Excerpts From The BeatTips Manual: How DJ Premier Sees Himself As a Producer
Understanding Production Setups, EMPIs, Sounds, and Other Prerequisite Factors
Feel, Nuance, Individual Needs, and Approach Holds Is the Answer
*The following article is an excerpt from The BeatTips Manual, 7th Edition by Amir Said.
Sa’id: How do you see yourself as a producer?
DJ Premier: I’m always a consumer first. Then I’m a DJ. Then I’m a producer. And then I’m an artist! I’ve been a recording artist with Gang Starr since 1988. And I don’t enjoy being a recording artist all the time, because of the politics, how the industry dealt with us on a major label. It’s a headache. Furthermore, I’m just not a spotlight person. I always like to play the cut, and just get my money on the low. Because of that, I’ve always gone with that mentality.
I was given a chance to do music as a consumer. The problem with the record companies now is the fact that they don’t buy records anymore. You just saw what I bought. [He literally pull’s each CD out of bag] I just bought Ray Cash, I just bought the new Dogg Pound, I just bought Shawna; I bought Field Mob; and I bought Mr. Lif! I knew about J Dilla, I know about Stones Throw; I know about the underground, and I still know all about the major people. And that’s what keeps me fresher than most producers, because they don’t go outside a certain realm of their craft. I was raised on the ‘70s and the ‘60s and all the good ‘80s music. I was into Punk Rock, New Wave — Duran Duran, Susie and the Banchies, The Smiths. You know, groups that you’d be like, “Damn, Premier listens to that shit?” Hell yeah! ‘Cuz it was good music. Good music is good music! But when it comes to hip hop, I’m really, really adamant about keepin’ it hard. That’s the way I was raised on it. I saw it from the very beginning.
And I lived in Texas at the time, and I still saw it from the very beginning, because my roots in Brooklyn were through my grandfather, my mother’s father. I used to be in Brooklyn so much. He took me everywhere, you know, in the early ‘70s and the early ‘80s, when niggas was just break dancin’ for money and there were no records out yet. By the time I was 13, visiting my grandpa, I felt like I was a New Yorker, then. So when I moved here in ’85, everything wasn’t new. The same people I fucked with, still rollin’ with me. And from there I just expanded into what I do now. But like I said, being a consumer and a DJ is the number one thing for me!
