Damn, even though it’s just five beats that’s a hard one. Such a high level of quality. Not one beat I would skip on an album!
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Aiight amigos, let me break this mexican standoff by drawing first:
4 
1
5
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okay I am second:
Beat 1
Beat 4
Beat 5
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Beat 1 - textures, patterns, layers. only 3 mins but felt longer, in a good way.
Beat 2 riffs combined just right, bass in the pocket - I could hear some Nas verses on this
Beat 3 I can feel the influence of those blues rock guitar riffs. Nas at home in that grit.
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4
1
2
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My bad, I meant to vote last night but fell asleep.
Nice beats everyone
And thanks to our host
4
5
3💥
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Hey fam. The results are in:
-
= Beat 4 -
= Beat 1 -
= Beat 5
Thank you to everyone who made a beat. It was an honour to host this one.
Can I suggest that each person share a bit about their beat? I am especially interested in how the influence of your father/father figure showed up in the process. Share what you can. And tell us which beat was yours!
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Congrats @surfacescan! I think its already clear who made what right since we’re only five an we couldn’t vote on our own beat right? Also @Yabba congrats with second place!
I counted beat 5 as nr 3 with having scored 4 points? Either way congrats to @NVVI and @Lailai both! 
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You are totally right - and I’ve just been teaching my daughter math this morning 
Thanks for that catch. Which beat was yours?
Tell us a bit about your beat!
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Sure will do that later tonight or tomorrow morning (my beat was nr 3)! But first let’s hear from the winner(s), wouldn’t take your shine y’all 
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congrats @surfacescan and everyone, we all won this one with the entries.
I was beat 1, I used both samples used on world is yours and one love.
They’re chopped and re-pitched and playing together for the most part.
I also used the snare from Smilng’ Billy Suite using a stem splitter.
I used a synth plug-in on a horn preset just to add a bit o variety for a chorus.
All made on Digitakt except for the vocals and the horn sound which I layered over in Ableton.
When it comes to the dad influence, he wasn’t musical in any way aside from singing in the bath 
so I selected music i remember my dad having on vinyl from as far back as I can remember so I guess that’s gonna be an influence even on a subconscious level.
he did love music and had a very eclectic taste, everything from Elvis to soul pop reggae etc.
In fact i first heard The Message by grandmaster flash when he played it in 1982.
One album he owned and now own myself on reissue is a cheap reggae compilation album called ‘Tighten Up Volume 2’ released in 1969.
I used a couple of bits off of that, these two tracks.
And if you like those two you’re pretty much gonna like the rest of the album.
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@Yabba man - thanks for the breakdown! I really love your beat - I’d love to drop in on one of your sessions, to see how you program the Digitakt. Always so lush.
I wish I made it clear that when I said “musical influence from our fathers” I absolutely was thinking it was the music they listened to on vinyl, cassette, 8 track or whatever form - bonus if they were actually musicians.
Those reggae records sounds sweet - what year do you think he bought them?
I got some questions for you about your beat:
- Where are those vocals from that tail off at the end of your beat?
- Did you sample anything from those reggae records?
- Sounds like there is some scratching on the Nas vocals at some point - how did you do that?
@Yabba are you up for hosting the next battle?
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Thanks man your beat was great you’ve been killing it over the last couple!
Well I’m old as f… and remember the tighten up album that had both those reggae tracks from around 1975 so my dad would have got that sometime between then and 1969 when it was released.
The vocals that tail off are from the Sufferer reggae track
I used both reggae tracks, any vocals sounds that aren’t Nas are from those two tracks.
The scratching is fake scratching I just chopped parts of the vocal in ableton, reversed and pitched up parts, basically copying what a dj does but using chops
Yeah I would be honoured to host, thanks man 
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My Beat was #4:
My process was a bit intense, since I was hosting I decided to really immerse myself in the album. I listened to Illmatic start to finish twice, watched the documentary and then pulled out all the records that made me think of my father and I remember him introducing me to. Then I got sort of paralyzed and didnt know where to take my musical ideas.
I decided to prepare three little musical scenes based on music my dad introduced me to:
Bruce Cockburn is a Canadian folk guitarist who I remember listening to on my Dad’s 8 track deck in the family station wagon driving around in the 80s. This track he worked with Reggae legend Leroy Sibbles who had moved from Kingston to Toronto.
