How I Created the Slime Time Beat
Slime Time Bars by Peezy Boii
Grew up so hard, just passion for the vision
On the road, down on the pavement, low on cash, but still no limit,
Wings up to the sky, spread em fly, do it casually,
Been praying for the days, that these worries fall like ashes be,
Smoking searching on a hunt try to find the wisdom,
Constant seeking on the run for the real life I'm living,
Searching deep inside, I’m talking to my spirit.
What’s your purpose? Go hard cause it’s worth it,
Ain’t nobody perfect, everybody ain’t immersive.
Buried deep inside, but you’re trapped all on the surface,
Deserted all the lies, stay intact, some nights you’re certain.
Moving with the guide, you start from scratch and put the work in
~ Peezy Boii
Let’s Dig Deeper
Let’s dive into the Slime Time beat and allow me to break down and introduce to you my process for coming about this beat. The verse up above is something I wrote to the beat, which I thought tapped into a reflection of my thoughts.
I let them out through a verse cause sometimes it’s easier for me to do so, but also because more often than not when I write lyrics it is not a conscious effort or at a conscious level. It kind of flows and spills out of me so to say, releasing something I’ve been thinking about for days and weeks at a time.
Slime Time was a beat created to liberate some thoughts in my mind, this was my way to express it.
The Creative Process and Inspiration
The creative process can sometimes feel like a story from a movie. Every idea that comes up during creation starts like something that can be similar to a movie.
The idea begins with rising action as it is tested out and stretched. It includes a plot, which can be seen as when limitations are reached within the creative idea. Then eventually it reaches a point where it peaks and that is the climax for the idea. After the climax, the idea comes close to the result desired which can end the creative process as it goes through the falling action.
[Just because an idea is close to the result does not mean it is the end, it can lead to a new climax as well.]
In the end, it enhances the creativity or either it hinders it which creatively can be extremely detrimental.
I say all of that, to say this now. To complete the creative process for the Slime Time beat, I decided to tackle it as if it were a movie. Coming off of watching Superfly (1972) which was a 1970’s classic with the late 70’s movie star Ron O’Neal, I approached my Logic Pro X with the intent to make a story. A story that was real but also fly like the main character in the film, Priest.
Digging Deep : Melody
The melody at first was simple. Simple chords and notes which helped fill the space but also instruments that were luscious and full to create a nice hypnotic, galactic ambience for the beat. Pads and airy synths were the first thoughts to come to mind.
Lately, however, I’ve been searching for more alterations in my sounds. Recently, I have been challenging myself to tweak and change the presets in my VST’s, plug-ins, or stock plug-ins. Even though it comes at an expense of time — having to put myself in discovery mode to achieve the satisfaction with the sound I want — the end result is always a sound or a melody that always makes me feel like I’m cruising on a highway at 2 a.m. I try to elicit feelings when creating music because it’s the type of music I enjoy listening to most.
The melody was just the beginning for this beat. It’s funny because sometimes I start off with the drums for a beat like the clap and snares, or even times that I begin with the hi-hats. I suppose it all depends on the creative task at hand and the type of challenge you want to face for the type of beat being created.
After the melody was done it came down to time for the fun. The real fun for me when making beats is seeing how many different directions a melody can go. You can pitch it, reverse it, or put it in a plug-in and alter it completely. For me that is the best part and the most fun because you realize the potential of the melody.
Some pitching, reversing, and two to three plug-ins later, I came up with my melody. The only thing is, I had options to choose from and that led me to decide that their should be different sections throughout the beat.
After a few tweaks to the main melody which was composed of three instruments (pad, arpeggiated pad, piano) came the drums.
Digging Deeper: Drums
Trap drums are relatively simple. In my opinion, the creativity producers exhibit with trap drums really comes from how well the pockets of empty space between the percussion instruments, drum kicks, claps, and hi-hats all mesh together. Easier said than done, but producers develop good drum programming ears and eventually learn how to emulate live drummer patterns.
For Slime Time the drums I wanted to make were simple. Since I spent a decent amount of time on the melody and trying to allow it to be spacious enough to allow a vocalist on it, my drums were simple but packed with percussion.
Percussion is one of those things you can end up overdoing if you don’t pay attention to the empty space like I mentioned before. Adding just the right amount of percs, snares, hi hats, in the spaces between the kick and the clap is what this cook up was all about.
I tend to experiment with my drums, because I like the subtle things that make up music. [Sometimes so much that I overdo it too! #thoseareunreleased LOL! ] I like paying attention to the background so I incorporate that into my music. For Slime Time, it was about the bop the drums created.
Everything about the percussion and the hats say subtle. If you listen closely you can catch the different pieces and catch how they contribute to the larger sense of bop.
I started off simple with just a regular clap under the melody but, then I wanted to change it up so I sequenced different drum sounds and percussions where they would not normally be. For instance, a tambourine hit where a snare would hit normally. A tom with lots of reverb to land perfectly when the beat switches up.
It is good to change drums around because then you can create more authentic drums/percussion sequences and be able to differentiate your own unique sound.
After the drums were complete came the layout and that’s always the funnest part too.
Digging a Little too Deep: Layout
When I layout beats I have a formula. Different formulas for different beats that I want to create. Laying out Slime Time was something I was thinking more about developing a story for it. A story from start to finish that could be captured in a beat.
With the beginning leading off as the attention grabber with the dark space melody and thumping 808’s, it introduced the story well. But in a way that is more in media res instead of entering directly in the beginning. Kind of like Superfly(1972) that began with Priest in bed with a one of his side pieces asking him questions.
The switch ups introduce a different side of the melody. A brighter side of the melody. Which represented really the expression I wanted to give out low, high, low, etc. The change ups were intentional and were meant to seem like: “ here is the beat that really has like three beats in it, which one do you want?”
The layout was the funnest and simplest part maybe because I was inspired. But for this beat I didn’t do much except make sure to introduce each piece of the story that I was trying to tell with the layout.
Conclusion
Making beats is formulaic, in the sense that it is all about developing different formulas for success which enable a producer or beat-maker to get their ideas from their head to their Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
As you find different formulas and methods to become more efficient and effective at translating your concepts, you grow as a producer but more importantly as a person.
Music creation is more than just searching for sounds until it feels right. It goes as far as developing one’s intuition so that they can learn to feel things out and follow their gut. The necessity for intuition exists in both areas of music and in life.
Through music and music creation I’ve learned to challenge myself and that being uncomfortable is the best way to be to be successful. Hopefully my break down of Slime Time can help a few producers and beat-makers elevate their game.
“When the ideas are coming, I don’t stop until the ideas stop because that train doesn’t come along all the time.” — Dr. Dre
I offer original, mellow beats for Hip-Hop, Trap, Pop, as well as book recommendations & content tips on Instagram and BeatStars.
If you are looking for music or a beat-maker to create original content with:
Check out my new beat Slime Time out on BeatStars now!
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