Mania Music Group

23/05/2024

31/10/2015

Mania Day 31...Now this song wasn't supposed to be a Kane Mayfield record It actually was written for someone else...The ghostwriting/ghost producing thing is real very real...I watch a lot of status and tweets about what a major labels wants in an artist well its based on analytics not talent,sound,creativity and etc...there isn't a lot of music people(creative types) at these record labels anymore they have be replaced by numbers people same as the movie "MoneyBall" so you can rap or sing all you want until the actual numbers shift to that side it doesn't matter unless you have sales already...it's costly to develop an artist in today's music climate so they need to see some chart presences or tickets moving in a 1500 - 3000 capacity venue...now with the success of some indie artist majors are starting to do faux grass root campaigns to trick the audience into thinking their supporting an indie artist who true talent has just beat the odds...now back to the ghostwriting thing 95% of your favorite rappers use them a lot of times it depends on what's going on in the world...with J.Cole and Kendrick's success you have a lot of a&r's and managers looking for songs with substance...most labels have a song pool where they keep demos for their artist to cut based on what's popular at the moment i cant lie there's been some hits that come out those pools but when the climate shifts they always look for artist that fit that mode to write for their artist...okay back to the record the idea was to give them both substance and something they could just play without feeling like their being preached to so you have to wrap the medicine in candy using a popular style beat in this case because it must always be entertaining...anyway we liked the song so we kept it we were supposed to use it on the Ep entitled "The World We Live In" THE END

Mania Day 31...Now this song wasn't supposed to be a Kane Mayfield record It actually was written for someone else...The ghostwriting/ghost producing thing is real very real...I watch a lot of status

30/10/2015

Mania Day 30...The song I wanted to use today is now being mixed because I thought It would sound pretty dope as a finished record instead of just a rough draft...Update...Mania Day 30...This is the last song we did with Unkle Lulu which was inspired by Ice Cubes "AmeriKKKa Most Wanted" Lp
https://soundcloud.com/mania-6/dappa-dan-midas-fck-the-world

29/10/2015

Mania Day 29...Here's another record that was supposed to be on Ron Judo untitled album on Mania

Mania Day 29...Here's another record that was supposed to be on Ron Judo untitled album on Mania!

28/10/2015

Mania Day 28...Songs like these are the reason I love being a music producer not just a beat maker I actually sit down with the artist pick their brain and really try to get the best out of them on a record. I was trying to encourage Eze Jackson for a second to sing more. I think he has old soul type of voice so thought why not use it on some of these records however he wasn't trying to hear that at all. So finally after i kept bothering him about it we recorded this song I'm guessing to shut me up but nevertheless it turned out pretty damn good. Note to producers take the artist out of their comfort zone it's your job to build the records remember your the band leader and the director you have to sell the artist on what would make them sound great

Mania Day 28...Songs like these are the reason I love being a producer not just a beat maker I actually sit down with the artist pick their brain and really try to get the best out of them on a record

27/10/2015

Mania Day 27...Here's another Greenspan record that didn’t make his album...I shopped this beat to a couple of artist no one could rap on it for some reason but everyone loved it...Me and Brandon was going to use it for the album we're putting together now but decided to use it for the Month Of Mania! instead enjoy!

Mania Day 27...Here's another Greenspan record that didn’t make his album...I shopped this beat to a couple of artist no one could rap on it for some reason but everyone loved it...Me and Brandon was

26/10/2015

Mania Day 26...Since this is the last week of me doing this I wanted to put out some finished records...Let's start with Kane Mayfield record "Sponsors" we cut this record after everything happened in the city...Kane also debut the song at the second One Man Show back in September

Mania Day 26...Since this is the last week of me doing this I wanted to put out some finished records...Let's start with Kane Mayfield record "Sponsors" we cut this record after everything happened in

25/10/2015

Mania Day 25 Part 1...we did a mixtape for Pedex right before we released "Welcome To The Audience" actually that album was supposed to be Pedestrians album

Mania Day 25...we did a mixtape for Pedex right before we released "Welcome To The Audience" actually that was supposed to be Pedestrians album

24/10/2015

Mania Day 24...More from the mixtape

Mania Day 24.....More from the mixtape

23/10/2015

Mania Day 23...Speaking of ep's with last song I had to sell these guys on releasing them.Noone knew what the heck an ep was at the time...this was before everyone started doing ep's it was actually a dead format at that time we decide to do them but we'll get into that later. Let's talk "the mixtapes" I come from the era of 25 dollar mixtapes YES! 25 bucks Kid Capri,Ron G, S&S, Clue and etc known for having exclusive music and freestyles from the most popular artist of that time it gave them maximum exposure plus it showed their natural ability to rhyme. That was the idea with the mania mixtape we just put up beats and placed a mic in the middle of the room and let the guys show their natural ability to rhyme. At first the guys didn’t take it serious well Kane Mayfield did but Unkle Lulu and Ron Judo not so much an I understood why at the time... it wasn't the popular thing to do just throwing away good rhymes(once these came out you couldn't use them again) on beats with no structure what so ever well it worked and for the next few days you'll hear why

