LOUISDEN BEAT BATTLES

BCD 3 EP 7" LESS THAN 30 COPIES LEFT!

2012-02-08T10:24:00.004Z

We've nearly sold out of the companion BCD 7" featuring Houseshoes, Suff Daddy, Myke Forte and Kelakovski so you'd best be quick. You can grab it here (inc download) or here (on it's own or part of the Ltd boxset). Once it's gone you'll have to try your luck out in the select few record shops and we're onto the 2nd release featuring 2 people we're sure you'll have heard of but thats all we're saying at the moment.

BCD 7" Out Monday! Pre-orders Live

2012-01-21T11:28:00.005Z

We're proud to announce The Behind Closed Doors Vol 3 Limited 7" EP is out Monday 23rd Jan, featuring Houseshoes, Suff Daddy, Myke Forte and Kelakovski. Hand numbered and limited to 150 copies outside of the BCD3 Boxsets, be quick!

You can listen and order here, shipping Monday, enjoy.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://louisden.bandcamp.com/album/behind-closed-doors-vol3-ep"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;BEHIND CLOSED DOORS VOL3 EP by Louis Den&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Wizard - Dutty Gash Face Music

2011-10-19T21:14:00.005+01:00

Wizard keeps on showing the "one beat every three months" crowd why its time to hang it up!! (thats me at the moment btw haaa!)

He's just unleashed a new collection of beats entitled "Dutty Gash Face Music" , if you don't know what that is well ummm ask Wiz or go hit up urbandictionary! Short story even shorter; think the polar opposite to Wiz's super smooth Chill Pill series of beat tapes.

So what we got here are straight up bangers; screw face wild out getyourselflockedup music! remember this isn't a formal project; its more beats from the lab that match a certain theme; some are available and some are sold so make sure you hit up Wiz and get in touch if you want to use any of them!.

Wizard - Dutty Gash Face Music [2011]

* Cover is a bit too hot for TV lol, check Wiz's bandcamp for the full ver!

1.Air Bag
2.Flippin' Ridiculous
3.Fresh Out The Box (Remix)
4.Dirty Drainz
5.Big Bamboo
6.Dash
7.Huge Backhand
8.Stand Up
9.Get The Fuck Back
10.Pow! (Remix)
11.You Don't Listen
12.Happy Birthday
13.Nasty
14.Silly Billy
15.Triple Beam Dreaming
16.Otis (Ski Mask Edition)
17.Night Time
18.4 Flats
19.Go!
20.Slow Down

DOWNLOAD: Pay what you want @bandcamp

Hit up Wizard online to talk shop!

Follow @WizardBeats on Twitter

Wizards 'Beat Fanatic Batch' over at Ozb's Bandcamp [latest beats kept updated!]

Wizard over on Facebook

Last time on LouisDen #Wizard
Wizard - Spare Time Remixes 3

Tommy Black - Interludes Of Life EP

2011-10-19T20:21:00.005+01:00

I discovered Tommy Black from Sweeden the other day and was gassed enough at the material to share with you guys. I got hip to Tommy via searching out the production credits for Kendrick Lamar's awesome #Section80 (album of the year so far for me!!) he produced the interlude track "Chapter Six", at first I was convinced that with the onpoint snares, bubble bass it was a Nottz joint but after seeing Tommy's name crop up I did some homework.

Tommy Black

Dude is NIIIIICE, got a real soulful sound; he definitely a nice ear for twisting samples and working in spacey backdrops and synths. As well as producing for west coast artists like Kendrick, Ab-Soul, Butch Cassidy and Schoolboy Q he's also put out a free EP back in February entitled Interludes Of Lift. Check out this profile on him over at dubcnn.com which contains some links to individual tracks as well as his free EP.

Tommy Black - Interludes Of Life EP

01) Interludes Of Life (The Undawater Boogie)
02) Street Breeze
03) No Need For Discussion
04) Star Traveler
05) Computer Gir

LINK:via dubcnn.com

If you like what you hear; stay tuned as he's working on a mixtape entitled Medikit, also follow the dude on Twitter @TommyBlackML.

New heat from Jon Phonics & Jaisu - Garfunkled

2011-10-19T20:14:00.003+01:00

Our boy Jon Phonics has given his soundcloud the once over and added a few new treats; one of which is a collab with fellow Den head Jaisu, check the track out below.

Jon Phonics & Jaisu - Garfunkled by jonphonics

Be sure to give the other jawns fron Phonz a spin too over at his soundcloud page, careful theres dangerous fonk levels out there!

Follow the boys on the Tweets @Jaisu @JonPhonicsand let em know whats good!

Last time on LouisDen #JonPhonics
Naive Machine - Robot Ramification & (Pete Cannon + Jon Phonics Remixes)

Apatight 2011 Beat Reel (beats for sale!)

2011-10-19T09:54:00.002+01:00

Huddersfield native; Louis Den fam and star of Behind Closed Doors Vol 2 Apatight has let loose 30 minutes worth of snippets from his 2011 beat tape batches, snippets are available on his bandcamp page to bump and they're sounding mighty healthy.

Apatight 2011 Beat Reel

Beat Reel 2011 V1 by ApaTight - AyePee

As always get in touch and work something out if you want to connect with Ap and use beats for a project; don't set yourself up for a gargantuan faill by lacing them and then ooming back with the classic "Im tryin to promote you", listen and appreciate/geek out or dig in your wallet and make something happen!

Connect with Apatight

Hit dude up on dee Gmail over at apatight@gmail.com if you like what you hear

Follow @Apatight on Twitter

Listen to even more dope ish and downloads (like the Ayepee beat library trilogy) over at Ap's bandcamp

Last time on LouisDen #apatight
Wizard - Chill Pill 3 (Free / Donate DL)

Pete Cannon with Commodore 64, Max MSP and Abelton Live

2011-10-17T15:20:00.003+01:00

Louisden's resident synth king Pete Cannon has added a new bit of gear to the Cannon lab, a Commodore 64!! yep the smash hit 80's home computer! with the aid of the Max MSP package and the MIDI box cartridge he's able to make use of the ill SID Chips inside the machine and control it via Abelton Live and the modelling software Max/MSP.

Pete's excited...and we are too; looking forward to peeping new material that makes use of it!!, get em P.

Commodore 64, Ableton, Max msp and an excited Pete Cannon AS

Last time on LouisDen #PeteCannon
Naive Machine - Robot Ramification & (Pete Cannon + Jon Phonics Remixes)

Homework 90 - Otis Reflips

2011-09-25T22:00:00.003+01:00

Homework 90 - Otis Reflips

Seeing as a million and one rappers have flocked to the instrumental of the recent Jay-Z and Kanye West collab; we figured it'd be a good homework to let the producers get in on the action too.

The single from the pair utilized parts of an Otis Redding song "Try A Little Tenderness", many were quick to critize chop; many were quick to do stan remakes.

Well of course we want to do things a little different so rather than remaking the track; we want you to use the same parts Kanye did as your source material; but then the gloves are off!! feel free to manipulate those bits of music however you see fit.

RULES
Create a fresh beat from Otis Reddings "Try A Little Tenderness" with the twist of using the same parts Kanye used for his track "Otis", you are free to do whatever you like with the samples providing those are your only source material.

DEADLINE
Beats are due 2nd October (thats a week's time) by 17:00. submit the mp3 entries to homework@louisden.com streaming in the lab from 18:00 at http://louisden.com/live

LINKS/RESOURCES
Download a WAV of all the chops here - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5308110/Louisden_Homework90_OtisChops.wav (right click and save target as)

Eric G - Beat Frenzy (x4 new joints)

2011-09-25T21:54:00.005+01:00

Soul Council / Jamla producer Eric G recently let 4 new exclusive instrumentals go to celebrate him reaching 1000 followers on Twitter.

Eric with the man the myth, 9th wonder

To save wading through his timeline to find the links I've uploaded the joints he let go into 1 zip file below, some heat in there!! Eric's been behind some of my favourite tracks from the Jamla camp of late; needless to say he's on fire at the moment.

Eric G - Beat Frenzy (4 exclusive joints)

Follow @ericggg on twitter <-- make sure you do!! he may let even more joints go haha!

New Jaisu Beatmix

2011-09-25T21:46:00.003+01:00

So while the hordes of AB0181 subscribers patiently wait another beat tape video instalment; Edinburgh native and Louisden famalam Jaisu has hit you all off with the beats equivalent of bread and olives. A lil sampler and apatizer of whats coming round the corner.

Jaisu Beatmix (Sept 2011)

Beatmix0911 jaisu by Jaisu

This beatmix contains brand new joints which are for sale; anyone wanting to work with Jaisu should hit the dude up ASAP if something catches your ear and the two of you can talk shop regarding rates, please do this the proper way; no cute Youtube "freestyles" of looped up snippets; get your hands on legitamite Jaisu production by emailing JaisuBeatsandBooking@gmail.com and get it crackin.

Last time on LouisDen #jaisu
New Jaisu H33T featured in top drawer Parkour video

Naive Machine - Robot Ramification & (Pete Cannon + Jon Phonics Remixes)

2011-09-25T20:42:00.004+01:00

Naive Machine is the electronica/beats driven outift from producer Naive (beat cypher 06 anyone? he tore it down alongside Apatight, Dockmini and Knox Brown), as Naive Machine it's given him the outlet to explore more electronic/synth driven stylings away from his hiphop persona

His latest release Robot Ramification has two tracks "Call Of The Wild" "Electric Eccentric" that have been given the remix treatment from Louisden fam Jon Phonics and Pete Cannon, the whole thing has straight up beats, dubstep and electronica tinges and everything inbetween (classifying sucks!!) give it a listen dont be afraid of a bit of a different steez!

Peep the snippets of the tracks over here at junodownload. 6 Track vinyl EP (with OM unit remixes) has been out a minute now; but the recently released digital joint also includes 3 other remixes (as well as the Jon and Pete joints)

smart.

Louis Den Lab Session #89 - Sonnyjim Remixes (Highlights)

2011-09-25T20:33:00.003+01:00

As promised (and a little later than expected) here are the highlights from the last Louisden lab session w/ myself, Myke Forte, Sonnyjim and Redbeard; all edited down into a managable serving and in delicous HD!

Louisden Lab Session #89 (highlights)

If you'd like to watch the whole stream then peep the previous post from this homework which has it embedded; or check out ustream page out at http://louiden.com/live.

new homework round the corner! stay tuned!

Pete Am Drum Legend

2011-09-16T22:38:00.003+01:00

Check Pete Cannon in his bedroom lab buggin over some illy drum breaks; 7 minutes of funk here and he raids the collection, posts up with the portable and a lil bit of oh so necessary commentary!

Open drum breaks / Samples w/ Pete Cannon

Breaks are dope; get em Pete! a true collector and all round champion

Producer S1 recreates "Excellence" from Watch the Throne

2011-09-16T22:26:00.003+01:00

Producer S1 has gone from strength to strength in the last couple years; scoring a breakthrough placement with Kanye West's "Power" from his last LP; he's gone on to produce for Beyonce and Jay-z & Kanye with their recent "Watch The Throne" joint.

He's made a short film showing him recreating parts of the beat in the lab and talking about how the track came about, a lil bit hollywood but dont get it twisted its more the filmmaker flexing some creative muscle as S1 is one of the most humble dudes out there!

S1 recreating "Excellence" from "Murder To Excellence"

While im on an S1 tip, be sure to check the new Strange Fruit Project joint (thats S1's group who he produces for).

Strange Fruit Project - A Dreamers Journey (2011)
A Dreamer's Journey by Strange Fruit Project

Big Shug & Primo recording "Tha Way It Iz" (circa '05)

2011-09-16T22:16:00.005+01:00

spotted at Kil's will make beats for food

Caught this on OKP earlier today, Kil from Will Make Beats For Food has upped a DVD rip of the bonus DVD that came with Big Shugs "Who's Hard" LP from 2006, check his blog above if you want to watch the other parts (pretty standard EPK/documentary steez) but whats interesting is the third part which shows Primo in the Headqcourterz lab getting busy with a blunt and the MPC60 (in his typical make beats for the artists on the spot), chopping up what ends up being shug's track Tha Way It Iz.

He later hits the protools setup to lay the vox down, an interesting watch despite being pretty short.

Big Shug & Primo in the lab

Big Shug - Tha Way It Iz (2005)

FLüD Presents: Beats Per Minute

2011-09-15T13:15:00.004+01:00

FLüD have recently released their Beats Per Minute range of digital watches; the MPC inspired design also doubles as a calculator and leaves me reminiscent of those throwback calculator watch joints from the 80's.

To celebrate the launch of the line they hooked up with an array of producers and got them to talk shop about beats, current state of hiphop and inspiration; pretty refreshing seeing as they haven't got them onboard just to say how great the watches are, although there is the odd gratuitous artistic angle of them rockin them at any given point heh no such thing as a free lunch.

Aiite peep the clips below, some nerd food for you beat heads!

DJ Babu & J.Rocc

Exile

Evidence

Lord Finesse

Showbiz

DJ Numark

DJ Spinna

(dudes rockin maschine now!!)

Head over to the FLüD Watches site if you've a compulsion to cop!

Behind Closed Doors Vol 1 back in stock!

2011-09-14T10:56:00.002+01:00

If you missed out on one of the 300 copies of Behind Closed Doors, well good news! myself and Andy have repressed the project so its now back in stock for anyone who wants to see where the whole BCD journey began.

The project features The Last Skeptik, S-TYPE, Darren Paul and Eyebs with Q&A's and beats from Budgie, Figaro, Jaisu, Kelakovski and Ed Strong; while its our first project (we started this back in 2008!) we're still very proud of it as it paved the way for the follow up and the third instalment which we're working our asses off to have finished soon!!

We've also decided to throw together a BCD double pack; theres no commemorative packaging (just yet heh!!) but you can pick up both volumes with a discount if you still need BCD1 and BCD2.

The repress of BCD1 does NOT come with a beat tape; instead you get a download code to get your hands on the compilation which features x2 beats from each producer in the project.

Purchase BCD1 (or both editions) here

BUG - Mechanical Soul EP

2011-09-14T10:28:00.007+01:00

Den producer BUG is on the verge of releasing his debut EP entitled "Mechanical Soul", on Juslikemusic if you are unfamiliar with BUG well he's the winner of the last Louis Den league and started appearing on radars worldwide with his first release Comsic Lab / 20 Winks which came out last year.

