Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/when-i-die-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Suicidal Thoughts Acapella’ by The Notorious B.I.G.

Visuals: https://youtu.be/P6gDNFEKKKc
 
I don’t think I’ve actually ever remixed this acapella before, it’s such a serious verse and subject matter so I’ve always been hesitant about working with it cause I wouldn’t want to do something that didn’t work. I had a few other beats that I was trying this verse over, all of them were sad piano melodies, but I felt like this one fit the acapella best. Originally I don’t think the beat was super sad, I actually originally made it to celebrate finishing a coursework deadline, but I pitched it down to fit the tone of Biggie’s vocals better, and with this verse ontop it really brought out the sadder side to the melody I flipped for the beat. 

I remember when I first heard this track when I was younger it sounded pretty over the top, and I didn’t really understand what made it so powerful, but it was definitely hard to listen to. Now I’m older the track still stands out, but I get why Biggie made it, and it for sure wasn’t to be shocking or over the top, you can tell he was just using lyrics and spitting as therapy to the fullest, really going deep on it. That’s something I can relate to crazily, whenever I write lyrics I’m always looking at the negatives just to come to terms with what I’m feeling and express the emotions to get them off my chest. I’ve never felt like Biggie did on this track, and it’s sad to hear he had suicidal thoughts of course, but in my opinion, it’s mad inspiring and positive that he made a track about it, 100% way better than keeping the feelings inside and not speaking on it, and to be honest, without that inspiration I’m not sure if I ever would have been as vivid and honest with myself in how I write my own lyrics. I wanted to try and build on that emotional release in the beat I chose to remix this over, and really went all out on the low end to try and emphasize the weight of what he’s saying, and how hard it must have been to actually write and record too. Hopefully that shows in the remix, peace.

Here's the original mix of the beat for comparison: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/proud-to-be-alive

When I Die

This is a collab track I did with my man Devaloop. 
He made these sick ass drums and I tried to do sample some piano and brass stuff. 

Devaloop X AK420 - Johnny Grit

VISIONS

Vinyl--> http://www.vinyl-digital.com/Hip-Hop-Rap/Cloudfiles-Extended-Edition.html?listtype=search&searchparam=devaloop
Digital--> goo.gl/40E544
AK420:  https://soundcloud.com/akfourtwozero

Buy Vinyl

Flava For Your Mind (feat. AK420)

Alpha One

Follow @maartnbeats & @bennybenbeats

We are pleased to introduce you two representatives of the instrumental hip-hop scene straight from Belgium and Finland. Maartn and BennyBen have prepared 16 original boombap beats for your tape decks.

00:00 - 01:01 - bennyben - tko
01:01 - 02:33 - bennyben - beats that thump
01:50 - 03:15 - maartn - contagious
03:05 - 04:10 - maartn - flute 'em up
04:05 - 05:27 - maartn - to the sky
05:15 - 06:09 - maartn - moonlight companion
06:07 - 07:25 - bennyben - bbbrew
07:10 - 08:05 - bennyben - back to life
08:00 - 08:58 - bennyben - that awful sound
08:58 - 09:47 - maartn - peep it
09:44 - 10:45 - maartn - da tekneek
10:35 - 11:30 - bennyben - signals and impulses
11:20 - 12:44 - bennyben - gifted to be lifted
12:33 - 13:32 - maartn - the limit
13:20 - 14:39 - maartn - mountain melody
14:33 - 15:47 - bennyben - the chords of fate



Artwork by Ilya Gorev
www.ilyagorev.tumblr.com

www.facebook.com/drtybeauty
www.drtybeauty.bandcamp.com

Bandcamp

Maartn & BennyBen - Technical Knowledge (Cassette)

do it like dynamite

where.ever

I wonder what it would be like to travel to a parallel dimension?

Parallel Dimension

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/lifetime-impression-instrumental

Beat, scratches, cuts, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Visuals: https://youtu.be/zPoxbmlxVGA
Free Instrumental Download: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/lifetime-impression-instrumental

All We Got Iz Us is probably my favourite Onyx album, it doesn’t have a single weak track imo, the album is just mad motivating. I think its mad underrated too, obviously its fairly well known, but cause it came out in ’94 it’s definitely been a bit overshadowed by the insane amount of classic albums that came out that year. To me this album is a classic, one of my favourites from ’94 for sure. The singles are decently known for sure, Last Dayz being the most recognizable, but the whole album doesn’t seem to get as much love as the singles, and the whole project is a must listen to me. Putting the Evil Streets acapella over this beat was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I fully can’t believe how well the Onyx acapella fits, its truly nuts to me, and pretty rare that something comes together this well. I’m pretty sure the hook is ‘sung’ in the same key as the sample I flipped, and all the verses fit ridiculously well, but not just the flows, the voices sound right over the beat too. 

I had to go all out when I mixed this beat. The drums are all layered so thick, there’s about 4 hi hats, 6 kicks, and 6 snares which are all mixed together to give the drums a punch which definitely matches Onyx’s style. The way I chopped this sample left some vocals in for split seconds, which sounded like scratches because of them being right at the end of a chop and cut off, like how a fader cuts out a scratch when the DJ spins a record back. I thought this sounded cool but it only happened once in each 2 bar loop of the sample, so I decided to add some of my own scratches from a few break records I have. I used ‘Super Seal’, and recorded some scratches of snares and the famous ‘yo’ sample at the BPM of the beat. Layered with the drums this sounded crazy to me, it gave the beat a different vibe, I’ve definitely said before how much I love how scratching sounds, and it was cool to incorporate it into this beat in a more permanent, less obvious way, not just something for the hook. Normally I don’t like how censored acapellas sound over beats, but I think with this one it works, because of all of the scratches and cuts that play in the beat, it sort of makes the gaps in the verses make more sense as if the record was being cut up, and then sometimes the scratch/break fills up a gap left by a word being censored, it was definitely a part of what made this acapella work so well over the beat. I also layered the sample 3 times, 2 filters, one high one low, and a standard mix, which I layered, soloed etc throughout the track. This was unbelievably long to do without quantization (which is how I flipped the sample originally), so all 3 had to perfectly match each other, which took hours to sequence. I fully kept giving up but knew the beat needed the layers on the sample to really do it justice (especially the groove that’s added by filtering the lows), so I just stuck by it, and sequenced each chop individually, so I was hitting the pad at the exact right time, which ended up with the beat sequence being 30 tracks on the MPC (they’re usually 15 or so). It was definitely necessary to do this, because the contrast of the smooth flows of the low end to the scratches and samples really gives the track variation, and gives it a lot more presence throughout, definitely was worth the time and effort.

This is by far the happiest I’ve been with a remix in time, and it’s all positive, because making this has given me an unbelievable boost in energy music wise, and I’m mad excited to make the next beat, and now for the first time I’m equally as excited about mixing and mastering, because of what I was able to achieve with this one. 
Peace.

Lifetime Impression

Avaible on my remixes vol. 1 on bandcamp! Link in bio. 
88.0 Bpm
Added vocals: Big L/Nine 

Nas - It ain't hard 2 tell (Wéro 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

When I Die

Tapehead

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