Soul Provider

Fresh off the release of “New York’s Finest,” Pete Rock takes Complex behind the scenes of some his most storied collaborations. Check out the excerpts from his interview in our Feb/Mar issue. Click here to download his greatest hits via iTunes.

As told to Richard “Treats” Dryden
Photography by Mitchell Balingit

On producing “Shut ’Em Down” by Public Enemy...

Pete Rock: This was when I was born man. Big up to the Bomb Squad, Keith, Hank Shocklee, and Chuck D for even giving me a shot to do this for them. By the time I matched the tempo, and matched the beat to the vocals, I fell in love with it. I just started mixing it down, I did it all in one day. They didn’t think I’d get it done in one day. The shit was incredible.

“Down With The King” by Run DMC...

Pete Rock: I thought I was dreaming working with Run DMC. It was like ’92, ’93. I really worked with [Jam Master] Jay and D [DMC]. I had a little difficulty with Run in the beginning of the song. He didn’t really like it, and we had to convince him to like it. When the beat was done, D put his vocals down, but Run put his vocals down after CL put his verse on it. I think CL inspired him to jump on the joint.

On “Jump Around” by House of Pain...

Pete Rock: Muggs did the original version. That was a fun remix to do. I got that bass line from a Spanish record. Actually, I worked on “Jump Around” when I was doing “Down With The King.” I was doing two [studio] sessions at once. That shit was kind of ill now that I think about it. I did “Down With The King,” laid it down in the Hit Factory when it was on 42nd St., and in the other room, I was remixing House Of Pain. I was wyylin’ back in the day. There’s a lot of people that are non-believers, they don’t even believe that my whole career was built on the SP-1200. I would just bring everything out the crib-all my beats, drum machines, records, everything, and go hard. But yeah, “Jump Around” was after “Shut ’Em Down,” and the calls started coming in. I’m tellin’ you, there’s witnesses to this.

On They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)...

Pete Rock: My man, Troy (rest in peace) passed away, [it] hurt the whole community, we were all shocked. It dealt a heavy blow. I don’t know how I made that beat because I was depressed through it all, but when I heard the sample, it turned something on in my soul. The shit made me cry as soon as I heard it. Next thing you know, I was hanging out with Large Professor one day at his house. I finished making the beat over his house because I was just fucking around like that. I was learning how to use the S-900, it was a sampler. I had the beat already made, I just wanted to get the horns down and he showed me how to do it, but I was still having problems sampling it and getting it to play it out on my drum machine. I just used the SP and re-sampled the horns with the SP [SP-1200]. I guess when he heard it, he might have thought I did it the way I did it at his house, but I kinda re-did it through the SP. By the time that song was finished, I had Charlie Brown from Leaders of the New School in the session with me, and we all cried! The record just makes you cry. It just said to me right then and there, “This is for everyone who has lost a loved one.” Now, at every funeral, every wedding, that record is played.

On “Jussummen” by Das Efx...

Pete Rock: The bass was real heavy, and it matched their style. It was a new style then. When I met with Das Efx, me and Erick and Parrish, we had a relationship during the Pete Rock, CL Smooth era. They reached out to me to work with Das Efx. They considered me again to do another remix for “The Real Hip-Hop.” Premo did the original to the song, and then I remixed it on the B-Side. When they put it out as a single, it was Premo on one side, and Pete Rock on the other.

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