MF DOOM Remix Album Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

How I made this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksFaqiPbBLs

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

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘My Favourite Ladies Acapella’ by MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/Vd0ugttJjbs

Remixing DOOM is so bittersweet these days. It always hits me so hard how talented he was, and the dedication to music just shows so clearly in his verses, it’s hard to describe but I always get goosebumps, like I can hear his soul and passion in the rhymes. It really is an honour to be able to use this verse for a remix, I’m too grateful for being able to put my own spin on them, the subject matter really resonates with me, and I really wanted to remix this track with my own perspective on ‘ladies’ in mind. Even though he’s clearly having fun with the metaphor on this track, a lot of the lines are mad deep and have a proper realism to them, so I wanted to try and really bring that out in this remix. What DOOM’s talking about is deep at the end of the day, a relationship with drugs is a serious topic and in this generation, I’d say it’s widespread, and to be honest I see it as completely endemic of being unable to face reality and it’s problems, and trying to escape them, choosing an easy route that only keeps you trapped and crushes ambition. That’s just my outlook though, but I really hear that pain and sorrow in DOOM’s verses, and I wanted to build on that and bring it out more by making the beat mad emotional, using vocals (which are actually a mans but sped up) that kind of give the ‘ladies’ a presence behind DOOM’s vocals. The piano is layered from the same sample, which is another melancholic melody that I layered over the vocals/bassline to try and build on that vibe of the track. Overall I’m pretty gassed with what I made here, it’s really different to the original track but I’m happy with that, I just wanted to tap into what I rate and hear in the verses and build on that, which I think I did here.

Peace

Ladies

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2THx5g3vKlm5btcHpGp8eb?si=4bd731b0db254de3
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/so-smooth-instrumental/1583976640?i=1583976641

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/sparklin-jewels

I remember being ridiculously gassed when I originally made this beat, the flip was really unexpected, the sample was mainly vocals, but once I chopped it up on the MPC I managed to chop out this melody from either side of the vocals, which gave the beat a really nice vibe. It’s difficult to describe because I’m not entirely sure what is happening, but I think parts of the melody were panning around the vocal, and the way I chopped it made that panning a part of the melody for the beat, giving it an interesting vibe.

So Smooth (Instrumental)

05/09/21

This beat is dedicated to Josie, whose ashes were scattered yesterday. I really think this beat captures her joy for life, and the focus she always held on doing what you love no matter what: follow what you believe in. Thank you for teaching and inspiring me, I wouldn’t be where or who I am without you.

Visuals: https://youtu.be/vdq2Vc_6m5Y

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6jIMYxUsZNBRUVSGuRQsU2?si=9dbdc90443ae46e6
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/never-give-it-up-instrumental/1584847442?i=1584847443

Full O.C Remix (definitely will rework this by re doing the vocals on this version of the beat in the near future): https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/never-give-it-up

For the instrumental I kept in some of O.C’s most relevant lines and the chorus, because to me this beat wouldn’t be complete without it. If anyone would like a version without the Born 2 Live elements, just let me know and I can email it your way.

Peace

Never Give It Up (Instrumental)

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/who-the-is-you-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Question (Extended Raw Rhymes Version)' by MF DOOM and Kurious

Visuals: https://youtu.be/lxUNK3th8yA

Operation Doomsday is probably my favourite MF DOOM album (it’s hard to say really, Vaudeville Villain is a close second). Being a huge old school hip hop fan, when I first heard the album it blew me away with how innovative everything was. There’s something about DOOM in this period which is just different to me, he was making music for the pure love of it, was homeless at some points, and you can just hear that this album was born out of sheer passion to keep on with music to continue what he and his brother started, and what they had planned. It’s always resonated with me.

This acapella is the Extended Raw Rhymes version of Question from the deluxe version of the album. I've actually tried to remix this a couple of times, and each time I went straight to the main verses and skipped DOOM and Kurious freestyling at the start. For this beat I thought it fit a kind of stripped down freestyle vibe cause it has that rugged feel to it, so I tried their freestyles over this beat and was immediately bugging out and have just been mad motivated to work on this throughout the week. The freestyle just sounded right over the beat to me, DOOM's flow is so crazy cause he's not really trying too hard, just coming at the beat with mad style and aggression which works crazily, and is definitely something that I hear all over Operation Doomsday. 

This beat has always had 2 flips, so I thought it would make sense to switch the beat up when DOOM and Kurious finished freestyling and started their verses from Question. I didn't want to remix the last verse because I think it's too emotional for this kind of beat, and I've already got an idea for how I'll be remixing that in the future. 

Really hope people enjoy this one, peace and thank you for listening.

For anyone interested, here's the original mix on this beat: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/one-love-1

Who The ? Is You

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/real-hip-hop-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Real Hip Hop Acapella’ by Das EFX

Visuals: https://youtu.be/cUcr3d8acSs

This is a rework of a really old beat, and one of the first remixes I ever put together. I remember being very happy with how Das EFX sounded over this beat, and I’m glad it still fits listening back (just needed a lot of work mixing wise) but the concept was still dope to me. That’s definitely cause this is a bass heavy beat, and that fits Das EFX’s sound crazily well, they had some of the hardest hitting beats in the 90s for sure and their voices have this mad presence which to me always needs a hardcore sounding boom bap beat, I wouldn’t personally put them over a lofi beat for example. To me the dopest thing about them as artists is the energy they bring to the mic, the whole ‘diggity’ style was bitten so crazily throughout the 90s but only they can really pull it off without sounding corny, and it’s actually aged mad well in my opinion and still sounds great over a beat. 

I had to do a lot of work to sort out the mix on this sample, I was getting waved all the time when I flipped it, and was very inexperienced on the MPC, so I recorded it way too loud and there’s a ton of clipping to the bass sample because of that. I tried to fix it by having two tracks for the sample, one with all the highs filtered out which got rid of the clipping easy, and then one with no lows and a lot of EQ on the highs to try and get rid of the clipping. I think it came out pretty nice, and for sure way way better than the original mix, which is stupid rough cause of how waved and inexperienced I was back then. It’s always nice to improve on these early beats, really shows me that I have learnt a lot over these years of producing, and hopefully in a few more years I’ll feel the same looking back on these mixes. 

Original version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/real-hip-hop

Peace!!

