Some of my earliest mixes in 2003 were all rap, using lots of Tribe, Outkast, Rakim, and other greats. I’ve collected tons of tasty beats & rhymes, and for the most part they are sampled from songs that are fun to revisit and re-contextualize. When I mix them, then, they reach out a second degree from the originals as the samples then interact with each other. With programmed beats, the tempos remain steady, so once I’ve got the beats matched I can let it ride. One of my favorite ways to mix classic hip-hop is what I call leap-frogging; to go out of one song, I drop its instrumental and let the next song come in acapella over it, before ultimately bringing in the full version of that next song. Hearing ODB rhyming over a Neptunes beat is a great way to breathe new life into tracks that were already perfection. I’ve got my singles all lined up in order of tempo, and I’ve got my LPs handy on the side. I’m pulling them out and getting busy. I’ll update this as I post my trip through my collection, from downtempo to Planet Rock.
djhighlifemixes 