DJ Premier

“If you don't have any Coltrane, 'A Love Supreme' will do it for you. It will explain everything. Even if you don't get it, it will still explain everything. That's how deep it is.”

“When I was 19 I had a record deal.”

“Everything I do is in a New York state of mind. I'm indebted to preserving the sound of the city.”

“Actually, for 'Family & Loyalty' I wanted Drake on the track but he was about to go on tour for his Scorpion album, so timewise it wasn't going to work.”

“I've done some scoring in the past, but I want to get into it on a bigger level - a Danny Elfman level.”

“The great thing was that both K-Ci and JoJo told me to not make an R&B track that was reminiscent of radio hit records. 'Make a Gang Starr track and we'll write our lyrics to that,' they told me. They couldn't stress it enough.”

“You can't do seven successful albums and just hate each other. Our yin and yang, and night and day, is what made us great when we went into the studio.”

“The radio stations strayed away from the raw hip-hop that they were playing in the early 1990s. We were like, 'All this watered down stuff is dominating the airwaves. We should make a record to make fun of that' and Guru's like, 'Let's call it 'Mass Appeal.''”

“Everybody knows with rap artists, if you can't go to the hood, it's almost like you're not authentic, even if you're a dope artist that's respected.”

“I love heavy metal, Metallica. I'm into Jefferson Starship and acid rock.”

“Well, I've always held down Guru... His spirit knows this.”

“Jazz came from the streets, hip-hop came from the streets. It's just a different language. It's all borne out of hard times, struggle, and the fight to have equality and things be better.”

“Jay Z and Biggie and Nas always listened to my direction. They listened and they applied it and I also listened to their opinions and that's why the records came out so good.”

“I've always cared about how certain songs fade into other ones and which songs should follow others. I studied that as a consumer and fan before I even got into music.”

“You have to know who you're making music for.”

“I came out with sounds that didn't sound like the usual hip-hop beat. I took that chance because no one would identify with me if I sound like somebody who's already out.”

“Dre is someone I've looked up to since 1985 when he came to my college and performed with The Wrecking Crew.”

“The ghetto music of my era is hip-hop. And Parliament, and Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye, that was all the ghetto stuff when I was a baby, and then when I was a teenager it was hip-hop and we were taking all those old '70s sounds and recreating them and putting them into a hip-hop format.”

“Me and Tupac were long-time friends.”

“I'm a very humble guy, but of course I think I'm dope.”