#scratchtheblock

Orion breaks down 10 Jazz influenced Hip Hop songs in his playlist with scratchtheblock.com. Featuring music from: CRДM, Phony Ppl, Melanin. 9 and more:

Lords Of The Underground – What I’m After.

K-Def went crazy on the production of this, If you’re familiar with his body of work, you’ll instantly recognize the drums used on it (he’s used It a number of times). You couple that with a filtered melody and some really dope horns, you get this golden age hip hop banger. The vocals compliment the song well and a section of Redman’s highly revered first verse from “Tonight’s Da Night” form the chorus. The 12 inch Vinyl for this single is highly recommended

Pete Rock  CL Smooth – It’s On You

Pete and CL’s “The Main Ingredient” album is essential listening for all fans of jazz driven hip hop. Pete very cleverly chops up the Ahmad Jamal keys and adds his signature rhythmic and heavily compressed drums. The eerie sounding vocals from the Tom Scott song are pitch matched to the keys, which I always thought was unique. Both Pete and CL deliver meaningful verses about betrayal and disloyal people.

Diverse – Ain’t Right

This beat probably falls into my top 10 Madlib productions of all time; perhaps because It sounds like he really put his foot into the drum programming (Madlib is renowned for using little or no drums on several songs). The sampled keys are the icing on the cake. Diverse’s verses and storytelling style are quite deep. Funnily enough when I heard him initially his flow and vocal cadence reminded me of Talib Kweli’s, although not as nasal

Pro Era - School High 

BrandUn DeShay proves that sometimes simple is the most effective mode. Case in point with this song where a looped up Bilal beat provides the backdrop for Pro Era’s fun raps.

Guru – Transit Ride

Sax, Synthetic Substitution Drums and Storytelling

Melanin. 9 – Cosmos

Parental is such a dope producer and beats like this are the reason why. The drums and sample are so on point! I heard It the first time and couldn’t stop replaying It. M9 does the beat justice with his crazy imagery and observative raps about the ills of inner city life.

CRДM - Shook Ones Pt.0

My mouth dropped when I heard this on CRДM’s SoundCloud. It sounds like something that would have fit right in on Madlib and MF Doom’s “Madvillainy” album. Prodigy’s vocals are really gritty but CRДM manages to balance out the original tone with chopped up rhodes and drums that get your head nodding along almost instantly. He’s always quite secretive about his projects so It will be interesting to see where It ends up and what the full body of work ends up sounding like.

Jean Grae – My Angel Is You

Jean had bar patterns and emotion driven vocals, which went nicely to this blues themed production by P. And The Committee. Emotional/reflective raps are often difficult to listen to If the person rapping has a boring personality or the production sounds dead, but this song comes together quite well. The NY barsmith has definitely cemented her place in the relationship rap category, far different to some of the much earlier underground raps under the name What?What?

Lord Finesse – Soul Plan

This song appeared on the Game Plan/Actual Facts 12 inch Vinyl release. It has all the elements I like in a dope Jazz influenced Hip Hop song. Dinky Bingham’s rhodes play through out most of It while Finesse works his magic on the bass, drums and other elements including vocals. Roy Ayers vibraphone compliments the beat well and prevents the production arrangement from going stale.

Phony Ppl. – nothinG Special

Great drum loop, rhodes, and raps about the complexity of cheating