Hip hop has always been something I have a strong passion for. I can’t speak for this saturation of this garbage on the radio (and I’ve honestly tried to find something good about it) but I can speak on 80′s/90′s rap with absolute affection. Rap songs were the first type of songs I ever wrote, so even now my delivery is affected by lines with a dense, multi-syllabic end rhyme scheme. The content I write about is often very much “faux gangster” There’s no better release than saying “Motherfucker” on a freestyle. So we obviously knew our album would need to have some hip hop, or at least some instrumentals that were made in house, that I could go nuts on, and Al could do damage control with a gorgeous hook..
But I’ve never really made hip hop instrumentals, and until I started fucking with all these drum samples, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about making a hip hop beat. This cut was one of the first instrumentals that I started and actually finished. It uses some samples (loops for drums and strings) but the keys and guitar are analog, and it’s a task trying to find a balance between automation and just digging out your own bass or drum patterns.
PS. This didn’t end up so much a hip hop beat. It’s more like a really heavy, sad soundtrack to an american express commercial. Yet following this one, expect to hear some boom bap style shit, even a trap beat, God have mercy. Peace and Love -TY