Elektronaughts Hip Hop Battle #23 - Results!

[malus_mons]

Ok! Thanks again to everyone who participated (@aarb420 @1-2 @flipinfantile, @Doug @muzka @Ooly @surfacescan), it was an honor to host and I hope you had fun making a track with vocals.

Normal rules apply: 3 points for your favorite, 2 for second and 1 for third.

Let’s wrap up the voting by Sunday and get a fresh one going by next week!

Please feel free to give feedback on all tracks regardless of whether you submitted, I know some of our regulars were busy and couldn’t make this one but your insights are still valuable.

Again, shoutout to Mrs @Yabba for keeping him away from the beat machine for a few weeks to give the rest of us a chance!

[flipinfantile]

@malus_mons

Again, shoutout to Mrs @Yabba

Word, and I can’t believe how many of us passed up this once a year opportunity😆

Thanks for putting up the playlist @malus_mons! And btw happy hip hop 50y anniversary celebration month @everyone!

[aarb420]

Wooo this started off strong, over here bobbing lovely! Thanks for hosting @malus_mons this was a really fun challenge and Erykah Badu/The Roots made some fun samples to play with along with the other samples @everyone shared As with the other hip hop challenges, this track list plays like a sweet mixtape man wow great stuff @everyone

[muzka]

My god these are good. Will have them on throughout work today

Excellent work everyone

[Unifono]

Completely missed this battle 🫤

[Ooly]

Wow! Really great work over here

[malus_mons]

That piano part on the bridge of “Green Eyes” got used and abused!

If you are wondering if I opened and closed the playlist with Outkast on purpose the answer is yes.

[Yabba]

I had a listen and enjoyed every single one of those.
Great stuff everyone, some lovely tracks there

[Jedilicious]

Great work everyone! very creative stuff and neck snapping potential in there.

[sleepside]

Head-nodders abound! Finished my first listen, gonna go back through and take notes

[muzka]

Listened through multiple times and my fav has changed each time. This is going to be difficult

[flipinfantile]

Mann this challenge was a breath of fresh air, I really enjoyed listening to Badu’s album again, picking an acapella and creating something around it. Every single one participant did an amazing job!

#1 Interesting combination, andre3000 and Kanye, never knew this existed. The sound is really good, nice intro, especially the andre3000 part seems to be a difficult flow to keep in sync but you managed well. The beat is really grimey. I like the effects on the vocals. It was a great track to open the tape with.

#2 This beat is a perfect fit for de la soul, in terms of atmosphere and creativity. Love all the sounds and switchups. It’s a beautiful mix that fits the theme very well.

#3 Hadn’t heard this rapping by MF Grimm and the other dude before. Straight up boom bap, rap sits well in the beat and the other way around, interesting mangling of the vocals for the chorus parts.

#4 Great sound, awesome start almost housey piano stabs. Large Professor sits and sounds super nice in the beat, especially in the first part. Some really nice variations in that beat.

#5 Common is feeling it, and so am I. This is a really nice beat, bit of a shame the track is so short, but it feels longer than 1 minute though. That filtered bass works every time! How do you do that exactly.

#6 This one has a super nice atmosphere with the woodwinds, bird sounds, bass, piano, it all works together really nice, best representation of the theme if you ask me. Very well made. Hearing Roots manuva was like meeting an old friend. Drums chopped up real nice. Hi hat pattern in the beginning is what did it for me.

#7 Appreciate this warped Pharcyde oddball track it’s original and fun. Appreciate slowing it down because it even helped clear up some of the lyrics after 30 years or so hah!

#8 Yup, there it is again, that piano sample was ripe for the pickins! Nice D&B influences. As ‘Liberation’ is one of my favourite tracks ever, I think it was hard for me not to compare it to the original which is pretty much untouchable (at least for me). Great job though, I wouldn’t even dare trying!

1: #6 (3 points)
2: #2 (2 points)
3: #5 (1 point)

HM: all the others!

