The Earth is Round, Don't Be Square


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

(Still Fresh) 2008 Remixes

These are two remixes I did back sometime in mid-2008. I got one more classic joint that I was working on a remix for around the same time that I did these two, but I couldn't find a sample! It's still a bare-bones drum & vocal track until I go back to it at some point.

The first is Ladybug Mecca's (of Digable Planets) verse on the classic "9th Wonder" off of the equally classic Blowout Comb album. I didn't remix the whole song because I couldn't fit the entire acapella from the 12" on my MPC 1000's (no RAM upgrades over here!). So I just sampled in her verse at 45 rpm's and just pitched it down to the original tempo. I found a nice sample from a brazilian record, chopped it up some, threw a classic break underneath, spiced it up with some 808 sounds arranged in a way inspired by Latin percussion, and added some horns and guitar at the end sampled from two other LP's.

The second is two verses from Rakim's "The Saga Begins". Pete Rock laced the original no doubt, but hey, 12's have acapella's on them for a reason. Can't really remember the back story for this one. I might've sampled an unsung Stax artist for this one but I can't remember. Threw a little vocal sample on for the hook and that was that. And oh, I actually tracked this joint out to my computer in the most low budget fashion. I hooked up the headphone out from the mpc, to the record in on my computer and first recorded in the vocals, then I recorded in the sample w/o drums, then I recorded the drums (I was using cool edit pro). It was a pain but it got the job done.

Ladybug Mecca - 9th Wonder (Bruce Geetz Remix)


Rakim - The Saga Begins (Bruce Geetz Remix)

Both of these were recorded straight off the mpc, so they are both lo-fi affairs, but they are most definitely headphone worthy. The Mecca one has a little low rumbling at the end of every 4th bar I believe (dirty records can bite you in the ass) but hey, it might just be that I nitpick with basically anything I do.

Hope you enjoy!