Samiyam – Rap Beats Vol.1

This is the self-released album from LA’s Samiyam and it comes with a unique hand made and doodled cover art for Sam him self. Mine is some porn with two girls that have been penned over in green on the mouths and nose, one has a moustache now and still looks hot… Then flip to the inside and you can see it’s cut out from a porn mag and he has highlighted the bit that says and I quote, ”Anal Cocksucking Whores 29” and put in a helpful pointer for me that says, ‘It’s the best 28 was shit’ so nice one Samiyam for that tip. Oh you can’t see any rude bits to titillate you he has drawn on those and will leave the music to float your boat…

Off kilter instrumental hip-hop beats are the name of the game on Rap Beats Vol.1 not unlike his LA scene buddy Flying Lotus he even makes beats with him under the name FLYamSAM you can find an example of this on a Ghostlyswim free compilation I posted about a while back now. He has also just released an EP on ace dubstep label Hyperdub but I will write about that in the not to distant future, back to the album anyhow.

Rap Beats Vol.1 is thirty odd minuets of pure wonky bass driven hip-hop, it’s mishmash as you can imagine, a bit cut’n’paste in places but overall a great listen. The ideas he has going are ace samples are freaked around with to make woozy grooves and slanted beats. The funk keeps coming and he never misses a beat. This will get your head nodding if you are a fan of FlyLo, slightly left of centre hip-hop or pretty much any bass and groove based music like funk, electro or dubstep. His style reminds me of some Mr Oizo with the heavy bass and quirky beats. Samiyam uses his electro influences more organically than Oizo though, there is a real deep warmth to Rap Beats Vol.1.

He is up their with Flying Lotus in making this kind of hip-hop right now I can’t get enough of both of them. FlyLo brings a more organic underwater vibe to his productions and Samiyam goes for a slightly more digital sound. Rap Beats Vol.1 comes highly recommended by me it’s addictive. Check out a couple of free downloads here.

SamiyamSpace