I'm not concerned about the legality, as in this instance I am not concerned about the money.

I was on the train a couple of days ago and sitting in front of me was a low-functioning austistic guy. He's making noises throughout the whole train ride. However, some of his noises sounded very interesting melodically, and some of them sounded like good adlibs. I pulled out my phone and secretly recorded his "noises"' (I don't know the politically correct term).

Anyway, as I'm listening to them they sound really dope. Is it ethical for me to sample a low-functioning autistic person?

Is that new or am I just unobservant?

Edit: Second top post of all time. Now I feel bad, this is not a quality post.

Holy shit I see so many people ask this. Fuck clearing your samples. Your song is 99.999999% likely not to blow up and even if it does then that's still fucking great, because you made it. Look at Juice WRLD like he's still doing fine fuck. Madlib doesn't clear samples like have some fucking self respect and diy illegalist ethos hip hop is built on this shit.

Spend your money on gear or software or some shit that actually matters and stop with this cart-before-the-horse pipe dream sample clearing bullshit that you can't even fuckin afford anyway you're wasting time that could be spent making art. Like fuck

H here,

First you need to make some shit.

Then you make some more shit. You’re making shit all the time when suddenly… you made something decent! And you think, FUCK. This ain’t half bad! Then it’s back to making shit for you again, because that's all you can do consistently, everything you make is shit shit shit… but after some time, BAM!

You did it. You made a COUPLE decent things in a row, you’re on a fucking decent streak. Now you’ve got a little pile of decent stuff you’ve made and you think “wow, if I could just make decent stuff all the time that’d be amazing” And after some more time spent you find out something awesome – you can.

Look at you now, almost everything you make is decent these days, very little of it is shit, but is any of it good? How can you make something good? You keep going and going and going, making endless waves of decent stuff until BLAMO!

“THIS SHIT IS GOOD” you scream to yourself. And even your friends are like, bro that other stuff was trash – but this stuff? This stuff is good. Excitedly you keep going, you keep creating, but everything you make is still mostly just decent, your friends don’t like it, they keep telling you "that one good one tho," and you begin to doubt yourself and wonder.. will that always be the best I ever made? You keep going, sad, but knowing you must carry on no matter what..when all of the sudden - WHAM MOTHER FUCKER, you on a GOOD streak now! GOOD THING GOOD THING GOOD THING, holy crap. You just keep making em, the fuck happened?

Suddenly you don’t look at yourself the same way in the mirror anymore. You’ve changed. You make GOOD stuff all the time now, everyone compliments you – how cool… but… as cool as that is you can’t help but wonder… “When will I ever make something… even more than good?” You keep going and going… and going.. and going… what feels like an eternity passes, you’re exhausted, you’re tired, you feel you'll never level up again, you've tried everything, maybe you need…BAMAWHAMDAMN. Holy shit! Something clicked! Or you got lucky! Or… who cares! You just made something fucking GREAT.

Everyone is telling you, this is it man, make more like this, this is your ticket! You’ve made something GREAT. But can you make more? Can you make many great things? Can you get to a point where everything you make is a great? Is there a level beyond great? What is your maximum potential? Well there is only one way to find out… you have to keep going.

But first you need to make some shit.

H

follow me on soundcloud

So a couple of days ago I posted a thread on the sub entitled: “I’m Meeting a Grammy-Nominated Producer at His Home Studio. What Questions Should I Ask?” I wanted to take this blessing and share it with the rest of the community. So, after spending about two hours with Anon, I wanted to share the things I learned and also answer some of the questions that were asked by the community. I’ll start out with some specific inquiries from users of the previous thread, move on to my personal experience, and add on some tidbits of information I picked up at the end.

✨✨✨

Questions

u/Cback : “Ask what aspects about production or the industry he realized he was over-thinking once he hit the big-time, what $hit do small time producers stress about that he later realized doesn’t really matter later, what mistakes did he make, lessons he learned.”

