Spotlight: Raheem D
There's nothing like a good mash-up!
Being the Ciara fan that I am, when I saw a friend of mine posted this Ciara mash up on Facebook I had to check it out.
From that point on I was huge fan of Raheem D. This talented, music lover from the United Kingdom has a way of stringing two songs together to make a perfect mix.
From that point on I was huge fan of Raheem D. This talented, music lover from the United Kingdom has a way of stringing two songs together to make a perfect mix.
I always wondered his process in making mixes. I decided to reach out to Raheem for a Q and A and luckily, he agreed to do it. Check it out below:
How did you get started making mashups?
From a young age I always found myself listening to the radio from afar and thinking a certain song was playing when in fact it was another, and because of that I would then sing the song I thought it was over the other and I would just have fun with it. It wasn't until 2007 where I discovered YouTube that I realized mashup culture was an actual thing. The first mashup I had ever heard featured Ciara's single ‘Promise’ and Aaliyah’s single ‘One In A Million’. It fascinated me at how well the two tracks went together and thus inspired me to start making my own mashups. I think I created my first mashup channel within the same year.
What is the process you go through to create a mix?
If I hear a song that I’d like to mix, the first thing I do is listen to the lyrics, melody and instrumental. If I can find a similarity with either three with another song, I’ll try and start the mashup. After I've found a match and I’m happy with it, I have to look for an acapella and instrumental for both songs. This for me is the hardest part of the process and normally means a lot of my ideas are never finalized due to the fact that finding instrumentals and acapellas are really hard to come by. However, if I am lucky to find the material what I then do is import them into my audio program (which is Ableton Live) and then decide how I’ll structure the mashup. I would say I’m unique to other Mashup DJ’s because I try and make my mashups sound like an official collaboration, incorporating vocals by both songs to make it seem as if both artists went into the studio together.
Did you think your mash-up videos would gain the popularity they did on YouTube?
I certainly didn't think they would gain the attention they did by certain people, in fact the current channel I have now took me a while to gain any type of views and I was beginning to doubt whether there was any point in continuing. It wasn’t until Justin Bieber shared my ‘Somebody To Rock That Body’ mashup that things started to change dramatically and I started to gain a fan-base mostly by Beliebers.
What's your favorite mash-up and why?
It’s hard for me to choose because some of them are my favourite for different reasons. However, one of them is my mashup between Justin Bieber and *NSYNC ‘Girlfriend/Boyfriend’ I had the idea for this mashup for so many months but I wasn't able to start it due to not being able to find the material I needed. However, eventually I found the material and I think I did a really great job with the transitions and the video editing. A lot of people said they couldn't even tell it was a mashup which was exactly what I wanted. My other favorite is my ‘Marvin’s Room’ mashup featuring Aaliyah and Drake. I don’t really remember how that mashup happened but I love how I was able to tell a story between the two tracks. Drake drunk dials Aaliyah telling her they should get back together, whilst she replies “If Your Girl Only Knew that you was calling me”. It added a completely different dynamic to the original songs and I truly felt it sounded close to a real collaboration.
(Justin Bieber vs *NSYNC)
Has there been mash-ups that were more challenging to do? Which one(s) and why?
The ‘Girlfriend/Boyfriend’ mashup was challenging due to the lack of material. If I am correct, ‘Boyfriend’ by Bieber came out in March and I wasn’t able to start the mashup until July which was very frustrating. In fact I made another version of the mashup but with the ‘Boyfriend’ instrumental. I had finished the music video and I asked my mum to listen to it and she said it wasn’t that good and suggested I perhaps uploaded it on mute? (She’s very tactful you see...). So, I was in between a rock and a hard place until luckily my friend messaged me saying he finally found the ‘Boyfriend’ acapella and I was able to fully revise my idea and make it sound as great as I possibly could.
In addition to that, my “Live On The Floor Tonight” mashup was rather challenging due to the fact it was one of the first times I had made a mashup with multiple artists, I also attempted to make it similar to a DJ Earworm mashup where all of these different artists mixed together made a completely new song with new lyrics.
Besides Justin Bieber, were their any other artists to recognize your videos?
Justin Bieber has been the most supportive sharing three of my mashups but I have had other artists Tweet or Facebook my work. Jojo, famous for her singles “Leave (Get Out)” and “Baby It’s You” tweeted my mashup “Come Over And Demonstrate”which was great because I’m a huge fan of her mixtapes. Woodkid, famous for his song ‘Iron’ and directing Drake’s music video ‘Take Care’ Tweeted and Facebooked my mashup “Iron Sweat” featuring Ciara. Willow Smith, famous for her single“Whip My Hair” tweeted my mashup of “21st Century Girls” and Beyonce’s “Run The World” This mashup is no longer available due to technical issues. Lance Bass from the band *NSYNC shared my “Girlfriend/Boyfriend” mashup. And Tinie Tempah, famous for his song “Written In The Stars” shared my “Never Say Never Is Written In The Stars” mashup which YouTube has since blocked, but is available by various people that have re-uploaded it on YouTube.
What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?
Having my ‘Girlfriend/Boyfriend’ mashup featured on Good Morning America was a huge deal to me since I hadn’t had any TV success with my projects before so the fact that they embraced it on their ‘Pop News’ segment really meant something to me. Also, the fact that Justin Bieber wanted to perform my '’Never Say Never Is Written In The Stars’ mashup live on his tour at the time really was a dream to me, the fact that an artist was inspired by something I had made was unbelievable. Unfortunately, due to Justin Bieber noticing the mashup towards the end of his tour he was unable to perform it.
What are your plans for the future?
I really want to show people other talents that I have, I’m currently working on my RaheemDTV channel which will feature original content by myself, including comedy skits, covers, V-Logs and more. I’m very interested in the YouTube Partner side of the website and would love to be a member and hopefully my original content will do nearly as well as my mashup channel. It’s uncertain where I’ll be going with my mashup channel due to the constant rule changes with music copyright on YouTube and the current state of music. YouTube still delete and remove Mashup DJ’s from their website for copyright infringement when we actually fall into the grey area of fair use and it gets very frustrating that our type of art constantly gets undermined because of Youtube and various record labels lack of understanding of what we do. If the rules and regulations become more strict on YouTube or stay the same I’ll most probably venture into more original content in the future, but for now, I’m enjoying what I do and I appreciate the support i receive by my subscribers, followers and fans.
Raheem's Latest Mash-Up
(Robin Thicke/Aaliyah - Giving Blurred Lines)
No comments:
Post a Comment