YouTube's Rap Instrumental Subculture Is a Wonderland

YouTube is a weird and wonderful world for amateurs. I don’t mean that in a negative way; its whole platform makes it an ideal format for bedroom producers, would-be contestants on “The Voice,” and ineffectual white dudes with guitars around the world to come together and share their remixes, homages, interpretations, and covers of other people’s works.

Housed within YouTube, there exists a fascinating subculture of producers who have entire channels dedicated solely to remaking popular rap beats as instrumentals. Sometimes it is as a creative exercise for the producers; other times it’s a more of a functional need, creating a soundalike copy of a beat not available so that other rappers can jump on it.

Some producers are quite gifted at this; Some reinterpretations are nearly pitch-perfect, sounding almost identical to the tracks they’re remaking. More frequently though, they sound like Muzak remakes; bland, lifeless, limp copies that end up sounding like corporate stock music, or an über-conceptual James Ferraro project. Then, there are remixes that get it so amazingly wrong that they come across as something else entirely.

Obviously, the more unique the track, the harder it is to recreate. These remixes that follow try to remake the quirky production elements that make them, and utterly fail. Sometimes they end up with something interesting in spite of themselves; other times they are just ridiculously bad.

ROCKO - "U.O.E.N.O."

This whole piece was inspired by “U.O.E.N.O.” producer Childish Major posting of YouTube remakes of his beat. This one takes the cake; how did this dude hear those decayed, rounded synths that drive the original and come up with this?

FUTURE - "TURN ON THE LIGHTS"

I’m confused about the idea behind this one, honestly. I mean, the arrangement is obviously exactly the same as the original but the actual sounds in the track are mixed so differently it comes across like more of a trance remix. Love that dude kept the “Mike Will Made It” drop in the beginning, like we’re all getting fooled.

KENDRICK LAMAR - "SWIMMING POOLS (DRANK)"

I’m pretty sure the notes aren’t even the same here. This just sounds like an actual ripoff of the original rather than a remake or a “reinterpretation.”

KANYE WEST- "POWER"

I can’t imagine it's easy to remake a Kanye West beat, so I’m glad this dude at least wrote in the description: “It’s not supposed to be an exact copy, more like my own version of the song.” Still though, this sounds like something that a Christian rap act would rhyme over. What’s going on with the attempt at recreating the King Crimson sample?

MADVILLAIN - "ACCORDIAN"

This reminds of this James Blake MIDI version, and for that I am not mad.

DRAKE - "MARVIN'S ROOM"

We’re breathtakingly close to a world where “Tweemixes” of rap tracks exist.

KREAYSHAWN - "GUCCI GUCCI"

Bro, how the fuck is this a remake? I can’t make heads or tails of this beat and how it relates to the original.

JADAKISS - "We Gon Make It"

I think this was supposed to be the “slowed and throwed” remake or something, I don’t know. Ballsy choice in extending the sample, though.

CLIPSE - "GRINDIN'"

It would help to get the drum pattern right, since the beat is ALMOST ALL DRUMS.

CHIEF KEEF - "I DON'T LIKE"

Am I wrong, though?

Walker Chambliss is a rap dude on the Internet and also in real life. He's on Twitter - @walkmasterflex

This post originally appeared at Noisey.