Line-up

Venue

The Novo

800 W Olympic Blvd, 90015, Los Angeles (LA), CA, US

www.thenovodtla.com/

View upcoming concerts

Additional details

Doors open: 21:00

Concert in your area for Hip-Hop, Electronic, and Metal.

Find out more about Hip-Hop, Electronic, and Metal.

DJ Premier biography

No producer represents the bleak but humorous, the inventive but accessible sound of Brooklyn hip-hop better than DJ Premier. Throughout the 90s his skill was consulted on numerous occasions, often featured on rap’s most essential records (“Illmatic”, “Ready to Die”, “Reasonable Doubt”, and “Black on Both Sides”).

Premier was born on 21 March 1966 as Chris Edward Martin. Though he spent the majority of his childhood in Prairie View, Texas, US (not far from his birthplace, Houston) he moved to Brooklyn as a teenager. Premier moved back to Texas to attend Prairie View A&M in Houston and during his stint in college acted as the campus’ DJ as well as an infrequent contributor to the Marching Storm band.

Premier moved back to Brooklyn to start his music career and quickly established a unique and instantly recognizable style for himself. His beats implement heavy sampling of jazz, funk, and soul songs but are not in the slightest limited to these genres. For some of his more experimental tracks he has been noted for creating atonal accents through the inclusion of electro-acoustical samples (think Pierre Schaefer). He is also widely praised for his interesting tactic of splicing together short vocal cuts from varying artists to create glitch choruses.

Premier’s innovative and highly original technique earned him spots on countless important hip-hop recordings. He has worked with a giant and diverse list of musicians including KRS-One, Mos Def, Kanye West, Common, D’Angelo, Game, Jay-Z, Rakim, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., and Xzibit. Outside of the hip-hop genre he has produced work for nu metal acts like Busta Rhymes and Limp Bizkit as well as pop divas such as Christina Aguilera. Despite the persistent hesitation Premier received from his peers in regards to producing Aguilera’s album “Back to the Basics”, it was received with enthusiasm from new and old fans alike. This release further proved the eclectic range of Premier and illustrated his proficiency of handling technically sophisticated recordings.

Contrary to common belief Premier is not a member of Gang Starr; however, the group is greatly indebted to him for much of their signature sound. From 1989 to 2003 DJ Premier has acted as a production consultant for Gang Starr, appearing on all six of their studio albums as well as their 2006 greatest hits compilation release.

Alchemist biography

The Alchemist is the stage name of Daniel Maman, a rapper, producer and DJ hailing from California, U.S who was born on October 25th, 1977. Since his debut he's released four studio albums and, as a producer, collaborated with nearly every legendary name in underground and mainstream hip-hop.

Coming to prominence as a member of the hip-hop duo The Whooliganz with Scott Caan, Daniel Maman was first spotted rapping at a party by Cypress Hill's B-Real in 1991, who invited the duo to join his crew The Soul Assassins. The duo took all the tuition they got from artists who were now their peers, like House Of Pain and Funkdoobiest, and released their first single “Put Your Handz Up” in 1993. Unfortunately, the single tanked, and their label decided to shelve their album indefinitely. Wounded, the band decided to split up, with Caan going into acting and Maman looking into production. Fortunately, Manan still had a place in The Soul Assassins, and Cypress Hill's DJ and producer DJ Muggs took him under his wing to show him the production ropes.

After gaining some genuine respect for his work on some Cypress Hill tracks, Maman joined Dilated Peoples, the band of his childhood friend Evidence. He debuted with the band in 1998 and almost immediately the band got some serious praise for their beats, and Maman became a hugely in-demand producer almost overnight. After some high-profile work producing for Mobb Deep, Maman found himself producing tracks for everyone from Nas, to Ghostface Killah to Snoop Dogg, but also remained steadfastly committed to hip-hop's underground artists, working with as many unsigned rappers as legends of the genre.

Ever since then, he's remained one of hip-hop's true artists, as renowned in the mainstream for his work as Eminem's official DJ as he is for he collaboration albums with underground sensations like Action Bronson, Boldy James and Willie The Kid. For this true dedication to his art, and his sheer skill behind the decks, behind the mic and behind the mixing desk, The Alchemist comes highly recommended.

Live reviews

I had the absolute honor and privilege of catching DJ Premier live last when he spun records at Icon La in Los Angeles, California. For those unfamiliar, DJ Premier (or Premo for short) makes up the producing half of legendary hip-hop duo Gangstarr, and has also produced many of the timeless classics of the genre with a multitude of the biggest names in hip-hop history.

The venue was a lounge, so it was great to just relax and get some drinks with friends while listening to a legend work the tables. The crowd, fortunately, was really into it and the atmosphere was fantastic.

Beyond just being amazed at who was spinning for us, it was great taking a break from the modern radio pop tracks that usually get played at nightclubs for once and getting to listen to all of the classic 90s hip-hop classics that he put on and cut up as only a turntable maestro can.

Seriously, the man’s been in the business since the birth of the genre – there is nobody better than him. DJ Premier’s got a new collaboration album with Nas coming out later this year, so everybody should make sure to give that album a listen and catch these guys on tour.

Anonymous

I would say that Alchemist shouldn’t be confused with the prolific hip hop producer who also goes by the name The Alchemist, but to be honest, it’s difficult to envisage how you could really confuse them with anybody else. Hailing from Canberra, Australia, the progressive metal outfit were hugely experimental even by pre-ordained standards of the genre; over the course of a career that lasted around thirteen years, they made a sound their own that incorporated a basic death metal sound and built around it influences from Aboriginal records, Eastern musical disciplines and even psychedelia and electronic cues, too. They put out six records over the course of their career, all of which were critically well-received within the metal community; album titles like Austral Alien and Lunasphere should give you an impression as to the kind of lyrical content that they generally tended to concern themselves with. Most impressive, though, were their brutally noisy live shows, which were exercises in serious technical proficiency whilst still being able to ignite mosh pits and a moment’s notice. Since 2010, though, their website’s been claiming that Alchemist are ‘hibernating indefinitely’, leaving fans on tenterhooks as to what - if anything - their next move will be.

Report