Ras-T - ‘Nine-Six Million Dollar Man 1996

Salaam Remi is probably enjoying the most successful spell of his career thus far, as go-to producer for Nas and Amy Winehouse.

The son of musician and producer Van Gibbs he got his studio start through his father’s work on Kurtis Blow’s “Kingdom Blow” LP in 1986. His first notable beats were Zhigge’s “Rakin’ In The Dough (Uptown Bounce)” and Biz Markie’s “Young Girl Blues”. Bonafide slappers both.

He scored an international pop-reggae hit with Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes The Hotstepper” in 1994. In the mid-90s he worked with Hiphop artists like Da Bush Babees, Channel Live and Black Sheep as well as Reggae artists like Mega Banton and Shabba Ranks before effectively MAKING the Fugees by producing their breakthrough “Nappy Heads (Remix)” and “Fu-Gee-La” singles. He produced the phenomenal “Norfside Remix” of Kool G Rap’s “Fast Life” (previously attributed wrongly to Buckwild on this very site, our bad).

From what I can gather he launched two labels, Norfside Records, a Hiphop label and Hot Ice Records a home for reggae artists including Ricky General.
The only artist I noticed at the time emerging from these labels was Jamaica, Queens’ Ras-T. He appeared on volumes 1 and 2 of Funkmaster Flex’s “60 Minutes Of Funk” mixtape series and released the above track “‘Nine-Sixe Million Dollar Man” produced by Remi.
His single “Ill Nig” got some radio play but I didn’t hear anything more from him or Norfside records, which is a real shame as both tracks and his Funk Flex appearances had A LOT of swagger.

Salaam spent the rest of the 90s walking the rap/reggae line from Wyclef to Red Rat and didn’t really pop up on my radar again until he started working with Nas. Enough has already been written about the throwback classic “Made You Look” but he also produced the creeping JB-looping “Get Down” and the “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” sampling “Thief’s Theme” (vastly superior to last year’s “Hiphop Is Dead”). Nas has never really had his “own” producer but these days it certainly feels like Salaam is his first port-of-call for beats.

Salaam has also found success in the R&B field with North London’s Miss Dynamite and Amy Winehouse (North London standUP!). He’s a very skillfull producer and hasn’t gone more than a couple of years without producing a serious TUNE for fifteen years. That’s a good record by any reckoning.

Salaam on Discogs
Salaam on Myspace

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Self-promotion: I got a new blog of my own where I’ll be slinging up random music here and there and talking about vinyl, London and chocolate or whatever. I’ll still be on the Gat tip, in fact I’ll probably do more (that wouldn’t be hard right?). It’s called 16 33 45 78. Check it, peace!