Looking to hook your video and multimedia projects up with a retro hip hop vibe? Well, you’ve come to the right place. That’s because the best way to get that retro hip hop style added to any project is by adding retro hip hop music.
It’s kind of fascinating how that works, right?
Of course, retro hip hop is more than just music. It’s a style and a movement that is heavily influenced by the artists and musicians who developed its aesthetics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
So, if you’re working on any type of project—whether that be a documentary film, a podcast episode, or a marketing video for your social channels—that could use that retro hip hop sound, let’s go over some of the best retro hip hop music tracks to consider for your needs.
What Is Retro Hip Hop Music? A Quick Look at the Genre
Retro hip hop music traces its roots to the early 1970s in African American communities in New York City. Originally called “disco rap” at the time, hip hop music has evolved over the years but can consistently be characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical styles and techniques, most notably including “rapping” as a chief form of vocal delivery.
Hip hop culture itself evolved from this form of music and spread through radio play and community events to outside of just New York. By the 1980s, hip hop had begun to spread across the country, gaining widespread popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period often referred to as the golden age of hip hop.
While hip hop would evolve over the following decades, this early era has remained perhaps the most popular version of the genre. And one that remains synonymous with a specific style and feel, still referenced and pastiched in all types of music, films, and popular culture today.
10 top royalty free retro hip hop songs
As such, if you’re looking to homage and honor the retro hip hop style in your projects, there’s no better way to do it than with music that harkens back to that golden age era. Of course, the first choice for many will be to use tracks from the early days of hip hop.
However, as you might quickly learn when working to license music for various uses, it can be a bit tricky—and often very expensive—to license popular music for smaller videos and posts. If you use music that you haven’t properly licensed, you’re liable to have your videos receive copyright strikes, be muted or taken down, or even have your accounts and channels banned.
The best way to use retro hip hop music in your videos and projects is by using royalty free hip hop beats that are already licensed with music licensing libraries like Soundstripe.
To give you an example of what we’re talking about, check out these top royalty free retro hip hop songs, which are all available for easy licensing.
1. Tumshie by Midnight Daydream
- Description: A medium-energy, funk song that is best described as hopeful and happy. Drums and drum kit are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 100
- Key: D Major
- Listen and license here
2. Dock It Like Its Yacht by Tony Sopiano
- Description: A low-energy, electronic song that is best described as chill. Bass and synth bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 80
- Key: C Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A very low-energy, hip hop song that is best described as hopeful. Horns and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 80
- Key: D Minor
- Listen and license here
4. Outmatched Ops by Ghost Beatz
- Description: A medium-energy, hip hop song that is best described as suspenseful and angry. Piano and bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 105
- Key: E Minor
- Listen and license here
5. Catch The Breeze by Dr. Delight
- Description: A low-energy, hip hop song that is best described as happy and fun. Organ and synth are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 80
- Key: F Major
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low-energy, electronic song that is best described as happy and fun. Drums and electronic drums are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 100
- Key: F Minor
- Listen and license here
- Description: A high-energy, hip hop song that is best described as happy and fun. Drums and electronic drums are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 126
- Key: Gb/F# Minor
- Listen and license here
8. So In Love With You by Amir Madani Rascado
- Description: A medium-energy, hip hop song that is best described as hopeful and happy. Drums and drum kit are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 80
- Key: C Minor
- Listen and license here
9. Means To An End by Nu Alkemi$t
- Description: A low-energy, hip hop song that is best described as chill and reflective. Bass and synth bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 90
- Key: E Minor
- Listen and license here
- Description: A low-energy, hip hop song that is best described as chill and reflective. Bass and synth bass are the primary instruments in this track.
- BPM: 101
- Key: D Minor
- Listen and license here
These are just a few top selections for retro hip hop songs that sound both authentic and old school. If you’d like to explore more music and other genres, check out our complete catalog on our Soundstripe app.
What is royalty free music?
Mentioned above a little bit, let’s further explore what the term “royalty free” means regarding music licensing for your projects. Here’s a great read on what royalty free music means.
To understand how music rights and royalties work, you must know that all music has basic copyrights. These copyrights extend to both the composer of the music and the musicians who recorded it. And if you want to use any music in any videos, you’ll need to obtain permission from the copyright owners.
Royalty free music can be an excellent option for all your projects simply because it’s easy to find and use. Soundstripe’s music is composed and recorded by Grammy-winning artists who know how to make great music for all types of films and video content.
Our top playlists for royalty free retro hip hop music
To further give you more retro hip hop music to consider for your videos and projects, let’s go over some more curated playlists that feature that retro hip hop sound, or other similar genres.
Description: Covering the late eighties to the millennium, these backbeats and 808s will make you bust a move.
Description: Get into the flow with this mix of Rap, Lo-Fi, and Modern Hip Hop. May Contain Explicit Lyrics.
Description: Chill, downtempo experimental Hip-Hop.
Description: Your favorite mixtape of chill LoFi hip hop tracks.
Description: Hip-Hop, Rap, and Trap bops with creative flow. Some tracks contain explicit lyrics.
Description: Lo-Fi and cruising hip-hop.
Description: Personal favorite Hip Hop and Rap tracks chosen by the smiling staffers at Soundstripe.
Again, these are just a few playlists that showcase a small percentage of the overall Soundstripe catalog. If you’d like to keep exploring more tracks, check out these additional playlists here.
Tips for using retro hip hop music in your videos
Once you’ve selected the right royalty free retro hip hop track (or tracks) for your videos, you can begin the process of editing these music tracks into whatever your multimedia projects might be—and trust us, this is the fun part.
To help you give your videos that perfect rhyme and rhythm, here are some helpful tips to keep in mind to make working with royalty free music in your editing process easier and more streamlined.
- Consider downloading preview tracks to use as placeholders in your edits before deciding if a track is right for your project.
- Explore our library of royalty-free sound effects to add extra energy and action to your animated videos.
- Try out Soundstripe’s AI Song Editor to instantly edit your audio track to match the length of your animated videos.
Retro hip hop is one of the most popular music genres for a reason. It’s soulful and sincere, with great energy and bounce. If you’re looking to add these characteristics to your videos, these tracks and tips above will help you give your videos that retro hip hop style, feel, and vibe.
