Imagine your favorite classic hip hop drum loops and break beats, layered with symphonic sounds and orchestral highlights, from flutes to violins. Simply put, that is exactly what the A Cinematic Approach to Hip Hop project is all about. Basically, I grew up in an era where hip hop/rap music was just making its way. I remember it as it was a way of life. It was so normal for me – and a generation of youth growing up in New York City – to hear breakbeats on somebody’s boombox and try our hand at breakdancing on some old linoleum or cardboard. Lately, I’ve been thinking about those days and how the memories play out like some kind of cinematic flashback – but with edge. Fast forward from the yesteryear of hip hop’s beginnings to present day – and here’s what I present to you.

Transitions was technically the first off for this particular project. I hadn’t originally done it for this project because the project didn’t exist yet. I just always wanted to do something over the drum loop from Bring Da Ruckus. I liked the groove, the tones, just overall dopeness. Once the song was done, it gave me the idea of doing the same thing over other classic drum loops that, once you’d heard the first one or two bars, you would know exactly what songs they were (A lot of us thirty, forty and fifty-something year-olds know what I’m talking about). Thus, A Cinematic Approach to Hip Hop was born.

To add some paprika and cayenne to the mix, I decided to accompany the orchestration of the songs with an electric bass. Yeah, that’s ME on the electric bass. Word? WORD! I picked up an inexpensive Yamaha TRBX in December of 2016 and started seriously picking it up in February 2017. I wouldn’t call myself a Stanley Clarke or Jaco Pastorius… but I’ve gotten good enough to lay some funky grooves.

Aside from Transitions, all of the song titles of this particular project are a twist – or spin – on the titles of the original songs that inspired them. With A Cinematic Approach to Hip Hop, I hope to encourage hip hop fans, enthusiasts and musicians alike to revisit some of the classic hip hop records that defined an era that no other genre did, or could do, so effectually. At the same time, embracing the idea that sound is universal, and that tones and vibes can move anything. In which direction would you like it to move? Well, while you listen to this in your car, or during your bus or train commute, or even in your home during your leisure, imagine your own motion picture of memories playing out while you bump these tunes.