Beyond the Mix: Chilled Hip Hop & Neo Soul Mix #40
A behind the scenes look at how I craft my mixes
The Movements:
📸 Instagram
🎧 My Mixes
⏯ More Mixes
🎹 Music Production
🔊 Bookings & Partnerships
The Making of
I had made my mind up a while after mix #39 dropped that for mix #40 I was going to step into territory I hadn’t before. After passing 100K subscribers on YouTube a little while back, I had a desire to take things to the next level and initially, I was very apprehensive about it. The idea of filming myself took some time to come around to but my intuition had been telling me it was the step I needed to take and also something you all wanted to see.
I had already envisaged how I wanted to design, set and light the video but I needed to be in a the right space to facilitate this. For those that don’t know, I am a digital designer and animator by trade so these skills I could readily use on this video, I just had to find the correct space and time to dedicate it to my own craft. Camera equipment was also a key consideration and defo something I’ve learnt more about from doing this, you’ll notice the focus dips in and out but I discovered the fix for next time!
Next was the music! This I (thankfully) don’t have to work on too much as its always comes naturally to me. I normally organise my music by playlist, any new finds and gems I discover, I place in a folder for the next mix be it soulful / deep house, hip hop, neo soul, R&B or jazz. By this point, there had been at least half a year between neo soul mixes so I had so much music ready to unleash.
Piecing It Together
The intro to any mix for me is always key. Since day one, I always had the ambition of capturing the listener and setting the scene immediately with the first track - something I think is completely underrated. I had heard what I wanted the intro to this mix to be months ago after stumbling across ‘Soul Contact’ by See Dee Ft Evil Needle on SoundCloud. If you’ve listened to any of my mixes in the past few years, you’ll know I MESS with See Dee heavy. Something about the rawness combined with the ethereal chords and soul stirring vocal chops that always get me. Seconds in I knew I wanted to start a future mix with that track for maximum impact…
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