Mixin Hip Hop for beginners: tips needed!

[Silvia Nasty]

Hi everyone, I'm new in this forum, I'm also new at djing, I've been doing it just for 2months now.
I want to mix hip hop songs but I'm having hard time doing it.
I got the beatmaching part. The problem is: when do I go from one song to the other??
There's not many Hip Hop songs with long intro/outro with just kicks & snare so I don't really know how and when to make the mix. Should I use some effects???
I use a Pioneer 350 System.

Thank you in advance.

Silvia

[akswun]

know the music that you're playing. I know you're new and probably rely on long intro/outros or even looping music, if you're using a DVS. But again know your music. If a song starts after 4 beats figure out the last 4 beats in the chorus of the track you're mixing out. Same with tracks with 8 beats. Sometimes it can be a quick 2 or even a snare prior to the beat drop but knowing when to throw it in is key. If you keep on relying on long intros/outros/loops things get redundant and boring. Usually a chorus is about 16 bars but could be different depending on the song. So count, listen, count some more, listen again and again, and practice.

[Silvia Nasty]

Thank you very much for your reply.
Ok let’s say I’ll practice and understand the bars-concept, I have a new problem then: how do I go from one song to another? Simply decreasing the first song volume and raise the second very quick?? My concern is the fact that the rap part of the first one would go on the second one…I don’t know if I’m explaining myself… I just don’t think that having the two rapping together sounds well.

[akswun]

again.. so when the chorus ends on the first track ie. 16 or 8 bars/beat chorus and the song you're mixing in has a 4 or 8 bar/beat intro(no rapping) you mix it in. You can slowly decrease the volume on the track you are mixing out of and raise the volume you're mixing in. So it should sound like one track ending and the other starting with no overlapping rapping.
It would help you out if someone showed you and there are numerous videos on youtube to show you how to mix hiphop/rap.

[nevin]

Pretty simple: learn how long your intros are. Most hip hop songs have an 8 bar chorus (32 beats). They usually end with this chorus. As a beginner I would use this method, it's how I learnt:

- Deck A is currently playing through the speakers.
- on deck B, Set the cue point for your incoming song 8 bars before the vocals start. This way you know you can play the song for 8 bars before it drops into singing.
- when deck A is nearing the end of the song, the last chorus will start. As soon as this starts, press play on deck B. Now tha chorus will play for 8 bars on deck A, and the intro will play for 8 bars on beck B. right when the chorus on deck A ends, the vocals on deck B starts.

This is a great way to learn timing. Once you get used to this you will be able to adapt to shorter and longer intros and outros...

Practice and enjoy ;)