Hiphop Beat Battle #14: Voting and Feedback

The Lounge Mission Briefs
#42

RZA: #7
Nailed the early wu vibes the most. Could be taken from Liquid Swords I feel. Amazing.

ODB: #15
Most unique, sample heavy, most variation

HM:
#4 had a great vibe
#11 -#13 all three awesome and close to my RZA choice
#16 was my favorite standalone beat. Awesome instrumental. Very vibey
#21 Very well made, sounds authentic and professional

I’ve could have written something about every beat, I loved most of them. Congrats to all again. The spirit of the Wu and the golden era generally was very strong here.
Thanks! Listening through it was a joy

8 Likes
#43

No judgments made on Wu authenticity as I’m not familiar with the sound, but wow!@#$ great tracks here and this one brought out the creativity

RZA award* #18 :medal_military:

I loved this track. So funky! Hooked me on the first listen, sounded like a bit of beat juggling, nice progression, slick use of water sounds, excellent sample choices. A couple of fun little surprise sounds put in, but maintained a constant groove. I like the little chops jumping in and the repeated string section gave a chorus feeling break to the funky wah guitar verse

Honorable mentions/ runners up

21,12 those two tracks were a rush
such a nice mix and sonics and both of them sound very complete

GZA award* #12
Smooth & polished, but with that great crunch downsampled sound that an old lower spec sampler has. Great track and sound here, sounds airy and driven. Good change up towards the end and drums were on point too
(Still new here but might have a guess who made this)

MM award* #21
So well made with a very catchy sound, easy to get into. Hooked me from the intro. Sweet pitch down right before the beat drops in. Smooth sound overall, everything worked together nicely

ODB award* #10 :medal_military:

Satisfyingly washy groove & deep bass line
It sounded like a dub mix. The tremolo strumming sounds blend nicely with the vocal melody part. The drums has a great shifty timing. I wonder what this would sound like with the cutoff a little higher on some of the samples but it also gave it a very distinct sound down that low

Honorable runners mentioned up

GfK award* #19
Just wild. The sound around one minute in just got me, and I wanted more of this. Had a great weirdness. It did feel a bit broken up to me, starting and stopping with the drunken monkey vocals, that is part of the uniqueness though

RAE award* #17
Not the oddest track, it just had an appeal to me and a different vibe going. Had a dreamy feel to it. I liked the little pulse that drove the track along where the high hat would normally be, the sparse sound, the strummy samples and the little radio tuning sound at the end

Also big ups to #11 - rode the line nicely between rza and odb, straightforward good and strange at the same time. Intense sound. Matches the accapella well and hits hard. Sounds like amps cranked to 11 with sliced up speakers

Props to #14 & 16 for very atmospheric sounds,
#4 & #5 solid tracks with wierd guitarish deep koto type sounds, and the outro on #7 absolutely killed it!

I have kind words for so many other tracks, but struggling to be brief here, thank you all for your Kung fu creations, :pray: much zen flowing through these beats, listening made me feel as if it leveled my sample chops up a belt

11 Likes
#44

Haha love these extra awards, very fitting stylewise to the beats as well :raised_hands:

3 Likes
#45

I’m agree with all there but i got to give props to the first track, it starts the compilation hard :+1:

7 Likes
#46

RZA award: Track 6 - It was going to be my ODB choice but you know what, I think it’s just straight up my favourite of the whole lot. Makes me think of El-P remixing the Wu for some reason. Really creative. Just needs to be a bit louder!

RZA award honourable mentions in no particular order:
1 - Hard being first in the list but this one has it all and I kept coming back to it.
3 - Nails the urgent aggy hype side the Wu can bring. Made me think of a Jaylib beat.
7 - This bangs. Hard.
12 - Sounds straight up classic.

ODB award: Track 15 - Unpredictable, inventive, crazy. Cheeky bass line. Love it. Packs so much in.

ODB award honourable mentions in no particular order:
13 - Bringing a different kind of funk. Refreshing to hear.
17 - Reminds me of early ninja tune releases. Like it a lot.
9 - Dig the laid back vibe of this one.

8 Likes
#47

Well done to every single person that took part that’s a phenomenal selection of beats.

It was tricky enough trying to select 3 winning beats out of 12-15 tracks in previous battles, but this is damn difficult selecting 2 out of 21.
I can only vote on what I prefer today which might not be the case tomorrow haha.

Rza
#12
Absolutely love that, and I’ll be stealing it from Soundcloud to listen to repeatedly at my leisure haha.

ODB
#16
I love the drag of the percussion and the whole beat in general and I did want to also vote for something a bit more original.
Nice work!

I love number 4 also 14 they both would have been contenders for third place. and as previously mentioned number 1 got us all off to a good start and set the perfect mood.

Heck I love all of em.

Well done people

8 Likes
#48

picking runners up in each category was too tough, even though there are only two categories.

clap those booty cheeks, everyone. you did it again. it’s an honor to share music with you all.

  1. nice blend of crispness and dirt. dig the backmasked plucks. acapella sits right on top like it was meant to be. very nice track.
  2. this one’s short, sweet, and dirty with a slow build. nice atmospheric feel here.
  3. got some bees buzzing in there. yo, that bass rumbled my headphones off. another nice one.
  4. classic style intro with nice separation of the vocals. that high hat cuts through nicely. this sounds like it was cut on tape.
  5. that lazy beat hits hard. the sparseness really makes this work for me. i don’t even care if this doesn’t have an acapella. it would be prefect with some rhymes over it, though.
  6. intro is a banger in itself, damn. it kinda sounds like it was recorded in an aquarium tank. it’s both small and huge at the same time. what is happening? i dig it, though.
  7. yikes. who brought this heat? i kept coming back to this banger. love the soul chops juxtaposed with that heavy beat. so good.
  8. another short track, this time with quick chops. it almost feels like a dance remix. i dig the sample chops.
  9. some dubby filter sweeping going on. takes a little bit to get going, but it ends up in an interesting place.
  10. this one hypnotized me a little. it has that melancholy wu sound with a touch of dub. i was hoping for a little more variation, though.
  11. what an intro. oof. that static is wild. i kinda want to see how you put this one together. the drums sound really crispy. the whole track is minimal, raw, hard.
  12. classic flow from the start. sounds like it was made for the acapella. that simple bass line really works.
  13. any time someone uses a loop with vocals, it feels bold to me. the interplay between the quick hats and steady bass work really well here.
  14. ghosts! i love goofy dialog. yeah, what’s that ASMR eating/lip smacking sound? this cool track also weirds me out (in a good way).
  15. a megamix! dang, there’s a lot going on in this track. nice work!
  16. those intro strings… so nice. the mix is clean and loud. dig the reverb breaking up the middle. this might be my favorite instrumental track of the bunch.
  17. nice video game vibes. reminds me of luke vibert. it’s like you took us on a pleasant walk to go meet the MC who’s going to rap over this.
  18. nice bounce, chops, drums. those string and flute chops break things up nicely in the middle. very solid track!
  19. drunken monkeys playing flutes and moaning. this reminds me of an interlude. interesting sample chops, but it didn’t flow for me.
  20. sparse, good flow, everything sounds dirty. i kinda wanted more melodic elements or variation on this one, but it’s good.
  21. hi-fi mix sounds crisp. oof… i love the clave/drums. the bass line does just enough. there’s decent room for the vocals. super solid track.

votes

rza: 7

odb: 11

9 Likes
#49

I think @HoldMyBeer and @PineappleDave are the only ones who haven’t voted yet. No pressure! Just don’t want you to miss the chance if you wanted to

1 Like
#50

yea uni kinda took over my life for the past few weeks so Ima have to pass on voting :sob: y’all did rlly good tho, mad props everyone

4 Likes
#51

I’ll reveal who did what and post the end results this afternoon (Dutch time), so @HoldMyBeer still has some time left to vote if he wants to!

