Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/dont-sink-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Trouble In The Water Acapella' by De La Soul and DJ Honda

Visuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2auRPCFGxv0


I’ve been listening to a lot of disco recently, it started by digging through songs to sample but then I was just enjoying it so much I immersed myself in the genre for a bit. This beat samples a disco song, and originally when I first chopped and sequenced it, I pitched down the sample by -90 on the MPC (which is a lot), to make a really grimey sounding beat that I wanted to put this acapella over, because it fit the really melancholic vibe of the sample. However when I revisited the beat this week after listening to a lot of disco, I decided to completely change what I did; the sample sounded too distorted for how pitched down it was, and because of that it was basically impossible to mix it well. Whilst experimenting with how to fix it I decided to just do the inverse of what I’d done, and pitched the sample up by +90 on the MPC, and worked out completely new sequences for the melody and bassline. This made a way more upbeat track, but it still fit the trouble in the water acapella crazily, I think it works because De La Soul have always experimented and innovated beyond conventions, so this different approach fit their style well.

Because I pitched the sample up so much this was unbelievably long to mix, the high pitch gave it so much next resonance which was too harsh to listen to, so it was a real challenge to lessen that without losing all of the highs and making the track sound muddy, because that completely clashes with the vibe its going for. I think it came out OK, its definitely an interesting outcome, I’m not really sure how I feel about it. Also the record I took the acapella from is pretty beat up, which made this even harder to mix, there’s tons of vinyl crackle which sounds awful (especially on some S sounds in the vocal) and basically gave the vocals the same problem as the sample. I cleaned it up as best I could and I think they both sound good together, not too muddy etc, but I’m for sure going to buy a copy of the acapella in better condition in the future, and do a cleaner mix of this track, but for now I’m happy with how this turned out.

200th upload

Don't Sink

voyager
dresden waltz
the panic
nothing
aviary dreams

the panic (EP)

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

Outtake x DAM95 - Moscow Nights

[underneath]

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)

Repeter T  - Seedless

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/ways-of-the-world

I flipped this sample early March 2018, I’d just finished writing an essay for university about the Black Star track ‘Thieves In The Night’, and was just gassed in general. I’d chosen this module where I knew I’d be able to write about Hip Hop, and in my free time I was always making beats or listening to Hip Hop, so I felt completely immersed in the culture, and that feeling is definitely where this beat came from. I really felt like I’d gained a new understanding of the Black Star track which has always meant so much to me and makes me bug out every time hearing it, and I just felt like expressing that musically. The song is one of the maddest reflections on society and negative states of mind that trap people, so it was the introspective/melancholy vibe of the sample that made me know I wanted to flip it. I was also pretty set on putting this verse over it, there aren’t many Black Star verses out there, and at the time I didn’t have many 12” acapellas, and Deck’s lyrics fit perfectly with the mood.

I definitely rushed the original mix for this beat, at the time I made it the floppy drive on my MPC wasn’t working, so I couldn’t save beats and had to record a final mix out into audacity the same day I made them. The sample sounds nice but the drums aren’t layered very well and don’t really fit in the mix. Also the vocal is a bit quiet, so since I dropped it I’ve been a bit disappointed with it and wanted to rework it ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/life-is-hectic-2 ). It was such a nice sample that I got multiple flips out of it, I originally picked two for when I uploaded this remix, bringing the alternate flip in for the outro after Deck’s verse. For this rework I decided to try and combine them both together, using the main loop for the highs, and filtering the second loop as a bassline to layer under it, giving the track more variation without drastically changing the loop throughout Deck’s verse, which I tried when originally remixing this but it was too jarring. I think the two melodies work well together, it gives the beat an interesting vibe, and I think it works in adding subtle variation to the track. One night while I was working on this my brother was watching an episode of the Sopranos in another room, and I had soloed the beat without the C.R.E.A.M. verse to see how the bass levels sounded on speakers, and the dialogue of the scene was fitting mad well with the beat. I had to ask him what episode it was from, and ripped the audio from a clip on youtube to use as an outro at the end of the track, chopping out the dialogue which I thought was relevant to the track.

Peace and thank you to everyone who listens.

Ways Of The World (Instrumental)

Old Memory

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