Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club Morning,
Speaker 1: everybody is DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy. We
Speaker 1: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
Speaker 1: the building, DJ Premire, what's up? What's up? Thanks back,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me back again. Of course the third time.
Speaker 1: Third time. You got a new project hip Hop fifty Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell us about it. It's Mass Appeal the label um.
Speaker 1: Obviously you know Peter Bennenbender, Nah's business partners, and they
Speaker 1: approached me about this ten producer EP where the fir
Speaker 1: the one through nine are producers that they chose to
Speaker 1: do an EP that contains five songs, and uh, the
Speaker 1: ninth one is going to be voted by the fans,
Speaker 1: so they all get to say, this is what we
Speaker 1: want to do the tenth one. The tenth one's gonna
Speaker 1: land on the on the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop,
Speaker 1: which is August eleventh, nineteen seventy three, is the official birthday.
Speaker 1: So when the tenth one drops, it to be on
Speaker 1: the fiftieth birthday. So we don't know who that's gonna be,
Speaker 1: since I guess he'll probably wait till they get closer
Speaker 1: to the end. To let the fans choose, so like
Speaker 1: every two to three months sort of, it'll be another
Speaker 1: one released. I think Swiss is next. It only makes sense,
Speaker 1: you nays, you know, for you to kick things off.
Speaker 1: I was like, yo, we get to pick who we want.
Speaker 1: So I was like, no, you gotta give me. I
Speaker 1: know you're part of the company, but you gotta give
Speaker 1: me at least one and I'll figure out the other four.
Speaker 1: You got like an all star cast for these five
Speaker 1: songs too, because you kicked it off a Joey badass yeah,
Speaker 1: which I love. He's from Brooklyn man Bob Mon. And
Speaker 1: then of course you put Remy Mind Rapteddy together, which
Speaker 1: was a great matchup. Yeah. And then I even I
Speaker 1: love this song with Slick Rick and Little Wayne too. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a last minute thing. But the dope part
Speaker 1: was Wayne had already laid his verse when I told
Speaker 1: Rick about it, and you know, Rick, let me hear
Speaker 1: the verse. See what he said. You know, he talks
Speaker 1: just like the way like the Children's Story record, And
Speaker 1: I was like, he sounds he heard. He's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, do you want to hook or do you
Speaker 1: want a verse? Or do you want to verse? In
Speaker 1: a hook. I was like, I want both, and he'said,
Speaker 1: all right, So those are the five songs he didn't
Speaker 1: maybe in like two or three days. Really. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it's interesting to me because I feel like
Speaker 1: you have such a long history. Also in this game,
Speaker 1: you're from Houston, but then you moved to me wear
Speaker 1: a Prairie View. A lot a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: it's left out, even though born and fifth Ward and
Speaker 1: lived there and moved and we moved to My father
Speaker 1: was a biology teacher at Prairie View and that's how
Speaker 1: we ended up moving there because he wanted to be
Speaker 1: closer to the to the college, which is only like
Speaker 1: a forty minute drive, so he built a house in
Speaker 1: that town. And that's how my family moved from fifth
Speaker 1: Ward to PV. And I went to college there too,
Speaker 1: didn't graduate. And then you moved to New York. Yes,
Speaker 1: Now why did you move to New York? My grandfather
Speaker 1: lived in Brooklyn, Uh, and my mom my mom my
Speaker 1: mother which is his father, uh, but just her father. Um,
Speaker 1: it's from Baltimore. Okay. So every summer, my you know,
Speaker 1: you know, after schools that are we're going to New
Speaker 1: York for the summer, and you know, his kids were like, yay,
Speaker 1: we're going to New York. So we'd always Then my
Speaker 1: father's from South Carolina, she's from Baltimore, so we always
Speaker 1: stopped in South Carolina and something to see my family there,
Speaker 1: which is the Martin family. Then we go to North
Speaker 1: Carolina to see our on Mangel. Then we go we
Speaker 1: go to and that's driving. Then we go to Baltimore
Speaker 1: see my grandmother and my aunt and my cousin. Then
Speaker 1: New York is the finale. So we always stay with
Speaker 1: my grandfather, grandfather Bill, who's tattered on my arm because
Speaker 1: he was a major part of me wanting to be
Speaker 1: in the music business. And uh he was in bands
Speaker 1: and stuff. He used to brag and show me his
Speaker 1: photo albums of all the places he's been, and I
Speaker 1: was just really into that, and I was really into
Speaker 1: video I guess you can't really call him video games.
Speaker 1: In my age and some fifty six, I was a
Speaker 1: pinball expert. You know what I'm saying. You don't call
Speaker 1: that video game? What do you call what do you
Speaker 1: I don't know, okay, okay, okay, arcade games? So I
Speaker 1: was always battling people in pinball. So whenever I'd go
Speaker 1: to stay with my grandfather. And this is right before
Speaker 1: I was like maybe eleven to twelve. Because as I
Speaker 1: got older and like turned thirteen fourteen, my sisters and
Speaker 1: them didn't want to go anymore. They're like, we want
Speaker 1: to have someone with our friends and weren't gonna keep going.
Speaker 1: In New York Me I wanted to go because he
Speaker 1: was in the baseball. We would go to baseball games.
Speaker 1: That's how I got into the Yankees. Even I'm a
Speaker 1: die hardassro stand for life, I'm Houston everything for life
Speaker 1: on that. But when it came to my grandfather, we
Speaker 1: would always go to Playland in Times Square and I
Speaker 1: would He would give me mad Roles quarters and I
Speaker 1: would just battle people in pinball, say I'll play you,
Speaker 1: I'll play you, and I just love the whole action
Speaker 1: of the city. And being that he went to I
Speaker 1: was in Tokyo. I was here, and he's showing all
Speaker 1: these pictures. I was like, man, I want to do
Speaker 1: that one day. One day he takes me to play
Speaker 1: land and uh, we see some b boys breaking and stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, they put the guitar case open to put
Speaker 1: money in. You put your quarters and yeah, well just
Speaker 1: seeing all you know, I didn't know what breakdancing was,
Speaker 1: and just seeing all that and they playing the hip
Speaker 1: hop and they got the big bone box, and I
Speaker 1: was like, this is different because growing up in my era,
Speaker 1: we liked our parents music. You know, now, as you know,
Speaker 1: my son is eleven, he's not really into the music.
Speaker 1: I'm meanto because the generation is different. Before us, we
Speaker 1: were into Gladys Night and you know, Curtis may feel
Speaker 1: very white, you know, the Temptations. We weren't like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's your old folks music. We all grew liking our
Speaker 1: parents music until Prince comes out and you know, the
Speaker 1: Confunction and you know, cameo and we started to kind
Speaker 1: of My mom was like that's y'r alls music, and
Speaker 1: we separate. But when I saw them doing all that
Speaker 1: breakdancing in Times Square, I was like, I want to
Speaker 1: move here. And then as it building, hip hop started
Speaker 1: to grow and records started coming out. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: that's me. I could just totally identify, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do. Did you listen
Speaker 1: to disco too? Since did your parents listen to that? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was even that. I mean you as a DJ
Speaker 1: the twelve and single. I mean, to get it Rabbits
Speaker 1: Delight or anything like that, you had to only buy twelves.
Speaker 1: There weren't no cassette singles yet. There was no CDs.
Speaker 1: You would even even have a turntable. You bought record
Speaker 1: in the record say I owned Rabbits Delight, you know,
Speaker 1: but we we had turntable. It wasn't twelve hundred, but
Speaker 1: we had. We always I've always had a turn I
Speaker 1: used to put my headphones in and just listen to
Speaker 1: records on the turntable all day. Yeah. So so even
Speaker 1: with that um, as it grew, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna move it. So an eighty seven I started
Speaker 1: to make my move, and I was still checking my
Speaker 1: shame with my grandfather. Then he passed. Once he passed,
Speaker 1: I moved in with one of my classmates parents, who
Speaker 1: went to prayvew with us. They were from Brooklyn, and
Speaker 1: that's how I ended up in East New York, really
Speaker 1: deep in the hood and hanging around all these wild guys,
Speaker 1: and then you kind of started to blend in and
Speaker 1: become part of them. Someone were just wild and crazy.
