Hip Hop War Report

Archive for November, 2011

Hip hop wear is urban fashion for the street. Whether its design brand apparel or generic white t-shirts, your gear says a lot about you. Here’s some recommendations for where you find hip hop wear at wholesale prices…

Dr. Jays. The definitive spot for urban fashion and apparel for men, women and children. Based in New York City, their website often sells similar fashion styles for between 40-60% of retail. If you’re looking for the hottest gear without paying top dollar for it, the Dr. Jays website is the place to be! They offer a wide variety of hip hop designer brands like Marc Ecko, LRG, Rocawear and Evisu both in their store and online. The site is really clean and easy to navigate for those who don’t live in NYC or are looking for wholesale discounts.

Hip Hop Closet. Where Dr. Jays is the premier provider of urban wear, HHC strives to bring the highest quality clothes for the lowest price possible. Offering fashion designs by Babyphat, Sean John, G-Unit and Azzure at over 40% off the retail store price, HHC is definitely a spot for quality hip hop wear. Admittedly, their accessories don’t have the same selection as Dr. Jays, but the clothing lines are an absolute steal at those prices. I highly recommend HHC for the hottest urban fashions.

Club Urban. Similar to HHC’s philosophy of high quality for low prices, Club Urban has an impressive selection of the latest gear and accessories. Their website is on point for shoppers: you can search various brand names by color, size and price – it practically creates your next outfit for you! Both the store and website provide great options, and you can easily kill a few hours shopping.

Herban Stylz. This well respected fashion provider has tons of great clothes and accessories, though the selection can sometimes be hit or miss. However, if you are dead set on finding the newest urban fashions Herban Stylz cannot be overlooked. On top of the large selection, this store has some of the best customer service is the industry- even better than Nordstorms, in my opinion. They feature fashion pieces by the crate, so don’t browse unless you’ve got the time!

Urban Venom. This British clothing store carries a distinct style of fashion. They offer apparel designed by Makavel, Akademiks and Miskeen all of which help define this store as a premier provider of apparel and accessories.

The five stores are the brightest spots for the latest hip hop wear. They all offer great websites for browsing, and you save heaps of cash on designer fashion. If you’re going for the best (and are willing to pay for it) Dr. Jays still remains king, but the others certainly provide quality wear for a reasonable price.

I wanted to share with you my hip hop dance lesson with you that can make you a natural at this. This is probably one of the most popular types of dance that can be done these days. It seems like all teachers are pretty much booked for a while with people that want to learn how to do this. I see people it freestyle all the time on the streets and it really has grown. The problem is that some people are naturally gifted and pick it up much faster than others. I’m going to share my hip hop dance lesson.

You need to constantly practice the concept of rhythm. This is extremely hard to learn and I actually didn’t figure this out until I started playing the drums. You have to learn to be able to follow a beat, when you can do that, you can move to the beat. Moving to the beat completely makes up what hip hop is about. To get started, get any song you have out, it doesn’t matter what genre, and listen to the beat. Try moving your head to the beat or tap your shoes to the beat. It doesn’t matter, you just want to recognize it.

My hip hop dance lesson can be expanded to movement. Try taking basic moves you’ve seen others do and try to mimic them to the beat. It seems sort of stupid and tedious, but this is the process of learning to get rhythm. Some people just have it, while others don’t and if you don’t, than you have to learn it this way.

So, you have an idea for a new track, or you’re new to Hip Hop production, but you don’t know where to get the samples you need to produce your banging beat? I’ve been in that position numerous times.

When downloading Hip Hop samples from the web you only have two options. You can download free samples, or you can pay for them.

Paid Samples

I can hear you grunting at the thought of having to pay for audio samples. Don’t worry, I’m the same. But, there are huge benefits to using professional samples in your productions:

Pros
High quality samples. Available in many different formats i.e. Wave, Rex, Reason Refill, ESX24, Akai Programs, Kontact etc. Royalty free.

Cons
They cost money.

Using paid samples is obviously the best choice for any Hip Hop producer that wants to succeed. I can bet Pete Rock, JDilla, Dr Dre and other big name producers all purchased samples, or sample packs at some point in their career.

Where to find Free Hip Hop Samples

Over the years as an experienced Hip Hop producer I’ve found various sources to download free Hip Hop samples. Some I’ve listed below:
Use Google and search for terms like “free hip hop samples.wav”. Purchase music magazines. On the cover of most magazines are CD’s or DVD’s that often come with large collections of royalty free samples. Join music production forums that are aimed at the genre you produce in. I am a member on a number of Hip Hop and Dubstep production forums, and constantly see threads where members share their samples.

It’s very important to avoid downloading from file sharing websites, or using P2P software. People often share music and samples that do not belong to them, such as commercial sample packs. Using copyrighted material can get you into serious trouble. It’s not worth the risk.

To conclude, it’s safe to say there is nothing wrong with using free samples when you are starting out. But, in the long run at some point in your career you are going to want high quality, professional sounding, samples that can be used on tracks fit for artists like Lil Wayne, Drake or Eminem. Free samples lack in quality and depth which will ultimately have a negative effect on the overall sound of your productions.

Have fun with your music, and I wish you success.