QLS Classic: DJ Premier

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What Up It's Unpaid Bill?

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Check out this interview with Houston's very own DJ Miers
talks about how he got his name, Well, it's like
leave Texas to make it in New York City, and
how he found musical enlightenment. It's a QLs classic from
March twenty second, twenty seventeen.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Primo Suh Sun Supremo, Roll Call, Suprema Sun Sun Supremo,
Roll Call Suprema Sun Sun Supremo, Ro Call Suprima Sun
Sun Subpremo.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Ro Quest Love not Quest Rock.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Yeah, blob trot no stop, Yeah, no Court and vizots.

Speaker 6 (00:52):
Yeah, Suprema Supremo.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Role Quante is here.

Speaker 6 (01:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
Check my sound shall niggas is folly straight up and down.

Speaker 6 (01:11):
Upbre Supremo, Roll Call, Supremo Supremo roll Call.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm Sugar Steve.

Speaker 7 (01:19):
Yeah, I cannot lie. Yeah, I watched Primo. Yeah, make
Devil's Pie, Supremo.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Suck Supremo, roll Call, Supremo, Supremo.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Role Callous Phil is here. Yeah. You know my Steves
reuse my roll calls whenever I please.

Speaker 6 (01:42):
Supreme Suprema roll call, Suprema Supremo roll call.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's like, yeah, sitting yeah, motherfucking premiere. Yeah you know
my steed Supremo roll call.

Speaker 8 (02:06):
My name is Supreme. Yeah, I am Suprema. Yeah I'm
on the roll call. Yeah, not a casino.

Speaker 6 (02:14):
Suprema So Supreva roll call, Supremo Supremo, roll Suprema Son
So Supremeo, roll call Suprema Son Supremo roll call.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (02:31):
I wouldn't expecting that to.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Hear me, is thish me.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
Now we should have just SUPREMEO. I was thinking that
right as we started. That sound like Supreme Supreme take two.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Nah nah nah, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 8 (02:45):
She looks mad because she didn't getting steezed, and he
just seeded, come.

Speaker 9 (02:49):
On, very rarely happens if we'll hit the same one.
I mean, I had two of my lines get stolen son.

Speaker 8 (02:55):
So I take her.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
See now you know, because I figured one of them
Ransom is going to be part of that. Initially was
going to use the violin straight over and then I
was like, now let me go to the fucking robots. Well,
ladies and temen, if you have not guessed, uh, this
is going to be an instant fan out classic episode

(03:19):
of Questlove Supreme. Uh. Without further ado, we have one
of the greatest, most celebrated, most awesomest uh flag torch
bearing members of of hip hop culture with us today,
DJ Premier Ladier Jump. Okay, So I want to apologize

(03:48):
in advance for the massive amounts of fanning out that
we're going to do. I'm gonna try and keep the
inside speaking and exactly the rabbit hole.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Keep the rabbit hole now. Yeah, I won't go try
to fall rabbit holes to stay out of that something place.

Speaker 8 (04:05):
And I have on a shirt that you you were
one of the first ones to tell you.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
We're a fan of the n YGS.

Speaker 8 (04:10):
Yes, yeah, so I remember a long time ago, You're like,
when are they coming out?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, so they're about to come out.

Speaker 8 (04:16):
Yeah, shot the pans and shot binos. So I'll make
sure I get you in advanced copy of it's coming
out to Yeah. Yeah, I'm mixing now. I produced the
whole thing and straight New York sounding gutter raw lyrics.
You know, from the perspective of the true adult streets.

Speaker 10 (04:36):
You know, I would expecting relate to I see, Yeah,
my first time meeting you was at a New York
m I g show that Uh we were factory.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Factory.

Speaker 10 (04:48):
Two thousand and two, we did an LB show and
it was as asked, my first time meeting you in Guru,
h rest in peace. We Uh we did a first
joint we did like our first little showcase. It was
it was little Brother not.

Speaker 11 (05:01):
And uh Frank supposed to Frank they were doing, uh,
they were doing take them clothes off, but it was
people in the crowd saying take them coats off.

Speaker 8 (05:12):
And I was like, I remember that that was the
original knitting factory before they moved.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
They moved, they moved to.

Speaker 8 (05:21):
Williamsburg and I met bringing back upstairs.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I was like, yo, it was a friend. I was like, man,
what's up? His first thing to me? Yo? Yo? So
I only did two records in my life. You know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 10 (05:29):
I did two records, did two records in my life,
and Guru was there and it was crazy, Like god,
it was long ago.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Okay, So what I always wanted to know, I mean,
you're so New York.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
And Gang Star was such the consummate New York group,
Yet you guys didn't start from New York City.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Man.

Speaker 8 (05:56):
He started from Boston and I started from Texas. For me,
it was my mom is an art teacher and she
just had so many records in the house. You know,
the rules were, don't touch the top of the record,
only all the edges, or you get a we we

(06:16):
call it a whooping, not a spanking, a whooping. I
touched the top because I just wanted to see what
is touch on the top? Do? She goes you got
your fingerprints on your dumb motherfuckers like and then I
mean I got plenty of whippings because you know, I
looked at records as a toy, because the labels was

(06:37):
what attracted me. The way they looked when they spun.
I was really attracted to the labels. You know, it's like, wow, Motown,
the way it looked in tamlawn versus.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, like the blue versus the yellow in the yellow
in the brown.

Speaker 5 (06:56):
Harry Winer once at Universal explained to me that because
Motown used eighteen different factories across the United States to
print it, like they didn't do their own pressing, it
was never consistent. So the ink would be consistent. So
you would have some Motown print that had a very
dark queue to it, and then you had a lighter motel.

(07:20):
But sometimes even the Tamala would be a very dark
label versus a light one, like it would just guardy.
It would depend on you know what pressing plant used.

Speaker 8 (07:34):
Yeah, but the labels always fascinated me, just the way
it look when it's fun. And then on top of that,
you know you had semi not semi auto. You know,
they went to semi automatics, but it little almost like
a gun. But they even fully automatic turntables, which at
that time my mother called it a record player and
not a turntable. So seeing her stack the spindle with
it looks like a bottle rocket or whatever. And stacked

(07:57):
that and then put five forty fives on there and
look the arm holder and then the arm goes up, touches,
it goes back, the record drops in it.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I'm like, how does it know to land there? Like?
You know, so I took her.

Speaker 8 (08:10):
Apart, which got me. That gets you because I wanted
to see the mechanics of what's making it do that
and you know where to land. And then on top
of it, when you put a twelve you know, an album,
it knew to start at the album where It's like,
how does it no go here on the forty five?
Goes all the way Insigne lands right on the dank.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
I was in the juke boxes too.

Speaker 8 (08:29):
I would just stay at the jukebox because almost any
restaurant back then had a juke box, and I would
just stare at and watch it shuffle the records, and
then you know, like that, that's why he's like happy
Days because I don't.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I do not feel happy Days. Would you?

Speaker 5 (08:44):
Would you rotate records without even listening to it, just
see what it looked like? Were you biased against labels
that you didn't like copy wise, even if it had
good music?

Speaker 2 (08:57):
How did you judge it on the label?

Speaker 8 (09:00):
The judges on the label like I do now Like
I never like Capital, so.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
It took me a long time, like especially old.

Speaker 8 (09:07):
Purple Orange like Nat King cole Cat with a rainbow around.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, that's why I never touched my dad's Capital record
right wrong to get in the Beatles and beach boys
like you the best label? Who was the like the
one I used? Like scary labels used to scare me.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I never like Buddha, yeah, with the little man at
the bottom, like Kurd time curtains.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
But here's the thing you like Kurt Time. Yeah, I scared, literally,
I would never to listen to if there's hell below,
We're all gonna go with all that psychedelic echo effect
to it in the dark as a three year old

(09:54):
watching that Kurt Time label and nah, but I'd be
obsessed with it, like make them put it on.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Then I run upstairs and hide on the cover.

Speaker 8 (10:04):
I hit under the covers when Jaws came out because
I thought the shot could come in and I'm like,
and if you think about the shot, can't swim without water.
But I just remember going to see Jaws with my
family and just that tooomdoommmmmm. I was so scared of
staying by myself, you know, my my parents let us
stay by myself at a young age because it's just

(10:25):
like that in the South, you know, you know, you
leave your door unlocked and people just walk in, you know,
like I'm from that, Like, hey, your thatt home, it's
not you know, unchained five. I learned that when I
came to New York and my mom's from Baltimore. So
even when we used to stay at my grandmother's house,
same thing. They had all these like all these locks

(10:48):
and you're just.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Like, damn, you know, what's the you know.

Speaker 8 (10:51):
But then you see the corner store right outside the
house where everybody's fighting and screaming and breaking glass, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Like, oh, I want to go back to Texas.

Speaker 12 (11:00):
You know.

Speaker 8 (11:01):
And then you get to the teenage age where it's like.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yo, I love all this violence stuff, you know, And
that's when the changes started. The change started to come.
Your father, your father, he was a professor at Prairier Review. Yeah, yeah,
and he was my dean.

Speaker 8 (11:16):
Imagine that.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
So you went for free?

Speaker 11 (11:18):
No?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
What? Well? I mean yeah, he paid for it. What
was your major?

Speaker 8 (11:23):
Computer science? But none of those languages exist, you know.
I took for tran and basic.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah. Now you can't get your receipt back.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
So wait, if if the if the turntable was such
a sacred holy ground in your household? What happened the
very first time you ever heard the Adventures of Grand
Master Flash on the Wheels are still? Did you hear
it as a youngster in in Texas?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
No, I was.

Speaker 8 (12:00):
I was going back and forth. Yeah, but I was
going back and forth because my grandfather.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Lived in Brooklyn.

Speaker 8 (12:04):
That's how the first Brooklyn connection happened because he still
he lived in Brooklyn, so being staying with him, he
and I used to always go to a I was
really in the in the pinball games heavy as a kid,
so he's always take me to Playland and Tom Square and.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Then we always go to a Yankee game.

Speaker 8 (12:19):
So I was so used to going to baseball games
with him, and so I got into baseball. I played
that played when I was young, and he's the one
that got me into that. And then he used to
tour with his band and he played trombone, trumpet, guitar
and upright bass. So he used to always show me
all the pictures like, yeah, this is when I was
in Germany, this is when I was here, just when
I was there. And I remember his wife, Rooney, God

(12:40):
bless her. She's always going, oh, Bill, there you go.
He loves a brag about all the places he's been.
But for me, it was like, wow, all this music
took you all these places, you know, so I wanted
to do that same thing.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
See yeah, but so so it wasn't like you scratched
on the home term table and nah, not then.

Speaker 8 (13:00):
But by the time scratching came out, I just was
wanted to figure out how are they able to bring
it back like that? And then my homie who was
still a friend of mine, RP.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Cohler.

Speaker 8 (13:10):
His name is Randy Pettis. He went to my college.
So I didn't really understand the scratching aspect as far
as how they're making the record come back until like
nineteen eighty five, when when eighty four, I'm sorry eighty
four when I was in college. Use I graduated high
school in eighty four. My my freshman year in college,
I went. I went to summer school just so I
just wanted to be in college so bad, because you know,

(13:30):
just to get away hang out with all the people.
And we don't we only live five minutes from the college,
but it's still a different way when you're on Now
I'm on the dorms and with the boys, we're drinking,
we're doing all the stuff and that that you want
to do away from your parents, and and uh, I
just remember, man, he was scratching and and he had
these felt pads on there, and I was like, Yo,

(13:51):
how are you doing that?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
And and he was like, I'll show you.

Speaker 8 (13:54):
He's like, come to my dorm. And I went to
this dorm he showed me how to cut on his
old big Gemini. It was a big gym, not mixer.
It was silver with wood on the side. That's all
I remember, the big silver damn. He had to run
to get the cross fader, you know. And he was
and the way, the way, the way the dorms were
set up shot the Holly Hall that.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Was that was the dorm of all the wildness.

Speaker 8 (14:15):
He the way he had to set up. He had
two on the right because he couldn't.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
He couldn't. He couldn't do nothing right because well he
couldn't left and right.

Speaker 8 (14:22):
But only when he was doing the gigs at his whole,
at his dorm, he would set him up on the right. So,
being I got so used to learning it that way,
I just stuck with that way I could. You know,
I got better now where you have to cross over
and everything. But now I don't want him that way,
but if it's set up that way, I'm still nice
to do it with him on the right or And
then the second thing that led me just keeping on

(14:43):
the right was when Malcolm Claren and the world famous
Supreme Team came out with the album d Like Scratching.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
You see the turntables together.

Speaker 8 (14:51):
Yeah, the turntables together on the cover and the mixer
is a g l I mixer in the front. So
I was like, I want to do that, but I'm
just gonna move him back over like the way RP
talk me.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
First time I saw you cut that was that was
what you had. You had him on the right. See,
I've been told that was called Philly style.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
I don't know if I can claim that now. So
it's like cash money. Was he cutting like that? I
don't know, Like just every Philly DJ. Jeff's the first
guy I ever see cut normal with left and right turntables,
But most Philly DJs that I've known always have the
turntables to the left and the mixture to the right.

(15:29):
Because that's that's how I learned. Even it even further,
uh uh got validated. I once saw whoever tone Luke's
DJ was?

Speaker 2 (15:45):
We need How do you know? How do you know.

Speaker 8 (15:50):
Remember?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
How do you know that?

Speaker 5 (15:52):
I don't know how I remember that, but I think
he shouted him out in a song or something.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
But you pulled that out way too fast? Is there
anything you know? No, No, it's flitty.

Speaker 8 (16:02):
That's why that's why he's part of the breaks.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
God damn.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
Well, yeah, like I was doing it Battle Philly uh
style with on the side. I never saw that either
with the turntable twelve o'clock. So then I was like, okay,
that's how you're supposed to do it. So is that
when you became like when you talking about wax Master C.

Speaker 8 (16:25):
Yeah, I just wanted to have a name, and uh,
you know, first I was DJ Chris, you know, and
then uh wax Master Ccuse. I was like, damn, everybody's
jam Master grand Master and no one's wax Master. And
right when I claim that name, wax Master Tory came
out on B Boy Records and the fact it was
on B Boy Records with KRS with you with Criminal
Minded and all that I was, and uh, you know

(16:46):
KG the all from the from the Cold Crush, and
I was like, damn, man, this is good.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
This dude's gonna blow him.

Speaker 13 (16:53):
Now.

