Alchemist Tells the Stories Behind His Classic Records (Part 1)

[Karank0]

The Alchemist Tells All: The Stories Behind His Classic Records (Part 1) | Complex



That's my favorite producer yo

the book of rhymes story where Nas was actually going through his old rhyme books while he was making the song was dope.

Cant wait for part 2

 

[THE K-MAN]

subway

 

[AMcV'88]

lmao at Pun having 2 boxes of cereal duct-taped together.

 

[mortuus est]

lmao at Pun having 2 boxes of cereal duct-taped together.

lol reading this shyt now

 

[HARLEM AL]

The Realest is the greatest beat he ever did.

 

[Danie84]

Subz for later.



Remebers Complex complicated way of viewing their site

 

[Asdfhhklpiyrewss]

"Nas had brought a bunch of books out to Orlando because I guess he writes in his off time. He was going through shyt and I was playing a beat and he said, ‘Yo that shyt would be ill right?’ And I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Yo I'm just going through rhymes.’

“I didn’t even know what he meant to be honest, then he just told the engineer to track the beat in. We tracked it in and he just did what he did. He went in there like he was on a mission. He knew what he was about to do. And it was ill!

“I remember later I wanted to spruce the beat up and put breakdowns in it and he was like, ‘Nah, it has a vibe like we’re really just in the studio and you put on a rough beat and I am just going through rhymes. If you put in breakdowns then its gonna sound too contrived.’ As a producer, I want to do all the bells and whistles but he made a good call.

“He's an artist and I don’t wanna reveal his magic tricks, but I remember after recording a few lines or so, he went back and recorded the sound of the paper flipping the page. When he stopped the line or crumpling the page.

“He's an artist in every sense. We all know from his track record how great he is and it’s not like he stumbled on it. I wish I could say I had something more to do with that song than me making the beat. But, no, sorry guys. Give all the credit to Nas.”

 

[BIGDENNIS10UK]

Subz for later.



Remebers Complex complicated way of viewing their site

fukking terrible ain't it?

Can't even read their lists cos they make it so long winded.

 

[Won Won]

@ the autographed Artest jersey

 

[Ohene]

Vet;s Memorial

 

[Monoblock]

fukking complex and their bullshyt format

 

[toetoe]

Whats so bad about Complex?

 

[mortuus est]

Royce da 5'9" "I'm the King" (2001)

Album: Grand Theft Auto III
Label: Game Recordings

The Alchemist: “I remember we did it at D&D and my big homie Jonathan Shecter [Founder Of Game Records] was in the building. It was a time when we were all still coming up. Working with Royce. who was one of the better MC’s coming up at the time, it was good for all of us. It reminds me of those other records we had, we had a whole batch but I don’t remember if they came out because we were working a lot at the time.

“Royce is doing a lot and I'm happy to see where he's at now. It’s beautiful to see how he stuck it out and came full circle to be someone you can genuinely be proud of as a friend and as a fan. For his shyt to come full circle and be where he's at now is motivating. And he's ridiculous on the mic.”

 

[Monoblock]

@ Nas passing on the We Gone Make It beat

 

[mortuus est]

Prodigy "Keep it Thoro" (2000)

Album: H.N.I.C
Label: Relativity

The Alchemist: “[When I first got with Mobb Deep] P was working on H.N.I.C.. It was good timing because I had the right joints to fit for him. After we made it, me and Twin had a copy of it on cassette. So we went to the Puerto Rican day parade with a boombox and we were walking around Central Park banging that shyt. Everyone came up and was like, ‘What is that son?’ This was before it came out so we were trying to stunt.

“When we did the vocals, P kinda had a cold. He was under the weather, you can hear it in his delivery, he was a little more nasal than usual. I wanted to bring the break down in more but he was like, ‘Nah yo, because when it comes in it’s special.’ He made a good call on that one because when it does come in, it is special. That was one of those.

“It was a good feeling to be living in New York and having a song like ‘Keep It Thoro.’ I never really feel like I made it. The song didn’t affect my confidence of what I can do, I had something to prove, but that definitely added to my confidence as far as being able to make something that would translate to New York City.

“On top of all that, it was dope because it got heavy radio airplay all day with no chorus. It was a song on the radio, but not a huge radio hit. I remember after the record came out Chris Lighty was like, ‘Yo, the song could be bigger if it had a hook, we need a hook for radio’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ and that’s when I learned about radio.

“When radio does call research on a song they loop up 10 seconds of a song for the listeners and do surveys. What part do they loop? The hook. So if a song doesn’t have a hook, they don’t even know what to loop so they were like we need a hook.

“Later, they got Havoc in the studio to put a hook on it and there's even a version out that ended up going out to radio with Hav’s hook but it just didn’t do anything. The hook was dope too but the song was already powerful enough. Every now and then a song comes through without a hook. It was still a hit, to what degree of a hit who’s to say, but I feel like that was one of those records. Every time we do that song live, it never fails.”