DJ Premier

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DJ Premier
Birth name Christopher Edward Martin
Also known as Preem, Primo, Premo
Born March 21, 1966 (1966-03-21) (age 42)
Houston, Texas, United States
Origin Brooklyn, New York, United States
Genre(s) Hip hop
Occupation(s) record producer, DJ
Instrument(s) Drum machine
Keyboard
Sampler
Turntable
Years active 1987 – Present
Label(s) Wild Pitch/EMI (1987–1990)
Chrysalis/EMI (1991–1998)
Virgin/EMI (1998–2003)
Year Round (2003–)

Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known as DJ Premier (also Premo/Primo/Preemo/Preme/Preem) is a prominent American hip hop 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. Many fans and hip hop purists consider him to be the greatest hip hop producer ever. He is hailed as an architect of "hardcore East Coast hip-hop known by its heavy drums and sparse loops."[1]

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.[2]

Contents

[edit] 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 he wanted to be the first to do what he did.

[edit] Collaborations

Besides producing almost the entirety of the Gang Starr catalog with Guru, DJ Premier has created countless classics for many groups and solo artists since the early 90's. 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", "Waiting for the World to End"), AZ ("The Come Up", "The Format"), The Notorious B.I.G. ("Unbelievable", "Kick in the Door", "Ten Crack Commandments", "Rap Phenomenon"), KRS-One ("MC's 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"), Jay-Z ("Million & One Questions", "D'Evils", "So Ghetto", "Bring It On"), Common ("The 6th Sense","The Light"), Big L ("The Big Picture (Intro),""The Enemy", "Platinum Plus") , 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", "Intro", "Premier Intro", "Everyday", "Face Off", "On The Front Line", "Follow Instructions", "Roll Call"), Mos Def ("Mathematics"), Dilated Peoples ("Clockwork"), Snoop Dogg ("The One & Only", "Batman & Robin"), The Lox ("None of Y'all Betta", "Recognize"), Fat Joe ("The Shit Is Real", "Dat Gangsta Shit", "Success", "That White"), Capone-N-Noreaga ("Invincible") Royce Da 5'9" ("Boom", "My Friend", "Hip-Hop", "Hit 'Em!", "Ding Ding") 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 the 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 extensively with jazz musician Branford Marsalis's experimental group, Buckshot Lefonque, for their debut album. He also recently 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.

[edit] 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); Premier uses a sample from 36 Chambers track "Tearz," Wu producer RZA's ominous laughter, to comprise the chorus from Jeru's "Ain't the Devil Happy.")

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.


[edit] 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.[3] Premier's non-Gang Starr collaborations are well-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.

[edit] Melodies

Premier usually creates a one or two-bar 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 rap 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 funk electronic song from the '70s to construct Gang Starr's 1991 hit "Just To Get A Rep" (Jean-Jaques Perrey's "E.V.A."), 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 has become legendary for a melody resembling that of children banging on water pipes.

[edit] 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.

DJ Premier's drums are amongst the most distinctive in the genre, known for being especially punchy, crisp, and well-defined. This is a characteristic that has manifested itself more prominently in the latter half of his career, although this is only a generalization.

[edit] 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. Jay-Z's "A Million and One Questions" (flips halfway through changing from a light preemo beat, to a dark bass headnodder) and 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."

[edit] Clean versions

Another trademark of DJ Premier is evident in the clean versions of his productions. Premier is known to edit the obscenities 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.

[edit] 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."

[edit] 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, M.O.P., 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.

DJ Premier was fully responsible for the production of Jeru the Damaja’s first two albums. 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.[4]

[edit] 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 The Best that Never Did It, 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.” [5]

[edit] Discography

Further information: DJ Premier discography and Gang_Starr#Discography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chris Ryan. The Beatnuts Biography. Rolling Stone.
  2. ^ Henry Adaso; Ivan Rott, Renato P., Bhaskar S., Henry A.. Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers pp. 8. About.com.
  3. ^ Exclaim! Canada's Music Authority
  4. ^ DJ Premier Interview - TRIBE - tribe.ca
  5. ^ HipHopDX.com - New Eminem Produced By DJ Premier??? (March 11, 2008)

[edit] External links


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Gang Starr Foundation
Groups
Rappers
Gang Starr albums
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