What Kind of Hip Hop Head Are You? · Result
The Crate Digger
You know the record the break came from, and the one before that.
Designed rarity: about 8% of takers
For you a beat is a puzzle with an answer in a dusty bin somewhere. You tend to hear a loop and immediately want to know what it was before it was a loop: which soul record, which jazz session, which library album recorded for television and then forgotten. People like you can lose an entire Saturday to a basement record shop and come out happy with three records and a story. Boom bap still sounds like home, because it is the sound of somebody else doing exactly what you love.
You like record fairs, bins with no labels on the dividers and shop owners who will play you something from behind the counter. You tend to keep notes, in your head or on paper, about who sampled what, and you are often the person a producer asks when they need a break nobody else has. In a club you prefer a DJ who digs, a set where the original and the flip sit side by side. Long sets, small rooms and nights built for people who listen are where you shine.
Your strength
You can trace a sample back two or three records and tell the story of every step.
Your blind spot
You can treat newer sounds as less serious simply because nobody found them in a crate.
Key takeaways
- You hear where the music came from, and that changes how you hear everything.
- Every era of hip hop has samples worth digging for.
- Your knowledge is best shared as a gift, not a test.
Rooms to try around the world
- Amoeba Music, Los Angeles: Aisles so deep that the cheap bins alone can fill a whole weekend.
- Sonic Boom, Toronto: A big independent shop in Toronto where the used bins reward patient hands.
- Academy Records, New York: Crowded bins of soul, jazz and funk where the next sample is usually one sleeve away.
Your nearest types
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