Real Hip Hop

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5HEIJmhRzzERkxB8phxw3Z?si=141f92b59cb641e8
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/keepin-it-right-instrumental/1594432099?i=1594432103

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/keepin-it-right

I was too gassed off this beat when I made it, there's nothing I rate more as a producer than taking a piano sample and making what is technically a simple beat, but one that has that ill 90s NY vibe. It's just so satisfying to me, and is one of my favourite sides to making beats like this for sure, something so simple can be so dope, when it's the right chops and the right drums etc, it just comes together into something which has that pure hip hop feel. 

This is also a classic example of slowing down a sample to give it that Hip Hop flavour (famously done crazily well by Havoc on Shook Ones and Survival of the Fittest), which I almost always try when I'm making beats. particularly with piano samples. On this one it just worked perfectly, I remember at the time I couldn't have been happier with how it changed the vibe of the chops, allowing me to make something completely new and different out of the sample, which is always a great feeling and something I definitely strive for in my production.

Keepin' It Right (Instrumental)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘One Love Acapella’ by Nas and Q-Tip

Visuals: https://youtu.be/0CaM6Wp8zDY

I was considering dropping this last Sunday when I hit 1K subscribers, but it wasn’t quite ready, so I decided to leave it until this week. It’s given me enough time to properly arrange and mix this remix, which I was intending on dropping as a thank you to celebrate hitting that milestone, so it was actually nice to have a whole week to work on it after having hit 1k, cause that really put me in the zone to finish up this idea properly and do it as well as I could.

As soon as I started chopping ‘Love’ vocals out of this sample, I had a feeling I’d be remixing ‘One Love’ over it. Honestly, it might be my all-time favourite Hip Hop song, without a doubt top 5, and every time I remix it I want to go all out and make it as emotional as possible really, cause that’s what always stood out to me about this track. The last remix I did called ‘Watch Me Speak’ ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/watch-me-speak ) was a remix of the 3rd verse only, and for this one I decided to do the opposite and remix the 1st two verses. I didn’t actually intend this when I made the beat, but I also ended up chopping a melody that used the vocals ‘day’s have gone’, which in the song was talking about a relationship ending, but obviously translates to what Nas is talking about here too, in the sense that being locked up means you’re wasting days that are essentially gone, so it’s cool that it ended up working out like that cause it makes the remix more convincing and effective imo.

There’s a lot of layering in this beat, so much that it definitely won’t fit into a 1 minute short, so when I do a Behind The Beat for it that’ll have to be a normal video, so I might just go in on that one and go in depth on everything to really show the whole process, including drum layering etc. I was so motivated to flip this sample because it had so many nice melodies which were separated and very brief, so I wanted to combine my different flips to make new melodies out of the new melodies I already made and properly extend the parts of the sample which I thought were way too crazy to be so brief in the original song, it’s difficult to write down but hopefully when I show what I did it will make sense.

Peace and thank you for listening! I hope people enjoy this one, I’ve got a lot of music releasing over the coming weeks, including a 4 track EP which will be out on the 18th of February – One Love!

True Love (From The Heart & Soul)

Bandcamp (Includes 2 bonus tracks): https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/album/elevating
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4qN7pP6c9hmftSB8cUsd9z?si=lJlYmSHvQ1qM-8e8dwzc9w
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/elevating-ep/1610162736
YouTube: https://youtu.be/M6fj7UIHwes

Beats, lyrics, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals mixed and mastered by @hightopsfeed

I very rarely write to my own beats, and I think these are the best tracks that I’ve put together over the years. Although the track listing isn’t exactly chronological in terms of when I made the tracks (I made Night-Time Writing before Lifestyle), these songs essentially chronicle my journey of escaping the traps of substance abuse, holding onto a passion for music, and following that instead of wasting away in addiction. It’s nice to be able to actually release them together as one project, especially seeing as this journey is far in the past, I’ve been sober for 3 years now and have never been more dedicated to making music.

Tracklist:

Scars [00:00 - 01:26]
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/scars

Lifestyle [01:26 - 04:02]
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lifestyle

Night-Time Writing [04:02 - 07:28]
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/nighttime-writing

Elevating [07:28 - 09:26]
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/elevating

Lockdown Freestyle (Tapehead Remix) [09:26 - 10:47]
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lockdown-freestyle-prod-hightop

Peace and thank you for listening. I really hope people enjoyed hearing these tracks, this EP is just the start for real, I have a lot more stuff like this in the works which will be releasing very soon.

Elevating EP

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Wrong Side Of Da Tracks Acapella’ by Artifacts

Visuals: https://youtu.be/J-sYmg7qlEk

Like the ‘Ill Street Blues’ remix I uploaded recently, this is one of the first remix concepts I put together back when I first started producing. I was too happy with the flip of the sample, and it immediately brought this acapella to mind, so I layered it on top and was mad happy with how they sounded together. Back then I didn’t focus on drums or have any real mixing or mastering experience, so it was very rough and not put together well, but the idea always shone through to me. I actually reworked this beat last year, but pitched it down and only had the Artifacts hook over it because there was so much resonance in the verses, and I had no idea how to mix vocals back then. Now that I’ve been mixing vocals for over a year it felt like a good time to revisit this one and finally do a full rework of the idea, so I decided to have the normal pitch to start and then lower the pitch for the second verse. I also went all out filtering this one, cause to me the sample always stood out for the warm vibe the low end had, and I wanted to really focus and exaggerate that by filtering and boosting those frequencies in this mix.

Original rough mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/wrong-side
2020 rework: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/wrong-side-1

Peace and thank you for listening!

Wrong Side

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Ready Or Not Acapella’ by Fugees

Visuals: https://youtu.be/u1Qs8lj7Zn8

This is one of those remixes where I was blessed to have flipped a sample in the same key as the acapella, I’d always wanted to remix this song, but because of the hook I’ve always been hesitant cause it’s difficult to be sure if the singing will sound right over a different beat. When I tested this out over this beat though, I instantly knew it was right, and was way too gassed with that, it’s always dope when two things go together so well musically. I added the switch up at the end because I always felt like these two beats were similar despite having different vibes, they were made in a similar way with a similar drum and chop pattern, so I thought they went well together to give this remix new flavour for the final verse (which is pretty short so I felt like it made sense to change the beat for a quick switchup). 

