Beat Making Lab

Walshy Fire plays you a Fijian Chant, Apple Juice Kid tells you the basics of Moombahton, we play the winning beat from the Senegal Challenge, and you get a chance to be featured on Mad Decent and Beat Making Lab via ETC!ETC!.

A man in Fiji hits a PVC pipe with a flip flop, that sound meets a 17-year-old drummer in North Carolina. A beat is created. And around it all, Platinum selling producer Ski Beatz (producer for Jay Z, Camp Lo and Jay Electronica) lets us know why he even samples in the first place.

Welcome to Fiji. Local rapper/producer Dave Lavaki (aka Mr. Grin) explains how they are building a scene 8000 miles away from the music industry.

Ben is searching for purpose. Masi is following a dream. From separate islands, yet connected through Hip Hop and Electronic music production, their paths crossed at the Fiji Beat Making Lab.

The first Beat Making Lab was launched at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Fall semester of 2011, as a 3 credit hour course in the music department founded by Dr. Mark Katz (now the chair of the music department) and Stephen Levitin (aka Apple Juice Kid). This episode, shot and edited by UNC student Jon Kasbe for Reese News, shows the on-campus origins of the now international program.

Celebrate independence with an epic mashup: US National Anthem [Star Spangled Banner] + Black National Anthem [Lift Every Voice and Sing]. Download the mashup at: www.beatmakinglab.com/mashup

Make a dancehall riddim out of our Kora sample. If Walshy Fire likes it, you might win a Soundcloud Pro account!

Why do so many beginning producers' beats sound flat? Because they make the error of using the factory drum sounds that come with their beat making software. One of the cardinal rules of beat making is: if you want to create an interesting beat - start with an original kit.

Ina, a Senegalese beat making student, takes a field trip to an Intrahealth hospital to make a beat. She records baby squeals and blood pressure gauges; and interviews health workers and community leaders about family planning. These recordings were then delivered to a group of Fijian beat making students, who composed an instrumental entirely comprised of the found sounds.

An all women's group of African beat makers recorded a kora player and created a dancehall-inspired riddim out of the sample. Now its your turn.

"The people need a female rapper," says Toussa, the president of GOTAL; an all-women's collective of Senegalese rappers, producers, singers and beat makers who paired with a woman-led NGO called Speak Up Africa to write songs about global health issues in their communities.

Apple Juice Kid samples comparsa band Barrio Fino, records hip hop/jazz quartet The Beast and flirts with renowned vocalist Yomira John in this episode, which reveals the production behind the song "Portobelo."