Finebeats

Stayed Tuned for a brand new look on Finebeats as we join forces with one of the hottest UK Production minds in the form of  Stealf, as we see the launch of “The Chop Shop”.

Stay locked, Details to follow real soon .

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Back again with UK production machine Stealf and it seems to be the time of year when everything is happening !

Since our first diary entry we have been tracking the progress of “The Artful Dodgers EP”, an offering from Solomon produced by Stealf. We figured that by now this must be wrapping up, and us being us we wanted to be in the know about what was happening,

“The Artful Dodgers EP is pretty much ready to go now. We dropped the first track, “Not Your Fault” last week and unveiled the artwork. I was really impressed with the reception the track got, so hopefully that’s got peoples appetite worked up. The other tracks on the EP are just as good too, It’s got a lot of diversity. I think we have to just OK the last track for mastering and then we can get a release date set.”

This has so far proved to be a busy year for Stealf and we wanted to take a look at how the business end of things were going and in particular what was happening with his label De Facto Entertainment,

“De Facto is coming together really nicely. Currently we have 4 artists on the roster with possibly one more to add. I’m aiming to get a release out from each artist in the form of 5-8 track EPs, which will give people an idea of each artists styles. The artists are all doing their own mixtapes on the side, so people can already hear them, but the EPs will be their first proper release from De Facto. Parv and I were going to start work on his album, because he’s put out a lot of mixtapes, but we’ve decided to get to work on an EP for him too. Clas-Sick and myself have an 8 track EP in the works too, all the beats are in place, so recording can start now. It’s working title at the moment is “The Return Of The Real” and just from the beats it’s looking like something for the real hip hop heads already. Suus dropped “The Prototype” EP recently which you can get from his bandcamp website, http://suus.bandcamp.com/album/the-prototype-ep, for £2. JR Delorean is the newest signing to the label, and I’m going to be working with him to get some material out there too, but that’s going to be well worth the wait.”

Since our exclusive review of ” I am Stealf” we figured there was probably alot of action backstage as the drop date approaches, we wanted to see how things were going,

“I Am Stealf” is VERY nearly ready, finally. I’m mastering the project myself, and at the moment 12 out of 25 tracks are ready to go. Unfortunately, due to all the other previous mastering issues and delays, it’s not going to be ready in time for the May 23rd release date, but a new one will be announced very soon. It’s taken 4 years to get this far, and there have been masters that I could have released in order for it to be released on schedule, but I wasn’t completely happy with them, so unfortunately that means I gotta get it right and release a bit later than planned. I can’t apologize enough for the constant delays, but I can promise you, it’s something that can be justified, and hopefully you’ll agree when it’s eventually released”.

With one EP almost done aand an album waiting to drop, we figured we would find out what Stealf has been up to recently, to check he hadn’t become a reclusive hobbit now that the hard work for such projects is coming to a close, and in particular wanted to find out about ideas we were hearing about, in the form of Battle Ep’s,

“I’ve recently started working with other indie artists and doing some special deals on a Stealf produced 5 track EP. While I was getting word out about them, I was approached by Kid Pest about doing a collabo EP with himself and Parv. This got me thinking, cos previously Pest and Parv have had beef, and it’s since been squashed. But I came up with the concept of a Battle EP. Each artist has an intro track, which does as it suggests, gives the artists a track to introduce themselves, then there’s 2 battle tracks, where both rappers exchange bars over specially constructed beats, finishing with a collabo track aimed at any rapper thats wants to take them on. The idea was promote a bit of healthy competition, squash beefs and push artists creativity. So we’ve started work on the first one and we’ll see how it comes out.”

Ne thing else ?

“Other stuff I have going on are a number of EP’s, including all the ones mentioned previously, as well as the untitled EP with Jackitdown Brown, who showed me a lotta love in a recent interview he did “Check out  interveiw with Jackitdown Brown  here ), and the Mr Flix EP “Conceptualized Deceit” which is coming along really nicely. I have a lot of releases planned for this year and the one’s I’m working on right now have genuinly got me inspired. This is the kind of hip hop I’ve always wanted to be making.”

