DJ Premier

DJ Premier is one of the most celebrated producers in hip-hop history. Known as the architect of hip-hop’s venerated boom-bap sound, Preemo first caught people’s attention with Guru in Gang Starr in the late ‘80s. Guru’s lyrical precision over Premier's jazzy, sample-based beats made Gang Starr one of the most influential rap duos of the next decade.

Outside of Gang Starr, DJ Premier has produced classic records for a long list of hip-hop luminaries including New York’s big three—Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas. His expert ability to create a patchwork of musical and lyrical samples is both instantly identifiable and impossible to replicate.

On today’s episode we’ll hear a live conversation Justin Richmond recorded with DJ Premier for the On Air podcast festival. Premier talked in detail about hanging out and working with his late friend, The Notorious B.I.G. He also reminisces about when he and Guru lived with Branford Marsalis in Brooklyn, and he recalls what it was like to work with D’Angelo on that fateful night at Electric Lady Studios when they recorded “Devil’s Pie.”

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite DJ Premier songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. DJ Premier is one of the most celebrated producers
in hip hop history. Known as the architect of hip
hop's venerated boombab sound, Primo first caught people's attention with
Guru and Gangstar during the late eighties. Guru's lyrical precision
over Premiere's jazzy sample bassed beats made Gangstar one of

(00:37):
the most influential rap duos of all time. Outside of Gangstar,
DJ Premier has produced classic records for a long list
of hip hop lluminaries, including New York's Big Three, Biggie
jay Z, and Nas. His expert ability to create a
patchwork of musical and lyrical samples is both instantly identifiable
and impossible to replicate. On today's episode, We'll Hear, a

(00:59):
live conversation are recorded with Premiere at the on Air
podcast Festival. Premiere talked in detail about hanging out and
working with his late friend, the Notorious Big. He also
reminisces about when he and Guru lived with Branford Marsalis
in Brooklyn. He also recalls what it was like to
work with D'Angelo on that fateful night at Electric Ladies
Studios when they recorded Devil's Pie. This is broken record

(01:25):
liner notes to the Digital Age. I'm justin Mitchman. Here's
my conversation with DJ Premiere live from Brooklyn. When they
asked me if I was gonna do this, and I'm
coming out from the West Coast and I know we're
gonna be doing this in Brooklyn. I felt like, there's
no way I could do a recording a broken record
in Brooklyn without having a legend, someone who could really

(01:46):
represent Brooklyn. And come on, y'all, we got DJ Premier,
decent me want absolute hip hop legend. You were the
greatest hip hop producer of all time. But no matter
who you ask, you good And we top two, three, four,
so this is.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, they say top three, so I'll take one of
those numbers.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
On two or three is fine.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Maybe we can start with the fact that that you
lived at one point in Brooklyn with Branford Marsalis and
his wife.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, and his son Reese.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Shout to Reese in Clinton Hill. Yeah, And this is
st at the beginning of Gagstar. How did you meet Branford?
First of all, I.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Just joined Gang Star officially in nineteen eighty eight. We
did a single Gang Star. First of all, is originated
in Boston, Massachusetts. I'm originally from Texas by way of
Houston and through a town called Prairie View, which I
went to Prairie U A and M University, which is
an HBCU school was through the Texas A and M

(02:52):
University system, which that's the Aggies. My father taught at
the school and my mother taught art, so I had
a little bit of both. My father, DA was a dean, right, yeah,
he was a dean. He was my dean of arts
and sciences. Because I took computer science and I was
I was always like not going to school, you.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Know, typical wasting your parents' money.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
And my father's like, you're not gonna be wasting my
money going to college and then and not go to class,
you know. So I even tried to uh sneak away
for my eight o'clock class two or three times.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
One day.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
My dad act like he was going because he taught
at eight o'clock class. I was drunk the night before,
so I definitely didn't want to go from hanging out
with my friends and he acted like he was going.
I act like I was going. Then I went back
to bed and he doubled back.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
So all of a sudden, I heard the door go kaboom.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I tried to jump up and get dressed, and he
was like, I knew you wasn't going to class and
I was like, I want to.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Go pursue music.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
He's like, and waste my money. You've been going to school.
But I've always tell people follow your gut, and if
your gut tells you to make a move, do it.
The one thing I do appreciate by my dad, God
blessing me, is he's why no, he's watching.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
God bless his soul.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
He He said, if you're gonna do this, show me
you can make a name for yourself that people will
will remember and that you leave a legacy behind. I said, Pop,
I'm telling you, I'm that focused.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
I will do it. And everything transitioned.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So Being at a Gang Star originated in Boston with
a guy named He was called Sugar Bear at the time,
but he changes to Big Sug, not to be confused
with Sugar Night, who we also know it very well.
Him and Guru formed the group. There was other members,
but they moved to New York to pursue the career.
Sug went to prison for three years, so the other

(04:42):
two members that were in the group before I met
Guru didn't want to move to New York to carry
on trying to get more famous, so gru said, I'm
doing it on my own. I'm gonna just look for
a new DJ, because he had a DJ already and
actually Sugs DJ was the first one. Then he left,
then there was another DJ, then he left, and then

(05:02):
I joined.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
You know what a wild amount of incarnations of Gangstar,
like I'm.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
The third generation.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, but then obviously when I joined, it became that
the rest of the way.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
And in terms of like the discography, when you go
through the albums, it's you and Guru from the start
to that, but before that there are a couple of
different iterations.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
So we were on an independent label called Wild Pitch Records.
Gangster was already signed there. Once I joined the group.
We did a word record called Words I Manifest and
it blew up right away even as an independent from
there we did it. The owner, Stu Fine, was like,
we got to do an album real fast. So I
was going back to college, came back to New York

