If there’s one person who has remained steadfast in his support and love of traditionally gritty New York boom-bap rap, it’s acclaimed producer and outspoken hip-hop legend DJ Premier. Originally from Texas, a young Christopher Martin relocated to the Rotten Apple in the 80s, marking the beginning of a storied career that would see the hardcore composer’s trademark sound become as much a part of New York hip-hop folklore as the subway trains and project buildings that inspired it.
A relentless work ethic and stick-to-your-guns attitude have both contributed to Premo becoming arguably hip-hop’s greatest ever producer. You disagree? Then let’s do the knowledge for a moment. Firstly, there’s the near flawless six album Gang Starr catalogue to consider, then Premo’s work on genre-defining albums from Nas, Biggie and Jay-Z, plus collaborations with the likes of KRS-One, Jeru The Damaja and Group Home, all of which yielded their fair share of certified classic hip-hop moments. Big Daddy Kane, Smiley The Ghetto Child, Fat Joe, Mos Def, Rakim, Screwball, MOP, Da Ranjahz, O.C., Pitch Black, the list of NY’s rhyming residents both large and small who’ve benefited from a Premier banger over the years is long and, for the most part, memorable.
Of course, Premier hasn’t only worked with east coast artists, managing to bless everyone from Houston’s Devin The Dude to Chicago’s Common with a dose of his dusty-fingered realness. He even found time last year to take his gutter sound mainstream on pop diva Christina Aguilera’s ‘Back To Basics’ album, finishing the project with both his credibility and legacy still intact. But out-of-town assignments aside, there’s something about Premo teaming-up with an emcee from any one of NYC’s five boroughs that just seems to bring the best out of him. Those dense drums knock that little bit harder and the scratches on those intricate cut-and-paste hooks Premier has made his calling card sound just a touch sharper.
So given Premo’s deep-rooted connection with grimy New York straight talk, it’s no surprise to see the first full-length project from the 41-year-old’s Year Round label coming from the aptly-named NYG’z. The Bronx-bred duo of Shabeeno and Panchi have been long-time affiliates of Premier (debuting back in the mid-90s as Operation Ratification on Guru’s short-lived Ill Kid imprint) and their unapologetically raw ‘Welcome 2 G-Dom’ set is an explosive throwback to the days of east coast rap dominance.
With New York appearing to have recently lost its strangle-hold on hip-hop in the face of west coast gangstas and dirty south bounce anthems, it was only right that HHC sat down with both Premier and the NYG’z to check the pulse of the city that never sleeps
What are some of your earliest memories of New York hip-hop?
Premier: “I first started visiting New York in the mid-70s with my sisters to stay with my grandfather in Brooklyn. Whenever I would visit he would take me around the city to show me different places of interest. One time he took me to Times Square and that’s when I first saw cats b-boying. I didn’t really know what they were doing but I was just amazed by what I saw. By the time I started visiting my grandfather on my own in 1979 I was 13-years-old and hip-hop was really starting to bubble. I was able to see the whole culture developing in New York, from the way people would dress and speak, to the music they were listening to. That’s when I decided that when I was old enough I was going to move to NYC.”
Shabeeno: “After I heard Run-DMC I knew that rap was something I wanted to do.”
Panchi: “I used to think that Grandmaster Caz was the worst rapper ever when I was a kid. Wanna know why? Because he had adult lyrics and I was a child so I couldn’t really understand where he was coming from. He had a rhyme where he was at some girl’s house having sex and her father comes home. Caz would say, ‘She said somebody’s coming, I said yeah me’. I was like, ‘How can he be coming when he’s already there?’ I was 9-years-old and I thought Caz was garbage because some of what he said didn’t make sense to me. Then as I got a little older obviously I realised that Caz is one of the illest of all-time.”
The golden-age of New York rap is largely considered to be the late-80s. What do you think it was about that time that made it so special?
Premier: “That period was special in New York because there was really nowhere else to use as a guide on how to make a rap record. LA was starting to bubble a little with Ice-T, but even his roots were on the east coast. Plus, he had Afrika Islam down with him from the Zulu Nation. So at that point in time New York was teaching everyone what hip-hop was all about. From cutting and scratching to wearing fat laces, nowhere else was doing that stuff except New York.”
Shabeeno: “People were still doing it for the love of the music back then and not just as a quick way to make money.”
Premier: “Back in the late-80s there were so many artists out who all had something to bring to the table creatively. You had A Tribe Called Quest, the whole Flavor Unit, Gang Starr, De La Soul, Eric B & Rakim, Run-DMC, UTFO, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys. There was such a variety of music being made and everyone was trying to be the next top-notch artist to come through. That’s what made hip-hop so great back then.”
Sha, there’s a lyric on the ‘Welcome 2 G-Dom’ album referring to former NYC mayors where you say “I hated Giuliani, What I’d give to get Dinkins back” What did you mean by that?
