DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and 9th Wonder w/Peter Rosenberg

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DJ Premier

Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known by his stage name DJ Premier (also known as Preem, Premo, or Primo for short), is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru. Born in Houston and raised in Prairie View, Texas, and Brooklyn, New York during his teen years, he has lived in Brooklyn for much of his professional career. Rolling Stone identified Premier as arguably Hip-Hop's greatest producer of all time. The Source placed DJ Premier on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's twenty-year history, while the editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers list. He also made the "Finals" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. He attended Prairie View A&M University. Productions Premier is known for producing all of Gang Starr's songs as well as many of the Gang Starr Foundation's songs. His work also includes production for heavyweight rappers such as (alphabetic order) Apathy, Big L, Big Daddy Kane, Bun B, Canibus, Common, D.I.T.C., Evidence, Fat Joe, Game, Ill Bill, Immortal Technique, Jay-Z, Joell Ortiz, Kanye West, KRS-One, Lord Finesse, M.O.P., Mos Def, Nas, Rakim, Royce da 5'9", Snoop Dogg, The LOX, The Notorious B.I.G., Vinnie Paz, Xzibit, rock band Limp Bizkit and Busta Rhymes. In 2006, pop/R&B singer Christina Aguilera recruited Premier to produce her album "Back To Basics". Premier collaborated with MC Jeru the Damaja on the album The Sun Rises in the East, released in 1994, as well as the 1996 follow-up, Wrath of the Math. Also from the Gang Starr Foundation, Premier produced and supervised Group Home's Livin' Proof; although overlooked at the time of its 1995 release, the album has since come to find similar acclaim. Among others in that are closely tied to the Gang Starr Foundation who have worked with DJ Premier include Afu Ra, Bahamadia, Krumbsnatcha, Big Shug, Smiley the Ghetto Child, and NYGz. He recently produced the majority of Blaq Poet's Tha Blaqprint in 2009 and will produce the entirety of NYGz sophomore album. Style and influences 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. For example, on Jay-Z's "So Ghetto", from the 1999 album, Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter, Premier samples an older Jay-Z song, 1997's "Who You Wit II". 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 beats are known for his oft-imitated combinations of short vocal samples, often from multiple artists, to create a chorus. Premier has also experimented with atonal samples that are not confined to soul, jazz, and funk. For example, he sampled chopped up seminal electro-acoustic music from the 1960s on the track “Mental Stamina” by Jeru the Damaja. 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." DJ Premier attended Prairie View A & M University and may have been influenced by the musical atmosphere at the university. Relationships with artists The early line-up of the Gang Starr Foundation in the mid-1990s included Jeru The Damaja, Group Home, Big Shug, and Gang Starr. 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 three albums since then, with Premier having nothing to do with any of them. 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 (The Legacy) on their second album (A Tear for the Ghetto) was because Guru said he would rhyme on it. Besides the Gang Starr Foundation, Premier is closely affiliated with M.O.P., which he names as one of his all-time favorite groups. The relationship started with the remix of “Rugged, Neva Smoove” in 1994, a single from the group's first album, which also included the exclusive B-side “Downtown Swinga.” From then, Premier produced about one-third of the songs on each subsequent album and overseeing and mixing the projects. On M.O.P.'s 2009 Foundation album, however, DJ Premier provided only one track, which was called "What I Wanna B." Recent and future projects DJ Premier has his own record company named Year Round Records. Among its artists are New York group NYGz, New Jersey rapper Nick Javas, and Houston rapper Khaleel. Tha Blaqprint by Blaq Poet, which has thirteen Premier productions, was released by Year Round Records through Fat Beats Records. On December 7, Premier's label Year Round Records released a digital compilation album titled Get Used