July 3rd, 2008 by niwa | posted in .nl, albums, beats, compilation, download, downtempo, electronic, free music, funk, hiphop, jazz, mix, soul, triphop |

This week I realised I should keep an eye on .NL hiphop more closely. Even if it isn’t for the MC’s (it’s a well known fact that I really don’t like the Dutch language) it should be for the beatcreators. First we overlooked Inf, and now it seems I missed an article on (Dutch) State Magazine regarding 3 young and upcoming producers:

• FS Green
• SirOJ
• HayZee

To celebrate the article all three guys dropped a beat-tape, which are hosted by .NL’s biggest ‘urban’ radioshow: Lijn5.

First off, FS Green:

taken from MySpace

When listening to this stack of beats it becomes apparent that, and this goes for all 3 sets, this stuff doesn’t even need vocals. Mr. Green relies heavy on samples and with that he has an excellent choice.  Atmospheric moods are all over the place accompanied by the occasional synth, and everything is laid properly on the shuffled beats people have come to love over the past few years. The drum-sequences are reminiscent of Dilla and 9th Wonder but thankfully this isn’t true for every track. And even with this comparison, FS moulds everything to his own sound, staying fresh with every beat.

>> download the FS Green beattape

HayZee:

taken from MySpace

To be honest, I was a little hesitant of putting this set in my player after checking out the Nalden-released ‘Next Level‘ compilation (which I got through hipster-blog Swurdin). Since I grew up in the chiptune era, beats with console rip-offs and remakes are not retro or throwback to me, but just utterly boring and heard-it-all-before. In fact I still believe that all has been done before, and _better_ (Yea I said it, go get your knowledge here: The Ethos9 Emissions).
Anyway, back to HayZee’s beattape. And what a blissful surprise it was. Although it still features some heavy console chipping (Mario vs Megaman track), most of the 8-bit sounds were used in a more refreshing way as a true part of the composition, and not every single track was based on computer bleeps. I did crack a smile at the 8-bit version of Slum Village’s ‘Fall In Love’, which is just beautifully done. The beats are a bit more static on this whole set, but the amount of fun makes up for that. And the intro track is the best Transformers-intro cut I’ve heard so far.

>> download the HayZee beattape

SirOJ:

taken from MySpace

Of the three sets features, OJ’s set is by far the most abstract. Where FS goes for soulful-, and HayZee for synthy composition-beats, SirOJ takes a lot of undefinable little cuts and synthstabs to create a more unsettling score. Sort of an Apocalypse Now soundtrack, if the movie would’ve taken place in the year 2135. Next to that it has some real solid and jazzy cuts on it.

>> download the SirOJ beattape

All in all these are three really dope beattapes, although I must admit that I’m gonna play some oldschool boom-bap shit, that doesn’t utilise the Fruityloops shuffle pattern, when I’m done with this review. It’s clear that we’re going to hear a lot more in the future from these youngsters, since their production is real tight and can only get better in the coming years.

On another note, if you’re in Amsterdam on the evening of august 1st I suggest you don’t plan anything. There will be a dope show featuring a lot of music like this. But we’ll get back to you on that in the coming weeks.