10 Underrated Rap Beats From the Last 5 Years

Telling the story of hip-hop's most important artists, songs, albums, or beats used to seem a lot easier.

You had traditionalists and the more adventurous. You had The Source and Vibe. You had the New Yorkers and you had the kids from California. There were arguments, and there were debates. But things still seemed a lot simpler then.

At least, it's easy for things to look that way now. Of course, both then and now, there were as many stories as their were people to experience them. The difference is that everyone's experience of everything is so much more public with the advent of social media. Suddenly, the straightforwad history of hip-hop is fractured, drawn along stylistic, regional, and class lines. All of a sudden, we realize there is rap that appeals to lots of different people out there.

This goes for beats, in particular. There are millions of rap beats in existence. And they often serve different purposes. A beat that works in a strip club in Atlanta might not work the same on headphones in New York, or in a car's stereo in Texas.

We recently published a list of the 25 Best Hip-Hop Beats of the Last 5 Years. It was controversial, of course; these things are by definition. But it made us think about the truly huge range of stylistic possibilities hip-hop has created. We felt that needed to be explored a little more, by looking at some of the genre's most underrated beats.

These beats might make your lungs collapse: 10 Underrated Beats From the Last 5 Years.

Written by Dave Bry (@davebry9), David Drake (@somanyshrimp), Donnie Kwak (@KwakaFlocka), Angel Diaz (@ADiaz456), and Dharmic X (@dharmicx).

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Producer: Black Milk
Release: Tronic
For many casual hip-hop listeners, the list of Detroit producers starts and ends with J. Dilla. Dilla was certainly one of the greatest producers to ever live, and his catalog speaks for itself. But Detroit's vibrant underground scene has given rise to other maestros. One of them is Black Milk. Much like Dilla, Black Milk is also an MC who does a very serviceable job on the microphone. Also like Dilla, he has been part of a group, Random Axe (predominantly as the producer). However, unlike Dilla, who produced songs under the Ummah that went on to sell millions of copies, Black Milk has always flown well under the commercial radar—his soulful sampling and hard knock drums haven't fit the mainstream format of his era of hip-hop.

On his second album, 2008's Tronic, Black Milk recruited one of Detroit’s top rhymeslingers, Royce da 5’9” for a collaboration. In making the beat, he sped up a sample of “Let’s Talk About Me,” a 1985 song by The Alan Parsons Project, and added a crisp drum pattern over it. The song is one of the biggest of his career, and as incredible as it is to listen to the then-upstart Detroit native go toe-to-toe with a legendary wordsmith like Royce, the beat is what stands out.

You could argue that The Alan Parsons Project did all the work for him, with Black Milk merely adding drums, but the attention to detail in the sampling is what separates “Losin Out” from “Let’s Talk About,” a Cam’Ron and Jadakiss song that came out less than a year later. Producer Aarabmuzik also sampled “Let’s Talk About Me,” but there are three major differences. For starters, Black Milk’s version speeds up the vocal sample, raising it's pitch like "The Chipmunks." Secondly, Black Milk’s version samples not only the original song’s hook, but a portion of the song's verses, and blends the two parts together seemlessly. And finally, Black Milk’s snare drums sound crisper and more smoothly arranged than Aarabmuzik's.

To compare these two songs is in no way an attempt at discrediting Aarabmuzik's genius. Aarabmuzik is a master in his own right. But realzing that Black Milk’s version is better let's you know just how underrated the Detroit native is. —Dharmic X

Producer: Dave Free, Tae Beast
Release: Habits & Contradictions

Here is more than you want to know about me. 1) I like Schoolboy Q's Habits & Contradictions more than Kendrick Lamar's good kid m.A.A.d city. 2) The song that I keep on repeat for like 10 plays every times every time I listen to the album is a 1:26-long interlude named after Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the co-founder of L.A.'s Westside Crips who was executed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. It's the beat. The double-long brush-stroke on the highhat that comes after every fourth big bass thump. The swirling, lazer-beams-though-pot-smoke synthesizers. And then Schoolboy's almost-human-beat-boxy vocal rhythm. "Na-na-nat/Na-na-nat/Na-na-na-na-na-na-nat..." I just can't not keep rewinding it and (here's the part you really don't want to know) slump-stepping around my empty house in my socks in the afternoon like I'm all full of whatever various substances Schoolboy's talking about sniffing and inhaling and sprinkling and imbibing in the lyrics. Even if I'm not. A beat so good, it's embarrasing. —Dave Bry

