If 1994 is one of hip hop’s greatest years, then Illmatic is one of the richest cherries atop the proverbial cake. Whilst it might not have been the most immediately impactful of the year’s debuts, it still stands as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. We’re breaking down the samples throughout […]
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Straight from the Dungeons of Rap: An Exploration and Oral History of “Illmatic”
When a twenty-year-old high school dropout from Queensbridge dropped his debut album in ‘94, the landscape of hip-hop changed forever. We explore the cultural context surrounding the release of Illmatic, provide an oral history of the creative process, and break the album down track-by-track. This is a tribute to the legacy of arguably the greatest […]
The Numbers Behind Nas and Jay-Z’s Iconic Beef: “Ether” vs “Takeover”
The “Nas vs. Jay-Z” beef is now a legendary entry into the lexicon of hip-hop history. The beef is so permanently iconic that when the two artists both drop new projects (EVERYTHINGISLOVE and Nasir) on the same weekend seventeen years later, the rap world explodes with speculation that their feud is still alive and well. The beef between two […]
Wyoming: Breaking Down Kanye West’s 42 Samples One-by-One
From the hook on Pusha T’s “Come Back Baby” to the quasi-unreleased Kurt Cobain demos on “Cudi Montage”, the five-chapter Wyoming series produced by Kanye West contains some of the most iconic samples of the year. We break them down one-by-one to gain a glimpse behind the creative process of one of the most talented […]
Quantified: Kanye West’s Production Brings Extraordinary Success to other Artists
Have you ever day dreamed about what it’d be like to work with Kanye West in the studio? In this edition of By the Numbers, contributor Ben Carter digs deep into the data to measure the commercial impact of having authentic Yeezy production on your music. Does Kanye West have the Touch of Gold? 2018 […]
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