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Part 2 in the Atlantica bass house series: a little harder, a little more rugged, 60 tracks in under 80 minutes. http://ift.tt/2fvSddr

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Oh, I think you need all that bass. http://ift.tt/2dYiVwb

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Ask the Artist: why is the 808 called “808″?

It's pure model numbering, but one could speculate on a meaning behind the numbers chosen (and please, if someone here was a Roland employee in the 80s and knows more definitively, let me know).

The TR-808, introduced in 1980, was Roland's second drum machine with user-programmable patterns. The one before it was the CR-78. The 808, with its standalone tabletop groove box form factor was a radical departure from 60s-style drum machines, which were intended mainly to be an auxiliary device for an organ or piano. One could imagine the significance of the two eights in the model number may have had something to do with its 16-step sequencer, the paired numbers with a zero in between echoing the boxy nature of the form factor, but as far as I know that'd be pure speculation.

The next units Roland made were the TR-606 Drumatrix and TB-303 bass synthesizer, which were intended to be used together by a guitarist, so s/he could practice without a bassist or drummer (the "TB" in TB-303 stood for "Training Bass"). Since their form factors were similar to the 808, Roland continued with the x0x numbering scheme. And, again, you could speculate that the numbers of these two devices was meaningful — using 6 and 3 (one divisible by the other) to signify that they were intended to be paired.

Then came the TR-909, which very similar to the 808, but was flexible and programmable, capable of producing a wider variety of sounds. You can imagine the 9 as an incremental over 8 — like the 808 "evolved."

The 808, 909 and 606 were not very successful drum machines in the 80s, outcompeted by the Linn LM-1, which used a digital sampler instead of analog synthesis to create much more realistic drum sounds. The sound of the 303 bore so little resemblance to a bass guitar that it was a commercial flop, and its companion, the 606, had a pretty cheap, plasticy build quality so that hurt sales too. In 1984 Roland added the TR-707, which also used digital sampling, plus had an innovative grid interface, but it was too little too late; the LM-1 already dominated the market. You can imagine the 7 in the 707 was because of the departure in technologies from the other x0x devices, an odd, prime number to reflect the innovation that went into it.

By the end of the 80s and early 90s the dominance of the LM-1 was beginning to backfire. Trends in music had changed, the ubiquity of the LM-1 drum sound was considered "tired," and you could get x0x boxes very, very cheaply in pawn shops. House and techno were on the rise, hip hop was about to enter it's third wave, so early house and techno producers and certain branches of hip hop gravitated toward the more obscure, inexpensive gear from the mid-80s and on. House and hip hop immersed themselves in the booming bass of the 808 kick drum, techno embraced the relentless pounding of the 909, the weird, squelchy character of the 303 gave birth to acid house, a cottage industry of x0x mods appeared, one of the most popular mods being adjustments to the 808 kick sustain, and the rest is history.

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Ask the Artist: Meter and Rhyme Style in Hip Hop

Question

When people say they're analyzing the meter in hip hop lyrics, what do they mean?

Answer

In music, meter is the rhythmic structure of the instrumentation – which beats are stressed and unstressed, how many there are and how often the pattern repeats. But in analyzing lyrics, one is probably referring to Poetic Meter, which is the rhythmic structure of the lyrical content of a piece of music or poetry.

The Rhythm of Syllables

A little history

There are lots of traditional styles of poetic meter throughout the history of poetry. One of the most popular in English poetry and music is iambic pentameter – ten syllables grouped into five pairs (hence the "penta"), alternating soft, hard, soft, hard and so on. The soft-hard combo is called an "iamb", so with five of them you get the name "iambic pentameter," and it's been the most popular rhythmic structure in English language poetry and song for centuries.

If you imagine the stress of the lyrical content like a heartbeat, iambic pentameter sounds like this:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

So in verse, it works like this (example from Romeo and Juliet):

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

Here's another example, this time from from "Amazing Grace." This one, too, is iambic, but it's not pentameter because there aren't five pairs per line. Rather, it's a line of iambic tetrameter (four iambs) followed by a line of iambic trimeter (three iambs).

Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me

See what I mean? Iambic pentameter (and other structured variants) is well-known, well-used pattern that was works well in the English language, not just in Shakespeare and gospel, but all over the place. Now that you know about it, you'll hear it lots, I guarantee.

(as an aside, here's a great video on the topic – Akala from the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company giving a TEDx talk about the connection between Shakespeare and hip hop.)

Fast forward to the hip hop era

Iambic meter still exists even today in hip hop. Take this example from Biggie's "Everyday Struggle"

I’m seeing body after body and our Mayor Giuliani

But modern poetry, and especially hip hop, have chosen, rather than sticking with rigid structural rules of the past, to use them when it's convenient and break them when it'll be more effective.

The Rhythm of Rhymes

Traditional Rhyme Schemes

A closely related topic to poetic meter is rhyme scheme, which looks at the rhythmic composition not of the stressed and unstressed syllables, but the rhymes.

There are lots of traditional rhyme schemes. You can describe a limerick ("There once was a man from Nantucket...") by it's rhyme scheme: AABBA – where the last syllable of the first two lines rhyme, then the last syllable of the next two lines rhyme, then the last syllable of the fifth line rhymes with the first two lines.

Let's go back to Shakespeare again. One very structured form of poetry Shakespeare was a master of is the English sonnet, which is a 14 line poem entirely in iambic pentameter with a rhyme structure ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This is the extreme of structural rhyme schemes (one of the most famous sonnets of all time starts "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" – look it up and check the rhyme scheme and meter).

Golden age hip hop tends to stick very strictly to traditional rhyme schemes. The vast majority of hip hop before 1985 follows an AABBCC... rhyme scheme, with two lines that end in a rhyme followed by two more lines that end with another rhyme and so on – think of practically every song Run-DMC ever recorded for an idea of what that's like.

The Modern Masters – Breaking the Rules

As time when on and lyricists started getting more complex in their poetry, they started breaking the structure of traditional end-of-line rhyme schemes, mixing in rhymes in the middle of lines, using more complex patterns of rhyming like rhyming a syllable in the middle of one line with the end of the next and so on.

Masters of the complex rhyme scheme include artists like Nas and Eminem. Take this example from the opening verse of "NY State of Mind":

Rappers I monkey flip them with the funky rhythm I be kickin' Musician, inflictin' composition of Pain I'm like Scarface sniffin' cocaine Holdin' a M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now

Let's break down that rhyme scheme. First, find the rhymes and where they appear:

monkey flip them / funky rhythm

kicking / inflicting

musician / composition

pain / cocaine / pen

M-16 / extreme

The first bar is a one-liner made of two compound rhymes-"monkey flip them and funky rhythm" (and pulling off three words in the first compound is just showing off extra bonus lyrical skills).

The second bar is a set of alternating single rhymes that tie in back with the first bar.

The third bar starts and ends with a new rhyme, but right before the end of the line there's another tie-in with the rhyme from the first and second bar.

If you diagrammed all that it'd look something like this:

-AB-AB-B

CBC-

D--BD

-E---E-

That's kind of sophisticated, deeply intertwined rhyme style is one of Nas's signatures and that, coupled with actually writing deeply meaningful lyrics with all these rhymes, are what makes him one of the greatest of all time.

Now let's compare that to Eminem, who also uses interesting rhyme styles but very differently. Eminem favors small, reused sets of rhyming syllables with varying lengths of meter between them. Here's an absolutely insane example from a verse in "Renegade" where he scatters the three rhyming syllables (marked below with (parentheses), [square brackets], {curly brackets}) across six fifteen-syllable lines.

Now [who's] the king of these [rude] [lud]icrous [luc]rative {lyrics}? [Who] could in{herit} the title, put the [youth] in hys{terics}? [Using] his [music] to {steer it} sharing his [views] and his {merits} But there's a [huge] inter{ference}, they're (say)ing, "[You] shouldn't {hear it}." (May)be it's (ha)tred I [spew], (may)be it's [food] for the {spirit} (May)be it's [beau]tiful [mu]sic I (made) for [you] to just {cherish}

Those are the kinds of things – poetic meter and rhyme scheme – people are looking for when they analyze the structure of rap lyrics.

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Ask the Artist: Should people always make mashups in the same key? Music is math, right?

Most mashups I hear are an absolute trainwreck due to a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of music theory and harmony. And yes, harmonic relationships are mathematical, but simply saying "music is math" and calling it a day is ignoring a key piece of the puzzle — the way humans interpret those mathematical relationships is not absolute. Psychology plays just as important a role in the way music is perceived, interpreted and experienced as mathematics.

Math is absolute, but music isn't math alone

The perception of harmony is based on consonance, which is inherently a psychological phenomenon, and therefore subjective. In fact, the perception of consonance in Western music has changed over time. Prior to the 1600s, unlead 7th chords were considered extremely dissonant, which is why you simply didn't hear them in music before that era. Today, jazz is anchored by the unlead 7th. Our very definition of what is consonant and dissonant has changed, therefore it's not fixed or set in stone.

The interpretation of consonance and dissonance also has a lot to do with expectations. The chords and progressions we're most familiar with sound most consonant to us through sheer repetition, while more unusual voicings may sound dissonant, though they may not actually, mathematically, be any more or less dissonant, than others. Of course, there are exceptions. Major and minor triads, which 20th and 21st century pop music is based largely upon, are interpreted as highly consonant because they have perfect 4th or 5th intervals and no 2nd intervals, creating a very simple overtone structure that isn't subject to a lot of interpretation. But as soon as you start voicing more complex, sophisticated chords, you create opportunities for people to hear them differently.

Even within the realm of notation there are different ways of interpreting the same music. Let's use a single concrete example. Look at this chord and tell me what it is. If you called it B7#9b13 you're right. But if you called it B7#5#9 you'd also be technically right. Mathematically, they're the same thing, but semantically they're quite different. By saying this B7 contains a b13, rather than a #5, you're suggesting that there would be either a natural 5, or a #11 and no 5, and that it's an inversion, and likely part of a chord sequence that plays off of the b13 in a higher register. But if you interpret it as a #5 you're implying that there should also be a #4 in the sequence instead. Similarly, Eb+maj7(#11) and Gadd9(b13) use exactly the same notes, but they have different contexts, different purposes. This isn't just pedantic chord grammar. This variety in interpretation has profound implications on what chords may come before and after.

Furthermore, there's a whole cultural aspect that should be considered. We usually think from the perspective of the Western tradition of music, with 12 equally-spaced tones each octave, which is just the mark of each frequency doubling, but that's not the only way music is played. People who come from other musical traditions, like Chinese and sub-Saharan African music, for an example, divide octaves very differently, and people from those traditions hear music quite differently that Western ears. That doesn't make them wrong, but it does show that a cultural bias has a strong influence on how music is interpreted.

Musical harmonics is not a perfect science. If it were, then harmonic estimation wouldn't be called "estimation." While you could perform a Fourier harmonic analysis on a series of chords and get a consistent result, the meaning of that result will differ for different people. There are dozens of scholarly examples that support this — just Google it.

The bottom line is, the mathematics of frequency relationships are absolute math, but the psychology of music is open to interpretation, and subject to our cultural expectations.

How the wrong key can be right

Now let's tie this in with your point using a specific counter-example to "mashups need to be in the 'right' key".

The vocals for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" only feature four notes through the entire song: G, A, B and C. The song is recorded in A Minor, but if you strip out the instrumentation from the song and take the vocals by themselves you could easily reinterpret those four notes.

The most obvious example would be to mash it up with a cheerful tune written in the relative major for A Minor – C Major – like "La Bamba" by Richie Valens. It'd be an absurd juxtaposition, but it'd work harmonically. Pretty much every song recorded in a major key can be mashed up with another song in its relative minor, and vice versa.

You can go a little farther, though. With only four notes in the entire vocal line, there are other nearby keys that can also work well. The nearest key to A Minor (A B C D E F G) is E Minor (E F# G A B C D). The simple vocals, with only four notes, fit in perfectly with E Minor – not one note is out of place, so you could mash it up with Nirvana's "Come As You Are," for example. Likewise, the relative Major for E Minor is G Major, so you could mash up Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" without too much difficulty. So, in effect, while the original song was recorded in a specific "right" key, there are four keys where all the vocal notes are included and would work absolutely fine: A Minor, C Major, E Minor and G Major.

If you're trying to stretch yourself a little farther, you could look at a whole host of keys that have one note out of place and see if it could work. D Major/B Minor, F Major/D Minor and Bb Major/G Minor all differ from the vocal line on just one note. Depending on which scale factor that note falls on, it may still work. For example, B Minor probably wouldn't work, as the C# being sung as a C would be a flat 2, considered terribly dissonant in today's Western musical understanding, but in contrast, it's relative major, D Major, which has the same exact notes, the sung C, as opposed to a C#, would be interpreted as a flat 7, which is commonly known as the Mixolydian scale, used in a lot of Irish folk and bluegrass.

There are creative ways to make a number of keys work other than the key a piece of music was recorded in, depending on the notes in the vocal line. In the above, at least four distinct keys work effortlessly. Three of those are all the "wrong" key, but they're totally doable. Just limiting yourself to the key the vocals were recorded in is an arbitrary limitation that makes it easier to make mashups at first, but by exercising a deeper understanding of music theory and harmonic structure, you can find creative, "out of the box" approaches to making music.

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Ask the Artist: How much does your workflow change from song to song?

Over the last 20 years I’ve gone back and forth between a highly structured workflow, a completely freeform style and everything in between. I’ll share my opinions on the matter.

How to get a structured workflow

Structure doesn’t emerge out of a vacuum. You have to know what it is that you’re trying to build before you can lay the foundation to create a repeatable pattern to build it again in the future. Therefore, you necessarily need to have gone through the process in an open, free flow manner at least once (and more likely many times) before you can start to find ways to optimize your production workflow.

There are two ways to figure out how to optimize your workflow. The first way is to look at the types of patterns and techniques you typically use when you sit down to compose. Do you always separate your kick drum onto its own channel and mix it independently of the other drums? Do you stack a low-passed sub bass underneath a high passed midrange bass? Do you tend to do the same things with reverb or sidechain compression? By prebuilding starter channels for those kinds of tasks you start to build up a template to work with to increase your productivity.

The second way is even more focused. Let’s say you produce a track you’re really proud of and say to yourself “I want to make a whole album of this kind of stuff.” Then analyze your project file for that track. What does it contain and how is it routed and structured? What kinds of sounds does it have in it? In effect, separate the architecture of the track from the content, so you can see the “skeleton” the sounds sit on. Then do two things: build a clean template project that mirrors that skeleton that you’ll use to build “more like this,” and set up a sound library with the sounds from the original project. Include rendered audio (you’re building your own sample pack here), synth patches and effects chains and homemade presets as appropriate. Then you’ll have a template project and the content you need to fill it up, and watch how your productivity will shoot through the roof.

Why a structured workflow is awesome

A rigid, structured workflow is great for two things: consistency and quantity. If you want to produce a large body of work in a relatively short period of time, you’re going to want a repeatable pattern to apply to the effort.

