Bloggin 4 Beats: The Jetsons
June 15, 2010
“2nd Childhood” Beat series
We had Scooby Doo, Pacman and The Superfriends. Guess Who’s next?
Craig Mack, Pharoahe Monch and countless other MCs have referenced The Jetsons in one rhyme or another, so it was only right that I tinker with some of those futuristic sounds for a beat. Rather than going right after the theme song I just took the doorbell and freaked it. I was actually inspired because somebody on the Long Island Railroad had it as a ring tone. True story.
After tinkering with the bell I stripped everything away and messed with parts of the actual theme song towards the end. So listen through for the beat change and tell me what you think!
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UPDATE: After riding around with the beat for a day I stripped away the first half and just fell in love with the second half. Let me know what you think of the dirty version:
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Bloggin 4 Beats: What About Your Friends?
June 7, 2010
Friends? How many of us have them? Third installment of my 2nd Childhood beat series pilfers the Super Friends theme music:
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PREVIOUS: Bloggin 4 Beatz: What Would Scooby Doo?
PREVIOUS: Bloggin 4 Beatz: Happy Birthday Pacman
Bloggin 4 Beatz: Happy Birthday Pacman
May 21, 2010
Man, I had no idea today was the 30th anniversary of Pacman. Had I known I ‘d have put this beat up first, but here it is from my “Second Childhood” 80s beat series. Happy Birthday Pacman!!
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Bloggin 4 Beatz: What Would Scooby Doo?
May 19, 2010
A few months ago I copped the Motorola Droid and I think it’s the best phone I’ve ever had in my life. Though it could really use some better games I love that I can use just about any sound in the world as a ringtone. I downloaded the Pacman soundboard and the start up music is my ringer. I’ve gone through Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Family Guy…you name it.
So what does this have to do with Scooby Doo? Well the Pacman ringtone gave me the idea to do a mixtape of beats based on childhood music and theme songs, which would be the 80s for my 35 year old azz. Hence, The 2nd Childhood Mixtape. I do have a Pacman beat done but I didn’t want to lead with that one simply because I love this Scooby Doo joint more. Yes, I’m aware that Doom flipped this for “Hey” but since when has that stopped me?
I was just happy to finally find some way to use those Axelrod drums from “Divine Image” …
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EVENTS: Roc Raida Birthday Tribute May 18th
May 11, 2010
Join Sean C & LV, Lord Finesse, DJ Clark Kent, DJ Boogie Blind, DJ ENUFF, A Trak and many more to celebrate the life of the late Grandmaster Roc Raida at Brooklyn Bowl, Tuesday May 18th.
$15 All proceeds go to The Williams Family
Brooklyn Bowl 61 Wythe Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718)963-3369 for map and directions click HERE
Watch Nodfactor’s interview with Sean C & LV as they remember their brother Roc Raida.
EXCLUSIVE: King Karnov On Making Little Brother’s “So Cold”
April 15, 2010
King Karnov shares how DJ Khalil gave him the assist on a placement and the use of live instruments in his track “So Cold” for Little Brother.
[It all happened ] Through Bishop Lamont, and through DJ Khalil at a studio session. Khalil gave Little Brother the beat cd and my beat was on there. They really liked it and Bishop Lamont was supposed to have the 3rd verse on the song.
From what I understand, Khalil was playing beats in the studio, and he already has a lot of my tracks on his HD, I send him stuff every so often, and pooh and tae was in Khalil studio listening to beats. They thought it was a Khalil beat but he told them naw it’s a King Karnov beat.
He gave them my contact info, we talked about putting it on the EP that was coming out but they liked it so much that they placed it on the album.
[The beat] is me playing instruments. I was playing the organ, and tweaked up a farfisa rock organ sound and played a chord progression with that. Then layered a live bass with bass synth, and keyboard bass. That’s why the bass sound like it’s either live or keyboard played because it was.
The kick is a live kick the snare is from a CBS library record. I just mixed them and EQed them.
I heard the final product like 3-4 months ago. I thought it was incredible. I’m like dang, I wanted to work with them after hearing The Listening. But man they want to work with me, that’s crazy.
“Forever Luvlee” Remix
March 31, 2010
“I just don’t give a fuck, my shits too ghetto’d out..”
So the Dres EP remix contest is coming to a close and you know I had to take a swing at those acapellas. I’m probably going to do the whole EP but I couldn’t adhere to the key rule in the contest: no samples.
For my “Forever Luvlee” remix I chopped up one of my favorite songs by the most talked about woman on the Internet, Erykah Badu.
It’s not my first time pilfering sounds from Momma’s Gun and it certainly won’t be the last and “Time’s A Wastin” is one that you should make yourself very familiar with if you haven’t done so already.
Mind you, I did this before she went and made my week with the “Window Seat” video, but how perfect is it that she is propping up a remix to “Forever Luvlee”?
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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 [email protected].
• 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: 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:
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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.
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If you have a Tanya Morgan remix you want to share send it to [email protected]!
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