Well he's now prepped an extended player that continues his unique brand of head crack funk drawing influence from his wide musical pallete; peep the snippets below as well as the space travelling 3D promo created by AB0181, (peep with headphones to hear the snippets zoom past you!)

Im looking forward to the EP dropping and have heard a few treats from it so I will say be sure to cop if you enjoyed and downlaoded Cosmic Lab / 20 Winks, you'll be able to pick it up from 19th September on BUG's bandcamp page as well the usual digital outlets via JuslikeMusic, you can pre-order from iTunes right here.

Mechanical Soul EP Snippets by BUGMusic

Get em BUG!

LINKUP

Follow @BUGMusic on Twitter

Homework 89 - Psychonaut Headsplit Remixes

2011-09-13T21:43:00.002+01:00

Heres the Ustream session from the Louis Den homework we hosted a week or so ago. The weeks goal was to turn in remixes to the track Illmind produced track "The Headsplit" taken from Sonnyjim's new album "The Psychonaut LP".

Louis Den Homework 89 - Headsplit Remixes

In the lab were myself, Myke Forte, Sonnyjim (to pick his favourite) and EATGOOD's Redbeard. There's HD Youtube edit on the way as well as a new homework challenge; look out for em both, but for now enjoy!

Just Blaze tells the stories behind his classics

2011-09-13T21:34:00.006+01:00

If you can bear the very wack (sorry guys) gallery interface to their many a "countdown list" article, Complex Magazine have put together the stories behind some of Just Blaze's classic joints from his catalogue (and in his own words)If you haven't seen or heard any interviews with Just then straight off the jump you can tell dude is a gear junkie and a real beat scientist.

So if you want to read some insightful stuff or some down right geekery (like the fact that 'Song Cry' by Jay-Z has approx 96 CHOPS!) then give the article a read..

Jusst Blaaaaaaaaaze!

Stories behind Just Blaze's Classics (part 1)
Stories behind Just Blaze's Classics (part 2)

boom.

Wizard - Spare Time Remixes 3

2011-09-13T21:26:00.004+01:00

One of the Den's hardest working Wizard; has recently put a few remixes out adding to his "Spare Time" series which see's Wiz throwing acapellas over bangers he's got in the stash; the latest instalment features artists like Elzhi, Rick Ross, Vinnie Paz, Young Jeezy and more getting the unofficial Wizard remix treatment.Peep his bandcamp below to get your hands on the free project.

01.Monster Under The Bed - Ugly Talk (Wizard Remix)
02.Lil' Wayne & Rick Ross - John (Wizard Remix)
03.Vinnie Paz & Demoz - Bodysnatchers (Wizard Remix)
04.Joey G-Zus - Usain Bolt (Wizard Remix)
05.Rick Ross, Countri Boi & Slim Thug - I'm A Boss (Wizard Remix)
06.Tempa T - Next Hype (Wizard Remix)07.Elzhi - Colors (Wizard Remix)
08.Lethal Bizzle - Pow 2011 (Wizard Remix)
09.OSB'z, Baron Samedi, Dweller & 777 - Punches (Wizard Remix)
10.Young Jeezy & Akon - Soul Survivor (Wizard Remix)

DOWNLOAD: bandcamp

Connect with Wizard online
Follow @WizardBeats on Twitter
Check the latest beats for sale on Wizards "Beat Fanatic Batch"

Protecting the "Throne"

2011-09-06T16:04:00.006+01:00

These dudes are the Illest Motherf**ker's Alive after managing to hold down Watch The Throne from leaking on the run up to it's August 8th release, and this Billboard article explains all.

Honestly, I didn't think it was possible but when you bring in fingerprint recognition external hard drive's, locks, keys, portable studios and three trusted engineers (who probably were sleeping next to the briefcase with the drives in them...) then it might just be do-able.

"The boss asked for it not to be leaked," says Kilhoffer, referring to West, "so there you go."

Read the full article over at Billboard

Louis Den Homework 89 Video Blog

2011-08-25T10:03:00.003+01:00

Hopefully we'll be getting into the pattern of posting these each week explaining the goal of week's homework, makes it a lot easier for heads who dont want to read the wall of text that is a homework blog, plus should help get some new faces involved!!

Here's me in the lab w/ Sonnyjim breaking down the goal of this weeks homework (due 4th September!), props to Redbeard handling filming duties....Share / Repost / Tweet and all that good stuff! (direct link to video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5BBmn56OUw)

Louisden Homework 89 Video Blog

Download Headsplit Acapella here: http://db.tt/43c55sH

good luck!

Homework 89 - The Psychonaut Headsplit Remix

2011-08-23T15:06:00.006+01:00

NEW HOMEWORRRRRRRRRRRRRRK! rejoyce!! aite so I've been mad busy with a gang of life ish for the past few months; tried my best to keep the ldbb blog updated with various bits but for the most part I've had to take a bit of a backseat.

Yes the league is still happening; We'll hopefully be ready for dope ass beat 3 to fall around the same time as it did back for the 2009-2010 league so get cooking in the lab!! before all that though We'll ease back into LDBB runnings with some homeworks! lets goo!.

Homework 89 - The Psychonaut Headsplit Remix

EATGOOD Records artist Sonnyjim has recetly dropped his ill "Psychonaut LP" which features production from M-Phazes, Illmind, Dag Nabit and Louis Den's Kelakovski, Pete Cannon and Eyebs; plus gang of others. The album is a joint release from EG and Australian label Obese (orchestrated from Sonny's tour out in Australia a couple years back) plus theres features/production coming from a few Oz artists.

To peep the LP head over to Sonnyjim's Bandcamp page and also take a look at the videos for the tracks "The Psychonaut" (prod DJ IQ) and "Flying To The Moon" (prod Kelakovski).

To celebrate the release of the album we've managed to prize an acapella off the project to let you guys give the remix treatment to. The original track "The Headsplit" is produced by Illmind and similar to our "Trading Standards Remixes" homework from a while back the best remix (picked by Sonnyjim in the stream) will get released via EATGOOD on an upcoming project, not bad eh?

If youd like to get busy with a remix then download the remix kit here (right click and save), included is the Acapella and a snippet of the original track so you can hear how the vocals are supposed to fit.

The track itself is 91.99 BPM, remember if you are new to remixing then do your homework with lining the vocals up!! the goal of a remix is to make your beat fit the vocals rather than the other way round; we'd only expect you to mess with the vox themselves if you are gonna draw from some dub/glitch influences but essensially if it's a straight up blap then get the BPM right!!

Its useful if your software/hardware would allow you to freely move the vox around your beat to line it up; if it doesnt you could always bounce out the beat into a multitrack editor and get it right that time!! but dont let an out of time Acca cost you the chance of winning!!

RULES
To remix the Sonnyjim track "The Headsplit", no restrictions or limitations just download the Vox and get it in!! however you are expected to turn in an original beat and not blend it with someone elses material.

DEADLINE
This is a two week challenge to ease back into the homeworks! turn in the beat by 17:00 on 4th September, email your entries to homework@louisden.com ; please attach the mp3 to the email message rather than a download link...it makes things a lot easier for us this way!!.

We'll be streaming at http://louisden.com/live to hear the entries and pick a winner!! good luck!

LINKS/RESOURCES
Hear/Buy the Psychonaut LP
Listen to the full track of "The Headsplit"
Download the Acapella and snippet of "The Headsplit" in a ZIP

Myke Forte - Beat Making Series ep 1

2011-08-23T15:01:00.002+01:00

Den regular and King Of The Beats champion Myke Forte has decided to launch his own beat making video series on Youtube, I ain't mad at that!! peep game how he gets down with a chopped sample on his MP2500 and extra sprinkles on his Microkorg XL

Myke Forte - Beat Making Series ep 1

Be sure to checkout Mykes new Youtube channel as he's added a few other beat related videos from his archive! good stuff, get em Myke.

Holla at Myke Forte
Follow @MykeForte on Twitter
Peep Myke's sounds on Soundcloud

Pete Cannon guest mix on Nts Radio

2011-08-23T14:51:00.005+01:00

Louis Den family; production beast and all round good egg Pete Cannon swung by NTS Radio in London early last week and dropped an hour long mix of all his own material; looks like dude as been busy with it!!

The mix bends plenty of genre's as only Pete knows how and includes a gang of material with some heavy hitters like Guilty Simpson, Tony Yayo, Nutso, Stig Of The Dump, Dr Syntax and a whole host of others! tracklist is below. (Petes material
starts 56 minutes in)

Pete Cannon NTS guest Mix 15/08/2011

1. Pete Cannon - Huntington Riddim
2. Pete Cannon - Jah Ting
3. Pete Cannon - Wobble head Skank
4. Pete Cannon & Jim Raygun - exclusive
5. Pete Cannon - Eggshell
6. Pete Cannon - Flower Stretch riddim
7. Pete Cannon - Foot Stomper
8. Pete Cannon - breakcore do more
9. Pete Cannon - Dang
10. Pete Cannon - A big bag of Crips
11. Pete Cannon - We love dj easygroove
12. Pete Cannon - Wub rub sauce
13. Pete Cannon - Demon Dan
14. Pete Cannon - Rave in a pet shop
15. Pete Cannon - More rave than you can throw a tick at
16. Pete Cannon - Feeling Nookie, oh er
17. Pete Cannon - Amen to the old skool
18. Pete Cannon - Bun Charly, Bun.
19. Hip hop Section
20. Pete Cannon and Deadline - How the Sytem goes ft Serocee and Yogi
21. Dr Syntax and Pete Cannon - Best friends
22. Nutso ft Tony Yayo and Mainso - Pocket on swole (prod Pete Cannon)
23. Yogi ft Youngman - She loves me (prod Pete Cannon)
24. Guilty Simpon - We aint playing with them this year (prod Pete Cannon) NTS WORLD EXCLUSIVE
25. Stig of the Dump - Bitches (prod Pete Cannon)
26. Pete Cannon - Like that way you doin it
27. Jazzy jeff and the Fresh Prince - Summertime (Pete Cannon’s very Northern mix)
28. Pete Cannon - Off your face
29. Lilly Allen ft Ll cool J and Pete Cannon - Ldn Town (Blackpool remix)
30. Naive Machine - Robot Ramification ep (Pete cannon’s Gammon remix) (hit and hope records)

You’ll soon know w/ Tim Parker & Special Guest Pete Cannon 16.08.2011

please note at the time this blog was posted soundcloud were experiencing issues; should be working soon

Hit up Pete and let him know whats up!
Pete Cannon Beats on Facebook
Pete Cannon on Twitter

Eric Lau - This Is For You (Beat Video)

2011-08-23T14:43:00.003+01:00

Former Beat Cypher guest Eric Lau has dropped a little studio vid showing the breakdown of a beat he's made entitled "This Is For You", video shows Eric gettin busy with his Mac setup alongside Logic and his collection of MP's a MPC2500 and an MPC3000 (jelly!!).

Eric Lau - This Is For You

The track is up for free download on Eric's bandcamp if you want to scoop it for yourself!

SA Beats - New Era Vol 1

2011-08-23T14:30:00.003+01:00

A newer regular to the last few homeworks and a frequent 22tracks playlister; SA Beats (from the Netherlands) has been smashing up our last few challenges and alongside the Hypedog Blog (whatup HD!!) he's dropped his New Era Vol 1 Beat Tape.

Some ill selections on here and you can definitely see why SA is gonna be one to watch! the beat tape can be copped for the measly price of 1 euro or streamed from his bandcamp if you are strapped for cash!!

1.Fresh Daily- Video Gamin' (SABeats Remix)
2.1992
3.Living on mars
4.West
5.Swag
6.All night loving
7.Back in the days
8.Swag 2
9.Summer
10.Drop it
11.Tokiomob

LINK: bandcamp

Holla at SA Beats!
Follow @SABeats on Twitter
Check out @SABeats on Bandcamp

New Raul Supreme Joints!

2011-07-09T22:06:00.002+01:00

Louis Den producer Raul Supreme has been busy in the lab cooking up new treats; noticed him post a few bits on facebook so I figure I'd post em here and share them.

First up is a cheeky Youtube beat reel of new joints he's cooked up on FL Studio, looks like its straight out the iphone4 steez here so dont watch the guerilla editing as its the beats you need to be paying attention to! all crazy; especially the Candi Station flip..gheeeeeeeez!

Raul Supreme New Beat Mix

As well as the beatmix he's also been sprucing up the Soundcloud page with some new joints; check em out below.

Latest tracks by Raul Supreme

As always; beats for sale, rappers/vocalists; get your business/etiquette game up and holla.

Raul Supreme Connect
Holla at Raul on Facebook
Follow @RaulSupreme on Twitter
Check out Raul on Soundcloud for all his latest joints

Behind Closed Doors 3 Trailer

2011-07-06T12:18:00.002+01:00

Ok so me and Andy linked up last week and officially finished all filming for BCD3. To mark the occassion (and light a little fire underneath us to wrap everything up!) we've uploaded the trailer to the third instalment of the BCD series!

Behind Closed Doors Vol 3 Trailer

Here you can get a taste of the visuals we caught when we hit Berlin (in January), NYC/LA/NC (in February) and the last bits of footage from Birmingham and London.

BCD 3 will drop late summer 2011 and we both can't wait to put this out! full roll call will be announced officially with release date until then we're sure you can work out a few names!!

Stay tuned.

AB & Kos

Behind Closed Doors Vol 3 Mini Site
Behind Closed Doors Magazine DVD on Facebook
Follow @bcddvd on Twitter
Any questions? hit BCDDVD on Formspring
Behind Closed Doors Vol 2 (still available!)
Behind Closed Doors Vol 1 (out of print!)

Beat Butcha - Raw and Uncut (Instrumental Beat Tape)

2011-07-04T21:03:00.004+01:00

Former Beat Cypher guest and star of BCD2 Beat Butcha has recently dropped his instrumental project "Raw and Uncut", the project is a compilation of instrumentals from previously released Beat Butcha tracks. For those who dont know Butcha has produced for some of the illest artists from out here the UK, The Netherlands and further afield all out in the US (Xzibit, Danny Brown, Havoc, Tony Yayo, M9, Brad Strut, Ciph Barker) the list goes on.

Butcha is currently grindin out in NYC trying to further his craft; from what I can gather he's stayin mad busy and working hard! his tweets seem to reveal more and more ill stateside collabs as the days go by!

DOWNLOAD:bandcamp

Anyway support Butcha as theres some real heat rocks on the tape; I guarantee you'll be pulling all sorts of screw faces!

