mortuus est
Veteran
Beats, Rhymes and Life: The name the famous A Tribe Called Quest album. The reason "beats" comes first? Production. It's arguably the most important element of hip-hop. It's the cornerstone of every song, the foundation lyrics are built upon. They dictate the time-signature, the tempo, the tone of the lyrics. They're at the beginning and the end of the creative process that goes into each of these songs.
One of the biggest challenges in writing a list of the best beats of all time? The genre's soundscape is so wide-ranging and incredibly diverse that it creates some difficult calculation issues to work through. For example: How do you rank the disco instrumentals of early hip-hop with the layered samples and filtered bass lines of golden-era New York rap? How do you rank Too $hort's trunk-rattling bass against Swizz Beatz's erratic Triton keyboard swipes? There are unlimited measuring sticks by which production can be compared. Consider the clattering, found-sound effects of DJ Premier's best mid-90s beats, or the raw, drum machine-oriented backdrops of '80s rap, designed to shock the system. How do you weigh those against, say, a lush vintage loop from The Hitmen or a crossover pop smash from Timbaland?
It can be broken down even further: Is the bigger, more-popular song the better beat? Or is it the underground smash that influenced the mainstream? Is it the track that best epitomizes an era, or is it the one that pushed the edge? To qualify the best beats, do we look at production that stands out apart from the verses and the hook, or is it the beat that complements those components perfectly?
Those factors and more were considered by Complex over a drawn-out process involving constant debate, strategically-deployed rhetoric, diplomacy, and fist-throwing that went all the way to the top. Ultimately, we drew up a perfect formula to determine an unassailable list of the best rap beats ever, full stop. When dealing with 30-plus years of music, a hundred slots fill quickly. As a result, a lot of classics were cut, and some of rap's best producers may not be fully represented. Them's the breaks.
Ultimately, though, every production on this list is irrefutably essential to the advancement of the genre we hold so dear. They've inspired, they've influenced, and they've been the impetus for a million neck-breaking nods.
Without further ado, Complex presents The 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Beats of All Time.
The Best Hip-Hop Beats of All Time | Complex
i'll try break it down for the coli fam that dislike complex.
100. Public Enemy "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" (1989)
Producer: The Bomb Squad
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Label: Def Jam, Columbia, CBS
The Bomb Squad had already proven that they could bring the noise with chaotic, multi-layered symphonies of sampled mayhem, but this this solemn tale of busting out of the bing showcased a more subtle approach. Based on a piano riff from Isaac Hayes' "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic," the tension of this beat builds-up from verse to verse, with the live phone-in from Flava Flav adding an authentic clandestine atmosphere to proceedings. Just Blaze would later flip the same loop for The Game in homage to the original, which is still one of the most effective displays of the power of Public Enemy to this day.
50. Beastie Boys "Paul Revere" (1986)
Producer: Rick Rubin
Album: Licensed to Ill
Label: Def Jam, Columbia
Forget that "Fight For Your Right To Party" nonsenseit was this track and "The New Style" that caught the attention of hardcore hip-hop fanatics. Did the idea of running a beat in reverse for an entire song spring from a moment of creative genius, or was it simply another studio fukk-up that sounded great? Regardless, once Rick Rubin threw in some scratches from T La Rock's "It's Yours" and the "Rocket In The Pocket" break, and laced it with a bugged-out tale of how the crew came together, they had themselves a winner.
