Lemme do a post about Biggest Gord, for those who see DJ Premier every year in Europe spinning, he is the man with the beard and dreads who likes to film a lot next to Premier. But more important he is one of Preems closest friends and Year Round Records manager. From the early days in Houston where Premo and Gordon were kicking ICP till now leading a label of a legend producer in New York.

But what a lot of people don’t know is that he also produced some joints trough the years. I tried to find all the tracks he produced (some with Jahdan from Blackhearted Skavangerz), but you can’t know anything, so if you know more, hit the comment section!

1) Stikken Moov – Fatality (1995)
Some ‘rare’ shit, Stikken Moov! Signed to Guru‘s Ill Kid label but only released one single and also appeared as a B-Side from the another rare single of Operation Ratification! This single was released by Tape Kingz (most known from the Crooklyn Cuts Volumes) in 1995 with 3 different tracks on it.

2) Blackhearted Skavangerz – Poison Pill (Feat. Delie & Goldie Tha Mack) (1997)
Mostly known due to appearance on Evil Dee‘s “5 Deadly Venoms” mixtape, but was also released on a 12″, I think it was their only single. Also released by Tape Kingz, co-produced with Jahdan (who also did the vocals?).

3) Teflon – Shit Happens (1997)
This one is my favorite, Tef is the shit! Always loved this track from his debut LP “My Will” in 1997.

4) Jahdan – Raiders Of The Arc (1999)
This track only appeared on a compilation album of Duck Down in 1999. Dope compilation!

5) Guru – Where’s Our Money (2001)
Yeah, Gordon produced this one. Leading single for his “Baldhead Slick & Da Click” album. One of the last releases on Guru’s label “Ill Kid”.

6) Smiley Da Ghetto Child – Caged In (2001)
Also signed on Illkid label when his first single dropped. B-Side was “Caged In”. A-Side produced by Guru. He started out making rhymes for Black Sheep and Chi-Ali and later his cousin Melachi the Nutcracker had a record deal for Group Home where he appeared on the track “The Realness”, had to go to jail after that track just like Chi-Ali (earlier) and his cousin Melachi (later). Life isn’t a fairytale like some.

7) NYGz – What Yo Life Like (Feat. Jahdan) (2007)
Never had the full version, it was supposed to be on “Welcome To G-Dom” but seemly it didn’t made it. Got this of an advanced copy!

Biggest Gord is now working as manager of Year Round Records and also does a lot of filming, he recently made the video for “Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed (Queensbridge to California Remix)”. Here is his account on vimeo.

Larry Smith
“Larry Smith is a producer that used to work with Kurtis Blow, Run DMC with “Rock Box” and all that. He did a lot of the Whodini records. Very, very, very good producer.”

Marley Marl
“Marley Marl is my idol of Hip-Hop. He’s like the James Brown of Hip-Hop.”

LL Cool J – Haters (Prod. by Marley Marl)

Quincy Jones
“Quincy Jones is a no-brainer too. He did movie soundtracks back in the 50’s and 60’s when he was a young cat and all the way up until he produced “Thriller” for Michael and all that. He broke the code of music theory and created his own lane on how to count and start on the “2” and not always on the “1.” You gotta watch him to know when to change up, because he’s so unorthodox with his production and his talent as an artist.”

James Brown
“James Brown is just super ill.”

Rick Rubin
“Rick Rubin is a major, major reason – no disrespect to Russell, because we know Russell’s that dude… Rick Rubin did a lot of them beats that transcended…hard reality of production. And to be a founder of Def Jam Records when it was Def Jam…before it got soft and watered down. Signing groups like Public Enemy and the Junk Yardband. Showing that they can sign a Go Go act. All the way to all the old Beastie Boy records when they used to have the purple label. When MCA and Berzootie and Jimmy Spicer. Even with Russell and Jazzy Jay with the record Def Jam. LL Cool to be the first official artist that they signed with “I Need A Beat.” T La Rock “Its Yours” on the Party Time label which is really the official first Def Jam record ever. That’s how far back it goes so shout out to Rick Rubin too.”

