Let’s get one thing sorted: Top Billin are good straight-up fun. There are no pretensions here. They operate under the previously underground hip-hop genre of “crunk”. It’s currently undergoing a bit of a revival, especially within the hipster-electro scene (namely Diplo and Crookers). You may have heard me refer to this crunk sound in other posts? Or b-more (baltimore)? Or, confusingly, I refer to both 
in the same phrase (crunky b-more) for no apparent reason – except that I have no other adjectives left at my disposal, so I just repeat the similar ones hoping you won’t notice they both have almost identical meanings. ..I most recently posted a crunky remix of Daft Punk’s ‘Robot Rock’, that layers those rocky booming synths with some b-more bounce. Crunk describes the clappy, bouncy drum sounds repeated throughout these tracks. The likes of Young buk, 8Ball & MJG, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, Lil Scrappy, Oobie, Ying Yang Twins and YoungBloodz pioneered the movement in the 90′s, and crunk really broke into the mainstream in 2000, abundantly with Lil Jon’s material. The drum patterns created are a repetitive, almost primitive, slapping-and-clapping type of drum beat, with an undeniable energy.
But crunk has also come to characterise a different, more dancefloor-friendly version of Hip-Hop. Yes, I hear you all saying that Hip-Hop is dancefloor friendly. Hip Hop is a dance genre (and, after all, electro descends from early Hip-Hop beats). But its not
dancefloor friendly for people like me; who can’t stand the bump-and-grind thing, and, more importantly, can’t actually dance properly. I like to go to a club and hear big-boom tunes blasting out beats that enable you to dance like a true moron. You bounce your head (often in an overly savage thrusting motion, that you don’t realise looks that ridiculous until some inconsiderate bastard-of-a-friend records you on their video phone), pummel the air with your hands, and jump up and down like your having an epileptic fit. Repetitive, looped vocals help too: you can then shout the lyrics out while your throwing shapes and stupid rave moves (and since the vocals are so repetitive you can pretend like you know the words too). In short – without trying to sound too try-hard – I like to rave rather than dance à la R’n'B. Crunk also cuts out all the long-winded lyrics that you can’t really be bothered to dissect in the rave/clubbing atmosophere. Crunk has this clubb-y, rave-orientated feel to it – it loops the dirty, most obscene (or just downright catchy) vocal snippets, that then fit perfectly alongside the bouncy drum-patterns. Yeahhh, bounce like your a moron from ’92.
Top Billin started out with this crunky feel, but their recent productions seem to have somewhat moved away from the b-more sound. Not altogether, though: they’re still sampling the hell out of everything and anything, and dropping some real dirty vocals, while their hip-hop influences remain ingrained in their style. The high-energy choruses still make them the dons of electro-crunk (yeah, I made that up).
Top Billin have actually been around for some time now, I first heard them over at the Chazology blog (R.I.P. – you are the sensei) and was too narrow-minded to appreciate the stripped-down, fun-loving sound. But the Game Over blog reacquainted me with Top Billin, providing this excellent tune ‘Hoes & House’. Here Top Billin have really moved closer to the prevailing electro climate, but also stayed in keeping with crunk; with all the high-energy choruses, catchy refrains and a few sparse b-more breakdowns. The genius of this hugely inventive track is the inclusion of a ‘Peanut Butter Jelly Time’ sample from
the crunky outfit Buckwheat Boyz. (Buckwheat Boyz – Peanut Butter Jelly Time). Their track became an overnight phenomenon as it accompanied that comical dancing banana animation (I would post the fully-animated, all-bouncing GIF animation here, but I don’t feel You Can Call Me Pelski has quite yet descended into such low-brow fodder, and.. er..I don’t know how to…):
Top Billin’ – Hoes & House [pelski highly recommends]
Another of Top Billin’ brilliantly adventurous efforts is San Fran. It features cut up, glitchy snippets of Scott McKenzie’s 1967 hit ‘San Francisco’, layed alongside b-more beats. But Isn’t this really a remix? Or is it just enthusiastic sampling? Well, either way Top Billin’ have named it as their own, and made it their own: their crunky style somehow fits brilliantly with Scott McKenzie’s much revered classic:
Top Billin’ – San Fran [pelski highly recommends]
They incidentally do the same (fusing more b-more beats with a classic sample) in a track that also relies heavily on a Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ sample. This track is a simple but effective crunky rework, that retains Dire Straits guitar hook, with infuses added drum beats. It features on the insanely good ‘Tales From Top Billin Vol1′. This remix has been mixed into every set from here to Baltimore:
Top Billin’ – Money For Nothing [pelski highly recommends]
‘Tales From Top Billin’ Vol 2′ features the high-speed b-more tune ‘Do You Wanna Party’, but the real treat is the slower, soulful ‘Willing’ that illustrates more of Top Billin’s masterful sampling, here dropping in some funky Gil Scott. ‘Do You Wanna Party’ is a heavy on the crunk style and hip-hop vocals. Raziek also features on this Vol, with another hyperactive track looping repetitive vocals. But DJ Ayles also provides a b-more tune for Vol 2: starting with some sounding trumpets, drum-patterns, looped work it samples, and half way through another entirely different ‘work it’ sample is mixed in – a minuscule snippet of ‘Harder, Better, Faster Stronger’. Pure genius :
Top Billin’ – Willing [pelski highly recommends]
Top Billin’ – Do You Wanna Party
DJ Ayles – Work It [pelski highly recommends]
On the ‘We Die In The Club’ EP there’s the great fun ‘Yeah!’, with an electric guitar riff, some punchy drum beats and a pop-y vocal sample.
Their latest EP is a collaboration with Helsinki electro-thrash band New Judas: ‘Top Billin vs. New Judas’. Hoes & House [see above] is the standout, but impressive, too, is the 80s-esque, cheese-filled ‘My Girl Wants To’. Like all their material; it’s old-school, but here underlaid with a consistent buzzing bassline. New Judas whack out some slow but infectious bassy drum beats, interspersed with blasts of distortion on top of some inexplicable screaming. All good fun:
New Judas – Send In The Clowns
Vintage backing and hip-hop vocals make for a nice blend in ‘Tell Your Girl To Juke It Up’. One Last Time is a b-more reworking of, you guessed it, ‘One More Time’ by Daft Punk. And last of all is a trademark remix of T-Pain’s ‘Dancefloor’:
Top Billin – Tell Your Girl To Juke It Up
Top Billin – One Last Time
Oh.. and the word crunk itself? Derived from the combination of crazy and drunk. Which is what you’ve gotta be to produce the track ‘In The Ass‘. Let’s just say its pure filth (and I’m not talking about basslines here)…
Download their many free mixtapes here (nine released so far). And buy their outstanding EP’s here.
