A biography for DJ Premierhasn’t been written yet.
“The majority of my life is spent doing nothing but godly things, especially when it comes to dealing with other people.”
“I'm not really a comparison dude. Even when people say 'Big or Pac?,' because they're two totally different types of lyricists.”
“I'm a very spiritual guy.”
“I don't usually collab with producers, because I don't need to. I never have, because I don't want to break my style of how I do things.”
“Guru always titled the Gang Starr albums. But once it came to 'Hard to Earn,' he wanted me to title it.”
“That's the thing with social media: it's a gift and a curse. It's cool on one level, but it's also bad.”
“I'm from the pre-Pro Tools era where you had to meet up with the artist and go over things if you wanted to record a track.”
“My crew used to listen to 'Taking It to the Top' by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.”
“All the Public Enemy albums, I knew what records they were sampling but was like, 'How'd they construct it like this?!'”
“I remember going backstage on a random night and Kanye goes, 'Ayo Premier, I'm about to drop an album called 'College Dropout' and I'm rapping on the whole thing. And as I soon it drop it's gonna go double platinum.' I looked at him like, 'That's a bold statement to make if you never rapped before.'”
“I grew up in a town called Prairie View. It's like 45 minutes outside of Houston.”
“Guru always wanted to do what he called a 'chick record.' By coincidence, every time we did one, he was either breaking up with one or with a new girl that he loved.”
“Prince, Bootsy Collins, Earth Wind & Fire and Parliament all had albums that sound different. I wanted to show, as a hip-hop producer, I'm one of those that can do anything, because I was raised on so much music aside from rap and hip-hop.”
“A lot of Friday nights, Guru and I would go kick it with Biggie, since he was just three blocks down from us.”
“All my idols have been in the studio with me, because they wanted to be there.”
“Guru had such a different voice from most people. Plus he had a Boston accent! So, I always made sure the beats were tailored to him.”
“I would always have turntable elements in my records even if it was just one scratch.”
“When I got my knee replacement and I opened my eyes straight outta surgery, the first person standing there was Guru's son.”
“I say if you don't write your lyrics, then you can't be the best rapper alive. Not at all. You can be one of the best artists, especially in rap, you gotta write everything yourself.”
“I'm super cool with Kanye.”