Today in Hip-Hop — October 25: The Alchemist Turns 49, and the Day Artifacts Painted Newark on Wax

October 25, 1977. Alan Daniel Maman is born in Beverly Hills. Today the man the culture calls The Alchemist turns 49. The jewel is that Al didn’t start out making beats. At 14 he was a rapper in a duo called the Whooliganz with his friend Scott Caan, the son of James Caan. B-Real heard them rapping at a party in L.A. and pulled them into the Soul Assassins crew with House of Pain and Funkdoobiest. Tommy Boy put out “Put Your Handz Up” in 1993, then shelved the album.

The Shelf That Built a Producer

That shelving is the hinge of the whole story. Caan went into acting. Al went to DJ Muggs, who taught him how to run a sampler and a mixing board. The first beats went to his childhood friend Evidence and Dilated Peoples. Then he moved to New York and got adopted by Queensbridge. “The Realest” on Mobb Deep’s Murda Muzik (1999) set the template: dusty loops, strings that feel like a cold hallway, drums that sit back and let the bars do the damage.

Then he stopped following anyone’s template. He gave Freddie Gibbs Alfredo, nominated for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Grammys. He did the Boldy James run (four albums and an EP so far), Voir Dire with Earl, and Haram with Armand Hammer. He even co-scored Grand Theft Auto V with Oh No, Woody Jackson and Tangerine Dream, and hosts its in-game station, The Lab. Nobody has done more to keep the sample-flip alive for the 2020s underground.

We made a Mobb Deep The Infamous tee for the Queensbridge duo that turned a Beverly Hills kid into their go-to producer. Wear it for Uncle Al’s birthday.

Same Date, 1994: Newark Paints a Record

Here’s the Soul Assassins thread again, 17 years after Al was born. On October 25, 1994, Newark’s Artifacts (Tame One and El Da Sensei) dropped Between a Rock and a Hard Place on Big Beat/Atlantic. It might be the most graffiti record ever pressed: b-boy and bombing themes start to finish. Tame One was a writer himself. T-Ray, also a Soul Assassins producer, built “Wrong Side of da Tracks” on 9th Creation’s “Bubble Gum.” Buckwild of D.I.T.C. handled “C’mon wit da Git Down,” and Redman showed up on the album too. It peaked at No. 2 on Heatseekers. Tame One passed in November 2022, so this one’s 32nd lands without him. Play the horn intro loud.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• 1988: MC Shan’s Born to Be Wild (38 years). Marley Marl produced the whole album for Cold Chillin’, and it fired another shot in the Bridge Wars: “Juice Crew Law” goes straight at Boogie Down Productions. That’s a dated beef receipt.
• 1994: Extra Prolific’s Like It Should Be (32 years). This Hieroglyphics subgroup came out on Jive the same day as the Artifacts album. Souls of Mischief’s A-Plus did a lot of the production. Run it back to back with the 93 ’til Infinity tee on.
• 1994: Fu-Schnickens’ Nervous Breakdown (32 years). Same Tuesday, also on Jive. It carries “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock),” the collab with a rookie Shaquille O’Neal that also landed on Shaq Diesel.
• 1968: Speech is born (turns 58). The Arrested Development frontman who took Southern, spiritual, conscious rap into the Top 10 in the early ’90s.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones