Is the Beat Scene Crowded with Copy Cats ?

I'm not quite sure how you get a "different sounding beat". Everything has relativity. I can name a million things in common with Taylor Swift "Shake it off" and Cheif Keef "Don't Like". Add Nicki's "Anaconda" and they're no longer close to a night and day comparison.

There's only so far off the grid you can go without simply sounding WRONG. I've done this a long time, and I've learned when guys start focusing on sounding "different" they're no longer focused on making music as much as they're focused on NOT MAKING WHAT'S "IN". Problem with that is, they stray so far from the basics they end up making what most people perceive as noise.

This guy is so innovative IMO. He's doing nothing "new", nothing that hasn't been done before, he's basically a Ryan Leslie/Justin Timberlake hybrid in a time when that's even rare. I'm sure he's bitten/stolen/been inspired(however you wanna spin it)from tons of artist, but what he's doing is AMAZING because he found a lane. Not because no one else can do it or it sounds "different".



Funny thing is comments say "haven't heard anything like this in a while" and 'Different", lol.

Song: https://soundcloud.com/jonbellion/run-wild


ehh.. he's working too hard lol imo
 
As for his "lack of rhythm", I could be wrong, but I was under the impression he was purposely giving the track groove with offset drums and the accompanying bass, that's the only reason I thought you'd bring out an MPC in 2014, lol.

9 times out of 10, black mpc 3000 = dilla stan
 
Yeah.. a lot of identikit music out there right now.

I can't be bothered by it, because pop has absolutely nothing to do with me. I don't make it and I don't listen to it.
I take my inspiration from the classic producers, so I learned how to program my own synths, no need for patches. I make my own drumkits and I keep my setups simple. I'm not using any fancy effects, just the basic ones that have been around since the 70's. I started making music because of producers that take the same approach and have a timeless signature sound. I listen to a lot of music that in no way resembles mine, just because it sounds unique (and good... I don't go for the overly experimental.. I wanna groove to it).

The end result is that it took me years to get a decent sound, but now that I do, it's my sound and my sound alone and I can turn it into any kind of genre by mixing up the tempo and rhythm.
 

Yeah.. a lot of identikit music out there right now.

I can't be bothered by it, because pop has absolutely nothing to do with me. I don't make it and I don't listen to it.
I take my inspiration from the classic producers, so I learned how to program my own synths, no need for patches. I make my own drumkits and I keep my setups simple. I'm not using any fancy effects, just the basic ones that have been around since the 70's. I started making music because of producers that take the same approach and have a timeless signature sound. I listen to a lot of music that in no way resembles mine, just because it sounds unique (and good... I don't go for the overly experimental.. I wanna groove to it).

The end result is that it took me years to get a decent sound, but now that I do, it's my sound and my sound alone and I can turn it into any kind of genre by mixing up the tempo and rhythm.



That sounds great. Do you have a link to your music?
 
Sure, here you go: http://www.soundcloud.com/lwj

I'm not saying I'm like the next bedroom prodigy or anything (been doing it too long, too unsuccessfully for that ;), but I try, lol. I basically gave up on releasing or producing anything and started making tracks I'd want to listen to on trainrides. Before that I was doing more rapbeats for lame mc's.
 
Nope, it's all digital. Not sure which track/sound you mean specifically?

"mission creep", kinda has that grimey 90s sound that i like, doesn't sound digital at all. you do everything in the box or do you use external effects and stuff like that?
 
Nope, it's all done in fruity actually. With some better effects and synths added though. Stuff like that bass and the melody (apart from the obvious sax) is all synths. Massive was my workhorse but I got fm8 recently and am getting the hang of it. Some of the drums are samples but a lot comes from drumaxx, which isn't even that good!
 
being different... fuk that, be YOU.
Make the music u love, even if someone else has done it before, if everyone loves it everyone hates it, doesnt matter. the only thing thats it important is that you do what you want to do.
And im sure there are people doing their own thang, its just that they arent famous. To find good music nowadays u have to look underground, and to find the rarest gemz u just have to look even deeper underground.
 
"If you make music that you truly love and are proud of, then there are bound to be thousands of people who feel it as well" - Mykill Miers
 
Thank you Deranged, for highlighting the fact that COMPLICATED doesn't equal BETTER when it comes to making music.


If you strip off the vocals from some of your favorite records, and remove your emotions from the equation, most instrumentals are UNDERWHELMING.


And they are SUPPOSED to be.



Internet producers never really get the fact that the point of making beats is to make actual SONGS.



There's a reason that you don't hear AraabMuzik all over the radio. His stuff is impressive on youtube, but there's no way in hell you're making a song over all that madness.
 
There's a reason that you don't hear AraabMuzik all over the radio. His stuff is impressive on youtube, but there's no way in hell you're making a song over all that madness.


he makes simple shit for rappers and singers all the time and you still don't hear it on the radio

 
Honestly, the last truly DIFFERENT music to come out from a black artist was Andre 3000's The Love Below.
 
I agree to an extent, get what you're saying completely. But it depends on what scale you see things in. Some will say pitched samples with vocals(era of Kanye, just blaze, heatmakers, ect.)was a DIFFERENT sound. I thinkg of Ghostface motherless child and instantly think, that's when it was a "NEW/DIFFERENT SOUND". I do feel Lex's "trap" sound that D.Rich and Shawty Redd did before him was a 'different" sound, as in NEVER HEARD BEFORE THEY ALL DID IT. I have to hear something genuinely never heard before.

Andre brought back a sound I had heard before. Not a NEW sound. Can't tell you what it was, but like a 50's scat mixed with something. Bands like Fun, Portugal the Man and Artic Monkeys do that Andre 3000 thing. They're newer artists, but when I hear that stuff I know it's been here before Andre. It's just some alt rock sub-subgenre. I also feel deep down inside that Janelle Monae played a big part in that whole Love Below phase. Now that she's had a chance to shine I realize that's more of her range of stuff.

As a "rap artist" he absolutely broke boundaries by adopting the style though.
 
Last edited:
More "different" stuff(notice the quotes with all this stuff I've posted, I'm just saying people perceive them as different)....I fux with it because I hear the Scarface Theme's influence.

I can't front, I woulda been scared in an elevator with this chick, lol. Jay-Z was a boss about it. She looks like she'd stab you, lol.
 
Last edited:
I think times are changed. There are millions of producers now and creativity is becoming limited. A lot producers start by mimicing their favorite producers sound and as time moves on, they may began to develop one on of their own
 
Back
Top