Music & Marketing: URBANIZED!

I think that since Vh-1 loves to honor hip hop every year, it’s time that we think a little more carefully about how they might do their jobs effectively. Don’t get me wrong, much of the greatness of hip hop should be celebrated, and having such a powerful awards show gives rappers yet another chance to be on TV. The added exposure creates money-making opportunities, and I’m always down for that.

But let’s be real: Is the entire hip hop industry really worthy of being honored all the time? Should every popular artist or well-known song be celebrated, or should some be maligned? To say that every impactful group or song in the history of hip hop is worthy of an honor is like saying that we should celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday just because he was famous.

So, to help Vh-1 out on this, I thought I would come up with my own awards show. I call it the “Dr. Boyce Watkins Hip Hop Dishonor Awards,” going to every song and/or artist that has disrespected or undermined progress within the African American community. Here are the nominees:

1) NWA for the creation of gangsta rap: To show you just how much of a conflicted soul I am, NWA is actually my favorite group of all time. As a rebellious teenager, I loved what they brought to the table, and I’ve expressed that in other articles. But I must also be critical of myself by saying that my appreciation for NWA’s art is overwhelmed by the guilt I feel for the fact that this group inspired a multi-billion dollar industry that makes a profit by teaching black men to be thugs and black women to be hoochies. So, as of today, I am going to give NWA the Self-Destruction Award and disavow at least some part of my love for their music (give me some time though, it’s sort of like dismantling a bad bank).

2) Black Entertainment Television (BET): BET must be acknowledged for being the channel through which the most poisonous and ruinous forms of entertainment have been transmitted to the black community. If toxic hip hop was the dope, BET was the dope man. Bob Johnson made a billion dollars off this deal with the devil, and in the end, he completely lost his soul. The fact that Johnson’s wife, Sheila, had the audacity to go public and say that she is ashamed of what BET has become only adds insult to injury. Sorry Sheila, I don’t believe you. Give the money back and then perhaps your critique might have some credibility. That’s like robbing a bank, keeping the money and saying that you will never do it again. So, the Most Dishonorable Media Outlet in America Award goes to Black Entertainment Television.

3) Lil Wayne for Wanting to have sex with every girl in the world: Did we not learn anything from the experiences of Eazy-E and Magic Johnson? It would be my dream that for every song we write about having sex, we write another song about kids without daddies, or nasty venereal diseases. The desire to have sex is a natural part of our human lifeblood, but abusive and irresponsible sexual behavior should not be taught to our kids. I have some degree of respect for Weezy’s lyrical abilities and business acumen. I also give major props to the solid music produced by Young Money, even standing up to support Drake against criticism by my friends like Marc Lamont Hill. But I have almost no appreciation for the fact that Wayne encourages other young men to be irresponsible in their choices. I have no doubt that Lil Wayne is a genius, which is part of what frustrates me the most. The only thing worse than an unintelligent black man is a brilliant black man who is smart enough to convince us that he’s stupid. So, The Dishonorably “Ignant” Negro Award goes to Lil Wayne.

4) Hypocritical Schizophrenic of the decade award – Ice Cube: OK Cube, let me get this straight. First, you start off as 100% gangster, saying that “Life ain’t nothing but b*tches and money,” but you turn around 20 years later and have a lyric in which you complain about young rappers by saying that “All you rap about is p*ssy and money.” Then, right after leaving NWA, you suddenly become a non-pork eating, assalamu alaikum Muslim, and then years later go back to making gangsta rap where you are calling women b*tches and hoes, and bragging about shooting other black men. If that’s not enough, you then start making family movies (’Are We There Yet?’ and ‘Barber Shop’), while putting out gangsta rap albums at the same time. But again, perhaps I am as hypocritical and confused as Ice Cube, because he actually happens to be my favorite artist. Similar to the great Tupac Shakur, Cube reminds us that a great artist can also be a very complex human being. So Cube, you are the Dishonorably Conflicted Schizophrenic of this year’s show.

5) Clear Channel and all the other major media companies that are buying up urban radio stations and playing nothing but garbage all day: Most of the hip hop we hear on the radio doesn’t represent the essence of the genre. Since the telecommunications industry was deregulated during the Bush Administration, many smaller urban radio stations have been turned into little capitalist drones connected to the same musical brain. They are told to play the same crap repeatedly and to drain the station of any meaningful or intelligent dialog. In other words, the end result is a massive corporate brainwashing exercise of the entire African American community. I am hopeful that President Obama opens more doors to black-owned media and pushes the FTC to show added respect for diversity within this industry. So, the Dishonorable Media Conglomerate Award goes go Clear Channel and Big Radio.

So those are the nominees for the 2010 Dr. Boyce Watkins Hip Hop Dishonor Awards. You might have nominees of your own, and I’d love to hear them. We should certainly celebrate the greatness and cultural contributions of hip hop music, but we must also recognize the fact that we’ve got to do better. Unfortunately, I must admit that among those who need to do better, I am at the top of the list. I am personally going to try to become more positive.