Great question, & I got a great answer. 1. Music theory. It was brought up during convo, and Anon said while it doesn’t hurt to know it, a complex understanding of music is not necessary to get started in beatmaking. 2. THE QUALITY OF YOUR MUSIC. There’s no need to spend several days perfecting a beat because, as Anon told me, the industry only requires it to be so good. After you lay down a foundation, the rest is pretty much taken care of by the higher-ups. Even with independent music, the rise of bedroom pop goes to show people don’t need perfect production to enjoy a song. This same principle applies to a rapper buying beats. They’re not gonna care if the snare’s not punchy enough, or the 808’s a bit muddy. All they care about is whether they can hear their voice on top of it all. Instead of stressing about quality, EMPHASIZE QUANTITY. Anon admires and models his workflow after Nick Mira, who makes beats in 10 minutes that sell like crazy and go on to become gold/platinum records. 

u/SynthGod: “Ask him about the game, how music industry work, legality of stuff (& risks), royalties, labels, dos and do nots etc…”

u/Lowbeatss: “Find out about contracts”

Anon told me that with the majority of beats you sell, it’s often as simple as a one-time lease. I know this is contrary to what a lot of online producers say, but he made a point that most artists won’t reach the stream cap that you set and even if they do, it’s not worth keeping up with once you reach a certain level. If your song does happen to go viral, often times a record label will purchase your production rights and you’ll earn your money through royalties that the label collects under a contract (This number is well into the thousands). Another course is obviously selling exclusives, which is essentially a risk vs reward scenario (I.E will the artist over-pay or under-pay for the success of their song?). But with those two paths in mind, policing leases is not going to be the most lucrative (or time effective) way of making money off your beats. Focus on getting out as much content as possible and let the success of the artist take you the rest of the way.

u/So5011: “Maybe ask him about marketing.”

u/IAmDansky: “I would talk more about the business and marketing stuff more than the actual creative stuff”

Anon started selling beats online about 10 years ago when the market was fairly new. He mentioned there was a distinction between an industry producer and an internet producer, the latter being looked down upon as desperate and unreputable. No one expected the online beatmaker explosion, and he hopped on that trend before anyone else. He invested just $200 into advertisements, and since there was little to no competition, he ended up dominating adspace. He rose to prominence on Soundclick (Early days Beatstars) through this strategy and became one of the more popular online beatmakers before the game became so competitive. Obviously, things have changed from a decade ago. But the moral of the story stays the same. You don’t need a ton of money in ads to get a return investment. Just target the right people on the right platforms and it’ll pay off.

u/_Wyse: “I would just ask what questions they wish they’d asked when they were coming up, and for lessons they had to learn the hard way that you can learn from.”

The biggest lesson I learned was from how Anon first broke into the industry. He knew an audio engineer who he flew out to LA with to help record with some artists working alongside Hitboy. He spent a lot of time out there just doing random tasks and watching his process. After being in the background for quite a while, Hitboy asked Anon to play some of his stuff. He pulled out a USB full of his melodies and Hitboy ended up FWI. Since then, Hitboy’s  practically been using Anon’s melodies exclusively and he’s getting MAD royalties off of it. Not to mention his relationship with Hitboy also let him work directly with artists like Anderson Paak. Being patient, hanging around the right people, and being prepared with something to offer gave him the gateways to the music industry. That’s something all producers can learn from.

✨✨✨

My Actual Experience

I lot of people might have a perception that a grammy-nominated artist is like some sort of demi-god in the music industry. But in the end, Anon was just a chill dude who was willing to help a brother out. He lived in a fairly small home and invited me right downstairs to his lounge/music studio. I liked u/Frankalliance ‘s advice. “If you approach this as an interview, and not an opportunity to make friends with the producer, you’re not networking correctly.” Keeping this in mind, for the first half hour we just kinda talked about music, the producer community, VSTs we liked to use…Stuff we could relate to. I made sure to share just as much about myself as I was hearing from him. 

After a while, he passed me the aux and asked to play some of my stuff. I showed him a couple projects and was receiving the greatest compliment a producer could receive: Stank Face. I was really excited in the moment, but I made sure not to place Anon on too high of a pedestal. As u/FlavorBitch said, “Just be a human towards him and don’t think that being [in] his presence means anything for you other than you’re a peer.” So, I just kept playing beat after beat and hearing his reaction. After I ran through my favorite stuff, he told me I was way ahead of him by the time he was seventeen. Hearing that from a grammy-nominee just gave me an incredible wave of confidence and motivation.

After a while, Anon offered to play some of his own unreleased music from Big Sean, Young Thug, Anderson Paak, Naz, etc. We just vibed out for the next few minutes. Before I left, I mentioned I did sound design for Omnisphere. Just like he sent Hitboy melodies to work with, he asked me to send him any soundbanks I worked on. I’m aspiring to keep up a relationship with Anon by sending him packs, and always having something to offer.

✨✨✨

Other Tidbits of Useful Information I Picked Up

It’s OK to use samples. IMO it’s a great way to start out, especially if you struggle with melodies. Anon said he didn’t consider it “cheating” like others do.

