Funky Robot

Funky robot is a “West Coast G-funk” inspired beat with a characteristic whistle, a vocoder and various vintage synth leads. In addition, the song is dressed up with legendary 808 percussion sounds. The G Funk movement has its origins in the 90s. An era in which the Hip-Hop culture developed and in which there was a lot of experimentation with digital drum computers and synthesizers. Thanks to musical heroes like Snoop dogg, Dre Dre, Ice Cube, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G, Warren G, Nate dogg and Eazy-E, I am a big fan of the genre. This music regularly appears in my Spotify favorites.

A popular technique during this period was the use of the vocoder, a studio technique in which the vocals are interwoven with the sound of a synthesizer. The voice serves as a modulator and the synthesizer as a carrier and results in a unique and recognizable “robot” sound. Perhaps the most famous example is the song “California Love” by Dr. Dre ft. 2Pac. Today you still come across the vocoder in many contemporary productions. How about “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars? Or pretty much all Daft Punk productions. In short, a sound that should not be missing in my attempt of this ‘Gangsta G funk style’.

Another well-known sound is the legato synth lead. Legato is a way of playing in which the musical notes are played or sung in such a way that they overlap or sound seamlessly welded together. You will recognize the characteristic high-pitched sound in many Dr. Dre productions (where the legato lead is quit prominent). You see him doing it in a scene from straight out of compton. In addition to the vocoder and the legato lead, my beat is enriched with brass, tubular bells, violins, piano, bongo percussion and a flex-a tone. The sound is somewhat inspired by the legendary GTA San Andreas theme. It reminds me of riding a lowrider in GTA San Andreas while listening to radio Los Santos with some fine Hip-Hop tunes.