Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2eI0R64DEMhcDjDJSOC88Y?si=2c70467dd1eb46a9
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/scars-instrumental/1579972136?i=1579972137

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/artifacts-chat

This is a rework of the first beat I ever recorded a song over back in December 2017( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/scars ). Recording over this beat back in 2017 was a huge moment in my life, in terms of working out what I really wanted and who I wanted to be. I was bugging back then, but that experience opened a lot of doors mentally, and helped me rediscover a passion which I was losing. This beat was actually really difficult to remix and remaster, the levels on the original flip are really really bad so it took a lot of work to get it to fit with the sound of my newer drums, which are mixed in a very different way. I think it paid off though and I’m a lot happier with how the beat sounds, especially the way I layered the sample in the chorus to give the track a bit more variation, because it is just a 2-bar loop, so I decided to filter it for most of the track and bring in the highs occasionally, so the loop didn’t get boring.

Peace.

Scars (Instrumental)

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

hotbox

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/stop-fakin-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'Fakin' Jax Acapella' by Pete Rock and INI

Visuals: https://youtu.be/KVoufTJXd1M

When I originally came up with the concept for this remix I called it 'deceiving, achieving nothing', which I still think is the hardest hitting line for sure. This might be my favourite verse Pete Rock has done as an emcee to be honest, his lines are just mad creative here. 

I switched the name up to Stop Faking just cause it sums up the whole vibe of the track better, this track never feels like an angry one to me, INI always have that laid back style which fits Pete Rock's jazz heavy production, and on this track they sound more fed up then anything with all the artists faking, but again not in an annoyed way, more like they're saying it's plain to see, why even front and fake when it's that obvious. That's the aspect of this track which I rate the most personally, and wanted to bring that out in this remix. 

Peace!!

Original version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/deceiving-achieving-nothing

Stop Fakin'

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide Acapella’ by Gravediggaz

Visuals: https://youtu.be/Jf33L2Lxoas

So many people picked up on the Halloween vibes of this beat when I dropped the instrumental, so since then I’ve been working on a Gravediggaz remix to drop before the 31st, cause their style just fits that perfectly. I didn’t have this acapella record when I first made the beat so I never thought to use it, and I’m definitely glad to have it now. There aren’t many acapellas out there from their first album (this might be the only one) and to me that’s their best horrorcore sounding album lyrically, they were in their own zone making that one for sure, and I always play it loads this time of year. To be honest my favourite track off the album is ‘Graveyard Chamber’, it’s just got that underground hardcore vibe on lock, and that’s exactly the kind of Hip Hop that I was tapping into when I made this beat. Also I’d argue that the album has one of, if not the best outro from a 90s Hip Hop album, it’s just ridiculous and I’m always looking forward to it when I hear the album, and then once it’s over it just makes me want to replay the whole album again.

Original remix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/sparkin-on-the-mic

I made this beat 2 years ago now in late October 2019. I'd picked up a generic record compilation of music from films at a charity shop for 50p on the off chance that there would be something dope on there. Most of the record had nothing that stood out to me and was really hectic classic music with no sampling potential, and it was a bit frustrating, because I'd spent a few hours listening to records for samples. Then for a brief moment there was a pause in this rhapsody, and these really dark and menacing bass notes played for a few seconds as a bridge, and they instantly stood out to me so I sampled them into the MPC2000. I guess being frustrated with not finding a sample brought out an aggressive nature in this beat, it made me think of the soundtrack to Jaws or something in how sinister and angry the beat sounded. It was late October too so maybe it being near Halloween inspired the evil sound of the beat too. I was happy with the loop of the bass heavy string notes, and I layered the best piano notes from the rhapsody ontop, which added a lot to the beat and made it a lot more engaging.

Overall this is one of those beats that was born out of frustration, but once I actually had the samples on the MPC it was very simple to make, and it didn't take long to get to the finished product, which I was very happy with as it's always fun to make a really grimey hardcore sounding beat. I still do rate what I was going for the remix of Mad Izm over this beat, but I’ve learned a lot about mixing since then, and I think this remix is mixed a lot better, as well as Gravediggaz making more logical sense over the beat. I layered more drums here and layered the sample to give it more bass, I just wanted the melody to hit as hard as possible without clipping, which was actually difficult cause of all the different tracks. I do think the mix is a lot better now, it’s nice to improve more recent beats because there’s normally only a few things that need touching up, and with this one I feel like I’ve got a convincing remix here that does the sample justice and feels like something Gravediggaz might have hopped on. Also when I loaded this beat up on the MPC to rerecord the sample, I found a different flip of the piano I chopped from the rhapsody which I completely forgot about and never ended up using, so I decided to use it here as a little switchup at the end for RZA’s bonus verse.

Hope people enjoy this one in time for Halloween, next week’s upload on the 31st is going to be a tribute and celebration of MF DOOM. I rarely know what I’m uploading that far in advance, but I’ve been planning this one for a while now. Until then, peace!!

Nowhere To Run

[Come On]

Stillness (Prod by Mr Treez & InfiniteT )

nevaturnback'

[Coast2Coast]

"I am not defeated, and I will hold my ground."

D.I.T.C. - Day One (Phat Tape Remix)

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