George Clinton
“On some real s**t, I gotta make it six. George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic, Booty’s Rubberband, Eddie Hazel, Parlet, the Brides of Funkenstein. He [George Clinton] was James Brown spaced-out – on some other s**t. James Brown was spaced out anyway, but George Clinton living is just the epitome of funk and all that other s**t.“

Source: AllHipHop.com

…because Guru is smokin’ something wack? I know this blog gets a lot of visitors so I need to keep it objective, but fuck that for now. I’m going to tell you my opinion about this situation (as a fan like thousands of you), so if you don’t like it go (to a place where your shit rest). DJ Premier didn’t had any contact with Guru since The Ownerz tour ended in Australia, he had some mails and that’s all. It was a fact Preem and Guru had a lot of fights, even personal fights like Guru’s drinking issue and stuff like that but that is what real friends make (fo sho), they were about to first split in ’97 because of the fights and Guru who had to go to court that time, but Gordon told Premo what the deal was and he sticked with Guru and made “Moment of Truth”. Offcourse they sticked together, that is real friendship…

We still don’t know what happened between Premier and Guru, but whatever happend, it doesn’t make any difference people. Hell with that, I don’t even want to know what happened. Real friends always come together again, no matter what happened. They were like more then 10 years friends. That’s how I experience life, so that could maybe be the first reason: no real friendship? Nah son, forget that… I’m tripping.

Now we got a lot of people asking Gang Starr this, Gang Starr that to Premier. Stop that, don’t drive his head crazy, we already know his answer: “I’m ready when he is, bla bla bla”. Don’t question me, I ain’t dissin’ Premo. Love this positive attitude towards Guru who is acting the king of hip hop. Obviously Premier is the bigger guy here (and I’m mostly riding his dig), but he needs to step his game up. I understand he doesn’t have a lot of time, but if he really want a new Gang Starr album (same as Guru back as friend) he needs to say “Fuck this, I’m going to his home and we will smoke a big fat peace blunt and bring up memories”. This could be the second reason why Gang Starr will never be again, Premo is too lazy? Nah son, forget that… I’m tripping.

But now we have Guru saying only he is Gang Starr:

So why don’t we do this, why don’t we just skip that discussion and I’ll just say I am Gang Starr,” he replied when asked to address the elephant in the room. “Gang Starr is me. And it comes out in whatever I do, to the fullest. 7 Grand is the future. Guru and Solar are those intelligent, creative leaders that Hip Hop needs right now, and will be needing… It’s your favorite rapper, the legendary, combined with NYC’s brightest producer. That’s what it’s about. […] We are ‘The Ownerz.’ Solar and I are real owners. Instead of a concept, this is real.”

This could be the biggest problem of them all, I wonder how Premo feels now. I’m not expecting him to cry in a dark room, but I guess you don’t like to hear this when you worked your ass of for more then a decade for the true thing you love. And what the fuck is wrong with Guru, he needs some medication, ok, you are the king, go spread that. But we all know the source of this reckless behaviour, yes, here is his part: Superproducer Solar. First of all: C’mon son, did you serious say “I produced maybe four underground records and I’m working with Guru now, that means… I AM A SUPERPRODUCER”. The fact that you call yourself a superproducer is like Vanilla Ice saying he is the best rapper ever, point zero. But I guess he is cleaver, think about the groupies who are going to say “I’m going to the superproducer”. Not to mention how funny it’s watching Guru’s interviews where superproducer Solar is interrupting him all the time to say everything better. This could be the third reason, Superproducer Solar is Guru’s father? Nah son, forget this… I’m tripping.

But hey, now it’s sounds like I’m dissing everybody especially Superproducer Solar? Yes, you are right as matter of fact I am. But that was after I thought there could be a middle way for this “DJ Premier wants Gang Starr, but Guru wants only Superproducer Solar” situation. I really didn’t saw the problem of Guru with DJ Premier making records and Guru making records with Superproducer Solar. Why don’t do the both? DJ Premier produced for Jazzmatazz before and Superproducer Solar has some dope productions, no question. But the reason I bought a Jazzmatazz album was for the difference, the difference artists on it and the difference productions. Would it be so crazy to have one Premo record on that album? Oelalala, what’s wrong? Scared of his production skills? Scared of how dope that scratch sound? No man, now I’m hating on 7Grand again (sorry). That’s not what I meant, I was trying to think about a solution but maybe it’s better Gang Starr won’t happen again, if you do a reunion just for the fans then you have to quit immedialty… You can’t continue your legacy with a fucked up vibe. Now you heard my version of why a Gang Starr Reunion will never happen, excuse myself…

