Hip-Hop Hindi - Freestyle!

My first song post, and it's someone else's tune!

Paul graciously encouraged me to put some rhymes on his Nagraan 5, so I did.
Last night I busted a little freestyle over the first part, up until the breakdown around a minute and a half in. From there on, it's the same as before.

Nothing deep here, this is not indicative of my usual writing style. It's just a little MC flow; I practiced a few times, then I let it rip! Added some background jabs afterwards. Hopefully the mix is ok, it's hard to tell with my setup, plus I just threw this down really quick.

Hope you like - thanks Paul!
http://www.sonarama.com/1.0/zina_index.php?l=8&p=c02/174/newNagraan5-freestyle3mp3.mp3&m=1
Edit: UPDATE!
I pumped the vocals (prolly too loud now), and made the whole thing a bit hotter. Please give another listen!

glad you overcame your shyness. <g>. I have always enjoyed your posts and your avatar makes me feel like I'm on vacation. Nice feeling. THink you could go back quickly and compress the fellow-I'm losing the words and the rap is too soft feeling for the music. I'm digging it-but a little processing would give it some life.

Thanks

Hey Jamester...Now listen to me...I am 100% not BSing you...And you know how I have always felt about this genre....but dude .I thought this tune was awesome...I am really glad I gave your tune a listen because there is now light in the caves for hip-hop/rap that once was a dark tunell of disenchantment!...(pretty dramatic eh?)
Nice job bud...
This one is going in the ipod
Mark

Thanks guys!

Paul- I will email you. I wanted to put some vocals later on also, but like I said I did this right quick.

Michael, Mark, Steve- Thanks so much for the compliments! I'm pretty shy about my voice and flow, so it really means a lot. I'll post something of my own very soon- as you'll see, my 'real' writing is very different from these off-the-cuff lyrics.

I had a feeling the vox might be soft. On my stereo speakers the vox are pretty loud/up front. On my headphones it's the opposite. In Media Player/laptop speakers on my computer the vox are perfect. Which to trust?

I put the vocal track through Cakewalk FX Compressor, with the "Medium Bright Vocal" preset (or something like that), didn't seem to do anything. Ended up using volume envelopes in places to smooth it out. aaargh!

James, nice rhythmic flow. I was waiting for an explanation as to why there was a lovely Indian vocalist behind you, it's was kind of like having the proverbial elephant in the room and no one apparently noticing. I'm I being to literal?

BUMP!
I re-did the mix, see the update edit in original post. The lyrics have been PUMPED! =)

Paul- will email you back asap to discuss; I can certainly write some better material for the other section, rather than moving the freestyle (unless you really like it that much).

As for the album idea, all I've been saying for the past year is how I'd love to be able to collaborate with someone who really knows what they're doing music/recording-wise. Don't tease me now...

Very cool. Love the groove.
Much Cheers.
- jim

ORIGINAL: Paul Russell

Hey James, maybe we should do a whole album like this

Yes you should!

Thanks so much for the feedback guys!

Paul's Nagraan-5 is so good, I just was hoping I didn't ruin it with the vocals. But I think it works. We are communicating about finishing it with more/different vocals, see how it comes out.

Manny, Jim, Thunderkyss-
Really apreciate the compliments; of course, I had nothing to do with the groove, but good to know the rhymes were accepted as part of it. I kick it tighty for a whitey! ;-)
Did you try it on the kids, Manny?

Duce-
Thanks for checking it out and being honest about what you think. It is a softer feel, but I felt it apropriate for the Hindi groove. It's just not an angry groove! haha... Still, I don't know about Will Smith - that's not cool! =) Going for more of a Digable Planets/Tribe Called Quest kinda thang.

Nice stuff James, way to go!

BumpHumpRumpChump