Archive for March, 2005
James Yancey (Jay Dee) came out of the early 90’s pre-Eminem Detroit undergground scene that produced other notable acts such as MC Breed. As a teenager he was introduced to the MPC and beat making by Amp Fidler; quickly putting together beats and a band, Slum Village. His big break came in 1994 while attempting to shop his bands sampler Fantastic Vol. 1 , Amp Fidler introduced him to a guy named Q-tip of the band A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ). This chance introduction quickly led to production opportunities with Pharcyde and De La Soul, resulting in the certified classics “Runnin’” and “Stakes is High” respectively.
Jay Dee, like most 80’s and 90’s hip-hop producers, cites that he was musically influenced by his parents funk and soul music collection - artists like Parliament, Zapp, Prince, the JB’s, Jack McDuff and Sergio Mendez. Jaydee’s production is heavily drum based and loop driven.
East Orange NJ native, Kay Gist (Kay-Gee) was known most notably as one third of Naughty By Nature, entirely producing the first four albums and their pre-TommyBoy release “Independent Leaders” as the group The New Style , which generated the minor hit “Scuffin’ Those Knees” . Kaygee’s early production particularly on NBN’s first two albums cemented him as one of the most succesful producers of the early and mid-90’s. Kaygee’s early style can be described as heavily sample-driven with infectious drum loops, which consistently gave Naughty at least two anthemic tracks per album for each of their first four albums. Most notable are, “OPP “, “Ghetto Bastard” , “Feel Me Flow” , “Craziest” , “Dirt All By My Lonely” , “Written on Ya Kitten” and “Hip-Hop Hooray”.
Kaygee has produced extensively for Flavour-Unit including Queen Latifah (he produced “U.N.I.T.Y”) and Illtown Record artists The Rottin Razkals and Road Dawgs. He is probably just as well known for his RB work, including producing commercial succesful “Hey Mr DJ” for Zhane. Probably Kaygee’s most succesful signing was the group Next, for which he produced the chart topping single “Too Close” - a song that imaginatively used a sample from Kurtis Blow’s 1982 single “Christmas Rappin’”.
