Maneuvers
Yes, y'all.
Let’s run through a quick track-by-track breakdown of the Keep Moving album.
#3 On The Phone - I knew - pretty much from the moment this beat was made - that it was going to be the first song on the album. On the lyrical side of things, I wanted to match the flow and energy of the song “The Forbidden Words” from the Super Dope album. That one rips pretty hard and it was important to me to come out swinging. In the breakdown part between the two verses, I pulled some pretty heavy chop science. It took a while to get it sounding perfect. Originally, there was another drum break in there but a swap was made so I could incorporate a separate idea I had cooking. It was a bit of a ‘kill your darlings’ situation but I’m happy with the results. Near the end of the song, I say “I recommend you read the book by Steven Hager”. He was one of the first journalists to write about hip hop in a mainstream publication (The Village Voice) and his 1984 book Hip Hop has been called the ‘holy grail’ of hip hop journalism. I consider it very important because it’s one of the earliest documents and so it isn’t warped by any revisionism.
Fresh Dirt - The main loop in this was sampled from a strange source. It’s from a song on an album from 1972 that samples a song (by a different band) from 1970. Kinda blew my mind when I first heard it. I’m not an expert on the history of sampling but that’s gotta be a very early example. I put two different breakdown parts back-to-back in the middle of this song. Not sure if I’ve done that before. At the end of the song, you hear Biz Markie’s voice. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that’s AI generated. It’s unused vocals from recording sessions we did together back in 1998. I like the ‘gucci’ and ’speed wobble’ lines in this one.
Writer’s Block - I used the QFO to do the cuts on this album. One of the main reasons why I wanted to use it is because it has a much bigger pitch range than just about any other turntable. You can slow the speed down to a crawl. That function came in handy for this interlude track. For as much as I love the feel of the QFO, I’m not sure I’ll use it for recording again. It’s a very cool tool. It’s very rare and so it’s become quite valuable. But it’s not the tank that the Technics 1200 is. The body is plastic and so I find it picks up a lot of noise (through the needle) from being touched. And when you’re cutting up records (which is what the QFO was built for), there’s a lot of touching going on. Carving out that low rumble was a challenge for Sixtoo when he was helping me with the mix of this album (more on that later).
The Negative 900 Number - Early LL Cool J was an inspiration here. I love old songs of his like “Go Cut Creator Go” that sample early rock and roll sounds. Went for a bit of that with this one.
Can we talk about the art of sample chopping here for a sec? I’d argue it takes two different forms that I’d label ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’. Visible chopping is when the chops are purposely inorganic or intentional, if you will. The seams are visible. A classic example would be “Unbelievable” by Biggie, produced by DJ Premier, who in a pioneer of that sound if not the chief architect. Invisible chopping is when the organic (or human) feel of the sample source is preserved. You can’t hear the chops. No seams. For a classic example, I will again point to a Premier beat. When I first heard “Take It Personal” back in 1992, I remember thinking, “Those are obviously the Skull Snaps drums but that’s not the pattern. Did he find an alternate take of the song somehow?!”
The beats on Keep Moving feature a LOT of invisible chopping and I’m quite proud of the work. This song features both approaches. The drum chopping is invisible. The horn chopping is neon-sign-visible. Man vs. machine.
According To Phase 2 - A bit of self-indulgence here, I suppose. I challenged myself to recreate the beat of one of my all-time favorite hip hop songs - “A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste” by M.C. Shan. I think I kinda nailed it aside from EQing, maybe. Lyrically, I wanted to capture some of the wisdom of one of the all-time great hip hop minds - the late, great Phase 2. I wouldn’t expect this one to be anyone’s favorite but it means a lot to me.
Side note - had to pull some weird science to remove the reverb from the drums I sampled for the intro part. Not an easy thing to do.
Drastic Measures - This is definitely one of my favorite songs on the album. Sixtoo gave it that stank face when he heard it (meaning he loves it too). There are bits and pieces of vocals throughout this album that I freestyled including on this song. As I explained in an earlier post, I recorded all my vocals before I expected to and there were still a few holes left to fill. I ended up filling them on the fly. I was feeling it. The beat for this song is so nasty.
