currently, I can't focus on one thing at a time: one moment I am diggin ultra sloppy broken funk grooves at 90 bpm, next thing I know is that I want to get my daft punk / french house thing going ... what is wrong with me,,, ever feel the same?

Make music man. You are only doing yourself a disservice by just making 90 bpm music. These days, an artists can't be pigeonholed into just one thing.

Incorporating multiple sources of inspiration is an awesome musical challenge. I find a lot of artists who are commercially successful find "a" sound and stick with it, that becomes their identity and their fanbase can expect more of the same from album to album. Can't fault them for finding a niche ($$$), but I really wonder at how much work you put into it by the third album? A lot of the talented artists that I vibe have different monikers for different styles (Dabrye, Harmonic 313, Madlib, etc) yet each of those monikers has it's own flavor of the genre/style that they're working within. Those are the ones I like the best and is what I personally strive for in my work.

Electronic music right now is at one of it's best points, because despite all the Bro-step (LOLZ) and the Samiyam-knockoffs there's a whole wealth of artists that are saying fuck-all to genre and I'm making what I want to make.

Stagnation is death! Keep on jumping around.

versatility is where it's at man...too many people making the same shit over and over....ESPECIALLY in hip hop...thas why I was saying in another thread recently about drums that producers who make hip hop should try to branch out with their influences, as opposed to jus emulating the standard boom bapp formula...that has already been done to death and probably better than any of the knock offs will ever achieve b/c it was raw and new to the people making it at the time of creation...still I think that you need the raw classic sounding joints in your catalog, but this topic is about versatility...

fuk yea

thanks doods. make me feel all better and less weird now

[quote="Sinapse"]....ESPECIALLY in hip hop...thas why I was saying in another thread recently about drums that producers who make hip hop should try to branch out with their influences, as opposed to jus emulating the standard boom bapp formula.../quote]

SERIOUS dude, I love boombap to death but post Pete Rock era it's hard to be excited by it anymore. Black Milk is a dude I look to for innovative and interesting drums, and love him or hate him Timbaland has dope / unique rhythmic sense. Dabrye likewise, I feel like he's boiled down all of the hip hop rhythms ever used, deconstructed them and perfected a lot of them. 1/3 and 2/3 are nice for that.

Not to derail but so much of early hip hop came from the techniques and the limitations of the tools (SP / MPC), so now that so much of those limitations have been lifted, why would stay with the same techniques? Hip hop dogma!

Closing disclaimer: I knock a simple boom bap oftentimes when starting a track but am trying to grow out of that. No hate, just think we can go further.

+1

Just make what your heart feels and never look back.

i would say 60 percent standard 90s boom bap

40 percent everything else,

you have to keep an open mind and be versatile or life just gets boring making the same beat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again., the neighbors love it !

With respect to everyones comments-asking why hip hop producers should still stick to boom bap is like asking rock musicians why they still make songs with just acoustic guitar. It's just tradition,and the sound of a culture. I'm all for expanding the boundries in any genre of music or art- I wanna do some expeimental stuff myself,in my own way eventually- but we always need artists in all forms of music-espescially hip hop-that stick to the original formulas and styles.Classic sounding boom bap hip hop will never,ever get old--maybe for some of you,and thats cool-but not for millions of other people that willl always have no bigger love for any kind of music then an ill ass 4/4 classic sounding hip hop beat. For me,there's nothing like it.But on a personal level-every artist just has to stick to what makes THEM happy-make music for yourself first-if that's not the case,you might as well not be doing it

The move versatility or tools you have (only comes from producing other genres and styles) the more flavor and uniqueness you can bring to boom bap or whatever bread and butter style you have.

^^yea..trying to argue that this isn't the case wasn't quite my point.But I can say there will always be your fudgemunks,your kev browns,marco polo's,etc,etc,-i.e. the next generation producers keeping classic hip hop alive. and personally,i could care less if any of them ever expands too far,if at all beyond what it is they and all the others like them do...most likely they don't either.And for real- god forbid producers ever stop using break drums & patterns lol..that new dre/em joint "i need a dr." just came on my daughters radio when i wrote that. We're talking a 2011 top 10 radio rap song with some grimy ass break drums.

ha! I knew a.D. was gonna chime in this thread with the "boom bapp is the sound of the culture" shit!! I know you weren't necessarily speaking to me directly but allow me to say: I KNOW. No one is saying to re-invent the wheel, it's more about, where are we taking this sound next? are we just going to do the same thing that our idols did??? If that were the case in other fields then nothing would ever evolve...but I did say that any Hip Hop producers needs to have the foundation joints in his catalog...how can you really expand and build on something if you aren't a master of the framework

I don't think he's really saying that either. I think he's just saying there will always be a place for more.... traditional forms of the music so don't feel like you have to create some crazy hip hop/country/electronic/whatever fusion if you are happy just doing what's in your heart. If you are being called to that, then great, do you and make it bang, but if not, don't feel like you're being stagnant. Just excel in what ever tip you're on. It doesn't make you any more or less of a musician if you're using the same old drum breaks or if you are tweaking sounds you get from your discontinued calculator that you had since the 3rd grade.

I know what he meant...a.D. is fun to have these discussions with...I don't take anything as absolute we are all just exchanging ideas here