Adrian Younge is an American composer, arranger and music producer based in the Los Angeles area.
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"This album, by A Tribe Called Quest, called 'Midnight Marauders' is a perfect example of an amalgamation of sounds put together to make something new. And this 'Midnight Marauders' album, what they did as far as using crazy fuzz guitar stuff with crazy jazz, to make something very new and very black was just insane to me."Watch this moment
"This, 'Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse' by Eugene McDaniels. I mean, it's insane, and it's like a very ill psychedelic-type jazz album. When I found this original, it really kind of expanded my mind to show how you could have a spiritual jazz composition make sense from an album perspective."Watch this moment
"It really hit me in '97, when I went to go see this band, Portishead. It was hip-hop, but it was also psych rock. But it was also very cinematic."Watch this moment
"This record right here, 'Manhattan Research,' this compilation by this brother Raymond Scott is pretty insane. Raymond Scott was a jazz pianist and he was a little outside the box. Created a lot of commercials, but instead of just using the typical orchestras or the typical other organic instruments, he decided to fully invest himself in these new things called synthesizers."Watch this moment
"David Axelrod, 'Songs of Experience.' David Axelrod is somebody that has inspired the world of music. A true composer/producer that was really creating a lot of the music that served as the bedrock for hip-hop."Watch this moment
"Arthur Verocai. I look at him as the Brazilian version of David Axelrod. Just like David Axelrod, he used an orchestra to compose. Just like David Axelrod, he was using fat drums, fat bass to create this hip-hop kind of foundation at a time before hip-hop even existed."Watch this moment
"Gil Scott, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.' Very, very, very important album. One of the real trailblazers. If you listen to the music, if you listen to the beats, it sounds like hip-hop beat. If you listen to him saying his poetry, sounds like he's flowing, sounds like he's rhyming."Watch this moment
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