Marley Marl disciple Pete Rock is rightly hailed as one of the greatest producers around. Jazzy and soulful, his productions are some of the smoothest, funkiest, most innovative, and listenable on record. Though he's produced a crate-full of tracks, it's his work with front man CL Smooth that's most fondly remembered Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Respiration) While Puff Daddy and his followers continued to dictate the direction hip-hop would take into the millennium, Mos Def and Talib Kweli surfaced from the underground to pull the sounds in the opposite direction. Pete Rock remixes "Respiration" from the LP, Black Star. Inspectah Deck (Uncontrolled Substance) While Deck has always been overshadowed by the more personable bees in his Wu-Tang hive, there is no disputing his messiah like flow and pure as artesian water delivery. It was Inspectah Deck who provided the lyrics for the track, "TruMaster", on Pete Rock's Soul Survivor. Y2K (Screwball) 2000 Tommy Boy LP with a whole host of contributors. Naughty By Nature (It's On) The trio's first single, "O.P.P.," dominated the airwaves in 1991 on the strength of its home-truth bedroom message and its butt-hugging beat. On this 12" there's a Sunship remix and Beatnuts remix of "It's On" and on the B-side there's a Pete Rock remix of "Hip Hop Hooray". Kay Gee also remixes a version of "It's On". House of Pain (Jump Around) "Jump Around" was an impossibly infectious and catchy single which instantly elevated House of Pain from an unknown hip-hop group to near-stars when it became a massive crossover hit in 1992. Pete Rock and DJ Bizznizz remix versions on this 12". Lords of the Underground (Chief Rocka / Flow On) Lords of the Underground match socially conscious raps with hard-hitting beats and Marley Marl and Pete Rock produce tracks for the Lords on this 12". Jeru the Damaja (You Can't Stop the Prophet) Speaking out against what he saw as a decline in rap during the mid-'90s, Jeru the Damaja came to the fore as a self-proclaimed prophet and the savior of hip-hop, much as KRS-One had done before. Pete Rock remixes Jeru's "You Can't Stop the Prophet" plus there's the LP version which is produced by DJ Premier. K-Solo (Letterman) K-Solo's 1992 debut album, Times Up, attracted scant attention, but he got better notices for his performances on tour with EPMD. On this 6-track 12" from 1992, Pete Rock produces "Letterman" and there's a Solid Scheme remix and Separate track, "The Formula". Jamal (Fades Em All) Jamal put his career in the capable hands of rap veteran and super-producer Erick Sermon. As the youngest member of the Def Squad (Keith Murray, Redman), Jamal was able to explore and enrich his natural lyrical gift with the benefit of E-Double's uncanny ear for funky beats. Phat Classics (Das EFX) Another Pete Rock Remix... Das EFX's wildly playful, rapid-fire stuttering — dense with rhymes and nonsense words — was one of the most distinctive and influential lyrical styles in early-'90s hip-hop.