DJ Excellence speaks about the beatmaking process of "You Can't Rush Art"
"You Can't Rush Art" is a collaborative EP between New Jersey emcee Stresswon and yours truly. I thought it would be interesting to describe the beatmaking process of the album.
1. Intro
The intro was done at the very last minute. I wanted something "grand" with strings and I ended up looping a not so obscure Billy Paul song (thats his voice in the beginning of the sample). I added some punchy drums with a simple pattern. The last touch was adding a few scratches of old Stresswon/Excellence collaborations. Most deejays will tell you the same: I love scratching my own name!
2. Funk You
This one was the last track we recorded for the project. Those who are familiar with my work know I love to chop samples so I decided to switch up a bit and go with a straight loop. I just love the original song, it's really groovy with some dope horns and electric pianos. I filtered the bass-line a bit and created a drum loop mimicking the energetic original drum section. The scratches were originally on Stresswon's collab with Ras kass but ended up not being used so I decided to recycle them with some minor alterations.
3. Generally Speakin'
I wanted to go with something melodic this time. I chopped this beautiful vocal sample which happened to contain some nice keys. The bass-line was slightly filtered. The cuts and scratches are from Edo G's "Acting".
4. Seriousness
The soothing intro is a nice contrast to the aggressive beat. I heavily chopped a film score with some mysterious strings and chromatic instruments. The metallic drums are a good match I guess. The scratches sample various 90's tracks and all imply violence/death, you get the idea. This might be my favorite Stresswon/Excellence collab.
5. What Happened
"What Happened" is the oldest track on the EP; we recorded this in 2009. I chopped this cool sample with strings and saxophones; the beat is simple yet very effective. The fairly snappy drums are a good match with the somewhat "happy" vibe. I added some cuts and scratches from an NYGz's song, yes sometimes I like to scratch newer records.
6. So Bogus
I love this track! I found this superb horn-driven song and decided to flip it. The main difficulty was that the drums were quite present in the sample, so I had to be creative. I used some percussions to "polish" the chops (there were some awful spaces). I added some light drums and scratched various tracks (Erick Sermon, Reks, Truck Turner, etc ..) for the hook.
