Tuesday, August 2, 2011

How it's Suppose to Sound

(Preface: Although I am official know as the Andy Rooney of this PORTEmaus sh*t because of my comical venom..I am first and foremost a musical purist. Specifically with Hip Hop. And so I wanted to share that side of myself with you all and expose you to music you would of otherwise never heard of. Enjoy Kiddos)


Inspiration. The most important aspect to creativity is finding inspiration. While main stream music continues to be more devoid of creativity and inspiration, independent artists continue to find ways to show music purists such as my self that real music does exist and you can find it if you look and listen hard enough.

I discovered a producer by the name of Damu the Fudgemunk sometime in 06/07 on You Tube. He was this guy who would post videos of how he made beats on the 'MPC 2000' (which if you know hip hop, you know that the MPC series of midi sequencers helped define how Hip Hop sounded in the 90's). And that's where Damu's beats sounded like they were from. The 90's. The Golden Age of Hip Hop in my opinion. So you had a guy who was only like 18 or 19 years old at the time who was making music from a generation ago and making it sound like it just came out. It was amazing. I continued to follow him as he put out some independent releases and became more and more nice with the beats.

It was soon clear to see that what I was hearing and seeing was not your average producer. I started making beats and quit making beats because of this guy. How many artists can you say inspire you to want to do what they do all the while making you want to immediately quit because you could never make anything even close to what they make. And not only did his beats sound amazing with someone rhyming over them...but a lot of his beats didn't even need lyrics. Do you know how hard it is to keep the average listener interested in a piece of music that has no lyrics, let alone your average Hip Hop listener.

Damu does more than just throws samples and drum loops together, he PLAYS his MPC. His beats are so intricate and sonically dynamic that I'm just discovering things I have been listening to for over two years. Here's an example:



Did you catch that? He took a familiar sample (Tom's Diner)...sampled it....took another sample (the loop for "Bucktown") and actually PLAYED the Tom's Diner sample to the Bucktown sample. When I finally caught on to that it blew my mind because it just proves that their are actually musicians in Hip Hop. People who know what music is suppose to sound like and can stretch the capabilities of what is considered to be the norm.

Here's the actual outcome of that song:



as well as a couple of videos of Damu performing on the MPC live:







Music is alive. Hip Hop is alive. Stop being so lazy and listening to the sh*t they spoon feed you on the radio and tv.

Or I'll find you and force you and your kids to listen to Damu's beats at gun point!

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