CUES
Honestly, I've had so much going on through out the week and last week as well that by the time I got to this week's work I didn't even remember what either cue sounded like anymore. Since I started making more beats lately I notice that I have that problem to a bit more of an extreme than my lyrical works. With the hip hop cue I remember that I didn't even bother to look at any reference material to prepare, I just looked at the instructions in FSO and since I enrolled to gain my lacking confidence in my production, I would say that I was feeling very confident to just go at it. I'd say that I love that the violins personally sound like they dance together in a ballad of constant and even overlapping call and response. Because I didn't use a reference for this track I assume that I did my regular once I decide on a key, I play around on the keys to find either what my melody will be or start with a chord. This one I know was a combo of the main melody heard through out the "hook" portions of the instrumentation and the percussion assisted synth heard in the intro. I think my favorite part of the beat overall is the way that I chose to switch up the hook portion in the latter part of the song. First when it initiates and adding changes once it reaches its repeat point. I've already sort of developed a way of producing in gathering up all the sounds I want with either an 8 or 16 bar/measure loop and once I think I have everything that will be playing at once in the busiest parts, I begin arranging for sections based on what I feeling and then add in new instruments for layering if needed, fully build out the chords or add moments of flare to create some movement and this piece allowed me to do that in a somewhat free manner that I really enjoyed.
Portfolio 3
CURRENT-Sounding TRAP-Influenced POP SONGS with Male or Female Vocals are needed by a U.K.-based Artist. This Artist is searching for a bunch of Mid-to-Up-Tempo Songs in the general wheelhouse of the following references: WARNING: The references may include graphic and explicit lyrics. Listener discretion is advised. "There She Go" by Justin Bieber feat. Lil Uzi Vert "I Don't Do Drugs" by Doja Cat feat. Ariana Grande "Talk About Love" by Zara Larsson feat. Young Thug Please send current-sounding Pop Songs with Trap-influenced beats that could work. Your submissions should have memorable melodies, ear-worm hooks, well-crafted lyrics, slick rhythms, expressive, well-performed vocals, and tons of mainstream, commercial appeal. Contemporary Pop instrumentation that falls in the general ballpark of the references will work best for this request.
LYRICS: Verse 1: Got some questions, need your help to get em solved Are you attracted to me like I am you Girl it’s law Or what you doing after this I’m tryna get involved If I left my number for you Tell me would you call Yeah yeah yeah Tell me ‘fore I fall If you don’t and this just trouble imma say it’s all your fault But I feel like there’s a reason that our paths are in a cross OMG Girl who dropped you cause I swear that it’s they loss. Chorus: Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you a star Verse 2: Ooh baby you the truth Knock it out the park with what you got On Babe Ruth I ain’t got no option but to try and play it cool On some Martian shit girl if I seen you I’d need proof Cause they do not believe me ooh you seeing what you do Take me away in your ship I wanna roll witchu Swear I’ve been abducted before It ain’t nothing new Tell the US chill what they revealing on the news Cause if they knew what I knew they’d be tryna link up too Chorus: Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you a star Bridge: Star babygirl Yeah you a star Tell me where you from I promise I won’t tell no one Girl I got a feeling you could really take me far I laugh and mean it literally You see what you’ve begun Chorus: Said ooh baby Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you star
PROGRESS: 4/12/24 CHOSEN OPPORTUNITY: CURRENT-Sounding TRAP-Influenced POP SONGS with Male or Female Vocals are needed by a U.K.-based Artist. This Artist is searching for a bunch of Mid-to-Up-Tempo Songs in the general wheelhouse of the following references: WARNING: The references may include graphic and explicit lyrics. Listener discretion is advised. "There She Go" by Justin Bieber feat. Lil Uzi Vert "I Don't Do Drugs" by Doja Cat feat. Ariana Grande "Talk About Love" by Zara Larsson feat. Young Thug Please send current-sounding Pop Songs with Trap-influenced beats that could work. Your submissions should have memorable melodies, ear-worm hooks, well-crafted lyrics, slick rhythms, expressive, well-performed vocals, and tons of mainstream, commercial appeal. Contemporary Pop instrumentation that falls in the general ballpark of the references will work best for this request. Key: E Major Tempo: 150 bpm Song Form: ABABCB (Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus) Lyrics: “Star” written and performed by Samaad Terrel Thompson (ASCAP) Progression: I V iv viiº vi visus2 Verse 1: Got some questions, need your help to get em solved Are you attracted to me like I am you Girl it’s law Or what you doing after this I’m tryna get involved If I left my number for you Tell me would you call Yeah yeah yeah Tell me ‘fore I fall If you don’t and this just trouble imma say it’s all your fault But I feel like there’s a reason that our paths are in a cross OMG Girl who dropped you cause I swear that it’s they loss. Chorus: Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you a star Verse 2: Ooh baby you the truth Knock it out the park with what you got On Babe Ruth I ain’t got no option but to try and play it cool On some Martian shit girl if I seen you I’d need proof Cause they do not believe me ooh you seeing what you do Take me away in your ship I wanna roll witchu Swear I’ve been abducted before It ain’t nothing new Tell the US chill what they revealing on the news Cause if they knew what I knew they’d be tryna link up too Chorus: Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you a star Bridge: Star babygirl Yeah you a star Tell me where you from I promise I won’t tell no one Girl I got a feeling you could really take me far I laugh and mean it literally You see what you’ve