OKN*

Full MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

Instrumental: 
https://open.spotify.com/track/3q6sCVo9qhN2ECrykhBcuC?si=3ef2b83713554b93
https://music.apple.com/us/album/only-we-save-we/1651521860?i=1651521877
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/only-we-save-we

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘? (Extended Raw Rhymes Version)’ by MF DOOM and Kurious

Visuals: https://youtu.be/ye53amLlHdU

It’s so tough to pick a favourite DOOM song, but this is up there for me, always found the verses so powerful and I love the original beat. Luckily there’s an extended version which is a lot easier to remix seeing as there’s no sample just drums, and the delivery is slightly different to the original too. For me what stands out about this track is the amount of emotion, it’s definitely present in a lot of DOOM’s earlier songs but this one is where it’s most vivid I think, especially that last verse, really hits hard. Whenever I’ve gone to remix this track that’s the side of the song I try to focus on and match in the choice of sample etc, and for this one I think it worked well in having a subtle but sad melody which reflects that side of the lyrics. This one took ages, I flipped the sample so many different times to layer ontop of each other, and switched between different layering combinations, filtering etc throughout the track. I wanted the track to feel like a journey almost, building up to a slight crescendo on those last few lines from DOOM as tribute to Subroc. I’ve got another remix for this track which I’m saving for the album, this one will also be on there too but I wanted to release it now. There’s so many tracks which I’m really excited to remix, can’t wait to see what happens and how they all turn out. 

Let me know what you think of this remix, got a lot more to work on so any feedback will be really helpful for how I approach those. Peace!

? (Only We Save We)

Track 3 off the album 'Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes)': https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Instrumental: 
https://open.spotify.com/track/0jRiWop6Ig2C5Tij9nw4zY?si=c346c0d914294e39
https://music.apple.com/us/album/mad-deep-methods/1637200056?i=1637200059
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/mad-deep-methods

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Method Man' by The Wu-Tang Clan

Visuals: https://youtu.be/8Tspuu-bxBQ

Went for a more laid back vibe with this one, I think it fits the vibe of the acapella, this is a fun track at heart, all about showing style and personality on the beat I think. I wanted this beat to focus on that side and feel of the song, hope people enjoy the vibe! 

Peace

Mad Deep Methods

Track 5 off the album 'Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes)': https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Instrumental: 
https://open.spotify.com/track/3B52NftcZn3GsuTmuNsz9X?si=62e58caf20ea42b5
https://music.apple.com/us/album/clans-in-the-front-ways-we-are/1637200056?i=1637200061
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/clans-in-the-front-ways-we-are

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Clan In Da Front' by The Wu-Tang Clan

Visuals: https://youtu.be/figceT-xpUA

Personally this is my favourite track off the album, I had to change this beat a lot to get it to work with this track, but I knew it would be worth the work, and I was very happy with how it turned out. This one definitely got me bugging out the most times whilst making the album, and in the premiere it was one of my favourite moments when it came on. Hope people enjoy playing this one on it's own! Peace

#wutangclan #90shiphop #boombap

Clan's In The Front (Ways We Are)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Funky Piano Acapella’ by Ill Al Skratch

Visuals: https://youtu.be/_8B8mDgcsgA

I first tried to flip this sample a few months ago when I was working late. I couldn’t get anything to work so I left it, was a bit frustrated at the time but I held onto the sample cause I knew I had to have another go. There was too much potential to give up on it, just needed to have another go with a fresh perspective. 

Very very happy to have gone back to it this week, and was able to work out this flip. I actually flipped the second progression of the beat with the more upbeat feel first, then filtered that to see if I could layer any other chop over to have the filter act as a bassline melody. Always love when that works out, cause the more subtle piano chops worked beautifully ontop of the filtering, really lost my mind when making this one. For me when piano based beats are good they’re hard to beat, just something about that instrument over drums is great to me. The way the filtered melodies blended with the more subtle keys really gave the beat a lot of depth and emotion, and I was then crazy motivated to keep on with adding a bit more layering to give the track more variation.

