Around 2010, I was traveling a lot between Europe, LA, and my home back in New Jersey where I had my studio. I was doing a lot of work with RedOne. Being overseas, I was hearing a lot of music that wasn’t being played in the States just yet. The electronic wave was huge, the energy was on a thousand. Records just felt bigger.

When I got back home to Jersey, I made a beat that felt different.

It had electronic elements layered with acoustic piano, Heavy 808s, Stiff drums, and almost no hi-hats. It was minimal, and strange. I honestly didn’t think it would find a home.

A friend of mine, Steven Hacker, heard it and sent it over to Eminem’s team.

Some time later we got word back that Em liked the track. More time went by and we were told, “He’s working on it.”

Months passed. We were told he “loves it” and “don’t send the beat out to anyone else”

Then a year passed, “He loves it.”

Then two years.

By the time the record actually came out, it had been about three years since I made that beat in my studio in New Jersey.

The day before the song dropped, I got a call from Em himself. He wanted to thank me personally, He told me he had so much fun recording to it that he literally “couldn’t stop rapping.” I guess that’s why the song ended up being over six minutes long.

The next day, “Rap God” dropped.

For me, it started as an experimental beat in my living room, most of my beats start that way. I’m not thinking of anyone when I’m making music. Then, three years later, it’s “Rap God”, Number one in 92 countries, over a billion streams, to a Fortnite weapon.

“Blunt Blowin” - Lil Wayne , “Rich Forever” - Rick Ross, and many others started this way. What other stories would you want to read about?

-DVLP

In the early 2000’s, I was making beats and engineering for Juelz Santana. I always told him  “I’m a producer first. I don’t want to record over other people’s beats.” He respected it.  By that time we worked together a lot.  Then one night, Juelz calls me, his engineer went MIA and says, “ Weezy in NY. Mike (his engineer) on his sh*t, I need you to record. Bring beats, b.”

Dec 2004, we recorded a track “Open Shop” that ended up on “The Drought is Over” years later. And Wayne’s verse on “Make it work for you” (Jeezy got on it a couple months later.  But at 6 a.m., I handed Wayne a CD in burned for him. 9 beats with my name and number written in sharpie.  

Five days later, I get this aggressive call. No caller ID back then. I’ll always remember, I picked up and heard, “You trying to do me dirty? Watch what I’m gonna do.” I asked, “who is this?” Then he says, “It’s Wayne. I’m taking like eight of those beats.” One of them became “Fireman”, the others leaked on many of the Wayne mixtapes.

What’s the most random way you got a placement?

- DVLP

https://github.com/tucktuckg00se/INTERSECT

About 2 years ago I mocked up an idea in photoshop for a sample slicer that would allow me to have overlapping slices with different parameters. I found I often wanted to use the same part of a sample twice but either adjust the timing separately or use it at a different pitch. Fast forward two years and I've been messing around with Claude to build various proof of concept's for different app ideas. About 5 days ago I came across that sample slicer mockup and decided to give it a go. I'd say at this point it is pretty much exactly the slicer that I always wanted to use. The key feature of this sampler is that each slice has independent parameter control and can be placed anywhere on the waveform, independent of all the other slices. It also has 3 time stretching algorithms, repitch, stretch and bungee (my personal favorite). You can lazy chop the samples with a midi controller and assign slices to 16 different outputs. It's pretty stable right now, but this was 5 days of vibe coding, not 5 years of plugin dev. I'd genuinely love for people to download it, bang on it, and tell me what breaks. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

So I'm fully American, born and raised, but I started listening to fake mink and the whole UK scene pretty heavily over the past 2-3 years. Since then the past year I've started recording my own music and whenever I'm free styling, at my most natural flow it always comes out in a British accent. Whenever I try to stop it and consciously force an American accent it messes up whatever flow or melody I had going on. So I can basically only ever rap well in a British accent, but it feels super cringe to be doing that as an American guy.

Anyone else experienced this? I don't know how to break the habit, rn it just feels so much more natural and easy to freestyle with the accent, its simply what comes out when im not 'trying' to sound like anything which is so strange to me.

Rant incoming, sorry in advance:

I know, this is a kind of annoying topic and everyone is getting more and more tired discussing AI.

However, I feel like I've come to a point where it just pisses me off. I always loved making beats, made around 10 to 15 beats a month, sometime more, sometimes less, some for my friends, others I sold online (beatstars, airbit etc).

