Written by: Richy Jones
Loop Sessions DMV is a community and hub for hip hop producers of all experiences in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. This is just one chapter of a global movement of Loop Sessions, which typically meets virtually. On Saturday, February 18th however, they came down to RVA for an IRL, or in real life, session co-presented by Grimalkin, and it was a beautiful experience.
Around 1pm, producers started trickling into Garden Grove brewery in Carytown. Laptops, MIDI keyboard controllers, headphones, and chargers were the essentials needed for the day in store. I too brought my gear, dusting off the cobwebs and dust that had built up from an extended spell of beat block. I was feeling optimistic. I got to chatting with the founders and organizers of LSDMV, Mags and Bliberation, and they gave me the scoop.
Ty Sorrell, a Richmond based producer and artist, was the event’s designated “crate provider”. They showed up with a crate of vinyl albums from their personal collection. There was a sign-up list for producers to write their name on as they entered the space. The first to sign, a producer by the name of Brian Tucci, was given a couple minutes to dig through the crate, and make a single selection. After arriving at a Charles Mingus album, the mission for the rest of our afternoon was set. The rest of us, in the order we signed up, took turns to sample the record. Only having 5 minutes, the album recorded onto Bliberation’s Logic Pro X session, during which time we could lift and drop the needle wherever we chose. When time was up, we put our recordings on a flash drive and went back to our laptops to spend the next three hours sampling our file, and socializing.
It was a really beautiful experience because it was a room full of people who simply had a love for the art form of hip hop production. After talking with other producers, I began to realize that a number of them had traveled all the way from Maryland, Delaware, and DC just to plug in for this IRL session.
Around 5pm we all began to share our beats with everyone else. The styles were so vast, all of us having sampled from the same album. I was inspired by the creativity and humbled. It had been a long day but one filled with great energy, creativity, and unity. Just when I thought the experience couldn’t have been any better, we then went into a cypher. Bliberation spun the beats we had submitted and those who so felt the spirit came up to the mic to drop some verses. It was the most fun I had had in a long time!
References
You can find the video of their beat share on Loop Sessions DMV’s twitch page
Blog Author - Richy Jones: Hey, my name is Richy Jones (they/them) and I’m a freelance creative holding it down in RVA. In 2017 I earned a bachelors degree from Virginia Commonwealth University with a discipline in music education. As a former school music teacher, I maintain a passion for sharing my love of music through various media. I’m happy to be apart of the HearRVA team, being a proponent of Richmond’s vibrant and growing music scene. As a hip hop artist, I record and perform under the stage name Qing Richy.