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Multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and label executive
Salaam Remi has been a low-profile but crucial figure in the evolution of rap and R&B since the mid-'80s. His immense body of work has been acknowledged with numerous accolades, yet his diverse abilities -- he's proficient at working with sampled breaks and live orchestras, and has been successful with belters, crooners, a wide variety of rappers, and even dancehall stars -- have gone severely under-recognized. This is due in large part to a preference for having the spotlight remain on the artists.
Remi first topped Billboard charts as the producer of
Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper" (1994) and has produced material on Top Five pop albums spanning three decades, including
Fugees' The Score (1996),
Nas'
Stillmatic (2001),
Amy Winehouse's
Back to Black (2006), and
Alicia Keys'
Girl on Fire (2012). He won an Ivor Novello Award for co-writing "Stronger Than Me" with
Winehouse, is an eight-time Grammy nominee for his work behind the scenes, and earned an additional nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album with a rare solo release, One: In the Chamber (2013).
Remi has since continued to work closely with established and upcoming artists alike. A small fraction of his efforts have appeared on releases for which he has been billed as co-headliner or headliner, including the
Black Thought collaboration
Streams of Thought, Vol. 2 (2018) and Black on Purpose (2020).
The son of
Van Gibbs, a studio veteran who helped him enter the music industry, Queens native
Salaam Remi Gibbs earned his first session credit as a young teenager via
Kurtis Blow's 1986 album
Kingdom Blow, on which he can be heard playing keyboards. It did take a few more years -- after assignments with the likes of
Ziggy Marley,
Bobby Konders,
Shabba Ranks,
Zhigge, and
Biz Markie -- for
Remi's career to reach full flight. His first crossover hit came at the age of 22 in 1994 with
Ini Kamoze's
Taana Gardner-sampling,
Cannibal & the Headhunters-interpolating "Here Comes the Hotstepper," a number one Billboard Hot 100 single from the Prêt-à-Porter soundtrack. While most successful behind-the-scenes players have a hot streak that lasts no longer than a couple or a few years,
Remi was only getting started. During the latter half of the '90s alone, he worked with an assortment of rap, reggae, and hybrid acts, ranging from
Mega Banton and
Patra to
Buckshot LeFonque and
Toni Braxton. Biggest of all, he co-wrote and produced
Fugees' Top 30 pop single "Fu-Gee-La."
Remi earned his first Grammy nomination for the contribution to its parent album, The Score, a multi-platinum blockbuster that was up for Album of the Year.
Among the most significant 2000s recordings featuring
Remi's touch were
Nas'
Stillmatic (2001),
Ms. Dynamite's
A Little Deeper (2002),
Amy Winehouse's
Frank (2003) and multi-platinum
Back to Black (2006), and
Jazmine Sullivan's
Fearless (2008). This crop led to three additional Grammy nominations: Album of the Year for
Back to Black, and Best R&B Song shortlistings for
Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows" and "Lions, Tigers & Bears." Not until the end of the decade was
Remi able to find time to release his first solo project, the digital-only Praguenosis! (2009). Featuring orchestral instrumentals recorded during a trip to Czechoslovakia, some of its material was used for collaborations issued before and after release. "Shila's Playground," for instance, provided the backdrop for "Lions, Tigers & Bears." "Praguenosis" itself was later repurposed for
Nas' "The Black Bond," which appeared on Life Is Good (2012), one of several other successful contemporaneous projects that led to
Remi's 2012 Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.
Tamia's "Beautiful Surprise," another hit, was nominated for Best R&B Song, yet some of
Remi's most distinctive work during this period --
Miguel's "Kaleidoscope Dream" and
Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire" among it -- narrowly missed the year's Grammy submission deadline.
While in the middle of his several-year run with Sony as Executive VP of A&R and Production,
Remi put together another full-length of his own, the R&B-oriented One: In the Chamber (2013), through his Flying Buddha boutique label. Initially released as a digital download and made available through streaming services, it was given very little publicity, despite appearances from
Ne-Yo,
Corinne Bailey Rae,
Jordin Sparks, and
Akon, among others. Nonetheless, it was nominated for a Best Urban Contemporary Album Grammy, as was
Mack Wilds' New York: A Love Story -- executive produced by
Remi and released through another one of his Sony-affiliated ventures, Re Mi Fa/Louder Than Life.
During the latter half of the decade,
Remi added to his stack of Grammy nominations with the soundtrack of the documentary
Amy (Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media) and
Miguel's "Come Through and Chill" (Best R&B Song). He wrote and recorded with
Jazmine Sullivan,
Faith Evans, and
Anthony Hamilton, and produced
Black Thought's
Streams of Thought, Vol. 2.
Remi also worked on collaborative projects such as Sex All Summer, the Champagne Flutes, and No Panty, acts featured on his Do It for the Culture platform/playlist in 2016.
Remi followed up with the compilation Do It for the Culture 2 in 2019. The momentum continued into 2020 with Black on Purpose, an empowered set with
Super Cat,
Jennifer Hudson,
Black Thought, and
Nas among well over a dozen featured vocalists. ~ Andy Kellman