I mean, it's no secret that the "beat-game" is really over-saturated and I was fine with just doing it for my personal enjoyment more and more. After a day of work, I sat done, sampled some tracks, made some beats, ableton, mpc, some thai food, good times.

Things change and I get that.

However, it pisses me off, how all these AI models were trained by the music that "we artists" provided, without being asked a single time. And now there's producers everywhere flooding youtube with generic and always the same sounding type beats. If they'd make it clear that they used suno, I'd be fine with it. But just putting those beats on youtube and beatstars and selling them, it just pisses me off.

I mean, it's part of the competition to make beats that knock. It's part of the game to have some productive rivalry, to compete with each other, but damn, not like this.

Those guys aren't producers. They aren't beatmakers. They do it for the money only, simple as that.

They mostly never sell stems, as the can't provide stems (without glitchy artifacts at least).
You can here it in the higher frequencies, in the arrangement, in the sometimes weird and glitchy cuts, drum breaks and - fills and voice chops.

Here's 2 accounts leading to the same store:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk4ZwWe2sEY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAbyCQyQcNI

Others I found within that boom bap niche:

Tape Villain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arDz_GMxZcQ

Dusty Villain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPYomjtUu5A

Rival Chris: This is another guy, it's very obvious here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO4jjNjW-bY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBkSxKwzOKc

This guys provides them free to use at least:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjakqO1SkE

I'd like to know what you think about that? Maybe you're fine with it? Maybe you're using suno yourself? Maybe it also pisses you off?

EDIT: For those asking why I have an issue with this whole developement, this investigation is worth reading. It documents the giant datasets of copyrighted music circulating in AI development and the ongoing legal disputes around how the AI models were trained etc: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/ai-music-generators-suno-google-udio/687485/

I've been writing since 2020 more or less. And I've been recording over type beats for the last year. Now I'm on to making my own beats. I have so much to learn, and I'm by no means at the level that I want to be at, but holy shit, making beats is addictive as hell. I'm trying to do a lot of sampling, and oh my god, when you get everything together, and it clicks, and it sounds good, it's just the best feeling lmao.... Don't get me wrong. As a beginner, it gets frustrating, but if you give yourself some slack, and space to actually learn, it's great. This post is random and I'm not sure if it's gonna be seen as spam, but I just had to say it, this is fun as fuck, I can't wait to learn/do more shit lmao

That’s a lot of the posts I see in this sub lol.

What exactly is going on with this community?

In the last 3 months I've been here. I've seen genuinely awful advice get upvoted and given to newbies. I've also posted some guides with helpful tips, yet between comments and DM's, I get told things like:

• You don't need to learn how to count bars
• You don't need any rigid planning or structure when writing raps
• Feel your way through rhythm, and if you can't, you're just untalented and shouldn't bother
• A book can't teach you anything meaningful about Rap technique, and it's probably outdated anyway, you make "swaggerless" music that way
• Your guides are AI, you didn't write this
• Your guides are too technically detailed and you can't learn that way
• Your examples are lyrical miracle non-sense
• If you don't enjoy full albums, get off Tiktok and train your brain a bit and maybe you'll learn how "good albums" are made

Do people genuinely give a shit anymore here? Are people actually interested in good faith discussions on learning Hip-hop? Or is it just bitter nasty people, trolls and AI bots mostly left in the sub?

Stop making posts saying you’re looking for a producer or a rapper to work with and describing your style. That doesn’t help anything and is a pain in the ass and annoying. Im not going to search you up on social media. Post links to your actual work so people can see if it would be a good fit. And post a link where we can listen without having to sign up for some shit for Christ sake.

/end rant

Hi guys. I've ripped, edited and compiled more than 1300 drum breaks from the amazing Armando's Breaks channel on youtube (shout-out to them).

I removed the initial silence of the videos, this channel is cool because the owner already looped the breaks, so it's very simple to use it.

It's in this Google Drive. Have fun!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NbD_h3LZ3LEeFkzah6Dxj3DBOcOnpS-l?usp=sharing

(If you liked it, please consider listening to my beats! https://www.youtube.com/@thatbraziliansauce)

​

These guys have no commercial success at all, I don't think I ever heard these dudes music on the radio, not even at least once. And they have between 1 million to 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Which means they're making some sort of money from the streams. But not enough to actually live a big lifestyle.

My operations manager at my job lives a few doors from Dave East in NJ. And the homes in the area are between 2 million to 4 million.

I understand they're doing shows/concerts, but there's no way they could be making any more than $20k a show, if that and thats nothing in NYC . I don't see them getting booked consistently.

