Legendary Producer Salaam Remi Talks Curating ‘MuseZeum’ and Retiring From Music

For near 4 many years, legendary musician Salaam Remi has been one of the prolific producers within the music business. The Queens, New York native and Grammy-Award successful producer pioneered merging components of dancehall and reggae with rap music to create his distinctive sound.

Remi made his debut music debut as a keyboardist on Kurtis Blow’s album Kingdom Blow in 1986. Since then, he has amassed a big catalog that spans hip hop, dancehall, reggae, soul, and R&B. He is collaborated with Nas, Amy Winehouse, The Fugees, Tremendous Cat, Black Thought, Alicia Keys and lots of others. A few of his signature hits embody Ini Kamoze’s “Right here Comes the Hotstepper;” The Fugees’ “Fu-Gee-La;” Jazmin Sullivan’s “Bust Your Home windows;” Nas’ “Made You Look” and “I Can,” simply to call just a few. 

For his newest venture, MuseZeum, a totally immersive multimedia artwork expertise that chronicles Remi’s musical journey and a few of his biggest inspirations, he mentioned that the area is a curation “the place icons and rising artists will be capable of collaborate and profit from their works on the highest degree. [It] would be the ongoing residence for creatives to showcase their works.”

EBONY caught up with Remi eventually month’s MuseZeum showcase in NYC the place he spoke about his love for artwork, his biggest creative influences, and why the time is correct for him to retire from music.

“I retired from producing music. At this level in life, I solely thoughts my enterprise,” he mentioned.” I had my first report out after I was 14, so I really feel like 36 years of manufacturing and doing a number of various things in music was sufficient for me,” explains the legendary producer. “Now I can simply take my time to make the most of my creativity in different ventures. As a musician that has had a number of profitable tasks, my pension was my writing, my publishing, my grasp writing royalties, and every little thing else that I’ve. So why not use this time as a possibility to take the subsequent 15 years or 70 years to drag it collectively?”

A dialog with J. Cole, led Remi to model his artwork showcase. “I spoke with J. Cole and he was like, “You bought all this dope stuff however what’s the model identify?” shares Remi. “Tremendous Cat mentioned we must always name it MuseZeum in order that’s the way it acquired the identify.”

MuseZeum showcases gorgeous reimagined photographs of cultural icons in music, artwork and leisure, reminiscent of Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse, Tremendous Cat, D’Angelo, D-Good, Slick Rick, and Marvin Gaye. Remi spoke about how Gaye was not solely his favourite singer however how he’s the personification of what being an artist is all about.

‘Marvin Gaye is my favourite singer not solely due to his clean singing voice, the funky grooves beneath his music however what he stood for,” shares Remi. “The rationale why Marvin Gaye nonetheless standouts amongst many artists is that he stood up for what he believed must be taking place for the folks. That’s why 50 years later, What’s Going On continues to be as poignant because it was in 1971. He’s my favourite artist and biggest affect as a result of he was an artist in each side of the phrase. Consider the album Right here My Expensive when he had to surrender $1 million from the album in his divorce settlement from Anna Gaye. He determined to write down a poem over some music. For me, it is all the time about Marvin being that dude.”

Together with the upcoming live performance sequence, Remi believes that MuseZeum shall be an ecosystem that can launch the careers of up-and-coming artists who will reap the advantages of their artwork. “If you hear issues that sound good to you, no one has to inform you to love it. You simply really feel it,” Remi mentioned. “So with this artwork, we to determine the way it can resonate with everyone. The MuseZeum is an area the place you may come and see music-based artwork. It’s like an artwork studio.”