Speaker 8 (16:53):
I can't use that one, you know. But he was
a DJ but but just wax Master Toy. It was
like damn, but I kept it. And then when when
I joined Gang Star, Stu Fine, who was the owner
of a Wild Picture was a husband wife owned label.
Stu Fine was like I really don't like your name.
And I was like, man, what's wrong. He said, it

(17:14):
just doesn't catch. It just doesn't catch. Why don't you
see if you can come up with a new name.
And I was like, well, let me, let me get
back to you. And I had gone back to Texas
to go to school.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
So I just made a list.

Speaker 8 (17:24):
And you know, I remember, I remember DJ scratching cut
I had h DJ uh turn turn around. I know,
I'm sorry, turn around names in our in our back,
I had mixing Scratch. Premiere was one of the my
you know, I made a little list. And my mom
always keeps these yellow tablets you know, around the house,

(17:47):
which I took dad, yeah to this very day. I
keep them as well because I got something one of
my back that broke with me. Uh, it's just a thing.
So I wrote, wrote like seven or eight. I wanted
to do at least ten, but I wrote about I
remember I had a rad Revolve Revolution shot the DJ
Revolution was one of the nastiest cutters ever. Uh, and

(18:10):
you know, and so on I showed my mom and
she was looking at it. She goes, I think you
should go with Premiere because you always always want to
be first and stuff and this and that, and I
used to repair everybody's stuff in my neighborhood. Actually, Travis
Scott's father.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Was like my O G.

Speaker 8 (18:24):
Yeah, you know father, Yeah, he's you know, he's probably
like I'm fifty, he's probably like fifty seven fifty eight.
But year Jack Webster which which actually Travis Scott used
to be Jack Webster before he changed the Travis Scott's
Jack Jack Webster and Travis Webster and their brothers and
south of Sonora Webster and rest speaks to their dad,
who's actually used played cards every Thursday with my father.

(18:47):
He just passed going on three years now. And uh
and uh shout to Ms Webster, who's first first person
in my neighborhood I heard cursed more than Richard Pride.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Lady.

Speaker 8 (19:00):
Every Christ we still go over the house and go
see her, and she's just a barrel of fun and
she's just so funny. So you know, I remember they
were tell me about Travis Scott wanted to get on
and everything, and and uh they would give me his
music and stuff, so like.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
He's popping that.

Speaker 8 (19:17):
Yeah yeah, and uh, Jack and Jack and Travis played
bass and drums and they were the first one with
the pool table, the first one with a VCR in
our neighborhoods. So we and they lived like three houses
from me. So I used to go over there to
their game room, play pool and learn how to play
drums and bass. And that's where my instrumentation came from.
I took piano lessons, but by second grade I was like,
I don't want to do that. I want to play

(19:38):
cowboys and Indians and all that stuff, you know, So
started doing that type of stuff. And then I was
in Little league baseball. So so during that time, I
just you know, kind of like I left the the uh,
the the everything else to the side. Next thing, you know,
everything started to trickle into the you know, the the

(19:58):
turntable stage of every thing, and and uh, you know,
music was always just.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Heavy in the house.

Speaker 10 (20:05):
So you started out DJing and doing mas, wast Masters,
wax Master, c.

Speaker 8 (20:15):
Nothing to cut. Yeah, you know, I straight, I straight
like trump, Uh, what what happened?

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Central man?

Speaker 8 (20:23):
So I called when I said, when my mom said premiere,
it sounds like the one. I called, uh Stu and said,
what do you think of DJ premiere? He goes, that's it?

Speaker 10 (20:32):
I love it and talk about Stu Man because I've
heard like a lot of stories about Wild. I mean,
you know, Diamond don't want to make a picture as
Wild all that. Like what was he like as a
businessman and what was that first dangstar deal like for me?

Speaker 8 (20:45):
Even when when we met my first manager, Patrick Moxy,
who you know started to pay their records. Uh and
and Empire Management was our management.

Speaker 7 (20:53):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (20:54):
With with Patrick, I remember we went to a party
and he goes, Jo Man loving the new gangs our record.
First thing we do is get you off that small label.
And I looked at him like you're about to ruin
our stuff because Stut was so cool, Like we we
we got along well.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
And like I said, it was a husband and wife label.

Speaker 8 (21:12):
Guru's the one that hurt that used to go through
the shoe box of demos that got sent to him
and he heard my demo and he heard Lord Fanessa's demo.
What's the label wild Pitch Ok?

Speaker 2 (21:22):
What was your demo? At the time. So I was
in a group called we.

Speaker 8 (21:27):
We were called mcson Control, you know m I C
mcs and Control. It was me my MC top Ski
Sugar Pop.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
No Sugar.

Speaker 8 (21:39):
If they all all from South Dallas, shot to Old
Cliff and all of that. So, you know, so they
all went, we all went to school together, and and
then there was stylely T. Stylely T was our flavor flave,
you know what I'm saying. So you know, I mean
like he was just I mean, and not only that,
he's not acting like that. This is really how he is,
you know. And when I just went on the prom

(22:01):
tour two years ago, when I went to Dallas, I
saw all of them, and we all still talk to
each other, call each other texts, and they come to
my shoulder. We still call each other like it's a
regular thing. They're not mad that I took off and
and continued because they couldn't really afford to come to
New York. Uh Me and top with were in New
York shopping the demos. Uh I got a credit Carlos
Garza because he's the one that got me a job

(22:22):
at at a Sound Waves record store, which was the
store in the hood in Houston to go to. If
you and the if you're from the streets and you
want to get anything, you gotta come to Sound Waste.
All the all the players and the pimps used to
come in there with the furs and and this is
the hot Texas with gators on and everything. Hey, everybody
got some of that laddim mo and and plus we

(22:50):
sold zyder call music. A lot of people don't know
what yer Communica. That's huge down in Texas, and so
you know, and you have to know your music. So
it so what it was.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Uh, this is how I got the job.

Speaker 8 (23:03):
I actually used to The price tags were easy to
peel off, and they had like three ninety nine or
twelve inch so we were putting the one ninety nine
ones on and Carlos saw me doing it, but he
didn't confront me because I was with Top and Top
was a very cocky dude.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yo.

Speaker 8 (23:18):
Yeah, fuck all that men. You know, it ain't nobody
gonna be too.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Front on us. You know.

Speaker 8 (23:21):
That's how he That's how top.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
It is years.

Speaker 8 (23:23):
This is probably like eighty for this, eighty four eighty five.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (23:27):
So uh so when we get to the counter and
I got a stack of twelve inches, Carlos is the
one that puts the prices on it because he's the
twelve inch buyer from the warehouse. He's the one that says, hey,
give me ten tone looks give me ten Reli Vanilli's girl.
You know, it's true stuff like that. So when he
saw what I what I was buying, He's like, dude,
these prices are wrong, and you know me, I'm acting tough. Yo, man,

(23:50):
it's a dug night. No, that's what I'm paying there.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
But there are three ninety nine.

Speaker 8 (23:54):
I'm the one that priced those. I'm like, well, whatever's
on there is what I'm paying for it. If you're
gonna fit change the price, you're gonna put it on.
Next time I bought a record, you know, I was
like you. I was like you and thats Shane, you know.
So so from there, I came back in the store
and you know, maybe a couple of weeks later, and
he was just like, yo, man, yeah, I saw what
you bought. You know, you have you picked a lot

(24:16):
of hot records that I just got in you know
how you know all that stuff. And I'm like, well,
I'm moving to New York. I'm from here, and you
know I'm gonna I'm gonna work on getting a record deal.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
He's like, yo, you want a job here.

Speaker 8 (24:26):
I was like yeah. And then I met met with
their owners and everybody. They gave me a job, and
from there, me and Carlos are the tightest friends. That's
how I ended up meeting an odd squad with Devin
the Dude, and and and uh all you know, all
of us got got cool. That's I mean, I met
scar Face, I met Willie d So we go way back,
way back before the deal. And then from there, uh,

(24:49):
the billboard that just started having a rap category in
Billboard magazine, a rap chart.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
So Carlos became.

Speaker 8 (24:57):
The billboard reporter for Houston, for the South, and then
they needed They said, do you want to be the
twelve inch Biers? So now I took over as a
twelve inch biers. So I'll call south by South I
mean I mean Southwest Wholesale and say, hey, I need
you know, one hundred wild thing tone logan.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
They're like, are you sure you need one hundred?

Speaker 8 (25:15):
I'm like, Yo, it's moving because people coming in the
store going yo, we need wild thing, wild thing for
the weekend, you know, and then we can move them.
They got to a point where they trusted anything I
would say order people say. And then that's when the
base in the in the cars was like a new
thing holding now hit it is what totally got us
into the sound system era for us in Texas, holding

(25:37):
now hit.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
It, My man, are right? That is a loud even
always mixed the ship way louder.

Speaker 8 (25:46):
Than and and what it was. There's a guy named
Otis Curtis. He was part of my rival DJ team,
the DJ crew that that that. We were rivals all
the time. It was Chris Garrett, Tony Tapscott, Darryl Tapscott,
r I P. And we we all friends, played football everything,
but we also enemy but rivals with the turntables because

(26:07):
we were like, yo, but you ain't got this record,
but ja got that record?

Speaker 2 (26:09):
But O.

Speaker 8 (26:10):
This was the first one to have the big wolfers
in his truck. And I remember he came pulled up
he goes, Yo, I'm about to put on this song
by the Beasie Boys. We had already heard like, uh
the well, we had heard Beastie groove, but didn't have
no eight O eights and this is one of the
old Purple Death jam so yeah, exactly. So then I
remember this is exactly what he said. He said, Yo,

(26:32):
when this record beat Beat drops, you better duck. And
we're like why he said, watch and you know it
starts off with this holding now there's no you know,
he goes get ready to dug in the city. As
soon as he said and I'm chill it, and it
just said boom boom boom, boom boom. We were like, god, damn,

(26:54):
that's some bass. And after that everything just started coming out.
It seemed like it seemed like I and that just
everything was just boom boom boom. And then that's how
I got really into Mally because Molly didn't follow the
every kick pattern. His would just be just like boom boom,

(27:15):
And we were like, yo, look where he's placing his ship.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
So that blew me away. And this is even before
you had even started. This is still We're just.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
You want to know something hilarious, So your your moment
of realization with like this, this might call me to
the culture was holding now hit it? You want to
know something hilarious. So the initial printing of hold it
now hit it? When def Jam did it put the

(27:46):
a cappella on the A side right, So when Lady
b Ever played it in Philadelphia, we never knew there
was drums on the ship. She was not until not
until we ought license to ill And I'm still mad
even to this day. When I played Holding Out hit
it like I played the acappella in Philly, Wow, it

(28:10):
was because to us it was like, yo, they are
so dope, they don't even need to.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Word no music.

Speaker 5 (28:21):
I mean, we never heard of a cappella before, so
this was number one in Philly for like all of nineteen.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
We never knew there was music. We never knew there
was drums, so we never knew. We never knew that.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
So like and only later I found out the initial
pressings of it, like I think mural in Japan, I
brought a twelve inch where Holding Out hited the a
cappella they called Acapulca. Yeah, it was on the A
side and the other version was on the B side.
But yeah, never I never knew it was yeah, and

(28:56):
that's what that That's.

Speaker 8 (28:57):
Really what said office sound from me and then that's
from from there. That's why I was like, man. But
when it came to Marley, that's why I was like,
I want to I want to learn.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
How to make beats.

Speaker 8 (29:06):
It was just everything his When I heard the bridge,
you know, I remember run DMC and Dana Dame came
to our college to perform and during the Break, you know,
when they're setting up the equipment and everything. I just
remember I thought it was called the Breaks because it
was going it sounds like it's going to break to break,
to break, to break, to break to break. I didn't

(29:27):
know it's saying the bridge. And then I remember, like
that's around Tim mc carlos, and I was like, yo,
there's a song called the it goes the Break, the
Break he goes.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
No, it's saying the Bridge, he goes.

Speaker 8 (29:36):
I got it right over here and it said Bridge Records,
and it just looks so plain, but it looked New York.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Like the label.

Speaker 8 (29:43):
I was like, again, labels, the way they look they
you know, they just make you plug out based on
the label. Now you'll see a label with some weird
shitting go always.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
I know it's something on it.

Speaker 13 (29:55):
You know.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
What was.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
Was general hip hop culture in Houston, derivative of New
York culture, Like Okay, we see run DMC doing that,
so what's up, homeboy? Like because it was southern was southern?
When did Houston establish their own thing? Like Okay, we

(30:18):
don't have to be New York or LA. We could
be ourselves.

Speaker 8 (30:22):
Like I gotta say, the ghetto Boys, you know, because
I go back to knowing the Ghetto Boys when it
was Johnny you know, when it was waiting for a
Face before Ready Read. It was juke Box and Johnny
c and everybody that you know this is you know,
when when Face came, he was a DJ action, you know,
so even Butchwick Bill wasn't in the group officially yet.

(30:43):
So then Ready Red came in later on, like when
Death four and all of them came out, and and
the Raheem. So during the first record that came out
was called Carfreak. That was the first Ghetto Boys record,
and we were like, wow, they got the feelos suits on,
and they got the fat cables, Like where they get
it this in Houston where you finding cables at? You

(31:05):
know what I'm saying. They had the big dookie ropes
and we were just like wow, you know they they
got them already. Then, Uh, everybody knew Jay Prince because
we had a we had a club called the ron
Stone Wrangler, which was the Tunnel back in the eighties,
and and J Prince was one of the owners of
that club. So uh, and then RP, the one that
taught me how to scratch, was working there. On that

(31:26):
night's so that's yeah. So he would always get me
in and he this is when he's playing, he's not
really playing, you know. Yeah, you play car Freak from
the Ghetto Boys and play Captain Jack, who was the
local DJ and radio personality. And he had a record
called don't do It Like That Baby, so so de
cause back then people go, yo, don't do it like
that baby. That was like a saying. So he he

(31:49):
made that as like an anthem before the fat Man scoops.
This was don't do it like that baby was the anthem.
So that got played and then uh then uh, and
you know, Steve Farnier and all of them was a
major part of Houston. But in the club, if it
wasn't Ghetto Boys, it was stepsosnic uh, nobody beats to biz,

(32:11):
make the music with your mouth, the bridge like it
was those types of records in Texas like.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
No bias against nah nah it was fresh.

Speaker 10 (32:20):
I was yeah, I mean because it was the same
for us like in North Carolina like it was you
know when we were young, like New York.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
I mean that was it. So whatever was whatever was out,
Yeah it was it was.

Speaker 10 (32:33):
It wasn't it hadn't become regionalized yet, so like at
the time, so you're still are you DJing at this
point or you at the time when.

Speaker 8 (32:42):
Eighty four, you know, into eighty five. And once I
was already doing parties. But I just knew how to blend.
I didn't know how to cut. I do nothing. I
was just very and I used to sit down and
just just spend. I wouldn't stand up. I would just
sit there. Crowds rocking, and I would just sit there
and go fade and everybody's still rocking. And I always

(33:05):
had just a HoTT of stuff. And then and then, uh,
how many crates are you bringing to a party at
that time? Probably like ten fifteen because because everybody you know, why,
because everybody help. It was a place called the Memorial Center,
and then we also spun at a place called the
Newman Center, which is part of the church I went to.
I used to go to Catholic Church. I was the

(33:25):
ultim boy all that stuff. And uh so the Newman
Center was the place to have the jams. So it's
the spot.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
And when we spun it at the Newman Center.

Speaker 8 (33:35):
And at the Memorial Center, everybody wants to get in
because they you know, you got to pay to get
the get in the door. They were really strict like that.
Now you gotta pay, you know, they probably a dollar
then and I was like a big dog, I ain't
got a dollar, yo. People always help you carry the
crates in and they're not there when it's time to
go home. Every time you know, no one going to
help you. Yeah, you know, be out of ten people

(33:57):
will be two people to help you.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
So uh that.

Speaker 8 (34:00):
Back then, we had our own equipment, recipes to Theodore Archer.
We call him Meatball. He he and I had a
DJ crew. My mom made us a little cards and
you know uh what we call we would call Magic Sounds.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
My mom named it.

Speaker 8 (34:14):
I didn't like it Magic Sounds. I was like, ma,
cause we had Magic one O two, which was our
hip hop and R and B station. But they back
then they played like I said, the mix show played
and nothing but predominantly New York game because that's all
you really ask. But but then we had Egyptian Lover
for the West Coast. You had Egyptian Lover. You had
a mixed mass iced T wouldn't even even now really

(34:37):
like yet he had a record called Cole win Madness.
A lot of people don't know that he is a
record on the Blue Label.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Jimmy Lewis one, yeah, yes, it is.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
So right before it just be good to me, Jimmy
James Terry Lewis would make it little instrumentals and that
Blue label.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah you know, yeah yeah boom was that before? So
that was before you named Egyptian lover. Uh was a
big deal.

Speaker 8 (35:15):
Two show was just on the because we now I
have West Coast friends who I met in college, just
got Stevie, Steve. He used to be like, man, you
on all that New York stuff. Y'all always put it
on plus two. We put it on plus eight and
I was like, so he said, yeah, can we cut faster?
And he's always had an attitude. He's like, let me
show you what we could do. And he put on
the al and they fish from Hachene.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
It's time and he's like that.

Speaker 8 (35:38):
I'm like, wow, he's doing this fast. He's like, yeah,
stick to your plus two. That's all our death. I
will always remember him saying that, stick to your little
plus two because he was alway. Every time he get on,
he goes, can I get off?

Speaker 2 (35:50):
He would just slap it down.

Speaker 8 (35:53):
You know what, Shout to Stevie, Steve wherever you are,
shout to John Twine. Uh, these are guy John Twine Man.
He was like pretty boy from the West Coast. But
they taught us how to do the dance called the
Guests because I used to dance back then. I was
in I was in a B boy crew everything. That's
when you know I had footwork and everything.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
You know.

Speaker 8 (36:11):
We used to battle the legend. He used to play
for the Rams.

Speaker 12 (36:14):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (36:16):
Oh my god. Harvey Williams, he used to play with
the Rams and he played with the Raiders. We used
to battle him and his brother Darryl Williams, and they
used to wear the tuxedo jackets with with the white
piezos and and the white gloves, and then they would moonwalk.
They were the first one I ever saw moonwalk where
it looked like they were literally floating on air. I
was like, yea, all these dudes are nasty. We gotta

(36:39):
kill him in the next battle.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
All right, I'm mind blowing right here. All right, you're
listening to the Quest Love Supreme, O Pandura. Uh. We're
here with Teams Supreme and our very special guests, DJ
two plus the the, the the the Larry Love of
Houston hip hop dancer.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
YO. So I'm like, I'm really shocked.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Because the only inkling that I had that Houston even
had a culture was when Chuck D shouted out ghetto
Boys and on Fear of a Black Planet, Like it
really wasn't even occurring.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
To me that way before hip hop was.

Speaker 8 (37:24):
And the the guy that's like the quote unquote Mellye
Mel of Houston, his name is k Reno.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Oh yeahno, yeah, yeah k Reno.

Speaker 8 (37:33):
If you asked Phase Bundy, any of them, like who's
your guy, guy you look up to from Houston, They're
not gonna even go I was, They're gonna automatically say
k Reno. He just released an album called the Big Seven.
Uh just posted on Instagram a couple of days ago.
He just released seven albums all on the same day,
just came out.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
He's just a militant work.

Speaker 8 (37:54):
The militant, angry just I don't just fuck you all
type rapper, and he can spit. He's actually on the
n YG's album on the song about It's called Introduction
of Manhood, which is pretty much about, uh, how many
how many youth black kids go to jail to learned
to be a man because they don't really know until
they hit a consequence where they got to go to

(38:16):
jail and really face real men.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
So so it's all about that.

Speaker 8 (38:19):
So it's Kirino, you know Nyg's and Little Fame from
MP It's a real hill song to beat. Its crazy
and it's very serious beat. But it sounds like you
you know, running highe the hoodie music. But Krino bodied it.
I mean, just man, he's yeah, Krino Man, big up
to him.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
He's the he's the you know, he's.

Speaker 8 (38:38):
From South Park, so that's south Side. He he's the
South Park General. So you know it's really north sides
and in south Side in Houston. Yeah, so and Most
and then you got Most City, which is Missouri City.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
So you know, so.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
At this rate, are you thinking like, okay, this is
a career for me and or is it just now
how did you because you're not in the original.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Gangster No, I'm in the third.

Speaker 8 (39:07):
Yeah, I'm the third generation. First generation is Guru Sug
and Sug's brother swab d He he was that was
the first gang star they named Gangstar when they were
going to moreuse.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
You know, Sugar was hustling out.

Speaker 8 (39:21):
There, and uh, you know the Guru was going to college,
and uh they were called the gangsters because you know,
Sug wanted to keep it. Yeah, yeah, we're keeping in heart.
You know, Sugar was heavy in the streets at the time.
So from there they say, you know what, it's called
a gang star to kind of not soften it but
just have it more accessible of a name and having catchy.

(39:41):
So they they originated the name Sug, swab d and
and Guru. Then from there Sug got incarcerated, did a
few years of time, and then another MC stepped in. Uh,
because it was only one m C, but now it's
two m C. There's Dame Odiski and Guru. But Guru
wrote all the rhymes for Damo dame o.

Speaker 5 (40:01):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Uh would would rap with Guru.

Speaker 8 (40:03):
And then at the DJ, his name was Mike D
but his DJ name was DJ want to be down.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
But he spent.

Speaker 8 (40:10):
But he spelled the DJ one one two, the number
two B, the letter B and then down there was
DJ one two be down. But if you say it
all the one and if you listen to the first
twelve and he goes, yeah, DJ want to be down
on the DJ on the wheels, you know, so, yeah, D,
they want to be down. Mike D's brother's name is
gang Star T, so that's another.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Edition of the name.

Speaker 8 (40:34):
But even though they had already started Gang Star already
with Sug and swave D and Guru, but Gangstar T
was a known guy in Boston. And again Mike D
is his brother in the group. So that's how that
that those affiliations happened. And then when it got to
the point of Guru staying in New York when he's
living in Brooklyn, he and he got with me. He

(40:55):
was like, man, if they're not gonna come up here
and help, you know, for get us to the point
where they're only showing up in their shows and money,
I'm I'm not gonna have them be in the group
and it's just gonna be me and you.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
So I was like, well, that's on you.

Speaker 8 (41:07):
And that's when that that beef started where they were like, well,
we're gonna be Gangster a posse and.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Uh, you know, that's when little Shabb who's from.

Speaker 8 (41:13):
Meast, New York, he was friends with Jay Ruth Damager
and then that that that they kind of angry that
that Guru kept running with the name. So they started that,
but then you know, that got shut down quick. We
were doing dis records and stuff like that, and I
didn't I didn't know them, but I knew whoever it is,
if it's to that degree where we gotta gotta get
it on. I was always like not was I am

(41:34):
still from line if it's something that's gonna protect our
team and and and I'm like that to this day.

Speaker 10 (41:45):
How did you and Guru even meet? Because you signed
it with this and the wild pitch he finds your demo?

Speaker 8 (41:53):
Right, well, Guru really found the demos that still checked this.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
So how did you and him actually meet?

Speaker 8 (41:59):
So Stu said, you know, I should put you all together,
but I wanted to student sign the MCS in control.
But now we've changed our name to I c P,
which was in a circle posse. But there's a reggae
group called.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
That that's yeah. I was like yeah.

Speaker 8 (42:15):
So so with that we were just like we're just
we're just I c P, you know, and we'll say
in a circle posse and.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Wow, what equipment were you using then?

Speaker 8 (42:28):
I was Carlos had an SB twelve that he had
bought and twelve the Perl the blue, so you couldn't
save the sound.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
I bought the drive.

Speaker 8 (42:37):
You know that you have the big, big flat square
you know, the one it's like a ten inch disc.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
You know, we save.

Speaker 8 (42:51):
So so, but then when you saved it and you
load it back up and it's all like, you know,
it's not playing back the same. But I learned how
to trunk do everything, and I would just make it
and go directly to my cassette decks because I'm like, damn,
it's not saving anything the way I want. So if
you know, I can't reload it up to play it again,

(43:11):
and then uh yeah. And then when I got to
New York with that, you know Gord he shot to
Gordon Franklin. They were they They went to Periview as well,
so that's how we all met. So when I told
him I was coming back and I wanted to get
some demos done to hopefully get a gang star at
the time, Stuart was like, well, I just don't like

(43:32):
the way you got wraps. He didn't like the way
Top rap, and uh because the demo me and Top
did is what got that got us to Stull wanting
to sign us. So that's why I'm like, I'm not
going to leave him and you like the demo that
we cut. Yeah, we had one called We're Fantastic. We
had one called Up Another Level. We had let my
DJ get Hyped, which was him rapping about me and

(43:54):
I was looping, uh uh people make the World go
around from Michael.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Jackson, boom boom, boom boom. I just kept just boogo
boogo boom.

Speaker 8 (44:05):
Because my my man Skeet, who was our neighbor in
East New York, taught me how to work a for
a track. I was like, wow, so I could just
cut this for like five minutes. Now I got that,
and then I would just cut the dun from the Wilton,
I mean from the mil Jackson version yellow covered with
the red.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
I cut that over it. Then that was the That
was the beat.

Speaker 8 (44:27):
Let my DJ get Hype turned into DJ Premieres and
Deep Concentration because he said, let me get off the
mic and let my DJ get hyped. Gepkeepepet get kip,
give the man behind the wheels and so all the
cuts that I did on that became Deep Concentration. Once
I joined Gang Star, but I and I and I
found my demo tape that I gave Stu, and Stu

(44:47):
gave it back to me. It's in great condition. I'm
about to transfer it because I you know, and digitize
it because that's you know, safety stuff. Yeah, no, real,
I'm not joking. Even the writing on it, and and
you know, just looking at it like wow, this is
And I found the law for Nes demo.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Law Ferness wrote his own.

Speaker 8 (45:09):
He put Lawfulness the Funky Technician on it, with his
own handwriting, with the nice you know, graffiti style handwriting
and everything, you know. And that's how I met law
for Ness when he became our label mate. You know,
that was the first person I ever produced us outside
of gang Star. But yeah when when when? Uh with
my partner. As far as how we separated, uh top

(45:30):
but we Stu even said, look, I'll put you all
in the studio. Maybe you need a professional studio. Maybe
I like him, puts in the professional studio. Next thing,
you know, we do a couple more demos. He's like,
I still don't like your guys. So I said, I'm
not that. I can't join gangst unless unless I'm with
my dude. Time passed. We cut them more demos, still

(45:51):
no work. We went to every label still nothing. The
Top said, yo, man, in the next couple of months,
if we don't get a deal, I'm going into the military.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
You know.

Speaker 8 (46:00):
I was like, nah, not you, that's not even He's
so street, It's like, that's not even leaving you man.
We got to knock on the door cause we all
were living with Gordon's family now, you know, hanging out
in the basement living there, Me Gordon, brother Gary, Uh
and me and Top and I dance a HL rock
shot shot to HL and next thing you know, Dud's

(46:22):
at the door and he's like in the uniform, going, hey,
I'm looking for Theodore Campbell. And I'm like for what
he said, Uh, he's leaving today, you know he he
I thought he was bluffing, and he said, yeah, you're
joining the military. I'm like, yo, time, yelling down, yelling
down in the I was just explaining this at another interview.
I was just and he comes up the stairs with
his bags already packed, and I'm like, you're really leaving

(46:43):
and he was like yeah, and he said it's rapp
ain't working. I was like, nowhere is I leave me Like,
I'm stuck here in New York without you? Because I
really thought we were gonna make and he's like, yo,
and he said, and I thought he enlisted for like
a year. I was gonna wait and just be like,
when you come home, we'll do it again. He's a
ninelists for four years.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
N like, now, that's a lifetime to wrap called.

Speaker 8 (47:08):
My partner just left. He went to the Navy, and
he's like, so that's when I joined Google captain. Now
he actually got discharged, but uh, he's doing well. He's
got got a beautiful family. We're homies. We still see
each other everything. Like I said, I see everybody took it.
But we all always calling each other, texting each other.

(47:28):
Everything's good and good with everybody, so no hard feelings.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
It's in the vein of third base. It's almost like
an arranged marriage. Yeah, yeah, that worked.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
That was or did it both?

Speaker 8 (47:43):
And I told at the beginning, I said, listen, I
still want to produce other acts, you know, so please
you know you got a problem with that, let me know.
He's like, nah, I'm cool with that. Just I want
you to DJ for me or whatever, and you know,
make the records for me too.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
And I was like cool.

Speaker 8 (47:57):
I said, well then I'll be in the group with you,
but i'mstill produce outside of that.

Speaker 10 (48:01):
So no more missed the nice guy I read. I
think there was another of you said the album was
done in.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Like ten twelve days.

Speaker 8 (48:08):
Yeah, that I wasn't really nasty yet as far as
being being confident to say I am a beat maker producer,
that really was me guru. This now is nest me
twelve hundred.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
You know, this is me Guru.

