Hip Hop Underground | Computer Music

Hip Hop Underground is a selection of over 140 hip-hop construction kits, which are accessed using Ueberschall's Elastik sample player. This comes in VST and RTAS formats as well as a standalone version, and will automatically timestretch the samples to fit your sequencer's tempo. The instrumentation is great and sounds less synthetic than most other hip-hop collections. The construction kits are plentiful and of high quality, and some even include vocals.

It's hard to keep track of all the variations of hip hop and rap out there. This collection has a distinctly European synth pop flare, with a strong nod towards old-school toasting as much as newer gangsta rap. There are also examples of smooth R&B, horroshow theatrics, and ethnic blends. The production is aimed squarely at the lo-fi set, with heavy compression, crunchy drums, and an 8-bit feel to many of the instruments.

This 2.3 gig collection takes up two slots in Elastik, featuring five folders holding well over 100 Construction Kits plus a folder each of Construction Singles and Drum/Percussion Singles. The Construction Kits range in tempo from 61 to 127 bpm, focused in the mid 80s to upper 90s. A kit typically contains 8 to 11 4-bar loops, which includes a full mix, an instrumental mix, a drum mix, and then breakdowns of the drum and instrumental parts. Having all of the components in one bank per construction kit makes it easy to perform these live.

The Construction Singles folder contains a handful of individual drum hits or single instrument notes (not mapped chromatically) for each of the construction kits. Unfortunately, the Loop switch is enabled for these samples, making them hard to perform without manually switching it off.

The Drum/Percussion Singles folder is an extended single-hit drum library broken into kicks, claps, crashes, hats, rides, shakers, and snares, often further subdivided into dirty/classic, electro, natural, old skool, and new skool genres.