March Madness is over, but the bracketology is not for producer fans. Vibe magazine has put together a bracket for the title of Greatest Producer of All Time. Vibe did this last year with the MC’s, which started alot of subliminal shots between artist, controversies in the press, arguments among fans, and even back and fourths with Joe Buddens and The Wu, which left Joe with a swole eye… All in the spirit of competition!…lol

Vibe Greatest Producer bracket

Here are the bracket breakdowns and seeding:

HOMEGROWN SOUND
Dr. Dre (1) VS DJ Toomp (16)
Mannie Fresh (2) VS David Banner (15)
The Bomb Squad (3) VS Mr. Lee (14)
Prince Paul (4) VS Shock G (13)
Juicy J (5) VS Rick Rock (12)
Luke (6) VS Johnny J (11)
Beats By The Pound (7) VS Wyclef (10)
Ant Banks (8) VS DJ Quik (9)

MASS APPEAL
The Neptunes (1) VS will.i.am (16)
Timbaland (2) VS Polow Da Don (15)
Swizz Beatz (3) VS Dust Brothers (14)
Diddy and The Hitmen (4) VS Herbie Luv Bug (13)
Teddy Riley (5) VS Kay Gee (12)
Trackmasters (6) VS Larry Smith (11)
Jermaine Dupri (7) VS Irv Gotti (10)
Scott Storch (8) VS Lil Jon (9)

SOUL SAMPLE
Kanye West (1) VS The Heatmakerz (16)
Pete Rock (2) VS Cool & Dre (15)
Organized Noize (3) VS 9th Wonder (14)
Erick Sermon (4) VS Daz (13)
Just Blaze (5) VS Hi-Tek (12)
J. Dilla (6) VS 88-Keys (11)
Mark the 45 King (7) VS Salaam Remi (10)
No I.D. (8) VS The Alchemist (9)

BOOM BAP
DJ Premier (1) VS Bangladesh (16)
RZA (2) VS Rocwilder (15)
Marley Marl (3) VS Dame Grease (14)
Rick Rubin (4) VS The Beatnuts (13)
Jam Master Jay (5) VS Easy Mo Bee (12)
Large Professor (6) VS Q-Tip (11)
Diamond D (7) VS DJ Muggs (10)
Havoc (8) VS Da Beatminerz (9)

Im looking for my bracket in this to go a bit better than my NCAA one, (if you tell me you had Butler in the finals you a DAMN lie!)

Voting has already started over here at this link:

http://vibe.com/hiphopproducer

Flashing back to when I did alot of remixes, wanted to post up one from awhile ago when Jay-Z’s American Gangster album was out. I remixed the enitre album, called Alpha Gangster..

Jay-Z remix album by Alpha-bet of Bang on the Table Productions

This is a remix to “Party Life”
..Check it out, download, enjoy

Jay-Z- Party Life (Alpha-bet remix) by KingAkai

*Cue DJ Premier scratch*

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9…

10!

I been in this game for years, it made me a animal
It’s rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual
A step by step booklet for you to get
Your game on track, not your album pushed back…

Rule Numbero Uno.) Never let know one know,
how much, samples, you hold, cause you know
your sound brings you originally
give your main sound up, next man making YOUR bucks

Number Two.) Never Let em know your next groove
don’t you know a beat is based on riding the timing
Take from your highness (uh-huh)
I done spent mad ticks on this shit, choppin clips and kicks

Number Three.) Get some guys who flow run deep
with rhymes that get they ass up, never scared to mash up
ready like “And What!”, grindin for that fast buck
then your beats become SONGS, ready to cash up

Number Four.) I know you heard this before
Never let shit slide, until that check get signed

Number Five.) Never have them ask, Where the bass at?
I dont care if you makin House, make it bounce

Number Six.) That goddamn credit, dead it
you think a broke rapper payin you back, shit forget it

Number Seven.) This rule is so underated
keep your snare and you kick drums completly separated
Treble with low mud don’t mix like two dicks and no bitch
your mix will sound like seirous shit

Number Eight.) Always keep the beats on you
you never know what chance you might run into

Number Nine.) Shoulda been number one to me
If your tracks ain’t beatin’ stay the fuck from the streets
Your drums ain’t hittin they ain’t tryna listen
They’ll trash it from beginning, never to get a mention

Number Ten.) A strong phrase.. Getting Signed, men
strictly for live men, not for freshmen
If you ain got the clientele say hell no,
Record Labels want they money.. rain, sleet, hail, snow

Follow these rules you’ll have mad bread to break up
If not, at least good hobby to spend the day up
Studio is your temple, beats is how your pray up
Heavy in the grind, stay up..you’ll be glad..
Hard work have you cop a Range up, with these beats
You’ll be stuntin spendin lotta cake up
making hits every time you wake up
Gotta go, gotta go, producers gettin weight up, word up..

-Alpha-bet
http://twitter.com/KingAkai

R.I.P
B.I.G

Video by Detroit-dred producer Waajeed on his inspiration for  remixing artist Mayer Hawthorne’s  song “Green Eyed Love”.

