Ghostface Killah In Iron Man Movie

I finally got to check out the Iron Man movie last week. I thought it was a dope movie for many reasons. One in particular was toward the beginning of the movie when Tony Stark was on his private jet. While Tony was having a party on his jet with his flight attentants, he had a big screen TV in background with a Ghostface Killah video playing.

For those that aren't fans of Ghostface, they wouldn't have known that one of his alter egos is Iron Man aka Tony Stark. I thought what a great deal for Ghost. He doesn't sell a whole bunch of albums but he is the most consistent of the Wu Tang Clan. Truely underrated and when I met him back in the day he was very cool & humble.

One of the other reasons I liked the movie was that I'm a big kid. Iron Man was one of my favorite heroes growing up.

Also did I mention that I've always had a fantasy to fly?

Ummm, I'll tell you about that later...

Holla!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
http://www.rapbeatcreator.com/

P. S. Getting your music into soundtracks is a great way to get lots of income. If you would like to learn how to make rap beats so you can market your songs to the music supervisors for blockbuster movies click here!

P.S. Iron Man pic courtesy of Zane Rosenthal & Marvel Entertainment. Ghostface Killah pic courtesy of Adam Bielawski / Photorazzi.

BET Awards: The Best One Yet?

Whassup folks,

Did you happen to catch the BET Awards a few nights ago? Some people are saying this is the best one yet. I would have to agree with those critics. I watch the BET Awards on Tuesday night and I really enjoyed it. If you didn't watch it, you missed a treat. Everybody did a pretty good job and there were even some GREAT performances that night.

Let's get started from the beginning. D.L. Hughley was the host and he was nuts. I would've liked for him to tell more jokes but the show wasn't about him. His opening monologue was great. He ain't as busy as Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer but he is still a King of Comedy.

The opening act was Usher performing "Love In The Club". Although it wasn't one of his best performances, he gets major props on dancing on 2 moving conveyor belts going in the opposite direction. That took a lot of skill. Alot of lip syncing but that's to be expected when a person has that much dancing talent. A-Town represent!!!

Young Jeezy's set was okay but his mic sounded horrible. I thought that was unacceptable for BET because they got long money and that should have been fixed. Also, there is a slight possibility that Jeezy didn't do a sound check but I seriously doubt that was the problem. He brought out the beat creator himself, Kanye West to close out his set and his mic was horrible too. Thumbs down to BET again for the lousy engineering during this set.

Next was Keyshia Cole. Although I think she is sexy as hell and can blow with the best of them, that didn't stop her performance from being garbage. She came down from a pedestal which had been done so many times before but what really hurt her was not having any background singers. She's too dope to miss that and I don't know if it was her decision or not but her opening song was wack as hell. Then she went into her second song which was last summer's banger "Let It Go" that featured Missy Elliot & Lil Kim. Keyshia ripped off her dress and oh my God! That's one fine sista. She was rockin' some long white boots that took my mind off the horrible opening song. Lil Kim was okay and Missy wasn't there at all but Keyshia...wow. I'm still a fan...

Oh yeah. Her mom and her sister were wildin' out at the pre-show. Also, during one of the introductions of the award presenters later in the actual show, Keyshia's sister's boobs almost fell out of her dress. I'm sure men who like stacked women (me included) were just wait for them to pop out but it never happened...

I can't remember if Ne-yo went next but his show was dope. His choreographer went nuts and the whole dance team looked solid. He was probably my runner up for one of the best acts of the night. The brother's singing was pretty good even though he was dancing which was a downside to Usher's show: singing and dancing at the same time.

Also in the running for "Best Performance" was Ms. Alicia Keys. She can rock the house by herself but this time she brought along some guest from the 90's: SWV, En Vogue (all four of the original divas), and TLC (R.I.P. Left Eye). Me and my wife were out of our seats because it was basically an old skool concert for us. And since we both from "The A", when everybody on stage started doing the Bankhead Bounce, we went bannanas and started doing it too. What a treat!!!
Now we all know Chris Brown can dance, right? He's been dope since "Run It" and this time he had Ciera with him. They did an awesome routine where she fell down backwards and he caught her with the heel of his foot, kicked her back up and kept on rockin'. Hot!! Very Hot!!!

