual instruments!
7) What is your record collection like? Do you DJ?
I used to DJ back in the day, but now I only have some Pioneer CDJ’s that I use in the studio when someone wants some scratches. My record collection is wack! It consists of mainly Sesame Street records, 45’s from my mom, and some jazz records that people gave me or I never took back to the library. Most of my collection is on CD’s and hard drive now.
8 ) Tell me about some of the independent artists you’re working with…
I’m working with Black Pegasus on a constant basis, we have a label partnership. His new album The Black Mexican is out and I’m doing the hook and singing a verse on a song called “Can’t Stay Around” we just put that song on Digiwaxx along with another song “Rep That” he did with Chino XL and Liquid Assassin. We’re also working on the Red Monkeys album (Black P and Liquid Assassin). I’ve also sold a track to Liquid Assassin, and he’s now on Strange Music. The Reminders, who consist of Samir and Aja, I’m just finishing up production on their album they have been working with One Be Lo.
CD REVIEW: Tanya Morgan’s The Bridge EP
July 14, 2008
If you see a chick named Tanya Morgan in the street, slap her, cuz she’s perpetrating. Just jokes, but seriously. Tanya Morgan is not that girl you used to sweat during third period, they are a three man rap crew, consisting of Brooklyn-based MC/producer Von Pea and Cincinnati rappers Donwill and Ilyas. The Bridge EP is intended to be, well, a bridge between TM’s 2006 debut Moonlighting and the upcoming Brooklynati album.
Pea has stated in interviews that one of his goals in crafting the EP was to improve the mixing. He’s succeeded in getting a much better sounding mix on The Bridge, with the lows slinking under your Timbs and the hi-hats reaching New Era status.
The Bridge flows from track to track seamlessly, and the short length is welcome in a genre filled with self-indulgent 80 minute albums. The EP’s instrumentals adhere to soulful boom bap with an emphasis placed on vocal samples. By working closely with a tight-knit group of producers, the group has achieved a unified sound. Von Pea produced five of the album’s nine tracks, and the rest of the instrumentals were created by affiliate producers Brickbeats, Aeon, Mysterious Productions as well as 88-Keys (Black Star, Beanie Sigel, Musiq Soulchild).
A few tracks that stuck out for me: “Be You” featuring Czelena finds the TM emcees arguing for being yourself in a game that encourages rappers to mimic the next hot thing. “Filthier Interlude” brings to mind classic 90s posse cuts like Heavy D’s “Don’t Curse” with a syllable-stuffing verse from each member fighting to beat the clock on the barely two-minute cut.
Production wise, the electro sounding roller rink jam “How Low” is the only track that sounds out of place, but it’s a bonus track, so they’re forgiven.The Bridge’s true closer is “Hip Hop Is Dead II” where Von, Don, and Ilyas address the current state of hip-hop, ending with the refrain, “they keep saying hip hop is dead, but I can’t see it/I just can’t see it.”
As long as quality rappers like Tanya Morgan are dropping new material, I can’t see it either.
– Aaron Matthews
Bloggin 4 Beats: The World is Yours Remix
July 14, 2008
“even my brain’s in handcuffs”..
So there I was playing word association again. Got this Nas acapella of “The World is Yours” and filter my itunes list for songs with the word “world” in it to do a remix. Nothing I had seemed to appeal so I went Amazon.com and bought a copy of The Stylistics “People Make The World Go ‘Round.” [Read more]
Bloggin 4 Beats: The Ms. Fat Booty Remix
July 11, 2008
There’s a glitch in the Matrix. I gotta blame this one on some DJ I must have heard many years ago who blended “Ms Fat Booty” with the instrumental to “Big Poppa.” For real. I found these Mos Def Acapellas and when I played this I kept hearing “Between The Sheets” under it on some serious Deja vu shit. But since I’m not a DJ, trying to match up that instrumental for a blend with nothing but Mixmeister would have taken longer than just looping up the Isley’s my damn self and remixing it.
Hydrosonics Alumnus Helps Joe Budden Ask “Who?”
July 11, 2008
Back in April we profiled a producer on the rise, Blastah Beatz, in our Hydrosonics column. At the time he’d already landed a mixtape track with Busta Rhymes and has now added Joe Buddens’ “Who” to his discography.
The 20 year old from Portugal samples Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” for the track.
“Basically, Joey wanted this particular sample flipped so he sent it to me. I guess he had the concept already laid out,” Blastah told Nodfactor.com. “He wanted the spirit of the original to remain so I kept it simple, just rearranging the samples and adding drums and percussion. I did my thing with it and sent it back, they leaked the first part a few days later. I hooked up with him through Brandon Hall, his A&R. They were looking for beats for Padded Room so I hit him up, they liked my stuff and asked me to be a part of the team.”
There are two parts out now, listen below. Joey is sayin some shit.
WHAT THE WHATNAUT?? RZA AND NAS CAN’T BE STOPPED
July 9, 2008
Déjà vu is nothing new in the world of hip-hop samples, but it’s still odd to hear them used so close to each other. On RZA’s Digi Snax his first single “You Can’t Stop Me Now” makes liberal use of a sample by The Whatnauts “Message From a Black Man.” The cut was also previously used by MF Doom and Mos Def on “Anti-Matter” and “Undeniable” respectively. But hip-hop wasn’t done with it as Salaam Remi has put his hands on it for “You Can’t Stop Us Now” from Nas’ Unititled CD dropping next week.
The Whatnauts were a trio from Baltimore made up of lead vocalist Billy Herndom, Garret Jones and Gerald Pinkney. They released two albums Introducing the Whatnaughts: (Stang 1970) and Whatnaughts on the Rocks: (Stang 1974). One of their best known songs was “I’ll Erase Your Pain” which reached number 14 on the R&B charts in 1971. According to The-breaks.com it was sampled by Kanye West for the bonus cut “Late” from Late Registration.