DJ Babu
The Beat Tape Vol. 2

Written by Dominick. Published: Friday, March 5, 2010.

Continuing on with the 2nd installment of his Beat Tape series, legendary L.A. wax toucher and Beat Junkie DJ Babu gives the rest of the game a much needed lesson on how to keep your beats contemporary while still capturing the ears of staunch older cats who despise nuevo keyboards and synths.

It’s a ballsy move anytime any producer puts out a beat tape. Damn things are practically tailor made for scrutiny. Most of the time silly, inarticulate comments like “oh I just don’t feel it” made about the music you took hours to construct, usually from next to nothing, is enough to drive most who craft instrumentals to simply keep their beat tapes circulated in-house, or handed to a select few emcees that plan on purchasing some of them. So, in that spirit I applaud Babu for his effort and willingness to keep a staple practice within the culture somewhat afloat, perhaps at his own artistic ego’s peril.

If your a longtime Babu beat fanatic you’ll find all the usual goods. If you doubted that the funkiest Filipino this side of Abe Lagrimas Jr. would be able to keep his trademark sample manipulation alive and still put out a record that could get your head noddin’, fear not. The Beat Tape Vol. 2 is comprised of nothing but choice nugs (Babu’s record collection must be insane) and I haven’t heard one peep from the big bad sample police yet (crosses fingers). I’ve always felt that a beat tape should be dense, so the fact that Babs has 39 joints on this is well on par with my standards. That’s a lot of music however and the short attention span folks need not apply. Nah, this typa thing is definitely for beat heads or fans of Babu.

Overall, the makeup of the music is excellent. Drums always seem to be in perfect marriage with whatever sample flip, nothing is over mastered and too clean sounding (I hate that) and the actual samples themselves are interesting. Another trait of this beat tape that I found appealed specifically to to my taste was the light arrangements. Babs doesn’t get all fancy with bridges and crazy choruses. Rather he opts to just keep it solid with 4/4 time sigs and repetitive, but catchy tracks.

Ranging from soul driven gems (“Shack Of Soul”), Funk inspired goodies (“Do Not Dispute”), dancehall’esque sounding oddities (“Takeova”) and just ya good ole’ stripped down boom bap (“Lil’ Juanito”) there’s not too many bases that go uncovered in the spectrum of purist Hip-Hop sound. It’s an understandable offering, and even novice instrumental album looky loo’s should be able to grasp and appreciate most of what they’re hearing. Like any good beat tape you also have instances where the producer manning the show will re-visit some samples that have already been flipped. Babu obliges in that area too as most will recognize the familiar sounds/vocals that he puts his own stamp on in “I Don’t C U” and “I Heart For You All”. While clearly sufficient, neither re-do is too memorable unfortunately.

My biggest pang, and it’s not a very big one at all with The Beat Tape Vol. 2 is that it’s a bit generic in it’s presentation, and I say that with the upmost respect. What I mean exactly, is that Babu is mad inventive; we’re talkin bout a guy that has a compilation album series called Duck Season. Why does that project get all the thought and “The Beat Tape” is so generally titled and presented? So, maybe next time a few more bells and whistles when it comes to the bestowal, but as far as the actual product I’m not complaining, Babu couldn’t have done it up more correct unless he had actually distributed these beats via real cassette tapes.

$17.50 outta $20

-Dominick “BIG D O” Ledezma

Category: Reviews