One of the wildest performances of the night was my homie T-Pain. If nothing else, he gets props for his outfit. My wife said it was teardrops and I said it was paisley but aren't paisley prints shaped like teardrops? Anyway...T-Pain did his thing and his acceptance speech for "Best Collaboration" with Kanye West was too funny.

Back to his show... Pain did "Ringleader" then he brought out Flo Rida who rocked "Lo". Flo dropped a verse then out came Rick Ross to perform his current hit which also features T-Pain. Then came my joint - "I'm So Hood" by DJ Khaleed - the remix version featuring ATL's own Big Boi from Outkast and Ludacris. It was cool because I've met both of them on several occasions and Luda was the first commercial radio DJ to play my vinyl on the air back in the day. Good to see them both makin' moves. T-Pain's set gets props all the way around.

Rihanna's set was cool. What was dope about her set was that you could look around in the audience and see people in the crowd singing with her on "Take a Bow". She only did that one song and I really wasn't that familiar with it but she did pretty good.

At this point the show went into overdrive. After D.L. Hughley introduced Marvin Sapp as Warren Sapp, Marvin tore it down with "Never Should Have Made It". It was good to hear because he changed the energy of the show. And the song is dedicated to his late father so that made it even better when he won the award for "Best Gospel Artist". At the end of Sapp's set, Hughley appologized for calling him Warren which showed alot of character for Hughley.

Sapp's set was great segway into the "Lifetime Achievement Award" presentation by Queen Latifah for Al Green. This was probably the best part of the show. After a video presentation about Al Green career, Jill Scott came out and started singing an Al Green classic. She was followed by Anthony Hamilton who sounded damn near like Al Green. The Mr. Missing In Action himself, Maxwell, came out and closed up that part of the set.

Then Mr. Green got up, accepted his award, then tore the stage down! I mean everybody was up out of their chair dancing & singing along. It was good to see Al turn it out in front of so many young heads. He had so much energy and stage presence. His career of 30 years is truly a lifetime achievement and most artist including myself dream of having careers that long. Thanks Al for all the good music you have put out over the years.

Next was Nelly who came out and rocked with Jermaine Dupri and then Fergie. His set was good but its hard to follow Al Green!!! Nice try Nelly but you still get mad props because the girls in T-Pain's set all had Apple Bottom Jeans on...even the ones on stilts.

To close out, Lil Wayne, who won the "Viewer's Choice", rocked with T-Pain so joint from his new album. It wasn't his hottest joint ever but the crowd was amped and rightfully so. Wayne is the man right now especially with over 1 million 1st week record sales. Nobody's done that since 50 Cent. Big ups Lil Wayne! You deserve it!

So yes, this year's BET Awards was probably the best ever and you can catch the reruns if you missed it.... Holla!!!

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
http://www.rapbeatcreator.com/

P.S. Don't forget I will be posting a series of tutorials on the blog as well as email. If you haven't already signed up for my email list, you da one who's missin' out!!!

P.S.S. All pics courtesy of BET, Inc.

Hear & See Me Create A Rap Beat From Scratch

Over the next few days I will be showing you how I create a beat from scratch. I will be using audio and video so you can see just how easy this is. If you're on my email list, you will be getting these videos in your inbox. If not, what are you waiting on?

Subscribe today and you'll get 7 free rap beats while they last.

Be on the look out for the next post or email.

Holla...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

P.S. As always if you want to learn how to make rap beats, check out Music Producer Pro by clicking here.

2 of Hiphop's Greatest Beat Makers Battle in L.A.

I'm surprised I didn't hear about this earlier. DJ Pete Rock vs. DJ Premier going back and forth on the wheels of steel. I woulda love to be a fly on the wall in that joint. I've been rockin' to both of these cats since the early 90's. I gotta say I missed a good one and I feel even more outta place because it happened on April 18, 2008.

And I'm just hearing about it today!!!

Any true head should know how these two legends are. I mean, I still rock Mecca and The Soul Brother like it came out yesterday. And who ain't noddin' their head when Mass Appeal comes on by Gangstarr (produced by DJ Premier). If you haven't heard of these two then you're either mad young or been under a rock for all of your life.