Structure eliminates a lot of the questions that can derail your creative process, like “where do I find [x] in my library?” or “what kind of sound should I add next?” I’m not saying that you don’t ask those questions, but rather they’ve already been asked and answered by the time you start composing.

Structure relies deeply on two things: organization and templates. To really reap the benefits of a structured workflow you don’t want to have to do things like build your drum kit from scratch each time. Instead, you want to have a go-to drum kit already built that you just drop in and start banging on. If you also have pre-written MIDI patterns to go with your drum kit, you’re even deeper into the realm of templatized workflow mastery.

With all this talk about patterns, repetition and templates, you may be tempted to think that a structured workflow is less creative than an open format style. In reality, it’s quite the opposite. Real creativity comes not from infinite choice, but from working within constraints. If you have any sound in the world at your fingertips it can be difficult to make the decisions you need to make to finish projects. But if you have a tight, 20 MB sample pack you built yourself and know inside and out, and work exclusively with the constraints of that limitation, you’d be amazed what kind of creativity can come from that. Remember, the pioneers of electronic music were working with incredibly limited tools and look at what they were able to achieve.

When structure gets in the way

The two things that templatization is good for are both good and bad for your creative process. Let’s be real here: how much of what you do in the studio is actually good enough to release? 10% 5%? Anything that increases your output increases the chances of you writing something quality. But the flip side of that is that it doesn’t let you break out of the confines you’ve established for yourself. That’s kinda the point: give yourself a limitation, work with those limitations, and generate content. But eventually, once you’ve worked your formula to the bone, you’ll find that you’re not inventing anymore, you’re just repeating yourself.

To get away from AC/DC syndrome, you have to leave your template behind and start over from scratch, abandoning your assumptions and rediscovering the kind of experimental, free form workflow you started with when you were new. Change something really fundamental. Do you always use a MIDI sequenced drum kit? Then stop doing that and drop audio right into your sequencer channel directly, or start using breaks and loops instead of pre-prepared drum hits. Do something to really change up the lowest levels of your process.

By breaking your template you’ll find new ideas and inspiration that you couldn’t have had working within the limitations of your optimized process. You’ll find new “a ha!” moments and want to explore them. And, more than likely, what you’ll end up doing is driving toward building a new generation of optimizations eventually. So, in a way, the process is something of a cycle — discovering how to work, refining and mastering your technique, optimizing for output, then breaking it all down and starting again.

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Tasty beats.

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Neurotech. It’s coming.

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Parallel Composition

I’ve seen a lot of posts, tutorials, tips and tricks for improving productivity in your songwriting workflow. Some of them are really solid, like “separate sound design, composition and mixing into distinct phases,” and I absolutely do that in my own process. But I take the separation of phases one step further.

After designing a bunch of awesome sounds the next step is to build tracks with it, right? Well, rather than coming up with a great sounding 4 or 8 bars, then going straight into building out a whole track with it, I’ll come up with several great-sounding sets of 4 or 8 bars, all side by side in the same project. In a way, I actually separate composition into two phases: idea generation and idea development.

Compared to the rigor necessary to take a track all the way through completion, It’s not too terribly hard to have that initial spark of inspiration, so I capitalize on that, and try to sketch out lots of different “track starters” at once. I'll tend to keep all the ideas in the “Idea Generator” project in the same key and using the same family of instruments for consistency between them. This is great for writing multiple tracks intended to go together in a live performance, EP or album release.

Then I’ll pick out the ones I like best that should move on to the development phase. At that point I’ll start building out structure for each one — intro, buildup, main section, breakdown, second drop, and outro. I’ll keep it really light and loose for each one at this point, avoiding nerding out on the details, and develop each one in parallel, so they all move down the pipeline together. I compose in Ableton Live, and start the process in Session View, so it’s pretty simple to get to this level of development on multiple tracks in a single project file.

Then I’ll audit the progress of the tracks as they’re coming along. The ones that still show promise get promoted to their own project file. That’s the point where I’ll go in and start adding the details, variations, and character that will make each track unique and distinct from each other. This is the most time-consuming part of the process, but it’s great to have multiple tracks to jump back and forth between. If I get hung up one one of them, I can change gears and work on one of the others to keep myself moving forward, as well as to help unblock myself on whatever I was stuck on.

Eventually this process leads to a collection of tracks that work together well, ready for mixdown. When I’ve finished the composition phase, I’ll break them back down into stems for mixdown. Then I’ll import all the mixdown stems from all the tracks in the same “batch” into a single project so I can mix them all together, side by side. That way I know they’re mixed to a common reference and continue to sound harmonious.

Once I’m done mixing the tracks I’ll do two things: bounce out stereo files of each one for mastering, and bounce out stems again — but this time I’ll bounce two sets of stems, one granular set of mixed stems (the same stems I imported for mixing), and another, less granular set of “summed” stems for performance. The mixdown stems are great for remixes, so I package them for that purpose for future needs. Some of them also get reintegrated back into my sample library for future use on new tracks.

Then comes the mastering phase. I’ll master the stereo mixdown, and also set up the performance stems for mixed performance in Native Instruments Stems format, as well as for my own use in my Ableton Live performance setup. That way I know the stereo master and the individual performance stems sound as close to each other as possible.

I’m getting a little off track here. The point is, I don’t just sit down and write a track from beginning to end, then move on to the next track. Instead I use a parallel development workflow to increase productivity. I’m tackling small chunks of the process at a time, but for more than one song at at once, which is a huge benefit. If I find myself just listening to a part looping and not knowing what to do next, I switch tracks instead of wasting time.

At each stage of the process I’m not only completing more work on more tracks, but I’m also allowing the work on one track to inspire the development of another, and continuously building my sound library at the same time. So the next time I sit down to write something from scratch (another batch of tunes, maybe the next EP), I’m not starting from zero, because I can build on what I did before, even the stuff that didn’t make the final cut.

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Ask the Artist: Performance and Stability

Question How do you make sure your performances go smoothly when performing with Ableton Live? Do you ever have problems with crashes or things like that?

Answer

I've been using Ableton Live for live performance since 2010 and I've never once had a technical problem on stage (well, not one that was Ableton's fault, at least — I had to use a borrowed laptop once when mine was stolen right before a gig, installed Ableton and all the drivers I needed, copied my session over, but...well...lets just say that a ThinkPad isn't the greatest machine for MIDI reliability).

That said, I've had uncountable headaches in prep, setup and performance rig configuration to make sure that I don't have any of those problems on stage. I'd much rather discover all the kinks I can at home rather than in front of an audience.

Here's what I do:

Keep the performance machine clean

For most of my performances I use a dedicated machine for performing with nothing — and I mean absolutely nothing — installed on that machine that I didn't need for performance. All the unnecessary operating system bells and whistles were turned off — Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (well, until I started using MIDI over Wi-Fi), file system indexing, graphics "pretty-izers" — anything that sucked system resources and didn't make a meaningful contribution to my ability to perform was stripped. Never even started up on boot.

If you're not able to dedicate an entire machine to performance, there's always an option of using a separate bootable partition, keeping it as minimal as physically possible, and booting into that partition when it's time to rock the house.

Design a rock solid performance configuration

I'm extremely picky about the hardware and third-party software that I bring on stage. It it's not totally, completely, never-crashed-once stable, I won't use live. I have very little tolerance for instability in the studio, but zero tolerance for it on stage. So, yeah, there may be some fancy new MIDI controller that I'm drooling over (there always is), but if I haven't put it through the paces and made sure it's crazy stable, it's not ready for showtime yet.

Similarly, if you're planning on using live synths instead of audio, be very careful about which ones you choose. Audio pretty much never crashes in Ableton, but VSTs do. I know that this can be an issue for people that want the flexibility of synths instead of rendered audio — Plastikman's setup, for example, is all synths, all live — but it takes a lot of QA to make sure you're not introducing problems.

Test exceptional scenarios

In the studio it's easy to set up the ideal configuration and jam, but on stage things don't always go according to plan. Test out how your system reacts to various kinds of stresses. Disconnect the AC adaptor until it goes into low-battery mode to see if power management clan introduce issues. Disconnect and reconnect any USB peripherals in the middle of a set to ensure they resume working smoothly (this is a big part of why I choose to perform with OS X instead of Windows), put the computer to sleep, then wake it to see if you can keep going, if you need to relaunch Live, or if you'll have to power cycle the whole machine.

Once you get a stable setup, practice with it, text the hell out of it, find all the gotchas so you can figure out how to avoid them, and you'll have yourself a setup that should work for you on stage first time, last time, every time.

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The Influence of Sci-Fi on Future Beats

With life imitating art, does the music dreamed up in fictional, sci-fi future worlds affect our idea of what “future beats” means?

William Gibson, one of the most prescient futurists in fiction, wrote extensively about aspects of an interconnected global network in Neuromancer and other titles, and many of his predictions have come to pass.

But he also made mention of music in many of his books. The most significant in Neuromancer is Zion Dub, a soundtrack that played constantly through the network of satellites occupied by a group of Rastafarians who regarded it as sacred, a part of Jah itself — “slow, bass-heavy electronic music…a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of digitalized pop.” Zion Dub is actually generated by an AI, another Gibson prediction that’s beginning to come true with AIs like David Cope’s Emmy writing symphonies that are indistinguishable from classical masters’ work.

In another Gibson title, Idoru, a member of a music group called Lo/Rez was a central part of the plot. The group’s music isn’t described in the same detail as Zion Dub, but the digital punk genre and cyber goth culture were both inspired by it.

In both cases, Gibson imagined a futuristic forms of music, and then years and years later artists began making music that fit the description. Are there other examples of this happening? To what degree does literature about the future inspire people making the music of the future?

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Ask The Artist: How can I make my compositions more interesting?

Question I'll write some music — drum parts, some chords, take the fifth from the chords and make a bassline, add pads, atmospherics. But when I compare it to the stuff I like it feels really simple and spare. How can I make it more interesting?

Answer Most electronic music is little more than drums, lead/melody/hook, bass and pad/atmospherics. It's not necessarily more instruments that make a soundscapes feel lush, but the treatment of the sounds you've already applied.

Let's start with the formula you've already worked out. It's a solid beginning, sure — fairly familiar and time-honored. Now, if you're listening to your 's work in progress and it feels "bare" compared to the music you like, there are three ways you can address it: creating a more interesting set of instruments, creating a more interesting arrangement or adding variety.

Voices and Instruments

A symphonic ensemble has fifty two different instruments, but if you look at the players' scores, many of them are silent for hundreds of measures at a time, coming in at choice moments to create interest, and many others are playing the same notes as others in the ensemble. A solo cello playing a melody is one thing, beautiful in its starkness, but deliberately spare. Add a two violins and a viola, playing four-part harmonies and you get a richer sound from the benefit of harmonization. But then add the full string section of an orchestra, and suddenly you have a monumental amount of sound to work with. Many of the musicians will be playing the same notes as each other, but because of multiple voices working in concert (couldn't help myself) the sound becomes very rich and complex, even if they're still just playing that same four-part harmony.

Now, in electronic music, you have a wealth of choice of instruments. Instead of creating a simple synthesizer that plays the melody, why not have several layered instruments that mix well together? Stacking instruments on top of each other is adding voices, which by itself can make a dull phrase come to life. Here are some ideas to try:

Create two copies of your main synth instrument, the one that carries your melody, and alter each one slightly so they sound related, but distinct. Then pan one of the copies hard left, the other hard right, and there the original in the center. For added interest, modulate a few parameters of each of those synths slightly differently throughout the piece to make them even more dynamic and expressive.

Use voicing options in the synths you have. Instruments like Massive and Serum have unison controls, that give you the ability to add additional, slightly detuned, panned oscillators to your patch, immediately making it sound "bigger." There are also unison effects that can achieve similar results.

Go the symphonic route — take the notes of your chords and voice each one with a different, related instrument, like you would in a string orchestra.

Here's a tip, too: stacking instruments to build deep, complex soundscapes isn't something limited to your lead/melody. Your atmospherics, pads, and drums can all benefit from similar techniques.

Arrangement and Parts

Let's continue with the orchestra example — a string orchestra (that is, an orchestra comprised entirely of string instrument players) has between 12 and 84 members playing four different instruments: violin, viola, cello and double bass. With all those voices available, composers like to have the bulk of the instruments carrying the primary notes of the melody and harmony, but then others in playing counterpoint with the melody, using different notes that complement what the other players are playing, often at voiced in between other notes to make them stand out as a complementary theme rather than just additional notes complementing the main harmony. Also, different players using different articulations, like some of them playing their violins bowed, while other playing pizzicato, plucking out notes, creates interest. When working with a larger group of instruments, you can choose to create interplay between what each one is playing, rather than just making massive, monolithic chords, to make your soundscapes deeper.

So, to relate that back to electronic music, consider adding in a melodic counterpoint, played by a different instrument that weaves through your arrangement, setting off the primary melody and harmony, to draw the listener's attention. For tips on counterpoint, check out music theory tutorials on YouTube.

Variety

And, finally, there's the matter of variety itself. I can think of one drum pattern in a well-known song that sounds deceptively simple at first. It appears to be just a half-bar loop — just a kick, clap and basic hi hat. On closer inspection, though, one will find these intermittent, small, percussive sounds that accent the phrase here and there, like slightly off-grid claps, rim strikes, side sticks, reversed versions of small hits, bits of shaped white noise and such, keeping it interesting. Also, clever use of a big, sidechained reverb tail that comes in on one of the claps, only once in a while, creates a very interesting, complex drum pattern with just a few individual sounds, changing it from a half-bar loop to a sixteen-bar phrase.

So, in your music, create a theme, create some variations for your song structure, but then, withing the variations, also create interest through subtle modification of your loops, extending phrases so they feel less repetitive. If you have a two bar drum pattern, consider changing a hit or two in the second bar, making it a four-bar drum pattern. Then maybe switch out a hit with a couple other similar, but distinct sounds to make it an eight-bar pattern. Then bring in some reverb or back masked white noise once every sixteen bars for even more interest. Small, subtle changes can go a long way.

[jcodec-blog]

My Live Set Configuration

People have asked me how my Ableton Live performance set is configured. I’ve described bits and pieces here and there, but I decided to finally sit down and explain the whole thing. Here goes!

So, my live set is based on Ableton Live. Inside my Live Set I have stems - parts of tracks like drum lines, basslines, kick patterns and such that I mix and match so “remix on the fly” (at the risk of sounding cliche) when I perform, which I find much more interesting that just playing one track after another.

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts how I break out stems, but here I’ll explain in much, much more detail the Live Set those stems are sitting in.

Clip Setup

First of all, the set is an 8-channel configuration, with two “decks” that have four channels each. In each of those decks I can play up to four different stems at a time (go see that earlier post for how I group parts of a song into stems).