3 Likes
#52

No reaction from @HoldMyBeer yet, and I have to leave the house in a minute, so I wont leave you guys waiting any longer… One more vote wouldn’t change the final outcome anyway so here we go!

Man this battle was a lot of fun to host. Shout to unifono and yabba for helping me out! I truly enjoyed listening to every single track that was submitted, and as someone said earlier, it’s amazing how all of you managed to reference the wu-tang sound in a completely unique and different way.

The fact that all of you used some samples I made to make these great tracks is an honour!

Before revealing who did what, here’s the feedback I wrote down before myself knowing who did what:

  1. Love the energy on this one, and the way you used one shots to make a whole sounding track. Reminded me of premiers beat for royce da 5’9 - hiphop a little.
  2. One of the cleaner, more minimal tracks. Would fit perfectly on a soundtrack for a dark, abstract movie.
  3. This one is a banger! A lot of energy, a lot of dirt, and somehow you managed to make fingersnaps sound like the hardest snare ever. Great job!
  4. This one is dirty sounding, but in a very controlled way. I love the mix, the overall sound and the buildup. It’s amazing how you used the bass sample.
  5. Very nice change of pace, funky, sloppy beat, and great buildup. Love this, would also work great for an mc.
  6. To me this sounds like what wu-tang would’ve sounded like it they would’ve first made music in 2022. Great production, love the little fx in the background.
  7. Complete banger. This is one is amazing top to bottom. Great buildup, great match with the vocals, great mix, and overall great production.
  8. Another one which would work great in a soundtrack. This would be a perfect background for a montage of a crime family taking over or something.
  9. Very laidback, and it remains interesting throughout. This track feels very alive, like if RZA would’ve made something like dilla’s donuts.
  10. This one is also quite minimal and clean, but feels very deep because of the spooky sample. Love the drums here.
  11. The intro sounds like its straight from ghostface’s debut album, but then it switches on to something completely different. Very original, and it completely works as a wu tang track.
  12. Great track. This beat slams from the very first second. Very nice fit with the acapella, and I love how you mixed the drums. I feel like I recognize someones signature sound here!
  13. This track made me think of ghostface’s fishscale album, you completely managed to recreate that vibe, but in trap version. If ghostface did trap, I’m sure this is what it would sound like.
  14. Very dark and cinematic. It feels like youre inside of the music. Props for making this, this clearly took a lot of skill.
  15. One of my favorites. The way you built this up could have turned into complete chaos, but you somehow managed to make it sound very controlled. I love the mix, the unexpected things happening, and the drums. Really respect the production skill that went into making this.
  16. If this is not made by who I think I’ll be seriously surprised. Love your sound, just the right amount of compression and some great use of delay/reverb on this one. Also surprisingly clean sounding while still clearly wu-tang ish.
  17. Crazy, original production. Props on how you incorporated all those tiney chops and one shots into something complete. Interesting throughout.
  18. Love bassline coming in and the way the beat evolves. Ghostface would kill this.
  19. Another one of my favs, this sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard, but it works perfectly. This is what it would sound like if odb made beats instead of rapping I think.
  20. Love the sound of this one. Very nice lofi sound without turning muddy. Would like to hear what this sounds like with an mc over it.
  21. Ahh, a very different wu-tang sound, like RZA when he started using synths on wu tang forever. Overall great track, very nice mix and I love the energy.

Then, on to the important part: the winners!
A lot of different people got votes or mentions for both awards, which speak to the overall great quality in this battle. There were clear favorites for both awards though:

RZA award :trophy: @yabba (track 7)

(Runners up: @doug, @PeteSasqwax, @malus_mons, @Kuro)

ODB award :trophy: @1-2 (track 15)

(Runners up: @muzka, @flipinfantile, @sleepside)

Congrats to Yabba and 1-2, both of your tracks completely blew my mind!

Now, before you can give your acceptance speeches, ODB will step in to tell us something important:

By the way: If I somehow made a terrible mistake with the counting or names, let me know!