This is a great album by the Fugees too, I can’t say it’s underrated cause it’s defo one of the most widely recognised 90s Hip Hop albums, I would say that their debut album is quite underrated, it’s for sure not as polished and refined as this one, but it has some nice underground sounding tracks. I’m always shocked at how many classic singles came off this one album, I feel like Ready Or Not might be the most well known, sadly it’s the only one I’ve been able to find an acapella for. Hope people enjoy this remix: Peace!

Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/ready-or-not

Ready Or Not (Tapehead Remix)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and scratches from ‘We Specialize Acapella’ by Pete Rock & CL Smooth

Visuals: https://youtu.be/lpyHV7j2GqA

Original rough mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/more-of-the-raw

The original upload of this track was the first time one of my remixes did well on SoundCloud, I think it got put into an algorithm and got mad likes and reposts from people all over the world. It was a crazy feeling at the time, and really got me motivated to keep going with music no matter what, cause you never know whose going to end up listening. This was still quite early on in my time producing, so all I can say is I’m too glad that happened, cause I wouldn’t be where I am now if that hadn’t inspired me to keep on making beats. I’ve always thought this remix made a lot of sense, mainly cause of the scratches in the hook, this beat definitely has a raw vibe and they both go well together. CL Smooth’s tone fits really well too, and his style is pretty rugged here too, so everything definitely goes well together. This is actually how the beat for lifestyle sounds at it’s normal pitch, so the samples a lot less distorted but still has that grimey vibe. For this version I decided to bring the lifestyle beat in for CL Smooth’s second verse, cause he really starts going for an all out hardcore vibe there (that’s actually the only verse of his that I originally remixed cause it had that real raw vibe). For the reggae vocals at the end I decided to switch the beat up again to incorporate more of a melody that would fit the tone and notes that the vocals were hitting, and I basically just experimented with a ton of beats, seeing which one would blend with the More Of The Raw beat. This beat blended the best over it by far, I’ve done a remix of Inspectah Deck’s verse from C.R.E.A.M. over it already called ‘Life Is Hectic’ ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/life-is-hectic-thanks-for-1000-followers ) The guitar fit the vibe of the reggae vocals, and blended really well with the lifestyle sample, I think it works as a good switchup that keeps the hardcore rugged vibe, but brings some emotion into the track too, which I always like doing.

Happy to have finally reworked this idea and hopefully do it justice, always thought it was a really strong concept for a remix. Hope people enjoy it! Peace

More Of The Raw

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Survival Of The Fittest Acapella’ by Mobb Deep

Visuals: https://youtu.be/dGUdI7_ccFQ

When I made this beat I knew I’d be putting something with a hardcore vibe over it, I tried out Gravediggaz acapellas, the Masta Ace Slaughtahouse acapella, but ended up settling on Mobb Deep cause I think it fit their style best, the beat really reminded me of Havoc’s production, so it felt like a beat they would jump on. I was originally thinking about remixing Shook Ones, but I don’t think this beat it hyped up enough for the energy of that track, so I decided to try out ‘Survival Of The Fittest’, and I think it definitely fits the beat. I always prefer to do something different to the original, and although that beat is definitely hardcore, it’s got more of a subdued vibe which focuses on an ominous atmosphere. With this one I made the beat to be in your face with the vocals and bass, layered with the piano and horn stabs which created a very loud melody which I felt like was an interesting flipside to the subdued sound of the original. I pitched down the sample and flipped it slightly different for Havoc’s verse, cause that matched the lower tone of his voice when compared to Prodigy’s, and also gave the track more variation. 

Hope people like this one, Peace!

The Strong Survive

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Cypha Session III’ by Razor, Bad News Bear, Bugzy, Shatik, Jah-Raw & Lord Have Mercy Moore

Visuals: https://youtu.be/etBlb1Su6Yk

Always like remixing these Cyphers cause they have so much style to them, and they work well with simple beats which I wouldn’t normally use for a full length remix of an official song. I remember this was the first of these mixtapes which I listened to back in the day, and this Cypher blew me away when I first heard it just cause of how raw and underground it was. The original has a much darker more sinister beat with stripped back drums and an ominous sample, and for my remix I wanted to up the energy a lot with boomier drums, did lots of layering in that area. To give the track more variation for the different verses I switched between 2 different flips of the first beat, and then changed the beat completely for the last two verses. I went for a pretty drastic change in the vibe, but I think it fit the change in tone with the vocals, the beginning is definitely way more rough and hardcore in terms of delivery and I chose a more rugged beat to fit that. 

Hope people enjoy this one, already got ideas for the next one of these, I’ve realised that I’ve released one of these Cypher remixes each month now, so I’ll probably keep to that schedule for the next one, unless I make something crazy before then which fits it perfectly.

Original mix for both beats:
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/gots-to-get-my-props
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/shootouts

Peace!

Cypher Session III

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘2 Stings Acapella’ and ‘Gorilla Monsoon Acapella’ by MF DOOM and Westside Gunn

Visuals: https://youtu.be/oVFvE6V6LPo

Been wanting to remix these verses for a while now, they’ve got a crazy style to them and I knew there’d be a lot of potential to flip the flows for a remix. I’ve always liked Westside Gunn, he reminds me of Ghostface Killah in his delivery and lyricism, so when this project with DOOM got released I was very gassed, especially seeing as everyone had been waiting for DOOMSTARKS for ages at that point. These ended up being really difficult to remix just because of how different the original tracks were in tempo and flow to what I wanted to do with the acapellas, I couldn’t rely on just matching the bpm cause it sped up the voices too much and sounded wack, so I had to chop the acapellas up bar by bar, and work out which ones would fit, cut the ones that didn’t, and then restructure the songs etc to fit my beats. It was definitely worth doing this though, ended up making the remix more convincing and different too, which is always something I’m trying to do. 

These beats are pretty old so I did update the mixes for this and layered new drums etc, the first beat is actually the one I used for the first remix I ever made and uploaded on Soundcloud, I originally had the acapella from ‘Life’s A Bitch’ over it. ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lifes-a-bitch-blend ) I still like that concept but I’ve got a different remix planned for that song, almost the opposite vibe, and I thought that hardcore vibe would fit the vibe of this collab between DOOM and Westside Gunn. I’ll be doing a proper announcement soon, but I’ve got a full length project of DOOM remixes dropping this year on Halloween, and I made this because I was struggling with some of the tracklisting and needed something to bridge a gap between two songs. There’s some tracks which I’m keeping unreleased until that album drops (there are quite a few previously released remixes on there too – I basically want it to be a collection of the remixes which I’m most proud of, presented together as one full thing). I wanted to drop this one now seeing as I’ve been working on it all week, and I’m pretty excited with how it turned out seeing as I’ve never remixed Westside Gunn before. Will definitely be looking into more of his acapellas, Griselda stuff too. 

Peace!

New York Style

MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st!

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Breakadawn Acapella’ and ‘Shmoop Acapella’ by De La Soul & Sean Paul
Scratches from ‘Amazin: 3 Boyz From Newark Street Acapella’ by Omniscience & Rheji Burrell 

Visuals: https://youtu.be/9DypSVpYimg

I originally had the verses from the acapella that the ‘Amazin’ scratches are from on this beat, but it didn’t fit the vibe I wasn’t happy with how aggressive Omniscience’s vocals were, they’re dope vocals and verses but not right for the vibe of this beat. I remixed De La Soul recently but I knew that this beat fit their style perfectly too, so I looked into acapellas by them which I hadn’t remixed before. This acapella for ‘Breakadawn’ was never officially released but somehow it exists on YouTube which I’m mad grateful for, it’s one of my favourite songs by them from a very underrated album imo, so I was hoping they'd work over this beat. The original beat for that is quite stripped back and dark so I wasn’t 100% sure if this vibe would go well with the acapella, but I was very happy with how well it fit, really brought out the nostalgic side to the verses I think, where the emcees are reminiscing on the ‘days of the breaks’ (so 1980 if they’re referencing the Kurtis Blow track), which are ’just about over’. I thought that this bittersweet reflection was captured and brought to the focus by the beat, and I’m definitely happy with how the remix turned out.

Days Of The Breaks

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6ku47yoVG42yTi61J6iyRv?si=c646cf43bc5244a8
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/death-penalty/1633062451?i=1633062452
Bandcamp (HQ Download): https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/death-penalty-instrumental

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/death-penalty

This was a complex flip, there’s lots of layers. Even in the main loop which you hear at the start, I layered some bass on top to add to the groove etc. This beat was different cause I sort of had to work backwards, the main loop was good but the first 2 bars had an annoying resonance in the sounds I’d chopped, so I deleted that and was left with the ending half of the loop Id flipped, and had to work out the beginning using different sounds. Difficult to explain like this, but I actually saved the sounds I ended up not using so I can show this in a behind the beat soon. Adding the singing vocals was a crazy moment, Id been trying to flip them as a standalone melody and it wasn’t working out, sounded too repetitive, but adding them on top in a more sparing way was crazy and really added to the grand cinematic vibe of the beat, they had a real haunting vibe to me which really made me sure of what kind of beat this was, and also what kind of acapella I wanted to put over it.

Peace!

Death Penalty (Instrumental)

1st single from the album ‘Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes)’ – Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Can It Be All So Simple’ by Wu-Tang Clan (Raekwon x Ghostface)

Visuals: https://youtu.be/JoUQQVuVBhM

I made this beat using the same sample RZA used for the original beat to this track. The sample is such a classic, and as soon as I found the record I knew there’d be something there, but obviously didn’t want to bite what RZA flipped, and went for something completely different chopping up in between the vocals from Gladys Knight throughout the track. When I first made this beat I didn’t even think about remixing the original with it, now it obviously makes so much sense. As soon as I decided on doing this remix album this was the first beat I went to, really hoping that it would work out with these verses. I had a feeling it would work well seeing as I chopped up vocals from the track where the 'can it be it was all so simple' vocals are from (The Way We Were by Gladys Knight & The Pips) for this beat. I was bugging out at how well they went together both the vocals from the hook and the flow of Raekwon and Ghostface's verses, and to be honest the energy that making this gave me really pushed me to actually make the album happen, I got like 6 other remixes worked out the same day, I was really motivated by how well this worked out. I thought it made sense to drop this as the first single cause of that.

Next week I’ll be dropping the remix to ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ With’, which was originally the B Side to this single back in the 90s, so thought that made sense. It’s also wildly different to this track, so I thought it would make sense to show two different styles and sounds from the album (there’s a lot more which I’ll be saving for when the album actually drops).

Peace!!

Can It Be (Ways We Were)

2nd single from the album ‘Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes)’ – Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F' Wit’ by Wu-Tang Clan 

Visuals: https://youtu.be/tKO3ZmgM6Dc

I got the concept for this remix down the same day I worked out last weeks remix of 'Can It Be All So Simple'. I've been saving this beat for ages, I knew I had to use it for a really hardcore sounding track, and when I was looking at the tracklist of 36 Chambers I instantly thought this might go well as a remix. The beat really did end up fitting perfectly to me, the energy went perfectly with the crazy rugged vibe of the original, and the drum patterns all matched etc, this was another track that had me bugging out, and really motivated and inspired to go all the way and remix the whole album, which I can't wait to share. I think the two singles I've released act as a good representation of the two main vibes I'm going for: that more nostalgic soulful vibe, and that roughneck hardcore boom bap style that fits the Wu so well, lots of crossover between the two as well.

Extended version of Crime Side is dropping next Tuesday 26th as the lead single to the album, which drops on Friday. Premiere link for YouTube will go live Tuesday evening. Peace and thank you for listening!

Original version of this beat: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/shake-em-down

Nuthing Ta F' Wit

MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st!

Lead single for the album 'Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes)' - Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'C.R.E.A.M. Acapella' by Wu-Tang Clan

Visuals: https://youtu.be/yaAHlDyuSLQ
Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-instrumental
Crime Side Remix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-crime-side-remix
Original mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side

It really feels great to have finally done a full length version of this remix, I always knew Inspectah Deck's verse would sound good over the second half of this beat, it really is one of my favourite verses of all time: hope people enjoy this version!  

I made this beat in February 2019. I had just spent all night in a library to meet a university coursework deadline, and got home at 6am wide awake. I thought I'd want to relax after working all night but I really felt like making a beat to celebrate I guess. It was still early in the morning and all my housemates were asleep, so I made the whole thing using headphones, which I remember being a really immersive experience. Using headphones actually allowed me to be more precise with my chops, and ever since I've always chopped samples this way. I must have chopped around 20 seconds of the track into 16 pieces, because every pad on the MPC was taken up, and from there I was able to just be creative and work out which parts I wanted to use for my flip. I had a couple of loops sequenced but this one was my favourite, so I added drums which I had chopped from a break a while ago. By the time I had mixed and saved the beat it was the afternoon, so I worked on which acapellas sounded good over the beat, narrowing it down to a couple by the end of the day. I crashed at around 10pm, and the next day I finished up the remix, choosing the acapella from C.R.E.A.M.

