Top 50 - The Best DJ Premier Beats of All Time [The Best of DJ Premier]

Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr—alongside the rapper Guru—and presently forms half of the hip hop duo PRhyme, together with Royce da 5'9".

DJ Premier's style of production epitomizes the New York sound of his earlier peers. He is known for sampling jazz, funk, and soul artists, as well as sampling an artist's past work when creating a new track for that same artist. For example, on Jay-Z's "So Ghetto", from the 1999 album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter, Premier samples an older Jay-Z song, 1997's "Who You Wit II". In addition, his encyclopedic memory of hip-hop lyrics allows him to distinctively speak with his hands by scratching in lyrics from several different songs to construct new phrases. Premier's beats are known for his oft-imitated combinations of short vocal samples, often from multiple artists, to create a chorus. Premier has also experimented with atonal samples that are not confined to soul, jazz, and funk. For example, he sampled and chopped up seminal electro-acoustic music from the 1960s on the track “Physical Stamina” by Jeru the Damaja.

Not too long ago, we celebrated DJ Premier's 56th birthday. I wasn't prepared to make this video then, which is why it is here now. I am on a roll with “original” ideas!

There were A TON of great beats to choose from, but alas, we can only keep it to 50. 100 is too much work for me personally. I’m lazy!!

Typically with my lists, the order isn’t very important; and that’s the case with this video as well. The top 3 are in my opinion, the three best beats Preemo has ever crafted; but you can really organize the other 47 names in any permutation.

Keep in mind, I am JUST looking at the instrumental; not how well the artist(s) perform on it. And speaking of the instrumental, my criteria for this list is the following: in addition to the quality of the instrumental, I also took into account how important the beat is to the genre and culture, along with how recognizable the beat is.

I will put the list of the songs in the pinned comment if you are interested!

Let me know who I should cover next! I plan on doing this for all the greatest producers; Dr. Dre, RZA, Kanye West, Madlib, J Dilla, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, The Alchemist, MF DOOM, El-P, and more.

*Yes I’m aware that “Everything I Am” was not produced by DJ Premier. I’m just a Kanye Stan and wanted a song by him on here and this was a technicality.

Happy belated birthday DJ Premier! Keep putting out classics!

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Modern Music Mayhem, Music, Rap, Hip-Hop, Hip Hop, DJ Premier, NaS, JAY-Z, Kanye West, Rakim, KRS-One, Preemo, Gang Starr, Guru, Moment of Truth, N.Y. State of Mind, The Notorious B.I.G.