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DJ Premier
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Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known as DJ Premier is an American record producer and DJ, and the instrumental half of the duo Gang Starr, together with MC Guru on the lyrical side. Originally from Houston, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York virtually his entire professional career. He is hailed as an architect of "hardcore East Coast hip-hop known by its heavy drums and sparse loops."
The Source magazine named DJ Premier one of the 5 greatest producers in hip-hop history, while editors from About.com ranked him as #1 in their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list.
s Martin was introduced to DJing while attending school at Prairie View A&M in Prairie View, Texas.
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Encyclopedia
Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known as DJ Premier is an American record producer and DJ, and the instrumental half of the duo Gang Starr, together with MC Guru on the lyrical side. Originally from Houston, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York virtually his entire professional career. He is hailed as an architect of "hardcore East Coast hip-hop known by its heavy drums and sparse loops."
The Source magazine named DJ Premier one of the 5 greatest producers in hip-hop history, while editors from About.com ranked him as #1 in their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list.
Background
Chris Martin was introduced to DJing while attending school at Prairie View A&M in Prairie View, Texas. DJ Premier's original stage name was Waxmaster C, although he had already changed it to DJ Premier after he had relocated to Brooklyn and joined Gang Starr. He chose the name Premier because his mom gave it to him. He said he is always trying to be the first at everything so it should be "Premier."
Collaborations
Besides producing almost the entirety of the Gang Starr catalog with the Guru, DJ Premier has created countless classics for many groups and solo artists since the early 1990s. These include notable tracks for artists such as
- Nas ("N.Y. State of Mind," "N.Y. State of Mind Part II," "Nas is Like," "Represent," "Come Get Me," "2nd Childhood," "Memory Lane," "I Gave You Power")
- Rakim ("When I be on tha Mic," "New York," "It's Been a Long Time," "Waiting for the World to End")
- AZ ("The Come Up," "The Format")
- Kool G Rap ("On the Rise Again" (featuring Haylie Duff), "Half A Klip," "1st Nigga (Remix)")
- The Notorious B.I.G. ("Unbelievable," "Kick in the Door," "Ten Crack Commandments," "Rap Phenomenon", "Machine Gun Funk [Remix]")
- KRS-One ("MCs Act Like They Don't Know," "KRS-One Attacks," "I Can't Wake Up," "Mortal Thought," "P Is Still Free," "Higher Level," "Rappaz R. N. Dainja," "Wannabeemceez," "Outta Here", "Bring It To The Cypher", "Criminal Minded '08")
- Jay-Z ("D'Evils," "Friend or Foe," "Bring it On," "Million & One Questions," "Friend or Foe ’98," "So Ghetto")
- Common ("The 6th Sense)
- Crooklyn Dodgers ("Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers")
- Big L ("The Big Picture (Intro)," "The Enemy," "Platinum Plus", "Ebonics [Premo Mix]")
- M.O.P. ("Downtown Swinga ’96," "Breakin tha Rules," "New Jack City," "Stick to Ya Gunz," "Brownsville," "Salute," "Lifestyles of a Ghetto Child," "Blood, Sweat, and Tears," "Downtown Swinga," "Handle Ur Bizness (Remix)," "I Luv," "Salute Pt. 2," "Premier Intro," "Every Day," "Face Off," "On the Front Line," "Follow Instructions," "Roll Call")
- Mos Def ("Mathematics")
- 50 Cent ("Shut Your Blood Clot Mouth")
- Dilated Peoples ("Clockwork")
- Snoop Dogg ("The One & Only," "Batman & Robin")
- The Lox ("None of Y'all Betta," "Recognize")
- Verbal Threat ("Reality Check")
- Fat Joe ("The Shit is Real (Remix)," "Dat Gangsta Shit," "Success," "That White")
- Capone-N-Noreaga ("Invincible," "Grand Royal")
- Royce Da 5'9" ("Boom," "My Friend," "Hip-Hop," "Hit ’Em!" "Ding Ding," "Shake This")
- Ludacris ("MVP")
- Xzibit ("What A Mess")
- Kanye West, Nas, KRS-One, and Rakim ("Classic")
- J-Live ("The Best Part", "I Suck A Ni*** Good")
- Afu-Ra ("Defeat", "Mic Stance", "Equality", "Monotony", "Lyrical Monster", "Blvd.")
- Black Eyed Peas ("BEP Empire")
- Limp Bizkit ("N 2 Gether Now" feat. Method Man)
and many more.
