And Then What Happened…88 Keys Gets Played
November 11, 2008
There are 8 Million stories in the naked city and half of them happen in the recording studio. So from time to time I’m going to drop some narratives from your favorite producers and DJs. (Some of ya’ll remember “Tales From The Booth”…if you don’t, you can catch up now).
In our first installment of “And Then What Happened…” 88 Keys recounts how a shady engineer started twisting on his girls knobs…
Bloggin 4 Beats: Common’s “Come Close” Remix
October 30, 2008
I few days ago I was lucky enough to hear Common’s new CD, Universal Mind Control, and in the conversation to the room full of journalists he said “People keep wondering if I’m doing Electric Circus over,” because of the left field direction of the new CD, produced by The Neptunes and Mr. DJ. I don’t know what it is but I LIKED Electric Circus, I still play “Soul Power” and “Between You Me and Liberation” quite often. I told him that if EC had come out today after the Gnarles Barkleys of the world people would be more accepting. But what was more frustrating about EC to me was that he was still paying tribute to the roots of hip-hop (as he does often on this new CD as well) and it went over people’s heads. The Tribe influence of “Come Close” was so obvious that they just went all the way to the house and re-sampled Roy Ayers’ “Daylight” from “Bonita Applebum” for the remix. So it got me to thinking; why not put my own Tribe twist on my Come Close remix? With some help from the folks at the Hip-Hop Sample Archive I grabbed the Grant Green drums from “Vibes and Stuff” and stacked them on top of the Shades of Brown joints from “Excursions.” At certain parts I put those ethereal moans from Al. B Sure’s “Ooh This Love” and then I used Bobby Womack’s “Woman Gotta Have It” on the hook. The tricky part was making sure that Common’s verses dropped in-between the snares to keep the original time of the his Q-Tip flow.
I know this is a little out of sorts with the horrific climate of both the holiday and the economy but if you’ve got somebody to weather this storm with, hold them close.
And Then What Happened…Freddie Foxxx’s Industry Shakedown
October 20, 2008
Battle MC Freddie Foxxx recalls making Industry Shakedown with Pete Rock and DJ Premier…
Bloggin 4 Beats: Remixing T.I.
October 13, 2008
For this next installment of Bloggin 4 Beats I had my man J.H. talk about how he remixed T.I.’s “Whatever You Like…”
Bloggin 4 Beats: Remixing Alicia Keys
October 6, 2008
I’m a little geeked about this one cuz I actually played the bassline out on my keyboard. My PC keyboard, the Microsoft one. Yeah. Letters G and J I think. I know how thugged out Alicia Keys really is (you saw how much love she showed Wu-Tang at Summer Jam??) so I’ve been wanting to throw some hard drums under one of her songs for a minute. Thanks to my peoples at Hip Hop Samples Index I found some gutter drums from Shades of Brown to mix with my Maxwell, Erykah Badu and Les McCann vibes. I forgot how freakin long this song is and had to resist the urge to cut Ms. Keys off during her monologue but if a woman ain’t done, ya gotta keep going til she is.
Bloggin 4 Beats: Jay-Z’s “I Know” remix…
October 2, 2008
Addiction is a bitch…sometimes literally. You spend so much time trying to recreate that first high. Sometimes you come close (again.. literally) and other times you lay there in the throws of futility waiting to come down enough to resume the chase. I am addicted to this beat shit, which makes it that much harder when I lose something. Yes, I fugged up big time.
Bloggin 4 Breaks: “Long Red”
September 8, 2008
It never ceases to amaze me how the dopest hip-hop is derived from the most unlikely places. The drums from Mountain’s “Long Red” (the live version, not the album version) are a staple of so many great hip-hop songs. From Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s “Return of the Mecca” to A Tribe Called Quest’s hard to find remix to “The Jazz” to most recently De La Soul’s Dilla-produced “Verbal Clap” those drums just fill out any beat. Even the vocals (”clap your hands to what he’s doing”and “louder”) have been sprinkled throughout a countless number of cuts.
Bloggin 4 Beats: “Moment Of Clarity” Remix
August 25, 2008
I think in years to come people will be sampling ?uestlove. I know, you’re thinking “sampling another producer in hip-hop is blasphemy” but ?uest is not simply a producer. He’s one of the best drummers of our generation. And besides, even DJ Scratch has admitted to jacking those Little Feat drums from A Tribe Called Quest’s “Bonita Applebum” and sped them up to make the beat for “Funky Piano.” Anyway, I like to jack drums from 90s neo soul from time to time and it turns out that more often than not ?uestlove has done the drumming. So I’m just giving him a heads up/warning: If you leave open drums at the beginning of your songs, they’re getting snatched….
Bloggin 4 Beats: The Chase
August 15, 2008
The Robbery and the Chase
(from The Education of Sonny Carson)
by Coleridge Taylor Perkinson
Having some fun thanks to the folks at Beatclub producer community. Hydrosonics alumn Jack Nickelz posted a sample from the Education of Sonny Carson and asked other producers to do their best flip. Here is mine:
Bloggin 4 Beats: R.I.P. Isaac Hayes
August 11, 2008
Can’t believe it. Isaac Hayes? Gone? No warning. I’m sure my bloggin peers have a ton of things in the works to pay tribute to the man, but for now I’m republishing some things from my Low End Theories beat blog. I went through a phase of sampling Mr. Hayes about a year ago…