Shout out to http://www.truestoriesradio.com for the interview but I had to put it on youtube because they server was too slow. And JoJo Pellegrino finally got his Premo track? He told twitter he was out recording to Premo’s studio!
DJ Premier On Probably Working With Mary J Blige & Jay-Z’s Next Album + Pornindustry
Guru Music Video Tribute by Blackjack from France, Europe
Guru Tribute from France featuring Blackjack, Kid Sude, Mike Larry The Classic & Cay Carbonado with a cameo from the legendary MC Solaar! Much love to my European brothers for putting this in work. Dope!
DJ Premier Says Drake Reached Out For Sophomore Album
With Drake recently announcing that his R&B mixtape, It’s Never Enough, has been put on hold, it seems as if his rap calling is getting the best of him.
Apparently, one of the pioneering producers of New York City’s early ’90s hip-hop sound may have played a part in Drizzy’s desire to focus on his rhymes.
“I met Drake at the Jay-Z and Eminem concert at Yankee Stadium. A good friend of mine does some charity work for Derek Jeter and was also working with Drake,” DJ Premier tells VIBE on the first time he was introduced to the rapper. “He told me Drake wanted to come say “what’s” up real quick before he got on the stage with Jay.”
Premier describes his first encounter with hip-hop’s rookie of the year as a humble and genuine experience. Much like producer extraordinaire Pharrell, Drake felt the need to actually bow down and pay his respect to the hip-hop legend.
The two ended up connecting on a personal level and watched the rest of Jay and Eminem’s monumental show in the same suite. After breaking the ice, Drake nonchalantly requested for Preemo’s services on his forthcoming sophomore set.
“He said ‘Yo next album I want to do some stuff [with you]’ and that’s pretty much the end of it.” DJ Premier continues, “He comes down and sits down next to us to watch the show and everybody in all the other suites next to us started bugging. He was just chilling there and not acting like he was too cool.”
Just like the Asher Roth guy also this new revelation reaches out to Premo.
Akinyele – No Exit (Part II) (Full Audio), Hip Hop Most Valuable Song Ever?
Once again my love for 90s Hip Hop has no limit. Damn! Last time I had the change to talk about this 90s event, which had a lot of attention. Even Stretch was surprised about it. I wonder why the people gave it so much attention… I question myself if it was the song itself or just the reminisce of the 90s that got much attention? I’m always into covering 90s stories, I did a few more of them. The J-Rock article was my first one. Great great.
I’m a vinyl collector myself, not so big as those hardcore collectors, but I like to buy rare shit from time to time if I have the money. But every hardcore vinyl collector will have their ears open when they hear about the Akinyele 12inch “Break A Bitch”. It’s on paper one of the most valuable piece of vinyl ever in Hip Hop. Next to Kool DJ AJ “Ah, Thats The Joint” and Mr. Magic’s “Be Bop Convention” LP you can’t have this without paying the four numbers. Prices up to 5000 dollars are nothing rare when it comes to this 12inch.
The reason why it’s so fucking expensive record is because of the rarity. The 12inch was only test pressed. The record is almost an urban legend. Some say only 10 copies were pressed, some say 18. Another reason why it’s so expensive is because 1 track on the vinyl is so rare that it isn’t even downloadable (until now). Many diggers including me are searching the track for years. People who don’t know: you could consider searching an element of hip hop. We are now almost 2011, but in the past you had to search your shit. And some people like me are still trying to search shit, it’s still our way of making fun.
The 12inch released by Liberty Grooves has on the A-Side the track “Break A Bitch Neck“, produced by Large Pro and featuring Kool G Rap. And on the B-Side ” You Gotta Go Down“, produced by Doo-Wop. And another track called “No Exit (Part II)”, produced by Dr. Butcher. That’s the wanted track were only a snippet was released of in the past. Nobody who has the vinyl or promo cassette ever ripped it, but Stretch Armstrong used to play it a several times on his show in the 90s. So I tweaked it a little like I love to do and made this article. Why not? We still don’t have the original rip, but we come closer and we have a full audio now. Enjoy probably the most valuable known joint ever in the history of hip hop:
I could give you more text about Akinyele background but face it, if you don’t know him you don’t know hip hop… And there’s actually one copy available to buy -if you have the cash- click. If you have crazy records stories, free feel to share them in the comment section! DJ Premier Blog brrrrraaaa brraaaa.
DJ Premier & Texas: Homecoming
“Hip-hop, like life, is like an onion. Peel back the layers and you might weep.” -DJ Premier
So it goes with legendary hip-hop duo Gang Starr. On the surface, Gang Starr was an East Coast duo that pushed musical boundaries in the ’90s by beautifully bringing together jazz and hip-hop.
Peel back a layer and you find the two men, who essentially helped pioneer New York’s hip-hop sound, weren’t from New York after all. In fact, one-half of the group credited with playing an important role in the early development of Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and Nas once drove forklifts at a Texas Kroger.
This young man lived in Fifth Ward and played for a little league team called the Astros. He smashed football helmets for Waller High School. He went to college not at some serene East Coast academic institution, but a Historically Black university on the outskirts of Houston on 290 West.
You might know it. It’s called Prairie View A&M, and Christopher Martin, now 44, sometimes tailgates when he visits home and DJs Prairie View’s homecoming parties.
If you don a Houston fitted cap, the scent of the onion’s layers might have you teary-eyed with pride, knowing that a figure whose upbringing screams H-Town also played a historic role in the evolution of quite possibly your favorite sound born in the Bronx.
In an age when hip-hop has been hijacked by silly dance moves, sometimes too much bling and pastel Polos — no offense if you do the “Dougie” with a piece chain over your pink garb, though — the music’s history, roots and authenticity still remain important to Martin.
