Bloggin 4 Beats: Remixing T.I.

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…”

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Bloggin 4 Beats: Remixing Alicia Keys

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.

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Bloggin 4 Beats: The World is Yours Remix

“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: Project Mayhem

Opposites attract but sometimes for the wrong reasons. I was told by a trustworthy person that this beat was just too soft for the lyrics. When I started chopping Ronnie Laws’ “Stay Still(and Let Me Love You)” I didn’t imagine making an angry record. But I’m also pretty sure Da Beatminerz didn’t imagine Laws’ “Tidal Wave” would make a record like “Who Got The Props.” I blame it on the drums. This snare pattern sounded like an uzi going off and even though the song was full of flutes and other minor chords I rearranged them into something with way more energy, way more aggression. The chops sounded like glass shattering on the ground. Could this be an R&B record? Sure, but it’d be one really hard R&B record. [Read more]

Bloggin 4 Beats: The Simon Says Remix

Sometimes it’s hard to let go of a thought. Months ago I started making a remix to Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says” using the horns from Isaac’ Hayes’ “Ike’s Mood.” I felt the aggressive intro horns would be a nice substitute for the monstrous Godzilla score that Monch himself sampled for the original. [Read more]

Bloggin For Beats: Life of The Party Remix

I grabbed some Bob James and took on a remix of Little Brother’s “Life of The Party.” While it isn’t my favorite LB record it’s the only dang acapella of theirs I’ve been able to find. But with a little “pure imagination” I was able to pull off something to bring some life to a party. [Read more]