(05:41):
to do the album in like maybe twelve days, and
it was called No Moments to Night's.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Sky well and hold on, hold on, I mean hold on,
I don't want to know the story. But like, were
you at this point you were DJ in Texas, wax
Master c yep, at some point you become DJ Premier, Yeah,
but you do.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Fine.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Didn't like my name, so that's why I changed it
to Premiere. So that's how they're like Wax's Master season.
I'm very good at imitating people, so if I go
into different voices, I pretty much sound like the person
I'm talking to, and he's and my name is Christopher,
but he'd call me Chris, but he would always sound like.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
He said, crass, crass.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
I don't really like wax Master, see, And I was
like I do, and plus everybody in college just call
me Wax. So I'm like, I don't want to change it.
He goes, just just see if you can think of
some other names. So I called my mom and said, hey,
he wants me to change my name. She goes, why
don't you make a list of different names and we'll
pick one.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Premiere was one of them. I remember one was.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Called Scratch and Cut DJ platter, which there is a
DJ platter now. The platter is what spins what you
put the record on. All that spends.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
We call it.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
It's the platter, so DJs would get it. Everything I
would do was so DJ's would get it. I would
a DJ quick mix, which I'm glad I didn't take
that one.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Uh Premiere was one of them.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
And my mom looked at the list and said, uh,
Premiere sounds like the one because she said take the
E off, you know, because like a movie premiere, the
you know, the E is on it. But she says,
take the E off and it'll be like you're the
first at everything. We call stuffin from Texas and I say, hey,
how about DJ Premiere. He goes, I love it, and

(07:20):
I was like, all right, I'm now DJ Premiere.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Incredible shout out to here. So when we did the album,
when did you start doing beats? Like when did you
start producing records?

Speaker 2 (07:30):
I was just starting to learn to perfect my craft
on the first album, and we did a record called
Jazz Music. When Spike Lee saw the words on Manifest video,
he said that Guru looked like Malcolm X in the
video when he's on the podium with the koofie and
the glasses and.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
The cheek bones.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
He does resemble Malcolm X in the video that made
Spike by the album, and when he heard jazz music,
it just happened to be at the same time that
he was shooting Mobeta Blues with Denzel Washington and we'sy
snipe with that. Spike reached out and he knew we
were living in Brooklyn. So but at that time we

(08:12):
were at Branford Jed. I had just moved to the
Bronx with Guru and we were about to move back
to Brooklyn together. We had the studio apartment with our
dancer and Guru had a big, king sized bed with
no frame, just the mattresses and in a studio apartment
that takes up all the space because the rest of
the space was taken up by my records and my

(08:34):
turntables and my speakers. So me and my dancer were
sleeping sleeping bags on the floor with the mice crawling
over it, squeaking and all that stuff, and Guru had
the bed from there. When we got the call about
doing a theme song to Mobeta Blues, Spike said, the
one on y'all's album is not in depth enough about

(08:54):
talking about jazz artists.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I have a guy named Eric Eli who wrote a poem.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
He gave that to Guru and said, can you make
a rap about this using this? So Guru looked at
it like, oh man, I can just take this John
Coltrane man Supreme, you know, it was the wise one,
and just put little things in it and made it
into a rhyme. He said, Branford, Marcellus is gonna oversee
the song, so we got with him. Bramford had just

(09:21):
gotten the job at the Tonight Show because Johnny Carson
was stepping down. Jay Leno was just taking over and
he hired Bramford to.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Be the music director.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
So he said, Hey, we were like, we're looking for
a crib to move to Brooklyn. He said, well, I'm
about to move out of my place in about another
month or two and moved to La He said, if
you want to live with me and my wife and
my son, fuck like a month or two, you could
do that and then we'll be gone and you just
pay the rent to my manager. And he said, and

(09:52):
if you ever laid on the rent, we're kicking you out,
which we got threatened several times. So we always laid
on the rent, you know, regular young guy stuff. And
from there we worked on the song.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
We put it together. We did two versions.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
The soundtrack has more of an in that version with
the band, but when Spike decided to do a video,
he said, I need the more simple version that you
presented when y'all started to collaborate. So they used my
original version for the video, which we were happy with
just because it sounded more like what a gang starting
sound like. And we shot the video to it, which
is you know, you can find it anywhere, and that

(10:29):
one's called jazz Thing.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
So it's jazz music.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Jazz music is the Gangstar album.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
The Mobile the Blues soundtrack is jazz thing, and uh yeah,
we all the the five of us lived together.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
What was that like? Because I think of Branford, you know,
it was incredible talent, his brother went and all his brothers,
the father, all of them incredible. But I think of
them as being a little more, you know, on the
conservative side of things. And you and Guru, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, I used to always be like, oh man, I
don't like the fact that winning don't like hip hop,
you know, And I was like, he's not official because
he don't like hip hop because he was, you know,
he at that time. He was like it's it's noise,
it's not music, and y'all are just using machines. But
me and went cool and uh. But Branford was always
branching out because he used to get flack when he

(11:18):
joined Stings band to you know, for Dreaming of the
Blue Turtles. Everybody's like, ah, man, you're a pure jazz purist.
Now you're doing stuff with Sting. You're ruining your your reputation.
This before social media, he was getting a lot of
flat and Branford is so cool because.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
He talks like a jazz cat.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
He'd be like, hey, brother, you know what I'm saying,
but fuck these motherfuckers, you know, Like.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
That's what I like. Like he'll still curse and say
stuff like that, man, fuck that bitch ass brother, I
don't get fun, and then go to put it up,
you know. So that's that's brand. I call him brand Lover.
He's like, Yo, give me a hip hop nickname.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
I said, brand Lover. I even made him my hat.
I went to the Compton Swap meet in La and
where where all the sham bangers were, and made him
a real hat in blue with brand.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Lover on it.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And you know, I was like, yeah, so one of
the funniest things was coow and I had so many
girlfriends and stuff at that time that were always coming
by to see.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Us, young man stuff and Branford.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Bramford said that we could give the home number because
he had an answer machine, so we were always hang
out guys, and so we might come back two three
in the morning, and it just happened to be a
time that a night that Branford had an argument with
his wife, so he was sleeping on the couch. But
we didn't know that because the area where we're going
to sleep at the answer machine, you get to see

