The popularity of mashups have been quickly dying off since 2012, mostly due to major label pressures on SoundCloud and other music services. I miss ’em, so I finally decided to put together a list of my most favorite ones.
I split mashups into two categories. The first takes samples from many pop songs all compiled into one. The first few on our playlist are good examples. The other is a vocal track mixed in with an instrumental. It might not have as many moving parts as the other, but I bet it’s just as difficult to make it sound right, if not more. Putting two sounds together and making them sound like one is hard for any producer, let alone one working with sounds people are so familiar with.
Judge for yourself, but it’s important to keep in mind that mashups are for fun and don’t always sound the most polished.
Each year we put together a playlist of our favorites that are performing at Outside Lands, but we got bored of that this year. So we decided on putting together a bunch of Kanye mashups & remixes instead, ’cause Kanye would want it that way. Except them being remixes maybe.
A little disclaimer. For the most part, don’t take these too seriously, especially the first one. Some of the tracks even fall outta sync at times, but each has their moment.
Just prepare yourself with these “unofficial Kanye collaborations” and hope he debuts his official one with Disclosure this Friday at OSL. It could happen. It should happen.
#3 is the best, by the way.
I miss hip hop. I can’t believe how little I’ve posted of it this year, but it’s not for a lack of listening. And actually more of a surplus in other soulful styles.
Electro music has stirred up disco, funk and R&B’s past. And as many of you may well be aware, I’m obsessed with the trio. Unfortunately, hip hop & electro haven’t blossomed together to what they will one day. In the meantime, leave it to the mashup & remix artists to bring back our attention to hip hop for a bit.
The Hood Internet has been mashing up my favorite hip hop artists for a while now, many good ones, and now they’ve introduced me to two more. Hood took Gunplay and Isaiah Toothtaker in Blue Sky Black Death’s ‘Frown’ and plopped ’em into Sasac’s funky ‘All Pleasure’ original. And as much as I love that funkyass beat on top, Blue Sky Black Death’s dark remix sets a mood just as well, albeit the opposite.
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I remember telling a friend of mine that Daft Punk’s SNL sample was better than most music. Unfortunately, it’s also better than the final version of ‘Get Lucky.’ It’s not that the final with Pharrell on vocals is all that bad, even though I hear far too many criticize it to be, it’s just the sample outweighs the master and far better represents Daft Punk’s mystique & image.
The biggest issue on ‘Get Lucky’ goes to Pharrell. As much as I love the catch in his chorus, his intro (and really everything but the chorus) is outright amateur sounding. I usually criticize a song for not getting to the good stuff fast enough, but this should’ve road the beat out a bit longer, it deserves the solo time. In fact, that Nile Rodgers’ guitar strum is the only thing that’ll be remembered in the long run. Take a look at a few examples of this amazing sample in use and wait for more things to come from this simple guitar strum.
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Love reviving those 90’s female vocals and TLC has got to be the cream of the crop. But when I saw Michael McDonald was mashed in here, that’s when I fell hard. The problem is that McD wasn’t placed all that well in here and didn’t get his fair share of play time. I do love how they included him, though – not enough of mashers are going back to the soulful 70’s.
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Sometimes this flows oh.so.well and others it feels off like mashups tend to (at times). But what I love about it is its new feel to Fabolous & Nate Dogg. If you’re gonna mashup popular hip-hop, put something different in any way possible.
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Just put up Xaphoon’s remix of “Marvin & Chardonnay” and now we get a mashup from The Hood Internet with instrumentals borrowed from Wolfgang Gartner’s “The Way It Was.” I can’t quite say which I like better yet, but damn does each have a sick beat to back up Sean & Kanye. Which one do you like better
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Hearing Das Racist’s flow for the first time a few months back, I really enjoyed their free form style. It reminds me of the drunk fist kung fu fighter, Brad Wong, on Dead or Alive 3 – basically, a loose, free flowing style. Almost every beat of theirs I run across fits their flow quite well, but in one of their latest tracks, “Hahahaha jk”, that feeling wasn’t quite there.
When I heard The Hood Internet’s mashed up version with The Cult’s “Go Outside”, I thought it was a much better fit. The Cult’s backup vocals & instrumentals give Das Racist’s original a laid back vibe more fitting to their loose lip style. It still may not be my favorite Das Racist track, but this mashup is an interesting collision of genres […]
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C.R.E.A.M may not have been the most original track to mash, but Javelin’s “Intervales Theme” is one fun beat for the Wu Tang flow. It sure can’t beat the original, but I love hearing a new vibe to a long loved classic.
Have fun with this and make sure to check out more Hood Internet’s work, they’ve whipped up some other fine mashes.
[audio:CREAM-Theme.mp3|titles=C.R.E.A.M Theme](Download Link in Full Article)