When you talk to Salaam Remi, you may find yourself asking him to repeat himself often. The 30-something Miamian speaks softly, and so slowly that his words often seem to slur together. A self-professed recluse, Remi (pronounced “Ray-Me”) has always let his music do the talking for him. During his 20-plus year career, the multifaceted musicians has produced hit records for everyone from The Fugees (“Fu-Gee-La”) to Shabba Ranks, from Amy Winehouse to Kool G Rap, to extensive work with Nas (“Made You Look,” “I Can,” “What Goes Around,” etc.). In an interview with HipHopDX, Salaam Remi talks about musical lineage from pops dukes, Nas, and reputation.

HipHopDX: What all have you been working on?
Salaam Remi: I just completed Rush Hour 3, executive music production for the score. I just did some new songs for Nas’ Greatest Hits, started on some songs for his new album as well. A lot of up and coming artists out of the UK, like Nick Harrison, kind alternative rock flavor. There’s a lot of new artists that I’ve been working with, just trying to move forward. … Working on new projects with new artists, kind of seeing them from the feet up. With the success of Amy Winehouse, there’s a lot of the same songwriters coming to me that I’m working with now. … I can’t think of it all this moment, but a flurry of things between R&B, Hip Hop, Jazz, etc.

DX: You have an interesting catalog, you’ve worked with all types of artists. What did you listen to growing up?
SR: My dad was a Jazz musician, he’s from the Caribbean, so I knew all that type of stuff. I know a lot of Gospel, my grandfather was a pastor. As a small child coming up, I was surrounded by different types of music. But then where I guess where I really connected was the Hip Hop generation, with [The Sugar Hill Gang's] “Rapper’s Delight" and [Run-DMC's] “Sucker MCs.” Coming of age, I was pushing that type of stuff before I really got into producing myself. So it was everything under the sun, but definitely intensified with Hip Hop, because at the time to be a teenager, that was what to get into.

DX: What does your pops think of your music?
SR: He likes it now. When I was younger, he used to call me “Looper Vandross,” because I used to loop a lot of stuff. He wanted me to play more music than sample. But at this point, I guess I’ve made my point as far as me having my own style and influencing what I want to do. So he’s definitely proud of it, he’s pretty proud of it. His ideas and things he started on are on another level because he’s in the business route.

DX: How often do you guys sit down and just vibe out, or how often does he give you feedback on stuff you have?
SR: We’re not that close. Certain times, he manages artists. He manages Allison Hines, who has a big Caribbean record called “Roll It.” I produced a couple songs for her album, so he’ll talk about things like that, but otherwise, he lives in Barbados so he sort of passes through Miami once in a while. Just sit down and listen to things that I’m doing. The last thing he said to me a couple months ago was that when I’m playing on multiple instruments—bass, drums, etc.—that it sounds like him and his brothers jammin’ a long time ago. It’s like I have it in my blood that I’m already in the same groove that they were when they were younger than me.

DX: Have you guys ever collaborated?
SR: Sometimes I get him to play something. He’s primarily a guitarist. He played on the first Amy Winehouse album [Frank], a couple songs. Every once in a while, we’ll do something, but nothing’s that’s too popular has been something that we’ve collaborated on as of yet. It can happen.

DX: How difficult is it for you to produce so many genres, without letting one breathe into the other?
SR: I think the fact that I listen to and work on different types of music keeps me fresh whenever I get back to whatever it is. A lot of the times, I create based on the project and the artist. It’s not like I’m just making it just for making it’s sake; sometimes I do that, but I’ll get into Amy Winehouse, and I won’t be thinking about what I did for Shabba Ranks. It’s different, but say on the Amy Source album, there’s a cover of “Moody’s Mood For Love,” which is a Jazz song by James Moody and King Pleasure, and we made that into a Reggae song. So [with] me having different influences, I can mix it. But I also keep them separate just by working around the artist’s project at hand, whatever’s needed.

DX: That’s another thing about you: you rarely just produce one song for an artist. You work with Amy Winehouse and produce the bulk of the album, or on Nas’ joint, and produce five or six tracks. Do you miss seeing artists collaborate with one producer more often?
SR: The way that I work better, in general, say like on Chrisette Michelle’s new album, I got two songs on the album, but I actually did five; only two made it. The way I like to work is to really to get in the groove with the artist. Because sometimes it’s not the key song that comes up when you go in the studio and make one song; sometimes it takes a couple to get it going, or sometimes there can be an idea that comes up over lunch that ends up being the real record that everyone remembers. So for me, I prefer to work in situations where I’m really vested into it and doing more of a record that lasts. Because that one song here and there, it’s cool, and it does what it does, but I really get more out of the project when I work on it more, creatively. Continued on page 2 »