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BeatTips Hip Hop Archive
Timeless Music: Isaac Hayes – “Soulsville”
"Soulsville," from the movie Shaft. This is my favorite Isaac Hayes joint. The scene in Shaft where this…
LL Cool J – ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective
After the success of LL Cool J's double Platinum selling 1987 album Bigger And Deffer, LL was on top of…
Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…: A 25th Anniversary Retrospective
The year was 1994. We were in the midst of a Golden Era, but we had no idea at the time. Within it, a new…
Eric B. & Rakim — Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective
Eric B. & Rakim released one of the best Rap albums of the Summer in 1988, which was quite a feat…
Stevie Wonder’s Reworking of “Happy Birthday”
Singing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday,” with the pulsing, rhythmic refrain: happy birthday to you,…
Wiley vs. Stormzy: The Long Awaited Clash
Nobody wins when the family feuds, except for all of us on the outside who need a bit of entertainment…
How Black British Music Survives Through Collective Memory
The lineage of Black music in Britain exists in the collective memories of all the sounds that enrich our…
Who is the Greatest Beatmaker (Hip Hop Producer) of All Time?
Just as numbers don’t lie in baseball, I believe that they don't (or at least shouldn’t) lie in hip…
Why Vinyl Reissues Are a Good Thing
Every Friday, I used to spend a brief part of the afternoon digging through vinyl records at a shop over…
Sample Flips: A$AP Rocky – “Praise The Lord (Da Shine)” Ft. Skepta
The demise of sampling has been greatly exaggerated. We continue to see the art of sampling power many of…