The Catch-Up: RandoMax Radio's Producers Guild

The Producers Guild series is one of my low-key favorites on the site. Maybe it's just that the structure of the series forces me to focus my thoughts in a way that is similar to what compelled me to start these damned sites to begin with (not that you can tell with some of the rambling rants I loving refer to as "write-ups", but I digress), but while it certainly isn't the most creative of concepts, it's still rather fun to research how a producer's body of work has evolved with the times. That said, it's been a while since I've done one of these - I have a couple of ideas half-started, and in 2022 I had shifted most of my efforts to getting something different off the ground, a task which will have to wait until next year, I'm afraid - but it's still very much on my mind, and now's probably the perfect time to revisit what's come so far so you two can be prepared for the future.

When I resurrected the Producers Guild series a few years ago as a mix show series, 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 greater appreciation for music in general.

The key word there is "hopefully".

I haven't yet gotten back to the Producers Guild series because of scheduling issues (these episodes take several months worth of planning before I even get around to recording the thing, and time is a much-cherished luxury these days), but my hope is that it'll return in 2023. 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)
Episode #5: True Master (Original post)
Episode #6: 4th Disciple (Original post)
Episode #7: Allah Mathematics (Original post)

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 head. 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