If you’ve listened to rap in the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered the work of a loopmaker. With artists recording at a dizzying pace, the demand for beats is at an all-time high, so producers have begun outsourcing to a network of musicians who provide them with instrumental hooks for their tracks.
As outlined in Pitchfork’s recent feature, these melodic loops—and the producers who make them—have become a fundamental, if largely underappreciated, part of the way today’s biggest rap songs come together.
Though loops have become a rap industry standard, there’s still something of a stigma attached to them, obscuring the process for those on the outside.
Read more on pitchfork.com