DJ Premier - Interview
My Monday afternoon was like any other, emails, edits, YouTube wormhole, more emails, until Anis from Wordplay Magazine messaged me. “You in London? Do you want to interview DJ Premier tomorrow?” When one is asked such a question, the general idea I suppose is to play it cool, don’t seem too keen, but do not seem too disinterested at the same time. That went out the window. I said yes without thought and proceeded to pester Anis for any more details he had.
DJ Premier was in the UK to promote the latest Gang Starr album “One of The Best Yet”, a pulsating 16-track-album that hooks you in from the moment the live rendition of “The Sure Shot” starts playing. Premier’s technique of mixing and scratching classic records is on show throughout while Guru’s bars sit on top of the instrumentals perfectly, never sounding out of place even alongside “newer” stars like J.Cole, Ne-Yo and Nitty Scott.
I managed to catch him as he was recovering from jet lag and speak to him about his career thus far and all things Gang Starr.
First of all, quick fire, What’s your favourite colour?
Blue
What is your favourite food?
Mac and Cheese
Good, ice broken! How are you? How are you finding London?
I’m good, just tired because we flew in yesterday and then I’m straight to doing interviews on radio and press. I kept waking up at like 2,3,4 in the morning and people were calling me from back home. Usually when we do tours, we usually come a couple days early just to be able to adjust to the time difference but this time we landed and went straight to work, I guess this is what we sign up for.
What are the Gang Starr fans like “across the pond?”
Fans are the same, we actually blew up in Europe back in 89’ and then came over here in 90. I remember that’s when Dingwalls was the spot to go to with Gilles Peterson and all those guys. We used to hang out with Paul Weller, Dee C Lee, Neneh Cherry so we’ve been coming out here for so long the reception has always been great. So by the time we got to our third and fourth album we were house hold names here, we were doing shows with London Posse.
Who did you listen to growing up, who inspired you to get into Hip Hop?
Well we didn’t have rap as a kid so we were just listening to the basics, all Motown, Stevie, Jacksons, Marvin, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Junior Walker and The Allstars, but then there was Aretha, Natalie Cole, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Al Green, Earth Wind and Fire, The Commadores, Johnnie Tailor. Jazz and even classic rock, people Grover Washington, John Coltrane, Sonny Sitt, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, ACDC, Rush, Genesis, Van Halen and that went into the era of barring with those sounds which created the Hip Hop format with our drum patterns, scratching, cutting and rhymes.
Talking about scratching and cutting, you are not from New York right?
Nah, I am from Texas.
But you are one of the pioneers of the New York sound working with so many artists across the board, what was it like being part of such an era?
Well I got into the game at 87’ and then moved to New York in 88’, back then you only really had New York as a reference and you wanted to be accepted by them because it was so territorial at the time where if you weren’t from New York they saw you as being from “the country.” East Coast was prominent, Philly and Jersey, but for us you had to get that acceptance for you to be considered dope.
What were the steps you took in terms of getting that respect?
Improving my demos. I would send them to labels and if they said “nah it’s not that good” I would go and make another one, then if they said “it’s cool but..” then I would go make another one. I was never like “ahh, I am going to give up”, nah. I just kept perfecting my craft cause I knew they were going to eventually feel me. Finally, it grabbed the attention of Guru and Wild Fish Records when they were an independent label and they said they wanted to sign me.
So let’s talk about the latest album, when did the idea start to put an LP together?
7 years ago, after Guru passed, he’s been gone 9 years now, but for 7 years it’s been on my mind in terms of how to get hold of his last recordings because I know his work ethic and I know he records a lot. The last time I saw him was at the hospital, I couldn’t obviously ask him there, so it’s been on my mind for 7 straight years on how to get his recordings.
How did it feel to put out music at such a time? Music has changed a lot since your last tape in 2003.
I make music for the audience that already gets what I do, I don’t make it for the younger kids unless the accept how I do it. I don’t want to do the style that is dominating radio because the style that I do is the style I love to hear as a fan, then we also have fan base that still wants that style but if no one is doing it then we can’t really complain. The older generation always complains “Ah man, I am not into that new style Hip Hop” well okay, then make some records that sound like what we like, stop complaining, just go and do it.