Be sure to follow Beat Butcha on Twitter via @BeatButcha to stay up to date on his latest musical movements!

Kosyne & Kelakovski & Yungun - Mozart Unwrapped

2011-07-04T21:01:00.001+01:00

Mozart Unwrapped is a project myself and Kelakovski got involved with a couple months ago; the aim of the project is to shed some light onto the works of the famous composer Mozart in an effort to bring his work to new audiences.

Me and Kelz took on the challenge and were given three recordings of Mozart pieces which we were told to chop, twist and blend the samples anyway we saw fit and transform the selections into a blap.

I started the beat and passed the project files onto Kela who worked it some more, finally inhouse EATGOOD mix/engineer Taharka added a few sprinkles and got the beat sounding even nicer. To top it off the hiphop artist (and previous beat cypher guest) Yungun added vocals to the track to make it the main theme of the project!

Yungun (aka ESSA) on Kelakovski x Kosyne x Taharka - The Mozart Joint by Kings Place

Mozart Unwrapped Promo Spot

The project gets real interesting in these final stages where participants are encouraged to remix the tracks and create their own versions of the song with their vocals added. Our instrumental is one of the many tracks by other commissioned artists you can lace and submit back to the Kings Palace in order to be in the runnings for some ill prizes.

Details on the RJDJ remixer widget (which you can use on your dekstop or iOS/Android phone/tablet) are here http://www.kingsplace-unwrapped.co.uk/, check it out and get busy!

araabMUZIK:Burn (Documentary)

2011-07-03T12:47:00.005+01:00

Here's a short film about producer Aarab Muzik put together by Burn Energy Drink (A Coca-Cola Brand). I'll be the first to admit I wasn't "sold" on dude straight away; sure his live MPC drumming puts him in the higher bracket of those who do it but his various Youtube vids seemed to be more in-studio footage of heads being gassed at "seeing it for the first time" more than some actual beat construction.

However; between his last in studio video (which got posted in the den forums) and his recent "Electronic Dream" album (that I've had in rotation heavily the last couple weeks), I'm definitely warming to the Aarab steez.

This documentary has been put together by the Burn energy drink (a coca cola product) so theres obviously a healthy budget behind this but its a great watch.

araabMUZIK:Burn (Documentary)

Apparently the doc is going to be re-released later on in the year with all the "Burn" branding over it..

Wizard - Chill Pill 3 (Free / Donate DL)

2011-06-27T22:05:00.005+01:00

Producer Wizard is doing his best to carry on his rep as one of the Den's hardest working beatsmiths with his latest release; the third instalment of the "Chill Pill" series which see's Wiz dropping head nodding laid back instrumentals perfect for riding out too or zoning out on a late night tip!

This time round he's done it a little differently and in a sly nod to the throwback "Tag Team" homework Wiz has collabed with a lot of Louis Den's finest to bring some joint productions to the table.

On the project are Den prodcers Kelakovski, Myke Forte, Dockmini, S-TYPE, Pete Cannon, Apatight, Evil Needle, Budgie, Jeeks (Jeekay), Shears and Sivey...oh and me!! (as well as collabs with Jack Flash and longtime OSB'z rhyme partner/producer Scizzahs) To ge the collabs poppin' Wizard bounced track stems back and forth allowing the other producers to bounce ideas to form some very flamey blaps!

Check Wizards bandcamp for the "Pay what you want" download and get some heat!! Great beats all round from Wiz and the rest of the den boys!

Wizard - Chill Pill 3

1.I'm Hooked (Featuring Jack Flash)
2.Big Shades
3.Help Me (Featuring Kelakovski)
4.Diamond (Featuring S-Type)
5.I'm A Fool
6.June (Featuring Pete Cannon)
7.Chix
8.Uh!...Bounce (Featuring Apatight)
9.Southern Man (Featuring Evil Needle)
10.Roses
11.Fresh Prince Nod (Featuring Kosyne)
12.Round & Round (Featuring Scizzahz)
13.Groove Joint
14.Billy (Featuring Myke Forte)
15.Dance (Featuring Budgie)
16.Hammock Shit (Featuring Shears)
17.Pimp Slap (Featuring Jeeks)
18.Take It Off (Featuring Sivey)
19.Dreaming
20.Spacecraft (Featuring Dockmini)

DOWNLOAD: bandcamp

Get em Wiz!

RIP Michael Jackson

2011-06-25T22:23:00.007+01:00

Dang, 2 years since the King Of Pop passed, Rest In Peace Michael and thank you for the great music!

Figure I'd post a Louis Den throwback and something from our extended fam to mark the event.

First off is the audio reel from Louis Den Homework #24 which was our Michael Jackson challenge, this was one of the toughest homeworks to date as it required producers to dig through Michaels solo catlog and raid it for every single sound available to flip into a beat (thats EVERY sound...drums/basses/synths you name it).

Some ill beats got turned in but a bit of a sleepy studio session meant that there was the traditional lab video to back it up with (that we used to put out weekly back then)..

Anyway, short of a month its great to look back at a 3 year old homework!

Louis Den Homework 24 Audio

Remember, this is a retrospective look back! most if not all the producers here have improved incredibly in 3 years and some may have floated into Louis Den obscurity!!

A requirement of the homework was to break down the process; although some didn't; read below for the process of those that did (I filled in the gaps where I could), this is copied and pasted from the original blog entry on the louisden myspace.

12 ORIGINAL PLAYERS (http://myspace.com/twelveoriginalplayers)
I only used "Off The Wall" and "Thriller" as I refuse to own anything with "Dirty Diana" on it! When I started, all I had was a 7" of "Rock With You" so chopped some of the drums and some vocal stabs from there, and eventually layered them into the obvious kick and snare from everyone's fav, "Billie Jean". Once I had the drums rocking, I chopped up some bass notes from "Baby Be Mine" before adding a touch of guitar from "The Girl Is Mine". There's some additional vocal flavour sliced and diced from "It's The Falling In Love".

BUDGIE (http://www.myspace.com/budgiefirebeats)
sample = lady in my life (thriller)
bass = billie jean kick drum looped
synth = billie jean kick drum looped
kick = billie jean kick processed/ eqed to shit
percussion = workin day and night (off the wall)
snare = workin day and night or something else on off the wall
random hiccups/ breaths = throughout off the wall and thriller

CHEMO aka DJ BUM HANDS (lol) (http://www.myspace.com/chemoproductions)
Sounds like Liberian Girl from Bad formed the main part of the beat up im guessin the drum hits must have been from Thriller or Bad as they seem to be an 808 kit. (kos)

KING JAY (http://www.myspace.com/11i01011)
Sounds like "I Cant Help It" formed the main part of this beat. (kos)

JIMMY GREEN (http://www.myspace.com/stupidfreshmain)
Drums - from Beat It
Samples - from The Lady In My Life

JOE DAVIS (http://www.myspace.com/emceejoed)
I got the hi-hat from billie jean..layered kicks from rock with you..a snare from rock with you layered with a snare from billie jean..bass is from leave me alone..and main melodic sample is from rock with you.

JON PHONICS (http://www.myspace.com/jonphonics)
Sounds like "I Cant Help It" forming the main chop/loop. (kos)

KOSYNE (http://www.myspace.com/kosyne)
The kick drums are layered they came from "Get On The Floor" and "Billie Jean"; I stuck a low pass filter on the "Billie Jean" kick to bring it out a little and used another one normally; the hihat came from "Billie Jean" as did the snare which I also layered with a rim from "Liberian Girl".

Theres a hipass filter on some pitched down vocals I took from "Lady In My Life" and I took the synth keys from the start of "Just Good Friends" and finally I made my bassline by taking a snip of the "Billie Jean" kick setting loop points (so it repeats) and adding a filter/bass boost.

LIKE MIKE (http://www.myspace.com/likemke)
Chopped "Human Nature".

NIK (http://www.myspace.com/nikmusiq)
Kickdrum 1: Billie Jean (Thriller)
Kickdrum 2: P.Y.T. (Thriller)
Snare: Billie Jean (Thriller)
HiHat 1: Billie Jean (Thriller)
HiHat 2: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Thriller)
HiHat 3: Don't Stop Till You Get Enough (Off The Wall)
Main Sample: Off The Wall (Off The Wall)
Hits, short parts etc.: All hits and little parts and something else like thats cames from mj's "Off The Wall"!

So you really got all I did with the beat...of course there is a lot of equalizing and compression work for drums, the main sample and its hits and little parts!

PHOCUS (http://www.myspace.com/phocusbeats)
Seemed to take a lot of bits from various tracks, I reckon I can hear the "Billy Jean" drums, elements of "Rock With You" and "Smooth Criminal" but theres much more in there! (kos).

PURPOSE (http://www.myspace.com/tragicpurpose)
Sounds like "Human Nature" forming the main chop (kos)

RAW SOUNDZ (http://www.myspace.com/teklab07)
Used the drums from "Billie Jean" and chopped up part of "Lady In My Life"

Finally, P.L.O from Associated Minds (Den heads my recognise him from Wrapped Up 2009 and Wrapped Up 2010) decided to remake "Beat It" from scratch; right down to the very intricate Eddie Van Halen guitar solo....incredible!! check it out and shouts to the AM camp!.

P.L.O of Associated Minds - Beat It Instrumental Remake

Get Em Pete! - Pete Cannon Beat Making Vid

2011-06-22T14:43:00.004+01:00

Something fresh and brand new, one of the dens finest "Pete Cannon" drops a beatmaking video for heads to see one of his many approaches.

True school approach here as he digs for a sample and the drums and stitches it all together in what looks like Abelteezy and his trademark sneaky synth stylings....magnificent, get em P!!

Pete Cannon makes a quick hardcore beat

Cannon link up!

Follow @PeteCannonBeats on Twitter

Check out Pete on Bandcamp

Young RJ Beat Series Episodes 1 & 2

2011-06-18T15:07:00.004+01:00

Spotted at nahright.

Here's Young RJ (formerly of B.R Gunna w/ Black Milk) and Barrak Records mainstay breaking down the beat he made which became "Morning Rize" for De La Soul. Nice to see the lab setup (customized MPC3000, Pro Tools and an SP1200 for good measure!).

Young RJ - Beat Series EP 2 "Morning Rize"

Nice beat and a great sample although #geekyobservation...I think S1 might have just edged his flip of the same sample.

I was a bit slow on the jump and didn't realise I missed the first episode of the series which also showed the break down of another track from the same De La Soul x Nike Mixtape - Are You In; the joint "Forever", this ones also nice as he breaks down structuring sequences on the MP and using inbetween BPM's for swing.

Young RJ - Beat Series EP 1 "Forever"

Day In The Life Of Alchemist

2011-06-14T08:55:00.002+01:00

Always great seein ALC in the lab! heres a quick interview with him telling you about his typical day and its also a sneaky segue into his brand new Soul Assassins clothing line which is coming soon!

Day In The Life Of Alchemist

Kela Got That Crack 2011 Batch

2011-06-14T08:51:00.002+01:00

Ok so the homeworks maybe MIA (we'll be back stay tuned) but Kelz has still been busy cooking up that good good, check his latest batch of beats below on his newly setup Soundcloud account. These joints are for sale, holla on his official website for more info.

Kela Got That Crack 2011 by Kelakovski

Follow @Kelakovski on Twitter
Check Kelz online at www.kelakovski.com

Dockmini June Batch (beats for sale!)

2011-06-14T08:43:00.002+01:00

LouisDen Alumni Dockmini has unleashed another great batch of beats for artists to check through and purchase if they hear anything which takes their liking. Needless to say its a dope tape with a mix of soulful and grimy beats, plus a few double time joints for good measure!

Rappers/Singers alike holla at dock and get in touch if you like what you hear!

DOWNLOAD:sendspace
Follow @Dockmini on Twitter!

New Jaisu H33T featured in top drawer Parkour video

2011-05-26T13:11:00.007+01:00

In February this year Jaisu was busy connecting the dots with music stuff out in L.A and it's fair to say he came back more inspired than ever! Since then Jai has been in his lab creating new heat, bringing in more creative ways of working with the MPC and samples.

I've been up at the Jai lab recently to film some stuff and there's a new video coming on the AB0181 channel, until then have a look at the homie Tim Shieff's latest visual documentation on one of his Parkour friends Phil Doyle using all new, exclusive Jaisu heat throughout as a soundtrack.

Them dudes are doing something crazy with their free-running skills and I wish I could swing around trees like that..haha.

Let Jaisu know what up on Twitter: @Jaisu or on Facebook

Give Tim a shout @Timothyshieff or watch more crazyness on his YouTube.

This dope video was produced by Visive Productions.

Until next time, peace!
AB.

Homework 88 - Louis Got The Jazz

2011-04-26T20:11:00.002+01:00

Homework 88 - Louis Got The Jazz

This week the title speaks for itself, JAZZ WEEK!! to expand upon that we're after beats that make use of your jazz crates so dig deep, feel free to bring out those dusty loops or get chop heavy and turn in a synth banger either way we want jazz sampled and influenced beats.

Feel free to get even more creative with it similar to jazz stylings, try 3 bar loops for instance or maybe a different time signature or use a jazz sounding kit for your drums, all not necessary but something you could try to add a little extra to your beat this week.

RULES
This week the goal is to turn in a jazz sampled and/or influenced beat, using extra instrumentation is fine but make sure the sample forms the body of the beat.

DEADLINE
Beats are due 1st May; submit your entries to homework@louisden.com as an attachment and a little description about the beat! we'll try to get the squad together earlier this week!! hit the Ustream for around 18:30 at http://louisden.com/live for it to kick off.

Kev Brown In The Lab

2011-04-26T07:32:00.003+01:00

By the same guy who brought you the "Behind The Beats" series on Youtube; they caught up with Kev Brown over a fellow Low Budget crew member Kaimbr's spot to shoot a short beats video.

Kev goes over some new joints and slightly breaks the process down; obviously too much isn't given away here but its nice to hear some new bits and see that Kev stays busy....nice!

Kev Brown In The Lab

Redefinition Records Presents: Kev Brown "Classic Joints"

2011-04-24T12:19:00.006+01:00

Here's an easter treat courtesy of Redefinition Records, a free compilation of some great joints Kev Brown has produced/released over the years entitled "Classic Joints", tracklisting and download links below.

Be sure to hit up the Redefinition Records blog which are the guys who put this together as well as the recent physical release of Kev Brown & Kaimbr's "Alexander Green Project" which features all sampled works of Al Green.