Speaker 1: I would I love the action being from a smaller
Speaker 1: town and then you know, I ran the streets, did
Speaker 1: all the crazy stuff, but not to the degree of
Speaker 1: where it would get back to my father. The dad
Speaker 1: I was doing doing stuff. It was like a gumbo
Speaker 1: of music. You had, yeah, taste from Houston and South
Speaker 1: Carolina and North Carolina and Maryland and heavy metal. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing somewhere that you used to listen to heavy metal.
Speaker 1: She'll do still do. Love love rock, I love jazz.
Speaker 1: And my mother's art teachers, so she uh, she taught
Speaker 1: all of us art. And because of that, that's another
Speaker 1: reason why I was into vinyl, because she had so
Speaker 1: many different types of records. And then me and her
Speaker 1: would go record shopping and we went to concerts together,
Speaker 1: you know, so anything that had to go to concerts,
Speaker 1: my mother and I would always go. We go see
Speaker 1: it was Rufus at the time, featuring Shaka Khan. We
Speaker 1: our whole family would see Ygantina Turner, and I was
Speaker 1: that's amazing. I got lost. You know how you in
Speaker 1: your seats, but if you're going there's always an aisle
Speaker 1: that separate teach row yep, I'm dancing doing my thing.
Speaker 1: I kind of moved to the left and you know
Speaker 1: they're not. They're not looking at watching the show. And
Speaker 1: as I drift out of the ale that takes the
Speaker 1: stairs all the way down to the bottom row of
Speaker 1: that section, I ended up in the wrong one. So
Speaker 1: now I'm looking like you cried. Yeah, I remember the
Speaker 1: first of my mom. I lost my mom and tss boy,
Speaker 1: did I cried? Yeah, you got me. I used to
Speaker 1: get lost all the time, but like on purpose, and
Speaker 1: I never was upset about it. And then my parents
Speaker 1: would be going crazy looking for me. I show up
Speaker 1: with a cop bringing me irresponsible. Casey, your son is here.
Speaker 1: We have That's what happened to Hey. The crazy thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, the ushers like where you don't know? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, nah, okay, and they tell they have to
Speaker 1: go make an announcement to Tina, so they stopped the music.
Speaker 1: A little boy on stage. Yes, they found me and
Speaker 1: my mother's boy, boy, you hit it when you get home.
Speaker 1: My mother was a disciplinarian. My father was the extra disciplinarian,
Speaker 1: but my mom was the one that taught me how
Speaker 1: to throw my hands up if I got to fight everything,
Speaker 1: So go get your shoes, we gotta fight yea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So so I learned early, you know, to be a
Speaker 1: stand up guy because because my mom. And on top
Speaker 1: of that, don't you move out of that out no more?
Speaker 1: When you at a concert, have you seen that challenge
Speaker 1: going around with the challenge with the parents and killing
Speaker 1: their kids, Go get your shoes. A lot of people
Speaker 1: saying it's disrespectful, right, yeah, but I'll be honest, that's
Speaker 1: what I teach my kids. I teach my kids if
Speaker 1: mom and dad or your brothers, sister have a problem,
Speaker 1: you put your shoes on and you gotta help your family. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's like I tested one of my kids the
Speaker 1: other day and you know, he was like, all, I
Speaker 1: put my shoes, Like we got a problem, Dad, let's go.
Speaker 1: But that's what my dad taught me. It's timatazing for
Speaker 1: the kids who started crying, and then they posted on
Speaker 1: social media forever. I literally just saw it, just flashing
Speaker 1: the TV and TMZ was on and they were they
Speaker 1: were showing Donielle Rollins asking his son do it. And
Speaker 1: even though he walked off and went back and the
Speaker 1: like the airport a scene like he walks back in
Speaker 1: like I'm not doing it whatever, and then they show
Speaker 1: the people on you know, the staff on d TMD
Speaker 1: and they were the girl was going, that's wrong, and
Speaker 1: she was like, then you shouldn't do that, you know,
Speaker 1: with the whole energy of like that's not cool. And
Speaker 1: but Donnelle didn't and someone like my pap. So when
Speaker 1: he walked off, he thought he was gonna run, but
Speaker 1: he stayed there. You know, I'm sure done Elle's teacher,
Speaker 1: but that's my dad told me. My dad worked a lot,
Speaker 1: and he was. He always told me, if something happens
Speaker 1: with your mom, you have her back. You make sure
Speaker 1: she's good if I'm not here. And the same thing
Speaker 1: with my grandmother. Stayed at my grandmother the whole summer,
Speaker 1: and my cousins they were they always thought, if y'all
Speaker 1: get beat up, it won't get a black guy. Y'all
Speaker 1: all better have a's down now. Sign Austin probably is
Speaker 1: going to have to protect him one day soon because
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all seeing downell fight. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get back into your story though. So you're in Brooklyn, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so the first artist that you produced for was
Speaker 1: it for Gangstaff for group Um get Gang Star. As
Speaker 1: far as joining the group, I was in a group
Speaker 1: called we used to be called m Season Control. It
Speaker 1: was my man, Top Ski, Sugar Pop and style E
Speaker 1: Teas Tyler team was was our right. He was our
Speaker 1: like flavor, flavor of the group. This is all college
Speaker 1: buddies from school. And as it got to the point
Speaker 1: where we wanted to see if we could make it
Speaker 1: in New York, the only one that could really afford
Speaker 1: to go was me and Top because Top happened to
Speaker 1: be from Boston, so he would always always go visit
Speaker 1: his pops and and and it's the reason why he
Speaker 1: was in Houston's because his mother lived in the Most City,
Speaker 1: which is anybody text to know that's Missouri City where
Speaker 1: we call the Most City. So we would always go
Speaker 1: to our house during the summer, or we'd be up
Speaker 1: in New York. When I was trying to shop my demo,
Speaker 1: I was working at a record store in Houston called
Speaker 1: sound Ways. It was the store in the hood that
Speaker 1: everybody the pimps would come to the come in there
Speaker 1: with the gators and the had cock days, dousing and
Speaker 1: just you know, telling with the gold one goal to go,
Speaker 1: Hey man, you got that ladder mo. You know they
Speaker 1: only say ladder more, they say ladder Mo and and
Speaker 1: you had to know the genre music, and you had
Speaker 1: to know Zyetico music, which you know is you know,
Speaker 1: the Cajun music with the kind of the accordion sound. Definitely,
Speaker 1: it's big down there. Look up Zydeco. It's super big.
Speaker 1: It's like very New Orleans. Uh, but it Texas is
Speaker 1: big and it's very heavy out there. Everybody knows the
Speaker 1: words said everything like a like a like a before
Speaker 1: I let go from Maze, they know the words that
Speaker 1: every Zyetco record. So we grew up with that. The
Speaker 1: boss at the at the store said you have to
Speaker 1: know all that, including country as well and jazz. So
Speaker 1: I had a good knowledge of it because of my
Speaker 1: mother's record collection. And as that built, Uh, I was
Speaker 1: telling the guy that that got me the job. His
Speaker 1: name is Carlos Garza. He's a big part of me
Speaker 1: getting there because, uh, hip hop was just going on Billboard.
Speaker 1: They were having a you know, finally had a hip
Speaker 1: hop chart. He became the Billboard reporter. So he had
Speaker 1: me become the twelve inch buyer for all the twelve
Speaker 1: inch records that come down, so so that he could
Speaker 1: do occupy that and they're checking. Hate was popping into
Speaker 1: in Houston. Oh this record, this record, this record, and
Speaker 1: a lot of independent hip hop were called to get
Speaker 1: on that chart by having him report from Houston. While
Speaker 1: he was doing that, he's like, Yo, man, you gotta
Speaker 1: check out this friend of mine. He could dj. He's dope,
Speaker 1: and he's coming to New York for the summer. Stup Fine,
Speaker 1: who on Wild Pitch Records, which Gangstar was on at
Speaker 1: that time, was like, hey, we we want to hear
Speaker 1: the demo. I wasn't ready to for him to hear it.
