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DJ Premier Interview
RnB/Hip Hop | Thursday 7th February 2013 | Ellen
Once identified as ‘arguably Hip Hop’s greatest producer of all time’ by Rolling Stone, ahead of his gig hosted by The Doctor's Orders on 28th February at Plan B we got the chance to interview the man behind 4 record labels, over 20 albums and 20 years of being in the hip hop industry..
What’s happening, man? It’s a pleasure to be talking to a legend, how you doing?!
I’m good man, working and staying focused.
Sick! Where you now, New York?
Yeah, I’m in New York. I’m having a son so I’m getting the baby some things, then I’m back in the studio.
Nice one! So is this your first child?
Yep first one. I’m 46 now and it makes me start all over again and I think it’s really healthy. It gives me the perspective to carry on, getting my health in order, get back on my hip hop game so I can be prepared for when he gets old enough to understand the culture that I live in y’know?
Wicked! So has having a child given you a different outlook on your work?
No question, 100% percent. It makes me get back to like 1992 -1993 to when I had a whole bunch of stuff out.
That’s good to hear, back in the game! So Rolling Stone has identified you as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. What on earth can be your goals now?
Erm, my goals now is just to expand my record company, my label Year Round Records, which has been kind of a stop-start type of a situation where we dropped releases, we dropped vinyls, we dropped successful albums. Black Poets did well, NYGz had a groundbreaking album so we need to them more recognition, even though they were an extension of the Gang Starr Foundation so they were with us from day one. Even though they didn’t record, they were in the streets living that life. But Panchi and Shabeeno turned out to be another force to be reckoned with and they’re now at the level where I wanna break them into the game and I gotta thank Guru for putting them out first when they were called Operation Ratification, and now even though NYGz is what they wanted to go by, well they wanted to go by New York Giants but its hard to be called that with the football team being named that and what not. And then [there’s the issue of] getting sued or something like that so NYGz is just perfect, which is obviously spelt NYGz, no apostrophe. And then I got an artist in Houston, Texas where I’m originally from, called Khaleel, showing that there are lyrical guys from the South that actually have lyrics and not just talking about partying and the cars and everything y’know, showing there’s skilled guys that really can spit. Then I do my classic series where I doing an album with MC Eiht Compton’s Most Wanted called Which Way Is West?. And then I have Lady of Rage, we doing an album together which is almost done ... Also Bumpy Knuckles and O.C are doing an album together which is early in motion. Actually my assistant connected us so he’s producing six tracks off of that album, and me and MoSS are doing an album together. What we do is split the beats and give half of them to O.C and half of them to Bumpy and then Bumpy will record his half and then send them to O.C and he”ll record his half and vice versa. Bumpy hasn’t heard O.C’s half and O.C hasn’t heard Bumpy’s and when they meet up then they’ll vibe and it’s just unique take on the process. I’m also working with TITC Inc which is a new extended version of TITC which
Showbiz came up with, where he’s taking the younger guys like an artist named Tashane, a guy named Majestic Gauge, and a whole host of other artists. But I’m only doing a couple of songs and I’m executive producing it.
Wow! It sounds like you have so much in the pipeline, so how do you tread the line between still representing for old school hip hop but also bringing through new hip hop?
Because I love the culture so it’s never difficult for me, its just a front to have so much stuff on the agenda to keep me going instead of falling back and feeling not in the mood and I also stick to the artists who are dominating the radio now so I can see where I stand with my sound and my market, so that I, don’t do what they do, but at the same time I’m another piece of the puzzle to preserve my generation of hip hop which is still important.
Do you think that you’ll be as good a businessman as you are producer?
Oh yeah definitely, I ain’t got nothing to worry about that. I love competition and I’m a competitor because the rap game is a sport, so I’ll never stop being that guy. I’m ready!
Nice! so did I hear something about you possibly doing something with Nas?
We been talking about it. He’s been like “Hey man” then he started napping, then he said it again, then started napping, so it's really on Nas. whenever he says go, I’m ready to go.
Is there anyone else you would like to work with as much?
I’ve always wanted to work with Ghostface Killah, just because I’m a big fan of his, others in the WU , Inspectah Deck, the gizzle (GZA) - who I called the other day and told him I wanted to speak with him soon. But when it happens is when it’s gonna happen and I’m looking forward to it too, but in the meantime I’m doing a couple other things; I’m working with Soulkast again and I just gave him a beat, Right To It. I’m also working with Venom again, I did a Vigilante remix with him and Black Poet last year so we gonna do a record together. And it’s called Poison because the part of France he lives in is really rough with a lot of people on drugs and heroin and he wants to address it.
You’re always around legends, such as the first black judge. Who inspires you to do good for the hood?
