On August 8, legendary hip-hop producer DJ Premier sat down with Genius for the latest installment of Genius Level, our live conversation series with icons of the music business. The event was hosted by Genius' Head of Artist Relations Rob Markman and sponsored by Cîroc and Breather. During the wide-ranging intes rview, Premier reflected on his legacy in hip-hop, from his early days as half of Gang Starr to his work with legends like Nas, JAY-Z, and The Notorious B.I.G.
He kicked things off by reflecting on the songs that he’s the most proud of, citing classics like Gang Starr’s “Mass Appeal,” Mos Def’s “Mathematics," and Jeru the Damaja’s “Come Clean” as a few of his favorites.
Soon after, Premier got into his Gang Starr work alongside Guru, explaining that they were “total opposites, night and day. A lot of people think that… we just didn’t click,” he said. “But you can’t make seven albums successfully, and tour that many years, and have houses and cars and all the stuff that comes with the music industry, if we can’t click. We were that much yin and yang, but we were so, and still are, spiritually and everything. We’re still very connected to how valuable the music is to us when we made it.”
Later on, he explained how JAY-Z originally wanted him to produce the entirety of The Black Albumbefore deciding to go in a different direction. “He said, ‘The only thing is, I don’t want you to work with anybody for this little period of time, so that we can just do it in maybe a good two and a half weeks, and then it’s done, put it out [as] The Black Album,’” Premier said about his conversation with Jay. “Then he put it on hold weeks later and he’s like ‘Scrap it, I'mma wait, I'mma do it later on in my career,’ and he ended up doing the [Dynasty: Roc La Familia] album.”
Throughout the evening, Premier fielded questions from Genius community members Lord3A, Skhillz, and SmashBreezy. He also touched on his work with Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Ferg, D'Angelo, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., KRS-One, Christina Aguilera, Royce da 5’9”, and more.
You can check out the full interview above and catch up on all the lyrics to DJ Premier’s biggest hits on Genius now.
