Don’t ask me why, but this is part 1.

New interview done by Anslem Samuel with DJ Premier, quite long, quite good, quite funny. I think Premo never was more in the media then last year and now 2009. It will be a busy year for him, again hope we will meet our wet dream this year for real. Time is flying!! This interview was prolly made in december last year.

When it comes to hip-hop architects, few are as revered as DJ Premier. As one-half of the legendary Gang Starr, the Brooklyn beatsmith (by way of Houston) has crafted classic tracks ranging from underground gems (Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind,” the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments”) to radio jams (Common’s “The 6th Sense,” Jeru the Damaja’s “Come Clean”) to mainstream smashes (Christina Aguilera’s “Back in the Day,” Limp Bizkit’s “N 2 Gether Now”). Through it all, Preemo maintains his true school roots. That’s most evident with his label, Year Round Records, which houses hardcore acts like the NYGz and Blaq Poet. Taking a break from his Friday night satellite radio show on Sirius XM, “Live From HeadQCourterz,” Premier breaks down the foundation for his budding label and extends open invitations to Cory Gunz and Dr. Dre to spit on his tracks.

XXLMag.com: Why did you start Year Round Records?

DJ Premier: I started to see how the labels would not open their arms to the pure hip-hop. They were just taking the sucker shit so whatever way to alleviate that and just do your own shit is very time consuming, very costly but the love of the culture for me makes me wanna stick behind this and push this label through immediately.

XXL: What was it about the NYGz that made you sign them?

Preemo: I like the way the NYGz sound, plus they lived the lifestyle of what they talk about and they’re well respected in their hood. I appreciate someone I can develop more and they’re older—they’re in their mid 30s—and I’m not concerned about the age difference. I wanna be a label that doesn’t do whatever the other labels do. We all out to win together as a team despite all the stress and what it takes to survive in this shitty ass industry.

XXL: What about Blaq Poet?

Preemo: Blaq Poet’s album we’re about to drop in February. It’s done; I’m just mixing it. We just shot the video to Poet’s single called “Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed” right in the Bridge. It’s a record showin’ he still gets love whenever he comes and sees his people. It was fun shootin’ it in the cold and we got it in, but I produced the whole album and it’s called The Blaq Print.

XXL: What should fans expect off that one?

Preemo: The album is actually a collection of songs that we just started working on in the studio and a lot of people was asking what we were gonna put out as a release. There are sick songs we have done in the past but I really like this record that we did called “Voices,” where he was hearin’ voices of Biggie and Pac and other deceased MCs—just great MCs period—talking in his head and he says it was ’cause he was drunk but he’s really telling the story of hip-hop. He does it in such an ill way where you gotta respect it, so a lot of people ask about that record.

XXL: Will this be the first official release off Year Round?

Preemo: This is the second release on my label as far as albums go. NYGz dropped Welcome to G-Dom last October and that did well for us just ’cause we were able to get them some shows in Europe. Now they’re working on their new album, Pros and Cons, and I’m producing the entire album.

XXL: What do you look for in an artist?

Preemo: Like I said, it’s very hardcore it’s very much needed right now ’cause I just like hard lyrics and hard beats. You don’t gotta be hardcore like a M.O.P. or a N.W.A, but you still gotta have some ill rhymes. Poet has the illest rhymes for a hardcore rapper that’s out right now and he makes sense. He’s a grown ass man but his lyrics can penetrate even the young ignorant muthafucka who still thinks he knows everything ’cause we’re speaking the language of the street. Everybody’s not thinking about the people that’s left behind and the people that’s on lock down, but we do it with a certain class.

XXL: Being that you’re independent and are working primarily with underground artists, what do you consider a success sales wise?

Preemo: I’m willing to start from the bottom. I don’t expect to be platinum overnight, we have that drive to win but not like, “Oh, yeah, we’re going platinum and this and that.” We just let it roll ’cause we understand that we gotta start from zero and even though I’ve had mad success in the industry, I don’t mind starting from the bottom because I’ve been there before so it’s easy to walk that road. It’s nothing I’m not familiar with and the artists have the same mentality because I could stop right now and I’m good. I’ve done my whole career and I’ve achieved pretty much everything I’ve wanted to. There’s still a lot more that I wanna achieve but if it stopped today I know I did a lot.

XXL: Is there anyone you wouldn’t work with?

Preemo: Dope is dope, but I really wouldn’t deal with a younger kid who’s like 15 because they really can’t rhyme about much that I can relate to unless he really just has some experience like when we were coming up. Other than that [I could] pump up some of the younger artists because they can hit the mainstream easier and the money comes a little quicker, but the hassle of doing something that you don’t love? I’m not gonna do it.

XXL: What about someone like Cory Gunz, who’s young but a beast on the mic?

Preemo: Yeah, I would work with him because I know his father [Peter Gunz] is showing him [the ropes]. So Cory I would definitely do a deal with… But I also have this kid Nick Javas from New Jersey. He just graduated from Rutgers and is a real witty MC. I’m really looking forward to working with him. We’re actually about to leak a song called “Opportunity Knocks.”

XXL: What’s that about?

Preemo: He told me he wanted to do a song about him trying to convince me to sign him, so it’s him coming to see me at the studio but I’m busy. He’s sayin’, “Look, I’m here; why don’t you let me get in the booth?” I told him I don’t do it like that and he’s still pushing me and I’m like aight, I’ll give you one shot so I give him one shot and he drops 16. When he asks me my opinion on the verse I respond to him with cuts. I don’t ever speak, I’m just letting the cuts say it like, one line I’m like why are you wasting my time like this? I cut that line from Fast Times at Ridgemont High so instead of me talking, the record’s talking.

XXL: What’s going on with your solo album, Man of Few Words?

Preemo: I’m thinking about starting my album [soon], but my wish list [of artists] keeps changing. I’ve changed it at least seven or eight times, but I finally found one I like and now I’m gonna stick to that. Now it’s more of a time thing. It has to be timed out right because it’s like me gathering 10 or 12 of my favorite artis
ts. It’s a lot of pressure but I’ma make sure that it happens. Yeah, let’s just make sure we don’t end up with a bunch of delays like Dr. Dre’s Detox. [Laughs] I would love to get Dre on my album. I wish I could do a beat and he would spit to it. I don’t care who writes it for him—Dre just has a dope flow when he recites rhymes that he wrote or were written for him. He always knows how to project it right that’s why he’s a true producer. Maybe one day that will happen…That’ll be a good collaboration.

XXL: Word, any possibility for one more Gang Starr album?

Preemo: My answer is if Guru is ready, then I’m ready. It’s really up to him, he says Gang Starr is originally his creation, which I really have no problem of giving him that, but the history we made together from ’89-2004, that’s the purest part of Gang Starr history that anybody will ever remember. In order to do it right again, if he’s ever ready again, I’ll be in the lab that day with the tape burnin’.

Source: XXLmag

Here I found a little conversation with Laura Izibor on the phone talking about DJ Premier. He made a pretty damn good rnb remix last year for the Irish soul artist, the remix is released in America on Atlantic as a vinyl single so you can still cop that!

http://www.zshare.net/audio/5478683321477637/

Source: KiwiBox

If you ask one of my visitors who is Khaleel they will answer ‘It’s a cat that is signed to DJ Premier‘s label’. But who knows really Khaleel?! What’s his personality, what are his legends, … That’s what I was trying to find out. So I went in contact with this young Texas living hip hop artist who is working on his debut album since last years summer. Please not that this is an oversea interview, so I did that best what I could do. You will definitely know him better, and at the end you want that album so bad haha. You can still vote on him, his debut album is titled “My MC Name Is…“. Last year we didn’t see much of him, but this year it will all change so watch. Starting you will see him in the “Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed” video of Blaq Poet (whenever that will be released lol, three weeks ago?) and ending with his debut album hopefully! Enjoy:

Myspace

Got something fresh for y’all, a 40mins interview with DJ Premier about a lot of items. Big shout to the people of Thermal Soundwaves for this one. It’s recorded in January so this headline is fresh. Works of Mart, if you read the credits, DJ Premier always produced for Works of Mart. It’s a small label project of DJ Premier where he signes producers (since recently), first name is MoSS. Producer from Canada.

Other then that DJ Premier talks about Year Round Records, Mass Appeal, DWYCK, Buckshot Lefonque, Biggie, Blaq Poet and how to get in touch with his management. They also talks about Superproducer Solar because he was getting aggressive some months ago when they did an interview with Guru because there was too much talk about Gang Starr, and when I heard that interview, oeeeew, this producer threats Guru as a child (he actually interrupt Guru several times with a mad voice how the deal is) haha. I think I finally understand why Guru and Premier are not together anymore… But at least he is a superproducer (now you know my opion).

Here you have the interview with DJ Premier:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/544254633d383fb0/

Here is an interesting view on the life and thoughts of Gary Bond, also known as Phat Gary. Most know him as manager of DJ Premier since 2005, others know him as intern of Payday Records in the golden 90s. A guy with a lot of experience in the game with a mission: take Year Round Records to the next level…

“Today’s world is not about how Premier gave you Gang Starr. It’s about what he’s gonna do next week, next month, next year.”

“I’m a part of a hip-hop icon, and his success. Not my success, his success. My goal is to make sure he prospers. He’s been doing this for twenty years, and still doing it, in a world where that doesn’t happen very often.”

Indeed, being responsible for the career of rap’s most revered producer —DJ Premier—is no small feat. It involves a healthy respect for the past with a keen eye toward the future. It means cherishing a legacy while retaining relevancy in today’s myopic, what-have-you-done-for-me lately music game. But manager Gary Bond, affectionately yet authoritatively known throughout music industry circles as Phat Gary, wouldn’t want it any other way. And he’s wary of quick alliances and false promises.

“It’s a family here with Premier and our team. It’s not like I’m the manager and he’s separated from me; no, we actually work together closely. I speak to other potential clients, but I can usually tell right away what they’re looking for: to make it happen today. It doesn’t work like that. You have to work and build to make an artist interesting and marketable enough that people want to spend their money on him. Some managers can manage anybody for six months, and then be onto the next cat. It’s hard to find loyalty. People don’t want to work together, fight together, and reap benefits together. Everybody got so caught up in believing that things are supposed to be given to him or her, because success is all you see on TV. They don’t show you the failures. You’d be surprised, a lot of cats don’t really want it.”

Essentially born into a cipher—he spent homeroom periods at Brooklyn’s George Westinghouse High School with Jay-Z and Oli “Power” Grant, Wu-Tang Clan’s Executive Producer—Phat Gary dipped his toe into the industry pool as an intern at Payday Records under owner Patrick Moxey. Payday, incidentally, initially inked Jay-Z to a contract, and released his debut single “In My Lifetime.” Fully immersed in the daily grind, Gary labored through 12, even 16-hour days, saturating himself with industry knowledge and wherewithal. Now, he reminisces on those early days with his trademark mix of irony and insight: “When I was an intern at Payday, people used to laugh at me, saying ‘You’re the dude here working this hard for sandwiches.’ Now, these people are calling me for help.” Last laugh indeed.

Stepping out of the office, Gary assumed the duties of road manager for luminary acts such as O.C., Jeru the Damaja, Guru, Group Home, Bahamadia, even DJ Shadow. A seasoned road vet by 1998, Gary fielded an even more esteemed and lucrative offer from Patrick Moxey: fulltime management of iconic rap duo Gang Starr, comprised of the aforementioned DJ Premier and MC Guru. Phat Gary went to work for Moxey’s affiliated management firm, Empire Management. With Gary’s day-to-day input, demand for Premier’s stripped-down, street-seeped production skyrocketed—so much so that Gary teamed up with Empire coworker Sarah Honda.

When Empire shut its doors in 2004, Gary found his services heavily in demand, and ultimately landed at upstart management company Fuerte. That stint lasted only six months, as a familiar face came calling: DJ Premier. In 2005, Phat Gary reunited with his old friend and ally, this time without interlocutor. Phat Gary was put in charge of Year Round Inc., the umbrella company for all of Premier’s endeavors: production, publishing, touring, releasing of records, etc. He also took the reins at Premier’s recording studio HeadQcouterz, wherein Gary’s office is located to this day. DJ Premier’s business was now exclusively Phat Gary’s.

Immediately, Gary looked to revise some longstanding but less-savory industry business practices: “A lot of people came to Premier looking for favors since he’s this underground producer, and I told them, ‘No, you need to do me a favor, I need you to pay like you weigh.’ So people finally starting paying Premo what he deserved. It was a big step in proving my abilities not only to Premier but also to myself. I basically took the whole Premier team on my back and I just walked and carried us through. It made us stronger. And all that work paid off with Christina Aguilera.”

Indeed, in 2006, Gary helped orchestrate DJ Premier’s most compelling recent project: production for Christina Aguilera’s soulful album Back to Basics. Premier contributed several tracks, including lead single “Ain’t No Other Man,” which went on to win a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Also in 2007, Premier unleashed the anthemic throwback remix to Kanye West’s “Classic,” featuring Nas, Rakim, and KRS-One. The team of DJ Premier and Phat Gary Bond had pushed the envelope, again. And made believers of an entirely
new fanbase. Currently, Premier and Bond are knee-deep in goings-on: a remix for Maroon 5; the standout track “MVP” on Ludacris’ new Theater of the Mind album; artists Blaq Poet and NYG’z, both signed to Premier’s Year Round Records. It don’t stop. Nor does the phone. But Gary, to his credit, still brims with the hunger he showed as a Payday intern.

“Premier and I have conversations, and he’ll thank me for managing him, for taking him on. And I respond by thanking him for the opportunity. But it’s not about being appreciated because I have so much left to accomplish. I don’t use other people’s success as a notch of what a level is. Today’s world is not about how Premier gave you Gang Starr. It’s about what he’s gonna do next week, next month, next year. The whole game is changed. I never thought I’d be here long enough to watch two generations of artists get deals, come and go, and I’m still here. I’m most proud of that fact. To this day, I don’t know how close I am to the edge because I’m not looking.”

Source: The Industry Cosign