Something interesting is happening in the “Progressive R&B” category at this year’s Grammy Awards. Four of the six nominated albums contain songs that bear the unmistakable rhythmic signature of a ...

Hip-hop beat-makers are usually unseen. Not all sample-based producers are as reclusive as the torch-bearing loop artist Madlib, but even the most prominent among them are part of the backdrop. After ...

J. Brookinz doesn't want beat makers to be anonymous. Sure, hip-hop fame and glory goes to rappers. But Brookinz is an evangelist for beat makers, who put together the music heard on hip-hop songs. On ...

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Hip-hop at it's core is lyrics on a beat, with both being vital for the final product. Throughout the genre's history, there have been some truly incredible beats that turned producers into stars, and ...

Twenty years ago Nas released his career-defining debut, Illmatic, and while the New York MC has spent the bulk of the year celebrating that anniversary—he’s played the album in full on tour—other ...

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In a classroom at the House of Urban Culture, tucked away in the narrow streets of Dakar, Senegal, Aminata Thiam claps her hands in time with a beat she created on her computer. ...

This is the radically abridged story of how, almost half a century later, it begat Strolling Company, a dizzying, abstract sample-fest by Japanese crew DRS, which Durham label Raund Haus released in ...

Beat Making Lab is a project where where music artists (producers and emcees) travel around the world teaching young people to make hip hop and electronic beats. It's run by Pierce Freelon and Stephen ...

As the legendary DJ Premiere once said, “Hip-hop is about style and finesse and being creative and different. And to do that you have to be ballsy enough to not do what everybody else does.” Rap music ...