Articles
The Hip Hop Music Industry Is Oversaturated
With what exactly? If you have to ask me that question then you must be either blind, deaf, dumb, or all of those combined. If that's the case then I should call you DJ Helen Keller. Hip Hop music is at an all-time high of oversaturation and it doesn't look like it's going to end anywhere in the ...
Retro Gear: A Look Back At The Alesis SR-16
It's always difficult to find some good drum sounds for your productions, and Hip Hop producers often look towards vinyl or drum kits for those sounds. However, what's often overlooked is old drum machines because they all have some great sounds that can easily be manipulated to match our sound. T...
The Rise Of The Finger Smelling Rappers
There has been a disturbing trend in the world of Hip Hop over the past decade or so, and it's something that needs to be addressed NOW. I actually first discovered it back in 1996. I know it's hard to believe but it began back in the day when a friend of mine came over one day to freestyle. What ...
6 Ways You Can Make Your Beats A Success
Success comes in all shapes and forms. Most people tend to associate money with success, and while that may very well be a good fit, it's not the only type of success there is. If you're hitting the studio on a regular basis and you're working really hard on your beats, hoping to blow up and get s...
ILL Challenge: It's Time To Organize Your Samples
I have a challenge for you: organize your samples. I know it's a tedious task because no one wants to have to sort anything, but by organizing your files, guess what will happen? You'll work better! Too often we're used to taking a sample from whichever source, such as a vinyl record, or just an M...
Hip Hop Needs To Start Over
At least I hope! This won't be a "Hip Hop today sucks, old school is the best" type of article, instead it's about which direction Hip Hop is headed. Some say that everything eventually comes back into style and I strongly believe that the same can hold true for Hip Hop. We've seen it go through ...
Learn How Beat Juggling Can Help You With Your Music Production
When producing music, it can become quite repetitive given that we're mostly working with loops. Maybe by working this way, we've grown accustomed to doing things over and over and not realizing that it could be hurting our productions. There are many different ways that you can change things up...
In The Studio: Would You Ever Sell Out?
The question of whether you would sell out or not is one that has often been asked in many Hip Hop circles. Being a beat maker or producer, it can often be tough to be heard and to meet the right people in order to have your career progress. The safe bet is to find a middle ground between selling...
5 Reasons Why You Should Make Beats At Night
Making beats can be a very time-consuming affair, and often most of us just can't find the time to really sit down and get creative in the studio. Between our jobs, family, friends, and regular daily chores, making beats can often be at the very bottom of our to-do list. I find that in today's wo...
Retro Gear: A Look Back At The Alesis ADAT
In January of 1991, Alesis announced at the annual NAMM convention that they were about to release a new product to the recording market, the ADAT. In early 1992, they finally delivered on that promise and released the first model of their digital audio recorder, and it quickly became a huge boost...
In The Studio: Should You Get Rid Of Your Stuff?
With my recent article about being a beat making minimalist, the main point I was trying to convey was that it's not in me to have a huge studio or make over-the-top beats. Instead, it almost seems that I'm destined to make minimalist beats and have a very simple set up, one that I'm perfectly con...
I'm A Beat Making Minimalist
Minimalism is usually looked at as a lifestyle where a person has a mattress on the floor, a small table with a book, and a jar of mustard in the fridge.... or that could be poverty. Nonetheless, being a minimalist is actually something where a person de-clutters their lives by removing unneces...
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