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
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
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
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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I want to explain what jazz taught me about hip hop. My last post was centred around how jazz made me want to produce hip hop. I explained how listening to the likes of A Tribe Called Quest really inspired me to want to create hip hop music rather than just rap over it.Continue reading
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
There’s a new song on the way combining punked aliens with rap. Yes it is a crazy mix indeed!…..Continue reading
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
So the good guys of Art Formz featured me in one of their videos for AFTV Raw Zone.Continue reading
This video shows behind the scenes of Lord of the Dead. It’s a fun video showing how the artwork, costumes and more importantly the makeup was done.Continue reading