Hip Hop was always going to evolve but why do you think Hip Hop is bereft of rappers and producers making that classic sound?
It’s based on what you’ve been raised with you know, if you weren’t raised on it and then you don’t hear it on the radio like you used to then you are just going to get used to what’s there. It’s like shopping in the Supermarket for cereal. If Captain Crunch is your favourite cereal and they go and replace it with one called “Crunch”, sooner or later you will have no choice and you have to just buy that one because you want something close to what you really want. You either have to deal with it and adjust or you go and buy another cereal, Raisin Bran or whatever, it’s kinda in that same element but rest assured, we still make Captain Crunch.
Good! What makes people like yourself and Guru really stand the test of time do you think?
Our passion and our fans are die hard supporters of our music, I already knew when it came to dropping this album they were going to get it straight away.
You got the last J.Cole feature of the year? How did that feel?
That was dope because he was the one that convinced me to put Family and Loyalty out first. I originally wanted it to be the traditional style of what Gang Starr does when we drop a new album which is come out punching and then drop something more mellow. I wanted to drop Bad Name first but then Cole explained to me that usually a track takes six-to-eight weeks before you get it flooding the radio but because of your history you could drop your next track and then another in two weeks because the people are going to be hungry to hear more. It was tough to hear but he also mentioned that his fans aren’t necessarily going to know who Gang Starr are and once they do the research they’ll be like “oh, they got 7 other albums”, and since the album has come out Hard To Earn, Full Clip, Daily Operations and Step In The Arena are in the charts now.
I rate that. The name, One of The Best Yet, comes from Full Clip right?
Actually no, it comes from the third verse on “You Know My Steez”
Wait, but it is in Full Clip right?
Yeah yeah, I took that line from You Know My Steez and sampled it. It actually became a famous line every time I played Full Clip with the crowd chanting it every time they heard “If you wanna mess with this….” and when we did our outro’s or encore sets we always closed out with that line.
It’s been well documented the struggles between you both, when it came to making the album was it hard at any point?
Just at the beginning to get started, because it has been 16 years since I had done an album and I finally got the vocals and it’s like time to go and for a while I would go into the studio and be like “nah, I am not ready, I will start tomorrow” and then tomorrow would come and I would be like “Nah, still not ready yet” and I would get a little nervous. It was tough but I just asked myself what am I waiting for, I took his ashes with me to the studio and then made the first song which was “Bless The Mic”.
How was it bringing the Ashes into the studio?
It was cool, I did my ritual, prayer, incense and burned sage which is known to ward off all evil energy. I did it to ward off bad energies from his soul and spirit and even my own as well, from there I started messing around with samples and once I started playing around with the Nice & Smooth sample, it started to remind me of when we were making Step In The Arena and I continued trying to make it lock together.
How did it feel working so closely with Guru’s son on the project?
It was dope, we all share a company called Gang Starr enterprises which consists of me, his son, his son’s mother, Guru’s nephew Justin and Guru’s older sister, Patricia who he always confided in when he had any issues or was stressed out. It was important to me because it was the right thing to do, I have always made sure I look out for Guru’s family with anything Gang Starr.
What’s the last song you listened to outside of Gang Starr work?
David Bars. I am currently executive producing him with Showbiz and we are working on a project, he’s also working on a project with Corey Gunz as well. He’s very dope, he’s a lyricist from the Bronx New York, he recently just dropped an EP called “The Barcode.”
What’s the main thing you want people to take away from this album?
Err, that nothing has changed in our formula, our formula is still the same, it’s what you expect, what you miss and what you want from us. I made sure I delivered that same thing without sounding dated, even Guru’s lyrics, it sounds as if he wrote them to my beats now.
Lastly, when can your UK fans expect to see you live?
We’re working on a Gang Starr tour right now, once I know more information I will let the UK and Wordplay know properly.
If you haven’t already then check out ‘One Of The Best Yet’ on all good streaming platforms
Words by Timothy Ogu
