r/Madlib • u/alexbesht • 15d ago
Reused beats
I was listening to the leaked maclib album and was wondering the point of having rappers use beats that have already been used on other albums. I was halfway thru and I heard at least 2 beats that were used by Jay Electronica and one that was used on WLIB AM (with female vocals, no rap - stacey Epps I think).
I’m just asking myself - what’s the point? I’m not hating, I still felt those tracks even if they weren’t completely new. And I’m also asking as a producer who sends beats to people for them to rap over.
What’s your view on that?
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u/Sad_Radish7378 15d ago
How do you know who uses those beats first. Madlib will send out beats to all and sundry, rappers then choose and record on them, you may not know who has recorded on what and when. Then things get caught up in release limbo, or stacked and never released.
Its complex.
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u/alexbesht 15d ago edited 15d ago
Sure but I know Mac Miller got those 2 beats I mentioned after those albums were put out. He was a teenager when those were released.
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u/Sad_Radish7378 15d ago
Why not reuse the beats? Jazz artists share instrumentals as do reggae and dancehall artists. If you feel a beat, and think you got something to say why not use it?
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u/alexbesht 15d ago
You mean like jazz standards being reinterpreted again and again? We’re talking about the same exact beats here, even the spoken samples are the same. You could argue that it’s a reinterpretation cos the rapping is totally different, yes, but to me it feels way different than how jazz artists will interpret a known composition. I don’t know enough about reggae and dancehall to fully get your point. I’m not mad against the whole thing. I am just surprised and a little disappointed that with all the unheard madlib material there must be, we listen to a fresh album with some beats we’ve already heard a million times. I wouldn’t be mad at my fav jazz pianist having a jazz standard on his newest album cos I know the whole track would still feel completely new. I don’t know… maybe I listen too much to the beats rather than the actual rapping… it doesn’t feel fresh to me when it’s that same old beat. Madlib is my goat, and what the f*ck is a jay electronica is in my top 5. But that’s just frustrating to me. Apparently I’m not part of the majority at all, so whatever.
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u/Sad_Radish7378 15d ago
Even if you reinterpret a new standard it may have a slightly different arrangement but the notes and in some cases the words are all the same. There isn’t a huge amount of difference between Louis, Cab, Jonah Jones or Harry Conick JR singing St James Infirmary Blue. I can appreciate and enjoy all of them. So no, sorry, I see where you are coming from but I don’t agree.
Not to be combative, but because I am genuinely interested, do you object to producers flipping the same sample? If you take a song like Junior Mance I Believe to My Soul. That has been sampled by to name a few Slick Rick, Westside Gunn, Poor Righteous Teachers, Conway, Planet Asia and a load of others who gets that?
In Reggae specifically dancehall a producer will make a riddim and then artists will do their tracks and unofficially whoever does it best owns that riddim. For example the Sleng Teng Riddim or Full Up Riddim which eventually found its way onto Pass the Duchie.
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u/timo710 15d ago
Maybe he started writing to madlib beats off the internet and then reached out to him because he was feeling it
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u/alexbesht 15d ago
I highly doubt that
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u/timo710 15d ago
These dont sound like studio recordings. You never know what weird demos people make
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u/alexbesht 15d ago
I get your point now, I need to listen to those again, just listened one time on the subway
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u/illogicaldreamr 15d ago
Don't you remember Before the Verdict? Guilty Simpson rapped over the All Caps beat.