Peanut Butter Wolf

Peanut Butter Wolf

Peanut Butter Wolf is the DJ and producer Chris Manak, born in San Jose, United States, in 1969. He begins making music as a teenager in San Jose, first working on primitive mixtapes with partner Sweet Steve and developing his early interest in hip hop through local youth culture and the records he hears growing up.

Early career with Charizma

He adopts the name Peanut Butter Wolf in the late 1980s. Around this time he begins recording with Charizma, and the pair start working together in 1989 while still teenagers. Within three years they sign to Hollywood Basic, the Disney-owned label, alongside artists including Organized Konfusion and DJ Shadow. During this period they tour Europe, receive coverage in music press such as Billboard and Urb, appear on the Wake Up Show with Sway & King Tech, and perform with acts including House of Pain, Nas and The Pharcyde. Charizma dies in December 1993, after which Peanut Butter Wolf steps back from music for a time.

Solo releases and production work

After recording “Just Like A Test” with Charizma for David Paul’s Bomb Hip Hop compilation in early 1994, he is approached by Upstairs Records to make an instrumental album. The result is Peanut Butter Breaks, which becomes an important release in his career and leads to contacts and collaborations with DJs such as Q-bert, Cut Chemist and Rob Swift. After that album, he becomes sought after as a producer. He contributes a track to the all-scratching compilation Return of the DJ, which The Source calls “incredible”, releases a six-song compilation for South Paw Records in 1995 featuring San Jose MCs, and produces Kool Keith’s first solo single, “Wanna Be A Star”. These releases also lead to a picture-disc EP for the British label 2 Kool Records.

Stones Throw Records

In 1996, Peanut Butter Wolf founds Stones Throw Records. The label launches with Charizma’s posthumous single “My World Premiere” and goes on to issue releases including Rasco’s “Unassisted”, DJ Babu’s Super Duck Breaks, and the label’s hip hop 7-inch series. Through Stones Throw he oversees albums and projects such as Lootpack’s Soundpieces, Quasimoto’s The Unseen, Breakestra’s Live Mix, Yesterdays New Quintet’s Angles Without Edges, Madlib’s Shades of Blue, and Jaylib’s Champion Sound.

DJ work and style

He later focuses less on production, aside from occasional remixes and compilation tracks, and works as a DJ in Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and across the United States. His work is associated with hip hop, turntablism and underground hip hop, and he is linked with Stones Throw as well as Soul Cal.