3. DJ PREMIER: A couple years ago, in the whip pumping The Ownerz, I realized that I was falling BACK in love with Primo, because after Moment of Truth, Primo got cliche'. Ironically, this is where the discussion of his genius begins.

Primo became such a signature for that gutter, authentic hip hop sound, that everybody wanted a Primo track…and he obliged. This wasn’t necessarily a good thing, though. It seemed as if Primo was just giving away tracks at some point. He wasn’t in the studio directing these cuts; and if he was, it managed to come out sounding

hackneyed, without creativity and well-traveled. See, Primo resided over those Gangstar albums and over Jeru's first few albums, but that's about it. And, many times, those albums sounded like Beats and Ryhmes. The two producers ranked above him have two things over Prim: the albums they directed sounded more complete and visionary (not that Primo's didn't, just not as much as the other two) and they produced solo acts which also went on to commercial, critical and real-hop success. Maybe it was his lyricists, but Primo's albums always seemed like he put together a death-inducing track and someone came and spit some lyrics on it. The ingredients came out sounding like a salad and not a cake -- once again, compared to the top two.

All of this is only to put Primo’s career in some type of context for his, perhaps controversial, ranking on this list, because in many circles he is the unquestioned genius of his generation of producers.

And lest one lose sight of his genius, all you’d have to do is examine a three year strech from 1993-95. It is arguably the greatest and most important string of production in the history of hip hop, including the formative years of the 80s.

I submit Hard To Earn, The Sun Rises In The East (“Static”, wow!) and Livin’ Proof. Primo produced every track on those three ablbums – not most of the tracks…all of them. It gets crazier, though. Check this historical import: from 1993-on, the East Coast came back after a good three or four years of West domination and this 1993-95 period was crucial in getting NYC back on the map. In each instance, outside of Wu members, every relevant and important artist came to Primo to give them that rugged, authentic NYC-sound and he delivered time and time again. You could say that the NYC and East Coast resurgence was on the backs, musically speaking, of Primo and Rza.

Check these next albums: KRS One, Jealous One’s Envy, Illmatic, Ready to Die. Outside of “Come Clean”, off Jeru's debut, few songs signify that East Coast comeback – in sound – more than “Represent” off Illmatic and Ready to Die’s “Unbelievable”. And, in each case of all the aforementioned albums (all classics, by the way), Primo submitted at least two tracks and each of them influenced the direction and NYC-feel of the album. These dudes basically said, “I need to get Prim to lace me with at least two or three tracks of that New York ish” and he produced every time. Primo was clutch!

Doin’ The Knowledge

I mentioned a lot of albums, but pay special attention to Hard to Earn ( “Code of the Streets”, “Mass Appeal”, “Tonz of Gunz”), Moment of Truth (“What I’m Here For”, “Above The Clouds”) and Wrath of the Math (“Invasion”, “Not The Average”).

-- Music Dude

musicdude@thisisrealmusic.com