With all due respect to the late Godfather of Soul James Brown, DJ Premier might be the current hardest working man in show business. In between DJ gigs, his radio show on Sirius Hip Hop Nation and producing for various artists the legendary DJ Premier is out promoting his upcoming compilation, DJ Premier Presents Year Round Records: Get Used to Us.

Premier is also scheduled to appear at the 2010 Red Bull Big Tune National Finals with Just Blaze taking place tonight (November 18, 2010) at Chicago’s Metro. What better person to politic with the next generation of beat makers than one of the greatest producers of all-time?

Nineteen up and coming producers will duke it out for the Red Bull Big Tune title which includes the chance to record at the Red Bull Studio in Los Angeles with an A-list emcee. Before that, all 19 producers will get the chance to pick the brains of Just Blaze and DJ Premier—they’re winners already.

Before the event I got the chance to pick the brain of DJ Premier and as usual the pleasure was all mine.

SS: Tell me about the new compilation album.

DJ Premier: I actually put it together because I have three artists on my label that I was trying to get out, NYG’z is my gutter group from the Bronx and Manhattan, Nick Javas is an Italian emcee from New Jersey, and Khaleel from Houston. Long story short I was trying to get the NYG’z and Nick Javas’ album up and running for the summer but, we weren’t ready yet. As we got closer to the end of the year it didn’t make sense to try to rush it. So I wanted to have some type of product out so I said let me just do a compilation album in the meantime. I pulled songs from all the projects that I have coming in 2011. I compiled it to give everybody a taste of everything to let people know that we mean business with what we’re bringing. The compilation album is really just to stall while I get my albums finished. I figured let’s call it DJ Premier Presents Year Round Records. I have so many projects lined up and this is the best way to give a little taste of everything. It’s like when you order appetizers, you can order just chicken fingers or you can get the combo platter where you can order chicken fingers, shrimp, soup, everything! That’s pretty much what it’s going to be.

SS: When I listen to Not A Game and Opportunity Knocks from Get Used to Us by Nick Javas his originality is what stands out the most. He rhymes about things that a lot of cats don’t rhyme about. Talk about how you discovered Nick; his style, and his upcoming album in 2011.

DJ Premier: Well what happened was I met him at a Big Shug’s listening party for Street Champ. Since Shug is Gangstarr Foundation I had to make sure I was there to represent that. This guy named Spence that I know in the industry brought Nick to shop his demo. He brought him to a lot of different events to get him recognized so he introduced me to Nick and he was a little overconfident in my opinion. He was like, “Yeah man, I’m nice.” I’ve heard that about everybody. He had the same little cocky attitude and I’m used to that. When he came off like that I wasn’t impressed because I’ve heard that from so many other people. Every time someone tries to impress me like that I hear the same old bullsh*t and their demo turns out not to be hot. When it came down to that I said you know what, I’ll take a listen to it later. When I walked away he was staring at me with this stalking look. I’m wondering why he’s staring at me like that but I just let it go.

Fast forward, I ended up moving to a new house and when I was unpacking all my stuff I had a box of all my demos that I hadn’t listened to. It was like ten of them and most of them were trash. Nick Javas was the guy who was talking about he was nice. I popped it in and I was impressed with his wordplay and wittiness. He used a lot of sports references and I like sports. I liked the cleverness of how he said what he said. I called the number on the CD to see if it worked and he picked up the phone. He was having a Super Bowl party at the time. He was sweeping the floor and putting food out and all of a sudden I call. He was like, “Is this really DJ Premier?” From there we ended up talking for two hours. We took it to the next level and I told him, “I’m very picky about white artists being that you’re not from the ghetto. This is a black culture but I welcome any race. You’re coming under Premier and my level of the game so you’ve got to come off differently from the other white emcees that I like.” I like Eminem, Apathy, Esoteric, Ill Bill, Slaine, Everlast, Necro, Vinnie Paz, and JoJo Pellegrino but how can I make Nick stand out differently? He started throwing out all these ideas, “Hey man, we should do a record where I’m trying to convince you to sign me to the label! We should call it Opportunity Knocks.” I was like, “Alright, I like that idea.” That’s why I made the beat with the knock on the door as reference to him trying to get my attention to be recognized as one of the great ones that’ll go down in the books eventually. We cut the record and it came out good. I graded him on his lyrics by responding in scratches instead of me talking to him. In the first verse he’s too cocky like the day when I met him that’s why I’m knocking him down because I don’t want him to easily get a deal. We just shot the video which came out great.

Not A Game was just a B-side for the single. He heard the beat and came up with a concept of how life is not a game but equating it to sports. He told me he wanted to use the Allen Iverson sample and I just started doing it by hand. I hit the record button to remind me of how I referenced it and ended up liking it like that. I leaked it out and a lot of deejay’s liked it but wanted scratches on it. I did two versions, one with me cutting on it and one that says “not a game” throughout. He’s working on his album Destination Unknown and his album is incredible. He’s very unique and he’s definitely going to be a star.

