A Hard Day's Night

I found these gems of knowledge over at kevinnottingham. Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum selling engineer, Ariel Borujow, drops knowledge about engineering and shares his story of how he got to where he is today. Check it out. I highly recommend it.

Enjoy!

Check it out. It's a laid-back jazzy hip-hop track called "Crimes" by a dope emcee and friend of mine by the name of Bhon.


Here is the download link.

Enjoy!

Hey world. I'm just posting an update about my entry into a weekly remix contest at Kevin Nottingham's blog. You can check it out here.

It basically works like this: First of all, this contest is dedicated to Jay-Z's classic, The Blueprint. Each week is dedicated to a different song from the album. There will be a total of 13 weeks. So every week, he posts an acapella and the sample that was originally used in the corresponding song for that week. The challenge is to produce your own remix by flipping that sample the best you can and then post it up to be judged by their judging panel. I'm not sure what the winner gets besides valuable exposure which is good enough for me! Plus it's fun!

Anyway, I've entered the contest myself for one of the weeks (week 11) and I had to flip Natalie Cole's "I Can't Break Away" for Jay-Z's "All I Need". I'll have my remix up for you to listen to in the near future. In the meantime, you can check it out here. Mine is labeled as "Cam'rox.mp3"

Enjoy!

Edit: Here is a download link to my remix

Dope interview with Illmind. Very insightful and very inspiring. Enjoy!

We lost a legend today. He was a one of a kind performer and a true master of his craft. He is also the largest source of musical inspiration for me and my first ever musical idol. Rest in peace, Mike

How to Mix. Mixing with Mike Chav - Lesson 1 : Kick Drum from Mike Chav on Vimeo

This is a very informative video I found over at DJ A-Trak's blog. He uses a technique that involves duplicating a kick track twice, filtering them each so that one is the low end, one is the mid, and one is the high end and then processing those three tracks separately before finally layering them all together. It is a very useful technique, as A-trak stated on his blog that renowned Engineer, Tony Maserati, used that very technique on the kicks in the song "Get Fresh" off of Kid Sister's album. I also have used this technique before on certain elements of my beats but I've never tried it on a kick drum, though. Perhaps I'll start practicing this technique more often.

Anyway, Enjoy!

Hey wsup everyone?? I recently found this interview with Drumma Boy over at Don Cannon's blog. Check it out. It's short, but it's a dope read.

Enjoy!

------------------------------------------

Recently we got a chance to sit down with Grammy Winner Drumma boy and ask him a few questions that we ask most producers to get a feel of how they tick. Check it out and see what you think

Which do you use the most or prefer Logic, Reason, or something else?
I prefer the mpc as far as sequencing. I use logic a lot as well as pro-tools.

How long have you been in production? And what inspired you to start?
I have been producing since the age of 14. Music has always been in our family. My older brother Ensayne was making beats amongst Memphis bred producers such as Jazze Pha, Carlos Brodi, & Slisce T and more. I was like the little brother to the street coming up making beats. I learned a lot from them but created my own sound and ran wit it.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your very 1st production?
I would say like a 7. The music creativity has always been there. The biggest thing I was lacking in the beginning was my drum collection and quality. My brother used to always say, “When u get some harder hitting drums, you outta here.”

When in the studio, to start on a new track, what do you do first? When making a beat, do you think of a specific artist that you want to target?
I start on new tracks in different ways. Sometimes I start with a clap, sometimes I start with an acapella vocal. Sometimes I make a beat specifically for someone like I did for Jeezy with “Put On.” Sometimes I just paint music that I feel from a particular emotion at that time.

Out of all the projects that you have worked on which one meant the most?
I would have to say Rocko’s Self Made album. That was the first major project that I had an opportunity to produce the majority of the album. The feedback has been crazy and the fans continue to show their appreciation.

Who do you plan to work with in the near future? Anybody specific? ? Whats your opinion on using samples? And if you could sample any song, what would is be?
I am about to work with Lil Jon. Excited about that one since both of us are big on crunk music. We’re definitely gonna give u a club banger.

I use samples and make sample free music. Sometimes a sample can bring a certain texture to a beat but might hit you in the pocket with that clearance fee. If I could sample any song it would probably be something from the Beatles.
They used to do some crazy harmonies.

What beat do you WISH you produced? Why?
As producer, I appreciate music that other producers/composers deliver. Never wished I produced someone else’s work but one of my favorite beats was Warren G “Regulators.”

Very dope. I was a fan of the track itself so I enjoyed these videos very much. Logic is very dope and straight foward. I can't to cop the IMAC so I can make the upgrade to Logic!

Anyway, check it out:



Part 2:

A Tribe Called Quest - "Sucka Nigga"



Such a great record. Personally, I believe Common's song, "Inhale" to be a nod to this record - more specifically, the parts where Q-Tip says, "Inhale". Of course, this may seem obvious to people out there who know their Tribe repertoire, but I know there is still a generation of people out there that doesn't know and needs to know the classics. So this is my attempt to educate.

Anyway, this record samples a cover of Freddie Hubbard's jazz standard "Red Clay" performed by Jazz guitarist, Jack Wilkins.

Enjoy!

Very insightful interview from acclaimed music producer, Rob Cavallo, who has enjoyed success working on albums with such artists and bands as Alanis Morisette, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, and Fleetwood Mac among many others. Here he shares his views on Home Recording vs. Studio Recording, and the art and craft of record production. Hope you all like it.

Enjoy!

If you haven't yet heard of French producer, Dela then make sure u go check out his two Instrumental LPs, Atmosphere Airlines Vols. 1 & 2. Truly amazing Jazz-flavored hip hop beats for your mind. This one is a nod to Stakes is High by De La Soul (originally prod. by the late great J Dilla). What a coincidence. Their names are similar!

Anyway, check him out at his Myspace Page too!

Enjoy!

Cons & Kid Cudi flipped this classic Tribe Joint really nicely. It's Pure Dopetacular-ness!

Enjoy!

Check it out. There's footage at the beginning of them working on some heat!! I got this from Nah Right, btw. Shout out to them!

Enjoy.

Check it out. Very nice. Q-tip is one of my favorites in the hip hop community. A true master. Enjoy the vid!

A dope song and an equally dope video. I love the piano at the end. I actually sat down and learned those chords by ear and jammed along with this song for hours haha. Enjoy!

A Cool video interview with the actor in which he mentions his love for groups like People Under the Stairs, Jedi Mind Tricks, and Three Six Mafia to name a few. The chick that interviews him, apparently doesn't agree with his musical taste very much. I'm not gonna lie, she's kind of an ass hole: "..Some of it's nasty tho!"

Anyway check it out, it's dope. Hip hop transcends so many generation and culture gaps. I love it too, Bill!

He touches on how he got started as a producer, how he discovered myspace, and he goes into detail about the making of E-40's "Tell Me When To Go". Check it out!

Lil Jon Discovers MySpace.com

And then they go into "Here I come".

Enjoy!


The Roots - Web from Harmony Festival on Vimeo.

Haha John Mayer is a fool! This is John Mayer's Foray into sample chopping. It turned out pretty nice. Funny lyrics. Check it out!



Also, visit his blog to keep up with what he's doing.

I was reading Jake One's blog earlier today and on it he talks about this dude named Malay who is a multi-instrumentalist and mutli-genre producer. I did a lil research and found more of his work and all I can say is wow. Some of the tracks he did, I was already a fan of before I even discovered who he was.

Anyway, below is a cool lil video interview I found with him. Dude is a genius. Be on the lookout for him. and Google him if u don't already know about him.