2021 HH

Hip Hop XXX

Tapehead

✯𝕭𝖆𝖉𝖀𝖌𝖑𝖞✯

beats qui claque

New private playlist

Shady Character

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

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and scratches from 'Relax Your Mind Acapella' by T-Max

Visuals: https://youtu.be/FvWxa4CYFaI

It's always nice when you get 2 flips from a sample which gel together. Here I filtered both flips to act as a bassline for the beat in different parts of the track, giving the sample more weight and flavour by combining the best bits of each, it's something I've been trying to do in most beats I make now and I definitely focused on it here, trying to give the track more variation and progression as well as building the vibe of what made the sample stand out to me.

When I made this beat I knew I'd need a laid back acapella to go over it. I tried a few Masta Ace verses from the acapella LP but I wasn't really sure. I tried this acapella from T-Max and was gassed with how his flow sounded, it fit well with the drums and sounded very very different to the last remix I did with the acapella, and it fit the laid back vibe of the beat perfectly. I was considering making the drums laid back but I decided to make them hit hard, partly cause the sample didn't have much low end so I needed the drums to fill out the mix. 

Peace and thank you for listening!

Relaxed

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/watch-your-back-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Rainbows Acapella' by MF DOOM as Madvillain

Visuals: https://youtu.be/DTGcv762Tzk

Original upload: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/drainin-them

I remember when I originally flipped this sample I thought it had a real wild west vibe to it, the guitar just had that feel to me and I flipped it in a way that chopped it up even more, cause the notes had that short staccato quality to them which I wanted to exaggerate in the beat. 

I originally wanted to put 'Rhinestone Cowboy' over this beat for that reason, but I couldn't get the flow to match well so I started looking at other DOOM acapellas, cause I thought he'd fit the beat well regardless. I tried loads of acapellas, chopping them all up to get the flow right on the beat, and even though they fit, I still wasn't 100% sure. For about 2 days this week I was set on this track being a remix of Money Folder, cause I thought the subject matter fit the cowboy sound well, but after working on the mix for 2 days I wasn't really feeling it anymore. I didn't initially think Rainbows would sound good over this beat so I didn't actually try it until that day, and was immediately way more excited about how that sounded, cause the notes DOOM sings fit really well with the notes on the sample, and in my opinion the subject matter actually fits the vibe of the beat well too. It also worked out well that DOOMs laid back 'singing' style contrasted against the staccato sample, so both of them stood out to me in a way that both complemented each other. Even though it took a bit of experimentation I ended up happy with how this one turned out, hope people enjoy it too.

Peace and thank you for listening!

Watch Your Back

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/when-i-die-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Suicidal Thoughts Acapella’ by The Notorious B.I.G.

Visuals: https://youtu.be/P6gDNFEKKKc
 
I don’t think I’ve actually ever remixed this acapella before, it’s such a serious verse and subject matter so I’ve always been hesitant about working with it cause I wouldn’t want to do something that didn’t work. I had a few other beats that I was trying this verse over, all of them were sad piano melodies, but I felt like this one fit the acapella best. Originally I don’t think the beat was super sad, I actually originally made it to celebrate finishing a coursework deadline, but I pitched it down to fit the tone of Biggie’s vocals better, and with this verse ontop it really brought out the sadder side to the melody I flipped for the beat. 

I remember when I first heard this track when I was younger it sounded pretty over the top, and I didn’t really understand what made it so powerful, but it was definitely hard to listen to. Now I’m older the track still stands out, but I get why Biggie made it, and it for sure wasn’t to be shocking or over the top, you can tell he was just using lyrics and spitting as therapy to the fullest, really going deep on it. That’s something I can relate to crazily, whenever I write lyrics I’m always looking at the negatives just to come to terms with what I’m feeling and express the emotions to get them off my chest. I’ve never felt like Biggie did on this track, and it’s sad to hear he had suicidal thoughts of course, but in my opinion, it’s mad inspiring and positive that he made a track about it, 100% way better than keeping the feelings inside and not speaking on it, and to be honest, without that inspiration I’m not sure if I ever would have been as vivid and honest with myself in how I write my own lyrics. I wanted to try and build on that emotional release in the beat I chose to remix this over, and really went all out on the low end to try and emphasize the weight of what he’s saying, and how hard it must have been to actually write and record too. Hopefully that shows in the remix, peace.

Here's the original mix of the beat for comparison: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/proud-to-be-alive

When I Die

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

Get out of there (jimmydeloops)

x _tillus.