You may know Martin better as DJ Premier. If you haven’t guessed, he’s originally from Houston. His deceased partner, MC Guru, hailed from Boston.
Gang Starr, however, will forever represent New York.
Guru passed of complications due to cancer this past April. His death was surrounded by controversy in hip-hop rags and blogs, with claims he wrote an unfavorable letter about DJ Premier in his dying days stating he did “not wish my ex-DJ to have anything to do with my name, likeness, events, tributes, etc.”
Guru’s family and Premier believe the letter was “false and bogus,” he says, because after more than 20 years of knowing each other, he knew Guru’s penmanship.
Peel back another layer and you reveal something vital to Premier’s argument: He really does know his partner’s handwriting.
“I have his rhyme book,” he says. “I know his handwriting. Why didn’t he write my name? Why would he write ‘ex DJ’? It doesn’t make sense. If you take this to a court of law, I’d win.”
“To be invited to speak at his private funeral,” he punctuates, “You know I’m official.”
Official is right.
Rolling Stone named DJ Premier as hip-hop’s greatest producer of all-time; The Source ranked him one of the five greatest producers in hip-hop history, and About.com ranked him No. 1 on its “Top-50 Hip-Hop Producers” list, according to Wikipedia.
Guru’s production fingerprints are pressed on some of the most important albums ever to come out of the East Coast, including KRS-One’s Return of the Boom Bap, Nas’s Ilmatic, B.I.G.’s Ready to Die and Jay-Z’s first four albums.
And when he DJs, his notoriety overseas can pack a Paris nightclub. He’ll probably do the same when he brings his brilliance behind the turntables to Numbers Sunday night.
“It’s like a reset button,” Premier says about coming home. “It resets you back. All my friends tell me, ‘You haven’t changed. How do you not do that?’
“My head is in the right place,” he adds.
His head is always in hip-hop. He spits the names of behind-the-scenes hip-hop figures from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s with a dismissing ease, as if you’re supposed to know who they are.
As if you, too, were backstage with the Geto Boyz, Kool G Rap and Ice Cube at Harlem’s Apollo Theater when Houston hip-hop’s trailblazing trio blew the lid off the New York shrine.
As if you knew Big Mello replaced Willie D that evening at the Apollo because Willie and Scarface had an argument and D refused to take the stage. The crowd, Premier recalls, couldn’t tell the difference.
As if Eric B & Rakim, Run-DMC, Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy were also your professional competition.
Not surprisingly, in DJ Premier’s mind, knowledge of hip-hop history equals longevity in the industry.
In the middle of our hour-long conversation, after rapidly scratching at our musical knowledge, like the ones and twos, with several dozen names of music pioneers in hip-hop, country and blues, he suddenly asks us our age.
We tell him we’re 31…hoping that’s old enough to garner his respect.
“Most people your age and younger, they fall off,” Premier says, assuming we haven’t fallen off. “Most people can’t have a conversation with me and I could care less. I live the culture through and through. Not everybody is hip-hop 24/7. I am.”
“The only way you will ever last in hip-hop is if you respect where it comes from,” he continues. “You can’t make [hip-hop] different until you know enough to make it different. Today a lot of the artists don’t know the history. How far do you think you can go? You have to know enough history to prolong it. You treat it with respect and you are always going to be able to do it no matter how old you are.”
DJ Premier is a proof point of his philosophy and rappers like Bun B are examples of it. Premier is known to talk with his hands behind the turntables, and he channeled Pimp C’s spirit on “Let ‘Em Know” featured on Bun’s latest album, Trill O.G.
In hip-hop years, Premier is practically 100. When he speaks of “back in my day,” it’s reminiscent of grandfathers recalling walking uphill to and from school, but it’s endearing. Eventually you realize you aren’t talking to grandpa, you’re talking to a chapter in hip-hop history.
After studying at Prairie View, Premier recalls leaving Houston in a raggedy Nissan with plenty of nicknames and heading to New York. When he got there, there were eviction notices and padlocks on his front door when he and then-roommate Guru couldn’t make the rent.
A call from Spike Lee changed that. Gang Starr was invited to create a track, called “Jazz Thing,” for Lee’s 1990 flick Mo Better Blues. The rest, as they say, is hip-hop history.
Over the next 12 years, Gang Starr would drop a discography that would cement their place as one of the most important hip-hop duos in East Coast rap, and arguably in hip-hop history: Step in the Arena (1991), Daily Operation (1992), Hard to Earn (1994), Moment of Truth (1998) and The Ownerz (2003).
In 2006, Guru publicly declared the end to Gang Starr, but Premier talked of a reunion in the months prior to Guru’s death.
“I still cry every now and then,” Premier says. “I’m angry that he’s gone.”
Peel back the layers and you might weep.
Dope article! DJ Premier playing this weekend in Houston.
DJ Premier Talks Where Rap Went Wrong and How to Fix It
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.
More more more interviews!
First Single The Game x DJ Premier is Called “Born In The Trap”
“Me and Game just did a banger called ‘Born In The Trap,'” Premier revealed to SOHH. “He was like, ‘Can I get another one?’ I said, ‘What, you didn’t like that one?’ He said, ‘No, no, I want to buy another one!’ I was like, ‘Sh*t yeah.’ [laughs] He said mine is the second song on the album, so, I’m about to do another one for him but the one that we already did, he said it’s going to be the second song. I’m excited about that. I know he’s been leaking out a lot of stuff but he said a lot of the stuff he’s leaking isn’t going to be on the album. I haven’t even heard anything. He knocked that sh*t out with me in one day and I mixed it the same day.”
That he wanted a second beat is already old news hehe.
