OK, I'll give you a mixture of current stuff I'm bumping and stuff that influenced me before I started making beats.
Dak, Standthis
This guy is one of the homies and he amazes me every time. He has the raw boombap mixed with ambient soundscapes, experimental jazz, house, and drum n bass. dak sometimes combines these genres seamlessly all into one beat. He's a straight up genius!!! A lot of the o.g's will cosign him as well. (The entire cassette has been made available for download here.)
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tide
I love the Brazilian bossa nova vibe all day! I think this influence explains a lot of swing in my drum patterns. Every song on this one could be flipped into a beat, but more importantly I can listen to this from beginning to end. It's a very relaxing album to throw on at any time, even if I'm not making beats.
Organized Konfusion, Extinction Agenda
The funny thing is I loved Organized Konfusion's first self-titled album, but when this album dropped, I didn't purchase it right away. The album cover always got my attention and I would see the video for “Stress” on rap city and the box all the time, but I didn't pick it up at first. I finally got the album at Sam Goody and realized it was an instant classic! At the time, NYC rappers weren't really known for flippin various rhyming patterns, the only guys doing it were Freestyle Fellowship and other Goodlife/Project Blowdians. So when I heard this album, I was really impressed with not only the dope production, but the rhyming was super on point as well. It's definitely a timeless album and it still sounds brand new to this day.
MF Doom, Operation Doomsday
I like this album better than Madvillany. I really like that Doom did all the production. Even though it's a lot of loops, it's such a raw style but smooth at the same time. I'm a sucka for all the 80's and 90's samples, plus the comic book influence makes it the perfect recipe in my opinion. I heard he recorded the vocals on a cheap 5-dollar mic which made it extra raw.
Uncut Raw, First Toke
This is from the Green Llama family so you're going to think I'm biased, but the homies Selfish and Fluent dropped this in 2007 before I was a part of the squad. When I first heard this album, I instantly became a fan. Fluent's production and Selfish's bar-work work perfectly together on each track. My favorite on the album is “727”, the sample is so hypnotic! Honestly I can just press play and let the album go. If you like smooth jazz samples (and even some rock samples too) on a concept album with songs not just thrown together, you should definitely give this album a listen. You can't go wrong!”
