Should you stick to one style of hiphop to improve your sound?

[TheMost]

I use samples, write my own stuff. I admire different styel of productions from Dj quik to Battlecat to Dr DRe to guys like Jazze Pha to Just blaze, Premier, Hav, 9th wonder.

Some beats come easier for me to make and soemtimes i end up doing beats that musicly if i heard say Nas rap on it it ouwlnt be my kind of beat but hey it came uot so i ran with it

 

[open mind]

perfection never comes. getting really really good at something does, but that comes over time. sure, isolating yourself to one style may help, but then you'd lose your skills in other areas. i think having breathing room enables more creativity in every style. i dunno.

i've been composing mostly, lately, but i do get a sample out once in a while. what really helps with composing is just playing the piano a whole lot. what helps with sampling for me is listening to other music.

that makes sense.thanks

 

[Mantas]

look at alchemist (or primo). is he composin? no. is he doin d. south or party or club or whatever? no. is he the master of sampling? yes. thats what makes him great. hes stuck with one formula.

i THINK its the best way. just my humble opinion.

 

[Ash Holmz]

look at alchemist (or primo). is he composin? no. is he doin d. south or party or club or whatever? no. is he the master of sampling? yes. thats what makes him great. hes stuck with one formula.

i THINK its the best way. just my humble opinion.

sticking to one sound is ok .. as long as its YOUR sound ... i wouldnt recommend only chopping samples because thats what primo and alchmeist do ... the most verstaile producers in the game imo is polow da don hands down... composed, sampled, east, west, r&b,pop , whatever.. he does it well .. good music is good music... hot polka is better than shitty hip hop... personally id rather listen to a whitney houston greatest hits album than a def jux complitation album... and id rather listen to a pink floyd album than a lil jon record... i say dont get caught up on styles too much .. just make the music that u like... whatver u do never FORCE it .. thats the key .. i say dont limit urself but at the same time dont Force urself to sound a certain way.

 

[kaivai]

i think having your own signature sound isnt necessarily the sub-genre of what you create but how you create it, dr dre has his 'sound' cos thats how he does it, and you can note that he stacks reverbs and eqs his drums like crazy, what do you do with music to make it sound unique?

or you can be really technical and say, what isnt out there that needs to be? lil jon filled that gap between techno and hip-hop MUSICALLY not stylistically but MUSICALLY and now thats his sound, when you see produced by lil jon in the liner notes you dont expect boom bap you expect BOOOOOOOOOOOM CLAPPP,

take your current sound, look at the similarities musically and in the mix give that shit a name and you have your sound

for instance, say you primarily use keys in different forms rhodes, wurly, baby grand, grand, casio keyboard etc and you stack the sound on top of each other you can call that shit KEYSTACK, or K-Stack or GreyBlob or PianoSandwich

just an example

 

[RigorMortis]

dont be hatin on def jux, they got some sick compositions you might not like em, but hell it beats most things out there.

and yeah to answer the question, stick to one style if you got an anti-boredom weapon of some sort, or you dont even care about music, i cant imagine just making one type of thing. off course most producers got their own flavour, but hell just one style. thats like going into the k1 just boxing you prolly get your legs kicked out in your first match.

 

[Hi-Lo]

sticking to one sound is ok .. as long as its YOUR sound ... i wouldnt recommend only chopping samples because thats what primo and alchmeist do ... the most verstaile producers in the game imo is polow da don hands down... composed, sampled, east, west, r&b,pop , whatever.. he does it well .. good music is good music... hot polka is better than shitty hip hop... personally id rather listen to a whitney houston greatest hits album than a def jux complitation album... and id rather listen to a pink floyd album than a lil jon record... i say dont get caught up on styles too much .. just make the music that u like... whatver u do never FORCE it .. thats the key .. i say dont limit urself but at the same time dont Force urself to sound a certain way.

ash when i move back to new york we gotta get down on some tracks lol, this is exactly how i feel. i listen to everything...mostly rap and r&b but i love house, pink floyd, jazz, classical, even some really off the wall shi*. i think what holds so many producers back is they sit in the lab saying ah nah i can't use that synth, its too house, its too whatever, or i cant use those drums, its not "hip hop" etc.. i love when people tell me a beat isn't hip hop cause it tells me im doing something right, cause if you stay in the same box every beat, you never get past a certain level. so open i think you should do whatever comes to you in the studio as long as its hot and don't listen to what anyone else says...you look at someone like timbaland, he proves you can put absolutely anything (babies crying and animals- was that hip hop before him?) on a track and as long as its hot people will accept it.

 

[mikemat]

personally I think you have to be able to compose to make a decent beat. even if its mostly sampled you still use basic composition knowledge to add drums and bass and whatever else you put into it. I do pretty much only compositions nowadays, it just has more benefits imo as far as not having to clear samples and improving my piano skills. I also think its more satisfying to have a beat you made that nobody can say "oh well he just remade that other song its not really his".

I know you want a definite answer but the truth is nobody should limit themselves. You improve by making beats yes but once you make enough beats you should be able to work with whatever you want and get to the point where YOU make the music and the music doesn't make you. By that I mean you have the song in your head before you even drop the track instead of just throwing stuff on there randomly.