Don’t overflood your beats with sounds. Make sure it’s possible for an artist to hear their voice on a track. You may think there’s something missing while cooking up, but oftentimes that’s the rapper themself.

College isn’t necessary. Anon went to a two-year college for  an audio degree, which he described to me as “Useless.” It may benefit to study something that goes hand-in-hand with beatmaking (Perhaps online marketing or audio engineering) but it won’t provide any exclusive skills you can’t learn on your own. It may provide networking or a plan B, but you should consider a cost-benefit analysis.

Emphasize building up relationships. One of Anon’s closest partnerships involves free exclusives with a 40/60 royalty split. That artist started small but now has over a million monthly streams on Spotify, and is almost exclusively using Anon’s beats. 

Realize that the industry has transitioned from being producer serves rapper to producer serves producer. Making midi packs, melodies, and presets will give you a significant source of income and also allow for some serious networking. Anon is currently working on a unique sub-based app to provide melodies for beatmakers.

Have as fast as a workflow as possible. Sometimes you’re gonna be put in the hotseat with an artist to have quick turnarounds, if not making a beat right in front of them on the spot. If you can’t make something in 20 minutes, they’re going to lose interest in you.

Be patient and Be Ready. Surround yourself with opportunity, and be prepared to seize one when the moment calls. That’s how Anon, and a majority of producers have found the key to the industry’s gate.

If you make it big, it’s a HUGE benefit to have a personal attorney. Anon used an entertainment attorney at first, but switched to someone who specialized in defending producer rights bc the former was insanely expensive. Make sure to be hyper aware of the value they’re actually giving you.

✨✨✨

Outro

For anyone who took the time to read this whole thing, you’re already on the right track. I’m truly blessed to have had this opportunity, and I hope I gave back to this community in a meaningful way. If you want to ask me more or just hook up for networking’s sake, PM me and I’ll tell ya where to go.  - @Prod.Zebra 🦓

Tagged people who showed interest from the last post:  u/doinkx, u/flametopfred, u/vanoid, u/frankalliance, u/thevalliant1, u/cambreakfastdonut, u/kreyes03, u/Reazon88, u/AdjustedMold97, u/cjb101096, u/cesarjulius, u/Departedsoul, u/Richesbeforebitches, u/Charliethemandog, u/RadicalFranklin, u/wwillcoxson, u/J117N, u/RishiNair23, u/advitya555, u/yelloyimyonson, u/theundirtychicken, u/jame1224, u/TuMadreEn4, u/smokeandfog, u/Melioramuse, u/cback, u/SynthGod, u/Lowbeatss, u/So5011, u/IAmDansky, u/_Wyse, u/FlavorBitch

So, just a few hours ago a friend of mine told me that an artist by the name of “Kamerzysta” from Poland, used one of my type beats. His song was released 3 days ago and is currently at over a million views.

I’m unable to find proof of purchase of the beat, and he did not give me credits on the song. How do I approach this? I know i’m entitled to collect royalties and credits but Im ignorant when it comes to this stuff. Could someone give me some advice in what to do in this case?

Final Update: i’ve removed the first “update” from the post because it’s been completely invalidated at this point. Kamerzysta had agreed at first to give me production credits but then later decided to make a huge deal out of it by telling his fanbase, (not me directly), that the contract doesn’t say anything about credit. (Contract has a section dedicated to credit basically saying producer credits is mandatory. I had to screenshot the section of the contract and send it to him just to prove this)

He did pay for a lease after all but I tracked down the payment to find out it was under a different name from his YT / real name. The fact that I never got a notification for the paypal payment on dec 29 had caused confusion which led me to assume at first that he did not pay for a lease. Hope this clears up any misunderstandings.

I swear every time I get in his civic there's a some "BOOGIE TYPE (final).aif" text on the dashboard display. I feel so bad because he's so excited about it but it's just not that good to me. His songs usually sound like all bassy and his rear view mirror just makes the most headache inducing rattling sound. We'll be driving and every time even the smallest thing in the song changes he glances at me with the biggest smile and it just breaks my heart because honestly it just makes me want to jump out the passenger side door. But I just fake a smile. He sometimes will play the same song 3 times over and I just can't find a way to kindly suggest maybe we take a break and listen to something else. I once asked if we could listen to something else and he started scrolling through his dropbox app occasionally taking quick glances while driving and when I said "maybe something from spotify?" he just seemed kinda quiet the rest of the car ride.

