Hip Hop Beats Maker

You might think that Dr. Dre and made the beat for Nothin’ But A G Thang himeself, but you’d be dead wrong on that one.

What he DID do is have the ear for an amazing hook and the foresight to add a little more instrumentation and sample the shit out of it.

The original is a track called I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You by Leon Haywood. And damn if it isn’t extra sharp all by itself. And the rest of the song is just as good. You can’t pass this one up.

My buddy was playing this 45 (you know, a record) for me the other day and I was floored. Unfortunately, the 45 version does not contain the part sampled by Dr. Dre – you have to get the full length version for that magic.

The Youtube comments on this video crack me up:

“n***a look like he just got out of the shower”

I was hyped to see this interview with DJ Quick on Pitchfork.tv.
Right from the start he talks about producing beats and songs for Jay Z and even Whitney Houston (?! I had no idea).

Interesting to hear him talk about styling himself as a “hands on” producer after the techniques of the great Quincy Jones.

Especially telling is how he states that earlier in his rap beat making career he started with a beat and built the song up from there, whereas now, he starts with a stronger part of the song, like the vocal melody, or other part of the arrangement and works down from there.

Check this one out y’all, you’ll be glad you did. Oh, and an awesome DJ Quick bonus video from my favorite song if his below too.

It has literally never been easier to be a hip hop beats maker with all of the new tochnology coming out so fast. Everyone has a computer and everyone seems to have an iPhone to Ipod touch. These two things by themselves have made it so simple and obvious to people that want to make beats and hip hop that the tools might actually be right in your pocket or in front of you right now.

Now you can’t even claim that it’s too expensive to get started. You can get cheap drum machines for less than $100. You can get beat making software for $30. If you searched ebay you could find 10 different pieces of music equipment to make our own beats on and have it in your hands in a matter of a couple of days for less than $100.

But let’s get real and let’s talk about how cool all of this technology is and where we’ve come. Let’s take it back to smartphones – not only are there dozens and dozens of music apps available for Android phones and Iphones, but there are now entire synthesizer units that your plug your iphone in to.

Did you get that? You can now plug your iphone or ipod touch or your ipad in to a new Akai Synthstation and it will power the synth engine and let you make hip hop beats on its drum machines as well. Who said making your own beats had to be expensive?

And we’re talking about classic sounds – nothing cheap and wimpy soundung here. Three different synthesizers with classic analog sounds, and classic drum machine sounds that let you build your own kits as well.

The synths have LFO’s, a variety of waveforms, cutoff and resonance, just like you’d find on any good synth.

It also has an x/y controls to dial in that perfect sound and an arpeggiator. You can also use the built in sequencer to edit your notes in a grid formation. There’s a grid-based drum editor for making your beats too.

And that’s just using the akai synthstation’s app with the keyboard. If you use some other apps the list gets even bigger and you can do even more. There are even apps available with up to 50 different instrument sounds which turn this thing in to a virtual studio.

it literally turns in to an ever evolving synthesizer as more apps are being introduced to the app stores – and since this new synthesizer/iphone/ipad combination is now available app makers are determined to come up with new and better apps to power the Akai Synthstations.

The screen of your iphone, ipod touch, or ipad becomes the touchscreen menu for this synth. You can do more on this thing than i can do on one of my fancy roland synthesizers that cost me $700 used a few years ago.

Do you have an ipad? There’s also a larger 40 key synthstation with an ipad dock that powers this synth and it also has drum pads as well as keys. Where’s your excuses now? Gone, because you don’t have any anymore, that’s where.

But the price, man, it’s gotta hurt, right? Ha! – the Akai Synthstation 25 is only $99 and I’ve already seen it on amazon for far cheaper.

Also – it runs on batteries so you can jam it in your backpack and take it on the go with you. It also comes with a usb cable that allows you to connect it to your computer and use as a keyboard controller.

That’s it – the excuses are dead – everybody and your little brother has an iphone and now they can even afford to have two synthesizers and a drum machine.

Done deal. Make your own hip hop beats with your iphone – and check out this low price on Amazon right now – jeeez!.

If you can’t hear hip hop in this song, there’s nothing anybody can do for you to help you understand what great music is and where it comes from.

My friends and I have all been listening to a lot of afrobeat and highlife compilations like Ghana Soundz and Nigeria Rock Special for the past couple of years and we’re continually blown away by all of the amazing stuff out there that a lot of people who are genuinely passionate about great music aren’t even aware exists. And I’m not blaming anyone for not having exposure, I’m just saying it’s a shame for such great music to go largely unheard.

