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
We’re doing big things here at Crate Kings! The official Science Skateboards mixtape by DJ Semantik is now available as a free stream over at the Science website and consists of breaks and samples mixed with classic 90’s to 2000 Hip-Hop. I’m told that in addition to being bundled with their promo skate CD Rom … Read more
I needed a little inspiration tonight to get busy on the MPC, so I went hunting for beat videos again. This is one of my all time favorite videos and DJ Shadow does an excellent job of describing the almost karmic feelling and philosophy of digging in the crates.
This crazy thought crossed my mind a while back as I was downloading a fairly difficult to find album entitled Afreaka by a little known group named Demon Fuzz. It occurred to me that we are quite possibly on the cusp of a revolution within Hip Hop music and culture. There is an almost absurd … Read more
It’s been a bit of a crazy week for me. I finished the bulk of the Science Skateboards Mix CD, which features hip hop, original breaks and samples, rode an emotional roller coaster while going from absolute excitement about getting my hands on an advance copy of Jay Z’s Kingdom Come to utter disappointment upon … Read more
Today while waiting for the lady of the house to finish using the computer, I picked up an old, mint condition issue of Grand Slam magazine with Questlove on the cover. Now out of business, Grand Slam was one of my all time favorite reads and featured quality, well researched writing and covered a number … Read more