Aftermath staff producer DJ Khalil breaks down the making of “What It Is” by Nas, including how the sample was replayed, chopped in Recycle, and recreated using Reason. He also goes onto talk about his passion for European progressive rock records, the importance of having your track mixed correctly, and the upcoming release of Dr. … Read more
Just got my hands on a copy of Pete Rock’s NY’s Finest and can’t wait to deliver a review, which may appear sometime later tonight or tomorrow depending on how well my luck goes with the Chicago Cubs ticket lottery this Friday. In the meantime, to celebrate the release of NY’s Finest, here’s a clip … Read more
Yet another reason why we love Kev Brown. This has been floating around for while, but has been a bit hard to find lately. Kev plays instrumentals straight out of his MPC while giving production insight and commentary into how the beat was made and which techniques were used to obtain his sound. Major respect … Read more
Berklee College faculty member Erik Hawkins gives simple sage advice on how to become a great producer. He addresses some of the issues that tend to plague aspring producers and offers the most simple solution to get it done! Check the article
The rule for learning about Hip-Hop production is pretty much this: When Pete Rock speaks, you better listen. In this interview with Remix Magazine, Pete Rock talks about the importance of harmonics, the overuse of compression, and reveals a few tricks such as pre-eq’ing audio before sampling. Read The Interview I’d also like to mention … Read more
9th Wonder starts it off by chopping up a "Pretty Brown Eyes" by Mint Condition, then takes us on a digging excursion to Cue Records located in Philadelphia. Store owner DJ Botany 500 offers up some unknown joints while 9th wonder talks about receiving a Grammy shout out from Mary J. Blige and sampling records. … Read more
Producer Boon Doc does a great job showing how to chop a 3/4 sample time and change it to 4/4. Also shown are some creative uses for a hand clap, imagine actually using it for clapping hands!?
In The Lab delivers as always with another dope interview. This time Red Spyda talks about building sound libraries, advances in technology & equipment, and calls out names about Southern bubblegum rap music.
Author Robert Levine explores the idea that, due to direct technology such as CD’s and mp3’s, music has become overly compressed and too loud for listeners to distinguish sonic subtleties. This trend is especially interesting when considering the preferred aesthetic quality of Hip-Hop is loudness, particularly when applied to drums, and effects such as compression … Read more
The always outspoken DJ Premier talks about the making of “Classic”, the difference between a producer and beatmaker, and the future of Hip-Hop. Check the interview from those crazy cats over at Words N Tunes