to Us. At the moment Year Round plans to release a debut album fully produced by DJ Premier with the NYGz tenatively called Hustla's Union: Local NYG along with a Nick Javas debut album named Destination Unknown. Khaleel, another label-mate of Year Round Records, is planned to release a debut album titled Already!. DJ Premier hosts a weekly 2 hour show Live From HeadQCourterz on SIRIUS Satellite Radio's Hip-Hop Nation on Fridays. DJ Premier was one of the artists followed in the 2012 documentary Re:GENERATION music project. The film followed his production of the song Regeneration using live performance of his work by the Berklee Symphony Orchestra . In a recent interview, DJ Premier said he will produce a beat for Immortal Technique's upcoming album, titled The Middle Passage. He contributed a song on Game's last album The R.E.D. Album called "Born in the Trap." and a song on Bushido's last album Jenseits von Gut und Böse. In an interview in 2012, DJ Premier confirmed on Shade45 that he is working with Eminem on his upcoming album. DJ Premier is also expected to produce a full album for New York rapper Nas. The album will be released as a collaboration between the two hip hop icons. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://www.twitter.com/REALDJPREMIER http://www.djpremierblog.com/

Pete Rock

He revolutionized rap production through groundbreaking studio wizardry. He made remixes matter more than the original songs. He established ad-libs as a standard recording asset. He introduced dramatic, forceful horns to rap’s sonic discussion. Pete Rock has notched these achievements during his impeccable recording, producing and remixing career, one of the most distinguished in rap history and one that includes collaborations with Nas, Common, Mary J. Blige, Ghostface Killa, Busta Rhymes, Public Enemy and Run-DMC, among many others. Showing that he remains sharp as ever, the Mount Vernon, New York rapper-producer returns with NY’s Finest, his best moment as an artist. “I called it that because I feel like that’s me,” Pete Rock explains. “I’m one of New York’s finest producers.” Pete Rock backs his words up with “We Roll,” a powerful boast-session with Jim Jones and Max B riding shotgun. Styles P and Sheek Louch unite on the hood-hyping “914,” an ode to Pete Rock and the LOX’s home area. Pete Rock then slows things down on “PJs,” a tag-team effort from the Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon and Masta Killa. The pair deliver their signature brand of slanguistics, giving Masta Killa (one of the most slept-on Clan members) a major platform on which to shine. “Masta Killa, there’s something about him as a person that I like,” Pete Rock reveals. “His aura, his movements. You can just see it in his eyes the type of dude that he is. I feel the connection. I see the streetness in him.” Pete Rock’s family’s native streets are located in Jamaica and he gives a nod to his heritage .. For War.” The reggae-styled track also features Chip-Fu from the Fu-Schnikens and Renee from Zhane and is sure to catch people off guard. “Renee sang on the hook and I rhyme in Patois,” Pete Rock says. “My family all comes from Jamaica. It’s pretty surprising to hear me rhyme in Patois, so people are like, ‘Is that Pete Rock?’ They’re bugging off that. You can’t help but to like it.” Elsewhere, Pete Rock teams with Little Brother for the autobiographical “Bring Ya’ll Back” and works with DJ Green Lantern on the anti-hater mandate “Don’t Be Mad.” Pete rocks the mic on “Till I Retire” and partners with Royal Flush on the hardcore “Questions.” Redman blazes through “Best Believe,” Papoose shines on the soulful yet hardcore “Comprehend” and R&B singer Rell croons on the piano-accented, dancefloor ready “That’s What I’m Talking About.” With the sonic diversity evident on NY’s Finest, it may seem as though music flows through Pete Rock’s veins. Maybe it does, as his father was an avid record collector and DJ. Thus, as he was growing up in Mount Vernon, New York, Pete Rock gravitated toward music. He picked up his father’s ear for catchy basslines and memorable drum patterns, as well his father’s penchant for record collecting -- a passion to this day. But what made Pete Rock different from many other kids growing up in hip-hop culture’s formative years was that he didn’t want to just make music or be like his idols. He wanted to stand on his own, to become an idol to others