{"id":28409,"date":"2023-08-08T17:31:21","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T21:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=28409"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:08:32","slug":"egyptian-lover-tr-808","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/","title":{"rendered":"The king of the TR-808: Egyptian Lover on the iconic drum machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gregory James Broussard, better known as Egyptian Lover, is a legend in the electro and hip hop scenes.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Egyptian Lover got his start making mixtapes as a teenager, rhyming over tracks he recorded off of the radio before taking his mix of rhymes and electro beats to the LA streets as a member of Uncle Jamm&#8217;s Army. Synonymous with the Roland TR-808, he made history with his singles &#8220;Egypt Egypt&#8221; (1984) and &#8220;Freak-A-Holic&#8221; (1986).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/6noajkkuZkla4d8E6sYUiY?si=21f9e6b2c80b45e3\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/6GkUTdcRjEP5k7viFRmByR?si=b908e2a13f43420c\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>His signature pioneering move at one of his first DJ gigs was rewinding one of the records while another was still playing\u2014history was made at that party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In celebration of 808 day and the release of <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/sounds\/packs\/signal-path\/egyptian-lover-808-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his new sample pack,<\/a> Egyptian Lover sat down with us above to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware 808 units and <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/what-is-a-vocoder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a vocoder<\/a> to lay down some samples and vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When I started out, all I had was the 808,&#8221; Egyptian Lover shares. &#8220;So, I learned everything about it: the accent coming out, different programs, how to speed it up and slow it down\u2014I became the king of the 808.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;So, even if you only have one or two instruments, just learn that instrument. If you do, you don&#8217;t need a whole bunch of other ones\u2014just become the master of that one instrument or those two instruments. Then, you&#8217;ll create a new thing with what you have. It&#8217;s not how much you have, but how much you know with what you have.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Incorporate Egyptian Lover&#8217;s timeless sounds into your own productions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/sounds\/packs\/signal-path\/egyptian-lover-808-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Explore the sounds<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":28413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1692,49],"tags":[348,1305,1061,1254,918],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost-1024x640.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harrison Shimazu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/bitly.com\/namaboku-twt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harrison Shimazu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harrison Shimazu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ed73f890efad66c4808440680e9e50d\"},\"headline\":\"The king of the TR-808: Egyptian Lover on the iconic drum machine\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\"},\"wordCount\":271,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png\",\"keywords\":[\"drums\",\"hip hop\",\"sample packs\",\"sounds\",\"youtube\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Stories\",\"Videos\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\",\"name\":\"Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"egyptian-lover-tr-808-featured-image\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The king of the TR-808: Egyptian Lover on the iconic drum machine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Splice Blog\",\"description\":\"An inside look at making music\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Splice\",\"alternateName\":\"Splice Sounds\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png\",\"width\":2928,\"height\":1540,\"caption\":\"Splice\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/splice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/splice\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@splice\",\"https:\/\/discord.com\/invite\/splice\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ed73f890efad66c4808440680e9e50d\",\"name\":\"Harrison Shimazu\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/208af1495724cce6967f47553c4b971a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/208af1495724cce6967f47553c4b971a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Harrison Shimazu\"},\"description\":\"Harrison Shimazu is a composer, content strategist, and writer who's passionate about democratizing music creation and education. He leads the Splice blog and produces vocaloid music as Namaboku.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@namaboku\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/bitly.com\/namaboku-twt\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/author\/harrisons\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice","description":"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice","og_description":"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.","og_url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/","og_site_name":"Blog | Splice","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice","article_published_time":"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost-1024x640.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Harrison Shimazu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/bitly.com\/namaboku-twt","twitter_site":"@splice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harrison Shimazu","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/"},"author":{"name":"Harrison Shimazu","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ed73f890efad66c4808440680e9e50d"},"headline":"The king of the TR-808: Egyptian Lover on the iconic drum machine","datePublished":"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/"},"wordCount":271,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png","keywords":["drums","hip hop","sample packs","sounds","youtube"],"articleSection":["Stories","Videos"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/","name":"Egyptian Lover on the iconic TR-808 - Blog | Splice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png","datePublished":"2023-08-08T21:31:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-17T16:08:32+00:00","description":"Egyptian Lover sat down with us to discuss his relationship with the TR-808, bringing two hardware units and a vocoder to lay down some samples and vocals.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0823-The-King-of-the-TR-808VS_BlogPost.png","width":1920,"height":1200,"caption":"egyptian-lover-tr-808-featured-image"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/egyptian-lover-tr-808\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The king of the TR-808: Egyptian Lover on the iconic drum machine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/","name":"Splice Blog","description":"An inside look at making music","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Splice","alternateName":"Splice Sounds","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Splice-logo-black-background.png","width":2928,"height":1540,"caption":"Splice"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice","https:\/\/x.com\/splice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/splice\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@splice","https:\/\/discord.com\/invite\/splice"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ed73f890efad66c4808440680e9e50d","name":"Harrison Shimazu","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/208af1495724cce6967f47553c4b971a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/208af1495724cce6967f47553c4b971a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Harrison Shimazu"},"description":"Harrison Shimazu is a composer, content strategist, and writer who's passionate about democratizing music creation and education. He leads the Splice blog and produces vocaloid music as Namaboku.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@namaboku","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/bitly.com\/namaboku-twt"],"url":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/author\/harrisons\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28409"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37570,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409\/revisions\/37570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}