Dec 12 2008
Producer Profile: Salaam Remi
His first job was playing the keyboards for Kurtis Blow. His biggest hits were songs done by a chick who could blow (Lauryn Hill and the Fugees), a chick known for doing blow (Amy Winehouse), and a rapper whose lyrics hit like a gat blow (Nas). He is Salaam Remi.
Salaam is like a lot of producers I profile here, old school, talented beyond all belief, and versatile. He can move from Jamaican dancehall to Hip Hop to Soul and back again. He’s had hits in many decades, including Ini Kamozi’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper, Toni Braxton’s “You’re Making Me High”, and Jazmine Sullivan’s new chart topper “Bust Your Windows”. On top of that, his Hip Hop credentials are thick. “Made You Look”, “You Can’t Stop Us Now”, “Thief’s Theme”, “Get Down”, and “I Can” from Nas. “Fu-Gee-La”, “Nappy Heads”, and “Vocab” from The Fugees, plus more from Da Bush Babees, Wyclef, Angie Martinez, I-20, Ludacris, and Lil Flip to name a few.
The thing that makes Salaam unique is his broken-bottle style of production, that finds order amongst chaos, melody amongst dissonant sounds. He is a vet, a pro, and any other three letter word that means dope. He’s also got a great website where he has videos of him telling stories about what it was like to record with artists and how certain beats came about. You could loose hours just in the Nas section. So check it out.
http://www.salaamremi.com/
