So here is the crazy thought of the day? how do I find a better way to connect with readers and at the same time help build a community of people interested in Hip Hop samples, breaks, and production? The survey says… Crate Kings is going to run a little link promotion called ?Review For … Read more
I was just bumping around and wasting a little time when I ran across this interview where J Dilla discusses the use of beats and ID tags. Of course there are many more lessons to be learned, so pay attention… you might just get schooled.
It was a very sad weekend. After coming up with the idea to have a rare beat making video blowout, I came to realized that in order to make room on my external hardrive, I deleted virtually all of my beat production and beat making videos. Yeah, I know it’s a damn shame to even … Read more
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
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
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
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
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.