Album: Various
Artist: Ours Samplus
Released: Various
Instrumental hip-hop is a genre that has taken off in the past decade, garnering its own stars (i.e. Gramatik, Najubes) across Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc. This genre features sampled music (pieces of other songs), down-tempo beats, lo-fi filters, and often time jazz and funk influences. “Chill” is a verb and an adjective slapped on the numerous albums and tracks you can find online. There are entire Youtube accounts dedicated to creating compilations of various instrumental hip-hop artists across the world. The album below is one such compilation, though it features a single artist, a French producer known as Ours Samplus (check him out on Soundcloud, Youtube).
His music features samples of jazz music, principally piano and female vocals, backed by beats. His music, contradictory to the above, is not all down-tempo; in fact, he presents some lively pieces in a Parov Stelar fashion. What I like about his music is his mixture of samples from eras long past with modern hip-hop beats. There is a joviality here that persuades you to buckle down and get typing. An English teacher told me he and his students write performance poetry while listening to instrumental hip-hop as the beat is useful when writing with an obvious meter or rhythm.
If that sounds useful to you as well, click play and see for yourself.
Listen:
