Happy 20th Anniversary to Tony Touch’s debut studio album The Piece Maker, originally released April 18, 2000.
During the mid-1990s, there were few things more “hip-hop” than the mixtape. Beyond what the term “mixtape” has come to mean during the last 15 or so years, the mixtapes of the ’90s were central to the promotion of hip-hop music during its golden era. Mixtape DJs were important gatekeepers to the culture, giving the public tastes of some of the best that the genre was going to offer in the coming months.
Of these DJs, Joseph “Tony Touch” Hernandez is among the most accomplished, releasing over 300 mixtapes throughout his career. And 20 years ago, he started releasing full-length, major-label backed albums of his own, where he would recruit some of the era’s best and brightest. He would contribute raps and beats of his own to these releases. His debut effort, The Piece Maker, showed that this transition for him was seamless.
Tony Touch is best known for his involvement in some ambitious mixtapes during the mid-’90s, including Five Deadly Venoms of Brooklyn (1997), a collaboration with DJ Premier, PF Cuttin’, Mister Cee, and Evil Dee. However, the former B-Boy’s signature release is probably Power Cypha: 50 MCs (1996), his 50th mixtape that features the talents of, yes, 50 different emcees.
On a personal note, Tony Touch mixtapes were my introduction to East Coast mixtape culture. I’d certainly heard of the releases of DJs like Ron G, Kid Capri, and Funkmaster Flex, but the first ones I actually bought while going to college during the mid-’90s in Philadelphia were Tony Touch heaters.
Many mixtape DJs have released albums on major labels over the past few decades, including the aforementioned Kid Capri and Funkmaster Flex, as well as guys like DJ Clue and Kay Slay. I personally believe that Tony Touch’s The Piece Maker is the best of the bunch. He doesn’t try to recapture the mixtape aesthetic, in terms of mixing and scratching over the tracks. It plays like one of the best compilations of the early ’00s, a collection of the best and the brightest that major labels had to offer during the era.
Piece Maker is not a collection of cast-off tracks that didn’t make the albums of the artists who participated in the endeavor. Piece Maker is all original content, all the songs on it recorded specifically for the project. Just about every song either features Tony Touch rapping, Tony Touch production, or prominent shout outs to Mr. Toca. Overall, it’s a fun album where the focus is on the art of creating dope hip-hop while delivering bangers that could be played in the club or appear on one of Tony’s mixtapes.
Each emcee or crew on Piece Maker gives the type of performance that made them who they are. The title track is a solid Gang Starr track, with Guru laying down his smoky vocals over some vintage DJ Premier-chopped grooves. “Set It On Fire” is an appropriately wild jam by the Flipmode Squad, with Busta Rhymes, Rampage, Rah Digga, and a young and hungry Roc Marciano breaking fools over itchy sped-up strings on a track produced by DJ Shok.
Meanwhile, “The Abduction” is an unheralded Wu-Tang masterpiece, as True Master crafts another intense, string-based track, for GZA, Inspectah Deck, RZA, Ghostface Killah, and Masta Killa to deliver vivid verses. GZA coasts on a beat that’s “smooth enough to slide through like bobsleds / on a cold white snow, plus with the right flow / Wu-Tang n****s they shine and make the mic glow.” Meanwhile, Deck brags that “off top my unorthodox plan of attack is like Hannibal rolling on an elephant’s back.” RZA himself is also in fine form, throwing shots at 50 Cent and Jacob the Jeweler, and then announcing, “Don’t worry about weed or pussy, I read books / I’m liable to mate your king with three rooks.”
Piece Maker includes many other entries that sport the classic grimy feel that dominated New York-based hip-hop during the early ’00s. Big Pun, who had passed just a couple of months before the album’s release, is straight-up vicious on “Foundation,” promising all doubters blood-soaked violence and a suplex of the roof-ledge for their troubles. Prodigy is similarly grim on “Basics,” featuring production from Alchemist, where he threatens to “dispose of rap garbage / Expose novice, trash style, n*****s try hardest / Clowns attempt to rep get slapped the farthest.”