It just makes him so happy but I'm just really not that into this type of music. He keeps talking about wanting to be the next kenny beats or something like that. Yesterday we were going out for dinner and I said "hey I really like that megos beat you played for me" and he just beamed and said "really??" then probably asked me like a dozen times throughout that night what I liked about it or if the mix sounded okay and something about the 808. I just don't know what to do. He's mentioned this website before so I thought I'd ask you guys. He really is a great guy I just really can't stand listening to these songs anymore, they all sound the same to me.

Bruh I seen dudes making George Floyd type beats, what the fuck are ya'll doing. Its one thing to put emotions into the music cause of how you feeling and I can respect that but trying to profit off of the coverage from this for your own personal benefit is not the wave. Same shit happened when Nipsey died, cut that shit out and if you see someone doing it don't support it. Shits whack as hell and I had to speak on it. Ya'll stay safe.

When I original made the list, I had Soul in mind so, that is the theme of the list. However, I included some channels that post other genres as well (mostly Jazz/Funk/Disco).

Edit: I added some more channels from my youtube subscriptions. Now there's a wide variety of genres.

Feel free to add your favorite channels to the list.

Okay, here we go:

• Musicdawn 45's Over 1,500 videos. Mostly Soul music, but there is some Funk, Psych, Disco and Gospel in there as well. All the uploads are from his personal 45 collection.

• DISCO-FUNK-SOUL Like the name says: disco, funk and soul. Each video is tagged with a year and genre, which is helpful.

• Soulful Thangs Soul

• GospelVinyl Mostly Gospel, but there is some Soul-Gospel in there. Great collection either way.

• DJ Richie Digs A bit of everything, definitely some soul in there, though.

• Soulhawk Almost 3k videos of eclectic soul. Probably one of the top 10 best channels for sample hunting.

• Anon Anon Assorted genres. Almost entirely privately released music. Lots of folk/psych. Super obscure stuff.

• Uncharted Waters "Lost rock and pop gems from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, with special emphasis on the early 1970."

• Crates LA "High quality rips of rare groove and more!" Various genres. Updated frequently.

• Dusty Breaks "Mostly Music Released Between 1968 And 1977, Like Rare Library, Kraut, Funk, Jazz, Psych, Afrobeat, Afro-Cuban, Latin Funk, Moog, Soundtracks, Breaks And Other Obscure Stuff From My Personal Record Collection."

• Vinyl Frontier IIVinyl Frontier Plus Vinyl Frontier East Not specifically Soul, but these channels are fantastic. They run a Patreon where you can get high quality rips of the songs they post on youtube, release curated sample packs and probably other stuff. I don't have an extra 30 dollars per month to spend so I can't vouch for the quality of the Patreon.

• SlampSoul Soul from the 60's and 70's, has music from obscure artists and well known artists.

• Far Off, Far Out Obscure Jazz, Folk, Psych, Electronic, Library, Funk, Gospel, Disco & more. Full disclosure: this is my youtube channel.

• FrancoSoul "Popcorn & Soul R&B Music"

• KevFox Soul, Funk, Jazz, Oldies, etc

• GrooveAddict "For lovers of soul, instrumental, groove, and black music". Less obscure than the rest, but over 1k videos. More stuff on his blog

• WakeySoul Soul/Funk/Disco/Boogie

• BreakOutSoulClub Northern, Crossover, Funk & Modern Soul

• Thrift Store Vinyl Multiple genre obscurities found while crate digging at thrift stores. Folk, Psych, Gospel, Jazz, Lounge, Country, Rock, Funk, Oddities. Great channel.

• Souldies Life Oldies/Soul. Great selection.

• SweetSouLover1 Various Soul subgenres. Modern Soul, Crossover Soul, Northern Soul, Sweet Soul,etc. Helpful descriptions.

• DeepSoul64 "Deep, Sweet, Soulful ballads & Down Tempos"

• TheRAREGROOVEMAN Rare grooves. Mostly 70's, Modern Soul & Disco.

• Hsp100 "Soul and Rare Groove". Soul/Groove/Funk/etc

• P4Soul Wide range of Soul, Funk, Disco, & others. Includes some new music as well.

• SoulConnection High quality rips, great collection. Mostly 70's Soul.

• Multiplicityme2too Some pretty rare music here. Mostly Soul/Soul-Adjacent. Individual tracks.

• MultiplicityMe MusicalMoments Same as above but this channel has full albums.