(12:37):
the number lit up, you know, if all the light's off,
you'll see you know, one, two, three, four, five or six.
And we're like, oh man, it's like eight or nine messages.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
We hit the thing big hey, Keith, we're looking at it.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
And also Brandna goes, motherfucker and he turns on the
light because it scared us, and he's on the couch.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I'm like, man, we didn't know you were on the couch.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
He goes, man, I had an argument with my wife,
and now y'all are ruining my sleep checking the goddamn
answer So you can't wait till tomorrow. And I was like, well,
you said we can use your home numbers. So he's like,
you know what, just forget it. I'm going back upstairs
with the and I'll go go in the bedroom with
her and we'd go okay.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Okay, you know, like checking the rest of the messages.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
See how many people called us, you know, so that's
how much the old answer machine. How many people remember
the answer machine era? So yeah, so you know where
I'm coming from. Even if he wasn't on the couch,
everybody checks it when they get home and see who
they called.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
You know, we didn't.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
It was either a pager or checked that. It wasn't
cell phones yet unless you had a car phone.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Right, And in the process, sounds like you saved his
marriage maybe too.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Well they're actually divorced now. Well so maybe I ruined
it now. But nah, shout shout to his for his
ex wife. Tests she's a sweetheart.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Her brother Michae who lived underneath us in the basement,
and we all we all had a great relationship with
each other. And son Reds, who I always talked to
this very day. He moved from North Carolina back to
New York. So he's in New York.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
So it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Man Brand brandfor came by to visit me recently and
we had just a good time hanging and reminiscing. He's
one of the greatest human beings ever. He knows sports, music,
his philosophies on life is just really good to get
to grab on whenever I have I need some advice.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I still call him for that.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
He seems like an incredible person to be like. I mean,
the fortune of moving from Texas to New York to
do music and then getting to me, I mean, I
guess first of all, Spike seeing the video, Yeah, you
get on the soundtrack, but just getting access to guy
like Brand from Marsalas, that your career.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
He's official man. Shout to Brand Brand lover.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
That house. Once he moves out, it seems like that
kind of became the center of your world, and kind
of like the hip hop world in general. Like the
way who was in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Chubb Rock, the Lady of Rage who eventually moved to
La to get with doctor Dre and became one of
the first females on death Row records, you know, and
that's how we messed you know her the Snoop Dogg
for the first time.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
He was Snoop Doggie Dog then and Nikki d the.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
First female of Death Jam Records, and then uh Jam
Master Jay, God bless him, and I'm glad he's getting there.
His family's getting closure because they just found the killers guilty,
so justice has been served.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
He used to date April.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Walker, who had Walker Wear, which was very popular clothing
line back then. Everybody knows Mike Tyson used to walk
on in the ring with the towel with the WW
on the front. That's her line, and she's actually back
out now, still repping Brooklyn. I used to date her
sister at the time, so we were all friends and
I see JMSJA all the time.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
And uh.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Then a couple years later, Kuru comes to the house
and says, Yo, there's this guy named Biggie Small's down
the block. You got to come here him Rome, And
I'm like, yeah, Mr C who was Big Daddy Kynes
DJ has been pressing me because he wasn't notorious big yet.
And we went down to the corner because at that
time we used to drink forty ounces of malt liquor.

(16:05):
Old English was the preference, and we go down there
and we met the little his Big and he would
rhym in front of us, and he was like, what
can I do to get a deal, And he.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Said, Puffy wants to sign me.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
And I'm like, you know, if he wants to sign you,
you know, just have all your business straight, have a
good lawyer, and if everything works out, you could be
the next star. And he became one of the biggest thing.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
In the world. They already knew who we work or
we were established.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
We were on our third album, and he would just
wrap every Friday. We would go hang out with Big
and we met Lil Kim and hold you in your
Mafia And that became the norm. To see him outside
every every weekend and just drink and smoke weed and
just have a good time with Big.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
That's incredible. Did he already have the chrisma? Did you
know he was gonna be?

Speaker 2 (16:49):
He was funny naturally, not trying to be a jokester.
He was just that naturally him and Big L always
say that Big L God bless him. He was another
one that was just naturally funny. They weren't sitting there
trying to be the funny guy on the block. They
just were naturally with that type of humor.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, didn't you go with Big to pick up Guru
from prison one time? Or from jail?

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, what happened was people doing a fraud on your
credit card was a new thing. Somebody did a fraud
on Guru's credit card and when they ran and h
he was double part, cops told him to move your card.
Matter of fact, let me see I D He checked
his ID and it said that there was a fraud
on his name, but that the cops are thinking he's
the one that's that's fraudulent and uh, you know, using

(17:34):
a fake card. They took him to jail at the
precinct which was we call it LG but it's called
Lafiat Gardens. And they call us and tell us that
he got locked up. Biggie calls me and tells me
he got locked up and h somebody that get him.
I said, okay, I'm coming down the block, which we like.
I said, we're only like five blocks away. Go there
the old junior mafia. Biggie, everybody's on the corner. He said,

(17:56):
I'm gonna go to the precinct. Can one of y'all
move his car? And then once we get him out
and figure out what's going on. We'll come get the car.
And Biggie said, okay, I said, Biggie, won't you drive
it and move it?

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Biggie gets in the driver's seat and just sits there
looking like kind of like staring. I'm like, you're not
gonna move the car because the police is still like
move the car, and.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Biggie goes, I don't know how to drive. Like, why
you sit in the driver's seat, he said, because this
is a Jaguar and it looks nice and I want
to see how it feels to sit in one. He's like,
cause I might buy one, he said, but I have
to be driven around. And I'm like, big, like get
out of the car.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
So one of the other guys do with his crew,
hopped in, moved it and parked it on the corner,
and we went got him out. They found they ran everything,
found out he was legit, and we got him out
and we drove back, brought him back to his car,
and and we went home, still living at Branford's house.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
That's amazing. After this quick break, we'll come back with
more from DJ Premiere. We're back with more of my
conversation with DJ Premiere. Another person in the neighborhood is
someone that I love, one of my FAVORIT producers, Easy Mob.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Oh yeah, he used to come over to the house
all the time when he was in wrapping this fundamental Yeah,
shout to him, ab the whole crew. Yeah, one of
the illess beat makers. I mean to me, he's the
DJ Premiere of Biggie's first album because he did the
ninety percent.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
I mean, you did unbelievable, which is.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
That was like after the album was done, like completely done.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Okay, so well let's get to that then. But he's
more be did like five the what with method Man.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
One of my favorite Warning Warning a machine Gun Funk,
which is one of the best incredible track. He had
so many records on there you know him Lord Finess.
Mine was after the album was turned in. They needed
a street record for the first single, which was Juicy,
So I did unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
But being there it popped off.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
They added it to the album even though it was
already done mastered in sequenced, so they.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Made album sequence disaster everything wow, because we had cops.
It's not press everything else.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Well, we back then, leaking your album was cool if
your friends had it. It wasn't like now if something
leaks and it ruins the first week sales and uh,
it's all now everybody has it and hasn't even launched yet.
This is just Bigieven would make copies for his whole
crew so that they can have him memorized, so that