My father, my parents my son, all of them are inspirations because with them I know how to take it to the next level to be another piece in this struggle we are all going through. My part of making the world better is to make good music for people going through the struggle; not everyone can afford expensive cars so I give them music and I’ve always done that. Hip hop is my inspiration and I’m not negative in my music, you gotta lead by example. Eventually I’m going to be setting up Majave HeadQcourterz, which my radio show is named after and we’re setting up a foundation for him (HeadQcouterz) with his mother. It’s called the HeadQcouterz Dream Big Foundation, and we’re still raising the funds for that and getting the paperwork in order because it takes time to set up a non-profit organization. In the meantime I’m setting up the DJ Premier website which will be carrying all my merchandise, my CDs, my vinyls, hats, t-shirts, cigarette lighters, key chains, umbrellas, everything. We’re also setting up the official Gang Starr website; I joined forces with Guru’s family, his nephew Justin and his son K.C and we got the rights to his estate so now I’m just waiting on the paperwork to be official and then we can start selling official Gang Starr merchandise and other things like new albums, and stuff like that. So that will all be ready in the summer.
So its nice to hear Gang Starr is still a big part of your life.
Oh 100%, I mean its what got me here so why stop that? And why not capitalize on it?
And his family are happy to have you there leading the way?
Definitely. Big Shug is still down with us as one of the originators of Gang Starr y’know? It’s all about doing the right thing, I been doing the wrong thing for so long, so its all about doing the right thing. And if anything wrong comes in my way, I’ll stomp it out and shut it down.
So was there a turning point to turn you from doing the wrong thing to the right thing? What happened to make you decide to change?
Just experience man, y’know. I’ve seen people get killed, we’ve lost people like, Jam Master Jay’s gone, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s gone, HeadQcourterz got murdered, y’know? Like, the first time I saw somebody die, I was 11 years old, but it didn’t register in my brain like it does now. I still go to the hood, go to the barber shop and get trimmed up, listen to the gossip, have the little kids playing out in the streets, whatever. But like, I’m 46 y’know, I wouldn’t be doing immature stuff at 46!
I saw your show out here a little while ago, in London at The Garage, it was crazy! England is feeling you, how do you feel your shows go when you play over here?
I love England man! It’s like good sex, like you can fuck a chick and get off on it, but there’s certain chicks and you fuck ‘em and you get way off on it because you have a chemistry. I go hard till I bust a nut and when I bust that nut that’s when I go, “Good night everybody!” Then when I get backstage, I need to calm down for a minute,
I don’t want anybody to talk to me, even if I gotta do a thousand autographs, a thousand pictures, I need to take a good 15 minutes to just, stop being so heavy, calm down, cool off, change my shirt, and just reflect on how good it was, and then y ‘know, light a cigarette but don’t smoke it - because I don’t smoke anymore - light up a joint, then I’m ready to face whatever.
Nice! Coz I saw your show last time and, the UK crowd is generally a hard one to get excited, but that were screaming for you, so I know the UK has a special kind of love for you and everything Gang Starr too.
Yep, its a beautiful thing man and I wanna thank God because I am so blessed. I keep my spirituality in check, which I’ve always been a spiritual person, but I’m a lot more spiritual now because I’m in tune with the Earth and I’m starting to see how this planet operates even more now that I’m a father. I’m not here to play games, I’m here to be a father and keep delivering like I’ve been delivering. I’m still a hardcore muhfucker so, let’s get busy.
So if there are any young cats out there, that’s like a young Premo and you were gonna give them advice, what advice would you give them?
I would say this: always be original, and always compare yourself to someone in the business that you wanna be in, who you like and respect and copy them and master what they’ve done, but don’t be a biter. You will fit in some piece of the puzzle because we need as many people as possible to make this thing dope. There’s no excuse for not being able to be the next greatest thing. I compared myself to Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Doug E Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, Nucleus, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, I could go on and on and on, Michael Jackson, Prince, and [I would think] “Where do I fit in? How do I become all of those people to where they say ‘You’re dope, I like you’?”. I had Prince tell me to my face “I love Gang Starr” and I didn’t even know he knew who I was! So that let me know that I’m doing the right thing. Rakim saw me with Guru at a bar and he was like “I wanna work with y’all”. It weren’t even amount the money, we’ve been accepted by our peers, so we know we’re on point because we’ve been accepted without begging them to like us. Y’know, we didn’t have to buy our way in, we earned our way in. It’s like if you belong in the club, you’ll be accepted, if you don’t then you need to find another avenue.
Haha! Premo man, thank you for talking to us, hopefully we can meet up and get you on film next time you’re in London!
Haha, no doubt homie, peace out!
Peace!
For tickets for his gig with The Doctor's Orders on 28th February at Plan B click here
photograph source: http://hypetrak.com/images/2012/02/djpremierblackfistfridays.jpg
