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Dj Quik Vibez

Twenty-four tracks from Compton's most musical producer — a man who has spent thirty-five years proving that West Coast rap was always a musicians' genre.

The Source |DJ Quik Looks Back On 'The Black Album'

 

DJ Quik

David Blake is frequently described as underrated, which is odd for someone with a catalogue this deep. The more accurate description is that he has been consistently undersold: a rapper good enough to carry albums, and a producer, arranger and mixer whose ear puts him among the best America has produced in any genre.

What separates Quik from his contemporaries is that he plays. Where much of G-funk was built from loops of seventies records, Quik replays parts, writes horn charts, and treats the drum programming as a live performance. His records swing in a way that sampled tracks generally do not.

He is also an exceptional mix engineer, which is why his productions sound louder and clearer than their neighbours without being harsher.

What to listen for

The Quik's Groove instrumentals are the connoisseur's entry point, and this playlist has two — the Jodeci-featuring "Quikstrumental" and the later "Quiks Groove (The One)" with The Game and Sevyn Streeter. They are essentially fusion tracks, and they are where his musicianship is least disguised.

"Dollaz + Sense" is the famous one — the record from the MC Eiht feud, and a lesson in how to make an attack record that still functions as music.

"Tonite" aside, "Summer Breeze" and "Bombudd II" are the mood pieces, and "Pitch In OnA Party" is the party record.

The James DeBarge appearances — on "Change da Game" and the extraordinary "Tha Divorce Song" — are a reminder of how deliberately Quik worked with real singers rather than samples of them.

Tony! Toni! Toné!'s "Let's Get Down" and Dwele's "I Wanna" show him producing outside his own lane, and Suga Free's "Don't Walk Away" is the partnership that produced his strangest, funniest work.

Terrace Martin's "Hello" is the generational handover.

Go deeper

Quik Is the Name (1991), Rhythm-al-ism (1998) and The Book of David (2011) are the three to start with. Rhythm-al-ism is the masterpiece.

His work with Suga Free, particularly Street Gospel, is essential, and his production for 2Pac is more extensive than most listeners realise.

Listening note: listen to the snare. Quik tunes and places his drums like a drummer rather than a programmer, and the slight variations in timing across a verse are deliberate. It is the clearest technical difference between his records and those of his contemporaries, and it is why they still sound alive.

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