The clips themselves are pretty much entirely 8-bar loops. I’ve found that 8 bars is a good pace for performance. It’s not so frantic that I’m constantly worrying about what clips to play next, but not so slow that the set gets predictable. At 130 BPM it comes out to a changeup about every 15 seconds. Lively, but not panic-inducing.

I group the different clips in a song together in a logical order - intro, buildup, drop, breakdown, second drop, outro (for example). I have the clips set up with follow actions that make the clip automatically advance to the next loop when it ends, so If I just hit play on the first clip in a block, it’ll advance through the whole song as normal. The second to last clip has a different follow action, though - it’s set up to loop continuously rather than advancing to the final outro so I always have enough time to mix. If I want to play the outro of that song, I just hit the outro clip’s play button to trigger it.

Channel Setup

As I mentioned, the live set is an 8-channel setup, but there are actually a lot more than 8 channels in the set because of how I have them routed.

I have 8 channels that contain the stems I play - the Stem Channels. The clip launch buttons on my controller trigger these clips (see the diagram linked below for more details). I keep these channels wide enough to be able to read the descriptions on the clips they contain.

Stem Channels

Channel 1: Left Deck, Stem A

Channel 2: Left Deck, Stem B

Channel 3: Left Deck, Stem C

Channel 4: Left Deck, Stem D

Channel 5: Right Deck, Stem A

Channel 6: Right Deck, Stem B

Channel 7: Right Deck, Stem C

Channel 8: Right Deck, Stem D 

The audio from the Stem Channels doesn’t go straight to the master. Instead I have it running into another set of 8 channels - the Effects Channels. The reason for that is because I use dummy clips to trigger sequenced combinations of effects on the effects channels, so when I turn the dummy clips on, the audio running through it (from the Stem Channels) will run through the Effects Channel’s effects.

The end result is that I’m able to have really cool combinations of effects that would be far more than I’d be able to achieve with one controller...and two hands!

I keep these clips at the minimum width since the dummy clips don’t contain any information I need to read. I know what and where they are because of how they’re bound to my controller.

Effects Channels

Channel 9: From Left Deck, Stem A

Channel 10: From Left Deck, Stem B

Channel 11: From Left Deck, Stem C

Channel 12: From Left Deck, Stem D

Channel 13: From Right Deck, Stem A

Channel 14: From Right Deck, Stem B

Channel 15: From Right Deck, Stem C

Channel 16: From Right Deck, Stem D

The audio from the Effects Channels sill doesn’t go out to the master. Not quite yet. Instead, I have the audio from the Effects Channels running into a set of four returns.

There are two reasons for this. The first reason is because I submix the corresponding stems from the left and right decks in the return channel to apply a little compression, to “glue” the sound back together. The second reason is because some of the effects in my live set apply to all the channels in an entire deck, so I have them applied there, where the stems that make up a deck are brought together.

Deck Returns

Return A: Channels 9, 10, 11 & 12 Submix

Return B: Channels 13, 14, 16 & 16 Submix

 Then, finally, the audio coming out of the Deck Returns goes to the master, where some gentle compression is applied again to unite the sound from the left and right deck. The signal then runs through a limiter on the master bus to keep it from getting too hot, before it finally goes out to the PA.

Note: I know this routing differs a little from the description in my earlier post. In that post I’m running each pair of stems into four returns, rather than each deck into two returns. Both layouts work, but I’ve found that Deck Sum routing creates less duplication of CPU-intensive effects like reverb than Stem Sum routing.

Effects

So, with that routing I have effects chains in three places: a chain on each Effects Channel (for effects applied to an individual stem), a chain on each Deck Return (for effects applied to a whole deck at once) and a chain on the Master (for final polish). Here’s what they contain.

Effects Channel Chain

I have four sets of effects on each Effects Channel that I control with a dead-simple on/off switch. These effects are triggered via dummy clips, and optimized to make a bad-ass fill that I can use for one bar (like right before a drop, for example) or I can keep looping if I want to. All of them have some kind of cool sweeping motion designed into the dummy clip to make things interesting.

I can mix and match them really easily, as well as control the depth of the all the effects on that channel with a single knob. The end result is that I’m able to create effects sweeps that sound like they take five or six pairs of arms to pull off with just one button and one knob.

Bitcrusher and Grain Delay (the “sound mangler” button)

Chorus and Flanger (the “whoa dude, outer space” button)

Filter Delay (the “trippin’ hard, bro” button)

Beat Repeat (the “glitched out shit” button)

By having these effects on a per-stem basis I’m able to do things like use the beat repeat on the fill drums of a track, but not the kick drum or vocals, so it stays really danceable though the drum pattern is changing up. It’s controlled chaos.

Deck Return Chain

The effects chain on the Deck Return is intended for the kinds of effects that I’m likely to want to apply to a whole song at a time, rather than individual stems.

Frequency Shifter (pitch a song up or down either subtle amounts, or create interesting sweeping/diving effects by turning the knob farther)

Trance Gate (chops up a track into little pieces, great for making it mix with the content of another deck in a rhythmic way, built with an Ableton Autopan effect)

Bipolar Envelope Filter (a combination of a Low Pass and High Pass filter on a single knob for cutting all the lows or all the highs of a track, also includes a button to toggle between high-resonance sweeps - great for builds - and low-resonance sweeps - great for subtly pulling out of a track)

Reverb (this is awesome for creating huge, dynamic fills and builds)

Multiband Dynamics (this effect is non-interactive, just there to keep the signal in balance at the end of the effects chain)

Fade to Gray (this is one of my favorite Ableton effects - a combination of a ping pong delay and an equalizer sweep that makes a track feel like it “dissolves” for really slick transitions from one song to another)

Master Chain

Once the signal runs from the Left Deck and Right Deck Returns it goes into the Master, where it runs through a couple finishing/polishing effects before going out to the house.

Crossfader (this isn’t an effect, but this is where it appears in the signal flow so I thought I’d mention it here - I can use a standard crossfader to cut or blend between the left and right deck, great for a DJ coming from a good ol’ turntable-and-mixer background).

Multiband Dynamics (another band-segmented compressor to keep the signal in balance after the two decks have been merged. The compression settings on this are pretty light to avoid killing my dynamic range) 

Limiter (a very last brick wall to guarantee that I don’t blow up club sound systems if anything gets out of hand. Ideally it shouldn’t even have to do anything because the signal should be well-controlled before it even gets here)

Controller Layout

So here’s a diagram of the controller layout. The controller is an Akai APC40 MK2, which is a pretty much perfect controller for my kind of performance. It gives me just enough flexibility to control all the stuff above with two hands and ten fingers without losing track of what I’m doing. Not too much, not too little.

So there it is - all my live set secrets out in the open!

[jcodec-blog]

A Complete History of Hip Hop

A few months ago I spent 20 hours putting together a complete survey of hip hop, 1970s to today, for a friend who wanted an education. Hip hop is an enormous part of my musical background, so I thought I’d share it with the world.

It’s written specifically for this friend, so a lot of what you’ll see is commentary relevant to her. And, of course, it was written by me so it’s coming from the perspectve of a guy who grew up on hip hop, but makes dance music today.

So, without any further ado, here it is.

History of Hip Hop

Since I don't know whether or not you're going to like hip hop, I'll do this a little differently than I did the rock survey. This will contain breadth - a lot more breadth than the rock survey - and narrative to accompany it. Certain areas will have notable albums to let you dive deeper if you want to.

While an understanding of the social and historical context isn't necessary to enjoy the music, I think that it really enhances it. Since you don't have much knowledge of hip hop, this is an in-depth historical survey from 1970 to the present. The content here is borrowed liberally from a number of authoritative web sources as well as my own writing.

Hip hop has marked the 40th anniversary of its creation, when DJ Kool Herc started scratching records and rapping at a house party in New York's Bronx. That makes hip hop the second-newest super-genre of American music. The only one newer than hip hop is electronica.

The term "hip hop" actually refers to four things - the "four pillars of hip hop" - Rapping/MCing, DJing/Turntablism, breakdancing and graffiti. While all four are deeply interconnected, this survey concentrates on the music of hip hop culture

A bit more about terminology - the terms "hip hop" and "rap" are sometimes used interchangably, but there are differences. "Hip hop" is a culture, some would say a lifestyle, while "hip hop music" is probably more specific and accurate. However, hip hop does not require rapping. Plenty of great hip hop records on this list feature singing instead of rapping, or no vocals at all.

Okay, enough jibber jabber. Let's get to the music

Old School - The Birth of Hip Hop (1970 to 1985)

The Earliest Days

Hip hop started in the streets. In the 1970s black kids in the Bronx would play breaks (the drum riffs alone) from popular records at block parties for people to dance to. This pioneered the technique of using two turntables and two copies of a record to be able to play the break continuously - when it was ending on one record, they'd start it on the other record. This was the birth of modern DJing.

This technique of "juggling" two records can be credited to a single person - DJ Kool Herc, arguably the first hip hop DJ. Starting in 1972, Herc focused on a short, heavily percussive part a record, the "break" - the part of the record dancers liked best. Herc isolated the break and prolonged it by changing between two record players. As one record reached the end of the break, he cued a second record back to the beginning of the break, which allowed him to extend a relatively short section of music into a "five-minute loop of fury".

Some of the records Herc would use for "break-juggling" in the early 70s included:

James Brown - Give It Up or Turnit a Loose (1969)

The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock (1972)

Here's an example of a DJ playing 70s breaks using this technique, to give you an idea of what it sounded like in the streets and clubs back then.

Here's another

Now, this phenomenon may have stayed in the Bronx, never spreading beyond the ghetto, if it weren't for one significant event: the New York City blackout of 1977 (six months before I was born). During the blackout there was widespread looting in the Bronx. Electronics stores were robbed, and for the first time, youths stole large amounts of DJ equipment. With a sudden influx of DJs in the Bronx, the rest of New York started catching on to the trend happening there, and once New York was hip to it, it was only a matter of time until the rest of America, and ultimately the world, was too.

There are almost no recordings of hip hop music from the 70s because recording technology was prohibitively expensive for ghetto kids. Rapping in the streets was a community phenomenon. Here is one notable, very important exception:

Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight (1979)

Rapper's Delight, recorded in 1979, was the first popular record to feature rapping. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip-hop in the United States and around the world.

In late 1979, Debbie Harry (the singer from Blondie) suggested that Nile Rodgers (the guitarist from disco band Chic) join her and Chris Stein (guitarist from Blondie) at a hip-hop event, which at the time was a communal space taken over by teenagers with boom box stereos playing various pieces of music that performers would break dance to. Rodgers experienced this event the first time himself at a high school in the Bronx.

A few weeks later, Blondie, The Clash and Chic (how's that for a lineup?) were playing a gig in New York at Bonds nightclub. When Chic started playing "Good Times", rapper Fab Five Freddy and what were the original members of The Sugarhill Gang jumped up on stage and started rapping freestyle with the band. A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York club LaViticus and heard the DJ play a song which opened with Bernard Edwards' bass line from Chic's "Good Times". Rodgers approached the DJ who said he was playing a record he had just bought that day in Harlem. The song turned out to be an early version of "Rapper's Delight", which also included a scratched version of the song's string section. Hip hop's first "hit" was born.

You can hear the influence of this record in these songs recorded three or four years later:

Grand Wizzard Theodore and The Fantastic Five - Can I Get A Soul Clap (1982)

Cold Crush Brothers - At The Dixie (1982)

Busy Bee Vs. Rodney Cee - MC Battle (1983)

The First Hip Hop Explosion

Then, in the early 80s, the invention of the sampler changed everything.

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some ways to a synthesizer. But rather than generating its own sound, it lets people record sound into it ("samples") and then play them back by means of the sampler machine itself, a keyboard, trigger pads, or some other mechanism to perform or compose music. For the first time, people could make music from recordings of other music. The cultural impact of this cannot be understated.

Beyond the revolution of the sampler, DJ technique and practice took a quantum leap forward. DJ Grandmaster Flash, a student of DJ Kool Herc, improved on Herc's techniques, pioneering the technique of quickly "backspinning" a record to get it back to a specific point. While Grandmaster Flash didn't invent scratching (Grand Wizzard Theodore is considered the first scratch DJ), he perfected it.

Grand Wizzard Theodore and Kevie Kev Rockwell - Military Cut (Scratch Mix) (1983). One of the earliest records to heavily feature scratching.

Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock (1982). Planet Rock wasn't a huge commercial hit at the time. Even though it was primarily an underground hit, and wasn't heard outside the US, Canada, and UK until much, much later, it created foundations for both hip-hop and electronic dance music, which was just about to emerge in Chicago, Detroit and the UK. This song is credited with developing the "electro" style, with it's synthesized beeps and blips, use of a vocoder on vocals for that "robot effect," and sampled breakbeats for the drum line, building on the work of electronic music pioneers like Kraftwerk, and helped pave the way for other genres such as house, techno and trance.

Mellie Mel - White Lines (Don't Do It) (1983). While a lot of music recorded in that era is about having a good time - party music - that era also marks the birth of "conscious" hip hop - songs with sociopolitical messages. The first notable one was this song, warning of the dangers of drug addiction. This record is widely, and deliberately, misattributed to Grandmaster Flash to give the public the impression that Grandmaster Flash, one of hip hop's earliest stars, had been a part of the record, when in truth he had left the Sugarhill record label earlier that year. As such, this is one of the first examples of "ghost writing," a practice that remains controversial in electronic dance music today.

Going Deeper - Early Hip Hop by year

1970

The Last Poets release their eponymous debut album. It's combination of spare funk and aggressive, socially-conscious spoken word will be an early brick in the foundation of what would come to be hip-hop.

James Brown releases 'The Big Payback', an early funk gem that emphasizes the groove rather than melody over his aggressively spoken vocals.

A young immigrant from Kingston, Jamaica named Clive Campbell begins DJing at local parties. As DJ Kool Herc, he invents a new technique of DJing that would cut two of the same records and extend the middle instrumental, or 'break,' of the popular funk and disco songs of the day.

1972

DJ Hollywood, a club DJ from Manhattan, begins rhyming over popular disco hits at his trendy night spots. It is alleged that Hollywood coins the term 'hip-hop' though some say his partner, Lovebug Starski, came up with the term.

1974

A former gang member-turned-DJ named Afrika Bambaataa meets a young graffiti artist named Fab 5 Freddy, a regular on the burgeoning hip-hop scene. Soon after, Bambaataa forms the Zulu Nation and categorizes what he calls the 'Four Elements' of hip-hop: DJing, Breaking, Graff Artists and MCing.

1975

DJ Kool Herc coins the term break-boy to describe dancers that would dance during his extended breaks in the music. Soon, the term is shortened to b-boy and the style is called 'breakdancing.' Herc also takes an up-and-coming DJ named Grandmaster Flash under his wings.

Grandmaster Flash begins working on a new, revolutionary technique of DJing: In addition to extending the break of a song, he begins mixing bits of two different songs together. Using headphones, he's able to get the songs to overlap and connect. His new 'mixing' technique would be adopted by every hip-hop DJ to follow.

