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

voyager
dresden waltz
the panic
nothing
aviary dreams

the panic (EP)

Moving Slow

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Remixed and Remastered

Vocals from 'Slaughtahouse Remix Acapella' by Masta Ace Incorporated

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/get-the-chills-instrumental
Visuals: https://youtu.be/v9WITrpsSZ8

Slaughtahouse by Masta Ace Incorporated is in my top 5 LPs of all time and is in my opinion the most criminally underrated 90s Hip Hop album. It did take a few listens to grow on me, but it has such a unique style that just hits ridiculously hard now, every time I play it I enjoy it more and get just as gassed off different lines and moments. I think it’s one of those albums where there’s no one song that you can listen to on it’s own, the whole thing hits so much harder when you listen to the album in full, which to me is what I go to music for as I love playing an album all the way through and hearing how one track leads into the next and builds on a theme etc. It sounds even crazier on tape, the drums knock so hard I don’t even understand it, and it was a huge influence on my production style when it comes to the focus on having layered, heavy hitting drums. I really focused on that in this remix, going crazy on the drum layering and trying to make the beat really rugged in a way that fits the style of this track. The original drop into Ace’s verse is so hard after the parody intro, which isn’t available on the acapella, so I just went straight into the hardcore style with bass heavy drums. The message and outlook of this track was so ahead of it’s time its crazy, and I’m in the process of getting the Masta Ace Acapella LP to do a full EP of remixes like this in the future, with that real rough and rugged hardcore sound that makes me love that album so much, it definitely deserves the tribute and respect.

Original uploads: 
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/suckas-get-the-chills
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/too-many

Get The Chills

Light

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)

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/my-mind-is-old-remastered

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 (Instrumental)

Old Memory

untitled beat [lo-fi gems and throwaways]

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

4-Track Beattape by

@jesus-ander - Opas (Track 2, 4)
@earfluvv (Track 1, 3)

Opas x earfluvv - Crossings on the moon

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

My Mind Is Old (Remastered)

Tapehead

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