Rap Battle #2

[Carleas]

I'm interested in having another Epic Rap Battle. I'm flexible on specifics, but would want to do actual recordings posted on Soundcloud or similar. Would also be open to something more collaborative, e.g. creating a single track and switching-off verses.

Lessons learned from last time: pick beats in advance, pick topics in advance, and pick verse length in advance.

So I'm thinking three rounds, each round we both use the same beat. Flexible on topics, but definitely want more thought put into them than last time. Part of the battle should be defending an idea in verse. I think having one over-arching topic would be better, so there's more back and forth, but, again, flexible. I also don't need it judged; I like the battle format, but I'm in it for the journey.

Any takers?

[Carleas]

You guys are whack.

[Jakob]

Well just put up a first rap.

Maybe also select an instrumental beat we all have to rap to.
That's a requirement for a fair battle. Equal ground.

Do you want trap rap or classic rap?

[Carleas]

I'm flexible. Last rap battle (sorry, I see those links are broken, I'll try to find and upload them), if I recall correctly Impious used a sort of bizarro beat, reminded me a bit of some of Insane Clown Posse's beats (not super familiar with their oeuvre, but similar circus-y sound, pretty sure it was original to Impious). He used the same beat on all three. I used different beats: one was the beat from Remy Ma's Whuteva, another was a shitty homemade remix of Led Zepplin's Fool in the Rain, and the other I made from scratch, but similar sound to Mos Def's Sex, Love, & Money.

As I mentioned, I'd like participants to use the same beat, but could do different beats in each round if variety is called for.

I should also note that I'm not planning to go to a studio or anything. I did the last one using my laptop mic and Garageband, this time I'm planning to use a free web-based mixing app or some freeware desktop software. This is lo fi af.

[Jakob]

That sounds pretty legitimate.

I'd be interested in participating.

Do we have a topic?

[Carleas]

Sweet!

I'm open to whatever topic. Recently I've been mostly into morality, political philosophy, and complex systems and emergence, so I could do something in those areas. Or suggest something else, I've got broad interests.

I propose three rounds, 5-7 days per round (we tried to do 3 days last time and looks like I went over every time ). I'd default to no official judging mechanism, just put it out there without evaluation, but if you want to be judged I'm good with that too.

EDIT: For beats, are you at all into creating beats, or you want to use found beats? We could switch off going first each round, with first mover providing the beat and their verse (so order would go AB BA AB). That would require three distinct/semi-distinct topics, one for each round.

[MagsJ]

Game on! looking forward to hearing.. and judging.

[Carleas]

Yes MagsJ, Master of Ceremonies extraordinaire.

Jakob, check out LoopLabs.com if you're looking for software. I haven't gotten too deep into it, but on the surface it looks a lot like Garageband.

[Jakob]

Ive got a bunch of beats online, but few of them are downloadable and I lost the passwords,
here is one that I made once using Bob Dylan samples
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/meeuw
this one can be downloaded, it could serve for one of the rounds.

[Jakob]

Another one
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/loaded-instrumental

[Jakob]

this one could work for a kind of philosophy anthem with several rappers
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/fate-is-a-circle

this has some battle energy.
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/the-madness

[Carleas]

Nice, those are excellent! That first one is my favorite of those, I could definitely do a round over that.

I propose we do round 3 over Meeuw, you pick another for round 1, and I'll provide one for round 2 (I'll likely create one, but if I'm strapped for time I'll borrow one; either way I'll make it available as early as possible). I further propose that we each provide about 2 minutes of lyrics per round (which means tweaking Meeuw to move the bridge at 2:40 so it falls between two ~2-minute blocks of roughly steady beat, if that's alright).

For topics, I think broadly we could do rounds on 1) philosophy of mind, 2) religion, and 3) political philosophy. I think that we both have something to say about those, and there's something of a progression from the questions of what we are, why we are, and how we relate to each other, so that rounds could interact but also stand alone. And again, I propose an ABBAAB ordering, and 7 days to post each contribution (including 7 days for each verse when one person is posting two verses back-to-back). We should each have the beat on day 1.

These are my suggestions, but I'm flexible, feel free to reject any or all of them.

[Jakob]

Alright, excellent!

Ill want to keep to whatever rhyme schema emerges though - I think we are already constrained enough by having such narrowly defined topics, and the best raps always break with or play with the rhyme schemas. But apart from that all this sounds good to me.

The first is the only one made entirely from hand made samples, I wish I could go back to that but modern software is all oriented on prefabricated stuff.
I made that on an archaic Max OS 9 application called Player Pro. I can't even find any references to it online. Something similar on Windows was Fast Tracker. In case you ever want to try that out, its a great workflow.

two more of these sample beats.
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/beat-swazi
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/track-02

[Jakob]

A curiosity
two ILP posts I had my Mac pronounce over a beat.

https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/nature-of-the-subject
the original beat
https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/arcanum

Any of these that I posted, if downloadable, is good by me for round 1, if you have a preference its probably stronger than mine.

[Jakob]

Maybe good for round one;

https://soundcloud.com/fixedcross/beforethelight

Other philosophic rappers are welcome to use these beats.

[Carleas]

I found the tracks from the last battle, I'll try to post them to Souncloud tonight when I get home.

Doesn't really matter to me which beat we use, I'll figure out a way to rap over any beat you can rap over. I'm thinking I'll use the beat from Phantogram's When I'm Small for round 2, if that's cool with you; I tried making one from scratch but I've always kind of sucked at it. Probably just take the first couple measures (before the "ooo ooo ooo"s start) and loop, maybe try to pull something from later in the song as a bridge.

As for rhyme schemes, mine are pretty free-form (you'll see what I mean when I post my old tracks, although I'm rusty and thus not really sure how representative they'll be), so whatever works for you.

Can you post your round one next weekend?
MC Mags, can you open the debate thread for us?

[Carleas]

Finally got the last battle uploaded, available here: https://soundcloud.com/mjcph/sets/ilp-rap-battle-2009

(posted with the caveat that I haven't gotten ahold of Impious and if he asks me to take down his tracks I will)

[Jakob]

Great, I look forward to listening to this when I get home.

I'll try to answer to your proposed deadline.

[Jakob]

Nice work.
Do you have examples in hiphop?
Awesome that youve got an actual style.

[Carleas]

Do you have examples in hiphop?

At first I thought you were dissing my style, implying that my raps were not hip hop.

But I think you are asking about my role-models/influences in hip hop. Is that right? Assuming that it is:

At the time of the first battle, I listed my influences, so that was where I was coming from in that battle. I don't really listen to any of them anymore, but I'm sure the influence stuck.

More recently in the hip-hop genre, I've been listening to El-P, Run the Jewels, One Day as a Lion, Childish Gambino, and a French group called FAUVE, a couple South African zef rappers (Die Antwoord, Jack Parow). A lot of the hip hop I listen to is incidental, because I listen to a lot of glitch/IDM, and they often do hip hop collaborations or remixes (examples 1, 2, 3).

What about you?

[MagsJ]

MC Mags, can you open the debate thread for us?

The debate thread will be up either later today or early tomorrow, for battle to commence.

[Carleas]

Super dope, thanks Mags. Very much looking forward to it.

[Jakob]

Ok

[Jakob]

Never mind what I said, one influence in particular is RZA. I listed all the rappers that quite influenced my moods, I suppose.
It can all be very infantile, which is problematic now.
So the thing has begun? argh. I have little idea what lyrically to make of these subjects, the raps of the previous load seemed rather free, Ill imitate that.

[Carleas]

If those topics don't work for you, just do whatever. I mostly want to avoid trading rhyming insults.