Peace!

Tapehead - Crime Side (Extended Mix)

MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st!

Instrumental Album: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-instrumentals

Beats, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’ by The Wu-Tang Clan

Visuals: https://youtu.be/sV8c50Usa04
HQ Download (Individual tracks): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tAGRIOkUcia4qS7HeRH9ZSV63GnAzE1u?usp=sharing

From the start of this year I knew I wanted to update the mix on Crime Side, thought it would be dope to have a full length remix of C.R.E.A.M. over that beat, and had been planning on dropping that on 26th July. On Monday 13th June I was trying to work out what to do as a remix for that week, and I decided to see if I could do anything with ‘Bring Da Ruckus’. That immediately got me thinking about doing a full length remix album for ‘Enter The Wu-Tang’, and the rest is history. The last month and a bit have been crazily intense but I was so motivated to get it done and each track kept me dedicated to completing it. There were times when I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to remix every track cause I didn’t want anything sounding forced, but I kept coming back to certain tracks, trying out different beats and eventually got everything worked out. ‘Clan In Da Front’ and ‘Shame On a Nuh’ are the two last tracks I worked out, and they ended up being some of my favourites off the album. Very glad I persevered and got the whole album done, it got me thinking about the future too, this is without a doubt something I will be doing again for different artists: MF DOOM, Nas, Big L, Mos Def, the list goes on. I’m very happy with how this project turned out, and think it works well as a tribute to one of my favourite albums by the Wu, which if you haven’t heard I highly recommend. Will defo be dong remixes focused on all their solo albums too. Can’t wait to release more projects like this, next one will be a MF DOOM tribute album. Peace and thank you for taking the time to listen, let me know what you think of these remixes!

Tracklist:
00:00 Ruckus
04:05 7th Chamber
08:25 Mad Deep Methods
12:06 Can It Be (Ways We Were)
16:22 Clan’s In The Front (Ways We Are)
20:31 Chessboxin’
25:33 Shame
28:53 Keep It Raw Interlude
30:59 Nuthing Ta F’ Wit
34:40 Death Penalty Interlude
36:12 Crime Side (Extended Version)
39:35 Tearz Time
43:18 Protect It’s Magnetic
47:49 Lifetime Chamber
52:45 Ojay Outro
53:46 Crime Side (Remix)

Tapehead - Enter The Crime Side (36 Chambers Remixes) (Full Album)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Travellin' Man Remix Acapella' by Mos Def

Visuals: https://youtu.be/nMD--cCIkZk

Main sample I flipped: https://soundcloud.com/nikk-blvkk/pristine
Original mix of second beat: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/flow-is-like

I've been sitting on these 2 beats for ages, never knew what to do for a remix with either of them. The first beat is a flip of a sample which is so dope but I wanted to add more on top of it to make it more my own. I chopped it up loads to flip it in my own style and speed up the BPM, but I wanted something else to set it apart from the original and give the track more variety. This week I was really struggling with what I wanted to work on, so I looked back at this beat and thought about what would blend well with it. I experimented for ages, and luckily I had another old beat which went really well with it, completely different vibe but they both complemented each other mad well. As you can hear in the original mix of that beat, it's got a cool vibe (I called it victory when I made it cause it made me think of old school video game music when you win a boss battle), but on it's own it gets a bit repetitive, which is why I pitched it down in the original. Cause it was lacking on the low end it fit perfectly with the main sample, which is very full sounding, and acted as a perfect layer ontop. I also filtered low end layers for both beats, really wanted to go for that fat warm sound here which I think worked well for sure. 

Both these beats put together made a nice bittersweet vibe, which made me think of this acapella for the remix. I've remixed the main acapella before but never the remix version, and it ended up fitting perfectly, the hook and flows went perfect with the structure of the beat, and I actually might prefer the remix version overall, it's hard to say to be honest but I definitely prefer the hook on this version for sure. Was also in the mindset to remix this as I'm about to leave my current job and start a new one, which is very bittersweet for me, cause I do like where and who I work with, but moving on is the right thing to do with mad benefits and room for improvement etc (it's a more music focused job too which I'm very excited about). Hope people enjoy this one, let me know what you think!

Peace

Memories

Track 2 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/43VeHU1H4jUPCQxP77vMTO?si=c855505777d84718
https://music.apple.com/us/album/7th-chamber/1637200056?i=1637200058
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/7th-chamber

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber' by The Wu-Tang Clan

Visuals: https://youtu.be/ITHInp7AHwY

I switched the beat multiple times here, wanted to match the different energies that each verse has on this acapella. I thought the boomy low end heavy beat fit the start of the track, setting the tone for that hardcore style. I thought it was then cool to go into a smoother beat, it just felt right as a switch up, and the way Ghostface's verse sounded over that beat was sick, I even added an extra layer of drums to try and emphasise how hard the flow was hitting. For ODBs verse I thought it made sense to then have an even smoother beat that fit the laid back slurry flow. 

I do think these 3 beats work well together here, have also released them separately, here's the links to them in order:
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/sick-influences-instrumental
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/guitar-swing-instrumental
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/street-dreams-instrumental

7th Chamber

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)

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

Instrumental:
https://open.spotify.com/track/48eCqCEzKKYmAvGe2vazwG?si=cb4529e642b44818
https://music.apple.com/us/album/dedicated-to-you/1651521860?i=1651521863
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/dedicated-to-you

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Dedicated’ by MF Grimm

Visuals: https://youtu.be/9QgRBksPxvw

Can’t recommend MF Grimm enough as an artist, he worked with DOOM all the way from his KMD days and ghostwrote for some very famous artists. This track is my personal favourite from the EP they did together, such a great project it’s a real shame they never did a full length collaboration. The original version has a much darker beat, and I never really thought I’d remix it cause I couldn’t think of anything that needed doing. When I flipped this sample though I was thinking about the motivational energy it gave off, and decided to see if it would fit with this idea of being ‘dedicated’. Cause it was completely different to the original I really liked how it sounded, and really thought it captured the positive side of what Grimm is talking about here, especially when he says ‘not even death can separate the love’, some crazy lyrics with so much meaning which is why I like him so much as an artist. He really is a master with what he writes imo. Grimms track can be applied to everyone of course like he says, dedicated to all his brothers and his crew. Obviously this track was made when Grimm was still working with DOOM, and you can hear Subroc scratched at the start which is a nice tribute, and in light of DOOM passing away, I cut in visuals of both DOOM and Subroc from the Questions video. I wanted to rework and remix this track as an updated version with dedications from Grimm to DOOM in a way, because the lyrics really are timeless in that sense, so it fit perfectly in my opinion. 