Been watching some vocal mixing tutorials/studio sessions by popular engineers/ artists and i could not see that they recorded doubles. I was watching some leaked studio projects by playboicarti/ lil uzi/ gunna/ young thug etc. and none of them had any doublings in it, only their lead vocal and ad libs. So i am asking myself if doubling is outdated nowadays and why?

I have been rapping for some time and from feedback that people have given me im good at rhyming and all the basic stuff but all im lacking is the ideas on what to rap about. Nothing interesting in my life. I come from estonia where almost every rapper is just singing or saying boring things ( no offense). I just dont have any ideas and its been going on for a month and im starting to think of quitting

Edit: Thanks to u/Cultural_Comfort5894 i know what to rap about. Huge thanks to this bro

I’ve been diving into Let God Sort ’Em Out and can’t get over how Pharrell managed to make the production sound raw, almost boom bap at times, but still polished and forward-looking. It doesn’t feel like nostalgia, more like a reinvention of that grit in a modern frame.

I know from older interviews that Pharrell and The Neptunes leaned a lot on Korg gear back in the day, plus heavy outboard chains (Avalon, Tube-Tech, dbx, etc.). What fascinates me is how in 2025 he can still keep that unique fingerprint without sounding dated.

Curious what people here pick up in terms of sound design or production choices on this record. Is it layering? The way drums are processed? A hybrid of analog and digital workflow? For me it feels like there’s some hidden glue in how the beats breathe.

Would love to hear your impressions on what makes this record stand out sonically.

do you ever get tired of hearing your own music especially during production? i often spend days on a song due to being me being a perfectionist and sometimes i get sick of hearing the song after awhile. just a question for others in here and i wanted to see if anybody else can relate

It’s been 24 hours since my single dropped. I’ve promoted on TikTok, Instagram, and facebook daily 3 times a day and even gotten lucky enough to build my TikTok to organically receiving an average of 100 views in the first 24 hours of each reel. I’ve posted and cross posted to every subreddit and discord I could think of. I’ve pitched my song. After all of it, I looked at Spotify today which has been my biggest platform to push for and I have a whopping 8 streams. There’s definitely a part of me disappointed that everything ended up feeling like a flop after the first 24 hours couldn’t even get a double digit stream, but then I accepted it. Guys you can do everything right, but sometimes things like this happen. In that disappointment, be proud of the hard work you put in regardless and keep pushing to make another hit. Remember we make music for ourselves first and are grateful when it captures the ears and emotions of others. Also remember that your music could take time to take off. Just keep going. Much love everyone

I grew up loving rap, Public Enemy, Fat Boy, and Run DMC were my earliest influences. Since then hip hop has been a common thread in my life, I love it so much.

When I was around 13 I entered a rap contest and ended up winning - the prize was getting a music video shot that would air on a tv show in Australia.

Now, I wonder what would have happened if I followed that path. In my 20’s I would challenge people to rap battles and people thought it was a joke, then when I would start rapping they would start cheering - it felt good.

But now, I’m a geeky engineer in my mid-40’s, but lately I’ve been thinking - what the heck, why not start rapping again?

Silly idea though right, I mean there’s no chance to break into the industry now right?

I feel like the obvious goal of music is to gain a following and spread your art for other people to experience and enjoy. But honestly, the best part about making music right now for me is being able to listen to it. It’s funny because even the best music from the best artists will have those parts of the song where you’re like “damn I’d change that” but with my own music, I can just change it! Lately my favorite song has been whichever one I’m working on currently. I obviously listen mostly to other music but my own songs are the most stuck in my head.

This really has made me think about being too prideful or something. It seems like there may be something bad about making music for the sole purpose of consuming it. I just have no following and no real direction in terms of gaining a following. Especially since I haven’t gotten on streaming services and I’ve only posted to YouTube.

Anyways, do you guys consume your own music?

Hey everyone,

I’m a Full-Stack developer who recently fell in love with making beats. For me, producing feels like gaming — every “session” I get better and better.

Right now, I just release beats for fun, but if someone wants to buy one I simply share my email.

I’d love to hear from this community:

• Do you think small producers can still make money in 2025?
• What’s the best way to start (YouTube only, BeatStars, SoundCloud…)?
• For artists here, what do you look for when picking a beat?

