Metal Lungies

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DJ Premier had a release party for his Beats That Collected Dust Vol. 1 album at this stank ass bar that threw me out because I was grabbing too much booty. I thought I had blown my chance to talk to the legendary DJ Premier but Thankfully, a heaven-sent PR lady arranged for me to talk to Premo outside. He rolled up in a truck and walked toward the bar like he was just a normal guy and not the greatest (greatest? yeah, greatest) producer of all time. He agreed to the interview, but had to take a piss first. And that’s how I met DJ Premier.

ML: What do you use today?

Premo: Same equipment.

ML: MPC?

Premo: MPC60, the old beat up clunker. It’s not broke, keep rockin’ that.

ML: My friend’s a digger. He has a shitload of records. [Ed. Note: my friend had accompanied me]

Premo: Shitload meaning how many?

Friend: I just started, I got like four hundred.

Premo: Aight, that’s cool. Nah, ’cause some people be like they DJs and they only own like fifteen records due to the whole digital age. So I make sure that the original way is respected.

ML: That’s why you still use the MPC?

Premo:  Yeah.

ML: You hear what Nas was saying about what he wants to do with his new album?

Premo: Oh, the one about Dre doing one and I do one and they drop ’em on the same day?

ML: So is that gonna happen?

Premo: Shit, I haven’t heard from Nas yet, didn’t get a call. Nas, where you at?

ML: Do you want it to happen?

Premo: It would be fun. I love Dre, I love Nas, I love what I do.  It would be crazy. And plus the competition would be that incredible because I know Dre’s gonna come with it and I gotta come with it and Nas gotta come with it. The pressure’s on all three of us, but in a good way. It would be healthy and it would funky and probably make the music industry a lot better again. I’d like to see it happen, but it’s up to Nas. It’s his project, it’s up to him to make it happen. He’s the ‘make it happen’ guy.

ML: Most people your size, you don’t see them working with smaller artists like Little Vic and Termanology. How does that happen? How do you find these guys?

Premo: From either word of mouth or I just do my research. For the most part, I still know how to identify skills versus just alright rhyming. There’s a difference. Skills is something that has a serious attachment to it. So, there’s a difference between rapping and skills.

ML: Awhile ago the sample for “Nas Is Like” — people finally found out what it was.

Premo: Yeah, I remember somebody was telling me they found it.

Friend: Dusty Fingers found it.

Premo: Really.

Friend: I know you’re not down with that though–

Premo: I mean, I don’t care if they find it. Don’t put used by me. They could put whatever they want on the record. They could be the original artist, all that. Except don’t put used by me, ‘as sample by…’. Because now it’s like you’re using that to sell the original, where a lot of other people dig for the original instead of having to cheat that way, which is all good because those are just Ultimate Breaks and Beats. It’s just don’t put who sampled it. We already know not everybody’s not in the love portion of hip-hop culture. They’d like to see it go away. So it’s only for the people that love it, so there’s certain things you don’t have to speak on and that’s one of them. I think they stopped now, though. Yeah, I think they stopped. Dusty Fingers don’t put who used it, now it’s just artists and the song.

ML: What are you working on right now?

Premo: Right now I have a label called Year Round Records. We have an artist named Blaq Poet who’s about to drop in 2009. He’s about to drop his album called The Blaqprint. Produced everything on it except two joints. Easy Mo Bee did a track and Jim Crates did a track, he’s a new producer that’s coming up. And then also the NYGz album is actually in stores, it’s called Welcome 2 G-Dom. It’s like their jump off project that showcased their crew and themselves and I did nine songs on that album. And now the new album from the NYGz is called Pros and Cons and we’re working on that right now. We’ve got five in right now, so another ten or twelve joints and we’ll be done with that. Then I have artist named Khalil who’s on my label and an artist named Nick Javas from Jersey. Remember that name. Nick Javas. He’s nice. He can spit.

ML: I’m looking forward to it.

Premo: Last thing, Royce da 5’9″, new single.

ML: I heard the new track. “Shake This”.

Premo: That wasn’t the mix though. I mixed it tonight, so I’m about to send out the mixed version where it’s beefed up. A CD got lost and whoever got their hands on it just started going around messing with stuff. It happens. [He starts moving to go inside] That’s pretty much it, man. Big shout out to Royce and Big Shug’s album’s about to drop November 4th. We’re staying busy, man, staying busy. I’m about to go up in here and do my thing. Sorry you couldn’t come in, young’n!

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