Hope people like this idea and enjoy the remix – Peace!

Dedicated to You

MF DOOM Remix Album Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

Instrumental:
https://open.spotify.com/track/06rRFoSiUJHp7OAyS50Ky8?si=ac85a44b6e664655
https://music.apple.com/us/album/voices/1651521860?i=1651521878
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/voices

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘I Hear Voices’ by MF GRIMM and MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/0uF3eu83Cqc

Spent ages trying to remix ‘Deep Fried Frenz’ over this beat but it just wasn’t working, the flow patterns weren’t matching with the rhythm of the sample and how I flipped it. I spent a while thinking about other DOOM acapellas that would fit this vibe and did a lot of experimenting. I was going through his album tracklists and wasn’t really having any luck and almost considered scrapping this beat from the album. I then suddenly remembered this bonus track from Operation Doomsday – immediately thought it would be a good fit cause the sinister idea of hearing voices defo blends well with the dark vibe of this beat. The flow fit perfectly and as soon as I heard GRIMMs verse over it I knew it was the one. I really love the tracks when both him and DOOM are emceeing, I think their styles go crazily well together. Overall I’m very happy with the vibe and end product here, happy to share this one now that the album is only a few weeks away. Thought I’d release this one as a single as it was originally a bonus track, wanted to flip it here and have it as a single – I really want to save the big title tracks for the album stream.

Can’t wait to release the whole thing – peace!!

#mfdoom #90shiphop #mfdoomremix

Voices

MF DOOM Remix Album Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

Instrumental:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0v4HLujCCHdu88Ga5uCMyz?si=1d2be4d8ecec438f
https://music.apple.com/us/album/smooth-operation/1651521860?i=1651521861
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/smooth-operation

Beats, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and cuts by MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/GE0pizPCQY8

The first beat here is one of the first beats I made specifically to use for this project, I knew I'd be flipping the 'smooth operator' vocals to tie into the title of Operation Doomsday. Originally the first beat played out for the whole of this intro, and I almost cut it completely cause something just wasn't right to me. Then when I was much further into the album I heard the sample for the 2nd part of this intro, and instantly heard these vocals over it. That saved this intro, cause I really like the way it starts, and then that 2nd part is great for building the atmosphere and really feels like it's leading up to something, which I didn't have when it was just one beat for the whole intro, even with all the switch ups and layering.

Had a lot of fun editing the visuals for this one too, I really liked the idea of the cartoons playing out across the background to represent the vocals DOOM cuts in at the start, and then adding to the atmosphere of the build up at the end, showing the backstory of DOOM in a more subtle way.

Until tomorrow - Peace!!!

Smooth Operation

Rest In Peace

Instrumental Album: 
https://open.spotify.com/album/73pCwiQHHv0WnZXL8bPtvA?si=tkTpBWB_SEO0AUfQIpV1rw
https://music.apple.com/us/album/doomsday-tribute-beats/1651521860
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/album/doomsday-tribute-beats

Beats, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals by MF DOOM, MF GRIMM, Tommy Gunn and Count Bass D

Visuals: https://youtu.be/A3m2K5zpGpU

I've got serious love for Hip Hop and a real wide range of artists inspire me, but there's a special place in my heart for DOOM. When I first discovered his music I listened almost exclusively to his different aliases (and MF GRIMM) for a year straight - the year before I decided to get into producing my own beats. I really think DOOM's approach to music properly inspired me to make my own, his style is so unique it really cements the idea of anyone being able to do music as long as it's what they're passionate about. I hope people enjoy the remixes I made with these beats, always trying to pay tribute to DOOM and celebrate his legacy. Peace and thank you for listening.

Tracklist:

00:00 - Smooth Operation
02:01 - DOOMSDAY
06:34 - Dedicated To You
09:37 - Bad Dreams (Gas Drawls)
13:40 - Finest
17:59 - Hoe Tapes
21:56 - Red Morning (Gold Sun)
26:25 - Stretch & Bobbito Freestyle
29:26 - PotS*@%
33:05 - Smooth Hands
34:05 - Dead Gems (Too Good For Me)
37:05 - M I C
39:19 - Some Fancy Clown
41:25 - Ladies
44:14 - Blunted
47:14 - ? (Only We Save We)
50:25 - Voices
54:54 - Hero's Fate
56:53 - Love Rhymes (Not Dimes)

DOOMSDAY TRIBUTE - Tapehead Remixes (Full Album)

Track 4 from the DOOMSDAY Tribute Album: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

Instrumental: 
https://open.spotify.com/track/2u15R5jB37CQe0LXGEdYIH?si=b6c9d8364a7c4df5
https://music.apple.com/us/album/bad-dreams-gas-drawls/1651521860?i=1651521864
https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/bad-dreams-gas-drawls

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals  from 'Gas Drawls' by MF DOOM 

Visuals: https://youtu.be/jJp3q_eCZOQ

This is one of my favourites from the album - the original is one of my all time favourite tracks, so I was very happy with how this remix turned out. Ive always loved how grimey the verses are, and I wanted to emphasise that with the beat. Didn't want to try and re-do a grimey piano beat for this though, instead went for a grand sort of vibe with strings and some crazy echoing keys, I was gassed with how it turned out. Also wanted the bass to hit hard on this so I added some extra layers to make sections of the verses hit harder. Had to chop up the same iconic 'get out of my life woman drums', and went all out as always when layering them to get that fat sound. 

Peace!!

