January Is For Beats...Patrick Douthit, Peter Philips, & Chris Martin

So, there's one more day but I wanted to get the Class Is In Session thing out and big up a gimme. I can’t rustle much up on the “Class Is In Session” record. It was done around 2005. It was collaboration between 9th Wonder and Pete Rock. Grap Luva and Phonte were involved. The beats are dope. If anyone has some info on why it came about or any back-story, please let me know.
And Premier really is just that dude. I’m putting up The Question Remains instrumental. You’re probably like, “this beat isn’t a good example of Primo. I disagree. He took a two count from one of the more popular samples of the time and flipped it. He’s the king of finding things that can be looped infinitum and still sound fresh. He has the most widely recognizable scratching style in the world.
From GangStarr to Lord Finesse Jeru to Nas to Biggie. On and on and it’s all pretty consistent. That’s about 20 years of not sucking. That ain’t easy. There’s plenty more info on him, but you guys are hip to it. And I’m lazy.
Pace.

01 - Whatever You Say (Remix I) (Feat. Little Brother)
02 - Whatever You Say (Remix II) (Feat. Little Brother)
03 - Am I Dreaming?
04 - Hi Baby (Instrumental)
05 - Watch Me (Instrumental)
06 - City Star Srut (Instrumental)
07 - Oh yeah (Feat. Phonte, Grap Luva, & Kevin Brown)
08 - Always (Feat. Kevin Brown)
09 - From The Basement (Feat. Phonte & Grap Luva)
10 - Funky (Instrumental)
11 - Night Cruise (Instrumental)

12 - Hello Tokyo (Instrumental)

On Some Ol Nex Shiznit...

So, shit has been crazy gearing up to launch my new project. And now, people, behold…

I Hook A Beat Up

It’s going to be a weekly beat battle. Sample sources will be provided by the likes of
Mr Mass from Mass Corporation, Dr OK from And It Don't Stop, DJ Nes from Dirty Waters, or Scholar from Souled On. Then we have a bunch of talented cats, including yours truly, take the song and sample it and flip it any way they want over the next week. The beats are then posted and a Panel (including Travis from WYDU, Eric from WTR, Max from Hip Hop Isn't Dead, Mike Dikk from Dumpin.Net, Andrew from Strictly Beats and King E from the Justus League boards) will discuss what they liked and/or didn't like and Rank them. There is also a public vote which will be ranked and scored as well. The cat or kitten with the most points wins and can brag to all of there interweb friends about how they won and there friends will be like “OMFG. U’r fresh.” And the winner will be like, “ROTFLMAO” and their friends will be like “PIR. TTL” or something along those lines. Stop by if you feel like it or if you want to contribute.

Next up we have the video for Gnotes new single “Missing You”

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the video but conceptually I like what they did. I also like what Gnotes does a lot. (Also coming out soon on Gnawledge Records is Afro DZ ak's solo joint. I'm not familiar with his work but if it's from Gnawledge, it's got to be interesting.) It’s just the dude in the video doesn’t fit in my opinion. Not that I need some dude with a pimp cup smaking Buffy The Body’s freakishly rotund glutes, but the dude just seems out of place. But, there’s nothing wrong with taking risks unless you are jumping out of planes naked.So nothing to post. Again? Yes, again. I haven’t been able to post all the producers I wanted but I’ve been producing myself so there. I will post the 9th Wonder and Pete Rock “Class Is In Session” and some other stuff before the month of beats comes to an end. I’ve also decided to make February the month of breaks since I’ve been spending so much time thinking about it lately. Expect the Ultimate Breaks & Beats, The Dusty Fingers collection, The Super Breaks & Beats, and some others. Nothing too obscure because that’s mine, but there is a lot of stuff still flippable in what I’ll put up. Plus there is always a new batch of 9th Wonder wannabes who have yet to hear some of it.

Pace

Just A Few Things That Have Been Going Through My Head...

I saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo the other night. If you get a chance to see them, go. It’s a South African male acacpella group that has been around for 50 years. The layers and harmonies they come up with are fucking amazing and leave your jaw kind of loose when you watch them. You probably will recognize them from Paul Simon’s Graceland album but they have a huge body of work that is worth checking unless you are one dimesional and can’t listen to anything that is in another language. If that’s the case, you’ll probably prefer listening to American Gangster again. Watching them preform is almost like watching a martial art. They kick and squat and punch. It's really worth checking out. More recently, they were nominated for a few grammys. Really cool stuff that, sadly, was not included in my letter “L” listing (my one mistake).
Secondly, and completely unrelated, I saw “Cloverfield” and “I Am Legend” last weekend. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I haven’t been able to go to a flick since Transformers and before that since my boy was born, but they were both pretty good. Cloverfield is dope because the story is told completely by one handheld camera. Now, my dad said he felt nauseous watching it and some people may feel the same way (think Blair Witch Project) but it submerged you in the movie and was an awesome way to tell the story (sans the beginning plot set up, love triangle, pretty & rich Manhattan people that live in ridiculously nice lofts shit) Also the 2 main hotties in it are muy caliente. I thought Will Smith wasn’t bad in I am Legend either. I’m a sucker for most things “zombie” and except for an ending that was horrible it was a good watch.
Third, I am ironing out the details of a new venture that will include a lot of your favorite bloggers, a lot of talented cats and a lot of beats. Oooo. How excitingly covert. It has taken up some time for setting up and that’s why I haven’t posted any more beat nuts.(punny)
So, I’ll get another cat up either tonight or tomorrow for your continued aural ecstasy.Pace.

January Is For Beats: Joe Beats

Joeseph Beats (god given name) is straight out of the biggest little state in the union. He’s a sample based producer and here’s a tip for you aspiring producers that keep getting newer equipment and software to make your beats that much better. He uses SAWPro on a 333 MHz, 128MB RAM, Windows 98 computer. Now, I’ve never used SAWPro but I’ve used a lot of Cakewalk and some Cubase and no Pro Tools. My point is this, stop getting more and more shit. Pick something that you have and like learn the fuck out of it. Spend some time with it. Flirt. Play hard to get, whatever but learn that particular piece of software or hardware in and out. Then you can build on that. It will help you define your own sound. If it doesn’t do something that someone else does, then you should both stop trying to do what someone else does and also figure out a way to make it do that. 9th Wonder does his shit on Fruity Loops and Cool Edit Pro. Shadow did Endtroducing all on an MPC-60. Just learn some thing and define your sound. Yeah, so Joe Beats is really dope. Really moody and brooding type shit. His first release, Reverse Discourse came out in 2003 and he’s had 3 or 4 since then. I’m putting up Side 1 of the vinyl version of Diverse Recourse (2007) which has some tracks not on the CD. It’s way to recent for my liking to post, thus only one side (like that makes a difference but I’m inconsistent and irrational so sue me. Actually don’t sue me but hate me) but the shit is dope and I don’t think he gets nearly enough shine. But, I like it a lot and January is the month of beats. He’s also works with Sage Francis (another RI thug) as Non-Prophets. Good shit too. Feel the funk baby.
Pace.
01 - Don't Front...
02 - Smart Dumb Person
03 - Me Talk Pretty
04 - Kiss Of Life
05 - Sleep Or Bust
06 - Strategery
07 - Friday Afternoon


Doin his thing.

January Is For Beats: Daniel Nakamura

Under the slick monniker "Nathaniel Merriweather" I bring you Mr. Wannabuyamonkey himself. Now, I’m a big fan of hip-hop that’s been slowed down and beats that are as well. The natural reverb comes out. The sound is thicker and murkier and fanfuckingtastic. Mr. Nakamura is a big fan of this stylee too as he has incorporated it into a lot of his work. Some people call it Trip-Hop but there are also some people that thought braided rat tails or having a Gumby was a good choice in hair style. Another thing he does well is incorporate some spaced out “Forbidden Planet” type sample shit that is campy without being over bearing or stupid. Again, this is the kind of shit I like because it just sounds good. A friend of mine is was a big fan of laughing going through a delay and no matter how enjoyable or infectious the laughter is originally, after it echoes over itself again and again it sounds maniacal and menacing. That has nothing to do with Dan but I'm just saying. He's very cinematic. Very big sounding. Along with the Dr Octagon project, which kind of blew him up, he has done a lot of remix work and has worked with a bunch of others on side projects. Most notably would be the Handsome Boy Modeling School and Loveage side projects (both of which I love and would marry if I could manifest them into a physical form or even just a pair of boobs.) What always makes someone stand out for me is they take risks musically and don’t basically rely on Ultimate Breaks and Beats volumes 1-25 for source material. A sense of humor doesn’t hurt either. The Bombay the Hard Way project was a perfect example of this. Maybe I’ll put that up as well if anyone cares. But it’s bollywood over hip-hop before it was cool and Punjabi MC and such were mainstream. Timbaland did it too but this is more my thing.
Side note: I won’t have a Timbaland day this month as there are way to many artists and too few days as it is. I like him and think he’s had an impressive career. He’s more pop than I am or listen to but has successfully defined what pop is several times over. That’s not easy and isn’t luck after the first few times. So that’s my piece on him.
Back to the Japanese dude, I’m upping the Dr. Octagon Instrumentalyst as it was really his first success and was a really dope release. Poppa Large was impressive as well. THis is more standard Hip-Hop fare and I say that only because it's around 90 BPMs. It still has that Automator feel but he uses more familiar breaks or drum kits.
Enjoy.
Pace.

