A Brief Anatomy of a Broadway Beat

"It usually starts with a catalyst (usually being an annoyance of some sort)..."

So, I happen to be lucky enough that sometimes some really weird and disturbed people actually like me enough to the point where they request permission to physically come by and see me do something regarding music, or show them what I do, or how to do it, or to do something with me. Of this, trust me, I am more than grateful and abundantly happy that there are these disillusioned individuals in the world that are interested in me and my musical hoop-dreams, and I would totally love to be able to accommodate them, but unfortunately 1) the above photograph is a multi-million dollar recording studio NOT my home, and I don't wanna have to clean my apartment to impress you, and 2) I just don't have the time...there's definitely a 3) and that's that I'm a somewhat working-introvert and would simply prefer being left completely alone, in the dark, with candles, and a Ouija board, but we'll just keep it simple today. Today, I just figured I'd give a quick cross-section of some of what I like to do with music. I didn't wanna make it too technical. And I didn't wanna make it too in-depth. I just wanted it to be a quick layout of some of the things that go on when the magic is made...not in my pants, but rather....well, sometimes in my pants, depending on how good the beat is.

So, here goes...

Yeah, usually it starts with some sort of inspiration. A catalyst, I guess. That can really be anything from a great scene in a movie, something that happened in my life, a loud person on the train annoying me, or whatever-have-you. Usually it's something paralleled to the effect of the loud person on the train. In most of these situations, I turn to the good old trusty iPod headphones.

"(Soul) music makes the world go round..."

Like most people like to say, but what I really DO, is that I listen to a WIDE range of shit, and I find that EVERY DAY I'm in the mood for something different. Sometimes its Michael, sometimes its Wu, sometimes its Elton....yo fuck it - sometimes its even the Dixie Chicks...shut the fuck up, yes, I'm keeping it a HUNDRED! Sometimes its all of the above and more, but a lot of the time - and a really good portion of the time - its soul. It's soul music, and when I'm lucky...when I'm REALLY lucky...I will find something, usually in that genre, that makes me want to leave work mid-day (if Mike Zdanowski is reading this, I've never ever done that Mike...I swear to God that I was really sick that day) to go home and have finger-sex with my MPC (a piece of equipment - drum machine) and together create Broadway's latest mind-child.

So today, right, I have this Gloria Williams record, "A Woman Only Human".

Gloria Williams - A Woman Only Human

When I first heard this song it was what I like to call a B-level sample, meaning its good enough to work on, but I'll probably just stash it for later (later meaning, yeah, probably never because I suck). The melody in the opening did grab me, and the vocals throughout were nice, but I still did sit on it. This happens often. Very often.

I'm not completely sure what it was, but one afternoon I just decided to play the piano (couple notes at a time, as my piano ability is limited) along to the record, and it wasn't until I figured out what I wanted to do over it that I decided: "OK, I'm fucking with this tonight".

When I first started making beats, most likely like every other producer origin story, it was really rudimentary. I took a sample, chopped it up, and put drums on it. No bass, no keys...no nothing. I used this software program called Fruity Loops (shout to Jim Bond) and I didn't really have the know-how to really expand on what was in front of me. When I decided that I could actually be good at this whole thing, I talked myself into buying equipment that would allow me to make my own music on top of all of these soul samples that I was collecting (oh shit, btw a "sample" is a piece of already-established music that you take to incorporate into a new piece of music). So now that I've spent the hard-earned dollars and feel somewhat obligated to justify doing so, I have the resources to play MUSIC. It's all so totally bugged out because I can now manifest the genius that's like been locked in my thought-organ into comprehensive sonic transmissions, in Layman's terms what your people would call "sounds" (you'd probably be happy to know that I spelled "genius" wrong before the spell-check...and Layman's...I also spelled Layman's wrong as well.). So, yes, to stay on topic, I heard the Gloria Williams record, and I chose the part I wanted to use, and I played the following over it. The audio clip you're about to hear is without a sample, so you can hear what I played to match the record.

Tone Playing Instrumentation

"The key is to blur the lines..."

A wise rapper and friend once gave me one of the most useful pieces of advice that a new sampling producer could ever receive. I sent him a track for a project he was working on, and this was really early on in my whole musical endeavour when I wasn't really playing any instruments over anything, and he heard it and hit me back and said "yeah, Tone, its cool, but, dude, its just like you took that old soul record and put your own drums over the whole joint...its like a remix of the old song. You should learn to play music over the sample, and make it yours. The best producers, Premo, Pete Rock, all of those guys - they blur the lines between a sample and a keyboard. They make it so that you can't tell whats the sample and whats being played."

That convo really changed my mindset in a way as to now when I look at making a sample-beat I see it as ultimately being the result of a union between what I wanna do with a record and what someone already did, and in the end its hopefully new and original, but at the same time familiar, all the while being me...makes no sense? Good.

Here's the beat with the sample, and with me:


Broadway - From The Bottom of My Heart

Truthfully, every beat is different, and it comes along and about in a different way, but there are a few fundamental steps and concepts that remain constant with me and I really just wanted to illustrate some of those so that you bastards can stop trying to come to my house and break my expensive shit.

=D

In all seriousness, I hope that you enjoyed it. I really love that a lot of you dig what I do. Its rewarding, and humbling. Thank you..."From the bottom of my heart."

Here's a Jay-Z record over the beat. Sometimes some people need to hear a full song to "get it". Enjoy.

Jay-Z - Song Cry (Revisited) [b/w From The Bottom Of My Heart by Broadway]