Top 20 Premo Beats

I feel it's time to get back on my hip-hop tip. Today, I wanted to discuss the greatest beats by one of the greatest producers of all time: DJ Premier. There are so many dope beats by him, I made it a top 20, but still the chances are your favourite is not on this list. I put some links there to some tracks...some are mp3s I uploaded, others are youtube links. I also tried to keep it only one beat per artist just so we can see dude's variety. Let's get this shit cracking...

20. Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
Don't hate...if this were a beat for a rapper you'd say it's one of Premo's best. Christina comes nice on this anyway. This is just another notch in his belt: Premo can make hits. I even liked that beat he did for Limp Bizkit with Method Man - "N 2 Gether Now" you can't front that shit is ill!

19. Termanology - Watch How it Go Down
Love this shit. Termanology GOES TO WORK on this. Just keeps rapping for the whole track: and the soundscape Premo provides is fucking sick. I love it at the end how he scratches in Jay-Z's "Shit is wicked on these mean streets" from Premo's own "D'Evils". It's a great final touch on a dope track.

18. Crooklyn Dodgers - Crooklyn Dodgers
That bell that comes in after the mad jazz band sample is insane. Chubb Rock is too.

17. Royce Da 5'9 - Hip Hop
Nice strings in here...and then some cool little bell riff. This track is appropriately named cos this beat is straight up hip-hop.

16. Buckshot LeFonque - Music Evolution
Mad jazz shit.

15. Rawkotics - Hard Core Hip-Hop
Some rare older shit...nonetheless take a listen: that is a mad beat.

14. Common - 6th Sense
Premo provides Common with a type of beat you rarely hear Common spit over. That more straight up hip-hop, less soulful cut. And it sounds great. Common + Premo would be a great partnership I reckon. Although they'll probably never collab again...after all Common already "found the new Premo" (Kanye).

13. Mos Def - Mathematics
It's an ill bassline on this one. Premo has some fun here, with an ill breakdown before Mos' second verse. The hook he scratches out is also sick: "Mighty Mos Def" / Fat Joe: "It's simple mathematics" Lady of Rage: "(check it out)" / Ghostface: "I revolve around science" / Ghostbusters sample: "What are we talking about here?" and then Erykah Badu sample "Do Your Math" leading into the breakdown.

12. The Lox - Recognize
Straight up banger.

11. Gangstarr - Above the Clouds
My fav Gangstarr beat. Inspectah Deck rips this up too. I think "Moment of Truth" was Premo's best production with Gangstarr...every beat on there is solid as fuck.

10. Biggie - Ten Crack Commandments
This has Premo all over it. The way he chops shit up, you can easily tell its dude: especially on this joint. This beat here seems impossible to play without nodding your head.

9. Dilated Peoples - Clockwork
Unlike Ten Crack Commandments, this one isn't as obvious Premo. I dunno it just sounds a bit different to his usual style, with just a phat clean bassline being pumped out rather than a dusty old piano sample or whatever. The hit at the end of each loop, is vintage Premo though. However, it is an insane beat, really gets me going. And the intro and outro to the track are awesome too.

8. Capone N Noreaga - Invincible
That's some ill up-tempo shit. Does exactly what a good hip-hop beat should do...create a platform for MCs to reach their full potential. It would be hard to spit anything on this and sound wack.

7. Blaq Poet - Voices
This is not as well known as some of these other joints. Check the link then if you haven't heard it. This is one bad record. Dark. Haunting. Fucking sick...just take a listen.

6. Nas - N.Y. State of Mind
So yeah he is handy with the MPC, chopping shit up. We all know that. But this track showcases just how important your drums are. This track is all about the drums...some of the best I've ever heard on a hip-hop track. Big, dirty, hard hitting joints. This track is pivotal in setting up the album - one that is regarded by many as the greatest hip-hop album ever made. I think it is therefore safe to say it achieved its goal.

5. Fat Joe - The Shit Is Real (Remix)
This is another one of them positive sounding Premo beats with a mad nostalgic type melody looped over his trademark head-nodding drums.

4. Jeru the Damaja - Come Clean
Premo has a distinctive sound, yet still manages to be one of the most creative cats out there. And it's all about the sample: any sound can be flipped and chopped up into a mad beat. Here it is water drops. But I just love the drums on this one. They contrast with the sample perfectly creating an awesome head-nodding rythmn that Jeru rips up. I also give a shout out here to the joint "Supastar" by another Gangstarr affiliate Group Home which is mad, but I haven't found room for on this list.

