The Crucial 26 — 26 Albums That Personified the Fundamental Developments In Hip Hop Beatmaking: #1 Biz Markie – ‘Goin’ Off’ (1988)
It’s during the Pioneers/Avant-Garde Period that hip hop/rap music experiences a second art-based renaissance. By 1988, the modern hip hop/rap music era was two years old, and hip hop/rap music had shifted from a mostly dance-based music to an art-based music that celebrated beats as works of art in and of themselves, rather than mere tracks for rappers to rhyme over. This created the new art/dance duality that continues to underscore hip hop/rap to this day. Further, it was during the Pioneers/Avant-Garde Period that beatmaking began to distinguish itself as an art form of equal weight to DJing and rapping. In other words, the beat was drawing parallel with the rhyme.
This new development in beatmaking was best personified in 26 classic hip hop/rap albums. All but two of these albums were released squarely during the Pioneers/Avant-Garde period, and they are noteworthy for what they individually and collectively established. Since the release of the crucial 26, there has only been two major style and sound developments in the art of beatmaking that are on par with the significance of boom bap: Trap music and Drill Music.[1]
The 26 noteworthy albums that were released between 1988 and 1995 are:
Goin’ Off (Biz Markie); It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Public Enemy); In Control (Marley Marl); Critical Beatdown (Ultramagnetic MCs); 3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul); Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (A Tribe Called Quest); All Souled Out (Pete Rock & CL Smooth); Step In the Arena (Gang Starr); Quik is the Name (DJ Quik); The Low End Theory (A Tribe Called Quest); Mecca and the Soul Brother (Pete Rock & CL Smooth); Breaking Atoms (Main Source); Daily Operation (Gang Starr); The Chronic (Dr. Dre); Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Wu-Tang Clan); Return of the Boom Bap (KRS-One); Midnight Marauders (A Tribe Called Quest); Doggystle (Snoop Doggy Dogg); Comin’ Out Hard (8Ball & MJG); Illmatic (Nas); Ready to Die (The Notorious B.I.G.); Word…Life (O.C.); The Sun Rises in the East (Jeru the Damaja); The Main Ingredient (Pete Rock & CL Smooth); Livin’ Proof (Group Home); and Mystic Stylez (Three 6 Mafia).
#1 Biz Markie – Goin’ Off (1988) (produced entirely by Marley Marl)
In terms of the beatmaking tradition of hip hop/rap music, Biz Markie’s Goin’ Off (1988), produced entirely by Marley Marl, is one of the most important albums of all time. There are five reasons for this. First, drum sampling and programming. While much attention has been given to break beats, particularly the use of James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” (1970), what has gone largely overlooked is that Marley Marl didn’t actually use break beats in the way most people think. Marley Marl sampled individual drum sounds from break beats and other songs, and he played his own drum patterns. Sometimes these drum patterns followed similar patterns from which the drum sounds were sampled from; but most of the time, Marley’s drum patterns were original. In 1985, hip hop/rap albums were dominated by sparse drum-machine sounding beats. Marley Marl changed all of that! Marley Marl’s innovative use of individual drum sound samples — from a variety of songs, not just break-beat records — sparked a revolution in hip hop beatmaking and resulted in a seachange effect in hip hop’s beatmaking tradition. In this way, Marley Marl changed the way every hip hop beatmaker (producer) who came after him approached drum sampling and programming.
Second, the “2-bar sound-stab” technique. “Goin’ Off,” the title song, features a funky original drum beat by Marley Marl (not a break beat). And what makes the drum beat pop? A sound-stab that arrives at the start of every second bar. This 2-bar sound-stab technique would go on to become a commonwealth staple of hip hop’s beatmaking tradition. Incidentally, in relation to copyright law, this song, and the technique that it relies on, is a perfect example of a de minimis use of sound recordings.
Third, the “2-bar groove” technique. On “The Vapors” and “Nobody Beats the Biz,” Marley Marl built upon the 2-bar sound-stab technique by replacing a sound-stab with a sampled groove on the start of every second bar.21 “The Vapors” also proves that “James Brown samples” weren’t just about breaks as some commentators mistakenly believe.
Fourth, the “bass line groove” technique. On “This is Something for the Radio,” Marley Marl loops a one-bar bass line groove flush on the one, creating a beat off of a one-bar beat structure. This would become a staple technique in hip hop’s beatmaking tradition.
Finally, one other thing that makes Goin’ Off a crucial 26 album — and perhaps the most crucial of all 26 albums — is that it represents the genesis of soul sampling in hip hop/rap music. Here, I don’t mean that Goin’ Off was the first album to contain samples from soul songs. What I’m talking about is the specific way in which Marley Marl sampled and programmed a soul sample in the song. The last 10 seconds of “Cool V’s Tribute to Scratching,” the very last song on Goin’ Off, features a snippet of the Jackson 5’s “Darling Dear” (1970). It’s essentially an “outro” beat that switches up the drums, gives the track a new bounce, and features the 4-bar “Darling Dear” sample as the main loop. This is the blueprint for the standard soul sample type beat.
Notes:
1. The click-and-clock rhythmic feel popularized by J Dilla is an important style and sound development, but it’s a variation of boom bap. See Chapter 9 of The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music and Copyright Law, 3rd Edition’ for a more extensive discussion of this point.
