Here’s a video showing me making a Grime track from scratch. Although I consider myself more of a Hip Hop artist than a Grime artist, being from the UK and being a rapper there is no getting away from the Grime influence which runs deep in the UK.Continue reading
Vinyl Digging VS E-Digging
There appears to be a debate over vinyl digging VS e-digging in this day and age.
For those that aren’t Hip Hop producers or producers in general ‘digging’ basically means finding records to sample to make your own beats as the majority of Hip Hop is based on sampling other records. ‘Vinyl Digging’ has been the more ‘traditional’ way in which many producers have chosen to sample records. In other words they will dig for samplable breaks through old vinyl records and use the records there.Continue reading
Kool G Rap VS Celsius
So I did a remix Kool G Rap VS Celsius. Basically combining one of my all time favourite rappers Kool G Rap with one of my favourite dance tracks in recent years, ‘Incoming’ by Celsius. I took Kool G Rap’s a capella from the track ‘Ill Street Blues’ and put it over the top of the ‘Incoming’ track. The result works rather well in my opinion (but then I would say that). It really changes the dynamic to the G Rap’s lyrics compared to how they fit on the original ‘Ill Street Blues’ beat.Continue reading
Funky DJ Mix
I put together a funky DJ Mix of some of my favourite music. When I’m not rapping and making beats I also DJ, hence my bio ‘Rapper, Producer AND DJ’…. Other than the numerous DJ gigs I do, I rarely get to show off my DJ skills so I thought I’d treat you to a DJ Mix I put together featuring a lot of my favourite music. It’s not just in the realm of Rap and Hip Hop that you might know me for. There’s also a fine mix upbeat Funk, Soul, House and Garage. I like to mix genres when I DJ as there’s such a huge amount of insight you can gain from listening to numerous forms of music even if you’re strictly a rapper.Continue reading
Dealing with Criticism
I want to talk about dealing with criticism. Criticism is something you’re inevitably going to go through whatever you do. Especially if you actually stand for something. It’s important to remember it’s ok to royally fuck up sometimes especially when you have good intentions behind those actions. These embarrassing moments are often the times you learn the most and the quickest. Everyone stumbles. The people that never succeed are the people that didn’t fail enough. All that being said, sometimes you can do everything right and with the best of intentions and still receive staunch criticism from people.Continue reading
Fire in the Booth Cypher?
As many Rap fans in the UK will be aware there was a recent Fire in the Booth Cypher (the first ever in fact) featured on Charlie Sloth’s BBC Radio 1 Rap Show.
It featured some of the UK’s most popular rappers today and no doubt they went in! Nonetheless it called into question what a real ‘cypher’ is. As was expressed in this GRM Daily post which shows an interesting twitter discussion between Swiss of So Solid Crew and Charlie Sloth himself. In Swiss’ opinion in a ‘real cypher’ rappers don’t know what beat they’re going to be rhyming to. Many would argue a step further and say that rappers shouldn’t even know what their rhymes are going to be either and should in fact be all off the top.
Freestyling VS Pre-Written? Does It Matter?
This is a question often asked and thought about in rap circles especially amongst rap purists. Freestyling VS Pre-Written? Does it matter? In other words does it matter whether a rapper pre-wrote his or her lyrics, or whether they came up with them on the fly?Continue reading
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
Visionary Freestyle
This is my Visionary Freestyle!
I’ve got another verse featured this time with Visionary. Visionary is a channel that focuses on all of the top UK South-Coast’s rapper’s.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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