Flash's partner, Mean Gene, has a thirteen-year-old-brother named Theodore that is also beginning to DJ at local parties. After accidently sliding the record under the needle, a young Grand Wizard Theodore takes DJing a step forward by pushing the record back and forth lightly under the needle during breaks. He calls his new technique 'scratching.'

1975

A group of party promoters called the Force stumble across a young DJ named Kool DJ Kurt. One particularly bold and aggressive member of the Force is a young man named Russell Simmons (who would later go on to become one of the most successful business magnates in hip hop, cofounding the hip-hop music label Def Jam, creating the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Baby Phat, Argyleculture, and American Classics, creating HBO's Def Comedy Jam, as well as internet startups that he later sold to BET, leading to his status as the third-richest figure in hip hop, with a net worth of around $340 million in 2011).

1977

The legendary Rock Steady Crew of breakdancers is founded in the Bronx.

The Crash Crew, one of the first recorded MC crews, forms in Harlem.

Russell "Rush" Simmons moves the Force to Queens and convinces Kool DJ Kurt to begin rapping. Simmons decides to change Kurt's name to Kurtis Blow and enlists his kid brother, Joey, to be Kurt's DJ. Joey changes his name to 'DJ Run.' (of later Run-DMC fame).

J. Code, the illest figure in the underground, is born in Manhattan. ;)

1978

DJing, up to this point the primary force in hip-hop, begins to take a backseat to MCing.

1979

At a glance: Hip Hop music on record is born by Fatback Band's "King Tim III", Younger Generation's "We Rap More Mellow", and The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (Hip Hop legend Grandmaster Caz wrote the lyrics but never got credit). Important artists such as Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash also begin their careers, and some of the first socially- and politically-conscious records arise appear. Philadelphia's legendary radio personality Lady B becomes the first female rapper to have a record, and Steve Gordon's "Take My Rap" is considered to be the first white rap record. Afro-Filipino Joe Bataan creates a hit with his "Rap-O, Clap-O", the first signs of Hip Hop's diversity. Enjoy Records and Sugar Hill Records become the defining Hip Hop labels of the old school era.

The Cold Crush Brothers form after Almight KG meets DJ Charlie Chase.

Wendy Clark aka 'Lady B' begins spinning hip-hop records on WHAT 1340 AM in Philadelphia, furthering hip-hop's expansion outside of New York. Later that year, she also becomes one of hip-hop's first female artists when she releases "To the Beat Y'all."

The Funky Four+One is forms with one of hip-hop's first female MCs, Sha Rock.

The funk band Fatback releases 'King Tim III (Personality Jock).' Though it doesn't gain much attention, it is the first mainstream rap single.

Under manager Russell Simmons, Kurtis Blow becomes the first rapper to sign a record deal with a major label.

Sylvia Robinson founds Sugarhill Records and, after hearing a bootleg of The Cold Crush Brothers, decides to put together a rap group called 'The Sugarhill Gang.'

The Sugarhill Gang releases 'Rapper's Delight.' Built on a sample of Chic's disco hit 'Good Times' and written by Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers, it goes on to become hip-hop's first hit and mainstream America's first exposure to rapping.

In order to capitalize on the growth of MCing in hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash recruits three of his friends, Keith "Cowboy" Wiggins, Melvin "Melle Mel" and Nathaniel "Kid Creole" Glover, who perform as The 3 MCs. Soon, they add Guy "Raheim" Williams and Eddie "Scorpio" Morris and change their name to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Fatback Band - King Tim III (Personality Jock)

Funky Four Plus One - Rappin' and Rocking the House

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - Superrappin'

Lady B - To the Beat Y'All (Philadelphia's legendary radio personality Lady B was the first female rapper to release a record)

Younger Generation (aka Grandmaster Flash and friends) - We Rap More Mellow

Jocko - Rhythm Talk

Paulette and Tanya Winley - Rhymin' and Rappin'

Joe Bataan - Rap-O, Clap-O

Lady D - Lady D

MC Rock - Jazzy 4 MCs

Sickle Cell and Rhapazooty - Rhapazooty in Blue

Ron Hunt - Spiderap

Eddie Cheba - Looking Good (Shake Your Body)

1980

This is Kurtis Blow's year. He becomes the first rapper signed to a major record label, Mercury Records, where his song "The Breaks" becomes a certified gold record. He is the first to release a Hip Hop album, to embark on a Hip Hop tour, to be featured on television ("Soul Train" in October), and the first to give rap mainstream marketability (he also opened up for The Commodores and Bob Marley on tour). Rap is still seen as a fad although several disco-Hip Hop hybrids prove successful such as "Funk You Up", "Zulu Nation Throwdown Part I", "The New Rap Language", and "Monster Jam". Casper has the first rap record in Chicago, and The Sequence become the first all-female rap crew on record. Treacherous Three's "Body Rock" is the first Hip Hop song to use rock guitars, and Blondie member Debbie Harry's "Rapture" is the first successful hip hop record by a white artist.

The new wave band Blondie releases the single 'Rapture'. It features a rapping vocal by lead singer Debbie Harry and mentions Fab 5 Freddy and Grandmaster Flash, furthering hip-hop's push into the mainstream.

With "Rapper's Delight" still riding the charts, Kurtis Blow releases his first single, "Christmas Rappin'". Blow's second single, "The Breaks," is a hit, becoming hip-hop's first gold single. In his shows, Blow now sometimes allows DJ Run to rhyme with him.

At a DJ battle in Two-Fifths Park in Hollis, Queens, DJ Run and his friend, Darryl "Easy Dee" McDaniels, meet a young DJ named Jason "Jazzy Jase" Mizell. These boys would later go on to form Run-DMC, one of the most important rap groups of all time.

Treacherous Three release "The New Rap Language" as a single. It incorporates a new style of rapping, dubbed "speed-rapping."

Kurtis Blow - The Breaks (one of the most important hip hop records of all time)

Eddie Cheba - Looking Good (Shake Your Body)

Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three - The New Rap Language

Afrika Bambaataa and Cosmic Force - Zulu Nation Throwdown Part I

The Sequence - Funk You Up

Spoonie Gee and The Sequence - Monster Jam

Blondie - Rapture (the first successful record to feature rapping by someone who isn't black, also the first music video to show a DJ with a pair of turntables)

The Sugarhill Gang - 8th Wonder

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - Freedom

Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three - Love Rap

Jimmy Spicer - Adventures of Super Rhyme (Rap)

Afrika Bambaataa - Death Mix

Spoonie Gee - Spoonin' Rap

The Treacherous Three - Body Rock

Tanya Winley - Vicious Rap

Brother D with Collective Effort - How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?

1981

Funky Four Plus One's "That's the Joint" becomes a seminal all-time classic record and the first Hip Hop group to perform on national television (Saturday Night Live). Grandmaster Flash's "The Adventures..." and Afrika Bambaataa's "Jazzy Sensation" are landmark recordings as well. Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp birth the first West Coast record, and the go-go group Trouble Funk has a success with its hybrid song "Drop the Bomb". Mean Machine's "Disco Dream" is the first Latin rap record, and The Evasions "Wikka Rap" is a British Hip Hop pioneering classic. Cybotron, future creators of techno, usher in the Kraftwerk-inspired "Alleys of our Mind".

Grandmaster Flash releases "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On the Wheels of Steel", the first record to only showcase turntablism.

Russell Simmons helps his little brother, Run, record a song called "Street Kid." It goes nowhere, but Run still wants to record. After hearing Run's friend, Darryl (now calling himself "D"), Russell begrudgingly makes Run and D a duo.

Whodini becomes the first rap group to shoot an official video for their song "Magic's Wand."

Funky Four Plus One - That's the Joint

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel

Afrika Bambaataa - Jazzy Sensation

Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp - Gigolo Rapp

The Treacherous Three - Feel the Heartbeat

The Sugarhill Gang - Apache

Disco 4 - Do It, Do It

West Mob - Let's Dance (Make Your Body Move)

The Boogie Boys - Rappin' Ain't No Thang

Sweet G - A Heartbeat Rap

Trouble Funk - Drop the Bomb

The Evasions - Wikka Rap

Mean Machine - Disco Dream

Cybotron - Alleys of Your Mind

1982

This is the year of seminal rap and the birth of a new genre in Hip Hop: electro-funk, initiated by Afrika Bambaataa's and The Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock", the most sampled Hip Hop record of all time (James Brown's "Funky Drummer" is the most sampled record in Hip Hop). There is a great revival of interest in the Hip Hop elements, and this subgenre steers the music away from the disco beats popular in previous years. The other most important Hip Hop record of all time is Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's "The Message" which jumpstarts political/social rap. The Cold Crush Brother's "Punk Rock Rap" is another record that fuses Hip Hop with rock, and Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force's "Looking for the Perfect Beat" is another seminal all-time Hip Hop classic. The first strands of Hip Hop soul also arise out of artists such as Planet Patrol and C-Bank ("One More Shot"), and the "Smurf" craze becomes one of Hip Hop's first dance crazes.

The film "Wild Style" is released. Showcasing DJs, graf artists, breakdancing and MC battles, it is Hollywood's first foray into hip-hop culture and begins a small "rapsploitation" period in film.

After Run and D graduate from high school, they enlist Jazzy Jase, their DJ friend from Hollis, who now calls himself 'Jam Master Jay'. Russell Simmons decides to change the group's name to Run-D.M.C. and begins work on a single. Simmons also lands the group a deal with Profile Records.

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - The Message

Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock

Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force - Looking for the Perfect Beat

Planet Patrol - Play At Your Own Risk

Cold Crush Brothers - Punk Rock Rap

The Fearless Four - Rockin' It

Disco 4 - Country, Rock, and Rap

The Jonzun Crew - Pac Jam (Look Out for the OVC)

Rocker's Revenge feat. Donnie Calvin - Walking on Sunshine

Tyrone Brunson - The Smurf

Whodini - Magic's Wand

Fab 5 Freddy - Change the Beat

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five - Scorpio

Quadrant Six - Body Mechanic

The Fearless 4 - It's Magic

1983

This is the first "huge" year in hip hop history - the first indication that it's not a fad that'll fade away, but rather a growing and expanding genre, with clear stylistic shifts and evolutions in multiple directions away from hip hop's disco and funk origins.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock and Grandmaster D.St. release the electro-funk hit "Rockit," which won a Grammy, while Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five release their second most important recording that ranks with Afrika Bambaataa's "Looking for the Perfect Beat": "White Lines (Don't Do It)" (although it was actually recorded by Mellie Mel). Man Parrish also releases the seminal "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)".

More importantly, Run-D.M.C. debut with "It's Like That/Sucker MCs'" single and begin their conquest as Hip Hop's biggest and most influential group of all time ("Sucker MCs" is regarded as the first hardcore rap track). T. La Rock and Jazzy Jay kick start Hip Hop's biggest record label, Def Jam, as Ice T. debuts with his first "hardcore" rap, and a trio of white, Jewish punk rockers named the Beastie Boys try their hand at recording a rap song for the first time, with "Cooky Puss".

Kraftwerk venture into Hip Hop with "Tour De France", and Cybotron write the electro-funk anthem "Clear," which is a predecessor to modern electronic dance music.

Electro-funk remains prosperous as the Hip Hop soul movement grows with C-Bank which foreshadows Shannon's "Let the Music Play" which truly begins more Hip Hop variants born out of electro-funk: freestyle music and Latin Hip Hop.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release 'The Message.' Moving away from hip-hop's party-oriented singles and focusing on the realities of inner-city poverty. It is a landmark moment for hip-hop.

Run-D.M.C. release their first single, "Sucker MCs/It's Like That." With it's spare beats and hard, aggressive rhymes, it signals the beginning of the end for "Old School" hip-hop artists.

A New York post-punk band called the Beastie Boys decides to switch their sound from punk to rap after attending a party thrown by Fab 5 Freddy.

Run-D.M.C. release their eponymous debut on Profile Records. It becomes a hit and introduces the 'new school' approach to hip-hop music: Hardcore, aggressive street rhymes over spare, funky beats with a heavy metal twist. Run-D.M.C. also become the first rap group to get consistent airplay on MTV and Top 40 rock radio.

As an aside - this is the year I got into hip hop. The first thing I ever bought with my allowance was a Run-D.M.C. record when I was five years old.

Run-D.M.C. - It's Like That / Sucker MCs (this record single-handedly changed the way people rapped - with the cadence and rhyme style getting "harder" for the first time)

Herbie Hancock and Grandmaster D.St. - Rockit

Man Parrish - Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)

Hashim - Al Naafiysh (The Soul)

Cybotron - Clear (a future survey of the history of electronic music will certainly include the significane of this record to electronic dance music)

Malcolm McLaren and The World's Famous Supreme Team - Buffalo Gals

Debbie Deb - Lookout Weekend (this is widely considered the first record to give hip hop an equivalent to "bubblegum pop")

T. La Rock and Jazzy Jay - It's Yours

Malcolm X with Keith LeBlanc - No Sell Out

Mastermix of GLOBE and Whiz Kid's Play That Beat Mr. DJ - The Payoff Mix

Newcleus - Jam On Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)

Beastie Boys - Cookie Puss

Ice T - Cold Winter Madness

GLOBE & Whiz Kid - Play That Beat Mr. DJ

1984

Run-D.M.C. continue to be a strong force in the post-seminal song era of Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, having their "Rock Box" video being the first rap song played on MTV.

Freestyle music flourishes with Alisha ("All Night Passion"), Debbie Deb, Shannon ("Give Me Tonight"), and Nayobe ("Please Don't Go").

Kurtis Blow, one of hip hop's first superstars, releases the last batch of his greatest songs before fading, giving way to newcomer Doug E. Fresh and Whodini.

U.T.F.O., originally backup singers for Whodini, record "Roxanne, Roxanne" which creates the biggest and most influential all-time trend in Hip Hop. Somewhere between 50-100 response records ensue, and two of them ("The Real Roxanne" and "Roxanne's Revenge") become massive classics, opening the door for female MCs to gain massive success in the future such as MC Lyte, Salt N Pepa, and Queen Latifah.

2 Live Crew, pioneers in the emerging style of Miami Bass, record their "It's Gotta Be Fresh" EP, released in late 1984, which is the first significant Hip Hop record from an artist outside of the New York area, marking the beginning of geographic expansion of hip hop, and the stylistic changes that go with it. The style is noted for deviating from the kinds of drum programming that preceded it, making heavy use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, which would go on to be one of the most influential drum machines in electronic dance music.

Also, Afrika Bambaataa, "The Godfather of Hip Hop", unites with "The Godfather of Soul", James Brown, to record "Unity" which later causes an explosion in the sampling of James Brown records, a vital Hip Hop feature.

Divine Sounds score a hit with their Run-D.M.C.-like "What People Do for Money" as The Fat Boys become the first hip hop comedy group, later collaborating with The Beach Boys and Chubby "The Twist" Checker.

