Nobody makes a beat, puts a prefab rap track from an established rapper over it to showcase their music to potential partners.

well obviously.
But i dont think op was making beats to get rappers on them. He probably just wanted to make some rap beats, and as they can be pretty boring without any vocals, he used what is available to him to make it more of a proper tune rather than a 1 minute beat loop.

I can see what you're saying for sure. And what you're saying isnt incorrect at all. But i also think what he's doing is totally harmless. i dont think its in anyway damaging to the artists he used the accappela's of. He didnt cross the dot the i's and cross the t's in the title sure, but as i said before its pretty obvious he isnt mascarading himself or one of his mates as notorious BIG.
i doubt he constructed the beat around an accappela. He probably just made a beat and then whacked a vocal over it to make it a bit more interesting to listen to as a track. I honestly dont see the harm in it.
Je$u$ does the exact same thing really, and no-one has a problem with it. Its clearly a homage to rappers he likes. Sometimes he puts out instumental records, and sometimes he puts out collections of beats with various accappela's - its not like its for monetary gain and it gives nods to the artists he likes, and most people are happy to listen to it and not grumble that its labelled incorrectly, and should be named as a 'bootleg remix' or whatever,
https://soundcloud.com/jesusmpd
Anyway - lets agree to disagree. Like i said, i can see your point of view, its just different from mine : P
Peace

don't some rappers release their A Capella tracks specifically for people to do this kind of stuff with?

They're usually released for hip hop DJs for actualy live remixing / turntablism, and they are usually found on the flipside of vinyls. You will very very rarely seen any acapellas released digitally. You'll notice that most of them that you can find around the web aren't being distributed by the actual artist himself. Remixes are a valid form of music, but in the business they are usually commissioned, very rarely does a signed artist give stems and acapellas away for the general public to hack at it. Artists and labels usually want to remain in control of what is getting put out there with their names on it.

There is a world of difference between producing beats for rappers, and constructing a beat around an accapella, I'm sorry you can't see that. The very large majority of producers for hire do not have any vocals on the beats they produce for the express purpose of allowing wanna be rappers to freely rap over the beats and see if they can come up with something good, and if so, buy the rights to the piece of music. In a more profesional arrangement with an established producer and rapper, it works almost the same way where the producer will make a bunch of cool little sketches, empty of vocals so the rapper can pick which he fancies more. Nobody makes a beat, puts a prefab rap track from an established rapper over it to showcase their music to potential partners.

When you do remixes, you never put your name first and you don't rename the song. If you remix Let's Get Dirty by Redman and your own artist name is GasEyes, then the proper respectful way to name your remix is "Redman - Let's Get Dirty (GasEyes Remix)".

For mashups, it is customary to name both sources in the title of the songs used. You also tend to avoid putting your name on those since they are not considered original material from an artist rather than "user made content" . Something along the lines of "Metal Gear / Dangerous Mashup by GasEyes".

If you put your name first, and give a different name to the song, it is assumed you are making a cover version, in which case most of the material in your piece should be original.

You seem to believe I'm being pedantic, but I beg to differ. In a digital world where people have almost free access to professional grade tools and are able to distribute their material on the same channels as professional artists just about any piece of media can be dissected and reused. It is actually a great creative tool that we're being given. In such a situation, I believe that proper etiquette is the only thing keeping people from suing the ever loving shit out of each other for IP/Copyright infringement. If you like two things so much that you want to create a piece of media with it that goes well beyond "fair use" then you should respect these artists in the proper established way.

That's all there is to it. Etiquette.

your right, i should have posted the songs real name and just said it was a remix instead of making it look like it was one of my tracks, I will correct this later

lol. pretty much what i was thinkin. your fine, dont worry about those guys.

edit: i realized my comment sounds like im not recognizing gaseyes sarcasm. but yeah, he named both the song and rapper in the title of his remix. not sure what else needs to be done.

I basically totally agree with noobstar, but this is such a reasonable, unassuming response. Just be careful with how you credit yourself gaseyes. I thought the mashups were pretty cool!

your right, i should have posted the songs real name and just said it was a remix instead of making it look like it was one of my tracks, I will correct this later

As for using studio gear and software. I know what you mean, it took me years to be able to properly DJ 'on the fly' and not trainwreck the party (and then not do it for years and suck again haha). It takes a lot of practice and many months of being bad at it before you start to get the feel for it. And that's the reason we have doors that lock, and headphones But there are a lot of ways to using things like Traktor and Ableton, or whatever it is the cool cats use these days, in a "live" way without having to worry about beatmatching it oldschool with a pick axe and motor oil. The style of music you seem to want to develop lends itself very well to Ableton and something like a Novation Launchpad (https://www.ableton.com/en/products/con … launchpad/)

And if you ever feel you're not doing good.. well then look at this guy and you'll feel like a god: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1FHU6p2Gxw

its ok noobstar, i just made these tracks for fun and posted them to see if anyone else would enjoy them like I do

i like working in a studio program and laying everything out in advance as I am poor at improvisation this is the only way I can make music

I basically totally agree with noobstar, but this is such a reasonable, unassuming response. Just be careful with how you credit yourself gaseyes. I thought the mashups were pretty cool!

i like working in a studio program and laying everything out in advance as I am poor at improvisation this is the only way I can make music

why is it a big no no to use an accappela of 'other rappers' ? Did he ever say he is a rapper ? No. He just said he used to make rap beats.

Well. Hip hop as a genre was pretty much always based around sampling other people's music in small bits, arranging those in a decent groove, and injecting it with a massive dose of soul by rapping over it. The unique element is the rap. Even if today we have producers who make hip hop from scratch without sampling loops from other music, the musical genre still rests upon very minimal and simple music over which you layer a well composed rap. It's not frowned upon to sample a bit of a rap and use it as a hook, just as it's not generally frowned upon to sample bits of and old record and using it as a groove.

But to use an entire vocal track, virtually unchanged save for a few grossly misapplied effects here and there. Well that's just like taking the entire music from Stairway To Heaven and add your own lyrics to it. Would you find that acceptable? Maybe you would... but I daresay the majority of people would not. You could cover the song however. You can have the same chord progression, you can have a similar production, sound, arrangement and whatnot to try and sound exactly like Stairway to Heaven. But that's still YOUR work, albeit of a relatively unimaginative nature. But to use the entire music, sans lyrics, straight from the album, without authorisation from the artist, is a dick move.

So about GasEyes' "music". It's not unlistenable at all. I mean these are basically bits of musics produced by decent musicians, layered with vocal tracks made by talented rappers, synced to a beat (that I wouldn't be surprised to learn is a loop from a library). It's very hard to fail at making it sound decent, seriously. But in the end.. he did nothing original. He pitched and synced a few things together.

Now.. if he was to do all of that LIVE, using a couple of kaoss pads and a turntable... there would be something to it. There's the human element, the chance for error, the improvisational aspect etc. But these obvious studio hacks leave me unimpressed, and somewhat disappointed that someone could call this their own creations. As Glitch said, lawsuit pending.

You can now throw all kinds of insulting retorts at me.

I cant listen now, im at work - but i'll check these out when i get home.