Speaker 8 (48:22):
And Slowmo's son and fell and we were in Brooklyn
at such a sound studios, and uh, I used to
see King of Chill there all the time, Like wow,
I think it was King of Chill, you know, like
my man. You know, like I was such a big fan,
and I didn't really know how to work that's not
fifty yet in Akai, that's not fifty Sampler and me
and him got cool and he's like, yo, if you
want to come to my mom's house, I'll teach you

(48:43):
how to how.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
To work it.

Speaker 8 (48:44):
So I used to go to Crown Ice to take
the train and bought me a nine to fifty of
my own and he taught me at his mom's house
with no drum machine attached, so I didn't have anything
to trigger it. He just taught me how to loop
and everything. And I used to always go to King
of Chill's house and learn all of that. So once
I got that master, then he said, man, and you
could buy you like a little basic device that can
MIDI up. You know, I was learning this whole MIDI thing,

(49:04):
and he said, and you can trigger all your sounds.
And once I did that, I started going, oh, okay,
I get it. And but I didn't know how to
do chopping until I'm at show Biz because because now
the law for our label made. He's like, ya, want
you to meet one of my homemies from my from
my projects.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
He's dope.

Speaker 8 (49:21):
He named show Viz. You know, show was in the street,
but he was nasty with the beats. And that's how
I'm at Diamond, and that's how I'm at the whole
D I T C. And I'm in fact Joe way
back before.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Yeah, that's then they were active, Oh yeah, just waiting
for the wait for that time.

Speaker 8 (49:38):
And uh and Patrick really liked you know, Showz was
doing everything on his own ride the trunk of a car.
Patrick liked like show Biz music. So that's why he's like, yo,
let's sign them to pay day, and that's how we
all got Yeah. Well when I when we did No
woman's a nice guy. We were all on the drum
machine together, like we'd be side by side and I'm like,

(50:00):
I'll hit this, you hit that, and.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Slo almost like, well I'll hit this.

Speaker 8 (50:03):
They are like bombs were really yeah, because if you
hear the production what songs, all of them.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Because I'm saying everything was so wait a minute, so
or cause and effect. That's someone doing the highest yo,
yo dog, and.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
You were trying to replicate that. I was like, yo,
is there a describancy program because that was starting getting.

Speaker 8 (50:32):
Because I didn't understand yeah, because he went because I
never liked the quantize, so.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
I like it loose. And once he told me, I
was like, how can you make it?

Speaker 8 (50:40):
Do it with it's almost like you're doing it. He
said you could turn the quantize off. I thought everything
was just one sixteen. So when he told me that,
I'm just liked.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
You know, oh yeah, it's I gotta hear this for
one second. This caused effect by gangster. You ain't living right, punk,
I'll like to school you're not rue you But I said, yo,
you fool yourself when you try to deny the five
written long.

Speaker 8 (51:12):
Hoped each other because we're doing it like he might go,
you know, like that's how it was, Like we really
but you know what, I'm not I'm.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
Really not mad at that at all, because what you know,
Marlon Jackson said when that Off the Wall documentary that
sometimes mistakes and and the human element makes the song
breathe better. And you know, like I really didn't know

(51:49):
the importance of quantizing until like some dj started complaining
that they can't blend rare stuff to you know, and
I was like, all right, I'll do it, damn click track.
But you know, like I would have Okay, now this
there's a lot of the records making sense to me
now that I realized that you guys were just doing

(52:10):
it triggering live with your hands.

Speaker 10 (52:13):
So after that, when y'all do know him, it's a
nice guy. How do you make the transition from wild
Pitch to Chrysalis?

Speaker 8 (52:20):
For got to give it up to Spike Lee and
and uh brand from Marcellus. Oh yeah, because we had
done jazz music. Spike saw Spike saw the video towards
our manifest thought girl looking like Malcolm X in the
video that prompted.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
The Body album.

Speaker 8 (52:39):
He bought the album and was and heard jazz music.
And it was during the time he was doing Mo
Better Blues. So when he was doing more the Better Blues,
he reached out to us and plus is Brooklyn. You know,
he was saying, Brooklyn is Brooklyn now, so he you know,
he's very pro Brooklyn. And he said, I remember he
called us and said, yo, man, I love that song.
Y'all did shouting out all the jazz grades, but y'all

(52:59):
have out a lot of people. And I was like, well,
we actually did that for our grandfathers because they win
jazz bands and and we did that to dedicate to them,
because before my grandfather passed, he said, we want you
to do a record about about the jazz grades if
you really you know, respect, you know, the music of
the past. So we did it as a tribute to them.

(53:20):
We weren't really like, really focusing on it. And it's
the only record on there about jazz, you know what
I'm saying. Everything else is the other subject matter. You know,
battle rhymes, and Gul's always liked to do battle rhyme stuff. Anyway,
next thing, you know, they said, well we want you
to do a better version of what you did, but
we want brand for ourselves to help you do it.

(53:42):
And he said, we got a poem by this guy
named Eric Eli and it didn't rhyme. But I remember
gru looked at the at the run and said, and
they don't rhyme. And Spikeel said do it and do
whatever you want, but mention those names that you didn't mention.
Grew just said, you know, Charlie Ming is such number
of fingers, you know, just little feeling. Because he had
all the names and it was pretty much a done thing.

(54:03):
He right, Grew writes fast, done and we cut the
cut the vocal. My original version was the one that's
in the video.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Cool in the game.

Speaker 8 (54:14):
That was the demo I presented to say we should
do it over this with brand from them. They were like, no,
we need instrumentation and we want to make it a broad,
big thing for the soundtrack. So we did that and
that's why that version on the soundtrack is very well,
it's like a big production. When it came to the video,
Spike was like, yo, I want to use your version
for the video, which he was like, cool, So we did.

(54:36):
We did that and then all of a sudden shout
to uh Duff Marlow saw the video and uh, I
just reached out to him on Twitter. I just shout
him out and all of a sudden, I me and
him talking again. You know, he's he's doing well. I
haven't seen him in years. And he's the one that
said to get a sign and we got signed to Christmas.

Speaker 10 (54:55):
So then when y'all did the stepping the Arena, which
I don't know this, that's the first CD I ever bought,
the long Box and she was like eighteen dollars.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
But no, actually, yeah, sure have a I have a
reputation for stealing. Yeah, for stealing. In my early days
before I found I used to steal cause we skipped
that part.

Speaker 8 (55:22):
We just we we we were all about stealing stereos,
you know, so so and then but then my own
friends who used to steal got me. I remember when
I walked out and saw the hole of my door,
you know, because what it was I used and and
all that stuff. We used to do, all that stuff, man,
And I was like, dann, they got me from my

(55:43):
system because I used to put all the systems in
my neighborhood in people's cars. So I was nice with it,
and I was just like, man, they got me, you know,
I you know, got another one, but yeah I had
no yeah man, you know yeah. So it stepped in
a thieves that that I used to that I used
to rock with and you know, I won't say their names,

(56:04):
but uh so and stepping the renal what was because
that was I remember buying that one. Well I didn't
buy my grandmother bought it for me and I remember no, no,
it was like from I think we got it.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I think I got it like a Walmart soign. But
but yeah, that was. That was my first CD.

Speaker 10 (56:23):
And so with that record, from what I could tell,
it sounded like the production you were starting to get
a better.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (56:31):
Now I wanted the sound to be like the Jungle
Brothers because they worked at Calliope.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
This is what brought me to Calliope for this album.
You went to Calibe. Yeah yeah, okay, like.

Speaker 8 (56:49):
S L E L E E T.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
I remember reading it.

Speaker 8 (56:52):
Yeah, And it's so crazy because because whenever I wanted
to do something off and lay it down, he had
this thing called the Russian Dragon. So if you're Russian,
it will it'll tell you if it's Russian. And if
it's dragging, it'll go dragging. But it's called the Russian Dragon.
Had a dragon on the on the front of the thing.
It was all these lights that that it's a it's

(57:12):
a light that's in the middle that's green and if
it's rushing, it'll go red and if.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
It's draggon, it'll go yellow.

Speaker 8 (57:17):
And yeah, you used to turn it to if you
if you put it on a track and run it
through that track, when you turn the dill, it would
move it for you.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
You know. Yeah, it's called the Russian Dragon. What are
you here for, Steve? You know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (57:34):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Yeah, what year was that?

Speaker 8 (57:38):
That was going into ninety two because we were working
on daily operation. But as far as this is where, well,
prior to daily operation, yes, Stepanie Arena, who was all
our lead except for Justicett Rebends was still done. It's
such a sound and firehouse which is your Vazan who
was partners with Slow Moo and they started two studios.

(57:58):
So now it's such a sound and firehouse. And that's
when King of Chill started to just be feed. He
ran fire house pretty much and I was still in
such a sound. But we did just to get a
rep there and we did say your prayers there and
we did, uh, what is it boom a street ministry.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Yeah, yeah, there it is. That's it. That's it. That's
the Russian drag. That's it.

Speaker 8 (58:22):
Yeah, we need that so so and I never I
was like what the hell is that? But he was like,
this is how you can move your your track either
forward or bagard was to get it and if you
wanted to be a little more off. So so from there, uh,
I finally got in a lessons drum machine that could
trigger my my sampler and h the first beat I
did was you know, for Cloby, I did step in

(58:44):
the arena because I always wanted to loop that that
the horny horns looped it up and Guru wrote that
right away we cut it and then uh, from there
everything just started flowing, man, and I started just getting
better with understanding because, like I said, now I learned
how to filter better with Pete and I already knew
peeting them and Lodge Professor. They taught me how to

(59:06):
filter and do all of those things. And show Biz
taught me how to chop and he was like, yo,
if you put it on the same output, it cuts
the sample off and you can do it.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I'm like wow.

Speaker 8 (59:16):
So then I'm taking all these tools from show Biz
Large Professor and Pete and then applying my way with
the Mallie mentality and the scratching mentality. And I said,
I want always and all these scratch like I did
because I want to DJs to be like.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
You hear what he cut?

Speaker 8 (59:32):
Because I figured AT's not gonna really care about the
cutting part.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
No, we care.

Speaker 8 (59:36):
You know, you know it's going yo he cut this line.
So I knew DJ to be like yo, he's killing
it on the cut. So that's why I did it
for DJs.

Speaker 10 (59:45):
Now you well, it's funny you say it because as
MC's for me as a kid listening, it was always
dope to me how you would take parts of different songs.
But like, you know, it's almost like a collage, you
know what I mean. It was like you would take
all these things and put them together. And I remember hearing.
I mean, you know, like with mathematics, we took the
cut in to do your math pile. I never would

(01:00:06):
have thought unbelievable. With the I was like, what the fuck,
why do you do that?

Speaker 8 (01:00:11):
It just comes to me like that as a DJ,
it's all DJ oriented. Everything for me is DJ orient first,
you know, even from what I do as a producer,
everything is starts from just DJing. Like if I had
to pick out of everything I like making, like I
just like DJing.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
Okay, not that I think you will confirm this question,
but for the sake of quantizing stuff, do you think,
all right, do you think have you ever just especially
if it's a sharp cut, just what I call pulling

(01:00:54):
a doctor ice utfo like cut it via your your
n PC or you're through your German machine.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Oh no for you? Oh yeah, he he'll tell you.

Speaker 8 (01:01:10):
I'm hard on myself when it comes to laying my strategy.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
No, yo, listen, we did We were doing cuts for
the breaks, and he was doing what he was doing.

Speaker 5 (01:01:18):
We wasn't doing ship. We was watching, but he was
doing he was cutting. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's cutting.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
I did it with the actual record. Yeah he wasn't.
It wasn't it was the real.

Speaker 8 (01:01:31):
I could have done the Serado, Yeah why not? And
I kept going, I kept going no again again, and
in every take we'd be like I was, I was
doing like, no, it was just a little again when
you were.

Speaker 5 (01:01:44):
Going okay, let me just go to pro tools. No no, no, yeah, okay.
And I was saying to you, but I'm just saying
I didn't know people even did that. He's still what
mixes like he's only running.

Speaker 8 (01:02:02):
Through okay, so that they would see.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
What you're saying. I'm looking at you like i've seen.

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
I mean someone someone taught me how to cut, like
I would load whatever I want to cut and scratch
on stuff or on on what you load.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, and then two thousands up to But there's a
way to make it. How do you scratch it?

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
I mean there's there's I mean you won't get the
because sometimes you'll hear product like uh okay for instance,
like if you would do like stop yeah yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:02:47):
Like that because I want people to go, Yo, look
how he's cutting like that's like I said, it was
a DJ thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Well I want DJ to go. I've seen cats cut
via I've never seen all these years.

Speaker 10 (01:03:01):
Yeah, he's still like even when we were doing stuff
like ping, he still works even though it's all digital,
he still works like he's on tape.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
So like it would be nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:03:13):
I'd be like, yo, supreme, like you know, we can
go in and just He's like, no, no, let me
punch punch out of your son.

Speaker 8 (01:03:21):
Yeah, if I go step up, step up, step, I'll
say take it from step and then go step.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
And I'll go up. Yeah, And it's that precise.

Speaker 8 (01:03:32):
I'd be like, I'll do that, but I have I'm
always literally on the failure.

Speaker 5 (01:03:38):
Yeah, all right, So it's a slight admission time. This
is my confession. This confession time game plan from Stepanie Rita.

(01:04:03):
So back in the early Square Roots days, back when
we were busting on South Street, we that would this
would be one of our like we didn't write our
own material.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
We were just like do you know? All right? Do
tribe next? But for some reason we used to do
a routine to Static. I never even knew.

Speaker 8 (01:04:36):
More was the one that said, Yo, you gotta chat
out this group the rudes. Like he he brought and
brought y'all to me. He was so into y'all from
the gating and him and re met, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
But you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (01:04:50):
But he was like, yo, Philly that they they banned,
you know, because we only knew steps and sign against
the hip hop band. So you know, he's like, yo,
they doped the dope and you know, y'all just man, y'all,
y'all have transformed hip hop into its own planet.

Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
Man, I want to know now right now, you're in
like your your second year with Guru. How are you guys,
because this is an arranged marriage, how are you guys
gelling as a unit?

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
As a unit?

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
Like you know, is it like he feels that it's
more his band and you're visiting or you know, like,
are you guys friends? Offset are you hanging afterwards? Like
what's in the first in the in the first two
years of Gang Star, what's the relationship like.

Speaker 8 (01:05:41):
Both because we lived together, because we live together from
the from the moment's a nice guy all the way,
too hard to earn. We lived together, y'all lived in well,
we lived in Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
The first we lived in brook in Brooklyn.

Speaker 8 (01:05:54):
Then we moved to one eighty third Street in the Bronx.
And that's how I'm at Panche And yeah, that's how
I met mel CoA nutcracker, smiley, yellow child. That's how
that whole connection from the Bronx happened on one of
the third Street because we lived on one of eight
third and Andrews, you know. And that's when I used
to see uh ski, I see Dame Dash walking his dogs. Uh,

(01:06:16):
that's when jay Z was around a lot, you know,
running with Dash. So you know this is where where
that that transition seeing Chubby Chubb all the time, you know.
So we all live in the same area era, but
the area, and but we fought from day one, and
and but it would be over nonsense, but it never

(01:06:36):
affected the greatness of the songs. Like we we'd be
fighting and then he's fighting with my dancer, you know,
and then they're they're fighting in the hallway of were
in a grimy building, crackheads all on the same floor,
and they're like, come on, let's go, let's go. And
they didn't tearing the room up or tearing the hallway up.
And then next thing you know, we're like, yo, I
love you man, yo yo. And next thing you know,

(01:06:58):
we're in the lab making another bang.

Speaker 10 (01:07:00):
So I'm skipping ahead, I'm skipping it out a little bit. Now,
your mind off hard to earn that told me about you.

Speaker 8 (01:07:08):
Even know what, Yeah, even though it's basketball's lingo. We
had just got into a major fight this during this
right around that daily operation time. We got into a major, major,
major fight. It's very bloody, very messy. And we had
already gotten hired to do the song for White Men
Can't Can't Jump soundtrack, so you know, the check is

(01:07:31):
already in, the last thing we want to do is
is not do the record. So I remember, I remember
grou walked into the the session, bandages on his head
and everything like that. And he walks in and goes
straight to the booth and looks right at me. You know,
because the way d n D the what it is
with the vocal booth, it's just a slight look to

(01:07:51):
the level. He's the boots right there. He looked at
me and just said, you do get there wrong. You
never have the skills like mine. And he's just looking
right at me, and I'm looking at him. Could we
still have a little tension? And I remember when it's
when the vocal.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Was done, he goes, you're good with that?

Speaker 8 (01:08:04):
I'm like, yo, it's dope.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
He goes and fuck you and walks out.

Speaker 13 (01:08:15):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:08:15):
A couple of days later it was back to le.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
But how did you even know that we had talked
about that before? I missed.

Speaker 8 (01:08:25):
I missed him so much. And then not only that.
I mean, you know, he had a big alcohol problem.
He used to flip a lot. Where it's not even
just me, you can be I mean, so many people
in the industry and fans have still come up to
me and go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Yeah, Drew, he was drunk and he was cursing, he
was lit. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:08:43):
And there's so many stories that are similar to mind,
so it's not like just us. This is fans and
other artists that have witnessed the same thing. But one
thing that and you know so dope is even when
he would be pissed or in one of his moods,
he would go but that's this one thing. I will say,
I'm one of the nicest and he would always say that,

(01:09:04):
oh he go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
One thing is for sure, nobody get out rhy on me, y'all.

Speaker 8 (01:09:09):
I don't care how ugly.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
He was or is.

Speaker 8 (01:09:12):
He would always make that his last hip hop fights.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
I thought it'd be over like food or a girl
or whatever.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
Just so many things, man, and but we don't.

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
He just had issues because you guys kind of came
into your prime when this was really a young man's game.
I mean, at least the perceived you know, I mean,
You're said his ageless anyway, But I'm just saying that.
You know, most people get ushered in when they're like
nineteen twenty twenty one, they're young boys, you know that

(01:09:44):
sort of thing.

Speaker 8 (01:09:45):
I mean, well, I was at age at that time.
I was twenty three.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
What's the difference. He's uh, he's older than you. Yeah,
he's older than you to me. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:09:55):
So even though the age line happened for several years,
you know, which I already knew what his age.

Speaker 5 (01:10:02):
Was, but significant, man, I never knew he trying to
hide his age or whatever. He just had such a
cool gurus I mean, for those that you know are
too young to even remember that time period, I mean,
Guru's voice it was probably, i'll say, definitely the top

(01:10:26):
five most unique voice.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Absolutely absolutely, I mean absolutely.

Speaker 5 (01:10:32):
Just as far as delivery, Like you know, I put
him up there with Snoop's.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
Voice, tips voice, be Real's voice.

Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
Uh, even at Rock's voice has a very unique correct
you know, so crazy.

Speaker 8 (01:10:46):
I didn't know his real age either until we went
back to Boston to go do promo for one of
our albums and h ed Og and the Bulldogs was shooting.
I got to have a video in the back of
the store, so like, g was it? And and uh,
why don't you all come in because we knew the
awesome too. Everybody knew Gangster by that time. But we
went around the corner to be in the video, which

(01:11:07):
we were in it, and uh, a kid walks up
and goes, hey, mister Elm remember me. And I'm sitting
there like, why is this kid calling him? So I'm like,
why are you calling him? Mislim? He said he was
my teacher. Wow, great dish. That's when I was like,

(01:11:29):
just tell me what they do so I know. Even
if I got a live for you, I just want
to know so I know, you know. And then we
all got our story straight.

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
When did when did y'all start? Because I okay, so
no one missed and no miss I got daily operation.
I remember that follow up that seemed to come kind
of quick after.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Uh yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:11:52):
After that was during the time where you come out
with an album. Every year you're doing an album, you tour,
come home, get the next budget.

Speaker 5 (01:12:01):
And so with that, uh, the budgets kept well wait
a minute, but this is one thing though, you guys
didn't because by this point you're with Patrick Moxy and
I know hismo is tour right, because you guys were
the only people I ever saw going to the same

(01:12:23):
places that because because our radio played ship was down
and we weren't on TV. Management was like, yo, we
gotta go on the road, and so we got a
lot of our gigs based on the acts that wouldn't
go blah blah blah cancels.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
To do that. But you guys were always on the road. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:12:44):
But Patrick tru is British, even though he speaks American English,
so he doesn't have an accent, but he's British. And
all of our staff Neel used to be who all
and the top executives now shout all of them, uh
they they were all uh part of his team. So
that's why that's why I knew so much slang. Like
even to this day, I still go fucking hell, And

(01:13:05):
I'm so used to hearing that in the office so
much that that's normal for me to respond to a
certain things like are you serious, man?

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Fucking hell?

Speaker 8 (01:13:12):
Like it just it just rolls off the tongue that naturally.

Speaker 5 (01:13:16):
Speaking of tour, you must give the QLs listeners the
Gang Star Father mc DJ Quick Tour story, The towels.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
I can't wait for this. I never heard it. This
is the most gangs ever all with the towels. Oh
my god.

Speaker 8 (01:13:34):
I tour EPMD three years ninety one. Yeah, EPMD ass
is to tour with them, just when Jessica repe is
very hot and U because Jessica Rep came out ninety
if you look at the twelve and just at nineteen
ninety seventy arena the album came out ninety one, EPMD
as to go on tour wheeling. We were so ecstatic,
like wow, I drove my own vand with my MPV

(01:13:55):
it was me DApp Gordon Guru and we had a
nine millim meeter and a whole bunch of beer. You know,
we were hining and freaks back.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
Yeah, the premiere van, Yeah, the one we all used
to tell so you weren't renting, we can afford it.

Speaker 8 (01:14:12):
We couldn't afford to get.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
A bus yet.

Speaker 8 (01:14:13):
You know that was a big, big paper and we
wouldn't get into a support at that time. We didn't
get to support until the second until Daily Operation. Then
we were getting to a support.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
All the time.

Speaker 8 (01:14:24):
They still do to a support for artists, probably not well.

Speaker 5 (01:14:27):
Now it's three sixty deals where they just pay for
everything and your Yeah, so is DJ Quick.

Speaker 8 (01:14:36):
He was brand new. He's like the first blood wrap
ever seen it. I only knew crips, so it was
DJ Quick, Uh for them, See Mary J. Blige was
with us for a little while as a backup singer,
you know, with with for them, they were all label mates.
Uh Chubb Rock, that's from. That's when Poke was just
the DJ before before Yeah and and Gangstar. So we're

(01:15:00):
on the tour and uh, Father them c used to
always be late to the gigs where he would have
to because DJ Quick is supposed to go on right
for you pm D because the markets we were in,
he was bigger, you know, so the lineup goes in
the order of how pop popping you are, so obviously
even pm D was the biggest, but you know, so
fatherm Se was always robbed late where Quick wa have

(01:15:22):
to go on so that it doesn't keep a lagging
in the in the show. And then uh, Fallom is
closer to the He got to a point where everybody
was getting frustrated where it was like, yeah, we gotta
say something to him, and uh, you know, words was
said where he was like Yo, if you don't keep starting,
keep coming late, we're gonna have a problem, you know,
flat out. So it got to a point where once

(01:15:43):
he uh started, he started coming on tom and uh,
everything was cool but Quick but Quick was like, all right,
let me uh, let me show you this, this cat
out how big my strength is. Because every show after
Quick would get off stage. He used to doing met
and Greek, and you know, meet and greets were really
a new thing for us at that time, right after

(01:16:05):
the show. And then plus Quick was so new, you
know for us because everybody knew e PMD, everybody knew
Chubb Rock at the time. And uh and like I said,
we were popping with our our records. But man, uh
the line for Quick was that crazy to just get
you know, the glossy promo pictures signed and he taking.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
A picture of the lobby or this is backstage.

Speaker 8 (01:16:27):
But after the whole thing with father them, she got
out of hand where they were like, yo, you know
this just got to stop it again. He started coming
on time, but just to get back at him, Quick
had it. Security got the security team by a whole bag,
like garbage bag full of towels, like the little ones
that you twirl at football games and stuff like that.
So all of a sudden, Father Them Sea goes on

(01:16:49):
stage and there's like a big ruckets in the crowd,
and everybody's like wondering what's going on. And you look
at you know, because we've already performed. So we're hanging
out and we're watching, and we looked and DJ Quick
is wiping his Jerry curl with the towels and then
passing them to the girls, so they're you know, that's

(01:17:11):
distracting everybody watching.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
I was waving like.

Speaker 8 (01:17:19):
He's wiping this Jerry curl and the girls like, oh God,
wipe his face. You know, he wiped his face, you know.
And and the security team was all from Saint Louis.
He went to a show in Saint Louis. He went
to show in Saint Louis and loved the way that
the security team was handling the crowd. That he hired

(01:17:41):
everybody that worked at that club, so they shut the
club down for that period of time while that whole.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
Security team went on toy.

Speaker 8 (01:17:48):
He got got them an r V of their own,
and they rode in that r V with the security
team and they were because he was having a lot
of problems with gang bangers and stuff. It was heavy. Yeah,
people were like fuck quick, fun quick and stuff like that.
And we were riding with him because you know, he's
part of our tour and we were both we're a family,
so we you know, and then everything turned out cool

(01:18:10):
with all them. See it was we were always cool
with him anyway. It was just stop coming late, you know,
just because you want to, you know, different. But everything
ended up being a cool tour. Everybody got along with
all them. See he's a great dude and big up
to him too.

Speaker 5 (01:18:22):
You know. Can I ask you, because I mean, you're
one of the few luminaries that has pretty much been
privy to and active in every era of postmodern hip
hop touring. You were there for the early nineties, right

(01:18:47):
when like MTV raps was ramping up in America and
a whole new thing. You were there for like the
alternative tours. You again, you hit Europe and all those
other spots you still tour to this day when you
think of, ah, those were the days, like that's real touring.
What where does your mind instantly go.

Speaker 8 (01:19:08):
To from those days?

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
Because you I feel like you've toured more than the
average cat and hip hop and various.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
You know, on your own whatever, Like when do you
have is it fond memories when you're in the van
driving or is it like, oh, when we got tour
buses that was the time, or is it like what
are the glory days for you?

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
Like hek tour?

Speaker 8 (01:19:36):
Really really for us was when we did London because
we were told and you know, London is the New York.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Of Europe, and well not even cities. I just been
like era oh.

Speaker 8 (01:19:48):
Ninety two Daily Operation really so early. Yeah, that's when
we brought jay Rwe and Dad and I even seen
jay Rue dismantle a guy that pulled a gun in
the audience and he was able to dismantle him and
take the gun and the guy get and got it
from him, and then we took it on our bus
and was like, I got an old video footage. I
got video footage, footage footage. Oh yeah, we got hundreds

(01:20:15):
of tapes.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
What you're gonna do with that?

Speaker 8 (01:20:17):
Uh, to be continued safety in a safe place.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
That's the good thing.

Speaker 10 (01:20:24):
Was the from Daily Operation on like and then which
I'll hit hard to earn when was the was hard earned?

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
Kind of like the pay dirt moment, like the records.

Speaker 8 (01:20:34):
Now were the headliner and we it was it was
it was gangstar m O P, Nas and uh and
Uh Gangster m P Nos and J was damaged because
Jay we was popping. M P was really popping, starting
to pop with out with the first album. They didn't
even have the second album out, but they were they
We took them on tour because we we became really

(01:20:54):
close friends. And then UH Nas was only on the
tour for like three shows, and then it uh his
manager who was l O Cool. Jay's manager was like,
you know, Nods is too big for y'all. We're taking
them off.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
The tour and we're like, what do you mean. He's like, hey,
he's too big for y'all. We were pissed.

Speaker 8 (01:21:11):
No, this is when O Madic had just come out.
I got foot lyrics, I have footage, but but it
was like just like, Yo, how you gonna do that?
And it's not it's not Nods, it's the management, but uh,
but it was just like you know, we we just
felt like that was a slap in our face because

(01:21:32):
we asked Nods to be on it and we were like, Yo,
this is gonna be a good, good look before he
does get getting ready to do his own thing. But
you know, we weren't even salty in him. It was
just his manager. So he did three shows. I got
all the footage of the shows. He tore it up
because that's from New York state of mind. It just
bubbled in the street and it was heavy and having

(01:21:53):
him open.

Speaker 5 (01:21:53):
Up to a big deal can uh okay before I
are at the Dwick questions, because I feel like Dwyck
was the the real turning point of you guys blossom
into it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
For the group.

Speaker 5 (01:22:10):
However, you guys are also on uh nice and spooze
and the damn thing change right down the line, down
the line?

Speaker 2 (01:22:17):
Did you produce down the line? No? Did you cut
on down the line? Yes? Okay? Who produced it? Greg Nice?

Speaker 8 (01:22:24):
Greg Nice makes it makes the beats.

Speaker 5 (01:22:26):
Here's the funny thing, though, because I always felt that
Greg Nice did not know who you guys were as
you were doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
My man, exactly.

Speaker 8 (01:22:40):
Yeah, so that's actually Howler through Greg Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
Really.

Speaker 8 (01:22:44):
Oh well, yeah, so we got old history.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
But what this is what happened or did he just
not correctly? This is what it was.

