Here’s a track that Shay and Keen did over one of my instrumentals on my Reverb project. Check it.
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Here’s a small interview about working with Brad on his latest album.
Here’s the One Man Duo Remixes project from myself, which features 11 brand new remixes of Add-2 songs. Below you can stream the project, download the zip file, and read a write up of how the remixes were made. Enjoy!
1) The Crown – This was the second to last song I did. I needed something to set the project off, and wanted to use this acapella as an intro because of how it came on. It’s like “I’m Here…Pay Attention!”
2) Cassette Tapes – This was the second track I did off of the project, and it just happened to be on Dilla day. I wanted to give it a classic sound, and the sample that I used is from a joint Dilla sampled from “Donuts”… I dropped a couple hints throughout the instrumental so that people could follow if they weren’t quite sure where it was from (a Motherlode sample). The simple fact the song was named “Cassette Tapes” made it an easy choice to take the song where I did. Some classic boom bap ish.
3) Gotdamn – I made this joint right after Comic Book Flow, and quite honestly wanted to give a newer/modern epic heavy sound. Something vicious. Him saying in the beginning “sounds like somebody about to die in this mother fucker” made me want to add the strings. This is probably my favorite track from the project. I just think the beat and lyrics/flow match each other perfectly. Makes me frown.
4) Comic Book Flow – I made this remix right after Cassette Tapes. I had the Mighty Mouse / Danger Mouse samples handy due to a beat battle contest the year before, and I knew it was going to work for this idea. I kept the beat open because Add was spitting on it and I wanted to accent his lines more than a usual track. This was probably the easiest beat to make. Oh, and yeah, the fact that Add is a shorter emcee, that body’s tracks, kind of hit me while I was making it. You know, Mighty Mouse taking on bigger opponents and such…no? Never mind.
5) 75 Bars – This was one of the last ones I did. Minus 2-3 of these acapellas, I had no idea what the originals sounded like. This one, I assumed, was over The Roots “75 Bars”. So, I grabbed the drums in that track, which I have dipped into before, chopped them up, and added simple screech-sounding string chords on top of them to give it the super villain feeling. I decided I wanted to add a similar vocal effect as Black Thought had on the original 75 bars too, so I did that. I can see a video to this all gothem style. “I hate wack rappers..I hate wack rappers… ain’t no punch line… I just hate wack rappers”.
6) The Menace Returns – The first thing I thought of when I saw the title was Star Wars, and then I heard the Darth Vader line. The low-fi drums and David Axelrod strings we’re my attempt of a hip-hop-version-song that could play at the end credits of a Stars Wars movie. You know.
7) Luxury – This was the first track I worked on for the project…I actually made the first 5 remixes in a span of 5-6 hours. My interpretation of the song was that it was about them ladies that have tunnel vision…but we can’t help but still like a certain part about them. He spun it like “look, I know you think you know what makes you happy and shit, but I’m about to show you something else more valuable”. The song has a strong superficial type of feeling while not at the same time, a duality of sorts, and I wanted to give it a vibe that was completely different than the original. I wanted to accent his expression and undertone of the song, and that’s why I used the chords I did.
8) Maybe It’s Me – This song had such a serious tone to it, I needed to add some heavy minded piano chords that gradually changed throughout the song as he progressed with his verses. I didn’t want to take away from what he was saying with this one.
9) Mydas Slow – I actually had this beat for a while, and tried to write to it a couple times, but never had anything I really liked. For this acapella, I wanted to have a beat that could carry itself during the chorus since there was nothing there, and this is a beat I could listen to without words. When he said “God trying to speak homie, listen”… and then the singing part came on… it just felt right. This is the only track I didn’t make on the spot, although I did change it some.
10) Starter Jacket – The second half of this project definitely has a more serious tone to it, and the childhood tales and reminiscent vibes of this song kind of me do the same. I was in a Radiohead type of mood, so I chopped up a song from “Hail to the Chief”, and honestly is one of my favorite songs on the project. It’s another song, as Add tends to have, that I didn’t want the beat to interfere in what he was expressing. I was simple on purpose.
11) Respect – This is the last song I remixed for the project, and for some reason I wanted to end it on this type of a note rather than an extremely high one. I liked the fact that he’s saying he’s here for respect, and then it’s a wrap. “I’M HERE FOR RESPECT”…the end.
I was on this project twice. “Opposite of Square” and “Naptown 6″.
Here’s this years’ Gateway project by producer J. Brookinz, presented by HeavyGun Blog and No Bad Ideas clothing. Check out some of the pictures from the 48 hour lock-in here. Shouts to all the of the people on this project; I don’t know who is on what track, but there are a grip of people on this project from #Naptown.
4/23/12
Here’s the next single off of my upcoming BDTB sponsored remix project with Chicago’s Add-2. Grab it!
Here’s the 4th single off of my upcoming Add-2 remix project entitled “One Man Duo Remixes” that I’m dropping in a week or so. Add-2 originally rapped over The Roots “75 Bars” beat, so I took Quest’s drums, chopped them up, and added a similar vocal effect to that of Black Thoughts in the song. Bong
#beatsandbreakfast started with a conversation between Skittz and LONEgevity on twitter, and expanded into weekly event during the summer months with multiple emcees and producers. Each week, different artists would be invited to bring ingredients/food, Skittz would supervise the cooking, and LONEgevity would supervise the production. Everybody ate breakfast, wrote, contributed to the song, and recorded by the end of the session.
Season 1 Participants:
Skittz
LONEgevity
Scoot Dubbs
Blake Allee
Tony Styxx
Commander Pop’N Fresh
Gritts
Grey Granite
Mr. Kinetik
Eratic
Joe Harvey
ACE ONE
DJ Spoolz
Richard Cook
Id Obelus
Andrea Mendoza
Tiarress
Jordan
Here’s the next single off of the BDTB sponsored remix project by myself dropping mid April!
Here’s the 3rd single off of my upcoming “One Man Duo Remixes” project that is dropping mid April which features 11 brand new remixes of Add-2 songs. I made this remix on Dilla day, and flipped the Motherload “When I Die” sample that he used on his Donuts album (Watch/Listen). Enjoy!
Some of you may remember this series that we started up last May with Naptowns own Skittz and myself. Well, Season 1 is now finished, the release date and party is set for next Friday (including a 2 hour set with breakfast being served throughout the night), and here’s the first mastered single for everybody to enjoy. Sponsored by us here at BDTB, the 10-track project will be available a week from today. Also, as you may or may not know, we have video footage from nearly every session, and I’ve added that below too. Enjoy!
Track was produced by Joe Harvey & LONEgevity. Cuts by DJ Spoolz of The Proforms. Additional trumpet by LONEgevity. Whistle during Blake’s verse by Andrea Mendoza.
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Here’s the second song I’m letting go off of my upcoming remix project with Add-2.