TRACKS:
Brandy - What About Us (acapella from 12" single)
Orbital - Adnan's (re-edited album version)

In 2011, I had an idea for a mashup. The song "What About Us", by Brandy.

I picked up the 12" single, which had the acapella version. As is usual when I get a new acapella, I randomly grab records, and see if anything feels right.

With this Brandy record, the task was made difficult. The normal version of the song has a very irregular rhythm. I like the song. I thought she sang the song very well. I just had a gripe with that rhythm. No matter what song I picked, you could tell she wasn't meant to be singing over any other rhythm.

Challenge accepted.

I finally stumbled upon "Adnan's" by Orbital (LOOOOOOVE Orbital). The music sounded great with the acapella. The chord changes were great. Everything was great...except Brandy still didn't sound right, due to the rhythm she originally sang the song to.

Challenge failed.

After years of being on the back burner (over a decade), I finally decided to try to do the mashup again. This time, I went away from my normal process (Pro Tools, pitch and time stretching), and instead used the latest version of Melodyne. Melodyne was written to manipulate vocals on a near molecular level.

I literally sat for DAYS, and adjusted the spacing and size of every syllable of Brandy's performance. Dragging, squishing and expanding every little bit, trying to make the acapella sound as if Brandy was singing to the Orbital rhythm, instead of the rhythm of her original song.

I could hear it working as I went along, but - damn - I have never had to do so much screwdriver work to get two songs to go together. I couldn't wait to be done, and hear the end result.

I think it was worth it.

For the original song, Brandy was quoted as wanting to reinvent herself. Well, she did. The song was different. For me, personally, it was just too much. The beat felt "off", and her producer saying his name all over the track over and over was HIGHLY annoying. Yeah, it was a 90s thing, but - damn - enough already. I get it. You produced the track, but you don't need to keep saying your name all over the place. It's sort of the "90s" version of the "ba-ba-baaaaaaaa" DJ horn shit. So I did a lot of surgical-level editing, and got most of the producer name drops (and the "B-rocka" bits) out of the acapella.

I know I produce tracks that don't fit into any category. Even "mashup" doesn't quite apply, because many mashups feel like they are being done for comic and shock value. When I do a mashup of two songs, I am (usually) trying to make a song appeal to fans of other musical genres. In this case, I was trying to improve on the poor production of the original track.

Imagine if Brandy had Orbital produce her album, instead of Rodney Jerkins. Now you don't have to imagine.

File uploaded: June 13th, 2022