Hottest Flips: Soul Chops, Funky Library, African Highlife & Boys ChoirHottest Flips: Soul Chops, Funky Library, African Highlife & Boys Choir

Inspiration

Hottest Flips: Soul Chops, Funky Library, African Highlife & Boys Choir

'Hottest Flips' highlights recent releases made with Tracklib. The series reveals the samples behind the songs and gives you first-hand production insights.

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Tracklib

·

December 2, 2022

Full Breakdown: BROCKHAMPTON - The Family (incl. five Tracklib samples)

brockhampton the family all samples
All Samples on Brockhampton’s 'The Family'

The end of an era: ‘The Family’ marks Brockhampton’s last album (together with the surprising release of 'TM') before their “indefinite hiatus” they announced earlier this year. The last hurrah to go out with a bang. These are all the samples on ‘The Family’—featuring five Tracklib samples!

Nas - WTF SMH (Prod. by Hit-Boy & Jansport J)

"When we presented the beat to Nas, my gut told me to strip the drums to let the record breathe, and also give Hit-Boy room to add his own as he saw fit."

—Jansport J

On “WTF SMH,” Hit-Boy is joined by producer Jansport J who graces the track with a crazy beat switch. The LA producer told us how he makes his chops sound like a continuous loop, and why drums are stripped out from the second part of the song:

"I was amazed at how muddy and muffled ‘Lovin Cup’ was. It literally sounded like the audio had been ripped from an old dusty record in the attic. A lot of producers tend to want clearer-sounding samples, but I immediately felt like the muffled sound added some EQ character. I really wanted to build on that feel. I threw Maximers, Multiband Compressors, and LowPass all on top of the sample to really bring out the grit in the sample chops. The record by Keys felt so soulful with pieces in the chorus and bridge that I knew I could piece them together and make it interesting.

I take pride in being able to make certain chops sound like a continuous loop, which was the case with this production. When we presented the beat to Nas, my gut told me to strip the drums, to let the record breathe, and also give Hit-Boy room to add his own as he saw fit. Everyone agreed it was amazing without the drums, and that's the record as we know it today."

Mount Kimbie - say that (ft. Nomi)

"I like randomizing the songs on Tracklib so that I find the stuff that has yet to be mined—the least popular ones."

—Dom Maker (one-half of Mount Kimbie)

Mount Kimbie’s new double album MK 3.5: Die Cuts | City Planning perfectly shows their duality as a duo. Dom Maker’s Die Cuts feels like a beat-tape-inspired A-side, full of sample chops, playful beat patterns, and a handful of R&B gems—two of them with Tracklib samples! Kai Campos follows with a more dancefloor-minded side on City Planning.

"The process was quite unique, as it was someone else’s beat that I sampled! I think the reason I picked out ‘Amica’ by Cape Lion was that the lead sounded kind of odd. I like randomizing the songs on Tracklib so that I find the stuff that has yet to be mined—the least popular ones.

I pitch-bent some of the beat and slowed it right down. Then I sliced it and made a different rhythm. I was considering getting the multitracks and using them but the magic is in the weird bass notes and stretched drums."

Vinnie Paz - 3 Levels of Hikmah (Prod. by Oh No)

"After prepping the drums, I chopped and seared the samples in the skillet, made a low bass gravy from the reduction, then plated the sample with highs and fresh herbs."

—Oh No

Vinnie Paz (Jedi Mind Tricks) and producer Oh No have been long-time collaborators. As the intro of “3 Levels of Hikmah” implies, they’re “cookin’ and chefin’ again”—with a slice of Cavendish library music as their main ingredient.

"I drank a mug of coffee, enjoyed a few herbal jazz cigarillos, and started digging through the soul and funk catalog. ‘Vidura’ reminded me of a mix between The Wiz's funky-ass trumpets and the announcing horns in an old medieval festival.

At Disrupted Studios Labs, I took the scientific chef approach. Sharpened the rusty steak knives, filled the room with 99% hypnotical gases, and dirtied all the tabletops with a combination of different dust and ash compounds. After prepping the drums, I chopped and seared the samples in the skillet, made a low bass gravy from the reduction, then plated the sample with highs and fresh herbs.

I usually don't shoot out the recipes to the beatmaking cookbook and all, but two of the techniques I used in the flip are the ‘Skimmond Chauppet' methods and the ‘Diddie Smokemoore’ techniques."

HVMZA - Aga Eh

"I generally don't process samples a lot. I like to keep them as authentic as possible."

—HVMZA

African, Latin, and Middle Eastern influences are present in the digging process of Belgian producer HVMZA. For the Afro House on “Aga Eh,” he found a gem by the Ghanaian highlife band Uppers International.

"I immediately fell in love with ‘Aja Wondo’ when I heard it and felt the urge to jump into the studio to get to work. It’s a fun track but at the same time, the vocals had so much soul. I heard about the sample in an Instagram story by the record label. They [Analog Africa] were advertising that the sample was now available on Tracklib, so I immediately went to the website to search for that song by Uppers International.

I first synced the tempo of the track to the project's BPM with Ableton’s Warping and put it in the right key. I looped in certain parts and started building around that. I used an EQ plugin to remove the unwanted frequencies and also used a little compression to control the dynamics since it's a very old record. I generally don't process samples a lot; I like to keep them as authentic as possible."

Kings Kaleidoscope - Look.At.Me

"The approach was to strip everything away and commit to only using the sample, bass synth, a string quartet, and vocals, and to make that as raw as possible."

—Chad Gardner (Kings Kaleidoscope)

The band's kaleidoscopic influences—from Motown to math rock to The Bridge Wars-era hip-hop production—shimmer through on “Look.At.Me”: complex harmonies and textures built around a boys' choir sample.

"I chopped the sample really fast; I think from the moment I first heard it to getting the chop as-is was maybe an hour. I work primarily in Ableton and used the Push for chopping this sample. There’s a little saturation added from the Sketch Cassette plugin, and some automated EQ filtering as the song progresses.

Initially, I made two really different-sounding tracks. While that had potential, I kept feeling like the sample itself was strong enough to be mostly on its own. So the final approach was to strip everything away and commit to only using the sample, bass synth, a string quartet, and vocals. And to make that as raw as possible. That’s the track it is now: very minimal but incredibly complex texturally and harmonically."

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