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


Bobby Konders feat. Mikey Jarrett, “Mack Daddy” (1992)

“Mack Daddy” was huge in Philly. Everybody from Philly will be like, “Yo, he did ‘Mack Daddy,’ that joint was bumping.” I knew Bobby Konders from working at WBLS, and we started doing a bunch of remixes [together]. Bobby got a deal at Mercury Records, and he had the idea: Ice Cube was saying “Mack Daddy,” fuck that we going to do the Jamaican version. Mikey Jarrett was a Brooklyn deejay and him and Bobby were doing some work. [I remember] Mikey said, “How you can make me ‘Mack Daddy,’ and I have 35 kids already.”

Biz had just used [the break] on “Toilet Stool Rap,” and I said let me find another way to flip it. I put some breaks together, sped it up and Mikey started doing his thing going “eh-eh-eh-eh, Mack Daddy.” There was a joke at the video shoot, like “yo Salaam,help me write down the lyrics to ‘Mack Daddy.’” Almost all he says is “Mack Daddy Mack Daddy Mack Daddy.” It was a more authentic hip-hop beat, with a more authentic reggae deejay, coming together in raw form. Most of what I do is I try to put the rawest elements together, and not water them down so that they melt together. That ended up being the main single on Bobby’s album. We actually had a record with Amel Larrieux before she came out. I used “Easin In” by Edwin Starr, so we made an R&B record off of that. Bobby had yard-style patience in the studio. He was like, “yo sing it, you took too much studio time, sing it again.”