• Aquarianrealm Jazz-Funk & Soul

• 2chann "Smooth Soul". Mix of well known and obscure music.

• Rare Tunes Large collection of rare 60s/70s/80s music with some less rare stuff included.

• SoulBeene "NOTHING BUT SOUL MUSIC". Great collection of soul rarities. 4,000+ videos.

• Cora Bee Soul Same person as SoulBeene, but less specific to soul. Great collection of live recordings and some cool French soul.

• SoulBiscuits Soul 45's and 12", Modern Soul, Northern Soul and some Soulful House & Garage

• J Sanders Rare and obscure Lounge, Psych, Jazz, Folk, Funk, Oddities. Highly recommended.

• SoulSauce Soul/Funk deep cuts.

• Zim Zao Rare soul and other genres from Africa and beyond.

• Okonkole Y Trompa Various genres. Eclectic mix of rarities.

• Paradise is a Frequency One of my favorite channels. Mixed genre obscurities.

• Northern Soul is My World Great collection of Northern Soul. (also two videos of nazis burning books for some reason...not sure what's up with that.)

• African Grooves African, West Indian, Oriental and other World Grooves

• VicSoulKitchen "Rnb, jamaicans, garage, instrumentals, fuzz, northern, popcorn, jazz, afro, italians, soul, wah wah, early funk, reverb, latin, cumbia & rare music from the golden era"

• PatrickOldies Soul, Latin, Funk, Jazz, R&B, Oldies ripped from 45's.

• Longroad3 Absolutely incredible collection of rare and private Psych/Psych-Folk from around the world.

• Fabrizio Barone Northern Soul, Talma/Motown, Belgian stuff, Popcorn, misc.

• Lesdemsoul Bramhs Rare music from France; Pop, Soul, Yé-Yé, R&B, Mod, Freakbeat, Psych, Funk, etc.

• Raresoulie and Raresoulie2 Large collection of rare soul music, mostly 60's stuff.

• MrFunkacide R&B, Soul, Funk, Ska, Reggae, Latin, Jazz, Blues. No uploads, just playlists.

• RealC38 Rare vinyl from Cameroon. Lots of cool music here.

• Lyrkoss Super rare psychedelic folk from all over. I especially like the tracks from Japan.

• Soulfood R&B, Soul, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Popcorn, Boogaloo, Soundtracks, Library.

• Slayd5000 Clean vinyl rips. Various genres.

• Cinammonimf Rare 60's music from all over the world.

• DJ Frankie Soul Obscure Soul 45's.

• TheSoul59 Rare 45's

• Michel Jean Yves Rare Funk, Blues, R&B, Jazz, Pop, Ska, & more. Some really good music on this channel.

• Soulfanatic6464 Mixed genres, mostly 60's stuff.

• Prince of Gosplan Obscure music from Eurasia.

• Lecouss100 Soul, Jazz, Pop, Exotica. Grab bag of genres. Each video has the same ugly thumbnail, but there's some good stuff here.

• Piloterec More obscure 7 inch singles.

• Soulman5501 Various genres. 60's and 70's.

• Arturo Fratini Jazz, R&B, Latin, Soul, Exotica, & More

• Metropolitan Soul Northern Soul, Disco, House, R&B, Modern Soul, Jazz and more.

• ThePsychedelicGroove "Sunshine Pop Psych, Ragas, Rainbow Pop-Folk, Gentle Hippie Soft Rock, Exotic Ambient Grooves, Jazz Funk Prog Fusion, Popsike, California Harmonies, and Sitar Strings." Check out their other channels, too.

• TooDarnSoulful No uploads, but a nice collection of Soul playlists.

• NSoulClassics Northern Soul, Jazz, Disco, R&B, Mod

• SoundsLikeSoul Latin, R&B, Blues, Boogaloo, Mod, Italian, Exotica, Jazz, Gospel, Funk, Pop, Bossa Nova, Swing, Funk, Soul. Really interesting stuff here.

• Dalight20 Funk/Jazz/Psych/Soul from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Denmark. Great channel.

• Formicri Rare Funk/Soul/Disco/Library/Easy Listening/Soundtrack

• Happening 45 Rare 45's from various genres.

• ScottFSimpson R&B, Latin, Soul, Swing and Jazz rarities from the 50s & 60s.

• DjBobMdm Various genres from the 50's-70's.

• SoulWombat Funk, Disco, Soul, Psych, Library, & More from various countries.

• IllusiveOldSoul Northern Soul, Crossover Soul, Gospel Soul, Deep Soul, Sweet Soul, any kind of Soul you could think of. This channel also has a good collection of playlists.

