Black Sheep Prelude Remix Contest
March 3, 2010
Following the success of his December 2009 EP, Dres of the legendary Queens, NY outfit Black Sheep will drop his long awaited full length LP, From The Black Pool Of Genius, on April 6th. To celebrate the release,Dres is proud to announce the official Prelude Remix Contest. With the contest, Dres is giving aspiring and established producers alike the opportunity to remix all five cuts off Dres’ From The Black Pool Of Genius: The Prelude EP, with the best submission of each of the five tracks being selected by Dres to be released for the official Prelude Remix EP, which will be subsequently released via all major digital retailers.
After downloading a cappella versions of the songs – which can be found through http://whostheblacksheep.com – contestants will have four weeks to craft their respective remixes. All remixes must be sample-free. While producers can submit only one remix per track, they are allowed and encouraged to submit remixes for each track, making up to five possible remix submissions. In addition to each winner having their version included on the official Remix EP, Dres will also record one 16 bar verse for each of the winning producers on a beat of their choice, and each producer will win a free drum pack from Platinum Loops: the Hip-Hop Drums – Blazin Beats Volume 1 Sample Pack. Winning producers will also receive a signed copy of the From The Black Pool Of Genius: The Prelude EP. Think you have what it takes to catch the ear of legend?
To enter the contest, or for further information about the contest, including download links for the a capellas, rules, deadlines, and prizes, please see below or visit: http://whostheblacksheep.com.
Entry Date And Deadlines:
• The contest opens 12:00am EST on March 2, 2010, and closes at 11:59pm EST on April 2, 2010. All entries must be received on or before 11:00pm EST on April 2, 2010.
• The winning submissions will be announced on or before April 15, 2010.
To Enter:
• Download the acapellas from http://www.remixcomps.com/Black-Sheep-Remix-Contest. Craft your sample-free remix around Dres’ vocals and submit a 320kbps MP3 (44.1kHz constant bit rate, normal stereo) file of your remix along with your name and email address to BlackSheepRemix@gmail.com.
• All remixes should be titled in the same format: “Name of Producer – Name of Track being remixed”
Judging:
• All entries will be judged and selected exclusively by Dres.
• Dres will announce the winning submissions for the Prelude Remix contest on Thursday, April 15, 2010.
Prizing:
• Each winning producer will have his or her submission included on the official From The Black Pool Of Genius Prelude EP.
• Each winning producer will receive a free 16 bar verse from Dres on a beat of their choice (all winners must submit the beat for collaboration within four weeks time of the contest close).
• Each winning producer will win a free copy of Platinum Loops’ Hip-Hop Drums – Blazin’ Beats Vol. 1 Sample Pack.
• Each winning producer will receive a free signed copy of Dres’ From The Black Pool Of Genius: The Prelude EP.
Bloggin 4 Beats: Nothing To Lose
February 15, 2010
Inspiration comes in various forms. Sometimes it’s a swift kick in the pants from one of your peoples and other times it’s more subtle. Recently I’ve been running a blitzkrieg of interviews for the site and a common thread that seems to be coming up is not holding on to shit.
Sean C & LV said everything “must go” in 2010. DJ Babu told me that he’s putting out his Beat Tape Vol 2 because he got tired of sitting on all of these beats he made and even Donwill of Tanya Morgan, who most people don’t now makes beats, admitted that he’d be putting out a tape for his friends finally.
With that said I haven’t updated the blog section with any new beats in a minute so I’ve decided to take the first step in letting it all go:good, bad and ugly. I can use the feedback. For the most part my beats have a very loyal audience of 1 but I have nothing to lose by posting them here. (CLICK HERE FOR MY LAZY TRACKLISTING)
Also, don’t forget to submit your beats to our Hydrosonics mixtape (hydromixtape@gmail.com). We’ve been catching some heat in the inbox so keep them coming!
Bloggin 4 Beats: Brand New Being Remix
January 25, 2010
When I interviewed DJ JS-1 he told me that he was providing a data disc with acapellas, instrumentals and clean version for his new project, Ground Original 2, No Sellout. What I failed to notice at first was that he also provided them for the Sadat X project he recently produced as well, Brand New Being. The title cut features a reunion of all three original members that had me feeling more than a little nostalgic. So I grabbed the acapella and went to work.
Since I love to play the word association game with my beats I chopped up the drums to “It’s a New Day” in Slicex so I could program them freely and then threw a bunch of different things at it. I gave Jamar, Puba and Sadat each a different song to flow over and ended things with a clip from the JS-1 interview that I’d love to hear him cut up one day, “dirtbag style, raw, grimey hip-hop.”
