DJ Premier et Alchemist

Premier was born on 21 March 1966 as Chris Edward Martin. Though he spent the majority of his childhood in Prairie View, Texas, US (not far from his birthplace, Houston) he moved to Brooklyn as a teenager. Premier moved back to Texas to attend Prairie View A&M in Houston and during his stint in college acted as the campus’ DJ as well as an infrequent contributor to the Marching Storm band.

Premier moved back to Brooklyn to start his music career and quickly established a unique and instantly recognizable style for himself. His beats implement heavy sampling of jazz, funk, and soul songs but are not in the slightest limited to these genres. For some of his more experimental tracks he has been noted for creating atonal accents through the inclusion of electro-acoustical samples (think Pierre Schaefer). He is also widely praised for his interesting tactic of splicing together short vocal cuts from varying artists to create glitch choruses.

Premier’s innovative and highly original technique earned him spots on countless important hip-hop recordings. He has worked with a giant and diverse list of musicians including KRS-One, Mos Def, Kanye West, Common, D’Angelo, Game, Jay-Z, Rakim, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., and Xzibit. Outside of the hip-hop genre he has produced work for nu metal acts like Busta Rhymes and Limp Bizkit as well as pop divas such as Christina Aguilera. Despite the persistent hesitation Premier received from his peers in regards to producing Aguilera’s album “Back to the Basics”, it was received with enthusiasm from new and old fans alike. This release further proved the eclectic range of Premier and illustrated his proficiency of handling technically sophisticated recordings.

Contrary to common belief Premier is not a member of Gang Starr; however, the group is greatly indebted to him for much of their signature sound. From 1989 to 2003 DJ Premier has acted as a production consultant for Gang Starr, appearing on all six of their studio albums as well as their 2006 greatest hits compilation release.

Coming to prominence as a member of the hip-hop duo The Whooliganz with Scott Caan, Daniel Maman was first spotted rapping at a party by Cypress Hill's B-Real in 1991, who invited the duo to join his crew The Soul Assassins. The duo took all the tuition they got from artists who were now their peers, like House Of Pain and Funkdoobiest, and released their first single “Put Your Handz Up” in 1993. Unfortunately, the single tanked, and their label decided to shelve their album indefinitely. Wounded, the band decided to split up, with Caan going into acting and Maman looking into production. Fortunately, Manan still had a place in The Soul Assassins, and Cypress Hill's DJ and producer DJ Muggs took him under his wing to show him the production ropes.

After gaining some genuine respect for his work on some Cypress Hill tracks, Maman joined Dilated Peoples, the band of his childhood friend Evidence. He debuted with the band in 1998 and almost immediately the band got some serious praise for their beats, and Maman became a hugely in-demand producer almost overnight. After some high-profile work producing for Mobb Deep, Maman found himself producing tracks for everyone from Nas, to Ghostface Killah to Snoop Dogg, but also remained steadfastly committed to hip-hop's underground artists, working with as many unsigned rappers as legends of the genre.

Ever since then, he's remained one of hip-hop's true artists, as renowned in the mainstream for his work as Eminem's official DJ as he is for he collaboration albums with underground sensations like Action Bronson, Boldy James and Willie The Kid. For this true dedication to his art, and his sheer skill behind the decks, behind the mic and behind the mixing desk, The Alchemist comes highly recommended.