Rap bass lines?

[xshawnxearthx]

go listen to the roots.

i did something similar with a few friends that never really went anywhere. anytime we worked it would be a drum machine with a beat that he wanted, i did my thing until he found something he liked then just cut and pasted it.

 

[Wasim]

A lot of stuff by Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac... (Death Row records, basically) has some great bass work (played by live musicians a lot of the time). Mike Elizondo, who's a fairly established song-writer in his own right, plays a lot of these bass lines. Check out the 15 Years of Death Row compilation or the Dre album 2001 for some examples.

 

[Rebop]

Digable planets. Its like Bebop hip hop. And add a like rock to that also check out arrested development. They may have only had to really popular cuts but lots of great tracks

Them and A Tribe Called Quest.

 

[sarcastro83]

36 Chambers... probably mainly sampled... but damned good.

 

[CDuff]

The Pharcyde, Souls of Mischief and The Roots have great bass-parts.

My favourite line apart from them is probably Legendary Street Team by Kool G Rap and MOP.

 

[mrniceguy715]

+1 on roots comments, is Leonard Hubbard out of the Roots? I know they do some albums with digital/ sample/ mastered beats, but I thought Hub was a fixture.

yeah he left ealier in the year. Owen Biddle (a tb'r) is the new starting bassist in the lineup

 

[Joel S.]

Rapper's Delight

You mean "Good Times" by Chic.

 

[Joel S.]

Actually, that's kind of what he's aiming at. After a recent chat with him I discovered he does intend to go with original - and rather jazzy keyboard lines. So, I'd say this'll be quite the experiment.

Thanks everyone for the input - and thanks for the samples. Not being a hip-hop or a funk listener on a regular basis (though I've become interested in funk as of late due to my bass teacher's influence) this gives me plenty to think and work on.

Yea, learn funk. You'll need to enforce the rhythm while leaving rhythmic room for the lyricist (kinda like enforcing a melody while leaving room for the guitars/vocalist in rock/country/rnb/jazz/etc).

"Rapping" is really "singing" rhythmically instead of melodically.