Mania Day 22...Speaking of ep's with last song I had to sell these guys on releasing them.Noone knew what the heck an ep was at the time...this was before everyone started doing ep's it was actually a

22/10/2015

Mania Day 22...Here's an alternate version of Ron Judo "I Heard About It"

Mania Day 22...Here's an alternate version to Ron Judo "I Heard About It"

21/10/2015

Mania Day 21...Once upon a time Eze Jackson was signed to Mania! We started on a project but really never got into it because of timing and a whole host of other things...right now we're in the early stages of working together again on Eze's next album...in the mean time here's one of the older demos

Mania Day 21...Once upon a time Eze Jackson was signed to Mania! We started on a project but really never got into it because of timing and a whole host of other things...right now we're in the early

20/10/2015

Mania Day 20...This song is probably the realist song and the most difficult song ever recorded at mania...I remember coming to Kane Mayfield with this record and the idea on how to approach it... he hated the idea of him being that honest on a record... I've always felt like it's good for an artist to be vulnerable from time to time it lets you know they're human...most rappers wear mask everything they do is apart of their campaign that's why alot of the guys well over 30 wear weird clothes to fit in with today's younger artist and let's not get started on the "Bro" movement and the let's work BS dudes are all about even if they hate the other artist...honest music has always been the motto at mania I tried to push the artist themselves at all times no matter what...Rappers are like super heroes to me, just think about it for a moment in most of their recordings they're the cool person on the planet so when asking them to be open and honest on a song it's hard probably because they become face to face with the truth and a lot of times the truth can be very ugly

Mania Day 20...This song is probably the realist song and most difficult song ever recorded at mania...I remember coming to Kane with this record and the idea on how to approach it... he hated the ide

20/10/2015

Mania Day 19...Here's Unkle Lulu Club version of "Oh Baltimore" because well its Baltimore so why not do one...we used the Randy Newman version again also added an actually marching band I sampled that use to practice at Harlem Park...I stay recording sounds around me to make music...I would love to fix the drums on this now I've never made a club beat before this was my first shot at it

Mania Day 19...Here's Unkle Lulu Club version of "Oh Baltimore" because well its Baltimore so why not do one. again Randy Newman's version with a actually marching band I sampled that practiced at Har

20/10/2015

Mania Day 18....Here's the Sp1200 remix of Rapman Ron G "Oh Baltimore" it was kind of A&r'd by Al Shipley since it was his idea to use Randy Newman's version to make a song when he posted the original version on his Government Names Blog...Let's talk about Baltimore Hip-Hop for moment I always read and hear people complain about there's no real music they can feel or claim their bring that hiphop feeling back in all honesty outside of maybe Los NO ONE WAS SEEING Kane Mayfield,Unkle Lulu, OR Ron Judo 2 of them battle rapped(we know how those went) let's not count those outside cyphers and the rappers not wanting to participate...I know ya man's got skills but c'mon man let's be honest for a minute bar for bar who was better...now back to this record this is hiphop and it represents Baltimore to the fullest oh btw it's 8 years old and it still bangs today so kill the cats don't rhyme crap too turn off your radio stop being programed there's plenty of dope emcees out here and some are right in your neighborhood

Mania Day 18....Here's the remix to Ron Judo "Oh Baltimore" kind of A&R'd by Al Shipley because it was his idea to use Randy Newman's version to make a song on his blog government names when he posted

20/10/2015

Mania Day 17...Let's call this the "Oh Baltimore" section of the program...here's the first one we did for Ron Judo Ep "Lunch"

Mania Day 17...Let's call this "The Oh Baltimore" section of the program...here's the first one we did for Ron Judo Ep "Lunch"

20/10/2015

Mania Day 16...This song was the first and only song Co-Mixed and Mastered By Brandon Lackey because he wanted a big pop sound and the guy we got mixed some pretty big records (side bar this is when everyone thought we'd be big overseas like we didn't make hip hop records).The beat was actually made for Ron Judo but he passed on it tho probably because it honestly didn’t sound like it does now again demos play a huge part here... a lot of the times we would just send skeletons of beats let the artist create and then we would add-on later in the mixing process...Unkle Lulu was coming off the battle circuit and was looking to make records with more color and that would also showcase his personality more...this record is actually why we named the ep "Live From The Arcade"

Mania Day 16...This song was the first and only song Mixed and Mastered By someone other than Brandon Lackey.This beat was actually made for Ron but he passed on it... honestly it didn’t sound like i