Break Down: “Welcome” from State of Mind (2018)

“Welcome” was a fun track to make but also a tough one to get cemented.  I made the beat circa 2012-2013 for my State of Mind project and wouldn’t get around to actually recording verses and polishing the track until September 2017.

As you may be able to tell, the beat was heavily inspired to the early Eminem produced beats that were rolling around during the early 2000s era.  I had always looked up to Em as a producer because his production routine was simple and impactful.  If you were to deconstruct what he does for beats, then you would notice that he doesn’t add a lot to them.  A simple drum pattern, a guitar, keys, and maybe some synths.  He also would tackle beat making like recording rock instrumentals.  Of course my 20 year old self did not have access to a whole rock recording setup, so I had to make due with FL Studio and a few plugins I was able to get around that time.

The first thing I had to get down was the drum programming which took a few tries to see exactly which one I was going for.   Eminem has plenty of drum patterns he uses but a nice boom bap pattern seemed to be the way to go.  Then I added in the strings.  One thing those early Eminem beats had were a low string hitting the down beats.  I made sure to go as impactful with the string hit as possible.  With that, it was all about filling in the space.  I added another string pattern that ended up taking inspiration from “Patiently Waiting” by 50 Cent and “The Cross” by Nas.  With that I just needed the hook to switch up.  In came the synth and the slow strings.  Once I had that plucky synth/key pattern for the hook, I knew my beat was at completion.  Time to lay a hook and concept.

I lied about not having the concept ready in 2013.  In fact, I knew that this track would be an intro type track but not necessarily for the start of the album.  It could have been an intermission break. It could have became a transition to a different personality in a concept album.  Whatever it could have been, one thing was for certain it was an intro track that needed to be strong and the only word that came to mind was WELCOME.  All I could think for the hook was having welcome be said all throughout.  After deciding on that, I recorded the vocals and pitched them down to give a contrast to my voice on the verses.  Eventually, I enjoyed the hook a lot until I realized that saying Welcome was not enough.  The hook lacked a certain strength.  I struggled for weeks trying to think of the right hook to layer in, even took out the welcome part.  I had almost given up until I thought of the chant that ultimately guided the rest of the track. “I will not fail.”

The verses were what took me the most time because this was the second track I had recorded seriously.  The concepts for each verse took some time to get the rhyme schemes down.  But once I did, it was smooth sailing after that.  It just had some things I wanted to make sure I included into the track.  Make sure to shout out main influences, speak on where I was from, and to showcase who and what this track was for.  I felt I achieved all that.

The track was finally released as a single and part of the State of Mind: Chapter 1 EP and was a proud step in my music career.  When it came down to releasing a version for the full length album, I went back and re-recorded all the vocals with more confidence and technique.  If you have ever listened to the song and enjoyed it, I appreciate you the most.  Welcome into my state of mind.

https://youtu.be/tsBxP82h05w