DJ Premier Teases Forthcoming Nas Collaboration
DJ Premier
Nas And DJ Premier Will Be Dropping New Heat Soon
It looks like fans won’t wait long to hear Nas and DJ Premier work together on new music as a new song with the two will drop next Friday. DJ Premier posted a video on his Instagram of new music by Nas, which will drop next Friday. The video hinted that Nas could drop another […]
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Nas And DJ Premier Tease A New Track That’s Dropping This Month
While Nas’ collaborations with Hit-Boy have been the primary driver of his successful career Renaissance of late, there remains one producer that fans still want to work with the Queens rap icon. Ever since he heavily contributed to Nas’ groundbreaking 1994 debut Illmatic, fans have clamored for a full Nas project produced by DJ Premier. The two hip-hop pioneers have acknowledged those requests in the past, promising to make rap fans’ dreams come true, but aside from a handful of singles, little has ever come of those assurances.
However, come July 15, that could very well be changing. That’s the date DJ Premier put in a tweet earlier today along with a video from outside a studio control room with what very much sounds like a new Nas song produced by Premo blasting through the doorway. And what else do you see hanging on the wall but the gold sales plaque for Illmatic? The suggestion is clear: that Nas and Premier have joined forces at the successor to the legendary D&D Studios, Kaufman Astoria Studios in Long Island City, Queens.
7/15 @Nas pic.twitter.com/sC3Z0L3dPH
— DJ Premier (@REALDJPREMIER) July 7, 2022
Of course, the duo could just be releasing one standalone single and using the joint album speculation to generate the necessary buzz for it — after all, they’ve done it before. But with Nas’ collaborations with Hit-Boy prompting his career revival (and another on the way), he could have found the necessary creative spark to try out similar experiments with other producers, getting over his former reticence toward working with one beatmaker for a full project. I guess we’ll all find out next Friday, when whatever they’re working on officially hits DSPs — hopefully, with more news about whatever comes next.
Logic & DJ Premier Reconnect For “Vinyl Days” Single
The title track from Bobby’s forthcoming seventh album, out June 17.
Today In Hip Hop History: Gang Starr’s Third LP ‘Daily Operation’ Turns 30 Years Old!
Nothing beats a classic rap record and a few MCs were dropping them on the regular quite like legendary ’90s rap duo Gang Starr. The group, consisting of Guru holding things down on the mic and DJ Premier handling the head-bumping production, dropped six albums in their career before calling it quits in 2003.
While a reunion album was reportedly planned, unfortunately, Guru passed away on April 19, 2010, before the project could be completed or properly executed overall. While the Hip-Hop community definitely took a blow due to the loss, the work they did create while recording together influenced the genre in ways that we’re still seeing today. One LP that specifically represents Gang Starr’s influential legacy is their third album Daily Operation, which celebrates its 30th anniversary today.
Comprised of jazz-tinged samples and lyrics that illustrated life in the streets of New York City during the early ’90s, Daily Operation saw Gang Starr striding smoothly towards the legendary status that we now place the group in today. The project is East Coast-inspired through and through, from recording the LP entirely at the dearly missed D&D Studios on West 37th Street in Midtown Manhattan all the way to lamenting about Brooklyn on the opening track “The Place We Dwell.” Other standout cuts include “I’m The Man,” featuring the solely credited cameos by Group Home member Lil Dap and Jeru the Damaja, “B.Y.S.” — cleverly abbreviated for “Bust Yo’ Shit” — and the lead single “Ex Girl to Next Girl” that gave us one of the most 90s-looking music videos ever created.
The key to Gang Starr is that, while none of their albums ever crossed Top 5 status on the Billboard 200 — their highest placement happened in 1998 when Moment of Truth hit #6 — sales were never the thing that represented their effect on the game; the music always came first and foremost. Daily Operation received all sorts of critical acclaim nonetheless, and we even included it on our “100 Best Rap Albums” list for The Source’s 100th issue (January 1998). So, while it only reached #65 on the Billboard 200 and faired slightly better on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #14, those numbers mean nothing when compared to the slick verses, smooth-yet-rugged instrumentals, and thought-provoking bars that still makes this album a certified classic almost three decades after its original release.
The post Today In Hip Hop History: Gang Starr’s Third LP ‘Daily Operation’ Turns 30 Years Old! appeared first on The Source.
Today In Hip Hop History: GangStarr Dropped Their Debut LP ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ 33 Years Ago
On this date in 1989, Boston native Keith Elam and Houston native Christopher Martin, better known as Guru and DJ Premier, came together to continue the legacy of Gangstarr and released the group’s first full studio album entitled No More Mr. Nice Guy.
Released by overseas label Chrysalis Records, Gangstarr, and their debut release ironically had a heavy influence on the NYC Hip Hop sound, even though neither artists were native New Yorkers. Tracks such as “Positivity”, “Conscious Be Free” and the album’s lead single, “Manifest”, exposed Guru’s unparalleled slow flow, while instrumentals like “DJ Premier In Deep Concentration” just set the pace for who Hip Hop would later recognize as one of the greatest producers in the game.
Supreme salute goes out to DJ Premier, Guru(RIP), the Elam family, the Gangstarr Foundation and the entire East New York for creating a pivotal moment in Hip Hop history.
The post Today In Hip Hop History: GangStarr Dropped Their Debut LP ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ 33 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.
Today in Hip Hop History: Nas Released His Iconic ‘Illmatic’ Album 28 Years Ago
28 years ago today, Nas dropped his debut LP ‘Illmatic‘. Released by Columbia Records in 94’ Nas recorded the album at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. Produced by DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself; the bangers on the album will be embedded in Hip Hop culture as classics merely based upon its production alone.
The album sold 60,000 in the first week and debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart. On January 17, 1996, the album was certified gold by the RIAA in 2001 it earned a platinum certification after shipping 1,000,000 copies in the United States alone.
Lyrically, Nas delivered street certified verses on ‘Illmatic‘ that influenced the majority of the 90’s and is regarded as one of the greatest LP’s of all time by critics and major publications globally.
The post Today in Hip Hop History: Nas Released His Iconic ‘Illmatic’ Album 28 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.
How Moses “Zay” Fofana Went From Modeling to Styling ASAP Rocky, Nas, Snot, Pi’erre Bourne, and More
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Image via Humane/@humansuncut