Preview of Saturday’s Beat Factory, Plus Juicy the Emissary Gives a Beat Class

This Saturday night at 2826 Arnetic, The Beat Factory takes five hip-hop producers/electronic artists out of the studio and lets them work their magic live. It’s a stacked lineup, featuring Denton’s Juicy the Emissary, Dallas’ Datahowler, Remode and Slago, and Austin’s Boom Baptist, with turntable work by Yeahdef and Danjah One. If you’ve ever wondered how a producer weaves a beat or sample into a song, you can see it happen before your eyes.

Juicy the Emissary has a new album out, Cultural Refugee, so as a preview I asked him to give one of his Beat Classes, explaining the genesis of samples from his new album.

“Lasted Forever”
Samples “Morning Song” by The Clang Association, an artist from Denton who married a family friend of mine. Were that not the case, I’m sure I would never have been exposed to his work. When I contacted him in search of an email address to start a dialogue, I learned he doesn’t have a computer. “Morning Song” has a gloomy, dreamy vibe to it with long, hanging organ and synth chords, and a descending melancholy melody that seems to want to make its way back up, but gets caught in a loop, with airy, dragging vocals on top singing, “I thought a dream lasted forever, lasted forever …” When I realized how fitting it was to the theme of Cultural Refugee, I knew exactly how the album was gonna start.

“A Side From Your Self”
Samples “Mabel” by Sarah Renfro, an artist I have known for years because we went to the UNT music school at the same time and had a lot of mutual friends. Although I never got the chance to meet her properly until I saw her perform in New York, where she is based now, I remember hearing “Mabel” for the first time that night, especially the da-da part with the guitar and vocals in unison. I’ve been in love ever since. I can listen to this song for hours, which made it a great candidate for chopping and sampling.