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DJ Premier |
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Biography:
(Gangstarr)
No more than three producers (Dr. Dre, RZA, and Prince Paul)
can test DJ Premier's status as the most important
trackmaster of the '90s, and no style is more distinctive.
Aggressive and raw, a Premier track was an instantly
recognizable soundclash of battling loops and heavy
scratching -- all of them perfectly timed -- that evoked the
sound of Brooklyn better than anyone. Besides helming tracks
for his main concern, Gang Starr, since their 1989 debut,
Premier's productions appeared on many of the East Coast's
most important records: Nas' Illmatic, the Notorious
B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, Jeru the
Damaja's The Sun Rises in the East, and Mos Def's Black on
Both Sides.
Premier, born Chris Martin, spent time in Brooklyn and
Houston while growing up, and studied computer science at
Prairie View A&M outside Houston. Known as Waxmaster C, he'd
already learned to play a variety of instruments and also
managed a record store. After moving back to Brooklyn,
around 1987-1988 he came into contact with Guru, a Boston
native. Guru had already formed a group named Gang Starr two
years earlier (and recorded with the 45 King), but his
former partner, Mike Dee, had returned to Boston. DJ Premier
and Guru signed to Wild Pitch and released a debut single
("Manifest") and album (No More Mr. Nice Guy). Gang Starr's
interest in melding hip-hop with jazz informed the record,
and they were invited to add to the soundtrack for Spike
Lee's 1990 film Mo' Better Blues. Their subsequent work was
much more mature and unified, with a pair of instant East
Coast classics (1991's Step in the Arena and 1992's Daily
Operation) arriving in short order.
DJ Premier had been working with other vocalists for years,
and his productions for the 1990 landmark Funky Technician
by Lord Finesse and DJ Mike Smooth cemented his status as
one of the best producers around. He soon began recording
exclusively at D&D Studios, a spot soon to become a shrine
for hip-hop fans (thanks in large part to his own work). The
year 1994 was a huge one for Premier, probably the best year
for any rap producer ever; in addition to dropping another
Gang Starr classic, Hard to Earn, his productions appeared
on five-star, all-time classics by Nas (Illmatic), the
Notorious B.I.G. (Ready to Die), and Jeru the Damaja (The
Sun Rises in the East), as well as Big Daddy Kane and
Branford Marsalis' Buckshot LeFonque project. Though his
workload dropped off considerably during the late '90s, he
still managed to place tracks on three of the first four
Jay-Z albums, and returned in force with the new millennium,
including shots with Common, D.I.T.C., D'Angelo, Jadakiss,
and Snoop Dogg.
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DJ Blackmusic