Sampling has been an integral part of hip-hop for decades. It's one of the genre's main foundations. When a producer uses a portion of an already existing song for a new record, the sample turns the ...

Oftentimes when people think of hip hop production as an art form, their minds eventually wander to the art of sampling. It is one of the pillars of production, as the skill has been a part of the ...

Hip-hop has had a strong connection to reggae music since the days of DJ Kool Herc’s summer house parties in the early 1970s. Hip-hop’s foundation was built on elements of the Jamaican sound system ...

This article has been handpicked from the Okayplayer editorial archives and included in our Hip Hop 50 collection as a noteworthy inclusion to the genre's rich and diverse narrative. The article has ...

I’m sitting in the basement of a low-rise corner building in Bushwick with 23-year-old rapper/producer Cash Cobain, and it’s finally time to throw on the Spice Girls. The basement is a converted ...

In the mid-1980s, Ron G. became the master of the blend tape. By putting together R&B and hip-hop instrumentals, he and a DJ named Hot Day (whose "Hot Day Master Mix" married New Edition to Public ...