Bloggin 4 Beatz: Here Comes The Lord Vader

The first time I played Star Wars The Force Unleashed I thought, “damn that Emporer’s theme would be a dope beat.” However, the first time I tried to work with Vader’s theme music it I kept it just as is overlaying some drums. I didn’t like it. I just stashed the break in folder and figured inspiration would return.

Last week I reconnected with Lord Have Mercy after several years thanks to King Karnov and the whole “lord” thing was rattling around in my head. When I finally sat down to make a beat Thanksgiving night (first time in a minute) I remembered the Lord Vader sample and decided to try something different. I reversed it, changed the pitch and made it an angry swarm of bees drunk on power.

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Sometimes the sample doesn’t have to SOUND like the sample, but knowing me I’ll be trying something more traditional yet again. I’ll keep you all posted.

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DJ Revolution Interviews Mark The 45 King Producer Of Stan & Hard Knock Life (Parts 1 & 2)

Straight from “The Cut” DJ Revolution interviews Mark The 45 King, producer of Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life” and arguably the greatest story telling track of all time Eminem’s “Stan”. The story of “Stan” is an interesting one, he says he started shopping beats after getting released from jail on a weed charge and originally it was bought by Foxy’s brother for an artist named Pretty Boy. We should all thank God for intervening.

Part 1

45 King Part 1 from The Cut on Vimeo.

Part 2

45 King Part 2 from The Cut on Vimeo.

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Boi 1da On The Come Up Show

Boi 1da speaks with The Come Up Show about producing Em’s “Not Afraid”, his faith in God, and his love for beats which lead to nights away from partying with his friends.

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[DOWNLOAD] Bei Maejor-Upside Down 2 Hosted By Clinton Sparks, Ill Will, & DJ Rockstar

Jive recording artist Bei Maejor is back with his follow up to his critically acclaimed debut mixtape “Upside Down“. USD was originally hosted by Clinton Sparks and for USD 2 Clinton returns while adding Ill Will & Rockstar to the mix. USD 2 features production from Kane Beatz, Boi 1da, Tommy Hitz, & Kevin Durant as well as co-production from Maestro, Rocco Valdes, & Jacob Luttrell. For those of you that didn’t get the chance to call in and appear on the project you can reach out to Bei & let him know your thoughts on the mixtape (313) 242-7775.

Download USD 2 Here:
Bei Maejor-Upside Down 2

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Dee Vazquez Profiles Pete Rock

PROFILE: Pete Rock from dee vazquez on Vimeo.

Dee Vazquez continues with her “Profile” series this time getting up with the legendary Pete Rock. Spotted over at Nahright

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Nas, “Foul Breeze” [DOWNLOAD]

Spotted this leftover from Street’s Disciple over at PotholesInMyBlog the other day but have been trying to figure out who did the beat. It samples the familiar “Faded Lady” loop that Diamond D and DJ Scratch used. I guess the only way we’ll get tracks like this from Nas is when he doesn’t know what else to do with them.

Nas - Foul Breeze by Hypetrak

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Will Algorddim’s DJ App For iPad Kill Serato? [VIDEO]

Spotted at MacRumors

Since Serato debuted there has been an atomic count down clock for the death of vinyl and traditional turntables. Now there be a legit threat to the popular DJ software in the consumer market.

“With the imminent release of iOS 4.2, at least one developer is going to finally deliver a full featured iPad DJ app. We’ve learned that Algoriddim, the makers of the popular djay application for Mac, has ported djay over to the iPad, taking full advantage of the new iOS 4.2 audio features.

These iOS 4.2-specific are features coming in djay for iPad include:

- Full access to iPod library
- Multi-tasking: you can run djay in Automix mode and listen to a continuous, seamless mix running in the background while you surf the web, play games, etc.
- AirPlay: you can wirelessly stream your mix to your Apple TV or AirPort Express station in real-time.
- Fully leverages accelerated CPU extensions (SSE-like) for high-quality audio processing and analysis
- Very low latency (< 3 msec)
- Background audio playback (multi-tasking support)
- Pre-Cueing (via mono/stereo adapter)

The following exclusive video shows the iPad app in action:

We’ll be getting some DJs to test this out to see if it’s the real deal or another bad toy. Hit us with your thoughts on Twitter @Nodfactor @JLBarrow

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Dr. Dre: “My Record Collection Is Gone”

As I promised, here are the outtakes from my Vibe cover story with Dr. Dre. In these snippets he talks about meeting DJ Khalil as a kid for the first time, sampling Nottz, programming the beat on “L.A. Niggaz” and what happened to his collection of 80,000 records.

Nodfactor.com: A few years ago there was an article in The Times Of London where it said that labels were over-compressing music in the mastering because people are listening to music in little earbuds now.

Dr. Dre: That means they’re doing it absolutely the wrong way. You should improve the source of the sound, the thing that people are playing it on. Not the end result. That’s ridiculous.

You mentioned drum kits earlier. How do you feel when you go on line and see “Dr. Dre drum kits”?

I think it’s the biggest compliment. Of course I have my problems when people use my music and they water it down and make it sound corny. But for the most part when I see that it’s a big compliment. If somebody is taking the time out to take a dre kick it makes me feel like what I’m doing is really valuable.

I watched a funny interview with Rockwilder where he talked about sampling your Lolos for Xzibit’s “Front 2 Back.”

Dre: Yeah, yeah. I remember that. What was funny about that is that I loved it so much it made me go “why didn’t I think of that shit?” It was really dope. I was like “damn, that was supposed to me be. That was my shit.” But Rockwilder beat me to that one.

