On last year’s Life Is Good album by Nas, Queens, New York mixtape veteran DJ Hot Day received a co-production credit on “Reach Out” featuring Mary J. Blige. Dating back to the mid-1980s, Hot Day was responsible for a lot of Hip Hop in Queens, including integral roles in the careers of Capone-N-Noreaga and Cormega. Speaking with Forbez DVD recently, Hot Day revealed how his first production for Nas was actually a recreation of a remix he made 26 years earlier.
“I’m mostly into publishing right now,” said DJ Hot Day about his contemporary relationship with music. “The most recent shit, I did that Nas [‘Reach Out’ joint with him and [Mary J. Blige].” He referred back to a Hot Day remix to New Edition’s “Once In A Lifetime Groove,” and an Isaac Hayes “Ike’s Mood”-sampling blend that changed Hip Hop. “The original shit was for New Edition back in ’86. Originally. That’s the first blend joint.” The blend was also channeled on Jay-Z & Mya’s “Best Of Me Pt. 2,” which appeared on DJ Clue’s 2000 Backstage Mixtape, recreated by another Queens mixtape icon.
Hot Day explains why his original was never cleared by the major label. “People thought it was a blend, but it was actually a remix. I remixed it for them. MCA [Records] didn’t accept it at that time, ’cause they didn’t what the fuck I was doing. It was ’86; they never heard Hip Hop blend with R&B.” Hot Day linked with Eric B. & Rakim’s storied deejay and co-founder to make a street hit. “To make a long story short, my nigga Eric B. said it was hot. We put it out, just dropped it out independently, and the shit is history. Shit just blew up in the streets. That’s where the whole blend shit really comes from.”
Twenty-six years later, in making his acclaimed Life Is Good LP, Nas remembered a song from his Q-U childhoood. “[Nas] called me up, said he wanted to it. We re-tracked it.”
