Hip Hop Production, some basics.

                When this project was first assigned, I immediately knew what creative field I wanted to study. I’ve been wanting to learn how to produce hip hop music for a while, and I was planning on finally learning how this summer, but when the project was assigned I thought it would be a better idea to start a couple months in advance. I thought that since it’s a field that I’m already interested in, I would be more dedicated to making a creative work that I actually care about. The reason I love hip hop beats is because it’s awesome to see a bunch of different elements of music come together to form something that is pleasing to the ear, and I wanted to be able to make beats on my own because sometimes I have music in my head that I can’t get out, and no means of making it.

           

Most hip hop producing these days takes place on a computer, in a Digital audio workstation programs like Ableton Live or FL Studio. Other equipment that producers use could be instruments like keyboards, MIDI pads, and turntables to pull a sample from a record to your computer. There are two main elements of producing a hip hop beat, drums and a sample of another type of music (Wikipedia “Basic Elements”). While a sample isn’t completely necessary to make a beat, and you can construct your own original music, most of my favorite beats use a sample. After you pick a certain part of another song that you want to sample, you can chop it, edit it, loop it, and construct the rest of the music around it.

           

A few critically acclaimed hip hop producers that you have probably heard of are Kanye West, Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, RZA, and Timbaland (Adaso). I could go on for a while about my favorite lesser-known producers, but here are just a few of them: Alchemist, Madlib, MF DOOM, Party Supplies, Harry Fraud, and Erick Arc Elliott. Below is a video of one of my favorite producers, Party Supplies, in the studio. It shows the entire process of making a beat, from selecting the records to sample, to selecting what to sample, to chopping it out, mixing it, and adding the rest of the music using an Akai MPC MIDI pad. I thought it was cool to get an inside look at one of my favorite artist’s creative process. 

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_production

 Adaso, Henry. "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers." About.com Rap / Hip-Hop. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

Video URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI_ulmRb1fw