"Base Records to Precious Beats" By Noah Bever

    Like his namesake (the medieval philosophers who tried to transfigure base metals into gold), the Alchemist transforms the most benign samples into baroque masterpieces. At 15, he made his debut as a rapper in the failed Tommy Boy group the Whooliganz. Rather than give up after they were dropped from the label, the Alchemist, now 22, took what he could from the experience and kept it moving. " I got money to buy an ASR-10 Keyboard from that record deal," says the L.A. native from his vinyl-saturated lab in New York City's Greenwhich Village. With the fundamentals of beat making down, the Alchemist, born Alan Maman, hooked up with DJ Muggs through mutual friends in the L.A. underground. The two worked closely on Cypress Hill III (Temples of Boom). AL became part of the Soul Assassins fam-to this day, he wears a diamond-encrusted S.A. ring-traveling the world as a roady on tour with the smokey bandits.

   At 18, he broke east to attend New York Unversity. But when it was time to declare a major at the end of his sophomore year, he succumbed to his true passion and dropped out to mine for beats. Just over a year after leaving school, the Alchemist is one of the most sought after producers on the scene. He's produced  gems for Mobb Deep and Terror Squad, but he started humbly, lacing indie heads like Buc Fifty and Dilated Peoples with his melodic works of art. Now, it's as if dunn doesn't sleep ( Hav and P are his East Coast Family, so it's aight to use Mobb Phonics). He is currently blessing the likes of Beenie Siegel, Inspectah Dech, Group Home, Shabaam Sahdeeq and Freddie Foxx. " I'm working hard right now," says Al with a furrowed brow, knowing exactly what got him here in the first place. " I know that if I stop, there'll be another producer who'll take my place."