Instrumental Hip Hop 545 Items

Over the last two decades, 20syl has crafted a unique, hip-hop infused, electro musical universe. He inherited a rich musical knowledge and a genuine understanding of analog and vintage sounds form years of classic beat making. He first got his start with Hocus Pocus, a band he founded in 1995. As the mastermind behind the band’s five LPs, including their Gold Record Place 54, 20syl has proved himself to be a visionary artist. A member of C2C - a turntablist quartet with whom he has won 4 DMC world titles – he took the genre mainstream with the groundbreaking album Tetra (2012). This successful opus was rewarded with 4 French Grammys and a Double Platinium Record.

In 2014, 20syl launched his solo career while still working with a few hand picked underground artists such as Grems, Raashan Ahmad and Blitz the Ambassador. In the recent years the prolific producer has taken his trademark overseas with popular remixes of ScHoolboy Q, Rihanna, and King Krule – setting up a booming environment for the 2014 release of his anticipated first solo EP, Motifs.

Co-founder of On And On Records, 20Syl has imposed himself as a flagship of the expanding new scene. Passionate about visual arts, 20Syl designs his artwork and direct his music videos.

A free electron, he seduces the public with his sharp identity and his ability to turn his own original creations into major musical trends.

Imagine. NY, NY. You see the city with different eyes. Architecture got redefined the moment you rolled down the street on your board for the very first time. Rails, curbs, ledges. 50/50 down that handrail. 1st try. Damn that feels good. “No Skateboarding”-signs left & right, the sirens are getting closer. Screw it, puts a mere smile on your face as you float through the concrete jungle, big city of dreams! Cut. Meanwhile in Venice Beach, CA. I’m still feeling the bruises from the abandoned backyard pools in San Diego last week. Sh*t man, the sun is burning on my skin. The wind feels good as I push past the palm trees. Let’s shred these bowls. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush when you land a handplant. The hours pass by. Sun down, city to city. Exhausted, yet happy. Gonna give that wrecked body some rest, grab a bite on the way home, watch some 411, play some Tony Hawk’s, and listen to the old hip-hop tapes, again and again. Cut.

There’s always been something magical about the soundtracks of the skate flicks you watched as a kid, and the music would echo in your head for days. 7apes and Enaka joined forces to provide the soundtrack for your next ripping session. „Brrrrr stick 'em, ha-ha-ha stick 'em“, that chant rings in your ears as you lock in for that crooked grind. Rattling drums meet crunchy ass basslines as you pop down that staircase. The beat halts as the world turns slo-mo while you catch that frontside flip half way through the air. Boom, landed, and the beat goes on, and on, and on. Everyone comes running up to you, screaming & shouting, the energy is at peak. 7apes and Enaka know that feeling oh too well. On GRIPTAPE, they’ve turned it into sound, a hundredfold.

S-K-A-T-E. Let’s play.

These are the tales that I tell so well. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, the duality that lies within all of us. 7apes is captured in a society that won’t allow him to focus, one that is saturated with trials and tribulations. Bound to the structures of modern day madness, he’s forced to compromise over and over again. Fit in. Assimilate. Obey the conventions. Until now. These right here are the “Tales of Two Cities”, the catharsis of one human’s boundless love of music. The outpouring of creativity, fed by talent, intellectual freedom and exchange of knowledge. Urban Jazz sprung from classic Hip-Hop roots. The organic, the Neo, the Nu.

Salomon Appiah, better known by his stage name 7apes, has come a long way, from playing in heavy metal & rock bands during his countryside teens and full on pop compositions as an upcoming producer to being the jack of all trades in each and every session he joins in the Berlin studio landscape and beyond.

For 'Tales of Two Cities', 7apes has worked with like minded musical libertines Joha, Packed Rich, Quinte, the intern, DJ Werd, Dead Rabbit and vocalist extraordinaire Kromanteng. Each song is a jam of its own and yet, part of an entity. One that was built on solid ground. One that was built together. The Yin und Yang bleed through the music subconsciously. Subtle references to classics from Funk & Soul, Afrobeat and Reggae equilibrate the unknown. Samples and additional instrumentation merge seamlessly with one another. Freed from musical boundaries and full of creative experimentation, 7apes has created a cosmos of music that is speaking his musical mind, letting go of the outside world, zooming in on the sole beauty of sound.

Dope new producer project from the Cali beatmaker A.J. Munson - Heavy Fish!

The sixth album from legendary hip-hop group Souls of Mischief, There Is Only Now, is a unique cinematic 90s crime
tale of love, loss, and revenge. A conceptual collaboration with producer Adrian Younge and the first release on his freshly launched Linear Labs Records label, There Is Only Now gets its inspiration from a near fatal incident involving group members A-Plus, Opio, Tajai, and Phesto early in their careers. Set in 1994, There Is Only Now serves as a bookend to two decades of music since the release of their seminal debut album, ‘93 Til Infinity.

There Is Only Now sees the Souls of Mischief crew members trading bars with a cast of hip-hop and soul luminaries.
Narrated by A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammed—as DJ for fictional local Oakland radio station K-NOW—the album’s story unfolds under his all-seeing eye. Busta Rhymes makes an appearance as the story’s villain, Womack, on “Womack’s Lament,” while William Hart of the legendary vocal soul group, The Delfonics, lends his buttery falsetto to the contemplative “Another Side of You.” Snoop Dogg drops knowledge on the situation between Stoney and Womack with an ice cold verse on the title track “There Is Only Now,” and Scarub from Living Legends goes in on “Stone Cold.”

