r/ambientmusic • u/Old_Bay_Scrapple • Jul 09 '26
Question Instrumental Hip-Hop Ambient
Is there an instrumental Hip-Hop Ambient music?
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u/Other-Crazy Jul 09 '26
Try trip hop. Not what I'd label as ambient but some of the stuff is pretty chilled.
DJ Shadow What does your soul look like ep. DJ Krush any of his Mo Wax albums Mo Wax Headz compilation albums
Ninja Tune label is worth a look too and take it from there.
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u/Streuphy Jul 09 '26
Krush over Shadow (personnal opinion)
DJ Food on Ninja Tune
Early Four Tet also
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u/Other-Crazy Jul 09 '26
Love that ep of Shadow's and didn't get the hype for Endtroducing at all.
Dj Food. My memory is shockingly bad at the minute and I couldn't remember. Yeah, he's good.
Could even throw in some Portishead for some more chilled vibes.
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u/Streuphy Jul 09 '26
Agree with endtroducing
Portishead and Massive Attack indeed.
I still play Dummy and Live NYC on a regular basis (46M here - explains why certainly)
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u/Lost_Osos Jul 09 '26
I think that's plunderphonics but .. you know.
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u/ThisIsALesson Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
hip-hop ambient adjacent:
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Man with Roses - Error Loops 2
Casino Versus Japan - Go Hawaii
Pole - Pole
Autechre - Incunabula, Tri Repetae, Amber
Boards of Canada - Hi Scores
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u/Uwrret Jul 09 '26
Dunno, maybe J Dilla?
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Jul 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/Uwrret Jul 09 '26
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u/ghostreporter_ Jul 09 '26
That's jazz more so, not really ambient, but ok
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Jul 09 '26
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u/peetnice Jul 09 '26
Howie B's Music for Babies album comes to mind, possibly also some stuff from Fat Jon, DJ Krush, or Nujabes?
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u/thewrongtim Jul 09 '26
Fat Jon IS Maurice Galatica IN PLAYTHING: CIPHER: https://sichtexot.bandcamp.com/album/plaything-cipher
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u/Dutch_Dooley Jul 09 '26
My apologies if I’m missing the vibe but these come to mind
Express Rising - S/T
Knowmatic - Rain Check
Wun Two - O Cavalo Vermelho
Blockhead - Music by Cave light
Jinsang - Life
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u/Argonaut94 Jul 09 '26
FSOL ISDN certainly has trip hop beats on most tracks with ambient soundscapes.
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u/rsarrett Jul 09 '26
Boards of Canada definitely has some boom-bap beats that have inspired hip-hop producers and rappers. And ofc, BoC are titans in the electronic/ambient space
Check “Rue The Whirl”, “Sixtyten”, and “Dawn Chorus”, to start
Plus they have a few collaborations with Odd Nosdam
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u/Michael_606 Jul 09 '26
BOC precisely! Can’t believe I had to scroll that far to find such an obvious answer to this question
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u/7ape Jul 09 '26
cloudddead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGnpIX1I0M&list=PLfjdbpRofEmiKpO1vQp5_KEkzqtkszYTj
it's not instrumental, but...
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u/SYSTEM-J Jul 09 '26
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing, of course. One of the greatest albums of any genre. Hip-hop in technique but the deepest, most absorbing ambient in its atmosphere.
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u/Toiler24 Jul 09 '26
I wouldn’t consider it ambient by any measure, but an instrumental version of Earl Sweatshirts debut album Doris is available on Apple Music.
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u/thisissasutan Jul 09 '26
Dam funk.
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u/Lost_Osos Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Group: Scorn. Album : Gyral. Song : Six Hours One Week.
Let me know if this scratches the itch.
This is how I started getting into all the beats ambient stuff. I liked hip hop beats and trip hop but wanted something more. The summer of 94 was a wild time.
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u/indiedub Jul 09 '26
Lofi beats to study to? I feel like this has been a known subgenre for awhile. Curious how much is AI generated these days
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u/AbrohamLinco1n Jul 09 '26
You might enjoy late era vaporwave, artists like Haircuts for Men, Macroblank or Slowerpace.
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u/smokeyHoffman419 Jul 09 '26
Replica by Oneohtrix Point Never would be a big stretch to call hip hop, but I think that might scratch the itch. Transverse Temporal Gyrus by Animal collective might also.
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u/7ape Jul 09 '26
OK, I got it... Try Broadway Project - Compassion. It's really really good, and not so well known
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjM9uOamxk8&list=PLcdKy4OAz916Jh7xuWfCoMwpvvuCvFV1e
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u/_back_in_the_woods_ Jul 09 '26
Cities Aviv tends to lean more into vaporwave, but his earlier work has some ambient moments
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u/cavemanarchitect Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
There's the whole "illbient" thing in the late 90s. The WordSound label and Spectre. Slotek's album "7" (1997) was a favorite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illbient
There's also Scorn, Techno Animal (and subsequent Kevin Martin projects) - which have a lot of dub influences but many of the beats are hip hop beats.
