By Dan Guarino
Elm Staff Writer
Can’t get enough of your favorite artist, but they only have one album listed on their Spotify? No worries, almost every single musician in the pop-o-sphere has released dozens of unofficial projects before they made it and many have done unlisted features, or have worked production for other musicians. While that means you won’t necessarily see their name on the tracklist, you can still hear their influence and, if you’re into that kind of stuff, track their progress as a musician.
Kanye West is known as one of the more experimental and controversial figures in the hip hop and pop world. He stylistically has pivoted a number of times. Originally he was known for his pitched up soul samples, or “chipmunk vocals,” but he has since made things that could fall into a range of genres such as EDM, industrial hip hop, and even acoustic rock. Originally, however, he was making hip hop beats on his computer like everyone else. West’s “1997 Beat Tape,” which you can only find on Youtube and other odd internet sources, features very funky, bass driven instrumentals. This is definitely something you can listen to in the background while doing homework.
The Gorillaz are pretty well known in the alternative hip-hop world, working with big names such as Mf Doom and Danny Brown. They, however, have a collection of alternative music looming in their deep cuts. The musician behind the Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, co-produced an entire sci-fi concept album with Del the Funky Homosapien, called “Deltron 3030.” Albarn’s eclectic, high synthetic synth heavy production meshes with Del’s odd subject matter pretty well. The album is about an underground hip-hop collective fighting the government through rap.
If you’re a fan of Kendrick Lamar, you might want to look into Flying Lotus: “YOU’RE DEAD.” It’s a largely instrumental project from 2014, predating and influencing what is often considered Lamar’s best work, “To Pimp a Butterfly.” It even features Lamar on the fifth track on the record, “Never Catch Me”, a high speed, psychedelic track which shows Lamar question ideas of death, existence, and permanence, all while playing the character of a sort of otherworldly entity inside Lotus’s idea of the afterlife. It’s weird, but if you have an eclectic taste in music, it really might be your ideal album.
If you’re more of a rock person, you may want to check out the recently released track from Radiohead, “I Promise.” It was actually recorded in the same time period when they released, “OK Computer,” so stylistically it’s very similar. They would perform it as a closer at their live shows, which makes sense, it’s very anthemic, as has a pretty nice crescendo throughout that concludes nicely near the end of the track.