Volume 08

Hip-House & Electro

Fast Eddie, Tyree and the rap-house crossover, 1987–1990

Tempo 120 BPMSwing 54.2%Key C minorDrums 6 × 3 kitsPatches 5

Hip-House & Electro volume cover — Volume 08 · Step One

Listen — Hip-House & Electro

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Where it came from

By 1988 the Chicago house scene and hip-hop were close enough to collide. Producers like Fast Eddie and Tyree Cooper started putting rapped vocals over house tempos and drum programming, and hip-house was born - too fast for hip-hop heads, too rap for house purists, and a huge crossover hit anyway. Fast Eddie's Hip House and Tyree's Turn Up the Bass reached audiences neither genre had alone.

Underneath it ran the older DNA of electro - the Kraftwerk and Bambaataa lineage of syncopated, machine-driven beats built on the 808 and 909, with hand-claps and robotic funk. Where straight house is four-on-the-floor, electro and hip-house lean on broken kick patterns and breakbeat phrasing borrowed from hip-hop.

This is the crossover pack - the point where house, rap and electro overlap.

How it works musically

Faster feel than deep house and rhythmically busier. The kick often breaks from straight four-on-the-floor into syncopated, hip-hop-influenced patterns, and the claps and snares carry more of the groove.

Swing is light - 54%, between the straight electro feel and the house shuffle. The bass is punchy and often follows the kick's syncopation rather than running steady sixteenths. Stabs are bright and short, hitting around the vocal rather than under it.

This is the most rhythmically flexible pack in the collection. The drum patterns here break the four-on-the-floor rule the other volumes keep, which is exactly what made hip-house feel fresh in 1988.

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The patches

Bright StabTyrell N6

Short bright chord stab that hits around the vocal. Fast attack and decay, light chorus. Play it on the offbeats.

Electro SubTyrell N6

Deep 808-style sub bass for the electro patterns. Lower cutoff, rounder, more sustain. The Turn Up the Bass low end.

Hip BassTyrell N6

Punchy crossover bass that follows the kick syncopation. Square with saw, moderate resonance, fast. Programme it to move with the broken kick rather than steady.

Rave OrganTyrell N6

Hollow organ stab for the harder crossover records. Both square, punchy, minimal chorus. The link between hip-house and the rave sound that followed.

SubVital

Clean sine-led sub layer. Run the same bass MIDI on a second track for weight under the main bass, especially the acid screamer and the electro patterns.

The other volumes

01 Chicago Jack 02 Deep House 03 New York Garage 04 New Jersey Gospel House 05 Freestyle & Tribal 06 Acid House 07 Detroit Techno 08 Hip-House & Electro