Yo. THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKIN ABOUT! ffs Thank you

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

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead.
Vocals from ‘The Love Song Remix Acapella’ by Da Bush Babees, Mos Def and De La Soul.

Visuals: https://youtu.be/JskhIFkB-Hk

This beat was LONG to flip, took me multiple days of working on it for 8+ hours until I was happy it. I’d sped up the sample on my turntable to flip it around 90 BPM (originally it must have been 70 something), and based on the way I chopped it, it was looping at around 94 BPM. It was just one of those samples where it was from a more freeform part of a song which wasn’t necessarily constricted by one BPM or time signature, so even though my chops were looping at 94 BPM, certain notes and areas were out of time, which just took absolutely ages to fix. Essentially I had to listen to the track over and over across several days, working out which chops were out of time, and then chopping them up into one, two or even three more pieces depending on the issue, so I could sequence it myself and slightly adjust the timing to match the BPM and time signature of how I wanted to flip it. It was definitely worth it in the end, I was really happy with how the beat turned out. 

After the length of time it took to flip this beat I was mad grateful that the first acapella I tried over the beat was this one, I had a feeling it would match the tone of the sample. I have no real knowledge of music theory, so it’s always a nice surprise when the key of an acapella happens to be the same as a sample I flip for a beat. This is definitely the best that’s ever come together for me, it feels like every note Mos Def hits in the chorus is in key with the note of the chop which is playing in that moment, I’m just glad I happened to buy the record with this acapella a few days before I sat down to mix and master this beat, which kept it in my mind as a possibility to remix. I think it came together really well, as well as the acapella matching the beat tonally, I think the whole atmosphere, vibe and lyrical content that Mos Def went for perfectly blends with the beat, making it sound a bit less like a remix and more like an original song, which is always mad.

I’m also too happy with how the visuals turned out. There isn’t a video for the remix of The Love Song, so I initially tried using the video to the original, but it didn’t really fit because Mos Def actually spits a completely different chorus in that. This forced me to be more creative, and I was just watching other Mos Def music videos on mute with my beat in the background, seeing which ones fit the vibe best. I ended up choosing the visuals from UMI Says, which I chopped up in Davinci Resolve to play over my remix in a way that made sense. I think this really leveled up the visuals, its mad how well they both work together, but it does make a lot of sense given the themes of both tracks, I’m just happy to have been able to put this together.

Love

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Passin’ Me By Acapella’ by The Pharcyde

Youtube: https://youtu.be/4Tkr1jGNXPo

The first time I heard this track was on a Stretch and Bobbito show from ’92, where Stretch blended this acapella over the beat to ‘Bonita Applebum’ by A Tribe Called Quest. Straight away back then I knew this was a crazy acapella, because it sounded absolutely mad over that beat. Both originals are great, but the fact that this acapella fit so well over a Tribe beat made me know it was on a high level both rhythmically and in terms of the delivery and tone of the whole track. This is my first time remixing this acapella, and I definitely won’t be doing it again for a while, I can’t believe how well it fits over this beat. 

It’s always fun to make a beat like this, the chops are all in-between vocals, so there’s a real nice quality to how they then mesh together, with the start and end of the vocals sometimes leaking into the chops. I took chops from two versions of a similar melody, one toward the start of the song where the singer is accompanied by piano keys, and a later version when some strings come in on top of the piano as the verse builds up. I chopped each version of the melody up into similar pieces, and then combined them together into a 4 bar where I was trying to take the best of each, and create something that built in the same way the original song did, just in a much more compact melody. Because the beat was made using a love song, I had a feeling that the Pharcyde acapella might work over it. It’s just always a gamble about whether the key of the sample will match the key of an acapella like this, and I’m just too glad it matched it perfectly. 

Because of how well the acapella fit the sample I was determined to go hard on the drums, I really wanted them to have that hardcore feel without overpowering the sample, so I kept them punchy and hard hitting. I added this kick layered with some kind of wood block sound, which reminded me of the sample from the original track, which I think helps make this remix more convincing. Also, these verses are so jokes to me, the acapella has this mad infectious vibe: it’s such a relatable track which has fully stood the test of time, timeless really. I hope people enjoy this one, I’ve been bugging out over it all week.