In digging more and more in to these 60’s and 70’s era bands of west africa we came across Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou and found them to be really consistent and fairly well documented, thanks to the great label Analog Africa (there a few live videos on Youtube, and they’ve been touring again recently). I won’t try to write about them and how great they are because I can’t really do them justice – just listen to this song below and keep following the related links and see what great stuff you can find.

Check out great new music to learn of great old and new music that you you will love.

I know I talk a lot of about him on this site, but there’s a lotta buzz everywhere about Dr. Dre right now with his new single, Kush (video below), out now, and with good reason. The internet’s sound bytes go like this: we’re waiting on Detox, we’re still waiting on Detox, here’s some leaked shit that might be on Detox, here’s Dre in a Dr. Pepper commercial, oh and here’s a real single (!), but does this mean we can expect Detox soon.

All the talk is redundant and anticlimactic, and there are certainly haters out there who think the new album is not gonna be able to stand up to the last two – but if anybody can make a Dre album in the Dr. Dre caliber it’s only gonna Dr. Dre himself. So, I’m withholding judgement and putting my faith in the man. He’s done it many times and nobody can deny that.

Check out XXL’s The 50 Greatest Dr. Dre Beats Of All Time (and his recent XXL cover story) and remind yourself how consistent his genius is. If you’re tired of hearing about him already, I say that’s a good thing – it can only mean the media is ramping up the promotion for Detox to be released in the near future.

So, here’s your first single, featuring Snoop and Akon. I’m digging this video, and I’m also digging the more modern sound that Dre is bringing to the table. I love the G-funk sound – nothing beats that stuff – and as timeless as it is, it can also sound dated. I’m really glad he’s delivered some super slick production and crafting to this new material, and the sounds are a nice update (synthesizers and DAW’s have changed a lot in the last decade).

Oh, and nice product placement for the Monster Beats Headphones, too (among many others).

Of course just in time for the holidays, Dr. Dre’s Beats Pro Headphones are in stores and ready to go. I wrote a brief review of the Monster Beats Studio By Dr. Dre a while back, and at that time the Beats Pro had not been released.

I recently had the opportunity to check out the Dr. Dre’s Beats Pro By Monster Headphones and hear the magic for myself, and of course I was more impressed with them than the Beats Studio or any others from the line. The excellent sound quality is absolutely still there, no doubt about it. If anything, they sound better than less-expensive models from the line because of the larger earphone cups. All of that extra padding, insulation and room certainly creates a larger, more secure chamber for the sound to resonate in.

The most obvious benefit of these new Beats Pro headphones is the durability, ruggedness, and sleek design of the headset frame. Made of a semi-shiny, matte aluminum, the padded headband and silvery ear cups look amazing and will hold up for a long, long while but still have a super lightweight heft to them. You hardly notice them on your ears and head, and the sizing adjustment clicks feel so much sturdier and solid than the earlier plastic types.

Speaking of plastic, one of the main faults of the Studio Beats was that the tiny screws and screw-holes would in time crack around the plastic casing. This problem is obviously not even an issue with the aluminum framing that makes up the Beats Pro.

Everything has been thought out with these high-end headphones. From the extra long cord, to the flip-back earcups for one-ear listening (my favorite feature), to the cable plug on either ear cup for convenience and tangle-free placement. Oh, and about those ear cups cable ports – daisy chain another set of headphones from them and you have an instant extra headphone jack for someone else to simultaneously hear what’s coming through the Beats Pro. Like, I said, Everything has been thought of.

The hefty $399 price tag may not be for everyone, but if you’ve already thought of paying $300 for the much lower quality plastic Beats Studio, spending an extra $100 for all of the new amazing features should be a no brainer for the serious die-hard musician, DJ, or music lover who’s already committed to a pair of amazing high-end headphones.

Also, someone wrote me and said that they thought these were not worth the price since a nice pair of AKG K701 headphones were much more bang for your buck. I really can’t argue with that logic except to say top notch AKGs and Sennheisers are more geared towards audiophiles that already own thousands of dollars worth of stereo equipment and components. Obviously the Dr. Dre Beats Pro headphones were designed with the hip-hop and rap community in mind. That the sound quality can challenge other high-end headphones and still deliver the niche-specific features listed above will be a god-send to those they are designed for.

