The Good and Bad of Digital DJing

Yes as the musical world has now been thoroughly digitally overthrown, I thought I’d take a look at the good and bad of digital DJing.

I was once a purist in the world of Hip Hop with a very ‘dustier than now’ disposition.  This is both in terms of DJing and music production.  I had no interest in using computers.  I only sampled from vinyl (ok occasionally from CD shhh!…) I’d only play with ‘real’ records.  None of this CDJ rubbish and heaven forbid I use Serato or Traktor. Continue reading

What Jazz Taught Me About Hip Hop Part 2

So let’s talk a little more in depth about what Jazz taught me about Hip Hop.  In part 1 I explained how I came to the decision to gain a deeper understanding of Jazz.  Now let’s actually explain what it taught me.  First of all it’s given me a deep understanding of chords and chord progressions which has allowed me the ability to create music without being reliant on sampling other music.  I found that a lot of my favourite samples are that of Jazz and there are certain patterns consistent in Jazz that can be recreated in a Hip Hop format.  One example is that almost all Jazz chord progressions go down in fifths and often in the widely known ii V I chord progression.  What can be confusing about Jazz is that it very regularly changes key every 4 or so chords in a single composition so you may well hear different examples of ii V I progression or other chords going down in fifths often going back to resolve at the original key the piece started off in.
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Jazz Made Me Want to Produce Hip Hop

Yes it’s true!  Jazz Made Me Want to Produce Hip Hop.  I’ll explain how…  The genres really aren’t all that far apart and most avid Hip Hop fans are familiar with Jazz’s influence and how common place it is.  Nonetheless I still think many take it for granted and I’m rather surprised by how many fellow rappers I come across that love Hip Hop to death yet say they really hate Jazz more than any other music, WTF??Continue reading

90s Hip Hop VS Now

The so called ‘Golden Era’ 90s Hip Hop VS Now is something that is regularly debated.  Often in favour of the former.  People want to talk about how the youth of today just don’t understand Hip Hop.  I hear the arguments but to be honest I think it echoes that of the older generation moaning about Hip Hop when it was first developed.  Or similarly the older generation before them complaining about this new ‘evil’ Rock music, or ‘devil music’ as some would have referred to it.Continue reading