Toppa Top 10: Salaam Remi Breaks Down Ten of His Classic Records

Intro 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 BONUS BEATS
August 28, 2012


Super Cat, “Ghetto Red Hot (Remix)” (1992)

[Super Cat] and Heavy D had those records [together] so he kind of blended with Heavy’s side of it, and prior to “Ghetto Red Hot” we had done the “Don Dada” remix. We did a long talking intro to “Ghetto Red Hot” and the [label] cut it off, and left me with my little voice just going “uhh” at the end. That’s what that “uhh” is that starts the song. “Ghetto Red Hot” was done in one night in D&D Studios. I think it’s probably the first record that Eddie Sancho, Premier’s engineer, mixed. De La Soul’s “Bitties in the BK Lounge” had come out with the Lou Donaldson sample on there, and I used that and put together a bunch of breaks that had been used in hip-hop. The little squeak is similar to the sound that’s on Poor Righteous Teacher’s “Shakiyla,” Bobby said, “lets cut it real short and put it on the track,”—nyeehhh—and that’s where that sound comes from. I don’t even think we really got paid for that. Bobby did it to get some dubs, and keep in good graces with the Don Dada. Bobby had dealt with Cat to do the record, and the vocal was at the same exact tempo as it was cut to the [original] rhythm. I was able to make the samples lock so tight with the vocal that you never heard the separation, you just heard it like that’s what it is.

Ralph McDaniels did a great video that he shot between Brooklyn and Jamaica, that really looked like…that’s probably one of the best videos for a reggae/hip-hop record ever. The motorcycle, Robert Livingston on the front, Cat on the back, just the whole way it looked. That’s probably one of my favorite videos to a song I produced, that and “Fu-Gee-La,” because they were both raw.