[malus_mons]

#1 Lots of synergy here: Erykah Badu’s ex and father of her first child rapping about his dead mother from an unreleased version of an album about a dead mother by (we don’t talk about)Kanye West… I like the darker and modern feel to it

#2 I think this might be my favorite De La Soul track ever, its certainly the best track I’ve heard on any battle on this forum. Its friggin perfect, the music and the vocals worked together in perfect harmony and in turn elevated eachother. This is exactly why I wanted to do this challenge

#3 The beat is nice and raw, the lyrics are a bit too dark for the sample to my tastes. It fits together perfect in the mix but the gap between the beautiful uplifting piano and the content of the words was quite the juxtaposition!

#4 Love the creative sample flipping throughout, and why do sleigh bells always work in hip hop and not make me feel like Santa is coming?

#5 Again a perfect fit of lyrics and music. Why did it stop so soon though?!?

#6 This is just a great track all around, I immediately was transported back to a simpler time in my life. Great job with creating 2 distinct parts that work together but also create some tension.

#7 This one just made me smile as soon as I recognized the lyrics. Very creative and conceptual, we need more chopped and screwed Pharcyde with acid basslines!

#8 Here’s that synergy again… awesome to hear her voice on one of these tracks (and she’s singing about Andre 3000!) Man, Ceelo and Big Rube is one hell of a combo! Can there be too much deep soul on one track? I had a similar reaction as @flipinfantile, this is one of my favorite tracks from my all-time favorite group of any genre. You aimed high and did a great job, I could tell this song means alot to you too.

1st place: #2
2nd place #6
3rd place: #5

[surfacescan]

Just had my first listen through. I had some fun trying to guess who was making what and on which gear - Great round. Loved the chance to dive back into a beautiful album that I didn’t give much time to since money was tight I felt I had to be so selective as a dj buying records that I could play out. Perfect time to get back into it. Will post my votes and notes after a day or so. Happy birthday Hiphop

[Ooly]

1st place - #2
Head move instantly! Great boom bap beat, with so much movement and changement in the back (!). Perfect beat for a freestyle session.

2nd place - #1
The opening with an acapella, a fat drum beat and gloomy ambiance. For me, it’s abstract hip hop spirit. Love it!

3rd place - #5
Effective track, clean, vocal fit well with the beat… but too short

HM: Everyone made a great job! (happy to be a part of it )

(excuse my english… )

[aarb420]

1st - 2

The production on this is very well done just hands down dope

2nd - 3

This was a really cool mix and enjoyed those DJ-style double ups/repeats on the Kool G Rap/MF Grimm acapella (could be partial from wearing 4,5,6 out in the car )

3rd - 6

Such a therapeutic going-on-a-walk-on-a-sunny-day beat, and a nice listen all around

@everyone else

1 - Huge start to the playlist. Heavy beat and those drums are delicious!

5 - This is so strong, love the energy on this but it ended way too soon! Was really grooving to that bass, and if time permits, hopefully we can get an extended version when the voting is over

7 - Big beat that matches the acapella’s theme and I enjoyed the listen, as I had forgotten all about this song haha

8 - Super chill mix this is a sweet, mellow jam

Big to @everyone who shared their dope flavors to create this awesome playlist. Always a pleasure to jam with you all and hope that we also get to see more familiar faces in the upcoming challenge! Have a great weekend everybody!

[sleepside]

Bar stays high, so as usual for me, any critical words are nitpicks more than anything.

01: Bold and dark! Totally made the sample your own, and the snare ratchets really work here. 3000 is a little far back in the mix for my taste, but that’s a style preference, not an error.
02: One answer to the age-old question: what if Prince Paul kept producing for De La? Great work making each MC’s section distinct, and it feels like you rinsed the whole album for licks.
03: Love the crispy drums and their variations! Strong piano line. I wish the beat reacted more to the hook – those repeated “Flip these bricks” hit the rhythm so hard that I wanted some caught hits or call-and-repsonse to match
04: Tall about matching beats to rhymes, with the “chill” chimes and sleigh bells! Love the first and third piano lines, plus all the ear candy with the horns, vocals, strings, etc. The very end of the second piano loop feels slightly out of step with Large Professor, and I wish there was a little more variation to the sleigh bells, but it’s a vibe all the same.
05: Immaculate drums, killer groove, great use of space both in the main loop and in setting up the punchlines. Like everyone else said, I wish this was longer. More please!
06: I’m pulling out the notebook to study this one. Love the rotating layers of the verse loop, the snappy snare, the crushed hook, the transition tricks… Nice work!
07: Like a demented carnival, but also the hardest beat here? Magic. Love the stomping groove, the rising three note lick, and the seedy horns. (Bonus points for the meta Mama’s Gun/Ya Mama pun)
08: That piano is perfectly laid back. Gorgeous. I really like that back-and-forth open hat and love the dnb middle section. I wish the transitions between sections was a little smoother, and Big Rube is a little buried in the mix for my taste, but props for tackling such a difficult song with such a buttery groove.

