Tapehead

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/guitar-swing-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Hail Mary Acapella’ by 2pac and The Outlawz

Visuals: https://youtu.be/-1YU8xoWj7U

I vividly remember making this beat, I’d probably been producing for about 3 months, and was showing someone who was getting into old school hip hop how the beats are produced etc. I was tryna make a simple beat so it would be quick and not too time consuming, to clearly demonstrate the process without spending too long chopping up samples etc. This guitar sample instantly stood out to me, and I chopped it up and made this 2 bar loop instantly, the whole process of flipping the beat defo took under 30 minutes which is crazy quick for me. It’s always fun when beats just turn out naturally like that, cause to me it shows how pure the inspiration is from the sample, and the result is as organic as possible.

Originally I had Havoc’s verse from Hell On Earth over this beat, but seeing as I remixed that recently I thought I’d try something different. I haven’t remixed Tupac vocals that often, and I thought his voice and style would fit this beat, the sample has a west coast kind of feel to it, even if the drums are NY boom bap sounding. 

Peace and thanks for listening! Really appreciate all the feedback and support I've been getting.

Hail Mary

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2eI0R64DEMhcDjDJSOC88Y?si=2c70467dd1eb46a9
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/scars-instrumental/1579972136?i=1579972137

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/artifacts-chat

This is a rework of the first beat I ever recorded a song over back in December 2017( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/scars ). Recording over this beat back in 2017 was a huge moment in my life, in terms of working out what I really wanted and who I wanted to be. I was bugging back then, but that experience opened a lot of doors mentally, and helped me rediscover a passion which I was losing. This beat was actually really difficult to remix and remaster, the levels on the original flip are really really bad so it took a lot of work to get it to fit with the sound of my newer drums, which are mixed in a very different way. I think it paid off though and I’m a lot happier with how the beat sounds, especially the way I layered the sample in the chorus to give the track a bit more variation, because it is just a 2-bar loop, so I decided to filter it for most of the track and bring in the highs occasionally, so the loop didn’t get boring.

Peace.

Scars (Instrumental)

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

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Freestyle Acapella’ by Masta Ace

Visuals: https://youtu.be/mitXyIvjWdU

Always love remixing Masta Ace acapellas, and I was very lucky to find the acapella LP whilst out digging recently. I’ve always thought this acapella would be a great one to remix, cause the fact that Ace is freestyling means that the style is really open to interpretation and could work in different ways on different beats, cause it’s more of a raw verse showing skills rather than a polished song which was written with a specific beat and vibe in mind. I chose these beats cause they both feel like ‘freestyle’ beats to me, by that I mean they’re beats which aren’t too focused on one specific emotion, and are more just about capturing that East Coast Hip Hop vibe, which always fits Ace super well, and I thought with this acapella in particular it would work well. 

Peace and thank you for listening!

Original mixes of these beats:
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/come-get-it-rmx
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/underground-science

Freestyle

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Meat Grinder Acapella’, ‘Raedawn Acapella’, and ‘The Time We Faced Doom’ by MF DOOM/Viktor Vaughn

Visuals: https://youtu.be/9BO7hPGEwj8

I can’t think of anything to say about DOOM that hasn’t been said before, all I can do is thank him for inspiring me and countless others. There’s no doubt that I would never have thought about making music if I hadn’t heard his work, the way he approached Hip Hop was so unique and interesting, it really made it clear that anyone can do music if they want, no need to feel constricted by ‘rules’ or trends or anything, just do your own thing. Ontop of that, his workrate was crazily inspiring to me, I just couldn’t believe the amount of music he had out under different names, a lot of it released really close together too. When I first discovered DOOM and really looked into his discography I must have almost exclusively listened to his music for a year, it was that crazy to me and there really is that much of it ( I also was playing a lot of MF GRIMM, Quasimoto and Monsta Island Czars as a part of looking into artists he was affiliated with). 

I reworked these beats this time last year and just dropped that instrumental, but I’ve learnt a lot since then about mixing and mastering, so I thought I could improve on it a lot after relistening. The main thing that made me sure I wanted to use these beats though, was the way both creepshow flips blended together when I layered them, cause I knew it would elevate the potential of this remix, which I always thought was solid conceptually, cause DOOM really fits the comic style of the creepshow sample well. When I first made the beat years ago I had Meat Grinder over it, then when I reworked it I changed it to a Viktor Vaughn acapella, so for this upload I wanted to combine the two, updating the Meat Grinder remix and then having Viktor Vaughn over the switch up. What got me the most excited though was how I managed to fit ‘The Time We Faced Doom’ over the beat at the end, seeing as that’s the intro to my personal favourite MF DOOM album, it felt like a nice way to end this tribute.

Here's the older versions for comparison:
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/change-the-beat-creepshow-mix
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/meat-grinder

Really hope people enjoy this one, all I’m trying to do here is honour DOOM as an artist and pay respect to the music he made, and just show how much he always has, and continues to inspire me.