Speaker 8 (01:22:51):
That's why they used to work at power Play and
everybody knows you know, paid him full was done there
and you know, uh I saw I witnessed large Professor
do uh wanted Dead Alive Coolie rap album? Yeah, I
was there to watch all those sessions. Well, you know,
I was just like, wow, look at g Rapp and
he's always goes hold on, I got to spit and

(01:23:12):
he's spitting literally, yeah, lyrics, spit on the ground and
then he would and then he they punched me in
and he would boom, just go, go, go, go go.

Speaker 5 (01:23:22):
You know, yeah, I was gonna say, what magical? What
sessions have you witnessed that you were there for?

Speaker 8 (01:23:29):
Like Dead Alive really shout the you know, Polo will
be there and Drew uh oh man, oh my god
he lives in Texas. Now Drew what's his DJ name?
He's part of the early X men.

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Oh my god? You know what is Drew's name?

Speaker 11 (01:23:54):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
Damn? Now is killing me?

Speaker 11 (01:23:58):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
Drew whose name is? We'll come back to me.

Speaker 8 (01:24:04):
But just being there to see that go down, you know,
one of their allows, one of the dopest COULDI rap
albums ever?

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
In every song, every song, you know, so so you
there to witness the whole process. Were you next door
to them or was.

Speaker 8 (01:24:18):
No lodge fessel Now you know, we all hung out
so large, like come with me to the sessions, very
b walk in with the big cable and we just
like this, there he is there, he is.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
There, he is. Was it easy for you guys to
get initiated in the.

Speaker 5 (01:24:37):
And I mean, well no, Actually, you know what Chucky did,
make you a part of the extra strinth prose, like
Chuck these thank you on all public albums.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Like to be the extra strength. I used to how
they come with the fulled out paper in the exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:24:53):
So I mean, how how long was it before you guys?
Were you guys just instantly like welcome wherever you came.

Speaker 8 (01:25:01):
In, Like oh yeah, yeah, I remember when we couldn't
get in the clubs and all of a sudden, manifest
came out. Those same security girls like and they would
call again to call Gurgle gangstar, gangstar, come on in,
you know yeah, and you know, but they knew we
were both gang star, but they would call him gangstar.
And but we now we're getting into every hot club
that's hard to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
It was automatic.

Speaker 8 (01:25:23):
We were like wow and we'd be like thirty forty
deep and everybody got in.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
Wow. So yeah, because unless it was Patrick's club.

Speaker 8 (01:25:31):
It was Patrick's Club at the Pay at the Powerhouse,
which was the big club of that during the early nineties,
we were one hundred deep, we got in.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:25:39):
I always think of that because syliloically of Chaos. True story,
it's I imagine because he's so descriptive with it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
True story.

Speaker 5 (01:25:51):
It is so rare because you guys are at least
what you represent musically, and I know it's street, I
know it's true to the boom, but there is a mellow,
kind of calming, non aggressiveness about Gangstar.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
But you guys rolled like we were wild. Five Carl like, yeah,
we were wild.

Speaker 8 (01:26:14):
We were really wild. I mean our house was literally
like a frat house. Easy Mob will tell you, Gizzl
will tell your Rizzle will tell you they were there real.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
Yeah, Like our house was a wild house. Rage.

Speaker 8 (01:26:28):
But just before, I remember, Rage wanted me to do
her demos and she was like, loop up this, Michael Jackson.

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
I'm like, no, you need to do.

Speaker 8 (01:26:35):
And she's like, you know what, ain't nobody help me
out here. I'm going to I'm gonna find Doctor Dre.
And she goes, I'm gonna move away, and she fan.
We did a stepping arena tour and we did LA
at the Palladium, the same palladium on off sunset and
she was doing security with the yellow jackets and security
on the back, you know. And she was like, yo,

(01:26:56):
I met up with Doctor Dre. He's starting a new
label called Death Row and he signed me.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
And I was like for real.

Speaker 8 (01:27:01):
She goes, yes, we were about to watch so yeah,
she was with Nikki D. She used to sleep on
the couch at Chunk King. She a place to stay.
So she's born. She's yeah, yeah, and uh and uh
it did I was.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
It was her Nikki D.

Speaker 8 (01:27:21):
And Nikki's sister used to call a terrible t and
I met rage because Nikki D. You know, it was
the first female on Death Jam. We went to the
release party for her and we knew we all we
all knew each other. But they need to ride home
and I had the m p V and and we
just got the step in thee arena test press cassette

(01:27:42):
to make sure it sounded good. We ne CDs weren't
ready yet, and uh, you know, to test those out
before we were before were going to put them into production.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
And I had precisely the right.

Speaker 8 (01:27:52):
Rhymes, which was my jam where I used the Brethren drums,
and I had that fifty hertz uh eight away which.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
Is said, if you ever get here, you're right right.

Speaker 8 (01:28:06):
I'm giving them a ride home. Right when they get
in the car, I said, y'all might about listening to something.
My new album is about to come out, and they
were like, yeah, go ahead and play it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
When that when that.

Speaker 8 (01:28:16):
Base said, Raige goes, I turned around, like she goes
that eight o eight?

Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
I said, what you know about eight o eight? Play
it again?

Speaker 8 (01:28:29):
You know, almost like it was making a horny. She'll
tell you the same story. She'll tell you like yo.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
She was like oh, And I was like yo. By
you know about that?

Speaker 8 (01:28:38):
She goes to work at chun King, he said, you know,
I'm always there, you know, seeing him do the process.
She's trying to engineer her like she's wanted to get.
She was wanted to be engineer and an artist. But
everything she wanted me to she used to come to
my house and everything she wanted to do was like
Luther vandros Loop And I was like, no, you need
hardcore beats years ahead of her time. As soon as

(01:29:04):
I heard this should be played high volume, let me kick.

Speaker 2 (01:29:13):
Off, I was like, that's her, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:29:15):
And even though it said it on the cover said
late was the death Row inmates, it was a real
little block in the bottom left corner, and I was like,
that's her.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
And then she was on everything. And then so by
the time y'all, did you did the record for her album?
That was? I mean, yeah, that was but it started
I was already in shambles at that time.

Speaker 5 (01:29:33):
Can I ask you something since you brought it up,
ask me something. Be super honest with me, don't be
politically correct. When the Chronic came out, Yeah, September nineteen
ninety two, what was your initial reaction bloom be a.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
Way, Yes, I I I wanted him to hear it
from you. Yo.

Speaker 8 (01:30:06):
Every song really tied in, you know, because.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
It was blowing away like shau.

Speaker 10 (01:30:12):
I remember because telling me you said, like, after the
Chronic came out, that's what made you step up the sonics.

Speaker 8 (01:30:17):
Yeah, because even though he samples, I mean, will replace
stuff it just and plus again, I'm I'm from an era,
I'm from boom Box and drive and I drive all
the timetimes. Just get in the car to drive and
just listen to Ship. So that's still my mentality and
that's how I grade. Like Shout the Tory Wolf. We
just finished her album on my On my I have

(01:30:40):
two labels year Round, which is my street Ship and
then I have T T T, which is to the Top.
With my manager Ian, we put our alternative stuff R
and B whatever, just as long as not the gutter gutter,
we put it on T T T. So The Tory
Wolf Out I just finished. And even though she's a
singer songwriter and all of that stuff, in the style
of music I did for her is so different. I

(01:31:02):
still mat When I went to mastering the shot to
Tony Darcy, who's been mastering my stuff since the early
Gagstar days. Soon as I got there, he said, you
still doing He did the first thing. Tony said, still
doing the cassette way?

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
I said, yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:31:16):
When I sequence, I say a cassette, I be of
a cassette and you know what would start when you
flip it over. The flip over part is the most
difficult for me because getting it going, you want to
put some bangers, but you still need to put some
bangers on the other side.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
Yeah, you got, and you got to kick off side
be with a banger, and and I just I.

Speaker 8 (01:31:36):
Just sit there and just play the ending of the
song in my head, like when I look at the list,
like damn with that, run into that, and then I'm
really meticulous about the spacing. You know, some might run
into it on one, two, three and boom.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
Does he really?

Speaker 5 (01:31:52):
Yeah, he's sequence, he sequenced. This is everything on the
one like when you listen to his record. Really, yeah,
that's because I learned that from him too.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
I like stuff out of here, stuff like that. Do
you want of these first person to heard you that? Wow?
See I only said that because I.

Speaker 8 (01:32:06):
Saw you say something about that before in the interview
or something about the chronic didn't hit you right away?

Speaker 5 (01:32:10):
Dog, I'm saying like, because you mentioned straight out the
jungle to me, and all right, figure out the way
that you did take it personal.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
So you take skull.

Speaker 8 (01:32:21):
Snaps and you took was twelve hundred just that one song.

Speaker 5 (01:32:25):
Really because you're your weapon of choice by now is
still the sixty No I use renaissance, no no, no, no, no,
I mean yeah, back because my engineer Eddie Sancho when
Lyle was doing the Russian Dragon, he was like.

Speaker 8 (01:32:39):
Yoh, it's taking too long to do it that way, man,
he said, you know what, and I'm watching how you're
doing your beast because he Eddie Santo was the engineer
there at D and D. He's like, you should use
the NPC because the tracks are laid out, you know,
one through a million.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
And he said.

Speaker 8 (01:32:54):
The thing with that is it's like he says, it's
like a tape deck without being a tape deck, and
you know a tape machine. I mean, so he said,
that's all. You just don't have the tape machine, but
just the way you could layer and mute and do this.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
And I was like wow.

Speaker 8 (01:33:07):
So then when he taught me how to work it,
I was like, he's like, you know, I'm about to
get rid of mine.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
You want to buy it?

Speaker 8 (01:33:12):
I bought it and that's when I got hooked on
the MP.

Speaker 2 (01:33:15):
What's the first thing you did on the MP.

Speaker 5 (01:33:18):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Well, all of extra.

Speaker 8 (01:33:21):
Extra was the alessis. Uh So the mp I would
probably say it's on daily operation. Around that time it
would probably be it would honestly around that time. That
was around Dwick Okay, So because drig was the B side,
it wasn't on it. It wasn't meant to be on

(01:33:42):
the album. The only reason why we did Dwick was
to give Nice and Smooth payback to down the line.
They were like because they were like because we all
did that together, bugging out, and we were like, well,
doing on our on our record. But the album already
been turned in. And I remember Don Baron was there

(01:34:03):
from the Masters of Ceremony because he was friends with
Nice and Smooth and dub C, who's been coming to
New York since since you know, d J Aladdin was
battling in eighty nine. I've been friends with dubb C.
Recipes to his brother Crazy Tunes. We just shot a
video for year my Year Round label. Me and MC

(01:34:23):
eight just did a project called Which Way Is West
that I executive produced. I produced three songs, and he
has a producer named Brin Sinatra from Austria, who.

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
I know, yeah the reasons.

Speaker 8 (01:34:36):
He produced the rest of it. But the mixes were everywhere,
so I told her, let me mix it, give it
to me and if there's any hooks and nothing that's tight,
I'll scratch on it. So I scratched on every song,
mixed everything, had to get all the vocals in order.
That's why it took me so long this day, I'm
not used to mixing somebody else's stuff. I like mixing
my stuff. Got it tight, We turned it in. We're
about to release that. We just shot the video four

(01:34:57):
days before Christmas. So Tunes was with us and that's
why we dedicated to him. So we're about to release
the video in about a week or so, and uh
I Tunes is all in the video, and then at
the end we give a special spot to him showing
I'm just throwing it up slow motion. You know, it
was just saying the RP to him, and you know
it was just even going to his funeral. Was lc
in LLL there and Chuck d there and almost every

(01:35:18):
West Coast artist you could think of was there.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
It was Yeah, I never got a chance to meet
to him. I heard.

Speaker 8 (01:35:25):
He was more than homie, he was a friend, you know.
So that the first song is not even the singles.
We did the single which is called Compton Zoo and
then and then I knew eight from back then too already.
That's how we've been so cool and uh so all
of that's gonna be coming out, you know, prom to
Tory Wolf uh m C eight uh the Nygs and

(01:35:47):
my band, the Battle Band. So we're doing the EP
and we're about to go on the road too.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
So so what is your your creative process as far
as you practicing?

Speaker 5 (01:36:07):
Are you a get up at eight o'clock and treat
this like my real gig thing? Do you listen to
records on Sunday for five hours uninterrupted? Do you like,
what's your cause to be as good as you are?
We're cutting, scratching, looping, and you you know, even though
I know the evolution of your production style from your

(01:36:31):
earlier work where you're just straight looping four bars to
the point where you're chopping stuff and or looping one
ball right right, So what is your what's your preparation
like like do you have do you just do like, okay,
I'm just do three hours a day.

Speaker 8 (01:36:47):
Of that's how it was, well, not now, but like then,
like uh maybe all the way up till maybe ninety three,
that's what always get up, just start practicing cuts and
going to goole and go on goo yo goo check
this out. And I said, we're gonna use that for

(01:37:07):
for this beat and stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (01:37:10):
You practice cuts, yeah, because you know more. Even when
you were DJing on the radio, I was shocked that
you play the street versions of some shit and did
the reverse yeah and not. I was like, why didn't
he just play the radio version because the first time
we ever came to your show, you played the the

(01:37:32):
uncensored version of Brooklyn Zoo. Now, in my opinion, I
like his his his vocal performance on the radio version.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
It's better to me right right.

Speaker 5 (01:37:42):
And I was like, and whoever is in the studio,
I was like, yo, why does he play the streets
on when the clean version is way better? Like it's
a better vocal performance. And it's like, yeah, he always does,
you know? He like that tells me you study the
song too.

Speaker 8 (01:37:57):
Yep. I'll listen to all the curses and just right
the curse word on a piece of paper and the
two words it comes before.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
So if it is it's uh.

Speaker 8 (01:38:09):
Enough to make a nigga go crazy, I'll put make
a and I'll put in and then put a line
I don't know why, and I won't even put a
line under it. I'll put this whole scratch a thick
the scribble line under that that N word, so it'll
make me just be like and you know, so I'm
gonna look at the paper, but you wants.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Yeah right.

Speaker 8 (01:38:33):
It became normal and Flex used to call me because
I was on from eight to ten, Flex from ten
to midnight. Flex is calling you?

Speaker 2 (01:38:40):
What is that? What is that? What is that?

Speaker 8 (01:38:42):
That's how I broke Shook Ones Part two because.

Speaker 2 (01:38:45):
I'm on throughout. Yeah. Yes, they came to see me.

