Beat Drop: 2015.

No I.D.

Vince Staples – Jump Off the Roof (ft. Snoh Aalegra)

Dan from the Internet: Not many would admit it, but Vince Staples can be a scattershot emcee. He can rap well, but his hooks leave a lot to be a desired and his projects usually aren’t dynamic tonally. Enter multiplatinum producer No I.D., a man who can turn even the blandest of emcee’s debut albums (i.e. Big Sean, Logic) into a sonically lush, fully formed body of work. The sample of Polish singer-songwriters Czelaw Niemen’s “Nie Jeste? Moja” is so bizarrely original and manic that it’s insane that No I.D. found the sample to begin with. The cowbell in the background coupled with the Niemen sample gives the Polish beat a strange Latin groove. No I.D. was the secret weapon of Summertime ’06 even if most don’t know it.

Nyge

Section Boyz – Lock Arff

Rabit: Murky beat.

OG Parker

Jose Guapo – DUI (ft. Quavo)

Evan: Trap rap’s relentless output pushes innovators to seek out new sounds if they want to stand out. On “DUI,” OG Parker employees a whinnying synthesizer last heard in an eight year old’s Casio keyboard experiments. It’s such a bizarre sound to put on a song about being drunk, but Jose Guapo and Quavo are unperturbed, true to Atlanta’s creative liberties. It’s an odd moment; QC and Migos’ entire performance and persona are pure id, but here they wonder if they drank too much tonight. OG Parker’s grab bag sound selection, bizarre and loopy, is entirely appropriate.

Oxy

Sy Ari Da Kid – Behind Closed Doors

Strict Face: Considering the triplet flow survived 2014 unscathed, I’m surprised barely anyone had the chutzpah to take it to the next level with 3/4-time instrumentals this year. The Kid does a pretty damn good job holding down the fort though, lamenting the loss of friends, flings and family buried underneath the grind.

P.U.D.G.E.

P.U.D.G.E. – Too 4 The $how

Evan: A SoundCloud loosie has no business being this powerful. P.U.D.G.E. mashed up a cheesy 90s R&B song (Horace Brown’s “One For The Money”) and a Frank Zappa record that I can’t find to produce a soundtrack worthy of a Rocky training montage or any number of climactic battles. It’s the drums weaving in and out of the track that give it its adrenalin surges. That and the tiger blood that P.U.D.G.E. found in this Horace Brown record.

PARTYNEXTDOOR

Drake – Legend

Dan from the Internet: The beat to “Legend” by PARTYNEXTDOOR is such an idiotic idea in theory that it’s surprising that it works in reality. Anyone rapping over a Ginuwine sample in 2015 is legitimately the worst idea ever. Kirko Bangz and Fetty Wap already sawed the head off Ginuwine’s Pony and left it to fester in someone’s bed on “Worry Bout It.” But PARTYNEXTDOOR blessed Drake with one of the best beats of the year, mostly because sometimes the most obvious ideas are the best. The pitch shifted Ginuwine crooning over stuttering hi-hats and eerie synths creates the perfect bed for Drake’s beds. “Legend” is the highlight of IYRTITL and the production on the album never reaches such heights again. In a lot of ways, the outro to the beat is the highlight of the entire album. It gives the beat room to breathe rather than cluttering it with too much. PARTYNEXTDOOR never gets praised for his minimalist approach to production, but his tendency to not overproduce is really one of his greatest strengths.

Rabit

Rabit – Straps

Rabit: I feel like this track influenced a lot of people.

randomblackdude

Earl Sweatshirt – Grief

Craig S. Jenkins: Earl Sweatshirt tore his meniscus at a skatepark last year and went into semi-seclusion for months making music about being in seclusion making music. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside is the hermit rapper masterpiece everyone mistook the Drake mixtape for. Lead “single” “Grief” is the sound of total collapse, a deathly trickle of melody (apparently crafted from a swatch of Erykah Badu’s “Fall in Love (Your Funeral)” flattened beyond all recognition) draped over a drum pattern reminiscent of strange machines erratically conking out and breaking. It sounds positively catastrophic even in the best of headphones, like Earl reaching out through speakers to infect listeners with his own bad mood. “Grief” is a drag, but it’s the best drag.

Rick Rock

E-40 – Gamed Up (ft. Rayven Justice)

Evan: What is it that elevates “Gamed Up” beyond standard Bay Area slapper? Rick Rock deploys those booming drums right away — he knows that combining hard beats and shiny pop melodies, done right, is a surefire crowd pleaser. On the hook, Rayven Justice’s Jeremih-lite vocals glow against the giant drums and the twinkling patter in between. “Gamed Up” brings you to your feet, squares your shoulders, and makes you want to sing like an R&B princeling. It’s a study in contrasts and lowkey one of the best pop rap moments of the year.

Southside

Future – Trap Niggas

Tuamie: I think it’s a great beat. Future made it sound better, not much else say about it.

Sporting Life

Sporting Life – Badd

Craig S. Jenkins: Sporting Life’s laser guided MPC work in Ratking has captivated me since So It Goes last year, but after the 700-Fill EP this spring I started to wonder if he wasn’t kinda streamlining to give Wiki and Hak space for vocal gymnastics. Nope. Sport dropped the rare solo tape 55 5’s this year, cranking his theatrics up to the max on a handful of cluttered, claustrophobic instrumentals. I’m depressed more heads didn’t take note of this year. For my money, the gem is “Badd,” where he runs the same moaning sample back at varying pitches over hyperactive drums. It feels like the climactic fight sequences to three different late ‘90s action movies playing in your head all at once. The rush is undeniable.

Tae Beast, Sounwave, Thundercat

Kendrick Lamar – Hood Politics

Shafiq Husayn: Starts very simple in form. Not a lot going on. No high hats, no crash, no snare, but the drum itself sets the mood for the A section of the song.

Tuxedo

Tuxedo – The Right Time

Tuamie: The whole tuxedo album is crazy, had it on repeat for a minute. A lot of funk and a lot of soul in the beat.

Wheezy

Young Thug – Constantly Hating (ft. Birdman)

Craig S. Jenkins: The production on the opener to Young Thug’s sorta-but-not-really album Barter 6 maintains a deft balance of punishing low end and a soft touch. A lot of the time, the tendency with this kind of music is to come in hard and keep ramming on bass and drums til the last chorus fades, but Wheezy smartly plays the outfield half the time, while Thug knocks this vocal performance out of the park. Also the main melody reminds me of the Rugrats theme song and that can’t have been lost on Thug.

Zaytoven

Future – Peacoat

Craig S. Jenkins: Really, I could’ve picked any of no less than ten beats Future touched this year for this list because Hendrix has impeccable taste and gifted collaborators. But more than Metro, Southside, and the like turned me into a #Monster this year, Zaytoven played me into my feelings on Beast Mode. “Peacoat” effortlessly foregrounds Zay’s emotional keys over a bed of wispy, washed out synths and light bass. On the surface it seems as though there’s a lot going on, but when you listen closer, there’s so deceptively little. The enduring magic of Zaytoven remains his ability to make a little do a lot.

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