The creation of a beat or general composition can be as simple or as convoluted as you want but for those really dedicated to the craft, it requires a process. “Making of” videos give an insight into those routines and our latest iteration of Sampleface Five shows the likes of Daedelus, 9th Wonder and Black Milk in the zone.
Daedelus | The Making of Drown Out
Here, Daedelus talks about the creative and emotional process behind “Drown Out” and the numerous sounds and events that inspired the track. Compositionally and contextually, Drown Out involved a helluva lot and the fact he used a mixture of analog and digital just adds to the overall aesthetic.
Making the Beat with Statik Selektah
It doesn’t get much more straightforward than this as far as beatmaking is concerned. Statik Selektah simply picked a record, found the chops and let his fingers do the talking (via sequencing through Pro Tools). Also nice to see some instrumental aspects done manually, giving the track a bigger sound and more layered track.
Making the Beat with 9th Wonder
Most people who know about 9th Wonder’s beat making origins will know he originally started out on a PC with Fruity Loops (now FL Studio) and Cool Edit Pro before he moved on to the MPC. This video shows the North Carolinian producer playing out beats while Buckshot threw down rhymes live. Clearly, the transition was smooth. Short but a sweet “making of” video.
Kev Brown Making a Beat
Kev Brown is one of the most underrated producers around now, with credits on albums by De La Soul, Marley Marl, DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Mitsu The Beats. In this video, we get a glimpse of what goes into his production, centred around his MPC2000XL. This is an old video but it still goes to show that producers don’t always just pick loops, place beats over them and call it a day.
Black Milk Interview
You should all know we’re massive fans of Black Milk so any video involving his beat process would have caught our attention. Black dumbs down any preconceptions of producers and their expensive studio surroundings by showing his music room. The video goes from Black playing some premade beats before picking a record and starting one from scratch. As far as “making of” videos go, this is one of the best.