because of his contributions to the music and culture. Pete Rock got his first major exposure via Marley Marl’s late 1980s radio show, where he was a DJ. An equally big break came when Eddie F, the DJ for Pete Rock’s cousin Heavy D, gave Pete Rock his first drum machine and showed him some basic techniques. “In the ‘80s, all I was was a spectator, sitting back and learning,” he says. “I used to go with my cousin Heavy D to his studio sessions, go to Marley Marl’s house or Howie Tee’s house. I was the quiet, humble cat that just sat back and watched and learned.” While many of his schoolmates were living the lives of typical teenagers, Pete Rock made music his life. His best friends became the SP1200 drum machine and its manual. “I studied that manual inside and out,” he says today with a laugh. “I did not come outside for a long time -- for a couple of years, man. I was 14-years-old with this drum machine in my room. I had two turntables, a mixer and a tape deck. Before I got that machine, I was making beats with the tape deck. I would overdub and keep pausing and pausing for the parts of the record I liked, until I learned how to sample.” Once Pete Rock learned how to use the equipment as his disposal, he set out to make his mark on the music industry. “People respect leaders, so I wanted to figure out how I could be a leader in hip-hop music,” he says. “The ‘80s was a big time of learning for me. When the ‘90s came I stood up like a king and ruled. I think that I was the actual leader. I brought something new to the table that no one was doing, absolutely no one.” That production technique was a method of beatmaking known as filtering, a tool that made Pete Rock’s recordings with former partner in rhyme C.L. Smooth -- 1991’s All Souled Out EP, 1992’s landmark Mecca and the Soul Brother and 1994’s The Main Ingredient -- so sonically staggering. Pete Rock pioneered a way of filtering out sounds from original recording that he could use to build his own beats. It made his sounds -- especially his blaring horns -- stand out. “Once I get the bassline and the bottom beat, everything else comes easily,” he says. “I was one of the first producers to do that.” While working in the early 1990s with C.L. Smooth, Pete Rock also emerged as the premier remixer in the urban music industry, handling reworkings for Mary J. Blige and House of Pain. But it was his horn-driven work on Public Enemy’s “Shut Em Down” that made him a remix phenomenon. “That was the remix that got me the respect and that got people’s attention,” Pete Rock says. “People wanted to know who did it, who I was. It made Chuck D’s voice sound even more serious than it already was.” Since then, Pete Rock has released a string of highly regarded solo albums, including 1998’s Soul Survivor and 2004’s Soul Survivor II, and produced songs for Ghostface, Talib Kweli and others. Now, with NY’s Finest, Pete Rock reclaims his title as a music master. “I wanted to big myself up,” Pete Rock says, “because if you don’t do it, nobody else will.” Truthfully, though, Pete Rock’s music does the talking for him. http://twitter.com/PeteRock http://www.myspace.com/peterock http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pete+Rock

9th Wonder

Born Patrick Denard Douthit in Winston-Salem, NC, 9th Wonder is a Grammy Award Winning Producer, DJ, College Lecturer, and Social Activist. Since his introduction to hip-hop in 1982, 9th has been immersed in the music and culture of the art form, while gaining experience in music theory throughout middle and high school. 9th attended North Carolina Central University, where he decided to pursue a career in music. He, along with Phonte Colerman and Thomas Jones (Rapper Big Pooh), formed the hip-hop trio Little Brother in 1998. The group released the critically acclaimed album “The Listening”, which received 4 mics in Source Magazine. 9th was then tapped to produce a track on Jay-Z’s “Black Album”, which became his first major label placement. From there, 9th Wonder produced 3 songs for the R&B Super group Destiny’s Child on the album “Destiny Fulfilled” (Girl, Is She The Reason, Game Over), won a Grammy with Mary J. Blige for her album “The BreakThrough” (Good Woman Down), Erykah Badu’s “Honey” and “20 Ft. Tall” on the album New Amerykah 1 and 2, Ludacris’ “Do The Right Thang”, a song featuring Common and Spike Lee, and most recently David Banner on the album Death Of A Popstar. 