The INSANE Musical Math of DJ Premier and Mos Def 

Pinning this for the record - I got this wrong. Mos/Yasiin is using five percenter language, but is himself a Muslim

The language is one in the same, a lot of it so not wrong

@@ragethevictorious3060 what language? A couple of phrases here and there? Are the halander family christian just because they share some phrases?

@@ragethevictorious3060 The language yasiin bey specifically uses is five percenter but that doesn't mean the supreme mathematics and other phrases are islamic.

@@ragethevictorious3060 if we are talking about beliefs than they are diametrically apart.

He's probably responsible for 4 of the top 10 verses of all time. Got 3 classics, major features. When he's on top form, there's not many Emcee's I have heard actually rap better!

@@ninjasrose1653 what's your favorite verse? My stand out is his verse from Theives in the Night.

@@ri067953 Ah... jesus!!!! I mean there's that one, Mathmatics, Redefinition, Oh no! Auditorium, Speed Law, off the top. Just an absolute behemoth!!!

It was his comment about an Israelis that blcklisted him

Lack of output

I disagree. Hip hop has evolved through so many rhythmical changes.However Dj Premier is a lazy producer. Who gets a pass for creating the same repetitive rhythms & patterns since illmatic. . Content creators and videos like these are not objective & scared to address whats obvious.

@@element64 You can disagree. Let's say your comment is true. 1. His style would be unique because of what you said... 2. I never heard a bad Preemo beat in my life. 3. Almost any preemo beat will make most peoples head nod. I could name a lot of legendary beats made from preemo. Lazy or not, repetitive or not, he produced a lot of the timeless classics! 4. Do not dissrespect the GOAT!

@@MarkTBeats ​ You produce so you already know that a producer is expected to challenge yourself, the Artist.and your audience.Premier has worked with Jazz , Rock and Rnb acts but refuses to evolve. So Checkmate. . He's just a producer acts go to for a street recording..He's not an innovator who can craft a sound or take you on a journey.Or create a concept album. . His workflow consists of a two bar beat with a kick drum , snare & hi-hat & that's it.The majority of his patterns are so repetitive that you can line up the parts and they will match.There's no quality control or self reflection, no acknowledgment of muscle memory when he creates his drum patterns. . Now here's the disrespect. A producer is supposed to serve & aid the Artists vision. . The audience has no idea if the recording was recently created or unused material from decades ago. How can a producer sample & crate dig but ignore rhythm timbre or other types of percussion. His most challenging recording was Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man because he used a boogaloo loop and added some shakers.

@@element64 watch ''so wassup'' by him

@@element64 I agree I also think he's an artist who's work is expected to be a certain thing so he can't really evolve. He also may be one of those old dudes who gets by with what he knows and struggles to learn new things or upskill. If he tried to utilise the tools modern producers have at their disposal he'd probably bomb Playing it safe would be better for his legacy instead of having his own Rza's guitar centre promo

Perfect timing! Hahaha

@@diggingthegreats you mean like… Mathematics?

Love the track and the album brought me out of a hip hop depression! That brief period in 1999 hip hop slowed down for a bit and I was listening to a lot of old albums until this album dropped and I was 23 years old and it blew me away! For the first six months it wasn't rare for me to listen to the album six times a day.... but what I can say is I was shocked mathematics was the biggest hit off the album.... Because as much of a masterpiece as it is, to me it was one of the weaker tracks on the album. Not weak by any means cuz the album is a perfect album but almost every track on the album I like more.

@@williamperri3437 Slowed down? The era of DMX? The return of Onyx? The Return Of EPMD? Big Pun? the year Canibus dominated the posse cuts? The Soundbombing mixtapes? Simon Says? Quiet Storm? Reservoir Dogs? 60 minutes of Funk vol 3? where were you depressed, Alaska?

@@bruceleeds7988 😂 no PHILLY! And it's not that deep. I loved DMX from gi but he dropped right after this album in Philly and Sound bombing 1 and 2 were great. Cannibus I knew from "get retarded" but other than that I didn't know his music... Fat Joe, Big Pun etci knew that from the radio but I was still heavy heavy into the underground.

Hip hop is my fav track on that album but it's full of amazing ones.

Yeah, in the article linked in the description (complex) Premier says Scarface wanted it, after he showed it to him, but in another interview Premier says he knew he had to make a bugged out beat because Mos was a bugged out dude, so it sounds like he was already planning it for Mos, and knowing how Premier works with matching the music and lyrics, the end result is amazing

He's a brilliant lyricist, backwards and forwards.

It sounds like it.

Yasiin word choice and rhyme patterns are very much inspired by the Quran.

"Six million ways to die from the seven deadly thrills. 8 year olds being found with 9 mils." (paraphrased, Mos Def: ' Mathematics') That bar alone solidifies this song as one of the best hiphop tracks of all time imo. The honesty and brutality and seriousness of the words is...I have no words. The song says everything necessary and is tragic while beautiful.

1 - 2 - 3

Word! Respect from Germany ☮️

you've gotta dig boy! true gems are dug up and found not fallen into your lap!

@@BigFootGLMAO, I swear people forget or are too young to know how different music buying was back the 90s… and expensive.

@@dmug word. I mean even diving down the RU-vid rabbit hole and just paying attention. Listening as opposed to hearing sound. It's nice to let the music wash over you first and then go back over to really catch those tricky bars

I just played it the other day. Beautiful album. I have a theory that links the current state of commercial rap with Mos's failure to deliver a follow up album. There are a few rappers that have the unique ability to make popular and edgy music, while still providing an actual message, and Mos was one of them. Rappers like Tupac, Q-Tip, and Kendrick fall into that category. Hip Hop really needed Mos and he just wasn't able to give us any more music.

@@Kevinschart Agreed, Mos Def is one of the most frustrating artists to me as he basically shunned his audience after dropping a classic. His sins were trying to sing (he really can't even if Umi Says is accidentally good), making rock music that was.... not good, and extremely lofi in-not-a-good-way music. At least with say, Andre 3000 we got enough out of him to be satisfied, or like in the case of Blu, who also rebuked his station, came back around for a nice reunion with Exile.

Well he touches on all the genres within the album. He raps he sings. Gives you hiphop, jazz, soul, and even a little punk rock. "UMI Says" is just a masterpiece. He's speaking about family, community, culture, resources, education, love and he has the unique ability to do it in a way that's fun to listen to. For me it hit especially hard when I moved to Flatbush Brooklyn over a decade ago. Seeing all the locations he mentions in "Brooklyn" explained so much about his since of pride in family and community. I just wish that he gave us more music.

This will take me some months to understand,but I can appreciate it from this sec!

Who is not racially black yet?!

Thank you! 🙏 I had so much fun with this incredible song

I got into him when i heard B-Boy Document 99 (what a banger!) from Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, then this was the next song i heard.

Thank you so much for the support! 🙏

search Medina green

Yessss that song changed me, along with second place by Royce and Premier (pre-Prhyme) which both I discovered in the same week. I didn't listen to anything else that week. Seriously.