(20:32):
if he has showed, everybody is singing the record, and
back then we all did that. You know, I'd make
asceepts for my whole team. He know, here's the album
in advanced we didn't look at it as wrong. Where
now it's like you don't want to leak out even
an interlude, you know, because somebody will put it on
on social media, and now your record's leaked, so.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's basically done. Why does he hit you up to?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
He said, I need a street record because Juicy was
more radio oriented. You know, everybody knew the M two
May record.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Just in any.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Black household, everybody's gonna have the M two May album, right,
and everybody's gonna have Juicy Fruit. That's that's standard than
any black household. I can't speak for outside of that.
I'm just going by how I was raised. But in
a black household, you. Yeah, So now the Rolling Stones
are blending in with with him too, man. But even that,

(21:24):
like even in the Black Household you have the Rolling Stones.
You may not have led Zeppelin, but the Stones kind
of crossed a certain line where they had got saying
with hip hop. That's how a lot of rock records,
like like Run didn't call it Arrowsmith. They say you'll
get the toys in the attic album and and cut
that break that was name of the album.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
The song was called walk this Way.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
But but from a hip hop perspective, like you'll get
to put that toys in the attic joint on.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know that, that's just how they do it.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Like even assembly Line by the commodorees that the part
where it breaks down and.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Goes hut good good to hut.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Every DJ calls you'll put hout on. But it's called
assembly line.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's from the first Commodore.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
You can't find it if you look for hut, but
if if you sing it to back in music factory days,
you could go in the store and go, what's that
record that goes, Oh, comodos right there on.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Row one down two. That's that's how it was.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Let's go back to Biggie and unbelievable. Okay, when Biggie
hits you, he says, I need a street record. What
are your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Everybody that knows my my My formula is I like
to make the beat. It's like cooking your dinner. Come
by and I'll cook you something.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
That's what it is. Show up.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Oh yeah, absolutely, it's gotta be tailored. One thing I
love about Guru God Bless him from Gangstar was he
always said in the interviews. DJ Premire is a beat tailor.
He will tailor it to you, like Gambling Huff. I
saw them do an interview. You know, anybody know who
Gambling Huff is and one of the best producing crew
in the world. They're like Holland does You're Holland from Motown?

(23:00):
But they you know, they did all the Philadelphia International stuff.
They did the Old Jays, they did the Jones Girls,
they did Harold Melvin and Blue Nose. He did Teddy
d Grass and the Jackson's. When they left Motown, then
they went to Epic. They produced the I think the
first two albums.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
And I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Yeah, they did enjoy Yourself in good times.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
So during that time I watched their interview, and they said,
we always make the track right there that we think
you would have a hit.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Record on, and we presented to you.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
We don't just you know, like now it's all the
producers these days, it's like, oh, here's thirty beats, pick
which one you like, and we make a song. I'm
literally looking at you. If I had to make a
record for you, I'm gonna be like, Okay, I'll listen
to what you've done and then I'll know where I
fit in and I'll make it for you.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
And you do it in your student D and D
would have been with you.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
At that time, and that was the studio. A lot
of people were scared to go there because it was
a Heroin Street. So it was Heroin fin Fiend's walking
around like zombies and everything, and it was Crack on
the block. It's funny because I just did an interview
with us Sway and the Heather b the last week,
and Heather used to always come there and there's a

(24:13):
deli that we go to, but we call it Crack Deli.
So we go, hey, man, go get me a sandwich
for Crack Deli and she goes, yeah, crack Desk.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
She was like, I remember Crack Deli because all the crack.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Dealers are on the corner selling crack and you're just
going to and they're like, yo, premiere, what's up man?

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Look your music?

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Man?

Speaker 3 (24:31):
You know you anything? I'm like no, and they're selling
crack around the corner. So we called it crack Deli.
So those are the days, you know, and y'all you
know rappers always tough and macho.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
A lot of them that we worked with were like,
I'm not coming back. Yeah, it's too scary.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, So shout to Crack Deli, shouts all, shout all
the fiends you know, and shout the D and D,
Dave and Doug. That's D n D D Doug, Dave
Bodwin and Doug Grammar.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
So is that where you made unbelievable? Did you figg
it down?

Speaker 3 (25:04):
They came with his crew.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
He's not worried about anything, you know, I being And
it got to a point when jay Z started working
on working on Reasonable Doubt. He was an everyday guy.
We're there every day. He's in one room.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
I'm in my room.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
And the beat miners who produced Black Moon, Smith and
West and help to scale to recipes to Sean Price,
they would be in the other room.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
So it was just a rotation.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Jay Z would go in one room, work, come to
my room and work, and he would always.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Be in there with the other like Ski or whoever else.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
During that time, Ski, Sean and l V. A guy
named Nobody IRV God. He was there, but you know
he was DJ IRV back then. You know, he wasn't
Nerve Gody with the murder ink with Joe Rule.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
And all that.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yet.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Wow, so he's there early days.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Well, BIG's an interesting story because Big kind of told
you what to make right, Yes, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
Well unbelievable, he didn't. He just told me what to scratch.
He was just like, man, make anything.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
I'm like, dude, because I told him, I turned him down.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
I was like, dude, I'm too busy. I'll get you
on the next album. He's like, I just need a
quick joint for the Prez please, And I'm like, yeah,
but I don't even know what to squeeze it in.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
He goes, man, I don't even care if you use
M Piece of President.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
And if you know hip hop, M Piece of President
by the Honey Drippers.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
It's one of the.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Biggest break records of all time in hip hop culture,
So to use that you have to manipulate it and
be creative. So I said, all right, come meet me
there and I'm gonna chop it up and just come
up with some things. And I found this note that
had a vibration at the end of the note.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
It was one note.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I just gave it to quest lover. I don't give
my sessions out. I took all the sounds off the
discause they wanted to re make it, but with the
original sounds of that sample?

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Was that sound from and Peach the President discuss the break? Yeah,
but I'm gonna ask what's that sound from?

