DJ Premier Talks Gang Starr History, Early Collabs With Biggie, Jay-Z, 50 Cent + More

Obviously you know Peter Bennenbender, Nah's business partners, and they approached me about this ten producer EP where the fir the one through nine are producers that they chose to do an EP that contains five songs, and uh, the ninth one is going to be voted by the fans, so they all get to say, this is what we want to do the tenth one. The tenth one's gonna land on the on the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop, which is August eleventh, nineteen seventy three, is the official birthday.

So when the tenth one drops, it to be on the fiftieth birthday. So we don't know who that's gonna be, since I guess he'll probably wait till they get closer to the end. To let the fans choose, so like every two to three months sort of, it'll be another one released. I think Swiss is next. It only makes sense, you nays, you know, for you to kick things off. I was like, yo, we get to pick who we want.

So I was like, no, you gotta give me. I know you're part of the company, but you gotta give me at least one and I'll figure out the other four. You got like an all star cast for these five songs too, because you kicked it off a Joey badass yeah, which I love. He's from Brooklyn man Bob Mon. And then of course you put Remy Mind Rapteddy together, which was a great matchup. Yeah. And then I even I love this song with Slick Rick and Little Wayne too. Yeah. Yeah,

that was a last minute thing. But the dope part was Wayne had already laid his verse when I told Rick about it, and you know, Rick, let me hear the verse. See what he said. You know, he talks just like the way like the Children's Story record, And I was like, he sounds he heard. He's like, oh yeah, he said, do you want to hook or do you want a verse? Or do you want to verse? In a hook. I was like, I want both, and he'said, all right, So those are the five songs he didn't

maybe in like two or three days. Really. Yeah, yeah, you know it's interesting to me because I feel like you have such a long history. Also in this game, you're from Houston, but then you moved to me wear

a Prairie View. A lot a lot of times it's it's left out, even though born and fifth Ward and lived there and moved and we moved to My father was a biology teacher at Prairie View and that's how we ended up moving there because he wanted to be closer to the to the college, which is only like a forty minute drive, so he built a house in that town. And that's how my family moved from fifth Ward to PV. And I went to college there too, didn't graduate. And then you moved to New York. Yes,

Now why did you move to New York? My grandfather lived in Brooklyn, Uh, and my mom my mom my mother which is his father, uh, but just her father. Um, it's from Baltimore. Okay. So every summer, my you know, you know, after schools that are we're going to New York for the summer, and you know, his kids were like, yay, we're going to New York. So we'd always Then my father's from South Carolina, she's from Baltimore, so we always stopped in South Carolina and something to see my family there,

which is the Martin family. Then we go to North Carolina to see our on Mangel. Then we go we go to and that's driving. Then we go to Baltimore see my grandmother and my aunt and my cousin. Then New York is the finale. So we always stay with my grandfather, grandfather Bill, who's tattered on my arm because he was a major part of me wanting to be in the music business. And uh he was in bands

and stuff. He used to brag and show me his photo albums of all the places he's been, and I was just really into that, and I was really into video I guess you can't really call him video games. In my age and some fifty six, I was a pinball expert. You know what I'm saying. You don't call that video game? What do you call what do you I don't know, okay, okay, okay, arcade games? So I was always battling people in pinball. So whenever I'd go to stay with my grandfather. And this is right before

I was like maybe eleven to twelve. Because as I got older and like turned thirteen fourteen, my sisters and them didn't want to go anymore. They're like, we want to have someone with our friends and weren't gonna keep going. In New York Me I wanted to go because he was in the baseball. We would go to baseball games. That's how I got into the Yankees. Even I'm a die hardassro stand for life, I'm Houston everything for life

on that. But when it came to my grandfather, we would always go to Playland in Times Square and I would He would give me mad Roles quarters and I would just battle people in pinball, say I'll play you, I'll play you, and I just love the whole action of the city. And being that he went to I was in Tokyo. I was here, and he's showing all these pictures. I was like, man, I want to do that one day. One day he takes me to play land and uh, we see some b boys breaking and stuff.

You know, they put the guitar case open to put money in. You put your quarters and yeah, well just seeing all you know, I didn't know what breakdancing was, and just seeing all that and they playing the hip hop and they got the big bone box, and I was like, this is different because growing up in my era, we liked our parents music. You know, now, as you know, my son is eleven, he's not really into the music.

I'm meanto because the generation is different. Before us, we were into Gladys Night and you know, Curtis may feel very white, you know, the Temptations. We weren't like, oh, that's your old folks music. We all grew liking our parents music until Prince comes out and you know, the Confunction and you know, cameo and we started to kind of My mom was like that's y'r alls music, and we separate. But when I saw them doing all that breakdancing in Times Square, I was like, I want to

move here. And then as it building, hip hop started to grow and records started coming out. I was like, man, that's me. I could just totally identify, and I was like, this is what I want to do. Did you listen to disco too? Since did your parents listen to that? Yeah? Yeah, that was even that. I mean you as a DJ the twelve and single. I mean, to get it Rabbits Delight or anything like that, you had to only buy twelves. There weren't no cassette singles yet. There was no CDs.

You would even even have a turntable. You bought record in the record say I owned Rabbits Delight, you know, but we we had turntable. It wasn't twelve hundred, but we had. We always I've always had a turn I used to put my headphones in and just listen to records on the turntable all day. Yeah. So so even with that um, as it grew, I was like, man, I'm gonna move it. So an eighty seven I started to make my move, and I was still checking my

shame with my grandfather. Then he passed. Once he passed, I moved in with one of my classmates parents, who went to prayvew with us. They were from Brooklyn, and that's how I ended up in East New York, really deep in the hood and hanging around all these wild guys, and then you kind of started to blend in and become part of them. Someone were just wild and crazy.