Producer: Alchemist
Release: Albert Einstein
Wikipedia tells me that Alchemist has produced over 400 tracks in his career, for a bunch of different artists. I don’t have to listen to every single one of them to know that they’re all pretty dope. He is nothing if not consistent. Still, one rapper has always been the Guru to his Premier—Prodigy of Mobb Deep. Their first collaborative album, 2007’s Return of the Mac, is rightfully considered a low-key classic; this year’s follow-up, Albert Einstein, got lost in the summer shuffle. Still, those who know, know—ALC and P still bring out the best in each other. And “Dough Pildin” is, for my money, the hottest beat on an album that is loaded with them: QB malevolence meets prog rock by way of a vintage Italian horror flick, creepy vocal sample and all. They do this in their damn sleep, fishes. —Donnie Kwak

Producer: Roc Marciano
Release: Marcberg

Every now and then you have to bring things back to the essence, and that's exactly what Roc Marciano did with this record (and the entire Marcberg album, for that matter). "Snow" contains a drum break lifted from "Sweetest Thing in the World" by the Turner Bros., and a sped up sample from Mighty Doug Haynes' "Honey." Both samples mesh so beautifully together, and yet manage to have that gritty NY sound. Roc spits with so much fervor, with tales straight out of a classic crime drama, that you can imagine yourself riding shotgun as he weaves through his money route. We can just see Marciano with his MPC in a basement constructing this beat with a blunt in his ear and some beef and broccolli Timbs on. If you haven't listened to Marcberg do yourself a favor, it's guaranteed to give you that feeling back. 'Cause baby girl, his .45 don't jam. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Mouse On Tha Track
Release: Savage Life 3

Producer Mouse On Tha Track soundtracked Baton Rouge label Trill Entertainment's late-00s dalliance with the pop charts, bringing songs like "Independent" (which went top ten) and "Wipe Me Down" from Baton Rouge to mainstream America. His production style was like a metallic, tactile take on the rounder edges of Mannie Fresh's bounce beats for Cash Money. Some of his most inventive production plays with texture, like Lil Cali's "Ric Flair", which relies on the interplay of horns, record scratches, synthesizers, and percussion. Others were more focused on the club-shocking timbres of atmosphere-rending beats like Young Ready's "1 Rubber."

But Mouse's standout production in the last five years was Webbie's "What's Happenin," an alarm-klaxon technoid update of classic g-funk, set atop a slowed Louisiana bounce-friendly rhythmic bed. A cavernous bassline worms its way in and out of the track's subterranean frequencies at a slow tempo, while high-pitched descending synthesizers tear through the air. —David Drake

Producer: Rick Rock
Release: Revenue Retrievin' Day Shift

Sometimes simplicity is the best. And size. Pure, massive, space-taking volume. And weight, heaviness. "The Weedman," from E-40's fantastic, sadly under-celebrated 2010 four-part Revenue Retrievin' series, works like that. Just a big giant monolithic ten-ton-truck of a beat. A four-note keyboard melody, a thudding bass drum, 808 handclaps. But together, they're enough the shake the earth beneath your feet. —Dave Bry

Producer: Zaytoven
Release: Birds of a Feather

This isn't the most representative beat of Zaytoven's career. His most celebrated production—like, say, Gucci Mane's "First Day Out"—use overlapping melodic layers and clockwork-like rhythms to give the songs an off-kilter, understated aggression. His beats were often a twisted sidestep, rather than the kind of aggressive stomp Lex Luger would favor one year later.

But on Young Scooter's "Fake Rappers," Zaytoven unveiled a new, baroque, musically elaborate direction. As pairs of eighth-note organ notes stab across the track in a triplet rhythm, overlapping pianos and synthesizers meander in and out, weaving an intricate melodic tapestry. The complex texture was a perfect tonal match for Young Scooter, whose rap style is fairly straightforward and unadorned, relying on his unique voice rather than any particular affects or writing intricacies. Scooter has a simpler, more straightforward take on Gucci's rap style, so Zaytoven adapted to meet this new challenge, crafting a beat dependent on a multitude of moving parts operating in complicated synchronicity. By the time the track ends, Zaytoven starts noodling around on the piano, as if showing off his effortless technique. —David Drake