Elite – iStandard Interview (Video)

I recently sat down with Istandardproducers.com and shared a bit of my story, it came out really dope so check it out! Also spoke about how I made "Heartache" for J. Cole

The Groundwork (Mixtape)

DOWNLOAD

My goal with this project is to connect all the work I have done up until this point, so that those who are unfamiliar can get acquainted with my sound. For those of you who are familiar, I think you will really enjoy these Instrumentals. I didn't just mute the vocals, in some cases i completely remixed and rearranged the beats to give the listener a more dynamic experience.

Playground is one of my favorites, me and Cole recorded that during the early stages of "The Warm Up" but it didn't fit in with the final track listing. It's a great song though, and I'm happy to finally let you all hear it!

Holy Omen was featured on Omen's "Delayed" mixtape sampler, but it's my first real appearance on the mic, so I wanted to share it on this project as well. Expect a lot more of this in the future, and on my next mixtape (currently in progress) entitled "Elite That's Me".

I also decided to finally release The Original Version of Shootouts. Now you can hear for your self how I removed the sample and completely reworked the beat!

Enjoy!

EDIT:

Yesterday I forgot to include BLAQOUT DESIGN (cover design), BY ANY MEANS (art direction) and REDIFINE BOUTIQUE (back cover illustration)

They all showed mad love please check them out, extreme talent all 3!!!

Tha Bizness - Behind The Beats: "My President"

Henny & my boy Dow Jones take us behind the beat for the making of Young Jeezy’s My President [is Black] instrumental. Tha Bizness!

J. Cole working with ELITE!!!!! In the lab footage...

What you've all been waiting for!!!! Or maybe just what I've been waiting for!! LOL

Either way, this shit came out so ridiculous its not even fair man... Me and J. Cole been workin together for a while now, we got this other joint "Playground" that will be on "The Warm Up" which is insane. But this shit we not sure yet.

Makin this beat (which you can't hear the whole-breakdown-crazyness of it in the video) has been the start of a hot-streak for me that I haven't been able to pull off in years. My work ethic is crazy right now, not a single day goes by without working long hours on music and it feels good as hell. Not forced, not work. I'm genuinely enjoying myself man its a beautiful thing. I gotta credit J. Cole & our whole Dreamville team (shout out to my man Ib on the video again!!!) for the ill vibe/creative inspiration.

The music being made feels better than anything I've ever worked on and I'm truly inspired and excited!!! Oh, and a huge announcement coming soon regarding J. Cole.. Prolly in the next month or 2.. Maybe sooner... SO STAY TUNED!!!!

First up is J. recording to the classic "shook ones" beat for the new mixtape... Then we go into my joint... Part 2 of this video coming soon

J. Cole in studio with Syience (Video)

Been a while since I posted, but that's a good thing I guess! Been real busy on a tear with the beats lately.. And in the studio constantly with the Dreamville team. Here's a video from a few nights ago in the lab with Platinum Producer Syience (Jay-Z, Beyonce, Ne-Yo). This joint came out crazy! Shout out to Syience, real sick producer and did you see what he was doin with the keyboard here??? He playin a drum kit like a real drummer... On the KEYBOARD.. Usin all 10 fingers at the same time! God damn!

Much much more coming soon... Including the new J. Cole PRODUCED BY ELITE.......... We warmin up over here...........


J. Cole Studio Session W/ Syience from theworld on Vimeo.

Video: Alchemist Making a Beat

A look at Alchemist Inspiring ME to go make a beat... This looks like fun :P

Just Blaze: How to Chop Samples in Logic

Damn, I wish they made this program for PC. Everyone says it's amazing!


Just Blaze: How to chop samples in Logic

This man is a GENIUS

No, seriously. Holly shit.

I always thought Ryan Leslie was a great artist, but last night @ the lab J. Cole and his man Ib put me on to his Youtube Video channel .... I've never been so inspired in my life!!!!