Speaker 1: He sent them a copy of it and I was like,
Speaker 1: why you do that, it's not ready in And they
Speaker 1: heard and they liked it, but they didn't want them.
Speaker 1: They only wanted me. And I was like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna go with out mind my group because I
Speaker 1: was even not even contemplating being in the group. But
Speaker 1: I DJed all the parties at school, so everybody was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you should do it, you should do it. Finally got
Speaker 1: my courage up to say all right, we get we
Speaker 1: get to New York. He's like, I don't like your MC,
Speaker 1: but I'll put you in a real studio and let's
Speaker 1: see if you can do a better demo that and
Speaker 1: maybe I like him and we could we're interested in
Speaker 1: sign of You. We put the put us in the studio.
Speaker 1: Yo still didn't like it. Top was like, Yo, man,
Speaker 1: if things don't work out in the next couple of months,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna join the military. And Tops a while, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you ain't joining the military. That's not even
Speaker 1: your style. You two street for that, and He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. One day, when it was a
Speaker 1: weekend and we're all living in my man Gordon Franklin's parents' house,
Speaker 1: he made us get jobs. Everything. He said, you can't
Speaker 1: stay in there all trendy, so you know, you have
Speaker 1: to have a job. You can't him, you know. So,
Speaker 1: and only we could, we couldn't come into like at
Speaker 1: the five, so you know, we get get home at
Speaker 1: night from having to stay there, and I mean we
Speaker 1: get home at night, and then we got to stay
Speaker 1: out until he gets back from work, so we have
Speaker 1: nowhere to go. So I was like, I can't keep
Speaker 1: doing this. That one Saturday when we're chilling, the doorbell
Speaker 1: rings and the recruiting officers in the yutfit goes, hey,
Speaker 1: how are you doing. We're looking for Theodore Campbell and
Speaker 1: I was like, for what he goes on today is
Speaker 1: to day he's joined in the navy and I'm like,
Speaker 1: no way, and I'm like yelling down the basement, yo Top,
Speaker 1: no time. And he comes up the stairs like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I told you, you know we nobody, they're not interested
Speaker 1: in us. I'm gone and I'm like, how long are
Speaker 1: you going for? He said four years? Wow. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not waiting. If he said a year, was gonna wait?
Speaker 1: He said four years. I'm like, dude, he said, I
Speaker 1: do your thing. I'm riding with you. He's he's my
Speaker 1: boy to this very day. We talk all the time,
Speaker 1: bug out and next thing you know, he's gone. I
Speaker 1: called back to the students, said, yo, Top, just when
Speaker 1: they just the recruiting officers just took him. He's like,
Speaker 1: so when you joined Gangstar And I was like yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's how it became the DJ. Me and Gurgle
Speaker 1: started just talking on the phone because I had to
Speaker 1: go back to school to get get another semester in.
Speaker 1: I made him beat to words. I manifest and said
Speaker 1: I think this would be dope for you to rhyme over.
Speaker 1: He called me back and say, yo, I just wrote
Speaker 1: a round check it out. And he's like, I, professor,
Speaker 1: I don't jest for the words I'm I was like whoa,
Speaker 1: because they were already gangs. I was already out, and
Speaker 1: I was a fan of some of their twelve in
Speaker 1: singles when forty five King was producing them, and then
Speaker 1: from there, you know, and then I was a fan
Speaker 1: of Latti, who was on Wild Pitch as well, who
Speaker 1: is Apachee's brother, and Lati was one of the first
Speaker 1: and Chill Rob g so all of that, and that
Speaker 1: was all forty five King, Flavor You and this stuff.
Speaker 1: Guru was the only outsider that was on that label
Speaker 1: at the time, and I was like, man, this could work.
Speaker 1: We recorded the record, Stu calls me back and it's like, yo,
Speaker 1: it's popping on radio. Everybody's playing it. He said, but
Speaker 1: your version on the album is a little too slow.
Speaker 1: We need to make a more amped maybe speed it up.
Speaker 1: I flew back there right before Thanksgiving, recorded the record
Speaker 1: and did the extended one, which everybody knows from the video.
Speaker 1: He said, we're doing a video back then You're like,
Speaker 1: gonna get a video, and we shot the video and
Speaker 1: then it just really took off. How is the money
Speaker 1: for you back then? And deals that you signed with
Speaker 1: this zero broke, you know. And after we made a
Speaker 1: name for ourselves, then a guru used to listen to
Speaker 1: all the demos. So he would go to the Stu's house.
Speaker 1: It was a husband and wife label and he'd have
Speaker 1: the shoe box of tapes. And when he heard my demo,
Speaker 1: the second demo he found was law Ferness and Lawd
Speaker 1: Ferness a demo. He's like, Yo, I'm trying to talk
Speaker 1: Stuart sign this guy, Lawd Fernst. Tell me what you think.
Speaker 1: I just found law Fess a demo that that we
Speaker 1: that he's played me and I found I got my
Speaker 1: demo back from Stuart gave me my demo back, So
Speaker 1: I'm digitizing all that stuff so I can tell a
Speaker 1: story later on. But we listened to law Fernest and
Speaker 1: he's students to it was like should we sign him? Like, yes,
Speaker 1: sign him. So law Ferness was the first artist I
Speaker 1: had produced outside of Gang Star and he became my
Speaker 1: label mate. And law Ferness brought Diamond D. He's like,
Speaker 1: I gotta have my homies from my block. He brought
Speaker 1: Diamond he brought show Biz and he brought Fat Joe
Speaker 1: ag He brought all of them around, So that's how
Speaker 1: I met met them. This is eight eighty nine, and
Speaker 1: you were supposed to produce Fat Joe's project or the
Speaker 1: Terror Squad project. What was it that No, he signed up.
Speaker 1: He signed me to Terot Squad and we were supposed
Speaker 1: to do a project kind of it's kind of like
Speaker 1: what I did with this, like a compilation album, like
Speaker 1: the way Kalett does albums these features and uh um.
Speaker 1: But then when show, I mean when Fat Joe left. Um,
Speaker 1: I had it in my contract that if he leaves,
Speaker 1: I can leave, because they wanted it to where even
Speaker 1: if Joe leaves and go somewhere else, we still gotta
Speaker 1: keep you at the label. And I wanted to freedom
Speaker 1: to bounce if Joe bounce. So the first single I
Speaker 1: was gonna drop was a fifty cent record. Wow. And
Speaker 1: this is when everybody wouldn't really mess up with Fifth
Speaker 1: to the fullest, because you know he was having too
Speaker 1: much drama from after doing How To Rob and me
Speaker 1: and Fifth hit it off right right away and clicked.
Speaker 1: When I got on the phone with him, he said
Speaker 1: they'll do the record, and right when it's about the
Speaker 1: time to do the record. Boom, we get a call
Speaker 1: Fifth can't do it, and then I'm like why not.
Speaker 1: They'd like he's about to sign the eminem and Doctor
Speaker 1: Dre and I'm like no, because we already committed to us,
Speaker 1: and then like nah, he and I talked to Dre.
Speaker 1: Dre was like, pream I love you, but he's not
Speaker 1: doing any more recording. So he does his debut album
Speaker 1: with well, not his debut because obviously power of the
Speaker 1: dollars the debut, but signed to them get rich to
Speaker 1: do Trying and look what happened. Wow. You know me
Speaker 1: and I always tell Fair you still owe me that track.
Speaker 1: I'm think I think you're gonna up. I was gonna
Speaker 1: ask what when you and Guru first met? How was it?
Speaker 1: Because you know you're coming from him, coming from Boston,
Speaker 1: different slings, different sounds. How did y'all connect? Um? Just
Speaker 1: phone calls and naturally it was doing the Mutant New
Speaker 1: Music seminar, so everybody was in town. I was a starstruck.
Speaker 1: That goes ice tea, there goes there, goes chucking flame
Speaker 1: and you know, just just everybody. You know, it was
Speaker 1: you couldn't go into the Battle, the DJ Battle and
Speaker 1: the MC Battle and then um we went to the world.
Speaker 1: They had a showcase. It's a lot of showcases and
Speaker 1: the show I remember it was ice cream Tea. Remember
Speaker 1: from it was a strong City record, shout to jazz
Speaker 1: j and uh it was ice cream Tea and busy Bee.
