ok just got done listening. i could easily ramble on so I'm just going to stick to the script. I'm keeping my answers in context with the material given
1. How can we as producers layer drums and/or samples in order to construct something truly unique but still has matching tone and feel?
2. How can multimedia pieces be used to further convey that theme and tone?
3. What do we hear in the mix that allowed for so much variance in samples and breaks? Is it EQ, loudness, compression, etc?
4. Also, without too much use of deep 808's, how did they manage EQing at the bottom end?
1. when you're talking about layering, you're talking about a series of artistic choices. just staying away from the technical side (because we can all get the tech shyt thru instruction), i feel like with stacking and arranging, you just keep expressing yourself until you've made your point. then worry about the tech shyt later. i always watch beat making vids and i see cats say, i need to do this and that to keep from being repetitive. or i need to do this and that to make it melodic or whatever. listen to the album in the OP...its probably a mistake to be afraid of repetition or odd melodies. just sayin
2. with multimedia it ties into expression. if you've seen transformers movies, peep how bumblebee used already existing shyt to say what he wanted to say. i mean you're just dealing with the ears, so it really doesn't matter what you use to say what you want to say...as long as you find some way to say it
3. like i said in my post above this, its the use of 3 dimensional space and placement. you can't have a drummer and a saxophonist standing in the exact same spot in real life, so they shouldn't be standing that way in a mix. also (really important), the advantage that sound artists have over other types of artists is that we can artistically REMOVE things. engineers always say that scaling back instead of adding is the way to mix. the same applies to elements. you express freely and fully, then remove things that don't work.
as an example of using the 3d field, i submit this joint from the album
listen to to how the temptations sample is panned hard to both sides. chuck's vocal is slightly on the right and reverbing a little left, just outside the drums on both sides. the drums dead center, but turned down and reverbed a bit to be further away from (behind) the vocal. the vocal samples and the squealing guitar are outside chuck's vocals to the left and right (please correct me f I'm wrong, my ears aren't perfect)
4. the only thing i really know about bottom end is that (it is said) anything below 30 hz is useless. its the standard to roll off anything below that. HOWEVER, in the spirit of hank shocklee and breaking the rules I've seen people that find absolute bliss in 20 hz rumble. on the low end its most important to assign frequencies. if your bass tone is at 30-40 hz, then your kick needs to occupy a different range 60-90 for example. at mid and high they can be closer but lows need to be completely separated. the low end is one of my personal problem areas. i don't know how to make my bass lines powerful, but I'm working on it