After much thought, I’ve decided to take a bit of a break from giving my isolated commentary about what music should sound like in an ideal world and figured it would be best to give you an illustrated example. By popular demand, here’s a link to a downloadable mp3 version of the Hip Hop, Breaks … Read more
The request has been made for a full album of samplese and Crate Kings has answered the call. We now present the original samples and breaks for Nas’ Hip Hop is Dead. link-protector.com/130221/ Bill Withers – Use Me (Still Dreamin’) Carmine Coppola – Marcia Religiosa (Black Republican) Diana Ross – The Interim (Still Dreaming) Eric … Read more
Happy New Year Everyone! 2006 has definitely been an interesting and exciting year all around, especially musically. We saw the return of Jay Z, the confession by Nas that Hip Hop is Dead, and The Source magazine asking if Hip Hop has become a minstrel show. It seems as if there is a theme developing … Read more
I went ahead and gathered every Smack DVD beat making video that I could find. It just so happens that I hold a lot of respect for D.R. Period and it’s pretty interesting to hear his view on how a beat should knock. Arsonist from the Heatmakerz throws together something pretty hot in no time … Read more
They let me out of my gig a little early today so I took the opportunity to do a little crate digging on my way home from work. It’s tough when you walk into store and can’t find anything that you want. Imagine walking into a store and not being able to find one old … Read more
I really like this video of Kev Brown making a beat on his trusty MPC 2000XL. This is a great video because he goes farther than just looping a beat and takes it up a notch by chopping the hell out a string set. For further Kev Brown heat such as Brownies and his Beat … Read more
Life is good… life is grand… My apologies for the lack of updates lately, but I’ve been doing my best to climb the corporate ladder and keep on keepin’ on. It’s really cool how this site has turned out to be a great outlet for some of the musical thoughts that have been lingering around … Read more
I’m constantly racking my brain through my head in an attempt to more fresh and creative ways to find records and today on the rush hour drive home I started thinking of all the techniques that I’ve used in the past to find untapped crates. Some of them include the usual suspects like used record … Read more
It’s been a crazy week trying to finish the absolute final version of the classic Hip Hop/Samples mixtape for Science Skateboards, but it is finally done and I can get back to focusing on samples, production, and the development of the website. Check out the revised mix and let me know what you think. I … Read more
Lately I’ve been thinking about the amazing and groundbreaking production on Mobb Deep’s 1995 release of The Infamous and how over ten years after its original release I still reference many of its instrumentals when looking for either inspiration or a reminder of what I consider to be a defining example of quality Hip Hop. … Read more