Beat Breakdowns Vol 1

5. Nas - "Queens Get The Money" Produced by Jay ElectronicaThat's right! Before he signed to Jigga man, Jay Electricity was off producing for none other than Nas. This is minimalistic beat 101 - a cold Jay Electronica beat stripped bare of drums. The piano throughout the whole record is a looped sample from "Summer 78 (Instrumental)" by Yann Tiersen The track also features a lion roar in the beginning of the song. Nas uses this as a statement that he's going in on the beat and pulling no punches! – 0nelove4. ScHoolboy Q - "Hoover Street" Produced by SounwaveSounwave is an in-house producer for TDE & produced two of the best tracks from Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city. The intro starts at 84BPM, switching to 79BPM when the beat changes from the first verse onwards. During the intro, Sounwave makes use of vocal layering and reverb to echo the "How'd it feel" section. The instrumentation varies; using drums and other percussion, synths, FX (scratches, Lex Luger one-shots) and occasional brass. Thundercat was the bass guitarist on the song! The track contains 2 samples both after the intro and beat changes; A subtle vocal sample from "The Chamb" by The Mohawks in the background and the drums from "Ain't No Sunshine" by Harlem Underground Band Originally this song was called "Familia" and in the last seconds they switched sample, the prior was done by Alchemist so he didn't get any credit. – UnBalanced3. Capital STEEZ - "Dead Prez" Produced by Joey Bada$$The instrumental is dark and jazzy. It sets the tone for Capital STEEZ's rapping with the creation of a mournful mood, which complements the melancholy lyrics on the topic of his goals in rap The beat was created primarily with a sample from a Galt MacDermot song named "Coffee Cold".The beat's mournful tone is due to the sampled meandering piano melody, heavy bass, gritty drums, as well as the eerie synth whistle "Coffee Cold" was also sampled by Handsome Boy Modeling School in "The Truth" & Gang Starr in "Werdz From the Ghetto Child" – Jankoz2. Kid Cudi - "My World" Produced by Jeff Bhasker & Plain Pat"My World" sees Cudi teaming up with old pal Plain Pat. He produced several tracks from MOTM I, MOTM 2 and Scott's original mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. The other contributor Jeff Bhasker a.k.a. Billy Cravens has helped produce several critically acclaimed albums including My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch The Throne. They collaborate with Cudi to give us a sombre yet vivid instrumental Two samples from Le Système Crapoutchik's 1971 song "All What I Have" were used throughout "My World". The first is immediately recognizable as the strings that come in right at the beginning. The second sample occurring at 1:07 forms the basis of the song's hook, "This will be my world". Only Bhasker could pull off something like this! – treflip1. Kanye West - "Dark Fantasy" Produced by Kanye West & Co The intro to My Beatiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is originally a beat that Ye got from RZA. Kanye and the rest of the producers then built around it, hence it's influence from the "bring-the-ruckus" aesthetic. No I.D spoke to Complex Magazine and commented on which producer did what part:While I was in Hawaii, RZA came down and had a beat—but before that Pete Rock had given us a beat and then he ripped the drums and made it the rap part of it. The parts that me and Ye did was the chorus and the musical parts. Everything was done separately and a lot of different people contributed. Then Nicki did the intro and it went crazyIt's a quick-paced production with a brooding production brought by RZA, West raps in a highly melodic manner - almost singing some of his verses. It contains one sample and one interpolation. "Could we get much higher" is sampled from "In High Places" by Mike Oldfield & Nicki Minaj's intro is an interpolation of Cinderella from Roald Dahl There's also an interesting story to how Teyana Taylor got on the hook and backing vocals! – 0nelove