Hi! I'm Lee. Welcome to my blog. Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more. I'm also working on the upcoming podcast Influenced as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends. Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page
I want to give props to the work of Alkota Beats, self described 'beat maker, blogger, and seller of custom USB jump drives and drum kits'.
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Source: www.alkotabeats.com
In the picture above, one of Alkota's flash drives is being shown off by fellow beat maker and producer illmind. The flash drives are fashioned after iconic pieces of beatmaking hardware; in this case, fashioned after the Yamaha NS-10 speaker. Special editions are often pre-loaded with a selection of Alkota's - or fellow beat bretheren including !llmind and Khyrsis's - signature drum sounds for producers to use in their own creations.
Not only limited to the NS-10s, Alkota has also crafted flash drives modeled after the classic TR 808, SP1200 and MPC 2000 XL, each in staggeringly accurate detail.
In my opinion, Alkota pulled together three related, but separate, ideas into one highly desirable product. I imagine Alkota's thought process went something like this:
'Many beat makers download/use drum samples from sample kits.
Many beat makers still use flash drives.
Most, if not ALL, beat makers fetishise one piece of iconic hardware or another...
Why not bring the three together?'
Art and business are not always compatible. However I think Alkota's flash drives exhibit strong business initiative, design skills and, most importantly, the fact that it is possible to marry the often mercenary world of commerce with a love of hip hop music and culture successfully.
Props to you, Alkota.
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