Engineer All-Star Marley Marl shows us how he made this classic Biz Markie record using modern equipment. Essential viewing.
What do you get when you combine The Alan Parsons Project, Carl Sagan and the son of Engineer All-Star Marley Marl? The As Above, So Below tape, that’s what.
Pizzo at HipHopSite has posted a promo-only remix of LL’s ‘not a comeback’ hit, which can be filed under ‘completely unnecessary but interesting remixes’.
Once upon a time, around 1985 at Unique recording studio in New York city, Marley Marl accidentally sampled a snare drum. It was a mistake, initially, as he’d instructed the engineer to grab a vocal snippet for the Captain Rock song he was remixing at the time. When he played the sound on the keyboard and heard that snare come through, it dawned on him – no more shitty DMX and Linn Drum sounds! Once he realized that he could program drums using real drum sounds, he loaded up the kick, snare and hat from ‘Impeach The President’ and started making history. ‘Eric B. For President’, ‘The Bridge’, ‘Make The Music With Your Mouth, and ‘Stunt of The Block’ were all produced using that drum kit.
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Engineer All-Star Marley Marl came from the era when a remix often meant turning-up the drums, dropping out the main loop occasionally and adding a horn blast and some echo, but even when the additions were relatively minor, they proved to be incredibly effective. The remixed versions of ‘Vapors’ and ‘Shootin’ The Gift’ both maintain their original loops, but manage to sound ten times better with the addition of some extra horns and vocal samples, while the additional sounds added to the 12″ versions of ‘Droppin’ Science’ and ‘The Symphony’ take already great songs to another level. The King Tee and 3rd Bass remakes add completely new bases to the tracks, giving them a much-needed face-lift, while the ‘Jingling Baby’ remix is the perfect example of how to build upon a solid foundation and turn into a timeless classic.
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Last week I received a book in the mail to review, called The BeatTips Manual, by Amir “Sa’id” Said. I haven’t finished it yet, since I’m also in the middle of reading How To Wreck A Nice Beach, but one of the first sections I checked-out were the interview transcriptions at the back. One in particular – an extended discussion with Marley Marl – contained some quotes which put a very different spin on the Marley story. According to Marley, he had been working on stuff for Biz Markie‘s second album when he severed ties with Cold Chillin’ over financial disagreements. In order to spite him, the label didn’t give him credit for producing Biz’s smash single ‘Just A Friend’, so Marley took another track that he’d made for the Diabolical and remixed his favorite song from LL Cool J‘s Walking Like A Panther – ‘Jingling Baby’. Of course we all know how much of a classic that turned out to be, as it spear-headed LL’s resurgence and resulted in the two of them creating the classic Mama Said Knock You Out album.
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