On a more serious note...

[dacalion]

I gotta share this with you guys and gals, recently I had a long chat with a very established producer (IMO). I'm not calling his name out of respect because I didn't clear it with him but we all know him. Anyway, we talked for hours and within that talk we got on the subject of making music just because we can -vs- making music from our heart (in so many words). I am guilty of never making a beat that came from my heart. Every beat I've dropped was from just sitting down in the lab or in front of my pc and doing my thing. I know that alot if not most of you are guilty of the same thing. I admit that it touched me very deeply because I take my music very seriously and I've never made a beat that was sparked by a struggle or a real life experience. Making a beat from your heart is a whole higher level type of music production (once again IMO). Im not even sure that I can, I've had some hard knocks in life every now and then but nothing on a daily basis. It's something that I'm gonna have to look deep on the inside to even try to do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all of us just start making beats without putting time, heart, experience and everything else that we have in our arsenals into our beats. All I am saying is -how many of us truely do it from another perspective such as a real life experience. Im sure that some of you will feel what I'm saying and some of you just won't get it all but feel free to share your thoughts.

P.S. Im not talking about rapping, strickly making beats.

(duh cal yun)

 

[TheMost]

So who is the producer???? lol naa just playing.

As far as what youre talking about i dont think i ever sit down and say ok today im mad and i think im gona make something realy mean. I think that you do youre beat and perhaps the next day or a week after you can listen to the beat and say wow i was in a real dark place when i made this beat or a real happy place when i laid these keys down.

 

[ManDAmyth]

I'm a emcee/producer so I probably have a different take then most.

In my production. I make a beat that is reflective of how I feel at the moment. If I just argued with wifey the beat has a dark angry feel to it. If I just played Dora The Explorer with my daughter the beat is uptempo and light. If I'm throwing back some brews it's got a offbeat/ lazy vibe.

Other times I just experience with different sounds and end up liking what I hear.

I've never made a beat truly specific to a certain moment or occurence. My beats are inspired by my entire life, and I put my heart into my music.

I started off as an emcee, so I never really see the beat as my voice. The beat is the canvas and the frame (in my eyes) and my lyrics are the paint.

As an emcee I let the music speak to me. My rhymes are inspired by the music and the feeling it gives me. It's odd cause my lyrics don't neccessarily reflect the mood of the music. Sometimes irony or sarcasm comes into play, I also like to fuck with the audiences expectations.

My homie made a beat featuring a sample from a porn movie. As the intro and chorus begins with the grunts and groans... everyone expects it to be a song about f!cking (the producer even recommended I write to the track on that topic or how I was fucking up the game), instead I flipped it and wrote a track about how people get fucked over by their friends.

 

[Relic]

I actually cant imagine it any other way, I mean if I dont feel anything, I wouldnt know how to even start on a track.The whole point of making a track is to make the listner feel something , for me, so I mean it has to start somewhere ie me.

 

[dacalion]

I know what you are saying but im not really talking about a feeling as in an emotion, Im refering to making a beat that was inspired by everyday real life delimas or an actual way of life. The producer that I refered to used the sounds of depression (ex. sirens, people crying, breaking glass, the sounds of night and so on...to motivate his music). Things of a much deeper influence than making a beat from emotion (ex. the boss is pissed at me, my son got str8 A's in school, I just won a $25 scratch off...lol). It's really hard to explain, we say that we make grimey dark beats when we are "mad" but there are different levels of being "mad", theres a "mad" that you feel when you do something stupid like scrape up your last penny to buy a soda and after popping the top you realize that its a diet soda. Then theres a mad that you would feel if someone harmed a family member. Thats the kind of "mad" that will touch you at your soul, thats the mad im talking about.

dacalion

 

[Relic]

Exactly..I feel you..When I was strugging more in life the beats reflected it ..
I have stuff now, that are based on deperession or frustration and worry about my kid, baby mama drama, worry, victory,happiness.
I dont make many happy soundin trax.
Sounds like it was a good convo!

 

[Krazyfingaz]

Being as tho I'm a lyracist/emcee and I make beats I treat the 2 just alike meaning If I'm feeling some soulful vibes at that moment I'm gonna make a beat that the reminds the listener of some classic marvin gaye or mandrill, if I'm on some fuck the government type vibe than imma do something thats gonna have a P.E. type vibe to it same as with anyother feeling. It all comes from the heart if you ask me when it comes to making beats.

 

[Hi-Lo]

just a question...why do tracks from the heart have to be sad? i think it can go both ways, good life by kanye is a great example of a track that seems from the heart but is extremely upbeat. thats actually one of the things i've always respected ye for, you can tell his music is straight from the heart.

 

[dacalion]

They dont have to be sad or depressing, that was just an example and it was coming from his prespective. Like I said about myself, Ive had a few hard knocks but nothing that made me look within myself to inspire me to express it through my music (at that mental level). I agree that "the good life" was from the heart but at the same time he made "Cant tell me nothing" where he says "wait untill I get my money right".
Im not suggesting that money is happiness but it sure as heyell helps.

Sure we all have some type of motivation, for whatever reasons, thats a given. I don't know the answer to this, I don't think that theres a right or wrong answer. The conversation took me to a level that I never thought of and made me think.

Edit: As we were talking, one of the first things that I thought about was when someone smashes another persons beat, saying it's wack, garbage or whatever...Do we realize that we could be smashing this person at a much deeper level than his wack ass beat. Thats all.

MAN ON FIRE