What Happened with the Beat By the Pound Sound (From 95 to 98)

[The Intergalactic Koala]

I was grooming and scratching my fur thinking about this...

Like New Orleans/No Limit brehs chime in on this subject....How in the world BBTP went from having a diverse sound and better production:







to







I know I'm not crazy, but the sound just seem lazier and not as out the box from the earlier hey days of No Limit. There's something about the 98/99ish sound that felt deflated and lacking the vision.

I mean KLC was in his bag when he made this:



Am I tripping

 

[H. Selassie]

You have a point but I think they were falling in line with mainstream Hip-Hop as a whole. It was becoming a lot more formulaic and less diverse/soulful.

Listen to beats from 94-96 versus the beats from 97-99 from the likes of Bad Boy, JD, Swizz, and Timbaland.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

You have a point but I think they were falling in line with mainstream Hip-Hop as a whole. It was becoming a lot more formulaic and less diverse/soulful.

Listen to beats from 94-96 versus the beats from 97-99 from the likes of Bad Boy, JD, Swizz, and Timbaland.

Touche', it just blows my mind that the older No Limit stuff especially in 96 had wild replayability. Like anything in 98 I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (there's some stuff I replay tho lol), but I could easily breeze through Ice Cream Man, The Shocker, and even Down South Hustlers at ease.

Hell, when they were still on the Bay Area steez, that shyt is a easy spin compared to their "prime" era.

Funny you mentioned formulaic, another good example is DMX.

Like his first album:







and then his third album:







I mean, the production was alright but aged like shyt.

 

[H. Selassie]

^To double down on that point even further:

Compare the lush soulful production of Reasonable Doubt to the microwaved sound of the Volume series.

Compare Illmatic/IWW to I AM/Nastradamus

On and on…

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

^To double down on that point even further:

Compare the lush soulful production of Reasonable Doubt to the microwaved sound of the Volume series.

Compare Illmatic/IWW to I AM/Nastradamus

On and on…

TBF Vol 1 had a bit of soul in it, but yeah it was compromised by that Bad Boy glitter bling sound. Vol 2 was just

Vol 3:Thank god for Prem because

 

[teeswinger]

Touche', it just blows my mind that the older No Limit stuff especially in 96 had wild replayability. Like anything in 98 I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (there's some stuff I replay tho lol), but I could easily breeze through Ice Cream Man, The Shocker, and even Down South Hustlers at ease.

Hell, when they were still on the Bay Area steez, that shyt is a easy spin compared to their "prime" era.

Funny you mentioned formulaic, another good example is DMX.

Like his first album:







and then his third album:







I mean, the production was alright but aged like shyt.

I always had a take on X falling off.. seems to me he rapped a little slower when he first dropped but over time nikka beats and flows got mad hyper and fast.. them drugs Mayne

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

I always had a take on X falling off.. seems to me he rapped a little slower when he first dropped but over time nikka beats and flows got mad hyper and fast.. them drugs Mayne

Yeah I noticed that his older stuff, the flow actually mesh well with them Irv and Dame beats.

 

[THE 101]

I kinda miss that 90s era of Southern production like the shyt coming out of Rap-A-Lot or what UGK were doing, where they were using a lot of live instrumentation, a lot of chunky fried guitars and shyt. I always loved the influence of southern soul on that dirty south shyt. It was more musical than what the East was putting out. You can hear a bit of that in the No Limit shyt too and some early Mannie. But the shyt very quickly became more digital, more keyboard heavy. N.O. Joe a crazy underrated producer. To me he defines the sound i'm talking about.

 

[H. Selassie]

I kinda miss that 90s era of Southern production like the shyt coming out of Rap-A-Lot or what UGK were doing, where they were using a lot of live instrumentation, a lot of chunky fried guitars and shyt. I always loved the influence of southern soul on that dirty south shyt. It was more musical than what the East was putting out. You can hear a bit of that in the No Limit shyt too and some early Mannie. But the shyt very quickly became more digital, more keyboard heavy. N.O. Joe a crazy underrated producer. To me he defines the sound i'm talking about.

I know exactly what you mean. Artists like Scarface, 8Ball & MJG, UGK, Goodie Mob (until they made World Party), etc…mostly stuck to that script in spite of how the game was changing.

The risk of that choice in the era of million dollar videos, champagne bottles, and whips is…if you’re on that Gold, barely platinum level you may find yourself staying there and unable to break through to that multiplatinum, mainstream exposure…which on an artistic level I can respect remaining grounded to your core. I can also respect trying to get the money and diversify the portfolio (No Limit, Cash Money). The risk there is that a large portion of the product may age like milk. Mass production and quick hits outweigh quality.

 

[African Peasant]

^To double down on that point even further:

Compare the lush soulful production of Reasonable Doubt to the microwaved sound of the Volume series.

Compare Illmatic/IWW to I AM/Nastradamus

On and on…

The degradation of production on the Volume serie is crazy

Vol. 1 had some good productions you can still listen to today. Vol. 3 is mostly unlistenable today.

 

[Alvin]

I was grooming and scratching my fur thinking about this...

Like New Orleans/No Limit brehs chime in on this subject....How in the world BBTP went from having a diverse sound and better production:







to







I know I'm not crazy, but the sound just seem lazier and not as out the box from the earlier hey days of No Limit. There's something about the 98/99ish sound that felt deflated and lacking the vision.

I mean KLC was in his bag when he made this:



Am I tripping

overworked, beats starting to sound the same and more formulaic because of the amount of albums they were dropping

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

overworked, beats starting to sound the same and more formulaic because of the amount of albums they were dropping

I remember that one interview where KLC wanted to do more mastering on a track and P told him "man nikkas in the hood don't have a good car sound system" or some shyt like that

If P wasn't a serial album dropper, the tank would have been rolling in to this very day. I swear some of the tracks sounded phoned in like crazy. Bleeding, sudden cut offs, and bad compression. Which sucks because when BBTP cooks, they cook

 

[JustCKing]

You have a point but I think they were falling in line with mainstream Hip-Hop as a whole. It was becoming a lot more formulaic and less diverse/soulful.

Listen to beats from 94-96 versus the beats from 97-99 from the likes of Bad Boy, JD, Swizz, and Timbaland.

I fon't agree with the less soulful aspect or even the less formulaic. By 1994, Hip Hop was definitely a lot more formulaic and a lot less diverse. G-Funk was the dominant sound and unless your record had some singing on it or wasn't West Coast inspired, you weren't selling in 1994. 1995 saw a deviation from that, but 1996 saw the return of the formula where The Trackmasters led, sung hooks was huge.

The soulful aspect is always there, but Hip Hop always links soul with soul sampling and automatically assume anything without a soul sample is somehow less soulful. If it has rhythm and it has bounce and it moves you, then its soulful. You had Timbaland and JD who could swing between R&B and Hip Hop, so I'm not understanding how they weren't soulful. Timbaland and Swizz were interrupters and changed the formula. Sure, they had their own formula, but it changed the sound of Hip Hop.

 

[Mac Ten]

A lot BBTP production still sounds good.


We got Lil Jon and David Banner production not too long which has some elements in em.


I’d probably blame Swizz for making it cool to use Casio preset songs too.


Folks started to sample snitch as well

 

[The_Sheff]

P had them nikkas making 300 beats a year and wouldn’t even let them finish one before he told them to make another.

Of course that shyt fell off.