For this listing:

AUTHENTIC, GRITTY, URBAN HIP HOP INSTRUMENTALS needed by a Music Supervisor for "a macho TV show." Quoting her again: "Cues need to have weight, edge and a sense of urgency and/or menace. Tempos can be slow and ominous to hard-driving (for chase scenes). Orchestral hybrids are fine. Please make sure your tracks can stand on their own. Tracks that are obviously songs mixed without the rap vocals to make them instrumental won't work here. Incorporate frequent change-ups and builds. We're NOT looking for club or dance music but tracks with muscle and grit. Think bruised and grimy. Rock hybrids (with a Hip Hop flavor) will be considered if they fit the dark, Urban mood referenced here.


"To Intimidate"

Was my track authentic and gritty?
In your opinion(s), did it have weight, edge and a sense of urgency?
Does this track stand on its own?
I know it was slow (75 bpm) and ominous... was it dark and "urban" enough?

Hi Andy,

I like your mix very much!!

Once it got started, at around 0.34, I felt it was. BTW, my gut feeling is, this is too long to get started.

To my ear...not quite.

Well, it sounds like a track without a lead line to me. Others may disagree.

Mine's also quite slow @ 92 bpm. Yes, it was definitely dark and ominous.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart for stopping by!!

I liked your track.
It can stand on it's on - as always , depending upon the listeners listening mode.

Yes it was gritty, dark and urban.
It had enough weight and edge for me.
I don't know about urgency, neither in this music nor in general.

About the requirement of being 'authentic'. I can only relate to that by how I can wild-guess how it might be meant and how it might be interpreted and implemented by a screener. The listing says 'hip hop '. Some people might consider yours more trip hop, and not consider that as authentic hip hop. At least that's my interpretation of a comment I have received from a screener; it also could be a misinterpretation from my side.

I liked the way you organized and made a very clear arrangement.
You could perhaps have made it even easier to edit selected sections into a show by having a little more space in the breaks. As music it sounds fine as it is though.

I very much liked the last section, a fine reward to the listener! Cool lines -sophisticated at the same time as catchy.

Good luck

Thanks... all excellent points!

Andy: I liked the 'oohs" in the background mix, reminded me of a monster or something dark, very nice effect. Also like the way it picked up at the 3:00 mark, have to admit I wanted those "oohs" repeated at the end. Really a cool, wonderful piece to my ears. Ott

Hey Andy -

I like the track and posted some comments on SoundCloud. Listened to it a couple of times and I like it more each time.

One thing kept coming back to mind for me though. I know the listing says to change it up frequently, but I felt there was too much change - or maybe changing for changing's sake?

Just as an example: I really like the piano "verse" at around 1:07, but just as I am getting into it, it gets replaced with a sparser "verse". I would have liked to hear it develop a bit more - keep the momentum going. When it comes back again around 2:36, it seems to be the same section repeated? I really like the section that comes after it (around 3:04) with the guitar lead. I would like to hear those two statements developed a bit more and have the arrangement change around them?

Does any of that make sense?

To answer your questions:
- It sounded authentic and gritty to me.
- It has some weight and edge to it
- I do think parts sound like it is missing a lead line, but overall, I think it stands on it's own. Especially from 2:31 on.
- I get dark and urban from it - but I may not be the best judge of that.

I think it is a really nice track with a lot of great things going for it.

hth.

Cheers
kc

Andy,

replies to your questions in order you asked them:

1. Yes it was authentic sounding (by authentic, I think you mean sounding original and not generic?) then yes very authentic!

2. Yes, it definitely has weight to it, there's no problems there.

3. Yes, it can definitely stand on its own, especially the ending, if it was me I might use that guitar twice, once in the 1st half of song and then again in 2nd half (where you currently have it)--just because it sounds real cool and is colorful, it is kind of the lead for the song, thats why i would at least think about using it at least as a teaser in the 1st half, but thats just me and i'm definitely not the expert!

4. Yes, it was definitely dark and ominous, i thought it sounded like a mix between urban scene, the classic show "hunter" and that movie "seven," like a dark, twisted, industrial, action, sci-fi, mystery show. i can see the 3:00 to 3:30 mark being used in a CSI show intro when they show you the characters one by one.

REALLY solid rhythm section of the song from start to finish also,

Hope any of that helped

E

Great track Andy! With that stuttering snare fill, maybe we should call you AK-47!?! Sorry, bad joke.

I just wanted to add to comments posted thus far.

The drum programming at the beginning is what I believe to be considered one of the current syles of hip hop, what you'd find in the dirty south styles. Then it feels like it gets into a littlee dubstep (probably related to the trip hop comment) when the syncopated hits stop.

The second half tends to stray from the authentic hip hop, to my ears anyway. But "authentic hip hop" can mean many different things. I've been listening to hip hop since the late 80's and once you venture out of the core listenership of it(like when I started pitching music for tv), it becomes extremely skewed. Even the notion of "authentic" hip hop is very dependant on when you started listening to hip hop. So really, its anybody's guess.

A solid piece nonetheless!

I reworked a few older pieces that I thought would fit this pitch. They're "mucho grande", "pistol pete" and "the staredown" on my page. I'd appreciate your feedback on them if you get a chance.

Good luck!

Owen

Hi Andy. Great track. Stands on it's own, always interesting. Menacing vibe for sure - the aliens are approaching! Somehow seems a little sci-fi to me. Those little "jazz" piano chords might be a bit out of character? Love the guitar line at the end. Cheers, Doug