Hip Hop Beat Battle #44 Voting & Feedback

The Lounge Mission Briefs
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Thanks to those that submitted their work, ive had a listen and these are really excellent so well done to those that took part.

I perhaps should have made this a little more accessible to all to keep the numbers up so my bad for that, but

we do have six beats this time round so I would say vote for your top 2 on this occasion.

Only those who took part can vote and voting will be….

1st place= 3 points.

2nd place= 2 points

Let’s say final day for voting will be this Friday 24th April and the winner will choose the next concept for battle #45

In the event that we get all votes in before Friday I’ll announce the winner sooner.

Salute to all :slightly_smiling_face:

i’m afraid track three has been flagged for copyright so here it is

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@Sleepyhead
@NVVI
@schoolbabyboy
@surfacescan
@malus_mons
@flipinfantile

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Just had a first play through… damn all of these tracks sound like professional remixes. I’ll have a hard time picking.

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sheesh these are sick. yall did great on these, ill aim to have my votes in tomorrow

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1st: track 04
2nd: track 01

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First of all, great job everyone! Solid beats all around, and it wasn’t an easy challenge.
Had a lot of fun listening to the DITC crew and stuff they sampled, prepared a huge playlist that i’ll return to in the future for fun and inspiration!

As for the points, I’m going to have to follow @NVVI on this one.
1st: track 04
2nd: track 01
both stood out as very tasteful and both are flawless in execution. Deciding factor for the top spot was that i felt the feel of the beats matched the lyrics a tiny bit better on 04 as compared to 01.

4 Likes
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Me too -

I’ve listened in my car,
… on my headphones,
… laptop speakers
… phone speakers
and now in front of my studio monitors.

Helps me appreciate all the little bits and pieces you guys put into your music - stereo pans, effects, low end, hi hats and build ups and more.

I find voting the hardest part of this whole beat battle - every time. And this time there are only two votes to give out :grimacing:.

I’m going to just go straight in on my votes first and then follow with my feedback later.

  • First vote: Beat #06
  • Second vote tie: Beat #01 + Beat #02

Beat #05. :cloud_with_lightning_and_rain: I really love this track. It’s dark and deep. Pitching down Big L’s voice makes it sound sinister and dark - I wasn’t expecting it. I lost him and the other lyrics in the overall mix, which may be the intended effect. I also sort of missed hearing a few samples/loops but I give props for going out there. It really is a sound!

Beat #02 :guitar: I love this Gangstar collabo! Your drums are velcroed onto Inspectah Deck and its perfect - a real jam. THEN SUDDENLY at 2:40 into the track, the beat evolves into a crazy jam! My punk rock kid came out and my head nods turned into head banging. Beautiful riff - and those little 808 clav hits interspersed. Beauty! The track just keeps going and going, which is cool but at 5 mins it becomes a whole new track, I think if you found a way to tighten it up timewise it would have got my top vote.

Beat 03 :lemon: The first part of your beat gave alot of work to your emcee, the mix was a bit muddy so I couldn’t hear what else was happening. I love the jazzy transition into Big L for your second verse and no beat, loose and jazzy interlude vibe. And the scratching for the last Guru verse is tight! DWYCK always get me hype no matter what - so hard to cut out those NIce and Smooth verses out. Lemonade was apopular drink and it still is!". I love the beat comes back in at the end for like 2 seconds. Nice.

Beat 01 - :cloud_with_snow: Listening to this in the car and on my phone I was feeling almost too chilled out - not exactly the hard hitting DITC sound, but when I listened on my studio monitors I woke up to all the little things going on in there. Mastery. Seriously good.

Beat 06 :drum: - From the moment that distorted bassline came in I was hooked and you had my full attention. You know my steez. I really appreciate how you kept the same drums and bass for the first two beats but switched them up to fit the lyricist - like they had a backing band. And that little scratch outro with Lord Finesse was class with the old school bassline.

I think we should all feel proud of our work - this was no beginner challenge.

We spoke our clouts.
We outs.

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ive hidden my takes in case yall want to keep the mystique alive, i noted which beat was mine.

