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Behind The Boards


And we back…and we back…nah, nah, nah… Santa Cruz sound czar Eddou XL joins today’s version of Behind The Boards. The California-based producer, beat maker and instrumental hip hop creator often finds inspiration in the sounds around him, both in the natural world, and in the work of other artists he admires. He frequently uses …

And we back…nah, nah, nah… Veteran Baltimore, Maryland producer Shine recently released his new album, As The Beauty Became, a lovely and luxuriant collection of mostly instrumental hip hop that pulses and hums with an organic vitality. This contemplative set of nine tracks also includes two sterling guest cuts, one with Brooklyn’s Nappy Nina, and …

And we back… Boston music scene stalwart Rilla Force is a musical polymath and a man with a distinct sound and vibe to his art. He is equally at home both behind and in front of the boards. Force, who raps, produces, mixes, masters, engineers, DJs and manages other artists, is adept at helping musicians …

And we back… From the gritty depths of the UK’s second city, Birmingham, arose an anti-villain who plumbs the muck for hardscrabble sounds, many of which are now instantly recognizable with the underground cognoscenti. This sound architect’s name is Hobgoblin, and today he joins Behind The Boards. Teacher by day, music anti-villain by night, Hobgoblin …

Paul “Willie Green” Womack is a producer, musician and sound engineer who has worked with a wide variety of artists, including Wiz Khalifa, The Roots, Open Mike Eagle, billy woods, Murs and Milo. He has also worked with a disparate group of artists outside of hip hop, such as Donnie McClurkin, Corina Corina and Barrie …

In 2018, Brooklyn spitter Rome Streetz released one of the best collections of hip hop that year, Street Pharmacy. The album is filled with hard-hitting street stories, told with precision and skill, a cautionary tale that expressed some hard truths and offered some hard-won wisdom. Streetz is a skillful raconteur, but the album also featured …

And we back… Prolific Toronto producer and beat maker Astro Mega just released his new album on Sunday Dinner Records, Channel 10. It’s a collection of songs inspired by funk, R & B, Hong Kong action movies, easy listening music, jazz, and smooth jazz. Samples are thrown into a steaming cauldron, where they are chopped, …

The Maryland based musician describes his sound as “Black psychedelic beat music.” And we back… Maryland-based producer, musician and beat maker Saharas Greenery released his new album this week, Science of the Formless Self, an expansive, yet meditative collection of instrumental hip hop, on Sunday Dinner Records. The album imagines vast soundscapes that invite the …

And we back… Bei Ru, the Los Angeles based musician, beat maker and budding vocalist, has been making interesting and compelling music since the early oughts. In 2010, he raided his parents collection of Armenian pop music and released his first full-length, Little Armenia (L.A.), a funky amalgam of hip hop beats and Middle Eastern …