Speaker 1: That's some suicide was out. I remember he brought Mellie
Speaker 1: Mail on to to to rock on stage rhythm and
Speaker 1: he was like when I was a young boy and
Speaker 1: Mellie Mail was flexing, I was like, Wow, it's Mellie Mail.
Speaker 1: And then Coolgi rapping Polo performed after that. And for
Speaker 1: me at that time, when Roman rode to the Richard
Speaker 1: was out and I was just like, I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta be here, I gotta get on. And I remember
Speaker 1: my father was like, hey, if you if you're gonna
Speaker 1: stay out there and nothing in school, please make a
Speaker 1: name that people remember. He said, he said, I'm counting
Speaker 1: on you to keep our name hot. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm a definitely due. You'll see. And me
Speaker 1: and Grew would just talk about everything we had in common,
Speaker 1: the artists, we life, you know, smoking blunts, you know,
Speaker 1: just just everything was just so exactly in sync. Now,
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask with m B, I, G and
Speaker 1: jay Z, how did you develop those relationships? I know
Speaker 1: you talked about it before Button in depth and also
Speaker 1: with like one in the Million and the beats changing.
Speaker 1: You know, did he always agree with that or was
Speaker 1: he like I don't know, so talk about that the
Speaker 1: first call with when you got in the studio with
Speaker 1: Big and who called, well, we're big. We we lived
Speaker 1: right down the block from That's how we met, and
Speaker 1: GREU was the one that's going, yo, you gotta check
Speaker 1: out this guy, Biggie Smalls. And it wasn't big, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Big or it's just Biggie Smalls. And I
Speaker 1: got a credit mister C because mister C lived down
Speaker 1: the block from us, and it was and it was
Speaker 1: a wee spot down down near where he lived at
Speaker 1: the time that had just opened. And any time back
Speaker 1: then in those days, since we were all promoting to
Speaker 1: get you know, getting lifted um, you would go to
Speaker 1: the new spot hopefully they got some good good you know.
Speaker 1: So every time we went to the spot, we'd either
Speaker 1: go down to the block that with C lived about
Speaker 1: his church or and make the so we could park
Speaker 1: somewhere away from the spot, go go get it, get
Speaker 1: our stuff and move on. And every time I see
Speaker 1: mister See, he'd go, yo, Biggie Smalls, when you're gonna
Speaker 1: listen to that demo? And I was like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna listen to it. Brushed it off right, go on
Speaker 1: to the spot again, you know, and we're rolling. Miss
Speaker 1: just happened always be out that outside, No Biggie smaller.
Speaker 1: He would do that every time, Biggie Smalls and we're
Speaker 1: just like okay, okay, okay, chilling out the crib because
Speaker 1: we lived in brand from Ourseluss crib on Washington between
Speaker 1: Lafayette and Green because he was moving out and he
Speaker 1: wanted somebody to rent the brownstone. He's trying to sell it,
Speaker 1: but he said, just somebody to rent it. Me and
Speaker 1: Greg moved in together and rented it. So every every
Speaker 1: day pretty much. Other can say every weekend, but every
Speaker 1: day we're always going to buy forties and we'd go
Speaker 1: to Folding in Washington. We're bigging him, always hanging out,
Speaker 1: so Gules like you gotta check out to do. Biggie Smalls,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, see been pressing me about that all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with you. I go down to the corner.
Speaker 1: That's why he's the documentaries they've done on him. I said,
Speaker 1: he on the green army jacket and the hat, that's
Speaker 1: what he had on. And I'd go down there. We
Speaker 1: met the whole Junior Mafia, met Kim Chico, uh Nino,
Speaker 1: del Veg, Clep, d Rod, Gotta, everybody. They'd be there
Speaker 1: every day, just on that corner. We drink forties together,
Speaker 1: smoke together. And as that built, he was like, yo,
Speaker 1: Puff's interesting to sign him. And he didn't even sign
Speaker 1: him yet, and I was like, yo, go with Puffy,
Speaker 1: Gonna blow you up. He looked what he did with
Speaker 1: Uptown and Joe to see and all that. He's like,
Speaker 1: but I want to get signed now. Why can't you
Speaker 1: sign me. I'm like, dude, he's already in a different pocket.
Speaker 1: We're just good on on a certain level. We're not
Speaker 1: even plating to Martests to even be able to sign
Speaker 1: you like that. And I was like, Puff gonna put
Speaker 1: you where you need to be. And as time passed,
Speaker 1: I remember Marcus Mark Pitts, his manager. He was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: you think this guy? I should sign with this guy
Speaker 1: for management. I was like, yo, Mark kind of resemble yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: just a little bit. I said, give him a shot.
Speaker 1: I mean, if it don't work and fire him. Then
Speaker 1: next thing you know, Gooch is uh is his uh,
Speaker 1: his manager and we all were cool and so as
Speaker 1: it built up, we were one of the first ones
Speaker 1: to get his demo, the Big Mac. At that time.
Speaker 1: I remember it wasn't Warning. It was called Hot Buttered
Speaker 1: Soul because they you know, from not from the record
Speaker 1: that easy mone sample. So that's how early it was.
Speaker 1: Hear Warning, and all his homies had it, the whole
Speaker 1: Junior Mafia had it because back then in the nineties,
Speaker 1: you know, you want your friends to already have your
Speaker 1: stuff before it drops. You know. Now we're afraid of
Speaker 1: leaks yea yeah, but your team you want them to know.
Speaker 1: And they knew the worst everything. And uh So from there,
Speaker 1: as he updated it and started finishing up Ready to Die,
Speaker 1: he was dropping Juicy as a single and he said
Speaker 1: he's one song shot, just having a street record for
Speaker 1: for the streets. Believe yeah, crack man. So from there
Speaker 1: we uh. I told him that I don't have time
Speaker 1: to do it right now, and I was like man,
Speaker 1: maybe next time on your next album, and he goes, Joe, Man,
Speaker 1: it's the last one, and he said, my budgets already
Speaker 1: run over. I got five thousand dollars. At that time,
Speaker 1: I was making like twenty a tract. You were like
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. I was like, I'll do it for
Speaker 1: five thousand, and I said, I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna come up with, because everybody knows I'm making my
Speaker 1: songs on the spot. He go, I don't care what
Speaker 1: you use. Let's just I don't give it in piece
Speaker 1: of president. Whatever I'm coming up. He comes to dn D.
Speaker 1: I cook it right there on the spot. He's the
Speaker 1: one that told me to do all the But do
Speaker 1: you know all the different things I did it to
Speaker 1: his instruction, you know which I don't like people telling
Speaker 1: me too. But Big always had this stuff mapped down
Speaker 1: on how he wants to do it. Did the record boom? Where?
Speaker 1: Uh we turn it in and I've told the story
Speaker 1: before where I'm driving and uh, I know this is power.
Speaker 1: So it was on another station. We're rotting, and uh
Speaker 1: this is maybe two days after we're rolling, and uh
Speaker 1: we hear it blasting out somebody's car. Could we go
Speaker 1: about to get on the Brooklyn Bridge over by the
Speaker 1: by the uh by, um all the courthouses, and you
Speaker 1: know it's that's it's almost like a day and you
Speaker 1: have to make the lefty on the bridge. As soon
Speaker 1: as we're trying to pull up, I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: up on the guy before he can get past me,
Speaker 1: because once you're on the bridge you might go too fast.
Speaker 1: Now I can't be going yo, so right, we're about
Speaker 1: to make the level. I pull up on him and
Speaker 1: go yo yo, where you get that from? He goes,
Speaker 1: it's all nice seven flex playing it right now? And
Speaker 1: I go, wow, you know, it's like we just made
Speaker 1: an ascetate. He flex had to ascetate, you know which
Speaker 1: you know what I say it is? It's a dub play.
Speaker 1: You know what the dub play is. It's like a
Speaker 1: real thick record that we shouldn't really be dj right,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And it's yeah, anytime you
Speaker 1: play the quality gets worse, the worse the word right.