The way this guy creates is absolutely awe inspiring, I just can't believe it. He plays damn near every instrument, and his creative process seems so natural and organic (could be somewhat due to the great video editing) but godamn it almost makes you feel like it just aint fair!!!! "Addiction" is one of my fav beats of the past 5 years and here is the video of him creating it:



So much more interesting and entertaining than most producer in the lab footage.

This right here is just insane I mean do you hear those synths that come and the break down around 50 seconds in this is some Stevie Wonder type shit man absolutely genius. Real music. Out of control.



smh...... Back to the lab I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am retarded.

Wow do I feel like an idiot.

Ok so I've been doing some music theory studying, and today I decided to really go deep into it and take a step towards learning my proper scales, chords, etc. Making up a few charts, finding out the names to those chords i've always liked but never known what the hell they were... Stuff like that.

So i find this program that lets you play a chord through midi, then tells you what chord your playing. Nice! Good way to learn!

As I'm playing I start to notice something... The keys that are lighting up are not the keys I'm playing! What's going on here? I start to do some investigating.. And come to find that my keyboard is (and always has been) transposed two notes...................

Now for those of you that don't understand what that means: Basically my WHOLE LIFE I've been playing on this very keyboard, learning, self-teaching, building habits, figuring out what notes i like, what combinations do what etc.... What this means is the keyboard i've been doing it on is different than every other keyboard/piano in the WORLD. A C note on my keyboard is a G flat on a normal piano. This is absoultely insane.

No wonder every time I sit down at a real grand piano it feels and sounds totally DIFFERENT.

So basically, I learned to play piano (and make beats with) a retarded keyboard. Now the question is do i re-learn the right way or just stick with what I'm used to? The good news is with my keyboard properly calibrated certain things seem to make more sense. It's almost like a new toy, a whole new instrument. That's how different it is! It's kind of exciting. So for now I'm going to keep it the way it's supposed to be.

I don't understand how I've gone all these years not realizing this. And by the way, I'm positive that it's been like this for YEARS. It's not a new thing that happened recently. I won't go into how I know this(too long) but just trust me..........I really am THAT retarded. :)

The Production Game in 2008 (Interview)

I snatched this from my boy Maestro over at Searching 4 the Perfect Beat. He has a dope blog make sure you check it out.

Basically its an interview with a panal of all of todays hottest producers: Danja Handz, JR Rotem and more. Really worth checking out.

Rhapsody Roundtable: The Production Game in 2008

by Toshitaka Kondo and Chris Ryan

Where is the music production game headed? The recording industry's assorted crises and upheavals have undoubtedly affected the careers of many artists, and the musicians working behind the scenes have felt the changes too. Shrinking budgets! Technological breakthroughs! The increasing perception of music as a commodity! Producers have had to adapt to the times, dealing with some issues as old as the business, and others that have no precedents. And what exactly do these times look like? Rhapsody interviewed some of the most accomplished hip-hop, pop and R&B producers working in 2008 to get their take on these developments. The result: a state of the musical union, from behind the boards.

Participants:

Nathaniel “Danja” Hills (Virginia Beach, Virginia)
Produced: T.I., “No Matter What,” Nelly Furtado, “Promiscuous,” Britney Spears, “Gimme More,” DJ Khaled, “We Takin’ Over”

Christopher “Tricky” Stewart (Markham, Illinois)
Produced: Jesse McCartney, “Leavin,” Mariah Carey, “Touch My Body,” Rihanna, “Umbrella,” The-Dream, “I Luv Your Girl”

Jonathan Reuven “J.R.” Rotem (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Produced: Plies, “Bust It Baby Pt. 2,” Sean Kingston, “Beautiful Girls,” Rihanna “SOS,” Rick Ross, “The Boss”

Aldrin “DJ Toomp” Davis (Atlanta, Georgia)
Produced: Kanye West, “Good Life,” Jay-Z “Say Hello,” T.I., “What You Know,” T.I., “U Don’t Know Me”

