If you have been paying attention to hip-hop production over the past decade, chances are you have at least heard of J-Dilla, a producer from Detroit who worked with Slum Village, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Common and plenty more. He died in 2006 from a rare blood disease, and was basically been canonized as a saint of hip-hop production.
Now that all three parts of the J-Dilla Documentary by Stussy have been released, take some time to check them out. This three-part series covers J-Dilla’s life in Los Angeles. Check the links under the video for links to all three parts.
In case you don’t already know about Aziz Ansari, he’s a comedian that’s currently in a few tv shows and movies, including a recent stand-up special on Comedy Central. Anyways, to relate this to production, he has been working on a mixtape with Dave Sitek, and apparently is dealing with a common headache of production -- waiting on artists.
It sounds like he’s fed up with waiting on emcees for their lyrics, and decided to lash by leaking an early cut off his new mixtape. Most producers out there should be able to relate.
And just to squeeze in one more Parks & Recreation production reference, here is the Parks & Recreation Screen Test featuring Questlove and RZA (and Aziz Ansari)
Despite the ongoing arguments about whether vinyl is in or out, producers know the value of vinyl. It’s not just about the distinct sound, exclusivity, or the way a record feels and smells – this is a case where the total is greater than the sum of its parts. Vinyl represents the origin of many types of music and genres, unlike many other formats. It can even be used as an instrument itself.
Before ProTools, MPCs and Sony Acid, the options for sampling and looping forced musicians to be a little more creative, not with just their music, but the process of recording as well. In this short excerpt from The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd members discuss how the loop for “Money” was created. First, each sound was recorded directly to tape, then the tape was physically cut into 7 pieces of equal length, one for each sound effect. Those pieces of tape were spliced together, and the newly created roll of tape was fed into a Revox, and ran around a mic-stand.
and just for good measure, here is the original video of Pink Floyd -- Money
I’m a huge fan of out-of-the-ordinary MIDI devices of all kinds. For some reason, the concept of crossing sneakers with a drum machine had never crossed my mind, but now it’s all I can think about, thanks to a cool how-to article and video from Tom Hobson at Hobgob Eclectronics, about their prototype “BeatSneak” project. There are sensors in the toe and heel of each shoe, giving you a total of four “pads” to work with.
This is the footage from the Beats Rhymes and Life Deathproof Beat battle in which producers have to samples songs from the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s “Deathproof”/Grindhouse. The first two clips are mostly talking but it’s beats/music from there on out and we play the originals first so you can hear what folks are sampling.
Shout outs, introduction, explantion of the Deathproof beat battle and stand-up routine from FLO:
Back in October of 2008, news started spreading about a DJ interface for video games. Actually, ever since learning about DJ Hero (a spinoff of the popular Guitar Hero) producers, beatmakers and DJs have been eagerly awaiting more details. Recently, Numark released a video preview of how their Scratch Deck will work:
One of the coolest features of this new device, is the inclusion of MPC-style pads to trigger drums! Looks like we’ve come a long way from Parappa the Rapper and Beatmania. Now let’s just wait for all the awesome downloadable content and scratch packs! We will be posting as much content on this as possible, so stay tuned!
Here’s the preview video for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ
As a great follow-up to the recent post on DJ schools gaining popularity, Create Digital Music has posted an article on Stanton SCS.3d and Open Scratch Scripting, and a video example featuring DJ Jungleboy and another with DJ Pegasus. This article also links to a new Freeware DJ software called Mixxx. Hip Hop Production will be posting much more on Mixxx in the near future -- and stay tuned for an upcoming series on video scratching with VirtualDJ, and non-destructive scratching.
… it’s fun just watching DJ Jungleboy work behind a pair of Stanton SCS.3d controllers. These instruments seem designed for him. In a way, a lot of what he’s doing could easily be done with a sampler and drum pad, like an MPC setup…
… you can script the SCS.3d with Mixxx, the open source DJ tool for Windows, Mac, and – yep – Linux. Serato is a terrific and solid tool, but if you’re looking for something a little different, Mixxx looks terrific.
This also demonstrates why choice makes controllers much more powerful, just as you’d want choices and versatility with a musical instrument.
In this week’s episode of “Double Barrel” Tuesdays, Marco Polo invites you into his world of production. Sit down with Marco Polo as he constructs a beat from start to finish. For all aspiring producers, listen to the detail that goes into his craft, as he searches beyond just looping samples from a single vinyl, and truly goes into the crates using the likes of six different songs, that have nothing to do with each other key wise, and makes them work harmoniously to create a final beat.
