DJ Premier
Christopher Martin is the producer most often named when people define what New York rap is supposed to sound like. His catalogue as a producer for hire is close to a canon of 1990s East Coast rap.
Early life and origins
Martin was born in Houston and raised in Prairie View, Texas, which surprises people given how completely he is identified with New York. He moved east for college and joined Guru in Gang Starr in the late 1980s.
Gang Starr
The pairing of Guru's flat, unhurried monotone with Martin's chopped jazz samples produced Step in the Arena, Daily Operation, Hard to Earn and Moment of Truth. Guru died of cancer on 19 April 2010, aged 48, and Martin later completed a final Gang Starr album from unreleased vocals.
What DJ Premier is known for musically
The scratched hook. Rather than a sung chorus, he cuts vocal phrases from other records into a rhythmic refrain, a technique so associated with him that it functions as a signature. His drums are hard, dry and deliberately unpolished, and his sampling is granular — a half-second of horn rather than a recognisable loop.
Production credits
He has produced for Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Rakim, KRS-One, Mos Def, Common and Christina Aguilera among many others. His work on Illmatic and Ready to Die alone would secure his standing.
Gang Starr discography
No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989), Step in the Arena (1991), Daily Operation (1992), Hard to Earn (1994), Moment of Truth (1998), The Ownerz (2003) and One of the Best Yet (2019), completed after Guru's death.
Notable production credits
Nas's "N.Y. State of Mind" and "Represent", the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Unbelievable" and "Ten Crack Commandments", Jay-Z's "D'Evils" and "So Ghetto", Rakim's "Guess Who's Back", KRS-One's "MCs Act Like They Don't Know" and Mos Def's "Mathematics".
Influence and legacy
He is the closest thing rap production has to a house style: a Premier beat is identifiable within a few bars, and the sound he built in the early 1990s still functions as shorthand for authenticity. Producers have spent thirty years imitating the scratched hook without matching it.
Working method
He chops samples into fragments too short to recognise, then rebuilds them into a new melodic figure, which is why his beats sound like samples without sounding like the records they came from. He mixes his drums dry and loud, avoiding the reverb and compression that dated a lot of his contemporaries' work, and it is a large part of why the records still sound current.
The scratched hook
Instead of a sung chorus he cuts vocal phrases from other rappers' records into a rhythmic refrain. It became so identified with him that other producers using it are described as doing a Premier hook. It also functions as a citation system, placing each record inside a lineage.
Later work and PRhyme
He formed PRhyme with Royce da 5'9", building both albums from a single composer's catalogue as the only sample source — a self-imposed constraint that produced some of his sharpest late work. He continues to produce, tour as a DJ and broadcast, and remains among the most requested producers in rap despite working in a style the mainstream moved away from twenty years ago.