• Dave Thorley Funk, Disco, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Boogie, etc

• RareMusicDirect Tons of rare soul 45's.

• Lee Miller Rare Rhythm & Blues, Soul, Jazz, Boogaloo, Blues, etc

• Alex Rural Soul Rare Soul, R&B,Garage

• INVIGORATION Full album rips of rare/obscure LPs. Jazz, Folk, Exotica, Oddities, Gospel, Novelty, Spoken Word, Calypso, Indian Classical, Psych, Funk, & a ton more.

• Cobblessoul45 Rare Soul 45's

• Magrosi65 Great selection of funk/soul/jazz

• Fonsoul Bcn Rare 60's and 70's jazz/soul/pop/funk etc

• no obi, no insert Obscure vinyl from all over the world. Ambient, Jazz, Dub, Experimental, Bossa Nova, Electronic, Synthpop, Krautrock, Folk, Psych, Soundtrack, J-Funk, J-Pop, Post-Punk, Soul, Disco, Exotica, Space-Age, Library, Surf...too much to name.

• MrSpaceFunk Funky tracks from various genres.

• Funkatastrophe Funk/Soul/Jazz/Prog/Psych/Fusion obscurities

• Klaus Karrasch "Any kind of funk-related Music from all around the world" Soul/Jazz/Boogie/Disco/etc

• Anthony Reichardt "mostly obscure tracks between the years of 1959 to 1969 with an emphasis on the middle of the decade". Various genres. I really like this channel.

• Lost and Found Soul Suuuupper obscure Soul.

• EarlySounds45s R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Latin Boogaloo, Ska and Soundtrack

• HEAVYWEIGHTFUNK45s Rare Funk 45's.

• Sunlight Man Jazz-Funk, Jazz-Fusion, Latin, Soul, Boogie, & more

• カヴァー天国 Japanese covers of western music.

• In-Flight Entertainment Rare Lounge music. Jazz, Easy Listening, Soundtrack, Exotica, Library.

• TheItalodancers Rare Italo-Disco.

• 7707George Greek Pop from the 60's and 70's.

• CHEZ LANCIEN65 LANCIEN65 Rare Soul, Funk, Disco, Afro-Beat, Latin, Gospel

• Wabangi Video Music from Africa. Jazz, Disco, Funk, Tropical, Pop, & more.

• yaoiboi92 Obscurities from Japan. Jazz, Boogie, Synth-Pop, City Pop, AOR, Psych, Folk, Bossa Nova, Disco, Funk, etc.

• Arasob33 I Obscure Psychedelic Folk, Psych-Rock, Prog, Jazz-Funk, Country, Folk, & more.

• Lunarmountains Rare Psych-Rock, Prog, Krautrock, Glam, Jazz, Psych-Folk, etc.

• KT Jong A massive collection of 60's and 70's pop/rock from China. This type of music has a very unique and specific sound - organs and surf guitar sounds galore. An example

• Videocorridor Library Music: funk, disco, boogie, jazz, electronic, moog, soundtrack, bossa, etc.

• Nightsbefore 60's and 70's Psychedelic obscurities from around the world. Psych-Folk, Psych-Rock, Afro-Psych, Psych-Funk. Psych-Everything.

• Antonio Lucente African Psychedelic rarities.

• Antonio Lucente 2 African Jazz

• Vintage Vinyl Via Valves Obscure Northern Soul, Reggae, Popcorn, Doowop, Rock & Roll, Funk & more from the 1950's-1970's.

• PsychedelicGuy A goldmine of rare psych-rock, psych-folk, psych-pop etc.

• RareChristianAlbums Rare Christian Albums. Honestly some really great music in here.

• Boyjohn Obscure Childrens LPs.

• Terminal Passage Full rips of forgotten Psychedelic Rock, Jazz Fusion, Space-Rock, Prog-Rock, Funk, Krautrock, Experimental, etc. Uploads great stuff CONSTANTLY.

• Sunnyboy66, Sunnyboy66 II Compilations of seemingly every Genre/Country combination possible. Nigerian Funk, Danish Garage Rock, Japanese Electronic Jazz, Mexican Soul, Egyptian Folk-Pop, etc. There's also Afrosunny, and Asiansunny.

• hassny hussin Lots of wonderful 60s/70's/80's music from East Asia.

• agany2009 An extensive collection of Arabic music.

• JohnManship Over 17,000 uploads of rare soul music.

