In the last Blunted on the Blog entry, I talked about the new generation of multicultural beat CDs that have grown in popularity in the second half of this decade and have, for the most part, overtaken the sprawling hip-hop epics (think Endtroducing ..... and all its successors) that have traditionally defined the instrumental hip-hop genre. Specifically, I focused on French producer Onra and his 2008 release, Chinoiseries. But, looking back on it, I probably got a bit ahead of myself and should retrace the history of how these type of beat tapes became en vogue.
As with most trends in underground hip-hop for the past five or so years, the phenomenon began indirectly with J Dilla and his 2006 release, Donuts. Dilla has always been one of the most stylistically adventurous producers in hip-hop, flipping between the warm, jazzy boom bap of his earlier years to the colder, more forceful electro of his middle period. But Donuts -- in its fractured, ADD glory -- presented the producer at his most naked. Culled from a series of beat CDs that had been circulating for some time, most of the songs on Donuts are little more than sketches. No song touches the two-minute mark, and a few barely even progress beyond simple loops. Though fragments, they collectively offer an intensely personal meditation on the soul music that dominated Dilla’s childhood in Detroit.
When I interviewed Dilla's mother, Ma Dukes, for a 2006 feature we did on the life of her son, she told me that as a child, he rarely slept. At night, the only way a young Dilla would go under was if his father hummed basslines to popular soul songs. I know that this is projecting my own narrative, but I can’t help but feel that Donuts, which was literally recorded on Dilla’s deathbed, added a certain symmetry to his life.
But really, I digress. I didn’t want to talk about Dilla as much as his influence: Donuts shifted the direction of instrumental hip-hop. It demonstrated that a beat tape can be a proper release; after Donuts, the new generation of instrumental hip-hop CDs seemed more naturalistic and less affected. His influence not only can be felt in the music of Onra, but it also allowed his Stones Throw labelmates Madlib and Oh No to pursue their own visions. You can especially hear his influence in Flying Lotus, whose 2008 CD Los Angeles was -- structurally at least -- a throwback to the more tightly structured instrumental hip-hop CDs.
Next time we'll try to get around to some of Oh No's releases.
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