The Alchemist’s production stylings are on display throughout Piece Maker. The then Soul Assassins affiliated producer was still really starting to make a name for himself as a producer at the time, and really steps up on the project features. This album features what I believe is the only time Eminem has rhymed over an Alchemist production, on “Get Back.” Along with Proof and Bizarre, both of D12, Em is very much in his own early ’00s shock-value mode, laying on the self-deprecating imagery and morbid humor. “Enrolled myself in a twelve-step program,” he raps. “Tripped on the first step and got pinned down in a choke-slam / I swear to God, if this ’Pac poster comes any closer / I’m kicking this whole fucking wall over.”
West Coast-based artists also get some shine on Piece Maker. “Likwit Rhyming” features Defari, Xzibit, and Tash, all members of the Likwit Crew who run “through your city, reckless” on a DJ Scratch-produced track. Defari delivers a heavy lead-off verse, rapping, “Break necks, bounce with it when I spit it / Knocking this jam is a form of calisthenics.”
Cypress Hill also come strong with “U Know The Rules (Mi Vida Loca),” a dark, haunting, and percussion heavy entry produced by DJ Muggs. Nasal-tonuged rap giant B-Real supplies a solid two verses, but gives equal mic time to Tony Touch, who holds his own. Tony getting on the mic had been somewhat of a new development for the DJ. He appeared on The Beatnuts’ “Cocotaso” on Musical Massacre (1999), and had continued recording more material. He connects with Psycho Les of the Beatnuts, as they join Greg Nice on “Pit Fight,” getting grimy over a bouncy, Les-produced piano sample.
All told, Tony raps on about seven to eight tracks on the album, and works behind the boards on four as well. Some of the tracks where Tony Touch pulls double duty are among the best on Piece Maker.
“The Return of the Diaz Brothers,” the Latin-flavored first single for the album, falls into this category, as Tony trades rhymes with fellow mixtape O.G. Doo Wop, while Pain In Da Ass does his best impression of the cast of Scarface. “I Wonder Why? (He’s the Greatest DJ),” features the stirring vocals of both Keisha Spivey and Pam Long of Total, who perform a solid cover of Sister Sledge’s “He’s the Greatest Dancer.” With his closing verse, Tony channels In Deep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,” while promising to creep away with your girl.
Tony Touch produced and rhymes on “No, No, No,” also featuring lyrics from Starang Wonduh and both members of Heltah Skeltah from The Boot Camp Clik. The Boot Camp Clik’s extended performance on the aforementioned 50 MCs was one of the best sections of the mixtape, and Tony forged a relationship with the collective afterwards.
The song is another eminently danceable track, featuring steady percussion and siren-like vocal samples. It’s also notable for being the track with Ruck a.k.a. Sean Price really began making the transition as a lyricist into the persona that would define him throughout the ’00s and the ’10s. Using a mix of humor and swagger, Price raps, “Hope she ain't a bitch like Misdemeanor / Tony touched her tits and she turned like Tina.”
Less mainstream talent also receive a good amount of shine on Piece Maker. De La Soul and Mos Def team up with Tony on “Que Eso?,” where Mos Def flexes his bilingual lyrical skills, proclaiming that “y’all n****s wack in one language, son, I’m nice in two.” “The Club” is an extended posse cuts featuring members of the D.I.T.C. (Diggin’ In the Crates) crew. While O.C., A.G., and Diamond D are all good, Lord Finesse closes the track with the best performance on the song. “Don’t stress dudes, we just plot our next move,” he raps. “Make n****s look stupid like jogging pants wit dress shoes.”
One track that is a bit of a letdown is “Class of ’87.” On paper, it looks like a Home Run: a long-awaited team-up of Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and KRS-One, three emcees who shaped the way that emcees rapped for decades to come. The execution falters, however, as the verses by the trio of titans don’t mesh well for 8-Off Agallah’s plodding, dirge-like beat.
The Piece Maker was both a critical and financial hit, selling around 400,000 units. The financial success led to a follow-up, The Piece Maker 2 (2003), where Tony took an even more active role as a producer. About a decade afterwards, he released The Piece Maker 3: The Return of 50 MCs (2013), where, yes, he collected 50 different emcees to appear on an album. Somewhere in between, he released a pair of Reggaeton compilations. While reggaeton may not be my bag, I certainly won’t deny that it has a strong and loyal following.
Two decades later, The Piece Maker still stands out as the best mixtape DJ-driven album ever released. It functions as both a great compilation and a great recreation of the type of tracks that would bang on any mixtape of its time. And Tony Touch showed his growth as both a rapper and beatmaker, reinforcing his elite status as a driver of hip-hop culture.
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