Vocals can add flavor and emotion to your tracks. This article lists 15 sites where you can find vocal samples and loops for free. If you don’t have your own choir or backing vocalists – or just can’t sing – this list might be just what you’re looking for.

1. VocalDownloads.com
Vocal Downloads.com have a free samples section (linked to above). They also have an inexpensive $1 a day membership that allows you to download anything in their catalogue.

2. Rapid4me
Rapidshare Search has a “Free Vocal Sample Packs 2009″ section with many links to sample packs on other sites. If you’re after something unusual, or a wide range of vocal styles, it might be a good place to start.

3. Looperman
Looperman have a wide variety of royalty free vocal loops and samples. Free registration is required before you can download.

4. Vipzone Samples
Vipzone Samples let you download their 250 MB free sample pack when you subscribe to their newsletter. The pack includes a capella and vocal samples.

5. Rob Meulman
In a KVR Audio forum thread, Rob shares:

After many years of roaming the Internet and downloading tons of free stuff, especially Vsti’s, Soundfonts and Samples, I decided to do something back for the music community.

I have made a sample pack with my own vocals. Some created especially for the pack, others are cuts of vocal tracks taken from my recordings. The styles are: R&B, Rock, Pop and Old school.

The pack consists of 3 construction kits and 7 songsets.

All samples are standard 16 bit wave files. Recorded with a Sennheiser evolution 835a microphone. Download links (for FileFactory and Youshare) are included in the thread.

6. www.Sampleoidz.co.uk
www.Sampleoidz.co.uk are offering a Free Vocal Samples pack in WAV format. This is taken from their Ragga Jungle Vocals series. There are only 100 free downloads available, so get in quick.

7. The Freesound Project“The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.” Many vocal samples are included.

8. Acapellas4U.co.uk
Free a capella downloads, and a great forum. Free registration is required.

9. Crowley’z World
Crowley’z World contains many zipped samples, including a vocals section linked to above.

10. Soundproz
Soundproz have a free samples section featuring a number of royalty free vocal samples.

11. Sampletracks
Sampletracks have a Free Vocal Loops section. Free registration is required.

12. esounds
esounds have a Freesoundz section that includes several construction kits (Apple, REX, WAV) with vocal samples.

13. PlatinumLoops
PlatinumLoops has a “Free Loop Downloads” section that includes “Vocal Samples and Vocal Loops”. All loops and samples are 100% royalty free. Each file is available in MP3, WAV, REX2 and AIF formats.

14. ccMixter
ccMixter is a collection of Creative Commons content including an a capella section.

15. SampleSwap
SampleSwap contains professional quality free audio samples and electronic music – including a set of 1,200 samples of vocals and the spoken word.



Did you find this list useful? Please let us know which links were most helpful in the comments – and add any great sites we forgot. Feel free to tell us your tips for using vocal samples effectively.

This tutorial explains how to add swing to your already quantized tracks within Pro Tools 8 for more natural sounding performances.

I personally cant wait for this to be released. I also love the idea of being able to have up to 8 samples loaded on 1 Dr. Rex rack. Check out the video to see one of the new updates...

Here are some of the best things I’ve learnt since I started mixing.

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Tip 1: Rest Your Ears
If you’re mixing for a long amount of time you may be thinking your mix is going well when in reality it’s not. This can be a problem for people who refuse to stop until they are 100% happy with their results. I do this sometimes myself.

But your ears will eventually begin to get tired and you start hearing things that aren’t really there. That awesome guitar you’ve spent hours mixing will end up sound like crap the next morning when you listen back to it.

Your ears can neglect certain frequencies when your ears get tired and you pay too much attention to specific frequency ranges you lose sight of the bigger picture.


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Tip 2: Mix At Lower Levels
This is very important. I think most of us know that loud music always sounds better because it allows the frequencies to spread out more.

Our ears are most sensitive to mid frequencies, but by playing music louder it evens everything out making high and low frequencies stand out more.

This is why loud music is more appealing. Why do you think venues play music so loud? It’s not always so everyone can hear. They sometimes keep the master volume down 5 dB until the last song then put it up, so the last song sounds better making the audience leave with a more positive opinion on the show.

So which is the best level to mix? You should usually check your mix in different levels to make sure it sounds fairly level-proof. A multi-band compressor on the master track can also help compensate for this. Usually mix at about conversation level – if you mix sounds well at a quiet level it should sound amazing at a high level.


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Tip 3: Mono Listening
Checking a mix in mono is very important to make sure everything is sounding balanced. You may notice holes in a mono mix that you might not hear in stereo.

This may seem pointless as most things are now stereo but a lot of places still use mono. AM radio stations broadcast in mono. Cheap TV’s with 1 speaker and so on.

If you hear very little difference between switching from stereo and mono you might want to consider more panning.