Kev Brown - Classic Joints

01.Marley Marl - Feat. Kev Brown & Grap Luva - “What Ruling Means”
02.Kev Brown - “Another Random Joint”
03.Busta Rhymes - “Packin’ Them Things”
04.Biz Markie - “Games”
05.Kev Brown - “Batida”
06.Grap Luva feat. Kev Brown - “Power Bars”
07.Kev Brown Ft. Asheru, Grap Luva & Hassan Mackey - “What You Got”
08.Kaimbr & Kev Brown - “Songs” (From The Alexander Green Project)
09.Jay-Z - “Threat” (Kev Brown Unofficial Remix)
10.Kev Brown - “Always” EP Version
11.Kev Brown - “Work In Progress” (Damu The Fudgemunk Remix)
12.Kev Brown - “The Crowd”

DOWNLOAD: mediafire

Remember you hit up Kev's bandcamp where theres a wealth of material to download/purchase so support him directly!

Heres a couple joints from the new Alexander Green project.

Kev Brown & Kaimbr - Great Adventures Of Alexander Green, Pt. 1

Kev Brown & Kaimbr - 260°

Ypnotiq - Whorldwidewhack EP (free DL)

2011-04-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

I found this EP the other day as I stubmled upon a Kev Brown remix to one of the tracks; It wasn't until I gave the rest of the project a listen did I realise this guy is nice with it himself; deep, heavy and bouncy beats here, real nice indeed. I do hate comparisons but just to give you an idea its reminiscent of "1983" / "Reset" era Flying Lotus and some of Afta-1 or Mike Slotts material.

Personally "Love" and "newbeatsontheblock" are the joints I rock with the most, got that headcrackkk.

ypnotiq - whorldwidehack EP

1.Ypnotiq - Euromsayin'
2.Ypnotiq - Airin
3.Ypnotiq - Newbeatsontheblock
4.Ypnotiq - Love
5.Kev brown - Remix on the block
6.camEleon - lanquidyti

DONWLOAD: megaupload

If you want to peep it before you download you can either head over to ypnotiq's bandcamp or peep the embedded player below.

whorldwidewhack ep by ypnotiq

Evil Needle - Cirrostratus LP

2011-04-22T13:40:00.000+01:00

French beatmaker/producer Evil Needle has just droped his free LP "Cirrostratus".

What you've got here is great project serving a medley of beats drawing from all sorts of pockets from straight up hiphop bangers down to jazzed out soul stylings with tinges of R&B all with the trademark Needle headcrack.

Theres even a collab thrown in there with fellow Den head BUG and some of you homework fiends may even recognise the odd homework joint in there! Great music!! get your download on (the bandcamp free DL's have expired so you'll have to either use the mediafire link or dig in your pockets for the €5 to get it (well worth it)

As a side note its nice to see some of the blogs get their wakey wakey on and take start to take notice of Needz...dude BEEN had heat!

Evil Needle - Cirrostratus

01. Intro Groove
02. First Look
03. 9999HP
04. Jazzolude #1
05. Loungin
06. Lo-Fi Bumper
07. Summer Blap
08. Hope
09. Jazzolude #2
10. Chillaxing
11. Time Travel
12. Fuse
13. Hat It Or Love It
14. Disco Inferno
15. Astro Belt with BUG

DOWNLOAD: bandcamp | mediafire

Remember to hit Evil Needle up on Twitter @ItsMeNeedle if you are feeling the music! and if you want to hear even more you can check some of his previous Louis Den homeworks over at http://needlehomeworks.bandcamp.com.

Beat Society @Tammany Hall Feb 2011

2011-04-22T13:18:00.002+01:00

The homie Slop has just posted some recap footage of the recent Beat Soceity event from February, this marked the return of the flagship producer night from a 6 year hiatus! damn! well it looks like it went off with a bang.

Producers on the night were Illmind, Khrysis, Don Cannon, Nottz and DJ Revolution.

Beat Soceity @Tammany Hall Feb 2011

9th Wonder x LRG x Price Films - The Wonder Year (preview)

2011-04-22T10:54:00.004+01:00

I've been looking forward to this for sometime; can't wait for it to drop. Film maker Kenneth Price (who is also behind most the IWWMG / Jamla music videos for 9ths Artits) has been putting the finishing touches to his "Wonder Year" documentary which spends a year in the life of Grammy award winning producer 9th Wonder.

Little snippets have cropped up here and there but now a full trailer has surfaced it makes the project even more appealing!! heres hoping for a general release!

The Wonder Year (Trailer)

A year in the life of CEO, NAACP ambassador, Duke University professor, husband, father, son and Grammy Award winning producer 9th Wonder. The film follows one of soul music’s most dynamic figures from his childhood home to late nights in the studio and everywhere in between.

Featuring: Drake, DJ Premier, DJ Green Lantern, J. Cole, Murs, Phonte, Sha Money XL, Young Guru, The Alchemist & more.

Phone & 9th Wonder - Peter Rosenberg's Noisemakers

2011-04-22T10:01:00.000+01:00

Pete Roesenberg's "Noisemakers" sessions are relaxed sit down interviews similar to what you may have seen at the Red Bull Music Academy; every so often he'll host one of these events getting a range of musical artists to break down their trials and tribulations in the industry.

After the last event with Diddy he's managed to follow suit by getting one of the first sit down interviews with a reunited 9th Wonder and Phonte (formerly of Little Brother) the two discuss mending their differences and Little Brother's rise to stardom. This was about a couple weeks back.

Producer related 9th touches on great topics such as making the "Threat" beat for Jay-Z, initally getting rejected by Beat Society and influencing a whole generation of computer based producers. The event's musical interludes were handled by hiphop band Dujeous who played cover versions of 9th Wonder produced joints (as well as a couple Foreign Exhange ones), Illmind as on hand to trigger samples over the live instrumentation which made for very unique versions of the joints!! this also finished with a freestyle cypher over the "Threat" beat featuring a whole range of artists who came out to the event!

Rather than steal or re-up the links I'll just point you in the direction of the great "All The Way Live" blog where I found their recording of the session.

9th Wonder & Phonte - Peter Rosenberg Noisemakers
via "All The Way Live"

Beat Butcha - Bandcamp Exclusives

2011-04-22T09:56:00.004+01:00

Former Beat Cypher guest (April 2010) Beat Butcha has recently dropped a project of previously unavilable instrumentals from his production resume entitled "Bandcamp Exclusives" check it out as you get tracks he's produced for the likes of Jehst, M9, Ciph Barker, Triple Darkness and more sans vocals as well as a couple of bonus instrumentals thrown in there for good measure.

All for the low low price of £5.00! you can't be mad at that eh! peep the bandcamp stream below.

band camp exclusives (old butcha ish compilation) by beat butcha

Hit up the bandcamp direct to listen at your leisure an be sure to hit dude up on twitter @BeatButcha.

Homework 87 - Mobster Week

2011-04-19T14:51:00.003+01:00

Rolling with another challenge!! lets do it

Homework 87 - Mobster Week

This week the goal is pretty clear cut and simple!! We want you guys to get the crime family / mobster / mafia flicks out and get digging through the musical scores / soundtracks!

RULES
Search out your favourite soundtrack/original score to a mobster film and turn the source material into bangin beat!.

No other rules other than the standard den parameters synth work or anything else to fill out the beat (dialog, scratches, one shots etc) all good as long as it doesnt draw away from the source matieral!

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 24th April, we'll be streaming from http://louisden.com/live looking forward to checking the beats...email them to homework@louisden.com no sendspace/mediafire/zshare just attach the beat!!

LINKS/RESOURCES
Heres Amazon.com's top 35 mafia films, its a great start!
http://www.amazon.com/Top-35-Best-Mafia-Flicks/lm/2XQQ18U67JUEG

Behind Closed Doors Volume 3 news!

2011-04-15T18:18:00.013+01:00

We've been back from our travels to the US a good while now; but Andy and myself have decided to drop a little writeup blog to let you guys know what we were up to out there and how the project is coming along.

A couple sneaky pictures here and there too so peep game and enjoy!

AB0181
Organising a trip like this is definitely a day job in itself. What started out as a joke whilst filming BCD2 in 2009 turned into a "can we actually do this?" brainstorm and ended with an actual real, physical trip across the Atlantic, going "what the frig are we getting ourselves into??".

It wasn't until we touched back down in Heathrow after a week away that it started to sink in. I've never travelled so much in such a short space of time and I think we defined hitting the ground running!

It was pretty surreal to be welcomed by a lot of people I've looked up to, listened to and geeked out to over the years but was only natural to geek down and get on with the job at hand. (Did manage to get pissy pissy quite a few nights, highlights include - 10 cent chicken wing night, linking up with Jaisu and seeing fatlip from Pharcyde spin runnin'). Sleep became a bonus and working out what time it became confusing as body clocks were left in Heathrow.

Can't really speak about who we filmed because I wana leave that for the trailer... but I think we got some great footage and hopefully this is going to be another volume of inspirational producer food for all y'all out thurr.

To break it down with some stats (...as) it looks a little something like this.

13,211 miles
140gb's of footage
x45 10c chicken wings
27.5 hours flying
6 planes
4 trains
1 rental car

Footage is ingested, converted and waiting to be edited. Summer is coming and so is BCD3!

peace

ab.

Kos
Like Andy said the whole trip was surreal; After much procrastination and back and forth's about plane journeys; connecting flights and actually pulling this off everything seemed a bit more real once we "George Bushed" the button on purchasing our outward bound flights.

We kicked off proceedings with a Nando's (as always) once Andy touched down in Birmingham; after which everything was just a whirlwind of "what the hell are we doing", "is this gonna work" and more "what the hell are we doing". This was my first time in these cities and it was just as Kela had hinted saying it'd be like walking onto a movie set, big cars, big roads, big freeways, (big servings heh!) I was gassed just being there!

It was crazy to be in the studio's of some people whose music/beats I've been a massive fan of; just being able to chop it up with them and ask geeky questions (just like I would any of my Den fam) and have just as enthusastic responses was crazy humbling.

If you caught some of the tweets flying around then you may have a clue as to where and who we visited; but to keep things fresh me and Andy have a self imposed gagging order on some Kanye "Dont tell anyone anything about what you're doing" steez.

We put the distance in and travelled across three different states and 2 coasts; we also had to cop a rental car and travel a 160+ mile round trip to get to the other side of the city to see one producer (shook driving the other side of the road hahaha) came back needing 2 weeks worth of sleep recovery and a sour after taste from data roaming charges but it was all worth it.

We've got gold here...oh yeah if you guys liked the progression between BCD 1 and BCD 2 then BCD 3 is a just as big (if not a quantum leap) in terms of what you're gonna get; coupled with what we got in Berlin earlier on in the year and what the remaining UK based footage we've gotta get I reckon we've got about 75% of Volume 3 captured (and backed up, and backed up and backed up some more).

Sounds sooo cliche; but I now understand why certain artists come out with the trademark sentence "Cant wait to share this with you".

Shout Outs!
* Slop for holding us down executively producing the trip on some Suge Knight ish
* The homie greg for the hospitality in the West
* Homegirl Thea for the mini Brooklyn tour and Alphabet City; the amazing 10c wing spot
* What was possibly the wackest ever chinese take out we got in Jamaica Queens
* Fat lip for his DJ slot at the ill Dilla tribute we were at droppin runnin and spat his verse
* minus half a shout to lip for bumpin hi-tek's sungod in the same set #slippin heh!!
* A faded Killa priest at the same night who blessed the mic with random wu hooks
* Bumping into XXXXXXXXX out in the west coast after we had interviewed him in Brooklyn only a few days earlier

Great trip, even better footage captured...stay tuned!

Homework 86 - 2.5 Seconds Of Funk, SP1200 Week

2011-04-12T19:05:00.000+01:00

Yoooo! been a minute since the last few challenges; apologies for the stop start but I've had a few things going on which would have made it hard to get to the lab the last couple of weeks! rather than set a x2 week challenge (which people normally sleep on as they think they've got forever to do it) here we are..Tuesday and a new challnege for this Sunday, maybe the more of you on it will get me in gear to kick this league off eh?? heh..

Ok so the last hardware battle we did was a while back with Homework 67 - DMX Week and we're continuing this on with another (and probably more so) legendary sampler adopted for hiphop.

Homework 86 - 2.5 seconds of funk "SP1200 Week"

This week we want you guys to go back in time and virtually equip yourselves with the legendary Emu Sp1200 if you dont know get to know (Vintage Synth // Wikipedia). This iconic machine was behind many a classic hiphop record and formed part of the production arsenal from some of hiphop productions heaviest hitters (Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, Large Professor, Da Beatminerz, Easy Mo Bee and countless others!!) as we dont have real SP1200's to dole out you guys are going to have to improvise but this still can form quite a fun challenge.

To cut a long story short you are going to have to make a beat as if you were equipped with one of these badboys and heres how.

RULES
The goal of this weeks challenge is to make an SP1200 inspired beat, to get as near as possible to the constrainsts of this machine you will be forced to use the original factory discs that came with the machine which featured pre-loaded sounds to form your own kit and get busy programming.

The total sample time of the SP1200 could not exceed 10 seconds, the unit had 8 velocity sensitive pads (as opposed to the MP's 16) and x4 banks of sounds; meaning you had 2.5 seconds per bank to play with (dont forget you still would have to count in the drums too), thats why producers would do all sorts of tricks like the decay repeat, or the 16 levels equivalent to pitch notes and the classic sampling a 33 record in at 45 and then slow down.

While we dont expect you to get crazy chop/reassemble happy we'll approximate all this by stating the following.

* Only use the drum packs provided for your drum sounds
* for samples you can choose whatever you like but total sample time cannot exceed 10 seconds
* not mandatory but extra hiphop points to anyone who makes use of a bitcrusher/ring mod/or samples in at 26Khz / 12-bit to attempt to replicate the crunch (I know its not the same but hey)
* extra extra points if you find this challenge laughable as you own an authentic SP!! heh..kudos!! turn in a beat!

Synth's are okay but dont go crazy; whilst it wouldn't be impossible to MIDI up a keyboard back in the SP1200 hey day and add encorporate that into a beat; this challenge is more about fancy chop skills and bringing the best out of those stock drums so save a bassline or a little lead dont go all Jean Michel Jarre on us.

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 17th April, we'll be streaming from http://louisden.com/live looking forward to checking the beats...email them to homework@louisden.com no sendspace/mediafire/zshare just attach the beat!!