I always knew I'd be remixing this track with a piano beat, I was never sure what kind would fit best though. The original is very jazzy, and when I made this one with a more mellow vibe I wasn't 100% it would fit, but ultimately it worked, cause the verses are actually delivered in a very mellow laid back way. 

Peace and thank you always for listening. Mad happy with how this one turned out defo proud of it, hope people enjoy it too.

Drop The Sound

Dedicated to my Grandfather Jayu: 10/08/1938 - 16/03/2023

As I was making the often difficult journey from teens through to my twenties, Jayu’s motivation and dedication really inspired and helped me to make the right choices. His understanding of the ways of the world became a lot clearer to me, and I saw how caring for yourself and others around you is one of the most important keys to life. I’ll always remember him for that, and by recognising these positive and inspirational aspects of his character, I can try to make sure to carry these aspects and philosophies forward in my own life, so that they live on through me in a beautiful way. I know this has not just been the case for me, so many members of our family have followed his example. It is very sad to think that we won’t be able to share our achievements with him anymore, he was always so interested and happy to hear of even the smallest things, and was always so happy anytime I mentioned I may have had any success and motivation in music. I also know that he would never want me to slow up or lose motivation, and that knowledge will motivate me to keep on doing the best I can for myself and everyone around me, to follow his example, honour his legacy and do him proud.  

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and scratches from 'Mass Appeal Acapella' by Gang Starr

Visuals: https://youtu.be/OM8Iky4cNJM

I found out Jayu had died early in the morning when I was at work, and had to set up a few things before I left to see my family. In the UK teachers were actually striking that day (I work in a school as a sound technician), so kids were being shown films a lot of the time in the school theatre, and I had to quickly setup the DVD for the film ‘Whale Rider’ before leaving. As soon as the DVD menu came up I heard this soundtrack, and it blew my mind, I was in such a crazy state emotionally and the music was just hitting me. I had to go asap but on the train home I looked up the soundtrack, found the moment that was used for the DVD menu, and saved it to make a beat with when I had the time.

This Monday I sat down before work and flipped the sample, and really didn’t overthink it, just chopped and flipped what sounded right to me. What first stood out to me first was the vocals and how emotional they are, but when I flipped it there were so many dope elements too, especially the bass and the ‘wah’ sounds I got in one chop.

I didn’t want to overthink the remix too much either, initially I was trying out acapellas that focus more on losing someone like ‘Born 2 Live’ by OC, which I remixed after my Dad’s Mum passed away. However that style wasn’t fitting this beat, even though there are sad elements to the melodies I think it has a motivational vibe too, but a darker more serious tone, which got me thinking about how serious and real my Grandad was as a person. As I said before, he was very caring and always had our best interests at heart, and always spoke his mind. That’s what made me really rate how Mass Appeal was sounding over this beat: Guru’s attitude in the track really reminds me of my Grandad, straight to the point, no nonsense, saying exactly what he thought with the underlying focus of helping people become better for themselves and those around them. Especially the way the whole song finishes with Guru saying ‘Ima end this lecture’, exactly kind of the thing he would do, drop some serious knowledge from years of experience and wisdom, and never hold back and dilute the message to keep it as real and straight up as possible, all with our best interests at heart.

Thank you for listening, and if you took the time to read this thank you as well. There’s a lot of music and more to come in April, very motivated to keep on with this as always, without a doubt what Jayu would have encouraged and wanted, never going to stray from that dedicated energy. Peace and one love.

Mass Appeal (Soul You'd Sell)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Life's A Bitch Acapella' by Nas and AZ

Visuals: https://youtu.be/nVrrD7gVmsM

Made this beat and worked out the remix a while ago at the start of the year. I sat on it for a while and was working on a lot of other stuff (which will be revealed very soon), but this week was inspired to go back to it, clean up the mix and release it. Not much to say about this track that hasn't already been said, the verses are beyond classic, some of the best lyrics I've ever heard to this day. Whenever I've remixed this I've always gone for a completely different sound to the original, cause that's never really going to be topped, the beat is so so smooth, so for this one I went with a much more grimey rugged feel to start, but then switched it up to a more reflective vibe towards the middle of the track. 

