BY KEVIN CORTEZ • NOVEMBER 6, 2018

DJ Premier has an extensive background in Hip-Hop music and production. This week the legendary Gang Starr member (deemed “The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer Of All-Time” by Ambrosia For Heads readers) native casually dropped another line to add to his already lengthy resume. On the latest episode of crooner Anderson .Paak’s .Paak House Radio show on Apple Music, Preemo revealed some hidden history about Nas’ seminal debut album, Illmatic—deemed “The Greatest Rap Album Of Time” by those same AFH readers.

“I’m all about sequencing,” DJ Premier said. “I’ve sequenced every Gang Starr [album], every Jeru [The Damaja album]… I sequenced Illmatic for Nas,” Preemo told his Compton collaborator, Anderson. “[Nas] wanted to use the same mastering that I was using, so he was like, ‘Yo, sequence it for me.’ So, I sequenced Illmatic.”

Illmatic’s sequencing was never confirmed to be completed by a sole producer, or Nas himself. As Donna-Claire Chesman of DJ Booth points out, a 2014 FACT article on Illmatic states that Sony Records sequenced the 1994 LP, while MTV News reported Nas had left the task up to the staff at Columbia Records. The fact that DJ Premier had even more of a hand in shaping Illmatic than originally thought is nothing less of fascinating and adds to the allure of the legendary Hip-Hop LP.

READ MORE AT AMBROSIA FOR HEADS