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Originally Posted by MotifStudios  What do you think would be nice to lift the track? Any ideas would be great help! |
Go back to basics and start to listen to hip hop from 1980 or there abouts.
Check out the 'Ow!' sound and bass line with Cameo on this, not very tuneful, but nevertheless well produced and with all the right sonic hooks -
YouTube - Cameo--Keep It Hot (1980)
One of the BIG mistakes that hip hop producers make today is to imagine that commercial and off-the-shelf samples will cut it. They never do. If you can buy it off the shelf, so can every other dweeb out there!
Yes, you can use commercial samples to some extent, but only as a filler or padding for your own sounds.
My favourite producer working today in Dr Dre and he is all analogue, all tape, all real instruments, but in the past couple of years, loaded into PT for the final polish.
Another 80s band that really went for a unique base (remember it is all about the musical base, not just bass, but the whole base!) is Club Nouveau.
YouTube - CLUB NOUVEAU LEAN ON ME
The use of whispering and white noise made for a great sound for Salt n Pepper (prod. Teddy Riley, if I remember rightly)
YouTube - Salt`n Pepa - push it
Soull II Soul had good vocals and great peano sounds
YouTube - Soul II Soul - Back to life 12 Inch Remix
I nearly forgot Whodini, great synth line pulsing in the background, that one tends to forget, but without it, the whole song wouldn't work. Also the great bass line and the early use of vocoder -
YouTube - Whodini - Freaks come out at Night (original)
And so on and so on!
In other words, you've got to make a sound that nobody else can make, because they are not you!
And yes, You Tube is the best place, but you will also need to get played by club DJs, form a live act and build a proper website. Those last three are important and you will need to tick all three boxes to get ahead.
In particular, I would take a long, hard look at getting together with one of the urban dance groups that seem to be forming all over London in the past few months. That will let you tap into an existing fan base there and then.