LINKS/RESOURCES

download the SP1200 kit here (originally sourced from the sp1200 forum)

peeace....keep it crunchy!

Phonix - The Beat Leaks EP

2011-04-12T18:10:00.000+01:00

Phonix is US producer out in the West Coast (not to be confused with our guy Jon Phonics), dude behind some joints for likes of 50 Cent, Pac Div and Stat Quo, pretty serious resume and no shortage of bangers! anyway he dropped his Beat Leaks EP over Twitter a couple weekends back and I'm suprised I havent seen it posted plenty other places.

What you've got here is a selection of instrumentals of various tracks from his production resume (including all those above!!) that have leaked in the last year or so as well as some unreleased treats; I suggest you bag it now as theres some serious heat on there!

I hollered at dude and asked if a repost was cool so here it is!! I took the liberty of sticking some basic artwork on there (iTunes heads can relate heh!) and tweaking a couple tracks as some had a few seconds of extra silence at the start..

Phonix - The Beat Leaks EP

01. Intro
02. Division (Stat Quo)
03. Roses (Pac Division)
04. Quarter After 2 (Sheek Louch)
05. Building (Jadakiss)
06. Sugar (50 Cent)
07. The Change Up
08. Quality (The Game)
09. Dream'n Of Money (Tiron)
10. Light Weight (unreleased)
11. Burn (unreleased)
12. Thank You Focus (unreleased)
13. Motown (unreleased)
14. Soulstar (unreleased)

DOWNLOAD: sendspace

Bonus Phonix Beatmaking Video!
(check dude out making the 50 Cent joint)

Make sure you follow him at @PHONIXBEATS if you like what you hear!.

Beat*Society Live Mixtape

2011-04-12T18:01:00.003+01:00

Gotta give a respectful nod Beat Society's way; these guys are responsible for bringing hiphop production a live outlet with their Beat*Society flagship nights which have been going since 2004 and have played host to names such as Kanye West, 88 Keys, Just Blaze, Kev Brown, Illmind, Oddisee, Beatminerz, Marco Polo, 9th Wonder, Nicolay...shoot the list is endless.

Without what these guys setup there almost certainly wouldn't have been the second generation of producer driven nights; I remember event highlight videos were behind many a geek out session between myself and Darren Paul back in the day and ultimately fueled the drive to setup our own humble outlet with the homeworks/video blogs which turned into something much bigger with the Beat Cypher nights since we started Louis Den!!.

Anyway im rambling...last month saw Beat Society come back after a couple years hiatus and to mark the event they stitched together a little mixtape with some live performances and beats from some of the nights performers over the years.

Rather than straight beats; what you've got is an actual PA feed so you get to hear crowd reactions!

01. Stef & Sao's Introduction
02. !llmind
03. Jake One
04. Don Cannon
05. Oddisee
06. Bahamadia & !llmind
07. 9th Wonder
08. Nottz
09. Symbolic 1
10. Bilal & Nottz
11. Don Cannon
12. Focus
13. Stic.Man Of Dead Prez Interlude
14. !llmind & Phonte aka Leroy Vanderbuilt
15. Marco Polo
16. Jati Shou Out
17. Don Cannon
18. Nottz
19. !llmind
20. Black Thought & Hezekiah

DOWNLOAD: mediafire

salute!!.

Homework 85 - Birthday Beats

2011-03-22T22:56:00.004Z

Okay we're back with a challenge! its been a month or so out the game (lots going on! including a trip to the US for bcd #3...theres a blogpost coming soon on that), the league is still happening for all those wondering just be patient.

Right now for this weeks task!

Homework 85 - Birthday Beats

The goal of the challenge this week is to make a track built from a sample of whichever song was the top charting single from the week and year of your birthdate! maybe you now know about the group or song in question...but at the time you wouldn't have had a clue being fresh on this earth!!

You have a choice of either the UK or US top single and theres links to the wiki pages of the top selling singles so you can figure out what your choices are.

RULES
This week the goal is to make a beat using the #1 charting single of the same week of your birth date, you can go by either the UK top 40 singles or the US billboard charts (links below). VST's and your own built up elements are cool but make sure the sample forms the body of your track.

DEADLINE
Get the joints to us by Sunday 27th March, email entries to homework@louisden.com ,as usual we'll be streaming from http://louisden.com/live between 18:00 and 18:30 GMT so get your beats in! do your bit to ensure a healthy turn out so we can get the challeneges crackin full steam!!

LINKS/RESOURCES

top 40 uk singles
1970s Top Singles
1980's Top Singles
1990's Top Singles

billboard top US singles
US Top Singles

New Pete Cannon & Nutso Joints +cosign from Primo!

2011-03-22T17:51:00.004Z

Life of the party Pete Cannon has been busy cooking up treats in the lab some of which have been beginning to leak out, take a look and listen to the new material below.

Nutso ft Panchi, Torae & Punchline - Street Corner (Official Vid)

Heres the official video the cut "Street Corner" a well put together boombap number from Mr Cannon!!, snag the MP3 of the track here.

Bonus *Street Corner as debuted by the legendary DJ Premier on the Live From Headquorterz Show, Primo doubling up your rekkid!!! doesn't get more hiphop then that right?

Nusto ft L.I.F.E Long - Broke

Double video for another Nutso joint, the full version of the FT single is also below.

Nutso ft F.T - Rock Out

Keep cookin up those heaters Pete!! be sure to follow @PeteCannonMusic on Twitter for all the latest news and music!

Wizard - That Work (New LP)

2011-03-22T15:01:00.005Z

One of the Den's hardest working Wizard has recently dropped his latest LP entitled "That Work", his second full length production album see's Wiz linking up with heads from either side of the atlantic, you've got the likes of Ill Bill, Wordsworth, Verbal Kent, Joe Scudda, Sonnyjim, Thesuarus Rex, umm ME! and plenty others).

If you're familiar with Wizards Beat's and releases you'll know he brings a variety of styles from head nod spaced out beats down to dirty bangers!! be sure to check it out and support or at least give it a full listen!

Wizard - That Work

01.Intro
02.WWF (Featuring Thesaurus Rex & DJ Nick Nack)
03.99% (Featuring Sonnyjim)
04.Remove The Gag (Official Remix) (Featuring Ill Bill, Wordsworth & Verbal Kent)
05.No Strings Attached (Featuring Jack Flash & Thabo)
06.Now You Know (Featuring Amass Hegemony & Pace Won)
07.Lay You Down (Featuring Carlos Montana & Joey G-Zus)
08.Can't Stop Me (Featuring Kal Sereousz)
09.Something To Say (Featuring Spon & Don Mack)
10.So Stupid (Featuring Scizzahz)
11.GM Music (Featuring Kosyne)
12.The Return (Featuring Unfriendly Neighbours)
13.Whole (Featuring Joker Starr)
14.Playing With Me (Featuring Joe Scudda)
15.These Times (Featuring Truth & Carnell Cook)
16.Big Step (Featuring Ramson Badbonez)
17.Cold City (Featuring The IRS)

Check the LP: bandcamp | cop CD @Suspect Packages

Follow @WizardBeats on Twitter

New Wizard Snippets - (Beat Tease 2011)

Jeeks - Arcade EP

2011-03-22T14:37:00.009Z

Louis Den producer (League/Beat Cypher) fam Jeeks (formerly Jeekay) (Illrythmikz) recently dropped his "Arcade EP", a free release this joint is fusion of R&B/Soul and Disco influences lumped together to form a dance centric release that manages not to stray too far away from his hiphop roots.

In his own words his material started to take at turn for the 80's last summer and he's been working away since; this is the end result.

Jeeks - Arcade EP

01. Wonderfunk
02. Nightcap
03. Velvet
04. Benedict
05. Shalamarian

DOWNLOAD:bandcamp

Check it out, its both bangin and free and I hear even more music is on the horizon! Oh and dude finally got on Twitter, so be sure to hit him up!!

Follow @JeeksMusic on Twitter

Jeekay On Myspace

Holla Jeeks on SoundCloud

Bonus Beat!! (new joint from Jeeks posted on the ldbb forum over the weekend)

Dockmini Batch [beats for sale]

2011-03-22T14:26:00.007Z

School of Louis Den student Dockmini has recently unleashed a new batch of beats for sale, thats beats for sale people not free joint for you to loop up and put out on your bandcamp!!

Dock's currently holding things down in Cardiff with his studies but as you can see the lab is still very much up and running.

Downlaod / Digest and rappidy rap dudes holler at him for prices/availability

Dockmini Batch: sendspace
Follow @Dockmini on Twitter

More heat over at his ProducersIKnow files page

2007 Dilla mixes by AB0181 and Kosyne

2011-02-10T19:16:00.003Z

Both me and Andy had created our own personal Dilla mixes back in 2007, chopping it up yesterday he let slip he was going to upload his mix as he figured he'd share, strangely I was on the same page wanting to do the same for the joint I had created back at the same time for the radio show I was then hosting.

It's worth checking both out neither of us feature the same tracks which makes the whole coincidence even doper!

Andy's Dilla Lives! mix is a 35 minute trip through some of his favourite Dilla beats, songs and even a sneaky break here and there (dont forget AB0181 is a sick DJ!! so check for the crispy cuts and live Dilla fx triggered w/ his MP), mine was in the same vein (minus the DJ element....although I was brave enough to try mix a couple joints hahaha) featuring my favourite Dilla productions and remixes for the hour long show that would have aired 4 years ago to the day..

Peep below! be sure to pass onto a friend and cop the tracks you're feeling if you dont already have them, Mixcloud has purchase links next to each joint!

Dilla Lives! by AB0181

Dilla Lives! by Andybr0wn on Mixcloud

BeatsNBars Radio #19 - J.Dilla mix by Kosyne

Beats 'N' Bars Radio #19 Dilla Mix By Kosyne by Kosyne on Mixcloud

(throwback) LDBB Episode 17 - Reflip A Donut For Dilla (2008)

2011-02-10T19:05:00.005Z

If you've never seen this you're in for a treat, this is a Den throwback to when we all when through the Donuts crates to make new beats and salute the second anniversary of Dilla's passing.

Mazzie came all the way from Devon to come and rep in the old studio with myself, Kelakovski, Figaro and Eyebs, a definate throwback to the Myspace era of Louis Den!

I went in with the editing on this particular episode splicing in the lab footage with lil Dilla factoids for your amusement!

Peep below..

Louis Den Beat Battles Episode 17 - Reflip A Donut For Dilla

(throwback) Dillamation by AB0181 (2009)

2011-02-10T19:01:00.002Z

Andy posted this on the blog around the same time back in 2009, in a moment of Dillz fueled inspiration he took to the camera to knock up a stop frame tribute to Jay Dee.

Heads were quite receptive to the unique animation which featured J.Dilla produced records stacked up against a climbing flower and it even made its way onto the Stonesthrow front page!

Check it again below if you haven't seen it in a while, still fresh as ever!

Dillamation by AB0181

(throwback) Louis Den Beat Cypher 3 x Dilla Sample Flips (2009)

2011-02-10T18:53:00.006Z

Cast your minds back 10 Beat Cyphers ago to the third joint we did back in February 2009; with producers Raul Supreme, Percy Filth, Jon Phonics and Winchester.

The sample flip challenge of the night was to reflip a Dilla sample into a tribute beat of its own, Raul Supreme got "The Red", Jon Phonics "Much More", Winchester "Players" and Percy Filth "The Light", the Cypher nights are all about building and networking so it wasn't a "Beat Battle" per se and neither were any of the beats attempts to remake/remix the originals...it was all about paying homage.

Louis Den Beat Cypher 03 - Dilla ReFlips

*filmed by AB0181

J.Dilla - Still Shining Documentary

2011-02-10T14:36:00.005Z

Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the legendary producer's passing :( as you'll no doubt know a fair portion of us in the Den ride for Dilla so he's no stranger to blog posts here but theres even more reason to make some more noise around this time of year! given its the time of his birthday and untimely passing!! got a few more posts for today so look out, first up is the full length documentary "Still Shining"

B.Kyle of Okayplayer released his 2006 Dilla documentary entitled "Still Shining" the film goes over the life of J.Dilla, his production techniques; studio stories and his personal life as told by his frequent collaborators and musical family.

Spots are from the likes of ?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Common, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Bilal, Kariem Riggins, DJ Houseshoes and more.

I'ts a great watch as it features quite a bit of unseen footage/pictures from studio sessions, photo shoots, performances a definite scenes feel as the door is opened on some private moments with his friends & fam.

Props to B.Kyle for putting this out for heads to digest for free.

J.Dilla - Still Shining (Gifted Films)

VIMEO LINK: http://vimeo.com/19637436
SITE LINK: http://www.thejdillaproject.com/video.php

Homework 84 - [re:]Flip Fantastic

2011-02-07T17:29:00.002Z

Homework 84 - [re:]Flip Fantastic

This week's goal is to reflip a sample......FROM YOURSELF.....that's right we want you to go back into the vaults and redo a sample that you picked yourself from a while back, but theres a criteria.

For the reflip fantastic we want you to only pick samples from beats you made during your first couple years of making beats, we almost want you to remake your first beats to show some growth and proof of the skills gained since your early days, see how your synth/keys game and drums/mixing/arrangement skills have improved over the years.

Soooo! we want you dig out an old beat; get your hands on the sample and start again with the advantage of a few years knowledge.

If you are having trouble finding an old beat, try digging out that old soundclick profile or maybe dust off your myspace (is there an old joint on there??) (and if you're OG louisden enough) maybe in the players of some of the old louisden blogs on myspace or even the 2008 league?.

going back just a year or so isn't good enough though we need you to go riiight back on some indiana jones tip, and don't worry if your chop game was mad weak back in the day, you dont have to recrate that or use the same drums...just approach the SAME sample as if you were to make the beat today....if you can give your beat the remix treatment then even better but its not a strict requirement.

Obviously this challenge is gonna work better for heads who aren't fresh to making beats...but if you are (lets say you've only been in this months) then feel free to sit this one out or redo an early beat just like everyone else (but only if you feel you've improved enough for there to be a difference).

Of course if you want to redo a synth beat over then also feel free if the goal of the homework can still stand (i.e. you've gone from badly composed 1 finger melodies to full on chord progressions...be our guest!!)

RULES
To go through your beat archives and dig out a joint you made back in your early days; you're to redo the beat with your 2011 beatmaking skills, the beat can be sampled/composed but just approach your choice in a way to show some growth from the original blap.

