90 Bpm
Artwork by Pip Borthwick
Added vocals: Mos Def, Da Bushes Babees, Mic Geronimo, De La Soul

No way (Yes yo!)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/41IFWwfQmazoGRI0Uok0Fl?si=388814988411445d
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/lifetime-impression-instrumental/1585999527?i=1585999528

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lifetime-impression

I had to go all out when I mixed this beat. The drums are all layered so thick, there’s about 4 hi hats, 6 kicks, and 6 snares which are all mixed together to give the drums weight. The way I chopped this sample left some vocals in for split seconds, which sounded like scratches because of them being right at the end of a chop and cut off, like how a fader cuts out a scratch when the DJ spins a record back. I thought this sounded cool but it only happened once in each 2 bar loop of the sample, so I decided to add some of my own scratches from a few break records I have. I used ‘Super Seal’, and recorded some scratches of snares and the famous ‘yo’ sample at the BPM of the beat. Layered with the drums this sounded crazy to me, it gave the beat a different vibe, I’ve definitely said before how much I love how scratching sounds, and it was cool to incorporate it into this beat in a more permanent, less obvious way, not just something for the hook. I also layered the sample 3 times, 2 filters, one high one low, and a standard mix, which I layered, soloed etc throughout the track. This was unbelievably long to do without quantization (which is how I flipped the sample originally), so all 3 had to perfectly match each other, which took hours to sequence. I fully kept giving up but knew the beat needed the layers on the sample to really do it justice (especially the groove that’s added by filtering the lows), so I just stuck by it, and sequenced each chop individually, so I was hitting the pad at the exact right time, which ended up with the beat sequence being 30 tracks on the MPC (they’re usually 15 or so). It was definitely necessary to do this, because the contrast of the smooth flows of the low end to the scratches and samples really gives the track variation, and gives it a lot more presence throughout, definitely was worth the time and effort.

Peace!

Lifetime Impression (Instrumental)

Presenting Motions of Emotion a 5 Track EP by https://soundcloud.com/404sahmo & https://soundcloud.com/mrtreezuk 
Special thanks goes out to https://soundcloud.com/housenez on Vocals and also a massive thank you to Bruce Cameron on Saxaphone

https://open.spotify.com/album/4pvAZGSLzKZ21Rh0oeE7d0?si=QbAP_LyNS0qR5KQCs7dWRQ

01 404Sahmo & Mr.Treez - Pink Gators
02 404Sahmo & Mr.Treez(Feat HouseNez on Vocals)- This Must Be Heaven
03 404Sahmo & Mr.Treez (Feat Bruce Cameron on Sax) - Boom Nap
04 Mr.Treez - By The Boxes
05 404sahmo - Ephemeral Yoh

Motions Of Emotion - (404Sahmo & Mr Treez)

Unten

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)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7Fw2NljljTlUsvBscIWcKd?si=1ace99adafea4d53
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/ladies-instrumental/1597655032?i=1597655033

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/ladies

I remixed MF DOOM's acapella from 'My Favourite Ladies' when I made this beat, because the beat is mad emotional, using vocals (which are actually a mans but sped up) that kind of gave 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. It's always great when merging multiple elements of the same sample works out, it really fleshes the beat out and creates something new out of the sample, I really rate doing that as much as I can when producing. It took a long time to chop a melody that I rated from the vocals, cause I knew I had to make it work as a bassline, seeing as the piano had no real low end. Thinking ahead like this definitely helped this beat come together real nice though, and it's something I've really focused on doing when I make beats ever since.

Peace!

Ladies (Instrumental)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/0hgPKLvkDJjYT3QpQkBv0d?si=e640c12a34ad456f
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/who-the-is-you-instrumental/1606144794?i=1606144795
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/who-the-is-you

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

These beats were mad fun to make, they were actually done as a sample challenge with friends, it was a Japanese funk album (I'll be finding the sample for a beat breakdown for sure), and I took these chops from a song that stood out to me. Originally they sounded nothing like this though, I was trying to flip them at the normal pitch and it sounded OK, but I wasn't really happy with it, so I decided to try pitching it down. I experimented a bit and eventually decided to go crazy and pitched it down as far as the MPC would let me, which really brought out the bass of the sample and made it into something completely different, so I chopped it up again. I was then able to get these two flips out of it, and was very happy with the outcome, I love making heavy beats like this and 9 times out of 10 it's a result of pitching a sample down loads, like what Havoc did with Shook Ones Part 2. Really looking forward to doing a breakdown of this one to show what I mean, until then: peace!

Who The ? Is You (Instrumental)

Soulmates

NEUNZEHN

Miles DeVoe - Hey!

Calm Vibes

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

Ladies (Instrumental)

Tapehead

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