Free Refills 2011
November 20, 2011 2:05 PM
A slower reworking of a track I made in the late 90s when I was the beat maker for a hip hop group. The song never got made.
The first time I put something together with this sample, it came out a bit too fast and my rappers couldn't work with it. There was also no variation in it so it didn't really work as an instrumental. The name came from a comment one of my rappers had when I first played it for them all. We were quite poor at the time, all living in a disgusting one-bedroom apartment in a bad neighbourhood and working part-time for minimum wage. After hearing it he said it reminded him of going for a greasy spoon breakfast with your last few dollars and finding out they serve free refills on coffee. I always held out hope we would eventually work with this one, but things got kinda ugly and we stopped working together.
Anyways, This weekend I reworked the whole thing from scratch--slowed it down, tried adding a bit of variation, and even though it's still clearly 90s-influenced I hope it sounds a little more of this millenium.
The first time I put something together with this sample, it came out a bit too fast and my rappers couldn't work with it. There was also no variation in it so it didn't really work as an instrumental. The name came from a comment one of my rappers had when I first played it for them all. We were quite poor at the time, all living in a disgusting one-bedroom apartment in a bad neighbourhood and working part-time for minimum wage. After hearing it he said it reminded him of going for a greasy spoon breakfast with your last few dollars and finding out they serve free refills on coffee. I always held out hope we would eventually work with this one, but things got kinda ugly and we stopped working together.
Anyways, This weekend I reworked the whole thing from scratch--slowed it down, tried adding a bit of variation, and even though it's still clearly 90s-influenced I hope it sounds a little more of this millenium.
posted by Hoopo (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
Heh, I was hoping that cymbal wouldn't stick out too much. I was using it to mask something I didn't like in the mix. Maybe I should try something else a little more subtle.
posted by Hoopo at 4:05 PM on November 21, 2011
posted by Hoopo at 4:05 PM on November 21, 2011
I think when there are vocals on it the cymbals won't be nearly so noticeable, but honestly I think it's pretty cool. I bet you could get the same masking effect with some kind of drone and it'd also make the mix sound fuller for the chorus.
posted by chrchr at 11:37 AM on November 22, 2011
posted by chrchr at 11:37 AM on November 22, 2011
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posted by chrchr at 10:54 AM on November 21, 2011