Tuesday: Today I downloaded an app called BeatStars. This app allows me to utilize instrumentals and type beats for free, or if I wanted I could buy beats off if producers and make them into my own song. The best aspect is that you can use other apps while the beat plays in the background, therefore I can work on my lyrics without any other device.
"Type beats" are beats that are influenced by other rappers, some have more than one influencer. Here is an example a type beat with only 1 influencer: M.youtube.com. 2021. FREE] Trippie Redd Type Beat "Mortality" | prod. Garu. [online] Available at: <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9l6wfuWwc.> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9l6wfuWwc. The link is of a Trippie Redd type beat, I chose it because I have recently been really getting into his type of music. Listening to Trippie Redd has put ideas for songs, flows and structures in my head. This is because he isn't a rapper with only 1 style: rock rap, sing rap, sometimes he even includes a heavy metal beat... there all his style.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vhP7zSdhOis. This song is called "Dead Desert" which is an example of 1 of his many heavy metal feels.
Here is an example of a type beat, influenced by multiple rappers: www.youtube.com. (n.d.). [FREE] *GUITAR* Trippie Redd x Juice WRLD Type Beat 2020 | “PTV” (Prod. Tsurreal x rossgossage). [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ljw2o-QoROY [Accessed 26 May 2021].https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ljw2o-QoROY. This type beat has been inspired by Trippe Redd and Juice Wrld. I chose to use this beat because when I listened to it, I could really feel the aspects that both Trippe and Juice utilizes. Juice usually has more of a relaxed, simple sensation within his tracks because his songs are mainly about the lyrics and the story behind them. Just like in this song:www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Juice WRLD - Wishing Well (Official Music Video). [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C5i-UnuUKUI.. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C5i-UnuUKUI. Wishing well is the name of this song that was created by juice wrld not long before he had past due to an overdose on pills. The beat isn't the most complex but they complement his feelings throughout the song. The lyrics "This is the part where I tell you I'm fine but I'm lying, I just dont want you to worry" indicates that he is trying to get people to hear his story.
Back to the app, I installed this app mainly just to write some lyrics but instead of doing what I normally do, I brought the knowledge I found from my song writing research (last blog if you missed it). Instead of just going straight in with lyrics, I thought about the way I want my song, so I sat and put a beat on. This beat was rather relaxing and sounded west coast. It gave me the sensation of "falling in love" funnily enough, that's what the beat is called.www.youtube.com. (n.d.). (FREE) TRIPPIE REDD TYPE BEAT “ FALL IN LOVE “. [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcB85Q5YrdE. [Accessed 26 May 2021]. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcB85Q5YrdE.
After I thought of and about the topic I felt like writing about, I thought about my research and the structures I could use. I decided to try out one of the four "most common" structures in rap and the structure I decided to go for was: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus.
I decided to utilize this structure because I haven't really wrote a song that includes a bridge so I thought this could be a good experiment. I decided to not start writing lyrics today and start them tomorrow becuase today I did not feel like writing a new set of lyrics, I feel like I had writers block. If I did start them today and then come tomorrow I will probably have a different mood, different tone, different feelings. I noticed that this is what happened within my other lyrics; I would finish a verse then wake up and write a new verse but the two verses would be a different style, topic and flow. This song was "Find my sound", I have fixed them verses and now that song is done.
In this video it shows me doing a part of the second verse. My lecturer gave me some constructive criticism about the lyrics I utilize, he asked me what I was trying to get across about women. He said, to the audience it sounds as if I am looking down on women. I understand why he has said this, it's because I address a girl as "bitch". The reason I do this is becuase I am trying to persuade the listeners to understand that I am angry about this girl and I am playing a character. hints why I don't give her a name. My lecturer said to me: "ask other people to listen to the track, get feedback from female listers as this could just be an age thing".
I asked one of the female lecturers to listen to the track and she said that she enjoyed the track and enjoys music like that especially when they have an audio clip at the end of the track, showing that they still have fun and they are still humane.
I also use the word "bitch" when addressing a girl, to indicate that the female I am directing lyrics too, is being rather: belligerent, unreasonable, malicious, or even controlling.
