Example of Hip Hop and Rap with Remixed Original Beat

Sean Kingston
Beautiful Girls ft. AC

Sample HERE.

Just decided to give you guys an example of what a remixed original beat of a hip hop song is like. In addition, modern remixing of rap, hip hop, and R&B involves featuring another rap artist and throws in some rap.

Original

DJ Bigkid
"Just Dreaming"

This is the best song I have heard in a while that is original. Listen to it here.

The song starts off with a xylophone sounding instrument that is backed by a piano-like sounding ambient that is soothing. The song starts off with a very dream like trancey theme by subtly soothing the audience in the back ground as he or she enjoys the melody.

All the beat and ambients goes quiet while the only sound you hear is the xylophone like sound continues. This also creates a very uplifting effect because it causes that feeling you get when you gasp due to surprise when something suddenly goes missing. The melody is alleviating and calming.

As the song progresses, another melody is introduced, this time is a mixture of strings that provide an easing feeling. In general, strings are used in uplifting trance, but the effect it causes in this track is simply beyond uplifting. It is warming, tranquilizing, and... hypnotizing.

This song also has no vocals, another characteristic of an uplifting trance track. Without words and voices allows the listener to just focus on the musical aspect and not have to interpret the lyrics. In addition, vocals don't add any more emotions that can remove the uplifting effect of the song. By that I mean that if the lyrics are saddening like the ones you hear in modern R&B love songs, you will become depressed after being uplifted. Being such a good song, you will probably keep listening to this song.

At the 2:50 mark, a piano melody is introduced after a wide variety of string melodies are used in the first three quarters of the song. Piano being one of the most common instruments in a uplifting trance track helps bring back nostalgic memories that further uplift you. The reason why piano is uplifting and allows that nostalgic effect in this song is because you as the audience is probably probably forgot or did not know that the piano existed because you enjoyed most of the song before.

Overall, this is a very good uplifting track and really uplifts. This is one of the few songs that actually can uplift by choice of instrument , organizing the introduction of specific instruments, and a soothing beat. Like the title suggests, listening to this song is like when you are 'just dreaming'.

Review on DJ Xoduzz - Paul

DJ Xoduzz
Paul
2Hype Ent. / bb&co.

You can get the album here. The following is a review of a few selected individual tracks that I found fascinating. Reason for not having just a general review is simply because I thought that every track is unique in its own way.

Track 1: A very rappy and hip hop beat that is not my really my normal preference, but this song is fetching in that it has a lot of tempo changes and minor beat changes that song as if nothing really changed. You can hear the difference if you start the song, listen for a few seconds and then going to the end of the song. There are some ambient sounds that actually travel from the left to the right and vice versa. They are not loud so that the balance of sound is off in the other ear when no ambient happens in that side. A very active track overall.

Track 2: This is a fine example of one of those songs that you tend to dread to end because it gets so repetitive. The beat is literally the same throughout the track and it is the same beat when the song ends. The song does not have anything interesting to make up for a boring beat, even the melodies and ambients are boring and repetitive.

Track 3: The beat in this song does not last through the whole song, but the bass is a bit loud. Starting at 2:20, there are some sounds that sound like a piano underwater played through tubes. There are a few of these solos throughout the track and they move the song forward because it goes with the beat so well that you anticipate the short solos.

Track 4: This song is similar to track 1, the variety in beats and melodies make this song very upbeat, it never gets boring. I have noticed that in a few of the songs, the beat, melody, and ambient are all recreated by DJ Xoduzz. In the past, many DJs simply remix the beat, but the beats here are original to some extent. In this track for example, the beat is clearly not the original because during the rapping parts, the beat and melody is more old school funk than a hip hop style.

Track 6: I have almost all the remixes there are to this song and there is something different about this version of "Because of You" by Ne-Yo. Around the 1:50 mark, the melody there is actually from another song, but it goes well with this song. The piano-ized version of the beat and melody of the original is new and refreshing.

The rest: The songs started to go downhill from here. The bass and beat in each song after was decent because an effort was made so that it was not constant throughout the song. However, the ambient and the overall song sounds like rap with a rock band and orchestra playing the ambient and making the beat.

Overall, the style of creating a new beat and replacing the original rap and hip hop beats with a new one is very refreshing. The style of the past was that the beat is simply remixed and not completely recreated. By beat being remixed, the tempo is changed and the drum and bass line is simply modified by adding a few extra beats. The beats are recreated in that new instruments are used and in most of the songs the beat is not what you will hear in the original. Most people will not enjoy this type of remixed beat and original rap combination because this is a more modern style of break beating and the more old school style is just remixing the original beat.

A Simple Example of Sampling

"beautiful mystery"


"Rap 5"

from Curtis Live by Curtis Mayfield

"I'm Gonna' Love You Just A Little Bit More, Baby"

from Music for Soulful Lovers by Cecil Holmes

Put this together around 2004 under the alias DJ Mango. If you preview the samples I upped you should be able to see where I drawed the samples from. There were other samples, but I have long since forgotten them and the synth was done on a yamaha psr. If you like the style you could always check out the DJ Mango myspace for more mellow beats.