Art remember

Japanese Hip Hop beat
Check out my Spotify! : https://open.spotify.com/artist/7CIy8DJbftLyQQo8yVQF8a
And my Instagram : https://open.spotify.com/artist/7CIy8DJbftLyQQo8yVQF8a

Fuji

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/real-hip-hop-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Real Hip Hop Acapella’ by Das EFX

Visuals: https://youtu.be/cUcr3d8acSs

This is a rework of a really old beat, and one of the first remixes I ever put together. I remember being very happy with how Das EFX sounded over this beat, and I’m glad it still fits listening back (just needed a lot of work mixing wise) but the concept was still dope to me. That’s definitely cause this is a bass heavy beat, and that fits Das EFX’s sound crazily well, they had some of the hardest hitting beats in the 90s for sure and their voices have this mad presence which to me always needs a hardcore sounding boom bap beat, I wouldn’t personally put them over a lofi beat for example. To me the dopest thing about them as artists is the energy they bring to the mic, the whole ‘diggity’ style was bitten so crazily throughout the 90s but only they can really pull it off without sounding corny, and it’s actually aged mad well in my opinion and still sounds great over a beat. 

I had to do a lot of work to sort out the mix on this sample, I was getting waved all the time when I flipped it, and was very inexperienced on the MPC, so I recorded it way too loud and there’s a ton of clipping to the bass sample because of that. I tried to fix it by having two tracks for the sample, one with all the highs filtered out which got rid of the clipping easy, and then one with no lows and a lot of EQ on the highs to try and get rid of the clipping. I think it came out pretty nice, and for sure way way better than the original mix, which is stupid rough cause of how waved and inexperienced I was back then. It’s always nice to improve on these early beats, really shows me that I have learnt a lot over these years of producing, and hopefully in a few more years I’ll feel the same looking back on these mixes. 

Original version: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/real-hip-hop

Peace!!

Real Hip Hop

Stream 'Atlas' : https://listen.hipdozer.com/atlas

1. Waterwalker 00:00
2. Seabeds 02:28
3. Bubbles 04:49
4. Deep Diving 06:42

Atlas

Stream

Tree60 - Atlas [Full EP]

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘One Mic Acapella’ by Nas

Visuals: https://youtu.be/H3ITC_LUFYI

This year I’ve been making sure I release a brand new beat every 2 weeks. I always have Wednesday off work so the way I’ve been doing this is I make the beat Wednesday, mix it the Wednesday after, and release it the week after that, making the next new beat the week I release the last new beat I made. I spend the 2 weeks between making new beats digging through samples to prepare and get an idea of what I might be making for the next one, and for this one I worked it out instantly. I was actually really struggling with what I was going to do because I hadn’t really found anything that was properly inspiring me, and I’d been pretty busy so I hadn’t had as much time to properly go through my unlistened records to see what I could find. On the Tuesday evening on the way home from work I put on a compilation of Jazz greats, and luckily there was a lot of traffic so I ended up listening to the whole thing. This sample was the 2nd last track, and as soon as I heard it I was gassed and after a few listens I’d worked out the rough areas I was going to chop up, and also immediately thought of putting ‘One Mic’ over it, cause I was hearing how I could layer and build up the sample in a way that would match what Nas does with his vocals on that track. This got me so motivated and the next day I was just set on making the idea a reality, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. This really feels like the beat was made for the vocals to me, and I guess in essence it was, because all the time when I was making it I was thinking about this acapella and how it would flow over it. A lot of the time it’s difficult to know what acapella would work for a remix straight away, so times like this are dope for creating something really convincing and concise. 
I also thought it was funny how I sampled from a song about ‘Mrs Jones’ with the intention of remixing One Mic, seeing as Jones is Nas’ real surname, I only just realised that now, maybe that subconsciously made me think of Nas acapellas straight away when I was listening to the sample.

I really hope people enjoy this one, I’ve been really excited to share it, and I’m way too excited about the next one which I made this week – Peace!!

One Mic (Tapehead Remix)

[check it]

Instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/keep-it-real-like-that-instrumental

Beat, mixing and mastering by Tapehead
Vocals from ‘Move Ya Body Acapella’ by Mad Skillz
Scratches and cuts from ‘Paula’s Jam Acapella’ by Paula Perry

Visuals: https://youtu.be/7aAe5Z8HD8k

When I made this beat I was thinking that the acapella from ‘Paula’s Jam’ would fit over it and match the vibe. The flows and verses from Paula Perry didn’t fit the rhythm of the beat, but the scratches sounded nice for sure so I wanted to see if I could still use them. I was looking through the Mad Skillz records I have seeing as his vocals are used in the scratches that I wanted to remix, and it turned out I had the full acapella to the track ‘Move Ya Body’ which would have been where the producer for ‘Paula’s Jam’ took the cuts. To me it made perfect sense to remix the verses from Mad Skillz with the cuts, they went perfectly together for obvious reasons. The vibe of ‘Move Ya Body’ went well with this beat too, it definitely has a feel good vibe so I wanted the acapella to match that, and the verses really have a nice carefree vibe to them. 

There’s a lot of layers to this beat, there was so much good stuff in the sample I really wanted to capture the upbeat vibe and there was so much to use. I built it up gradually, started by working out the flip that plays from 0:31 when Skillz starts rapping, and then added more chops ontop that fit the more positive vibe ( 0:51 ) and then combined them both to give the track more weight. Cause of that I knew the drums had to hit hard otherwise they’d be drowned out by all the layers of the sample, so I chopped drums from Get Out Of My Life Woman, and went crazy on the layering to make sure they were on the same level as the sample and cut through the mix. One of the main things that stood out to me about this sample when I was digging was the ‘Don’t Cry’ vocals, made me think of J Dilla’s classic off Donuts straight away so I knew I had to chop them up to layer ontop of the beat. No doubt they’ll be playing a bigger part in the instrumental upload. 

Overall I’m definitely happy with how this turned out - hopefully people like the positive vibe, always feels good to make music with this sort of energy. Peace!

Keep It Real Like That

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5nCRWnZ7BAmh2nXGmCawHx 
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/wrong-side-instrumental/1627355608?i=1627355609
Bandcamp (HQ Download): https://tapehead.bandcamp.com/track/wrong-side-instrumental

Like the ‘Street Blues’ beat I uploaded recently, this is one of the first remix concepts I put together back when I first started producing. I was too happy with the flip of the sample and how it sounded. Back then I didn’t focus on drums or have any real mixing or mastering experience, so it was very rough and not put together well, but the idea always shone through to me. I went all out filtering this one, cause to me the sample always stood out for the warm vibe the low end had, and I wanted to really focus and exaggerate that by filtering and boosting those frequencies in this mix.

Original rough mix: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/vinyl-sound
2020 rework: https://soundcloud.com/tapeheadloops/wrong-side-1

Peace!

Wrong Side (Instrumental)

[Underground]

The luminous flame burns as both guidance and mystery, tracing a golden line across fiery horizons and inexhaustible auroras. Its light streams through hidden wells of starlight and fragile fragments of dawn, weaving veins of morning into paths that glimmer with promise. Each melody rises like a radiant serpent, spiraling upward toward a sky that sings with endless echoes. The journey concludes with a beacon in the void, an inextinguishable flame, illuminating the silence beyond time.

The Golden Trace

Midnight Static

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