Hi, music major just looking for some advice on the mixing... and someone to rap! If you'd like to give it a try, I may end up using it and putting it on my site. (Giving credit where due of course).
i think you need something to make the warm and wide piano meet the jangly beat halfway.
i would give your sample beat a little more air and a touch of bass, lending it a soothing effect then add a very tight and dark ambience VERY lightly behind it. that or get wild with a plate reverb on the drums, possibly intermittently.
This is a nice idea, ive done a few kanye style tracks myself.... Maybe work on the drums a bit more give them some changes... staccato string part could also sound great in here...
BTW, I've taken your suggestions into consideration and am working on a few tweaks with some verb on polishing the whole mix up--and changing up the drums because that's something I've always paid little attention to... I'll bump when I upload the revised version.
Well I'm not really a hip-hop fan; track is a good idea and it will be better once a main vocal part has been laid down, besides the pitched vocal. It sounds really cool to me, but then I'm not really in to producing this type of music, so I probably don't know any better... I can definitely hear a nicely mc'd part over the top in my inner ear though...