Peace

DOOMSDAY

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/used-to-love-her-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘I Used To Love H.E.R. Acapella’ by Common Sense

Visuals: https://youtu.be/J_b2wfQjntQ

This original track from Common is an absolute classic, being the lead single to ‘Resurrection’, which is my personal favourite of all his albums (which is pretty difficult to say because he has so many great ones). Also an interesting fact on this song is H.E.R. is an acronym for Hearing Every Rhyme. For a fan of 90s Hip Hop, this is really is the perfect track and the perfect album from Common, I can’t really say too much aside from highly recommending listening to the full thing back to back. I personally don’t think there’s a weak track, all the production from No ID is so crazy, one of the best ‘jazzy’ Hip Hop albums of the 90s for sure. I’d say this is up in my top 10 favourite albums, and definitely in my top 10 most played albums over the years, and every time I always enjoy it just as much. I actually vividly remember playing the tape for the first time on the way to school and I was bugging out on it, and just played it again and again throughout the day whenever I could. It really was crazy to be listening to these classic albums for the first time, and this is without a doubt one that I have the most vivid memories of, in terms of being blown away by how unique the sound was, and also how dope Common was as an emcee. His style is definitely unique, it’s hard to pinpoint cause it’s not crazily out there or mad abstract, he just has charisma and a very very mad outlook on things, which gives him such a good perspective and presence as an emcee on the mic. I guess that’s shown clearly in this song, it’s a very powerful song and message, which is executed in such an interesting way that works well and has definitely stood the test of time, I’m pretty sure Kanye West even referenced the opening lines to this song in one of his tracks. 

When I originally made the first beat in this remix I instantly thought about putting this acapella over it, and did a very rushed remix which was mixed very badly. The levels on the drums are all over the place and the acapella sounded horrible, but I was really gassed off it at the time as a concept, and wasn’t really experienced in mixing and mastering so just put it out as it was: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/what-i-loved-most 

I’ve wanted to revisit this idea for a while now, but always felt like the beat wasn’t enough on it’s own to remix more than one verse, so every now and then I’ve been experimenting with other beats that would blend well with this one. I wanted to keep the first beat as it was for the first verse, because that’s where Common is setting up his love for Hip Hop, so I thought a beat with less emotion and more of a straight up Hip Hop vibe would work for that. When I started thinking about that, I was then thinking on what would work well for the later verses in the track, and I definitely wanted to focus on the way Common gets a bit more ‘emotional’ as he starts talking about how Hip Hop changed, making him fall out of love etc. Cause of this I wanted a more emotional beat, but kept it as a piano so the switch up wasn’t too jarring, and I think it worked out OK. I was mad happy with how they blended together at the end of the track too as an outro, it’s just dope when things come together like that, I was thinking the way Common reminisces saying ‘I used to love her’ at the end, made perfect sense to then bring that first beat back, and I’m just glad they blended together OK making that possible.

Peace!

Used To (Love Her)

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/dont-mind-me-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Money Folder Acapella’ by MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/a81-toGlUWk

Back when I first flipped this sample I put the acapella from ‘Strange Ways’ over it cause I thought the beat fit DOOM’s style. Looking back though it’s clear that the vibe of the beat doesn’t really fit what DOOM’s talking about on that track, so I switched up my approach for this rework. I thought ‘Money Folder’ fit it way better, DOOM has a sort of carefree attitude on that track which I think goes with the beat, has a sort of go with the flow kind of vibe. I’ve been wanting to make this one for a long time now, I actually first put the Money Folder Acapella over this beat at the very start of the year when I was working on my first DOOM tribute track, and then left it for time as a rough concept idea. Now after spending this year really dedicating myself to music, I felt crazily motivated to revisit this idea and do it justice. I really am too grateful and humbled by all the support I’ve been getting throughout the year, and I’m now more than dedicated to keeping on and growing/improving as much as I can. To me this beat gives of that vibe of contentment and focus: knowing what you want to do and being in a blessed place doing it. It makes sense to me that I set up the ideas for this remix at the start of the year with that focus and grind to music in mind, and am now revisiting and releasing it after spending the year doing what I set out to do, if that makes sense. 

Peace and thank you for all the support and feedback, hope people enjoy the vibe of this one!

Original version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/same-game

Don't Mind Me

i'll be alright

Feeling this one if i do say so myself ;D Hope everyone is doing good

Peace x

S t o n e s

SIDE A: DEELOVESAMY 0:00 - 17:30
SIDE B: ZACHEDELIC 17:30 - 35:40
https://soundcloud.com/deelovesamy
Me and dee worked on this album from March 2021 - January 2022

this is by far my most ambitious project and it might stay that way.

Shoutout to dee for being a real one. Dude is one of the coolest producers I've had the honor of meeting and talking to.

deelovesamy x zachedelic - AS THE SUN SETS [FULL ALBUM]

SLEEPDABEAT x earfluvv - Lunar

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

Dust

h o l d u p

BainFunk Labs Supercrack (unfinished) (feat 2wofac3, James Denny, unknown, unknown)

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

Real honesty
Honest life = Not sold out

Not I don't tell a lie honesty

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

Don't Mind Me

Tapehead

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