Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/constant-elevation-instrumental

Beats, mixing and mastering by Tapehead

Vocals and scratches from ‘I Know You Got Soul’ Acapella by Eric B. & Rakim

Visuals: https://youtu.be/XXxMipo1iYU

I bugged out crazily when I made this beat, I’d spent ages chopping up different sections of one jazz song, which was mostly piano and bassline melodies, but there was also some really nice saxophone playing at the end of the track, which I had recorded into the MPC. I spent most of the day trying to flip the piano and bass melodies though, and completely forgot about the saxophone samples which I still hadn’t chopped up, I just had them recorded ready to chop up. I decided to have a break from the main loops I was working on, where I was spending ages trying to mesh piano and bassline chops together, and thought it couldn’t hurt to chop up the saxophone samples to see if they would work with what I had, seeing as it was all from the same song. At this point I was pretty worn out, having spent 4 hours or so working on the other chops, so I kind of went into autopilot and chopped the saxophone melodies into 16 pieces. This meant that the MPC was completely full: the 16 A bank pads were all piano sounds, the 16 B pads were all bassline sounds, the C pads were all saxophone chops, and the D pads were all drums. The saxophone flip came together instantly, it probably took less than a minute of experimenting with them over the beat for me to know the melody I wanted to make, and it got me way too excited. The maddest thing was the saxophone fit perfectly with the bass sounds that I had already chopped from an earlier point in the sample, which really made the beat work for me, because the lows of the bass worked perfectly alongside the highs of the saxophone, and it just all came together so well. Its always sick when this happens, cause it reminds me to keep persevering when producing, because although I was a bit tired and worn out by the time I’d chopped the piano and bass samples, by just pushing myself to keep on and chop the saxophone sample, I was able to create something I was really proud of.

Because of the smooth vibe of the sample, I didn’t really want to put any hardcore acapellas over the beat, although that contrast can work sometimes, I wasn’t feeling it with this one. Even though this beat wasn’t made from a soul sample, I thought about putting the acapella from ‘I Know You Got Soul’ over the beat, seeing as it’s a pretty laid-back song that’s easy to listen to lyrically. The fact that Rakim came with these flows in 1987 is crazy to me, it must’ve been ridiculous at the time and its influence is so clear when you look at artists throughout the 90s, who always give Rakim huge props as one of the innovators and pioneers of the emceeing craft. This track is probably my favourite off of Paid In Full, which is actually the first 80s Hip Hop album I ever heard, wanting to hear the albums that artists like Nas always cited as inspirations for when they were younger. It makes sense for the album to be crazy seeing as it inspired artists who made projects like Illmatic, and this track in particular was ahead of its time in my opinion. 

I knew Rakims’ flow would sound good over this beat, but I didn’t expect Eric B’s scratching to sound so raw on the track, especially when I soloed the drums at the very end. To me that just shows how ahead of its time their style was, and it’s cool to hear the scratches in a hardcore context, because this album definitely inspired the more hardcore sounding Hip Hop that came out of New York in the 90s, but came before it, so it’s dope to hear the two work together, if that makes sense.

Constant Elevation

I uploaded like, 5 tracks from neil's mouth albums and soundcloud WON'T LET ME FORGET IT.

Beatmaker / Emcee
Contact: tapeheadloops@gmail.com

<--MPC2000 Classic                     

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