Instrumental Hip Hop 488 Items

We are excited to present Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes’ “What Kinda Music” – an astonishing collaboration between two artists of very different disciplines, and one of the most unique and seamlessly original projects of its ilk to date.

Moving fluidly through sleek electronica, avant-garde jazz, vintage hip hop and so much more, Misch and Dayes take you on a journey that is by turns surprising and spontaneous, heady and head spinning, and nothing less than compelling – a singular vision which fuses the DNA of both musicians with spectacular results, as can be seen in the title track, which comes backed by a gorgeously atmospheric video by XX.

Even though the fundamental bones of this project came together very quickly, its actual provenance stretches back much, much farther back, with the pair not only growing up in the same area of South East London, but Misch actually seeing Dayes play on drums in the school talent show for the first time when he was roughly 8 or 9. They both kept tabs on each other – Misch becoming a fan of Dayes’ act Yussef Kamaal, Dayes clocking his videos in 2014 – but it was only when they met at a launch party for Misch’s debut LP “Geography” in 2018 that the proverbial creative sparks began to fly. “As a musician you’re always looking for contemporaries who can push you and challenge you and make you better”, says Dayes. “I instantly felt that with Tom – he was such a gifted musician, and so prolific”. That summer they decided to go into the studio together, jam a little, and see what happens, with no other expectation placed upon it.

As it turns out, the music came fast and furiously. Two initial tracks were suddenly followed by a handful of others, and the pair found themselves contemplating what to do next. “Pretty soon, we knew that something was gelling”, Dayes says. “It didn’t feel like a one-off collaboration, it felt like a body of work”. What made the pair click, according to Misch and Dayes, were the exact same factors that meant it shouldn’t, by all rights, work. Misch says, “Yussef comes from a more experimental background, and he has a lot of loose, crazy ideas. I know how to write a catchy melody, but with interesting chords and have a good understanding of popular song forms, so I think I streamlined those ideas and made them accessible”. And certainly, in “What Kinda Music” you can sense the DNA of both musicians, but fusing so effortlessly and beautifully that it creates something else entirely, the appropriately named “Lift Off” sending goosebumps with its jazz flecked crescendo, and “Night Rider” hynotising with its deeply mesmeric grooves. “I have a love for harmony and chords”, Misch adds. “Working with someone like Yussef, who has such a gifted sense of rhythm allowed a perfect balance”.

Throughout the record, there is an utterly joyful feel of two musicians at the top of their game sparking off one another, picking up ideas and running with them – zigging where the other zags, ebbing where the other flows, with Misch producing the majority of the record and both having a hand in the overall sound and feel of the record.

“Working with Yussef has actually changed the way I work as a musician”, Misch muses. “He’s pushed me and unlocked a more experimental part of me that I hadn’t really allowed myself to explore before. I think we really did impact each other in a fundamental way”. Dayes is similarly effusive in his praise for Misch. “A musician like him, who’s at the top of his game, he doesn’t need to do this”, he raves. “He can just keep doing the same thing and why not? He’s killing it. The fact that he’s so humble, that he’s so curious about everything and open to collaboration, speaks a lot to him as an artist, because it’s not easy finding musicians who want to collaborate. Something always gets in the way, whether it’s ego or their team or whatever. But with Tom it felt like the intention was purely creative, and that’s what made it exciting”. In fact, Dayes says that the intentions of the record go even deeper than just music. “Both our parents who’d never met each other before, are now best friends as a result of this, they now see each other more than we do! I’d like to think, in some small way, that this album has a similar impact for people too – everything feels so divided these days, it would be nice for people to hear the record and hear two very different musicians coming together and realise it doesn’t have to be that way”.

Samurai Champloo Music Record: Departure is a soundtrack album, originally released on June 23, 2004. It is the second of four soundtrack albums released for the show. The album was produced by Japanese DJ / producer Nujabes, and American MC/producer Fat Jon, and featured Japanese rapper Shing02 and Japanese singer-songwriter MINMI on the album’s first and last tracks, respectively. Departure was critically lauded and is the best known album from the series, with especially high praise being reserved for “Battlecry”.

The music of the Samurai Champloo anime series was created by a group of producers: Japanese hip-hop producer Tsutchie of the rap group Shakkazombie, American hip-hop producer & emcee Fat Jon of the rap group Five Deez, Japanese hip-hop producer Nujabes, and Japanese DJ & production duo Force Of Nature. The music genre is primarily instrumental hip-hop.