So you either have to

a) reflip a sample from an old beat of yours (remake it with better chops/drums or start over either is fine)

or

b) remake a synth/composed beat from your early days with better drums/arrangement/mixing but to show its the same beat you are remaking you'll have to improve on the elements rather than starting again (i.e. the main melody)

Also so we get a feel for your improvement, let your original joint play out for a few seconds as an intro to your beat! and let us know the details in your email to us (homework@louisden.com) always nice to have the backstory!

DEADLINE
Beats are due 13th February 2011, you got a bit of extra time seeing as its a monday! we'll be streaming from 18:30 GMT in the lab @ http://louisden.com/live as usual submit your joints to homework@louisden.com . Lets get it!

Evil Needle - Beat Making Video pt 3

2011-02-06T13:12:00.003Z

Heatsmith Evil Needle is back with another instalment of his Beat Making video series with a straight to business smooth heat rock, check him laying down some smooth licks and headnodding drums to create this mellowed out jawn, great work Needz!

Evil Needle - Beat Making Video pt3

Follow @ItsMeNeedle on Twitter to keep upto date on his movements!

12 Original Players - A Cunning Plan [beat video]

2011-02-05T10:12:00.003Z

Dean of 12 Original Players is like the quintessential hiphop dad, If you've seen the other joints in his Youtube channel you'll see how he gets the little ones involved in the beatmaking process whether its record shopping, drum break huntin or chopping samples.

Dean kicked off 2011 with this new joint entitled "A Cunning Plan" which see's him going through some of his Xmas digs (w/ Drum Approval from son Dillan), looking for heat and formulating the final "Cunning Plan" beat.

12 Original Players - A Cunning Plan

If you like what you hear then be sure to follow Dean at @12OriginalBeats on Twitter and/or on SoundCloud and of course his YouTube channel.

Kev Brown Goodies @bandcamp

2011-02-04T19:03:00.007Z

Kev BrOOOOooown rOOwoon roOOOwwwwn!

Den favourite Kev Brown has been busy getting his releases over on bandcamp, they range from the "Brown Album" which was Kev's take on Jay-Z's (then) retirement album (and one of the best renditions as well) to his underground hand to hand show CD "Open Mic Knight" featuring some circa '99 Kev Brown flows over pre MPC2000XL production.

Also included are the very dope (and worth paying for) commentary joints (Vol.1 & 2); where Kev breaks down the stories behind a few of his more famous productions (backed by a bottle of Bacardi and pot of coffee respectively ha!!). He put these out for free on his blog a few years back but you can cop them now if you missed on the "name your price" steez.

Finally theres the more recent Kev Brown Instrumentals VoL I which has a collection of well known joints, remixes and cheeky beats in one tight release! check them out below or better yet, head over the bandcamp yourself and purchase a joint or 2!

J-Dilla, Still Shining Documentary // Archive Slum Village Soundcheck footage!

2011-02-04T18:33:00.005Z

Ok so its now February or "Dilla Month" as some heads like so say! so they'll no doubt gonna be a spike in J.Dilla blogs / podcasts / events and all sorts seeing as February marks both his birthday and the anniversary of his untimely passing; just remember if he's a favourite of yours (like he is for me) that his music is around all year for you to enjoy so dont just go crazy for 4 weeks a year! heh.

A couple new videos have surfaced of late; both of which are pretty interesting to Dilla fans, the first of which a 13 minute long collection of clips showing the original Slum Village line up (Jay Dee, T3, Baatin) circa 2000 preparing for their first live show in LA which involved Dilla DJ'ing using x2 MPC3000's and a discman! haa..

From an outsiders point of view there really isn't much going on and you could easily write it off as nothing to get exicted about; however there isn't a lot of candid Dilla, (or slum for that fact) footage. You may remember some behind the scenes Frank N Dank joints (showing Dilla's lab and the filming of the McNasty Filth video) but here seems a lot more natural and relaxed.

It's also dope as its a throwback to the original SV line up and to a time before playing up to the camera for Youtube existed...(case in point I dont think any of these dudes even acknowledge the camera for the 13 minutes of footage!)

Anyway the video shows the group rehearsing, going over some technicals, a bit of BS'ing and a last minute trip to radio shack for cables (heh I know them ones).

SLUM VILLAGE - SOUNDCHECK - DILLA PLAYING BEATS

*beat heads on some I HAVE TO KNOW THAT BEAT, wanna look out for Track 16 from Another Batch, the outrolude from "Its Like That" off Welcome To Detroit, Toshi / Nothing But Your Love (Jay Dee Remix)

next up the Still Shining Documentary from B.Kyle of Okayplayer.

He dropped the trailer to this earlier on in the week and like most music nerds im looking forward to peeping the behind the scenes stories retold by those who he worked closest with.

If my mind serves me right B.Kyle was actually putting together a DVD featurette for the Shining back when it dropped in '06, for whatever reason this bonus DVD never saw the light of day so its quite possible this has been in the works since then, its dropping on Feb 7th whether it'll be something to buy or a free stream is yet to be seen but I'll be checking it out for sure either way!

J.Dilla - Still Shining Documentary Trailer

Wizard At Will Beat Tape - Homework Vol 1.

2011-02-04T18:25:00.005Z

For those unfamiliar with Wizard At Will (not to be confused with UK's Wizard) he's a long time Louis Den supporter and participant, been repping since '07 submitting homeworks pretty much every week since the challenges opened up.

He also took part in the 2008 and 2009 leagues and we've seen his beatmaking skills go from strength to strength as part of being inolved in what we're about over here, anyway for anyone wondering what it is that gets you the front page treatment, well Wizard At Will really reps for Louis Den and homeworks; case in point during the 2009 league dude was very ill laid up in hospital at one point and where most people's mind would be furthest away from beats, he insisted on still making his weekly deadlines going as far as to borrow another persons laptop to get a beat done...down to making IPHONE JOINTS! while he was away from his studio!

Annyway Wiz has collated some of the homework beats and league joints over the years into a neat little collection, he's in the middle of setting up a bandcamp but you can bag Volume 1 below! *update, bandcamp link added!.

01. Intro
02. Middle East
03. Sell Out
04. Expendables
05. Hair Band
06. Mid Tro
07. 707
08. Japan
09. The Wrong Sample
10. Week 3
11. 81
12. Unplug
13. Week 9
14. Bonus Track
15. Bonus Track 2
16. Outro

DOWNLOAD: mediafire | bandcamp

Salute wiz!! I've been told they'll be future volumes!

Louis Den Lab Sessions 81 / 82

2011-02-04T18:15:00.003Z

Dont be sleeping on the LDBB Ustream, we broadcast every Sunday from the lab at around 18:00 GMT bringing you plenty of jokes and bangers submitted for the homework of the week!, heres a little round up of the last 2 joints in case you may have missed them.

Homework 83 - Disco Week

Last weeks homework was back at the Den with myself and Kelakovski; we wanted heads to dig through the Disco crates and see if they could change them dancefloor joints of yester year into some fresh bangers! I got a bit carried away doing the live mutes (hahaha) and accidently cut the wifi off so this joint is in 2 parts.

Homework 82 - Stax Of Soul

The aim of Homework 82 was to flip samples from the iconic "Stax" catalog, no Kela in the stream that week as myself and AB0181 had to do some sneaky overseas to Berlin to begin filming for BCD3! we still decided to get busy with a ldbb stream which we did from the hotel equipped with the room's ethernet and some dope German beer.

This weeks homework is still open and we'll be streaming from the lab at the usual time of 18:30, read a few posts below to see the theme and if you wanna get down! submit beats to homework@louisden.com

New Myke Forte - "Soulishius"

2011-02-04T18:09:00.005Z

Our man Myke has been busy on the boards, chopped it up breifly with him yesterday telling me he's been getting into his Logic setup a lot more (Myke usually rocks the MPC2500) and messing with played stuff, he emailed me a little suttin afterwards which I thought was craaaazy!.

Checked his Soundcloud to see that he had upped it on there too, check out his new joint below entitled "Soulishous" its definately some of that good good!.

Soulishous by mykeforte

Be sure to follow @MykeForte on Twitter and on Soundcloud to get access to his latest joints!

Homwork 83 - Where I'm From

2011-02-01T19:05:00.003Z

Homework 83 - Where Im From

RULES
This week the goal is to flip a sample by an artist who is from the same home town as you; you're to go through their catalog to find something to get busy with and build a fresh beat using sampled elements.

We'd define where you are from as from the same city (or nearest city) as you, try and get a local name rather than using a tenious link of "they are from the same country as me" this can either be where you are living now or where you grew up depending on the crates quality!

but this should be an interesting challenge as the geogrpahy will limit your samples!

any genre is cool but obviously make it interesting...and let us know who you flipped!! maybe let the break ride out at the start!

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 6th Feb, gonna try make the stream for 18:30, really sorry if you guys wait wait and wait some more doesn't always go smooth heading to the lab!

right Im off to dig through some Ozzy Osbourne and UB40 ish!!

Homework 82 - Disco Fever

2011-01-26T08:50:00.001Z

This weeks homework was an idea I had floating about for a couple of weeks; when we asked for suggestions after last weeks stream Evil Needle came with suttin similar so we're running with it for this weeks theme.

Homework 82 - Disco Fever

This week the challenge is to flip Disco joints into new bangers! house DJ's have been doing it for eons and hiphop has been borrowing from Disco crates from day dot, so lets get it.

RULES
This week the you have to turn in a beat that uses samples from Disco music, usual rules apply; VST's, Drums etc can be from your own stash of libraries and instruments just as long as the sample forms the main part.

DEADLINE
Get the joints to us by Sunday 30th January, email entries to homework@louisden.com ,as usual we'll be streaming from http://louisden.com/live between 18:00 and 18:30 GMT so get your beats in!

Homework 81 - Stax Of Soul

2011-01-15T18:49:00.003Z

What up! been a minute since the last homework dropped; Xmas and New Year has passed us by and its time to get back to business! the LOUIS DEN 2011 LEAGUE is coming, please beleive; if you dont know already; pre signups can be located at the louisden forum - http://louisden.com/forum with a proper announcement coming soon.

New Year New Homework, lets get it!

Homework 81 - Stax Of Soul

Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label became known as Stax in 1961, given that makes it a cool 50 years old this year we'd like you guys to dig through the catalogue and turn in some ill beats.

Artists birthed from the label include Otis Redding, William Bell, The Dramatics, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Flloyd and a whole gang of others!

RULES
To create a beat using the extensive "Stax" catalogue, get over to the wikipedia page, youtube / spotify; research and give the catalogue a listen; try your best to source your samples from good rips OR better yet go for a real life dig!! cant beat it, usual louisden rules apply; feel free to use your own drums/vst's to bulk up the beat; just make sure the sample forms the main part! *** be sure to research the albums you are digging from to make sure they are from the Stax catalogue ** submit beats to homework@louisden.com.

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 23rd January, so thers no session this sunday (16th Jan) you've got the whole week to get cooking!, see you in the stream @ http://louisden.com/live

LINKS/RESOURCES
List of stax releases - http://staxrecords.free.fr/covers.htm
Stax Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stax_Records

Mr Porter releases "N" Beat Tape

2011-01-12T15:35:00.007Z

* photo credit: Doug Coombe

Producer Mr Porter (50 Cent, Eminem, Pharoahe Monch, Black Rob, D12) aka Kon Artis from D12 has leaked a beat tape he had created back when Nas was shopping beats for his last album "Untitled". Apparently Mr Porter likes to craft whole beat tapes in the style of how he imagines the artists upcoming LP should sound.

Rather than let these gather dust he's put them out as a free download!! good man!, peep the swipe below for the full details.

Mr Porter via Twitter

Round the time Nas album was titled it I was submitting beats for it. This was also a good start to jump back into the game because after the tragedy of Proof and Dilla I wasn’t fucking with music. So while coming outta depression I made a beat cd for the
Nigga album. When I submit music to artist I do a album worth of songs the way I hear the album and they pick what they like (yea it’s my OCD way of submitting music). Any way I’m gonna share that album with my fans and friends this morning.

God sent snow today so since u niggas aint goin no where enjoy these beats that never saw the nigga album.

1. N*gga Intro
2. Beautiful Thang
3. Emotions 1
4. How Can I Leave Her
5. Emotions 2
6. Money
7. Smoking Gun
8. What Can I
9. N*gga Outro

LINK: sendspace

Sonnyjim & Kosyne - EG Professionals (prod Kelakovski) (dir AB0181)

2011-01-12T15:16:00.003Z

Heres a new oldie, the music video from the track EG Professionals by myself and Sonnyjim; the track is taken from the "Compilation Vol 1" that was released by EATGOOD Records around 18 months ago.

We got camera supremo AB0181 down to shoot and edit the video to the Kelakovski produced head nodder and whilst its been done for some time it's only recently surfaced; so give it a peep and see what you think.

Sonnyjim & Kosyne - EG Professionals (Dir AB0181)

If you like what you hear; dont be shy you can head over to iTunes and cop the whole compilation which features more tracks/remixes from the EATGOOD camp and production from Kelakovski, Kosyne, Eyebs, Sivey, Shears, Darren Paul & R2ThaBeatz.

Jaisu Beat Tape Vol 8 & Striaght Out The MPC Beat Tape

2011-01-05T15:00:00.005Z

Den heads AB0181 and Jaisu (Beatfanatic) return with another blazin instalment of the pioneering Beat Tape series; theres some monsters here in the tried and tested sample then blap format, raw sewage in your water cooler face action...

If you're feelin it, be sure to hit the Youtube page up and leave a comment; better yet go and cop Jaisu's debut release "Straight Out The MPC" which see's him collate the favourite beats from the video series with some sneaky new joints for a more than reasonable $5 (I copped mine!) over at Jaisu's bandcamp.

2011 should be a dope year for J, get em son!

LINKS

Jaisu Beat Enquiries (jaisubeatsandbooking@gmail.com)

Jasiu's facebook page

Follow @Jaisu on Twitter

More iddish from AB0181

Follow @AB0181 on Twitter

** plug plug **, we've got an ill lil section on Jaisu in the latest instalment of Behind Closed Doors Vol 2, check the DVD preview out over here, and cop it here.

Pete Cannon & Jon Phonics Live @Konductors Lab Leeds (UK) 19th Jan 2011

2011-01-05T14:48:00.004Z

Anyone in the Leeds area wantin to catch our guys Pete Cannon & Jon Phonics bustin some live beats; be sure to head to the Konductors Lab event in Leeds on 19th Jan.