It’s a 180 degree turn from the original, much mellower but still raw. So I’ve nicknamed it the 420 remix:
Bloggin 4 Beats: Never Enough Remix
January 11, 2010
A few days ago we put ya’ll onto 2dopeboyz.com’s Tanya Morgan Remix Contest. Though I’m not officially entering you know I couldn’t pass up on working with a dope acapella. This contest has been over, but if you haven’t picked up Brooklynati by now make sure get a check for $12 $5 from your grandma and make it happen on iTunes.
As with a lot of my remixes I like to do word association, so I literally searched for “Never Enough” in my iTunes catalog and Amel Larrieux’s “Never Enough” from the Love Jones soundtrack popped up. This was gonna be fun.
I listened to the song and played the acapella in FL at the same time to get a sense for what parts would work. (They conveniently labeled the acapella at 95 BPMS so I didn’t have to tap it out. )After isolating the breaks I commenced to chopping. After I had all of the sounds and pieces I arranged them a few different ways until I liked what I heard. I added some low pass filtering to certain sections to bring the bass out and that was it. Peep it and let me know what you think.
If you have a Tanya Morgan remix you want to share send it to info@nodfactor.com!
Bloggin 4 Beats: Hello Brooklyn (Flow Ayers Remix)
January 6, 2010
I really miss Brooklyn. After living there my entire life I relocated to Queens seven years ago so that I could escape the scourge known as Alternate Side Parking. While you have to be from NY to truly appreciate the inter-Borough wars I’ll go on record to say that it ain’t been that easy. Brooklyn just has intangibles unmatched by any place I’ve set my feet or laid my head.
When I first heard Jay-Z’s “Hello Brooklyn” I couldn’t fathom why Lil Wayne was on this hook (even now actually). But if Jay could get an expat from New Orleans to sing my home boroughs praises I could only get but so mad (how Bleek feels is another story).
So after attacking a few other Jay-Z acapellas I took a swing at “Hello Brooklyn.” Staying true to my word association formula I sampled portions of Floetry’s “Hello” and Roy Ayer’s classic, “We Live In Brooklyn, Baby.” I was really tempted to chop Weezy’s hook out of the whole thing and use another vocal but I left it alone for now. Maybe in take 2.5 if I get hold of some Skyzoo Acapellas.
Exhibit C+ Ft Nas Produced by Hasan Insane (Remix/Blend)
December 29, 2009
My man Hasan Insane just dropped this in my inbox and I had to share it. He flips the original sample and drops in the Nas verse right after Jay says “Nas hit me on the phone…”
DOWNLOAD HERE: http://www.mediafire.com/?om0dwtzzzmm
Cop the original on itunes by clicking HERE!
Bloggin 4 Beats: Jonesing For An Erro Remix
December 13, 2009
Eric Roberson has been one of my favorite artists for some years now, so when I found out he was hosting a remix contest I jumped on that acapella to “A Tale Of Two People” without hesitation. I really want to know who the woman is that jacked him up because the brother has the way of telling these stories of either the one that got away or unrequited love that are so honest. Just can’t make that shit up. Anyway, with a little help from the Joneses (Love Jones and Quincy) I added a little drama to Erro’s crazy situation. Everything must change…indeed
Bloggin 4 Breaks: We Love You Sade
December 7, 2009
Real talk, Sade was my first crush. I had a pin up of her my high school locker on some cornball shit but I look like a genius in retrospect. The first single from her new CD, “Soldier Of Love” drops today and I’m pretty sure it will have all music lovers wetting themselves. So I started to think about sampling her and dug up a couple of her songs that were sacrificed to the sampling gods.
MF DOOM “Doomsday”
Straight jacks “Kiss Of Life” the way only a villain can
Kiss Of Life
Mobb Deep – “Where Ya Heart At,” Great bass line is hard to ignore, but Hav flipped the guitar from 2:26 something lovely.
Inspekta Deck’s “Trouble Man”
Pete Rock dismembers “Paradise” with Dexter-like precision and sprinkles a little Curtis Mayfield in for sazon.
“Paradise”
Bloggin 4 Beats: Jay-Z’s “I Know” remix…
December 4, 2009
Posted this last year…bringin it back like a boomerang for Jigga’s Birfday….
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:M.O.P’s “Blow The Horns”
November 29, 2009
As soon as I heard M.O.P.’s “Blow The Horns” I went “son-of-a-bitch!” I’m a huge fan of Bob James and the break in question is from James’ cover of George Bizet’s “Farandole (L’Arlesienne Suite #2)”
It originally appeared on Bob James’ Two, made famous for “Take Me To The Mardis Gras,” but I’ve been listening to it from Restoration, his best-of double-disc.
Take a listen below (the horns come in at around 19 seconds.)
And this is the original that James made over…
I even sampled this song for a beat and completely went over the horns, instead going to the funky wa-wa guitar and ethereal intro. Props to Fizzy Womack.
