Hi-Tek Tek played a major role in the highly admired golden-age revivalist sound affiliated with the Rawkus Records collective, crafting many of the label's initial breakthrough releases. While Hi-Tek's production style owes a debt to New York's finest beat-makers from the early '90s -- DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Large Professor -- the producer actually arose from Cincinnati's low-key hip-hop scene rather than the streets of Brooklyn. It was Hi-Tek's work with Kweli and Mos Def on the milestone Black Star album in 1998 that first made the producer a hot commodity. He next collaborated exclusively with Kweli for Reflection Eternal (2000), an album that crossed over from the b-boy camp to the mass market and became a critically championed coast-to-coast success. Then came Hi-Tek's solo spotlight on Rawkus, Hi-Teknology (2001), which featured a broad range of up-and-coming MCs, including some of his Cincinnati peers. 2006 saw the release of Hi-Teknology, Vol. 2, which included verses from Nas, Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes, and of course, Talib Kweli. Between releases, he produced tracks for a broad array of rappers, including Snoop Dogg, Blackalicious, and Raphael Saadiq.