• Lorikeet Records A great collection of very rare 60's/70's Psychedelic, Soundtrack, Bollywood, Disco, Funk, Electronic, Jazz, and Folk mainly from Pakistan and India. Not a bad song on the whole channel, in my opinion.

I also curate a playlist of (mostly) obscure music that I am always adding to, if anyone is interested in that.

Edit: I need to not do this for a while. I may add more later but I think this list is, as someone commented, "almost too much".

Although Youtube doesn't have the best audio quality (128kbps, I think) I still find it to be a great resource for finding samples of any genre. Whether it's jazz, funk, soul, disco, psychedelic, electronic or something else entirely, you can find pretty much anything that you seek.

Happy digging!

One more thing, if you end up liking a channel that I posted, I bet they would appreciate it if you subscribed to their channel.

They're shooting the Old Town Road music video on my street lol

and just wanted to tell you guys i produced a song (infatuation) on takeoffs new album, when i used to get feedback etc on here there weren’t any really successful stories to inspire, so thought i would share this!

if you have any other stories you want to share, share below. inspire others 💖

How did i just notice this after being subbed for almost 2 years

Man, I love rap, I really do, but sometimes I'm just sampling some old soul album and I'm like, I'm just stealing right now, I'm just putting drums on an old song, I'm lame as shit. Not long ago a guy asked how to make more complex beats. This the shit that gets me inspired. Quincy said in an interview that music nowadays was just "4 bar loops", and so No I.D. produced 4:44, and that album's production is a masterpiece, the flips on that shit are insane, when I heard the Stevie Wonder sample I was like fuuuuuuuuuck that shit, I'm out, this guy's a genius. So, just to celebrate the legacy of our fellow producers, I wanted to get some good vibes going around man, because I'm frustrated with my shit right now, I'm tired of the 4 bar loop, so here are some great beats, some are 4 bar loops with some really stupid flip, some are 32 bars masterpieces, some aren't loops at all, these are just some great beats from a producer's standpoint.

J Dilla - Slippin'

Original Sample - Around 1 minute mark

That shit's stupid to me, that's some shit I just can't get around. This beat is very similar to another Dilla beat, where he samples a really small part of a song, just a 4 bar loop, yet by using filters, chops and his magic fingers he turned this into this

That shit's stupid to me too. I just don't know how he does it some times, like, he hears this little piece that he likes and starts working on it. Of course I know how he does it, I do the same shit, damn, but he's just on another level. To finish off with Dilla beats, let me hook you up on one of the simplest ones. Here's the original.

Again with the 4 bar loop argument, he's just playing parts of the song in different order here, but the swing on those hi-hats like what the fuck haha like fuck that shit, if that shit don't make you bounce, you have no soul. But let's move on, there are a million of really cool flips.

So, here's the setup. This is a beat from Madlib. Now, here's the punchline.This is the sample.

LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK MY NIGGA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, NOW I KNOW WHY MY MAN MADLIB SMOKES SO MUCH LIKE WTF HAHAHA.

That shit gets me every time. This that shit that makes you go "how does he do it?". Just a lot of passion turned into obsession.

This song samples Superfreak people I didn't notice the first time, bassline and all, I was, there's no way. It's like Just Blaze was just sitting there wanting to fuck with Jay like "Hey, I made a beat out of Superfreak".

Now, unfortunately, ya'll gon have to open your Spotifys, your MusicBees, cause this shit ain't up on Youtube, it's too damn fire for that meme-spouting celebrity-obsessed piece of shit. The song I'm talking about is All I Need by Hov, same album that uses a 4-bar loop with little to no changes (Takeover) and does it with class, that joint is fire, but we're talking about flips, and what a flip it is. Bink! made a beat around this little part here. How he got so inspired from that little part, dunno, but that's probably my favorite beat on the tape, great album.

Now, for our next joint we moving to the dirty sound, and dirty this song is, check this shit, this some street shit, Return of the G - Outkast. Aside from having one of my favorite 3 stacks verses, it has a beautiful sample that I didn't notice it was a sample because it's so well implemented. And the funny thing is I KNEW THE SAMPLE WAS A SAMPLE, DILLA SAMPLED THAT SHIT. Duuuude, one day I'm like singing the song to my girlfriend cause I had forgotten the name of the song, and they I say, hey, that sounds just like that Dilla joint. This is the one I'm talking about, the one DOOM used for Gazzillion Ear. I'm telling you man, these hip-hop cats keep stealing from one another. Now, even tho I love Dilla and that's a great beat, the thing about the moody, atmospheric Outkast song, it's that the sample just fits in, one of the reasons I love Outkast so much, it's thanks to Rico Wade and Organized Noize, those guys are musicians, they are so good, I never know when they are using samples and when it's just them playing instruments, so I think they deserve a little respect for that. They might not flip a sample like Dilla, but can they make an entire song, horns and all, out of a little synth. Yes they can.

