Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Dead Prez Remix

Just wrapped up a remix of the classic Dead Prez track "Hip Hop."

Dead Prez - Hip Hop (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

You can download a high-quality MP3 of the remix with the little down arrow on the right-hand side of the player widget.

The repeating synth bassline in the original track is so iconic that I decided to ditch it entirely to give myself a little more creative freedom. I went for a slower tempo (big surprise!), deep sub-bass and sparse, atmospheric production that opens up into edgier distorted synth lines in the last third. When I say "deep sub-bass" I really do mean it- the bassline in my version gets down to around 40Hz, meaning it'll vibrate your entire body on a proper club soundsystem, but will likely completely disappear on smaller speakers and most headphones.  You should've retired those iPod earbuds years ago anyway.

Dead Prez's lyrics on the original are fantastic, and were a big part of why I chose this song to remix, so instead of chopping them up I left them alone and instead tried to accentuate and emphasize the message of the original tune with my new instrumental backing.  Unfortunately, the only acappella I could find had all the PG-13 words chopped out, though on a positive note I guess this makes my remix more toddler friendly for all the hip parents out there (you know who you are).

For comparison, here's the original track in all of its (youtube compressed) glory:



And of course, for you loyal readers the instrumental version of my remix can be had right here:

Dead Prez - Hip Hop (Nonagon remix) Instrumental

2 comments:

kc! Bradshaw said...

great job!! You are a remix MACHINE!

John Brian said...

Thanks kc! I think I'm drawn to hip hop remixes because they generally impose a basic structure without imposing any musical restrictions (i.e. I don't feel obligated to repurpose any of the original instrumental).

That said, non-hip hop remixes are fun too, but they're a little more work to get right.