There aren’t enough words to map the full impact of Paul Edward Huston, aka the legendary Prince Paul. A pivotal figure in the architecture of electronic and hip-hop production, Paul reshaped the sonic landscape through layered, left-field sampling that felt both chaotic and intentional. His work on De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising, followed by two equally forward records, took the Bomb Squad’s blueprint and expanded it outward, fusing funk, children’s records, classroom tapes, and untraceable found sound into something that bent the machines beyond their limits.

He didn’t stop at beats. Paul essentially invented the hip-hop skit, not as filler, but as narrative glue. Interludes became storylines, albums became worlds. That structural thinking would influence how records got sequenced for decades.

From Stetsasonic to Gravediggaz with RZA, from Handsome Boy Modeling School with Dan the Automator to any number of solo experiments, Paul’s blend of absurdity, raw drums, crate-digging curiosity, and surreal humor cleared the path for producers like Madlib, Dilla, Dibia$e and RJD2. His work wasn’t about polish. It was about vision.