Limited edition of 500 copies in tip-on cardboard sleeve.

Loft is an instrumental hip hop album inspired by the free and spiritual jazz played by the New York loft movement of the 1960s and 1970s. A difficult time, where economic decline and poor housing politics somehow led to some amazing, innovative music, often self-recorded to cassette tapes. This music was recorded to tape on a loft as well, far away from the original loft scene. Written during the corona pandemic, this album also emerged from a difficult time. The do-it-yourself spirit and freedom of the loft movement inspired this process a lot, and it was recorded mostly with instruments from that era. There are no static BPMs or software instruments on this LP, everything is kept as analog and authentic as possible. Vintage electric pianos, tape loops and hardware effects emulate the sounds of the 1970s and the
aesthetics of hip hop sampling.

The album features independent jazz legends Idris Ackamoor, Ralph Thomas and Wendell Harrison. Chicago-born Idris Ackamoor was a founding member of The Pyramids, an influential jazz ensemble that was formed in the 1970s, and still releases critically acclaimed music today. Another Chicago musician, multi-instrumentalist Ralph Thomas is best known for his 1980 cult-classic album Eastern Standard Time. Detroit-native Wendell Harrison founded the important record label and jazz collective Tribe Records, and, like Ralph Thomas, also performed together with Sun Ra among many others. All three musicians have been very inspiring to me, and are important to the legacy of free and spiritual jazz. I’m so grateful and
honored to have them featured on these loft tapes.

Ol’ Burger Beats plays: Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer 200A electric pianos, Sequential Prophets, ARP Odyssey and Moog synthesizers, ring modulator and delay pedals, tape loops, vinyl percussion samples, drum machines and various percussion instruments.

Recorded in Vatne and Oslo, Norway.

The Silhouettes Project a new platform for up and coming Hip-Hop, Soul and Jazz artists from the UK. It is not a record label or management team, it is a community project. The Silhouettes Project provides an open space - a recording studio and live venue located within the Total Refreshment Centre in Hackney, London - where MCs, singers, musicians and producers can connect and create.The Silhouttes Project was founded by community organisers/artists Asher Korner (aka Kosher) and Jaden Osei-Bonsu (Eerf Evil) in 2019. When they told us about the project and played us some of the music we were instantly hooked and joined the collective as label partner. The art direction is executed by Sergio „SagaUno“ Alferez, an acclaimed designer and illustrator from Medellín, Columbia.Starting in September, we release a new single each Thursday from artists like Kofi Stone, Summers Sons, Enny, KeepVibesNear, Manik MC, Lex Amor, Louis The Hippie, Summer-Pearl, Joe Beard and many more.

Here is the story of the Silhouettes Project as told by its founders Jaden and Asher: „We started The Silhouettes Project in February 2019, to shine a light on the new generation ofunderground Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Soul music in the UK. Community is everything to us, and wewanted to show that with a proper support network, access to professional facilities, and theencouragement of a family of artists, our community could produce something incredible. We felt a joint frustration that the current music scene in the UK only had structures in placeto support talent of a certain genre whilst overlooking a buzzing alternative Hip-Hop culture.We wanted to unify artists who are making ground-breaking music but who are in need of asolid structure to work within - artists who we felt deserved more recognition. This led us tothe name ‘The Silhouettes Project’, as we wanted to shine a light on those artists in theshadows. The journey started by embarking on a collaborative album project which allowed us to bringtogether more than 30 artists on a single tape and to create a network of incredibly talentedartists of the same calibre. The album took more than a year, working almost every day at theRoot 73 studio, a community space in Hackney. We knew from the first few sessions that wewere on to something, and the energy around the project kept it moving. As artists ourselves we understood that the creative process can be challenging and sometimesisolating, especially when there is no clear support network to fall back on. This led us to bringour efforts into the physical realm by organising a series of free live music events for all ofthese artists to come to, showcase their work alongside our house band, and connect witheach other. These events take place at The Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston, anunderground studio complex and warehouse space, which gave the events an intimatecommunity feeling and the people a sense of belonging. There is a desperate need for spaces in which people can come together and develop theircreative potential, especially with the consistent withdrawal of funding from the arts sector inthe UK and with the constant threat of gentrification which has seen the closure of countlesscommunity and grassroots creative organisations. As we grew as a brand and organisation, webegan to fully understand the importance of what we were doing. From the studio sessions tothe events, we saw the impact on people’s outlooks on their own careers, we saw them growin confidence in performing and collaborating and even taking their own initiative to utilise thenetwork provided for them. We heard their feedback, we felt the excitement in theatmospheres at our events and studio sessions, and we saw the community grow every timewe brought it together.“

