Andsoitisaid

Don't Trip (feat. Quasimoto)

Foggy Street (Remix sesh) -Cram type beat beatbattle4-

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.

l i k e _ t h i s

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