Bad Dreams (Gas Drawls)

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/bad-dreams-gas-drawls

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2u15R5jB37CQe0LXGEdYIH?si=b6c9d8364a7c4df5
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/bad-dreams-gas-drawls/1651521860?i=1651521864
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/bad-dreams-gas-drawls

One of my personal favourite beats from the album, I knew I wanted to remix Gas Drawls and I had a rough idea of the kind of beat I wanted to make for it. The first flip I worked out with just the bassline reminded me of the laid back intro to Gas Drawls with the Steely Dan vocals, but I knew I wanted to switch it up in a big way to create some proper atmosphere for DOOM's verses. This sample was perfect for that, the melody of the strings was crazy to me, but it was those echoing sounds which I layered ontop that really made the beat for me, I love adding elements like that to beats and especially in this case I thought it worked perfectly with adding to that grand sort of vibe. The mix ended up really really thick here too, I wanted to make the drums fat so had to layer up the sample too, definitely ended up with a hard hitting sort of feel.

Bad Dreams [Gas Drawls] (Instrumental)

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/love-rhymes-not-dimes

2nd Beat on it's own: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/love-instrumental

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3oJq15ZRXQU4N1Zx59S6uq?si=b5ad9e56de5a431d
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/love-rhymes-not-dimes/1651521860?i=1651521880
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/love-rhymes-not-dimes

I really like both these beats for very different reasons, so it was cool to be able to pair them together in this track. They're like polar opposites in a way, but I think they ended up complimenting each other well. The first beat is actually an alternate flip of the sample from The Snowman that I used for Hero's Fate - pitched the chops down and came up with this different flip that had a proper rugged hip hop vibe to it, lost my mind at the time.

The second beat was LONG to flip, took me multiple days of working on it for 8+ hours until I was happy it. I’d sped up the sample on my turntable to flip it around 90 BPM (originally it must have been 70 something), and based on the way I chopped it, it was looping at around 94 BPM. It was just one of those samples where it was from a more freeform part of a song which wasn’t necessarily constricted by one BPM or time signature, so even though my chops were looping at 94 BPM, certain notes and areas were out of time, which just took absolutely ages to fix. Essentially I had to listen to the track over and over across several days, working out which chops were out of time, and then chopping them up into one, two or even three more pieces depending on the issue, so I could sequence it myself and slightly adjust the timing to match the BPM and time signature of how I wanted to flip it. It was definitely worth it in the end, I was really happy with how the beat turned out.

Love Rhymes [Not Dimes] (Instrumental)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1lFLLsWiE5ELj0UYbuAkZ0?si=46fab98c5a9d4832
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/sweet-dreams/1656362942?i=1656362943
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/feel-it-instrumental

Masta Ace Inc 'Saturday Night Live' Remix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/can-you-feel-itsaturday-night

This is the first beat I made sampling through the Technics SL-1700 MK 2 ('home-use' version of the 1200 MK 2). I've had a Numark TTX turntable since I started producing and the sound quality wasn't bad and it was very reliable, but this Technics really upped the levels, the quality blew me away you can see it just from how much more full the audio wave is when it's recorded and on the screen of the MPC, I did a comparison and it's double the size of the Numark. That said I've been using that Numark for 6 years now and never had it serviced, so it was definitely on it's last legs.

That then motivated me to do something with this sample, I always knew it could make a crazy beat but it needed to be one that hit hard, and with the quality of this new turntable I knew the chops would be clean and the sound on point. I then ended up going crazy on the layering so this beat really does have a full sound, I got the drums from the same record too and tried to go all out on the grooves, I completely filled up the MPC with chops from everywhere to get as much variation as possible. The beat ended up being very upbeat and energetic, more like this on the way soon, particularly Masta Ace Remixes, I always find his acapellas fit high energy beats well.

Feel It (Instrumental)

Brand New Single Out January 6th: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/tapeheadxhightop/new-scapes

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/03CYujv5l22uvbNLkVrpqv?si=HxpBVdbeQQGETX-LWzb4TA
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/two-week-tracks-ep/1660146264
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/album/two-week-tracks-ep
YouTube: https://youtu.be/PHle8IDCC8Q

Lyrics by Tapehead
Beats by @highgtopsfeed

Since making these tracks we've been busy making so much more, but haven't released anything since 'Venture', the last track of this EP - which was released May 2021. That's changing in 2023, the first new single from us will be dropping January 6th, with loads more to follow. We've been sitting on this music for a while, so we're both looking forward to sharing it with everyone. Hope people enjoy revisiting these tracks in the lead up to that, and for those who haven't heard them before hopefully you find something you like!

This EP is a collection of tracks me and Hightop made from January to June in 2021. Each track was made over the course of 2 weeks, we were experimenting a lot with how we could pair both our styles together.

Peace!!!

2 Week Tracks EP

Happy New Year! Got loads planned for 2023, not slowing up at all on these remixes, will be dropping a new one every Sunday like before, with more artist focused albums too.

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'The INC Ride' by Masta Ace Incorporated

Visuals: https://youtu.be/8TfXMBJVYdM

I was pretty sure I'd be remixing this acapella when I flipped this sample, wanted to go for a high energy remix to start off the year. I'm motivated to do the most I can music wise, continuing as I have been, but also upping the levels this year. I've invested in an Ableton Push so I can make beats at work, and this is the first thing I've made using that, really been enjoying the fast workflow compared to the MPC. It's actually crazy as someone whose only ever made beats using old school hardware, which I still love, but this will mean I can make brand new beats every day, which is going to be a huge game changer for sure.

Hope people enjoy the upbeat motivational vibe of this one, lots more to come!

It's The Ride (Tapehead Remix)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3N4mXEuOzbonkxJS035ngB?si=dNMU0N_eSROJY3skso1GpA
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/new-scapes-single/1661580001
Bandcamp (HQ Download w/Acapella): https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/album/new-scapes
YouTube Visuals: https://youtu.be/9xASBnbjW-M

Lyrics by Tapehead
Beat, mixing and mastering by @hightopsfeed

Think it's best to keep it simple here. I've got a crazily addictive personality. As I'm sure you can tell from this track, that gave me mad problems in the past. Luckily I'm over that now, and making music with Hightop is a big part of what helped me to self reflect on the mic, and change how I was living for the better. Now I channel that side of my personality into music, and have been sober for over 4 years. 

This track is basically the 'magnum opus' of me talking about that side of my past on the mic, and was the last track me and Hightop made at university, which was a while ago now. We've always been crazily happy with how it turned out, we were trying to work out ideas in the studio for a track, and as soon as he played this chord progression I got that feeling you get when you hear a crazy sample, and had to start writing straight away. These lyrics were written all in that night and I wrote them fairly quickly. Since that we touched them up a little bit, but the core structure and ideas defo remains the same. 

