January 27, 2004

10:27 AM

Little Brother!Seven free mp3's from a very exciting hip hop group out of North Carolina. ?uestlove from The Roots says he's jealous of just how good they sound. I know that some of you will appreciate this.
posted by Slimemonster (24 comments total)

(That's ?uestlove as opposed to Q uestlove of course.)

Excuse the weak drums, 9th Wonder (the producer), did all these beats with Fruity Loops! Once he gets some real studio equipment, he will be unstoppable.

btw, check out "Nic's Groove" and "Speed" in particular.
posted by Slimemonster at 10:31 AM on January 27, 2004

This is great stuff! Thanks!
posted by Quartermass at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2004

nice
posted by badstone at 11:10 AM on January 27, 2004

I liked it, but what I liked even more was the fact that it was available direct and for free to the public. Bands like this make me want to send them my money. I feel much better knowing the money is going directly to the artists.
posted by PigAlien at 12:03 PM on January 27, 2004

Exactly what PigAlien said. Any band just starting out should be setting up their own sales on site so that fans can directly support the bands without fat cat music execs taking their (large) cut first.

I'm looking forward to getting home and downloading the music!
posted by fenriq at 12:18 PM on January 27, 2004

FruityLoops not real studio equipment?? What top40/hip-hop stations are you listening to? It's all over the place. Never blame the tools! You can do more with FL than you could with a rack full of samplers and four MPCs.
posted by neustile at 12:40 PM on January 27, 2004

Wow, nice. Thanks for the linky Slimemonster. I especially like the intro to Whatever You Say.
posted by lpqboy at 12:56 PM on January 27, 2004

Great stuff. Thanks.
posted by carter at 1:35 PM on January 27, 2004

FruityLoops not real studio equipment?? What top40/hip-hop stations are you listening to? It's all over the place. Never blame the tools! You can do more with FL than you could with a rack full of samplers and four MPCs.

I'm no producer but I've personally never heard anything done with FL that doesn't have those boring ass drums. If you could tell me about something that doesn't, I'd be happy as hell to be wrong!
posted by Slimemonster at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2004

FruityLoops not real studio equipment?? What top40/hip-hop stations are you listening to? It's all over the place. Never blame the tools! You can do more with FL than you could with a rack full of samplers and four MPCs.
posted by neustile at 12:40 PM PST on January 27

Except, you know, 3/4.
posted by jon_kill at 1:58 PM on January 27, 2004

Jimi Hendrix would still be a better guitar player on a garage sale axe with no amp compared to JoeBlow on a $1500 guitar with triple halfstacks.

Someone should let the Apple dorks in on this one too.
posted by Satapher at 2:00 PM on January 27, 2004

and how would you know if a good song was made with Fruity Loops or not? -- if it sounded good your quick to react mind would automatically disregard FL as a possibility and probably hand it over to -- what? pro tools? rack gear?
posted by Satapher at 2:02 PM on January 27, 2004

FL is at its heart a sampler, just like anything else. You don't have to use the presets; you can load in any sounds you want, including studio-recorded drums. You'd be very surprised at how many "real musicians" use it to make non-boring music. {you can see I have a peeve about musicians who blame 'cheap' tools that go far and beyond what any rich famous musician had in the mid 90s, for example.}
posted by neustile at 2:09 PM on January 27, 2004

what about 1965!?
posted by Satapher at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2004

I'll repeat myself: I'm no producer but I've personally never heard anything done with FL that doesn't have those boring ass drums. If you could tell me about something that doesn't, I'd be happy as hell to be wrong!

Regardless of all that, 9th Wonder makes good music.
posted by Slimemonster at 2:50 PM on January 27, 2004

got turned on to these guys through nathan rabin's perceptive avclub review. "for you" is the best.

once again what you're hearing now / is phonte's power steering style / i'm killing n****s at will / free-style legend that capture the ears of show veterans / when the stakes got raised like braille lettering / down to the exact scale measurements / time to let these motherfuckers know exactly what it is I represent / real rhymes, you prone to remember me / I roam like a cell phone in Italy, in search of the real shit
posted by jcruelty at 3:03 PM on January 27, 2004

"for you" is my favorite too, but you missed my favorite lines:

cornball n****s throw your maize up / Microsoft n****s say Word and Page Up / to this new style that's 'bout to open doors...

and

Making the crowd cheer massively / I tell n****s y'all ain't wack / y'all just sound wack rhyming after me / Cause I'm the most magnificent / life is a blessing and I'm living it /for better worse or indifferent

i'd definitely recommend their whole album, not just the free songs.
posted by rorycberger at 4:01 PM on January 27, 2004

I'll repeat myself: I'm no producer but I've personally never heard anything done with FL that doesn't have those boring ass drums.

Cough cough. I don't know if you'll find what I do with Fruity Loops interesting or not, but I use it for about half the music I make, and I can't really see any way not to use it in cool ways. I've seen few other pieces of software that offer such flexibility and freedom in the sorts of sounds you use, and how you use them. It might be tempting to just use it as a drum machine with the built in sample packs for some, but to suggest that's all it can do...geez...it's not bloody Rebirth!
posted by Jimbob at 4:59 PM on January 27, 2004

[ this is sweet ]
posted by elphTeq at 6:39 PM on January 27, 2004

FruityLoops is a SAMPLER/SEQUENCER, not something that makes "weak ass drum" sounds. It makes whatever sounds you load into it. Shit in, shit out. You could put weak ass dum sounds in a $5000 MPC and it would sound just as shitty.

Good fruityloops music 1

Good fruityloops music 2
posted by afx114 at 6:43 PM on January 27, 2004

this is great. thanks a lot.
posted by joedan at 7:26 PM on January 27, 2004

streetteamer.
?uest just wants kickbacks.
posted by the aloha at 6:12 AM on January 28, 2004

[this is good]
posted by fuzz at 6:40 PM on January 28, 2004

Does "n****s" mean "niggas"?

Little Brother is great. I also discovered The Lifesavas around the same time and was blown away. They're released on Quannum, which is Blackalicious' label.
posted by botono9 at 7:57 PM on January 28, 2004