Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/keep-it-real-like-that-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Move Ya Body Acapella’ by Mad Skillz
Scratches and cuts from ‘Paula’s Jam Acapella’ by Paula Perry

Visuals: https://youtu.be/7aAe5Z8HD8k

When I made this beat I was thinking that the acapella from ‘Paula’s Jam’ would fit over it and match the vibe. The flows and verses from Paula Perry didn’t fit the rhythm of the beat, but the scratches sounded nice for sure so I wanted to see if I could still use them. I was looking through the Mad Skillz records I have seeing as his vocals are used in the scratches that I wanted to remix, and it turned out I had the full acapella to the track ‘Move Ya Body’ which would have been where the producer for ‘Paula’s Jam’ took the cuts. To me it made perfect sense to remix the verses from Mad Skillz with the cuts, they went perfectly together for obvious reasons. The vibe of ‘Move Ya Body’ went well with this beat too, it definitely has a feel good vibe so I wanted the acapella to match that, and the verses really have a nice carefree vibe to them. 

There’s a lot of layers to this beat, there was so much good stuff in the sample I really wanted to capture the upbeat vibe and there was so much to use. I built it up gradually, started by working out the flip that plays from 0:31 when Skillz starts rapping, and then added more chops ontop that fit the more positive vibe ( 0:51 ) and then combined them both to give the track more weight. Cause of that I knew the drums had to hit hard otherwise they’d be drowned out by all the layers of the sample, so I chopped drums from Get Out Of My Life Woman, and went crazy on the layering to make sure they were on the same level as the sample and cut through the mix. One of the main things that stood out to me about this sample when I was digging was the ‘Don’t Cry’ vocals, made me think of J Dilla’s classic off Donuts straight away so I knew I had to chop them up to layer ontop of the beat. No doubt they’ll be playing a bigger part in the instrumental upload. 

Overall I’m definitely happy with how this turned out - hopefully people like the positive vibe, always feels good to make music with this sort of energy. Peace!

Keep It Real Like That

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