The Hip-Hop Thread

[hbionic]

I don't think it's any of their songs, its just beats that the DJ is playing as they freestyle.

Just listen to it and let me know if you know it (when Juice is freestyling, 3rd track). Beats are like drugs to me, I need to know what its called, I'll go crazy if I don't!

[ice grillin you]

thats a song called da wiggy by ogc

[hbionic]

Heltah Skeltah Tracks on Amazon

IGY, I'm not doubting your hip-hop wisdom, but it doesn't sound like 'Da Wiggy'. Unless you're talking about a remix?

[ice grillin you]

my bad....i knew it was a beatminerz track....its not helter skelter tho but black moons 'war zone'

[mussa]

i saw a pharcyde video the other night. that brought back some memories...labcab was a great album

[hbionic]

my bad....i knew it was a beatminerz track....its not helter skelter tho but black moons 'war zone'

Hail IGY. Hail IGY.

[Diomedes]

I like J Live

[ice grillin you]

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0746,detrick,78335,22.html

The Dirty Heartbeat of the Golden Age
Reminiscing on the SP-1200, the machine that defined New York hip-hop
by Ben Detrick

In the summer of 1987, E-mu Systems released the SP-1200, a drum machine and sampler designed for dance-music producers. An update of a previous model known as the SP-12, the souped-up edition allowed for the recording and manipulation of a 10.07-second sample with gritty 12-bit sound quality—now you could craft a complete instrumental on one portable machine.

Just as the Stradivarius or the Fender Stratocaster were standard-bearers by which other instruments were judged, the SP-1200 quickly became the tool of choice for East Coast beat-makers during rap's so-called "Golden Age," a period during the late '80s and early '90s, when sampling laws were still being meted out in courtrooms. Such artists as Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, Gang Starr, Main Source, and the Notorious B.I.G. created classic joints over beats concocted on the SP-1200. The machine rose to such prominence that its strengths and weaknesses sculpted an entire era of music: The crunchy digitized drums, choppy segmented samples, and murky filtered basslines that characterize the vintage New York sound are all mechanisms of the machine.

Long ago toppled by more powerful equipment and computer-based production programs, the sampler continues to inspire enough cultish devotion that any prospective knob-twister still must shell out around $1,000 to go retro. We spoke with several of hip-hop's must celebrated veteran producers about their experiences with the SP-1200 over the last 20 years.

The Learning Curve

Pete Rock: When I first got the SP-1200—I think that was back in '87—I was going to sessions with my cousin Heavy D, and he was working with Marley Marl. I would just be looking around and looking at the stuff they had and looking at what he was doing. Eddie F had the drum machine, and he showed me how to work it. I basically studied the manual—read it beginning to end and learned it like that. I used it all day, every day. I never came outside—just woke up happy to have a piece of machinery that made music. I didn't give a damn about anything else once I got that drum machine.

Ski : The strength of the SP was definitely the way the 12-bit sounded when you threw the sample or the snare or the kick in there—it just sounded so dirty. It was a definite, definite farging plus with the machine. The limited sampling time made you become more creative. That's how a lot of producers learned how to chop the samples: We didn't have no time, so we had to figure out ways to stretch the sounds and make it all mesh together. We basically made musical collages just by chopping little bits and notes.

Hank Shocklee : There's little tricks that were developed on it. For example, you got 12 seconds [10.07, according to the manufacturer] of sample time to divide amongst eight pads. So depending on how much you use on each pad, you decrease the amount of sample time that you have. You take a 33 1/3 record and play it on 45, and you cheat the system. [Another] aspect that we created is out of a mistake—one day I was playing "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" and it came out real muffled. I couldn't hear any of the high-end part of it. I found out that if you put the phono or quarter-inch jack halfway in, it filters the high frequency. Now I just got the bass part of the sample. I was like, "Oh, shtein, this is the craziest thing on the planet!"

The Machine and the Masters

Lord Finesse: They had me as a special guest on Stretch and Bobbito, one of the popular radio shows of the '90s. I thought it would be slick if I brought my 1200 down. A lot of producers did total beats with their 1200, and I think I did two or three, and one specifically was when I chopped up Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." I chopped all around his voice using the 1200 and put an instrumental in the back. I played it over the air, and me and KRS-One freestyled over it. It was real slick.

Ski : People said they never saw anyone work the SP as fast as me and Large Professor— not that it means anything. It's crazy. I can't explain it—it's like the shtein is programmed in my brain. I worked with Jay-Z and did all of Reasonable Doubt on the SP-1200. For "Dead Presidents," everything was made on the SP, man: the whole sequence, the drum sounds, the Nas sample. The only thing that wasn't done on the SP was the sample, [but] I ran it through it to give it that sound.

