Beatport’s guides to dub, hip-hop, neo-soul + more

Beatport’s guides to dub, hip-hop, neo-soul + more

7 February, 2012 | 10.02AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: black history month

Dance music is universal, but its roots overwhelmingly reach back to black cultures and their musical traditions around the world. Funk and soul are the source of disco, house, hip-hop, electro, jungle, even techno, and despite dance music’s global reach, many of its key innovations originated in black communities in cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, and London. In recognition of Black History Month, we highlight some of the innovative icons who shaped the music, as well as the artists connecting today’s EDM with its roots in black culture.

Today, we offer guides to disco, neo soul, hip-hop, dub, and Afrofuturism—read on, and explore some essential dance-music history.

Black History Month: Guide to Disco

One of popular music’s most maligned and misunderstood genres, disco began as a music of liberation—for African-Americans, the LGBT community, women, and millions of individuals from all walks of life who identified with disco’s message of freedom through song and movement. Mainstream acceptance and a populist backlash almost killed off disco in the early ‘80s, but the music went back underground, morphing into house music and creating the foundations for pretty much all electronic dance music today.

No single playlist can do justice to the depth and breadth of disco’s history, but consider this an introduction to its most soulful strains. There’s plenty more where this came from, so check the artists’ and label’s back catalogues for more.

Check out the chart on Beatport here, and listen to audio samples in the player below.

Black History Month: Guide to Neo-Soul

The back-to-basics sound known as neo-soul had its heyday in the late ‘90s and eary ‘00s, particularly in the spacious, bluesy work of artists like D’Angelo and Jill Scott. But the style never really went away. We’ve gathered neo-soul classics alongside more recent tributes to the style from Amp Fiddler, Thundercat, and the British soul singer Omar.

Check out the chart on Beatport here, and listen to audio samples in the player below.

Black History Month: Guide to Hip-Hop

It’s pretty crazy to think that a style born in some of New York’s poorest neighborhoods has grown to become one of the most powerful cultural forces of the past three decades. Hip-hop is one of America’s most important exports—arguably, a bigger influence than even Hollywood film—as well as, increasingly, the language that other cultures around the world use to tell their own stories. Hip-hop culture continues to mutate in every direction, from Jay-Z’s boardroom triumphs to the oppositional sounds of the underground. To salute the music’s originators, we’ve selected 10 early hip-hop classics from Marley Marl, Grandmaster Flash, EPMD and their peers.

Check out the chart on Beatport here, and listen to audio samples in the player below.

Black History Month: Guide to Dub

Jamaica’s dub producers weren’t necessarily the first artists to use multitracking and effects like delay, but they pushed the techniques further than any of their contemporaries, exploring an infinite labyrinth of sound inside the confines of their mixing desk. Get your roots and culture with these dubwise gems from Scientist, Agustus Pablo, and more.

Check out the chart on Beatport here, and listen to audio samples in the player below.

Black History Month: Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism isn’t so much a style as a sensibility—an extension of “otherness” into the cosmic realm, where conventional oppositions are turned on their head, and borders and limitations are blown into infinite horizons. Afrofuturism extends from the spiritual jazz of Sun Ra and the tricksterish funk of Funkadelic to the myth-making practiced by Drexciya. Brush up on alternate histories of the future below.

Check out the chart on Beatport here, and listen to audio samples in the player below.

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