I would I love the action being from a smaller town and then you know, I ran the streets, did all the crazy stuff, but not to the degree of where it would get back to my father. The dad I was doing doing stuff. It was like a gumbo of music. You had, yeah, taste from Houston and South Carolina and North Carolina and Maryland and heavy metal. I remember seeing somewhere that you used to listen to heavy metal. She'll do still do. Love love rock, I love jazz.

And my mother's art teachers, so she uh, she taught all of us art. And because of that, that's another reason why I was into vinyl, because she had so many different types of records. And then me and her would go record shopping and we went to concerts together, you know, so anything that had to go to concerts, my mother and I would always go. We go see it was Rufus at the time, featuring Shaka Khan. We our whole family would see Ygantina Turner, and I was

that's amazing. I got lost. You know how you in your seats, but if you're going there's always an aisle that separate teach row yep, I'm dancing doing my thing. I kind of moved to the left and you know they're not. They're not looking at watching the show. And as I drift out of the ale that takes the stairs all the way down to the bottom row of that section, I ended up in the wrong one. So now I'm looking like you cried. Yeah, I remember the first of my mom. I lost my mom and tss boy,

did I cried? Yeah, you got me. I used to get lost all the time, but like on purpose, and I never was upset about it. And then my parents would be going crazy looking for me. I show up with a cop bringing me irresponsible. Casey, your son is here. We have That's what happened to Hey. The crazy thing is, you know, the ushers like where you don't know? And I'm like, nah, okay, and they tell they have to go make an announcement to Tina, so they stopped the music.

A little boy on stage. Yes, they found me and my mother's boy, boy, you hit it when you get home. My mother was a disciplinarian. My father was the extra disciplinarian, but my mom was the one that taught me how to throw my hands up if I got to fight everything, So go get your shoes, we gotta fight yea. Yeah, So so I learned early, you know, to be a stand up guy because because my mom. And on top of that, don't you move out of that out no more?

When you at a concert, have you seen that challenge going around with the challenge with the parents and killing their kids, Go get your shoes. A lot of people saying it's disrespectful, right, yeah, but I'll be honest, that's what I teach my kids. I teach my kids if mom and dad or your brothers, sister have a problem, you put your shoes on and you gotta help your family. Yeah.

So it's like I tested one of my kids the other day and you know, he was like, all, I put my shoes, Like we got a problem, Dad, let's go. But that's what my dad taught me. It's timatazing for the kids who started crying, and then they posted on social media forever. I literally just saw it, just flashing the TV and TMZ was on and they were they

were showing Donielle Rollins asking his son do it. And even though he walked off and went back and the like the airport a scene like he walks back in like I'm not doing it whatever, and then they show the people on you know, the staff on d TMD and they were the girl was going, that's wrong, and she was like, then you shouldn't do that, you know, with the whole energy of like that's not cool. And but Donnelle didn't and someone like my pap. So when he walked off, he thought he was gonna run, but

he stayed there. You know, I'm sure done Elle's teacher, but that's my dad told me. My dad worked a lot, and he was. He always told me, if something happens with your mom, you have her back. You make sure she's good if I'm not here. And the same thing with my grandmother. Stayed at my grandmother the whole summer, and my cousins they were they always thought, if y'all get beat up, it won't get a black guy. Y'all

all better have a's down now. Sign Austin probably is going to have to protect him one day soon because I don't know if y'all seeing downell fight. But but yeah, let's get back into your story though. So you're in Brooklyn, right, Yeah, And so the first artist that you produced for was it for Gangstaff for group Um get Gang Star. As far as joining the group, I was in a group called we used to be called m Season Control. It was my man, Top Ski, Sugar Pop and style E

Teas Tyler team was was our right. He was our like flavor, flavor of the group. This is all college buddies from school. And as it got to the point where we wanted to see if we could make it in New York, the only one that could really afford to go was me and Top because Top happened to be from Boston, so he would always always go visit his pops and and and it's the reason why he was in Houston's because his mother lived in the Most City, which is anybody text to know that's Missouri City where

we call the Most City. So we would always go to our house during the summer, or we'd be up in New York. When I was trying to shop my demo, I was working at a record store in Houston called sound Ways. It was the store in the hood that everybody the pimps would come to the come in there with the gators and the had cock days, dousing and just you know, telling with the gold one goal to go,

Hey man, you got that ladder mo. You know they only say ladder more, they say ladder Mo and and you had to know the genre music, and you had to know Zyetico music, which you know is you know, the Cajun music with the kind of the accordion sound. Definitely, it's big down there. Look up Zydeco. It's super big. It's like very New Orleans. Uh, but it Texas is

big and it's very heavy out there. Everybody knows the words said everything like a like a like a before I let go from Maze, they know the words that every Zyetco record. So we grew up with that. The boss at the at the store said you have to know all that, including country as well and jazz. So I had a good knowledge of it because of my mother's record collection. And as that built, Uh, I was telling the guy that that got me the job. His

name is Carlos Garza. He's a big part of me getting there because, uh, hip hop was just going on Billboard. They were having a you know, finally had a hip hop chart. He became the Billboard reporter. So he had me become the twelve inch buyer for all the twelve inch records that come down, so so that he could do occupy that and they're checking. Hate was popping into in Houston. Oh this record, this record, this record, and a lot of independent hip hop were called to get

on that chart by having him report from Houston. While he was doing that, he's like, Yo, man, you gotta check out this friend of mine. He could dj. He's dope, and he's coming to New York for the summer. Stup Fine, who on Wild Pitch Records, which Gangstar was on at that time, was like, hey, we we want to hear the demo. I wasn't ready to for him to hear it. He sent them a copy of it and I was like, why you do that, it's not ready in And they heard and they liked it, but they didn't want them.