Speaker 3 (26:57):
But it's chopped into a different drum pattern?

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Where do you hear that note? What is that note
with the dun dum?

Speaker 3 (27:03):
I'm you know.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Sampling is an art form, especially in the hip hop culture,
but we have brought back a lot of records that
probably wouldn't even be popular now. I mean this record
is that I've sample where you'll go to a store and
it was only like three dollars, and now that I
used it, or doctor dre used or a diamond d
or large Professor Pete Rock or dz MO B you

(27:29):
name it, even public Enemy with the bomb Squad. Now
you'll look, that record is two hundred dollars because they
know how Premiere use that, and a lot of people
get put Yeah, people want to own that record. So
now it's two three hundred dollars, and I'm like, well, shit,
do I get a cut of that?

Speaker 1 (27:47):
So you ain't gonna tell us where that staff came from?

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Au No, Hey, honestly, I can't remember for that one
because it's just one note.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
But but when you play it, it goes boom, So it.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Doesn't just go boot. If you hear it on it,
it's gonna pull. So the fact that it has that
little curl on it. I just that one note and
just pitched it on different drum pads on the drum
on the machine, so now it's gonna boo boo boo.
And then just made it dancing the lyricals, and he

(28:23):
came in like that's it, that's it, And then he
we chilled for damn near eight hours because that's when
Bacardi Lamone had just come out, you know, and so
he has mad bottles. And not only that, a lot
of rappers started mentioning that in their rhymes, you know.
So he started drinking that eight hours past is getting

(28:43):
really late, and I'm like, yo, big, if we ain't
gonna record anything tonight, let's.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Come back tomorrow. He goes, oh, I'm ready. I'm like,
we've been sitting there for eight hours smoking and playing
pool and rolling dice and drinking Baccardi lamone. He's like, Okay, well,
I'm ready, let's do it. And he goes in the
booth and I'm like, you, did you write it down?
He goes, no, it's up in here. And that's my.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
First time witnessing him record with no paper, and I
was like wow. And then jay Z did the same
thing no paper.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
And jay Z did a similar thing too. He the
Evils from Recentable Doubt Jason's record.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, called me, did the rhyme over the phone, explain
what scratch sequence he wanted.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
I'm good either way most of them. Most of the time.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Obviously, I come up with it, but I have no
problem if an MC like jay Z or Biggie knows
what they want, and then I'll see if it works.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Scratch it in.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
If if it's I'm like cool, it's still gonna have
my style. Of input, but jay Z told me exactly
what he wanted. The other two songs, he I just
made the beat on the spot and then he was like, oh,
I got something for that, like friend of friend of foe.
And then with bring it On, he said, I'm bringing
to him. Well, jazz O was already down with jay
Z but saw some money we had never heard of,

(30:01):
and he brought him in and we did Bring it On.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
That's incredible. You do two other biggie records on Life
after Death, Yeah, one of them being Kicking the Door,
What made You settle?

Speaker 3 (30:12):
On?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
The I Put a Spell on You sample.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
I Put a Spell on You was a very well
known record in Texas because, like I said, I come
from a town where we didn't call it R and B.
Back then, it was called soul music. If you go
to the record store, it was rock jazz. They didn't
say pop, and it didn't say R and B. It
said soul. So me and my mother, who was a

(30:37):
very big record collector aside from being an art teacher,
and she taught me aret in junior high and high school.
You know, and everybody knows my mom, you know, so
and everybody in my neighborhood has a painting that she
did in their house.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Even the funeral home where our funerals.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Were held, there's pictures in the viewing room that my
mom did in the bathrooms.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
I was like, damn, I can't escape her anywhere.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
So that's beautiful though, Oh yeah, by leaving a legacy,
oh yeah, many. Basically, it was just a record you
heard around Texas.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
It's a record that was popular and where we're from,
you know, screaming Jay Hawkins is I Put a Spell
on you as a popular record.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
We all knew the lyrics to it.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
I never planned on making it into a hip hop
record for Big but when it came to him even
that I only charged him five thousand dollars for Unbelievable,
and I said, if you go platinum and you get paid,
I'm charging you triple. The next time he said done deal.
He ended up paying six times the amount. Yeah for

(31:38):
each record. Yeah, for kicking the Door and tenk record man.
So he kept his word. I said, you know you're
going to pay what I told you? He goes, oh, no,
I got you. Oh like Biggie was say doubt.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Puff didn't like that record though, right Kicking the.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Door night didn't. He didn't.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
I dropped off the beat. That's where we used to
put it on those little ten minute cassettes. I drop
it off, and later on that evening they call us
and say, hey, you're ready to die. Platinum albums plaques
came in, so I was like, ooh, so I'm going
to pick that up, not thinking about the new track.
Buff sees me in the in the lobby and he's like, yo, man,

(32:18):
can you work on a new beat to give to
Big because I don't like the one that you that
you gave him. And I'm like, okay, no problem. You know,
if you don't like it, I'm not offended. But uh
he said, yeah, I need something a little more like
that's gonna rock in the tunnel. I said, that's gonna
rock in the tunnel? I said, mark my words. I said, why.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Don't you live Big here?

Speaker 2 (32:38):
And he said, oh, I'm gonna give it to him
and let him hear it, but still work on something else,
because they already hired me for two records, even though
Crack Commandments wasn't a thought yet.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
I was like, okay, I'll work on another one. Big
calls me.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Maybe a couple hours later, and he's like, yo, you
could come down and uh we could work on on
that beat. And I'm like, well, I'm working on a
new one now. He goes, no, the one you gave
Puff earlier. And I was like, oh, well he don't
like that one. He goes, man, fuck, then I'm gonna
kill this record. And that's that's he said. I'm going, Oh,
I got some shit for this. I said, all right,

(33:13):
and you know, it's so dope. After we did the record,
Buff was like, you know what, once I hear the
lyrics to it, I love it. It's a go and
he's a boss, so if he says no, it's not
coming out.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
But he ended up liking it.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
One other big thing I heard is that you were
with Big and Jy like about a month before Big
went to LA for his last trip YEP to LA
and he was conflicted about going.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, he at that time they were working on Brooklyn's
Finest and there was just talk about him going to
LA and he just said he didn't want to go
at that time. I don't know what transpired later because
I always tell this story.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
If you saw the.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Notorious movie, at the end of the movie where he's
in the studio and he's smiling and they're playing Sky's
the Limit. That session was really my session because the
tin Crack comandments was the last song we did, and
the part where he's smiling, he goes, Yo, it's over,
I'm the greatest. That was really my session. But you know,