Dr. Dre’s The Next Episode is one of those instantly recognizable, classic hip hop songs that has that kind of universal, iconic appeal. Dre shines as producer, rapper, and all around great musician on this track, and the sample is used masterfully. The song is one of those ubiquitous rap anthems which it makes everybody at the party grin and go “OOHHHH! SHIT!!”, and cover their mouth with one hand and throw the other hand up in the air.

Why does everybody do that? Is that like the world-wide, universal sign language gesture for “THIS BE MY JAM!!”?

Anyway, those first few heavy, mysterious, tense orchestral bars which simultaneously build the suspense for what’s coming and also momentarily trap you in place with a little bit of trepidation are pieces sampled from David Axelrod and David McCallum/s The Edge.

The little muted, minor guitar riff that runs through The Next Episode is aslo from The Edge, but as you’ll hear, it only shows up in one place in the original. The fact that this small riff was used as the basis for an entire monster hip hop club jam by Dr. Dre just goes to show what an amazing ear for making hip hop beats he possesses.

Check it out:

A lot of hip hop heads who know where all beats and samples come from people already consider this common
knowledge, but for those that haven’t heard the whole song, you’re in for a treat.

Check out this video by Das Racist which portrays the group attempting to maneuver their way through the perils of New York City on their way to their show. Pretty funny video, and the song contains a nice, annoying De La Soul sample running through it.

Even cooler than all of that is that you can actually go play the “who’s that broown” videogame yourself and see how you stack up. But you have to listen to that sample the whole time, which is awesome and ridiculous. I didn’t score very well. Good Luck, sucka.

Play “who’s that brown” at http://dasracist.net/whosthatbrown.html

I recently ran across this interview with Reggie Watts in The Onion. For one thing, you can’t classify the dude, which is a huge plus in my book because when you can strictly classify something non-concrete like music it has a tendency to get booooring and shitty. Not always shitty and boring, but we all know that formulas don’t necessarily leave room for fun and wildness or they wouldn’t be formulas. And that’s why Reggie Watts is important as a hip hop musician and beat maker – if he were just a cardboard cut-out you could nail him down, no sweat. Get it? Cardboard is easy to nail down! Anyway…

You might have seen his Fuck Shit Stack video (see bottom of post), as it was kinda viral and all over the internetz for a while, and it still is kinda everywhere. But aside from that video I had a friend show me a video of Reggie’s on Youtube titled “I Just Want To” (second video down), and this is where you can see the guy’s talent and creativity. He beat boxes and hums and sings in to a sampler and a Line 6 DL4 looper/delay/echo pedal thing and just nails this perfectly catchy, stylish, totally original song off the bat.

The point I want to make about the guy is that his equipment is secondary to his skills and his creative, inventive spirit. You don’t need no stinking $2000 Roland Phantom or some shit to make your first demo CD. Just get more creative and more weird – seriously. Stand apart. Do you think Kool Keith gives a shit?

Not that Reggie Watts labels himself as a hip hop beat maker or rapper, but it’s obvious that too many hip hop artists and rappers are too self-conscious and worried about appearing “hard” to take a chance on trying something random and maybe looking like a fool but also making some great music and art out of it.

As examples I hope to persuade you to check out these videos of Reggie Watts, especially this first one here, filmed LIVE. Now tell me that doesn’t take some fuckin skillz.

Next, check out the “I Just Want To” video of him flat laying down a great song at the drop of a hat, with no drum machine, no synthesizer, no producer, and no sexy bitches or fly whips and shit. This is the for real shit. For real.

If I put that same rig in front of you could you do better? If your answer is no, why not?

Finally, Fuck Shit Stack. Partially filmed on the Williamsburg Bridge – that thing sucks to bike over every day, unless you’re in shape enough to do it every day. Great View though.

P.S. Reggie Watts opened for Conan O’brien on Conan’s live tour after the whole LA sucks, Jay Leno is a dick thing.

This is how sampling is done, kiddies. Proper repsect due to Oh No for having the ear and the forethought to snap up this amazing sample from a great song. Now, I know Selda’s singing is not for everyone, and that’s cool. I dig it, personally, but what I dig even more is that bad ass (almost early metal) guitar riff and Led Zeppelin sounding drum beat from Ince Ince by Selda. It’s almost a great hip hop song already, and it’s obvious that Oh No heard the potential in it to become something more modern and accessible with the appropriate rapper on top of it all and take it to a great place in hip hop. Sounds amazing as Mos Def’s Supermagic from his latest release, The Ecstatic. More please.