A Hard Day's Night

Dope!! Jay-Z and Rhapsody team up and release an ad campaign that recreates Jay's album covers. It's very cool to watch. Check it out!

(Click the pic to download)

SLik d, is a fellow Las Vegas native (by way of Cali) who puts out some dope ass music. He's multi-talented, as he is a producer as well as an emcee. Above is the cover to his latest release, "Summer Vibes". It has a very feel-good, laid back, 90s hip-hop type of sound and feel which I love. Pure dopeness. Following in the footsteps of hip hop groups like The Pharcyde and Souls of Mischief, this is definitely worth the download.

So check it!

*Notable Tracks: Sick of Love, Picture Perfect, I Can Smile for That, Summer Heat, West Up!

Enjoy!

Man, Ustream is dope! Here's a live broadcast with David Banner and 9th Wonder playing tracks and just chillin. Check it out!

I'm a little bit late, but I'm proud to announce that I've finally hopped on the Twitter bandwagon! I've been waiting to finally start one, as I've been following quite a bit of people on there before I even began an account of my own, by simply bookmarking their twitter pages and coming back to them often. I just never really felt it was a good time to start until a few days ago. I want my twitter page to be interesting, so this gives me more incentive to have content and to do something everyday, so I have something to tweet about haha.

So with that said, Follow ME!

Yo, this is a dope. It's a live Ustream broadcast of Maestro showing the creative process and answering questions. He's accompanied by David Banner. I love this stuff. Very informative. Check it out:


Enjoy!!

I've recently begun making some major changes to my blog. I want it to better more 'hip' haha. The old layout was kind of bland and not-so-user friendly. I'm looking to improve those and then some to make visiting my blog a more enjoyable experience for all users. You can expect more content as part of the many enhancements I'm making as well.

In the meantime, enjoy my Imeem Playlist if you're looking for something to do. There's lots of great music on there so take a listen.

This is very, very exciting. This is gonna be awesome! It's goin to do sooo much for indie musicians and bands. Can't wait!

Visit Rockband Network's official website for more details.

This for those of you who have not seen this yet. This is the ENTIRE seminar on Ustream. It's awesome. It shows the entire process of B. Cox Making a beat and Kendrick Dean writing to it. Make sure you have some free time because it's about 7 hours total of footage.



Music Production Seminar With Bryan-Michael Cox and Sam Thomas:

Part 1: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1062772



Part 2: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1062915



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Music Production Seminar With Bryan-Michael Cox and DJ Toomp

Part 1 of 1: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1452642



**This one has a long wait at the beginning, since DJ Toomp was running a lil bit late. So just fast forward until u see Toomp
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Songwriting Seminar w/ Bryan-Michael Cox and Kendrick Dean:

Part 1: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1171305



Part 2: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1171482



Part 3: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1171492

Hello everyone. I recently finished doing an interview earlier this week for Digital Musician and it's now up for everyone to see! Thanks alot to Pete Whitfield of Realstrings for reaching out and taking the time to interview me. I appreciate it!

Click here to watch the interview. Enjoy!

I stumbled upon this video the other day and thought it might be helpful to all u producers. It's very interesting, informative, and can be really helpful for those of u who are like me an like to use strings in your tracks. The video lesson was made by a professional orchestral composer and string arranger named Pete Whitfield. He makes the concept of string arranging very clear to just about anyone who creates music, regardless of whether or not u have experience with string arranging. And best of all, he's using Logic in the video!

I actually know a lil somethin about string arranging myself, and this is truly a gem of knowledge on the subject. so without further ado, here it is:



You can find more lessons from this guy here: http://realstrings.wordpress.com/how-to/

Enjoy!

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!

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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!