BLEEP UP
The Nextel chirp appears approximately 45 times on ‘Ryder Musik,’ a mixtape Jim Jones released in 2004. As one track fades into another, Jones checks in with collaborators and compatriots through staticky dispatches bookended by a familiar bleep—the alert synonymous with Nextel’s Direct Connect service. The function allowed users to speak via a walkie-talkie function built into their Motorola phones.
MECHANICAL SOUND
For a particular type of rap fan, Nicholas Craven is living the dream. Not the fantasy that plays out in videos and on social media, complete with rented luxury cars and Airbnb mini-mansions, but a tangible, hard(er)-to-earn level of success that an entire generation of Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, and Gang Starr fans fantasized about while dozing away in class or at some bullshit job. Craven, a beatmaker and producer, has the respect of his peers, a successful label, a deep catalog of underground classics, and hundreds upon hundreds of beats in the stash.