Jon and Pete will be getting busy on a performance tip, so expect all sorts of madness as they'll be manipulating their beats live on stage.

The event is headlined by Dented Records artist "Dr Syntax" whose recent album "Benny Huge" features considerable production from Pete, also performing are DJ Logik & Ball Zee, Bambooman and Defenders Of Style.

Be sure to check the event if you are in the area, we need more of this and from what I can see these guys intentions are cut from the same cloth as us with our beat cypher steez!

KONDUCTORS LAB
WEDNESDAY 19th JANUARY
DR. SYNTAX (DENTED RECORDS) feat. DEROGATORY & PETE CANNON
JON PHONICS (YNR PRODUCTIONS)
PETE CANNON (AMG) Live Set
DJ LOGIK & BALL ZEE (BEATS & PIECES)
BAMBOOMAN
DEFENDERS OF STYLE

@ WIRE
2A CALL LANE / LEEDS
10:30 PM - 3 AM
£6 OTD / £5 GUESTLIST (Post names on the group wall)
18+ / R.O.A.R

LINK: Facebook Event

magOwl - Page One

2011-01-05T14:38:00.003Z

What up folks, Happy 2011! Hopefully this year goes off with a bang!, theres a lot instore for Louis Den so stay tuned with us!

Before any newness though I'd like to get a few things blogged I never got a chance to before 2010 bounced so peep the following posts for some goodness!.

magOwl - Page One

LINK: bandcamp

Den regular magOwl has put together a compilation of beats and peices entitled "Page One", some are Louis Den submissions from his various homeworks whilst others are bits he had stashed away.

I wish I got a chance to blog this while the first few downloads were free as you might have been in with a chance to bag it; but it's only a measly $5 so dig deep if you feel it! you can stream it from his bandcamp to see what it's all about.

A few works from magOwl himself..

This is a selection of beats from the last year, year and a half, or so. Some are entries from the LouisDen beatbattles (www.louisden.com), so if you're keeping tabs you might have heard a few. But on the other hand there are others on here that should be new to any and all.

The lot was produced by me, magOwl, using Renoise (www.renoise.com) aided by the old Ensoinq EPS 16+, the Boss SP-303 and a healthy amount of vinyl.

Have a listen, download the album for free (no minimum), or if you're feeling it, spend a few quid; i.e. buy me a beer or two.

For inquiries (purchasing beats, collaborations, general questions) email me at: magOwl@gmail.com

Homework 80 - Bigger Than Hiphop

2010-12-15T10:27:00.000Z

New homework! thanks for holdin out for the week break;

Homework 80 - Bigger Than Hiphop

RULES
This week is all about branching out; theres no theme to beat except we want you to display your beat skills outside of a traditional "blap" not to say anyone is generic in the least! but more that this week is your carte blanche to step out and hand in literally whatever you like for your homework...be it jazz, soul, drum & bass or ghettotech!

Show us what you can do when we free the walls! this is a non genre specific homework but it would be nice if you cooked something up specially rather than that 2 year old dubstep beat you had laying around!

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 19th December, email to homework@louisden.com

Jaisu - Prelude To The MPC EP + Promo Vid

2010-12-10T17:00:00.000Z

Jaisu is finally hitting his blap hungry followers off with a release!, "Straight Out The MPC" is a collection 30 beats spanning his explosive Youtube beat tape series as well as sneaky new treats that have been crafted inbetween.

Before you can get your hands on that though he's dropped the "Prelude To The MPC" EP which features instrumental versions of released joints Jaisu has produced as well as a few sneaky vocal tracks, this and the "Straight Out The MPC" Beat Tape can be obtained from his bandcamp page linked below.

Visual accompaniment to these new releases comes courtesy of the Den's AB0181 who went in to provide a crazy costume changing sequence of Jai in the lab, peep!

Jaisu - Prelude To The MPC Promo Vid by AB0181

I think you can agree that they're both killin it!! Go bag them treats now!

Jaisu's Bandcamp

'Like' Jaisu on his Official Facebook Page

Follow @Jaisu on Twitter

Mykeforte.com launched + LEO beat tape!

2010-12-10T16:16:00.006Z

Mykes emerged from the lab with a new beat tape and shiny website to show us, you may have noticed him in our BFF links to the left but for those who dont know you can now get the lowdown on everything Myke Forte and Audiopixel related at his new digital outlet www.mykeforte.com, he's got his discography, up to date news, blogs and more!

To celebrate the launch he's dropped the latest instalment of the Zodiak Beat Tape series in the form of Leo! go bag and be sure to check out the site!

A quick word from Myke about the release
"This one was quite tricky to finish as I didn't have a theme for this so I decided to try and interpret sounds by mood, and the fact that the Leo star sign is in the summer I wanted feel good beats, but not all of them came out that way. Give it a listen after the download, pass it on and send feedback. Peace.

Myke Forte - Zodiak::Leo

01 WarmUp (Sun Spirit)
02 SummerBreak (Zesteemed)
03 2Halves (VainConfidence)
04 Opalfruits (PassionAte)
05 illvillain (Domination)
06 NoJokes (Commandeer)
07 CruiseControl (Confidence)
08 OnaipChops (Cre-action)
09 Alionate (Self-Centered)
10 NeonBlack (Enlightened)
11 SoulAfrica (LionPride)
12 BeginingEnds (Presentfuture)
13 TalkingFlowers (Social Butterflies)

DOWNLOAD: bandcamp | megaupload

So remember thats mykeforte.com, hit dude up on Twitter @MykeForte if you wanna stay up to date!.

S-TYPE - Medusa EP free download

2010-12-10T16:15:00.001Z

Den badman, league 08 winner and Tartan Bully S-TYPE has recently dropped the Medusa EP on the Phuture Labs label; dont let the title fool you bumping it wont turn your ears to stone but your neck may feel like it after the crazy head nods it'll generate!. The 3 track EP is genre crossing fusing elements of Electronica, Hiphop, Future Beats and more but rather than trying to pigeonhole you'd be better off bumping it (LOUD) and letting your ears form their own opinion

S-TYPE - Medusa EP (Phuture Labs 2010)

1. Terry Nutkins
2. Mr Lizard
3. Medusa

DOWLOAD: MP3's @ Phuture Labs | Wavs @ Soundcloud

Be sure to follow @S_TypeBeats on Twitter, "Like" him on his official Facebook page and check his Bandcamp if you wanna hear more heat!.

Jon Phonics Goodies - Run For Cover x TBear EP

2010-12-10T15:38:00.004Z

I love it when I've got a backlog of stuff to blog for no other reason that it means are boys are really on this ting! Next up is Jon Phonics who seems to have ditched sleep in favor of delivering more slabs of future funk.

Run For Cover & A.M
Jon has a 7 inch single dropping early next year with the Chakra Sounds label to serve as a warm up he's put the tracks Run For Cover and A.M out to get y'all ready, you can bag those at the Chakra Sounds Bandcamp page, download and digest!! as bonus he makes his music video directoral debut in the promo vid for Run For Cover which you can peep below!.

Jon Phonics - Run For Cover Promo Video

JP x TB = EP
A couple weeks back Phonics and T'Bear (star of beat cypher 11) decided to put together a selection previously released works and stuff they had in the vaults to form a free EP entitled ‘TB aka TBear V’s Jon Phonics’ EP, so you got bangin beats from JP and dope bars courtesy of the charasmatic TB all for free, go grab it!

Local Hero Presents ‘TB aka TBear V’s Jon Phonics’ EP

01. Intro
02. Sex On Drugs
03. Reach For The Top
04. Celebrate
05. Free At Last
06. Deeper Underground
07. More Forward (Ill Rhythmikz Mix)
08. Broken Mans dreams (Feat. Mr. Drastick)
09. Changes (Feat. Yasine)
10. Remember (Feat. Sir Smurf Lil’ & Raggo Zulu Rebel)
11. More Forward (Original Version 2006)

DOWNLOAD: mediafire

Be sure to hit up @JonPhonics on Twitter if you want to stay glued to his releases/movements!

Evil Needle Beatmaking Video #2

2010-12-10T15:31:00.003Z

Check the super dope fresh Evil Needle cooking up a heatrock in the lab powered by Reason and what looks like Leffe (big up)..

Evil Needle Beamaking Video #2

Nice work Needz! always bringing heat in the homeworks!, If you want to peep more blaps from him be sure to check his Bandcamp where he is archiving a lot of his louisden works.

Evil Needle Bandcamp
Follow @itsmeneedle on Twitter

BUG winter mix for RadioMagnetic +Quandron Remix

2010-12-10T15:18:00.002Z

Hot on the heels of his last beat mix Radio Magnetic have recruited BUG to deliver an exclusive mix; head over there to peep 15 selected treats perfect to chill/zone out to as a backdrop for your wintery vibes.

1. Floating Points Ensemble – Post Suite
2. Sampha – Rainstars
3. Aaron Carl – Sky
4. Flying Lotus – Do The Astral Plane
5. Olivier Daysoul – In The Now (Duke Hugh Boassatronic Remix)
6. Afta-1 – H(eye)LAND (feat. Nikko Gray)
7. Full Crate – Cut The Barb
8. Floating Points – People’s Potential
9. Theo Parrish – Sketches (A1 / Untitled)
10. DVA – Just Vybe (feat. Fatima)
11. A Made Up Sound – Rear Window
12. Joy Orbison – Ladywell
13. Maddslinky – Further Away (feat. Tawiah)
14. Stac – Head On Me (Part Time Heroes Remix)
15. Quadron – Average Fruit (BUG’s Punch-Up)

Download / Stream over at Radio Magnetic

The mix also closes with his recent illy remix of Quadrons Average Fruit if you want to listen to that outside of the mix he's got it up on his SoundCloud page to stream peep below.

Quadron - Average Fruit (BUG's Punch-Up) by BUGMusic

Homework 79 - Space Week

2010-11-30T18:20:00.002Z

Ok caving into chatroom pressure here, yeah of course its a dope idea but we weren't sure when to drop it and the ldbb heads have spoken so here it is!

Homework 79 - Space Week

This week we want you guys to flip samples from anything pertaining to Japanese culture; so composers, artists, groups, TV shows, anything originating from the country; we'll accept anything from Japanese War Drum flips right down to J-Pop to anime (if you can pull it off hahaha), so go nuts!!; obviously this is a sample based challenge so synth happy producers need to dig in the crates!

RULES
This week we want you to turn in beats that can fall into the theme of "Space", you can go the sci-fi route by flipping TV/Movie themes from sci-fi shows/films or you can turn in some futuristic synthed out space age funk, either or but its got to sound out of this world!

DEADLINE
Beats by 5th December please!! as usual email them to homework@louisden.com, and yes the league is coming but we took a hit with my laptop going caput the other day; going to take a while for me to get back on my feet so please be patient, if you can't wait then just jump on the homeworks to sharpen up!

Louis Den Winter Beat Battle 16th December Birmingham, UK

2010-11-22T15:13:00.007Z

Louis Den Beat Cypher is back for the last event of 2010, our last beat cypher had producers Pete Cannon, Gifted Music, Mazzie and Ed Strong; we were joined with PA's from Sonnyjim & Kelakovski, Stig Of The Dump and The IRS. Our usual round by round / PA Beat Cyphers are done for 2010 and this time we're closing the year out with a very special Winter Beat Battle!

Louis Den Winter Beat Battle will pit 16 producers up against each other to show and prove who has the best bangers in the vaults and determine who will walk away with the £100 and £50 respective first and second place cash prizes we're putting up alongside dope threads courtesy of iller clothing (www.iller.cc)

To make sure only the heatmakers get through we've assembled an all star judging panel to take care of scrutinising the nights beats, deciding who go through on each round are..

Mr Thing (Extended Players/GMB)
A vet in the game Mr Thing is a DMC Team Champion, part of the Extended Players outfit (along side DJ MK, Shortie Blitz and Harry Love) as well as an interntional DJ in his own right and producer. He dropped the classic Grown Man Business album with Yungun a few years back and has lent scratches/production duties to whole host of artists as well a string of dope mixes. Thing knows what sort of records will go off with a bang!

Sarah Love (BBC/MTV)
Sarah knows her music, having headed up the 4 hour 1xtra M1x Show for her term in office at the BBC and her preseting duties at MTV topped with her various international DJ spots, she knows what will move a crowd and what could essensially become a dope song!.

Disorda (Suspect Packages)
The hardest working man in UK Hiphop, Disorda heads up the online store Suspect Packages (in operation for almost 15 years!) and hosts the popular Suspect Radio as well as his monthly live events in London. He hasn't kept his online record store going by luck; having an intricate ear for music and knowing what will shift tied in with his DJ duties; Disorda can spot a banger from a dud easy!

Cipher Jewelz (MD7/Seven Entertainment)
Cipher is a cornerstone of the Birmingham hiphop scene and has paved the way for a lot of artists doing their thing today. MC and producer for the brum outfit Moorish Delta 7, they've dropped 2 classic albums (The Power & The Glory, Life In The City); they've supported the likes of DJ Whoo Kid - G Unit, Wu Tang, Dilated Peoples, Mobb Deep, Foxy Brown, Big Daddy Kane, Beatnuts, Erick Sermon and DMX and many more as well as heading up their own label Seven Entertainment handling everything from art, music production, distriubtion and marketing. Cipher is a head in the know when it comes to music and will spot heat from a distance!

Soweto Kinch (Soweto Kinch Productions)
World renouned Jazz musician, composer, emcee and producer Soweto kicked off the beat cypher over 2 years ago back in October 2008 (along side Kelakovski, Mr Dick and Jehst). More recently he's not long launched his 3rd full length album "New Emancipation" on his own imprint and would have just come off tour to join the judging panel, with bangers in stock Soweto could himself enter this!! but he's been gracious enough to join the judging lineup to help decide the winners!.

As if this wasn't enough we're also letting guest DJ's SARAH LOVE (BBC 1Xtra, MTV) and MR THING (Extended Playes, DMC Champ) bless the decks with exclusive sets, Sarah will be hitting us off with the latest hiphop bangers whilst Mr Thing will drop an exclusive breaks mix filled with plenty of secret treats!

The EATGOOD team will also be showing off some of their Q4 2010 / 2011 material so expect a few new tracks from Sonnyjim, Redbeard and RTKal.

