the fundamentals of rap beats?

yes peeps, a very strange question, i have downloaded the tutorial about chopping, from mpc tutor, is this technique used to just get individual drum hits, that is what i gather, please correct me if i am wrong, i am not a samplist, and sometimes the simplest things look so difficult when youre not used to them, my understanding with rap beats, is that you find a piece of music, sample just that bit for eg indiana jones theme, i am using the very first bit, loop it assign it to a pad then build a drum track to it , i am actually playing the bass, so when you lot talk about sampling bass and assigning it to 16 level pads what is that about, and finally sampling a drum track, why do that if youre gonna build youre own, i usually just end up playing everything, play the instruments, although i am not very good, eq them so they become lo fi while layering a bit of vinyl noise. i want to learn how to make rap beats, i am mostly reggae, so i end up with some proggressive stuff, kind of lauren hill. and all the other cats i know are into reggae so they dont know much bout rap, and they are all musicians, (lucky for them).

thanx

Your example is one of the definitions of sampling. you can sample a portion of a song sound whatever the source may be and make it something different by: Reversing it, changing the pitch, speed, decay etc; , or you could chop it up into even smaller segments and re arranging the composition. Sampling can also be as simple as just playing around a sampled piece as you mentioned before with the Indiana Jones sample. As for the 16 pads, I don't use that function much myself and like you play most of my compositions out. However the 16 pads is a way to trigger samples in a smooth fashion as you might compare to playing your bass chords changing thru scales. It's a means of making smooth transitions between notes.

As for making hip hop tracks start off with a basic format. Try making your sequences using 2 and 4 bar loops and building around those. In my opinion a hip hop beat should be in the 86-99.5 tempo range. The basic hip hop format for song structure is 16 bars(verse) 8 bars(Hook/chorus) 16 bars(verse) 8 bars (hook/chorus) the rest can vary . I usually use about 80 bars for a complete song. Hope this book helps.

There are no rules =)

1 rule, make it hot. The rest is up to your imagination.

THANX 4 THT BLAZE

amen to the "there aint no rules" the only rule I follow is "listen to the MC, but dont let him rip apart the focus of the track" ie, say he wants to spit a 3 bar intro, then 18 bars verse then 8 bar hook, that is the 3 bar intro X2 plus 2 bars of "talking", fine, but if the beat pattern is set up to (just an example) be sets of 4 and 8 bar loops, layered together, well as the producer its your job to tell him that his plan might not sound "good" since, in the case of what he wants to do, the "break" will be at bar 21, not a good place to brean (necessarily) since it will come right in the middle of the loops you got set up. (4,8,12,16,20 for the 4 bar loops endings, 8,16,32 for the 8 bar one) so you'd need to break down the beat right in the second bar of the 4 bar loop, which may not sound "right" this is a case where you can: add bars to break it down where it sounds good, or chop his lyrics down. Let him pick that one, to extend or chop. So, what you are doing is not telling him "this is it" you give him some choice, its just that the choice happens in a set of parameters you define, based on your beat. As much as many will complain, let him record one "the way he wants to" and then the way you want to and listen, the one where his lyrics follow the pattern you set up in the beat will ALWAYS sound better, vocals gotta blend with the beat just like bass and kick drums need to.

just 2 pennies on production for rap music. dont let the MC get caught up, a lot of times they have ideas, but they just wont come out sounding right, he may swear they will, but there is a reason why you are the one making the beat. that said, I agree, as long as it sounds hot, who cares what the format is?
RAss-kass' "nature of the threat" is like 100 bars 8 minutes long, no hook. and its tight, so it all depends on the type of track you are making.

Yeah, RASSKASS is nice for breakin that mold. I don't follow molds either.
I just follow my ears man.

I feel you..and 'nature of the threat' is one of myall time favorite songs that just blows your mind....but even that song has small breaks (for like 2 bars it seems...liek ras is catching his breath). Any emcee, no matter how dope you are should have a pause or break somewhere, or else the listener can easily be lost in what youre trying to say. thast why the "standard" is that 16 bars, 8 for hook, etc. It breaks it up nice and even. I guess you could call that the "boundry"...and when people say there are no rules..it just means tha you can "push these boundries"..but i wouldn't really suggest pushing them TOOOO far.....

for example...canibus '100 bars' was cool...but probably would have been better if he perhaps broke it up a bit...just an opinion.

16 bars + 8 bar hook (chorus)

is that really the most popular used formula? I haven't really tried to break down the songs in that way. Additionally....what is a "bridge"?

Thanks

bridges the space between the verse and the hook.

bridges the space between the verse and the hook.

"Ok, what we gon do....take me to the bridge..huh-haaaaaaaaayy!"
james brown style.

listen closely to rap beats, you'll notice that you have plenty of different ways of choosing, manipulating and using samples. (one can learn a lot that way!)
Back in the days, producers use to only loop samples that were already containing instruments and drums. Now, most use isolateted drum sounds and use the MPC as a drum machine. That applies to samples too. You can isolate notes and organise them as with an instrument or use melodies without changin the structure of it. Or anything else. As someone else said, it's just up to you to be inventive and original.

I hardly use loops at all. I chop everything to hits now. It's so hard to find a loop that's absolutely perfect for a song, and i don't like to be limited to a fixed bpm. If you're a bassplayer, like yourself, it's probably not a big problem for you to come up with a melody or hook and you can save yurself the trouble of looping.
But everyne has his own methods, i suggest you find what works best for you.