Hip-hop has taken many turns over the past thirty plus years it has been in existance. Starting out in the industry as the disrepected "red-headed step-child" of music, to the "must have" in every itunes library in the world; the hip-hop genre is now recognized as a true art-form. Using various tools to create, infuse, and recreate music as a whole, hip-hop is a pioneer in utilizing technology in music.
Technology is a big part of music, and has made hip-hop one of the most diverse genres of music to date. As important as rhyming lyrics is to hip-hop, its what happens behind the rhymes that turns creative poetry to the newest chart-topping hit.
Though having the ability to "spit" lyrics that are real, relevant, and relatable is the best way to be recognized as a talented hip-hop artist, music production is the glue that holds together our favorite hip-hop tracks. Artists like Jay-Z, Common, The Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West are all hot hip-hop artists that keep this philosophy in mind when recording their records. Producers like The Neptunes, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, and Will.i.am. work with various artists to deliver beats and music tracks that inspire the artist, which is not an easy task.
As a producer of various genres of music, mainly hip-hop, I wrote this brief overview of how to produce hip-hop and what it takes to be "Producer of the Year."
How to Produce Hip-Hop:
Versitility is crucial to producing hip-hop music. Increasing your technical knowledge by learning the various forms of composing or creating music is the best way to expand your versitility. Music production has only a few main avenues such as sampling, mixing, and composing. Sampling, using a portion of an existing song or composition over a hip-hop beat, is very popular and it is commonly used as the main melody of a song. Mixing is mostly used by DJs, and consists of literally mixing more than one song together smoothly to create a variation of one or more songs. Lastly, composing is another method, which is what I use to create my beats. Composing is literally writing music or building a music track, starting from stratch. Taking a kick drum and recording it, then adding a snare drum or hand clap, a bass line, a synthesizer, etc. until you have created a music track that has a beat and a melody and is formatted to have an artist express their talents through rapping or singing.
What it takes to become "Producer of the Year":
Personally, to become producer of the year, I believe that your focus should be on quality and quantity, as well as getting your productions to the hands of an artist to use for a song. In 2008, I composed over 60 quality beats in one year. To those that do not compose music, this may sound like a low number, however, considering the quality as well as the versatility of each track, these are great statistics. My productions have been used by various members of the "Rotton 'Mpire" as solo tracks as well as group tracks and collaborations with other artists. I have used my productions in multiple tracks in which I appear on solo, as well as with my group/duo, EAC with Sam Ramirez, aka Zero. Creative work of that callibur would justify the title of "Producer of the Year"
Holla,
- J.
Technology is a big part of music, and has made hip-hop one of the most diverse genres of music to date. As important as rhyming lyrics is to hip-hop, its what happens behind the rhymes that turns creative poetry to the newest chart-topping hit.
Though having the ability to "spit" lyrics that are real, relevant, and relatable is the best way to be recognized as a talented hip-hop artist, music production is the glue that holds together our favorite hip-hop tracks. Artists like Jay-Z, Common, The Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West are all hot hip-hop artists that keep this philosophy in mind when recording their records. Producers like The Neptunes, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, and Will.i.am. work with various artists to deliver beats and music tracks that inspire the artist, which is not an easy task.
As a producer of various genres of music, mainly hip-hop, I wrote this brief overview of how to produce hip-hop and what it takes to be "Producer of the Year."
How to Produce Hip-Hop:
Versitility is crucial to producing hip-hop music. Increasing your technical knowledge by learning the various forms of composing or creating music is the best way to expand your versitility. Music production has only a few main avenues such as sampling, mixing, and composing. Sampling, using a portion of an existing song or composition over a hip-hop beat, is very popular and it is commonly used as the main melody of a song. Mixing is mostly used by DJs, and consists of literally mixing more than one song together smoothly to create a variation of one or more songs. Lastly, composing is another method, which is what I use to create my beats. Composing is literally writing music or building a music track, starting from stratch. Taking a kick drum and recording it, then adding a snare drum or hand clap, a bass line, a synthesizer, etc. until you have created a music track that has a beat and a melody and is formatted to have an artist express their talents through rapping or singing.
What it takes to become "Producer of the Year":
Personally, to become producer of the year, I believe that your focus should be on quality and quantity, as well as getting your productions to the hands of an artist to use for a song. In 2008, I composed over 60 quality beats in one year. To those that do not compose music, this may sound like a low number, however, considering the quality as well as the versatility of each track, these are great statistics. My productions have been used by various members of the "Rotton 'Mpire" as solo tracks as well as group tracks and collaborations with other artists. I have used my productions in multiple tracks in which I appear on solo, as well as with my group/duo, EAC with Sam Ramirez, aka Zero. Creative work of that callibur would justify the title of "Producer of the Year"
Holla,
- J.
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