SS: Another joint on the album is Hot Flames by an artist on your label Khaleel. He also has a unique style, talk about Khaleel and that Hot Flames joint.

DJ Premier: I did that record back in 2002 and just never released it. Khaleel was on another label and signed with me because that label fell apart. The owner asked me if I would find a way to get him plugged into the business and he’d appreciate it. I said, “Alright, I’ll do one album with him—I’ll do one,” and I did it. That’s what it turned out to be. At the end of the day I’m very happy with the way that came out as well. Being that the other label shut down I just made sure that I wasn’t going to release it until I was ready to because I thought it was a good enough single to help introduce him. I’ve been sitting on it for years and now we’re ready to launch it and it sounds like something we just did.

SS: It does, it does. The last time we spoke in Dallas you let the cat out of the bag that you and KRS were hooking back up for Return of the Boom Bip. KRS & Grand Puba have a joint on Get Used To Us called 5%, talk about how that song came together.

DJ Premier: I originally did that beat for Rakim when he was on Dr. Dre’s label, Aftermath. Rakim moved on and we ended up saying that we’ll work on stuff later on down the line. We were just building in the studio and I played KRS some of the beats that I had on stash which I usually don’t do because I make my tracks on the spot. I played it for him and he said he wanted to do a record about the 5% [Nation of God’s and Earths] on this! I said, “OK, we can do that.” He said he wanted to get somebody to guest on it and right as he said that Ice-T knocked on my door. Ice-T was upstairs doing a session and he heard I was in the studio. We started kicking it with Ice and told him about the song and Ice said, “You need to get somebody like Brand Nubian or Grand Puba who can talk that God talk.” Right then we all looked at each other and said, “Puba!” I called Lord Finesse because he was with Grand Puba the night before and Finesse gave me his number. I called Puba and told him the deal and he totally liked the idea. I picked him up at a bar and he slid the drink in the sleeve of his jacket and snuck out of the bar. We drove and I let him hear the first verse and he came in and blazed it.

SS: You’re also working on a joint album with Pete Rock. What made you two decide to get together to work on a joint project?

DJ Premier: We were in Tokyo doing a Pete Rock vs. Premier concert for Manhattan Records. It’s a famous record store that was celebrating their 25-year anniversary. They asked us to do this concert as a one-off and on the way home Pete and I were talking sh*t and it turned into almost a battle. His manager was like, “Yo, y’all should do an album.” Me and Pete looked at each other and said, “You want to do it?” We said. “Yeah let’s do it,” and Pete said let’s call it Pete Rock vs. Premier. He said, “I’ll get six artists and do six songs and you do the same thing.” We aren’t telling each other which artists we’re bringing to the table but I’m bringing six and he’s bringing six and we’re going to combine them. We’ll see who has the hottest stuff at the end of the day but the main aim is to put out a solid body of work.

SS: Is there a timetable for the release of that album because it sounds crazy, man!

DJ Premier: We just started but we’re going to actually do it, do it right after Christmas. I have to get my album out on December 7th and take a break and Pete is doing touring. We both started the project already. I got my first one in the can but I still have five more to do. Pete already started his so we’re going to go full throttle and make this sh*t pop.

SS: Gangstarr means so much to so many people. With the passing of Guru will we ever hear some unreleased Gangstarr joints on Year Round Records?

DJ Premier: Absolutely, absolutely we will. I have the rights to Gangstarr along with Guru’s son so everything is gravy. I’m working with them and I’ll be dropping DVD’s of behind the scenes stuff from 1989 to 2010. Nobody has that footage but me and nobody has the music but me. I have people contributing tracks of Guru’s vocals that I didn’t have and I also have stuff on lock. We’re going to do a Gangstarr Foundation album and a couple of other things but the DVD’s are definitely going to be popping. I have hundreds of hours of footage that no one else has so you will be seeing that.

SS: On December 7th DJ Premier presents Year Round Records: Get Used to Us drops and you’re dropping several albums in 2011. What are your overall goals and plans for Year Round Records?

DJ Premier: Just to elevate music the way it’s supposed to be elevated, man. Everybody is so wack these days. It’s not enough stuff for adults. I’m an adult, I don’t want to hear kiddie rap. So in order for me to get some stuff that I can relate to I need to hear some stuff that’s on my level. The only way to do it without being the person that wishes it can happen is being the producer that makes it happen. I’m like a car that pulls up to another nice car at the light. As soon as you see me at the light you gotta be like, “Nice, nice car.” Even if yours is nice you gotta give me thumbs up on mine.

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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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