Hip hop production
:''For the live performance counterpart to a hip hop producer, see
DJ.
Hip hop production is the creation of
hip hop music. Modern hip hop production utilizes drum machines, turntables, synthesizers, hardware and software sequencers, and live instrumentation.
Hip-hop instrumental music is classified as
sampled breaks dubbed over sampled music. The two parts are often interpolated post factum using a variety of playback devices such as a
turntable or
CD player. The playback is sometimes recorded as the final version of an instrumental that goes on to
mixdown with vocals.
The pipeline of hip hop production involves one or more of the following:
*A
drum beat*A
bassline*
Sampled sounds
*
ScratchingAll of these elements can be either
analog or
digital in nature and replication. A drum beat can be sampled, a riff can be replicated live, and scratching can be sampled and dubbed over a song.
Origins
The first instruments used in hip hop production were two turntables, a
mixer, and a microphone. DJ
Kool Herc used the mixer fade controls to switch between two turntables playing the identical records; this is called backspinning. The result was that a section of a record could be effectively prolonged or looped, the parallel to today's loop-based DAWs and hardware loop equipment. During the 1970s,
Grandmaster Flash pioneered many turntable techniques. He was the first to use the cue output. His cutting and scratching techniques, stemming from sessions with "Mean Gene" Livingston and his brother (
Grand Wizard Theodore), whom he later battled with, have revolutionized the DJ culture and have been imitated ever since.
Early singles on
Sugarhill Records were played by the house band, and it was not until later that the DJ was incorporated into recording sessions. Early examples are "
Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" and the
Wild Style soundtrack.
The 1980s
Kurtis Blow became the first hip-hop artist to use a digital sampler, the
Fairlight, in a song. The
Roland TR-808 was introduced in 1980. The 808 was heavily used by
Afrika Bambaataa, who released
Planet Rock in 1982, which gave rise to the fledgling
techno genre, along with the genre's own pioneers
Derrick May and
Juan Atkins. The song interpolated
Kraftwerk's "Trans Europa Express." In 1983,
Run-DMC recorded "
It's Like That" and "
Sucker MCs," two songs which relied completely on digital beats, ignoring samples entirely; much like early songs by Baambaataa and the Furious Five. The E-mu SP-12 came out in 1985, capable of 2.5 seconds of recording time. The SP-1200 promptly followed with expanded recording time. One of the earliest songs to contain a drum loop or break was "
Rhymin and Stealin" by the
Beastie Boys, produced by
Rick Rubin.
Marley Marl also popularized a minimal style of using one or two sampled loops in the late 80s. The Akai
MPC60 came out in 1988, capable of 12 seconds of sampling time.
Dr. Dre with
World Class Wrekin Cru recorded 'Juice' and 'Before You Turn The Lights Out.'The Beastie Boys released
Paul's Boutique in 1989, an entire album created completely from an eclectic mix of samples, produced by the
Dust Brothers.
De la Soul also released
3 feet high and rising that year. Their producer at the time
Prince Paul mixed sounds from funk, rock, disco and even children's records.
The 1990s and on
Public Enemy's
Bomb Squad revolutionized the sound of hip-hop with incredibly dense production styles, combining tens of samples per song, often combining breaks with a drum machine. Their beats were much more structured than the early more minimal and reptitive beats.The
AKAI MPC3000 was released in 1994, followed by the MPC2000 in 1997, and the MPC2000XL in 2000. These machines combined a sampling
drum machine with an onboard
sequencer and became the centerpiece of many hip hop producers' studios.With the 1994 release of
Notorious BIG's
Ready to Die,
Sean Combs and his assisting producers ushered in a new style where entire sections of records were sampled, instead of short snippets. Records like "Warning" (
Isaac Hayes's "Walk On By"), and "One More Chance (Remix)" (
Debarge's "Stay With Me") epitomized this aesthetic. In the early 2000s,
Roc-a-Fella in-house producer
Kanye West made popular the "chipmunk" technique, which had been pioneered by producers like
RZA, Wu-tang Clan head and main producer, whereby a sample containing vocals is sped up to make the vocals sound extremely high-pitched.
Sampling
Sampling is integral to hip hop production. It's used as a substitute for expensive musicians, equipment, and other costs associated with genuine live recording. Often the only non-sampled part of a hip hop recording is the vocals.
Sampling is controversial in modern hip hop. Seeing as sample clearance can take substantial parts of profit out of record sales for artists who sample, producers opt to create completely original recordings using computer-generated beats. Another solution is to
overdub or re-record the sampled part with a live musician and then interpolate it enough to disassociate it from the sampled material entirely. The fees associated with the latter solution and the costs associated with the former can be significantly lower than sample clearance fees.
While the majority of producers sample a relatively default niche of 1960-1980
soul,
R&B,
disco, and
funk records, any record of any genre from any era is often fair game for sampling.
