Flipping records is the foundation of hip hop. Our forefathers didn’t have the options we have today, with services like tracklib and youtube readily available to find every sound we could imagine. For the OG’s, flipping through bins of records, looking for dope obscure sounds to sample, and safeguarding their findings was the only way to do things. While sampling is far from a lost practice, sample digging is becoming less common, and artists like Brainorchestra work hard to keep that art alive. Todays era of producers have the world on a platter in front of them, and this amount of freedom can actually inhibit their freewill. Artists like Brainorchestra who actually care about hip hop’s roots shine bright and stick out in a field of laziness.

We all know what hip hop means to New York and New Jersey. Hailing from Elizabeth, NJ, Brainorchestra is a rapper and producer who raises the standard for what those words mean in our time. He brings back things that were once commonplace in this industry, like live production and sound sets, crate digging for samples around the world, and an upfront energy that shows his respect for the building blocks of hip hop. As a 14 year old he stumbled across FL Studio on a school computer, and was captivated immediately. After this discovery, he was hooked, and would go to spend his time skipping class and lunch to go work on his craft. His attitude towards art has always been one of admiration, and being such a fan and collector of music fueled that drive to get better and create, as well as form connections with fellow artists. Over the past ten years, his passion has led him to outwork the competition and genuinely carve out a spot in the game. His name stands out as an inspiration for an independent rapper or producer trying to figure out how to build a fan base, and make money off of their art.

Something that I think helps set Brainorchestra ahead of the curve is his honest understanding of the world and the way peoples minds work. He knows the peoples attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and has learned how to move with the social climate while still maintaining a standard level of respect for the basics. For me personally, Brainorchestra is one of the first artists that comes to mind when I think of this generations pseudo-revival of things like physical media, poster promo, and building yourself into a marketable product. The latter part is something that Brain does better than a lot of artists around right now. He has fully turned ‘Brainorchestra’ into a whole brand and product, rather than just an artists alias. With his website brainorchestra.net, he puts out a newsletter to keep fans in the loop of all his ongoings, including new releases, interviews, music videos, merch, and everything else he has going on. While all of these things are smart ways to market yourself, his ventures aren’t solely for his own personal benefit. The most important aspect of Brainorchestra is his willingness to teach others. He has created a Patreon designed to help those with passion discover new outlets and learn how to sharpen their sword. The Patreon focuses on two things: collecting vinyl, and creating music. He uses his ‘Song of The Week’ and ‘Magus Record Chamber’ collections to introduce his subscribers to handpicked discoveries he has made in his countless hours of crate digging in record shops around the world. This allows him to showcase how deep of a hip hop nerd he truly is, as well as shine light on things people wouldn’t think to sample or maybe ever even hear.

“There’s producers that are like, ‘there’s no more samples anymore, everything been sampled, everything been touched.’ And me and my mans are showing each other a bunch of things neither of us have ever seen or heard of. You guys aren’t even searching for the heat. There’s heat everywhere, you’re just focused on what genres are cool and what’s perceived as the best shit. Y’all not even giving a chance to a bunch of stuff that’s out there. That’s why when I go out, anywhere, especially other countries, I set a budget and I go out digging, because I know I’m gonna find something I never knew existed, and it's gonna fuck my head up. It’s gonna remind me why music is so dope, because there’s always something new to be heard.”

That sample hunt is really the driving force of who Brainorchestra is. His series ‘The Proglodyte’ dives into a underutilized genre of material to sample from, prog-rock. The five part instrumental tape series showcases his interest in those less touched genres he was speaking about before. Each volume is around ten minutes long, with the final installment culminating in the release of a full length cassette contain gin all five parts. This tape series reminded me of my first introductions into hip hop as a kid, when I would sit there listening to Madlib for hours on end. Carefully selected vocal samples, like Volume 3’s beginning phrase, “This is it, the drug so powerful it will empty the money from your pockets, make you sell the watch off your wrist, the clothes off your back….” instantly draw you in to the almost psychedelic and ambient hip hop experience you are about to receive. Brainorchestra expertly blends each song into the next, and accomplishes his goal of taking the listener into another world. While taste is obviously subjective, I would find it hard to believe that any true hip hop fan could listen to these tapes and not love them. They are very reminiscent to the early days of hip hop, when sample digging was half of the art in itself. At the bare minimum, these tapes showcase Brain’s genius ability as a beat maker, and flex his knowledge of sound.

While previously best known as a producer, Brainorchestra has spent the last few years proving that he’s more than capable of killing it as a rapper too. As a kid he started rapping before he learned how to produce, but the introduction of beat making captured his attention and took over. He always told himself he wouldn’t want to rap again until he figured out exactly how he wanted things to sonically feel, and learn how to create his own world with his words. As anyone who’s rapped should know, finding your identity takes time and work. His focus on production allowed him to work on his rap in the background. Since his 2019 tape From The 908, Brainorchestra has been flexing his lyrical ability, delivery and flow, and has leveled up with each release. His newest project, “Greatness Takes A Lifetime,” fully produced by Budamunk, offers 8 songs of thoughtful conviction and a message to the rap world. The music video for ‘Legend In My City’ is out now, and shows exactly what you would expect. A genuine look into Brain’s day, sitting at a computer producing, scrolling through the crates in a record store hunting, signing and packaging his cassettes, and proving why he truly is a legend in his city. Everything Brainorchestra does shows how passionate he is about his art, and the art of music in general. His continued efforts to showcase his skills have gathered him a much deserved audience, and his consistent approach to creating, marketing, and building will take him much further than he’s already come.

“I feel like it’s my duty with my art to make sure people understand that I take this super serious, because of the people I look up to and the OG’s. There’s a reason we like the shit we like, and why it stood the test of time. There’s not a lot of rap albums from today that are doing the shit they did back them. I don’t live in the past, but I definitely know that you can’t hate on an album that’s been out 35 years and is still charting. Y’all are not doing that. I’m not doing that yet either. So until I’ve done that, I can’t sit here bending the spoon. It’s an attitude thing towards the art. I’m a music collector. I’ve created a whole career out of digging for music, sitting in a studio, uploading music onto the internet. There’s a way to do this, and reach the audience you’re supposed to. The ones that give a fuck enough to drop that $30 or whatever and support. ”

As always, 10 movie recomendations. Here were Brainorchestra's picks:

• 1: La Haine (1995)
• 2: Enter the Void (2009)
• 3: Fantastic Planet (1973)
• 4: The Lord of the Rings (1978)
• 5: Fantasia (1940)
• 6: Akira (1988)
• 7: KIDS (1995)
• 8: Alice (1988)
• 9: The Shining (1980)
• 10: Consuming Spirits (2012)