Sia Chandelier Instrumental Mp3 Download
Hedvige Ransonet
Donuts is a somewhat arbitrary point to single out, but it can be used as a convenient marker on the timeline of independent hip-hop. In our list of the 100 best indie hip-hop records, Donuts was set as a cutoff because it felt like the last really significant release of that era. It emerged in the midst of a transitional period in rap where old traditions began to stagnate both above and below ground, and the genre began to evolve in new directions.
New York began its decline, and the South rose to prominence on a national scale. The nascent blog boom allowed access to a wealth of previously obscure material, prompting a reassessment of the historical canon and spurring cross-pollination between previously far-flung styles. Soon enough, the internet, for better or worse, would become a wellspring of new ideas that pointed to unexpected and radically different directions.
Aftershocks were felt in instrumental hip-hop too. In the wake of Donuts the sub-genre grew stale, partly suffocated by a wave of well-meaning but uninspired posthumous tributes to Dilla himself. But as rap evolved, hip-hop instrumentals were quick to follow. A period of nearly unchecked file sharing provided producers with an unprecedented amount of new sample sources from a variety of locales and musical epochs. Sampling and live instrumentation intermingled more and more, closing the gap between hip-hop and the music that inspired it. New approaches to production and new influences bred entirely new sounds to be used for soundtracking rappers and creating standalone compositions.
2006 ushered in a fertile stretch for instrumental hip-hop, heralding a plethora of wildly different beat tapes and full-lengths. The purpose of the list is to explore some of the more interesting and important releases among them, and to highlight a few personal favorites that may have been overlooked. I tried to focus on items that have the most tangible connection to the larger world of rap, purposefully avoiding more abstracted areas which teeter on being sub-genres unto themselves (i.e. the LA beat scene, which deserves a detailed write-up of its own).
Blue Sky Black Death started out on the backpacker-ish side of things, but their interests and inspirations were wider than just one niche. Their body of work is actually rather diverse, expanding beyond rap to both rock and electronic music. Late Night Cinema was their first fully instrumental album, and while it was a solid if somewhat scattered effort, their real creative breakthrough, to me at least, came when they decided to release a slowed version of the record as a tribute to DJ Screw. This version was called Lean Night Cinema, and although it came out without much fanfare, it served as an indicator of where their music would head next.
The stripping of vocals had a transformative effect on the tracks, which allowed previously overlooked nuances to come to the forefront. The structures of rap remained in skeletal form, but they were now draped with gauzy layers of atmospheric texture and melodramatic emotion, the key sonic attributes of the cloud rap sub-genre. The simple concept of the beat tape was thus transcended, and Instrumentals Vol 1 became a standalone entity that bridged the gap between rap and electronic production.
Instrumentals Volume 1 collects his earlier work, and is his most consistent release. His official debut Hater Of The Year is not far behind in quality, but was marred by the decision to reserve some of the best beats for a future Western Tink album. While Hater Of The Year is psychedelic and intense, Instrumentals has a surprising almost-Balearic streak running through it. It intermittently reminds of yachts, slow disco and cocaine, giving the tape a certain sleaziness. This air of hedonism may be what sets this tape apart from its more based contemporaries, and was no doubt the reason Silky was picked up to produce for The Weeknd.
The final piece of the trio of albums I previously mentioned in the Odissee blurb, A Hazy Night in the Heights is the noir-ish jazz counterpart to the swamp blues of The Ashtray and the warm, soulful jazz of Rock Creek Park.
4AD was criticized for urging Purrp to master his music properly, thereby scrubbing off the sonic grime which was one of its unique selling points. But this actually allowed the listener to really appreciate what was hidden beneath the murk. The cleaned up tracks still retain their original menace, but now filled the headphones with a much lusher, more nuanced texture. Small flourishes of synths, reverb, bells and other random effects, previously unnoticed, now came to the forefront to add another compelling dimension to the listening experience. Behind the curtain of fuzz and rambling about Osiris and sucking dick was an artist who really knew how to make a big impression out of small details.
Sela. made some good cloud rap-ish material, but never really broke through outside of a loyal tumblr following. The two Stress tapes where the point where his work really hit its stride. He has since veered off into more abstract territory, and still releases music fairly regularly via Bandcamp.
Bannon definitely has the credentials to be on this list, and was actually included in the first draft. Ultimately, however, we decided to leave him off because his most interesting instrumental works seems pointedly focused on moving away from hip-hop toward other genres. See, for example, his intriguing Ninja Tune debut Alternate/Endings, which owes far more to jungle than it does rap.
Ben Niespodziany does great work in curating and collecting instrumental hip-hop for Mishka Bloglin. This double-length compilation is his most epic achievement: a sprawling collection of instrumentals spotlighting notable and up-and-coming producers across the US. Some of the artists it features are already on this list, while many others are likely to make their mark soon enough.
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Ethnic Studies faculty, Brian Klopotek and Lani Teves helped create the Native American ARC and Professor Charise Cheney has been instrumental in the African American ARC (which welcomed its first students this Fall).
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