Pretend you’ve never heard hip hop before. In fact, you’re not even familiar with the genre’s premise. So, it’s angry guys and girls telling their own often highly personal story in a subversively poetic manner. Meanwhile, the backing comes from a DJ who borrows beats and hooks from a wide range of pre-existing recorded music. It sounds like a risky experiment, right? Well, a masterclass in the unique art of building hip hop classics lies in the collected works of DJ Premier and Pete Rock.
Premo was one half of Gang Starr (with the sadly departed MC Guru), who produced a majority of Nas’ Illmatic and has worked with Jay Z, Rakim, KRS-One and Mos Def. Pete Rock helped out Nas too, and he’s worked with Run-D.M.C., Ghostface Killah, and Kanye and Jay Z. Tonight saw the two legends DJing back-to-back and they both showed just how integral they’ve been for hip hop’s universal proliferation.
Forget any DJ night you’ve ever been to, forget any hip hop show you’ve ever seen. Tonight was an exposition of how DJing is truly an artform and how integral the DJ is to hip hop. Premo and Pete Rock are the most agile DJs you’re ever likely to witness.
Firstly, their vinyl-scratching solos weren’t in the least bit naff. Premo’s scratch rhythm, in particular, generates a fever akin to a hard trance beat dropping. Supposedly the gig was a battle, but the transitions from one turntablist to the other were so complementary that you had no choice but to applaud both sides.
The pair of New Yorkers endeavoured to represent the history of hip hop, so to start things they off looked back on classic funk. A sequence of James Brown jams immediately made it impossible to stand still. Spinning these earlier tunes highlighted where boom bap production gathered its break beats from, which became the foundation of a unique artform.
After a half-hour history lesson the two luminaries decided it was time for hip hop to step forward. Interestingly, the first rap track selected was Jay Z’s 2009 release D.O.A (Death Of Auto-Tune), which signaled that they wouldn’t focus solely on what they’ve produced. Indeed, by jumping from the West Coast to the East Coast (placing Wu-Tang next to Snoop Dogg) the message was that hip hop ain’t about pledging allegiance to a location or an era. As long as it’s hella tight, it’s all worth savouring and the grooves are, truly, just as important as the lyrical content.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Loved: 170 Russell’s soundsystem.
Hated: A few inert bodies.
Drank: Hennessy, of course.
