DJ Premier

26:25Right. So it was basically done. Why does he hit you up to? He said, I need a street record because Juicy was more radio oriented. Everybody knew the M2 May record. Just in any black household, everybody's going to have the M2 May album. Right. And everybody's going to have Juicy Fruit. That's standard in any black household. I can't speak for outside of that. I'm just going by how I was raised. But in a black household, you're going to have - Let them know. We gentrify Brooklyn, so let them know. Yeah, so now the Rolling Stones are blending in with M2 May. But even that, even in the Black household, you have the Rolling Stones.

27:01You may not have Led Zeppelin, but the Stones kind of cross a certain line where they have - Not as hard, the more just - Yeah, same thing with hip hop. That's how a lot of rock records, like Run DMC didn't call it Aerosmith. They said, yo, get the Toys in the Attic album and cut that up. That was the break. The Toys in the Attic, right. That was the name of the album. The song was called Walk This Way, but from a hip hop perspective, like, yo, put that Toys in the Attic joint on. Right, right. You know, that's just how they do it. But even Assembly Line by the Commodores, the part where it breaks down and goes, Hut.

27:33Every DJ calls, yo, put Hut on. But it's called Assembly Line. Yeah, that's from the first Commodores record. So you can't find it if you look for Hut. But if you sing it to back in Music Factory days, you could go in the store and go, what's that record that goes, Hut? Oh, Commodores right there. Row one, down two. That's how it was. let's go back to Biggie and Unbelievable when Biggie hits you and says I need a street record what are your thoughts everybody that knows my formula is I like to make the beat it's like cooking you dinner come by and I'll cook you something that's what it is show up it's gotta be personal oh yeah absolutely it's gotta be tailored one thing I love about Guru God bless him from Gangstar was he always said in interviews DJ Premier is a beat tailor he will tailor it to you.

28:24Like Gamble and Huff. I saw them do an interview. Anybody know who Gamble and Huff is? One of the best producing crew in the world. They're like Holland Dozier Holland from Motown. They did all the Philadelphia International stuff. They did the OJs. They did the Jones Girls. They did Harold Melvin of the Blue Nosey. They did Teddy Pendergrass and the Jacksons. When they left Motown and they went to Epic, they produced, I think, the first two albums. I didn't know that. Yeah, they did enjoy yourself and good times so during that time i watched their interview and they said we always make the track right there that we think you would have a hit record on and we present it to you we don't just uh you know like now it's all the producers these days it's like oh here's 30 beats pick which one you like and we make a song right i'm literally looking at you if i had to make a record for you i'm gonna be like okay i'll listen to what you've done and then i'll i'll know where I fit in and I'll make it for you.

29:23And you do it at your studio? D &D would have been where you... At that time, yeah. That was the studio. A lot of people were scared to go there because it was a heroin street. So it was heroin and fiends walking around like zombies and everything. And it was crack on the block. It's funny because I just did an interview with Sway and Heather Beethy last week. And Heather used to always come there. And there's a deli that we go to, but we call it Crack Deli. so we go hey man go get me a sandwich from crack deli and she goes yeah crack desk she was like i remember crack deli because all the crack dealers are on the corner selling crack and you're just going to end it like yo premiere what's up man love your music man yo you want anything i'm like no and they're selling crack right on the corner so we call it crack deli so those are the days you know and y 'all know rappers you know rappers are always tough and Macho, a lot of them that we worked with were like, I'm not coming back here.

30:20It's too scary. Wow. Yeah. So shout to Crack Deli. Shout to all the fiends. And shout to D &D. Dave and Doug. That's D &D. That's D &D. I didn't know that. Dave and Doug. Dave Lawin and Doug Grammar. Yeah. So is that where you made Unbelievable? Did you get big it down to D &D? Yeah, Big came with his crew. He's not worried about anything. Right, right. It's from Fulton. And it got to a point when Jay-Z started working on Reasonable Doubt. he was an everyday guy. We're there every day. Really? He's in one room, I'm in my room, and the beat miners who produced Black Moon, Smith & West, and Helter Skelter, rest in peace to Sean Price, they would be in the other room.