This is one of the oldest 'complete' track we have, there's loads of newer stuff which we'll be dropping very very soon.

Really hope people enjoy this one, thank you for listening!

New Scapes

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Back Down Acapella' by 50 Cent

Visuals: https://youtu.be/olA_M8ejSaM

I don't often remix artists from the 2000s, but I'm always open to doing it, and in this case as soon as I heard how the acapella sounded over the beat I knew it was a good fit. Very different to the original too, 50 cent has a great presence vocally and his style blends well with this kind of beat I think. Imo 50 cent is a great artist too, actually the first Hip Hop album I ever bought was 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin'' on CD, album still holds up mad well too. My brothers big on him too, put me onto a lot of his more underground stuff from the 90s, loads of gems in his discography that's for sure.

Hope people enjoy this one, thanks for listening!

50 Don't Back Down

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya Acapella' by ODB

Visuals: https://youtu.be/f_3cAX_JWvU

Thought it would be cool to completely switch up the vibe for this remix. ODB acapellas are mad versatile, they can sound great on hardcore beats but also fit mad well with chilled out beats. What I always like about remixing ODB is it shows how versatile his flow really was, even though it has crazy elements, the structure is on point and that really shows here with how well he flows to the kicks. I didn't have to chop the acapella at all here.

Hope you enjoy this remix, thanks for listening!!

Peace

Shimmy Yay

Lyrics by Tapehead
Beat by Distant Cry: https://soundcloud.com/user-283060156
Vocals mixed and mastered by @hightopsfeed

Instrumental: https://youtu.be/sTVDAIkbsW0

Distant remixed this one already. I had to do another one with this beat, fit too well. 

Peace!!

Also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Rf21pVoAgJ4

New Scapes (Distant Cry Remix)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Ms Fat Booty Acapella' by Mos Def

Visuals: https://youtu.be/wPizhleGFps

This one took ages to mix, lots of layers and so much resonance in the sample and vocal. Really liked this concept for a remix though so I persevered with it, hope people like it! Seeing as the original track uses a 60s Aretha Franklin track with vocal chops, I thought it would make sense to use this beat for a remix, cause I sampled a lot of vocal chops from a 80s funk track, with a more uptempo vibe.

Peace and thank you for listening

Same Type Game (Way I Like It)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Shootouts Acapella' by Nas

Visuals: https://youtu.be/nSjqfwdQQ44

Hope people like this remix, thought this beat fit the storytelling of the lyrics, feels like a movie the way Nas tells it. I still think 'It Was Written' is a slightly underrated album, comparable to Illmatic in many ways imo, so many great tracks and verses from Nas are still on point.

Peace and thank you for listening!

Shootouts

MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st!

Full Length Crime Side Album Out Now! https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Extended Version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-extended-mix
Crime Side Remix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-crime-side-remix

Behind the scenes of how I made this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOv3jo2zljI

Thank you so much for 100K streams: happy to say that the instrumental is now out on Spotify (and other streaming services):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E7XrsH9croPa5CCiRy0DB?si=e9841bdf0b7a4d96
https://music.apple.com/us/album/crime-side-instrumental-instrumental-single/1577843527?uo=4&app=apple+music

Beat by Tapehead
Vocals from 'C.R.E.A.M.' acapella by Wu-Tang Clan

Instrumental now available:

https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-instrumental

Crime Side

MF DOOM Remix Album Out October 31st!

Full Length Crime Side Album Out Now! https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Full length remix over this instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-extended-mix

Behind the scenes of how I made this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOv3jo2zljI

Now out on Spotify (and other streaming services):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E7XrsH9croPa5CCiRy0DB?si=e9841bdf0b7a4d96
https://music.apple.com/us/album/crime-side-instrumental-instrumental-single/1577843527?uo=4&app=apple+music

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nArcfLLPFnY
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/crime-side-instrumental-2019
Crime Side: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side

I made this beat in February 2019. I had just spent all night in a library to meet a university coursework deadline, and got home at 6am wide awake from all the caffeine I'd been drinking.

I thought I'd want to relax after working all night but I really felt like making a beat to celebrate I guess. There wasn't space for tons of vinyl and a turntable in my room that year, so I was sampling through YouTube. I can't remember the name of the sample sadly, but I know that these strings were at the start of the track and as soon as I heard them I went into autopilot and turned on the MPC to chop them up. 

It was still early in the morning and all my housemates were asleep, so I made the whole thing using headphones, which I remember being a really immersive experience. Using headphones actually allowed me to be more precise with my chops, and ever since I've always chopped samples this way. I must have chopped around 20 seconds of the track into 16 pieces, because every pad on the MPC was taken up, and from there I was able to just be creative and work out which parts I wanted to use for my flip. I had a couple of loops sequenced but this one was my favourite, so I added drums which I had chopped from a break a while ago.

By the time I had mixed and saved the beat it was the afternoon, so I cooked food and worked on which acapellas sounded good over the beat, narrowing it down to a couple by the end of the day. I crashed at around 10pm, and the next day I finished up the remix, choosing Raekwon's verse from C.R.E.A.M.

Crime Side (Instrumental)

Instrumental out now on Spotify and other streaming services:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4HXXXVWoRG9ubvDXklIvzs?si=fbfd3fedb20b446f&nd=1
https://music.apple.com/us/album/just-zone-instrumental-instrumental-single/1578517704?uo=4&app=apple+music

Remixed and Remastered.

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/just-zone-instrumental

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krt3oKLg0-I&lc=Ugzs4B0w07jS99VzL8Z4AaABAg

Original upload (2018):
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/just-zone

Memories of making this beat are mad vague and hazy. It was either late 2016 or early 2017, and I was too excited over the sample. Being a very old beat the drums were terribly done, so I've added news drums and balanced out the levels on the sample a bit better.

I've always loved how the Shootouts acapella sounds over this beat, especially this verse, so I've kept that the same, but added the chorus at the start and the end of the track. I don't know why I didn't use the chorus before, because it sounds dope, but then again I was bugging back then. The decision to put Shootouts over this beat was a dope one though, and I'm glad I've got the track to a place where it now sounds a lot better.

Peace.

Just Zone

Beatmaker / Emcee

Contact: tapeheadloops@gmail.com

<--MPC2000 Classic                     

Underground Airplay

Trying to give something back to Hip Hop - really appreciate any comments or feedback.

Peace

Tapehead

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