Music recs needed: jazz/hip-hop fusion
April 1, 2017 9:24 AM   Subscribe

I like Us3, Guru's Jazzmatazz, Stoop Boys (which are more barbershop/doo-wop + hip hop). I've got a long two-day drive ahead of me this week. What else should I be listening to? I've got Spotify.
posted by rabbitrabbit to Media & Arts (14 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Digable Planets! Both Reachin' and Blowout Comb are excellent.
posted by mattholomew at 9:38 AM on April 1, 2017 [3 favorites]


"Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool" (various artists)
Abraham Inc. (band), "Tweet-Tweet" (song and album title)
Maybe "Coloring Book" by Chance the Rapper
posted by baseballpajamas at 9:55 AM on April 1, 2017


Maybe a bit more modern jazz than you're looking for, but Canadian jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD put out an album with Ghostface Killah a couple of years ago called Sour Soul. Sample track from YouTube f/ MF Doom.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:13 AM on April 1, 2017


On the dirtier side of things, there's Madlib. Shades of Blue is a remix album he did of Blue Note Records jams and it is excellent.

Also DJ Day has really been growing on me. He's got 2 albums on Spotify, here's one: The Day Before.
posted by rachelpapers at 10:50 AM on April 1, 2017


And of course anyone from the Native Tongues collective, think ATCQ's People's Instinctive Travels.. and The Jungle Brother's Straight Out the Jungle.
posted by rachelpapers at 10:54 AM on April 1, 2017


Check out Basehead's "Play With Toys."
posted by rhizome at 10:58 AM on April 1, 2017


You might also check out DJ Mark Farina's "Mushroom Jazz" and downtempo mixes.
posted by rhizome at 11:03 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Soulsonics

Orgone

Spearhead

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe

These will align pretty perfectly from my experience

G. Love and special Sauce
Greyboy allstars
Charlie hunter
Galactic
Garage a trois

are bands that fans of us3 et al also like
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:26 AM on April 1, 2017


DJ 2 Tone Jones has an album called Shaolin Jazz which is Wu Tang Clan remixed with classic jazz tracks, I personally really enjoy that stuff, in some cases more than the original material. (Used to be a free download.)

The Pharcyde used jazz samples and also played a lot of original jazzy stuff themselves. Their biggest hit Passing Me By prominently uses Quincy Jones samples, and their song Runnin sampled Stan Getz (among others).

Jazz Liberatorz is pretty much jazz hip hop and they have several albums out, I really like them the same way I like early Tribe Called Quest which had tons of jazz samples and even used people like Ron Carter as guests on stuff. Early Roots was pretty jazzy, but less bepop and more like 70s pop fusion, lots of Fender Rhodes and such. Like probably pretty much what you'd expect from a group that's from the same place as Grover Washington, Jr. fast forwarded a decade or two...

A Danish act called YMOMM (Young Masters of Modern Music) had a great jazz hip hop band directly inspired by Us3 and Jazzmatazz; they used live instruments and original songs rather than samples though. Probably hard to purchase their stuff these days but they used to be on Spotify.

A lot of stuff on the Ninjatune label is heavily based on jazz samples or arrangements. Like DJ Food is mostly instrumental but uses lots of jazz in his mixes. That whole record label leans that direction, material built around rare groove and dusty vinyl crate digger stuff that often incorporates classic jazz. Also, on the instrumental side, any of the classic trip hop artists might be interesting to you. DJ Krush was/is especially jazzy to me, and DJ Shadow can be in that zone too. Also, Nujabes and any of the artists on the Samurai Champloo soundtracks are up that alley, there's some nice, lesser known material in there.

If you know actual jazz songs you already like, you could check out WhoSampled.com and see where those songs have been used in other tracks, it can lead to a lot of material you might not discover otherwise. Some pretty obscure stuff has been sampled and used in surprisingly popular songs, like I had no idea how often used Miles Davis' Bitches Brew had had been used. (I know it's not jazz, but as an example I was kind of geeked to see how often weird, dissonant Bela Bartok compositions have been used in hip hop.)
posted by mullicious at 11:32 AM on April 1, 2017


Came to say Digable Planets and the Pharcyde. Good job, MeFi. Also maybe check out De La Soul, especially 3 Feet High and Rising.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:35 AM on April 1, 2017


Miles Davis's final album Doo Bop was a jazz/hip hop record which came out in 1992. It was a collaboration with Easy Mo Bee.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:44 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Charlie Hunter
Medeski Martin & Wood
Herbie Hancock: Headhunters
posted by furtive at 6:24 PM on April 2, 2017


Kneebody + Busdriver
posted by umbĂș at 4:17 PM on April 3, 2017


I'd suggest checking out J-Boogie, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Jazzanova and the Nu Jazz section on Last.fm.
posted by black8 at 1:50 PM on April 7, 2017


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