VMP Magazine

Unlike its bigger, more well-known siblings in the hip-hop subgenre hierarchy, instrumental hip-hop still hasn’t had its true breakout moment. And truth be told, it probably never will. We as music addicts tend to prefer music with words, be they meaningful and deep, melodic and fluffy, or some combination of other adjectives. Really, we’re at a point where instrumental music doesn’t reside on the same plane as its vocal-laden siblings. And that’s okay! As much as I love jazz, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I could put on Blue Train and most people would either think nothing of it or start wondering if they had been teleported to a cafe.

But that doesn’t take anything away from instrumental hip-hop. Much like the jazz to which it’s forever indebted, people either come around immediately to it or have some kind of experience that keeps them listening.

But without a massive amount of listeners or not, instrumental hip-hop will endure and, more importantly, prosper. That much has been evident following the biggest releases in the subgenre, such as groundbreaking albums from DJ Shadow and J Dilla. On the surface, these two producers and their respective “big” records couldn’t be more different, what with Entroducing’s beautiful and sprawling canvas and Donuts’ choppy, emotional, and immense movements.

At their core they’re really not that different at all. While their intentions may have not necessarily been exactly the same, what you get from listening to these two artists is their desire to manipulate sound without relying on the addition of someone else’s voice. The voice, in this case, is established by the manner in which they chop up, loop, and layer samples. And that right there, for me, is what keeps me coming back to instrumental hip-hop. It’s also why I think that if you’ve felt anything I’ve read here, you owe it to yourself to listen to other albums on this list too.

Once mere blips and bloops meant to accompany the action on screen, the music that soundtracks video games has reached cinematic heights over the past three decades or so. That has been particularly evident through the curation of orchestrated performances of some of the gaming world’s best OSTs, such as the renowned touring orchestra known as the Symphony of the Goddesses. This massive undertaking employs dozens of talented musicians, who recreate the songs heard throughout the Legend of Zelda series into movements accompanied by footage from those same games. So, for example, when they perform the legendary (no pun) “Hyrule Field,” you’ll see Link traversing the field in its many incarnations. And you’ll do so alongside hundreds of other Zelda fanatics, as these shows often sell out or come damn near close to it.