Dr. Octagon - The Instrumentalyst

01 - Intro
02 - 3000
03 - I Got To Tell You
04 - Earth People
05 - No Awareness
06 - Raw Deal
07 - General Hospital
08 - Blue Flowers
09 - Technical Difficulties (Produced By Kut Masta Kurt)
10 - A Visit To The Gynecologyst
11 - Bear Witness
12 - Dr. Octagon (Produced By Kut Masta Kurt)
13 - Girl Let Me Touch You
14 - I'm Destructive
15 - Wild And Crazy
16 - Elective Surgery
17 - Halfsharkalligatorhalfman
18 - Blue Flowers Revisited
19 - Waiting List (DJ Shadow / Automator Mix)
20 - 1977




Handsome Boy Modeling School Promo Video

A Couple Of Things About This "Whatever Of The Month" Thing I'm Doing...

There is no order to what I'm talking about. These are all artists that I have enjoyed a great deal and while some of them are pretty obvious, cats like Ratatat, Joey Beats or Mr. Cooper don't get a lot of shine and I think some people might enjoy them. The fact that RZA is ahead of Pete Rock has nothing to do with me liking him better so if you are looking for a hierarchy, don't. There isn't any.
Second, there is no way on god's (the one true god) green earth I can put all of my favorites here. "30 days" or even "a month" sounds like a lot of time but then you start widdling away and during morning meeting 20 kids shout out that it's January 17th you're like "fuck" but not in front of the kids because then I'd get fired. But last night I wrote down the names of the producers or beat making bastards that I felt I had to post and the list was past 40... and I'm already halfway through the month. In a perfect world I'd post 2 or 3 artists a day and it would actually be interesting and informative. Welcome to my world bitches. I use commas too much. I think I'm funnier than anyone else seems to and I procrastinate a lot (exhibit A: I was going to write this last night but then I decided to sit a little bit longer.)
In closing,
If man is 5,
and the devil is 6,
Then god is 7.
Pace.

January Is For Beats...Ewart & Walter Dewgarde

Da Beatminerz. A crew that became famous for using a filter on an Akai sampler. A friend of mine had the S950 back in the day. We were playing around with it and all of the sudden, with the aid of a low pass filter, we were Evil Dee and Mr. Walt. Not to slight the guys but their early sound was distinct for a reason. They did define the gritty dark sound that was the East Coast Street in the Mid 90’s. Really thick and fat loops de la Jazz variety, really compressed drums and bass lines that made you want to get on some old high school shit and start punching people in the face. Enta Da Stage blew my mind and I spent many hours writing rhymes to that record. I’d say that one and Stunts, Blunts, & Hip Hop were the cause of many pages of metaphysical blundering by me. Lots of “3rd eye”'s and “my mental” this and that. Anyway, they evolved. Got a few more cats in their click and released two joints showcasing their beats and the raw talent that began to blend all together and sound the same to me and a whole buncha remixes. That being said, I liked pretty much all of it up through O.G.C. then it got a bit monotonous. But those earlier releases were fucking huge for me and obviously a few others. I wish I had had this instrumental version (and the sassy cover I created on paint.net) back then but then again I wouldn’t have left my house and probably would not have gotten up to eat or poop and would have been found dead emaciated and rotting in a sea of feces. And that probably wouldn’t have been worth it. They have since gone back down to the original two-brother combo and have continued to make bangers.
Enjoy.

Pace.

01 - Powaful Impak (Instrumental)
02 - Niguz Talk Shit (Instrumental)
03 - Who Got The Props (Evil Dee Mix Instrumental)
04 - Act Like U Want It (Instrumental)
05 - Buck Em Down (Instrumental)
06 - Black Smif N Wessun (Instrumental)
07 - Son Get Wrec (Instrumental)
08 - Make Munne (Instrumental)
09 - I Got Cha Opin (Remix Instrumental)
10 - Shit Iz Real (Instrumental)
11 - Enta Da Stage (Instrumental)
12 - How Many Mcs (Instrumental)
13 - U Da Man (Instrumental)
14 - Funk It Up (Instrumental)
15 - Murder Mc's (Instrumental)
16 - Reality (Killing Every) (Instrumental)
17 - Who Got The Props (Mw Smooth Mix Instrumental)

Siblings and a short guy in the studio.