There’s not a right way to approach a sample
but, it’s how you’re gonna approach that
sample that’s gonna make your beat unique.
How the fuck is mine gonna be different from
everybody else’s?
So when I heard this sample, and all the extra,
intricate things that I added to. The fills
and whatnot.
That’s the only way I thought to create
it.
I was on YouTube, and I was about to sample
Ghost Town DJ, “My Boo.”
I clicked next on accident, and in that playlist,
the next song was K.P. and Envyi, “Swing My Way”
and I just hear the…
That’s only like a five to seven second part
of the song and the rest is like a upbeat
dance song.
I was like "Yo, this is fucking golden.”
The first first thing, once I already downloaded
the sample off YouTube, I brought it into
Edison.
I selected like a four bar loop.
And I started playing around with the tempo.
I had already pitched it up, but I wasn’t
happy with that “tss-tss-tss,” that hi-hat.
That worked for the 90s, but I knew that’s
not the groove that I wanted.
I played around with it for a while.
I put reverb...make it feel a little bigger.
After I added the reverb, I had this plugin
called Space Effect.
This plugin has a filter, has delay, and it
has modulations and whatnot.
So I can't really describe everything that
it did to it, but it gave it a weird ambient
sound.
You can hear the delay, and the drowning,
it warped it a little bit.
And then I went back to EQ-ing.
I took some more hi’s out.
It was like a science project to try and get
them hi-hats out the right way without losing
the vocals.
Then I put the filter and I think this is
where I really got the hats out for the most part.
Added some delay.
Another EQ.
Once I filtered it out, it feels like it loses
maybe a little bit of quality or it just loses
a little bit of feel so what I did was I put
a Stereo Imager on it to just bring it back
out and make it feel bigger.
So what we originally had…
And then…
The next thing I did, was I put the bassline
on it.
Since I took the bass out of the original
sample, I wanted to put my own on there.
So I already had, like the notes I wanted
to use, I already knew.
So I clicked them in and I used the Growler
Moog Bass inside of Omnisphere and I just
filtered it.
I cut the end of the notes out, just makes
it feel a little bit more spacey.
Not everything like altogether.
To kinda move it, ‘cause it was a very stagnant
sound.
I felt like the only thing I could really
use to move this was the hats, but I didn’t
wanna overdo it.
I still wanted to make it easier to sing on
or easier to get on.
Added like another hi-hat underneath.
Subtle and you probably won’t catch it.
The kick.
Same situation.
The kick pattern, it’s spacey in parts but
then it gets busy in others.
When the hi-hats got a little bit busy, I
moved it with the kicks.
So then I just chose my snare.
I wasn’t happy with the snares that I was
going through.
I got this snare from like a Johnny Juliano
kit.
All the producers know it.
Shouts to Johnny Juliano.
At this point with the beat, I was like yo
alright.
Let me try to put a couple things in there
to fill it out.
Another thing from the Johnny Juliano kit.
It was like a mimic from a Drake song.
And I’ve always liked that loop so I wanted
to use it.
I added a ton of effects to it.
I added Effectrix.
And I added a Gross beat, which cut it in
half.
So it stutters, plays it in halftime without
changing the tempo.
What I wanted to do was add a couple more
sounds like fill drums that kind of give it
a little bit more bounce.
These little background snares, like tapping
snares.
Panned them left and right.
Then I added like this chant, which today
I would probably never use but it made it
in there.
Transition effect.
That just made it drop a little bit better.
And then you hear the sample.
Everything just all clicked and worked as one.
Man I don’t think I’ve ever been able
to recreate that feeling.
Obviously, when I hear “Deja Vu” and I
hear “Exchange,” I hear automatic similarities.
Tempo wise, they're pretty close.
Pitch, I think they're exact.
Drums, automatically they're different.
Their drums were a lot more busy.
The bassline was different.
But I can understand where those allegations
and all that shit came from.
‘Cause you know to give people the benefit
of the doubt they’re like
"Alright, maybe you just switched it up purposely, so you
don't get these allegations."
"But nice try buddy. We still think you stole it."
But shouts out to those guys man.
Like I said, I have no problems with any of
them.
I still look up to them.
So, it was definitely a misunderstanding.