(34:15):
earlier in the movie they played ten Crack of Mammas.
They when his son played him and they were selling
the crack to on the street and they played tin
Cracker mammers there.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
I guess it was more fitting for that part of
the movie. But that scene when he said prem is over, I'm.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
The greatest, and I told Cho Coca about that, And
even though I know he had a lot of input
with the shape of the movie along with Biggs family,
that scene is really should have been him listening to
the Crack of Mammas and when he said it's over,
I'm the greatest.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
He was still in the vocal booth, you know, in
a wheelchair. Right he got the car accident. He broke
his hip when seeing him easy crash to a car.
So and I.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Remember he said, hey, my first video is called Hypnotized
Prima and I'm gonna I'm doing physical therapy.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
I'm gonna dance and he did you know? He did
the little Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
If you look at the the hypnotized video, he's dancing
in it and he looks so happy too.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
How did it feel for you knowing you were with
him a month before and he's feeling like, maybe I
don't want to go to La. Very weird you get
the news.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
He's very weird because to get the news, my former
manager shot the fact. Gary, his girl at the time,
was best friends with Nino's girlfriend. Everybody knows that knows
Junior Mafia knows Nino. He is one of the guys
close to Big. So we got the news early because
obviously since he's a family member Big, they're already making calls,

(35:43):
you know, six in the morning saying that he's been killed.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
So and I was like, how did you know?

Speaker 2 (35:48):
He said, you know, Nino's girl is best friends with
my girl and they just called us in the middle
of the early morning and just told us that they
just he just got killed in La So we knew
before it was even We turned on the radio, turn
on TV.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
It's probably like almost an hour to two hours later
they started making the announcement.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
So we already knew.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
That's wild Man and that whole that whole thing with
with Pock and Big Too must have been interesting for you.
You're you're interesting because you always like at the you're
kind of always in the middle of everything, Like like
Jerrew the Damager, who did a lot of work with
Incredible MC. He's beefing with with Bad Boy Records.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
He wasn't beefing, it was they were mad at him. Yeah, well, yeah,
what it was. It's real simple.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
At the time when we were at the Sauce Awards,
we were very hot. At the time, Jay Ru was
very hot. We thought we was gonna get Producer of
the Year and Jay rw was so big at that
time come Clean and his Sunrises in the East album,
and the Sauce Awards was the first televised one. It
was a pre taped one the year before that aired,

(36:55):
but this one is live. So when we were there
with all the stuff going back and forth, we were
a little more hot headed back then. We're not now
we're grown, but you know, you remember we're we're in
our twenties going into our thirties. We're very, very gung
hole about sticking to the script of not ever bound
down to watering down the music. So when when all

(37:18):
the back and forth was going on with Sugar and Puff,
we went to the studio and I was working on
Jayrew's second album, Rath of the Math, and I put
this track on. It was called one Day, but he
talked about what happened all in one day, almost like
a fictional story. But he but he wasn't afraid to
mention anybody's names because that's just how Puff, Yeah, and

(37:42):
the others, Foxy Brown, a guy named Jay Black, you know.
So when he mentioned all of that, we were still
on some you know, let's put this out as a
leak before we dropped the first single.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Yes, it pierced a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Of people in that and the bad Boy crew, and
they took it the wrong way. But one thing I
got to say is when it got to that point,
Puff called Jay Rwe he called the label, told we
got to have a talk about this, and they got
into a big back and forth about you know, don't
say my name on the record. Jay R was like,
I'll say whatever I want, and they're going back and forth,

(38:17):
back and forth, back and forth. And one thing I
gotta say about Puff was he said, you know what,
I gotta respect jay Ruth for not being afraid to
say my name no matter how he felt where he said.
I know a lot of people probably say stuff about
me and their raps, but they just do it subliminally.
He said, jay Ruth was man enough to say it

(38:38):
and tell me that he's standing on it, like what
they say now stand on business. We've been standing on business.
And he gave him his respect, and then it just
finally fizzled out.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
But I love that you never get in the middle
of it either, Like you made the beat, your name's
mentioned in it.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
I told I told all of them.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I told Big it cause even Big was like, man,
he's gotta be talking about me too, because he said
hip hop had on a Vasace suit. I'm like, you're
not the first one wearing Vasace. Mad people wearing VASACEI
before you, and we would have said your name too,
you know, if we wanted to say your name. Everybody
mentioned with the specific people that were brought up, and
that was it. But it did finally fizzled out of

(39:14):
the years later. And uh and like I said, the
respect was given because I was in the session to
hear all the talk you know, Jay Rudy was like,
let me go with.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
You, and you were on the response, but you I
mean he Big responds on kicking the door.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Kicking the door. He always said, I got some.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Of your friends with Big, your friends with Park, your
friends with Lady of Rages on death Row. You're kind
of always in there, all of us.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Yeah, and I'm not doing it to be a trouble maker.
But still, back in that time when we were much younger,
we were very rebellious and hard headed, you know, a
little ignorant. But as you grow you look back and
you go, wow, we went through some ship but at
the same time, everybody got got respect for each other.
It's just so sad that Pock and Big had to

(39:58):
leave us so soon, and Big l because we all
were in the same clubs together, we were all hanging together.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
We were all cool.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
You know, I knew Pocking Big seeing them together for years,
being good friends with each other, you know. So it's
sad that they're both gone. And then it was never
an East Coast West Coast beef. You got fans that
fuel it like that, but the fans are not in
the mix of the situation that was going down I
had nothing to do with the music.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Right right.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
So it's incredible too because I think you said something
and I never heard this that Big wanted to get
Doctor Dre to do records with him. Yea life after that,
which would have been amazing.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
It was the day after the Source Awars.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, he has suged you know, how can we connect
to do a record? So that shows you right there, Big,
they're not thinking about all the talk that happened at
the Source Awards. He's like, let's get some work done
with some music again.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
After one last break, we'll be back with the rest
of my conversation with DJ Premiere. Here's the rest of
my conversation with DJ Premiere. Hold up, I want to
play Let's play the song and I want to play
with you with your sample. Yeah, man, it's impossible to

(41:24):
not it's hard to turn that off.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
But you know, out to DiAngelo man, one of the greatest.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Ridiculous Yeah, let's play where that comes from? First Teddy
Pendergrass first record, That's where it comes from. Right.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Uh, maybe.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
It sounds like.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
It sounds like it?

