Are you familiar with the sci-fi cliche where adamantly warring alien races discover they've actually descended from the same roots? And this always manages to come as some great revelation despite the obvious-ness of it all? I often find this to be true with music styles, particularly electronic ones where a great amount of wasted pretense goes towards The Sonic Emperor's New Clothes fund.

The title of this post is provocative yet true. The biggest difference between DnB and hip-hop is tempo; one is 2x faster than the other. (DnB tends to be 160-200 BPM while hip-hop often goes from 80-100 BPM.) What about MCs, you might ask? Both have a variety of skilled partners in rhyme time, and while the former tends to be more instrumental, that doesn't exclude rapping from being an excellent fit. Both DnB and hip-hop sprung from much African culture, altho in the former's case, it's largely UK-based (with strains from Jamaica influencing dub/dancehall/ragga/etc.), and the latter is American. Don't ever forget those 4 funky German dudes, Kraftwerk, who had a seminal impact on both techstep neurosis and old-skool Afrika Bambaataaisms, and the connections become even more clear. A terrible number of sounds are shared, from synthetic TR-808s to the Amen Break used by both NWA and too many jungle tracks to name. Some luminaries like DJ AK-1200 have observed the gap, but still, it continues to be like the invisible electric elephant in the room. Not always, but often enough.

Trying to hide these facts is in vain; there's nothing to be ashamed of, and certainly a lot of culture and things in common to be shared, to be treasured, to be proud of. Some exemplary examples of DnB-hip-hop hybrids I can think of:

  • Pendulum's "Slam" - Begins with a heavy, thundering beat that would make any rapper proud before doubling in speed with Mega Man boss-like melodies. Instrumental aside from the cinematic voiceover.
     
  • DJ Fresh + DJ Shadow's "Closer" - What I might term a "dream team" collaboration, featuring a gallery of varied beats and a soulful female voice that belongs in both camps with the imaginary dividing line.
     
  • Roni Size & Reprazent + Method Man's "Ghetto Celebrity" - Ominous, claustrophobic stings meet rush-hour breakbeats and squelchy loops. Orchestral stabs skillfully mark the passage of time.
     
  • Jungle Brothers' "Jungle Brothers (Aphrodite remix)" - Great beat programming and timestretched vox pave the way for seamlessly doubling/halving tempo as it suits the dancefloor.

There are more I could go on; I mean no disrespect by not naming them. But to this day, the gap between DnB and hip-hop is startling. There's tremendous holes in both the creative and commercial aspects of building bridges to more lively, vibrant sounds — and trying to pretend there's a big difference between them is the real shame.

And what about breakbeat styles? They're midway, speed-wise, between DnB and hip-hop. There's hope ahead, tho: if only more producers would knock down the tempo walls and take the lead of Pete "Boxsta" Martin's "Sliide", who infuses refreshing rubato and accelerando into modern club music.