I've seen both of these guys live separately but to see them together would've been a treat. I'm mean look at this crowd:

Here are some other close up pics. All photos courtesy of Scifen:

This is CLASSIC Hiphop!!!!

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

P.S. Get Ya Skills Up! Learn How To Create Rap Beats For CASH like DJ Premier & Pete Rock. Click Here For More Info!

Do Your Rap Beats Make Kids Dance?

Happy Father's Day to all my dads out there!

Last week I created a beat that was pretty simple. Its actually in its beginning stages but it should be pretty hot (by my opinion) once its completed. Right now it just basic with a kick, a snap, hi hat, & a melody. It's just enough for me to figure out where I want to go with the beat.

I created it in the wee hours of the morning then I went to bed. After I woke up and began moving around in the house, I put the beat on so I could remember what I was working with and my daughter came in the room and started to dance.

I was buggin'!!! She's only 4 years old and it brought something to mind that Snoop Dog said years ago: create music that even a 3 year old can understand.

So this is my question to you - Do you create rap beats that make kids want to dance? Even if you like complex beats, you still should have a few simple beats in your catalog. Listen to the radio and I'll bet you the songs in the top 10 all have simple beats. There's nothing wrong with complex, detailed beats but simple sells.

Just something to think about...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

P.S. If you want to learn more about creating rap beats for money click here!!!

How To Create Rap Beats That Create Residual Streams Of Income…Forever!

For people who are new to making rap beats for dollars, here is an interesting concept: if you create a hot beat, it will pay you many times over and above the time it took to create it. What do I mean when I say this? I mean your beats have value, not only to you but to others as well.

My rap group Prophetix, put together a single back in 2000 called "True Urban Grit". It was the first song we recorded with our new Dee Jay/producer. Little did we know that this song would become a standard (a song that stands the test of time) in our music catalog. We released the single to as many media outlets as we could including commercial, non-commercial, and college radio. We sent out press releases, email blast, and performed that song all over the United States. We even sent copies of it overseas.


We'll that song not only was a favorite in our live shows but it became #1 on Tokyo, Japan's most popular rap radio shows. Yes, I said Japan. We sold all of the copies that were pressed up so we made some money as well as gained recognition. After we had completed several other projects a few years later, we get a call from DJ Numark from Jurassic 5.

This was in 2005. My DJ knew Cut Chemist who was the other DJ in Jurassic 5 and I'm not sure how Numark got the song but somehow it ended up in his hands. He wanted to put out a mixtape with "True Urban Grit" on it so we begin negotiations. After the negotiations were over we finally agreed on some upfront cash to let him use the rights to our song. We settled on $1,500.00 which is not too bad for a song that was created 5 years earlier. The part that is even more amazing is that he only used the first 30 seconds of the song.

This was pretty cool considering we didn't expect this money to come at all. This is the power of not only creating rap beats but understanding music publishing as well. Creating rap beats is an investment in your future. Is this for everyone? Certainly not, but for those that are serious about being in the business of music, it would do you good to learn about music publishing and royalties.

Wouldn't it be good to collect checks over and over for music you only worked to create once? I have only scratched the surface of the power of creating rap beats. Some artists don't even know they can collect fees for licensing their beats to BMI and ASCAP. These are the publishing societies that license your music to radio, television, movies, ringtones, etc. They also collect payment for you and send you a quarterly check if anyone uses your music.

Imagine what kind of checks Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Kanye West, and Just Blaze get just for creating rap beats. Now imagine how it would feel if you were getting these checks. It would feel good wouldn't it? So what are you waiting on? You have beats to create! Get started making and marketing your beats now and with a bit of luck and hard work you can get rich by making beats.

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Music Producer Pro: Create Rap Beats Overnight

Whassup Folks,

I thought the Rap Beat Manual was pretty good. I've found something even more thorough to help you get your production skills up to par and moving in the right direction.

This program is called Music Producer Pro and it comes with video tutorials and a load of bonuses. You can check it out by clicking here.

Let me know what you think...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

http://www.rapbeatcreator.com/

P.S. If you are serious about getting started and creating rap beats as quick of the click of your mouse you should really check out Music Producer Pro. Holla...