15 Likes
#53

Big up everyone and congratulations Yabba and 1-2. Well deserved! :trophy: :trophy:

Thanks Sleepyhead for the hosting and supplying the sample heat :fire:

We dun did it for the children :open_hands:

7 Likes
#54

Congratulations every single person.

I had voted for track 15 and it’s a well deserved winner, excellent choice for the odb award. Was a real fav of mine. track 7 was also a total belter, well done 1-2 and yabba. Tips hat

This is my first time doing one of these, mine was track 19. I loved the idea of making an odb inspired track as he was my fav wu member.

Thanks for the concept and well done everyone and making an impressive double album :slight_smile:

10 Likes
#55

Thanks Sleepyhead for the hosting and supplying the sample heat :fire:, also thanks for making it listening like a dope mixtape :+1:

6 Likes
#56

Cheers and congrats everyone. :beers:

I’m actually really humbled because I prefer not just a lot, but most of these beats to mine, so thanks for any votes and comments.

The main sample I used was incidental music from South Shoalin Master movie, rearranged and pitched up.
And the intro /outro is from one of the stax tracks.
Only drums I used were from sleepys samplepack along with the Koto sample and one of the bass samples.

I did submit the wrong mastered version by mistake, but the only difference is…
in the main sample I took a bit more off the high end and turned up the midrange at its particular sweet spot.
And I used a bit more limiter to make the completed beat louder.

But that’s about it :slightly_smiling_face:

12 Likes
#57

Your track was great. It was my honourable mention but i said I wish I could pick 2 as it was so close. It is a lovely production and the beat in this really knocked.

6 Likes
#58

Congratulations Yabba & 1-2!

And thank you all so much for letting me join in on the fun last minute, so much creativity all around, and such a positive vibe going on in this little corner of the internet. Honestly impressed and gladly amazed to have stumbled upon you guys last weekend.

Thanks for hosting such a great battle Sleepyhead!

WU-TANG!

9 Likes
#59

Congrats to Yabba, 1-2, and everyone in the runner-up crew! Thank you sleepyhead for running this battle and for the sample pack, and thanks to everyone who listened and commented. Fantastic battle where everyone brought it!

Mine was 11. The static/alarm sound is Lead1 from sleepyhead’s pack, heavily srr’d with wavefolding on the low notes, soft clipping on the highs, and a resonant LP filter.

EDIT: Death metal fans might recognize the inspiration for the verse drum pattern

9 Likes
#60

Congrats to the well deserved winners!!
I voted for these two tracks.
Thanks @Sleepyhead for hosting.

I realized I pretty much spoilered my beat (the opening one) in the other thread :upside_down_face:
I forgot that there were tracks available to sample, since I early on decided to only use sleepyheads one shots. I thought this would take me out of my hip hop sample beat comfort zone.

I loved so many beats here honestly, I wouldn’t be disappointed if the new wu album would only consist of beats from this playlist

8 Likes
#61

Congrats @Yabba and @1-2. And thank you @Sleepyhead for hosting.

My track was a remix of “Black Trump” by Smif N Wessun feat. Raekwon. I kind of hate the beat on the original. And the acapella doesn’t include the Trump reference. So it felt like a good choice.

This is 100 percent Digitakt. I just sped up the samples by 5.19 semitones before I put them on the Digitakt to get roughly the same effect as sampling a record played at 45.

The main sample for the beat is the bit from the South Shaolin Master movie. The track that plays when they show the boat that a few of us used. It’s just chopped and pitched around a little bit.

There’s also the weird synth (?) thing from the Drunken Master movie. That comes right before that cool part that some folks chopped up.

The drums are a mix of things. The kick is layered. It’s one of Sleepyhead’s samples and the big bass drum from the selection scene from South Shaolin.

The snare is also layered. Part of it comes from that and the other part is from the first track on that Stax compilation. The hi-hat comes from that same little open drum part.

And finally the bass and flute come from Sleepyhead’s pack.

8 Likes