Hip-Hop Producers to have in your Radar [2021 Edition]

First, let's start with the one you're most likely to be familiar with...

1. Madlib

If you like your Hip-Hop and know the name Madlib - good, you should. He's worked with MF DOOM (RIP), worked with Kanye West, He's worked with J Dilla, and he's worked with Freddie Gibbs. If you don't know any of those names - well, they're a great starting point before even beginning on the names on this article.

However, Otis Jackson Jr aka Madlib has solo work that is worth plenty of interest within itself. Even those who may be familiar with the name might not know of the recent album he put together (with the help of Four Tet) - called Sound Ancestors. The album is by no means just hip-hop, but this January release does contain some sounds you would have expected from previous albums such as his Beat Konducta or Rock Konducta series - and if you're not familiar with the artist, they're all worth a listen to; And there's plenty to listen to, Beat Konducta has 6 volumes, Rock Konducta has 2 volumes - each volume worth about 20 minutes of music, but over that 20 minutes you can expect handfuls of music from 1 to 3 minutes long, sometimes completely interchanging within. Any Hip-Hop instrumental fans will be in paradise.

Madlib has plenty of alternate personas, one includes Quasimoto - which also includes his own rapping and instrumentals and is great for any hip-hop head. I'd like to think most of you already know Madvillainy, his famous collaboration with MF Doom, but if not, do check it out.

But back to the point - here's a couple of his most recent Hip-Hop works...

So even if you're familiar with the name Madlib, you can see there's plenty to discover.

2. Knxwledge

Definitely a more underground name, but fortunately that's changing... A recent collaboration that producer Glen Earl Boothe (Knxwledge) has embarked in has been with a more well-known name, Anderson .Paak - and the album they put out under pseudonym NxWorries is filled with nice instrumentals. Here's a few:

But his solo work is also great for easy listening... If you're looking for more, the next place to go may be his album 1988 (which came out in 2020). Here's a favourite from it:

3. Karriem Riggins

Karriem, much like Madlib, has a deep interest not only in the music of Hip-Hop, but also Jazz. And why shouldn't he? A lot of great jazz songs have been flipped to become underground instrumentals.

If you're after a great selection of instrumentals, he has an album from 2017 titled, Headnod Suite. The video below will show you a few of the tracks (and a cool video):

Here's a couple of other notable tracks:

4. Dirty Art Club

This one may not sit so comfortably under the 'underground hip-hop' genre as the rest, but I don't know what else to call them. It's hard to find a lot of information about who exactly they are, and if it's even more than one person. But I do know that the name is associated with some pretty catchy tracks! They have plenty of different albums to find on their Bandcamp site, but here's a few personal favourites from different albums of theirs:

5. The Avalanches

To say The Avalanches are underground hip-hop would not entirely describe what they're up to anymore. Their 2001 breakout album, Since I Left You definitely had the vibes (if not somewhere in a strange Dance-type territory). But after many years of almost complete radio silence... they came back more recently with 2016 album Wildflower and 2020's We Will Always Love You. These albums definitely veer away from the Hip-Hop route, but still contain some routes. Furthermore, they're about to release a 20-year Edition of their original album, and it sounds like it's going to have some great remixes to come with it:

Nonetheless, here's a few of their notable hip-hop tracks:

One from their latest album, We Go On

And from their previous album Wildflower, their hit single Frankie Sinatra.

Overall, The Avalanches are an interesting group who are all about the plunderphonics nature of Hip-Hop, but definitely bring some life into their work. And I'm a lifetime fan.

Here's something else they made that explores some of their music - with fitting video references chopped up from many different notable films and shows;

Happy listening!