I sampled Q-Tip talking about how in the midst of “Life’s a Bitch” is a message of hope - felt like it worked nicely with the Cockburn contemplative christian lyrics and marimba.
I was messing around with NY State of Mind on my DJ software looking for inspiration when I locked in a loop and jumped off my chair and made quick work of chopping the beat to make it even harder (possible?) and integrate some Audio two top billin type patterns and snare programming to give it a militant sound. I scratched in the classic sound from T La rock’s “It’s yours”. I also pulled in some reggae breakbeat chop from Johnnie Too bad on tJimmy Cliff the harder they come (felt appropriate for NY State of Mind)
I couldn’t quite get the bass to sound how I wanted on this first part - it is hard to find a way to program basslines from samples on the Digitakt - later on in the track I was happy with how I did this.
My dad played trumpet and loved this musician named Jonah Jones who played with a muted a bit like Dizzie Gillespie - so I used that to transition. I also put in a clip of Nas talking and getting emotional from the Time is Illmatic documentary when he recalls his friends and how important they were to the album’s creation. I associate Illmatic with hanging out with friends and that’s why I chose this clip.
John Coltrane - Love Supreme:
My dad had this record in his collection and as I matured and started to listen to jazz it became one of my favorite. Whenever I need a bit of a spiritual and meditative state reset, this is one of my top choices.
I also love the “This rhythmatic explosion” line from Nas…
I wanted to push myself with creating bass lines on the digitakt using samples - so I learned the bassline from Smilin Billy suite pt2 which QTip used in One Love from this tutorial and re-pitched a bass sample so I could play it. I’m really happy with how that turned out.
Finally I can remember my dad listening to this Glenn Gould album which he plays JS Bach Goldberg Variations. He would put the record on at the end of his day on his stereo with the lights low, close his eyes and just zone out/in. So i put this in at the end, with another bassline and the Nas “in like Leviathan - deep so let me try again”. Might have been trying to squeeze in too much
If you’ve made it this far then you know pretty much everything about the journey I went on for this beat. Thanks for letting me host and throwing myself all in.
Looking forward to the next one!
One love.
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Loved that sample, also the beat underneath i felt the most out of the three sections and pushed your beat on top for me.
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I was on a holiday and had great fun returning to using koala to make this beat, since all i had with me was my ipad mini.
The main sample is from neil young, down by the river. Music my dad liked to listen to as i remember from holidays in the car. Wasn’t a fan back then and honestly still not a fan now, but it makes for pretty nice sample fodder, thanks dad!
As for samples that were used on illmatic i chose some elements from
Yearning for your love, gap band
&
Mind Rain Joe chambers
I liked that we (@surfacescan and I) both chose the ‘smooth criminal on beat breaks’ sample, and had guitar parts. Gave me a bit of a chuckle. Great job on eating the tape, that was fun!
Oh and shoutout to @Sleepyhead because i used oneshots from ‘Sleepy’s Supreme Sample Pack’ that was still saved on my iPad somewhere. So a bit of Elektron flavour in my beat originates from his trusty AR i guess. Even now that he’s made the switch to the sp2400, sleepy’s AR still lives on
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Haha love this!
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Sorry I am a little late to the party… I was hiking over the weekend. I really liked that challenge. Illmatic has always been to me the gold standard of hip hop albums. perfection in any aspect. perfect length, perfect beats, insane rapping, just an insane culmination of talents capturing the essence of why hip hop is the musical love of my life.
- The main sample is Aretha Franklin - Skylark. This is something my mom would listen to driving around in her mini Cooper S.
- The horns sample comes from Jimmy Gordon and his Jazznpops Band - Walter L.
- then I sampled the intro of T la Rock Dj Jazzy Jay- it’s yours
- my Nas vocal sample are from NY state of mind and the world is yours
drums and bass are from my personal sample archive. and I used Pharcyde for the come on vocal sample.
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Big up to all who participated in this battle and tribute to Illmatic.
Over to @Yabba who will host our next edition.
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Still planning to do a process write up for mine, should be in the next few days. Sorry so late!
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