Speaker 1: And it's really just to test out a song. When
Speaker 1: you get something mastered, so um, they'll give you a
Speaker 1: dub play just to test it and play it on
Speaker 1: a turntable. If you like it, then they start pressing
Speaker 1: the massive copies of vinyl. Times have change and well,
Speaker 1: well well Jamaican, Yeah, the same thing. It's just they'll
Speaker 1: do the ten inchial ones that are smaller. You could
Speaker 1: play them a lot more times where and that's and
Speaker 1: it's an instant record just right there. You put on
Speaker 1: a thing called lay put it on there, run the
Speaker 1: song and you already have and you could play it
Speaker 1: right away and you know, before taking it to a plant.
Speaker 1: So to have a double play it on the twelve
Speaker 1: and like you said, you can't even wind it back
Speaker 1: it's that heavy. You gotta kind of just push it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So hearing that and they said, yeah, flex got that.
Speaker 1: Got the it's called an ascetate. And then he said
Speaker 1: flex got the acetate. So I was like, wow, man,
Speaker 1: sitting it might pop off. And next thing, you know, unbelievable,
Speaker 1: was just Summertime, that and Juicy together and then what
Speaker 1: about Hole? How did you do Hove? And you know
Speaker 1: some of your projects which with a million of one questions.
Speaker 1: The crazy thing is, uh, he called me and said
Speaker 1: I wanted to do this song that intros val in
Speaker 1: my Lifetime volume one. He did the rhyme over the
Speaker 1: phone and and said, just like he did with the Evils,
Speaker 1: he did the rhyme over the phone, said I want
Speaker 1: he's on, want these scratches here, and I did the
Speaker 1: scratches to his instruction. Same thing with Million Know one.
Speaker 1: He said. He didn't tell me the scratches. He just said,
Speaker 1: I wanted to go into another song that's gonna be
Speaker 1: called Rome No More. He said, but I need you
Speaker 1: to think like this when I say motherfuckers, can't you
Speaker 1: gotta have something that just jumps out when I say
Speaker 1: Rome No More? And he said, so split him, he said,
Speaker 1: and he see those little breakdowns you do, do a
Speaker 1: breakdown so we can weave him together as one song.
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, got it. I go to DND to
Speaker 1: start cooking the first one. Jay Walkson was too short,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, you know, which we had been
Speaker 1: known each other for years already because the gang starts history.
Speaker 1: But see, did you know coming to D and D
Speaker 1: was like a big deal, especially for the streets and
Speaker 1: short was there to do a week ago. So they
Speaker 1: were gonna They were in run room working around that,
Speaker 1: and Jayson I said, he said, when you get the
Speaker 1: first half. Let me know. I was just coming and recorded,
Speaker 1: got the first half. Y'all come listening to him, and
Speaker 1: too Short come in there and listening. I said, you ready,
Speaker 1: And for some reason, Leah a million and one in
Speaker 1: a million, which is one of my favorite Timberland produced songs,
Speaker 1: just came to my mind, just on some DJ shit,
Speaker 1: and I put it in. He didn't have that, he
Speaker 1: didn't always gonna do that part. Loved it right away,
Speaker 1: said turn the mic on, cut the album. I'm going
Speaker 1: back in there with Short, I work on round on
Speaker 1: more got it. And then and when I come into Jason,
Speaker 1: I said, I got it. He says, do not press
Speaker 1: that play button until I say, because I gotta make
Speaker 1: sure it's the write vibe. He said, I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: motherfucker's can't, and then you hit it. I said, all right,
Speaker 1: and I'm just waiting to go motherfucker's can't. Man, he
Speaker 1: was like, oh that said, and he said, turn the
Speaker 1: mic on and cut it. So that's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite records because of like the story I'm telling y'all
Speaker 1: was dope and two show Over was there to witness it,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's just that was just an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, Jay always came and got me for
Speaker 1: whatever for every album. So at all the artists that
Speaker 1: you work with, who is probably the most amazing in
Speaker 1: the studio? Who's your top three if you can only
Speaker 1: name three as far as you're surprised with the way
Speaker 1: they write or how they do it, or how they
Speaker 1: record or how professional they are the ideas I got it,
Speaker 1: say Kress one for sure because for him giving me
Speaker 1: the opportunity when I wasn't really producing a lot of
Speaker 1: artists on his level. Um, he reached out to me
Speaker 1: and said, I'm doing this new album return of the
Speaker 1: Boom bab or like Kars, I'm doing a new album,
Speaker 1: return of the Boom back. You know, he talks to
Speaker 1: you the same way like you know, like he's lecturing
Speaker 1: you and shit. And I was just like, so that
Speaker 1: was just a dope opportunity. And that was ninety two.
Speaker 1: That was when I started to be confident that anybody
Speaker 1: that calls me, I'm man, I could I could produce anybody.
Speaker 1: Guru I always put number one because I could experiment
Speaker 1: with beats that I and other people would definitely not take,
Speaker 1: like like Robbin her theory on the Moment of Truth album.
Speaker 1: Always loved the beat. I knew he'll mess with it
Speaker 1: and he did write a dope ram to it and
Speaker 1: and uh um care arrest um gur Man because yeah,
Speaker 1: because Jay was fun, Big was fun. Nas Nas another
Speaker 1: one that was fun, just because he always visualized what
Speaker 1: he what he wants, especially when I Gave You Power.
Speaker 1: I want to do a song like if I was
Speaker 1: a gun and somebody like found it and picked it
Speaker 1: up and misused it, and already I'm just like, and
Speaker 1: this is after we've done New York State of Mind
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So so with that, I was like,
Speaker 1: that would be crazy to do a record like that,
Speaker 1: and look what it turned out to be. At the
Speaker 1: time it was called Gun, and then we changed until
Speaker 1: I Gave Your Power and he said he didn't want
Speaker 1: it to just say gun on the track list, and
Speaker 1: when he did it, but yeah, he was. I don't
Speaker 1: want to keep saying, you know, Biggie J and Nas,
Speaker 1: but they were all fun sessions, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: They were really fun sessions and a lot of laughing,
Speaker 1: a lot of bottles everywhere, and a lot of trees. Now.
Speaker 1: You also did a Gang Star album not that long ago.
Speaker 1: So can you talk about the process of that, because
Speaker 1: clearly you had some vocals or able to get your
Speaker 1: hands and some things. I know that was a whole
Speaker 1: process for Yeah, I bought vocals from his business partner.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't like to say his name because
Speaker 1: we just don't click and um. And the crazy thing is, um,
Speaker 1: I'm pro too savvy, but not to the degree of
Speaker 1: where I see the part where you can check date
Speaker 1: created and when you look at some of the dates
Speaker 1: created that some of the stuff I bought were not
Speaker 1: from the era of when they would have been recording.
Speaker 1: They were someone from ninety nine, two thousand. We didn't
Speaker 1: need None of us knew that guy then somewhere and
Speaker 1: well I figured when Greu was sick or whatever. Plus
Speaker 1: his house burned down in some type of way when
Speaker 1: he was in the hospital. Maybe, I mean again, it's
Speaker 1: all alleged, but somehow that they were in his possession,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. We don't know if he
Speaker 1: got him prior to it, you know, prior to the
Speaker 1: house burning down, who knows, you know. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we negotiated a price. I bought him.
Speaker 1: Did paperwork to make sure everything was there tight. I
Speaker 1: have good life, good lawyers, which I'm sure all yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew who you do. His family, Yeah, yeah, they
Speaker 1: we have a great relationship. His son is now, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty one, so he's actually in charge of the He
Speaker 1: was always in charge to to stay with his mom.
Speaker 1: Shout to Lana and uh he um now you know
Speaker 1: has meetings with us, says, and he's into fashion like
Speaker 1: Guru was. So he has a lot of dope ideas
Speaker 1: like we should do this, we should do this, and
Speaker 1: he's at the age. I remember when the Gug passed
Speaker 1: and he was nine years old. I was getting the
Speaker 1: shout to marsh, I was getting him certain sneakers made,
Speaker 1: and he asked me when he was nine years old,
Speaker 1: he said, Yo, when I get older, can I pitch
Speaker 1: into business ideas? I was like, And now he'll see
Speaker 1: present stuff that's dope. Check this out, check this out,
Speaker 1: will you know, check the companies and make sure they're legit.
