DJ Premier & The Alchemist World Tour stops in ZG!

As a relatively small nation of nearly 4 million, Croatia does not get too many timeless hip hop moments-but every time they do come around you can be sure Phat Phillie is involved.

The Alchemist and DJ Premier's "He's The Preemo, I'm The Chemist" World Tour hit Zagreb at Boogaloo this past Thursday night-and it also doubled as legendary hip hop radio show & collective Blackout's 32nd anniversary. The club was packed with Hip Hop heads from every generation-to quote Mos Def on a certified banger by Premier-Hip Hop passed all your tall social hurdles.

A veteran of the scene for over 40 years, Phat Phillie is the heart and soul of Zagreb Hip Hop. We'll admit as foreigners and millennials he only popped up on our radar since the iconic Fresh Island Festival days-but as soon as we heard the Freddie Gibbs and Madlib classic Crime Pays we knew Phat Phillie had hit the decks.

Taking us through a journey of some of our favourite eras, Phat Phillie dropped classics that paid homage to the better half of this millennia thus far while also peppering through past collaborators of Alc and Preemo. [Obviously, he stuck to the unwritten rule that actual headliner beats are off limits].

Playing hits like Exhibit C by Jay Electronica, My Block by Scarface, a whole lotta Cypress Hill for the heads, Dreams by The Game, I'll Whip Ya Head blaring through the speakers by 50 Cent, the Madvillainy gem All Caps c/o MF Doom & Madlib and closing moments like the the playfully political FDT by YG had the whole club screaming. (In the words of the late & great Nipsey Hussle-"I think protest music is important, I think YG was a genius).

In an interlude before The Alchemist & Preemo hit the stage, we were pleasantly surprised to see Koolade & Flowdeep throw down in classic beat battle fashion. And man did they ever throw down. Due to our aforementioned relatively green status in the Zagreb Hip Hop scene, we were only familiar with Koolade's absolutely filthy funky remix of Dino Dvornik's "Lady," but in true Blackout fashion-only legends were allowed on the bill, and the price of admission was a decade or two in the game. Previously unbeknownst to us, the two are responsible for a mass amount of Croatian rap classics, and had the whole crowd singing along to every word and going absolutely insane in a way that gave Alch and Preemo a run for their money in a way only homegrown talent could.

Finally, it was time for the legends DJ Premier and The Alchemist. This being Premier's 4th stop in Croatia and Alchemist's first, the pair came out like true showmen, dancing to Soul Finger by the Bar-Kays-a de facto intro theme song for the tour. (As if perfectly scripted to the FDT YG bit, DJ Premier came out in a goofy carnival-looking whiteface mask.)

But in a bout of irony: in order to get through their enormous no-skip level God-tier discographies, they had to perform in rapid-fire succession, ripping through hit after hit to give us a full retrospective in a format fit for even the most fried Gen-Z attention span. The night was a masterclass in boom bap that served equally as a celebration of a catalogue of living virtuosos and those no longer with us.

Beginning with one of Alchemist's crown jewels-the Dilated Peoples classic "Worst Comes To Worst" just in time for Evidence's birthday-the crowd went insane. Shifting to a well deserved posthumous tribute to Big L with tracks like The Big Picture (Intro) and other posthumous Big L Preemo cuts, it was one of many reminders that New York is a city where the kings often leave us too soon. This theme continued on both sides of the decks, with Alc dropping odes to the late Prodigy a la their Mobb Deep and solo Prodigy collabs like Taj Mahal. The theme of lost NYC legends was culminated in chants for the late B.I.G. and DJ Premier hits like Unbelievable, Kick in the Door and 10 Crack Commandments- the latter made a little lighthearted with a dance to the instantly recognizable sample before the crowd erupted.

Giving out flowers while we can still smell 'em, the spirit of NYC infiltrated the building through timeless cuts from Nas, KRS-One, The LOX, Capone & Noreaga and more.

Each producer has such a timeless catalogue that we have yet to even gloss over the new heat we were blessed with: hits like In Moe with Common, God Is Perfect and 1995 with Freddie Gibbs, countless Griselda and extended family bangers, some Larry June, Meet The Grahams and way more.

One of the more heartfelt moments was left for later in the set, when it was finally time to dip into the stellar Gangstarr catalogue-a full on tribute to the late Guru had all of Zagreb vibing to Work, Above The Clouds, Deadly Habitz and more.

Given the depth of their catalogues, they could have played for days straight, but all in all the evening reminded us that Life Is Beautiful and that those that we love that have left us too soon are watching over from Above The Clouds. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience to witness two GOATs that have such a lasting impact on the past, present, and future of Hip Hop.

Rest In Power Guru, Big L, Prodigy, MF DOOM, The Notorious B.I.G and more. Legends never die.

Make sure to grab the highly anticipated new Nas & DJ Premier project Light Years, The legendary Armand Hammer Alchemist album Mercy, and keep running up Alfredo 2 cuz you know it's already a classic-and catch Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist at these festivals this summer.

P.S. If you want to relive some of the finest moments of the night on wax and live in the Zagreb area, head over to our new online record shop Akashic Record Crate. IYKYK.