“While Premier has previously collaborated with iconic female artists, in none of the aforementioned examples has the iconic producer/DJ produced the entirety of one of their projects. With a resume like Premier’s, it takes a lot to get his attention—and perhaps more importantly his respect.
Enter Torii Wolf, a singer-songwriter and musician from Wantagh, New York who traded coasts–bouncing around West Coast cities and enhanced herself artistically; shunning categories, confinement, and convention. Torii also just happens to be the first female artist to have her entire project (the forthcoming album entitled Flow Riiot) produced by Preemo. “Torii has such a weird, wicked style,” Premier offers. “It’s just very left field—reminiscent of a Bjork or something like that; image-wise, there is no comparison. Subject-wise, Torii is in a whole different place.”
“Shadows Crawl” inception has quite an interesting backdrop and it was the last track recorded for Flow Riiot; as it was the only track Preemo did not specifically create for Torii, the track was initially sent to Yuna who ended up picking another demo from Premier (that demo would later resurface as “Places To Go,” which was the lead-single from Yuna’s latest album). Torii was the beneficiary and upon being played the instrumental, she wrote “Shadows Crawl” on the spot and cut the vocals. Premier immediately knew it was going to be the second single from their collaborative project.
Real DJ’s do real things and just as he did with Torii’s first single, the aptly-titled “1st,” by getting Dilated Peoples to hop on the remix, he and Torii have tapped another fast-rising star in Jamla/Roc Nation’s Rapsody for a remix of “Shadows Crawl.” “I felt Rapsody fit the picture perfectly” DJ Premier relayed to Pigeons & Planes. “Of course to make it complete, I threw in some scratches in the intro for the underground DJ’s so we always have that representation.” In her comments to Pigeons & Planes, Torii was very eager to hear where Rapsody would take the remix “I was very excited to work with Rapsody and to hear what she could do with this and I couldn’t be happier with how it came out. Rapsody adds an entirely new vibe to the record and fully emulated the concept of the song in her own unique way and voice. Her flow tells a story so inline with what I wrote about. I’m honored to be working with such incredible people and artists.”
Rapsody obviously enjoyed playing with the concept of the track, as she stated “I had fun working on this. I thought the concept was creative, so I just wanted to expand on the idea of having these inner secrets of loving someone else and that coming out in the middle of the night; talking in your sleep—laying next to your lover. I love the song and really enjoyed working with Torii, her sound is so unique. Her and Preemo sound so dope together. I was happy to be a part of it all.”
A hip-hop king who has a habit of contributing and producing historic projects behind the boards, mixed with Torii Wolf’s full clip of moods, range, and vast musical talent. What’s not to like? Torii and Premier’s collaborative union bum-rushes the walls of genre, age, and expectations to let the world know there’s a Flow Riiot going on.”