Speaker 1: But he brings dope stuff to the table and uh
Speaker 1: we still we uh handle business with Greu's sisters shout
Speaker 1: the trishuh Gu's uh son's mom and also his nephew
Speaker 1: justin who's the one that went on YouTube to expose
Speaker 1: the guy about all the stuff that was going on
Speaker 1: that we didn't know about because I hadn't seen Greu
Speaker 1: in a couple of years. With that, Once we all
Speaker 1: teamed up and started the business, I said, let's let
Speaker 1: me see if I could put an album together. And
Speaker 1: I just pull it up at about thirties you know,
Speaker 1: unused tracks. Some of them were not the gurgle, that
Speaker 1: flowing stuff that I like and know that's him. But
Speaker 1: the ones that really stood out, I'm like, that's one.
Speaker 1: That's one started putting beats inside and matching things, and
Speaker 1: you know, as a DJ, we we do our cappellas
Speaker 1: with beats and see if it flies put out. I
Speaker 1: put in my serato fly in, Yeah, that's dope, dump
Speaker 1: and make a beat. And we came together and put
Speaker 1: out one of the best shared which did very well
Speaker 1: for us, and it also fed the family very well.
Speaker 1: So and I the other previous albums just get more extremes.
Speaker 1: I thank thanks to Jay cole Man because when we
Speaker 1: were dropping the Family and Loyalty, cole was the one
Speaker 1: that's like first thing he asked me, He said, how
Speaker 1: did y'all do y'all's promo back in the nineties, and
Speaker 1: I told him how we did it. He goes, do that,
Speaker 1: and I said, because we always drop a street record first,
Speaker 1: radio record second. Every time yep boom, maybe a week
Speaker 1: or two passes, we're getting ready to set up the
Speaker 1: single bad Name. Cole calls me out of the blue
Speaker 1: and goes, yo, uh that thing I told you about
Speaker 1: how you set up your nineties era of promo. Don't
Speaker 1: do that. He said, I think you need to drop
Speaker 1: mind first, and I'm like, yeah, but that's more for radio.
Speaker 1: He goes, listen, I have a fan base that has
Speaker 1: no idea who y'all are. He said, I want you
Speaker 1: to take advantage of that time with me to pop
Speaker 1: that off. And they might go I like this when
Speaker 1: with Cole on, let me look at these other Gangs albums.
Speaker 1: Oh man, this is how this is how oh man,
Speaker 1: I like Gangs are now. So he said that I
Speaker 1: thought about. I was like, wow, he made he has
Speaker 1: a point, So a right. We switched it and made
Speaker 1: that the first one and it worked all out. So
Speaker 1: shout to Cole man. One thing I was said about
Speaker 1: Cole is shout to Cole he's cold as a student
Speaker 1: to the game. It doesn't matter how much money Cole has,
Speaker 1: how many fans. Cole really loves those conversations like the
Speaker 1: how yeah, how did you start to mix tape? I
Speaker 1: remember Cole Cole me one out the Blue and he
Speaker 1: was like, yo and me question. He was like, how
Speaker 1: did you get all the records from your mixtapes back then?
Speaker 1: What do you mean how did you get the song?
Speaker 1: I was like, WHOA, Sometimes I paid interns, I said, sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, I remember we got a Biggie song. It
Speaker 1: was a valet guy. When the valet was parking Biggie's
Speaker 1: truck and Biggie had the CD at the time listening
Speaker 1: to his own music. The valet guy stole it and
Speaker 1: sold it to me like different ways back then. It's like, really,
Speaker 1: intellect I wanted I always wanted to know, and I
Speaker 1: love that. I was gonna ask you, you know, we're
Speaker 1: producing all those songs from way back when you were
Speaker 1: earlier on started. Did you always get your proper royalties
Speaker 1: back then or did somebody take advantage? Because you had
Speaker 1: so many crazy stories of people taking advantage because you know,
Speaker 1: you were doing NAS's first album, Bigg's first album, Holes
Speaker 1: first album. Did you actually get all the money you're
Speaker 1: supposed to? Yeah, at that point, then the nineties, because
Speaker 1: I never had an attorney. Like when I signed to
Speaker 1: join Gangstar, I shout to my man lead Van Richardson,
Speaker 1: who told me in Texas and when he looked at
Speaker 1: he said, dude, contract is not in your favor. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't sign it because you sign your life away. But
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be in a video. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to be on MTV raps at the time, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, I won't sign you. Don't even try
Speaker 1: to negotiate, no, because I just change this. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just turned twenty twenty one. You know, you're just like, man,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, if I don't sign it, somebody my opportunity.
Speaker 1: I'm watching MTV raps and all this stuff, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just want to be on there where people are like,
Speaker 1: I'm buying you because I saw your video, sou And
Speaker 1: I even my father's like, don't do it. As soon
Speaker 1: as they were not in my I mean I think
Speaker 1: I signed the same day and my parents I was
Speaker 1: eating eating some lunch or something. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: as it got to where I was having discrepancies about payments,
Speaker 1: and then I took it to a lawyer to look
Speaker 1: at it and they were like, Yo, this thing is
Speaker 1: air tight. You can't get out of this. Started looking
Speaker 1: for a lawyer on the New York law who wish
Speaker 1: to wish. I'm still with this very day. Shoutout to
Speaker 1: Mark and he was like, I found a loophole and man,
Speaker 1: that could probably get you out, but you got to
Speaker 1: buy yourself out. And I was like, I don't care.
Speaker 1: Like we were we were. They were interested in signing
Speaker 1: us at Chrysalis Records because we had done a record
Speaker 1: with Spike Lee from Obetta Blues called Jazz Thing and Brand.
Speaker 1: That's how I met Brand from ourselves to move in
Speaker 1: and how me and Guru moved in with him. That's
Speaker 1: how we met him because he was he was overseeing
Speaker 1: the project from Obetta Blues and so from there Chrysalis liked,
Speaker 1: liked our music, said they wanted to sign us. The
Speaker 1: majority of our money went to buying ourself out, but
Speaker 1: now I had the freedom to just do what how
Speaker 1: we wanted to do it. And we stayed with them
Speaker 1: all the way through Emi to Virgin which was all
Speaker 1: still part of the same family, and that's how we
Speaker 1: finally started to getting some gold plaques and things like that.
Speaker 1: But the best thing was now that I had a
Speaker 1: really thorough lawyer. He's been making sure we've been straight
Speaker 1: from nineteen ninety on. So you got all your your
Speaker 1: stuff back from not not not all the not all
Speaker 1: the other albums. They're still over over universal, but who
Speaker 1: was You know, it's moved around from so many labels.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody sells and stuff and now somebody else
Speaker 1: acquires and then they sell, don't after there was a
Speaker 1: rumor like after twenty years or something like that you
Speaker 1: get your stuff back. Is that true? Or though it's
Speaker 1: in some cases it is. Yeah, like like after a
Speaker 1: certain period you can either buy either buying back or
Speaker 1: they're just now yours. It's really what what's negotiate on
Speaker 1: your paperwork. But we have already been like we're gonna
Speaker 1: look into getting dollars back because it's been a while.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, we recouped all the time.
Speaker 1: It was usually we had, you know, getting one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty grand back in nineteen ninety was like we're rich.
Speaker 1: We got right then the next one on hundred seventy
Speaker 1: five and splitting that with gre and paying our taxes
Speaker 1: and living together, which was cool because you know, but
Speaker 1: he's getting two cars. I just bought my second car.