So no reclusive Hobbit status to report this week, but there is plenty to be watching out for from Stealf and you will hear all about it here on Finebeats ………..  stay tuned .

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Ok so recently we bought you the EXCLUSIVE review on the upcoming “I Am Stealf” offering and we couldn’t wait to catch up with Stealf and see what he thought of the review and what sort of response he has had to it,

“I was blown away by the album review. I was confident it would be a positive review, but I wasn’t expecting the review it got. It was so good to read that the first person outside my camp to listen to the album picked up on all the little details, and figured out the purpose for every track. I couldn’t have asked for a better reception to the 4 years work I put in to making this album.”

We were obviously pleased that the review had gone down well with the man himself but we wanted to know if there had been any other reactions to the review and how it feels to finally get an outside view on things, Read the rest of this entry »

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We finally got it !!! We bugged Stealf constantly until he gave in and gave us a copy of his upcoming album “I am Stealf” for its first EXCLUSIVE review.
There is alot to get through here so we are going to jump straight in and get down to business with this Album.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Ok so our weekly quest to interrogate our favorite producer continues and we will jump straight in and ask Stealf what’s been cracking this week

“Been a SLLLOOOWWW week this week. The bank holidays don’t help. It’s nice to have the time off, but everyone’s doing stuff so getting things moving this week has been tough.”

However Stealf’s idea of slow isn’t as slow as some might think as there is a certain matter of “The Artful Dodgers” EP to complete and a certain “I am stealf” album to polish up,

“It’s still a case of mastering and seeing how it sounds. I’ve heard a few more tracks, and the sound is getting there, still not quite right, but much closer than last week. Still gotta put this feature track together, but that’s gonna take a bit of time too. It’s at that stage where it feels like it’s just stopped, not even going slowly, but stopped. Before, where I had a more hands on part, everything was a rush, but now I’m the one waiting to get masters and new mixdowns and seems to be long.” He explained

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Need a beat ?  UK Producer Stealf is currently running his Easter Beats deal, giving you access to some banging beats at bank holiday prices. Get in touch with Stealf HERE to get your own piece of UK made creativity.

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Ok so this week marks a month of our merciless harassment of UK production mastermind Stealf, and with the “I am Stealf” album creeping closer and a number of collaborations and production appearances thrown in for good measure, now is definitely not a time to start sleeping on a true UK Genius who we associate with the “Not if but when …” tag when foreseeing his involvement in the fabric of UK Hip Hop. Read on as the Stealf story gathers more momentum.

First on the agenda was Stealf’s continued involvement with “The Artful Dodgers” release from U.S Rapper Solomon, a project of which we have been following since our first diary session with Stealf,

“So far I’ve had a couple of tracks come back mixed and mastered. The mastering still needs some work though. The vocals sound really nice, but my beats have had all the dynamics sucked out of them. The drums are lacking the punch they had in the pre-master mixes and that’s really letting them down. I’ll see how the others come back sounding and if need be, I’ll have to go and remix the beats and give the drums a boost to compensate. Right now though it’s proving to be a bit of  a waiting game while the mastering engineer does his work.The track that features Sha Stimuli and Chaundon is still to be recorded, but once that’s done, all the production work is complete and it’s just a case of getting the mixing and mastering right”.

We have been getting a bit impatient lately about the upcoming album release “I am Stealf” and wanted to find out if there has been any progress in terms of  a solid release date or promotion for the upcoming offering and Stealf decided to pacify our impatience and had a few words for us on the upcoming release,

“The promo for the album won’t start untill we have set a release date, so all we’re doing at the moment is mentioning it on the social networks and letting people know it’s coming. Once the release date has been set, we can start to really push it” Stealf Stated. “The artwork is also next on the “To Do” list. As soon as that’s done we can get the promo artwork done too. It’s all coming together nicely, slowly, but nicely.”

Stealf also explained his thoughts and hopes for the upcoming release,

“I’m really looking forward to hearing what people think of this project. It’s something different. It’s got all the elements of old skool hip hop with a slight twist. The subject matter and the beats together make for a really interesting album and I’m looking forward to getting some feedback on this one.”

With an increasingly busy schedule emerging, we got an idea of what was on the Stealf Horizon,

“Once the Artful Dodgers release is out there, I’ve got an EP with Jackitdown Brown coming out, then I start work on an album with my artist Clas-Sick. That’s gonna be something for the hip hop heads. I’m also executive producing Parv’s debut album. We started work on that back in December and it’s had to be put on the back burner for a minute, but we’re back on that now too”.

Whilst on the topic we decided to catch up with what has been happening with Stealf’s  own artists,

“Parv’s also just dropped a video for his track Pot Of Gold which features Sir Mic and Miss Culley. This is a lil taste of what to expect from Parv, as well as the 2 tracks he has on my album.”

Before letting Stealf sign off we wanted to grab some final words about the upcoming album,

“I Am Stealf is still on target for May 23rd release. Like The Artful Dodgers LP, It’s still in mastering. It’s been mastered three times now and it’s really coming together. I’m exceptionally proud of this album. It really shows what some of the unsigned and underground talent can do when mixed with some big names and sonically it’s not like a hip hop album people whould’ve heard before, and especially from a UK hip hop artist too.”

For those that haven’t, check out the track list

1-Intro
2-New Song, New Vibe – Manny Moscow & Late
3-The Game’s At A Stand Still – Deeze, Konny Kon & Jadakiss
4-Where Is My Mind – Sir Mic
5-Interlude Beat one
6-Dreamer – Cyclonious
7-Underdog – Wordsmith, Kontact & Black Knight
8-End Of The Line – Suus
9-Mo Money – Jackitdown Brown
10-Interlude Beat Two
11-Crown Heights – Ruste Juxx
12-I’m getting Old – Dap C & Phil Ashmore
13-Rain Bring Pain – Nu JerZey Devil
14-Do It Live – Konny Kon
15-Interlude Beat Three
16-All On You – Parv
17-War – Deeze
18-Make It Out Alive – H.O.O.D. Fellaz
19-Stop Being Greedy – Parv & Joell Ortiz
20-Never Give Up – Capital R
21-Interlude Beat Four
22-Killer MC – Clas-Sick
23-Who Is She – Carolyn Yates & Jackitdown Brown
24-Respect Me – 40 Glocc, Bo Roc, Dap C & R H Bless
25-Can You Hear Me? (Instrumental Tribute)

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That time has come people when we catch up with UK production talent Stealf to see what has been going on and what we can get excited about.

First on our checklist was the upcoming LP “The Artful Dodgers” from U.S artist Solomon , we asked Stealf about the progress so far ,

 
“Right now the LP is still being mixed and mastered. This process can take a while though. It’ll probably go to and fro for a while until we’re happy it sounds as good as it can. I know how tricky this can be too, my album is on it’s third trip to the mastering studio. If there’s one stage worth taking your time on, it’s the final mix and master.”

Read the rest of this entry »

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A week ago to this very day, we promised a weekly update with our favorite UK producer Stealf. And true to our word we have caught up with the man himself to see how things were going and whats happening under the radar right now. First thing we were keen to discuss with Stealf was how the LP “The Artful Dodgers” with Solomon was going, here’s what Stealf had to say:

“Originally, I was going to mix the tracks down and get them ready for mastering, but due to my other commitments and Solomon knowing a professional mix engineer, we decided to go that route with it. So I’ve been mixing down the beats and getting them sounding perfect. Some of them were quite old too and I had to do a fair bit of work to bring them up to scratch but they were good enough for Solomon to record his vocals on.”

Being as nosey as we are we wanted to ask Stealf about the process he goes through when tweaking his beats :

“With the older beats, I had to run the samples through a lo-pass filter and then on a separate track, through a hi-pass filter to fill it out a bit. The drums needed compressing and EQing again too. I’m always surprised when I open up an old beat and see how I mixed it down. There was also a lot of editing and a few of the beats needed the format changing cos of the way Solomon wanted them to flow.”

So now that we knew what had been happening since we last spoke we wanted to know what work lay ahead for the completion of the LP :

“There’s 2 more tracks still to get recorded, another solo Solomon track and the feature track with Sha Stimuli and Chaundon. The feature tracks timescale will depend on when we can get the guest vocals recorded. Apart from those 2 remaining tracks, the mixing and mastering and choosing the track order, there’s still the artwork to do too, but that’s a step we’ll get to much further down the line.”

Since we were up to speed on the LP we wanted to know what other projects Stealf has on his radar at the moment, and what we can look forward to from him:

“Right now, I still have the EP with JackitDown Brown, which is almost complete too. That’s gonna be something special too. JackitDown really has his own style and he sounds crazy on my beats. My album has just been mastered and is still on track for the May 23rd release date, and apart from the 2 leaked tracks, it’s gone very smoothly so far. I’ve also started work on a collabo mixtape with Clas-Sick, an artist from my label too, which is gonna be some real hip hop. I’m keeping busy. I have spoken to a number of artists about some new work, Ruste Juxx, Freeway and Canibus, but this is still all talk right now.”

However before concluding this weeks Stealf Diary we weren’t going to let him off that easy and we wanted a tip of the week off of him to help us mere mortals learn how to make a track bang .

Stealf Tip Of The Week:

“One of the best tips I could give someone who wants to get in to production is to make sure you find your own sound. It’s more important than anything. Imitating someone who inspires you won’t make you a good producer/beatmaker. Let that inspiration influence your sound, don’t imitate it. Finding your own sound involves loads of different things, from the way you chop up a sample, to the way you use your drums, how you layer your drums, your format and even down to the way you mix the beats down. At the end of the day, I don’t want someone to say “That sounds like a sick boom bap beat”, I want them to say “That’s a sick Stealf beat”. Keep it locked on Friday’s for more from the Stealf Diaries.

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Here at Finebeats we love reporting on the news worldwide … it’s what we do. But if there is one thing we love more, its making the news. Sometimes there is real talent lurking un-discovered in the Hip Hop ranks, but many times it just seems impossible to figure out how to fit in with the fast pace world of musical production or even how to link up with the other brains needed to make things happen.

To combat this problem Finebeats.com has teamed up with UK production genius Stealf to take an inside look at the musical process in action and offer insight into how to make a Hip Hop track bang.

We pick up the Stealf story off the back of the recent completion of his upcoming album ”I am stealf” and towards the end of his current project with  U.S Hip Hop talent Solomon, an LP entitled “The Artful Dodgers LP”, which is 9 tracks deep already with the final 2 tracks already underway to finish it off.

We spoke to Solomon about his experiences of working with Stealf so far and how the two linked up,

“The 1st bit of work I heard from Stealf was on a mutual friend/emcee’s track…A cat by the name of Wordsmith. I dug the beat so much that I had to find out who made it and how I could work with
him. So after some quick searching (and a little bit of harassment…sorry Wordsmith) I ended up linking with Stealf on Facebook. We chopped it up via the inbox and concocted a plan for an LP…We were on the same page musically. We both wanted to produce a dope body of work without falling into the over saturated norm of mixtapes and dumbed down singles. So..The Artful Dodgers were born.”

Over the coming weeks we will be documenting the proceedings of the completion of the LP and hearing what Stealf has been up to with a few inside production tips and tricks along the way.

Stay tuned to “The Stealf Diaries” for weekly updates from Finebeats favourite UK producer.

Want your own stealf beat ? ……Contact Stealf  HERE for further details about working with one of the UK’s hottest talents.

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