Speaker 8 (01:38:50):
First first because I worked with them because the Lost
Professor on peer pressure and did the remix and we
shot a video and everything, and so the shoot Ones
part one was had been out, and you know, they
were already alloud. I saw them at D n D
in the A room and they were like, yo, man,
we gotta get you our new record shop ones from
when you go on the radio this weekend. And I

(01:39:11):
was like, I already got it. He said, no, this
is part two. He goes, this is some other ship
this is and having like wait till you hear this one,
and I was like okay, And then they brought it
to me during commercial break and as soon I just
sit here, word up somewhere to all of them, I
was like, I was like oh man, it's just like

(01:39:35):
I never heard no.

Speaker 2 (01:39:36):
Beat like this.

Speaker 12 (01:39:37):
That one became more popular, right, Oh yeah, that was
the one.

Speaker 10 (01:39:41):
It was on like a tape I had, like the
single or whatever, and part one was whatever, but two
was the one that was it. Man, talk about because
I mean by this time, so talk about Jay RW
in group home because as you had told me before,
like they were kind of you know, they were kind
of you know, the red headed steps was like just

(01:40:03):
kind of passed them off, like, yeah, work with them.

Speaker 8 (01:40:05):
Well what happened was I bring it down to you
we uh we we knew Jay Rue uh and DApp once.
I even joined Gangstar because uh a guy named Gusmo
what was around Guru all the time Me and got
mad cool. Yeah, and so he started bringing them around.

(01:40:28):
So as it and then it just started growing more people,
more people, more people. I always gonna keep my distance
at first, just because I was so new, you know,
I didn't want to you know, people start jumping on.

Speaker 2 (01:40:39):
You don't know what the vibe is gonna be.

Speaker 8 (01:40:40):
So as time passed, you know, me and DAP and
always got finally.

Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
Cool and we're all cool with each other. First we
had a little tension.

Speaker 8 (01:40:48):
Because it was just like, you know, we're with the
we're with the mc you're we're we're with the guy.

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
You're just the McCoy things.

Speaker 8 (01:40:56):
Absolutely your crew versus gurus pretty pretty much. And I
didn't really have a crew, you know what I'm saying.
My friends from college and that was pretty much it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
And you know, my.

Speaker 8 (01:41:04):
Grandfather had already passed, and you know, I didn't really
have no friends. I knew Vic Black, who's still down
with me, because when I lived in East New York,
I knew Fat Gary, I knew Black.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Is he the one that's in just.

Speaker 8 (01:41:17):
So uh uh he's uh, it's him. So everybody from
that side of East New York we always called the
jay ruin them the other side because there's there's another
side of the East New York across across uh, you know,
Liberty and all of that. So on that side, in
Lavonia and and all that by the train tracks on
that side's predominantly Spanish, but it's very wild, very shoot

(01:41:41):
him up. So we always said, you know, we're on
this side of because I live right right next to
Lyndon Houses, which is very wild projects. So I'm right there,
I'm near pink houses. I'm near and then near, you know,
the the drama drama. So Jay ruis borderline of of
of Brownsville, uh and and the other side. So it

(01:42:02):
hit where he lived in Grace Towers, separates that part
of East New York, but where he lives as a
wild too. So we started being cool with both sides,
my friends, you know, with just Fat Gary.

Speaker 2 (01:42:14):
A lot older guys, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:42:16):
But Black Black had a label called Black Magic Records
before I even got a deal. I wanted him to
sign me, and he was like, it's not what you think.
Just because I have a stack of records in my
car and all that, it's independent. I don't undertand what
independent labels was at the time. Black had his first artists.
They were called Spider Man and Freeze, and they had
a record call. Yes, it was called I'm Too Much.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:42:44):
They were a group, spider Man and Freeze. Yeah, like
they were before they got to doing poison.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
This is early early so I can't even get a
sound effect.

Speaker 8 (01:43:03):
Wait a minute, seriously, Yes, it was called I'm Too Much.
I have a stack of them at the house around
around right around around around It's called I'm Too Much.
By Spider Man and Freeze. So they all from the
same projects. Uh yeah, so different workman, so so so
that I used to hang out with them and everything

(01:43:23):
again before I was in Gangstar, So you know, the
hanging with them, that's how I got cool with so
many real live dudes in East New York. So I
was really around real soldiers that put it in you know.
Uh Black is the Tomers a former Tomahawk, you know,
one of the biggest gangs during the Warriors era. Tomahawk
is a real, you know, certified gang in Brooklyn. So

(01:43:46):
he was a Tomahawk. So he goes back back and
uh so when it came to that, that that stage
of it, I've seen them grow to where it finally
got to you know, them doing poison and color me
bad sex, you up all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
Doctor free Yeah yeah, it was Doctor Free The biggest gangs,
the Doctor Freeze and Spider Man.

Speaker 5 (01:44:09):
Okay, I have a question about Jay Ruth The Damage.
I consider that all right, first album, the first Summarises
from the East. I consider that entire record your greatest
troll and your greatest victory.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
Now, I mean what I have to know is.

Speaker 5 (01:44:40):
I want to know your attitude I think I brought
this up to you maybe twenty years ago backstage at
the Beastie Boys show. But what is what is super
notable and very much troll like about the Jay Ruth
The damage of record is because now it's it's it
comes out in uh ninety four technically ninety four, yeah,

(01:45:02):
even though Come Clean came out and.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
Ninety three.

Speaker 5 (01:45:07):
So I consider this and his entry into hip hop
in eighty nine the new renaissance era again with the
large professor premiere tippin' Ali Pete. In other words, they're
not doing the conventional means of hip hop production, whereas

(01:45:28):
you know, again using break beat Lindens.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Beats and breaks and all that stuff. Baby lou right
break be Loo. So here's the thing, though, every every drum.

Speaker 5 (01:45:45):
Uh, every drum track used on Summerses from the East,
at that point when I'm listening in ninety four, I
consider it extremely taboo. In other words, it's like if
Ray says, hey, uh, let's take uh a mental stamina,

(01:46:08):
Billy Jean ain't the first thing I'd grabbed for when
I'm thinking of drums.

Speaker 2 (01:46:12):
I mean, now, as mature, you know, anything's up for grabs.

Speaker 13 (01:46:16):
But.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Literally do like you took uh what was the static
like you like it too? For static.

Speaker 5 (01:46:29):
Is a renaissance cat thinking, Okay, let me go to
all and be some breaks and take Funkadelics you like
it too?

Speaker 2 (01:46:36):
Or uh.

Speaker 5 (01:46:38):
All Night literally even the original even the original Jungle
Brothers using on the run, even.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Even using coolest back for come Clean. So after when
I listened to the record, which takes we will talk
about that later, right already. Yeah, even when listening to
the record. By the time we got to with with
the exception of Knowledge, you can't start the prophet.

Speaker 8 (01:47:06):
That's because the show biz show biz said yo, when
he didn't catch wreck. I was so addicted that record.
I was like, yo, yeah, I said, shouldn't do the
shingling right right shing ling? And I was like, yo, man,
I would love to use those drums. I have two copies.
You said, didn't didn't do your thing. I was like, yeah,
but I've never taken a drum from somebody else.

Speaker 2 (01:47:27):
That's not that's like, that's like the show was like, nah,
because I.

Speaker 8 (01:47:31):
Know you're not gonna do it the same way I
did it. And he said, I can't wait to hear
what you do to it. And remember I remember he
called me and goes like it, He goes, this is crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:47:46):
Yeah, I'm not even sample. I was like, yo, I
hated you. I just I just found it, like.

Speaker 2 (01:47:54):
Like like four months ago, get the drum. But yeah,
said I.

Speaker 5 (01:48:00):
I was coming over from a gig and I was
just Jazz was like, that's the Crusaders, and then it
came on. I was like, but my point was that
the reason why I said this is either your greatest
troll or your your your your magnum opus, only because

(01:48:24):
I feel as though you said either, all right, let
me do his record, and all right, let me challenge
myself and use thirteen backdrops of drums that no one
else would even touch, the sumption of old to Billy Joel,

(01:48:45):
which was still not in the lexicon of hip hop
drum producing whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:48:52):
Why did you purpose? I like, you could have used
the same drum.

Speaker 5 (01:48:58):
You could have used scarf snaps I mean, which I
mean was relatively new there. Why did you use the
most taboo I would never touch that in a million
years stuff, none of your contemporaries would touch it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:10):
Played out might have been the term why did you
do that?

Speaker 8 (01:49:13):
That's still my approach even now where I'm like, you
know what, I've never used to what not drums and
I'll go, let me do a version of that, or
I'll go, I never used the what's the.

Speaker 2 (01:49:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:49:33):
Right yet right the same thing. It's like, damn, you
know it's been out and it had its run, no
one's really touching it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
Would you have done that to a gang star record? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:49:44):
Yeah, you know what it is. But just understand you
understand first of all, when when when Jay Ruin became
part of our.

Speaker 2 (01:49:52):
Of our crew.

Speaker 8 (01:49:53):
I remember when we brand from ourselves left a drum
set at the Brownstone, So I used to play it
a lot, you know, and and that's where I started getting,
you know, because I was decent enough from when Travis
Scott's father taught me how to drum. So Dab used
to love the drums because he'd be like, let me
get on it. How you do it? Dap caught on quick.

(01:50:13):
So we used to have little battles just bugging out
and we did doing a little different rhythms and stuff
like that. Next thing, you know, you know, we always
it's always all of us together in this Brownstone, just smoking,
drinking and a jillion girls in the house just party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party, party,
every day. Even when we went on to and come home,

(01:50:34):
twenty people there, and it wasn't like what are y'all
doing to get out of the house. It was more like, hey,
what's up everybody, We're back and yeah, yeah, we would
leave people in the house.

Speaker 2 (01:50:42):
Did you lock your room? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:50:48):
Yeah, I locked mine, trust me and so, and they'd
be like, yeah, locking his door.

Speaker 2 (01:50:53):
Yeah, you know, but but he.

Speaker 5 (01:50:57):
Used to breaking my room and still with my record, still,
who's that. I'd be like, all, let my passport and
see my room open cast going through my records already.

Speaker 2 (01:51:05):
Yeah, but half his record.

Speaker 8 (01:51:07):
But that's how the foundation even started because we used
to just bug out it downstairs because that's what the
kitchen is, where Google's room is. And one day we're
all just you know, I'd be playing the drums, everybody's
kicking the verse, and all of a sudden Dad goes
it's a little dap on the and we were like, yo, happened.
Because he never wrapped in front of us. It was
he was always just yeah, yeah, your son, Yeah, look
at a minute, and you don't get the niggas.

Speaker 2 (01:51:28):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:51:28):
That was now like I just missed it one of
the box. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:51:32):
So yeah, now so was it true that you that
you went to court for him?

Speaker 8 (01:51:37):
And yeah, and the judge was like, yo, you know
he had two gun charges on the under eighteen and
you know at that time there was very very strict
on gun charges in New York still and uh, the
you know what, we he really wanted to box. And
we told the judge, Judge Bamberger, thank you, Judge Bamberger.
She was a mean, little white lady, but this tall

(01:51:57):
but with an attitude, and she's like, you know, want
tom box him because he's violent. He's always getting into
violent stuff. He's always getting getting the rested, getting the
rested because Melica loves just to get down.

Speaker 2 (01:52:08):
So she was like, but how tall is he?

Speaker 8 (01:52:10):
He's short, Yeah, but he will stand up to the
biggest the meanings.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
You've seen him.

Speaker 8 (01:52:17):
He does not give a fuck. Ever, he still doesn't.
I just spoke to him another day. He just came
home again. You know what I'm saying, that's that's my baby, man.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
Shout shout.

Speaker 8 (01:52:28):
That's why I call him. I said, baby, he'll call
him hey, baby. You know he baby, you know, And
that that's my rest, my bro. So he uh, but yeah,
if it's on, he's he's ready. It don't matter what is,
he'll pop it.

Speaker 2 (01:52:40):
He'll do whatever.

Speaker 8 (01:52:41):
But he's a great, little, soft hearted kind guy to
you that. He's very cordial. But if it's a negative situation,
he's ready for it. So just stay on his good side.

Speaker 2 (01:52:53):
He loves you.

Speaker 8 (01:52:54):
He'll be like Chris and he'll talk like a child.
He'll leave your drums, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:53:01):
Man.

Speaker 8 (01:53:04):
But he wanted to box so bad. He was nice.
So I was like, Judge, why don't you let him
box because if he can make a profession out of it,
that's a positive thing. She goes, no, it's violent. She goes,
have you heard the word Remand I remember she said
that I'm gonna remand him. She goes, you're in music,
make him make a record. I was like, but so
he didn't want to wrap. He would be like, I

(01:53:25):
don't want to do this, so he would always disappear.
So that's why, Gus, what you got?

Speaker 2 (01:53:29):
How long did it take to make the group on album?

Speaker 8 (01:53:34):
That was the most heaviest test in It was just
a lot of just push and pull to get it
to be that right. Because it is a great album
for what it time to be, you know, and and
uh and this is what it was when Jay Rue
used to do his demos over at blackscrib his Black

(01:53:56):
Big Sugar and and and and group. I wasn't even
wrap and then they were doing the demos over Black's crib.
That's how it led to gu saying, yo, we should
start Gangsta Foundation. And he said we should both sign
three artists. He said I'll sign three, and you signed three,
and I said, well, who you gonna sign?

Speaker 2 (01:54:13):
He said, I want Jay.

Speaker 8 (01:54:13):
Rue, Group, Home and Shug And I was like, all right,
well I don't have anybody yet, but eventually I'll get somebody,
So let's start with him. He said, who do you
think should go first? I said, Jay Rus the one
is ready. He's got the voice, he's got the cocky attitude.
You know he used to call himself. He was a
real fat guy back the back in the day before
he started doing the martial arts and got really in shape.
And he was like he used to go up the
girls going, yo, what's up baby, I'm Porky the pimp.

(01:54:36):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:54:37):
I want to date he's still doing yo. Yeah, he's good.
Oh yeah, yo, oh yeah, and ask you in the
y'all together. Oh yeah, he's been around him.

Speaker 8 (01:54:52):
Yo, you want to date? And he said I'm the
Fat Mac and he said you didn't matter. Fact group
says that, Oh there goes my man, the Fat Mac
on the Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:55:01):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:55:01):
So like these are the things that really happened. And
so I was like, Rue is the most ready, let
me do a demo with him. And I remember Llo
cool J and Chris Lidi had just left my apartment
that I was living at at the time to work
with some LL stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:55:15):
But it never transpired.

Speaker 8 (01:55:16):
And uh, for what album U that had to be
fourteen shots.

Speaker 2 (01:55:22):
It had to be fourteen shots.