Speaker 1: He's buying his third crib you know, like Greg had
Speaker 1: a crib in Miami. Um, this is and this is
Speaker 1: what I was, being platinum and and going gold either
Speaker 1: and that's how I'm at Zoe Pound all of them
Speaker 1: way back in Miami and like like we were at
Speaker 1: the jet skis on the water. He had the Cribbin
Speaker 1: Valley streaming Long Island and he had a cribbin Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is living and we we never
Speaker 1: cried broke because we always made money, right, always made money,
Speaker 1: and you were also really cool. Um Rage the lady Rage,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, just lived by us. Oh really yeah. Then
Speaker 1: when when we moved into Branfords, she and Nicky Dee
Speaker 1: lived together from Death Jam and Nicky Deal you know
Speaker 1: Daddy's little girl Daddy. Yeah, they lived together. I remember
Speaker 1: one time, uh I met them because Nicky Dee was
Speaker 1: having a released party that def Jam was thrown. We
Speaker 1: all went to the party and I gave them right
Speaker 1: home because they lived nearest Chubb Rockley lived nearest. We
Speaker 1: all see each other, Chubb rock Uh. This is before
Speaker 1: big but still rage, and we'd hang out. Easymobile would
Speaker 1: always come by, the rizzle would come by, the Jizer
Speaker 1: would come by. Shipers Hill came and stayed with us
Speaker 1: before they went to their first video shoot for How
Speaker 1: I Could Just Kill a Man. They had a need
Speaker 1: this place to hang out, come to. Our house was
Speaker 1: the frat house for real. I feel like you see
Speaker 1: that no more. Yeah, it's like that all the time,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, you don't see it anymore. You know,
Speaker 1: it was our house. Wasn't remember animal house. It was
Speaker 1: like that, minus jumping through the window and getting thrown out.
Speaker 1: But it just our house was that crazy. You ask
Speaker 1: any of them, they'll tell you. Our house was the
Speaker 1: house to stay at and hang out. It was party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party,
Speaker 1: fights shooting in front of our crew every neigh Yeah,
Speaker 1: people waiting outside the gate, and I'm like, yo, who's that?
Speaker 1: And we all we were all strapped back then and
Speaker 1: we all just looking, Yo, who's that? And we all
Speaker 1: kind of go out there, Yo, what's up? No, I
Speaker 1: just want to get my CD. You know, you listen
Speaker 1: to my CD. You know, next time some other hoodie
Speaker 1: dudes out there, we're all nervous, like, who's that you
Speaker 1: also want to give you my CD? It was always
Speaker 1: just somebody just wanted to hear the hit him rom
Speaker 1: you know, Blas ain't Blais, you know out loud and
Speaker 1: PF cutting. We'd all and everything on that song, soliloquy
Speaker 1: or chaos in the Daily Operation, all the names. He said.
Speaker 1: That was really how we were rolling. Every time we
Speaker 1: were making a move. How was your ego back then?
Speaker 1: Because you're a huge producer right where there ever time
Speaker 1: that you needed something from like an artist and they
Speaker 1: didn't come through in time? Like, how was how was
Speaker 1: that for you? No, we were really cool with everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean we had drama fights just like anybody else
Speaker 1: over some knucklehead acting up and we were wild out,
Speaker 1: but never to where anybody had like like some problems
Speaker 1: with us or anything like y'all think y'all hot man,
Speaker 1: fuck y'all. Never you know. The only one that was
Speaker 1: really a crazy story was when Gurgle got robbed for
Speaker 1: his truck at gunpoint and they took his brand new
Speaker 1: four Runners. When four Runners the new style was hot
Speaker 1: and they robb him for his four runner because he
Speaker 1: went to the store by himself. Dude called him, took
Speaker 1: the took the truck. I remember, we had to go
Speaker 1: pick him up because he called us tell us he
Speaker 1: got robbed. And he's standing on the corner rolling a
Speaker 1: blunt going y're arguing with the other guys on the corner,
Speaker 1: even if they took his truck going, you know, just
Speaker 1: fucked up what y'all doing, right? You know, it's really
Speaker 1: fucked up, y'all. Motherfucking like they could have jumped him
Speaker 1: and beat him down and do whatever. He's still like,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I can't stand you over there. I
Speaker 1: can't see y'all. Belie, y'all did this to me. And
Speaker 1: then the eldest story and I've told it a few
Speaker 1: years ago, they still was still looking for looking for
Speaker 1: the guys that took the car. You know, obviously it
Speaker 1: was cell phones were only car phones at that time,
Speaker 1: because he had the calls from a pay phone to
Speaker 1: tell us he got robbed. They finally see the guy
Speaker 1: with the car. There's some days later he's still driving
Speaker 1: round with the car. Yeah, that's crazy. This is how
Speaker 1: just a good of rep was born. It's chasing after
Speaker 1: him in the car. Cops start going, you know, seeing
Speaker 1: all this hot speed chase and and they're likes, that's
Speaker 1: our car. He just stole our car. So now the
Speaker 1: cops jump in and help follow him. The dude too,
Speaker 1: dude swerving and he slammed into an ice scream truck
Speaker 1: and dies in stock And that day is the day
Speaker 1: we said that we're doing just to get a rub,
Speaker 1: And that's how the song was written. That day we
Speaker 1: went to Brooklyn to such a sound studios and cut
Speaker 1: the record and that's but that's why we did it
Speaker 1: because of that Wow, just here to represent true story.
Speaker 1: You know. He altered it like thing as we know,
Speaker 1: things come back, and it wasn't about stealing a car,
Speaker 1: but it was relatable the way he wrote it. But
Speaker 1: he wrote it based off of And the crazy thing
Speaker 1: too is when he got the car. I wish we
Speaker 1: had these pictures still. When he got the car, we
Speaker 1: both bought. I bought a Males, then Phoev he bought
Speaker 1: the Forerunner. We're in front of our crib posing like yeah,
Speaker 1: we got our new ride. And then we had the
Speaker 1: precinct and the cars all smashed like an accordion. It's
Speaker 1: all squasser and google standing next to a going so
Speaker 1: he had the before yeah after did you have did
Speaker 1: he have a shot us on it? Oh yeah yeah
Speaker 1: yeah so but it was smashed bad where you couldn't
Speaker 1: lisk about it behind the steering wheel. It was that
Speaker 1: smutch stuff. And but we went to we had to
Speaker 1: go to priests and to fill out paperwork. But the
Speaker 1: cops were there's witnesses chasing the guy too, and you
Speaker 1: know that that was a crazy, crazy event. And you
Speaker 1: had quite an air for talent back then too, working
Speaker 1: with Jay Rude Dama group Home. What happened with Group
Speaker 1: Home tapp is and is out is out? I think
Speaker 1: in the Polonos Melocot talked all the time. I talked
Speaker 1: to death from time to time because obviously I got
Speaker 1: him again on the Gangster album that we did in
Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen and uh, they're all chilling, you know,
Speaker 1: still get a lot of shows and going to Japan
Speaker 1: and they did. They did a Gangster Foundation tour with
Speaker 1: Big Sugar Group Home and Jay Jayru was living in
Speaker 1: uh in Germany. Jayru, out of everybody, was the most
Speaker 1: that learned the business from us, teaching them and seeing
Speaker 1: how we did it. And from that point, he's his
Speaker 1: guys own website. He know, he sells his own sneakers everything,
Speaker 1: and he just stays really in the know. He's ooting
Speaker 1: shows and you know he's all you know, it's his
Speaker 1: Instagram is really interested in the stuff he posts. You know.
Speaker 1: So he's still the same Jay Rule, you know, real
Speaker 1: loud Brooklyn boy, y'all praying. You know, he he talks
Speaker 1: like he romes. But as you know, with everything, you
Speaker 1: didn't did production for every artist. Damn. Then now you know,
Speaker 1: you see law enforcement using hip hop lyrics in courts
Speaker 1: against the artists. What are your thoughts on that? Because
Speaker 1: we see it with Young Thug, we see we gonna,
Speaker 1: we see the bot other artists. Yeah, they shouldn't do
Speaker 1: that because music is music, and yeah, some of the
Speaker 1: lyrics are harsh, A lot of them are real, and
Speaker 1: you know, but be it be it uh fabricated or not.
Speaker 1: You can't really mix the music and then leave that
Speaker 1: alone and just deal off the stuff, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, some people do be drowsing nigen
Speaker 1: on their lyrics, but I still don't think it should
Speaker 1: be used. You know, if that skate's rock and roll.
Speaker 1: They've talked about how somebody said all the song told
Speaker 1: me I'm the I'm with the devil and to kill everybody.
