Favorite instrumental hip-hop albums? Producers?
 

Anyone have any good instrumental hip-hop albums? I havent heard much but my favorites are J Dilla's Donuts (a masterpiece if there ever was one), Dr No's Oxperiment by Oh No, Dill Cosby Suite by Madlib, and the instrumentals used for 9th Wonder's Gods Stepson. (full remix of Nas' God's Son, one disc is the album, the other the instrumentals.)

Just to broaden this out a bit, I figured id add in favorite producers aspect too.
my top five would be something like:
Dj Premier (easily my favorite beat maker, so good he can make abysmal rappers such as Group Home sound great)
9th Wonder
Madlib
Pete Rock
RZA

among my runners up:
J Dilla, Dr Dre, The Neptunes, The Alchemist, Jake One, Tha Beatminerz, Diamond D, Lord Finnesse

I actually really like the Neptunes stuff too. I don't listen to too much "mainstream" anymore, but I've always liked Pharrell's work.

As for instrumental - RJD2 never disappoints. 'Deadringer' is a great album top to bottom, and I'm also real fond of the track "1976" from 'Since We Last Spoke'.

I'm really wanting to get J Dilla's Donuts. 32 tracks of instrumental, from what I remember. 16 dollars though, too much right now.

The Neptunes' (well most Pharrell) work on Clipse's Hell Hath no Fury is some of the best production Ive ever heard. The way it follows theme, and how different most of the beats are (check Keys Open Doors, Chinese New Year, and Ride Around Shining for instance) are unrivaled by just about any rap album.

Surrell, I can up Donuts for you if you like.

Damn, I'd appreciate that.

Ill have it up for you tomorrow hopefully, and if not tomorrow then by the end of the weekend.

Sounds great, good sir.

I absolutely loved Emancipator's "Soon It Will be Cold Enough"

Both Nujabes albums are amazing instrumental albums.

Another great one is Muziq and Foto by Nomak.

Shades of Blue by Madlib is a great one.
Liquid Hip Hop by DJ Cam is solid as well, although there's one or two tracks with vocals.

I think you can get instrumental versions of EL-P's solo albums, which would be brilliant, him Madlib and Dangermouse are my favourite producers.

Instrumental hip hop doesn't really do it for me though, without vocals I find it hard to completely get into a track other than background music. Lyrics give me something follow along with in my head and add a whole new level of appreciation.

i'll second a vote for RJD2, his stuff is fantastic. i saw him once - big disappointment. not a very good show at all.

and what about DJ Shadow? classic stuff.

these are the only two i know, and i see a lot of unfamiliar artists listed here. are any of them like RJD2/Shadow?

I too had a disappointing experience at an RJD2 show, but it had more to do with me getting in an altercation with a bartender and getting thrown out than it did with RJD2 himself.

Completely forgot about Entroducing, that is in fact a classic
The instrumentals to Cannibal Ox's the Cold Vein are pretty great too.

Oh man, do tell...

I'm more of a R&B person but I like some Hip Hop...it has to have some substance...i have many favorite producers...Darkchild, Timbaland, B ****s, and a bunch more.

Kenichiro Nishihara's 2008 "Humming Jazz" album is a pretty good mix of jazz and instrumental hip hop

I like J Dilla, but then again I don't know that much about hip hop. What I've heard of J Dilla is pretty darn amazing.

Checkout:

DJ Krush
Blockhead

DJ Krush slips a little into DnB and downtempo but you may like his stuff.

DJ Krush - Kakusei

Lol didnt see this post...

The moral of this tale is DJ Krush is good.

i can only handle a few tracks by Krush. i used to have all his albums, but i ended up dumping everything but Zen, plus a few random tracks from the rest like Final Home which i absolutely love. it's just too irregular for me i suppose.

but Danger of Love on Zen - wow. that's a hell of a song!

Kakusei is exceptional :usehead:

Different strokes for different folks i suppose

Kid Koala!

I bought Carpal Tunnel Syndrome a while ago and to tell you the truth I didnt really like it much at all.

