Los Angeles, CA · rap · instrumental hip-hop

The Alchemist

1 upcoming festival →

The producer everybody's favourite rapper calls first — dusty, unhurried loops that make whoever is on the mic sound more serious.

The Alchemist is Alan Maman, a producer and occasional rapper from Los Angeles who began as half of the teenage duo The Whooliganz before moving behind the boards full time. He built his reputation in the late 1990s and 2000s with beats for Mobb Deep and much of the East Coast underground, and spent years as Eminem's touring DJ.

His signature is a filtered, slightly dusty loop, often drumless or nearly so, left to run long enough that the rapper has to fill the space. That approach has made him a steady collaborator on full-length projects rather than one-off placements, including records with Curren$y, Boldy James and Freddie Gibbs, alongside a run of instrumental releases under his own name.

rapinstrumental hip-hop