Someone posted one of your Roadium Swap meet mixtapes on Youtube. It had Eazy E rhyming over Dana Dane beat. Do you remember it?

Back then I think I did about 60 different mixtapes. I had a radio show on KDAY. I was on the traffic jam everyday at 5 o clock and a lot of those mixes went on tape for sale. That was a fun period. That eventually developed into me getting curious about engineering.

When did that curiosity become practice?

When I found a facility to practice. There was a radio show called Radio Scope with this guy named Lee Bailey out here. He had an 8-track studio in his garage and he would let me come over and toy with it. I started out learning to engineer and I think that’s why my mixes come out so well because that was my thing. Getting really involved in the technical part of it and then I just started touching the drum machine and so on.

How do you feel about software vs. drum machines?

I have a love/hate relationship with software. I love the quickness of it but the sound is a little transparent. It’s a little difficult to get the sound out of software that I would out of a module or a regular keyboard. That’s the only thing, getting it to sound as warm as it used to.

Snoop’s “Boss’s Life” had the same sample as Buster’s “Everybody Rise” produced by Nottz. You knew Busta had already done it at that point, right?

Yeah! We listened to the Busta record to replay the music! It’s just a track that I loved for a long time and I played it for Snoop and went yeah! We just twisted it up right there.

I guess you’ve elevated yourself to this level to why would Dre use the same sample as someone else?

I understand. It’s something that I liked. That’s one of the tracks I’ve really enjoyed. What’s wrong with that? Do I really need to prove myself anymore? Come on.

You replayed Isaac Hayes “Bumpy’s Lament” for “XXplosive.” Talk about your replay process. What do you say to musicians to get them to sound right?

It doesn’t work all the time. I would say 80 to 90% of the time it doesn’t work. It’s just first finding the right musicians that understand it and they have to be excited about what they’re doing. Some musicians want to sit there and play something they wrote to get money instead of getting the song done. So it’s about the musicians understanding and being able to do what they’re asked to do. There’s no big science behind that too.

“Some L.A Niggas” is one of my favorite Dre Beats because…

The stops and starts…

Yeah! What made you program it that way?

The reason that it was programmed that way was the air in it. I wanted all of the MCs to have that stop. That was the trick, to have the rhyme stop with the beat. I thought if we could get the MCs to stop that way it could be interesting. I know it was no hit record, but it was something we were trying that’s why it comes so late in the record. It was just us having fun. It was funny watching everybody trying to write a rhyme to that stop and it still make sense. They got it off though.

Do you still have a record collection or is it all in a warehouse somewhere?

The record collection is gone now. I had a warehouse full of albums and I contemplated getting rid of it for at least two years before I did it. I wasn’t really using it anymore. It was just sitting there as another bill for storage. 80,000 albums.

Sold or gave away?

Both. What I did was just went through and jotted down everything I was in love with so I could order it [later]

What are three of those records you wrote down?

I didn’t keep em for sampling purposes. Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly” a Barry White’s Greatest Hits… a gray album and everything else on it was black. [thinks] It might be fucking Nirvana. That’s one of my favorite albums ever made. I still listen to that shit to work out.

On “Next Episode” you took that David McCallum sample and just did something else with it.

Now it’s funny that you say that. The Isaac Hayes song was a slow song and I knew nobody was gonna sample that. I try to go for those obscure samples or something people aren’t gonna think about recreating.

In producer circles there is a lot of talk about the team that you’ve assembled. What is it about those producers like Khalil and Mr. Porter that you like to work with them?

I love their personalities and I love their talent. Khalil is one of the coolest guys you ever want to meet and one of the most talented guys you’d ever want to meet. It’s really crazy because I’ve known Khalil’s sister for at least 20 years now and I was at a pool party that she threw and there was this kid that came up and said he wanted to learn about production. I don’t know how long ago this was but he was 11 or 12 years old. I sat and talked to him for about an hour or two and it was Khalil. Next thing you know he’s out doing his thing and he’s got a song on my album. Which is the craziest shit! And he’s on Eminem’s record sounding real good. He did his thing.

I’m branching out using some other producers on my record and it’s just people that I like. It’s not necessarily a team but it’s just me branching out to other producers that are new and up coming. It does nothing for me to work with somebody who is already established. It means more to me to build something from the ground up.

9th Wonder told me that he wants to ask you how you manage to do so much but not be seen. How do you do that?

I’m really protective of my family, myself and my image. It’s one of the reasons for my longevity in the business. I’m not a person that really gives a fuck about being on camera or people taking pictures of me. I like being to myself. I have my designated events, I do like to party and have fun but in controlled environments, like the room you’re sitting in right now.

RZA has an equally fabled album he’s working on called The Cure and he told me that Detox has to come out before The Cure. “You gotta detox before you get the cure…”

Ha! That’s funny. RZA is my man. He’s dope as fuck too. But there’s really no detoxing. Fuck detoxing. But like I said, hearing it and seeing it is two different things.

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @JLBARROW, @NODFACTOR

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Bei Maejor-Wife U Up Prod. By Kane Beatz

Bei Maejor is back with a new release from his forthcoming project, Upside Down 2. “Wife U Up” features production from fellow hit maker Kane Beatz. USD 2 is the follow up to his previously released first solo project Upside Down and it will be available for free download this coming Friday.

Wife U Up

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14kt Wins Red Bull Big Tune 2010

Red Bull finally wrapped up it’s final competition of 2010 ending this past week in Chicago. 14kt was crowned the winner beating out Nospeakerz in the final round. Stay tuned for the announcement of who 14kt will be going into the studio with.

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