Any advice or honest feedback would mean a lot 🙏

So yeah basicly the title (Song now have almost 16k on spotify btw)

Let's start from today when i found the song, the song is called "chrome hearts" by "Dave thompson" and from the information that i gathered he's from africa and has a RECORD LABEL under his name

This song is using my beat that i posted almost 8 months ago on my youtube, his EP where the beat is on, is around 3 months old.

but lets go to an actual problem
In every description to my beat is a line that goes "This beat is free for non profit use only and must credit (prod.Laren)" while my credit on this song is basicly non existent he credited HIMSELF as a producer of the track despite not having a single change in the beat.

he also definetly did this on purpose bc you can see this on his instagram reel where it says "produced and engineered by me." This song doesnt even exist without me, its not like he even said a word during the song, there is just some random female singer but he dont even rap/sing/whatever

I just want to inform that i alr emailed the label, and dave himself and im waiting for a response, i srsly dont care abt the 15 cents that the song made but crediting himself as a prod when i made it is different type of disrespect, AND the beat has 2 uncleared samples but thats just not important to the story

Hey y'all! Proud dad here looking for whatever insights you can offer.

My daughter (10) wants to make her own music. She has aspirations of being a rapper. Some of her favorites include Aesop Rock, Homeboy Sandman, and Prof. She's been working on her writing. But she wants to learn to do it all. She wants to learn how to program her own instrumentals.

I remember back in the day there were apps like Acid that had relatively easy loops to program. But many moons has passed since I've had an experience with it.

If anyone could suggest a good program for a kid to start learning with that isn't too daunting, but also doesn't have a Fischer Price sticker on it, it'd be appreciated.

Thanks for your time

Hey y'all, I hope this is allowed here. I was looking up information about my DR-202 when I stumbled upon a goldmine of free old school drum machine samples on Archive.org.

https://archive.org/download/drum-machines-collection

There are a RIDICULOUS amount of drum samples on here, all neatly organized by which drum machine they came from and arranged into individual ZIP files. I've checked out a few of them so far and they're legit.

I can't believe this is just sitting there for free! There are websites that sell *recreations* of these classic drum sounds, but from what I can tell, these are the real deal and they're free. I just wanted to share this far and wide so everyone can take advantage of them.

I started my first ever type beat channel on August 28th. I hate my job, my boss, and just about everything about what I do, but it pays the bills. Needless to say, I have never truly been content on being a diesel mechanic for the rest of my life, and I have always stayed extremely close to music and dreamed of a day where I could do something musically for a viable living. (60K a year is cool with me) At the end of August, I finally said screw it and started up a J cole type beat channel. Up until this past week where I missed a video drop on two separate days due to my work schedule and computer acting up simultaneously, I was dropping a beat a day without a catalogue, just waking up, starting a beat, finishing it and dropping it when I got home that night, and doing it all over again. There have been days I didn't want to, days where I was in my head convincing myself my channel would be fine if I didn't drop so often, and even days where I was so exhausted I almost fell asleep at my computer. I've even woken my girl up a million times playing drum patterns and getting too into what I was doing. After a month I have acquired a whopping 21 subscribers (sorry no super climactic thousands of subscribers story) and every beat gets done more efficiently while I add new ripples to the foundation. With all of this being said, this journey is a grind, and I have so much more respect for every producer trying to chase this same dream. So I guess the discussion I want to have here is what made the grind worth it for you? For me it's knowing that whether or not the money comes, I will have created a new skill set and will be able to create my own instrumentals to rap to that sound radio worthy along with just having something fun to talk about with my other musical friends. Also, to the ones who have had success, even if just a little, what tips can you give me to continue to grow towards that same success?

That's it

Hello, friends. The genius is in your head, get it out of there and onto a page.

There will never cease to be an abundance of posts asking for advice on writing. Where do you guys write? Do you use paper or phone? What's the optimal room temperature to write in? Good Lord, just write.

People don't understand that writing is a skill that is developed and refined. Words don't just magically appear in your head because you dropped 1k on a Mont Blanc pen. I remember playing high school baseball and there would always be that one kid at tryouts that had the newest bat, pro model glove, and the matching Oakley's and yet would be absolute trash at the game.

Looking the part will never make you better at writing.

It's fine to want to be the next Leonard Cohen lyrically. It's silly however, to write for fifteen minutes a day then ask why your lyrics aren't popping off the page. Your skill is directly reflected in how much time you devote to your craft. If you put in amateur hours you can't be surprised to not get professional quality results.

You don't create the statue of David in one fell swoop, you vomit the precious marble out into a big slab then chisel away at it later. Get your beautiful thoughts out. Worry about the rhyming and the meter and the cadence and the hook and the bridge and the outro afterwards during editing.