begun Chorus: Said ooh baby Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you star Progress Report: Week 1 (I logged my progress in the project session notes and pasted here) I checked tempo and key for “There She Go” and have chosen to use the 150BPM but stray away from my references A major key. Chosen E major I V iv viiº vi vi sus 2 Track 1 laid using Kontakt 7 “40 Seasons” Track 2 laid using FM8 “Telepath” Track 3 (main drum) added using Kontact 7 “40’s Very Own - Drums” Track 4 (hi Hats) added using Kontact 7 “40’s Very Own - Drums” Track 5 added perc Started writing verse 1 to 8 bar loop Also started chorus/hook idea Verse 1: Got some questions, need your help to get em solved Are you attracted to me like I am you Girl it’s law Or what you doing after this I’m tryna get involved If I left my number for you Tell me would you call Yeah yeah yeah Tell me ‘fore I fall If you don’t and this just trouble imma say it’s all your fault But I feel like there’s a reason that our paths are in a cross OMG Girl who dropped you cause I swear that it’s they loss. Maybe chorus: Did you fall Fall from the sky Yeah like a star Star of my eye You got no flaws You real unusual I swear you came from Mars You keep on shining You on point Yeah you star 4/13/24 Starting to arrange Intro Verse - A Chorus - B Verse - A Chorus - B so far - Bounced from there to continue writing while away from desk Contemplating between a third verse or a bridge, second verse started. May do a third verse with bouncier drum line so I can rap rap, rather than do the melodic rap/sing style… - Made altered bounce to write away from desk some more - Got covered in pickle juice opening the jar for daughter… thinking about scratching this whole thing and making the song about pickles….🤔 It is now Sunday…. 4/14 (Rapper mind speaking) Really liking my second verse so far… may just settle for bridge because of it… - 1:44am I got a bridge! ABABCB for sure Plugged in iPad to prep possibly recording in the car because all the kids are awake. Wait… Can you do comp take recording on Logic for the iPad?🤔 I already know that I want to add a few more elements into the music/beat - especially something to compliment the melody sung in the chorus - 1:57am Bouncing 3rd version for car recording (salty I’m not using my sm7b but maybe on a later draft) - 2:29am Finally found everything I need to record on the iPad! Recorded from 3 to 4 am DId it at wrong tempo Redid vox in car from 330 pm to about 5pm… bout died lol Now all of my MIDI isnt working any longer smh Fixed all the MIDI, some things may sound slightly different from bounces. 6:15pm Let’s attempt to get our vox audio with the MIDI work. If that doesn’t work as planned we can ttrack out these MIDI tracks and move them into the vox session as audio and then add on from there. 6:18pm yeah… I’m just gonna go ahead with the latter solution cause I’m more sure of that working anyway and gives a chance to lighten up the non existent load of the session 7:18pm Wrapped up all comp sections Mixing the beat tracks now 7:21pm Spreader applied to “40 Seasons” 7:33pm beat mix done for now adding vox back in 7:45pm Vocals added into mix still mostly dry. Actually… bouncing this dry version of the mix.I like how I sound I can’t recall if I made notes of things I want to add for sure but: More melodic elements in the chorus as far as instrumentation is concerned, specifically to emphasize the sung melody The final bar of the bridge has the chord do a strum and I would like to add an element into the music that only appears in the bridge and shares that same strum maybe a guitar but of course that’s the easy go to. Oh! I still didn’t add a baseline so THAT may actually be real number one Add bass notes to the chords I don’t want to stray away from the slightly more simplistic sound of the song if I can help it so I want to add meaningful layers, more so focused on texture. GET THE WET MIX ROLLING 4/21/24 FIXED PROGRESSION Changed BRIDGE Progression Added bass note to progression Added Bass line Additional mixing 4/25/24 Added lead sounds mainly for chorus support
By Any Means
Time to Waste
XXI X Terrell (2016)
This is an important album in many ways. The first body of work upon finding out I was becoming a father (EXCLUDING the Cincinnati Maniac mixtape released on New Years of 2016). The final body of work for my trilogy of albums (FOUND, Memoirs of a Cincinnati Maniac and now, XXI). This album captures my feelings from being 19 and learning of becoming a father, moving to Florida and feeling completely alone, becoming 20 years of age and a father on the same day and other events leading to becoming 21 years old with only one song being created after that point (XX to XXI). This album is also special in that it is the final project I'll be releasing under the name of Terrell. From here on out, I'll be going under the moniker of Codiac. Any beat I produced on this album will be credited to the name Codiac. XXI as it stands right now IS NOT 100% complete. Approximately 60% of the album is mastered with the rest only being mixed and there is one beat on this album that I still need to purchase. This album is still going up for commercial release once all of these things are taken care of. I just didn't want to pass another New Years still working on this album so I decided to give you guys what it is currently. I put a great amount of hard work and emotion into the making of this album and with all of that being said, i hope you guys are able to really take it in and resonate with it.
Thank you.
In My Skin X Codiac (2017)
Previously known as Terrell, Codiac has changed more than just his name, he is bringing forth a new style that was heard from him very minimally prior. In this album debut under the new moniker, we explore Codiacs deepest thoughts and a taste of what it's like to be in his skin from dealing with fake people around him and being homeless in the middle of a midwest winter to fighting through for his 2 young children. We hear a man that has felt so low that although he isn't afraid to let you know he isn't Christian nor religious, admits to praying a few times during his low points. Accompanied with a few upbeat songs as well, this one is sure to please a large hip hop crowd.
