Mixing Hip Hop!

[Dj_K2]

Ive been playing @ a few Hip hop clubs latley playing some of the cheesy popular stuff & I have found that its really EASY to mix, but SOOOOO hard to be creative with!

Does anyone agree or disagree???

[Moon]

they dont say dj shadow sold his soul to the devil for nothing =)

[LDUB]

Agreed... I think thats why there is more use of turntablism in hip hop... its a way of being creative, with a not so creative medium...

[Akeel]

i personally find playing hip hop requires a different style of mixing....its not like you've got three decks and are gonna sit there doing 15 minute mixes, all you really "have" to do is play the tracks, with some little 4 bar or 8 bar mix...so in that sense i find it easier. But with hip hope you can still do some creative things, especially using acapellas and what not or a cdplayer with looping.

[Dj_K2]

^Yeah it is easy to mix cause its short, BUT its hard to do some tricky stuff! Its fun cause there is turntableisim involved to make it intresting, but just like CLUB mixing it is easy as pie!

[Filo]

aaack. i bought a bunch of hip hop rekkids. i dunno man. i find the shit impossible to mix.

[Moon]

with hip hop dont layer the tracks for more than 5-10 seconds cuz it usually doesnt work... work on tight cuts, finding the right cue points, practice basic beat juggles and know the levels of tracks by heart

if you have access to 3 turnatables you can pull off more layered mixing by having an instrmental version and accapella version playing on 2 decks, and then cue up the next instrumental on the 3rd decks all beatmatched, then you can do a longer layered mix... cue up an original lyric version and cut it outta the instrumental... bingo... or you can layer another accapella over it and do the same routine... requires VERY good beatmatching skills... as in you should be able to either pictch mix extrememly well or be able to beatmatch very fast within 3-8 seconds.... its fun but takes alotta practice and understanding to pull off


but this costs alotta money cuz you need doubles =)

[Filo]

it's just sooooo much different than mixing anything else, and i can't beatmatch two hip hop tracks for the life of me. i guess like everything, just gotta practice practice and then practie a lil more. I never really had respect for hip hop dj's before actually trying it.

[Filo]

just cuz someone can scratch doesn't make them a dj

[SEAN!]

hahaha hip hop dj's don't mix.

[ƒORM]

I find it quite fun. I listen to all beats so it's just another challenge for me. Kaos, precise and I are playing a hip hop show in January :y:

3 decks 2 cd players

[Akeel]

Originally posted by Filo
it's just sooooo much different than mixing anything else, and i can't beatmatch two hip hop tracks for the life of me. i guess like everything, just gotta practice practice and then practie a lil more. I never really had respect for hip hop dj's before actually trying it.

I personally think hip hop requires a lot more attention while your mixing. If your a trance/house any 4 on the floor genre, mixing is simple, line up the bars, and maybe the phrasing, and your pretty much home free. I only say maybe the phrasing since with these genres and how the tracks are made, you usually have a huge intro where there is nothing but kick and snare.

With hip hop your already dealing with more complex rhythms and if your phrasing is off your fucked from the start. I also use a different approach when mixing hip hop (which I only used to do as a job-although i like it) I usually bring the beats in full on and usually tweak the eq to make the song coming in a bit louder, i find that works good in a club atmosphere, people recognize the next song..blah, blah blah...you know how it goes.

[Moon]

thing about hip hop beatmatching is that you just have to beatmatch tracks that have similar speed ranges. the bpm range that hip hop comes with is extrememly wide from 70 - 140 so you basically just have to really understand your music and also know your tracks well. just experiement for a couple of years... youLL get the idea... take alot of practice as well as understanding and can only come with time.