The Liner Notes - DJ/Beatmaker

I've got another Liner Notes post up over at my blog, this one's about the DJ/Beatmaker (aka blue) path of the game. Here's an excerpt (spoilers if you haven't played through this section yet, which you should):

Ma Dukes angles a microphone up, and records a single drip. Then in a flash of activity, she takes the sound of the drip and assigns it pad on the sampler. She taps it rapidly a few times, the resulting sound more akin to a snare drum than water. Then she slows her pace, 1-TAP-2-TAP-3-4-TAP.

Found sound, or non-musical samples have always been one of my favorite aspects of music in general, not just Hip Hop, but Hip Hop is where I really found a yen for it. Be it Havoc of Mobb Deep recording a gas stove for hi-hats, on into artists like artists like Seneca B or Monte Booker, I’m a fan of when folks can hear music anywhere.

During a conversation with Tom Lommel about Create & Devastate, I mentioned that I was worried about potentially alienating folks who didn’t have a huge knowledge of music. He responded that it’d be a good idea to make sure players know that samples can come anywhere, and once I got started working on Play This Only At Night I knew it’d be crucial to integrate that somewhere in the story.

Go peep the rest of it: The Liner Notes - DJ/Beatmaker