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
You could be.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
I want to play this game with you, man. Okay, Well, let's.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Assume it's that, okay, allegedly.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Allegedly it's Teddy Pendergrass for his record produced by Gambling Huff, Yes, sir,
And it's a shuffle in three dun du un dun dun.
It's like a shuffle, it's a waltz.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Right.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
If this is the song allegedly, you turn it into
like a call and response, dunda dun dun dun starts
over dun dunda dun ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Right, Hey, that's the part of the creativity of sampling.
If you're deep rooted into respecting the art form of
HAIs a ton you know when you have people like
you know, Larry Smith.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
And Molly Ma who was my idol.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Mally just revolutionized sampling first and brought it to the
forefront with records like The Bridge and Eric bi as
President and Coogi rapping DJ Polo Rode to the Riches
and records like that Big Daddy Kane. We just took
it to another level after Mally taught us how to
do it. So part of my creativity comes from being

(43:12):
a DJ, because I think DJs have more of an
understanding of how to manipulate sounds and make it into
a whole new thing because when we DJ, or if
especially if you're a battle DJ, you're taking records and
destroying your opponent in a battle by taking the departs
and reworking it a way where the cold crowd's going, oh,

(43:32):
you know, and it's only more understood by people in
the culture that are into DJing and whatnot. But that's
my always my approach before our program, it is, how
could I make this turn into something else?

Speaker 3 (43:45):
And you gotta you know, you gotta hurt your neck.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
So yeah, not only is it crazy the way you
manipulated the sample allegedly, but the other the other incredible
thing is it's in a record that's a classic record,
one of the great records of all time, that's pretty
much only produced by D'Angelo and Rafael Sadek. You come
in second track, fit seamlessly in that.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, we were labelmates, me and D'Angelo, so we knew
each other before he did the Brown Sugar album and
I was on tour at the time with the nas
mop and uh Jay Ruth's debut album, and he asked
me to do a remix to Lady, which I did
a version where I took I used to call it

(44:29):
just the drums or just the basse. This one, I
took the music out and just had the drums and
played these stabs. Stabs is just a note.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Bam bam, bam, bam bam. We got those stabs, so
it was just stabs.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
And he I remember I was on tour and he
was like, Yo, I'm shooting a video to your version
with the stabs, which he did and he had everybody
in America's that.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Video was all white in the back.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah. Yeah, I remember Erica.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
My dude was pregnant with with the Andred three thousand
son and and he just joy was in it and
just so many people. A Z was our labelmate as well,
who had got famous through nas ze Matic album, and uh,
he did the verse and it was just a dope video.
And and then from there he's like, I'm working on
my new album Voodoo what you Got? And I said, man,

(45:15):
I'm actually leaving the studio now. I was working with Cannabis.
It was a track that we worked on that didn't
turn into what we.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Were gonna work on.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, because he was doing he was doing a record
called Nignometry and he called me and said, I.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Want to.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Uh, okay in word nometry and uh and he's and
he said, I want a real driving baseline. So I
started just looking and did that. He said, no, you never.
I wish he would have. Yeah, shout the Byss man.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
He's uh.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
If you know him, we call him Biss. He he
didn't do the record. I'm literally leaving this me and
Biss and leaving the studio. I said, we'll work on
something later. And Dee and I were already friends. So
when he said, yo, man, I'm an electric lady. Which
is his sacred place, which is if y'all know, it's
Jimmy Hendrick Studio still to this day, I said, I
got this record I was doing with Bess, but uh,

(46:13):
it's on some hip hop rahym and shit. He was,
I want to hear it, and I was like, nah,
it's not really, it's not that type of vibe. I'll
work on something and meet you tomorrow, but I'll come by.
He said, I want to play these stuff anyway. He said,
Jay Diller is here, Qus Love is here. We're working
on some stuff.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
I go there, Jay Dillar, we miss you, brother.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Quest Love is their work doing the drums to Untitled
is the one with where he was naked in the video.
They was there working on that and Jay Dilla was
in there playing the drums and laying some stuff down,
and then he said, let me hear the one that
you that you were working on. I played and Dangel
just goes, whoa yo, I want that? Like, he goes,

(46:55):
I'm gonna kill this, and we laid it down, and
that there's a picture of me Alchemists, who was just
starting to work on bes. We were about to go
on tour together. Alchemist was a roadie for Cyprus Hill,
but we will yeah, so so we were about to
go on tour. So that's why we were together. And
I asked de could I bring my friend with me?

(47:18):
And he goes, got something smoker. I said, oh, yeah,
he's from California. He got the crazy and we came
over there and J Diller that that picture is to
this day a classic picture Me di'angelo, J Dillon, Alchemist
and that's from that session of me bringing to be
Diler recording the some music for di'angelo and Questlove laying

(47:38):
the how does it feel drums?

Speaker 1 (47:39):
You know what? The third amazing thing about that is then,
is that there couldn't be two songs with a different
feel on that record than unentitled how does It Feel?
And Devil's Pie and you know what else?

Speaker 3 (47:50):
He said, Yo, I'm gonna be nigging in my first video.
He knew what that, Yeah, because because his trainer is
not in the picture, but his trainer had in this
late night.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
It's late night, and his trainer came there to get
his abs tight because he said, I want to, he said, praying.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
I'm gonna be glistening and I'm gonna he said, He said,
the women are going to go crazy, and they did
every you name it. The women went crazy for that video.
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Are you still in touch with d Yeah?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I just hit him up. I'll tell you what day
it was, chuck us out.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
It's to where I'll hit him up and go, yo,
we need you, motherfucker.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Like he's like, I know, I know, I know you know.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
And it's to tell him, like, you know, you're such
an important beast to this music puzzle man, and we
need you, bro. So I just hit him on that.
I do it every now and then just to just
to uh, to let him know I love that.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
You won't tell me where that sample comes from, You'll
show me that was February.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
It was February fifteenth.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
And there is the reason why I hit wow because
on Instagram there there was a post of di'angelo, Rick,
James Prince and like two other artists that were doing
classic songs and DiAngelo was doing a song that's rare
by funk a Delic and it's one of my favorite