Passin'

//<3

Barney Kessel - A Foggy Day
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Take You There

Gonna try to put together an album for the summer y'all

glamour

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Shook Ones Part II Acapella’ by Mobb Deep

Visuals: https://youtu.be/zza4wbCAarY
Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/my-mind-is-old-instrumental

I bugged out crazily when I first made this beat, I couldn’t believe the loop I flipped and was just vibing out, sending snippets to all my close friends who are into Hip Hop. Because of this I really really rushed mixing it, I just wanted to get it saved on my computer and in retrospect, I’ve always been really unhappy with how it sounded. The main problem for me was the high frequencies, which I thought were too loud and ruined the other parts of the mix, which was a shame. At the time I didn’t notice it too much but something definitely sounded off, but I’ve learnt a lot since then and I’ve been wanting to improve the mix on this beat for a while. There’s only so much you can do with a bad mix (I never actually saved the beat cause my MPC disk drive was broken back then) so it’s been pretty difficult to get this beat sounding how I would have liked it to, but I think it sounds a lot better than it did. 

Here’s the original for comparison: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/my-mind-is-old

Peace

My Mind Is Old (Remastered)

Fami

https://nicktruant.bandcamp.com/album/7th-batch-dream-emulation
https://open.spotify.com/album/68nkqqy67nxFsBg2ns92fR

7th Batch (Dream Emulation)

Fers

CALEDONIA

In here

just beats. 
available on streaming platforms on the 25th of september

absent minded. (full tape)

Dedicated to Josie, 30/12/2019.

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/never-give-it-up-instrumental

This day last year my Dad’s Mum passed away. I’ve been sitting on this beat for a while, and I’d like to release it today in her memory. Losing her was hard for the whole family, she was a genuine, kind, good hearted person, and was close with all of us. The weeks between her death and the funeral were all about being there for each other and coming to terms with what had happened. The funeral was emotional, of course, but for me it was overall a positive experience. In celebrating her life I was filled with a different kind of energy that motivated me to live mine to the fullest potential. I wanted to honour her memory and make her proud, knowing that she wouldn’t have wanted me being depressed and not caring for myself; I was completely motivated to do my absolute best to live my life better than I ever had before, and have been ever since. This translated into every aspect of my life, my focus on university work strengthened and my attitude to health and fitness completely changed. (I’d been going to the gym in December 2019 but it wasn’t until January 2020 when I started to really push myself and make some progress). This motivation obviously included making music to the best of my ability, doing what I loved, which she always emphasised as the most important parts of life.

When I revisited this beat in November 2020, I realised how similar its musical energy is to what I just described, that feeling of being truly motivated to never give up and reach your full potential is exactly what I felt I had experienced. When I made this beat in May 2019, I was ridiculously gassed off the energy of the sample when I flipped it. Although the sample is from a love song, with the vocals saying ‘Never gonna give you up’, I tried to chop it so the ‘you’ sounded like ‘it’, cause I was really trying to capture the idea and energy of never giving music up in a beat, and I think I achieved that. The whole atmosphere when I made this beat felt like a massive emotional celebration of music and my passion for it. Because of that, I immediately thought it would make sense to put O.C’s Born 2 Live acapella over the beat, as the celebratory aspect of the beat merged with O.C’s verse about death and grief perfectly captures my motivation to honour my Nan, and I just thought the two merged together would encapsulate that feeling well. When I had the acapella blended over the beat I was too excited, knowing it was the one for the beat, and didn’t even consider any other acapellas at all. It’s nice to finally release this beat after sitting on it for so long, but I’m glad I was able to make this with it, and I hope that it might tap into similar feelings that other people may have concerning loss and grief, showing how it can motivate you to honour those you’ve lost, and do them proud.

Rest in Peace
Josephine Wilson
1934-2019

Never Give It Up

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

Love

Tapehead

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