I’ve never quite understood the love/hate dichotomy that’s existed between producer 9th Wonder and the hip hop cognoscenti. Honestly – and this is coming from someone who is attentive to trivial details to a fault – but I never thought I’d see such a mass of people get so upset over one producer’s measly snare sounds, for Christ’s sake. I’ve managed to fall into the “dude’s ai’ight” camp, and truthfully, I couldn’t care less whether or not the guy uses FruityLoops or an MPC-3000 to craft his beats, or samples from newly released CDs or crates of moldy 45s. I wouldn’t consider 9th of the same caliber as, say, Showbiz or Buckwild, but suffice it to say that I probably wouldn’t have given Little Brother a second chance without his participation – MCs Phonte and Big Pooh never really impressed me in the least (and comparisons to anyone in the Native Tongues family is straight-up blasphemy, kids). While 2005’s The Minstrel Show suffered the most from the inflated hype that surrounded its release, I thought it was a decent sophomore effort from the trio, and one could certainly do worse these days. Yet there was a track on the record that many overlooked, a joint titled “Not Enough” that led me to believe that 9th Wonder just might be the finest producer in hip hop working in the past decade.
Of course, that would be a difficult point to argue, but it’d be even tougher to deny how utterly sick this beat is. “Not Enough,” if anything, demonstrates how crucial it is for beatmakers to chop a sample into sub-rhythmic fractions, as opposed to quarter or eighth note blocks; stylistically, anything else would sound primitive. Here 9th dices up an unidentified soul sample and renders it even more unrecognizable, morphing it into a minor-keyed, circular groove of soft cooing and breathy exhalations. This dense melange of sound can be subdivided into two separate sections (verse/chorus), but both are so similar that the track almost feels like one repeated, subtly-shifting loop. For variety, the producer programs variations in the drum pattern, like subtracting a snare or hi-hat or adding a series of bass drum hits at the conclusion of a bar. Snippets of sound can be extracted from the mix fairly easily: a delayed guitar note, an ascending string motif, wordless female backing vocals, the distinct pop of a cowbell. It’s the order in which these elements are arranged that’s a testament to 9th Wonder’s little burst of brilliance here. If the man never steps foot in a studio again, I’ll still defend his name solely on the basis of this track.
“Not Enough (Instrumental)” – Little Brother 4:31 (The Minstrel Show, ABB 2005)
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Zilla - I agree, some of the snares on Murray’s Revenge were pretty stale. But drum sounds aside, the guy knows how to flip a sample… it’s just the programming he puts atop the patterns. Most of the beats on LB’s first record suffer from this.
I’ll have to look for those Black Album outtakes. That doesn’t surprise me about Khrysis’s production style - wasn’t he 9th’s protege or something?
Comment by floodwatch 06.28.07 @Boys - nice little discourse here. I agree with everyone’s summation of 9th strengths/weaknesses. Wondering if anyone can recall what this sample is. I know this song. It is on the tip of my tongue. Something smooth & 70’s.
Comment by Galen 06.28.07 @Galen - if you can retrieve it from the tip of your tongue, I would LOVE to know what the original sample used here is.
Comment by floodwatch 06.28.07 @Yea I’ve always felt a bit lukewarm about the dude, so much so that I have never really checked out that much LB, although I intend to do so.
Great dissection as always. Just to let you know, the audio only lasts for about 3 seconds and cuts out - might wanna rectify it.
Peacey weace
Dan
Comment by Dan Love 06.28.07 @Dan - Audio should be fixed. Try it again.
Landon - THANK YOU. What’s sad is that I have that TP LP laying around somewhere - I’ll have to dig it out.
Comment by floodwatch 06.28.07 @Yo! 9th has some of the hottest beats. That Consequence/Kanye/LB track is the bizness. I gots to admit I slept on the LB - The Listening. Most of these guys tracks are now my favortie playlist. Also had to cop that Vinyl.
Comment by DJ RED 3 07.06.07 @[…] to flesh it out. Occasionally dude is capable of some slick slicing and dicing that makes my head spin, but ultimately he suffers from the same production aesthetic that plagues Kanye: his joints sound […]
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Flood:
I agree with your assesment of 9th Wonder. I think he’s the sacrificial lamb for the future of hip hop production, i.e. producers (like me) who’ve never touched an MPC but make hot shit.
I admit to having beef with some of his snare sounds (like the majority of the snares on “Murray’s Revenge) only because if you’re going to bite Pete Rock/Premo wholesale, your snares better SNAP! Black Milk makes the best J Dilla beats today because his drums POP like Dilla’s did.
Anyway, 9th is nice–if you get a chance, try to find the beats he did that were rejected for the Black Album–there’s 7-8 world class BANGERS in that folder of 25+ tracks. Some of the tracks ended up on “The Minstrel Show,” on De La’s last album and other albums here and there.
A last bit of info…9th is obviously nice with Fruity Loops, but I think fellow Justice Leaguer Khyrsis is almost on his level with the same software. He too uses the same snare alot, but the samples he freaks are insane!
Comment by Rap Jack Bauer is Zilla Rocca 06.28.07 @