The Catch-Up: RandoMax Radio's Producers Guild

 

When I resurrected the Producers Guild series a couple of years ago in an entirely different format, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. It's not as though our chosen culture (that would be hip hop, obviously) was lacking in compilations made up of songs produced by one of your favorite beatmakers: hell, you can't throw a pebble into the Interweb without it ricocheting off of at least seventeen such projects, all of which are likely to be built around DJ Premier's catalog from 1992-1998. But while I'm not so self-involved that I believed that everyone on the goddamn planet absolutely deserves to know what my thoughts are regarding hip hop (that's a lie, that's exactly why I have these sites to begin with), I figured that my twist on this kind of side project, where I present songs that I personally love from the artists in question as opposed to tracks which are generally agreed upon as "classics" among heads, was unique enough to take a chance on it, and hopefully these past episodes have not only presented you with some lesser-known, but equally great, songs from some of your faves, but you two also walk away from this with a great appreciation for music in general.

Lofty expectations, I know. But it's totally doable.

I haven't yet gotten back to the Producers Guild series because of scheduling issues (believe it or not, these episodes take a lot of planning, and that's before I even get around to recording anything), but it'll return sooner than you think. Until that happens, here's a rundown of the producers I've focused on in the past, with links to each episode (and to its corresponding article, so you can check out tracklistings and/or leave comments) so you can enjoy them again or discover them for the very first time.

Episode #1: The Automator (a/k/a Dan the Automator) (Original post)
Episode #1.5: The Automator Revisited (Original post)
Episode #2: DJ Premier (Original post)
Episode #2.5: DJ Premier Revisited (Original post)
Episode #3: Nashiem Myrick (Original post)
Episode #4: Easy Mo Bee (Parts I & II) (Original post)

Now that I've written all of that out, I can see that I've only focused on four producers over the course of two years, which seems less productive than I'd like, but that just means I'll have to do something about it, right? You may have also noticed how only three of those four hasn't been featured over multiple episodes - that's due to the size of their respective back catalogs, which rendered it very difficult to eliminate tracks from consideration. That's something I would like to revisit at a later date. Does that mean there will be another Preemo episode in the future? I haven't decided yet, but yes.

Click through, find some new favorite songs, and be sure to share these mixes with anyone you feel would appreciate a window into your favorite producer's world. And let me know who else you'd like to see featured in a future installment - I have some ideas I'm working on, but I'd love to hear yours.

-Max