Shabeeno: “New York was easier back when Dinkins was mayor in the early-90s. We were able to walk around drinking forties and all you had to do was have it covered in a brown paper bag. If police caught you with weed all they’d do was knock it out of your hand and stomp it out. When Giuliani came into office sh*t got crazy and people were being arrested for every little thing. But I ain’t gonna lie, Giuliani said he was going to clean up the city and he damn sure did his thing. But he made things worse for the urban community and then Bloomberg came right behind him in 2002 and followed suit. You can’t even go into someone else’s building right now without being arrested for trespassing. I can’t go and visit my partner in the next building without having to show ID?! It’s like we’re living on a slave plantation.”
There’s been a lot of talk in recent times about New York hip-hop losing its identity. Why do you think that started to happen?
Premier: “New York wasn’t always very welcoming to what artists from other regions had to offer. So what happened is, those other regions, particularly the west coast and the south, they started to do their own thing by taking what they’d learnt from New York and putting their twist on it. They created their own markets and didn’t need that acceptance from New York anymore. But then New York cats started riding on top of whatever was popular elsewhere in order to make a hit and began turning their backs on anything that actually sounded like it came from New York, which I think is a disgrace.”
Shabeeno: “Once New York artists saw what was making money elsewhere they started selling-out and following different sounds. People started saying, ‘Snoop made a record sounding like this and look how many albums he sold. We gotta do something like that.’ We lost it for a minute in the 90s and hip-hop went to the west coast, but when Biggie came out he brought New York back. Now the same thing is happening with hip-hop blowing-up in the south. It just doesn’t feel right to hear a New York cat on a southern sounding track. I heard people saying ‘I like that new southern kid Mims’ when he put out ‘This Is Why I’m Hot’. But he ain’t even from down south; he’s from Washington Heights in Manhattan! He was using that southern sound so everyone thought that was where he’s from, which was crazy to me. How are you gonna talk about bringing New York back over a track that don’t sound like it’s from New York?”
But do you think the city’s apparent identity crisis actually goes deeper than just music considering you’re now seeing Bloods and Crips on the streets of New York?
Shabeeno: “That really started as a jail thing. People were locked-up with gang members from other states and they brought that back to New York when they came home and put their own people down with it. But it’s hilarious to me seeing people in New York really thinking they’re Bloods and Crips. I didn’t think it would go this far but a lot of it is down to these young kids who’re so easily influenced.”
Panchi: “I went to jail in 1995 and did a bid in Missouri before coming home in 2000. So I was gone for a long time and wasn’t in New York to see the changes that were happening. But when I came home there were Bloods and Crips in New York. That really f**ked the city up because, even though we used to have the drug gangs in NY, they were mainly involved in specific drug-related beefs, not frivolous beef over colours. I thought it was some clown sh*t for people to be doing the Blood and Crip thing in New York. I understand the camaraderie part of it, but the rest of it doesn’t make any sense to me. My homeboy from California said to me, ‘What would you think if you woke up one morning and everybody in Cali was saying ‘Peace god!’ and wearing Timberlands?’ I told him I’d think the west coast was making fun of New York. He said, ‘Exactly! That’s what everyone on the west coast thinks New York is doing when they see you doing the gang sh*t’.”
With east coast artists making albums now to appeal to other regions it seems that anyone with a traditional New York sound automatically gets slapped with the ‘They’re bringing New York back’ label. Do you feel that’s a burden that puts added pressure on you while you’re in the studio?
Premier: “For a minute I was on that same trip but I’m not anymore because it’s gonna show in the music anyway, so there’s really no need to keep telling people that you’re bringing New York back. And so far almost everyone who’s said they’re bringing New York back still really isn’t doing it the way it should be done. There’s still no scratching on their records, they don’t have any really gritty b-boy drums in their music. Everything is too clean.”
Panchi: “I’m comfortable with that label but of course it brings some pressure with it. But to be honest, I don’t feel New York really went anywhere because we’ve had three of the biggest artists in hip-hop as far as power, paper and influence are concerned, and that’s Nas, Jay-Z and 50 Cent.”
What’s your take on the constant beefs that NY artists like 50 and Cam’ron seem to have with each other nowadays?
Panchi: “I think it’s corny because crews like Dipset and G-Unit have a lot of influence on young males here in New York and probably the rest of the world. So when fans of artists who’re beefing with each other bump heads, that’s a potentially explosive situation. But what I really don’t understand is how when rappers are broke and they first come into the game they’re humble as sh*t, but then as soon as they get some money they become the illest killer out wanting to beef with everyone. Where I’m from, if you get money you get low. You don’t get money and then get gangsta. People have got the game backwards.”
