Beats

Home of Beat Freaq: a producer-centered space built around cultural creation, experimentation, community, mentorship, and the relationship between producers and artists.

Pass 1 reopened · Beats FINISHED CONTENT · review

Purpose: BEATS, the primary Beat Freaq page. It replaces the retired catch-all “The Pillar” (the-pillar.html and beatfreaqs-archive.html now redirect here). Graffiti moved to its own spread. General DJs & producers are no longer on this page.

Known:

Tear Reveal (Kim, 10-18): the page now opens with a poster, “Head Nods and Ugly Faces” over the huge word BEATS, that rips in two as you scroll to reveal a picture of an Akai MPC2000XL drum machine with wooden side panels (assets/photos/beat-freaq/mpc2000xl-wood-panels.webp, supplied by Kim; no credit given). Built from Kim’s React “Tiger Tear Reveal” prompt, ported to plain JS (assets/tear-reveal.js and .css): the tiger, its eyes and the eye-following are replaced by the picture, the word and line are settings. Scroll back up and the paper closes. Visitors who ask for reduced motion get the finished picture with no tearing. The page as it was before is saved as beat-freaq-before-tear-reveal.html (not published). The “Head Nods and Ugly Faces” line is shown in capitals.
Kim, 10-18: (1) the picture is smaller (820 units wide, was 1160) so more of the machine shows through the tear; (2) Kim is recreating the image as a claymation-style machine with Beats & Bars markings and will send it: when it arrives, swap the file and re-aim the two light positions in data-lights (now 20.75, 50.0 and 24.74, 51.3, measured by magnifying the picture) (percent of the picture) and the picture’s data-image-ratio; (3) the big “Beats” title in the header band is removed from view (kept for screen readers as the page’s heading) and its kicker and description now sit under the poster; Kim wants to do more formatting before this moves again (done 10-18: see the next item); (4) the two red lights beside REC and OVER DUB blink once per beat, like a metronome click, at 92 beats per minute (data-bpm); with reduced motion they stay steady and dim.
Magazine format (Kim, 10-18): this is a main page whose stories branch into their own pages, so it is laid out as a magazine spread like Bars and Breaking: poster, one-line description, then a two-page spread (left: 01 Jah Freedom interview; right: 02 GU$ producer spotlight and 03 What Beat Freaq Is), the archive list, and a folio bar. Text and links are unchanged; only the layout moved. The dark header band and the separate feature rows are gone from this page. The page as it was before: beat-freaq-before-magazine-format.html (not published). Rule from Kim: a main page with several stories that branch off into their own pages is a magazine spread; a single-story page branching off a main page can be customized. Established pages are not reformatted automatically, only as Kim reaches them.
Kim, 10-18: article 03 now ends after the second paragraph (“The music is only half of it...”): the “Here, Beat Freaq features spotlight...” paragraph and the “Beat Freaq on the 2027 weekend” link were cut. They moved to the merged Enter the Showcase page (beat-freaq-producer-showcase.html), which now carries the weekend schedule and then the showcase sign-up. Article 03’s sub-line is “Enter the showcase” and its one link goes to that page.
The introduction uses only facts from Jah’s interview. Two published stories, with records in assets/data/beat-freaq.json.
People in the photos are named from Kim’s file labels; credit is the watermark on each photo.

Open:

RI-037 Photo identities, credit and location.
RI-017 How often features appear (none stated). Where general DJs & producers now live (Artists?).
RI-039 Department numbering now that The Pillar is split into Beats and Graffiti.

Connects to: Jah Freedom, GU$, Contents, Schedule, Graffiti · Pass 1 site map

2027 • Augusta, GA • 5th Year Celebration

01 /

I Found My Tribe Again.

The interview · Jah Freedom

Jah Freedom, in glasses and an olive head wrap, sits in a folding chair in a garden with a wooden walking staff raised to his mouth.

The producer, DJ and founder of Beat Freaq on the platform he built, the invitation he finally said yes to, and the weekend in Augusta that felt like a family reunion.

Read the interview →

04 /

Ugly Face 4BQ

The Beats & Bars drum machine

A vintage-style Akai MPC2000XL drum machine with wooden side panels and sixteen pads; the pads light up in a looping beat.

If you’re nice with yours, come test your skills on the “Ugly Face 4BQ.” Let’s see if you’re ready to join us on the next Beat Freaq Producer Showcase at Beats and Bars 2027! Or just check out some of the beats and “Rate the Rhythm!”

Play the Ugly Face 4BQ →

2027 • Augusta, GA • 5th Year Celebration

02 /

You Know It When You Hear It.

Producer Spotlight · GU$

Two men at the Beat Freaq table under a red umbrella: one raps into a microphone over a laptop and DJ controller while the other stands beside him, watching.

GU$ on the name, the bloodline, and the night the cipher found his beats, with Jah Freedom on the producer he can hear from a mile away.

Read the producer spotlight →

03 /

What Beat Freaq Is

Enter the showcase

A producer plays an Akai MPC keyboard at a table draped with the Beat Freaq banner, with one man seated at a microphone behind him and another standing beside him, watching.

GU$, Jeck and Jah Free at the Beat Freaq table. Photo: @BrobinsonsDTV · @rockwellNo8

Beat Freaq is a platform started and hosted by producer and DJ Jah Freedom. It is centered on producers, with room for poets, rappers and MCs. In Jah’s words, it is built on “the synergy between the artist and the producer.”

The music is only half of it. Beat Freaq’s community work has included yearly food drives, mentoring young artists, and free workshops on getting paid, publishing and the business side of music. Its Beat Freaq Generals are producers recognized as much for showing up for the community as for their beats.

Enter the showcase →

01 Beats • 2027 Preview 02

I Found My Tribe Again.

Ugly Face 4BQ

You Know It When You Hear It.

What Beat Freaq Is

All Beat Freaq Features