Hope Remix Contest
The final song on Hip Hop Is Dead, Hope, features an acapella Nas. This seems to have been done in part to emphasize Nas' vocals and whatever statement he's making about the future of Hip-Hop; however, there's also the angle that this song will become its own marketing tool, as amateur producer after amateur producer provide their own beat backing to the track. In the short time that the album has been available, many of these remixes have already shown up, some good, some bad, some otherwise. This entry includes a collection of fourteen such remixes.
You can stream or download the fourteen on an invidual basis (links open in a new window). Also, since the premise of this whole thing was originally a "contest", I've added a voting function to the end of this post.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a remix.
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VOTE: Which Hope remix do you think was the strongest?
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posted by Fletch at 11:53 PM
20 Comments:
Of these fourteen, about nine or so were sent to me directly via email and then a couple others I saw on message boards and wanted to include. Overall, I've listened to about forty total remixes, and these really were some of the strongest. You get everything from a laid back guitar melody to the classic Nautlius break. Some people added scratches, horns, sound effects, or Young Jeezy. Some chose to incorporate the singing, some choose to exlcude it, some chose to break Nas' verse into two different parts. And depending on which one you listen to, Nas' words can take on a different feel: laidback, urgent, angry, calm, etc. All that being said, I voted for DJ Incise, but hopefully I'll be back with a little more detailed review later on.
Bah, Fletch, you shouldnt have said who you voted for yet ;-)
fletch have you listened to the version on grounduphiphop.com? Search for Nas "Hope (with beat)" it sounds really good, my favorite.
i voted for the damn da man remix, shit was fire and a big improvement over a lot of the remixes i've been hearing, although you have a nice little collection here on your site. definitely got a talented ring of cats to submit on here, props.
ah...but yes, it's an extremely tough choice between incise and da man, i feel you fletch. both these guys came with heat. thanks for posting these.
I think the grounduphiphop.com link is a hoax. Someone in the previous Hope entry said the same thing. It doesn't sound right and doesn't make sense really.
But as promised, here's a mini-breakdown of what I liked from all of these remixes. Again, I'm a lyric head over a beat head any day of the week, but I can generally tell what works for me.
Damn Da Man Remix
the main guitar sample is beautiful . . . handled the singing the best.
Deacon LF Remix
reminds me of KP's From Then Till Now . . . horns add something different.
DJ Incise Remix
the charge of the drums leads to this very energetic take . . . good breakdown later.
DJ Pups Remix
the beat could stand alone . . . themed-sample montage at the end was appropriate.
Duke Remix
the guitar wins again . . . short and mellow and sweet.
G Dub Remix
the piano is understated but well used . . . and I could probably loop "what ever made you think" till infinity.
Jee Eye Zee Remix
very conceptual with the Jeezy flip . . .percussion and piano work are the strongest.
Kay Be Remix
unlike anything else that was submitted, surprising even . . . resonates sentimental but upbeat.
Legit H Remix
the only person to split the verse and it gave it a different feel . . . backwards sample was a cool touch.
Nabs Remix
I enjoy the hell outta those horns . . .almost RJD2ish . . . clever use of the Who Killed It outro.
SBK Remix
the bells seem fitting given the season . . . almost has a Middle Eastern flair.
Sleeptime Remix
took Nas' words on Carry Tradition to heart . . . probably my second favorite version of the singing; eerie (which is what the OG was to me).
The ARE Remix
the Long Red drums are always a good look . . . another diff. feel again, this time more stadium-like, guitar gives it a "big" sound.
Zilla Rocca Remix
vocal sample, as brief as it is, is quite catchy . . . good way to incorporate It Ain't Hard To Tell.
My faves: Jee Eye Zee's use of the interviews were cool. And the sax on the spoken part was tite.
I like the Nabs remix, bringing the soul feel into it, kind a 9th wonder feel.
Sleeptime remix had cool use of Nautilus, ryme part had the light feel of Nothing lasts forever.
Damn da man, uses a classic song for the sample but the PERFECT beat saves it from sounding corny at all.
Deacon remix is trippy, im feelin it.
I'm going with Deacon. I'll like blastin it in my car the most.
BTW, dj pups' ending was effing funny.
Damn Da' Man's joint is ill and gets my vote. Its got that laid back feel that u just wanna stand up and bop 2 and maybe even 2 spit a verse of your own over it. Easily my favorite although some others jumped out at me too.
I really like Deacon's. It's got an atmosphere that really suits the track. It doesn't have the best beat of the remixes, but I think it fits best as an album closer and taking into account what Nas is saying. They're all nice though. Definitely downloaded a few for the iPod.
Hey fletch, someone posted this link on Okayplayer, some guy named D-Swain:
http://www.dannyswain.com/Nas_-_Hope_D_Swain_Remix.mp3
I think it's obvious whoever did the Kay Be remix is cheating the poll. Not one person has given that crap props, yet 37 people voted for it? F*ck outta here. This poll is officially suspect.
That Kay Be remix is trash....Who the H**l is voting for it??? It's off beat, wack and clearly homeboy or girl don't no how to catch the bpm. It's obvious this dude has the same voting poll system that they have down there in Florida that gave Bush the presidency. Is this legal on SOHH??? In all honesty I was checking the polls off and on and in a span of 5 minutes it went from 7-37! Kay Be if your reading, read closely, that track u made is spaghetti, if you hangout with too many spaghetti n1ccas you might turn into a meatball!!!!!
word, only a few of these guys actually got the bpms right..
makng a tight beat doesnt mean shit if you don't have a concept of the placing of the verses and (esp) the bpms of the seinger at the end
props to damn da man (like the gorillaz drums),
pups (LOL @ the wu at the end),
sbk (crazy how u put a 4/4 song/drums over a 3/8 sample - nicely executed),
nabs (prolly my favorite one overall)
LOL @ cheating in a contest that has no grand prize or any prize at all. That's too bad. Probably was a myspace bulletin. I've made some corrections to the poll for furture voting, but the previously tainted votes will still appear unfortunately. Thanks for catching that.
To the most recent anonymous, I agree that the singing was definitely the hardest part for most to get right. That's probably why Damn Da Man deserves as many props as he's getting because he handled it best. The other smart thing to do was cut off the singing all together, as I made no stipulation about that.
Damn Da Man deserves props because he droppped out his drums for the vocals? 4 bar loop for the whole song, then he drops out the drums for 12 bars and he gets props?
DJ incise came with the nicest beat, Deacons for my money came with the best overall sound for the track.
WTF is Felix talking about? Drums don't have to be on key with vocals genius...the sample does. And that's why damn da man is gettin' props, cuz his melody is the only one on key with the singing part. U producers are so concerned with makin' "hot beats" that u forget to actually make a song. That's like mixing Whitney's vocals from "I Will Always Love You" with the "Shook Ones" beat....eventhough separately the two two elements are great, that mix would sound like sh*t.
i voted for The ARE, i think he captured the rhythm best
almost everyone messed up when it came to the singing though
the first one is good too though, it would be a worthy winner
First of all:I made my version in ten minutes just for the idea.I was like just sendin my remix and that's it.
Second of all:Yes,there is much better remixes,so I voted for Damn Da Man.And I was very suprpise by the fact I got 30+ votes.
I'm not cheatin!If somebody want me to win so badly,it ain't my fault people.
Fletch,check out myspace.com/kaybeazy again.There is 300 views.Then think about it again.
PEACE
Kay Be
hope damn da man remix for mi..............Thugspoet
Damn Da Man, Duke, Nabs are the best and special mention to Sleeptime remix...
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