Souls of Mischief and Adrian Younge have created a hip-hop album like no other. The result of a special moment for all
involved, There Is Only Now proves that after two decades in the rap game hip-hop’s Fab Four remains committed to
the expansion of their legacy as hip-hop innovators and pioneers.

Great instrumental hip-hop rap beats by Ahwlee, finally pressed on viynl.

When Ajax Tow travels in his Pop Western landscapes, you can be sure there’s always a perfect 70’s road trip soundtrack. Italians cowboys meeting the legendary Miriam Makeba in Rennes suburbs... For his 3rd album The Soul Vegetable Orchestra, Ajax Tow is bringing us on a ten tracks sonic adventure, where many inspirations and references collide. The succession of tracks inspires many feels and moods from sipping a good old bourbon, dance in the kitchen, or gallops though the plains of Napoli. We can found the influence of Danger Mouse paying hommage to the late Ennio Morricone (Roma, 2011), a cinematic side of Shawn Lee and Misha Panfilov, from music library à la JeanClaude Vannier to the Band Voilaa, a little glimpse of pimped Ninja tune, a reworked organic Mo’Wax vibe, all mixed up and spiced up with a Tricky style. This album is also the result of a collaboration with Dan Voisin (Modul-Club, Eighty…) at the production and drums with Rennes city scene musicians who gives a hand on this album: Romain Baousson (Coupe Colonel, Bikini Machine…) on drums, Sax Machine and Racecar (Saxtoys Records) on horns and vocals, Dj Marrrtin (Funky Bijou, Lord Paramour) on beatmaking, Medline (My Bags) on Flûte. As a special guest, the late and legendary Miriam Makeba appears on “Magic Miriam”. “Feel it” is definitely setting a west coast on the LP with a Jurassic 5 inspiration, accompanied by a spicy rhythm, MC Racecar (Sax Machine) flows and lyrics brings even more energy to the track. On “Movie” and “Silence”. Ajax Tow give us a nice taste of his favorite psychedelic blends, romantic and intimate at the same time, where we found back Fuzz guitar with 60’s Eric Clapton style (Cream era) and Pink Floyd synths Flavors. The cinematic style and first notes of “So What” reminds Air first EP and the beautiful bass of “Melody Nelson”. For the dessert, “Smallville” is a kind of wedding cake with 70’s loops sprinkling that brings us to Phillipe Sarde’s La Grande Bouffe soundtrack, but with a more contemporary feeling.

We are super excited to present Al Dobson Jr.'s second "Sounds From The Village" issue on almighty Kutmah's Izwid imprint on vinyl. 23 tracks in total. Artwork by Kutmah. Sleeve design by Brandy Flower of the Hit+Run Crew.

Volume 2 in the series unearths more drum tracks and abstract musical curation from the Dobson Jr. archives. Fonk tales & movie scene interludes from a span of 2006-2016 compiled by Kutmah.

You have to know how to move away from the rich, strong and noisy streets, if you want to discover another Havana. A Havana far from the tourist circuits and preconceived images. A Havana where one discovers bucolic, but hard and stripped too after slow journeys in the crowded buses, a Havana with which Al Quetz maintains a passionate history since more than fourteen years.

Installed in one of those neighborhoods that can only be reached by going deeper into the alleys, from the open window of the studio comes the sound of banging drums and thumping bass. The sound reaches the streets on which the day rises.

The place wakes up in a growing tumult, with some rare engines coughing, conversations under the windows, songs of the street vendors , an urban ballet sets up as the sun darts its rays. Far from the musical clichés with percussions and horns, Cuba is an island bombarded with influences that one discovers. An island which vibrated for the jazz, the soul, the psychedelic rock , from the waves coming from the Caribbean to those of the bulky neighboring ogre. A musical flowering as varied as abundant that the glorious post-revolutionary label Areito has on thousands of recordings, and that Al Quetz has designated as the sole source of his samples to compose Habanologia.

From the ambiences that punctuate the local daily life caught by his samplers, he let the melancholy infiltrate his hip hop beats, the nostalgia melting in the depths of his grooves. Nostalgia in the Cuban air, even during moments of intense laughter, which never totally disappears.

Habanologia restores these moments when the song of the birds has extinguished those of the cars. Where, sitting on a doorstep, we comment on the life of the neighborhood, we watch the women's swaying at eye level. The whole day if necessary, the coffee at one peso, after a certain hour, which leaves its place to the Planchao rum. Wandering through its streets where a chance encounter can itself bring others and lead to the essence of the habanera life. From Regla, after a short trip on the bus-boat that crosses the bay, savor the end of the day, observe the capital from afar, let the nocturnal insects ensure some arrangements and drift towards mysterious horizons, bringing to the contemplation of the place and the moment.

A flute, a keyboard, percussions or a voice. Al Quetz also invited his friends from the island or elsewhere to decorate his productions with their live touch. To share with him this Havana for which he covered his tracks, mixed times and distorted space-time to make it timeless. To write with Habanalogia, a declaration of love to the Cuban capital, to make Havana, His Havana.

Fifth pressing, this time via Sekito.