Hip-Hop Without Percussion

NDP

New member
Why has this never kicked off?

Sure, the beat does get people into the song. However, you don't need to know how to read music to know when to bop your head to guitar strums or even synth notes. Furthermore, sometimes beats serve only to distract listeners from the lyrics, which in my opinion is detrimental to the whole notion of a song.

But anyways, to my main point: would you all, hip-hop connoisseurs I'm sure, be open to hip-hop without drums?
 
Because it's a radical concept, you kind of are looking for a sound like a tom or a snare or a kick. It just doesn't feel like hiphop without the drums. Now, i can rap to a melody, but without the drums, what is there.. then again, rm rapped to a song that was just the melody for over half the song.
This song:
YouTube
 
It's been done. Ray West does this a lot. Check for his collaboration albums with O.C., A.G. & Blu. I'm sure he has others.

It's cool, but I typically can't listen to more than a song or 2 in a row. The track usually isn't compelling enough. When I'm in the mood for that, I play jazz where the playing is more dynamic.
 
It definitely exists haha. When people do it it's generally limited to one track on the album though... I don't mind hip-hop without drums as a whole, but the rhythm of a dusty drum break is a core element of the genre
 
I just thought of a great example of this actually, go check out Ka, he also has music out as Dr. Yen Lo. It's really cool stuff, but if everyone was doing I think it'd get old pretty fast. His music tends to either not have drums at all or have them super low in the mix.
 
Jay Elec sure got a lot of tread over Eternal Sunshine...Nice opportunity to highlight the percussive aspects/potential of vocals..."I took eternal sunshine and I looped it/no drums, no hook, just new shit"
 
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