Instrumental Hip-Hop

Instrumental Hip-Hop:
Some may be asking hip-hop? This is a thread about electronic music right? Well, most all hip-hop is based off either samples of electronically produced beats. So if you take away the MC’s it becomes instrumental, and then arguments over whether it’s hip-hop or electronic stem more from where the artist is coming from rather than what it sounds like (hence its inclusion here). Instrumental Hip-Hop at its core is taking hip-hop beats and adapting them to an instrumental format. It takes the principles of hip-hop groove, but is usually more active so as to keep the listener engaged without an MC. Usually, artists in this genre split their time by making solo albums and producing albums for rappers, and many prefer to create their solo music almost entirely off of samples using turntables as in early hip-hop (these artists are called Turntablists), and this method usually creates a much more hectic and amorphous sound. Instrumental hip-hop can be relaxed and chilled as in artists like Blockhead or vibrant and energetic like RJD2. The only requirement for the genre is taking the principles of hip-hop and adapting them for instrumental works. As a result of this, many artists making this type of music can also be seen as artists of other genres when seen through an electronic looking glass (e.g. as Trip-Hop, Big Beat, IDM, et al.), causing not only a lot of confusion for cataloguists (DJ Shadow has been known to take his records from electronic sections in record stores and move them to the hip-hop sections), but also new genres as well such as Clip-Hop (IDM + Hip-Hop).

Sub/Related Genres:
Turntablism, Clip-Hop
Noteworthy Artists:
DJ Shadow, RJD2, Kid Koala, DJ Krush, Prefuse 73
Noteworthy Albums:
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing… (1996) RJD2, Dead Ringer (2002) DJ Krush, Strictly Turntablized (1994) Prefuse 73, Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives (2001) Wagon Christ, Throbbing Pouch (1994)

Link: www.boards.ign.com