aderol

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/ways-of-the-world

I flipped this sample early March 2018, I’d just finished writing an essay for university about the Black Star track ‘Thieves In The Night’, and was just gassed in general. I’d chosen this module where I knew I’d be able to write about Hip Hop, and in my free time I was always making beats or listening to Hip Hop, so I felt completely immersed in the culture, and that feeling is definitely where this beat came from. I really felt like I’d gained a new understanding of the Black Star track which has always meant so much to me and makes me bug out every time hearing it, and I just felt like expressing that musically. The song is one of the maddest reflections on society and negative states of mind that trap people, so it was the introspective/melancholy vibe of the sample that made me know I wanted to flip it. I was also pretty set on putting this verse over it, there aren’t many Black Star verses out there, and at the time I didn’t have many 12” acapellas, and Deck’s lyrics fit perfectly with the mood.

I definitely rushed the original mix for this beat, at the time I made it the floppy drive on my MPC wasn’t working, so I couldn’t save beats and had to record a final mix out into audacity the same day I made them. The sample sounds nice but the drums aren’t layered very well and don’t really fit in the mix. Also the vocal is a bit quiet, so since I dropped it I’ve been a bit disappointed with it and wanted to rework it ( https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/life-is-hectic-2 ). It was such a nice sample that I got multiple flips out of it, I originally picked two for when I uploaded this remix, bringing the alternate flip in for the outro after Deck’s verse. For this rework I decided to try and combine them both together, using the main loop for the highs, and filtering the second loop as a bassline to layer under it, giving the track more variation without drastically changing the loop throughout Deck’s verse, which I tried when originally remixing this but it was too jarring. I think the two melodies work well together, it gives the beat an interesting vibe, and I think it works in adding subtle variation to the track. One night while I was working on this my brother was watching an episode of the Sopranos in another room, and I had soloed the beat without the C.R.E.A.M. verse to see how the bass levels sounded on speakers, and the dialogue of the scene was fitting mad well with the beat. I had to ask him what episode it was from, and ripped the audio from a clip on youtube to use as an outro at the end of the track, chopping out the dialogue which I thought was relevant to the track.

Peace and thank you to everyone who listens.

Ways Of The World (Instrumental)

灰色

Unten

Fers

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/0hgPKLvkDJjYT3QpQkBv0d?si=e640c12a34ad456f
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/who-the-is-you-instrumental/1606144794?i=1606144795
Bandcamp: https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/who-the-is-you

Instrumental for: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/who-the-is-you

These beats were mad fun to make, they were actually done as a sample challenge with friends, it was a Japanese funk album (I'll be finding the sample for a beat breakdown for sure), and I took these chops from a song that stood out to me. Originally they sounded nothing like this though, I was trying to flip them at the normal pitch and it sounded OK, but I wasn't really happy with it, so I decided to try pitching it down. I experimented a bit and eventually decided to go crazy and pitched it down as far as the MPC would let me, which really brought out the bass of the sample and made it into something completely different, so I chopped it up again. I was then able to get these two flips out of it, and was very happy with the outcome, I love making heavy beats like this and 9 times out of 10 it's a result of pitching a sample down loads, like what Havoc did with Shook Ones Part 2. Really looking forward to doing a breakdown of this one to show what I mean, until then: peace!

Who The ? Is You (Instrumental)

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals and scratches from ‘It’s On Acapella’ by Naughty By Nature

Visuals: https://youtu.be/23KpyhbQYfQ

I deliberately waited until the start of 2022 to make this beat. I found the sample a while ago and was crazily gassed off it, there was just so much potential for layers, basslines, vocal chops etc, and the energy was just too positive, exactly the kind of motivational feel which I thought would be dope to start the year off. I really wanted to take my time to flip it properly, I chopped it up into a crazy amount of pieces to get the flow right (which I’ll definitely be showing in a behind the beat video soon). The song is actually a love song talking about not being able to stop your feeling of love for someone, but I wanted to change that and only take the vocals about not stopping, that way it can be about anything really. For me it’s absolutely about making music and staying motivated with that, but it can be about whatever anyone’s passionate about really, as long as it’s true to you and what you love to do, then just about focusing, learning and staying dedicated. 

Because I’d been planning the beat in my head for so long it came together well and pretty much as I’d planned, but I never really thought about what acapella could work over it. It was definitely difficult at first cause I couldn’t really think of any songs which fit the upbeat vibe of this beat, I was initially trying Onyx acapellas cause their loud style kind of fit with the horns in the sample, but their voices and subject matter are always so grimey and hardcore sounding, which was a bit too much for this beat. It took a lot of trial and error and none of the acapellas I was trying sounded that good on the beat, for sure the flow was nice on a lot of them but it just didn’t match up the way I wanted. I just kept going and when I tried this Naughty By Nature acapella everything fell into place. It makes sense now, cause they have a very upbeat style similar to Onyx but more ‘friendly’ and less over the top, which is exactly what I thought would work well over the beat. Their flow has mad bounce to it too which fit the sample well especially the horn melody, and to top it off the scratching of ‘on and on’ for the hook fit the ‘can’t stop’ vocals from the sample perfectly. It’s dope when I think that I made this beat to express the feeling of staying motivated and dedicating yourself to something no matter what, and then had to do exactly that when I was working to find the right acapella for the remix. I guess it shows that it’s universal and constant really, that need to work never goes away, but in my opinion hard work and dedication will always pay off, and as long as you’re happy with what you made then you achieved something worthwhile for sure.

Peace!!

Can't Stop (It's On)

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)

SIDE A: DEELOVESAMY 0:00 - 17:30
SIDE B: ZACHEDELIC 17:30 - 35:40
https://soundcloud.com/deelovesamy
Me and dee worked on this album from March 2021 - January 2022

this is by far my most ambitious project and it might stay that way.

Shoutout to dee for being a real one. Dude is one of the coolest producers I've had the honor of meeting and talking to.

deelovesamy x zachedelic - AS THE SUN SETS [FULL ALBUM]

sleepless.

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

Wherever You Are (Tapehead Remix)

Tapehead

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