DJ Premier f. Nas & the Berklee Symphony Orchestra - Regeneration

DJ Premier teamed up with Nas and the Berklee Symphony Orchestra as part of the RE:GENERATION project which is presented by Hyundai Veloster. A documentary in association with the Grammys, RE:GENERATION brings together five DJ's from different genres of music and gives you a look at how they re-create their "comfort" genre with a genre they don't usually work with. Take a listen to the track below:




Here is how the track came about:

DJ Premier was given Classical and began his immersion into the genre with Bruce Adolphe, a former classical music professor at Juilliard. They met at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music not far from DJ Premier’s home in NY. After learning about classical music theory, the inspirations of some of the genre’s most profound composers and how traditional pieces are structured, DJ Premier went out and bought tons of classical symphonies on vinyl to mash up his own creation. We then took that mash-up and orchestrated it for sheet music. In the first step of the actual recording process, DJ Premier partnered with Stephen Webber, a professor and conductor at the Berklee College of Music. Steven taught Premier how to conduct and helped him in studio with the 58-piece Berklee Symphony Orchestra you hear on the track. Of all the takes, the one you hear is the “wild” version (which means they recorded it without the metronome in their headphones) DJ Premier conducted himself. Then DJ Premier brought that instrumental track back home to NY and Nas laid down his rhyme on top of it. ~ VIBE.com


For more information on the documentary go to www.regenerationmusicproject.com.

-Mixtape Chic