📖The BeatTips Manual, The #1 Book On The Art and History of Beatmaking In Hip Hop, Serialized
Welcome to The BeatTips Manual by me, Amir Said, aka Sa’id when I’m making music, or just Said to all my family and friends. This newsletter serves as the home of the serialized version of my book The BeatTips Manual: The Art of Beatmaking, The Hip Hop/Rap Music Tradition, and The Common Composer (Superchamp Books), now in its SIXTH edition. If you’ve heard of The BeatTips Manual and read it (at least once), you already know what time it is! But if this is your first time hearing about The BeatTips Manual, or you’ve heard about it but never got around to reading it, I’ll make it plain: The BeatTips Manual is the definitive study of the art and history of beatmaking in the hip hop/rap music tradition.
Comprehensive, passionate and scholarly, The BeatTips Manual is much more than an instruction book for hip-hop producers...It is a thorough analysis of the hip-hop aesthetic itself. Highly recommended for anyone that takes hip-hop culture seriously."
—Joe Schloss, Ph.D, author of Making Beats
I’ve never seen anything like it! This is a great book, deep, very informative…this book is a must have, no questions, period.
—Saintjoe, SoundsandGear
Simply put, the theories and protocols for hip hop music production illustrated within The BeatTips Manual make it the best book ever written on the topic. Sa'id spans the gamut of hip hop culture with the ease of a seasoned journalist, and the reference point of a well read, passionate, eloquent, and humble b-boy participant in the weaving of the fabric that is the core of hip hop culture: Music, Dance, Graffiti and Emceeing.
There is a veritable PhD course on hip hop history and music production techniques to apply to one's own interests, expectations, and plans. For those interested in gaining a more well-rounded understanding of the beatmaking tradition of hip hop as well as the historical and academic context of it and the business associated with it, The BeatTips Manual will undoubtedly help you turn the corner toward priceless cultural enlightenment and boundless creative fulfillment. You need to read The BeatTips Manual. Trust me.
—DJ Rich Medina
For a more detailed description of The BeatTips Manual, let me break it down like this…
Out of the ruins of the South Bronx disaster came an artistically rich and deeply influential street culture: hip hop. From the start, hip hop coalesced around its music. Revered everywhere for its sound, style, force, rawness, and honesty, hip hop/rap music is one of the most popular and inclusive music traditions in the world. Although half of hip hop/rap music’s power and appeal can rightfully be attributed to the art of rapping, it is the art of beatmaking that mostly distinguishes hip hop/rap music from every other music form and musical tradition that has preceded it.
The BeatTips Manual (Amir Said) is the definitive study of the art of beatmaking (hip hop production). Brilliantly divided into five major parts — a riveting History part, an extensive Instruction (how-to) part, an insightful Interviews part, which features exclusive interviews with DJ Premier, DJ Toomp, Marley Marl, 9th Wonder and more, an explosive Music Theory part, and a Business part — The BeatTips Manual is robust, detailed, and comprehensive. Containing a sharp analysis of the origins of beatmaking, as well as its key aesthetics, principles, priorities, and predilections, The BeatTips Manual is an incisive look at the art of beatmaking and an intense read. Not only the most complete examination of the hip hop/rap music process, it’s also among the leading studies of hip hop culture itself. Destined to expand and transform traditional ideas about musicians, musicianship, and musical processes, The BeatTips Manual is one of the most important and innovative music studies ever published.
Why subscribe?
Simply put, what’s offered here is unmatched anywhere in the field of hip hop studies. Documenting the beatmaking tradition of hip hop/rap music, now more than 40 years old, is extremely challenging, and no publication or author has consistently tackled this area of study more than me. This is one reason why BeatTips and The BeatTips Manual has earned its reputation as the most trusted name in beatmaking. The BeatTips Manual was the first book published on the art of beatmaking, and it remains the only book consistently updated and whose author is still actively in the field.
But you’ll get more than the book here!
There will be some excerpts of the book and other content made available here for free, but paid subscribers will be able to read The BeatTips Manual — the FULL book, EVERY CHAPTER — in serialized form with extended commentary. Paid subscribers will also have access to:
Subscriber-only posts and full archive
FREE PDF and ePub versions of The BeatTips Manual
Expanded commentary and detailed notes
Exclusive interviews
Exclusive essays, reporting, and other writings
An ongoing bibliography and other research references
Exclusive historical maps
Exclusive beatmaking retrospectives
Comprehensive analyses of the top 200+ beatmakers/producers
Curriculum Guides
Limited edition merch
Lifetime 40% discount on hard copy versions of The BeatTips Manual and The Art of Sampling, as well as other books published by Superchamp Books
Submit your music for review by me and to have the chance to be featured on all BeatTips Network sites
Founding Members have all the perks of basic paid subscription, but they also get these bonuses:
Guest writer opportunities here and at other Superchamp Books digital publications, including but not limited to: BeatTips.com, The Art of Sampling.com, and Best Damn Writing Magazine
Book writing opportunities at Superchamp Books publications, including but not limited to: Best Damn Hip Hop Writing, Get Over: The Journal of Black Culture In America, France, the Caribbean and the UK; and Samir Cinema: The Journal of Film, Television & Streaming
Single-author book writing opportunities with Superchamp Books
Beat placement and other music project opportunities (my next album will be produced entirely by subscribers to The BeatTips Manual newsletter)
Music feedback and pointers
One-on-one writing and editing consultations (via email, phone, or Skype)
Once-a-month phone call, email, or Skype consultations about your music, art, writing; or you can just pick my brain (I’m into a lot of things, and I know people around the world — take advantage of this)
Superchamp Books grants for creatives (SBC Grants)Subscribe now
Basic paid subscription is $10 per month or $70 a year. (Founding Members paid subscription is $180 a year.) Proceeds go directly to helping me continue the work that I do in this field, which includes publishing other writers here, at other digital platforms, and in book form, like the Best Damn Hip Hop Writing series, which currently features books by Yoh Phillips and Dart Adams.
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