Real good video on battling beat block, which all artist get into sometimes.

Video was also filed and edited by Waajeed.

Shout out to Bling47.com

*In Randy Watson voice* “I believe the children are the fuuuuuutcha, teach dem well annd…….LET them lead they waaaay…”

12 Year old producer Von Beatz makes a viral video showing his process of making a beat..and it’s pretty good too…

This wouldn’t be a production blog without talking about one of the greatest producers James Yancey, aka Jay Dee, aka J Dilla. While listening to alot of his work the past couple days I was thinking, whats my favorite Dilla beats?..that’s a hard choice. Not only because he has alot of work that’s top notch(released and leaked beat tapes), but he was really versatile and had different styles for different eras in his career, The Donut Era Dilla, Ruff Draft Era Dilla, early Slum Village area..ect

Portrait of J Dilla making beats

It’s impossible to make a definitive list, but these are some of my personal favorites.

5.) Slum Village- Raise it Up

Alot of people are more familiar with the smoothed out type of beats Dilla does, me personally I tend to like the quirky, off kilter type of stuff from his catalog. When I first hear the bloops and bleeps for Raise it up, it stood out from all the other joints on the Slum Village Fantastic Vol.2 album. Bugged thing about this is, the keyboard sounds is from a sample and at the time everybody was sampling Soul & Old School R&B, not Electronica/Techno music, but according to Wikipedia, the artist of the sample didn’t want to sue Dilla when they found out he used it because they were big fans..instead they asked to work with Dilla on a new track!..lol

4.) The Red

This is from the Jaylib album. I always like this one because the bass line and drums are hitting so hard together, till it makes you nod to it..

3.) One for Ghost/Whip You with a strap

I like this because as a producer, sometimes you may make a track with a particular artist in mind, and on Donuts Dilla named this beat “One for Ghost”, Ghost must of heard it and said “Yeah that IS me”, and made a song out of it and put it on his album “Whip You With a Strap”. So I like that you see the process right there from beat to full song.

One for Ghost from J Dilla Donuts:

Ghostface- Whip You with a Strap

2.) Busta Rhymes ft. Cassidy & Papoose- Psycho

Dilla always had great chemistry with Busta (as well as Common), so it was only right that to honor his mans Dilla, Busta released a mixtape a couple years ago making joints with Dilla beats. I was a fan of the more harder type of joints Dilla did, and I guess it took a Dilla beat to bring it out, because this is the best I ever heard Cassidy spit..lol..

1.) Make Em NV

Like I said I before, alot of people associate Dilla with the smoothed out, musical tracks, but this my favorite J Dilla beat, one of my fav Dilla songs for that matter..shit is just HARD! The drums smack you in the face, and the wizardry to take the little bell sounds you hear that sound all pretty and calm and turn it into a song that bang you right in the chest is what defines a master at work.

Downloadable single from Crooked I produced by Keyz

New music from Crooked I, 1/4th of lyrical supergroup Slaughterhouse (Royce da 5′9, Joe Budden, Joel Ortiz & Crooked I).

Joint is called “Worldwide” produced by Detroit producer Keyz.

From the downloadable album World Premier.

STREAM/DOWNLOAD: Crooked I – Worldwide (prod. Keyz) | Mediafire
BONUS: Keyz – World Premiere

Shout out to 2dopeboyz.com for blasting this a while ago too.

It’s the decade old debate, ever since computers have become a big part of music production…

The hardware vs software debate.

Which is better?  Some say hardware sounds warmer/vintage/hits harder, and software is too clean and stiff.

Some say hardware is too lo-fi to today’s standards, inconvenient for today’s work flow, and that you can reach more possibilities with software technology.

Got a great video from BLVDST.com with acclaimed producer DJ Toomp (producer of basically T.I.’s whole career, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Young Jeezy, Kanye, Nas, Mariah Carey, ect..) with his insight on the debate, as well as some great tips on how to integrate both into your productions.

Video of Aftermath producer DJ Khalil (50 Cent, Game, Jay-Z), showing how he made the beat  The Clipse newest single “Kinda Like A Big Deal”, featuring Kanye West.

Really different to whats out right now as far as the sound, and thats a good thing that somebody is willing to stick to there sound and not change up chasing a hit.
Here is the full song to stream

Clispe ft. Kanye West- Kinda like a Big Deal

Kinda Like A Big Deal (feat. Kanye West) - Clipse

Another installment of the kingakai.com free vst downloads. This one comes from the company Green Oak, a software synth called Crystal.

This is a favorite go to synth for those sounds that you really don’t know WHAT it is, but it adds texture to your beats. As you can see from the photo up top, it gives you alot of options to create your OWN sounds, instead of people hearing your beats and say, “Ohh he’s using the sounds everybody else uses off the Triton, Fantom, Motif”.. or whatever keyboard that’s out that EVERYBODY has.

You can use this for FL Studio (Fruity Loops), Cubase, Logic and whatever you chose to make you computer music from.

You can download for both PC & Mac at this link, with installation directions, as well as bonus sounds for this synth
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/download.html

Extra sounds for the Crystal
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/patches.html