Instrumental Beats Hip Hop

Jazz music combined with spoken rhyme is distinctive as jazz rap style, which became popular in the late 1980's- early 1990's. In Bell's first track, "Nothing Lasts FOURever", a fusion of plucked string, light drum, brass and rap seamlessly merge into this inimitable style. Just released this year, "FOURever" is a stand out recording. His words speak to the title; no matter what they have been through together he is ready to move on, commemorated by the song. The lyrics are extremely clever to describe an age old concept, "the time has come to realize its only fumes that we're running on. The brass in this song punctuates the jazz feel and as he ends it on nothing more than his own voice the listener can relate to his emotional expression.

"Electric Sheep" puts string instruments into a blender with electronically generated beats and whips up a smoothie of a song that conjures up visuals of busily flying bees due to its almost hectic pace. The rhythm on this song is perfectly timed, causing just a slip of frantic panic to bubble up inside the listener. The very moment that fright seems too much to bear, Bell tosses in a recording of an operator instructing us to "please hang up and try again", which adds a level of much needed humor bringing a smile and lowering the heart rate.

Throughout the five available songs on his MySpace page, Bell displays his penchant for various musical styles and utilizes an array of instruments to create his sound. Bell's own voice is a powerful instrument used on four of his five songs and he takes care not to drown it out with music; smooth but simultaneously vulnerable he is clear and easy to listen to. On "Red" his voice is recorded in an almost hauntingly hollow sound as a perfect compliment to the reflectively dark lyrics.

With over 130,000 views to his page and a combined total of just under 36,000 total plays of his tracks, Frank Bell is carving out a strong presence for himself in the online world; his humorous song "The Penguin" has had over 11,000 plays alone. Three of his 5 songs are available for download ("The Penguin", "Tread Soft" & "Electric Sheep") on his MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/frankbell. When visiting his page be sure to read the comment section for a recent clipping regarding a forthcoming album.

The whole notion of making music always scared me. I always thought you had to be born with a gift, and I was born with none. When I was young the triangle was the only instrument I wanted to play in music class, and I still had trouble staying on beat.

I grew up in the 80's so my musical tastes vary. I grew up listening to all kinds of music from Michael Jackson, to Madonna to Guns and Roses. I am also a fan of hip hop listening to artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Rakim. These are the artists that wet my appetite for music.

As the time past my musical tastes have evolved to what they are today. A variety of different artists from Green Day, to Soulja Boy as well as a lot of independent artists. My friends and I usually attend an open mic down the street from my apartment every week. We love to check out the new up and coming artists and poets who come by every week. None of us are musicians just music lovers.

At the end of the night just as the MC was closing up the show my friend gets up and takes the stage. To all of our surprise he performed a song that was so powerful, touching, and moving it left us all in awe. I asked him where did he find a song like that to cover because I never heard it before? I wanted to download it immediately when I got home. We were all blown away when he told us he made it himself.

My friend gave me the name of the software that he used to make the beat and I was really skeptical. I never buy anything online. There are too many scams and people making false promises about their products. However I couldn't get the song out of my head, and I had so many emotions inside me that I wanted to let go of. I decided to give it a try.

I was floored by how easy it was and required no extra equipment. The interface was extremely user friendly so it wasn't hard to learn. At one point I got a little stuck and couldn't figure out what to do next. I just looked at a tutorial they provided and it walked me through the process. I finished my first beat in an hour, then I used the software to export it to Mp3.

After that I sat in my room and wrote the lyrics out. Exactly one month after my friend performed his song I performed mine for the first time. It was about the first girl that I have ever loved and how she exited my life. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, and I felt so accomplished.

The whole purpose of my story is to let you know you can do it too. I'm not a musician but I make songs and I make beats online from my heart. If I can do it, why can't you? Never limit what you can do in life. If there is a will there is a way.