They only wanted me. And I was like, well, I'm not gonna go with out mind my group because I was even not even contemplating being in the group. But I DJed all the parties at school, so everybody was like, Yo, you should do it, you should do it. Finally got my courage up to say all right, we get we get to New York. He's like, I don't like your MC, but I'll put you in a real studio and let's see if you can do a better demo that and maybe I like him and we could we're interested in

sign of You. We put the put us in the studio. Yo still didn't like it. Top was like, Yo, man, if things don't work out in the next couple of months, I'm gonna join the military. And Tops a while, dude, I'm like, you ain't joining the military. That's not even your style. You two street for that, and He's like, yeah, I'm gonna do it. One day, when it was a weekend and we're all living in my man Gordon Franklin's parents' house,

he made us get jobs. Everything. He said, you can't stay in there all trendy, so you know, you have to have a job. You can't him, you know. So, and only we could, we couldn't come into like at the five, so you know, we get get home at night from having to stay there, and I mean we get home at night, and then we got to stay out until he gets back from work, so we have nowhere to go. So I was like, I can't keep

doing this. That one Saturday when we're chilling, the doorbell rings and the recruiting officers in the yutfit goes, hey, how are you doing. We're looking for Theodore Campbell and I was like, for what he goes on today is to day he's joined in the navy and I'm like, no way, and I'm like yelling down the basement, yo Top, no time. And he comes up the stairs like, yo, man, I told you, you know we nobody, they're not interested in us. I'm gone and I'm like, how long are

you going for? He said four years? Wow. I'm like, oh, I'm not waiting. If he said a year, was gonna wait? He said four years. I'm like, dude, he said, I do your thing. I'm riding with you. He's he's my boy to this very day. We talk all the time, bug out and next thing you know, he's gone. I called back to the students, said, yo, Top, just when they just the recruiting officers just took him. He's like, so when you joined Gangstar And I was like yeah.

And that's how it became the DJ. Me and Gurgle started just talking on the phone because I had to go back to school to get get another semester in. I made him beat to words. I manifest and said I think this would be dope for you to rhyme over. He called me back and say, yo, I just wrote a round check it out. And he's like, I, professor, I don't jest for the words I'm I was like whoa,

because they were already gangs. I was already out, and I was a fan of some of their twelve in singles when forty five King was producing them, and then from there, you know, and then I was a fan of Latti, who was on Wild Pitch as well, who is Apachee's brother, and Lati was one of the first and Chill Rob g so all of that, and that was all forty five King, Flavor You and this stuff. Guru was the only outsider that was on that label at the time, and I was like, man, this could work.

We recorded the record, Stu calls me back and it's like, yo, it's popping on radio. Everybody's playing it. He said, but your version on the album is a little too slow. We need to make a more amped maybe speed it up. I flew back there right before Thanksgiving, recorded the record and did the extended one, which everybody knows from the video. He said, we're doing a video back then You're like, gonna get a video, and we shot the video and then it just really took off. How is the money

for you back then? And deals that you signed with this zero broke, you know. And after we made a name for ourselves, then a guru used to listen to all the demos. So he would go to the Stu's house. It was a husband and wife label and he'd have the shoe box of tapes. And when he heard my demo, the second demo he found was law Ferness and Lawd Ferness a demo. He's like, Yo, I'm trying to talk Stuart sign this guy, Lawd Fernst. Tell me what you think.

I just found law Fess a demo that that we that he's played me and I found I got my demo back from Stuart gave me my demo back, So I'm digitizing all that stuff so I can tell a story later on. But we listened to law Fernest and he's students to it was like should we sign him? Like, yes, sign him. So law Ferness was the first artist I had produced outside of Gang Star and he became my label mate. And law Ferness brought Diamond D. He's like,

I gotta have my homies from my block. He brought Diamond he brought show Biz and he brought Fat Joe ag He brought all of them around, So that's how I met met them. This is eight eighty nine, and you were supposed to produce Fat Joe's project or the Terror Squad project. What was it that No, he signed up.

He signed me to Terot Squad and we were supposed to do a project kind of it's kind of like what I did with this, like a compilation album, like the way Kalett does albums these features and uh um. But then when show, I mean when Fat Joe left. Um, I had it in my contract that if he leaves, I can leave, because they wanted it to where even if Joe leaves and go somewhere else, we still gotta keep you at the label. And I wanted to freedom to bounce if Joe bounce. So the first single I

was gonna drop was a fifty cent record. Wow. And this is when everybody wouldn't really mess up with Fifth to the fullest, because you know he was having too much drama from after doing How To Rob and me and Fifth hit it off right right away and clicked. When I got on the phone with him, he said they'll do the record, and right when it's about the time to do the record. Boom, we get a call Fifth can't do it, and then I'm like why not.

They'd like he's about to sign the eminem and Doctor Dre and I'm like no, because we already committed to us, and then like nah, he and I talked to Dre. Dre was like, pream I love you, but he's not doing any more recording. So he does his debut album with well, not his debut because obviously power of the dollars the debut, but signed to them get rich to do Trying and look what happened. Wow. You know me and I always tell Fair you still owe me that track.

I'm think I think you're gonna up. I was gonna ask what when you and Guru first met? How was it? Because you know you're coming from him, coming from Boston, different slings, different sounds. How did y'all connect? Um? Just phone calls and naturally it was doing the Mutant New Music seminar, so everybody was in town. I was a starstruck. That goes ice tea, there goes there, goes chucking flame

and you know, just just everybody. You know, it was you couldn't go into the Battle, the DJ Battle and the MC Battle and then um we went to the world. They had a showcase. It's a lot of showcases and the show I remember it was ice cream Tea. Remember from it was a strong City record, shout to jazz j and uh it was ice cream Tea and busy Bee.

That's some suicide was out. I remember he brought Mellie Mail on to to to rock on stage rhythm and he was like when I was a young boy and Mellie Mail was flexing, I was like, Wow, it's Mellie Mail. And then Coolgi rapping Polo performed after that. And for me at that time, when Roman rode to the Richard was out and I was just like, I gotta I gotta be here, I gotta get on. And I remember my father was like, hey, if you if you're gonna stay out there and nothing in school, please make a

name that people remember. He said, he said, I'm counting on you to keep our name hot. And I was like, all right, I'm a definitely due. You'll see. And me and Grew would just talk about everything we had in common, the artists, we life, you know, smoking blunts, you know, just just everything was just so exactly in sync. Now, I was gonna ask with m B, I, G and

jay Z, how did you develop those relationships? I know you talked about it before Button in depth and also with like one in the Million and the beats changing. You know, did he always agree with that or was he like I don't know, so talk about that the first call with when you got in the studio with Big and who called, well, we're big. We we lived right down the block from That's how we met, and GREU was the one that's going, yo, you gotta check

out this guy, Biggie Smalls. And it wasn't big, you know, it wasn't Big or it's just Biggie Smalls. And I got a credit mister C because mister C lived down the block from us, and it was and it was a wee spot down down near where he lived at the time that had just opened. And any time back then in those days, since we were all promoting to get you know, getting lifted um, you would go to the new spot hopefully they got some good good you know.

So every time we went to the spot, we'd either go down to the block that with C lived about his church or and make the so we could park somewhere away from the spot, go go get it, get our stuff and move on. And every time I see mister See, he'd go, yo, Biggie Smalls, when you're gonna listen to that demo? And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna listen to it. Brushed it off right, go on to the spot again, you know, and we're rolling. Miss just happened always be out that outside, No Biggie smaller.

He would do that every time, Biggie Smalls and we're just like okay, okay, okay, chilling out the crib because we lived in brand from Ourseluss crib on Washington between Lafayette and Green because he was moving out and he wanted somebody to rent the brownstone. He's trying to sell it, but he said, just somebody to rent it. Me and Greg moved in together and rented it. So every every day pretty much. Other can say every weekend, but every day we're always going to buy forties and we'd go

to Folding in Washington. We're bigging him, always hanging out, so Gules like you gotta check out to do. Biggie Smalls, I'm like, yo, see been pressing me about that all right, I'm gonna go with you. I go down to the corner. That's why he's the documentaries they've done on him. I said, he on the green army jacket and the hat, that's what he had on. And I'd go down there. We met the whole Junior Mafia, met Kim Chico, uh Nino, del Veg, Clep, d Rod, Gotta, everybody. They'd be there

every day, just on that corner. We drink forties together, smoke together. And as that built, he was like, yo, Puff's interesting to sign him. And he didn't even sign him yet, and I was like, yo, go with Puffy, Gonna blow you up. He looked what he did with Uptown and Joe to see and all that. He's like, but I want to get signed now. Why can't you sign me. I'm like, dude, he's already in a different pocket.

We're just good on on a certain level. We're not even plating to Martests to even be able to sign you like that. And I was like, Puff gonna put you where you need to be. And as time passed, I remember Marcus Mark Pitts, his manager. He was like, Yo, you think this guy? I should sign with this guy for management. I was like, yo, Mark kind of resemble yea, yeah, just a little bit. I said, give him a shot.

I mean, if it don't work and fire him. Then next thing you know, Gooch is uh is his uh, his manager and we all were cool and so as it built up, we were one of the first ones to get his demo, the Big Mac. At that time. I remember it wasn't Warning. It was called Hot Buttered Soul because they you know, from not from the record that easy mone sample. So that's how early it was.

Hear Warning, and all his homies had it, the whole Junior Mafia had it because back then in the nineties, you know, you want your friends to already have your stuff before it drops. You know. Now we're afraid of leaks yea yeah, but your team you want them to know. And they knew the worst everything. And uh So from there, as he updated it and started finishing up Ready to Die, he was dropping Juicy as a single and he said he's one song shot, just having a street record for

for the streets. Believe yeah, crack man. So from there we uh. I told him that I don't have time to do it right now, and I was like man, maybe next time on your next album, and he goes, Joe, Man, it's the last one, and he said, my budgets already run over. I got five thousand dollars. At that time, I was making like twenty a tract. You were like

five thousand dollars. I was like, I'll do it for five thousand, and I said, I don't know what I'm gonna come up with, because everybody knows I'm making my songs on the spot. He go, I don't care what you use. Let's just I don't give it in piece of president. Whatever I'm coming up. He comes to dn D. I cook it right there on the spot. He's the one that told me to do all the But do you know all the different things I did it to his instruction, you know which I don't like people telling

me too. But Big always had this stuff mapped down on how he wants to do it. Did the record boom? Where? Uh we turn it in and I've told the story before where I'm driving and uh, I know this is power. So it was on another station. We're rotting, and uh this is maybe two days after we're rolling, and uh we hear it blasting out somebody's car. Could we go about to get on the Brooklyn Bridge over by the by the uh by, um all the courthouses, and you know it's that's it's almost like a day and you

have to make the lefty on the bridge. As soon as we're trying to pull up, I'm trying to get up on the guy before he can get past me, because once you're on the bridge you might go too fast. Now I can't be going yo, so right, we're about to make the level. I pull up on him and go yo yo, where you get that from? He goes, it's all nice seven flex playing it right now? And I go, wow, you know, it's like we just made an ascetate. He flex had to ascetate, you know which

you know what I say it is? It's a dub play. You know what the dub play is. It's like a real thick record that we shouldn't really be dj right, you know what I mean? And it's yeah, anytime you play the quality gets worse, the worse the word right. And it's really just to test out a song. When you get something mastered, so um, they'll give you a dub play just to test it and play it on a turntable. If you like it, then they start pressing the massive copies of vinyl. Times have change and well,

well well Jamaican, Yeah, the same thing. It's just they'll do the ten inchial ones that are smaller. You could play them a lot more times where and that's and it's an instant record just right there. You put on a thing called lay put it on there, run the song and you already have and you could play it right away and you know, before taking it to a plant. So to have a double play it on the twelve and like you said, you can't even wind it back

it's that heavy. You gotta kind of just push it. Yeah. So hearing that and they said, yeah, flex got that. Got the it's called an ascetate. And then he said flex got the acetate. So I was like, wow, man, sitting it might pop off. And next thing, you know, unbelievable, was just Summertime, that and Juicy together and then what about Hole? How did you do Hove? And you know some of your projects which with a million of one questions.