J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League (Kenneth "Kenny" Bartolomei, Erik “Rook” Ortiz, Kevin “Colione” Crowe) (Tampa, Florida)
Produced: 2 Pistols, “She Got It,” Rick Ross “Maybach Music,” Young Jeezy, “Bury Me A G,” Mary J. Blige, “No One Will Do”

Grind Music (Sean “Sean C” Cane and Levar “LV” Coppin) (Harlem, New York)
Produced: Busta Rhymes, “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water on 'Em),” Jay-Z, “Roc Boys (The Winner Is...),” Fat Joe, “I Won’t Tell,” Ghostface, “We Celebrate”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW

Scott Storch: A lesson to be learned for Producers

I always had this feeling from reading/hearing about Scott Storch's unbelievably extravagant lifestyle that he had to be in at least a little over his head. I know the kind of money producers can make when they are bangin out hits, but at the same time I have also witnessed artists and producers squander their money so quickly that you would think they never had anything at all. It's a tricky game, trying to live up to the "MTV Hip-Hop" image while still taking care of your finances. Personally I have always taken the far right approach (Never bought any ice, no fancy car, jus savin for a crib) But that can hurt you as well. You want to appear and feel successful to keep fueling your career, but at the same time you want to have a long term plan for stability. I think all up and coming artists and producers can really learn something from this story as it seems that Scott really went a bit too far with his money. From one producer to another producer, I sincerely hope everything works out for him and we hear more of his music on the radio very soon cuz i was always a fan!

Via Hiphopgame

MIAMI -- Just a few years ago, Scott Storch was one of the top producers in pop music, living in a $10.5 million mansion on an exclusive Miami island, driving a phalanx of luxury cars and dating the likes of Paris Hilton and Lil Kim.

Nowadays, Scott Storch, 34, is missing in action. He owes over $500,000 in real estate taxes and had a warrant out for his arrest when he failed to show up in court in a child-support case last month. He has not had a top 10 hit in three years. He still has his waterfront marble mansion, but his lawyer, Guy Spiegelman, says Storch is attempting to refinance it after a "catastrophic occurrence this year" resulting from "mismanagement." Storch no longer works with his old manager or publicist. He hasn't talked to either of his children in months.

Replete with tragic details and bad behavior, the ballad of Scott Storch may be the swan song of the bling era, a riches-to-rags tale of excess, poor decisions and a hobbled music industry.

Born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and raised in South Florida and the Philadelphia area, Storch is a high-school dropout from a broken, middle-class family who turned serious musician chops and intense ambition into a high-flying career. Vanessa Bellido met him when they were both in high school and he was a talented keyboardist.

"He always knew what he wanted to be," she says. "He would play the piano unbelievably. He was like, 'I'm going to make it, I'm going to make it.' Even at 15 he was an old soul. Real smart, real different."

While still a teen, Storch was a founding member of the Roots. He produced their breakthrough single "You Got Me," which helped Philly's acclaimed live hip-hop band win a Grammy, and gave the sandy-haired Jewish producer serious hip-hop credentials. Deciding he preferred studios to touring, Storch moved to Los Angeles to work with Dr. Dre. There his keyboard loops helped form the basis of such hits as "Still D.R.E." He produced seven tracks on Christina Aguilera's "Stripped" album, including "Can't Hold Us Down," which featured Lil Kim.

Storch decided to return to his Florida roots to, as he has said, build his empire. Beginning in 2003, the hits rolled in: Beyonce's "Naughty Girl," Terror Squad's "Lean Back," 50 Cent's "Candy Shop," and Chris Brown's "Run It."

Storch had the quintessential producer's talent for coaxing career-making performances out of both veteran and new artists.

"When we created that 'Baby Boy' record, Sean had only worked with Jamaican producers," says Atlantic Records chairman and CEO Craig Kallman, referring to the 2003 single by Sean Paul and Beyonce that Storch produced and that helped to make Paul an American recording star. "Scott was able to adapt himself to the sound of Jamaica but also to contemporary R&B and hip-hop. He was able to straddle both lines."