However, some of Premier's most lauded non-Gang Starr productions have been his collaborations with lesser known artists. With MC Jeru the Damaja, Premier crafted one of the East Coast's landmark albums in The Sun Rises in the East, released in 1994, and its 1996 follow-up, Wrath of the Math. Also from the Gang Starr Foundation, Premier would produce the bulk of the Group Home's Livin' Proof; although overlooked at the time of its 1995 release, the album has since come to find similar acclaim.
Though almost exclusively a hip-hop producer, DJ Premier collaborated with jazz musician Branford Marsalis's experimental group Buckshot Lefonque, on its debut album. He also found himself in the pop world, producing five tracks for Christina Aguilera's album Back to Basics, which included the first single off the album "Ain't No Other Man," which would win a grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2007. Other non hip-hop artists that appear in Premier's production credits include big names such as Janet Jackson, Brandy, Limp Bizkit, D'Angelo, Craig David, and Macy Gray.
Premier has remixed numerous songs for artists around the world, both inside and outside of the hip-hop realm. He has worked with artists from Russia, Japan, Britain, Canada, and even produced a track for former porn star Heather Hunter.
Production style
Premier's signature style is, essentially, a two-bar break to make up the rhythms of his tracks, and a scratched chorus. His early Gang Starr work relies heavily on melodic samples, but starting with Jeru's The Sun Rises in the East in 1994, he began to use ominous atonal samples as well. (These may have been inspired by the atonal piano samples that figured heavily in Wu-Tang Clan's groundbreaking debut, 1993's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
One notable exception to Premier's style is his more varied beat from Nas' classic track, "Represent"; the chorus is much more musically distinct from the verses than is typical for him. Also, though most of Premier's tracks contain the crackles and pops from the records he samples, he has employed more polished beats in his more mainstream productions.
Samples
DJ Premier's style of production epitomizes the New York sound of his earlier peers. He is known for sampling jazz, funk, and soul artists, as well as sampling an artist's past work when creating a new track for that same artist. In addition, his encyclopedic memory of hip-hop lyrics allows him to distinctively speak with his hands by scratching in lyrics from several different songs to construct new phrases. Premier's non-Gang Starr collaborations are known for his oft-imitated combinations of short vocal samples, often from multiple artists, to create a chorus. For example, in the chorus of Mos Def's "Mathematics," Premier cuts the following in quick succession:
- "The Mighty Mos Def" (from Mos Def's "Body Rock"),
- "It's simple mathematics" (from Fat Joe's "John Blaze"),
- "Check it out" (Lady of Rage from Snoop Dogg's "For All My Niggaz & Bitches"),
- "I revolve around science" (from Ghostface Killah's verse on Raekwon's "Criminology"),
- "What are we talking about here" (from the movie Ghostbusters),
- "Do your math" (from Erykah Badu's "On & On"), and
- "One, two, three, four" (from James Brown's "Funky Drummer")
On certain artists' work, the vocal samples will all be vocal samples of the artist from the artist's past work; "Nas Is Like" and Nas' "2nd Childhood" are two well-known examples of this.
By no means does Premier rely solely on hip-hop and soul samples. He also sampled and chopped up recordings of seminal electro-acoustic music from the 1960s on Jeru the Damaja's "Physical Stamina."
According to Premier himself, in 1989 Large Professor (formerly of Main Source) taught him how to filter samples to create his own bass lines.
Melodies
Premier usually creates a one- or two-measure melody that repeats itself throughout the song, usually using a combination of orchestral and ambient samples. This template of simple repetition leaves plenty of room for the MC to spread out.
He has also shown innovation by playing unusual elements into hip hop songs (such as the bicycle bells in Group Home's "Supa Star" or the ambient nature sounds on Nas' "Nas Is Like"), and his wide range of instruments (the piano loop on Jay-Z's "D'Evils" and the strings on Rakim's "New York (Ya Out There?").
When DJ Premier sampled an obscure electronic funk song (Jean-Jacques Perrey's "E.V.A.") from the 1970s to construct Gang Starr's 1991 hit "Just to Get a Rep," he achieved a water-like effect. This beat alone made him an object of fascination to many would-be producers and DJs. The 1993 single "Come Clean" by Jeru the Damaja became legendary for a melody resembling that of children banging on water pipes.
Drums
DJ Premier's drums have been known to complement his melodies. For example, during Nas' "N.Y. State of Mind", (Samples Kool & the Gang - "N.T pt.2") two bars have a simple round of kicks and snares; in the following two, a complementing second set of drums plays out. This is repeated throughout. Ultimately, the simplistic patterning used to structure his drum beats helps to define the inimitable sound characterizing the typical DJ Premier track. Rarely, if ever, do patterns veer from their programmed two to four bar loops. Drum rolls, cymbal crashes, and hand claps are usually absent.
