Endless Beats
On 28-year-old beats and a new Micro-Chop playlist of beats/instrumental hip-hop.
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The other night I was going through old playlists. I started listening to the instrumental for Kwest Tha Madd Lad’s “Lubrication.” This cut is one of 18 songs on his ‘96 debut This Is My First Album. Released on American Recordings, Kwest never quite caught on in terms of commercial success despite the album’s cult following and his career stalled after its release. There are some gems on this record and I’ve always felt that the production was stellar. “Lubrication” and “What’s The Reaction?” are two personal favorites.
On “Lubrication” co-producers Kwest and Erik Romero do a masterful job. Though they lean heavily on hard drums and a nicely filtered bassline, these elements carry the track and make the selective sample drops hit just right. It’s proof positive that sometimes with production less is more. Even though the samples/loops that are utilized sound amazing, bringing them in and out of the mix prevents the beat from becoming redundant. The scratched Pete Rock vocal hits on the hook really round things out. This is one of those instrumentals I can throw on repeat and zone out to.
Listening to this beat the other night inspired me. I love listening to instrumental versions of rap songs and instrumental hip-hop. I can listen to beats for hours and hours and not get sick of them. So I decided to start a playlist called Endless Beats. It’s available on Spotify and YouTube. It currently has 28 songs. I’ll continue to add many more beats for a very long time.
There’s a nice cross-section of very well-known and lesser-known songs here. If listening to beats is your thing, I hope you’ll take some time to sit with this one and tell a friend about it.
Here’s one more track I love from the playlist - ewonee .’s “Intuitive” from his 2017 Molecular Structure album. If you’re interested you can also check out our 2017 interview. Enjoy.
Absolutely loved this album when it dropped. I was so hyped from the singles. “Lubrication” was one of my first pieces of colored wax, and that battle track was ILL!