Help me understand how to mix Hip Hop

[Fressure]

I just can't it to blend smoothly, its frustrating. Why can't it be like house music >_<

[lethal_pizzle]

because then it would be house music

[soundinmotiondj]

[Rukks]

That video is helpful but you notice that he is not mixing two hip hop songs...I'm working on learning this too.

I'm just trying to figure out phrasing for hip hop music, like at what point do you mix in if its just a bar long of the two songs blending.

[dual citizen]

That video is helpful but you notice that he is not mixing two hip hop songs...I'm working on learning this too.

I'm just trying to figure out phrasing for hip hop music, like at what point do you mix in if its just a bar long of the two songs blending.

Check out the Rub's History of Hip Hop mixes. In most cases they mix 4-8 beats between songs. You can get fancy with effects and cue points, but long blends don't really work.

[synthet1c]

it's all about fast cuts and slamming in the bass, It's also good to have loops prepared at the start of a track so you have a few bars to mix with. You also need to realize that hip hop covers a wide range of bpm and different styles, It's not like house which is pretty much all made at 128bpm, and because it is a very syncopated type of music even if it's the same bpm not all of it fits together.

It's also really fun to mix two instrumentals with an acapella running over the mix and if you have the ability have a little scratch when introducing the acapella. If you set your cues up you can jump to the chorus of the acapella and have a play with it then drop back into the verse at the right time. Finally spark up a spliff and play heaps of a tribe called quest if your playing real hip hop.

[dayvue]

it's all about fast cuts and slamming in the bass, It's also good to have loops prepared at the start of a track so you have a few bars to mix with. You also need to realize that hip hop covers a wide range of bpm and different styles, It's not like house which is pretty much all made at 128bpm, and because it is a very syncopated type of music even if it's the same bpm not all of it fits together.

synthet1c kills it. Good explanation.

It's also really fun to mix two instrumentals with an acapella running over the mix and if you have the ability have a little scratch when introducing the acapella. If you set your cues up you can jump to the chorus of the acapella and have a play with it then drop back into the verse at the right time.

I do this with house music and pop acapellas- people go nuts when you scratch pop anthem acapellas (e.g. wonderwall) over Avicii or what have you. If you don't have four decks (I don't), you can work around by dropping playing decks into sample decks and just switch songs in and out of the sample decks at the right time.

[ParisCreative]

How well schooled are you in hip-hop to start with? Do you know a lot of the older artists? Newer? Do you know the history of the samples of the songs you are playing?

Not that I am the hip-hop mixing guru by any standard, but some of my techniques is finding the instrumentals and acapellas when I can, looking back at the original sources of the samples and "re-lift" those to incorporate into a transition when I can. Or go even crazier and mix some rock, pop, or R&B loops over your track to re-envision the song.

[synthet1c]

mixing rock with hiphop is so full of win!

[DJLiteral]

Go through your hiphop and figure out which beats are solid and which are organic(difficult to loop), any solid beats you can loop in or out, any organic beats you slam fade out.