Dj Premier Tells The Story Behind His Classic Records

One of the best, if not the best, producers in hip hop, DJ Premier has laced many hip hop tracks in his 20+ years producing.  DJ Premier drops the science behind 38 of his classics as he kicks it with the people over at Complex Magazine. The hit producer know for his signature scratch chorus covers Gangstarr classics like “Just To Get A Rep” , “Dwyck” , “Mass Appeal” , and “Above The Clouds” and many of his hit collaborations like  Jay-Z’s “D’Evils” ,  B.I.G.’s “Unbelievable” , Nas’s  ”Nas Is Like” and Royce da 5’9′s “Hip Hop.”  This article is filled with gems like the following when DJ Premier is talking about  Nas’s “N.Y. State of Mind:”

That was just amazing because it happened in this room. Actually, anything from ‘92 and on, we did it here. It was just amazing watching him work because I was already a fan of him when he did ‘Back to the Grill,’ ‘Halftime,’ ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell,’ and ‘Live at the Barbeque.’ So when I heard him on those records I was like, ‘Yo, I got to do something that’s on the same level.’ So I came in here, and flipped the ill, gutter, Joe Chambers sample (‘Mind Rain’). I can tell you because it’s cleared. [Laughs.] Nas watched me build the beat from scratch. And he wrote the verse in the studio. If you listen to ‘N.Y. State of Mind’ you’ll hear him going, ‘I don’t know how to start this shit,’ because he literally just wrote it. Before he started the verse, I was signaling him going, ‘One, two, three,’ and he just goes in like, ‘Rappers I monkey flip’em, in the funky rhythm.” He did that in one take. After he did that first verse, he goes, ‘How was that? Did that sound all right?’ And we were just like, ‘Oh, my God! The streets are going to go crazy when they hear this!

Head on over to Complex Magazine to check it out!

Cole