31:00So it was just a rotation. Jay-Z would go in one room, work, come to my room and work, and he would always be there. And he'd be in there with the other producers, like Ski or whoever else. Yeah, during that time, Ski, Sean and LV, a guy named Nobody, Irv Gotti was there, But, you know, he was DJ Irv back then. You know, he wasn't Irv Gotti with Murder, Inc., with Ja Rule and all that yet. I don't know. So these are early days. Well, Big's an interesting story because Big kind of told you what to make, right? Yeah. In terms of for Unbelievable. Well, Unbelievable, he didn't. He just told me what to scratch.

31:33He was just like, man, make anything. I'm like, dude, because I told him I turned him down. Right. I was like, dude, I'm too busy. I'll get you on the next album. He's like, I just need a quick joint for the streets, please. And I'm like, yeah, but I don't even know where to squeeze it in. He goes, man, I don't even care if you use M.P.S. the President. And if you know hip hop, M.P.S. the President by the Honey Drippers, it's one of the biggest break records of all time in hip hop culture. So to use that, you have to manipulate it and be creative. So I said, all right, come meet me there and I'm going to chop it up and just come up with some things.

32:10and I found this note that had a vibration at the end of the note. It was one note. I just gave it to Questlove. I don't give my sessions out. I took all the sounds off the disc because they wanted to remake it, but with the original sounds that I sampled. Wait, was that sound from Impeach the President? Just the drum break, right? The drum break, yeah. I was going to ask, what's that sound from? But it's chopped into a different drum pattern. Right. Where do you hear that note? What is that note with the dun, dun, dun? Sampling is an art form, especially in the hip hop culture, because we have brought back a lot of records that probably wouldn't even be popular now.

32:49I mean, there's records that I've sampled where you'll go to a store and it was only like$3. And now that I used it or Dr. Dre used it or Diamond D or Large Professor or Pete Rock or Easy Mo B, you name it, even Public Enemy with the Bomb Squad. And now you'll look, that record's$200. Yup. Because they know, oh, Premier used that. And a lot of people want to own it. And it's getting re-released. It's getting picked up. Yeah, and people want to own that record. So now it's$200 or$300. And I'm like, well, shit, do I get a cut of that? So you ain't going to tell us where that stab came from, are you?

33:24No. Hey, honestly, I can't remember for that one because it's just one note. But when you play it, it goes, boop. So it doesn't just go, boop. It goes, boop. Right. If you hear it on it, it's going to poop, poop, poop. So the fact that it has that little curl on it, I just took that one note and just pitched it on different drum pads on the machine. So now it's going poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop. And then just made it dance in the lyrical. It's like poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop, poop. And he came in like, that's it. Wow. That's it. And then we chilled for damn near eight hours because that's when Bacardi Limon had just come out.

34:08And so he has mad bottles. And not only that, a lot of rappers started mentioning that in their rhymes. So he starts drinking that. Eight hours pass. It's getting really late. And I'm like, yo, Big, if we ain't going to record anything tonight, let's come back tomorrow. He goes, oh, I'm ready. I'm like, we've been sitting there for eight hours smoking and playing pool and rolling dice and drinking Bacardi Limon. He's like, okay, but I'm ready. Let's do it. And he goes in the booth and I'm like, did you write it down? He goes, no, it's up in here. And that's my first time witnessing him record with no paper.

34:45And I was like, wow. And then Jay-Z did the same thing. No paper. And Jay-Z did a similar thing too. The Evils from Reasonable Doubt, Jay's first record. Yeah. Called me, did the rhyme over the phone, explained what scratch sequence he wanted. I'm good either way. Most of the time, obviously, I come up with it, but I have no problem if an MC like Jay-Z or Biggie knows what they want, and then I'll see if it works. Scratch it in if it fits. I'm like, cool. It's still going to have my style of input, but Jay-Z told me exactly what he wanted. The other two songs, I just made the beat on the spot, and then he was like, ooh, I got something for that, like Friend to Friend to Foe.

35:27And then with Bring It On, he said, I'm bringing it to him. Well, Jazzo was already down with Jay-Z, but Sauce Money we had never heard of. And he brought him in and we did Bring It On. That's incredible. You do two other biggie records on Life After Death. Yeah. One of them being Kicking the Door. What made you settle on the I Put a Spell on You sample? I Put a Spell on You was a very well-known record in Texas. Because like I said, I come from a town where we didn't call it R &B back then. and it was called soul music. If you go to the record store, there was rock, jazz, it didn't say pop, and it didn't say R &B, it said soul.

36:08So me and my mother, who was a very big record collector, aside from being an art teacher, and she taught me art in junior high and high school. And everybody knows my mom. And everybody in my neighborhood has a painting that she did in their house. Even the funeral home where our funerals were held, There's pictures in the viewing room that my mom did in the bathrooms. I was like, damn, I can't escape her anywhere. Rob Markman That's beautiful though. Rob Markman Oh yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Rob Markman Talk about leaving a legacy. Rob Markman Oh yeah. Rob Markman Basically, it was just a record you heard around Texas.

36:42Rob Markman Oh, it's a record that was popular and where we're from. Screamin' Jay Hawkins is a popular, I Put A Spell On You is a popular record. We all knew the lyrics to it. I never planned on making it into a hip hop record for Big, but when it came to him, even that. I only charged him$5 ,000 for Unbelievable. And I said, if you go platinum and you get paid, I'm charging you triple the next time. He said, done deal. He ended up paying six times the amount. For kicking the door. For each record. Yeah, for kicking the door and 10 Crackers, man. So he kept his word. I said, you know you're going to pay what I told you.

37:19He goes, oh no, I got you. Or like Biggie would say, no doubt. Puff didn't like that record though, right? Kicking the door? No, he didn't. He didn't. I dropped off the beat. That's what we used to put it on, those little 10-minute cassettes. Right. I drop it off, and later on that evening, they call us and say, hey, you're ready to die. Platinum album's plaques came in. So I was like, ooh, so I'm going to pick that up, not thinking about the new track. Puff sees me in the lobby, and he's like, yo, man, can you work on a new beat to give to Big because I don't like the one that you that you gave him and I'm like okay no problem you know I if you don't like it I'm not offended but uh he said yeah I need something a little more like that's gonna rock in the tunnel I said that's gonna rock in the tunnel I said mark my words I said why don't you let Big hear it he said oh I'm gonna give it to him and let him hear it but still work on something else because they already hired me for two records, even though Crack Commandments wasn't a thought yet, I was like, okay, I'll work on another one.

38:24Big calls me maybe a couple hours later and he's like, yo, you could come down and we could work on that beat. And I'm like, well, I'm working on a new one now. He goes, no, the one you gave Puff earlier. And I was like, oh, he don't like that one. He goes, man, fuck that. I'm going to kill this record. And that's Big. He said, oh, I got some shit for this. I said, all right. And you know what's so dope is after we did the record, Puff was like, you know what? Once I hear the lyrics to it, I love it. It's a go. And he's the boss. So if he says no, it's not coming out. But he ended up liking it.

39:01One other big thing I heard is that you were with Big and Jay like about a month before Big went to L.A. for his last trip to L.A. And he was conflicted about going. Is that right? Yeah, at that time, they were working on Brooklyn's Finest, and there was this talk about him going to L.A., and he just said he didn't want to go. At that time, I don't know what transpired later, because I always tell this story. If you saw the Notorious movie, at the end of the movie where he's in the studio and he's smiling and they're playing Sky's the Limit, that session was really my session because the Ten Crack Commandments was the last song we did, and the part where he's smiling he goes yo it's over I'm the greatest that was really my session but you know earlier in the movie they played Ten Cracker Mammoths when his son played him and they were selling the crack on the street and they played Ten Cracker Mammoths there I guess it was more fitting for that part of the movie but that scene when he said Prem it's over I'm the greatest and I told Cheo Coker about that and even though I know he had a lot of input with the shaping of the movie along with Biggs family that scene is really should have been him listening to the crack of mammoths and when he said it's over I'm the greatest he was still in the vocal booth you know in a wheelchair right because he had a car accident he broke his hip when uh see him and see he crashed to a car so and I remember he said hey my first video is called hypnotized premium i'm gonna i'm doing physical therapy i'm gonna dance and he did you know he did a little yeah if you look at the hypnotized video he's dancing in it and he looks so happy too how did it feel for you knowing you were with him a month before and he's feeling like maybe i don't want to go to la very weird you get the news he's very weird because to get the news my former manager shout the fact Gary his girl at the time was best friends with Nino's girlfriend everybody knows that knows junior mafia knows Nino is one of the guys close to big so we got the news early because obviously since he's a family member of big they're already making calls you know six in the morning saying that he's been killed so and I was like how did you know he said you know Nino's girl is best friends with my girl and they just called us in the middle of the early morning and just told us that they just he just got killed in la so we knew before it was even we turned on the radio turn on tv nothing it's probably like almost an hour to two hours later they started making the announcement so we already knew that's wild man and in that whole that whole thing with with pac and big two must have been interesting for you you're interesting because you always like at the you kind of always in the middle of everything like yeah like jeru the Damager, who you did a lot of work with, incredible MC.

41:56He's beefing with Bad Boy Records. He wasn't beefing. It was more - Oh, they were mad at him. Yeah, well, what it was - For a record you made with him. Yeah, what it was, it's real simple. At the time, when we were at the Source Awards, we were very hot at the time. J.Ru was very hot. We thought we was going to get producer of the year, and J.Ru was so big at that time with Come Clean and his Sunrise in the East album. and the Source Awards was the first televised one. 95 one? Yeah, there was a pre-taped one the year before that aired, but this one is live. So when we were there, with all the stuff going back and forth, we were a little more hot-headed back then.

42:37We're not now, we're grown. But you got to remember, we're in our 20s, going into our 30s. We're very, very gung-ho about sticking to the script of not ever bowing down to watering down the music. So when all the back and forth was going on with Suge and Puff, we went to the studio and I was working on J.Ru's second album, Wrath of the Math, and I put this track on. It was called One Day. He talked about what happened all in one day, almost like a fictional story, but he wasn't afraid to mention anybody's names because that's just how - And he mentioned Suge and Puff. Yeah. Both in the back. And others, Foxy Brown, a guy named J.

43:19Black. You know, so when he mentioned all of that, we were still on some, you know what, let's put this out as a leak before we drop the first single. Yes, it pierced a lot of people in the Bad Boy crew and they took it the wrong way. But one thing I got to say is when it got to that point, Puff called J. Rue, he called the label, told him we got to have a talk about this. and they got into a big back and forth about, you know, don't say my name on a record. J. Rue's like, I'll say whatever I want. And they're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And one thing I got to say about Puff was he said, you know what?

43:58I got to respect J. Rue for not being afraid to say my name, no matter how he felt, where he said, I know a lot of people probably say stuff about me in their raps, but they just do it subliminally. He said, J. Rue was man enough to say it and tell me that he's standing on it. Like what they say now, stand on business. We've been standing on business. And he gave him his respect. And then it just finally fizzled out. But I love that you never get in the middle of it either. You make the beat. Your name's mentioned in it. I told all of them. I told Big. Because even Big was like, man, he's got to be talking about me too.

44:30Because he said hip hop had on a Versace suit. I'm like, you're not the first one wearing Versace. Mad people were wearing Versace before you. And we would have said your name too if we wanted to say your name. everybody mentioned with the specific people that were brought up and that was it but it did finally fizzled out years later and like I said the respect was given because I was in the session to hear all the talk you know Jay Root was like let me go with you and you were on the response I mean he big responds on Kicking the Door oh yeah on Kicking the Door and you made that beat he said I got something for you man your friends were big your friends were Pac your friends were Lady of Rage who's on death row you're kind of always in this neutral all of us yeah yeah man And I'm not doing it to be a troublemaker, but still back in that time when we were much younger, we were very rebellious and hardheaded, you know, a little ignorant.

45:21But as you grow, you look back and you go, wow, we went through some shit. But at the same time, everybody got respect for each other. It's just so sad that Pac and Big had to leave us so soon and Big L because we all were in the same clubs together. We were all hanging together. We were all cool. You know, I knew Pac and Big, seeing them together for years, being good friends with each other. You know, so it's sad that they're both gone. And then it was never an East Coast, West Coast beef. You got fans that fuel it like that, but the fans are not in the mix of the situation that was going down.

45:59It had nothing to do with the music. Right, right. Yeah, so. It's incredible, too, because I think you said something, and I never heard this, that Big wanted to get Dr. Dre to do records with them on Life After Death, which would have been amazing. It was the day after the Source Awards. Yeah, he asked Suge, you know, how can we connect to do a record? So that shows you right there. Biggs is not thinking about all the talk that happened at the Source Awards. He's like, let's get some work done or some music in. After one last break, we'll be back with the rest of my conversation with DJ Premier.

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49:49Yeah, man.

50:01It's impossible to not. It's hard to turn that off, but, you know. Shout out to D 'Angelo, man. One of the greatest. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Let's play where that comes from first.

50:20Teddy Pendergrass, first record. That's where it comes from, right? Uh, maybe. It sounds like it. Sounds like it. Am I wrong? It could be. Ah, shit.

50:43I want to play this game with you, man. Okay, well, let's assume it's that. Okay, allegedly. Allegedly. It's Teddy Pendergrass' first record, produced by Gamble and Huff. Yes, sir. And it's a shuffle in three. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. It's like a shuffle. It's a waltz. Right. If this is the song, allegedly, you turn it into like a call and response. starts over ridiculous hey that's the part of the creativity of sampling if you're deep rooted into respecting the art form of how it's done you know when you have people like you know Larry Smith and Molly Maul who was my idol Molly just revolutionized sampling first and brought it to the forefront with records like The Bridge and Eric B as president and Cool G rapping, DJ Polo, Road to the Riches and records like that, Big Daddy Kane.

51:43We just took it to another level after Molly taught us how to do it. So part of my creativity comes from being a DJ, because I think DJs have more of an understanding of how to manipulate sounds and make it into a whole new thing. Because when we DJ, or especially if you're a battle DJ, you're taking records and destroying your opponent in a battle by taking the parts and reworking it in a way where the whole crowd's going, oh, you know, and it's only more understood by people in the culture that are into DJing and whatnot. But that's always my approach before I program it is, how can I make this turn into something else?

52:23And you got to, you know, you got to hurt your neck. Yeah. Not only is it crazy the way you manipulated the sample, allegedly, but the other the other incredible thing is it's in a record that's a classic record one of the great records of all time that's pretty much only produced by D 'Angelo and Raphael Sadiq you come in second track fits seamlessly in there yeah we were label mates me and D 'Angelo so we knew each other before he did the Brown Sugar album and I was on tour at the time with Nas MOP and J.R.U.'s debut album and he asked me to do a remix to lady which i did a version where i took i used to call it just the drums or just the bass this one i took the the music out and just had the drums and played the these stabs stabs is just a note bam bam bam bam bam we got those stabs so it was just stabs and he i remember i was on tour and he was like yo i'm shooting a video to your version with the stabs, which he did.

53:27And he had everybody in Erykah Badu. The video was all white in the back. Yeah. I remember Erykah Badu was pregnant with Andre 3000's son. Joy was in it. Joy was in it. And just so many people. AZ was our label mate as well, who got famous through Nas' Zillmatic album. And he did the verse. And it was just a dope video. And then from there, he's like, I'm working on my new album, Voodoo. What you got? And I said, man, I'm actually leaving the studio now. I was working with Cannabis. It was a track that we worked on that didn't turn into what we were going to work on. You were working on that with Cannabis?

54:04Yeah. Because he was doing a record called Nigganometry, and he called me and said, I want a heavy... No one else is allowed to say that. Stop it. Okay, N-word-nometry. And he said, I want a real driving bass line. So I started just looking and did that. Did he rhyme on it? No, he never rhymed. I wish he would have. That would have been ridiculous. Oh, yeah. Shout out to Biss, man. If you know him, we call him Biss. He didn't do the record. I'm literally leaving this. Me and Biss are leaving the studio. I said, we'll work on something later. And D and I were already friends. So when he said, yo, man, I'm at Electric Lady, which is his sacred place, which is, if y 'all know, that's Jimi Hendrix's studio still to this day.

54:47I said, I got this record I was doing with Biss, but it's more some hip hop rhyme and shit. He goes, I want to hear it. and I was like nah it's not really it's not that type of vibe I'll work on something meet you tomorrow but I'll come by he said I want to play your stuff anyway he said Jay Dilla's here Questlove is here we're working on some stuff I go there Jay Dilla we miss you brother Questlove is there doing the drums to Untitled the one where he was naked in the video they were there working on that Jay Dilla was in there playing the drums and laying some stuff down and then he says let me hear the one that you were working on I play it and D 'Angelo just goes whoa yo I want that like he goes I'm gonna kill this and we laid it down and that there's a picture of me Alchemist who was just starting to work on DJ yeah we were about to go on tour together Alchemist was a roadie for Cypress Hill but we was yeah so so we were about to go on tour so that's why we were together and I asked D could I bring my friend with me and he goes you got something to smoke I said oh yeah he's from California he got the crazy and we came over there and J Dilla that picture is to this day a classic picture me D 'Angelo J Dilla and Alchemist and that's from that session of me bringing it be Dilla recording some music for D 'Angelo and Questlove relaying the how does it feel drums you know the third amazing thing about that is then is that there couldn't be two songs with a different feel on that record than entitled How Does It Feel and Devil's Pie.

56:27And you know what else? He said, yo, I'm gonna be naked in my first video. He knew it then? Yeah, because his trainer is not in the picture, but his trainer had just, and it's late night. It's late night and his trainer came there to get his abs tight because he said I wanna, he said, Prima, I'm gonna be glistening and I'm gonna he said the women are gonna go crazy and they did. Every You name it, the women went crazy for that video. You know. Are you still in touch with D? Yeah, I just hit him up. I'll tell you what day it was. Okay, let's put the checks out. It's to where I'll hit him up and go, yo, we need you, motherfucker.

57:04He's like, I know, I know, I know. You know, and it's to tell him like, you know, you're such an important piece to this music puzzle, man, and we need you, bro. So I just hit him on that. I do it every now and then just to let them know. I love that you won't tell me where that sample comes from, but you'll show me. That was February 15th. The D 'Angelo text. It was February 15th, and this is the reason why I hit them. Wow. Because on Instagram, there was a post of D 'Angelo, Rick James, Prince, and two other artists that were doing classic songs, and D 'Angelo was doing a song that's rare by Funkadelic, And it's one of my favorite songs from the Hardcore Jollies album called Soulmates.

57:53It's not one of their big records. And when I saw D, look what I wrote. I said, man, I never knew you shot a clip of singing Soulmates. That's my fucking song. I looped that guitar lick at the end and do a routine at my shows. Man, you are the funk. And he gave me the little... Yeah, he gave me a little heart, man. And an exclamation. And check this out. Everybody that they posted on there, he was the only one that just put a Funkadelic song. All the rest of them they posted had the song that they sang. And I put the dummies that posted it called it a Funkadelic song. They don't be knowing. I said, that Hardcore Jollies LP is phenomenal.

58:35And he put another one. To see him playing that on the guitar, and I never knew he played that. And that clip lets me know he's another level of funky. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's a whole other level of funky. I love him so much, man, because he's deep. You got to kind of know him to understand him. Have you worked with him since then? Like, have you done? No, I just gave him some music to work on. And D definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. When he feels like moving, then he'll move. You can't tell him when. His feel on the guitar, too, is great. Yeah, man. You know, he's a keyboardist, but he plays that guitar, too.

59:15It's just a unique feel, just his sense of timing. You know what I mean? The way when you hear Stevie Wonder play drums and his sense of timing on the drum set's a little like, whoa, it sounds like Stevie. He has just his own. Yeah, his own pocket. His own pocket. So seeing that just got me amped. I wanted him to know that badly. Like, dude. That's why I sent it to him. He's like, yo, where'd you find that? And I was like, somebody posted you, Prince, Rick James, and like two other artists I can't even remember. doing a cover of a song where everything was acoustic versions with them on just guitars.

59:50So that was his choice and he was first and it just said a Funkadelic song. It's like you don't know the name of that. This reminds me too, Prince was a fan of Gangstar, right? Yeah, man, because of D 'Angelo he took me to a show that he was doing, I think at Tramps and that used to be one of the venues where a lot of New York shows were done. He knew we would just talk Prince all the time because him and Prince used to hang a lot. And he said, Prince is going to make a surprise performance. He said, I got to go do a little bit of press. Go in that room over there and I'll be back in a few minutes.

1:00:24I was like, okay. And I opened the door and there's a pool table and Prince sitting there looking at me and you know, Prince gives you those looks and you're just like, yo. You could be the thug. You could be the most gangster dude. When you see Prince, you going to bow down and give him his flowers. Basically, D knew he was in there. He tricked me and said, yo, you just go in that room and just wait for me for a few minutes while I go do a couple of interviews. And Tretch from Naughty by Nature was there. Rob Markman Oh, man. One of the greats. Rob Markman I remember when Prince said, hey, man, I love Step in the Arena, which was our second album.

1:01:00Tretch punched me in the chest and goes, see, nigga, Prince love you. And I'm like, I see that. And we had a cool conversation. And it's just like, Prince, man, likes Yeah, like my second album. Did you guys change info? Nah, we weren't even at that stage where you could change numbers. That was more than enough for me. We had a conversation. Yeah, and he knew that he names the album. It's not even like, yo, like... Yeah, Step in the Arena, he said, one of my favorite albums. And he's not into sampling, really. But he understood the artistry of how we constructed our music, so he appreciated it in a different way than just looping a hit, which a lot of people do.

1:01:39They loop hits and then from there It's a hit again I could keep you forever But I feel like we could end on this note Which is that speaking of Prince wasn't a fan of samples There's a lot of people at the time In the early days, late 80s, early 90s Not a fan of sampling But I think Maybe I want to know if we can get confirmation EZ Mo B who we were talking about earlier In 92 I love that someone here loves EZ Mo B Whoever that is God bless you God bless you. You gotta love Moby, man. He's the best. But in 92 - Look, he produced Tupac and Biggie. And like we said, some of the best Biggie records and some of the best Pac records on Me Against the World.

1:02:18But he produced the Miles Davis record in 92. Dubop sound, yeah. Miles Davis' last record. So I want to play the title cut off of Dubop real quick, and then I got a question for you based on that. Okay.

1:02:37So that's Miles Davis at a time when people like Wynton, etc. are like, we don't sample. Here's Miles. He's like, I'm gonna go work with EZMOB. Miles said, I'm doing everything and I don't care how you feel about it. And so that's a Cool and the Gang loop in the back. Cool and the Gang Summer Madness. Allegedly. Allegedly. But I think really what he's looping it from, DJ Premier and Deep Concentration. Let's hear it. From the one, Mr. Nice Guy.

1:03:08And I did not sue.

1:03:13Allegedly. You want a Miles Davis record. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's the fucking craziest thing ever. Yeah. Because, so the reason I think that is from that is because there's like that, I think you added that piano over the loop, the dun-dun-dun-dun, over the, because that's not in the Cool and the Gang song. Right. But that's in the Miles version. Yeah. So, convoluted. And we were all friends. Like I said, me and EZ Moe be friends to this very day. And he's just one of the greatest slept-on, underrated producers. He should be always spoken on when it comes to the top five. He's my top five.

1:03:51No question. Love Moe B, man. No question. Well, amazing. We got DJ Premier. Everybody give it up. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you, man. Thanks to everyone. Thanks to DJ Premier. Thank you for having me. Big up Brooklyn. Thanks for having us. Appreciate y 'all.

1:04:12Allegedly. Peace and love, everybody.

1:04:19Thanks to DJ Premier for making it out to On Air Fest in Brooklyn. It was incredible getting a chance to speak with them, and I hope we get to do a part two sometime soon. You can hear a playlist of all of our favorite DJ Premier and Gangstar songs at brokenrecordpodcast.com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash brokenrecordpodcast where you can find all of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tolliday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries.

1:04:56If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad-free listening for$4.99 a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcast subscriptions. And if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richmond.

1:05:24The more you learn about your favorite artists, the more you want to know. Claude helps you keep digging, finding new threads and rabbit holes to explore. Whether it's discovering deeper meaning behind a detail in an interview or figuring out the influence behind an artist's particular era, Claude thinks with you to find the next clue. If you can't get enough of the stories behind your favorite music and artists, Claude will help you discover new layers you didn't know existed. Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash brokenrecord. This episode of Broken Record is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve.

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