(49:10):
songs from the Hardcore Jolly's album called soul Mates. It's
not one of their big records. And when I saw
d look what I wrote. I said, Man, I never
knew you shot a clip of singing soul Mats.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
That's my fucking song.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
I looped that guitar lick at the end and do
a routine at my shows.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Man, you are the funk and he gave me the
little yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
He gave me a little heart man.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
And and check this out everybody's that they posted on there.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
He was the only one that just put a funkadelic song.
All the rest of them they posted had.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
The song that they sang and I put the dummies
that posted it called it a funk Adelic song.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
They don't be knowing.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
I said that Hardcore Jolly's LPI is phenomenon on He
put another one to see him playing that on the guitar,
and I never knew he played that, And that clip
lets me know he's another level of funky, you know
what I'm saying, Like he's a whole nother level of funky.
And I love him so much, man, because he's deep.

(50:15):
Got to kind of know him to understand him.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Have you worked with him since then? Like have you done?

Speaker 2 (50:21):
I just gave him some music to work on, and
d definitely marches to the beat of his own drum.
When he feels like moving, then he'll move. You can't
tell him when.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
His feel on the guitar too is you know, he's.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
A keyboardist, but he plays that guitar too.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
It's just a unique feel, like just his sense of timing,
you know what I mean, Like the way when you
hear Stevie Wonder play drums and a sense of time
and drums that's a little like it's sound like Stevie
like he has just his own.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Yeah, his own pocket.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
So seeing that just got me amped, Like I wanted
him to know that badly, like dude, and I.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
Sent That's why I sent it to him, because he's like, Yo,
where'd you find that?

Speaker 2 (51:01):
And I was like, somebody posted you Prince, Rick James
and like two other artists I can't even remember doing
a cover of a song where they are.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Everything was acoustic.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Versions with them on just guitars. So that was his
choice and he was first and.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
He just said a Funkadelic song. It's like, you don't
know the name of that.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Prince was a fan of Gangstar, right.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Yeah, man, because of DiAngelo.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
He took me to a show that he was doing,
I think at Tramps, and that used to be one
of the venues that where a lot of New York
shows were done.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
And he knew we would just talk Prince all the
time because him and Prince used to hang a lot.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
And he said, Prince's gonna make a surprise performance. He said,
I gotta go do a little bit of press. Go
in that room over there, and I'll be back in
a few minutes. I was like, okay, and I ought
to open the door and there's a pool table and
Prince sitting there looking at me, and you.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Know, Prince gives you those looks and you're just like, yo,
you could be the thug. You could be the most
gangster dude. When you see.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Prince, you're gonna buy down and give him his give
him his flowers. Basically, d knew he was in there.
He tricked me and said, Yo, you just go in
that room and just wait for me for a few
minutes while I go do a couple of interviews, and
Treash from Naughty by Nature was there.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Oh man, I remember the greats.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
I remember when Prince said, hey, man, I love Stepping
the Arena, which was our second album. Tretch punched me
in the chest and.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Goes, see, nigga, Prince love you.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
And and I'm like, I'm like, I see that, and
we had we had a cool conversation and it's just
like Prince Man like like like my second album, did
you guys like changing And we weren't even at that
stage where you could change nothing. That was more than
enough for me. We had a conversation.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
And he knew that he named the album. It's not
even like yo, like.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, Stepping the Arena, he said, one of my favorite albums.
And he's not into sampling really, but he understood the
artistry of how we constructed our music, so he appreciated
it in a different way than just looping a hit, you know,
which a lot of people do they loop hits and
then from there it's a hit again.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
You know, I could keep you forever, but I feel
like we could end on this out, which is that
speaking of Prince wasn't a fan of samples. There's a
lot of people at the time, in the early days,
late eadies, early nineties not a fan of sampling. But
I think maybe I want to know if you have
if we can get confirmation. Ezy Mob, who were talking
about earlier in ninety two. I love that someone here

(53:27):
loves Eazy Mob, whoever that is, love God love Mob man.
He's the best. But in ninety two.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
He produced Tupac and Biggie and.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Like we said, some of the best Biggie records and
some of the best Park records on Me against the World.
But he produced the Miles Davis record. Yeah, I do
Miles Davis's last record. So I want to play the
title cut off of Dubac real quick, and then I
got a question for you based on that. Okay, So

(54:00):
that's Miles Davis at a time when people like Winton
et cetera are like, you know, we don't sample, here's Miles.
He's like, I'm gonna go work with Eazy Mobs.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Said, and I'm doing everything and I don't care how
you feel about it.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
And so that's a cool in the Gang loop in
the back Summer madness allegedly allegedly, but I think really
what he's looping it from DJ Premier in deep concentration
from the normous a nice.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Guy and I did not sue.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
So you want.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Allegedly you want a Miles Davids record. I'm pretty sure
with them.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Yeah, it's the fucking craziest thing ever, because I so
the reason I think that is from that because there's
like that. I think you added that piano over the
loop that no no, no over the because that's not
in the Cool in the Gang song, but that's in
the Miles version.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
So friends, like I said, me and easy Mode be
a friend to this very day. And uh, he's just
one of the greatest slept on underrated producers.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
He should be always on. And when it comes to.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
The top top five question love mob Man.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
No question, Well amazing we got DJ Premiere. Everybody give
it up. Thank you, thank you, appreciate you man, Thanks
to everyone, Thanks to DJ Premiere, thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
Appreciate y'all allegedly, peace and love everybody.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Thanks the DJ Premiere for making it out to on
AirFest and Brooklyn. It was incredible getting a chance to
speak with them, and I hope we get to do
a part two sometime soon. You can hear a playlist
of all of our favorite DJ Premiere and Gang Star
songs at broken Record podcast dot com. Subscribe to our
YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash broken Record Podcast,
where you can find all of our new episodes. You

(56:04):
can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record
is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing help
from Marek Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tollinday.
Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you
love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to
Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers

(56:26):
bonus content and ad free listening for four ninety nine
a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions.
And if you like this show, please remember to share, rate,
and review us on your podcast app. Our theme music's
back Anny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.