Hope people enjoy this remix, thank you for listening.

Life

Imo one of the hardest hip hop tracks ever. Big L's verse is sooo bugged it actually blows my mind every time I hear it. The way he’s rapping is so crazy too, fully screaming into the mic, the punchlines are beyond insane. Everyone else kills it too, all the verses are so over the top in the track, just makes it work so well imo, even the two verses I cut out, including the first ever feature from Jay Z – no disrespect to them the flows just weren't fitting right over the beat. Lord Finesse does mad well to pick up after Big Ls crazy hype verse, comes with that more smooth style but still loads of hard hitting lines that keep the energy up. The last two verses I remixed then really bring it back to that mad over the top horrorcore style, especially Party Arty from Ghetto Dwellaz, he has one of the most rugged voices for emceeing: the stuff he did with Showbiz and AG on their album 'Goodfellas' is insane, fully some of the most hardcore hip hop I've ever heard. Will defo be remixing tracks from that album, I highly recommend it, not very well known but without a doubt a classic East Coast bomb.

Thought this was a perfect beat to remix this track, just has that evil vibe which matches the whole vibe of the acapella too well. The way the horns from the original bleed through and blend with the sample I flipped was crazy to me too. The onyx blend over this beat that I tried in the rhythm roulette video was working too, but I remixed that track fairly recently and wanted to go for something with a really evil over the top vibe, and couldn't think of a better example than Da Graveyard. 

Thank you for listening, hope you rate my take on this track, next remix from the rhythm roulette is dropping next week. Peace!!

Rhythm Roulette (How I made this beat): https://youtu.be/CkQBAxAQbbY

Visuals: https://youtu.be/TzVjpcWmXMk

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Da Graveyard' by Big L, Lord Finesse, Party Arty and Grand Daddy I.U.

Graveyards

One of my favourite tracks off The Infamous: loads of hard hitting lines. I knew if I was ever going to remix this it had to be a different vibe to the OG: cause imo that one is perfect: one of the best examples of a hardcore stripped back beat. 

I actually made this beat at work: I was working with some sound effects for the next play at the school I work at: and had to get some choir music for one of the scenes. I was looking through choir music on YouTube and just found this crazy one: downloaded it to use as a sound effect but I immediately emailed it to myself to chop up over my lunchbreak. Soon as I clocked off I was in my office and flipped it on the ableton push: had the ideas fresh in my head so it was pretty quick to flip: pitched up some of the chops to give the melody more variation. Did a bit of layering too: really liked the ethereal heavenly vibe of the vocals. Soon as I had the drums finished I was spitting the hook from this song over it: so I knew I had to see how it sounded. I think it blends well with this beat: the heavenly sound to the vocals goes well with the way this song talks about death in a contradictory kind of way. Not exactly sure how to describe it but it just works for me. 

Thanks for listening: defo drop a comment if you rate this one: let me know any feedback. Peace

Visuals: https://youtu.be/gMD5pvOQMtg

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Cradle To The Grave' by Mobb Deep

Cradle To The Grave

JJ DOOM is crazy underrated imo, this is my favourite track off the album and I've always wanted to remix it. This beat was actually a tough one in terms of choosing an acapella at first, I tried loads with the sample at it's normal pitch and just wasn't feeling it at all. When I tried it with this acapella I had to pitch the sample down to match the key of DOOM here, and was defo gassed off the vibe. I really love the emotion from DOOM in this verse, it's crazy and pretty unique for him: the subtle singing at the end really tops the whole track off. 

