Put simply, without DJ Premier hip-hop would be missing many of its greatest moments. From his work alongside the much-missed Guru in Gang Starr to producing classics for the likes of Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Jay-Z, Mos Def, KRS-One and many more, he has influenced the genre for decades. Here, he tells Music Week about five of his legendary beats…
INTERVIEW: GEORGE GARNER
NAS – N.Y. STATE OF MIND
FROM THE ALBUM: ILLMATIC (1994)
“I have to give Large Professor the most credit because he’s the one who told me about Nas. Well, he was called ‘The Rapper Nas’ – every Queens artist back then would call themselves ‘The Rapper...’ something. He played me Main Source’s Live At The Barbeque, and I was like, ‘This is about to be a big record!’ Nas was the talk of the neighbourhood way before he did Illmatic. For N.Y. State Of Mind, Nas was in the studio when I was looking for samples. I had the drums and the [chiming sound] playing over and over but I was looking for some groove. When the piano part came in on the Joe Chambers record I had, we just looked at each other. Nas was sat right in front of me and said, ‘Hook that up!’ He just pulled out the pen and pad and started writing! When it came to revisiting it for NY State Of Mind Part II [from 1999's I Am... album], I didn’t want to do it, I was scared of ruining it – I was like, ‘No! No! No!’. But I like it now.”
THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. – UNBELIEVABLE
FROM THE ALBUM: READY TO DIE (1994)
“B.I.G. needed a song for the street because he already had his mainstream record Juicy and he wanted a B-Side for it – so it’s actually the first gold single I ever got. B.I.G. asked me for a beat [when I was really busy] but he just had a way of getting through to you [laughs]. He was genuine, and I loved that about him. Is it true I only charged him $5,000 for Unbelievable? Absolutely, but I said, ‘I’m going to triple it or quadruple it [for songs in future] if you get huge and blow up.’ When it came to Life After Death, the first beat I gave him was Kick In The Door and I told him, ‘This time I’m gonna charge you…’. He said, ‘I told you that I would pay it’. And he paid the cheque!”
JAY-Z – D’EVILS
FROM THE ALBUM: REASONABLE DOUBT (1996)
“Me and Jay-Z were already friends from, like, ’89/’90 when he was with Jaz-O. I would see him with Big Daddy Kane a lot and we would kick it about one day working together. He called me and said, ‘I have a concept for a record called D’Evils,’ and he did the rhyme and even how he wanted the scratches to overlap over the phone. I said, ‘Done deal!’ I cooked the beat up. I’m very good at making music sound like your vision. The lyrics just spoke to me, to the streets. It was very well put together. People say to me now, ‘I want to do a song like D’Evils without sounding like D’Evils.’ I’m not going to do another D’Evils.”
GANG STARR – FULL CLIP
FROM THE ALBUM: FULL CLIP: A DECADE OF GANG STARR (1999)
“It’s one of my favourite Gang Starr songs. Patrick Moxey – who was our manager at the time – said the label wanted to do a ‘greatest hits’ compilation but make it really special with all of our unreleased B-Sides and some 12” singles. We were going to make Full Clip the day after Big L died. He was a good friend of ours – we had just been hanging out with him prior [to him being fatally shot]. When we got the news that he died, I said, ‘I’m going to say, “Big L rest in peace” at the start’ because that means every DJ is going to cut that part up and play it like crazy. We dedicated it to him. It always drives the crowd crazy live.”
MOS DEF – MATHEMATICS
FROM THE ALBUM: BLACK ON BOTH SIDES (1999)
“Mos Def and Rawkus Records catered to the underground, and I never want to abandon the underground because that’s where the best music starts. This is one of my favourite beats. I like songs that are not the normal style, and Mos Def is not your normal MC. He’s intricate and in his own lane, that’s what I love about him. His lyrics are about the Black struggle that we go through in society – we’ve all had some type of experience that goes with the stress of living in our skin. We have good days. We have bad days. Thank goodness with music we can present it and speak for a whole bunch of people who feel how we do.”
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