HipHopProduction

Incredibox – The Incredible Polo

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:08:05 +0000

Incredibox is virtual beat-box flash app made by three French artists.

You basically drag different symbols onto a person’s (polo) shirt, and they begin to beatbox a certain instrument or melody. Once you drag a symbol onto one of the beatboxers, a new one will appear next to it, ready for another sound.

Check it out at incredibox.fr

you can hear more from the beatbox artist, The Incredible Polo via his myspace page.

Chi-King presents The Big Heist

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:14:10 +0000

Chi-King, a featured artist on HipHopProduction.com, has just dropped a new album, and you can support the cause by getting his new CD, “The Big Heist” featuring Fredro Starr, G-Dep, Stack A Doller, 100MAD, Marcus Elias and more.

If you aren’t already aware of Chi-King, one of our featured artists, take some time to check out his page.

At the age of 15 he got his first gig and since has been spreading like a wild fire. He debut on Prodigal Sunns (Sunz of Mans) solo album The Return of the Prodigal Sunn. He also guest stared in Prodigal Sunns television series The Grindz .Heavy on his grind and talented in all aspects of entertainment he handled stage production and road management for actor/comedian sound genius Michael Winslow. With the help of Prodigal Sunn and 12 O’clock (Brooklyn Zu General) Chi King has been on many Wu-Tang mix tapes, albums, CD’s and Podcasts. He also landed himself in an upcoming feature film The Fan-Addict staring Sticky Fingers from the legendary rap group Onyx… He has toured with various artists from Cuban Lynx, Rampage and Ra Digga (Flip Mode Squad), Killa Preist, Prodigal Sunn, 60 Second Assassin (Sunz of Man), Warheadz, Redman & Method Man, GZA, KRS-One and many others.

J-Dilla Documentary by Stussy

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:51:29 +0000

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.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Best Hip-Hop Inspired Instrumentals of 2000-2009

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:23:50 +0000

Hip-Hip production is unlike many other genres of music -- producers create beats from many different sources. The fact that so much of hip hop revolves around sampling, actually forces a close-minded producer to open up to other genres. Whether it’s appreciating the breakbeats of psychedelic rock groups from the 60s, the melodic synth loops of the 80s, or the progressive variety of Krautrock; every sample-based producer is forced to listen to other genres of music, in search of these samples. Many times this will lead to having a larger appreciation for music in general, which in turn opens you up to all sorts of creativity.

In addition to getting inspiration from older genres via sampling and etc, it’s incredibly useful to listen to other types of current music, without any intention of sampling. Staying aware on the progression of other music styles is essential. With that being said, here is just a small selection of hip-hop inspired music that I highly recommend for expanding your musical palette. This is a “Best of” post, but obviously it’s next to impossible to list every good song or even album released over the last decade. If you know of some good music, please post them in the comments below!

Bonobo
Instrumental music, heavily sample based with breakbeats. This is one artist you should not be sleeping on.

Glitch Mob
Collection of producers and DJs that specialize in “glitch” music, heavily influenced by hip-hop. In fact, they have crazy remixes with some dope artists (Lupe, Mos, etc.)

TM Juke
More instrumental music, heavily sample based with breakbeats. This is one artist you should not be sleeping on either.

Dday One
Some truly heavy and hypnotic beats. Cop this music asap. All instrumentals

Third Eye Foundation
Again, more deep and hypnotic beats.

Backini
Dissecting different types of music into some pretty rich tracks.

Belleruche
Soulful voice, breakbeats, samples, very dope vocalist/soul album

Little People
Instrumental beats. When I first got this album, it was on constant rotation for months

Dirty Elegance
This one took a while to grow on me, but has become one of my favorite albums.

RAAAAAAAANDY (Aziz Ansari) and Dave Sitek

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:08:52 +0000

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.

Links to the mp3 here on mediafire and usershare

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)

What Record Grooves Really Look Like

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:33:01 +0000

A little unrelated to hip-hop, but this should be interesting to any vinyl junkies and dustmites out there. Chris Supranowitz from The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester has taken some pictures of vinyl record grooves under an electron microscope. If you ever wanted to get a better idea of how the grooves on a record work, check out his final project.

Found via SynthGear

Twista and MOP looking for beats

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:53:44 +0000

Calling all up-and-coming producers: Twista and M.O.P. are looking for beats for their upcoming albums.

Carl Terrell Mitchell, better known by his stage name Twista (formally Tung Twista), is an American rapper who once held the title of fastest emcee in the world, according to the Guinness World Records in 1992, being able to pronounce 11.2 syllables per second. His 2004 album Kamikaze went to number-one on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart after the success of his number-one Billboard Hot 100 single “Slow Jamz.”

Send beats to Twista at: gmgentllc@gmail.com

Also, Billy Danz of M.O.P. posted a request for beats on his twitter feed.

Send beats to MOP at: beatsformop@gmail.com

Vinyl Mini-Documentary

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:52:32 +0000

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.

Check out this short documentary from Nick Cavalier about Gotta Groove Records

found via Make Online

Best Instrumental Albums of 2009

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:20:50 +0000

Yes, we’re still alive – and yes, there is plenty on the way. The next few posts will be reflecting on 2009, starting with a link from Hold The Throne.

Hold the Throne Presents Writers Build: The Best Instrumental Albums of 2009

Glad to see El Michels Affair, Radio, Kan Kick and even Sound Scientists mentioned! I’ll be checking out all of the names I wasn’t familiar with to start out the new year.

Pink Floyd “Money” Loop Creation

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:04:37 +0000

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