Riots in the street...

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Dusty B

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 37
... it's a story! Well, what I imagine anyways. I could see a rapper really going nuts on this to push a message, tell a story, or just rap about all the chaos we're living through.

Let me know what you think, if it's too much or not. "Riots in the Street" (make sure to stick around for the ending!)

 
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Dusty B

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 37
Really like this mate but would say its a remix of the original its very close to it
Thanks man!

Yeah, I tweaked the levels a bit to make room for the hip-hop drums (i.e. reduced the OG bass, some low pass on the chop I used for the low end, and band pass on the guitar loop). For the vocals, I chopped the "riots" line from the OG track to create a hook. I really only added a little bit of distortion to keep the vibe consistent with the rest of the track. And then the intro/bridge minimal synth is almost untouched loop (expect for what went on the master bus). Took me a while to get a rhytm going since the OG track follows more of a classical song arrangement vs. pop, and it also has some of that high pitch percussion that I couldn't filter away without losing the guitar, so ended up having to simplify the drum pattern a lot and tried having the hip-hop hi-hats be the main driver of the rythm to allow for a rapper to get going. Then of course the Sound FX and Led Zeppelin drum break at the end to keep with the vibe of my spin. Took a while to blend it all together so I'm glad you liked it!
 

Ys Man

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 21
Yeah i like both to be honest i just dont think there is a hope in hell they would clear this to be used
 

Dusty B

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 37
Yeah i like both to be honest i just dont think there is a hope in hell they would clear this to be used
oh, yeah def. or I'm guessing you'd have to pay a lot to clear, or have whatever label deal with any lawsuits that come up if they decide to just use it uncleared on a for-profit release. likely a beat for non-monetization promo/non-profit use only or a free mixtape. I'm honestly not sure how that all works. My view is that if I ever have to worry about that stuff it means I'm doing something right since a lot of people are listening haha (and at that point let the lawyers deal with it lol).
 

Ys Man

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 21
Im not sure that kind of mixtape even exists anymore as everyone streams and gets paid in some way, they would just wait and if it blew they would hit you for 100% royalties and enjoy any extra fanbase they get, ask Fabulous and Just Blaze about that
 
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Im not sure that kind of mixtape even exists anymore as everyone streams and gets paid in some way, they would just wait and if it blew they would hit you for 100% royalties and enjoys any extra fanbase they get, ask Fabulous and Just Blaze about that
If a lawyer can argue in court that the only reason your album sold is because of the sampled single, they can take the profits from the whole album.
 

Dusty B

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 37
Even if you just sample one snare. They can take a 100 %. There is no fair use for sampling. Even a good lawyer can't change the law.
Fair points. I guess the way I look at is that every legal outcome is a representation of how the people making the decision and those making a case for/against interpreted the situation. The legal and regulatory landscape is very subjective, for better or for worse. That's why lawyers are expensive, and good one's are really expensive. If it were black and white, the industry and system would have already been taken over by AI and tech. I'm sure with enough creativity, one could can make a case that the snare is from a royalty-free pack and the mixing happened to make it sound like the OG snare in question.

That's not what I'm saying for my beat though, I know I wouldn't see anything if it blew up since I left the vocals and main loop close to the original. If it does blow up, I'd try to use the opportunity to keep meeting others and to collab with bigger artists, to hopefully build my brand more to support future projects. A way to sell myself for future work. The beat (and me losing any royalites) was essentially my cost of enterance. Just my view on things anyway.
 
I really like the vibe at 1:03 onwards. I like the vocal, Im not so keen on the breakdown parts. The noise in the guitar sample bothers me, and the word I think its "Storms" at the start of the vocal sample sounds distorted too much IMO. That and the third word distorts, Id automate volume on it to lower just those words. That might fix it
 

Dusty B

ILLIEN
Battle Points: 37
I really like the vibe at 1:03 onwards. I like the vocal, Im not so keen on the breakdown parts. The noise in the guitar sample bothers me, and the word I think its "Storms" at the start of the vocal sample sounds distorted too much IMO. That and the third word distorts, Id automate volume on it to lower just those words. That might fix it
Thanks for the feedback my man. That reminds me that I should really use automation more often.
 
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