Sonic Swagger: The Best Samples Left Naked in Hip-Hop
Sample-flipping is a music production art capable of creating mega-hits, but what happens when songs leave original samples completely bare?
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How Jay-Z and Dr. Dre “Focus Group” Their Musical Releases
What makes these rapper-moguls so successful? It’s the lessons they’ve been able to bring from the business world into their career as artists.
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The Dog Days of Summer Are Over – 8 ‘Dog’ Songs to Kill a Killer Summer
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Who let the dogs out? August did, because it’s slipping away faster than that gelato you’re holding. This month has been kind of brutal. The dog…
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How Rap Ushered the Piano Into Its Next Developmental Phase
Hip-hop is officially pop music. With Bruno Mars and Kendrick Lamar’s sweep of the Grammy Awards earlier this year, it’s evident that hip-hop has officially shed its status as “that controversial music genre” that prompted the Grammys’ organizers to refuse to air any rap categories back in 1989, which subsequently prompted some to boycott the event.…
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Recognizing Jazz Idioms in Modern-Day Rhythms
By Emanuel Harrold As I go out and listen to new music on a daily basis, I can’t help but hear the nuances of jazz music in everyday moments. Sometimes, it’s the syncopation and spacing of sounds, other times, it’s the rhythms. And, sure, I’m a jazz drummer, so I’m biased, but it’s true that…
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Unsung: In Praise of Rap’s Studio Musicians
Rappers used to say, “The real backbone of hip-hop is disc jocks.” Nowadays, though, the real backbone of hip-hop is ostensibly the virtuosic studio musicians dominating the most heralded releases of the past few years. In leaving their indelible marks on records by award-winning artists like Chance The Rapper and Kendrick Lamar, instrumentalists like Nico Segal (a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet), Robert…
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How Kendrick Lamar Achieves Mainstream Appeal with a Complex, Innovative Approach
+ Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production. One of Kendrick Lamar’s greatest benedictions as an artist is his ability to connect, which, on the surface, seems strange, because his stories are so…
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How to Create the Iconic Synth Sounds in “Gin and Juice” from Scratch
Here’s something I know you’re going to dig! Throughout our free Demystifying Synths series of courses, we explore how to recreate the iconic keyboard sounds from tons of our favorite songs. You may have read our recent in-depth article on how to create that unmistakeable keyboard sound from Radiohead’s song “Everything in Its Right Place” off of Kid A, through…
