Black Rob, "No Fear"

What is the very best way to make a rap beat? Is it to play lower-register, minor-key piano chords over a throbbing baseline? Maybe accenting same with some tinkling high notes? Yes. It is. (At least, this is the best way to make a rap beat that I will probably have a hard time not liking. And I can never figure out why more rap producers don’t seem to be concerned with this question.) Harlem rapper Black Rob, who had a big hit ten years ago for Bad Boy Records with the song “Whoa,” but whose particularly grimy style never seemed to fit in well with the label’s 21st century glitz, and who ended up serving four years in prison for grand larceny, getting out just this past May, employs it to good effect on his new song. Rob has a new album, Game Tested & Street Approved, coming in March, apparently.