Research also shows that addressing women as "bitches" and talking down on specific women, is a common aspect in modern rap. I have noticed this by listening to "The Weeknd" who is described as "the modern king of music about sex" this is shown here:Westenfeld, A. (2020). The Weeknd Says He Isn’t Calling Women “Bitches”. He’s Playing a Character. [online] Esquire. Available at: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a33792760/the-weeknd-sex-bitches-misogynistic-song-lyrics/ [Accessed 26 May 2021]. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a33792760/the-weeknd-sex-bitches-misogynistic-song-lyrics/
The hills - Song by The Weeknd
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). The Weeknd - The Hills (Official Video). [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTuBuRdAyA. [Accessed 26 May 2021].https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTuBuRdAyA.
The lyrics:
The placement of the border and arrows around the lyrics shows the exact place he addresses a woman as a "bitch". He does this becuase the song is about an affair he is having with a woman so clearly he is angry and has given up with women: https://www.popsongprofessor.com/blog/2015/09/07/what-does-the-hills-by-the-weeknd-mean.
Wednesday: Today in college, I sat down and started working on the lyrics I created a structure for. I used the app I downloaded yesterday (BeatStars) so I could find an instrumental that I could really bounce off of. I let beats play through as I thought about what I want to write about. I done this instead of rushing straight in with lyrics so I wouldn't go off topic a few bars in. The type beat came on "Falling in love" www.youtube.com. (n.d.). (FREE) TRIPPIE REDD TYPE BEAT “ FALL IN LOVE “. [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcB85Q5YrdE [Accessed 26 May 2021].https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcB85Q5YrdE. I started thinking of certain flows that match the tempo as I then knew I wanted to make a song about wanting a girl that much that you make her your prize possession. I started of by creating a chorus:
As you can see the chorus starts of with "that girl real fine though, real cute psycho". The reason these lyrics came to mind was because of other rap songs that I've heard such as the song "iSpy".www.youtube.com. (n.d.). KYLE - iSpy feat. Lil Yachty [Official Music Video]. [online] Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5XK4v2fgMPU [Accessed 26 May 2021]. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5XK4v2fgMPU
ISpy is a song by SuperDuperKyle and Lil Yachty. I have listened to that song over and over and tried to really understand the lyrics, I done this so I could get a better understanding of storytelling within lyrics plus... it's a really fun song. In this chorus: "I spy with my little eye a girlie I can get 'cause she don't get too many likes, a curly-headed cutie", I realised that he was talking about finding a girl on Instagram. I done some research on this song and found out that I was correct.www.songfacts.com. (n.d.). Error 404 (Not Found). [online] Available at: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kyle/ispy. [Accessed 26 May 2021]. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kyle/ispy. This link is to the website I utilized. It says that the West coast rapper explains the lyrics; here is a screenshot of his explanation:
Researching the meaning of rappers lyrics will help me with my composition skills by giving me an understanding of the way they can persuade certain words or phrases to get a certain point across. The way this could help out with my new song (still have yet to think of a name) because in this song I would like for the lyrics to really match up with what I really mean and the emotion I am trying to convey.
Thursday: While I was in the studio, my lecturer asked to hear "Find my sound" again, he noticed that the retake on my verses were much tighter which made the song sound much more professional. He did mention that it is hard to understand the structure of the song meaning that it is hard to tell when certain section come into the track such as: choruses, verses and bridges.
Without the bass:
The way we fixed this is by including an additional instrument. The instrument what we added was a bass, mainly because there was a bass plugged into the protools amp right next to us.
Billy (my lecturer) picks it up and turns to play along with the song but no volume was coming from the amp, we sat and tried to fix this issue by: checking the volume of the amp, the bass and checking the input cables to see if they were plugged in correctly. We changed over the cable from "output 2" and put it in "output 3"; there was now volume coming from the bass. Billy asked me to play the song from the beginning do he could play bass in the parts he thought was suitable.
With the bass:
I feel like the bass really does add more of a structure because there is now a pattern which keeps sections being their own.
The bass makes the full track have more of an swaying movement to it which I think made the song have more of a swaying motion to it. We then come some adjustments to the mixing of the bass, we tried to include some distortion but we decided that it didn't sound as good as it could. Here is a picture of what we done to the bass:
After the bass was recorded and played with, I duplicated the base's singular track and cut a section that I really like from it and put it in time with the chorus, I done this to experiment and to see how I could make it sound. After I took a piece from the bass line, I highlighted the last two notes; copied and pasted them next to each other.
(The green track in the photo below)
This was because the section I chose didn't cover a full 4 bars. If I didn't do this, then the bassline would have cut out mid way through. The extra two repeated notes gives the track more life because it connects the beat up a lot better.
Without the repeated notes:
With repeated notes:
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