Finally back on wax. Great album feat. Sach of The Nonce, Yesh, Count Bass D, Ladybug Mecca & other fine MCs!

2024 Repress!

“Soothing Breeze” is a compilation of 21 carefully selected beats with oriental traditional instruments, soft drum loops and mystical appeal. The air is calm and pure - it’s time for absolute focus in this tranquil landscape.

2x 12” color vinyl (45 rpm) 180Gr Limited : 5000 copies Numbered

After the 2019 release of their debut album "Dark Smoke", the Danish trio Athletic Progression has gone from strength to strength in Denmark. Multiple sold out shows in DK and abroad, as well two Danish Jazz Award nominations - and even one for Danish musician of the year! - later, the group is now ready to release their next album, an instrumental opus years in the making. Highly recommended for fans of Thundercat, J Dilla, Comet is Coming and the likes.

The late, great J Dilla is widely regarded as one of the greatest hiphop producers of all time. An innovator who pushed the genre in new sonic directions, the Detroit native born James Yancey crafted
timeless soundscapes for the likes of Slum Village, Busta Rhymes, Common, Erykah Badu, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, and many more. Since his death in 2006, Dilla’s mother Maureen “Ma Dukes”
Yancey has worked tirelessly to further her son’s legacy, and her latest effort is the new posthumous album Motor City. Inspired by Dilla’s beloved hometown, Motor City is a collection of rare and
unreleased Jay Dee instrumentals, hand-selected and sequenced by Ma Dukes. Conceived as a “letter” to her son, Motor City is packaged in a limited-edition mailing envelope, complete with a handwritten
message from Ma Dukes to J Dilla inside. Both CD and vinyl formats also include access to an exclusive mix of the album by Dilla’s close friend J Rocc, a world-renown DJ and founder of the Beat Junkies.

Edition of 150 Copies.

Essentials Summer 2022 picks up where we left off inside the Chillville metropolis. Here, our Raccoon mascot – alongside Milkshake the Bear and Mango the Toucan – settles into a new apartment, explores a new city, and surrenders to the seemingly endless Summer. The temperatures are climbing and the heat is inescapable. So grab a pool umbrella, find your favorite sunglasses, and turn up the boombox.

At 24 songs with 35 musicians, Essentials Summer 2022 marks the 26th seasonal compilation since beginning back in 2016. Lofi and lively, jazzy and upbeat, press play and take to the beach.

Do we have to write something great about Twit One? Not really, but we take the liberty of presenting the the album "Teenwolf". You won't hear standard boom bap beats. It consists of casually composed vocals and drums perfectly matched to the chopped chords. Enjoy 14 tracks with range of lofi beats, jazzy vibes & dope samples.

So if you're looking for soulful beats with a pinch of humor, you've come to the right place.

After the release of their critically acclaimed first album « Bluestaeb & S. Fidelity Present Underground Canopy » (menace - 2020), Underground Canopy (uc) was able to take time, due to the unforeseen period of doubt in 2020, to craft new compositions with a fresh approach. Throughout this forced period of introspection, the Parisian band experimented with more refined musical codes and colorful sounds.

Following the new additions of Raphaël Henry on drums and Christopher Johnson on electric guitar, UC was able to record and film a live rendition of four original pieces at the end of 2020, thanks to an invitation by the Centre des Arts d’Enghien-les-Bains’s artistic program and Sense. These music videos, each filmed in one shot by Romain Lalire, capture UC’s musical digressions away from their mainly hip-hop and groove-infused jams and into new territory.

The resulting new EP «Séquences : Live Session» celebrates cinematic aesthetics and the suspension of time. It stands as an audiovisual testimonial to the band’s continued progression. In this era marked by uncertainty but full of hope, what will come next?

Sealed copy! Limited edition: 300.