How is great production defined? What do you listen for when determining the quality of a beat? Is there a difference between a collection of great beats and a well produced album? I was asking myself all of these questions recently because I think I’ve hit a crossroads as a hip-hop listener and consumer. The art of production seems to have fallen in a creative rut. The funny thing about it is some of the beats floating around these days are amazing, but when you get down to listening to full albums, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of creativity. After mulling this over in my head for a minute, I have outlined a few rules to follow to prevent this epidemic from happening:

1. Don’t Just Go With What’s Hot

When did it become acceptable to simply go with the “hot” producer of the month/week/hour?? It makes my skin crawl everytime I look at album credits and see the same names on every release for 3 straight months. Like these dudes are hearing albums and they just say “I want a beat like #2, #5, #8 and #13…who did those?” I think this hit home the hardest when I saw Hov had a song with DJ Toomp only a couple months after Kanye worked with him. Now there is nothing wrong with tapping a producer you like after hearing some of his work, but after taking a step back and looking at the sequence of events, seems like another case of “give me a beat like…” Now guess what… Fabolous has requested the services of DJ Toomp for his album. After a while we’re just going to have single DJ Toomp tracks sprinkled all over albums as opposed to quality work done on several tracks of a cohesive album (i.e. Trap Muzik). Which leads me to my next point…

2. Develop Chemistry With Your Producers

This is basically a reinforcement of my first rule, but it goes a little deeper than that. The artists shouldn’t be allowed to just pick the beats they want to rap on and what they are going to rap about. This is where the structure of the album begins to fall apart. Producers have trained ears for music so just picking a beat they made 6 months ago that didn’t make it on someone else’s album doesn’t really benefit the artist. What happened to the days when the artist would sit down with the producer and tell him the sound he was looking for and the type of song he has envisioned and then a beat was crafted/found specifically for that? Artists with these sort of relationships work best together: Jay/Pharrell, Kweli/Hi-Tek, Game/Dre, T.I./Toomp, etc.

3. If It Aint Broke, Don’t Fix It

Some artists have realized that one producer can give you just as much diversity as using different cats for every beat and at the same time prevent an album from being all over the place. You don’t have to get producer A for your single, producer B for your club banger, producer C for your song to the ladies and producer D for your tribute to mama track when producer A can probably do them all just as (or more) efficently. I’m a huge fan of the rapper/producer groups of old and new (Slum Village, Gang Starr, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Kidz In The Hall, Atmosphere and Little Brother just to name a few). But even if you don’t have a producer as a part of your act, what’s wrong with enlisting one guy to do all of your beats?? Imagine how great a Nas/Preemo album would be! Some artists get it though: Clipse (Neptunes), Camp Lo (Ski Beats), Common (Dilla, Kanye), Brother Ali (Ant), Murs, Buckshot (9th Wonder).

4. Do It Yourself

This is easier said than done and I know it is out of the question for cats already in the game, but how beneficial would it be to be able to personally create the sound you’re looking for? Many times its hard to convey ideas for someone else to implement, so if you can cut out the middle man and find the sound yourself you’re ahead of the game. I think this is why Kanye is able to constantly put out quality material. He has that producer mentality and a great ear for music so adding the rapping was the easy part.

If more of the artists today followed any of the above rules, I believe we’d see much stronger product being released in the industry. What you guys think??

Article Source: http://stuntinonprose.com/?p=1330

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Some musicians I know believe in the concept of the starving artist. They seem to think that the more they starve for their art the more successful they’ll become.

Personally, I couldn’t think of anything more destructive to my creativity than being a starving artist. Although, that wasn’t always the case.

In the past, I looked at day jobs as evil things that got in the way of my songwriting. However, by not having a job, it gave me the time that I wanted but not the money needed to utilise my spare time wisely and efficiently.

It takes a lot of effort worrying how you’re going to pay the rent or where your next meal is coming from. I endured this agony for a couple of years.

That experience taught me that having a day job which supports your songwriting is the best way to go.

After a number of attempts doing odd jobs here and there I now run my own business Orangutang Music.

For me, having a day gig has so many benefits:

1. I have a regular income coming in.

2. With this regular income comes less stress caused by financial worry.

3. New job = new environment, new people, new skills to be learnt, new experiences and new opportunities to harvest song ideas.

4. A new appreciation for the time that I do devote to my songwriting process.

Don’t become a ‘job snob’ like I have had been in the past and spend precious songwriting time chasing the dollar and putting yourself under financial pressure.

Being a full time musician is a wonderful thing but if you are going backwards financially because of it then, you got to ask yourself, “Is it really worth it?”

Taking a day job does not mean that you should believe in your abilities any less.

If you can manage doing your music full-time then go for it however, if you are not at that stage yet you have some serious things to think about.

Letting your creativity flourish in a financially stress free environment should be the highest priority.

Until next time, happy writing,

Written by Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Article Source:
http://songwritingzen.wordpress.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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