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It came to light in that Guru post of recent that it is often thought that the only people paid attention to Gang Starr was because of Premier. While that might have been true in the "Moment of Truth" and forward days, this was most certainly not the case.
This is not to say that DJ Premier went the whole time before that album playing second fiddle to Guru, but it was pretty much in line with MC-DJ combos like Gang Starr in the late '80s-early '90s... the MC was the "face" of the group. Since Premier did not do much talking, and he didn't have the mystique of say, an Eric B or Terminator X, he was content to play the background. It wasn't long before he couldn't hide back there, though.
The first post goes through his discography, so The Doc'll pick out some songs to illustrate his evolution.
Putting in the first Gang Starr record, NO MORE MR. NICE GUY (1989), and expecting to hear instant-classics like "Just To Get A Rep" will result in a lot of disappointment from back-end Premier fans. Premier's sound back then was largely unpolished and almost amateurish, as it sounded a lot like the Bomb Squad in 1987 (pre-NATION OF MILLIONS) and early Marley Marl, which one could say influenced him heavily.
However, Premier was ambitious and it showed in his sample selection and his deconstruction of drums and patterns:
Check this:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/58550964f58ae16c/
"Premier & The Guru"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/585512219d99dc78/
"DJ Premier in Deep Concentration"
About sometime after the album was dropped, Premier did some of his first work outside of Gang Starr:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKs0FZnm7zk
"Baby You Nasty" (Lord Finesse, FUNKY TECHNICIAN (1990))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVKvtvff3XA
"A Word To The Conscious" (Cookie Crew, FADE TO BLACK (1990) -- co-produced w/Guru)
If there was one thing that was evident about Premier, he was not content with relying heavily on James Brown samples and some of the "default" palettes of the hip-hop sound, and he possessed at least above-average, if not elite skills on the wheels of steel; both qualities that would give him longevity down the stretch.
While most of the beats on NO MORE MR. NICE GUY were of the "borderline amateur" category, Premier had one joint on there that clearly stood out from the rest, the remix of one of their earliest singles, "Manifest":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ZbhqhIdzs
Compared to the original version, this boasted a cleaner mix, and less mechanical drums. It served as a preview for what was to come on their follow-up, and possibly best known album, STEP IN THE ARENA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNj-m_s0ngA
"Step In The Arena"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQQeUNaZtc
"Just To Get A Rep"
One could say the classic "Premier" sound really came into its own here... with the precisely programmed (and/or looped) drums, obscure loops, and scratch choruses. While this is not something that is usually considered in a "here today-gone tomorrow" genre like hiphop, one could argue that the "STEP UP!!" scratch on the album's title track is a hip-hop standard. It's been imitated and/or referenced many times since (and played a major part in songs like 2Pac's "I Get Around").
The follow up DAILY OPERATION refined this sound even further. Premier decided to get even more obscure with the records he used as his base, caring not of the source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69PcbIxF-04
"Take It Personal", for example -- Premier heard the Stezo record that jump-started "Skull Snaps-mania" in the '90s and put his own unique spin on it, making this Gang Starr staple. (LOL @ how young the two of them look in this record)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dkFT1YeTho
Something like this song, "Flip Da Script" sounded a little unconventional. Very stripped down, but sort of jazzy without leaning to heavily on "jazz" sounds like the saxophone. It's almost kind of choppy as the main "melody" (if you can call it that) doesn't even sound like it would if someone actually played the instruments to duplicate the notes played.
Premier also started another trend on this album, his trademark manipulation of the main melodic sample as well as it was done on the drums. While Premier wasn't the first to do this, his doing so is instantly identifiable -- and another building block of the style that would get him a lot of outside work in the future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwSXfocnt48
"Ex Girl To Next Girl" (check the "Do-Do-Do-Do-Doooo..."-ing on the main sample, and the filtering during the verse)
While Gang Starr was not a platinum selling act as a group, and seemed to occupy the upper-mid card of rap acts, they had the respect of a Public Enemy or EPMD among fans of hip-hop music. Thus, as their notoriety grew and Premier's willingness to reach out expanded, you started to hear the sound of Gang Starr on other artists.
KRS-One for example, fresh off the understated SEX AND VIOLENCE album from his outfit Boogie Down Productions, seemed a perfect fit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wma5yY6NqDs
"The P Is Still Free" (KRS-One, RETURN OF THE BOOM-BAP (1993) -- perhaps the best example of Premier's rapport with his extracurricular clients. In revisiting a BDP classic, Premier decided to put his own spin on the original beat, leaving the rest to KRS One to pick up where the original song left off.
