The future is now, or so they say. While Madlib is often seen as a more ‘old school’ producer because of his penchant for sampling soul and jazz, he’s also one of the more experimental beat makers around. That experimental streak includes his technology choices when making beats, and in a recent Red Bull Music Academy conversation/lecture, Madlib revealed that he made the beat to Kanye West’s “No More Parties In L.A.” on an iPad.
Much of the hour-long conversation centers around whether sampling is a legitimate form of music-making, or if it’s just capitalizing on music other people made. It’s clear where Madlib stands on the topic, and he pointedly says, “I’m the loop digger, what’d you expect? Go listen to [the original], if you wanna hear that.” Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear much more about Madlib’s iPad production skills.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear much more about Madlib’s iPad production skills. Madlib does reveal another interesting fact about his beat making practices though: when he decides to sample from an artist’s song, he’ll get the whole LP and dig through the entire record for samples. So for every album he samples from for a song, there are anywhere from 8 to 25 other instrumentals that never make it out of Madlib’s vaults. Apparently, a lot of the other instrumentals that were sampled from the same song as “No More Parties In L.A.” will end up on Bandana, Madlib’s upcoming collaborative album with Freddie Gibbs. “Gibbs took everything,” Madlib deadpans. “Kanye waited too long.”