Multiple beats
Although not entirely unique to Premier, he is well known for producing songs that consist of more than one beat. When this is the case there is usually a short introduction instrumental to bring in the track. He has also used outro beats but these are less common. O.C.'s ("My World"), M.O.P.'s ("Face Off"), Jeru the Damaja's ("Scientifical Madness") and Big Shug's "Tha 3 Shugs" are good examples of this. Several tracks on Group Home's debut album also make use of this technique.
Possibly the first and one of the most noteworthy instance of DJ Premier making use of this technique was on Gang Starr's third album, Daily Operation, with the song "I'm the Man." Guru, Group Home's Lil' Dap, and Jeru the Damaja took turns on the mike while DJ Premier provided three separate instrumentals, appropriating the styles of each individual emcee. This same formula was then recreated two years later on Hard to Earn with "Speak Ya Clout."
Clean versions
Another trademark of DJ Premier is evident in the clean versions of his productions. Premier is known as the first producer to edit the censored words out himself, replacing them with sound effects. This makes the clean versions of the songs much more listenable and fills the void of the absent words.
Influences
In an interview with XXL Magazine, DJ Premier was asked how his sound evolved, to which he replied, "Marley Marl is my number one inspiration. Jam Master Jay, Mixmaster Ice and UTFO. Grandmaster D and Whodini. DJ Cheese, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa. Jazzy Jay, even Cut Creator. Seeing them do what they do. It’s black music, it’s black culture, it comes from the ghetto. How can you not relate to ghetto people when that’s the rawest form of blackness? Even though it’s not a good place in regards to the economy and how bad people have it in the neighborhood, the realism’s there, and that’s what we were born out of. So I very much pay respect by doing the same type of music in return."
Relationships with artists
The details concerning DJ Premier’s falling out with certain artists are hazy and vague, having seen little publicity. Jeru the Damaja, KRS-One, and Group Home were artists who worked with Premier extensively early in their careers but have since parted ways. This was the case with other emcees such as Nas and Jay-Z; however, in the latter cases, it is likely that major-label interference was the main reason that DJ Premier’s involvement was ruled out from more recent projects. Kanye West arranged a reunion between Nas, Rakim, KRS-One and Premier himself in 2006 on the DJ Premier remix version of "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)". Premier worked together with KRS-One again in 2008, recording the track "Criminal Minded '08", a sort of homage on the Boogie Down Productions classic "Criminal Minded", off the same-named LP.
DJ Premier was fully responsible for the production of Jeru the Damaja’s first two albums, "The Sun Rises in the East" and "Wrath of the Math". Jeru released two albums since then, with Premier having nothing to do with either of them. The supposed reason that the two are no longer affiliates is that there was apparently a financial dispute between them, and Jeru felt that Premier was cheating him out of his fair share.
As far as Group Home was concerned, Premier commented, "They don't respect what fed them," in a 2003 interview, going on to say that the only reason he produced a track on their second album was because Guru said he would rhyme on it.
Right Now Premier is working on Royce Da 5' 9" 's latest LP entitled Street Hop which is due out some time in first quarter of 09
Label ownership and future projects
DJ Premier currently owns two record labels. Year-Round Records was founded in 2002 and has so far released several DJ Premier mixtapes as well as 12-inch vinyl singles for NYG'z and Blaq Poet. Works of Mart, which is also the name of his publishing company since the early 1990s, was founded in mid-2006 and released 12-inch vinyl singles for Tef (aka Teflon) and FABID (H. Stax and Mike Rone) and a mixtape. In 2004, he took ownership the now-defunct legendary D&D Studios. After much-needed renovations, it was reopened as HeadQcourterz Studios, named for his fallen friend.
Since the early 2000s, DJ Premier mentioned several times his plan to release a solo album titled A Man of Few Words, which has yet to be released. Other long-confirmed, -delayed, and still-unreleased upcoming projects are a collaboration album with Saigon, Nas, Blaq Poet's album Tha Blaqprint, Teflon's album Contraband, and the NYG'z album Pros and Cons. DJ Premier is said to be producing the first single for Eminem's upcoming album. He had this to say about "Keys to the City," the first single “Man…Eminem is back,” Premier continues. “He attacked the track with a new style, just fucking ridiculous, kind of like how he came with ‘The Way I Am’ but even more lyrical like the old Eminem.”
More recently DJ Premier has appeared as the DJ in a game radio station called "The Classics 104.1" for Grand Theft Auto IV. He also produced most of the songs that appear on the station.
Discography
External links
- Year Round Records Web Site
- A list of all the DJ Premier productions
- Thermal Soundwaves interview with DJ Premier
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