Man that sample goes great with the beat. You making great choices for the creation of these songs/beats as always.

got this on repeat at work. this is to nice man!

Absolutely love the vibe of your Songs❤🔥 Keep it up my man! 

@mcspike1 thanks g! I cant remember the sample, I had it saved in a youtube playlist but the track got deleted sadly, it was an old soul 45 

OC sounds so nostalgic this track is perfect for it

Tapehead

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

Welcome To The Bronx

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: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/guitar-swing-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Hail Mary Acapella’ by 2pac and The Outlawz

Visuals: https://youtu.be/-1YU8xoWj7U

I vividly remember making this beat, I’d probably been producing for about 3 months, and was showing someone who was getting into old school hip hop how the beats are produced etc. I was tryna make a simple beat so it would be quick and not too time consuming, to clearly demonstrate the process without spending too long chopping up samples etc. This guitar sample instantly stood out to me, and I chopped it up and made this 2 bar loop instantly, the whole process of flipping the beat defo took under 30 minutes which is crazy quick for me. It’s always fun when beats just turn out naturally like that, cause to me it shows how pure the inspiration is from the sample, and the result is as organic as possible.

Originally I had Havoc’s verse from Hell On Earth over this beat, but seeing as I remixed that recently I thought I’d try something different. I haven’t remixed Tupac vocals that often, and I thought his voice and style would fit this beat, the sample has a west coast kind of feel to it, even if the drums are NY boom bap sounding. 

Peace and thanks for listening! Really appreciate all the feedback and support I've been getting.

Hail Mary

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Meat Grinder Acapella’, ‘Raedawn Acapella’, and ‘The Time We Faced Doom’ by MF DOOM/Viktor Vaughn

Visuals: https://youtu.be/9BO7hPGEwj8

I can’t think of anything to say about DOOM that hasn’t been said before, all I can do is thank him for inspiring me and countless others. There’s no doubt that I would never have thought about making music if I hadn’t heard his work, the way he approached Hip Hop was so unique and interesting, it really made it clear that anyone can do music if they want, no need to feel constricted by ‘rules’ or trends or anything, just do your own thing. Ontop of that, his workrate was crazily inspiring to me, I just couldn’t believe the amount of music he had out under different names, a lot of it released really close together too. When I first discovered DOOM and really looked into his discography I must have almost exclusively listened to his music for a year, it was that crazy to me and there really is that much of it ( I also was playing a lot of MF GRIMM, Quasimoto and Monsta Island Czars as a part of looking into artists he was affiliated with). 

I reworked these beats this time last year and just dropped that instrumental, but I’ve learnt a lot since then about mixing and mastering, so I thought I could improve on it a lot after relistening. The main thing that made me sure I wanted to use these beats though, was the way both creepshow flips blended together when I layered them, cause I knew it would elevate the potential of this remix, which I always thought was solid conceptually, cause DOOM really fits the comic style of the creepshow sample well. When I first made the beat years ago I had Meat Grinder over it, then when I reworked it I changed it to a Viktor Vaughn acapella, so for this upload I wanted to combine the two, updating the Meat Grinder remix and then having Viktor Vaughn over the switch up. What got me the most excited though was how I managed to fit ‘The Time We Faced Doom’ over the beat at the end, seeing as that’s the intro to my personal favourite MF DOOM album, it felt like a nice way to end this tribute.

Here's the older versions for comparison:
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/change-the-beat-creepshow-mix
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/meat-grinder

Really hope people enjoy this one, all I’m trying to do here is honour DOOM as an artist and pay respect to the music he made, and just show how much he always has, and continues to inspire me.

Peace

DOOMSDAY

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/dont-mind-me-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Money Folder Acapella’ by MF DOOM

Visuals: https://youtu.be/a81-toGlUWk

Back when I first flipped this sample I put the acapella from ‘Strange Ways’ over it cause I thought the beat fit DOOM’s style. Looking back though it’s clear that the vibe of the beat doesn’t really fit what DOOM’s talking about on that track, so I switched up my approach for this rework. I thought ‘Money Folder’ fit it way better, DOOM has a sort of carefree attitude on that track which I think goes with the beat, has a sort of go with the flow kind of vibe. I’ve been wanting to make this one for a long time now, I actually first put the Money Folder Acapella over this beat at the very start of the year when I was working on my first DOOM tribute track, and then left it for time as a rough concept idea. Now after spending this year really dedicating myself to music, I felt crazily motivated to revisit this idea and do it justice. I really am too grateful and humbled by all the support I’ve been getting throughout the year, and I’m now more than dedicated to keeping on and growing/improving as much as I can. To me this beat gives of that vibe of contentment and focus: knowing what you want to do and being in a blessed place doing it. It makes sense to me that I set up the ideas for this remix at the start of the year with that focus and grind to music in mind, and am now revisiting and releasing it after spending the year doing what I set out to do, if that makes sense. 

Peace and thank you for all the support and feedback, hope people enjoy the vibe of this one!

Original version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/same-game

Don't Mind Me

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

Falling

antidepressants

MPC broke in the middle of making this beat lol

Rockin Slow'

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/just-step-instrumental

Youtube:
https://youtu.be/ujNhTlYls4A

This acapella is stupid difficult to blend over beats (probably because it was never recorded over a beat), I've tried to remix this a few times but always found it too frustrating and gave up. I was really feeling how Big Noyd's verse sounded over these drums though, so I persevered and did my best to blend the vocals over the beat.  I always thought these verses were really dope and I'm happy to have put a beat to them.

This is the best take I got, with one obvious slow down on the vinyl during Prodigy's outro verse. I definitely won't be remixing this again for a while, but I'm glad to have finally done one.

Just Step

Instrumental out now on Spotify and other streaming services:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4HXXXVWoRG9ubvDXklIvzs?si=fbfd3fedb20b446f&nd=1
https://music.apple.com/us/album/just-zone-instrumental-instrumental-single/1578517704?uo=4&app=apple+music

Remixed and Remastered.

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/just-zone-instrumental

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krt3oKLg0-I&lc=Ugzs4B0w07jS99VzL8Z4AaABAg

Original upload (2018):
https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/just-zone

Memories of making this beat are mad vague and hazy. It was either late 2016 or early 2017, and I was too excited over the sample. Being a very old beat the drums were terribly done, so I've added news drums and balanced out the levels on the sample a bit better.

I've always loved how the Shootouts acapella sounds over this beat, especially this verse, so I've kept that the same, but added the chorus at the start and the end of the track. I don't know why I didn't use the chorus before, because it sounds dope, but then again I was bugging back then. The decision to put Shootouts over this beat was a dope one though, and I'm glad I've got the track to a place where it now sounds a lot better.

Peace.

Just Zone

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

Ahed

fresssssshshshsshshshshhshshshhshshshshshshshshsshshshshhshshshsssssss

emptystreets'

Just a chill Lo-fi Hip-Hop beat, hope you will like it...
Here is the link to my YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS8i13zy65sUVltMpA2KbGQ/videos
And come follow me on Instagram ! : https://www.instagram.com/smogzz.prod/

Looper Sprinter

Real honesty
Honest life = Not sold out

Not I don't tell a lie honesty

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

Never Give It Up

Tapehead

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