Plus Tapes

Radius’s “Scatterbrain Tapes Vol. 1” beat tape harks back to this golden age of rap producing. But it’s not completely retro-chic either. Born, bred and loved in the city of Chicago, Ramon Norwood’s productions bridge the eras of the MPC60 and the MPC5000, from EPMD’s “Strictly Business” to Flying Lotus’s “Los Angeles.” He sticks to the rhythmic backbone of the hip-hop culture: the acoustic drum loop. But interweaved are the same engaging digital melodies that must’ve haunted Premier’s dreams at night in the pre-Pro Tools age. Hip-hop for the second decade of the new millenium!