Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Wherever You Are Acapella’ by Mic Geronimo 

Visuals: https://youtu.be/iHZ3EDYs3FU

This is the first new beat I’ve made from scratch this year, I heard the sample after I dropped last weeks remix, and immediately bugged out and worked out a rough flip of it to do the next day. Luckily I had the Monday off of work this week cause it was a bank holiday, so I was able properly make the beat and work out this remix then, and have been mixing it all week. I’m set on making way more new beats this year, and this one was definitely a nice positive start, the sample just had such a great vibe to it and an unbelievable bassline so I had to flip it, the vocals were crazy too I had to chop loads of it up to use throughout the track, definitely looking forward to dropping the instrumental for this one.

I’ve actually been wanting to remix this track by Mic Geronimo for a while, I’ve had the 12” with the acapella for a long time but never really felt like I had the right beat for it. As soon as I flipped this one though I had a feeling it would go well with this acapella, the heavy bassline and smooth feel to it fits the vibe of Mic Geronimo’s verses and style well I think, and his flow is so crazy it goes with the bassline and drums too well, got a proper fluid effortless feel. I’m definitely happy with how they ended up sounding together, and hope people like this one too: Peace!

Wherever You Are (Tapehead Remix)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6jtKz359ctl8zxPaiQFCGW?si=828111c60d2a4eef
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/freestyle-instrumental/1608496068?i=1608496069
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/freestyle-instrumental

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/freestyle

Both these piano melodies are flipped from the same sample. The first one is only 2 bars long: it's pretty rare that a beat is that short but when it is it's always got a super infectious vibe, cause it's gotta be crazy if it's getting looped that often. I wanted to layer that with the longer 4 bar loop to give the beat more depth, which actually ended up being really long to do, a lot of the frequencies and notes were clashing with each other, so I had to do a lot of EQing and filtering to get them to sit together.

Overall these beats 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. I remember when I flipped them I was bugging out just freestyling over them for ages, any piano beat with a hardcore edge will get me going for sure. To anyone who freestyles I hope these beats inspire some flows and ideas off the top: Peace!

Freestyle (Instrumental)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7jM2lCapewDIAfp2YdP3sl?si=2525429aeb35493e
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/stop-fakin-instrumental/1610689716?i=1610689718

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/stop-faking

I remember when I made this beat I was stuck for ages trying to flip the sample, I just couldn't get anything I liked out of it. What normally happens in these situations is I have to get creative and 're-do' the chops by chopping up what I'd already chopped up to flip, to try and flip it again essentially. The normally leads to more 'choppy' sounding beats, and that's definitely the case here. I do like the vibe of this one though, the vocal has a nice sound to it and the bass/keys are strong cause I pitched them down so the sound would last long enough to fill up the length of the loop. I always thought that frustration showed in the vibe and attitude of this beat, which is why I remixed 'Fakin' Jax' over it. 

Peace!

Stop Fakin' (Instrumental)

ghosted

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and scratches from ‘Cypha Session II’ by Vice Grip, Building Block, Herbal E Starchild, Phantasm, U.G and Lord Digga 

Visuals: https://youtu.be/mCMJeAoRu8Y

Apologies for the state of the vocals on this one, I know they’re too quiet but the acapella for this is so rough and full of unwanted resonance because I recorded it off my cassette tape copy of this freestyle which already has a very rough sound to it, and had to sacrifice quality to remove the bass and make it useable as an acapella. This is the outro freestyle from Volume 2 of the Underground Airplay cassette mixtapes from the 90s, which were given away as promotional items with Echo clothing and other Hip Hop related stuff, to put listeners onto underground up and coming artists. I was just way too gassed off the idea of remixing this freestyle, and personally I love the super grimey raw vibe it has, and wanted to really exaggerate and build on that in this remix, and this is as good as I could get the vocals sounding. Turning them up more causes problems because of the resonance on the high frequencies, but reducing them too much makes it sound too muffled, so I had to reach a happy medium which left me with a vocal which is a bit too quiet and a bit muffled, versus one which is too loud on the high end with too much resonance if that makes sense, cause that was really causing major problems in the mix. I knew this one would be long to mix and I’d have to make sacrifices, but for real the concept was too crazy to me, even with the beat just layered over these verses completely unmixed I was bugging out at the overall vibe and the way it was sounding. 

I’ve said this before but this raw, unfiltered pure Hip Hop vibe really resonates with me on a different level, I love making stuff that really pays tribute and captures that energy. These underground freestyles off the old Echo tapes are to me some of the best examples of that raw 90s Hip Hop flavour, they were the furthest thing from commercialisation and profit cause the tapes were actually being given away for free, so it was all about the artists showcasing their skills and talent on the mic. These beats have always felt like freestyle beats to me, especially the first one, which I always thought had a real grimey vibe when I originally made it and put a Nas acapella over it: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/the-paper-chase

I’ve been trying to use these beats in an updated remix for ages now, and I was way too gassed with how they fit the vibe of this freestyle, I was actually working on something else, and suddenly thought it would be crazy to remix this freestyle, and within an hour I had the concept completely laid down and I was bugging out, especially the way the drums came in hard after the last line, and the scratching came in. Like I said I knew it would be long to mix and I went for more of a rough raw vibe, but I’m just too happy to have come up with this idea and make it a reality. There are other cypher sessions from other tapes, so I’ll definitely be seeing if I can do something with them in the future, I’m crazily excited about that.

I hope people enjoy this one I’ve been way too excited about sharing it, thank you for listening and peace!

Cypher Session

Soulmates

yo this is a bonus beat not on the original night loops beattape

paths (night loops)

J Dilla - Track 20 (The 1996 Batch)

DJ Supa Dave & Tragedy Khadafi - Jesus H. Christ (Instrumental)

Mainly comprised of beats created in November.

Real

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