I WANT IN!! - HOW TO REGISTER FOR THE BEAT BATTLE
Head over to http://louisden.com/battle to register for the battle; if there are more than 16 sign ups this DOES NOT guarantee you a place in the event as if there are more than 16 producers we will have to names out of a hat on the night to determine who will be in place for the battle.

Battle Format
Producers will need to come to the event with their beat CD's ready; have at least 10 tracks covering a range of styles (within the hiphop genre) which you'll play x2 of per opponent (in a knockout format), winning beats will be decided by our allstar judging panel consisting of MR THING, SARAH LOVE, DISORDA, CIPHER JEWELS and SOWETO KINCH.

RULES
* Beats must come on CDR (no phones/usb/ipods)
* Beats CANNOT be played on your behalf; If you register you must turn up on the night to be in with a chance * Producers will be drawn at around 10PM on the night of the event, if you fail to acknowledge your presence we will move on and draw another name!

The nights action will be hosted by Kosyne, Redbeard & Sonnyjim with DJ CRO as the resident DJ providing music other than our guest DJ's

We look forward to seeing you there and close this years louis den action with a BANG!.

-----------------------------------------------
Louis Den Winter Beat Battle w/ Guest DJ's Mr Thing & Sarah Love
Thursday 16th December 2010
Downstairs @unPlug Digbeth
79 Digbeth High St
Birmingham
B5 6DY
9PM - LATE
£4.00 ENTRY BEFORE 10PM £5.00 AFTER
-----------------------------------------------
Links / Support
http://www.louisden.com
http://www.iller.cc
Follows us on Twitter @louisden
Blog Post on lousiden.com | Facebook Post
Flyer Web | Flyer Large

Homework 78 - Big In Japan

2010-11-22T15:09:00.005Z

We've just come off a short 1 week break, so apologies to anyone who was fiending for their Sunday stream fix; we've had a few things to sort for the upcoming Louis Den event in Birmingham so we had to get those worked out!!

We mentioned this idea in the last stream and was something that came up in the forum's homework suggestions thread so we figured we'd give it a go!.

Homework 78 - Big In Japan

This week we want you guys to flip samples from anything pertaining to Japanese culture; so composers, artists, groups, TV shows, anything originating from the country; we'll accept anything from Japanese War Drum flips right down to J-Pop to anime (if you can pull it off hahaha), so go nuts!!; obviously this is a sample based challenge so synth happy producers need to dig in the crates!

RULES
We want beats made utilising Japanese samples; whether its the intruments, influence or artists themselves.

DEADLINE
Beats are due via email to homework@louisden.com by 18:00 GMT on 28th November 2010, good luck!....PS the league is coming soon, more details on that this week!.

New BUG Beat Mix for jus like music

2010-11-19T17:14:00.003Z

BUG's cooked up another dope beatmix for JuslikeMusic, some illy selections from the likes of Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Eric Lau, FS Green and some ldbb fam in the form of Apatight, Budgie and BUG himself.

Nov '10 Mix For Jus Like Music By Bug by Jus Like Music on Mixcloud

Hit up BUG if you're feeling the mix!

LINKS

Follow @BugMusic on Twitter

Listen to BUG's other mixes here

BUG's official site BUGmusic.net

Wizard - Chill Pill 2 [Free Download]

2010-11-19T17:09:00.005Z

One the Den's busiest Wizard is back with the second instalment to his "Chill Pill" instrumental series, the original Chill Pill saw wizard digging through the vaults and letting some fresh stuff go to form a compilation of chill, deep and soulful beats; he's back again on a similar vibe (with a few up tempo joints too) for your listening pleasure.

Many of these joints are available for purcahse if you wanna hit up Wiz on his contact details below.

01.You Gotta Light? 02:50
02.Take It Easy 02:26
03.Pumpkins 02:01
04.Top Down 02:14
05.All That I Want 02:47
06.Got My Mind 02:19
07.You & Me 02:19
08.Surrender 01:46
09.Ice Cream 02:13
10.Summer 02:39
11.GM Music 02:42
12.Ready 02:24
13.Love Is 02:34
14.120 (Let Me Down) 01:30
15.Hamilton 02:44
16.Ya See Baby 02:08
17.Keep You Close 02:28
18.Sunny 02:43
19.That's All We Do 02:18
20.Slow Train 03:38

*All tracks produced by Wizard. Keys by Kelakovski for tracks 1, 5 and 20.M

DOWNLOAD/STREAM: http://wizardbeats.bandcamp.com/
BACKUP DOWNLOAD LINK: http://usershare.net/6jyumbwdjkib

Hit up Wizard on the social networks!

Twitter @WizardBeats |

Myspace |

Reverbnation |

Youtube |

Ozb's Bandcamp |

Facebook

Wizard's new production LP titled "That Work" is dropping later this month!

Jon Phonics - Stop Frame Beat Vid + raw ingredients

2010-11-19T16:59:00.001Z

New future funk from Jon Phonics here in the form of a stop motion beat making video which is a sly nod and wink to producer Ryan Leslie's beatvideos which are normally filled with suit donned dance steps and majestic air producing. I'm unsure what Jon is up to at the moment but judging from the video he's cooking up a storm in the lab!

Jon Phonics Making A Beat Stop Frame

Speaking of which if you still havent got yourself a copy of Jon Phonics last album "Half Past Calm 2" all I can say is #slippin, fix up and bag it from http://jonphonics.bandcamp.com immediately! as a bonus here is the new video for the track "Raw Ingredients" taken from the album which features Cyrus Malachi and Jehst!

Raw Ingredients f/ Cyrus Malachi & Jehst

LINK UP PHONZ

Follow @JonPhonics on Twitter

Jon Phonics Bandcamp

Check out Jon on Myspace

Praise - Still Loading Beat Tape

2010-11-19T16:56:00.006Z

Check out the short but firey beat tape from producer Washington DC Producer Praise, I heard of dude via the ughh producer boards I post at/peep from time to time, but after checking the Behind The Beats interview with him (see bottom of post) I was intrigued to hear some heat which I got courtesy of his bandcamp; I posted this on the boards a few weeks back but after hearing it again it's more than front page worthy so im putting you on to some ill ish! peep!!

Praise - Still Loading Beat Tape

Praise - Behind The Beats Interview

Linkup Praise

Follow @YoungPraise on Twitter

Praise on Bandcamp

Homework 77 - Moms Playlist

2010-11-10T10:00:00.002Z

Homework 77 - Moms Playlist

This week the homework is entitled "Mom's Playlist", this week we want you guys to dig for samples from songs typically found in "Mom Crates", okay now this is a bit tricky as its up open for interpretation; see YOUR mom's crates might be kinda deep; especially if what your parents played to you shaped your interest in music and the obvious stuff that would stand out to make beats from we aren't really looking for.

Typically your average "Mom crates" would have cheesy easy listening, light modern pop, 80's stuff, crooners that sorta thing, the cheesier the better although like we said its open for interpretation but really though we want you to get busy with the type of stuff your mom/parents would bump.

RULES
Ok so this week you have to make a beat utilizing samples from music youd find in your mom's record collection; if nothing springs to mind we're thinking the typical sort of stuff a mom would cop (pop/crooners,80's etc) try find some mom themed compilations for name checks!, obviously twisting your own sounds into your beat is allowed but the body has to come from whatever you've sampled..

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 14th November, get busy! as usual submit to homework@louisden.com

Homework 76 - Reggae Week

2010-11-01T17:44:00.003Z

Homework 76 - Reggae Week

This week you guys have to dig through your Reggae crates and flip a banger from em for Sundays session; If you actually want to turn in a Reggae flavoured beat then thats all good; but dont feel you have to all thats important is the source material, let the sample ride out at the start (or let us know what you sampled) so we can get a feel for the work you did, standard louisden rules apply and nothing more is required!

RULES
Create a Reggae themed beat or simply flip a beat making use of a Reggae sample/artist.

DEADLINE
Beats are due Sunday 7th November! session start 18:30 GMT at http://louisden.com/live, email entries to homework@louisden.com you know the deal by now!

good luck, looking forward to getting the beats!

Lab Session 75 - Louis Den Unplugged

2010-11-01T17:38:00.005Z

Props to all the chatroom heads and people who sent in beats for yesterdays session; we had a chilled one with Kos, Kelz and Myke Forte as we went through the entries for unplugged week, the idea being beats made without electrical instruments; some nice beats indeed check the stream below!.

Lab Session 75 - Louisden Unplugged

Remember if you miss the live streams you can always watch them back at http://louisden.com/live. New challenege up next!.

S-TYPE - TERRY NUTKINS (DOWNLOAD)

2010-10-28T13:00:00.005+01:00

I'm not going to front like I don't know this guy, because I do and let me tell you I have seen him cooking up something special in the lab over the last couple of months. Something similar to Frankenstein's monster, something akin to Norman Bates' mother in Psycho, basically you get the picture, he's been simmering up a monster.

Glasgow's S-Type is a regular here at Louis Den. He's been contributing to challenges for eons, performed twice at Louis Den Beat Cyphers and won the renowned Louis Den beatmaking league in 2008! Anyways, Glasgow blog/label Phuturelabs have snapped him up for the labels third release in only a matter of months! crazy.

So, to the details. S-Type's "Medusa" EP will be out on Wednesday 1st December for FREE download over at the Phuturelabs blog but until then... to whet y'alls appetites head over to XLR8R for the first exclusive from the EP and download it right nowwww!!

Let S-Type know what you think over at his tweets

For now, peace. AB

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Louis Den Beat Cypher 12 Spotlight - Pete Cannon

2010-10-20T15:01:00.005+01:00

Finally in what reads like one of the most informative spotlight joints I've done is the larger than life Pete Cannon!, Mr Dick (as a lot of us Den people still call him) was one of the first producers ever to lace the Beat Cypher; back when we had a tight venue and even tighter budget and ZERO rep, Pete was down to ride just for the experience..

Well it paid off seeing as 2 years we're still able to do it, come to think of it I'm pretty sure the only cypher pete has ever missed was one when he got stuck in a traffic Jam with Tactical Thinking (thats going back a year now) so despite hittin up almost every joint and providing plenty Open Beats and Bucks Fizz battle antics he's had a gang of placements and even a name change since his debut on the production showcase so it's about time Pete hit the cypher again!

1) Hey!! Please introduce yourself to everybody; let us know who you are what you do and how long you've been doing it!
Mate, my name is Pete, Pete Cannon, ladies like to call me Barry big spuds and guys like to call me their mate as. I have been a human for 20 odd years now and making music since I was 5, yeah I said it 5. Well technically I started playing the piano at 5 but I got my first synth which was a DX7 at the age of 11 from cash converters Blackpool for Christmas, Christmas stats.. Before going through puberty I was manipulating fm synthesis through the joy that is algorhythm. At this point I loved old skool hardcore, which was basically sped up hip hop breaks and samples and collected rave tapes on the regs.

So the next Christmas I blagged a set of dex and started record collecting big time. Buying every record that any crack head would sell in blackpool meant that the collection grew quickly and I was getting into collecting breaks by 15. At this time I rocked an Amiga with 8bit sampling and midi capabilities with a boss dr5 drum machine. Anyway everything developed over the years and after studying a B.T.E.C, H.N.D and a B.A degree in music production it just meant my obsession grew stronger to the point where all I do is speak about bloody music all day. Now days I collect synths and make wonk/hop/tech/step/drumcore/folk bass, on the real though I've got my 70s drum kit set up and planning on taking this no sample shit to the next level, making music that can evoke emotion. You'll see what I mean with some of the new shit that's coming out. I could go on for a million years but now I'm going to stop.

2) Was there a defining moment (event / hearing a record etc) that led you into making beats / becoming a producer?
Well, daddy Cannon used to play the Beatles to me all the blooming time when I was real young and tell you what he still does today. He tells me he gave me a record player when I was 4 or so for my room. It had 78rpm on it which plays normal records really fast as it was intended for 78 old records. He gave me a load of his old records and left them in my room, he said he came back to me playing Jimmy Hendrix on 78rpm so it was fast as fuck.

He told me "No peter, its not meant to be played at that speed" so he changed it back to 33. The min he went out of the room, I put it back to 78, from then he just let me play them all at 78 speed. The point is, it was in my mind to make horrible banging noise from a young age, these days I just try and make that same horrible banging noise with my beats, I rarely make smooth shiz. I just knew from then I loved this stuff and wanted to be involved with making music.

3) What was your first peice of equipment and what were those beats like? Any interesting stories about things were doing to begin with / finding your feet?
Yeah man, when I got the boss dr5 drum machine/sound module when I was 12, I linked it with midi to the DX7. The boss had 4 tracks on it, drums, bass, lead and extra. I could layer and record shit in little parts into its patterns.

I then figured you could put all the patterns together to make a sequence, that blew my mind. My dad also had a four track so I could layer dx7 sounds over the sequenced dr5, well that was it, I was off making tunes every min I could. Funny thing is, ive still got these tunes, they are shit but it was all so exciting finding shit out then. I mean when you first "clock" midi when your that young and no one has ever told you about it, it was like shit your pants good, "So that sound can be played on this keyboard but it records in there....boooom" Anyway I got the Amiga and then I could sample my records in 8 bit and separate its 4 channels into the 4 track. This all continued till I got a pc and learned Cubase 5 at college (the old one, yeah Jon the old one) which I still use today. From there I kept going and I suppose here I am.

4) Whats the one bit of advice youd give to anyone starting out today?
Wow its all a wee bit different now, ha ha that makes me sound old. The whole process of how we learn and advance has sped up with the introduction of the web, which I didn't have when I started so I guess I would just say to get obsessed with music. Learn about all aspects from instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, arrangement, recording techniques, engineering techniques, research the crap out your fav music and get into stripping tracks down to figure out how they made them. I don't want to preach as I know I'm always going to be learning, I guess I could say never be scared to experiment, people might not like what you first do but as long as you want to do it and progress with it, it will happen if you stick it out. If not just ring Sivey and ask him for his mastering settings
ahahahaha.

5) What can heads expect from you at LOUIS DEN BEAT CYPHER
A pissed northern boy who's surname should have been Pan. However I have been practicing my air producing in the mirror at night and with just a bit more practice, well, I may just be able to air produce the crap out of this next cypher BRAAAAAAAAAAP.

Follow @PeteCannonBeats on Twitter
Pete Cannon Youtube Exclusives
Jam Baxta | Stig Of The Dump

Pete Plays Synths Video

Rustie - Neko (Pete Cannon is half Scottish remix)

MC Northern - Summertime (Petes ldbb entry for 'Summertime Beats' homework)