There's an instrumental version of Del/dan the Automator/Kid Koala's Deltron 3030 which is a bit hard to find these days, but really awesome. I like it better than than the regular version.theres also an instrumental of MF Doom's Herbs and Spices that's quite good.

DJ Shadow's Endtroducing and Pre-emptive Strike for sure. Also, Blockhead's Music By Cavelight and Diplo's Florida album are both fantastic

Yet another good topic:

Madlib
Kid Koala
The Automator

I really got into instrumental hip-hop a few years ago. In my experience, the best stuff is what's written on its own, without the intent of being combined with vocals. In other words, from producers whose work stands up well on its own, who have their own fan base. I feel that in these cases, more emphasis is placed on the music because it has to stand on its own. Thought there are exceptions, of course, when a great producer teams up with a rapper and eventually release the instrumentals (Cannibal Ox...which I've only heard with vocals, but I can imagine the instrumental album sounding great too). But in general...if I heard the vocal version first, I'll probably favor it, and feel like something's missing when I hear the instrumentals. This has happened in most cases, actually. It's like some parts are purposely left "thin" because vocals were going to be there.

I also have to add, a lot of this stuff borders electronic music (specifically when there's no intent of adding vocals), and I often refer to it as trip-hop. Electronic music with hip-hop flavor. Many of them with vocal samples, which I love, and keep an album from sounding like it's missing something. And some with guest MCs. They could just as easily belong in a trip-hop thread.

Here are some I really really enjoy and recommend:

Sixtoo - Duration
Sixtoo - Chewing On Glass & Other Miracle Cures
Mumbles - A Book of Human Beats (instrumentals of Aceyalone's A Book of Human Language. I happened to hear the instrumentals first, in this case)
Company Flow - Little Johnny From The Hospitul: Breaks and Instrumentuls Vol. 1
Conrad Newholmes - Peppermint Styles
Blockhead - Music By Cavelight
Blockhead - Downtown Science
Odd Nosdam - No More Wig for Ohio
Prefuse 73 - pretty much everything
Wax Tailor - Tales of the Forgotten Melodies
Alias - Muted
P-Love - ...All Up In your Mind
Saroos - Saroos
Forss - Soulhack
40winks - Sound Puzzle
Birdy Nam Nam - Birdy Nam Nam
DJ Signify - Sleep No More
Headset - Spacesettings
Jel - Soft Money
Malcom Kipe - Breakspiracy Theories
Freddy Fresh - Diggin' Up Ghosts
Omid - Monolith (several guest MCs)
Villain Accelerate - Maid of Gold

I've been wanting to get more into hip-hop, and the instrumental stuff such as Flying Lotus or abstract stuff such as cLOUDDEAD always seems to interest me.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

Ey ey ey, BlueCadet, that Donuts sho was good.

Hey,
i've been looking fot the soundtrack of Tats Crew: the mural kings eveywhere, but no luck,
anyone know any other bands with a similar sound ?
thx

Nujabes is my all time favorite for sure, check his work on the Samurai Champloo OST as well as his own albums too. Really airy and breezy drum beats with some nice jazz and funk texturing.

Nomak is also one of my favorites, yet he is definitely heavily influenced from Nujabes.

I don't really know many others to be honest haha

As for producers I would go with Muhammad of "A Tribe Called Quest". I'm all about that jazzy hip hop

Donuts by J.Dilla,Entroducing By DJ Shadow and Mad Blunted Jazz by DJ Cam

Honestly this Oddisee album is very good. I'd give it a strong 7/8 out of 10.

I'm enjoying this very much.

Hello,
Best Hip-Hop Inspired Instrumentals of 2000-2009.Hip-Hip production is unlike many other genres of music – producers create beats.This one took a while to grow on me, but has become one of my favorite albums.

http://lostinsound.org/wp-content/up...14101861-1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fCCP3lI-45...-noir-2011.jpg

fav albums by my fav two producers. mmm yes.