[muzka]

Well this was difficult, I loved them all and liked listening to them as a collection. Cracking album with lots of variety

First - Track 05 - This just kicked perfectly for me. Samples and beats bouncing off each other then sitting tightly with he vocal. It just sounds like a great production, polished and slick. Only negative is it fading out when I wanted it keep going big tease

Second - track 06 - Loved the laid back soulful feel this had and accompanied by one of my fav hip hop vocals. This made it all the mpore impressive as I am so used to hearing it with rumbling bass. Hearing it sit perfectly with these beats and melodies was a touch of class. LOVE IT! Hard to choose between this and 5

Third - track 02 - Again hard to pick and I went for this as it was a different and feel and vibe than 1st and 2nd. My fav part of this track was the changes and how each verse flipped them sample around keeping y attention throughout. Sometimes I like to just zone out and now my head but this had me eyes wide open listening to every beat. Again awesome coupling with sample, beat and vocal.

HM to everyone, honestly not one track I would skip or not want to listen again. Track 04 almost featured in my top 3 at every rank but I kept changing my mind. It reminds of one of those racks that just lifts an album, sounds of summer and driving in your friends car with your fav hip hop album on and this comes in before slipping back into some heavier beats.

Props to all involved

[Doug]

First Place:

Track 3. Everything fits together really nicely. I liked that the drums were a little off. Like it’s all just kind of taped together. Something about that felt right for the vocal.

Second Place:

Track 7. I think that adding that vocal effect was kind of genius. It helped glue things together. I like how the beat slowly builds as it goes.

Third Place:

Track 6. I just liked this one a lot. Nice all around.

Honorable Mention:

Track 2. This was one of my favorite beats. I liked the looseness of it. I liked how elements kept being added and dropped. But the vocals not being really synced up threw the track off for me.

[surfacescan]

Yoooo…

Track 1: Love that you let the rhythm of Andre 3000 set the tempo way before the beat drops. And when that Questlove? beat drops with the triggers on the snare. So dope. Thanks for making this beat. Amazing. Love that sitar like background loop. This is pretty apocalyptic.

Track 2: Yes for the De la track. Love the jazzy mashup of Badu in chorus/bridge or whatever it was. I wish that that the beat which moved around alot had a bit more placement with the verses/chorus… that said, I like the looseness of it all too. Great beat.

Track 3: Love the drum programming here and that piano loop which we all found our way to. Good stuff. Wasn’t my favorite accapella in the mix, but perhaps because I thought we were trying to recreate that Mama’s gun sound - and this vocal wouldn’t have made it on the album.

Track 4: Large Professor and that piano alone is special and then that santa claus/jingle bells break break comes in . I think it was missing a bass line. And since that Large P chorus is so epic, I think it deserved a slightly different treatment than the verses. Also that scratching at the end was calling out for beats only - bassline? All the right elements, almost there. I

Track 5: This beat got my right away - beautiful composition with all the elements coming together. I was guessing this is one of Doug’s beats and then it just stopped. Will find out later I guess.

Track 6: When I first has the vocals come in I was like “Wait, I know this really well!” then realised it was the one roots manuva himself. Pure smiles. I love the way the intrumentalisation (is that a word) was composed from sounds from across the Badu album - ?Quest love drums programmed perfectly (the way I wanted to do myself). Is that a live bass recorded into the mix? Sooo smooth - Dilla would be proud. I also love the distorted and tension of the chorus. Nice work.

Track 7: Love Pharcyde. Really original acid type bassline and beat - because I know the song so well I was looking for it to change up more.

Track 8: Agree with others that this was an ambitious song to take on, since the original is so epic. Isn’t really offereing alot of anything new - except that drum and bass segment. Cool.

• First place: Track 1
• Second place: Track 6
• Third place: Track 2
• honourable mention: Track 5

Thanks and props to everyone!