Electronica - Hip Hop Fusion

Hip Hop Fusion

Hip hop DJs and producers had been mining electronic sounds to create beats since Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash pioneered the use of drum machines and synthesizers in the early 1980s, and the hip hop genre shared with other forms of electronic music an emphasis on sampling. Beginning with the success of Dr. Dre and G-funk rap in the mid 1990s, many hip hop producers began turning to a more synthesized sound, resulting in the rise of "superproducers" such as The Neptunes, who cultivated a science fiction image with sleek, overtly electronic beats, and Timbaland, who did likewise and also was known for creative sampling, rising to fame for his work with Aaliyah and Missy Elliott and producing a variety of pop and R&B records for artists such as Justin Timberlake. Timberlake's 2006 hit songs "SexyBack" and "My Love", both produced by Timbaland, were particularly notable for their electronic aesthetic, while The Neptunes worked with a range of acts from Britney Spears to Jay-Z.

A variety of other hip hop performers used electronica-influenced sounds as hooks in their songs. Outkast, a popular and acclaimed hip hop duo, adopted sounds in their 2003 hit single "Hey Ya" and member/producer Andre Benjamin praised the music of Squarepusher. In 2007 Kanye West, initially known for more natural sounding hip hop productions influenced by classic R&B music, released his third album Graduation, which featured some songs with a sharp electronic aesthetic, a sound which greatly expanded on West's latest album, where he emphasized synthesizer and vocal manipulations prominently and cited major influences from 1980s synthpop music, as well as from T-Pain, a hip-hop performer known for manipulating his voice by using the electronic effect processor Autotune. However, West's 2007 single "Stronger" used a prominent sample from a song by the French dance-oriented electronic act Daft Punk, whose work in the 1990s and early 2000s was also becoming highly sampled and influential on the musical aesthetic of acts in other genres such as indie rock and indie dance.

Electronica in 2009 gained global recognition as an essential part of most hip hop becoming the core sound on a range of tracks by artists like The Black Eyed Peas and new emerging artists like Tinie Tempah, and in 2010 Daft Punk with the release of the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy.