When you’re speaking to someone who your mother regards as a hip-hop legend, it’s hard to maintain your composure and ask all of your questions, and I had 15 years of questions for Primo. But only 30 minutes.

This has been an challenging year for you. Has the passing of Guru changed as far as your approach to music and your outlook for the future?
Not really. Guru and I understood each other and were committed to the music. If you believe in what you’re doing and it’s brought me this far, I’m just going to keep doing what I do. The best way to do that is to do things independently and not get caught up in what labels want.

I notice that you talk about being independent a lot? Why is it so important to push that independent angle for hip-hop?
Well that’s where it originated and when the majors took notice that rap was here to stay. Then the money got better and people started to get more comfortable, but as they got too comfortable the music started to soften up and get watered down. And I don’t like watered down hip-hop. I like raw hip-hop; like De La Soul is raw to me even though they may have fun records and talk about the daisy age. They’re still raw hip-hop. They’re not watered down. They pull all the creative elements to make it unique and that’s what makes them great and that’s why they’re dope to this day. If I heard De La had a new album out today, I’m just going to get it. I’m not going to wait until I hear it first. Even with someone else that’s not all that…I gotta judge for myself because they’ve been so consistent that I trust them enough to think that they’re going to deliver the goods again.

Is that why you started your record label Year Round Records? To keep the quality of hip-hop consistent?
It was a few things. I’m not really good at this label running shit, but I said, let me give it a try because I have the advantage where my name carries weight. I just have to make sure that I have good, original artists.

I only have three artists [on my label], but I have a lot of projects that are coming out under the label. I have a lot of “specialty projects” and I know how far I can take things with ’em; like the KRS-One/Premier album. I know we’re both gonna kill it; I’m gonna kill it on the beats, he’s gonna to kill it on the rhymes. We already did Return of the Boom Bap and proved that we can hold it down.

Pete Rock vs. DJ Premier everyone already knows what that is and if the younger kids don’t, I’m not making it for them anyway. If they do, then I am making it for them. I’m making it for the ones that already know and I’m only campaigning for the ones that already know. I’m not campaigning for the ones that could care less because I don’t need their votes. In the independent world I can live off of 20,000 albums sold. That’s success.

[On Year Round] We can sell 100,000. That’s a lot independently, but on a major that’s a flop. So all of that pressure is off of me. I’ll stick with the smaller scale, but we’re all eating and everybody’s got homes. All of my artists have their own cribs. Everyone is well situated. Every one of my artists have a place to live thanks to what I’ve done to set them up.

Okay, so you have quite a few musical projects in the works including some with your new artists Nick Javas and Blaq Poet. I’m curious about who you have on the production for some of these projects. Who are some of the new producers that have the talent and skill to keep up with your standard of production?
I do most of the beats for my projects, but I’m gonna give up two or three songs for other people to get on. I signed Moss to my production company because he makes dope beats. He’s going to get his own credit. I don’t need to get credit for somebody else making the beat. Plus our styles are different. So if I try to put “produced by DJ Premier” even though Moss did it, people will start to say “that don’t sound like you” and I’ll start to get discredited.

There’s another guy named Gem Crates that’s got some pretty unique stuff that’s coming out

The only albums where I’m doing the whole thing is Pete Rock vs. Premier and the NYG’z album because they wanted to have one album in their life that I did the whole thing. So I said, alright I’ll do that. Everyone else like Nick Javas, Khalil, they have 90% of my production. Then they have Marco Polo, and of course Moss, Gem Crates.

I want producers to say that they want to work with my artists. If they’re offering to be a part of it, then fine. If not, I’m gonna have to handle it myself because this is what I do. I’ve done three albums at the same time. I did Return of the Boom Bap [with KRS One], Daily Operation [with Guru], The Sun Rises in the East with Jeru and did the Group Home album all at the same time and I was still working on Illmatic [with Nas].

You mentioned Moss and Macro Polo and talk about the change in music; What do you think that’s about? Do you think the Internet has changed the way music is being made?
No doubt, but I’m taking advantage of it too. I just joined Twitter so that I can tweet the things that are going on with me. I’m not going to be on Twitter 24/7, following everybody. I don’t have to do all that. Kanye is the same way. He tweets when necessary. You ever see The Wiz? It’s like The Wiz, you never knew when the wizard was gonna change everything; I kinda wanna be like that; like a wizard and have people say, “I want to keep my eye on what’s he’s doing because he’s puts out good quality stuff.”

There are a lot of physical musical outlets that are closing down. Recently we saw Fat Beats in New York and LA close up shop. What do you think this means for music and where is the one place you go to for music now that so many of them are shutting down?
The Amazons, the iTunes—it’s fucked up that they don’t have physical records. I just spoke to Jared at Big City Records [in the East Village in NYC] where I go digging for breaks and vintage records to sample and told him that he should start carrying more albums.

But the thing is, when hip-hop started out, you had to chase down a record and try to find it. It was underground and it was only on vinyl.  So it wasn’t on an eight-track, on cassette or albums. There were no CDs. It on vinyl only and these records were still getting moved around without Internet. It was word of mouth and being in the know.

Do you find that there is a trend emerging? Are there enough DJs breaking new music and introducing it to the masses?
Not really. There’s me, Kay Slay, Tony Touch, Green Lantern, Marley Marl, Some of us do it and thankfully we all have radio gigs—[DJs] who don’t worry about not getting their next paycheque.

So how do they get from where they are to where you are? ?
They need to speak up when they feel handcuffed. For example, I was listening to Bobby Trends the other night and he was playing all this music, and I was thinking “What the fuck?” because I know he can’t play those records. Then he’s like, “Brand new, Busta Rhymes! Let’s starting breaking some records and not being afraid to take a couple chances. The underground is where it starts and I live in the underground and I stay there but I always visit the mainstream, so I can see what’s poppin in that world.

Speaking of the product, what kind of equipment do you use to make music? What’s in your production arsenal?
MPC50, Turntable, Mixer, AKAI S950 Sampler, [Roland Fantom-XR Sampler Synth] Rackmount Module. The rest are plugins for Pro Tools because a lot of plugins are vintage equipment that we used as far as analog output gear. We were sound engineers way before when we recorded tapes and there was no digital world, so we know how to manipulate and play around with things and make it sound even better than the average engineer or listener or producer that’s coming out now because they don’t have an understanding of what came before this era. Whereas I’ve experienced using equipment from every era. I’ve experienced recording with 2-inch tape and splicing and editing with the little white marker and the clear tape together. Taking big reels off to mastering so that they can spool it off and run that. Now all you have to do is press a button.

Is Get Used To Us going to be the distinct Primo sound that we’re used to? What can people expect from it?
You’re going to get a bit of everything. The album is a collection of what’s coming in the new year with the individual projects. I took a couple songs from each project. I even have an artist named Dynasty, a female who isn’t even signed to me. She wanted to rhyme on one of my beats, but I didn’t have time to make her anything. I played her a beat from Beats that Collected Dust Volume 2, which is ready to go, and there was this slow beat that she asked me if she could spit to it. I had the scratches. Her guys wanted to know if we can do a video and I said sure, but I wanted to include it in my package because I want to put it out with my album. So she’s on the album, even though she’s not a Year Round artist, but she did it over a Year Round release. Same goes for Joel Ortiz, “Sing like Bilal” just got added to Hot 97 and that was from Beats that Collected Dust Vol 1. The reason why we got Funkmaster Flex on it is because he happened to walk into his office and his assistant playing Beats that Collected Dust and he’s like “Yo what’s that beat?” and the assistant is like, “Premier did that”, and he’s like, “What is that from?” and he told him. Flex got on the radio and was like “This is gutta! Joel I can hear you rhyming on this!” So Joel heard him and that’s why he’s on the song.

[On the song] Joel says, “Ayo Flex, I got the kite, I was tuning in Saturday night.” You never know how things will turn out, but it was a record that I believed in. I did it for Bilal and he passed on it, but now it’s a big record. It’s got new life.

You’ve got a lot of guest appearances that range eras, was that intentional?
Teflon is down with M.O.P. and I just asked him, “Who fits your style?” I mean I did a bit of reaching out, but he said Joel, Saigon, and Papoose. I said okay let’s reach out and tell them what’s poppin’.

With KRS for Return on the Boom Bip, we started recording off the head and we only had two songs in the can. So we started recording, and one night we were chillin’ with Ice-T after the show and he heard the beat and was like, “That sounds like some stuff you rap about with the gods and the earths” and KRS was like “Yeah, I’m gonna talk about the Five Percent Nation since people don’t talk about that anymore.” And Ice T [who will also be on the album] was like, “Yo, you gotta get somebody else on that like another god or a king’s son like Grand Puba” and we were like, “Grand Puba! That’s it!” So we gave him a call and he came through and knocked it out. So it was just brainstorming. It’s a dope cut that was a beat that was originally for Rakim when he was signed to Aftermath with Dr. Dre and he ended up not using it. So I took it back. I can’t even find the master reel to it, but I found a rough copy, tuned it up, Puba laced it and now it’s on the album.

We like to be different. We don’t want to get tied down to artist because they don’t really fit what we do. I’d love to get 50 on a record, but he doesn’t really fit what we’re doing. I’d rather just do a record for him.

What about Kanye, I heard you did something for him. How did that come about?
He didn’t end up using the one [beat] I did. He said he wants me to do something for him on another album. So [for this album] I did some scratches for him last week. He called me last minute and was like, “I know it’s short notice, but I gotta turn my album in tomorrow. Can you do some scratches for me.” It’s called “Mama’s Boy.” I think it’s the bonus cut. The beat I did was great, but [Kanye] kept updating the album and said it didn’t fit.

So can we expect to see it on a future Kanye track?
You might see it on the Return of the Boom Bip.

Speaking of working with other artists, I heard you’re doing a full-length album with Chaka Khan.
We spoke while I was on tour four months ago and I told her that I would love to be in charge of the project. She said she was cool, but she wanted to work out of LA and didn’t have a studio to work at. So I called Christina Aguilera and asked if I could borrow her studio and she said, “Yeah, no doubt.” She asked me how long I needed. I said about 10 days. So now we’re just trying to find out the right month that works for me because I only tour at the end of the year and plus I decided to drop this album at the last minute to drop this compilation because I really thought that I’d have an album ready to drop in 2010 and I didn’t. So I decided to drop a compilation album.

Okay and that’s when we’ll all hear the rest of what you’ve been working on. So to wrap up, I want to know why you still do this. I mean you’ve not only done albums, been part of a legendary group, starting a label revived D&D Studios. Why do you do it?
I would have left hip-hop alone when I felt like I was “too old” but I don’t look at that. I just think its necessary to do what you love if you are in it for just more that money. I’m in it for more than that. I want to see the whole culture get strong again. I want to see everyone who deserves to do well do well and everyone else I could care less because not everyone can make it.

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In part 2 of our sitdown with Dj Premier we talk about how he handles artists in the booth and how he pulls the best out of them. He also gives us a few stories about how Jay-Z fought his advice on the creation of  “D’Evils” (and eventually caved) and also what it was like being in the studio with Biggie creating “Kick In The Door” when the topic being dissed was Premier’s own artist, Jeru the Damaja. Walk with us.

DJ Premier : I saw” Center Stage” on the Yes Network. They have good interviews. They had Jay-Z on and they asked Jay-Z did he like recording, performing, or you know what part of it he liked the most. He said the recording is the most fun because you get to create your vision of how you want to present yourself musically. He said but the illest part is performing because now you get to see people react to the songs you made but now you’re performing and they know the words.

There’s certain times when I’ll take him [Nick Javas] out and you’ll hear people going “Not a game, not a not a not a game!” We like damn we haven’t even played that yet. So it’s almost like, “Damn, you know that song?” Or they’ll go “Knock, knock, knock, knock,” and we’re like dude, the video isn’t even out yet. And maybe they’ve seen other viral stuff but regardless, that means they’re following and paying attention to what we’re doing already to where we hear someone out in the crowd doing it already.

Nick Javas: And more and more I see, especially cats in the front row, the first couple rows are always out of their minds; it’s crazy. So I’ll see cats in the front row rhyming along with every word now, and to me that’s crazy because it’s Premier’s show; it ain’t my show. It’s DJ Premier featuring Nick Javas but I see cats rhyming along with every word and I’ll give them love. I’ll jump off the stage and I’m rocking with ‘em; I’m holding their hands and I’m rocking with ‘em cause that’s love.

I see it building and I see even by the end of the show how much love I get as opposed to when he [Premier] first announces me, some people know how I am, some people don’t. But by the end I know I did my thing because I’m passionate about it and I care. I care that much to go in every show so by the time it’s over I know that I’ve acquired a lot more fans and people look forward to checking me out more so it’s just about doing your job the way you need to do it; keeping it all business but still doing it with a passion.

It AIN’T just about the money, man.  That money will come. That money will come, if you doing it for the right reasons.

Planet Ill: What’s the science behind the name Year Round Records?

DJ Premier: because I never really have time to take breaks. My whole career I’ve been just non-stop, banging them out, so Year Round was just the most appropriate thing to match. And again, just from an artist’s standpoint, and being creative and artistic, I had to have a name that matched who I am. Year Round Records is definitely that. Even with all the artists I produce on the side, no matter how I’m producing or working with, I’m never ever taking a break. I used to take vacations all the time, now shit I wish I could take one.

That’ll come later because you have to visualize what your future is in order to step in to it. And I visualized this and I had a lot of slow starts that actually crippled all of us as a family but they still stuck with me and said, “Man I’m getting frustrated, but I’ma stick it out with you.” I’m working on correcting all that stuff now, which for some reason, it’s working in our favor because even though we’ve been working on this a couple years to get some of these projects right. They still seem like they’re ready and right for now! It don’t seem like it’s old, we gotta start all over. No, this stuff still sounds relevant to what our vision was, so let’s stay on that vision.

Planet Ill: Musically, what’s the difference between working with artists like Christina Aguilera versus working with Hip-Hop artists?

DJ Premier: Everything is based on the artist themselves. Christina told me what her vision was. Cause that’s what Guru used to always call me: a beat tailor. He said you could just describe it to him and I could just make up the theme music for your vision. One thing I like about my artists is like, with Javas, or the NYG’Z, they are like, “I want to do a song like this.” And they’re coming at me like that; they’re not just like, “man… I’ve been thinking…,” they like “Yooo, I wanna do this!” I’m like that’s dope let’s write it down.

If you see my room, the albums are written on the wall with the titles. The last person I ever did that with was Gangstarr. So I said let’s go back to that formula that Gangstarr did and let me shape my part of the job that way so me taking Javas on the road with me, he started coming up with song titles just from experiences that happen to us on the road. They’re not going to be what just artists can relate, regular people with no experience in the music business can relate. That’s what our music is about communicating to where we’re on the same page.

Planet Ill: We spoke with Marco Polo earlier in the year and he said the difference between being a beat maker and a producer is the producer’s ability to tell an artist to shut the fuck up.

DJ Premier: Oh, for sure

Planet Ill: How do you intervene without crushing a new artist’s spirit?

DJ Premier: You just gotta be honest and tell ‘em, “Yo, it’s not sounding like what we’re here to do.” Sometimes Pangy for NYG’Z will be like “That’s the way I wrote it! That’s how I put it down!” Ok. But you’re not putting it down in the way that made me like you. What makes me like you is not what you’re giving me. You know the way that you talk when you’re hanging with us and you’re like yapyapyap? Give me that and just do it in rhythm.

Nick Javas: Yeah the more Panchee you can get on a track, for real, like his personality? He just takes over a room.  The more you can get of that? Forget it, man.

DJ Premier: Yeah. Take over the room in that booth. It’s the same approach. But now we’re selling something. So like when he’s in the booth, I’m not giving him any leeway. That same way that everybody is wondering who you are, because you have such a presence? Give me that in the booth. And then he gets a little angry and he’s like, “Do it again, yo.”

This is serious. You’re not projecting what I need from you from what makes people like you already as a person. The rhyming situation, I’m not going to let you off easy just because you’re a good personality. This rapping shit is real; you gots to deliver.

And everybody I ever been with has let me, you know? I’m not here to alter them or change them, it’s just as a listener I’m not getting what I need to hear. And that’s why I’m there telling them, I’m sitting here listening. That’s like sing me a song, the ABC’s and you’re leaving D and Y and K and L out. You’re not doing the alphabet right. So you know the way it goes: A-B-C-D-E-F-G. They going A-T-L-F-1-2-3. There ain’t no numbers in the alphabet! Do it right!

I always come off a little harsher with my guys because we have a family relationship. Artists, if it’s somebody like a Rakim, I approach it differently, but still not shy about it. I’m very blunt like, “Yo Ra, that line was a little shaky and your voice quivered a little bit, can we go back to that line?” And he’s like, “No doubt, G.” No one’s ever fought me.

Jay-Z fought me once and never did it again, when we were working on Reasonable Doubt’s, “D’Evils.” He gave me the whole concept, did the rhyme over the phone, told me what scratches to use, and it was dope. Even when he was on Center Stage, he said his most sacred songs was “D’Evils” and maybe four or five other ones. But to say that, after the status he has now, he said that those are his most personal, cherished songs and he said Reasonable Doubt was his baby. And it was all done here[formerly D&D now Headquarters]. The majority of it, minus two or three songs. We saw each other every day.

But just using that as an example, everything is that sacred to me too, till this day to where it’s an artist in the family, I’ve already laid my groundwork, I’m solidified. I’m good. If I do nothing else, I got a jillion records out there that people hold high in regards to what’s the bar; setting the bar or greatness. So when it comes to my artists, I gotta be extra hard on them because I’m cosigning them to say they‘re the next great thing and I don’t want people to doubt me and be like, “Man they aiiite. I heard they album, they cool but they ain’t like that other stuff you did.” I don’t want to hear that.

When Jeru the Damaja came out, he popped off immediately. Hit record, and he just blew up. I never forget, Biggie was BEGGING to be in a video with Jeru. He said, “If he [Jeru] ever did ‘Brooklyn Took It’ I just want to stand there and look hard.” That’s exactly what Biggie said. And I’ll never forget that because I had bought a brand new BMW and I rolled up to his block to go stop at the store and that’s where they used to always hang out Friday with Big and Shug [Founder of Gangstarr] would be with us and Guru and Dap and we’d see each other every weekend and just drink 40’s all weekend. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And to see my pull up and ask me that to be on his album? This was before Ready To Die dropped. That is a big deal. So I know that the same thing that made Jeru hot, Group Home, Shug, I’m doing with these artists. It’s just a newer generation and a new approach. Like Guru also said, I take a lot of quotes from interviews we’ve done in the past, we just update the formula.

Planet Ill: How in tune are you with the lyrics that the rappers are laying in the booth? Like when Biggie said “Son, I’m surprised you run with them” on “Kick InThe Door” he’s sitting there talking to you…

DJ Premier: I looked at him and stopped the tape! That day, I purposely went by myself to see if there was going to be any funny friction because Jeru is my artist, he’s down with Gangstarr, but we also cool with Big, and we got love for him. I remember Puff even said, Yeah we coming after Jeru the Damaja, too!” And I took a stance on that and said, “Look, if ya’ll got a problem, ya’ll can see me because I’m here and I’m down with him and if ya’ll want to set it off ya’ll can set it off on me.” I would never play both sides like that to be some sucker n***a  or anything like that with anybody. That’s not my nature and that’s not my style now. But if anybody got something to say, say it. And it was about 20 guys in there and I was by myself. And I said, “Anybody got something to say, say it.” And Puff was like man we just fucking with you or whatever. I just still had to keep my guard u because I knew, again, this is Hip-Hop, I know the mentality. Then on top of that, I didn’t know how many people were gonna look at me funny thinking that I’m playing both sides, which I wasn’t.

So when he said that, I stopped the tape and sad, “Yo, you trying to be funny?” And Big was like, “I told you I gotta say something about the situation.” And I said, “Oh, so you gone say it on MY record? Go ahead and do your thing.” I gave him that window but I still checked him on it and Puff and them was there as a witness, I wouldn’t make that up. Gutter was there, D Rock was there; everybody was there. J Black was there [mentioned in “One Day”s lyrics] and he got dissed on the record.

Planet Ill: “Snatch up J Black and beat his bitch ass down…”

DJ Premier: Yeah he was there. When he walked in, I actually laughed because Jeru and J Black were actually cool with each other at the time. It was just a messed up situation. And then I remember Foxy Brown was real upset. She was with Jay-Z a lot  and Jay was cool with everybody so if he sees Jeru standing by at a party and he was kicking it with her, she would be like trying to wait for the right time to intervene. But all he [Jeru] said about her was that she had fake alligator boots on, it wasn’t much. But during that time, it was really really really a deep time of Hip-Hop when that was going down, but I’m very honest with making my statements blunt and clear to anybody and I will continue to do so.

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Once upon a time, before snare drums of Miami and the whiny synth of G-Funk, the gritty sound of the boom bap was the preeminent noise associated with Hip-Hop. The boom bap of the drum evoked video images of project hallways, dirty sidewalks, the crowded storefront boedga and the concrete jungle. At the heart of that grim reality music was DJ Premier, transplanted Texan with the turntables that changed the way people outside of New York viewed the city. His Gangstarr legacy alone is enough for the Hall of Fame. Add his work with Biggie, Jay-Z and Nas, and his resurrection of KRS-ONE and it doesn’t matter who the best MC is, they all came through his door.

Now after the tragic death of Guru, work with Christina Aguilera, coming work with Chaka Kahn and other side projects, you would think the boom bap would be silenced. But Primo is perhaps its greatest apostle, and he stands ready to spread the gospel with his new label Year Round Records and new artists like Nick Javas. Blessed are those who hear the scratch of DJ Premier, for theirs is the kingdom of Hip-Hop. Here is Primo 1:1.

Planet Ill: Obviously you have an astounding legacy when it comes to Hip-Hop. I guess they can call you the patron saint of the boom bap. How do you get people to separate your legacy and your history from what you’re trying to accomplish now?

DJ Premier: My main focus now is to continue doing what I’ve already been doing which is to put great music out. When it comes to what I’m doing now, I look at it as a new chapter; a new beginning, like Guru would actually say. I’m speaking on Guru because I thought there would be a time when we would reunite and do a 7^th album which I planned to do after a few years of taking a break. And now that I know that there’s no way that it’s gonna happen, I have to accept the fact that he’s gone for real.

Like we have future projects, like I’m gonna do a Gangstarr Foundation album where we have all new material, we have other vocals that haven’t been released that I put new stuff to that he spit to where he sounds like traditional Guru and make it new, but I have to accept moving on. I’ve lost lives in the past and I’ve moved on. Headquaters was an influence on naming the studio Headquarters.

This is the legendary D&D[Studios]. My radio show that I do every Friday on Sirius/XM satellite radio is the future. It’s on Friday nights, ten to midnight. It’s called “Live From Headquarters,” dedicated to him. We take that energy and keep pushing forward and make things better and better like I always have strived to do as a DJ, artist, producer and now a label owner.

The compilation album is just a stalling album to stall while I get their [his artists] albums ready to come out for 2011. I really intended for their albums to be ready this year, really the year before, we planned in ’09 having these albums ready.  Nick Javas has been touring with me the last two years straight. Blaq Poet did the same thing

Planet Ill: That’s [MC] Poet from back in the day?

DJ Premier: Yeah, that battled KRS-ONE and made big history. He was the first in history every to be bold enough to even stand up to Boogie Down Productions and then diss them hard body even knowing there was gonna be repercussions and he still stood his ground. He spoke for The Bridge and that’s what made me discover him, back in ’86 when he did “Beat You Down.”

Planet Ill: You had a pretty extensive run with KRS as well. Was there any leftover feelings from that old battle?

DJ Premier: Yeah, Poet still had feelings with him, so did Just Ice had funny feeligns with Poet. I actually told Just Ice that I was messing with Poet and he was like, “As long as he don’t mention that we got no problems.” I was like, “Come on man, we grown now. At the time he was just standing up for ya’ll dissing him, You know what I’m saying?” Not him but dissing The Bridge.

I’ll be short with it, Poet was coming to a Rock Steady event and I said, “Yo, Just Ice is coming, so come up there.” And boom, when it happened, Poet saw Just and went right to him and said, “Yo, I’m Poet, remember me?” And He [Just Ice] was like “Premier told me he was gonna be working with you!” Now they just buddies.

And then, KRS reached out to me when he did the Marley Marl album, when they did Hip-Hop Lives, and he said, “Yo man, I want Poet on a record with me.” And I asked Poet and he was a little resistant at first, he was like this is deeper; it cuts a little deeper. You know they were really going at it; they were going back and forth with it. Scott La Rock was dissing him, like “Poet, you a crack head,” back when they were running things. All those excerpts where he was like dissing him on the radio.

I told him [Poet], I said, “Yo, this is a good look.” KRS came over here and they went out, just the two of them, and after that KRS was like. “Yo I want you to perform with me tonight at Irving Plaza.” And brought Poet on stage. And I thought that was dope.

Planet Ill: What happens behind the scenes that makes it jump from just the music to taking things real personal?

DJ Premier: Part of it’s ignorance because your honor, your manhood’s being tested and then Hip-Hop comes from a street environment so the mentality is let’s scrap let’s fight. I’m from Texas and we’re raised on fighting with our hands because everybody carries guns. Our laws, we can carry a gun in the glove compartment and I’m not used to all these laws when I moved to New York. Like damn I can’t carry a gun and keep it in my glove box? What if I’m in danger or whatever? Same thing with a rifle, as long as it’s visible in your window, you can carry a rifle. So we all have a different understanding with guns where I’m from where everybody’s raised to fight. And back in our day, like they say you live to another day. Your bruises will heal and you win some, you lose some.

On the mentality of Hip-Hop, I mean look how far, even with Boogie Down Productions. It got a little violent when they were going at it. Just Ice coming to The Bridge with a shottie looking for cats over a rap! Me and Javas was talking bout this the other day. A couple years ago, if you never been in a fight at all, and youre’ doing rap music, you’re gonna get tested on some type of level where you might have to fight some body. But he’s been in fights way before he was rapping.

Nick Javas: Unfortunately.

Dj Premier: He played football, he’s a sports guy, on top of that he’s got a temper. He’s not a punk. Even if he was, that doesn’t have anything to do with what I respect about him, musically and artist-wise, but I’m glad he’s not a punk he can stand up for himself if somebody tests him, I mean I’ve witnessed it firsthand that he’s ready to go, and other people that he’s grown up with have said the same thing, “Javas got a temper and he’s ready to take it there.”

And we’re all like that. I’m definitely not tough; I’m definitely not hard or rugged like that. I love hardcore music, I’m very polite; I’m very much a gentleman but I’ll fight anybody. And usually the bigger people is who I’d like to fight. They usually, they size be an intimidation factor. The little ones be who I look out for, cause they usually got a weapon on them; they’ll jig you with a knife or something like that. You don’t mess with the short people unless they start something.

Nick Javas: You can’t lift weights with your face.

Planet Ill: In your [Nick Javas’] song, “Not A Game,” you mention the aspect of Hip-Hop being a game, not a sport. Do you think that the fact that people call it the Hip-Hop game allows more people than necessary to think they can “play” it?

Nick Javas: Yeah. I think there’s a lot of reasons people take it lightly. People see a lot of things on TV they see, MTV, MTV Cribs; they just see all the glitz and glamor of it. They only see the upside. They don’t see all the people that failed trying to make it. They don’t see the people who make it, failing, cause they fail! You have to fail to get there.

You know how long these cats were probably stressed out before they got to MTV Cribs, before they got to the Grammys, and to the BET Hip-Hop Awards and any type of these things that you see on TV where it’s all good and it seem s like you could just make it overnight? Yo there’s a lot to go into this and if you don’t love it, and you’re not doing it for the right reason it’s going to be really hard for you to do. Especially when you start hitting the road and doing shows the way we do.

Premier’s been taking me on the road for almost a year now. I was like, “Wow, this ain’t fun and games,” all the time. You’re sleeping like two, three hours a night, doing a show in a different country every day. Shit, there’s sometimes I don’t even know where the hell I am! I was in Switzerland talking something about “GERMANY!!” They were like “Fuck Germany!” Like oh shit. Damn and I cleaned it up real quick, I had the Switzerland wristband under the hoodie so they hadn’t seen that yet, so I thought it was a good time to bring that out.

The point I’m trying to make is, yeah a lot of people take it lightly; they think it’s a quick trip to the bank. Nah, man. It’s really not; you gotta work hard at this. And now I’m just happy that I’m in a position where I know that I deserve everything that’s coming to me because I know how much I sacrificed. I know how hard I worked to get here. And if you would have checked me five, six years ago when I made my first demo, I thought I was going to be a star overnight. I thought I was just going to throw my demo out and somebody would be like, “Yo, this kid is dope let’s sign him, let’s make him a star.” The harsh reality is, this is a business. It doesn’t work like that.

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If New York hip-hop has a spiritual gatekeeper, it’s DJ Premier. Along with being part of definitive ’90s rap duo Gang Starr, Premier has balanced crafting songs for certified rap royalty Jay-Z, Biggie, and Nas with supporting the city’s more varied and underground scenes. His upcoming label compilation, Year Round Records: Get Used To Us, sticks to that credo, showcasing life-time Big Apple rhymers Freddie Foxxx, Blaq Poet, and KRS-One alongside more recent home town talent like Papoose, Saigon, and Joell Ortiz–three artists looking to re-ignite their careers after floundering on major labels. Here’s Premier’s take on where New York rap went wrong, why it needs to be destroyed in order to recover, and how he’s warming to his role as elder rap statesman, to the point where he’s creating old school mixtapes to educate upcoming rap cats.

On your new label compilation you feature songs with Papoose and Saigon. A few years back both of them were tipped as future superstars capable of re-asserting New York’s rap credentials, but their careers quickly faded. Why do you think that was?

Papoose had a million dollar deal at Jive but I knew Jive wasn’t going to let him drop all the street shit he was doing. They’re not the same Jive that had Whodini and A Tribe Called Quest and KRS-One and the Fu-Schnickens and all that. Even though they had R. Kelly and Britney Spears and N-Sync, the Jive of old was very eclectic and rooted in what we love about music. They’re not that any more. So when you have a Papoose, he can do some commercial records, but that’s not what he is and that’s not what he does to make you wanna hear more stuff from him. You can’t all of a sudden convert him into a commercial artist. They’re going to force him to make those commercial songs and when they don’t work they’re gonna drop him.

And Saigon?

Same thing — they’re not going to let the grimey, ‘hood, chase-you-with-a-knife music out. They’re not releasing that shit. Sai has more of a commercial appeal, but a street artist has to be broken in the streets first and then developed in the mainstream. You can’t force every artist down someone’s throat. Be realistic with it. I already know what the outcome’s going be when certain artists get a major deal. I mean, they did it with us [Gang Starr]! But we didn’t have to take that commercial commercial route cause we proved to them that we can move units and build up. We went from 280,000 sales of the first album to 320,000 sales to gold to gold again. Consistency was there with everything we released. Even when I produced for other artists, like Jay-Z or Nas or Limp Bizkit, the songs were popular on the street. The street is where you want to get broken at first if you want to be a hip-hop or rap artist.

Do you think that’s something the major labels will ever understand?

They did in the beginning, just cause they were allowing people to take chances. Then when it came down to the money piling in, and it was so cheap to make, the love and passion went away. Then they see the slips in the sales and they panic, like, “Don’t do that street shit, we need more commercial stuff!” No, you don’t. Public Enemy were never commercial but they were commercial as far as their sales cause people wanted it raw. N.W.A. was raw, Ice Cube was raw. Most kids in those white suburbs were out buying raw black music!

Will we ever see rap music that raw being popular on such a wide scale again

Absolutely. We’re just readjusting to the building that collapsed. Not every brick fell — it wasn’t a Twin Towers situation, cause there’s still a lot of life in hip-hop. It’s just going through the destroying phase. I don’t mind that, cause it got saturated with the nonsense. I love gangsta rap, and I have an album project with MC Eiht, from Compton’s Most Wanted, coming up, but there’s still a limit to doing anything. Who regulates it? The people in the structure of the culture. So I’m glad I’m in a position to help fix the problem.

So is there a healthy underground New York rap scene at the moment?

Absolutely, and I’m part of it. Man, it goes deep. I can play a new record on my radio show from Hell Razah, who’s down with the Wu-Tang Clan, and you probably wouldn’t even know he had an album out if it wasn’t for me! There’s a new record from Dysfunkshunal Familee, who are down with the Beatminerz, and most people are like, “Dysfunkshunal Familee? Who the fuck is that?!” J-Live has a new EP out with some hot stuff; Buckwild, who produced “Woah” for Black Rob, he’s got a new album with Celph Titled that’s hot. There’s a guy called Math Hoffa, who’s an upcoming artist, and Illmind and Skyzoo… It’s so much stuff that just doesn’t get regular radio play. Thank god you have me and DJ Eclipse, who does a similar show to me on Sundays. We don’t have a playlist — we make our own choices. If everyone was like that, hip-hop would still be a billion dollar business. Now, it’s just a million dollar business.

What has changed most about the record industry since you first came out?

I’m 44-years-old so I remember when the majors had passion and cared about music. That’s gone now, which is why they crumbled so tremendously. They want to blame the internet but that’s not the main culprit–it’s the lack of passion for what you’re signing. And there’s things like putting an age limit on rappers, like you can’t be 44-years-old and sign to a major label. Come on! When you’ve got an upcoming 18-year-old, the difference is they haven’t experienced the lifestyle of hip-hop when it was fresh and new. The kids today that are born into hip-hop don’t appreciate the history: “Those artists are old so I don’t listen to them!” But if you’re not gonna care about the history of something that’s a culture, then you’re gonna lose down the line. I see that every day. I see when they’ve gotta tour just to pay bills–I’ve been through it. I’ve had money and lost money. My experience is 23 years in the business and there’s nothing I can really be schooled on unless it’s something higher than I’ve experienced.

Why are young hip-hop artists so reluctant to learn about the music’s history?

Well thank goodness for Google you can find out on your own now if you’re curious! I feel if an artist really cares about what they’re doing, they should want to know who the people they like are influenced by, even if it’s 2Pac. There’s plenty of viral footage. There’s so much research you can find now. When I was coming up you had to hunt and look worldwide to find things. They can ask me! Like with Royce Da 5′ 9″, who’s signed with Eminem, cause his rhyming’s so ill I was like, “I know you’re into the Cold Crush [Brothers] and Just-Ice.” And he’s like, “Who’s that?” I’m like, “You don’t know who Just-Ice is? What about Mantronix?” He’s like, “Who’s Mantronix?” He said he was brought up on Redman and Ras Kass, and even though those are great MCs, I was like, “I thought you went back further.” So I told Royce I was gonna make him a CD of some stuff. I did the same with my artist Nick Javas, a white kid from Union, New Jersey, who can rap his ass off but didn’t have any knowledge of the past.

I mean, I stay up, I still study. I know who Waka Flocka Flame is, I know who Gucci Maine is, I know who Nicki Minaj is, and Fred Da God, an upcoming New York rapper. You have to do your research if you’re into your job. Even though I’m into more than just hip-hop–I’ll listen to rock, new wave, The Smiths, all kinds of crazy left-field stuff–I still stay up on rap.

What sort of songs do you put on these CDs you make for rappers?

On that one CD I put T La Rock’s “It’s Yours,” Davy DMX’s “One For The Treble,” Just-Ice’s “Going Way Back.” I put him up on T Ski Valley’s “Catch The Beat,” all the Sugarhill stuff, Spoonie Gee, Sparky D, Roxanne Shante, the Juice Crew, even the Wild Style soundtrack. These are the building blocks of what I do.

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More more more interviews!

It’s not every day you get to interview a true hip-hop legend, someone who has paid their dues ten times over and always held on to their core values despite the ever-changing musical landscape. That kind of strength and character not only made Preem’s signature drums and crisp scratches great but immortal, destined to live forever in the same vein as Miles Davis, James Brown and Bob Marley. And sure, DJ Premier has been doing more interviews as of late to promote his upcoming compilation Year Round Records: Get Used to Us, but it’s not until you hear his scratchy, deep baritone vibrating through your cell phone speaker that it really hits you that you’re carrying on a conversation with THE DJ Premier, the man responsible for crafting countless classics as one-half of Gang Starr while still snapping necks with the likes of Jeru the Damaja, KRS-One, the Group Home, Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Cormega, Screwball and Nas (among many, many others).

As Primo’s voice battles the static on our phone connection, I can tell he’s excited about where his talents have been taking him lately, as he’s wrapping up his compilation album along with albums from NYGz, Khaleel and MC Eiht and Young Malay while continuing work on signee Nick Javas’ debut album Destination Unknown, DJ Premier Versus Pete Rock and a new KRS-One album Return of the Boom Bip. But right now, Premier is more hyped over what just transpired in his day. DJ Swa, a talented DJ from France, was hanging out with Premier and asked to go to Queensbridge to sit on the same park bench where Nas once sat to write Illmatic. Not only did Preem take Swa to QB, he took him to Nas’ old apartment. The current tenant, upon recognizing Premier, invited the two of them into Nasir’s old stomping grounds for a makeshift tour that reduced Swa to tears.

As soon as Premier drops Swa off at the airport, it’s back to the grind, which means answering questions that I’ve been mentally storing ever since I heard his first scratch. Thus began an interview that flowed more like a conversation that ranged from his upcoming projects to staying motivated to why Busta Rhymes hasn’t been able to find a suitable banger from the production god. Read on for the full, unedited DJ Premier HipHopGame interview.

CLICK HERE TO READ DJ PREMIER: THE INTERVIEW OF THE YEAR

A master manipulator of jazz records since the early 1990s, DJ Premier casts a long shadow over anyone who makes sample-based music. Routinely named one of the top five hip-hop producers of all-time, the Brooklynite is in an especially talkative mood when he calls the Straight, tackling a variety of topics in a rambling hour-long chat. On the subject of his own longevity, for instance, he claims he’s among the last of a dying breed.

“I wish Whodini or Stetsasonic or Big Daddy Kane would come out with an album right now,” he says. “But a lot of these guys are either mad or bitter that they’re not as relevant as they used to be. You have to know who you’re making music for. I can’t make the new generation like me, because they didn’t grow up on me. So I stick to what I know.”

To that end, Premo has established Year Round Records to showcase his productions for rappers who share his reverence for the old school. Later this year, he will release a label compilation to preview upcoming albums he’s currently producing for upstarts like Nick Javas (a fiery Italian-American spitter) and Houston’s Khaleel (a laid-back drawler) and legends like KRS-One and MC Eiht.

“I told all my artists that we’re going to be struggling together,” says Premier, who enjoyed big-label riches as a member of Gang Starr in the 1990s. “You might see me wearing the same old Big L [a deceased ’90s-era rapper] shirt all the time because I always put my money back into the company.”

A hitmaker for artists ranging from Nas (1994’s seminal “N.Y. State of Mind”) to Christina Aguilera (2006’s retro-tinged “Ain’t No Other Man”), Premier is unparalleled among boardsmen in his ability to coax great vocal performances from his collaborators. That should be the key for any producer, says the Houston native, who counts Bun B, Fat Joe, and Busta Rhymes among his most recent clients.

“I’m from the pre–Pro Tools era where you had to meet up with the artist and go over things if you wanted to record a track,” he says. “I’m real particular about delivery. You can write the illest rhymes in the world, but can you deliver it right? It’s like, we all know how to put our dick in the hole, but can you tear it up?”

One of those who routinely tore it up was Guru, Premier’s iconic Gang Starr collaborator. After the rapper passed away in February, a farewell letter surfaced in which Guru purportedly denounced Premier. The letter’s validity has been questioned by the rapper’s family and by Premier himself, who is planning a tribute concert in 2011 that will reunite everyone with whom Gang Starr collaborated, including Jadakiss and Snoop Dogg.

“I miss yelling and arguing with that bastard,” says Premo of his long-time partner. “That motherfucker is a roach; he doesn’t die. I can’t believe he’s gone. When I spoke at the funeral, I promised I’m never going to speak of him in the past tense. I won’t say he was; I’ll say he is.”

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DJ Premier playing tonight in Vancouver, but you already knew.

DJ Premier knows how to dougie. “I studied doing the dougie in the mirror so I could have it down in case any kid wants to challenge me,” the 44-year-old Primo says from his HeadQuarterz studio, while previewing his self-produced compilation Get Used to Us on his new self-sufficient label Year Round Records. Premier is using the comp to showcase signees Nick Javas, NYGz, and Khaleel and to also demonstrate he hasn’t lost a step with celebrated collaborators like Freddie Foxx, KRS-One, and Blaq Poet. As the dance of the month gathers dust, Premier is still digging through dusty crates looking for the perfect beat. Here, the living legend talks about technical and personal notes alike with a laid-back demeanor not always expected from a true living legend.

You said that you’ve gone back to the “Gang Starr way,” starting with lists of song titles from an artist, vibing off the concepts and filling them in with beats and sounds. When does your side of the work begin? Is it when you have your tools in your hand? Or are you at such a level that you walk around and hear a whole track in your head?

If I’m not planning, I can be doing anything, like sitting here talking to y’all, and at a point when we’re not really speaking, I might think about formatting tempos, and that I can grab those drums from so and so, and how I can use those and put a twist on them, then look around and start experimenting from there, matching sounds with what I think it should sound like.

I might find some Chinese music, and it might be dope, but it might not fit the song. Then I mark it and put it to the side. I didn’t used to do that but now I know how much I can get done if I stay on top of my job. Crazy Toones, Ice Cube’s DJ, said Bootsy Collins told him that even if it’s just a horn blast, record it and lay it down. Even if I don’t come back to it for a few years, I might [eventually] build off it. I always have ideas, and instead of doing one joint now I focus on three or four a day, and it’s been working. It takes up more time but it gets more done than one every two weeks. I’m glad I’m in that mode right now.

Are you conscious there’s a “Premier” sound? Is it something you can put in words?
I’m not even trying to make the sounds. It’s just a certain way I apply my samples to the drums, they have a certain bounce. I think my drums have a bounce that makes you know it’s me. When you hear “Mass Appeal,” it’s the bounce of how I make my drums and samples collide that lets you know it’s me. ”Dwyck” has this bounce, and “You Know My Steez” has its bounce, and then I can do a Jay-Z record like “D’evils,” and they all have a signature. That’s not me even trying to do that where its noticeable; it’s the way I lock up the samples. They have to be really, really tight with the drums, so the drums I use are a major issue. A dope sample is how you match it with the percussion part. You can use any kick and snare, but there’s certain ones that I use, and then I’ll go back to traditional ones and people will go, “Oh, I know that, that’s Preem.” Marley Marl would do that sometimes. He’d go back to one he hadn’t used in two or three albums, and then you’re like, “Oh that’s the ones he used on such and such, and he flipped it this other way.” I am conscious of that all the time.

When listening to say “Manifest” versus “Kick in the Door,” with the “Night in Tunisia” sample more straight-forward than the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (“Kick in the Door”) coming in at an angle, it seems you’ve really advanced in the ways you sample, even then. Do you hear it differently now? How have you pushed and progressed in using sampling as an instrument?
I experiment more ’cause I got more analog outboard equipment like the Motif ES, the Rackmount [sampler workstation]. What I’ve had for a long time is pads [on an MPC sampler and drum machine]. I used to do my bass lines on just the pads and tune ‘em on the MP like I did on “Unbelievable.” Then I started getting more into doing bass lines on the keyboard with different types of bass sounds, and then that elevated to the Motif and then Mo-Phatt and Planet Phatt [synths], deciding these are gonna be my traditional bass sounds.

I haven’t done a padded bass line since I did the Common record “Sixth Sense.”When you go away from it for a while then come back and use those traditional ones it makes people notice. It’s fun to stray away and come back. Now I’m coming back to straight loops again, which I haven’t done. I’ve been chopping samples for a while now; straight loops are sounding better than chops right now because I’ve been chopping records for eight to 10 years straight. I haven’t done straight loops in years. It’s like when Kanye said he’s gonna back to boom bap for his new project. When you go back to it after leaving it for a while, everyone is looking forward to that, that old pure way but with the mentality that you have now rather than when you were at a younger age. But if I use, say, “Superfly,” it’s an obvious sample, it’s gonna get chopped. I’m known for being an innovator, so I’m gonna do it in an innovative way, chopping it and making it ill.

Where did you learn the dynamics of music? Did you play instruments when you were younger?
I took piano lessons, something you don’t get when you were a kid. I was like, “Mom, I don’t wanna do this. Boys don’t do this.” So I quit. But I found myself knowing where middle C is. When I was a kid I always knew where middle C was and e-g-b-d-f lines of the staff and f-a-c-e the spaces, I always remembered that. Now that I do hip-hop, I’m back to it. I do a lot of hunting and pecking but I can do chords. I play piano, too. I’m not ill or anything but I can do a little something. I play drums, I play bass, I play guitar. I played guitar in church. I played alto sax in school then strayed away. I won first chair quite a bit. I used to challenge one of my neighbors who was ill. She beat me once and I was so mad that I lost that I challenged her that next week and played my heart out just to get my spot back and won first chair. Then I got tired of it again.

Looking back to all those things, you can definitely tell it applies to the way I sample ’cause I’m catching it from a full musical standpoint, not just looking for a sound and looping it. A lotta different things are going into that, I can harmonize keys over that, or this bass line’s gonna bring it out iller, or I can put a horn there. It’s applying instruments and orchestrating the whole band without all the members.

Is it that sense of competition as it exists within hip-hop that accounts for your consistency? Group Home came out 15 years ago, and here we are now. It’s unprecedented in this genre, and maybe any other. What accounts for that?
I love competing with everybody. I believe I’m one of the illest, but I don’t carry myself like that. You‘ve gotta have that type of attitude to make it. When you play yours next to mine on a bangin’ system, your shit ain’t better than mine. That’s how I feel. That’s why I fiend to hear other people’s music. I like to listen to other people even when I DJ, and everybody wants me to play my hits, my underground bangers, but I like playing other people’s records. I wanna play rare records like Sir ABU “Holy War,” which they might not even be into.

But I’ve been blessed to be in the business where people love what I do, and hell yeah I’m competing with everybody. If Dre’s got Detox coming, I better be able to drop an album that he’ll think is dope. I know we respect each other as producers, and he’s on my mind. Jay-Z’s on my mind when I make beats. Even if it’s not intended for him, I know he knows how to judge what I do because we’ve worked together before. Everything we’ve done was good. So when I do other albums with other people, he’s still judging it based on what I do with him. So the competition part is with everybody. Young and old.

You have chemistry with Jay. Particularly with the new projects on Year Round, how do you know when you connect with an MC?
Everybody’s different. Sometimes it’s fun from the gate and other times it’s like we’re gonna get it done to where everybody’s happy. If Nas said tomorrow we’re starting on an album, I’m going super deep because I know how deep he can go. I know it’s gonna come out ill. And then if Jay says let’s do an all-Premier album, I know how deep I gotta go for him ’cause he’s on that level of having proven it. Certain artists haven’t proved it. They can’t go deep. They may be nice to certain degree, but you play them something that’s a little left field, and they don’t get it. That’s one thing I like about Freddie Foxx too. He’s never a gotten a beat from me that I made just for him, except for “Militia,” and that was for him as a special guest with him, Guru, and Big Shug. He’s done a Charlie Baltimore beat she didn’t like. He knew how to take it and make it his and still be him, and some artists can’t do that.

People like Foxx or Poet don’t always get the recognition.
I was a big Poet fan, PHD [Blaq Poet and Hot Day], into them hardbody. It doesn’t have to be hardcore only, but I just love hardcore. Not a lotta of groups really do it right. M.O.P knows how to make hardcore, Freddie Foxx, certain artists can do it, Public Enemy makes good hardcore shit and they’ll even say it. I love Onyx. Aggressive records get me more hype than laid-back stuff, but again Rakim to me is hard even though he had a laid-back mellow voice. That’s what’s fun for me to listen to, and another one of the reasons I wanted to mess with Poet even though I knew he was older. I didn’t care about his age. Is the stuff dope? That was the most important part for me.

I’m like that to this day with any artist. If it’s a Kanye I’m not gonna give the same approach to him, but I know the stuff we’re gonna do together will work. He’s another one I know I can go left field with and he’ll get it. I like people like NYGz [Year Round signees] that have their own vision; I don’t have to think for them. Some artists don’t have it, and you constantly have to shape them. Even if it’s doable or not doable, I still want the artist to see their own visions. I remember when we did the Poet album [Tha Blaqprint, 2009] he wanted just the subway map for the cover, but I asked, “What does it signify? Tha Blaqprint is like your blueprint of Queensbridge. What if it was a blueprint of the bridge when they built it?” I had a vision based on his vision of what he wanted to do with the album. What if we found the Queensbridge plans, the dimensions — I took drafting in college, that whole thing. It became not too tacky but effective in relation to his vision for the music and the title coming together.

You’re from Texas, but did you come out to New York often as a kid? Or was it the Wild Pitch demo that brought you here?
My parents and two older sisters and I, we’ve been going to New York since we were young. My mother was from Baltimore. She had that city mentality, and her father lived in Bed Stuy. We used to always go see him for Thanksgiving and every summer and Christmas, all the holidays. I was his only grandson, and he used to take me to baseball games, even Mets games when he was a Yankees fan. We were both into music, and we were really close through music and baseball. I used to go a lot of places with him while my mom and sisters went shopping. Once I came with two friends of mine from Texas. I was in the fifth grade, and I’ll never forget we were staying at the Waldorf and my boy that came with us was staying at this place called the Summit that doesn’t even exist anymore. We used to go this place called Chock Full O’Nuts — that diner from back in the ’70s — and when we went there a guy committed suicide on the train that we were riding. We saw him when he was dead, right in front of us. When you’re in fifth grade, that’s the story to tell your friends: “Yo, man, we saw somebody kill themselves on our train, and his arm was cut off and it was still moving.” I was like, “I’m coming back here. This is where I wanna live. This is exciting. I wanna see all the crazy action.”

The day before the guy killed himself we went to the Yankees game with my grandfather, and then we went to the arcade. That’s when we saw the DJs cuttin’ up, with two turntables. This other kid would stop and play the boom box, and one guy was playing “You’ll Like It Too” from Parliament. I was like, “Yo, all these records that I have that I just listen to at the house parties my sisters used to throw, the part that we like on the record, the DJ is actually playing that part over and over.” I saw all these cats breakdancing, which reminded me of locking. At the time everyone was doing that locker shit from L.A., pointing and all that shit. We were doing all the dances, too.

By the time I was 13, I started going to stay with my grandfather by myself when he moved from Bed Stuy to Canarsie. As time passed he got sick, and I met Gordon [Franklin, Premier’s friend and label manager] in college and started staying with his family, and that’s when I started shoppin’ my demos in New York. Wild Pitch [a defunct label that Guru worked with] was up on me. I was in a group with homies from college. Wild Pitch didn’t like my MCs but they liked my production and my cuts. I didn’t wanna leave my homeboys, and I stayed loyal to them until the main guy went to the military for four years. Then I was available. Guru said he wanted me to be in a group with him; he felt his DJ and MC then weren’t struggling with him like they should, so he moved on and kept the name Gang Starr. We clicked on the phone. We was just in sync with everything we was into, and we did the “Manifest” track over the phone two or three times and recorded it. It took off. I went back to New York to shoot the video then back to school, and everybody was like, “They’re playing your video on Yo! MTV Raps.” And then I decided to stay in New York permanently. I was gonna stay eventually, but I did it then. Glad I did.

You mention the body on the tracks and kids cutting up records and the impressions that made on you. This sounds like the genesis of the grimy East Coast sound as we’ve come to know it. People really consider you the living embodiment of the authentic hip-hop sound, the one who preserves it. How does that affect you? Are you conscious of it?
It’s always a conscious thing. I don’t wanna get too gassed up to the point where somebody can knock me off the hill, but inside I’m like, “I’m ill.” But I don’t wanna be looked at as an asshole. When I’m around a friend, I might be like, “No one can fuck with me,” but even they know I’m not cocky, they know that’s not my way, I’m not walking around like that. And I was raised right by my parents. My parents are still together, both in their 80s, and they have a lot to do with it. My father still checks me with my language. I say I’m grown now, but my father, he’s on You Tube and all that, and he sees his grandson with me “and Pharrell’s cursing out that Jungle Brothers guy.” I’m like, “I know, that was Kanye’s concert,” and he’s tellin’ me, “Don’t talk that way in front of my grandson.” I tell him he’s not getting everything we’re saying. We communicate in our language. You might speak Spanish around Spanish people, you might speak English around people who speak English. And I tell him we don’t do it just to do it; I justify what I say and he’ll say he understands, but he’s not with it. Still I’m conscious my pops is listening to what’s coming outta my mouth. He raised me better than that, he feels, but we don’t curse just to be cursing. Some people can relate, like some of his friends, who cursed around me when we were little kids. A neighbor, Ms. Webster, cursed probably more than anybody, but she cursed “properly.” She’d say “Shit that motherfuckin’ nigga” at the right time. She knew we were gonna hear it and she was an English teacher. To this day is I can still go see her, and I still feel like that same kid who was like, “I wanna go hear Ms. Webster curse and talk some shit.”

But the beauty of communication is that everybody has a different way of speaking language. I’m more vocal on stage now, too. I feel strong and big. I used to not be like that. I used to just wanna play the music and let Guru do all the talking, and he was one of the first people to tell me I should start talkin’ more. Little by little I got more confident. Now when I’m on stage I’m an animal. I can’t be calm. All those elements that make me love hip-hop — James Brown, Chuck D, M.O.P, Onyx, anybody that’s rowdy, RUN-DMC, all of them — all of that’s in my head when I perform. From the top of lungs I gotta make sure that those people are there with me. I’m here to put out my energy and drain myself for you. Showbiz [from D.I.T.C] was saying at a job people put things in to make something come out. He said we put things out to make people feel something within.

And hip-hop is one of the most universal languages. I’ve seen all the different people that come to the shows. I go to these different countries where there’s not a lot of black people or Spanish people, or any Latino people at all. These people are singin’ the words. The beat comes on, they go crazy, and I’m sitting there like, “Damn, this shit has taken me this far.”

When you put something out there like that, do you feel a personal connection returned? When Guru passed, fans reacted like they really knew the two of you as people. Do you get that sense, this type of relationship that people feel runs so deeply?
I’ve had more than one person tell me I’ve saved their life. That’s not in the same box as, “Oh, your shit is dope,” almost like they know me and they don’t. “I was gonna kill myself and you saved my life.” I almost wanna ask them, “How did I save your life?” Just the fact that they said that, though, I feel like I don’t need to hear more. If whatever I‘m doing is saving lives, I gotta keep doing it. People told that to Guru and me many a time. That’s a steep statement to make. And I know all the fuckin’ up and inaccuracies I’ve done with my life, and these people are feeling that way about me; it’s a different type of a wakeup call. And it’s needed sometimes. if I’m in a bad mood and I’m not feeling right and someone tells me that, I’m just like, “Shit, I’m back, I’m all right.” I don’t need someone to pat me on the back and tell me I’m dope, but when it comes down to it I’ve made them feel something.

What’s inspiring you with Year Round, and what’s gonna keep it going?
It’s always different. Running a label is a whole different headache, but I know how much I can do with it — film, video, so many things artist-wise. I don’t wanna sign anyone else outside of Nick, NYGz, and Khaleel. Just keep it specialty, do a Pete Rock and Premier album; there’s a market for that, and I can put it out and there’s no headaches of promoting it. Do the release with [MC] Eiht [which Premier co-produced]. He wanted a good channel to put it out through, and that’s it. A KRS-One and Premier album is easy to do. Kris might not go platinum or gold, but a lot of people would wanna hear it. Those same fans exist; they’re just older. I might buy Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Wacka Flocka, but I still need another Jay album, another Tribe. I’m talking about me as a consumer. I need that. If Ultramagnetic MCs have a new album coming out, I’m like, “Oh, shit, good.” Son of Bazerk is dropping a new album and they were left, far left field, affiliated with P.E. and Chuck D and Johnny Juice Rosado, and I’m like, “Word, send it to me.” I wanna hear it ’cause I know what they left behind and where they stopped, and they should hopefully sound like they did when they stopped.

How it was with Gang Starr, every time we stopped, sometimes four- or five- or six-year breaks, the next album always sounded like it picked up where the last one stopped. All of that is just passion and love, man. I’m just passionate about the shit still. It’s still fun to go, “Oh, I’m gonna make a beat tonight that’s ill.” All of that is still a thrill to me. That’s why I do it.

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Shout out to PreFix for making a good interview with superb questions!!