A few weeks back, super producer Just Blaze was featured on Peoples Party with Talib Kweli. The interview offered an amazing look into the making of some of the great records in the history of hip-hop.
In the high-powered clip above, Kweli noted when it comes to Pete Rock, MCs like Mecca and the Soul Brother but producers prefer The Main Ingredient. Just Blaze said while at Rutgers University he came across the latter album late, through a friend that worked at a local record store.
“It quite literally, as a young producer changed my life probably more so than any other body of work from that era.”
Pete Rock’s production dominated and redefined the sound of the 1990s on the East coast, moving away from the classic breakbeat sound that opened the door for a lot of early rap music. Rock infused innovative jazz and rare soul loops that arguably altered the DNA of what most of the world knew as hip-hop. During that time, if you didn’t have at least a remixed single by Pete Rock, you couldn’t be considered hot.
“I loved the fact that you had these hard, technically advanced beats, but he was in a whole different pocket than what you would expect,” Just says about Rock. “To me, that’s one of the things that made it beautiful.”
Listen to deeper insights from Just Blaze on People’s Party with Talib Kweli and co-host Jasmin Leigh. And watch the first episode of Just Blaze’s new Uproxx show, Fresh Pair, with sneaker customizer Katty Customs, below: