Playing with Beats and Playing with Cats:Meow the Jewels, Remixes, and Reinterpretations

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which remix producers can reconfigure aspects of the listening experience in a hip-hop track. I begin by discussing recent scholarship on the creative contributions of hip-hop producers. Following that, I present a series of case studies of remixes from the 2015 albumMeow the Jewels, in which several independent producers remixed tracks fromRun the Jewels(2014). Using recent work by Mark Butler, Rebecca Leydon, Elizabeth Margulis, and others as a framework, I analyze the remixes and compare them to the original tracks in order to demonstrate the manipulation of metrical, temporal, and expressive characteristics of each song.