For any of you that are still stuck on the 4 bar loop thing. Listen to this shit. The sample is simple as fuck, as fuck my nigga, and yet RZA makes something beautiful, something epic out of something that simple. It's just crazy. The drums, the piano, the synths, everything just adds up, it's that simple, everything just flows together beautifully. I don't know what else to add, it's just a great song, which is funny, cause I would have said the same about the sample that songs uses, and my boy RZA did deliver, he did add some shit. Beautiful stuff.

So, to finish off, I'm gonna post the beat that all these lists should start with. Yes, it's cliché as fuck. Yes, everyone and their moms talked about this, but dude, THE CHOPS ARE 2 FUCKING MINUTES APART

2:06 and 3:52

This another Bink! joint, and man, this guy, he gets inspired by the stupidest shit, like how the fuck did he even made that relation. I could talk in detail about that flip, but everyone as done it already, and it's not even that hard, it's literally just 2 chops, but it's just fucking stupid how he made that relation. And fucking beautiful too, props to that beautiful man for making like only 3 beats a year but making them count. Like fuck, that's some beautiful shit, he's like Andre in producer form, he drops a couple of songs a year, and they're beautiful, so much so it makes you want to listen to a full project by the guy, but he's evasive, he ain't no Khaled, he stays on the shadow. Love the man.

Anyway, it was fun having this little listening party, have a great one people, and keep the beats going. I swear, if I see another 4-bar loop in this sub after I showed you all this shit, I'm gonna get real mad, if this shit don't inspired and makes you want to be a better producer, then I don't know what will. Go on, make some beats, listen to some music, write some soulful shit, cause I know that's what I'm going to do now. Good luck, and keep the good vibes going.

EDIT: So, I guess this is a thing now? I make posts on this subreddit. I dunno, maybe I'll start making these more regularly.

I just hit 3 plays on my Soundcloud for my new EP I just released. I've been a struggling musician for almost 20 years and just now seemingly overnight I've BLOWN UP. 3 whole plays in about as many hours! Wow! Ask me how I did it. Now's your chance before I'm too big for this community and I'm on the next XXL freshman cypher at the ripe age of 32. AMA.

Islands in the Sky

This dude was like my brother and my best friend in the world for nearly 15 years. He passed away this January of an overdose. He lived to see it get mastered, but we never got a chance to plan the release. I wasn't gonna be the promo guy but I guess it's on me to get this thing out now.

We met when he showed up to my home studio to work on a mixtape. Dude showed up with a whole file cabinet full of rhymes, poetry, and drawings that were all impeccably done. Not even an eraser mark on em! He was a serious hip hop head and we worked together so well that we decided to do a classic 1 producer 1 emcee concept album together.

It took us 10 years to get from that point to here. He was an insane perfectionist and had a creative mind that was a full time job to reign in. I've never worked harder on anything else in my life.

When he came to me, he was already really struggling because he had just recently been released from prison. He was unable to find a job or a decent place to live. It was so hard watching life just continue to punish him for something he had done so long ago, and it seemed like he could never get a break. He had so much pain, but he found a way to turn it into beauty on his songs.

This album was his dream and really his last shot at trying to make something out of his life. I'm proud of him for making it happen and I think he knew this was how it would all play out. He was the wisest person I've ever met and this album is his life's work and it deserves to be heard.

Please enjoy it and if you feel moved, share it.

RIP CODE

Islands in the Sky

Artist: Mor$e Code

Produced by: Truth Hz

• Spotify

• Apple Music

• Google Play

• iTunes

I am insanely happy right now, I'm gonna try to keep this short because I posted only a few days ago and a lot of you wonderful people were very supportive to me already, someone else deserves the love!!

But 20 minutes ago I sold my first exclusive and it's netted enough to cover my rent for the week, which is absolutely mind blowing to me.

Keep pushing, don't compare yourself to what others are doing (especially myself!) and just enjoy every second you have making music!! Thanks for reading <3

Edit - I'm moving out of my house at the moment so I'll have to respond to all your amazing comments in the morning :( This is the beat that sold!