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always felt like freestyle beats to me, especially the first one, which I always thought had a real grimey vibe when I originally made it and put a Nas acapella over it: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/the-paper-chase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

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

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