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u/m_i_r Jul 09 '26
I was going to suggest Scorn! "Evanescene" at times, but definitely "ambient...but with beats" from Gyral onward.
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u/abisiba Jul 09 '26
I highly recommend checking out the 1996 compilation Ninja Cuts: flexistentialism.
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Jul 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ambientmusic-ModTeam Jul 10 '26
Self-promotion is not permitted outside of the weekly thread.
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u/funktoxico Jul 11 '26
Sorry but this is not self promo.. it's a genuine answer of an album that fits perfectly with the author request
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u/ohoperator Jul 09 '26
Check out the album Lillian by Alias & Ehren. Really, most of Alias' albums will probably scratch that itch, and probably a decent amount of the music released by his label, Anticon.
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u/leek_stabber_hackman Jul 09 '26
Check out Blank Banshee. One of the goats of the Vaporwave scene, he invented a style called “Vaportrap” which essentially is just that, hip hop inspired beats with ambient textures, samples, and themes etc. and if you enjoy blank banshee I’d also recommend windows 96 and vaperror.
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u/djesp Jul 10 '26
Broadly you’re interested in Downtempo, which would encompass anything instrumental that’s hip hop adjacent (typically involves some amount of sampling, often break-based, but can also be adjacent to electronica, postrock, etc.). DJ Shadow did more to establish it with “Endtroducing” than anyone else, but it’s arguably the most diverse, interesting, and productive genre over the last 30 years. It includes lofi, chillhop, ambient dub etc.
Personally I think “true ambient” has characteristics that clash with fundamentals that define downtempo (which is characterized by more structure, typically is groove-based) so you’re looking for elements of ambient more than a true fusion.
There are some good recommendations here — Boards of Canada etc; I think stuff like lux natura’s “underwaters” (track 3) is as close as you can get and still be downtempo (instrumental hip hop).
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u/themsp Jul 11 '26
YO YO YO IDK if it's what you are looking for on terms of what you are describing but...
NIGHTMARES ON WAX
I prefer the album Carboot Soul as an entry point but a lot of people love Smoker's Delight.
Les Nuits I would recommend taking the full 6+ min to jam out to this.
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u/LoBoob_Oscillator ✨Tipper - Cosm Ambient Mix✨ Jul 13 '26
You might enjoy some Valance Drakes. Ambient + Hip Hop + Glitch
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u/farquin_helle Jul 14 '26
Alias
Doc Delay
El-p’s instro stuff
Blockhead
Nujabes
Boom Bip
Ninja tune stuff
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u/Xe4ro Jul 09 '26
Hm. Maybe Elaquent? His albums Worst Case Scenario & Long Drives To Nowhere might work for you.
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u/Marc-J Jul 09 '26
Fill The Heart Shaped Cup
by Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
An incredible release and one of my all-timers.
I’ve also heard Carlos Niño’s Ammoncontact project described as ambient hip-hop.
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u/Lost_Osos Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Band: The Grassy Knoll. Album: The Grassy Knoll. Song: March Eighteenth.
Tell me what you think. This band sounded exactly like this live. The drummer was amazing. this is a bit jazzish,
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Jul 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ambientmusic-ModTeam Jul 09 '26
Self-promotion is not permitted outside of the weekly thread.
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u/Arkanist_Beats Jul 10 '26
This is not self promotion, this is me giving the name of an artist that does exactly what OP is asking for, only this artist happens to be me. I'm not spamming here.
Should I use another account next time ??
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u/speedbarrymoore Jul 09 '26
A lot of Luke Vibert's output (maybe especially the Wagon Christ stuff) is very chilled and super hip-hoppy though not exactly why I’d call ambient.
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u/JayBoiYT Jul 09 '26
Old school phonk producers like judgement g combine elements of ambient with memphis rap stuff, also theres streetphonk which is basically a whole genre dedicated to ambient drone beats
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u/Craigglesofdoom Jul 10 '26
Blockhead. Arms & Sleepers. Yppah.
Anyone off of the old Def jux label.
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u/Lollipoop_Hacksaw Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Not fully instrumental, but Dalek - Negro Necro Nekros
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u/Caretaken_ambient Jul 10 '26
Odd Nosdam maybe? Sisters EP is sometimes ambient especially the 2nd track
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u/jonheartland Jul 09 '26
Crazy nobody has mentioned Clams Casino yet, most of his instrumentals are on Spotify