I listen to a lot of beat tapes by hip-hop and electronic
producers. These differ from full-fledged instrumental hip-hop projects that
followed in the wake of DJ Shadow’s landmark Endtroducing… in that they are not constructed as albums, but
rather a collection of short beats that don’t change too much throughout their
runtime. Rappers could take a beat from one of these tapes, loop it, and
probably make a pretty good song. So as much as I like listening to beat tapes
by artists like Knxwledge., Lytesho!, Suhnraw, and Mndsgn, they don’t
frequently make much of a long term impact on me as a listener.
Unlike Flying Lotus, Madlib, Oh No, Oddisee, Teebs, and
others who craft beat projects that flow as albums and demand further
listening, the majority of good beat tape producers make projects that are
enjoyable to listen to, but don’t lodge themselves in your brain. They follow a
common format: an ill sample or two, fuzzy drums, and maybe some electronic
textures to fill out the sample. This is repeated ten to forty times for the
length of the tape. After a listen or two, they can be returned to the internet
ether. The same happens when I listen to obscure hardcore punk records from the
eighties. The greats like Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Germs built
musical identities that stood out from the majority of hardcore bands who
hedged too closely to hardcore orthodoxy. A lot of these mid-level hardcore
bands made good music but most of them blend together and don’t warrant much
repeated listening.
