RandoMax Radio's Producers Guild Episode #5 - True Master

Producers Guild is a series celebrating the creators behind the boards of your favorite songs. Listen to today's episode and leave your comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms, and/or whatever you have for me below so we can continue the conversation.

Derek Harris, professionally known as producer-slash-occasional rapper True Master, is best known for his association with the Wu-Tang Clan. I know that sentence comes across as flippant and obvious, both because the timing of today's post implies a connection to the 12 Days of Wu-Mas 2020 and because it entirely discounts the man on his own merits, measuring his importance against the Wu-Tang monolith, but it's entirely true: one of the earliest members of the Wu-Elements production team, True Master is likely the man responsible for many of your favorite Wu tracks that don't come from the RZA himself, some of which are outright classics in their own right.

Harris has a life outside of the Clan, of course, which many of you two may not be fully aware of. True Master was once a member of the late Guru's Gang Starr Foundation alongside such names as Jeru the Damaja, Group Home, Bahamadia, and Big Shug, although you're forgiven if you never knew about this particular association, since Harris never made it on to any proper Gang Starr project. (He had to be satisfied with placements on one of Guru's Jazzmatazz albums and on the Illkid Records label sampler, Illkid Records being the short-lived label Guru had started to originally house the Foundation members.) The Wu-Tang connection came later, but not much later, as RZA picked up what the man was laying down rather quickly. (The Abbot had also realized he wouldn't be able to realistically produce every single Wu-Tang Clan effort without suffering from a noticeable decline in quality.) True Master and his fellow Element 4th Disciple made up the B-team of Wu-Tang production, a classification that remained in place for many years before True Master seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth while battling a sexual assault charge that he was later acquitted for.

This episode presents a mix of True Master's production work (and co-production work, in a small handful of places) that showcase his self-proclaimed "Persian Legacy" sound, which fits surprisingly well with a multitude of artists, not just those within the Wu fold. This episode brings boasts-n-bullshit in its purest form, with each artist focusing on nothing but one-upping those around them, which, in my opinion, bumps up the entertainment value quite a bit. Fans of East Coast boom bap will find plenty to enjoy here, although I believe there's something for everyone's tastes, especially my own, as I love all of these tracks (and I'm willing to bet a lot of you two will feel the same).



PRODUCERS GUILD EPISODE #5: TRUE MASTER
1. Cappadonna - "Slang Editorial"
2. RZA - "Fast Cars" (featuring Ghostface Killah and Erica Bryant)
3. Black Rob - "You Know What" (featuring Louis Farrakhan)
4. Tony Touch - "The Abduction" (featuring Wu-Tang Clan)
5. U-God - "Rumble" (featuring Leathafase, Inspectah Deck, and Method Man)
6. Eto & Trife Diesel - "Old Style"
7. True Master - "Who's The Truest"
8. KRS-One & True Master - "One Two, Here's What We Gon' Do" (featuring RZA)
9. Method Man - "Dangerous Grounds" (featuring Streetlife)
10. Ol' Dirty Bastard - "Brooklyn Zoo"
11. Wu-Tang Clan - "Y'all Been Warned"
12. Method Man - "Party Crasher (Original)"
13. Guru - "Looking Through Darkness" (featuring Mica Paris)
14. Gravediggaz - "Burn, Baby, Burn"
15. True Master - "12 Jewels of Life" (featuring RZA)
16. Deadly Venoms - "(Throw Your...) Middle Fingers Up" (featuring Method Man and Streetlife)
17. Wu-Tang Clan - "Heaterz" (featuring Cappadonna)
18. Killah Priest - "The PWOWR (Problem Solver)"

Hopefully you enjoy this episode. Let me know in the comments what you think, what songs I missed, and leave me some ideas for producers to look into for future episodes. And be sure to subscribe to RandoMax Radio for more of these mixes, and just know, I take requests. Don't be shy.

-Max