Sampling and live instrumentation intermingled more and more, closing the gap between hip-hop and the music that inspired it. A period of nearly unchecked file sharing provided producers with an unprecedented amount of new sample sources from a variety of locales and musical epochs.
But as rap evolved, hip-hop instrumentals were quick to follow. In the wake of Donuts the sub-genre grew stale, partly suffocated by a wave of well-meaning but uninspired posthumous tributes to Dilla himself. Soon enough, the internet, for better or worse, would become a wellspring of new ideas that pointed to unexpected and radically different directions.Īftershocks were felt in instrumental hip-hop too. The nascent blog boom allowed access to a wealth of previously obscure material, prompting a reassessment of the historical canon and spurring cross-pollination between previously far-flung styles. New York began its decline, and the South rose to prominence on a national scale. It emerged in the midst of a transitional period in rap where old traditions began to stagnate both above and below ground, and the genre began to evolve in new directions.
In our list of the 100 best indie hip-hop records, Donuts was set as a cutoff because it felt like the last really significant release of that era. Donuts is a somewhat arbitrary point to single out, but it can be used as a convenient marker on the timeline of independent hip-hop.