Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/watch-me-speak-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from 'One Love' acapella by Nas
Visuals: https://youtu.be/teRpSeR39VE

As soon as I’d flipped this sample I knew I was putting One Love over it. I started spitting the verses in my head and was just bugging out. In my opinion, the song is one of the greatest ever written, and this verse is probably the best minute and a half of Illmatic for me. When I first heard the song it really changed my perspective on what music could be, and over the years different aspects of Nas’s verse continue to stand out to me, what he’s talking about is ridiculously layered and complex, and the way it's done is crazily profound it's just mad. I actually wrote an essay on this song a few years ago at university, and for my research I read ‘One Love, Two Brothers, Three Verses’ by Michael Eric Dyson from the book Born To Use Mics, Reading Nas’s Illmatic, who writes “at the heart of Nas’s description is a veiled lament of the illicit lifestyle that snares young lives, not a boast of the drug seller’s gain or glory.” This is what makes the song so powerful to me, and combined with the fact that the song is structured as a letter Nas is sending to someone in prison who is powerless to do anything to change the situation just adds so much to the atmosphere and attitude of the song. Nas is speaking on how things are in the most serious, compelling and tragic way is what I’m trying to say, and its always resonated with me crazily. 

It’s a blessing to be able remix this verse, I really am thankful that the acapella was released on the official 12”. I’ve remixed One Love a few times but I’ve only remixed the 3rd verse one other time, I’m always conscious about having to do it justice. This beat’s atmosphere got me too excited though, I think it matches the seriousness of what Nas is talking about, and I only tend to put this acapella over beats with emotion. Making this beat I was completely going off of the emotion in the sample, it was actually ridiculously long to flip because I was cutting different parts of one song together. The first 2 bar loop came to me pretty quickly but it took ages to work out the next 2 bars, because I was cutting different sections of the song together, so I had to find notes that made sense with the ones I had already flipped, and continued the melody in a way that made sense musically. It took a long time but I gradually worked it out through trial and error, and I was unbelievably gassed with the melody before I had even added drums to it, which is always a good sign. The loop reminded me of the time I made the beat for Night Time Writing, almost 3 years ago now. That was also a very emotional sample, and the feeling I got when I made that beat is exactly how I felt when I put this one together, like I conveyed the exact emotion through the chops that I wanted. Overall I’m just ridiculously happy with how this beat came out, I put my whole soul into this one, and it was worth all the time and effort for sure.

Peace.

Watch Me Speak

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