The film "Breakin" is released, with "Beat Street" coming soon after (my mom was in this film), continuing the hip-hop push into Hollywood. "Beat Street" also showcases a young performer named Doug E. Fresh, who has the uncanny ability to 'beatbox' - mimic musical effects using only his mouth.

Russell Simmons meets a young college kid named Rick Rubin, an avid fan of rap music. Together, Simmons and Rubin found a small record label and run it out of Rubin's college dorm room at NYU. They name their new label Def Jam.

U.T.F.O. (formerly the backup dancers for Whodini) release "Roxanne, Roxanne." It goes on to become one of the most popular rap songs of all-time and spawns more than two dozen 'response' songs, including "Roxanne, You're Through," "The Real Roxanne," "Roxanne's Mother," and most notably, "Roxanne's Revenge" by 13-year-old Roxanne Shante.

After hearing an underground single called "Public Enemy #1" by a college radio DJ named Chuck D. Rick Rubin tries to recruit the reluctant rapper for his new label.

Def Jam issues it's first single, "It's Yours," by T La Rock and Jazzy Jay.

Run-D.M.C. - Rock Box

Roxanne Shante - Roxanne's Revenge

U.T.F.O. - Roxanne, Roxanne

Whodini - Freaks Come Out At Night

Newcleus - Jam On It

Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown - Unity

Davy DMX - One for the Treble

The Real Roxanne - The Real Roxanne

Debbie Deb - When I Hear Music (It Makes Me Dance)

Egypt, Egypt - Egyptian Lover

Doug E. Fresh - Just Having Fun (Do the Beat Box)

Rock Master Scott and The Dynamic Three - Request Line

The Fat Boys - Jail House Rap

Kurtis Blow - 8 Million Stories

Divine Sounds - What People Do For Money

Chris "The Glove" Taylor with Ice T and David Storrs - Reckless

2 Live Crew - It's Gotta Be Fresh (Revelation/2 Live)

1985

The last year of "old school" or "original" Hip Hop before an explosion that propelled it into a new era fuelled by widespred sampling, as well as the crossover record between Aerosmith and Run-DMC "Walk This Way," which took Hip Hop into a new direction both musically and culturally.

Toddy Tee releases a seminal West Coast jam that foreshadows the coming of west coast "gangsta" rap several years later (along with rapper Schoolly D.'s "PSK-What Does it Mean?")

Freestyle hits it big with Lisa Lisa and The Cult Jam, Nu Shooz ("I Can't Wait"), Connie ("Funky Little Beat") and Trinere ("All Night").

Miami Bass, a new genre focused on heavy sub bass that continues to be a dominant influence in both electronic dance music and hip hop today, evolves and garners hits with records such as MC A.D.E.'s (Adrian Does Everything) "Bass Rock Express".

Clearly, Doug E. Fresh, the king of beatboxing, owns the year 1985 as his records "La Di Da Di" and "The Show" took Hip Hop into a new direction and stand as massive influential classics.

A young former delinquent-turned-rap-hopeful named Kris Parker (later known as KRS-One) meets social-worker-and-sometimes-DJ Scott Sterling (aka Scott La Rock) at a Bronx homeless shelter. The two decide to form a rap group called Boogie Down Productions.

Doug E. Fresh records his classic single, "The Show," with the Get Fresh Crew and his new partner, MC Ricky D (aka Slick Rick.)

Run-D.M.C. release their second album, 'King of Rock.' Like their debut, it is a hit and furthers the combination of rap and hard rock.

A 16-year-old LL Cool J releases his debut album, "Radio." It is the first album to be released by up-and-coming rap label, Def Jam.

Def Jam finances and releases it's own rap movie, "Krush Groove". Based on Russell Simmons life and starring Blair Underwood (as Russell), Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, the Fat Boys and the newly-signed Beastie Boys. The film becomes a hit.

Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew - The Show

Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew - La Di Da Di

LL Cool J - Rock The Bells (I also have to include this link of The Roots and Eminem's live, only-performed-once-at-the-Def-Jam-25th-anniversary-concert cover version of this song because it's amazing)

LL Cool J - I Can't Live Without My Radio

Lisa Lisa and The Cult Jam - I Wonder If I Take You Home

Rock Master Scott and The Dynamic Three - The Roof is on Fire

Super Nature (later known as Salt N Pepa) - The Show Stoppa (Is Stupid Fresh)

Schoolly D - P.S.K.-What Does It Mean? (Park Side Killers)

Toddy Tee a.k.a. Todd Howard - Batterram

Full Force - Alice, I Want You Just for Me

Whodini - Big Mouth

Mantronix - Fresh is the Word

Freestyle - Don't Stop the Rock

Kid Frost - Terminator

The Boogie Boys - A Fly Girl

MC A.D.E. - Bass Rock Express

Kurtis Blow - If I Ruled the World

Too Short - Girl (Cocaine)

The Golden Age - From the Ghetto to The Suburbs (1985 to 1992)

Overarching Themes of the Era

Imagine a period in history when every single hip hop video on MTV was amazing, every song on the radio was landmark. That's what the golden age was like. That's not hyperbole, that's history.

Hip hop's golden age was characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence. There were strong themes of Afrocentrism and political militancy, while the music was experimental and the sampling, eclectic. There was often a strong jazz influence. The innovation was incredible then. it was a time "when it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre" according to Rolling Stone. Referring to "hip-hop in its golden age", Spin’s editor-in-chief Sia Michel says, "there were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time", and MTV’s Sway Calloway adds: "The thing that made that era so great is that nothing was contrived. Everything was still being discovered and everything was still innovative and new". Writer William Jelani Cobb says "what made the era they inaugurated worthy of the term golden was the sheer number of stylistic innovations that came into existence... in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time"

Notable Events by Year

1986

Queens native MC Shan and his superproducer cousin, Marley Marl, release the single 'The Bridge.' Though virtually unnoticed by the mainstream press, the song is an instant classic in hip-hop circles. Featuring steller 'new-school' production from Marl and clever lyrics in which Shan arrogantly announces his home, the Queensbridge Projects, hip-hop's new home base. The song raised the ire of the newly-formed, South Bronx-based Boogie Down Productions. BDP's KRS-One disses Shan, Marl and Queens equally in the hard-hitting single, 'The Bridge Is Over,' igniting hip-hop's first major rivalry and leaving fans eagerly awaiting Boogie Down Production's first full-length album.

Run-D.M.C. release their third album, "Raising Hell." Sparked by the Aerosmith collaboration, "Walk This Way," it is an instant hit and a cultural milestone for hip-hop, spawning four hit singles and becoming the first multi-platinum rap album. "Raising Hell" cements Run-D.M.C.'s place as the kings of the rap world, and kick-starts hip-hop's 'Golden Age,' bringing the final curtain down on the 'Old School.'

Hip-hop's first White rap group, the Beastie Boys, release their debut album, "Licensed to Ill," on Def Jam Records. It goes on to become the best-selling rap album of the decade.

LL Cool J's debut, "Radio," becomes certified platinum as Def Jam Records becomes the premiere label in hip-hop.

A new hip-hop duo named Eric B. and Rakim release their first single, "Eric B. Is President." It is another benchmark moment in hip-hop as Rakim's clever wordplay and complex rhyme schemes usher in a new era of MCing as an art form.

Run-D.M.C. becomes the first rap group nominated for a Grammy - for best "R&B Vocal Performance." Obviously the Grammy awards didn’t have a category recognizing hip hop yet.

Salt-N-Pepa, a new female rap group, release their debut album, "Hot, Cool and Vicious." It becomes a moderate hit.

Rick Rubin signs Chuck D. and his newly-formed group, Public Enemy, to Def Jam.

Run-DMC - It's Tricky

Run-DMC - My Adidas

Kool Moe Dee - I'm Kool Moe Dee

MC Shan - Beat Biter / The Bridge

Eric B & Rakim - I Know You Got Soul

Beastie Boys - Paul Revere

Salt & Pepa - My Mic Sounds Nice

Salt & Pepa - Push It (one of the most enduring singles of all time)

2 Live Crew - We Want Some Pussy

Tone Loc - Wild Thing

1987

Boogie Down Productions releases their debut album, "Criminal Minded." Building on Run-D.M.C.'s hardcore, minimalist approach and focusing more on the harsh realities of ghetto life. it becomes an instant classic among hip-hop fans. Lead MC, KRS-One, becomes an especially respected rapper among culture aficionados.

Public Enemy release their debut album, "Yo! Bum Rush the Show," on Def Jam. While it is praised by critics, it fails to make an impression on the charts.

Cameron Paul, a San Francisco DJ, remixes 'Push It,' a tune from Salt-N-Pepa's (year-old) album, "Hot, Cool & Vicious." The single is released nationally and becomes a hit, hitting number 19 on the pop charts and is nominated for a Grammy.

A former L.A. drug dealer named Eazy-E (born Eric Wright) uses his money to finance a small indie rap label called Ruthless Records. He signs a local group called H.B.O. as his first act. He also recruits Andre 'Dr. Dre' Young,  a DJ/Producer from the R&B group World Class Wreckin' Cru, and Oshea Jackson, an up-and-coming MC who calls himself Ice Cube.

Eric B. & Rakim release their debut album, "Paid In Full," kick-starting hip-hop's love affair with James Brown samples. The emergence of Rakim, in particular, heralds the dawn of the modern MC.

L.A. rapper, Ice-T, releases his debut album, "Rhyme Pays," and becomes one of the first West Coast MCs to garner national attention. His single, 'Six In the Morning," is groundbreaking in it's harsh and explicit depiction of street hustling and the criminal lifestyle.

Philadelphia duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince debut with "Rock the House." With their fun, good-natured rhymes and humorous videos, the twosome become a favorite on MTV and the album goes gold.

After H.B.O. fails to make an impression on the L.A. rap scene, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and DJ Yella, (also from the World Class Wreckin' Cru), form a new group called N.W.A (Niggaz With Attitudes). They rush-release an EP for fledgling Ruthless Records called "N.W.A. and the Posse." It goes nowhere. Eazy-E then recruits Lorenzo 'M.C. Ren' Wright, a young rapper from South Central, to join them as they go back into the studio to revamp their sound.

MC Hammer, an Oakland-based dancer-turned-rapper releases his debut album, "Let's Get It Started." It generates a few moderate hits, and Hammer gains attention for his exuberant dance moves and simple party raps.

After their show in Los Angeles ends in violence, Run-D.M.C. is blamed in the press for inciting the riot. The group calls a press conference to defend itself, and hip-hop is immediately thrust under a microscope by moral watchdogs and right-wing politicians.

LL Cool J - Going Back to Cali

Kool Moe Dee - How Ya Like Me Now

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full

1988

Erick Sermon and Parish Smith, collectively known as EPMD, release their debut album, "Strictly Business." The pair become one of the most celebrated duos in the hip-hop underground and shun the spotlight in the wake of rap music's exploding popularity.

As Boogie Down Productions begins production on their second album, DJ Scott La Rock is gunned down following an altercation. Stunned by the sudden death of his partner, KRS-One soldiers on, and as 'The Teacha,' promotes a more educated and socially aware approach to hardcore hip-hop.

MC Lyte, a brash, young female MC, becomes the first female hardcore rapper signed to a major label and releases her debut album, "Lyte As A Rock."

Public Enemy release their second album, "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back." With it's use of dense, layered sampling, hard funk, and politically incendiary rhymes, it is hailed by rap and rock critics alike as a landmark recording. Public Enemy skyrockets toward the forefront of popular music.

Ice-T's second album, "Power," becomes the first rap album to carry a Parental Advisory warning label.

Afrika Bambaataa forms the Native Tongues crew, and after hearing an underground single called 'Wrath of My Madness,' recruits a young female MC from New Jersey named Queen Latifah.

N.W.A releases their first full-fledged album, "Straight Outta Compton." Taking the hardcore sonic attack of Public Enemy and merging it with brutally explicit tales of the crime-ridden streets of South Central Los Angeles, it becomes a watershed moment for gangsta rap and fully opens the door for West Coast rappers to gain national attention.

Run-D.M.C. finally release their follow-up to 'Raising Hell' called 'Tougher Than Leather,' and star in a movie of the same name. The movie bombs at the box office and though the album goes platinum and is praised by critics. However, it is considered a commercial disappointment for the group.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince release their second album, a double-set called "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper." Boosted by the immensely popular single, 'Parents Just Don't Understand.' The album is a smash success, selling 2.5 million copies.

N.W.A.'s song, 'Fuck the Police,' incites controversy for it's lyrics and leads the F.B.I. to issue a formal warning to the group, Ruthless Records, and it's parent-label, Priority. This starts a long-standing battle between the powers-that-be and gangsta rap.

A trio of friends from Harlem NY, the Jungle Brothers, release their debut album, 'Straight Out The Jungle' on the small Idler label. Though the album doesn't gain much attention, it does provide a new slant on hip-hop that is neither 'gangsta' nor overtly political. Joining up with Afrika Bambaataa's "Native Tongues' crew, and incorporating elements of jazz and house music and using Afrocentric themes, the Jungle Brothers introduce a new subgenre that would later be dubbed 'alternative' rap. Later, the Jungle Brothers would prove to be influential to Breakbeat Hardcore, which later evolved into Jungle, and then later evolved into Drum & Bass, all massive influences and movements in electronic dance music.

NWA - Straight Outta Compton

NWA - Fuck the Police

Public Enemy - Fight the Power

Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two

Public Enemy - Don't Believe The Hype

Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader

Big Daddy Kane - Long Live the Kane

Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

Boogie Down Productions - My Philosophy

1989

Public Enemy release their much-anticipated third album, "Fear of A Black Planet" to strong sales and reviews despite controversy over anti-Semitic remarks made by group member Professor Griff in an interview. Chuck D formally dismisses Griff from group.

The Grammy committee announces that rap will be given it's own official Grammy catagory. The news is bittersweet, however, after it is announced that the presentation will not be televised. As a result, many of the most prominent rappers, (including Salt-N-Pepa, Public Enemy, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Ice-T and more), host a Boycott-The-Grammys Party on MTV the night of the broadcast. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince go on to win the award.

After a year of buzz surrounding her underground singles, Queen Latifah releases her debut album, "All Hail the Queen." It is praised immensely by the hip-hop community for it's positive outlook and strong feminist overtones.

In an effort to quell the surge of Black-On-Black crime in New York (and as tribute to Scott La Rock), KRS-One organizes the Stop the Violence movement with several New York rappers. Soon, the Movement goes national as West Coast MCs get involved as well. The result is two public-service singles denouncing violence, 'Self Destruction' in New York, and 'We're All In the Same Gang' in Los Angeles.

Doug E. Fresh's former partner, MC Ricky D--now calling himself 'Slick Rick'--releases his solo debut, "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" on Def Jam Records. With a gift for clever, laid-back rhymes and vivid storytelling, Rick is immediately elevated to the top-tier of MCs.

After a controversial tour promoting 'Straight Outta Compton' with N.W.A, Ice Cube announces he's leaving the group after a financial dispute with Eazy-E and manager, Jerry Heller.