You know what? I’ve already said a lot about the amazing work Sixtoo did to make this album sound great. Let’s A/B the version of “Drastic Measures” I shared a few weeks ago with the final version with Sixtoo’s touch. The first part is my original mix and then after I say “blackout ‘77”, it flips to the final mix…
That Being Said - The beat for this one was made sometime around 1992 and came right off an old cassette. Sixtoo kept shaking his head in the studio.
Def Leper - The beat for this one is very simple but effective. I love every line of the lyrics. My approach to doing the cuts on this album was to prioritize funkiness over speed. This song is the exception. Pure speed. Originally, I cut a phrase from “Strobelite Honey” by Black Sheep. It sounded pretty good but then tried something else and liked it better. I’ve always loved the cuts in “On Tempo Jack” by Phill Most Chill and wanted to emulate that a little bit. Although I cut the same sample, I think the result sounds very different. I’m happy with how it turned out. Keep it simple.
Brouhaha - This beat is evil. You’d probably be shocked if you knew the sample source - not a tough song at all. It was a tricky one to write to. Took a long time to figure out what kind of flow to go with. I love how the feel changes when the beat switches. The drummer who recorded the fill that you hear at the end of the verse is off beat which made recorded my last line very difficult. I ended up cutting part of the line to make it work.
Magic Bullet - This is one of a few songs on the album with a bit of a focus on the production/arrangement. There’s a long-ish instrumental section, which is sorta new territory for me. It’s simply the result of a different workflow. It’s not usually my instinct to leave longer gaps between verses like this but it was such a fun beat to work with. Sometimes a guy’s gotta explore a little bit. Hardcore b-boy flavor with this one. I was going for an ultra-hip hop feel.
Bug Juice - This one is another personal favorite. The beat goes HARD. The guitar sample comes from a 45 I had been hunting for years. Was very happy to finally find a copy. I make a lot of references to baseball and baseball players in my lyrics. One night - for some reason - Cesar Cedeño (the great Houston Astro) popped into my head. I started thinking of ways to rhyme his name. ‘Gays bars and rainbows’ popped into my head. I thought, ‘that’s so good but what do I do with it?’ I did want to say anything that could be interpreted as homophobic. But I also couldn’t figure out how to work it into a line. In the end, I just decided to not overthink it and just pop it in for the sake of rhyming. Some of may favorite rappers would do that all the time. I also recently saw an interview with a songwriter I like who said something along the lines of: “It doesn’t have to make sense if it feels good to you”. So I just threw it in. No context. No meaning. It just rhymes.
Museum Piece - Lots to say about this one. I know it sounds like it’s built on a classic sample but it’s actually not. I found a bass line on a pop record that is very similar to the one you’re thinking of and chopped it to make it match. If you listen close, you can tell something is kinda off about it.
I may be stating the obvious but I reference the EPMD song “Please Listen To My Demo”.
As I was in my full emersion of 80s hip hop before writing these songs, I noticed that on a lot of independent 12”s from the mid-to-late 80s, dudes would shout out all the legendary east coast radio DJs and I suspect that in most cases, they didn’t know them at all. They were just angling for airplay. I thought it would be funny to do that myself. Now. I’m probably the only person who thinks that’s funny but hey, my whole vibe is self-indulgence these days.
My favorite little detail in this song is the cut at the end: “sometimes I’m on the mic… sometimes I’m on the turntable”. The little two-click flare I do for the second half of that - “sometimes I’m on the turntable”… If I do say so myself, that came out so funky. I dropped the beat to highlight it. Pardon the technical talk but before the first click, you hear just a little grunt of the word “some” and then the clicks grab the snare. Dope. I like to think that one of my signatures when I’m cutting is those little grunts that I try to catch. Again, not the sort of thing that I really expect anyone to pick up on. I’m just over here making myself happy.
Finally, I just want to point out that I make reference to the movie Rolling Thunder - specifically the character played by Tommy Lee Jones. If you’ve never seen that movie, see it. I’ll warn you that it’s pretty brutal. It’s not a movie that would get made today. But holy shit, it’s so great.
Irish Wristwatch - I’m sure no one will pick up on this in a million years but I sample one of the most obscure and valuable records in the world on this one. And remember when I said I was going for funkiness over speed with the cuts on this album? These cuts are funky. I love cutting over slow-ass beats.