And yet there are similarities in many of Storch's records: sinuous keyboard riffs that reveal Storch's interest in Middle Eastern melodies coupled with thumping, staccato beats. In 2004, everyone wanted the Storch sound, and he reportedly commanded $100,000 per beat. An extensive Rolling Stone profile called him "hip-hop's Liberace" and said he had earned $70 million.

"The people who have always been on top of the production game - Timbaland, Neptunes, Swizz Beatz, Scott Storch - they all had their own sound," says the Miami-based producer Infamous, whose own recent work on the Lil Wayne and Jay-Z track "Mr. Carter" has made him the producer of the moment. "When their one record took off, everybody wanted a record that sounded like that."

Fame brought added responsibilities: In 2004, Storch reunited with the child he had fathered 12 years earlier with Bellido. He moved Bellido and their son Steven to South Florida: Bellido calls it "one of the happiest times in our lives."

Three years later, the producer began paying for another son, the now 2-year-old Jalen Daniel. Bellido and Jason Setchen, the lawyer for Jalen's mother, Dalene Jennifer Daniel, both say Storch was inconsistent but not a deadbeat dad. "Once able to get his attention, he stepped up to the plate and did the right thing across the board," says Setchen.

Other producers were as hot as Storch in 2003 to 2005. But dating movie stars and heiresses, and conspicuously consuming, Storch flaunted his multimillionaire status like a hip-hop Gatsby. Many say the fame went to his head. He had a public flare-up with Aguilera over the cost of a private jet to fly him out to produce her '06 album "Back to Basics." He also traded insults with fellow hitmaker Timbaland, who called Storch "just the piano man" in one track.

Storch's career had some serious stumbles: He was supposed to help his then-girlfriend Paris Hilton become a music star, but he said his songs for her were deemed too sexual and not released as singles. He signed reality TV show star Brooke Hogan to his Storch Music Company label and produced eight of 12 tracks on her album "Undiscovered," but the record flopped.

Storch has continued to work with top-name artists, including producing tracks on recent albums by Mariah Carey and Fat Joe. But he has not been able to crack Billboard's Top 10 since 2005.

Storch has paid neither his 2006 nor 2007 real estate taxes. At the start of this year, he stopped paying child support for both his kids and fell into several months of arrears before being sued by both mothers in separate cases.

It's unclear just why Storch fell so far so fast. (The producer did not return repeated requests for an interview.) "There was some mismanagement and some other errors. He got jammed," Spiegelman, his lawyer in the child support cases, says. "I don't think he's going down, I just think he's having difficulty. It's a cash flow problem."

But both outside observers and people who know Storch see other factors at play besides mismanagement. When Storch has been sighted recently in public, he has looked gaunt and unhealthy. The producer was a flamboyant smoker of marijuana; in 2004, he was fined for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.

"If he's got managers and accountants and various investors looking out for his interests, it would be hard not to notice that money wasn't coming through," says Debbi Gibbs, president of Just Managing, a company that manages producers.

Career-wise, Storch may be a victim of his own success. The public is known to grow tired of the same old sound. "Most producers outside of a small number who focus on trying to be hit makers try to focus on new creative collaboration with whatever artists they're working on," says Gibbs. "That's when that magic happens and hits you didn't see coming come. Anyone who tries to create a hit formula is doomed to very short term success given the fast pace of musical taste."

But Storch built his name on numbers as much as on skills. He may not have adapted to the changing economy and the downsized music industry.

"Costs have come down because it's an absolute necessity. We're certainly not able to spend beyond what our budgets are for making records," said Kallman. "If a producer's out of our price range, we've gotta move to another producer. There's always new people." The executive says Storch has not produced any recent Atlantic tracks but that they have "been talking."

Storch seems also not to have saved for a rainy day - a fatal mistake in pop music. "There's no 401k plan in the music industry," says Infamous. "You can't be stupid and just throw your money away."

Those who have worked with Storch and those who have only heard his music think he can have a comeback. Infamous theorizes Storch may be purposely cooling things down in order to come out strong with something new: "Scott is definitely talented enough to say all right, it's time for a new Scott. His track record alone speaks volumes."

