The Perfect Hip Hop Beat

Young Guru in the studio.

Personally, I treat Hip Hop music as an art form and frankly speaking, Hip Hop is an art form and like with any other art form, some may like the rhymes and beats of a Hip Hop song while others may not. That doesn't mean that the rapper has a wack flow or the beats were poorly made, it's just that people have different preferences, sometimes really weird preferences but I guess that's our human nature.

Now let's get back to beats. I think its very difficult to say what makes a beat a good beat or a bad beat. Some beats work well for certain artists, for certain moods or for certain themes. I'd say that a good beat is just anything you like. Anything that makes your head nod, gets all up in your body and makes you feel good.



Personally, I like the "Boom bap" style used by DJ Premier, Hi-Tek, Pete Rock, Marley Marl, Large Professor, the late Scott La Rock and Detroit producer J Dilla. I also have a soft spot for the jazzy beats present in the music of Nujabes, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Digable Planets.

Here are some of my favorite beats made by well known producers:

"Half Time", the 1992 Nas track, produced by Large Professor.

Common's 1994 track "I Used to Love H.E.R." produced by No I.D.

Jay-Z's 1996 "Can't Knock the Hustle" produced by Knobody

Now what about the producers or beat-makers from all over the world that are doing this as a hobby or out of passion for Hip Hop? Thankfully, nowadays we are surrounded by technology and almost anyone that has the knowledge to create beats, can deliver them. You just need to surf SoundCloud for a few minutes to discover some beat-makers that deserve your admiration.

Here are a few beat-makers that I appreciate and are active on SoundCloud, give them a listen:

• Mr.Kid
• Phoniks 
• Figub Brazlevič
• R3tro Madrigal
• J1K
• Yuji Fuki
• Yakkle
• Kaigen
• Carlos Martinez (Agent of Change)
• Knx.
• Ohbliv
• P.R
• D-Que 
• Croup
• SoulChef
• Ole-Birger Neergård 
• Koichi Sanchez (The Night Shift)
• Salvatore Falco 

Yeah, I know I said a few but I could've kept going on, SoundCloud is full of great beat-makers. So, what's your favorite beat or producer?