I felt the rumblings of a new direction for hip-hop production when I almost blew out my ’99 Grand Am’s speakers last summer. The incident came at the hand of none other than Lil’ Wayne and, in particular, his song “A Milli.”
I’ve had to play repairman so many times at parties, where everyone wants to listen to “A Milli” through their impulse-purchased iPod speakers with the volume all the way up.
In any case, the soaring popularity of “A Milli” last summer to me ushered in a new sub-school of hip-hop production characterized by looped vocals, minimalist structure and, above all, booming, teeth-loosening 808 bass hits. In fact, when I first heard “A Milli,” I couldn’t stand it. I thought the production sounded like a caveman did it ““ a dull pounding of bass and a dropped hook that felt like I was being bludgeoned to death with a rubber mallet.
However, I learned to love “A Milli.” I still chalk it up to the fact that “A Milli” doesn’t come close to its potential on puny computer speakers, but comes to full roaring life on a big system. So I joined the masses that loved “A Milli.” But due to the overwhelmingly positive response, “A Milli” has spawned imitators, and will probably continue to spawn more.
Take, for example, the new single “Diva” from Beyonce as Sasha Fierce (try saying that name out loud without jazz hands). The production is almost exactly the same as “A Milli” itself. Instead of the looped “A milli a milli a milli,” we have the looped “I’m a-a diva, I’m a-I’m a-a diva.”
Both tracks have nearly the exact same kick drum pattern, which I won’t onomatopoeia-ize. On top of that, they have almost exactly the same structure, with four or so bars of the main boom pattern, followed by four or so bars in which the kick drops out completely, replaced by a few spare snare hits.
This eerie similarity can be explained by a simple fact: The same dude produced both songs, which definitely mitigated some of my righteous indignation. Bangladesh (who originally made his mark by producing Ludacris’ raunchy jam “What’s Yo Fantasy?”) now seems to enjoy his spot as hip-hop’s leading purveyor of trunk-rattling, simple beats.
While Beyonce’s song is reliably good, she manages to wring a melody out of a beat that has almost none. The new song by Mims also bites the “A Milli” aesthetic. Needless to say, the guy that brought us “This Is Why I’m Hot” doesn’t exactly murder the beat.
I do realize that being bass-heavy has long been in the hip-hop tradition, as any local parent will tell you as they complain about local kids blasting music out of their cars. But up until recently, that tick tick followed by the bump has usually been accompanied by some other melodic element. Now, it seems as if the beats themselves have been coasting on the weight of the bass itself.
The question is, as it always is for me, whether this is a good thing for hip-hop.
I’ve always been more of a fan of the warm, soul sample-based tradition of hip-hop production, a la DJ Premier, RZA, Just Blaze and Kanye West. So this unexpected glut of songs with almost no samples (or no melodic ones anyway) and no synth melodies, featured in nearly every other producer’s work, came as a shock to the system.
On the merits of production alone, I still favor the more complex chopping and re-appropriating of the sampling-based school of production. But in the right hands, the new minimalist school of production can gracefully yet savagely bring the focus of hip-hop back to its roots.
For example, everyone and their mother can quote at least one line from “A Milli,” whether it’s “I’m the bomb like tick … tick,” or “Tell them coppers “˜hahahaha.'” And I’m convinced the reason is that the beat is so spare that it completely highlights the rapping itself. With no melodic distractions, all of the lines and rhymes are plain as day.
In contrast to “A Milli,” take “Right Round” by Flo Rida. This song, like “A Milli,” is everywhere right now: the radio, TV promos, parties.
Yet I challenge anyone to name a single line from the song, not including the chorus. With a big fancy Dead-or-Alive biting chorus, no one knows or cares what the heck Flo Rida is saying, while the verses of “A Milli” continue to enter hip-hop’s canon.
However, the Mims song that apes “A Milli” has not and will not have the same effect. The thing is, when the focus is so squarely on the vocals, whatever you’re rapping needs to at most be exceptional and at least be interesting.
In Wayne’s hands, the beat is a blank canvas for the most surreal free association ever to burn up the radio, while Mims’ song will most likely fade into obscurity as an unexceptional rapper jumping on the bandwagon to brag.
On top of that, this type of production presents another victory, because it shows that a song doesn’t have to be a dance-oriented club jam to be a hit. And any time that happens, my heart soars like the eagle.
So this new trend, despite its simplicities, could be a force for diversity in hip-hop production. Because if I have to hear another song that samples an ’80s new wave hit, I am just going to snap.
If you can quote most of “A Milli” and didn’t look at a lyric sheet once, e-mail Ayres at jayres@media.ucla.edu.