This is one of the rare times I post my own opinions, but I felt I needed to speak up for this one time and shut up forever you know. Don’t expect more of this, I’m not really an eThug… If you are Guru or DJ Premier and you feel like, I would say maybe like this, I don’t know… Could be: “Man, who does he think he is? My shadow?” then you need to contact me. Like I said, we are going to quit this now. Sorry Guru, I won’t go to your show in Ostend. Yes Premo, I’ll go to your show in Ghent end of this month. Oh, Premo, don’t forget to leak that Teflon track on LiveFromHQ, you forgot to give it to DJ Eclipse last week. Peace! And if you are wondering what I eat, still toblerone all day every day. And one day, Gang Starr will be together again…

Here you have a review of Gang Starr‘s third album “A Daily Operation” by The Source in 1992. It got 3.5/5. Click on the picture to read:

Or shall I say D&D Studios? DJ Premier started producing at D&D from the beginning of his carreer, but D&D was also the home of Main Source, Afu-Ra, Da Beatminerz, QNC, … It was founded in 1984 by Douglas Grama and David Lotwin and is located in Manhatten, NY (320 west 37th Street). Most of you guys are already familiar with D&D Studios, so I will close it with some clips straight from D&D:

But in 2003 D&D closed and nobody was prepared to take it over except DJ Premier & Charles Roane, I remember him saying it was a risky choice because there was a lot of money involved. But he followed his heart and bought it, I also remember he held in 2003 a big sale because it needed renovation for HeadQcourterz Studios. He renamed the studio to a fallen friend of him, sad story. HeadQcourterz was a great person, I got a message from Hashim from Rise & Shine about HeadQcourterz:

I believe he started as the head of the street team for Payday records when Group Home was on the label. I didn’t know him during that time, but his presence was seen all through out the tri-state. There were Group Home stickers everywhere thanks to HQ and his thorough street team. I didn’t meet HQ until he was head of the street team at Rawkus. He took a liking to my former group often citing us as one of the few “real” artist at the label, letting us know that we were on course to great things. He was also very influential in helping us secure the track from Preemo. I would see Preemo in the city and bug him to do a track for YEARS. Thanks to our buzz with Rawkus, HQ and a manager who believed in us we were able to secure the track with one of my favorite producers. The recording session was in D&D and HQ was there adding his always funny and witty comments while we smoked the finest green while working with one of the finest! Headqcourtez was unfortunately found murdered in cold blood one night in the Bronx a few years ago. He will be missed!, but thanks to Preem he will be remembered! Headqcourtez was an awesome guy. Very loyal and dedicated to promoting the artist he respected. The murder is till unsolved.

If you see HeadQcourterz studios you see a very beautiful looking and modern studio, a dream for every producers. But also Premo had to start with something, this is his history:

Mid 80’s
Crew: MCs in Control, Texas
Equipment: Yamaha DX7 or RX7

Late 80’s
Crew: Inner Circle Posse, Texas
Equipment: Unkown, same?

1989
Crew: Gang Starr, NY
Equipment: Emu SP-12, but one year later the famous MPC.

On the first album, I didn’t really do total production. All the samples were mine, but the programming was me and my engineer Shlomo because I didn’t really know how to do a record. I knew how to do demos on a 4-track: Let the beat run, lay the next track, let the beat run, then do scratches on it. Then, I started to understand the structure of making a record and took it to the next level.

2005
Crew: Year Round Records, NY
Equipment: HeadQcourterz Studios

Recording hardware, DAWs:

Apple Mac G4 computer
Digidesign Pro Tools|HD system, 96 I/O, Control|24 control surface
HHB CD recorder
Panasonic SV3800 DAT Recorder

Samplers, drum machines:
Akai MPC60 sampling/sequencing drum machine, S950 sampler

Software, plug-ins:
Focusrite Red 2-, 4-, 6-band EQ plug-ins
Waves Renaissance plug-in

It brings you back to the old EQs from back in the day, where it’s that old more thick, straight-to-tape sound rather than that digital, thin sound. Renaissance Vox always just really crispens up the vocals where everything blends so well.

