The fourth installment of Crate Kings marks a milestone as the first non-instrumental Crate Kings collaborative producer project. Ten producers remixed 20 classic tracks in an effort to pay tribute to classic artists, showcase the musical skill of each producer, and aid in the growth of the Crate Kings production community.
The fourth volume of anything is never easy, but I’m proud to say that a core group of Crate Kings readers and forum loyalists have yet again delivered by utilizing their ability to work together and bring new life to what were already amazing songs.
Whether it be P. Illa’s reworking of Del La Soul’s "Stakes Is High", Yabba’s update to EPMD’s "Strictly Business", or Figment’s take on Jay Z’s high-powered anthem "The Ruler’s Back", there’s no doubt that each track was crafted using a unique, yet powerful combination of talent, initiative, and drive.
Many thanks to each contributing producer and all the readers, forum members, and DJ’s who’ve supported Crate Kings, therefore, directly contributing to the success of projects such as CK4.
Three different versions of CK4 have been supplied, depending on listener preference, so please feel free to download, listen, and spread the word in whichever way you choose.
Download: Crate Kings 4: Classic (Remixed Joints From The Golden Era)
Back Cover + Tracklist after the break!
Nice job with the work put in. Props for the dedication.
That said, I was disappointing with the production throughout. I felt like the moods of the originals did not carry over in the new beats. And when a track did sound promising, the production ended up weak and light, like too butter spread over too much bread.
Call me a purist, but seeing this tracklist makes me question what Crate Kings.com considers to be the actual time span of Hip-Hop’s “Golden Era”. Jay-Z is on here twice? “Paparazzi” came out when I was in high school!
If you’re going to brand something “Golden Era”, remixes or not, then there’s a certain amount of research that’s got to be put into a project in order to both be taken seriously and maintain integrity (at least in knowledge of the history of your craft).
“Simon Says” …really!?
’99 is Golden Era?
You gotta draw a line between records from the “Golden Era” and records directly influenced by the “Golden Era”. I love Crate Kings, but in a community of Hip-Hop producers this is a definite faux pas.
@Confused –
yeah, I did the Simon Says remix – I didn’t have access to any acapellas at the time and somebody asked if I wanted to flip it – at the time, it was being called “classic” – if you look at the thread, there was a lot of going back and forth about what defined “golden era” and “classic” and all that – now me, I could give a shit about all that, I just had some fun with it – I knocked it out in a day, made a few edits later on and forgot about it – not by any means my opus –
to be honest though, they could have sent me some friggin Murs or Lif or whatever from last year and I would have had just as much fun – but, hip hoppers being what they are, I think a bunch of us knew this was going to get criticized on the “golden era” tip
sorry to disappoint
hope some people can get past the title and check the music
@Confused
You’re right. Traditionally speaking, most of the songs listed on the mix do not fall into the time span that most, including myself, would call The Golden Era. Classics yes. Golden Era, probably not.
Looking back, because the project bears the CK name, perhaps an adjustment could have been name to the subtitle. However, since the project was completely conceived, coordinated, and created by site readers, I found it most important to fully encourage their initiative and expression and embrace the spirit of the project.
i can’t open the file in windows media player, because the file is in RAR format, does anyone know how to fix this?
@skript
rarlab.com will solve your issues.
Not just the subtitle, the artwork is pretty misleading itself. I was lookin’ forward to the remixes of KANE and Biz, Lo and behold…no KANE, no Biz. My whole point is that in whatever it is that you deem worthy of committing your time and effort to you should have enough pride in it to make sure that it comes correct. After all, isn’t that what production is all about? If not, then what’s the point? After the music is done and its time for things like credits and artwork, as a producer you gotta realize that this is all involved in the actually process of production. It’s all one. I’m really not tryin’ to beat anybody over the head. I hope got across well enough. Thanks for reading.
@Confused
"Not just the subtitle, the artwork is pretty misleading itself. I was lookin’ forward to the remixes of KANE and Biz, Lo and behold…no KANE, no Biz."
Truthfully, I expected the usual onslaught of negative comments that come along with posting beattapes/instrumental albums, but the last thing I expected was a debate about the cover art and title.
Your original criticism of subtitle was relevant, understood, and well taken, but attacking the cover images is a little much. I’m confident that most reasonable people would not expect all of the artists who appear on the cover to necessarily appear on the tracklist, but instead interpret the images as a representation of a certain aesthetic and time period. Plus, there was no need to feel mislead since a complete tracklist was provided prior to downloading.
"My whole point is that in whatever it is that you deem worthy of committing your time and effort to you should have enough pride in it to make sure that it comes correct. After all, isn’t that what production is all about? If not, then what’s the point? After the music is done and its time for things like credits and artwork, as a producer you gotta realize that this is all involved in the actually process of production. It’s all one."
This wasn’t a budgeted album or sponsored project. This was a group of people who love making music and decided to work together on project that they would enjoy. Period. I personally feel privileged to have been allowed to hear what they created and share it with others regardless of whether the cover art or other elements were perfect.
