If you’ve been following the site, then you’ve surely seen the loose Add-2 records that producer LONEgevity has been remixing and dropping. Well, basically Add sent LONE a whole gaggle of vocals, and LONE took it upon himself to build tracks around them.
We now have the final results below the cut, as well as a track-by-track description of the entire album. Check out what went into the One Man Duo below.
Add-2 x LONEgevity – One Man Duo Remixes
1) The Crown – This was the second to last song I did. I needed something
to set the project off, and wanted to use this acapella as an intro
because of how it came on. It’s like “I’m Here…Pay Attention!”2) Cassette Tapes – This was the second track I did off of the project,
and it just happened to be on Dilla day. I wanted to give it a classic
sound, and the sample that I used is from a joint Dilla sampled from
“Donuts”… I dropped a couple hints throughout the instrumental so that
people could follow if they weren’t quite sure where it was from (a
Motherlode sample). The simple fact the song was named “Cassette Tapes”
made it an easy choice to take the song where I did. Some classic boom bap
ish.3) Gotdamn – I made this joint right after Comic Book Flow, and quite
honestly wanted to give a newer/modern epic heavy sound. Something
vicious. Him saying in the beginning “sounds like somebody about to die in
this mother fucker” made me want to add the strings. This is probably my
favorite track from the project. I just think the beat and lyrics/flow
match each other perfectly. Makes me frown.4) Comic Book Flow – I made this remix right after Cassette Tapes. I had
the Mighty Mouse / Danger Mouse samples handy due to a beat battle contest
the year before, and I knew it was going to work for this idea. I kept the
beat open because Add was spitting on it and I wanted to accent his lines
more than a usual track. This was probably the easiest beat to make. Oh,
and yeah, the fact that Add is a shorter emcee, that body’s tracks, kind
of hit me while I was making it. You know, Mighty Mouse taking on bigger
opponents and such…no? Never mind.5) 75 Bars – This was one of the last ones I did. Minus 2-3 of these
acapellas, I had no idea what the originals sounded like. This one, I
assumed, was over The Roots “75 Bars”. So, I grabbed the drums in that
track, which I have dipped into before, chopped them up, and added simple
screech-sounding string chords on top of them to give it the super villain
feeling. I decided I wanted to add a similar vocal effect as Black Thought
had on the original 75 bars too, so I did that. I can see a video to this
all gothem style. “I hate wack rappers..I hate wack rappers… ain’t no
punch line… I just hate wack rappers”.6) The Menace Returns – The first thing I thought of when I saw the title
was Star Wars, and then I heard the Darth Vader line. The low-fi drums and
David Axelrod strings we’re my attempt of a hip-hop-version-song that
could play at the end credits of a Stars Wars movie. You know.7) Luxury – This was the first track I worked on for the project…I
actually made the first 5 remixes in a span of 5-6 hours. My
interpretation of the song was that it was about them ladies that have
tunnel vision…but we can’t help but still like a certain part about
them. He spun it like “look, I know you think you know what makes you
happy and shit, but I’m about to show you something else more valuable”.
The song has a strong superficial type of feeling while not at the same
time, a duality of sorts, and I wanted to give it a vibe that was
completely different than the original. I wanted to accent his expression
and undertone of the song, and that’s why I used the chords I did.8) Maybe It’s Me – This song had such a serious tone to it, I needed to
add some heavy minded piano chords that gradually changed throughout the
song as he progressed with his verses. I didn’t want to take away from
what he was saying with this one.9) Mydas Slow – I actually had this beat for a while, and tried to write
to it a couple times, but never had anything I really liked. For this
acapella, I wanted to have a beat that could carry itself during the
chorus since there was nothing there, and this is a beat I could listen to
without words. When he said “God trying to speak homie, listen”… and
then the singing part came on… it just felt right. This is the only
track I didn’t make on the spot, although I did change it some.10) Starter Jacket – The second half of this project definitely has a more
serious tone to it, and the childhood tales and reminiscent vibes of this
song kind of me do the same. I was in a Radiohead type of mood, so I
chopped up a song from “Hail to the Chief”, and honestly is one of my
favorite songs on the project. It’s another song, as Add tends to have,
that I didn’t want the beat to interfere in what he was expressing. I was
simple on purpose.11) Respect – This is the last song I remixed for the project, and for
some reason I wanted to end it on this type of a note rather than an
extremely high one. I liked the fact that he’s saying he’s here for
respect, and then it’s a wrap. “I’M HERE FOR RESPECT”…the end.