The Break Room - Another one with a lot going on. One of my favorite songs I’ve ever made is “The New Sammy Sosa” which you can find as a stand-alone on my Bandcamp page. I’ve attempted to capture the magic of that song several times since and have not managed to do it. This song is another attempt and although I don’t think it taps into the je ne sais quoi of “… Sammy Sosa”, it did find a magic of its own. Like “… Sammy Sosa”, the drums are constantly changing. Here, each time the beat changes, my flow changes too. Right out of the gates, I pay a little tribute to the Jungle Brothers. Their first album, Straight Out The Jungle has been an enduring inspiration to me.
Another thing you’ll notice is that every time the beat changes, so does the guitar sample. I chop it six ways to Sunday. I made the beat while riding a train and halfway through, I challenged myself to create a section based on the “Murder She Wrote” dancehall beat. It turned out perfectly. I was so psyched about that.
Just before that dancehall-sounding part, I mention Adidas gymnastics pants with stirrups. I wore the shit out of a pair of those when I was a kid, thinking I was the ultimate b-boy of the century. Stirrups, yo. I think they might have been meant for ladies.
Ethics For Demons - After experimenting for years, I finally figured out how to get a dope vocoder sound out of Ableton.
The last line of the song goes: “My DJ D-Styles coming right and exact”. The plan was to have him do the cuts but when I ended up rushing the release, I had to bleep his name out and do the cuts myself. I did my best D-Styles impression and didn’t come close, of course. But the little transform I do on the word “that’s” is pretty friggin’ funky.
Janky Teeth - This is one of the most outlandish things I’ve ever done. One day you will stumble on the main sample and your goddamn mind will be blown. As far as I can tell so far, no one has picked up on it.
I wanted to find a shitty old early 90s Gemini mixer to do some of the cuts on this album because I miss the sound of a bleeding/static-y fader. I never did find the mixer I wanted but I did manage to get some fader fuzz on the “yes y’all” cuts. And I must say I really love how the “I get smooth…” cuts come in at the end.
I used four different drum breaks in this song. I really love the way two of them and the guitar work together. Almost sublime. And one of the breaks comes from a record that was my #1 want for many years before finally finding a copy early last year. I’m certain I will never see another copy of the record again.
Any touring musician is familiar with the bizarre phenomenon of the walls of green/dressing rooms being absolutely plastered with crude renderings of penises. It’s particularly intense in the UK. I’ve long been morbidly intrigued by the practice. Who the hell is doing it? Why? What’s wrong with these people? What if it was me?
Article 5 - I mentioned in my diary-thing that I posted recently that the beat for this song benefitted from patience. All I had was a loop for the longest time. I kept chopping it and it was fine. I almost settled for a few chops because the loop is so dope. But one day I broke through and added a whole bunch of other parts. It really became a monster. I love it. This song - like many on the album - makes reference to M.C. Shan. In this case, it’s the transform scratch at the beginning which was inspired by the song “Back To The Basics”.
Burners - There are a few songs on this album with touches of 80s electro and this is one of them. New terrain.
For several years, I had been meaning to do the trick Marley Marl did to create the main sound in “The Bridge” with a different sound. I finally got around to it with this beat and I love how it turned out.
I mention Scotty Cranmer in the lyrics. For those who don’t know, he’s a BMX legend - one of the all-time great technical riders.
I also shout out Moka Only, who I think is one of the most criminally underrated rappers. He possesses all-time greatness when I consider all of the criteria that makes for a truly great MC. In my books, he’s one of the few who checks all the boxes (many great ones are tragically devoid of a sense of humor or absurdity, which I value).
Many have commented on the line about paper towel usage. Seems I really struck a nerve there.
Boom Mic - Another one (like Magic Bullet) with an emphasis on the arrangement. Longggg breakdown part in this one. I really labored over the decision to just let it rock the way it does. I always feel the temptation to fill all space with verbiage or cuts. I showed a little restraint here.
The most important thing for my approach to vocals on this one was to be as percussive as possible. I marvel over the ability of some great MCs to be percussive. Super Lover Cee comes to mind right away. How did he do it?! One of the greatest flows ever.
As I’m sure is painfully obvious, I’m repping the Zulu Nation very hard on this album. As I mentioned a few times before, I’ve been a member since around 1992. It’s a source of pride on one hand. But on the other, there is some inner turmoil, which I explored a bit on the King Of Drums album.
Wet Maybe - The title of this song comes from the best joke on my name I ever heard anyone make - it was a security guard at a club in New York many, many years ago.