3. Jaz O and the Immobiliare - Love Is Gone
This is one slept on beat. He uses this mad electronic sounding sample and then incorporates some breath noise sample in there as well, with some guitar stabs. The result is a track that you can just play over and over, cos its so pleasing to the ears. Jaz O fills the track nicely, don't really know who that other cat is though.

2. Jay-Z - D'Evils/Bring It On
I'll give props to two instrumentals here, both from the classic Reasonable Doubt album. D'Evils is some crazy shit. Premo don't give a shit about no west coast/east coast beef shit...he samples Snoop and layers this mad piano riff over the top, setting an incredible mood on the track. Jay-Z absolutely murders the track, spitting some of greatest verses ever spat. Bring it On features a beautiful melancholy orchestral progression. Once Premo gets an ill sample, you know the track is gonna be dope, cos he's always gonna bring those drums.

1. J-Live - The Best Part
This is number one for me. Again, it all comes down to an ill sample. Here we have a mad pan flute type sound. Add some banging drums, an orchestra fill and some incredible scratching in the hook and you have an absolute classic.

Top 10 Hip-Hop Shows I've Been To

DJ Dummy...you prolly saw him on Common's "The Food" vid from Chappelle's Show

What is hip-hop without live shows? Nothing at all. Providing experiences that simply cannot be matched by bumping a record in your car or room, hip-hop shows are things I can't get enough of. It cripples me financially, but fuck it...only live once. Here's my top 10 hip-hop shows I've attended:

