The conversation surrounding the collision of hip hop and electronic music has raged for the past 12 months or so without any regard for history or really any respect for context. In that time, certain media outlets have decided to differentiate between things like “trap rap” and “Trap”, while ignoring hip hop’s roots in dance music and its current incantation (not a new phenomenon by the way) as the predominant form of regional American club music. Amidst this shit storm of misappropriation accusations and general ignorance, a small sect of producers have arisen with the goal of mixing the two medicines (hip hop and dance music that is) into a perfect mind-altering concoction. These producers are not applying tried and true methods of dance music populism to existing hip hop formats, but rather attempting to meld the heavily stigmatized worlds of house/techno and rap music. Grown Folk and Lazer Sword come to mind immediately, but Brodinski and most of the Wedidit crew have been at it for a few years. Just take Low Limit’s (one half of Lazer Sword) recent performance at Boiler Room LA. After starting out strong with selection of pumping techno, Low Limit drops into a soulful house section before transitioning into regional club tunes and eventually hip hop. The mix doesn’t always sound natural, but it’s an engaging experience nonetheless and highlights hip hop’s roots in house music without offering a truly heavy-handed correlation. I, for one, would like to see more of this type of mixing, which offer a new perspective to all those blathering of tarpstyleChiefKeefstep. Stream below.