At times it almost seems like a joke; music made by the kids who used to run around the supermarket pressing the "Make me talk!" button on the stuffed animals on a shelf over and over again. "I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you," etc. The result is so much more, however.

In the new era of hip-hop, looping and sampling have broken through to the mainstream as legitimate art forms. It seems so simple: Take someone else's music, chop it up, add a beat and create a whole new song.

Legions of fans live to worship underground sensations such as Quasimoto and Madlib — wait a second — Quasimoto and Madlib are the same person. Only Quasimoto is Madlib's higher-pitched, mentally unstable alter ego. And Quasimoto makes a guest appearance on the recent Madvillain release, Madvillainy, is really just an album full of Madlib's beats with MF Doom providing the rhymes. It only gets more complicated as the names get more and more mixed up, guest appearances become commonplace and numbers of alter egos enter the double digits.

Seattle is no stranger to the recent spike in underground acts, full of notable local celebrities such as Blue Scholars, Common Market and Dyme Def. The scene is unique, too. Seattle hip-hop acts are predictable representatives of their city — well-educated, articulate and socially conscious.

Heavily influenced by jazz and classic R&B, today's beats and samples often play a more important roll in hip-hop music than the lyrics and rhymes. Local musician Milla has spent quite some time honing in on his signature hip-hop sound. Originally from Seattle's Eastside, Sean "Milla" Miller started looping and sampling in high school, creating a jazzy, funky library of beats.

"I like to work with jazz more than anything," Milla said. "One of my biggest influences is Shaheed [Muhammad] from [A] Tribe [Called Quest]."

After spending two years at the University of Hawaii, Milla developed an identifiable sound, reflecting his roots in the Northwest and his love of jazz and soul.

"Hawaii was definitely beautiful and a lot of fun, but I need the Seattle scene. Plus, I'm not that into reggae, and it's hard to get away from that in Hawaii," Milla said.

He's even been approached by a number of artists searching for beats to rhyme over, including Seattle's own "Chocolate Chuck." Milla is enrolled at the UW and will continue to produce beats in hopes of collaborating with other local artists.

While he has developed quite a following on the Internet during the past year, a copyright infringement dispute with MySpace left Milla rather flustered and forced to start from scratch on many of his beats. One of the beats formerly on his MySpace account sampled Sarah Vaughan, and Milla found himself notified by the administrators that his account was being terminated. This was quite a surprise, considering that many underground producers who have become sensations are guilty of the same copyright infringements.

Milla has overcome, however, and has managed to keep in touch with peers such as DJ Laptop, Rcade Digital and The Beat Attic. These are musicians of a different ilk — music savants, enamored not with songs in their entirety but with specific segments and portions of a piece. They frequent record stores, own massive amounts of vinyl and live a great deal of their lives in front of computer screens wearing headphones.

"Usually I sit down with a brew, slip on the headphones and go at it for a few hours," Milla said, referring to his beat-making habits.

"I make most beats from start to finish, I mean, unless I'm working with a particularly tough sample or loop. It takes hours and hours at a time."

Like most of his contemporaries, Milla's record collection is extensive, including everything from James Brown and George Benson to Paul McCartney and Bloc Party. The hard drive on his computer is brimming with unused samples, both musical and vocal.

"I chop up whatever sounds good to me at a given time, and most of it never gets used," Milla said.

The samples get pretty creative, too — a recent beat includes a number of sped-up cassette tape loops, as well as segments of Richard Nixon's resignation speech.

While many of his audio samples may combine a bit of humor with the beats, Milla's music samples, both homemade and taken from classic jazz songs, create a smooth, relaxed mood.

This fall he will be networking with several other instrumental hip-hop artists, creating a beat compilation that has yet to be titled but will undoubtedly contain stress-free, street-influenced vibes.

Milla's music can be found at myspace.com/millabeats123.