Defo feeling those winter blues but making this track really helped me vent those emotions as always. Hopefully that comes across in the vibe. Lots of exciting stuff on the way - should be ready to properly announce my album very soon - I'll be keeping up the remixes in the meantime for sure though.

Peace

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Winter Blues' by JJ DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/l7cJ5SVwFLk

Winter Blues

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/hallelujah-instrumental

I don't even drink but these verses go hard, always thought this track was interesting to compare to 'My Favourite Ladies' by DOOM, the way different drinks are represented and personified as relationships in this track must have inspired DOOM when he did the same thing with different drugs, although his is for sure a lot more abstract. Still this track always stands out to me when I listen to The Infamous, pretty different vibe to all the others, and the feature from Q Tip is dope especially seeing as he was a big part of that album in terms of the mixing and a bit of production too. 

Hope you like what I did with this remix, went for a more emotional vibe on that beat. I really wanted the remix Havocs verse but the flow wasn't coming off right, all good though I've got a solo Havoc remix in the works from one of my favourite track off their Hell On Earth album. I think fans of that album will know what track I'm talking about from that alone. 

By the way if you're reading this my album is defo dropping April 26th, with 2 singles dropping before it. So yeah April is going to be a dope month - Peace!!

Visuals: https://youtu.be/teu60YFZfiM

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Drink Away The Pain (Situations)' by Mobb Deep ft Q-Tip

(Don't) Drink Away The Pain

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/outkast-you-may-die-tapehead-flip

Going to be completely honest, I hadn't heard ATLiens by OutKast until the other week. Great album I can't believe I slept on it for so long, and the intro hit me on a different level, the melodies were so crazy I had to flip it my own way. Layered a lot of the chops and made sure I flipped it so it wasn't just the same melody with drums over it, cause imo everything about the intro is perfect as it is the way it progresses too with the vocals is just crazy, didn't even touch that part cause I couldn't think of any way to use it properly.

Had to remix an OutKast song over the beat, and I immediately thought it would be dope to try and completely flip Hey Ya! - which obviously has a super upbeat feel good vibe, despite the lyrics actually being mad deep talking on some pretty sad stuff. That became way clearer when I put them over this beat, had to speed up the acapella a lot to get it matching the beat so I then left long gaps between the lines so that everything stayed on time, added echo etc to the last word of each line to fill the gap etc. I could only get the very beginning of the acapella working over the beat with the gaps, it got too crazy when the hook came in. Added the hook from One Love by Nas to finish the track off, thought it tied into what Andre 3000 is talking about etc. Overall I'm pretty happy with how this came out, thought it was a cool concept for a quick remix which focuses way more on the more emotional side of this track. 

Hopefully you rate what I was going for here, just a short idea. One more remix to go until my album rollout starts in April...Peace!!

Visuals: https://youtu.be/Sp-bJPQiYk0

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Hey Ya!' by Outkast and 'One Love' by Nas ft Q-Tip

Loves Me So (?)

First single from my debut album 'Just Myself' - Dropping April 26th: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/tapehead1/just-myself

Official Music Video: https://youtu.be/qN44jjzX_a4

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3rIMymIgElYMFSimfEPe9Q?si=7b24a3b85f9845d7
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/raise-up/1736375645?i=1736375646

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/mind-racing

Huge shoutout to @user-283060156 on this one, shot the cover art and the music video. That video is one of my favourite things I've done as Tapehead, feels so crazy to have an official video out and it just matched the vibe of the song so well. 

Really just went for it on this one, soon as I made this beat I knew I wanted to write mad lyrics over it, and then when I decided to properly go ahead with the album this was one of the first tracks I put together. Gassed to have added scratching over it too, always wanted to do that on a track and this one had that vibe for sure. This is also defo one of my favourite tracks I've done in terms of the vocals, really happy with the way they sound over the beat especially at the end, feel like the tone is on point and they mesh together mad well. 

Produced, written, scratched, mixed and mastered by Tapehead

Thank you for listening!!!

OKN*

neun