Beat 1:

Summary

i really like the crunchy bouncy pitchy bendy bell-ish sound in the first section, a nice amount of lo-fi grit in these. i dig the interlude type middle beat, smokers lounge sounds. rounds out with a pretty, stringy, swelly sound that sounds sick with the vocals. uplifting stuff

Beat 2:

Summary

the break at the beginning is dope, i like the whipback reversals. vocals float over this one real nice. the wacky sax transition is dank, drops into another badass break. the back half of this is a sick ride, the guitar sample is hard with the vocals.

Beat 3:

Summary

drums are nice n punchy in here, the sample feels a little drowned out in the first one. second beat is smoooth, almost sounds like gunshots as percussion at first. the last beat is my favorite, that snare pops. the vocals sit the best on this one too, sounds hard.

Beat 4:

Summary

the keys sample in the first beat is very soft and cozy, i like the back and forth with the sparser sections with the poppy drums. love the drums in the second beat, very organic with the woodblock, again keys are tickling my ears. great transition into the last beat, flute sounds beautiful and works great with the vocals. definitely my favorite one

Beat 5:

Summary

this was me. i cant remember what i sampled but i do know that basically all of the melodic components were from the same horn sample. the bass was stripped from something, didnt love the sound but i also dont love extracting bass from samples so i found one that worked and rolled with it. i have a hard time with acapellas, especially considering i made the beat at something like 73bpm and all the acapellas i found were in the 90bpm range. i like the end the most, everything leading up to that was not my best, definitely said fuck it and wanted to submit at least something.

Beat 6:

Summary

this beat reminds me of old asher roth beats, i hope thats not taken an insult because i used to really like some of his music from the pabst and jazz era. i like the open space in all of the beats, gives the vocals lots of room to maneuver. bass lines and breaks are all ya need sometimes.

1st: Beat 2
2nd: Beat 4

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#1 Beat 04 - my head is boppin right off the jump. 2nd beat is dope. 3rd one is about as good of a remix I’ve ever heard!

#2 Beat 01 - Dark and brooding into that jazzy interlude with the “time is now” part :pinched_fingers: then the 3rd beat had so much depth and atmosphere. Really well mixed

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Thanks everyone :slightly_smiling_face:
Just one vote to go from @Sleepyhead and we’ll be done.
I’ll put the names to the beats tomorrow and our winner will pick the next battle

1 Like
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Came across this today - DITC posse cut remixed by Premier. I easily could have heard this on CKLN’s the powermove radio show Saturday afternoons in Toronto early 1990s. . DJ X and Scam would cut up double copies of this and keep the vibe going for like 15 minutes.

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Sorry for being late guys! Will give my votes plus feedback this afternoon!

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Great tracks guys! I really like how well you all got the beats to match the acapella’s, which is pretty damn tough to do.

Feedback:

Hidden for not spoiling which one I did
  • Track 1: Mine
  • Track 2: Very Nice drums on the first track, really like the sax break here. The vocals fit very well with the beats. The last one with Big L is aggressive in a very nice and fitting way.
  • Track 3: I never expected you to pick the first track to remix but it works great! The second track is dope, almost cinematic. I like the mixing and the sound of the drums on the whole thing.
  • Track 4: Very nice mixing here, great beats, and you matched the vocals with the beats perfectly. I really like the way this sounds fresh, but the classic DITC vibe is shining through as well. Great production overall!
  • Track 5: Nice and menacing. This is a whole new sound instead of just putting new beats under the acapella’s. Great skills!
  • Track 6: Dope! I like the bend in the bassline on the first beat. The drums have a very original and cool cadance on the first and second beat. Nice transitions as well!

Votes:

1st place: Track 4
2nd place: Track 3

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Really great stuff again guys, and still rather embarrassed that I couldn’t turn up to my own party but everyone did a great job.

The tracks were

01 sleepyhead
02 malus mons
03 NVVI
04 surfacescan
05 schoolbabyboy
06 flipinfantile

And our winner is

1st @surfacescan
And
2nd @Sleepyhead

Looking forward to you guys devising the next one :slightly_smiling_face:

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Congrats @surfacescan! Amazing track!

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Congrats @surfacescan, & @sleepyhead!
Can’t wait for the next one :sunglasses::v:

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@surfacescan Hope you noticed you won! Do you want to take up the honorable duty of hosting the next battle?

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hi guys. I got so sick this past week and have been more or less out of commission and offline from the forum. I’m really happy about winning and the chance to host the next battle. Thank you!. I will post something tomorrow when I’ve had a bit of rest. :heart:

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get well soon!

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