Turntables, mixers:
Technics SL-1210MK2 turntables

Technics 1200SHEX Championship Mixer

Numark DXMPro mixer

Instruments, sound modules, controllers:
E-mu Mo’Phatt, Proteus 2 modules
Korg Triton keyboard

The sounds that I do use are the ones Pharrell and them don’t.

M-Audio Oxygen8 MIDI keyboard controller

Preamps, compressors, EQs:
DigiTech VTP1 preamp/EQ
dbx 166 dual compressor/limiter/gate

Monitors:
UREI 813Cs

I gotta have those. I can track anywhere — in the bathroom, on the street — but speakers have everything to do with mixing, because you tune your mix through the speakers.

Yamaha NS10s
A word from Charles Roane:

Most sessions, Primo will be on his own to create the track. He may call me in for a time stretch or some keys. Then, for mixdown, it’s 50/50 with Premier using his HD system and I’m on his Mixplus system. At the beginning of a mix, I like to start small. Get your kick, snares and vocal level on a small monitor, like an Auratone, at low volume first. If the beats are from a keyboard or drum machine, I like the Focusrite compressor plug-in.

Source: Remix Magazine

Also peep this for info about this topic!

About that story, it has an ending. You know DJ Premier thought in the beginning (just like me) that Fred Durst is a clown. But after the produced songs he came more positive in the picture. Well, I forgot this interview with Freddie Foxx… Fred Durst is still a clown. Nuttin’ changed, he actually mislead Premo. Here is a short part of the interview:

Freddie Foxxx – Like when I talk about Fred Durst. I think he’s a cocky bastard who thinks he’s bigger then everybody. He indicated that in the way he treated Premier when Premier reached out for him to try to put down a Gangstarr Foundation label with him. He was with it at first, but then he backed out and didn’t return his calls and it was real foul how he treated him.

ThaFormula – So Fred Dursts’ bitch ass dissed Premier huh?

Freddie Foxxx – Yeah, big time.

ThaFormula – But why would you wanna hook up with a chump like that anyway?

Freddie Foxxx – But see the thing is it was business. Premier was sayin’ “listen I got this label with all these hot rappers on it. You fund it and let’s make money. You don’t have to be involved. Nobody needs Fred Durst input. I told Premier, “yo dog I’m only gonna fuck with the situation if you do you. I’m not fucking with him directly cause he ain’t really Hip-Hop. He’s using Hip-Hop to get a platform to do other shit like Kid Rock did. So fuck them! I’m really about my culture and about what this music is about. Fuck all them clowns man.

Source: Tha Formula

It’s late now so I tought lets post something small! Not only me, but also DJ Premier thought Fred Durst was wack in the beginning and “N 2 Gether Now” isn’t entirely produced by DJ Premier!

The story is that the manager of Preem asked him to do a song for Limp Bizkit, he said first “nah, that guy can’t rap man!”. But his manager said “Method Man will be on it, give it a shot”, so they met at D&D Studios and Fred was like “I know you think I can’t rap and stuff, but I’m so glad we are here now. I got all your Tape Kingz, with G Depp“. And just like with Christina Aguilera (who loved Group Home) Premo was like “You know about Tape Kingz & G Depp, word, lets do this”. And the original “N 2 Gether Now” is actually produced by DJ Lethal and Preem just had to remake it with his boombap style. So DJ Premier didn’t choose the sample. You can still hear the original version instrumental on the B Side of the vinyl release, it’s a pressing mistake he said.

Afterwards Limp Bizkit had a pyjamaparty in the playboy mansion and Preem was invited to spin some records and he took HeadQcourterz (RIP) with him and played classic hip hop in mr. Hefner‘s crib with all the bunnies.

In 2000 and 2001 he did two more remixes for Fred Durst.

– Fin

Source: Abcdrduson

If you don’t know now you know…

Here is the review for that classic J Rock album (link) published by The Source in 1992, I’m never going to deleted that picture lol. Culture!! It has a rating of 3/5, but they could never tought back then that DJ Premier was going to be a pioneer.

You can click on the pictere to see this in a very high quality, as you could see it only took a small section of the page…

Source: A friendly French guy