Speaker 1: Same thing. You can't use that, yeah, because we saw
Speaker 1: people go to jail for like doing scams and they'll
Speaker 1: write a song about the scamp, you know, exactly, show
Speaker 1: the money in the video, and then they end up
Speaker 1: getting arrested and then they used that. So that shouldn't
Speaker 1: be allowed. Yeah, yeah, the music should be kept in
Speaker 1: its own lane. And of yeah, not with the music,
Speaker 1: no way. Now who is your amount Rushmore or producers?
Speaker 1: Um definitely Molly Mall was just a big impact on
Speaker 1: me because of the rain of the Bridge, seem Molly
Speaker 1: Moore yesterday, How crazy is that? The restaurant Queen's He's
Speaker 1: so man, he he just revolution now sampling on a
Speaker 1: whole other level to hear a record like the Bridge,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, how are they making it
Speaker 1: not sound all like all the drum machines we were
Speaker 1: using it hip hop prior to sampling. How is he
Speaker 1: doing it? You know? And then him, uh, definitely the
Speaker 1: bomb squad um man when you when you don't eat
Speaker 1: yea and you're just keep grazing. We can't hear. I
Speaker 1: feel I feel like these picked up. It was like
Speaker 1: the uh, definitely the bomb squad. What they did with
Speaker 1: Public Enemy was just amazing. Um. I gotta say, Larry Smith,
Speaker 1: you know he did all the Houdini records. He did,
Speaker 1: you know he did everything Houdini records run DMC, even
Speaker 1: from the time we heard suck MC and he said
Speaker 1: Larry put me inside to let and we asked, DMC,
Speaker 1: was that true? He said, absolutely, everything was. It was
Speaker 1: really what Larry didn't you know doing all the just
Speaker 1: classic records like that, and um uh you said Mount
Speaker 1: Russ Foreheads so Morley bomb squad uh Um. I always
Speaker 1: got to put Dre in there for just him bringing
Speaker 1: a sound that we didn't even know about until I
Speaker 1: went to college, and I'm like, it was easy. And
Speaker 1: you know my friends from me to the West Coast,
Speaker 1: it's like, yo, they put me on the Boys in
Speaker 1: the Hood and everything. He always just said Dre, doctor
Speaker 1: Dray and and sometimes would say yellow you know, on
Speaker 1: the side. But I always put Dre in there. There's
Speaker 1: there's more than than the four, but I always put
Speaker 1: them in there because you know, I'm a big fan
Speaker 1: of Rick Rubin, you know, and you know even you
Speaker 1: know from Knots and Shoviz and and you know even
Speaker 1: Pete and the Large Pro. But for what influenced me
Speaker 1: in the beginning, definitely Molly the Bomb squad Um Larry Smith.
Speaker 1: And how do you feel about modern technology making producing
Speaker 1: so accessible people using like what is it? Fruits? Yea
Speaker 1: and logic And it was a lot different when you
Speaker 1: were coming up and to make beats. Do you think
Speaker 1: that the sound gets more ordered down or you think
Speaker 1: it's a great thing that pretty much anybody could be
Speaker 1: a pretty thing. It's just whatever works for you. Because
Speaker 1: a lot of people ask me what GimC NPC should
Speaker 1: I get? I'm like, the machines are useless without your
Speaker 1: mind manipulating it to do something. So it's just like
Speaker 1: I can get buy a Ferrari somehow some wave even
Speaker 1: I don't know all the extra switch and I still
Speaker 1: ought to drive a car, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But and and I'm a deem, I'm a race demon,
Speaker 1: so it's like it's the same thing if I'm behind
Speaker 1: the wheel. Shut him a man, Panchi of the Nygez.
Speaker 1: He always says, Yo, you have two modes. You have
Speaker 1: driving mode and you have airport mode. Because I've had
Speaker 1: the rush to there for right before the flames taken off,
Speaker 1: and I will get you. Yeah, even if I got
Speaker 1: to go on the shoulder hop, I'm gonna get you
Speaker 1: to end. You don't have to go look at look
Speaker 1: look out. You're gonna be fine. But what's your preference? Personally?
Speaker 1: Um NPC became my preference. I started out on the
Speaker 1: SP twelve just as twelve before there was a floppy disk.
Speaker 1: Then the SP twelve hundred came out with a floppy disk,
Speaker 1: and and uh I stayed on that and then all
Speaker 1: the way till uh nineteen ninety two when I met
Speaker 1: Eddie Sancho, who we worked at d n D as
Speaker 1: an engineer that you had to hire when you just
Speaker 1: did a record. Show Biz was doing a remix for
Speaker 1: Lord Finess. It was called Return of the Man remix,
Speaker 1: and they wanted me to do scratches, So, UH show
Speaker 1: lawfing nets book the session. That's how I got to DND.
Speaker 1: He's like, we're gonna be at the place called dn
Speaker 1: D show U. They had me later scratches. He said
Speaker 1: he had to leave he said, can you get the
Speaker 1: mix and just bring me a cassette of the mix.
Speaker 1: I had my sound system in the MPV. I listened
Speaker 1: to it and was like, wow, this is knocking boom.
Speaker 1: I said, we were gonna go to Colliope did where
Speaker 1: we did Step in the Arena and because Queen Lativa,
Speaker 1: Jungle Brothers, Ultra Magneticum Sees Daylight saw they will working.
Speaker 1: Then I was like, I want my stuff to sound
Speaker 1: more grimy and dirty like them. I did the first
Speaker 1: album there with Stephan the arena we're about to get
Speaker 1: we just got our budget for Daily Operation. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm going to dn D. Never left there and left
Speaker 1: from that point when when we were recording the last
Speaker 1: song and we're about to work on Dwick, I did
Speaker 1: it on that No What teket Person was the last
Speaker 1: song we did in the in the A room. Everything
Speaker 1: was on the A room. Eddie was like, Yo, every
Speaker 1: the way you're laying your beach down, you should use this.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm about to sell it, but this is
Speaker 1: called an MPC sixty And then I said I know
Speaker 1: what it is. He said, well, let me show you
Speaker 1: what it does. He says, almost like a tape machine.
Speaker 1: Without a tape. He showed me all the way I'm
Speaker 1: laying my tracks individual and I was like, wow, I
Speaker 1: like this thing. Ended up doing that and did twig
Speaker 1: on it, but we couldn't book the a room. They
Speaker 1: put me in the b room. Man. I was like,
Speaker 1: dawn't want to do it in there. I've never been
Speaker 1: in there. I go in there, we do it and
Speaker 1: just said well when the day, when the room opens up,
Speaker 1: you can do maybe another mix in the other room.
Speaker 1: We mix it. Me and Greg Knice dubbed C was
Speaker 1: there and when we did, Dwick and Don Baron of
Speaker 1: the Masses of Ceremony came with Greg Knighte. We did
Speaker 1: the record. It popped off. It was knocking. I was like,
Speaker 1: damn the mixing it sounds better. And from that day
Speaker 1: I stayed and that became Premier's Room at that point
Speaker 1: and I've been on the MPC sixty ever since. I'm
Speaker 1: on the NPC renaissance now because of the computer and
Speaker 1: more more memory time, but still don't on the NBC.
Speaker 1: You know, we appreciate you for joining us. Hip Hop,
Speaker 1: Joey Rhapsody, Nahs, Run the Jewels, Little Wayne and Slick Rick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. So much about the video to with Remy
Speaker 1: and Rap. It's gonna be that's gonna be amazing. They
Speaker 1: were talking a lot of issue on there too, you know.
Speaker 1: I like that though. Yeah, they took that took they
Speaker 1: both can spit. Yeah, yeah man. And and and that's
Speaker 1: why there are two different combinations of mcs. You know.
Speaker 1: Rap is to remind me of it, kind of like
Speaker 1: the Lauren Hill type of of of Lane, and then
Speaker 1: Remy is just Remy you know that time. So we're
Speaker 1: about to shoot the video to that. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: so much fun. Man. We already got our how we're
Speaker 1: gonna dress already mapped out, so it's gonna be the
Speaker 1: gutter alright. Well, he's having us. It's Primo DJ Premier, Yes,
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club. Good morning,