Premier also decided to reach out and show love to some of the artists that his home base may not have been up on so much, such as Too $hort and Compton's Most Wanted, through remixes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56tEE66dyvw
Too Short, "In The Trunk" (Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grCo8RXyjJ0
Compton's Most Wanted - "Def Wish II" (Remix)
It's interesting to note, that CMW themselves, often overlooked for their Jheri Curl and gangsta image courtesy of MC Eiht, had three albums very similar to Gang Starr in style. Eiht often shouted out Gang Starr by name as much as he referenced Ice Cube and NWA on these records.
As Guru went on to deliver his JAZZMATAZZ series, meant to pair his signature vocals with production that reflected the "jazz rap" with which image Gang Starr was slowly becoming associated, Premier made his name with a lot of his outside work before realigning with Guru for the next Gang Starr album, HARD TO EARN, as well as Gang Starr affiliate Jeru The Damaja on one of the albums that some say was instrumental in helping New York City remain the epicenter of hip-hop music as its focus started to go elsewhere, THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST. Premier also found his name on some high profile albums such as Nas's ILLMATIC and young superstar Notorious B.I.G.'s breakout smash READY TO DIE.
It was during this period that Premier started cranking out some of his most legendary beats ever. Premier finally had found the perfect marriage between manipulated sample melodies and hard-hitting drum patterns, that while equalized and mixed to his liking, sounded anything but "default":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usy19A1Yo60
"D. Original" (Jeru The Damaja, THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST (1994))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EWJ9JrxU0g
"Mass Appeal"
The Doc think it was ?uest who mentioned here that Premier used the drums from an EPMD song, "You're A Customer" to make that infamous "Premier" drum pattern for this song. It only took one listen to confirm. One of many little curveballs that Premier was known for throwing and seeing who would catch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwNhPsSIy_w
"Supa Star" (Group Home, LIVIN' PROOF (1995)).
Possibly Premier's best drums ever -- coupled with a sample that was out of his comfort zone, even if the MCs were under-underachievers, the song is classic. Notice the Jeff Porcaro-esque fill-in every 4 bars or so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnFVnqACqAo
"Supa Dupa Star" (Group Home, LIVIN' PROOF B-Side (1994)).
The same song as "Supa Star" with less polished verses, but a more adventurous flip of the main sample.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lIi0B57x1Q
"Baby Pa" (Group Home, LIVIN' PROOF (1995))
Wonder if Premier handed this off to Li'l Dap because no other MC thought he could rhyme over this (for Premier) atypical beat. ITDO, it's one of his GOAT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWbn5A0aYzw
"Invasion" (Jeru Tha Damaja, CLOCKERS soundtrack (1995))
Goes without saying that this is definitely the height of DJ Premier's "sound" ITDO, working well within the confines of litigation-happy sample vultures, but still showing the same sort of creativity and diversity in drum sounds that was not only allowed on major-label releases but expected. Premier also showed his Texan roots in these years, with his constant going to the Crusaders well as far as samples are concerned (as one who grew up on the Crusaders and was listening to them again heavily in this period, it was kind of cool to be able to hear some of these beats and pick out the samples at first listen).
After Jeru's "Tha Frustrated Nigga", which was packaged with "Invasion" and lead off his WRATH OF THE MATH album, the Premier sound took one more turn, toward something that is most associated with him to this day.
Instead of the "fresh off the record" drums, you would often hear cleaner variations of a small set of kicks, snares and hi-hats, and the chopped sample was manipulated from literal fragments into a melody. Songs like Jeru's "Tha Bullshit" and "Too Perverted" as well as O.C.'s "My World" were some of the earliest examples of this change.
Premier also started to play his own basslines more often to augment some of the sample arrangement that had no bottom end of which to speak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN8FL2JtwxQ
"Win The G" (O.C., JEWELZ (1996))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjWE-UNaJEs
"Ya Playin' Yaself (Jeru The Damaja, WRATH OF THE MATH (1996))
how ironic was that this video got a lot of MTV play, yet it served to crucify a lot of the artists that did and were becoming popular. As a testament to Premier's tendency to tailor a beat to his client, Premier's sampling of Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "Playas Anthem" to make this beat was comedy (considering he also worked with B.I.G., and Jeru spent most of WRATH OF THE MATH making fun of P.Diddy and Co.)
This was not to say that the new style did not allow for some having fun with it -- Premier built associations with underground grinders M.O.P. (who were enjoying a small modicum off success off "How About Some Hardcore") in the last period, and began to feature prominently on their albums. Some of those beats sounded a little different from usual fare, though they might have sounded "throwaway" to obsessesive listeners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd_Aiw3XLwo
"Downtown Swinga '96" (M.O.P., FIRING SQUAD (1996))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK6-dN1ldQE
"Firing Squad" (M.O.P., FIRING SQUAD (1996))
(Though this sounds like a real slowed-down, simple beat... it's one of The Doc's favorite Premier joints...)