De La Soul, a young rap group from Long Island, New York (and also affiliated with the Native Tongues collective), release their debut, "3 Feet High & Rising" on Tommy Boy Records. Building on quirky samples from rock, funk, folk, country and soul and using wordplay that ranged from psychadelic musings to outright jibberish, the group is immediately hailed as the 'future of hip-hop music.'

MC Hammer releases his sophomore effort, "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em." The album is bashed by critics and scoffed at by hip-hop purists, but becomes a mammoth hit. Spurred by the wildly popular single, 'U Can't Touch This,' and heavy video rotation on MTV, the album sells ten million copies- and with his flashy dancing and trademark baggy pants, MC Hammer becomes an international superstar.

The Beastie Boys, after a long and bitter exit from Def Jam Records, finally release their second album, "Paul's Boutique." Trading the frat-boy humor of their debut in favor of dense samples, sprawling sound collages and abstract lyrical themes, the album flops as most fans and critics don't know what to make of the record.

2 Live Crew, a Florida-based party-rap group, releases their third album, "As Nasty As They Wanna Be." It is an extremely explicit and sexually provocative--(with the lyrics reaching near-pornographic proportions), and is banned from sale in the state of Florida. The group themselves are arrested for lewdness after performing a concert in Miami. After going to court for the right to perform and write music as they want to, the group is found not guilty in what becomes a heated debate over decency and the First Amendment.

Rick Rubin leaves Def Jam and forms a new label, dubbed Def American.

Yo! MTV Raps makes it's debut, with host Fab 5 Freddy. For the first time, the entire country has a platform to watch the latest music videos by all of the top rap artists.

The Early 90s - The East Coast / West Coast Schism

Themes of the era

During Reagan's second term of office, the CIA was embroiled in what would later become known as the Iran-Contra scandal, in which senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo, hoping to secure the release of several US hostages and use the money to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress. To get funding for the contras in Nicaragua, the CIA turned a blind eye to massive importation of cocaine into America, particularly Los Angeles. This hit the black community hard, sparking the crack epidemic that nearly destroyed a generation. Gang life and violence were the norm.

Due to the massive influx of money from the drug trade, you saw for first time gangsters who weren't living in poverty - they were filthy rich from their drug sales. They had money for jewelry, fancy clothes, high powered weapons, cars, and money to produce slick records telling the world about their lifestyle. This was the beginning of gangsta rap. Then, when the nation's eyes turned to Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots, the stage was set for West Coast rap to rise to national significance. America was furious, and groups like NWA were the soundtrack to their rage.

In sharp contrast to the party raps of the early 80s, or the socially-conscious rap of the late 80s, the 90s was characterized by anger. On the east coast, rappers derided the perils of ghetto life, but on the west coast rappers celebrated it, glorifying violence as a path to power. Angsty suburban teenagers all across America were listening to grunge, while urban youths listened to rap, but an increasing number of white teens started identifying more with the anger of rap than the angst of grunge, a trend that continued to today, when hip hop, not rock, became "the music of American culture."

Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of inner-city American black youths. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word gangster. The genre was pioneered in the mid-1980s by rappers such as Schoolly D and Ice-T, and was popularized in the later part of the 1980s by groups like N.W.A. Ice-T released "6 in the Mornin'", which is often regarded as the first gangsta rap song, in 1986. After the national attention that Ice-T and N.W.A created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop.

N.W.A is the group most frequently associated with the founding of gangsta rap. Their lyrics were more violent, openly confrontational, and shocking than those of established rap acts, featuring incessant profanity and, controversially, use of the word "nigger". These lyrics were placed over rough, rock guitar-driven beats, contributing to the music's hard-edged feel. The first blockbuster gangsta rap album was N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988. Straight Outta Compton would establish West Coast hip hop as a vital genre, and establish Los Angeles as a legitimate rival to hip hop's long-time capital, New York City. Straight Outta Compton sparked the first major controversy regarding hip hop lyrics when their song "Fuck tha Police" earned a letter from FBI Assistant Director, Milt Ahlerich, strongly expressing law enforcement's resentment of the song.

Controversy surrounded Ice-T's album Body Count, in particular over its song "Cop Killer". The song was intended to speak from the viewpoint of a criminal getting revenge on racist, brutal cops. Ice-T's rock song infuriated government officials, the National Rifle Association and various police advocacy groups. Consequently, Time Warner Music refused to release Ice-T's upcoming album Home Invasion because of the controversy surrounding "Cop Killer". Ice-T suggested that the furor over the song was an overreaction, telling journalist Chuck Philips "...they've done movies about nurse killers and teacher killers and student killers. Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining about that." In the same interview, Ice-T suggested to Philips that the misunderstanding of Cop Killer and the attempts to censor it had racial overtones: "The Supreme Court says it's OK for a white man to burn a cross in public. But nobody wants a black man to write a record about a cop killer."

The subject matter inherent in gangsta rap more generally has caused controversy. The White House administrations of both George Bush senior and Bill Clinton criticized the genre. "The reason why rap is under attack is because it exposes all the contradictions of American culture ...What started out as an underground art form has become a vehicle to expose a lot of critical issues that are not usually discussed in American politics. The problem here is that the White House and wanna-bes like Bill Clinton represent a political system that never intends to deal with inner city urban chaos," Sister Souljah told The Times.

Due to the influence of Ice T and N.W.A, gangsta rap is often viewed as an originally West Coast phenomenon, despite the contributions of East Coast acts like Boogie Down Productions in shaping the genre.

East Coast

The "Core" East Coast Sound"

In the early 1990s East Coast hip hop was dominated by the Native Tongues posse which was loosely composed of De La Soul with producer Prince Paul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, as well as their loose affiliates 3rd Bass, Main Source, and the less successful Black Sheep & KMD. Although originally a "daisy age" conception stressing the positive aspects of life, darker material (such as De La Soul's thought-provoking "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa") soon crept in.

Artists such as Masta Ace (particularly for SlaughtaHouse) & Brand Nubian, Public Enemy, Organized Konfusion, Ignacio Bernal, had a more overtly militant pose, both in sound and manner.

In the early-1990s, the Wu-Tang Clan revitalized the New York hip hop scene by pioneering an East coast hardcore rap equivalent to what was being produced on the West Coast. According to Allmusic, the production on two Mobb Deep albums, The Infamous and Hell on Earth (1996), are "indebted" to RZA's early production with Wu-Tang Clan. The success of artists such as Nas and Notorious B.I.G. during 1994–95 cemented the status of the East Coast during a time of West Coast dominance. In a March 2002 issue of The Source Magazine, Nas referred to 1994 as "a renaissance of New York Hip-Hop." The productions of RZA, particularly for Wu-Tang Clan, became influential with artists such as Mobb Deep due to the combination of somewhat detached instrumental loops, highly compressed and processed drums and gangsta lyrical content. Wu-Tang solo albums such as Raekwon the Chef's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ghostface Killah's Ironman, and GZA's Liquid Swords are now viewed as classics along with Wu-Tang "core" material. The clan's base extended into further groups called Wu-affiliates.

Producers such as DJ Premier (primarily for Gangstarr but also for other affiliated artists such as Jeru the Damaja), Pete Rock (With CL Smooth and supplying beats for many others), Buckwild, Large Professor, Diamond D and The 45 King supplying beats for numerous MCs regardless of location. Albums such as Nas's Illmatic, Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt and O.C.'s Word...Life are made up of beats from this pool of producers. The rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast rappers eventually turned personal.

Later in the decade the business acumen of the Bad Boy Records tested itself against Jay-Z and his Roc-A-Fella Records and, on the West Coast, Death Row Records. The mid to late 1990s saw a generation of rappers such as the members of D.I.T.C. such as the late Big L and Big Pun.

On the East Coast, although the "big business" end of the market dominated matters commercially the late 1990s to early 2000s saw a number of relatively successful East Coast indie labels such as Rawkus Records (with whom Mos Def and Talib Kweli gained great success) and later Def Jux. The history of the two labels is intertwined, the latter having been started by EL-P of Company Flow in reaction to the former, and offered an outlet for more underground artists such as Mike Ladd, Aesop Rock, Mr Lif, RJD2, Cage and Cannibal Ox. Other acts such as the Hispanic Arsonists and slam poet turned MC Saul Williams met with differing degrees of success.

Wu Tang Clan - Shame on a Nigga

The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy

The Notorious B.I.G. - Big Poppa

Junior Mafia - Get Money

Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell

Nas - N.Y. State of Mind (Nas delivered the entire dense, lucid 60-bar narrative about a gunfight on the first take. No fancy editing tricks. No studio wizardry. Just pure talent. The producers were stunned. The end result was part of the most raw, naked, immediate and honest hip hop album of all time.)

Gang Starr - Jazz Thing

EPMD - So Whatcha Sayin

EPMD - Business As Usual

Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

Black Sheep - The Choice is Yours

Method Man - Bring The Pain

Artists that are East Coast, but not identified with the "East Coast Sound" as strongly

Beastie Boys - Pass the Mic

De La Soul - Me Myself and I

A Tribe Called Quest - Description of a Fool

Biz Markie - Just a Friend

A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (This song included guest vocals from Busta Rhymes, at the time a member Leaders of the New School. and is responsible for launching his career with the verse that included the memorable line "rawr rawr like a dungeon dragon.")

A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhime

MC Lyte - Eyes on This

Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle

Queen Latifah and Monie Love - Ladies First

Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.

Brand Nubian - Brand Nubian

P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

West Coast

The "Core" West Coast Sound"

After N.W.A broke up, Dr. Dre (a former member) released The Chronic in 1992, which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop chart, #3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single with "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang." The Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction,[86] influenced strongly by P funk artists, melding smooth and easy funk beats with slowly drawled lyrics. This came to be known as G-funk and dominated mainstream hip hop for several years through a roster of artists on Death Row Records, including Tupac Shakur (2pac), whose double disc album All Eyez on Me was a big hit with hit songs "Ambitionz az a Ridah" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted", and Snoop Dogg, whose Doggystyle included the songs "What's My Name?" and "Gin and Juice", both top ten hits. As the Los Angeles-based label Death Row Records built an empire around Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and the rapper-actor Tupac Shakur. It also entered into a rivalry with New York City’s Bad Boy Records.

Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - Nuthin' but a G. Thang

Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg - Let Me Ride (G Funk Remix)

Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice

Snoop Dogg - Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can' Have None)

Warren G feat. Nate Dogg - Regulate

2Pac feat. Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman - California Love

Ice Cube - Who's The Mack?

The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better

Ice T - O.G.: Original Gangster

Yo-Yo - You Can't Play with My Yo-Yo

Artists that are West Coast, but not identified with the "West Coast Sound" as strongly

Not all west coast artists were part of the east/west rivalry. Detached from this scene were other artists such as Freestyle Fellowship, The Pharcyde as well as more underground artists such as the Solesides collective (DJ Shadow and Blackalicious amongst others) Jurassic 5, Ugly Duckling, People Under The Stairs, Tha Alkaholiks, and earlier Souls of Mischief represented a return to hip hop roots of sampling and well planned rhyme schemes.

The Pharcyde - Passin' Me By

Digital Undergorund - The Humpty Dance

The Alkaholiks - Likwit

Jurassic 5 - Quality Control

Blackalicious - The Fabulous Ones

Souls of Mischief - 93 'Til Infinity

Cypress Hill - Hits from the Bong

Hot singles from places other than the East or West Coast

In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging on the national scene. Southern rap became popular in the early 1990s. The first Southern rappers to gain national attention were the Geto Boys out of Houston, Texas. Southern rap's roots can be traced to the success of Geto Boy's Grip It! On That Other Level in 1989, the Rick Rubin produced The Geto Boys in 1990, and We Can't Be Stopped in 1991. The Houston area also produced other artists that pioneered the early southern rap sound such as UGK and the solo career of Scarface.

Atlanta hip hop artists were key in further expanding rap music and bringing southern hip hop into the mainstream. Releases such as Arrested Development's 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... in 1992, Goodie Mob's Soul Food in 1995 and OutKast's ATLiens in 1996 were all critically acclaimed. Later, Master P (Ghetto D) built up a roster of artists (the No Limit posse) based out of New Orleans. Master P incorporated G funk and Miami bass influences and distinctive regional sounds from St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Detroit and others began to gain popularity. In the 1990s, elements of hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music. Neo soul, for example, combined hip hop and soul music. In the 1980s and 1990s, rap rock, rapcore and rap metal, fusions of hip hop and rock, hardcore punk and heavy metal became popular among mainstream audiences. Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit were among the most well-known bands in these fields.

Digable Planets' 1993 release Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was an influential jazz rap record sampling the likes of Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It spawned the hit single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" which reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100

Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks On Me (Houston)

Outkast - ATLiens (Atlanta)

Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) (Philadelphia)

Arrested Development - People Everyday (Atlanta)

MC Solaar - Qui Sème le Vent Récolte le Tempo (Paris, the first successful rapper from outside the US, let alone the first to achieve acclaim in the US rapping in a language other than English)

The Late 90s - Hip Hop Matures

Hip Hop in the 90s is divided into two eras, marked by the the violent deaths of West Coast hip hop legend 2Pac ("hip hop's greatest poet") and East Coast hip hop legend The Notorious B.I.G. ("hip hop's greatest MC") in 1996 and 1997, respectively. The shootings that took two of the brightest stars of hip hop sent shockwaves through the community leading to a resolution of the coastal rivalries and a new creative renaissance, intermingling aspects of the two styles.

Hip hop continued to change and diversify through the late 90s. Though white rappers like the Beastie Boys, House of Pain and 3rd Bass had had some popular success or critical acceptance from the hip hop community, Eminem's success, beginning in 1999 with the platinum The Slim Shady LP, surprised many.

Notable Singles

Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On

Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah! I Got You All In Check

Lil' Kim - The Jump Off

Jay-Z - Can't Knock the Hustle

THe Fugees - How Many Mics

Nas - If I Ruled The World

2Pac & Snoop Dogg - 2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted

Outkast - ATLiens

Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers

Jay-Z - Who You Wit

Company Flow - 8 Steps to Perfection

Lauryn Hill - Everything Is Everything

The Roots feat. Erykah Badu - You Got Me

Black Star (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Definition

Beastie Boys - Three MC's and One DJ (this song, and the accompanying super-low-budget music video, show so clearly what a scratch DJ does when partnered with MCs, bringing it back to how it was done in the early days)

The New Millennium - Hip Hop Explores New Territory

The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s. Dr. Dre remained an important figure, and in the year 2000 produced, The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem. Dre also produced 50 Cent's, 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin' which debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. Hip hop influences also found their way increasingly into mainstream pop during this period mainly the mid-2000s, as the Los Angeles style of the 1990s lost power. Nelly's debut LP, Country Grammar, sold over nine million copies. In the 2000s, crunk music, a derivative of Southern hip hop, gained considerable popularity via the likes of Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins. Jay-Z represented the cultural triumph of hip hop. As his career progressed, he went from performing artist to label president, head of a clothing line, club owner, and market consultant—along the way breaking Elvis Presley’s record for most number one albums on the Billboard magazine charts by a solo artist.