10. Puff Daddy f/ Lil' Kim, The Lox & The Notorious B.I.G. "It's All About The Benjamins (Remix)" (1997)
Producer: D-Dot
Album: No Way Out
Label: Bad Boy
Biz Markie was once asked which song he would play someone who had never heard hip-hop before, a song that could sum up the music and the culture. His reply? "All About The Benjamins." It may have caused a few angry backpackers to spit out their guava juice in disgust, but it's a valid choice. Hip-hop started out as party music and this track captures the essence of a party to a T. D-Dot slowed down the start of Love Unlimited Orchestra's "I Did It For Love" and laced it with shuffling drums and backspins to create the catchiest head-nodder of the Bad Boy era. When the beat changes to the iconic Jackson 5 break for Biggie's verse, it marks a sign of respect to the park jam eraa nod that was clearly appreciated by original party rockers like the Biz. Even Big Pun had to give it up: on "The Dream Shatterer" he told rival MCs, "I'll even let you rhyme to the 'Benjamin' beat/But it won't matter, your dreams still gone shatter."
5. Wu-Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M." (1993)
Producer: RZA
Album: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Label: Loud
This is some vintage RZA workcold weather music that's equal parts sparse and sorrowful. Grabbing the opening bars (and a vocal section from later in the song), The Abbott makes great use of the Isaac Hayes-produced "As Long as I've Got You" by the Charmels, allowing Raekwon and Inspektah Deck to deliver so many quotables that it's hard to keep up. This is one of the rare occasions where the acronym of a song title a) fits the sonic backdrop of the track, and b) actually makes any sense whatsoever
3. Mobb Deep "Shook Ones Pt. II" (1995)
Producer: Havoc
Album: The Infamous
Label: Loud, RCA, BMG
New York hip-hop in the early '90s was a hot-bed of beat-digging culture, as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor and the D.I.T.C. crew attempted to outdo each other by flipping increasingly rare and obscure samples as those tried-and-true James Brown loops became increasingly difficult to clear. When Mobb Deep dropped their second album, Havoc (with some assistance from Q-Tip) established himself as an equally adept beat miner, as The Infamous established the new sound of hardcore QB rap. It wasn't until 2011 that the source of the loop was revealed to be the piano from Herbie Hancock's "Lucy," laced with a menacing bassline, distorted horns, and hard-as-nails drums to create what may be the hardest rap beat of all time. You know a beat has made an impact when cats are still freestyling over it more than a decade later.
2. Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Doggy Dogg "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" (1992)
Producer: Dr. Dre
Album: The Chronic
Label: Death Row
An argument could be made for this being the most well-known hip-hop track of the '90s, and there's a pretty good chance that even your grandmother knows the hook to this. Listening back to the Leon Haywood original, "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You" reveals that Dre pillaged every inch for his version, ruthlessly snatching the main loop, key changes, and chorus (which he then replayed) a testament to the strength of the Haywood's original composition. Snoop Dogg makes himself right at home immediately, effortlessly riding the track into submission with his laid-back delivery to claim it as his own, while the good Doctor proudly unleashes the super-slick sound nand mandatory "Funky Worm" synth that would change the sound of West Coast rap forever.
1. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five f/ Melle Mel & Duke Bootee "The Message" (1982)
Producer: Jiggs Chase, Ed Flethcer, Sylvia Robinson
Album: The Message
Label: Sugar Hill
Perhaps the most recognizable hip-hop record of all time, "The Message" offered a welcome change of pace from the brag rap and party chants of the era. In-house Sugarhill Records session player Duke Bootee (who later went on to produce "King Kut" and his own solo projects) had recorded an instrumental called "The Jungle," which he gave Melle Mel to rhyme over. The resulting electro-driven, claustrophobic track served as a stark contrast to the upbeat, live band of other Sugarhill releases, providing a fitting backdrop to Melle's dead-serious subject matter. The desolate feel of the track was so far ahead of the game that the subsequent passage of time has left it virtually unschathed, as demonstarted by Ice Cube jacking the track for his "Check Yo' Self" remix, while Puffy and Ma$e grabbed it for their hit collaboration "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down." Countless production trends have come and gone since the "The Message" first hit the airwaves, yet it still stands strong as the definitive hip-hop anthem that will sound just as fresh in another 30 years.
That's some Bullshyt. Is there a album from the 90's that was carried by the beats more then Living Proof?
)..
Primo did his mother fukking thing on this album..