Pete Rock : Everything that you ever heard from me back in the day was the SP-1200. That machine made "Reminisce" ["They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)"], "Straighten It Out," "Shut 'Em Down," "Jump Around." When I made "Reminisce"—I had friend of mine that passed away, and it was a shock to the community. I was kind of depressed when I made it. And to this day, I can't believe I made it through, the way I was feeling. I guess it was for my boy. When I found the record by Tom Scott, basically I just heard something incredible that touched me and made me cry. It had such a beautiful bassline, and I started with that first. I found some other sounds and then heard some sax in there and used that. Next thing you know, I have a beautiful beat made. When I mixed the song down, I had Charlie Brown from Leaders of the New School in the session with me, and we all just started crying.

An End of an Era

Pete Rock: I used the MPC [a technologically superior sampler line first introduced in 1988] on Soul Survivor II. That was kind of the beginning of using it. I thought it had a thinner sound than the SP, but it had way more sample time—like three minutes. So, can't beat that. I got hundreds of beats on the SP-1200, but I like the MPC. I'm really starting to get in the midst of it now.

Hank Shocklee : They've mastered the computer to the point it does things the SP-1200 can't do. [But] we would have better records today if people said, "Look, you've got five hours to make a record." The problem is that people got all day. They got all week. They got all month. They got all year. So thus, you in there second-guessing yourself. With the 1200, you can't second-guess yourself, man. You got 2.5 seconds a pad, man. . . . Till this day, nobody has understood and created a machine that can best it.

[hbionic]

Great read IGY! 

It was refreshing to read that. I could be in the shteintiest mood (right now as people post about how great the patriots are)....but its puts that smile back into my soul. I love that shtein.

Thanks.

[hbionic]

I'm listening to songs from Ice Cube's Death Certificate...has to be top 5 albums of all time.

'I want to kill sam 'cause he ain't my motherfarging uncle'.

[ice grillin you]

Fresh out of school cause I was a high school grad
gots to get a job cuz I was a high school dad
Wish I got paid like I was rappin' to the nation
but thats not likely, so here's my application
Pass it to the man at AT&T
Cuz when I was in school I got the a. e. e.
But there's no SC for this youngsta
I didn't have no money so now I have to hunch the
Back like a slave, thats what be happenin
but whitey says there's no room for the African
Always knew that I would clock g's
but welcome to McDonalds can I take your order please
Gotta sell ya food that might give you cancer
cuz my baby doesn't take no for an answer
Now I pay taxes that you never give me back
what about diapers, bottles, and similac
Do I gotta go sell me a whole lotta crack
for decent shelter and clothes on my back?
Or should I just wait for help from Bush
or Jesse Jackson, and operation Push
If you ask me the whole thing needs a douche
a masengel what the hell cracker sale in the neighborhood
To the whorehouse bitches,
Miss parker, little joe or Todd Bridges
Or anybody that he know
so I got me a bird, better known as a kilo
Now everybody know I went from po' to a *igga that got dough
So now you put the feds against me
cause I couldn't follow the plan of the presidency
I'm never givin' love again
Cuz blacks are too fargin broke to be republican
Now I remember I used to be cool
till I stopped fillin' out my W-2
Now senators are gettin' hired
and your plan against the ghetto backfired
So now you got a pep talk
but sorry, this is our only room to walk
Cause we don't want a drug push
But a bird in the hand is worth more than a bush

[hbionic]

Ice Cube- Color Blind
Ice Cube- Summer Vacation
Ice Cube- Steady Mobbin
Ice Cube- Horny Lil Devil
Ice Cube- No Vaseline
Ice Cube- A bird in the hand
Ice Cube- Doing Dumbshtein
Ice Cube- I wanna kill sam
Ice Cube- Givin up the nappy dugout
Ice Cube- Man's best friend

...among some of the titles on the album. I think I might pick the album up on ebay if I could find it.

[ice grillin you]

how do you not have that album

[hbionic]

I had the album when it came out...on tape.

I think I may have had the cd....but I may have gotten stolen or I may have lost it or scratched it or broke it.

All I know is that it will now permanently occupy one of the 6 slots on the car's cd changer.

Permanent Spot 1- Tribe Called Quest- Low End Theory
Permanent Spot 2- (will be Ice Cube- Death Certificate)
Spot 3-6 will be up for consideration

[ice grillin you]

gangstarr - step into the arena
nas - illmatic
beatnuts - street level


youre welcome