Group efforts aren’t always perfect, usually they are far from it. The fact of the matter is that these producers/beatmakers, I prefer the term music makers, had a good time creating music.
Still, at this point I’m actually quite puzzled about what exactly it is that you’re looking to accomplish with your comments. Short Term has already apologized, in my opinion unnecessarily, for your disappointment, but apparently that was not enough. This is one of those moments when you must pick your battles and it seems as if you’re looking for an argument or debate where there is none.
"I’m really not tryin’ to beat anybody over the head."
This may not be your intention, but that’s exactly what you’ve done. Your original point regarding the title has already been acknowledged and agreed with, but further attacking the cover art and using it as an attempt to extrapolate a lesson about "what production is all about" is completely unnecessary and without grounds.
Some view producing as the professional equivalent of beatmaking, some have a much different view. At the end of the day, the task is to make music, something that these guys have done a tremendous job with. Hopefully, by now the people who worked so hard on this project have moved on from this conversation and gotten back to the important task of making music.
While I’m dissapointed to hear that you were personally offended by the cover/title, I can certainly think of a many examples where professional projects ran afoul of your guidelines, but were judged based on their musical merit rather than graphic design and titling.
@ Confused,
Ok, I’ll put my hands up here, I created the artwork, and hear what you’re saying regarding the choice of cover images and title. Truth is, debates where going back and forth on the forum about the direction this project was going to take. I tried to enforce (some might say heavy handedly) a relatively strict criteria about what is considered classic and when you can truthfully say was the golden era. However, the CK community consists of a varied range of ages, and for many, what may be considered classic by some, may not apply all.
Personally, I’m 37 years old, have been into hip hop since 84 and a fan during the late Sugar Hill, Tommy Boy, Def Jam, Elektra and Cold Chillin’ periods and as far as I was concerned it all fell off a bit around 94-95, but I know many others who were heavily active on the late 90’s underground scene, and they would totally consider their period as the golden era. I also understand that a lot of the contributers had difficulty obtaining accapellas for the project so I feel a certain compromise had to be made just to be as inclusive as possible. It’s no problem finding various random Jah Rule or Bow Wow acca’s, but surprisingly there’s quite a shortage of available accapellas for the standard classics you’re probably referring to available online that are of a decent quality. I personally used accapellas that I had on the original 12’s, but I understand that most didn’t have access to them. However, I would say that the vast majority of tracks included are bonafide classics though, and those tracks you might feel aren’t may be just down to subjectivity.
As far as the artwork goes, I didn’t know when I first stated it exactly who was going to be featured, so I went for a broad range of artists who represent what I consider classic hip hop. When it was previewed on the forum, the general consensus was positive and I think most understood the intention. Also, I felt it important that there was a certain iconography attached to the artists shown, which would not necessarily be easy to achieve if we used strictly artists who were on the project. Would you recognise a mugshot of the members of Channel Live?
I’m sorry if it created an expectation that wasn’t delivered, but like Semantik said, this was meant to be for fun, and to give the forum members a collective project that we could be proud of. It certainly wasn’t expected to put under the microscope to the extent it seems to have been. I personally feel all the contributors did themselves proud on this, and hope this negativity doesn’t put any one off from contributing to the next project!
yeah, it’s just music. You listen to it.
Good job everyone
I’m checked the music & I like it all,no complaints here big ups to all the producers. All this bickering is ridiculous, it was free & good music! I’m just upset I missed out on the chance to be one of the producers to do one of the track on here, I am a faithful reader I had know idea this was coming up, so to whom it may concern hit me up please you have e-mail for the next one. Check out my myspace to hear my tracks. Again to all the producers on here good job!
A-Sharp
@ A-Sharp :
you are welcome to join in on any subsequent projects… I doubt we’re gonna send out any personalized emails alerting people though, so you’d best keep an eye on the General sub-forum, because that’s where we tend to plan the Crate Kings projects. Hope to see you there.
Big ups to you playaz. You ain’t gonna please everybody. As long as you cats was feelin’ what you did then phuck ’em!! It ain’t like they were funding it? If you got something on it–namely feddy–put it up and Executive Produce it and press it. If not then you really wasting your time phucking wit cats doing what they luv. Especially with all the bull$hit saturating the market, it was refreshing not to hear the Auto-Tune!!
Not to start nothing, but “Jam On It” is the business mang!! Not saying the rest weren’t. But “Jam On It” snatched me from the intro to the hi-hat outro. Again that’s “my” favorite. I’ma elda-head, so I’m some what biased from jumpstreet.
Keep doing what yall doing and let those who ain’t feeling it put their product out and do what they do. It’s room for everybody.
And if you got trouble with the cover and title, white label your copy or sharpie it…oNe..
@Confused. Trust me. All involved debated, attempted countless ideas and went back to the drawing board numerous times. For the beat I chose the original accapella was Street Smart Metal Thangz but it didn’t have the feel that The beatnuts track did. We all would have went as far as we could to keep it classic, but in terms of music it’s all relative to that persons interpretation of a classic. hopefully this sparks someone else to take up the baton, find those golden era joints and make something that would please you.