In terms of hip-hop radio in New York, how different is it for you trying to get deejays to break new records from Year Round artists today compared to when you were pushing releases from acts like Group Home and Jeru in the 90s?
Premier: “It’s changed a lot, man. I mean, I literally just had to make my calls to Funkmaster Flex personally like, ‘Listen man, I’ve done a lot of favours for you and never asked for anything back. I need you to look out for me and help break this new NYGz record.’ I went up to Hot 97 and gave everyone the music so now I’m just waiting to see if I get the results. I’m just glad I already have an established fan base who don’t have to wait to hear my records being played in certain places before they’ll support it. So I feel that I’m in a way better position than a new artist trying to get their record played today. The game changed once people started getting caught up in payola. But just so people know, I will never pay to break a record.”
Shabeeno: “Back in the day deejays had a lot more freedom in what they could play but I don’t think it’s like that in New York no more because the politics of the industry have taken over. All these deejays just want to be trendy and run with what’s hot. It’s f**king up the mentality of younger New York artists because they’re starting to think they’ve got to pop and snap their fingers to get on because that’s all they’re hearing on the radio.”
Premo, what’s the biggest problem you experienced while signed to a label that you don’t want to repeat with your own artists on Year Round?
Premier: “We used to always get a hard time from labels when it came to picking Gang Starr singles. I used to have to fight tooth-and-nail to be heard but I picked every single that Gang Starr ever dropped. I never wanted to do a radio record as a single; I always wanted it to be a street record because I like it rugged. Labels would always say they wouldn’t give our projects as much of a push if we didn’t go with the singles they wanted. I don’t ever want to put any of the artists on Year Round in a situation like that where their opinions and ideas aren’t being listened to. No matter what the industry might say, there’s still an audience for the music that I make. That’s what Year Round is all about, catering to the hip-hop fans who feel like there’s nothing out there for them. I want it to get to the point where people see that Year Round logo and they already know it’s a good product before they’ve even heard it.”
Is the album project that you and Nas talked about working on together ever likely to see the light of day?
Premier: “That’s up to Nas. He was the one who approached me with the idea of doing a whole album together and then all of a sudden he did ‘Hip Hop Is Dead’ and I was like, ‘Yo, what the f**k?’ Then he called me while I was on tour wanting to go in the studio and do a song the next day and I was like, ‘Dog, you kinda left me out there without giving me any update and I’m kinda pissed’. But we talked it out and got everything off our chests. He told me that ‘Hip Hop Is Dead’ was an album that he felt he had to make but that his next album is going to be the one me and him do together. I’ll believe it when I see it. I told Nas that I’m here when he’s ready, but so far I haven’t heard anything from him.”
If you each had to name an emcee or group who you felt best captured the New York experience who would it be?
Premier: “I’d say Run-DMC and Eric B & Rakim image-wise, but overall it’d have to be KRS-One. He’s a good performer, he makes incredible records, and his whole personality is just so New York and so hip-hop.”
Shabeeno: “I’d have to take it back to Biggie. At the time he came out Dre and Snoop were everywhere but when BIG’s ‘Ready To Die’ album dropped he turned people’s attention back to New York. Plus, Biggie was able to please everyone because he had music for the street corners and for the clubs.”
Panchi: “It would have to be MOP. They just put so much heart into their music and you can feel that New York energy in what they do. MOP’s music smells like a pissy staircase it’s so New York.”
And if you had to name a producer who you felt defined the New York sound, who would that be?
Premier: “Marley Marl hands-down. Back in the day I was sweating anything that came out on Def Jam, but when Marley came out with the Juice Crew on Cold Chillin’ it’s unexplainable how hearing his beats made me feel.”
Shabeeno: “There was a time in New York where any rapper who put out an album, whether it was a Jay-Z, Nas or Biggie, they had to have DJ Premier involved. You couldn’t put out an album until you had that Premier joint. But what’s crazy is that the dude with the illest New York sound is actually from Texas. Premier was definitely born again when he came to New York.”
Panchi: “It can only be DJ Premier because he’s helped preserve that true New York sound.”
‘Welcome 2 G-Dom’ is being marketed as the NYG’z’ pre-album. So what can we expect from your official debut long-player ‘Pros & Cons’ that’s due early next year?
Panchi: “The album is going to be produced entirely by Premier and it’s going to predominantly be just Sha and me with the only features coming from Year Round family like Blaq Poet and Freddie Foxxx. But just like ‘Welcome 2 G-Dom’ it’s going to be another straight-up banger that’ll let people know they need to take a second look at New York because we’re still here holding it down.”
Ryan Proctor
Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex Interviews DJ Premier Oct 2007 (Part 1)
Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex Interviews DJ Premier Oct 2007 (Part 2)
NYG’z – “Ya Dayz R #D” (Year Round Records / 2007)
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