James Blake's Curious Relationship With Hip-Hop

James Blake is an interesting artist in today's music scene. The English singer-songwriter/producers has been many things, from the leader of the supp

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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James Blake is an interesting artist in today's music scene. The English singer-songwriter/producers has been many things, from the leader of the supposed "post-dubstep" scene to the man behind many Harmonimix productions. He captivated the world with his self-titled debut album in 2011, and did it once again with his sophomore project, Overgrown. With the world becoming more in tune with his music, his name has been thrown around many circles, but it's his dabbling with, in, and around the hip-hop scene that's intrigued us. Considering how much James draws from hip-hop production in his own material, aligned with the changing trends in sound that the rap scene has been going through, it makes sense for James to become more of a player within the hip-hop world. With the recent Chance the Rapper feature on Overgrown's "Life Round Here," we decided to take a look at the curious relationship James Blake has had with some of today's biggest rap stars, as well as his work in and around the hip-hop scene in general.

Trimbal

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Want to hear what it's like when grime MC Trim links up with James Blake? Check out "Confidence Boost," which got a release on R&S under the name Trimbal, which finds James putting on his Harmonimix hat and giving Trim some odd pitch-shitfing and off-kilter grime riddims to spit about "striking a pose" to. UK hip-hop hasn't been this awesomely awkward since Tricky debuted.

The Harmonimix of "A Milli"

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Many of our favorite productions from James Blake come in the form of his productions as Harmonimix, which primarily come in the form of remixes. While his Trimbal partner Trim fibbed on Facebook regarding James possibly working with Lil Wayne, James came out to let the world know that this wasn't the case... although he did knock out an amazing remix of "A Milli." Starting out in a chiptune space, he loops Weezy's "a milli" to infinity before dropping some midtempo melodics. Maybe Blake should work with Lil Wayne...

His relationship with Kanye West

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While many remember that previously-untrue versions of the Yeezus production credits tried to have James Blake playing a part in the project, but judging by what we've heard, there's little if any Blake influence in there. On the contrary, many feel that James' time spent in the studio with Kanye West in early 2012 helped influence tracks like "Retrograde" on Overgrown, bringing out some of the soul in Blake's work. There is also a video that showed Kanye in the studio with Mannie Fresh, Hit Boy, John Legend, and James Blake, listening to Mannie Fresh's beats. Only time will tell what a collaboration between James Blake and Kanye West would sound like.

RZA's feature on "Take A Fall For Me"

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James Blake told Reverb that he's always produced in "hip-hop song form," but his place of origin is why he's never played a big part of the hip-hop scene. Upon hearing the beat for what ended up being "Take A Fall For Me," which features an updated sound that you could obviously see as being influenced by RZA, from the looped piano to the snippet of shouted vocal, Blake said people suggest that he get someone to rap over it. He thought that could only be done by the RZA, who surprisingly said yes and turned in this intriguing verse. They've been performing the track on the festival circuit, including at Coachella earlier this year:

Big Boi sample on "Every Day I Ran"

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This sample from Big Boi's OutKast reunion track "Royal Flush" was pretty amazing, considering that the sample only amounted to Big Boi responding with "I ran..." after James would sing "everday." It's an intriguing sample on an understated-yet-powerful bonus track that will suck you in, throw you around, and leave you out to dry.

His relationship with Kendrick Lamar

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Chance the Rapper on "Life Round Here"

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This was just one of those awesome surprises that have made collaborations between great names in the music scene so important. Chance has been buzzing over the last year, and while unsigned, his hype was still potent enough to warrant a call from James Blake to add a verse to Overgrown-standout track "Life Round Here." Noisey's You Need To Hear This blog even says that a video will be on the way...

Working with Drake?

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With the artists that Drake seems to enjoy and put on, it makes sense that he'd find a kindred spirit in James Blake. It had been rumored that James Blake had produced a track on Drake's forthcoming album Nothing Was The Same, but when the album leaked and a confirmed tracklist came about, we had no final details on James Blake's involvement, although James told Rolling Stone that he "saw him at a show and told him I had some ideas knocking around, and he invited me to Toronto. Anything that comes out of that studio, I'm happy to be involved." In any case, James Blake performed at Drake's OVO Fest in August, being one of two non-hip-hop acts to perform (alongside Frank Ocean).

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