From MPCs to FL Studio sessions, one thing remains consistent across generations of Hip Hop and R&B: The power of the sample. With that said, few eras have been mined more heavily than the 1980s. With ...

Some samples breathe new life into forgotten classics, while others recontextualize a song's place in contemporary music more ...

Sampling has quietly reshaped music over the past five decades. A snare hit here, a vocal yelp there, maybe a drum loop that ...

We’re still reeling from last week’s loss of funk legend Sly Stone, who suffered from a prolonged battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It’s hard to even capture in words how profound and ...

When the mainstream popularity of rap music elevated in the late 1980s, it often did so with the help of inventive sampling. While many samples came from the R&B funk world, clever hip-hop artists and ...

Hear where moments of Kraftwerk, Enya, Herb Alpert and more ended up in producers’ deft hands. By Lindsay Zoladz Today’s playlist is a celebration of a tried-and-true method of discovering new-to-you ...

Since the mid-1980s when hip-hop fully entered the popular culture, filmmakers have been including dope beats and great rhymes in the soundtracks of their movies, creating some of the best soundtracks ...

Welcome to The State of R&B, ESSENCE’s look at the past, present and future of rhythm and blues. In this piece, ESSENCE editor Rivéa Ruff reports on the blending of hip-hop and R&B. Since the ...

Hip-hop has evolved into one of the most powerful cultural engines in the world. What started as music now drives fashion, sneakers, video games, food, and even sweepstakes platforms. Hip-hop is no ...