Durchzug

doja

Daily Twist

As a result of his 2007 journey to New York and its aftermath, Dutch hiphop producer El Pres is releasing his debut vinyl Glenwood Hostel EP. The EP contains seven tracks of sample based beats, dope lyrics and turntable wizardry, featuring collaborations with New York underground mc's Nutso, Jak Danielz (Cold Heat), Starvin B, Creature (Rebelmatic) and former unsigned hype (Source Magazine) Marvalous. On the cuts you'll find multiple Dutch DMC champ and runner up DMC battle for World Supremacy 2005 Deejay Irie & fellow turntable virtuosi DJ Friss & DJ Milton.
Vinyl:
http://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/el-pres-glenwood-hostel-ep-259049
or
http://www.vinylism.de/el-pres-glenwood-hostel-ep.html
Download/support:
http://elpresbeats.bandcamp.com/album/glenwood-hostel-ep
Artwork: Wauter van der Loos

Movin

*** FREE DOWNLOAD*** "ON THE BLOCK" swissprecise feat. Sadat X- Jak Danielz- DJ JS-1- produced by: Johnny Walker… boombap hiphop...

ON THE BLOCK  swissprecise feat. Sadat X / Jak Danielz / DJ JS-1 prod by: Johnny Walker

Vice Vibe

https://smuffthaquiz.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.instagram.com/smuff.tha.quiz/

Smuff Tha Quiz - Yo

A collaboration with the nicest German producer @bonesthebeathead! Hope you enjoy!

Maple Syrup & Bones The Beat Head - Midnight Vibes

Planet Ragtime - Don't Lose Faith

The amazing production duo Jazz Spastiks aka The Slipmat Brothers rework the classic PENPALS track..enjoy!

https://jazzspastiks.bandcamp.com

STFU (Jazz Spastiks Remix)

getdis[$].

uknowhowwedo.

Available to download here 
https://jazzspastiks.bandcamp.com/album/made-for-the-underground-instrumentals

made for the underground

live & direct

STREAM NEW ALBUM

[TAPE] SUMMER WAVES VOL. I

yes indeedy

Fragile Ego

The Fragile Ego (feat. Masta Ace)

1st Single off the “PLOMO” album. 

Peace to Paranormal for the inspiration on this track.

My Street Blues (feat Paranormal)[PLOMO ALBUM]

Beats, cuts, mixing & mastering by Tapehead.
Vocals from 'When I Flow' Acapella by Walkin' Large, ft. Jeru The Damaja.

Youtube:
https://youtu.be/17VDUetILkg

This acapella is taken from one of my favourite songs, from a group who I think are mad underrated. I first heard it on a Stretch and Bobbito tape, and was blown away by it, from the lyrics to the production, everything was crazy, and Jeru's verse was mad too. The original beat is mad bass heavy, so as soon as I had the 2nd flip down I instantly thought of putting this acapella over it, because it just fit the vibe of the track too well, and I was really happy with the outcome.

The opening lyrics really hit me when I was working on this remix, so I decided to put them over the smoother intro, because the lines 'With all these sick influences from the world outside, I guess I have to be dead to be myself, and take a ride, to somewhere none of y'all can find me, sit beside me, cause I chose my brain to guide me', are a crazy introspective look on the world, and then as the harder, bass heavy beat hits, the song really starts, and knowledge gets dropped.

The 'Whatchu gonna do, when, I, flow' chorus isn't actually on the acapella, so I had to record that over my beat from the A side of the 12", turning the bass and treble down on my mixer so the drums weren't too loud. This ended up sounding really good, and I was able to have fun scratching the snare before the chorus dropped, which came out sounding mad nice in my opinion. I'm not good at scratching by any means but I love when I can incorporate it into my music, even if it's just a few cuts like in this track.

Sick Influences

BangZ - J.BoogZ Feat.Lil Willie(produced By Venxm)

Yellow Pages

Yogi

Pre-save

The ninth and last single from my upcoming album, House in the Vines! This beautiful track is featuring the lovely Mikyla Cara. This track is about the flood of thoughts that clog up your head sometimes. Different perspectives for a multitude of topics. It's how you handle this weight on your mentality that shows your resilience.

Live drums by Ross Robbins, saxophone by Ryan Tedder, mixed by Eon Zero, mastered by Mike Bozzi.

Writing, arrangement, production, bass, and vocals by yours truly.

Brief Messages (feat. Mikyla Cara)

Audio Technician

Bringin Back NY Rap (feat. BL-One & Jak Danielz)

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