9th will also be working with DRAKE for the second time on his sophomore album release. 9th also has 3 albums with MURS, an Emcee that hails from MidCity, CA, in which all three albums have received critical acclaim. 9th was chosen by Aaron McGruder to score music for the critically acclaimed series “The Boondocks”. He has endorsed companies such as M-Audio Electronics, FL Studio, LRG Clothing Company, and Creative Recreation Shoe Company. 9th Wonder was one of 12 individuals selected by The Pepsi Corporation for the African American Calender, “The First Of Many”. 9th is also worked on an album with Hollywood actor Idris Elba. He is the president, founder and CEO of It’s a Wonderful World Music Group, which focuses on catering to the 28 to 40 year old demographic of hip-hop music lovers, 9th Wonder hosts a radio show along with Kyle Santillian on Soul 104.5 FM in Fayetteville, NC called “TRUE SCHOOL RADIO” playing the first 24 years of hip-hop, along with 80′s R&B, and New Jack Swing. 9th Wonder and six other individuals founded the True School Corporation in 2006 to celebrate the music, culture, and film of 70’s babies and The Spike Lee Era. In the United States there are millions of Black Americans between the ages of 28-40 that grew up in a time where hip-hop was diverse, informative, and soulful. These same individuals have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, etc., and still have a love of what hip-hop used to be. The media has demonized hip-Hop in the last 10 years; so many Black Americans tend to shy away from the picture that the media has created for hip-hop. True School has changed the minds of the generation before us (50′s and 60′s babies) and let them know that emcees such Chuck D, Rakim, KRS ONE, The Native Tongues, Outkast, and countless other has had much of an effect on our lives as our teachers and educators. 9th believes in the preservation of Black Music throughout all its divisions (jazz, gospel, funk, soul, afrobeat, hip-hop), and its connections to music enthnocology and the African diaspora. 9th was recently appointed the National Ambassador For Hip-Hop Relations and Culture for the NAACP by Ben Jealous, President of The NAACP, where he leads a board of PhD’s, Hip-Hop Artists, and Juris Doctorates. 9th was recently interviewed by Neill McNeill of FOX 8 News in The Piedmont, NC, for a segment entitled “NewsMaker”, to showcase North Carolinians who are making a difference in the community. 9th Wonder is also a member of the Universal Zulu Nation, a hip-hop peace organization started by Afrika Bambaataa in 1973. 9th was appointed Artist in Residence by former North Carolina Central University Chancellor James Ammons (now President of Florida A&M University) in the fall of 2006. An Artist in Residence is someone involved heavily in the music industry to conduct a course or seminar of a particular subject. He was approached by Dr. Kawachi Clemons, PhD of Education, to develop a course called “Hip Hop in Context, 1973-1997″, a study of the development and cultural history of Hip-Hop starting with James Brown in the late 1960′s, going all the way to death of The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997. He is now currently an Adjunct Professor at Duke University while still traveling the country lecturing at different universities. “You have to see one to be one.” Hip-Hop is now making its 20yr generational turn, and there are a new breed of artists who are children of the first hip-hop generation, that have studied that generation’s sound, look, and feel. “If the younger generation…” he continues. With President t Barack Obama’s message, and the new movement of hip-hop hipsters… “Along with several colleagues, I plan to have Summits, Festivals, and lecture panel series throughout the year, to show kids the true manifestation of the hip-hop culture and lifestyles,” 9th says. “Hip-Hop is the voice of at least 2 generations. At one time, it was the POSITIVE voice, as stated earlier. Chuck D was the black history teacher I never had, along with countless other black Americans my age. It can be that again, but with the right voices and the right players. As the late Curtis Mayfield said, “We must educate and Well as Entertain.” http://www.iwwmgroup.com/ http://9thwonder.com https://twitter.com/9thwonder http://www.facebook.com/9thwonderpresents http://www.youtube.com/user/iwwmg http://www.ustream.tv/ninthwonderful