The producer has left a trail of debt and bad feelings behind him. The big spender developed a reputation for arrogance; many see his failure to care for his offspring, while still tooling around in a Ferrari, as particularly reprehensible. Yet the people who have personal reasons to hate the player don't.

"Scott's not a bad person," says Bellido. "I know he loves his son. He's been irresponsible."

Storch hasn't shown up for his court cases, but his lawyer has said he will meet his financial obligations. He paid the money he owed Daniel and the arrest warrant was vacated. "I'd like to see him do the right thing so we can move on," Setchen says.

Bellido sees Storch's lifelong materialism as his Shakespearean flaw. His identity is so wrapped up in his riches, she fears, that he is ashamed to appear publicly and clean up his mess.

"I think he's embarrassed," Bellido says. "I don't think he's going to be right until he has his money."

Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/776/story/607666.html

Gear - Open Labs NeKo & MiKo

Producers, you may now begin to drool.

This is my dream machine, haven't copped one yet but its next in line on my wish list.

If you haven't heard of this yet, basically its the very first ALL IN ONE beat machine that truly IS all in ONE.

You can run any PC based software with this monster, that means it IS a computer... It doesn't emulate computer power like the MPC4000 with some bullshit operating system. You actually run windows with this bad boy. Not to mention it comes with HUGE sound libraries including tuns of basic hip-hop synths in entirety valued at over $50,000 if the keyboards were purchased individually. Here is a list of the sounds you would start out with(click here it for a sample):

- E-MU™ Proteus™ 2000
- E-MU™ Mo’Phatt™ (available on LX only)
- E-MU™ Modular System™
Hear it - ARP™ 2600™
Hear it - ARP™ Axxe™
Hear it - Roland™ JD800™
Hear it - Roland™ Jupiter 8™
Hear it - Roland™ JX-8P™
Hear it - Roland™ TB-303 Bass Line™
- Roland™ Juno 60™
Hear it - Moog™ Memorymoog™
Hear it - Mini™ Moog™
- Moog™ Taurus Pedals™
Hear it - Sequential Circuits™ Prophet 10™
Hear it - Sequential Circuits™ Prophet 600™
Hear it - Elka™ Rhapsody™
Hear it - Mellotron™ Mark II™
Hear it - Korg™ MS20™
Hear it - Solina™
Hear it - Oberheim™ OB™ & X™
Hear it - Hammond™ B3™
Hear it - Rhodes™ Electric Piano™
Hear it - Hohner™ Clavinet™
Hear it - Yamaha™ CP-70™
Hear it - Wurlitzer™ Electric Piano™

here is a basic overview of the Neko by Open Labs



there is also a portable version called the MIKO here are both pictured below



The Miko runs for around $3,500 and the Neko for $4,800

Check out Polo Da Don(Producer) speak about the Neko here



Timbaland also uses it

Melodyne - Direct Note Access (Amazing)

A friend of mine recently put me onto this and I think it's going to change the way music is made forever. Basically, have you ever wanted to sample something but there's just one chord that you wish was different? Or how about just taking the vocals completely out of a song and just sampling the bassline. I think it's the most frequently asked question by amature beatmakers who are just starting to mess with the idea of sampling. "how can i take the vocals out of a song?". Of course, this is not only impossible.. but seemed like it would never be possible. Until Now.



Melodyne Direct Note Access allows you to literally CHANGE ANY note that is being played in a song, not only the pitch but the TIMING within the audio file as well. To put it simply, you can now edit an AUDIO FILE the same way you can edit a MIDI file. If your a producer or engineer you understand how mind blowing that is.


This really takes sampling to a whole nother level. It will be a HELL of a lot easier to get around clearing samples too because now you can totally rearrange the composition of a melody therefor making it your own. I believe there would still be some legal issues involved in using the master recording(the sounds) but if you change it enough people will never know.

Melodyne comes out Fall 2008 and I'm already lining up a stack of records that i have always wanted to be able to change if only I had magic powers (or now, Melodyne).