Hip Hop and Breakz

El-P – Cure 4 Cancer At times Hip Hop can be a genre of music bereft of innovation, where tried and tested formulas provide almost risk free investments for both artists and labels.  Where there is innovation it either avoids the mainstream or like Kanye floods the market and is no longer innovative.  The steady formula of three 16 bar verses split with either a chanted or sung chorus with maybe a little generic scratching has kept Hip Hop going for years now.  Yes you do have legends like DJ Premier and Pete Rock who stick to that formula and yet still manage to create a unique sound but the majority of the mainstream Hip Hop is simply boring and safe.  El-P however is one of those rare producers who is prepared to break the mould.             Emerging from the NY indie scene in the mid 1990s was Company Flow, which El-P handled the production for and also rhymed in.   Their sound bore ...

Killer Mike made his debut on Outkast’s legendary Stankonia album back in 2000 before appearing on one of my favourite Outkasts track a year later ‘The Whole world’. Since then he has gone on to release five solo albums on the Grind Time Official label. To some he is an Atlanta legend appearing on tracks with Outkast, T.I., Bun B, Young Jeezy and other Dirty South legends. He has often presented a more eloquent view of rapping touching on such diverse subjects as politics, religion and the plight of the poorer members of our society. Although I usually would not take more than a passing interest in most of Mike’s catalogue, apart from a few of the more interesting songs, I immediately became interested when I heard his latest album would be produced entirely by El-P. The reason why this made it an interesting project is that although El-P and Killer Mike are from different sides of the Hip Hop landscape. However over time the Indie NY scene and the Dirty South ATL scene have ...