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: KB
Release: Differenter 3

The career of Travis Porter will no doubt go down as one that failed to live up to its popular potential. After the success of early singles like "Make It Rain" and "Bring It Back," the group released multiple mixtapes only to watch potential smashes end up hits in the YouTube sense only. (Why would an obvious smash like "Slow Motion" not receive a push after the success of Kelly Rowland's "Motivation"?)

One of the best examples, though, is "My Team Winnin'" from the group's tape Differenter 3. It finally received a video in the lead-up to their debut album—seven months after it had first been released (to date, the original audio leak has in excess of a million views, while the official video has less than 200,000). The beat is a lush, rubbery masterpiece, enveloping listeners inside its aqueaous curtain of synthesizers. There's also a piano bridge breakdown and, most critically, the arrival of swooping string sections near the end of each verse, adding an expensive, widescreen flavor to the song's unique feel. It almost seems inspired by an oft slept-on aspect of Timbaland's early '00s production style: the smooth expansiveness strings could add to tracks like Missy Elliott's "U Can't Resist." —David Drake

Producer: Drumma Boy
Release: Writings On The Wall II

Drumma Boy will likely go down as one of the most underrated producers of the late 2000s, and beatmaker of unparalleled prolificacy whose best, biggest beats somehow never quite reached the seismic impact of the biggest tracks by Shawty Redd, Lex Luger, or Mike Will. (Seriously: "Lost My Mind," "Put On," "What's Up, What's Haapnin," "Money To Blow," "No Hands," "Beat It Up," "Umma Do Me," "Spend It"—all great songs with terrific beats...None of which really seemed to have had the influence of songs like "B.M.F." or "Bandz A Make Her Dance.") But from a musical perspective, that's still a pretty impressive discography. It's even moreso when you dig a little further into Drumma Boy's discography. He's released hundreds of tracks, many of which deserved far more attention than they got, from "I Live Dis Shit" to "It Ain't Funny" to "Oh Yeah!"

But perhaps his best slept-on jam was a collaboration between hip-hop's biggest heels: Gucci Mane and 50 Cent. "Recently" starts with Twilight Zone synthesizers and a noir-esque bassline. Then it throws in a stagger snare-driven groove, layers on an off-beat organ pattern. Then come muted horns (or synths replicating them). When the chorus hits, adds pizzicato strings and roiling, smeared bass distortion-only to kick back into the original groove again at the start of 50's verse. The way each part interlocks is precision-woven, creating a mood and ambiance that manages the trick of capturing both absurdity and gravitas in one. —David Drake

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: C-Sick
Release: The Motion Picture

When Jeru The Damaja's "Come Clean" was released, there were rumors that DJ Premier's beat wasn't a sample at all—instead, it was suggested, he had recorded the sounds of hammers or water drops landing on pipes. (It was actually a flip of Shelly Manne's "Infinity.") We have to assume that the people refused to be fooled twice when King Louie's "Bars" first dropped, because it sounds like it should inspire very similar rumors.

Driven by what sound like a pair of identical resonant pipes being tapped in a cyclical pattern, the beat slowly ratchets up tension by adding layers of bells and wooshing sound effects. Every time it builds to a certain point, the beat is stripped back to its original melody line, then builds up yet again, like a musical M.C. Escher painting. The beat was a perfect match for King Louie's chorus-less, circular rap style, which would rely on the limitation of locking into a specific flow in order to pursue creative lyrical games. C-Sick might be more known for, um, "Twerk," his beat for Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. But his smooth, hypnotizing work on "Bars" remains one of his most effective high points. —David Drake

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