chicago ost

Tapehead

✯𝕭𝖆𝖉𝖀𝖌𝖑𝖞✯

MF DOOM Remix Album Out Now: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

How I made this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksFaqiPbBLs

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

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘My Favourite Ladies Acapella’ by MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/Vd0ugttJjbs

Remixing DOOM is so bittersweet these days. It always hits me so hard how talented he was, and the dedication to music just shows so clearly in his verses, it’s hard to describe but I always get goosebumps, like I can hear his soul and passion in the rhymes. It really is an honour to be able to use this verse for a remix, I’m too grateful for being able to put my own spin on them, the subject matter really resonates with me, and I really wanted to remix this track with my own perspective on ‘ladies’ in mind. Even though he’s clearly having fun with the metaphor on this track, a lot of the lines are mad deep and have a proper realism to them, so I wanted to try and really bring that out in this remix. What DOOM’s talking about is deep at the end of the day, a relationship with drugs is a serious topic and in this generation, I’d say it’s widespread, and to be honest I see it as completely endemic of being unable to face reality and it’s problems, and trying to escape them, choosing an easy route that only keeps you trapped and crushes ambition. That’s just my outlook though, but I really hear that pain and sorrow in DOOM’s verses, and I wanted to build on that and bring it out more by making the beat mad emotional, using vocals (which are actually a mans but sped up) that kind of give 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. Overall I’m pretty gassed with what I made here, it’s really different to the original track but I’m happy with that, I just wanted to tap into what I rate and hear in the verses and build on that, which I think I did here.

Peace

Ladies

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

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

Notorious B.I.G - Big Poppa

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

Maple Syrup & Bones The Beat Head - Midnight Vibes

Lethal Injection

You Know How We Do It (Remastered 2003)

MM..FOOD

Rapp Snitch Knishes (feat. Mr. Fantastik)

Mz Boom Bap X Large Pro - Hip Hop Hardcore

Ready to Die

Gimme the Loot (2005 Remaster)

getdis[$].

uknowhowwedo.

"This is a song demo that Gil Cang  and James Mcmillan and Maryanne Morgan wrote with Amy back in the day" 
(Released by GilCang's YouTube channel)

Lyrics : 

I’ve never been in love before
Such a foolish thing to be 
Seems to me the price is high
So I’ll keep my own company
And I’ll do what I want 
When I feel

Watch them fall so easily
Temporary insanity
Some say that true love is blind
Me I like to clarify
While I 
I just take 
My own time
And I 

I’ll go my own way 
I walk when I wanna 
Talk talk when I wanna
Finding my own way
I walk when I wanna talk talk 
When I wanna

Seems to be illogical
Love that’s unconditional
Give your heart to someone else
But save a little for your self
That’s why I’m 
I’m taking my own time
And I 

I’ll go my own way
I walk when I wanna 
Talk talk when I wanna
Finding my own way
I walk when I wanna
Talk talk when I wanna

Don’t get me wrong 
It’s kinda cynical
But it scares though
So I’m careful with my heart
It’s the only one I got
I cannot 
commit to that shit

Ill talk when I wanna
Finding my own way
I walk when I wanna
Talk talk when I wanna
I’ll go my own way
And I’ll walk when I wanna and tell u
When I wanna
My own way my own way
When I wanna when I wanna

Amy Winehouse - My Own Way (song demo)

STREAM NEW ALBUM

[TAPE] SUMMER WAVES VOL. I

Yoooo 200K streams thank you all!!!!!

Debut Album Out April 26th!! https://linktr.ee/tapeheadlinks

50 Cent Remix Album: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-remixes-50-full-album

MF DOOM Remix Album: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/doomsday-tribute-tapehead-remixes-full-album

Full Length Crime Side Album Out Now! https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-enter-the-crime-side-36-chambers-remixes-full-album

Extended Version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-extended-mix
Crime Side Remix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/tapehead-crime-side-remix

Behind the scenes of how I made this beat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOv3jo2zljI

Thank you so much for 100K streams: happy to say that the instrumental is now out on Spotify (and other streaming services):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E7XrsH9croPa5CCiRy0DB?si=e9841bdf0b7a4d96
https://music.apple.com/us/album/crime-side-instrumental-instrumental-single/1577843527?uo=4&app=apple+music

Beat by Tapehead
Vocals from 'C.R.E.A.M.' acapella by Wu-Tang Clan

Instrumental now available:

https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/crime-side-instrumental

Crime Side

yes indeedy

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