In addition to the mainstream success, the United States also saw the success of alternative hip hop in the form of performers such as The Roots, Dilated Peoples, Gnarls Barkley and Mos Def, who achieved significant recognition. Gnarls Barkley's album St. Elsewhere, which contained a fusion of funk, neo soul and hip hop, debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 charts. In addition, Aesop Rock's 2007 album None Shall Pass was well received, and reached #50 on the Billboard charts.

It was during the mid-2000s that alternative hip hop finally secured a place within the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West, and Gnarls Barkley. Not only did OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below receive high acclaim from music critics, manage to appeal to listeners of all ages, and span numerous musical genres – including rap, rock, R&B, punk, jazz, indie, country, pop, electronica and gospel – but it also spawned two number-one hit singles and has been certified diamond by selling 11 times platinum by the RIAA for shipping more than 11 million units,[130] becoming one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time as well as winning a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards being only the second rap album to do so. Industry observers view the sales race between Kanye West's Graduation and 50 Cent's Curtis as a turning point for hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies in the first week alone, proving that innovative rap music could be just as commercially viable as gangsta rap, if not more so. Although he designed it as a melancholic pop rather than rap, Kanye's following 808s & Heartbreak would have a significant effect on hip hop music. While his decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by music audiences and the album predicted to be a flop, its subsequent critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream rappers to take greater creative risks with their music. During the release of The Blueprint 3, New York rap mogul Jay-Z revealed that next studio album would be an experimental effort, stating, "... it's not gonna be a #1 album. That's where I'm at right now. I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made." Jay-Z elaborated that like Kanye, he was unsatisfied with contemporary hip hop, was being inspired by indie-rockers like Grizzly Bear and asserted his belief that the indie rock movement would play an important role in the continued evolution of hip-hop.

Commercial / Non-Underground Hip Hop of the era

Jay-Z - 99 Problems

Jay-Z - Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

Xzibit feat. Keri Hilson - Hey Now (Mean Muggin')

50 Cent feat. Nate Dogg - 21 Questions

Kanye West - Jesus Walks (Christian rap? Why not?)

Outkast - Hey Ya! (a smash hit single that really breaks out of the idea of what hip hop "should" be)

Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

Outkast - The Way You Move

Outkast - So Fresh, So Clean

Ludacris - Southern Hospitality

Underground / Abstract Hip Hop of the era

Nas - One Mic

Punch N' Words - Da Cipher

Immortal Technique - Dance With The Devil

The High and Mighty feat. Eminem - The Last Hit (Eminem's two verses in this song are legendary, especially the last one at 2:30 - frequently cited as a brilliant example of rhyme construction)

Eminem - Lose Yourself (the theme song from the semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile)

Kanye West - Through The Wire (Kanye West was in a car accident and had his jaw wired shut, wrote a rap about it, and recorded the song and music video - with his jaw still wired shut - three weeks later. Included in "underground" because of its stylistic treatment, but also because it predates his success and fame)

Hip Hop Crosses Over with Electronica

(Full disclosure: I go on something of a tangent in ths section, diving deeper into the topic than I should for a "hip hop" survey, but I really like the direction hip hop is going in this area, so I spend some time here.)

Though hip hop and elecronic dance music have long been cousins, produced using similar techniques albeit different aesthetics and intent, crossover between the two was few and far between until the new millennium. Then in the early 10s, when a sales slump hit hip hop (and every other form of commercially-available music), hip hop looked to innovations in EDM to find a new, relevant sound.

Hip Hop and electronic dance music begin to merge after the turn of the new millennium, with artists from both camps borrowing each others' tools and techniques. The result is a new, edgy sound that seamlessly blends electronic dance music, both commercial and underground varityies, into hip hop.

Other crossover styles exist, too like glitch hop, which reflects the experimental nature of IDM and the heavy bass featured in dubstep songs, irregular, chaotic breakbeats, glitchy basslines and other typical sound effects used in glitch music, like skips. Another crossover genre is wonky hip hop, featuring rich with melodies played by mid-range unstable synths, similar to UK Bassline and Garage music. Rather than getting into tremendous detail here, I'll cover this topic in more depth in the upcoming electronica survey.

Today the lines between hip hop, EDM, R&B and pop are very, very blurry. Yes, there are plenty of songs that are distinctly classifiable one or another, but there are just as many that cross all those lines willfully and deliberately.

Vocal Trap (which tends to be more on the hip hop side, though not always)

DJ Snake feat. Lil' Jon - Turn Down For What?

Nicki Minaj - Anaconda

Nico Llory feat. Bad News Brown - Jagermeister (The Frackers Remix)

DJ Fresh & Diplo feat. Dominique Young Unique - Earthquake

UZ feat. Paz - Trap Shit v9 (That Shit I Ain't Got)

Butch Clancy feat. A1 - P&B

Destructo feat. Problem - Dare You 2 Move (Djemba Djemba Remix)

Instrumental Trap (which tends to be more on the electronica side. Some call it electronica influenced by Miami Bass, some say it's hip hop with an EDM edge, really it's EDM producers who grew up listening to hip hop, interpreting hip hop today. This will be covered more in the electronica survey).

Baauer - Harlem Shake

Bro Safari - That A$$

Bro Safari - Scumbag

Yung Joc - Goin Down (Milo & Otis Unoriginal Mix)

Milo & Otis - Trap Arms

Skrillex & Kill The Noise feat. Fatman Scoop and Michael Angelakos - Recess (Milo & Otis Remix)

Milo & Otis - Love 2 Love U

TNIGHT - Acrylics (RL Grime Remix)

Just Blaze & Baauer feat. Jay-Z - Higher

Djemba Djemba - Oh Okay Yeah That's Cool

Club Hip Hop (merging hip hop, R&B and electronic dance music styles like house, techno, breakbeat and electro, specificially for the purpose of club dancing. This style descends directly from such artists as Crystal Waters)

Missy Elliott - Lose Control (the use of the instantly-recognizable sample from Cybotron - Clear was considered an homage to the classic early electro hip hop era, and helped propel the subgenre of Club Hip Hop forward)

Ciara - 1, 2 Step

Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers

Machinedrum & Azealia Banks - 1991

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

Lyrical Grime (grime merges hip hop and basslines from British EDM genres like drum & bass, dubstep, garage and speed garage)

Foreign Beggars & Noisia - Contact

The Streets - Let's Push Things Forward

Jammer feat. Wiley, D Double E, Kano & Durrty Goodz - Destruction VIP

Tempa T - Next Hype

Lethal B - Pow

Skepta - Duppy

Kano - P's and Q's

Starkey - Gutter Music VIP

Kamikaze - Ghetto Kyote

Instrumental Grime (Grime is focused on the beats as much as the lyrics so there's a fair number of instrumentals)

Wiley - Eskimo

Alias - Gladiator

Big Shot - Stomp

XTC - Funktions on the Low

Other Stuff that derives from both hip hop and electronica, but is either in another subgenre (like crossed over with funky house, dubstep, or something else) or is still considered unclassifiable

Kelis - Milkshake

A-Trak feat. Lupe Fiasco - Me & My Sneakers

A-Trak feat. CyHi Da Prince - Ray Ban Vision

Pretty Lights- Bump n Hustle

Zion I - Human Being

M.I.A - Bad Girls

A$AP Rocky feat. Skrillex & Birty Nam Nam - Wild for the Night

Skrillex & Wale - Trung

Diplo feat. Nicky Da B - Express Yourself

Bassnectar feat. Lupe Fiasco - Vava Voom

Borgore - Nympho

Hip Hop Around the World

For the first time, MCs from other countries began to rise to fame in the late 90s other than French pioneer MC Solaar. British Hip Hop became a genre of its own, spawning its own distinct aesthetics and subgenres such as grime (which I'll cover more in the electronica survey).

The alternative hip hop movement is not limited only to the United States, as rappers such as Somali-Canadian poet K'naan, Japanese rapper Shing02, and Sri Lankan British artist M.I.A. have achieved considerable worldwide recognition. In 2009, TIME magazine placed M.I.A in the Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres." Global themed movements have also sprung out of the international hip-hop scene with microgenres like "Islamic Eco-Rap" addressing issues of worldwide importance through traditionally disenfranchised voices. Today, due in part to the increasing use of music distribution through the internet, many alternative rap artists find acceptance by far-reaching audiences. Several artists such as Kid Cudi and Drake have managed to attain chart-topping hit songs, "Day 'n' Nite" and "Best I Ever Had" respectively, by releasing their music on free online mixtapes without the help of a major record label. New artists such as Wale, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, The Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B, some of whom mention being directly influenced by their nineties alt-rap predecessors, in addition to the southern rap sound, while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences, and emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop

Die Antwoord - Fatty Boom Boom (South Africa)

M.I.A - Bucky Done Gun (Sri Lanka)

Missy Elliott, Vybz Kartel & M.I.A - Bad Man (US, Jamaica and Sri Lanka)

Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me (England)

Dizzee Rascal - Fix Up, Look Sharp (England)

I Am Legion (aka Foreign Beggars & Noisia) - Choosing For You (England & Netherlands)

Shing02 - Love You Like Water (Japan)

K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher (Somalia)

Brainpower - Troubled Soul (Netherlands)

CL - The Baddest Female (China)

Upsurt feat. Galia - Tri v Edno (Bulgaria)

Gamora (aka Serezha Mestniy) - Veneno (Russia)

Mode XL - Düzmece (Turkey)

Elphomega - Rollergirl (Spain)

The Best of Hip Hop France - Ghetto People (France)

Really, there are too many to cover here. I could dedicate an entire survey to international hip hop.

Appendix - Historically-Significant Albums

The Best Albums of Each Year

Up to this point the focus of this survey has been singles. Here are the landmark albums of hip hop, worth listening to all the way through. Each year, the album with the greatest commercial and critical success is listed first.

This is by no means every good album released in certain years, particularly the 90s (there's just so much good music from that era). There are lots and lots of other great albums, these are just the ones I feel very comfortable calling "the best." Ones of particular significance are indicated.

1985

LL Cool J - Radio (the first "great" full-length hip hop album)

1986

Run-DMC - Raising Hell (the first album by hip hop's most influential act)

Beastie Boys - License to Ill (the first album, although sophomoric an immature, from who would turn out to become a very important group)

1987

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (masterpiece)

Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded (one of the great early politically-conscious albums)

LL Cool J - Bigger & Deffer (fiilled with classic party songs)

1988

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (the first great protest album)

NWA - Straignt Outta Compton (the birth of gangsta rap, masterpiece)

Slick Rick - Great Adventures of Slick Rick (the first album to showcse beatboxing, and slick rick is a great storyteller)

Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary

Ultramagnetic MC's - Critical Beatdown (masterpiece)

EPMD - Strictly Business

1989

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (the first album to really push the boundaries of the art of sampling)

De La Soul - 3ft High And Rising (masterpiece)

EPMD - Unfinished Business

Jungle Brothers - Done By The Forces of Nature

1990

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet (the second great protest album, masterpiece)

Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (solidifying the emergence of a distinct west coast scene)

A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (masterpiece)

Brand Nubian - One For All

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

Eric B. & Rakim - Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em

1991

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (masterpiece)

Ice Cube - Death Certificate

Black Sheep - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black

Del tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish My Brother George Was Here (one of the earliest "art hip hop" albums that did well commercially)

Ice-T - O.G.: Original Gangster

1992

Dr. Dre - The Chronic (the single best west coast gangsta rap album of all time, defined the genre, the soundtrack of post-riots Los Angeles, masterpiece)

Gang Starr - Daily Operation

Gang Starr - Step In the Arena

The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II Tha Pharcyde

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Redman - Whut? Thee Album

Eric B. and Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique

EPMD - Business Never Personal

1993

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers (masterpiece, tied for the single greatest hip hop album of all time)

A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders (masterpiece)

Snoop Dogg - DoggyStyle

Souls of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity

Digable Planets - Reachin': A New Refutation of Time and Space

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday

1994

Nas - Illmatic (masterpiece, the other album tied for the single greatest hip hop album of all time)

Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (the best MC to ever hold a microphone's debut album, masterpiece)

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

Method Man - Tical

Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

Common - Resurrection

Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East

Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep

The Roots -Do You Want More?!!!??!

Scarface - The Diary

Gang Starr - Hard to Earn

1995

2Pac - Me Against the World (2pac is a often called "hip hop's greatest poet;" this is some of his best poetry)

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx

GZA - Liquid Swords

Mobb Deep - The Infamous...

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

The Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia

1996

Fugees -The Score (masterpiece)

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (the beginning of abstract instrumental hip hop, masterpiece)

2Pac - All Eyez On Me (another album of deep ghetto poetry, masterpiece)

Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt (the best album from hip hop's most enduring don, masterpiece)

Makaveli (aka 2Pac) - Don Killuminati: The 7-Day Theory

Nas - It Was Written

Outkast -ATLiens

Ras Kass - Soul on Ice

Jeru the Damaja - Wrath of the Math

Ghostface Killah - Ironman

Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) - Dr. Octagonecologyst (the first commercially successful album to push the boundaries of "experimental" hip hop, masterpiece)

Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth

The Roots - Illadelph Halflife

Redman - Muddy Waterz

1997

Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death (some of the best MC flow ever reorded, eerily precognitive of his own murder, masterpiece)

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly (masterpiece, the beginnning of the new sound of the hip hop renaissance)

Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever (a great big double album from hip hop's biggest rap crew)

Jay-Z - Vol. 1: In My Lifetime

Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus (a surprise from the underground hip hop scene achieved commercial success, foretelling a future when abstract hip hop will live side by side with commercial hip hop)

1998

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (really, this is more of an R&B album than a hip hop album, since Lauryn Hill spends much more time singing than rapping on it, but it's so damn good I had to include it - it's the best hip hop album of 1998 and it's not even fully hip hop. Masterpiece.)

The Roots - Things Fall Apart (stunning, powerful, emotional, and one of the first albums to experiment with electronica crossover, masterpiece)

Outkast - Aquemini

Black Star (aka Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (Two of the most gifted lyricists of the era get together on this album)

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

Big Punisher - Capital Punishment

Gang Starr - Moment of Truth

Jay-Z - Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life

1999

Eminem - The Slim Shady LP (the album that introduced America to hip hop's greatest white rapper, from both critical and commercial standpoints)

Mos Def - Black On Both Sides

Dr. Dre - 2001

Blackalicious - Nia

MF Doom - Operation: Doomsday

Nas - I Am...

Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs

Inspectah Deck - Uncontrolled Substance

Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves

2000

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (the album that proved that Eminem wasn't a fluke, he's a genuine talent and one of the most creatve lyricists of all time, masterpiece)

Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele

Slum Village - Fantastic, Vol. 2

Quasimoto (aka Madlib) - The Unseen

Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent by Design

Black Eyed Peas - Bridging the Gap

2001

Jay-Z - The Blueprint (masterpiece)

Aesop Rock - Labor Days

Nas - Stillmatic

Dilated Peoples - Expansion Team

Immortal Technique - Revolutionary, Volume 1

Missy Elliott - Miss E...So Addictive

Ghostface Killah - Bulletproof Wallets

2002

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse

Talib Kweli - Quality

Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow

GZA/Genius - Legend of the Liquid Sword

Mr. Lif - I Phantom

2003

Jay-Z - The Black Album

50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Outkast - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (a unique approch to a double album, where each member of OutKast did their own album, one a funky party album, the other a love story)

Inspectah Deck - The Movement

Heiroglyphics - Full Circle

2004

Kanye West - The College Dropout (a brilliant exploration of poverty and minority life in both in and outside of the inner city, presented with sensitivity and genuine vulnerability in narrative form, back when Kanye could remember what it was like being poor and hungry, masterpiece)

Madvillain - Madvillainy

MF Doom - MM..Food?

Cam'ron - Purple Haze

Ghostface Killah - The Pretty Toney Album

Mos Def - The New Danger

N*E*R*D - Fly or Die

Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People

Slum Village - Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit)

2005

Quasomoto (aka Madlib) - The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Kanye West - Late Registration

Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having

Common - Be

Dangerdoom (aka Danger Mouse & MF Doom) - The Mouse and the Mask

Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust

2006

J. Dilla - Donuts (masterpiece, written on his deathbead in the hospital, released posthumously, still relevant a decade later)

Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor

The Roots - Game Theory

Ghostface Killah - Fishscale

Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead

2007

Jay-Z - American Gangster

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth

Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens

DJ Jazzy Jeff - The Return of the Magnificent

Pharoahe Monch - Desire

2008

Q-Tip - The Renaissance

Nas - Untitled (Nigger)

Why? - Alopecia

Black Milk - Tronic

The Roots - Rising Down

Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold

eMC - The Show

2009

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3

Mos Def - The Ecstatic

J. Dilla - Jay Stay Paid

2010 to May 2015

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West - Yeezus

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Death Grips - The Money Store

Kendrick Lamar - Section.80

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

DJ Rashad - Double Cup

Danny Brown - XXX

Drake - Nothing Was the Same

Jay Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne

Future - Pluto

Waka Flocka Flame = Flockaveli

Joey Badass - B4.DA.$$

Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth

Wiz Khalifa - Blacc Hollywood

Art Hip Hop Albums

As a bonus, I collected a bunch of albums that you'd like. For the most part these fall into a collection of interrelated genres favored by the "art crowd," such as "experimental hip hop," "avanthop," "psychedelic hip hop," "art hip hop," "abstract hip hop" "underground hip hop," "trip hop," "hipster hop," "nerdcore" and "artcore." What they have in common is that they were highly experimental at the time, stood the test of time, and are considered thought pieces and works of art as much as anything else. Most of them, but not all, are instrumental. A lot of this stuff crosses over into electronica, as well, and will be covered in an upcoming survey of electronica.

Abstract & Underground Hip Hop

My favorite form of "pure" hip hop. Many of these albums appear in the "best of all time" list, and, even the ones that don't are only JUST shy of it, because of their limited commercial success at the time.

Today underground hip hop is far more commercially successful, so I broke this section into two groups - "genuinely" underground (this group) and "light" underground (the group that follows).

Quasimoto (aka Madlib) - The Unseen

Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) - Dr. Octagonecologyst

Madlib - Shades of Blue

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Heiroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

MF Doom - Doomsday

Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

Dan the Automator - A Much Better Tomorrow

Freestyle Fellowship - Innercity Griots

Danny Brown - XXX

Death Grips - Exmilitary

Eyedea - First Born

The High and Mighty - Home Field Advantage

Digable Planets - Blowout Comb

Bahamadia - Kollage

Jean Grae - The Art of Attacking Things

Various Artists - Lyricist Lounge, Volume One

Various Artists - Lyricist Lounge, Volume Two

Various Artists - Lyricist Lounge: West Coast

Progressive Hip Hop

Bascally a slightly more accessible, radio-friendly form of abstract hip hop. It doesn't take quite as many risks as the pure "art house" set, but still pushes boundaries, while remaining within the confines of commercial-possibility.

Mos Def - Black On Both Sides

Kanye West - Yeezus

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

A$AP Rocky - Long Live A$AP

Black Star (aka Mos Def & Talib Kweli) - Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly

Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap

Chino XL - I Told You So

Joey Badass - B4.DA.$$

Q-Tip - The Renaissance

Digital Underground - Sex Packets

Tha Alkaholiks - 21 and Over

Dilated Peoples - The Platform

Dilated Peoples - Expansion Team

Common - Like Water for Chocolate

Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth

Jurassic 5 - Quality Control

Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day

eMC - The Show

Tablib Kweli - Quality

Gorillaz - Gorillaz

Handsome Boy Modeling School - So...How's Your Girl?

Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs

Slum Village - Fantastic Vol. 2

Abstract Instrumental Hip Hop

Kinda like Abstract Hip Hop, just without lyrics.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

J. Dilla - Donuts

Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) - The Instrumentalist: Dr. Octagonecologyst, Lyrics Surgically Removed

DJ Rashad - Double Cup

Q-Tip - Kamaal The Abstract

Prince Paul - Itstrumental

Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030: The Instrumentals

Various Artists - Deeper Concentration 2

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Kruder & Dorfmeister - The K&D Sessions

There are so many more but I can't find them online - this genre was pretty underground for a long time

Artcore Turntablism

Turntable and sampler as musical instrument. Often crosses over into Trip Hop.

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - Brainfreeze

Cut Chemist - The Audience Is Listening

DJ Krush - Strictly Turntablised

DJ Cam - Liquid Hip Hop

Various Artists - Return of the DJ

Various Artists - Return of the DJ, Volume 2

Trip Hop

Not strictly hip hop, but not strictly electronica either. The love child of hip hop and film noir.

Portishead - Dummy (you'll love this)

Portishead - Portishead

Portishead - Third

Tricky - Maxinquaye (my cousin is the singer)

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Massive Attack - Blue Lines

Thievery Corporation - Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi

Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (yes, this is the third time this album appears in this survey)

Nightmares on Wax – Smoker’s Delight

Laika – Sounds of the Satellites

Air – Moon Safari

UNKLE – Psyence Fiction

Sade - Love Deluxe (this was trip hop long before anyone realzed it back in 1992)

DJ Cam - Substances

Morcheeba - Big Calm

Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain

Nathaniel Merriweather (aka Dan the Automator) - Nathaniel Merriweather presents...Lovage - Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By

Skylab - #1

Lamb - Lamb

Roni Size & Reprazent - New Forms (not strictly trip hop, but just on the border, and I'll leave you with that to tease the upcoming electronica survey)

[jcodec-blog]

Ask the Artist: Mixing with Stems

Question: How do you prepare your tracks to mix with stems (whether using stems directly in Ableton Live or using the Native Instruments STEMS file format).

Answer: I break my stems into four parts, similar to Native Instruments STEMS format, because when I play live I play on an 8-channel live set with four channels dedicated to each track. I used to break the song into more granular parts, 8 channels instead of 4, but it was too much to manage live. When STEMS came out it was like instant validation for my approach.

So when I'm breaking down my track for stemming out I first decide what elements will be grouped into which stem channels. It depends on the genre and mix down of the track, and since I play a few different genres I group them differently.

How to Group Elements

The Kick/Bass Relationship

The first question I ask myself is "can the bass stand alone without the kick?" depending on the character of the kick and bass, the answer determines whether or not I sum the bass and kick together.

For some styles the answer is clear, because there is no separate bassline. In stripped big room house, jungle terror and a lot of trap, for example, the kick is a big, boomy 808, so it plays the role of bassline. Conversely, a lot of minimal techno and tech house I do doesn't even have a bass instrument. In those cases I obviously don't have a separate bass to break out.

For house and techno where the bassline and kick are close to each other in register, creating an intrinsic relationship between them (like dark techno, for example, where the bass and kick are two sides of the same coin), I'll sum the kick and bass together in one channel.

For house and techno where the bassline is higher in register with more midrange character on the EQ spectrum, like deep, future and electro house styles, I won't sum the bass with the kick. Instead I'll sum the kick and clap/snare and move the bass to its own channel.

For break-oriented styles like drum & bass, breakbeats, dubstep, trap, and most moombahcore I'll sum the kick and snare in one channel and the bass on another.

On Sidechaining

If the bass is sidechaining to really sit in a groove with the kick and would therefore sound awkward with a different kick, I'll tend to sum the two together.

I always bake in the sidechaining with the stems for three reasons:

Since the placement and timbre of the low end varies depending on how I summed my channels, I don't want to run a compressor on any of my channels in my perrformance set that depends on the kick or bass always being in the same channel. The bass can appear in stem 1, 2 or 3, so I don't want that messing with an actual compressor in a live situation.

I don't want to render separate stems for my live set (which is Ableton-based) and distribution to others in Native Instruments STEMS format and as separate files. I want it to "just work.”

A lot of time the compressors I use introduce a level of latency that makes them unsuitable for live performance.

Leads and Hooks

If I have a distinctive lead or hook that always gets its own channel since I like to tease and layer hooks in my performances with a lot of counterpoint.

Vocals

If I have distinctive vocals I almost always make the vocal channel it's own group. If the lead and vocal go together, or if they are not present in the song at the same time (like the vocals are pretty much in the intro and buildup, while the lead is during the drop), I'll sum the vocals and the lead. My music is usually instrumental, though, so this doesn't come up a lot for me.

Typical Groupings

So once I've analyzed how my song wants to be broken up I'll usually end up with one of the following groupings:

Summed Kick/Bass

Kick and bass

All other drums

Lead/hook

All other sounds

Separate Bass

Kick and clap/snare

Bass

All other drums

All other sounds

Summed drums with Vocals

All drums

Bass

Vocals (or sometimes vocals and lead)

All other sounds

Summed Kick and Bass with Vocals

Kick and bass

All other drums

Vocals (or sometimes vocals and lead)

All other sounds

There are other variations possible, but you get the idea.

Routing

I'll clarify one thing, I DO have compressors in my performance set, but they're not running as sidechains. Rather, I run each track out to get pre-summed in four other channels, then those channels are sent to the master output:

The main channels:

Left Deck, Stem A

Left Deck, Stem B

Left Deck, Stem C

Left Deck, Stem D

Right Deck, Stem A

Right Deck, Stem B

Right Deck, Stem C

Right Deck, Stem D

Then the returns, where the elements from each stem channel are submixed and lightly compressed to blend them together. They tend to be elements in similar registers, particularly if the two tracks were stemmed out using the same pattern.

Submix of Left and Right Decks, Stem A

Submix of Left and Right Decks, Stem B

Submix of Left and Right Decks, Stem C

Submix of Left and Right Decks, Stem D

Then the output of the four returns is sent to the master output where it's sweetened again (just a touch), then hits a brick wall limiter (for safety) before running out to the PA. At each stage I try to keep the compression stages really light to avoid crushing the hell out of my dynamic range. Just enough to correct the signal getting a little too hot from two signals competing with each other. I also have low, mid and high EQs on both the left and right set of channels (pre-compression) to help alleviate this issue. 

How to Mix the Groups

I try to match the mix down as much as possible between the stemmed sound and complete sound. So what I'll do is toggle the compression on my master channel off and on each of the stem channels on and vice versa to see if it sounds similar. There's a lot of compromise involved in this process, but usually I can get them pretty damn close.I listen and ask myself the following questions:

Does the master channel mastering sound solid?

Does each channel's compression have the same feeling when played alone and with each other?

Fiddle, tweak and tune until I have the right balance, then render!

[jcodec-blog]

Ask the Artist: Performance vs. Composition

Question: You’ve mentioned before that for you the line between performance and songwriting is “very blurry.” Can you explain more about what you mean by that?

Answer:  The majority of the time I write specifically for performance. Very little of the material I've ever written is ever "finished" in the traditional sense. Yeah, I've put out a few songs, given them names, created artwork and stopped iterating on them. Those are the exceptions. The vast majority of the stuff I've written isn't solid, it's fluid, dynamic, ever changing, a living organism that makes my performances different from week to week.

I'll explain.

Instead of sitting down in the studio and writing songs one at a time, then cobbling them together for a performance, I’ll build a live show from raw elements, building a collection of drums, basslines, leads and other sounds into a "palette" that works well together.

Then I’ll turn the record button on and jam on that palette at home, capturing everything I do in each channel into Ableton Live’s Arrange View. I’ll rock it out like I’m at a live show, performing with the loops, creating builds, drops, crescendos and decrescendos, tweaking effects and such.

When I'm done I'll listen to what I did, which will tell me where it may need more variety, which elements are working and which ones aren’t, where I need variations, and which parts are really choice and should be built out further.

Then I’ll take groupings of elements that work together, build 8-bar loops out of them, then jam with the loops as well as more granular raw elements. If I like what I’m hearing and actually want to "release" some of that into the world, I’ll take the best loop segments and copy them into another project where I can actually turn it into a traditional dance track. There I’ll build out intros, main segments, breakdowns and outros from the raw loops. Once I’m done I’ll reimport the stuff I wrote back into my performance set as stems.

In this way, I’m both jamming live and creating material to compose singles at the same time. And, likewise, when you see me perform you’ll see that I never perform the same song in quite the same way, bringing something different to the stage every time.

A lot of producer/DJs are either producers first, performers second, or performers first, producers second. In either case they lead with one foot before the other. In my case I’m nearly split down the middle. I use a lot of "performance techniques" in my productions as well as "studio techniques" in my live performance.

I’ve never been the kind of performer that walks into the DJ booth and simply mixes one song after another for an hour. That’s never been interesting to me. If all you’re doing in the DJ booth is what a jukebox can do, you’re not a DJ, you’re a jukebox. Even in the vinyl era, I was always trying to push the boundaries of mixing, incorporating three- and four-deck mixing, a bit of turntablism, live sampling and looping into my sets.

Let me explain my live performance setup a little first. The heart of my rig is a Macbook Pro running Ableton Live. There I have a multi-channel setup that runs different channels for kick durm, other durms, bass, leads and hooks, vocals. Rather than playing pre-rendered songs, I play the different elements of songs together so I can actually perform them. If the crowd is feeling a buildup I can stretch it out and increase the tension further. I can switch the bassline of one song with the bassline of another to create interest and variety. I can play a house track, then during the breakdown swap out the house drums with breakbeat drums from another song. Plus I have the flexibility of putting effects over individual parts if I want. I can glitch out the drum line while keeping the vocals intact. The possibilities are endless.

Nowadays the evolution of technology has allowed me to take my live shows further, really "bringing the studio to the show" in a way that simply wasn’t possible fifteen years ago. The beauty of Ableton Live is the seamlessness between Session View and Arrangement View and I really try to make the most of that.