1. Common
This was the greatest show I've been to...it was, in fact, at Big Day Out (Jan 2006). It was the last session of the day, and the vibe there was just great, even before Common stepped out. DJ Dummy, Common's road DJ, was spinning some classic hip-hop tunes, and I remember he put on Shook Ones Part II and these two cats were reciting every line of Prodigy's verse. I joined in. I fucking love that verse. Every track Dummy put on was just a straight out classic, and it was setting the mood perfectly. Then Common came out, and by then the sun was pretty much set. But it had been a hot day, and the evening was still quite warm. The show was in a tent type thing you see often at these music festivals, so it was a real nice warmish yet outside-fresh feeling in there. Common took the vibe that had established itself and just multiplied it by a million. He connected with the crowd like few do. He mixed it up with some Resurrection, Like Water for Chocolate and Be joints. The DJing was perfect, every word was clear, and what's more, you could tell he was living each song individually, which means the crowd felt it even more. Then Dummy had a 5-10 minute solo scratch session which was fucking incredible. The shit he was doing was crazy. Then Common continued on with his most popular songs, and he picked some fine lady out of the crowd to dance with him for one love-ballad track. Then came everyone's favourite, "I used to love H.E.R.", where he rapped the second half accapella which was sick. I think he finished off with a "Be" joint, although I can't remember what it was cos I was already blown away by the show. But yeh, that was an incredible show...
2. Kanye West
Lol yeah this was later on, some time in Winter 2006, at Festival Hall here in Melbourne. And Common was there again for a brief cameo. But this show was a great achievment by Kanye. A great spectacle...great energy from Ye. There was a 5-piece mini orchestra feat Miri Ben Ari...I assume it was her anyway. Halfway through the show she just started playing random violin riffs that weren't related to Kanye in any way. She played "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and the crowd went off at that. But yeah as I say, Kanye had great energy and the crowd was really feelin it.
3. M.I.A.
Yes I classify this as hip-hop. And she was incredibly charismatic up there on stage. Her lame little dancing was awesome, and she was just so cool! This show was early 2007 I think at Prince of Wales, St Kilda. The lights I remember were awesome. Everything was always pink and purple and shit, which matched the music. M.I.A. bounced her way through the show and this was before Kala, so no "Paper Planes" yet. Even so, it was mad!
4. De La Soul
Word. This was at Prince of Wales again, probably in 2005 sometime. Maseo was getting the crowd going something crazy. And you just gotta love these cats, the way they do it. You talk about personality on stage. These guys had it. Pos just straight out murders his lines live, as they are kinda of conversational like...so he's like talking to the crowd when rapping. Plug 2 comes direct too. It's just dope to watch. So I'm sure every show they do, even though there's no fancy shit, is awesome. Just because of the way they do it...
5. Jay-Z
This was definetely the largest hip-hop show I been to. I believe it was sometime in 2007, and it was at Rod Laver Arena. Plenty of too-young-to-be-wearing-that girls around, which was um...bad. Lol. NeYo opened...and I actually didn't mind his set. Then Rihanna came on and I didn't really enjoy it. Her forehead was huge with the way she had her hair. But anyways, then came Jay. He rocked the house for sure, and Just Blaze was there behind him churning the tunes out. My only gripe was that there wasn't enough old shit. ZERO Reasonable Doubt jawns? Come on dude. I guess all us Australian cats don't really know that shit, and he was doing all the mainstream shit for the young girls and shit. But it was cool when he pointed out random people in the crowd and commented on their fashion sense. My homeboy got a shout out which was cool. Jay liked his hoody or some shit. Then to wrap it up everyone involved with the show came on stage, including Beyonce, and danced. It was a happy moment, and rounded out a real good show.
6. Slum Village
This was at the Espy, late 2007. After a few joints outside, I proceded into the rear ESPY band room for the first time. I liked...it is actually an awesome hip-hop venue. Just the right size for international large-type underground acts. There was a great atmosphere in here yet again, which made it a very enjoyable show. There were a lot of shout outs to Jay Dilla and it was cool to head-nod to his joints with the Slum cats. Those guys came nice live too, I especially took a liking to T3's style. And Elzhi did an acapella freestyle which I recall was incredibly dope with incredible mutli-syllable rhymes. But yeh that was a nice show.
7. Dizzee Rascal
This was at Prince of Wales a month or two ago (2008). Dude came out and just did my 2 of my favourite tracks first, I was fucking amped. I loved how he came out and did that. "I Luv U" got the crowd rocking, following it up with "Where Da G's". Halfway through the show he just says "this is for all the indie heads" and puts on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and just rocks out with the crowd through that, then White Stripe's "7 Nation Army." I never experienced anything like that at a hip-hop show before. It was insane. The crowd ate it up. And then? "Fix Up Look Sharp!" Awesome. But then the last coupla tracks weren't my favs of his...a few of them "Showtime" jawns. And then there was no encore. That also was a first...
8. Talib Kweli + Jean Grae
This was at Good Vibrations...2006. It was barely a day after Jay Dee had died, and Kweli was noticeably not as happy as he good be, but gave a great tribute to him. His voice was kinda not like on his studio recordings...as he had a tough schedule he couldn't deliver the rhymes in that pristine high-pitched voice, but rather in a shouting lower voice that kinda gets the crowd going more anyway. But I prefer the studio voice. Anyways, he spat it real, and the crowd was really feelin it, especially for "Get By". Jean Grae was there too and contributed some mad verses...she really left a positive influence on me and crowd.
9.Masta Ace, Stricklin and Wordsworth
This was just like a few months ago, again at the ESPY, like a couple of weeks after the Slum Village show. And I gotta say, it was definetely the latest show I been to. Those kants started at like 12:40AM, finished up at like 3AM. Cos at like 2:20AM Ace was like "let's just keep going, ya'll are awesome." The crowd was feeling it, that's for sure...it was straight hip-hop. Personally the late thing got to me cos my back was hurting after all that standing. Lol. But yeah the way Ace rocked it, it was like late 80s New York again. And Stricklin really comes nice...his voice translates well to the live stage, and he is very charismatic up there on stage. Wordsworth also rocked out an awesome freestyle which culminated with him walking up to this security guy who was standing there on stage and proclaiming "[something something something rhymes with "friends"] / theres no need for security, these people are all my friends" or something like that and the crowd went crazy. You could also tell he was a veteran of live shows. When Ace did the "Nostalgia", "Brooklyn Masala", "Beautiful" joints, I was loving it, the whole crowd was just vibing out to them. A fair few tracks Ace did I wasn't familiar with, as I only have listened to "Disposable Arts" and "A Long Hot Summer". He said each show he did he chose different tracks at random. But yeh it was a pretty ill show in conclusion.
10. Ugly Duckling + Pigeon John
This was one of the first shows I went to. Would've been 2004 or so probably not long after I turned 18. I remember Pigeon John (who I had no idea who he was) opening for them and then joining them during their set. And we was a fucking funny kant up there on stage. Got the whole crowd laughing and shit. I went home and downloaded his shit immediately, and love Pigeon to this very day. And Ugly Duckling just played a straight out hip-hop-upped show, as UD say themselves, DJ Einstein just rocks loops and Dizzy and Andy just spit some sick lines over it. I remember they got some guy from the crowd to drink a "Meatshake" and obviosuly it looked gross. And Piegon came back on dressed as Pete the cow - remember Pete the Cow from the "Taste the Secret" album? Lol.