I had the idea to write a line saying something about ‘rising like a phoenix’ and ‘like a penis’. Couldn’t quite figure out how to make it fit, so I combined the two and said ‘peenix’. I know it’s super-juvenile but that’s so funny to me. I really struggled to record the line without laughing. In the end, I used a trick I heard the actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine on Seinfeld) mention in an interview once. She was asked how she managed to get through scenes without breaking and she said she would dig the fingernails of one of her hands into the skin of the other hard enough to cause pain. I tried that and it worked. I was in real pain when I recorded that verse.
Before writing this song, I was watching a LOT of Knight Rider. Enjoyed every minute of it. Had to shout out Michael Knight.
I also came across the ‘man overboard’ sample 25 years too late but went ahead and used it anyway. Scheming on a reissue of that album soon.
Burning Rubber - this one pays tribute to UTFO and incorporates a dad joke that belongs in the Hall Of Fame.
Aching Drum - More UFTO love on this one. The insane backing vocals were inspired by a very obscure hip hop song by an outfit called Wiz & Slice. There are probably three or four people on the planet who’ve ever heard the song.
Some of my favorite ‘invisible’ chopping happens in this song. Really proud of what I did with this one. I also really like the little cut composition at the very beginning of the song.
This one was a real sleeper. Almost didn’t make the cut! But I made a bunch of additions late and it became one of my favorites on the album. Sixtoo seemed to like this one a lot too. Goes hard.
Cutlery - Do you remember that I posted an early sketch of this beat last year? If so, you can see that I added a lot to it. It’s a prime example of how these beats benefitted from being patient and taking things slow. To my pleasant surprise, this is the song that has been commented on most so far. There’s a little Grand Master Flash tribute tucked into this one.
Linoleum - The return of DJ Shit-For-Brains! This is another one where I’m very proud of the chopping. When I made the guitar echo the horns, I gave myself a hard high five.
The main thing going on here is a tribute to the short-lived hip hop group Phase N’ Rhythm - specifically their song “Hook-N-Sling”. It may sound simplistic but writing in those patterns was very difficult. I probably labored over writing this one more than any other song on the album.
Crust - The voice you hear at the start of this one is that of Grandmixer D.ST who is famous for inspiring every DJ in the world when he did the cuts on “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock. For the record, I pretty much credit Grand Master Flash for providing hip hop with it’s big bang moment when he first showcased his ‘quick mix theory’ in 1977. But I think the ideas put forth by D.ST in the clip are worth considering and exploring. I’ve brought up similar points for decades. I remember that when I was doing press for Talking Honky Blues back in 2003, talked about those primitive roots all the time.
Window - Another one where the beat is built on a sample from an incredibly rare and obscure record. No one will find it in a million years.
The ‘memory foam’ line makes no goddamn sense but it’s funny to me. Probably would have made more sense to say, “I’m so skinny…”
Depths Of Hell - Good god, this shit is hard. Is it not?! Keen ears will have picked up on my little tribute to Jazzy Jeff on the turntables in the breakdown part. That’s something I planned to do very early on in the process of conceiving this album. Sixtoo asked how the hell I made the beat you hear at the very end of this one. I could never explain it. Weird science for sure. Devastating result.
I Got You Covered - Sometimes I just want to remind the people that I make the beats, I do the cuts, I spit the raps. Because how many are there out here doing it all? Not too many, right? Not that I’m the nicest with any of them but I take pride in doing it all. I try to do it well.
As far as the beat goes, I used a ton of records to make this one. Hopefully it’s seamless enough that you hardly notice. But there’s a lot going on. Little Diamond D tribute in there for the older heads.
Plan B - Another little thing I like to hang my hat on is being able to rap to all different kinds of time signatures. So sometimes I flex a little by working parts with different time signatures into a song as I do with this one. That’s my thing. Have you heard anyone else do that? I’d genuinely like to hear it, if so. I first got the idea to make beats where the signature changes from my big brother Mr. Dibbs. Dibbs is another all-time great that needs to be recognized more. Those who know know, for sure. The man is one of the funkiest with the cuts. That can’t be taught. He has so much feel.
The ‘keep moving’ vocal sample at the end of this song was the last detail added to this album. I put that in there a few days before posting the album on Bandcamp. Heard someone say it on TV and snatched it.
That’s Keep Moving. Or all I care to say about it right now. I hope you enjoy. It was a lot of fun to make.