This is a dope combination no matter how you look at it. It almost makes perfect sense for Vibe to snag DJ Premier and The Berklee Symphony, some of preem’s illest chops seem to be violin/string samples. This is the first leak from Vibe’s ReGeneration project following Premier, Skrillex, Pretty Lights, The Crystal Method and Mark Ronson as they “reimagine” 5 traditional styles of music. Read the story + Listen to DJ Premier x Berklee Symphony x Nas – “ReGeneration”.
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.