The crazy thing is, uh, he called me and said I wanted to do this song that intros val in my Lifetime volume one. He did the rhyme over the phone and and said, just like he did with the Evils, he did the rhyme over the phone, said I want he's on, want these scratches here, and I did the scratches to his instruction. Same thing with Million Know one. He said. He didn't tell me the scratches. He just said, I wanted to go into another song that's gonna be

called Rome No More. He said, but I need you to think like this when I say motherfuckers, can't you gotta have something that just jumps out when I say Rome No More? And he said, so split him, he said, and he see those little breakdowns you do, do a breakdown so we can weave him together as one song. I said, Okay, got it. I go to DND to

start cooking the first one. Jay Walkson was too short, and I'm like, oh, you know, which we had been known each other for years already because the gang starts history. But see, did you know coming to D and D was like a big deal, especially for the streets and short was there to do a week ago. So they were gonna They were in run room working around that, and Jayson I said, he said, when you get the first half. Let me know. I was just coming and recorded,

got the first half. Y'all come listening to him, and too Short come in there and listening. I said, you ready, And for some reason, Leah a million and one in a million, which is one of my favorite Timberland produced songs, just came to my mind, just on some DJ shit, and I put it in. He didn't have that, he didn't always gonna do that part. Loved it right away, said turn the mic on, cut the album. I'm going back in there with Short, I work on round on

more got it. And then and when I come into Jason, I said, I got it. He says, do not press that play button until I say, because I gotta make sure it's the write vibe. He said, I'm gonna say motherfucker's can't, and then you hit it. I said, all right, and I'm just waiting to go motherfucker's can't. Man, he was like, oh that said, and he said, turn the

mic on and cut it. So that's one of my favorite records because of like the story I'm telling y'all was dope and two show Over was there to witness it, and uh, it's just that was just an amazing thing. And you know, Jay always came and got me for whatever for every album. So at all the artists that you work with, who is probably the most amazing in

the studio? Who's your top three if you can only name three as far as you're surprised with the way they write or how they do it, or how they record or how professional they are the ideas I got it, say Kress one for sure because for him giving me the opportunity when I wasn't really producing a lot of artists on his level. Um, he reached out to me and said, I'm doing this new album return of the Boom bab or like Kars, I'm doing a new album,

return of the Boom back. You know, he talks to you the same way like you know, like he's lecturing you and shit. And I was just like, so that was just a dope opportunity. And that was ninety two. That was when I started to be confident that anybody that calls me, I'm man, I could I could produce anybody. Guru I always put number one because I could experiment with beats that I and other people would definitely not take, like like Robbin her theory on the Moment of Truth album.

Always loved the beat. I knew he'll mess with it and he did write a dope ram to it and and uh um care arrest um gur Man because yeah, because Jay was fun, Big was fun. Nas Nas another one that was fun, just because he always visualized what he what he wants, especially when I Gave You Power. I want to do a song like if I was a gun and somebody like found it and picked it up and misused it, and already I'm just like, and this is after we've done New York State of Mind

and all that stuff. So so with that, I was like, that would be crazy to do a record like that, and look what it turned out to be. At the time it was called Gun, and then we changed until I Gave Your Power and he said he didn't want it to just say gun on the track list, and when he did it, but yeah, he was. I don't want to keep saying, you know, Biggie J and Nas, but they were all fun sessions, you know what I'm saying. They were really fun sessions and a lot of laughing,

a lot of bottles everywhere, and a lot of trees. Now. You also did a Gang Star album not that long ago. So can you talk about the process of that, because clearly you had some vocals or able to get your hands and some things. I know that was a whole process for Yeah, I bought vocals from his business partner. You know, I don't like to say his name because

we just don't click and um. And the crazy thing is, um, I'm pro too savvy, but not to the degree of where I see the part where you can check date created and when you look at some of the dates created that some of the stuff I bought were not from the era of when they would have been recording. They were someone from ninety nine, two thousand. We didn't need None of us knew that guy then somewhere and

well I figured when Greu was sick or whatever. Plus his house burned down in some type of way when he was in the hospital. Maybe, I mean again, it's all alleged, but somehow that they were in his possession, you know what I'm saying. We don't know if he got him prior to it, you know, prior to the house burning down, who knows, you know. But at the end of the day, we negotiated a price. I bought him.

Did paperwork to make sure everything was there tight. I have good life, good lawyers, which I'm sure all yeah, I knew who you do. His family, Yeah, yeah, they we have a great relationship. His son is now, you know, twenty one, so he's actually in charge of the He was always in charge to to stay with his mom. Shout to Lana and uh he um now you know has meetings with us, says, and he's into fashion like Guru was. So he has a lot of dope ideas like we should do this, we should do this, and

he's at the age. I remember when the Gug passed and he was nine years old. I was getting the shout to marsh, I was getting him certain sneakers made, and he asked me when he was nine years old, he said, Yo, when I get older, can I pitch into business ideas? I was like, And now he'll see present stuff that's dope. Check this out, check this out, will you know, check the companies and make sure they're legit.

But he brings dope stuff to the table and uh we still we uh handle business with Greu's sisters shout the trishuh Gu's uh son's mom and also his nephew justin who's the one that went on YouTube to expose the guy about all the stuff that was going on that we didn't know about because I hadn't seen Greu in a couple of years. With that, Once we all teamed up and started the business, I said, let's let me see if I could put an album together. And I just pull it up at about thirties you know,

unused tracks. Some of them were not the gurgle, that flowing stuff that I like and know that's him. But the ones that really stood out, I'm like, that's one. That's one started putting beats inside and matching things, and you know, as a DJ, we we do our cappellas with beats and see if it flies put out. I put in my serato fly in, Yeah, that's dope, dump and make a beat. And we came together and put out one of the best shared which did very well for us, and it also fed the family very well.

So and I the other previous albums just get more extremes. I thank thanks to Jay cole Man because when we were dropping the Family and Loyalty, cole was the one that's like first thing he asked me, He said, how did y'all do y'all's promo back in the nineties, and I told him how we did it. He goes, do that, and I said, because we always drop a street record first, radio record second. Every time yep boom, maybe a week or two passes, we're getting ready to set up the

single bad Name. Cole calls me out of the blue and goes, yo, uh that thing I told you about how you set up your nineties era of promo. Don't do that. He said, I think you need to drop mind first, and I'm like, yeah, but that's more for radio. He goes, listen, I have a fan base that has no idea who y'all are. He said, I want you to take advantage of that time with me to pop that off. And they might go I like this when with Cole on, let me look at these other Gangs albums.

Oh man, this is how this is how oh man, I like Gangs are now. So he said that I thought about. I was like, wow, he made he has a point, So a right. We switched it and made that the first one and it worked all out. So shout to Cole man. One thing I was said about Cole is shout to Cole he's cold as a student to the game. It doesn't matter how much money Cole has, how many fans. Cole really loves those conversations like the

how yeah, how did you start to mix tape? I remember Cole Cole me one out the Blue and he was like, yo and me question. He was like, how did you get all the records from your mixtapes back then? What do you mean how did you get the song? I was like, WHOA, Sometimes I paid interns, I said, sometimes, you know, I remember we got a Biggie song. It was a valet guy. When the valet was parking Biggie's truck and Biggie had the CD at the time listening to his own music. The valet guy stole it and

sold it to me like different ways back then. It's like, really, intellect I wanted I always wanted to know, and I love that. I was gonna ask you, you know, we're producing all those songs from way back when you were earlier on started. Did you always get your proper royalties back then or did somebody take advantage? Because you had so many crazy stories of people taking advantage because you know, you were doing NAS's first album, Bigg's first album, Holes

first album. Did you actually get all the money you're supposed to? Yeah, at that point, then the nineties, because I never had an attorney. Like when I signed to join Gangstar, I shout to my man lead Van Richardson, who told me in Texas and when he looked at he said, dude, contract is not in your favor. I wouldn't sign it because you sign your life away. But I just wanted to be in a video. I just wanted to be on MTV raps at the time, and I'm like, Okay, I won't sign you. Don't even try

to negotiate, no, because I just change this. Yeah, I just turned twenty twenty one. You know, you're just like, man, you're thinking, if I don't sign it, somebody my opportunity. I'm watching MTV raps and all this stuff, and I'm like, I just want to be on there where people are like, I'm buying you because I saw your video, sou And I even my father's like, don't do it. As soon as they were not in my I mean I think I signed the same day and my parents I was

eating eating some lunch or something. Next thing, you know, as it got to where I was having discrepancies about payments, and then I took it to a lawyer to look at it and they were like, Yo, this thing is air tight. You can't get out of this. Started looking for a lawyer on the New York law who wish to wish. I'm still with this very day. Shoutout to Mark and he was like, I found a loophole and man, that could probably get you out, but you got to buy yourself out. And I was like, I don't care.

Like we were we were. They were interested in signing us at Chrysalis Records because we had done a record with Spike Lee from Obetta Blues called Jazz Thing and Brand. That's how I met Brand from ourselves to move in and how me and Guru moved in with him. That's how we met him because he was he was overseeing the project from Obetta Blues and so from there Chrysalis liked,

liked our music, said they wanted to sign us. The majority of our money went to buying ourself out, but now I had the freedom to just do what how we wanted to do it. And we stayed with them all the way through Emi to Virgin which was all still part of the same family, and that's how we finally started to getting some gold plaques and things like that. But the best thing was now that I had a really thorough lawyer. He's been making sure we've been straight

from nineteen ninety on. So you got all your your stuff back from not not not all the not all the other albums. They're still over over universal, but who was You know, it's moved around from so many labels. You know, everybody sells and stuff and now somebody else acquires and then they sell, don't after there was a rumor like after twenty years or something like that you get your stuff back. Is that true? Or though it's

in some cases it is. Yeah, like like after a certain period you can either buy either buying back or they're just now yours. It's really what what's negotiate on your paperwork. But we have already been like we're gonna look into getting dollars back because it's been a while. And on top of that, we recouped all the time. It was usually we had, you know, getting one hundred and fifty grand back in nineteen ninety was like we're rich.

We got right then the next one on hundred seventy five and splitting that with gre and paying our taxes and living together, which was cool because you know, but he's getting two cars. I just bought my second car. He's buying his third crib you know, like Greg had a crib in Miami. Um, this is and this is what I was, being platinum and and going gold either and that's how I'm at Zoe Pound all of them way back in Miami and like like we were at

the jet skis on the water. He had the Cribbin Valley streaming Long Island and he had a cribbin Brooklyn. I was like, this is living and we we never cried broke because we always made money, right, always made money, and you were also really cool. Um Rage the lady Rage, Oh yeah, just lived by us. Oh really yeah. Then when when we moved into Branfords, she and Nicky Dee lived together from Death Jam and Nicky Deal you know

Daddy's little girl Daddy. Yeah, they lived together. I remember one time, uh I met them because Nicky Dee was having a released party that def Jam was thrown. We all went to the party and I gave them right home because they lived nearest Chubb Rockley lived nearest. We all see each other, Chubb rock Uh. This is before big but still rage, and we'd hang out. Easymobile would always come by, the rizzle would come by, the Jizer

would come by. Shipers Hill came and stayed with us before they went to their first video shoot for How I Could Just Kill a Man. They had a need this place to hang out, come to. Our house was the frat house for real. I feel like you see that no more. Yeah, it's like that all the time, and like, you know, you don't see it anymore. You know, it was our house. Wasn't remember animal house. It was like that, minus jumping through the window and getting thrown out.

But it just our house was that crazy. You ask any of them, they'll tell you. Our house was the house to stay at and hang out. It was party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, fights shooting in front of our crew every neigh Yeah, people waiting outside the gate, and I'm like, yo, who's that? And we all we were all strapped back then and we all just looking, Yo, who's that? And we all kind of go out there, Yo, what's up? No, I

just want to get my CD. You know, you listen to my CD. You know, next time some other hoodie dudes out there, we're all nervous, like, who's that you also want to give you my CD? It was always just somebody just wanted to hear the hit him rom you know, Blas ain't Blais, you know out loud and PF cutting. We'd all and everything on that song, soliloquy or chaos in the Daily Operation, all the names. He said. That was really how we were rolling. Every time we

were making a move. How was your ego back then? Because you're a huge producer right where there ever time that you needed something from like an artist and they didn't come through in time? Like, how was how was that for you? No, we were really cool with everybody. I mean we had drama fights just like anybody else over some knucklehead acting up and we were wild out, but never to where anybody had like like some problems with us or anything like y'all think y'all hot man,

fuck y'all. Never you know. The only one that was really a crazy story was when Gurgle got robbed for his truck at gunpoint and they took his brand new four Runners. When four Runners the new style was hot and they robb him for his four runner because he went to the store by himself. Dude called him, took the took the truck. I remember, we had to go pick him up because he called us tell us he

got robbed. And he's standing on the corner rolling a blunt going y're arguing with the other guys on the corner, even if they took his truck going, you know, just fucked up what y'all doing, right? You know, it's really fucked up, y'all. Motherfucking like they could have jumped him and beat him down and do whatever. He's still like, you know, yeah, I can't stand you over there. I

can't see y'all. Belie, y'all did this to me. And then the eldest story and I've told it a few years ago, they still was still looking for looking for the guys that took the car. You know, obviously it was cell phones were only car phones at that time, because he had the calls from a pay phone to tell us he got robbed. They finally see the guy with the car. There's some days later he's still driving round with the car. Yeah, that's crazy. This is how

just a good of rep was born. It's chasing after him in the car. Cops start going, you know, seeing all this hot speed chase and and they're likes, that's our car. He just stole our car. So now the cops jump in and help follow him. The dude too, dude swerving and he slammed into an ice scream truck and dies in stock And that day is the day we said that we're doing just to get a rub,

And that's how the song was written. That day we went to Brooklyn to such a sound studios and cut the record and that's but that's why we did it because of that Wow, just here to represent true story. You know. He altered it like thing as we know, things come back, and it wasn't about stealing a car, but it was relatable the way he wrote it. But he wrote it based off of And the crazy thing too is when he got the car. I wish we had these pictures still. When he got the car, we

both bought. I bought a Males, then Phoev he bought the Forerunner. We're in front of our crib posing like yeah, we got our new ride. And then we had the precinct and the cars all smashed like an accordion. It's all squasser and google standing next to a going so he had the before yeah after did you have did he have a shot us on it? Oh yeah yeah yeah so but it was smashed bad where you couldn't lisk about it behind the steering wheel. It was that smutch stuff. And but we went to we had to

go to priests and to fill out paperwork. But the cops were there's witnesses chasing the guy too, and you know that that was a crazy, crazy event. And you had quite an air for talent back then too, working with Jay Rude Dama group Home. What happened with Group Home tapp is and is out is out? I think

in the Polonos Melocot talked all the time. I talked to death from time to time because obviously I got him again on the Gangster album that we did in the twenty nineteen and uh, they're all chilling, you know, still get a lot of shows and going to Japan and they did. They did a Gangster Foundation tour with Big Sugar Group Home and Jay Jayru was living in uh in Germany. Jayru, out of everybody, was the most that learned the business from us, teaching them and seeing

how we did it. And from that point, he's his guys own website. He know, he sells his own sneakers everything, and he just stays really in the know. He's ooting shows and you know he's all you know, it's his Instagram is really interested in the stuff he posts. You know. So he's still the same Jay Rule, you know, real loud Brooklyn boy, y'all praying. You know, he he talks like he romes. But as you know, with everything, you

didn't did production for every artist. Damn. Then now you know, you see law enforcement using hip hop lyrics in courts against the artists. What are your thoughts on that? Because we see it with Young Thug, we see we gonna, we see the bot other artists. Yeah, they shouldn't do that because music is music, and yeah, some of the lyrics are harsh, A lot of them are real, and you know, but be it be it uh fabricated or not. You can't really mix the music and then leave that

alone and just deal off the stuff, you know. I mean, don't get me wrong, some people do be drowsing nigen on their lyrics, but I still don't think it should be used. You know, if that skate's rock and roll. They've talked about how somebody said all the song told me I'm the I'm with the devil and to kill everybody.

Same thing. You can't use that, yeah, because we saw people go to jail for like doing scams and they'll write a song about the scamp, you know, exactly, show the money in the video, and then they end up getting arrested and then they used that. So that shouldn't be allowed. Yeah, yeah, the music should be kept in its own lane. And of yeah, not with the music, no way. Now who is your amount Rushmore or producers?

Um definitely Molly Mall was just a big impact on me because of the rain of the Bridge, seem Molly Moore yesterday, How crazy is that? The restaurant Queen's He's so man, he he just revolution now sampling on a whole other level to hear a record like the Bridge, and I was just like, how are they making it not sound all like all the drum machines we were using it hip hop prior to sampling. How is he doing it? You know? And then him, uh, definitely the bomb squad um man when you when you don't eat

yea and you're just keep grazing. We can't hear. I feel I feel like these picked up. It was like the uh, definitely the bomb squad. What they did with Public Enemy was just amazing. Um. I gotta say, Larry Smith, you know he did all the Houdini records. He did, you know he did everything Houdini records run DMC, even from the time we heard suck MC and he said Larry put me inside to let and we asked, DMC,

was that true? He said, absolutely, everything was. It was really what Larry didn't you know doing all the just classic records like that, and um uh you said Mount Russ Foreheads so Morley bomb squad uh Um. I always got to put Dre in there for just him bringing a sound that we didn't even know about until I went to college, and I'm like, it was easy. And you know my friends from me to the West Coast, it's like, yo, they put me on the Boys in

the Hood and everything. He always just said Dre, doctor Dray and and sometimes would say yellow you know, on the side. But I always put Dre in there. There's there's more than than the four, but I always put them in there because you know, I'm a big fan of Rick Rubin, you know, and you know even you know from Knots and Shoviz and and you know even Pete and the Large Pro. But for what influenced me in the beginning, definitely Molly the Bomb squad Um Larry Smith.

And how do you feel about modern technology making producing so accessible people using like what is it? Fruits? Yea and logic And it was a lot different when you were coming up and to make beats. Do you think that the sound gets more ordered down or you think it's a great thing that pretty much anybody could be a pretty thing. It's just whatever works for you. Because a lot of people ask me what GimC NPC should I get? I'm like, the machines are useless without your

mind manipulating it to do something. So it's just like I can get buy a Ferrari somehow some wave even I don't know all the extra switch and I still ought to drive a car, you know what I'm saying. But and and I'm a deem, I'm a race demon, so it's like it's the same thing if I'm behind the wheel. Shut him a man, Panchi of the Nygez. He always says, Yo, you have two modes. You have driving mode and you have airport mode. Because I've had the rush to there for right before the flames taken off,

and I will get you. Yeah, even if I got to go on the shoulder hop, I'm gonna get you to end. You don't have to go look at look look out. You're gonna be fine. But what's your preference? Personally? Um NPC became my preference. I started out on the SP twelve just as twelve before there was a floppy disk.

Then the SP twelve hundred came out with a floppy disk, and and uh I stayed on that and then all the way till uh nineteen ninety two when I met Eddie Sancho, who we worked at d n D as an engineer that you had to hire when you just did a record. Show Biz was doing a remix for Lord Finess. It was called Return of the Man remix, and they wanted me to do scratches, So, UH show lawfing nets book the session. That's how I got to DND. He's like, we're gonna be at the place called dn

D show U. They had me later scratches. He said he had to leave he said, can you get the mix and just bring me a cassette of the mix. I had my sound system in the MPV. I listened to it and was like, wow, this is knocking boom. I said, we were gonna go to Colliope did where we did Step in the Arena and because Queen Lativa, Jungle Brothers, Ultra Magneticum Sees Daylight saw they will working. Then I was like, I want my stuff to sound

more grimy and dirty like them. I did the first album there with Stephan the arena we're about to get we just got our budget for Daily Operation. I said, I'm going to dn D. Never left there and left from that point when when we were recording the last song and we're about to work on Dwick, I did it on that No What teket Person was the last song we did in the in the A room. Everything was on the A room. Eddie was like, Yo, every the way you're laying your beach down, you should use this.

He said, I'm about to sell it, but this is called an MPC sixty And then I said I know what it is. He said, well, let me show you what it does. He says, almost like a tape machine. Without a tape. He showed me all the way I'm laying my tracks individual and I was like, wow, I like this thing. Ended up doing that and did twig on it, but we couldn't book the a room. They put me in the b room. Man. I was like, dawn't want to do it in there. I've never been

in there. I go in there, we do it and just said well when the day, when the room opens up, you can do maybe another mix in the other room. We mix it. Me and Greg Knice dubbed C was there and when we did, Dwick and Don Baron of the Masses of Ceremony came with Greg Knighte. We did the record. It popped off. It was knocking. I was like, damn the mixing it sounds better. And from that day I stayed and that became Premier's Room at that point

and I've been on the MPC sixty ever since. I'm on the NPC renaissance now because of the computer and more more memory time, but still don't on the NBC. You know, we appreciate you for joining us. Hip Hop, Joey Rhapsody, Nahs, Run the Jewels, Little Wayne and Slick Rick. Yeah, thank you. So much about the video to with Remy and Rap. It's gonna be that's gonna be amazing. They were talking a lot of issue on there too, you know. I like that though. Yeah, they took that took they

both can spit. Yeah, yeah man. And and and that's why there are two different combinations of mcs. You know. Rap is to remind me of it, kind of like the Lauren Hill type of of of Lane, and then Remy is just Remy you know that time. So we're about to shoot the video to that. That's gonna be so much fun. Man. We already got our how we're gonna dress already mapped out, so it's gonna be the gutter alright. Well, he's having us. It's Primo DJ Premier, Yes, the Breakfast Club. Good morning,