Post Removed/Censored?

[GooberNumber9]

The poll definitely could use an answer for "I don't discriminate based on musical style". Possibly a better poll would be "How do you handle cancellations, etc?" Responses could be "50% deposit up-front" or whatever.

Todd Wlcox

[i am monster face]

i try not to associate myself with music that glorifies greed and violence, regardless of genre.

I've had WAY more issues with sessions I've done for people in the contemporary Christian world than I have with hip hop artists, percentage-wise.

+1

I never worked on a Christian album before. After that incident four years ago, I never will again.

Ian

[JohnDavisNYC]

contemporary christian music seems to be about greed and violence, no? don't they like the war and bush and stuff?

whatevs.

john

[Mradyfist]

Yeah, from people's responses in this thread I get the feeling that none of the people talking here are actually the type to ban hip hop and rap from their studios. Maybe we're just preaching to the converted, it's just always surprising to me how often engineers can get away with saying they're unwilling to work with a predominantly black genre because the people who produce it are "all criminals", or all the lyrics are offensive. It seems like the kind of thing that nobody ever calls anybody else on.

It also seems a little ironic that many of the engineers who turn away clients because of the genre they're doing also bitch and moan about home studios and lost-cost engineers. How can you complain that everybody's tracking at home with PTLE and an MBox and it's ruining music, when you're shutting the door in their face if they try to hire you?

[i am monster face]

I wish I could record more hip hop.

[RoyMatthews]

I'd have no problem working on Blues or Jazz. It's not a race thing.

[Mradyfist]

Blues and jazz aren't predominantly done by black people any more, and haven't been for years. Are you saying that you automatically turn away a client if they do hip hop?

[chris harris]

maybe he just turns away black people if they're under a certain age.



if bigots weren't so dumb, they'd just say that they don't do rap because they don't like rap music. instead, they lean on old, tired stereotypes and make themselves look like the fools they are.

[RoyMatthews]

I like Rap. I don't see what this has to do with bigotry.

[chris harris]

if it's not a race thing and not a taste thing.... what is it then?

[RoyMatthews]

if it's not a race thing and not a taste thing.... what is it then?

I've never analyzed it. I'm not saying all Rappers are bad. It's just the experiences I've had with some directly and issues that I've heard others have had with them make me wary to the point where I don't want to deal with it. It isn't racism or taste. It's simply a few bad apples ruining it for the rest. I'm sorry and it sucks but there are plenty of other engineers and studios who will gladly work in the genre and be prosperous, safe and successful. And that's great. I wish them the best. I'm not going to deal with it though.

[chris harris]

maybe it's not racism or taste... but, it's most certainly stereotyping and bigotry.

maybe you should analyze it. getting past stereotypes, even those based on our own personal experiences, and being able to see each person for who they are, is a good way to start moving us forward as a society.

[RoyMatthews]

maybe it's not racism or taste... but, it's most certainly stereotyping and bigotry.

maybe you should analyze it. getting past stereotypes, even those based on our own personal experiences, and being able to see each person for who they are, is a good way to start moving us forward as a society.

Meh, I've had some bad experiences and I'm not going to keep putting myself in a potentially bad situation again. There's nothing to analyze more than that.

I'm going to sign off on this topic for now. I'm taking up way too much of TO's bandwidth.

[percussion boy]

I've had WAY more issues with sessions I've done for people in the contemporary Christian world than I have with hip hop artists, percentage-wise.

Forget good taste or staying on topic -- dish the dirt, dude.

[rwc]

I guess I can say I'm pretty prejudiced and bigoted.

I dislike sessions that aren't live music. I do them when I'm called to by one studio owner but not at the 'discount rate' I advertise I can use some spaces for when they're free to do my own projects I have interest in.

I've done live drums for hip hop once before on my own time but I almost always turn down the vocals over mediocrely premixed beat sessions, or recording a speech/sermon sessions for my spare time projects. Someone called me on it being a race thing when I said I don't do that over the phone, it so isn't.. it's a "I don't want to do boring sessions for a reduced rate" thing. I could care less what the genre is or the race of the musicians. I even put in ads it's gotta be something I'm interested in at this rate or I'm not bothering, and voiceover just doesn't do it for me.

My first question after "are you well rehearsed?" is usually "what's your instrumentation?" so I know how best to record it and I know whether or not to recommend them to someone else. I agreed to stay away from this place's client base when they gave me the OK to use it for free whenever it's not booked for my own paying sessions, and since 99% of it is vocal over hip hop beat I'll usually give them the owner's name & number. For all I know I may get stuck doing it but at least then I get paid more and it's during my regular time I allocate to "record whoever walks in the door"

I'm sure there are tons of kickass vocal-over-premixed-music sessions out there, but I've yet to have one out of every one I've done that was enough interest for me to _choose_ to do it on my own time. I'll do them if they're in addition to music recorded by me sessions, but not solely.

I voted hip-hop/rap because that's the music that falls into this category 99.999% of the time. I wish there were an option for "boring talentless voiceover shit over tracks I found on the interweb", since that'd be more accurate by far.