Ok, Hip Hop History Month Avocado community, it’s Day 3! Today, we want…Beat Switches!
What’s a beat switch? For many hip hop fans, it’s a ‘I know when I hear it’ kind of thing. They aren’t native to rap/hip hop music, of course-you can find them in all kinds of music, from classical to midcentury pop tunes. An official definition, and I’m quoting from this helpful article, is “an abrupt, but clean transition that melds two distinct sounds together”. The thing that makes a beat switch such a thrilling part of a rap/hip hop song is that if done properly, the balance between the familiarity of the original beat/tempo of the song and the novelty of the changed mood and overall feel of the song is heightened by the intuitive relation between the two (and maybe more!) beats and their relation to each other.
And of course the origin of the beat switch comes from the DJ’ing part of hip hop culture, where creative artists were looking for ways to extend songs and keep the party and music moving! So at first DJs on the wheels of steel (turntables) would just use an identical record to the one they were playing to make a kind of extended version of a song. Then, DJs started to find records that had similar tempos/grooves/beats and use them to segway into another song without stopping the music.
Our more modern appreciation of the beat switch comes from the surprise of it, which is a little different than its historical origins. New beats in more modern rap songs can feel like they come out of nowhere, and I use the word ‘feel’ deliberately here. The best thing about a good beat switch is that you *feel* it-something intangible changes and the switch becomes this amazing point of no return, a space of unpredictability and excitement that is often reflected not only in the precision of the switch and its specificity, but in the rapper’s performance.
Given this, and given that at least part of our fun here is not just to appreciate these prompts every day but to talk about them, I’m presenting this performance, which not only features a stunning beat switch, but shows how a rapper can really physically embody a beat switch in an exhilarating way.
Once again:
1.) The tricky/fun thing about this 30 day ‘challenge’ is that you get one choice (see, it’s a challenge!). It doesn’t have to be the ‘best’ choice, or even your ‘favorite’ song-think about it like this: if someone asked you for an example of a ‘beat switch’ what song would you suggest? Of course, if you want to mention other songs, it’s fine, but moving on to the second thing-
2.) In order to keep the thread from borking, please limit yourself to one YouTube/media link per post. If someone ‘beats you to it’ and posts a song you would’ve posted, reply under their post saying why you like this song/why it was your pick as well, etc. Let’s not give Disqus a reason to make the thread hard to navigate for those of us listening to the songs!
3.) Let’s keep this as positive as we can. Don’t yuck anyone’s yum, don’t snark on someone who may not be as familiar as others, don’t ‘Um, actually’ people, etc. Ain’t nobody earning any Internet Points out here.