Hey there, Hip Hop Challengers! Today is beat day.
Take it from me, a non-expert- many of the legendary hip hop DJs who were true pioneers of the genre crafted beats for MCs with drum machines, or by skillfully manipulating records with scratches, loops, etc. Beat-boxing was also played a major role in the development of rapping, as artists dropped their bars over improvised beats made by a talented beat-boxer.
The genre got increasingly visible and present in popular culture throughout the 1980s, but remained somewhat independent and unregulated, leading to a development of sample culture that shaped many, many important albums and songs. (I don’t have specifics about what happened in which year, etc, but trust that I’m not making this up! I have read a thing or two.)
What we’re looking for today, though, is not necessarily a sample, but a beat-the backbone of a song, the thing that often dictates a rapper’s flow and their bars, the thing that sticks in our minds sometimes when we recall a tune we like. I like this particular song as an example of a great beat because it’s actually fairly basic (adding some drums to a short snippet of a sample from a film), but it drives the entire vibe of the song, turning the dial up to 11 in just four notes, forcing each rapper to stay on top of their game for all of their bars.
Once again:
1.) The tricky/fun thing about this 30 day ‘challenge’ is that you get one choice (see, it’s a challenge!). I imagine that many of us could make an entire playlist of favorite beats, so it’ll be tough to come up with just one! It doesn’t have to be an all-time favorite, or an objective ‘all time best’ or anything like that-just an example of a beat if someone asked you ‘what is an example of a fun/cool/favorite beat?’.
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! If you want to mention some others, of course that’s fine!
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.
Bring ’em out!