Jazz records from every era are also sampled. Producers such as
Dr. Dre have been known to sample
blues artists such as
Bill Withers. Due to the aforementioned concerns with clearance fees, many producers opt to seek out very rare and obscure records to lend their records a unique style and to avoid being forced to pay a clearance fee.
People Under The Stairs openly acknowledge not clearing their samples, hoping that the record companies whose artists they sample don't wise up to the fact.
Beats
The drum beat is another core element of hip hop production. Its speed and complexity dictates the pace and impact of the recording. While some beats are sampled, others are created by drum machines such as the
Roland TR-808 and the
Alesis SR-16. Others yet are a hybrid of the two techniques, sampled parts of drum beats that are arranged in original patterns altogether.
Since the percussive element of hip hop music is the very punctuation of its sound, the sounds a producer chooses to represent the percussion are important. Some producers have drum kits all their own, such as
Timbaland and
Neptunes. Some drum sounds, such as the TR-808 cowbell, remain as historical elements of hip hop lore used in modern hip hop to lend a more credible and mature sound to the recording.
Scratching
A
turntable is used to interpolate samples or beats. Due to the versatile time and pitch control of a modern DJ turntable, the turntable becomes an instrument all its own, capable of producing unique and original sounds. It is often used to provide a human touch to an otherwise "clean" recording. Of the most popular turntables, some are the analog
Technics SL-1200 and the digital
Pioneer CDJ1000.
Hip hop producers tend to develop their own sound through their production techniques; these can include the average bpm rate they use, the types of records they sample (or an aversion to sampling), how many layers and elements are added to a beat and the types of instruments used, among other things.
DJ Premier,
Dr. Dre and
Kanye West are some producers famous for having their own production techniques.
A producer's studio is the environment where they produce music. It can be as varied as a four-track sequencer and a collection of tapes or a multi-million dollar studio loaded with advanced sound processing hardware.
Recording
In hip hop, a
multi-track recorder is standard for recording. Digital
ADAT tape recorders have become standard over the years. A
PC is used, often, in low-budget studios (with or without external hardware counterparts), as a multi-track recorder.
Vocal recording
Generally, professional producers opt for a
condenser microphone for studio recording, mostly due to their wide-range response and high quality. A primary alternative to the expensive condenser microphone is the
dynamic microphone, used more often in live performances due to its durability. The major disadvantage of condenser microphones is that the
electret within them loses its charge after a few years of use, rendering the microphone useless. Also, condenser microphones require phantom power, unlike dynamic microphones. Conversely, the disadvantage of dynamic microphones is that they don't possess the wide range of condenser microphones and their frequency response is not as uniform.
Compressors, both software and hardware, are also prevalently used during recording and post-production.
Sequencers and Samplers
A
sequencer or a sequencing device or module is used invariably with instruments. One of the most popular sequencers in old-school hip hop was the Akai
MPC60, whose successors
MPC2000,
MPC3000, and
MPC4000 have been quintessential in modern hip hop production. Since a sequencer triggers instruments instead of simply playing back music, it is used in more sophisticated production environments than the basic "two turntables and a mic" configuration that most live hip hop is produced with.A
sampler is used to play back samples that will not be interpolated as a media. Most sequencers, like the aforementioned Akai MPC products, are also samplers. Among standalone samplers there are the Akai S-series samplers, the Roland S-series samplers, and others.
DAWs
DAWs and software sequencers are used in modern hip hop production as software production products are cheaper, easier to expand, and require less room to run than their hardware counterparts. Some producers oppose complete reliance on DAWs and software, citing lower overall quality, lack of effort, and lack of identity in computer-generated beats. Sequencing software often comes under criticism from purist listeners and traditional producers as producing sounds that are flat, overly clean, and overly compressed.
Popular DAWs include:
*
Digidesign Pro Tools*
Cakewalk SONAR
*
Steinberg Cubase*
Propellerhead Software Reason*
Sony ACID Pro*
Ableton Live*
Apple GarageBandSynthesizers
Synthesizers are used quite often in hip hop production. They are used for melody, basslines, as percussive stabs, and for sound synthesis. The use of synthesizers has been popularized largely by
Dr. Dre during the
G-Funk era. Modern use of synthesizers is rampant by producers such as
Cool and Dre,
Scott Storch, and
Neptunes. Often in low-budget studio environments or environments constrained by space limitations, producers employ
VST instruments in place of hardware synthesizers.
Live instrumentation
Live instrumentation is not as widespread in hip hop, but is used by a number of acts and is prominent in hip hop-based fusion genres such as
rapcore. Before samplers and synthesizers became prominent parts of hip hop production, early hip hop hits such as "
Rapper's Delight" (
The Sugarhill Gang) and "The Breaks" (
Kurtis Blow) were recorded with live studio bands. During the 1980s,
Stetsasonic was a pioneering example of a live hip hop band. Hip hop with live instrumentation regained prominence during the late-1990s and early 2000s with the work of
The Roots,
Common,
DJ Quik, and
OutKast, among others.
*
Hip hop producers *
Instrumental hip hop*
Turntablism