Even though the beats were from Premier, they didn't sound like something that Guru would rhyme over. The same could be said for what he had dealt to B.I.G., Jay-Z, and some of the other high profile artists that enjoyed his services. Especially in 1999-2000, Premier's "for-hire" work started to eclipse his work with Gang Starr, as he worked with nearly everyone you could mention, including long-time clients like Nas and Jay-Z, but also with artists outside of hip-hop like Janet Jackson and Emma Bunton (of the Spice Girls) of all people.
Premier, in more recent times would find his touch on select remixes and album tracks from artists out of Japan like Cheyenne, The Teriyaki Boyz, and Scha Dara Parr. When Premier was in his highest demand, his presence on an album would be a selling point (The Doc can't tell you how many albums he has on the rack solely for the fact that Premier produced one track).
What was probably most deceptive about this period is that while Premier's approach to a beat was pretty simple, how he got there always wasn't. Take a song like "Full Clip" for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U76Nde6rMTw
It sounds like Premier just found a part, chopped it and looped it... upon hearing the sample source, what Premier used was buried so far into the song, one wouldn't have even have thought that you could make a song just off that one little part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ZANhpYMBA
"Robbin Hood Theory" (Gang Starr, MOMENT OF TRUTH (1998))
This one was another WTF. The Doc doesn't even think Premier uses outside drums, just takes the actual record and rearranges it as is. Again, this is such a minute part of the record, it takes some extraordinary ears to make this song out of the original.
Besides the drum patterns and sample manipulations, Premier was known for the "radio" versions of his songs sporting Defender sound effects to censor the "bad" words. Some of the most hilarious examples of such are found on the following songs:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/58553963a2349764/
"F.A.Y.B.A.N." (Screwball, Y2K THE ALBUM (2000))
This actually was made in 1999, and included on the soundtrack for the film BLACK MASK. At the time of release, it was largely said to be voicing the frustrations of those who were not pleased with the return turn of hip-hop music, in particular the focus on "gangsta" imagery saddled with milquetoast backbeats. Weird that Premier used a spray can rattle in this beat, though.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/585540647d498eec/
"History" (Just-Ice, 2003)
Basically a rant set to music, this song really gets hilarious around the part where Just mentions "bubblegum raps". The Doc doesn't even listen to the dirty version of this song because the censoring is so funny.
Premier's sound was so popular in his high-demand 1999-2000 period that he had a lot of imitators basically using his sound in the "underground", most notably M-Boogie, who when paired with the likes of DJ Revolution, sounded just like DJ Premier to the point people mistook him for Premier. One could even say there was so much of this music that you could create a "Premier" sub-genre.
Sensing this, Premier made some minor tweaks in his formula (largely omitting high hats and putting more swing on the snare or the bass drum that followed), starting with Heather B's "Guilty" and not really revisited until 2002 or so.
Still, because of that high volume of songs and recognizable formula, Premier did fall into a rut in which he really has yet to escape, with the lack of high-profile clients (minus the unexpected pairing with Christina Aguilera and Snoop Dogg) to push him to the heights we all know he can reach. Yet, when you hear him working with the likes of the incendiary Royce Da 5-9, M.O.P., or strangely enough, Blaq Poet...you hear shades of the Premier that put him in hip-hop elite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv8l-WyiypU
Blaq Poet, "S.O.S." (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGKmTJhgswA
M.O.P., "Face Off 2K1" (WARRIORZ, (2001))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Ysk2SiLJU
Cee-Lo "Evening News" (CEE-LO GREEN... IS THE SOUL MACHINE(2004))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LlKuCX_9XU
Devin The Dude, "Doobie Ashtray" (JUST TRYIN' TA LIVE (2002))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMHiEEkiLw
Snoop Dogg, "The One And Only" (PAID THE COST TO BE THE BO$$ (2002))
Unlike others in his position and despite the diversity of his works, Premier has never really aspired to move outside of the "hip-hop" mold, or to follow the styles and rules that the more "hybrid" sound of recent years have demanded, which has resulted in a soft blacklisting of sorts. Some say it could be a refusal to adapt, or the natural progression of "falling off", or perhaps something he has touted in interviews, a dedication to keep hip-hop within its own aesthetic definition, away from the grubby hands of the bean-counters whose own short-sightedness w/regards to technology has sent the music industry into free fall.
So what kind of producer can say he has worked with Nas, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, B.I.G., Devin the Dude, D'Angelo, Janet Jackson, Cee-Lo, Christina Aguilera, done remixes for Wendy and Lisa and Loose Ends, a host of other recognizable MCs and singers across the globe, and still found the time to be 1/2 of a well-known hip-hop group? The only one who even could come close with that resume was Pete Rock, but the only answer is DJ Premier. Greatest of All Time.
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