DJ Premier

Chris Martin, aka DJ Premier or Premo (born May 5, 1967) is a hip hop DJ and producer, is the instrumental half of the duo Gang Starr, and is considered by many hip-hop fans to be one of the g

Chris Martin, aka DJ Premier or Premo (born May 5, 1967) is a hip hop DJ and producer, is the instrumental half of the duo Gang Starr, and is considered by many hip-hop fans to be one of the greatest producers in the genre's history. DJ Premier has produced almost all of Gang Starr's tracks as well as tracks for many other groups and solo artists since the 1990s. He has produced notable tracks for such artists as Jay-Z ("Friend or Foe"), Big L ("The Enemy"), The Notorious B.I.G. ("Ten Crack Commandments"), Nas ("New York State of Mind", "Nas Is Like"), M.O.P., Jeru The Damaja, KRS-One ("MC's Act Like They Don't Know") and Mos Def ("Mathematics"). DJ Premier's style of production is considered "underground" Hip-Hop, he epitomises the New York sound once generated from his earlier peers . He is known for sampling Jazz, Funk, and Soul artists, as well as sampling an artist's past work, when he is creating a new track for that same artist.

His non-Gang Starr collaborations are well-known for his often imitated technique of combining small vocal samples, often from multiple artists, to create a chorus. For example, for the chorus of Mos Def's "Mathematics" Premier cuts, in quick succession, "The Mighty Mos Def.." (from Mos Def's "Body Rock"), "It's simple mathematics" (from Fat Joe's "John Blaze), "I revolve around science..." (from Ghostface Killah's verse on Raekwon's "Criminology"), "What are we talking about here..." (unknown origin), "Do your math.." (from Erykah Badu's "On & On"), "One, two, three, four" (James Brown). On certain artists' work the vocal samples will all be vocal samples of the artist from the artists' past work; "Nas Is Like" and "2nd Childhood" with Nas are two well-known examples of this.