Speaker 8 (01:55:25):
Yeah, fourteen shots that the dome had pink cookies, right, yeah,
it was around that time.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
Damn you could have that album. I remember l was like, Yo, smoke,
smoke a little of that good stuff. Maybe I'll get you.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (01:55:38):
We're working on some hot you know. You know, I
got some joints, some LL joints.

Speaker 2 (01:55:44):
I'll play it for you. I got some joints, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:55:46):
But but but but oh yeah, but then there in
the vault, but in the meantime, since Jay Ruth seemed
like he was the most ready, that's when we said, well,
let's put him in on our next album, on Daily Operation.
And that's what we did on the and that came
out though, so we were like, yo, we got something.
You know, these guys got a little little something. So
that's why I was like, well, since I was specialized

(01:56:07):
in the beat, Google, let me do the beats. We
still split everything down the middle, all the deals, we
still fifty fifty. Even if he doesn't touch anything on
the album, I still make sure that Google gets his half.
You know, people he's are spread spread rumors of not
even knowing like he was getting more than him.

Speaker 2 (01:56:22):
It's like no, everything was split down the middle still is.
Initially Jay Rue was going to be called the dirty
rotten scoundrel.

Speaker 8 (01:56:27):
And dirty scandal and the R and B group came out.

Speaker 2 (01:56:31):
They came out for somebody intro Okay, thank you?

Speaker 8 (01:56:40):
I mean was mad about that, like yo, that's why
he said uh on the originally the original don't sing.

Speaker 2 (01:56:47):
No R N Bay he was doing a jab at them.

Speaker 8 (01:56:51):
But but with Rue, once we start doing once come
clean popped off, I just wanted to attack it. Just
just taking drums and stuff that I knew, what what
would you know not really be used byody. Nobody's gonna
take Billy Jean and then take that and just bumm
and just trickling, you know, and roy A is less clear,
the sample and the yeah, and you know, everything was

(01:57:15):
just rolling. But it wasn't like everything's gonna be just
break beats or taking you'll like it to or nothing
like that. They just it was just so taboo though
they were just coming. It's coming, man, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:57:30):
Again, it was it was so taboo that that at
that point then I realized, like, oh, I feel like
that was the first time I realized the value of flipping.

Speaker 8 (01:57:43):
Hmmm.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
Yeah, because then it's like because.

Speaker 5 (01:57:46):
When I when I love mental stamina, and I was like, damn,
Like I never considered Billy Jean breakable, right right, you
have to take the whole thing. I know there's isolated
drums there, but he actually made it work. So now
I gotta I gotta listen to all these records all
over again and figure out how to recontextualize and make

(01:58:10):
it breakable.

Speaker 2 (01:58:11):
My moment for that was the my unbreakable pre moment
was when I heard.

Speaker 10 (01:58:17):
Ten Crack Commandments because I had that record, which I
don't want to snitch, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:22):
Well Leslie Nilsen Nigga Gun.

Speaker 5 (01:58:26):
Yeah, I like that had Nigga Gun like that, but no,
I had it, and so I used to just play
that song original, no, no, yeah, yeah, the.

Speaker 8 (01:58:37):
Original because those are just program kicks and stands, and
so I.

Speaker 10 (01:58:43):
Would just play that song like in the morning, getting
ready for school whatever. And so then when Life after
That came out and everybody was like, yo, joint, that's
the one. That's the one. So you know, we get
school and we're in the parking lot and my man
is playing it and the joint comes off.

Speaker 2 (01:59:00):
Waiting for the rest, I'm like like, yo, that's remember.
I'm not the only one. I'm like, I'm like no one.

Speaker 8 (01:59:07):
Else because the way that it's looping is the way
I was scratching it. Because the drums were already were
laid and we were doing a promo for Angie Martinez.
It wasn't for us or we were just doing a
promo for Angie.

Speaker 2 (01:59:17):
That was a throat.

Speaker 8 (01:59:18):
Yeah, listen, it's called Angie Martinez. Used to have a
just when Angie was like the new hot thing, and
she was, you know, brand new. Everybody loved Angie, so
everybody was doing promos for it that were Dope Wu
tang the Onyx, and they were just so incredible. So
jay Rue was very popping at the time, and we

(01:59:39):
said we're gonna do one because she loved Jr. Was
damaged so because and so when we were doing it,
she had a show called The Hot Five at nine. Yeah,
that's why I'm only scratching nine. It goes one throe
eight nine, nine o'clock. And then after that I was
just going.

Speaker 2 (01:59:57):
One, two, three, four, fives back, three four five.

Speaker 8 (02:00:02):
I don't go past five until right before the verse
one of two, three, five, seven, eight, nine, eight nine.
It wasn't no ten, So that was.

Speaker 2 (02:00:12):
Martin.

Speaker 8 (02:00:14):
Yeah, it's called the Hot Five.

Speaker 2 (02:00:16):
I have the song Jesus Christ. All right, you're listening
to some supreme. We're taking a quick break to.

Speaker 5 (02:00:21):
Paying bills and get into our final hour with special
guests DJ Premiere right after this. All right, this is
our final hour of fanning out with DJ Premier, who
just revealed to us that some of his.

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
Throwaways is some of the greatest things on ever.

Speaker 5 (02:00:42):
It seems to be a common theme on this show. Yeah,
just now, I'm not I'm just gonna work on ship
for two minutes. And god, I had a oh big question.

Speaker 2 (02:00:58):
Not to cut you.

Speaker 8 (02:00:58):
So when we did the High five and nine and
it uh, And how I got to big is because
Puff was on High ninety seven and that particular day
she played the promo and I mean she had played
in many other times, you know, because you mix them
up and then you know, you still hear somebody else promo.
A couple of weeks later, he heard that and my
boy Danny was like, yo uh. He hit me on

(02:01:22):
my beeper and was like, yo uh that telling Puff
is telling you to call him on Hot ninety seven.
I'm like, for real. He's like yeah, He's like he's
like turning on and I turn it on and he's
talking about other stuff and you know, now that deep
into their interview and then finally he goes prem call me,
and then I called and that's when when he said,
yo big once that once that beat, and I was

(02:01:42):
like all right, but you know now as Jay Rowe
is he cool with and he's like yeah, and Jay
was say, yo, that's hip hop.

Speaker 2 (02:01:47):
It's all good.

Speaker 8 (02:01:48):
And then I gave it the big so I just
muted the it's the callient te Sinco Allen, whoever?

Speaker 13 (02:01:57):
You know?

Speaker 5 (02:01:58):
Was that two tracks of the sample because I tried
to do it at once and can't. In other words,
because you're using three tones to it. Did you do
it on two tracks or straight one.

Speaker 8 (02:02:14):
Track one tracker? But then I put it in my
sampler and just just made sure I had had a trigger,
so so I scratched my none at that time. Yes,
that's the one thing. One time I knew I wanted
to because when you're doing a live, I was liking
it so much that I was like, it has to
sound just like that, And then I went on pro tools.

(02:02:35):
Yet you know what I'm saying, I'm still still that's so,
so I just made so what I do. I used
to used to click. I still do this. I click
in my head and just be like and and imagine
it's the same tempo as the way I wanted to be.
And then I just told that when you hit the
record on the sampler, I could go and then yeah,

(02:02:58):
I programmed that that way. It's so loose it's like
I'm doing it by hand, which technically I am.

Speaker 2 (02:03:05):
Is it is it true that for Biggie, Is it
true that it was his idea to put the r
Kelly sample? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (02:03:12):
Yeah, he was on the way out and he's like, yo,
put that unbelievable from Mark Kelly. I was like, yea,
it might not be in tone.

Speaker 2 (02:03:18):
And I was about decision. I'm very key conscious, you know.

Speaker 8 (02:03:22):
I'm like, I know you, I'm sure you.

Speaker 2 (02:03:24):
I was running the decision behind men like it works.
But oh my god, I always thought that was a woman.

Speaker 8 (02:03:36):
Calling, which is one of my favorite songs.

Speaker 2 (02:03:40):
Twelve at the time I had.

Speaker 8 (02:03:48):
Featuring our Collie Dogs.

Speaker 5 (02:03:50):
I was like, wow, okay, so can you confirm? Can
you confirm that that's Patricia Russian?

Speaker 2 (02:03:59):
Unbelievable? Unbelieve No, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, because
are you? Are you confirm?

Speaker 5 (02:04:08):
Just snaps the stabs and I just pitched it. I
was told that the I thought the stab was from U.

Speaker 2 (02:04:16):
Yeah, remind me.

Speaker 8 (02:04:17):
I thought, you'll excuse me, I'm just asked student question.

Speaker 12 (02:04:20):
I really thought stabs was just like a slang term,
but that is a real technical term when it comes
to like it's an.

Speaker 5 (02:04:26):
Okay, it's that much of an audio when the horns goes.

Speaker 2 (02:04:33):
The horn stab.

Speaker 8 (02:04:34):
Yeah that was that wasn't price Russian?

Speaker 2 (02:04:35):
No, back to square.

Speaker 8 (02:04:38):
You see, you know what you see if when I
hit it as a RATTLETT has a little rattle. And
so I back then, before I could play bass notes
on a keyboard, I used to just pitch everything on
the nine fifty. So so if it needs to be
boom boom boom, I just boom boom boom boom boom
boom boom boom, and just and just put them on
the same output so that could cut them. So I

(02:04:59):
was just gonna boom boom boom boom boom.

Speaker 2 (02:05:01):
Yeah, but no, but yeah, are you going to reveal
what that staff is?

Speaker 8 (02:05:08):
Come by the studio. I'll load it up because I
found the I found it.

Speaker 2 (02:05:13):
I found it. If you.

Speaker 8 (02:05:20):
Just tell us what it is, that's behind the scenes.
But come by everything already when you load it up,
it's automatically on the pads and everything.

Speaker 2 (02:05:32):
I'll even let you. I'll even let you.

Speaker 8 (02:05:33):
I'll film you even doing it yourself, and in peace
is just.

Speaker 2 (02:05:42):
We know. But yeah, man, And.

Speaker 8 (02:05:46):
Even that looked like beach again because Peach came from
Big On calling me going. I was like, Big, I
don't have time to do a beat and he's like, yo,
I just need this one for the bat side of
my single Juicy. And I was like, I don't have time.

Speaker 2 (02:05:58):
He goes, man, you could do in peach.

Speaker 8 (02:05:59):
I don't care anything, and I said, okay, come by,
came by, and because I remember I had remember the legion, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:06:10):
That was.

Speaker 8 (02:06:13):
He goes another world. I'm a big mother man, and
I had to go on so it was gonna boom
boom boom. I'm a big, I'm a I'm a big
and big.

Speaker 2 (02:06:21):
I don't like that. And I was like, yo, it's
dope because you're big and I'm a big. I'm a big.

Speaker 8 (02:06:27):
I'm a big, big, big, big big And he's like no.

Speaker 2 (02:06:30):
And then.

Speaker 8 (02:06:36):
And then that's why he came up with the YO
user R Kelly. And then that's how Kelly got cool
because Kelly loved the record because you know that we
had to go through him to clear it. And then
then then they started doing every day and you know,
big just on everything.

Speaker 2 (02:06:51):
Then after that, that's dope. Man.

Speaker 5 (02:06:53):
He has any illmatic questions? Is there anything about your
illment scusions that we don't know?

Speaker 2 (02:07:00):
Hmmm? Is there?

Speaker 5 (02:07:03):
Like I've been ready for ready to Die question, because
the original version of you.

Speaker 2 (02:07:12):
Want to Be Hardcore? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:07:13):
Yeah, Why even though I like thet the version that's
on it, why did you ever made it like that?

Speaker 2 (02:07:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (02:07:26):
Wait, I guess what it's called. It's called I don't
like this remix, That's what it's. I just gave it
to I just he just asked me for it yesterday
because he say he's coming next week to New York
and he's like, anywhere I can get that cause he's
only got a radio rip and it sounds horrible, and yeah, yeah,
I'll give it to you. You know, I got the instrument.

Speaker 2 (02:07:46):
Why don't you like it?

Speaker 8 (02:07:47):
I just thought it could have been better. You know,
it's big, you know, and I think everything I've done
prior to that is better than.

Speaker 2 (02:07:53):
In that case. What three beat of yours? Are you? Like?
That's like a stable to us? M hmm, Like I
don't like Memory Lane? What NAS is like? Yo?

Speaker 8 (02:08:09):
NAS was making fun of the Reuben Wilson cover because
look at this, dude, like, like you.

Speaker 2 (02:08:16):
Know what it sounds like.

Speaker 5 (02:08:18):
But this is the thing, all right, it's it's it's
a synesthesia thing for me because it's like when I
hear it.

Speaker 2 (02:08:25):
It feels like winter. It feels like.

Speaker 5 (02:08:29):
It's something about that loop that makes it feel like
it's winter outside. Like there's certain loops that make you
see some ship the same way that I saw that
Funhouse on for Better, I see him sitting on a park.

Speaker 2 (02:08:47):
It's that's winter like. It's like, I don't know if
it's yeah, but yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:08:52):
Well but for one with Memory Lane, I never liked
it because I thought New York State. I wanted to
just do New York State of Mind represents even represented.
That's the remix. The one is on the album is
a remix.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:09:06):
The original is some baseline jazz sample. I use I
got the original version. I'll give that too.

Speaker 2 (02:09:12):
How did you switch at the last one? Represented?

Speaker 8 (02:09:15):
The first record we did period and uh and after
I heard I was there at that session, Pete did
all them scratched than one take.

Speaker 2 (02:09:25):
We were at that battery.

Speaker 8 (02:09:27):
Then Q Tip Medal met up with us and Pause
mixed the Heath Brothers and brought the cassette to NODS
because I was giving them ride to me that I
saw Pause tape. I was there. I wasn't when he
made it. Was that when he brought it to give
to Nas because I was giving Nas a ride to
meet up with Puff and I'm giving him a ride.

(02:09:49):
And we met up with Tip and he gave the
cassette and if you hear the cassette, it's going.

Speaker 2 (02:09:54):
Boom, man.

Speaker 8 (02:10:01):
So you're just like, what in the fuck is this
because I didn't know what the Heath Brothers was at
that time, and it's just like and it's going, you know,
some of them are on, you.

Speaker 2 (02:10:11):
Know when you.

Speaker 8 (02:10:13):
Get four balls tight and then you'll be a little off.

Speaker 2 (02:10:16):
And no, I was like, yo, man, this is Jesus.

Speaker 8 (02:10:20):
Yeah. So I was like, yo, man, I gotta change
his mind because New York state of mind.

Speaker 2 (02:10:24):
I was happy. I was like, this is what we
suposed to make. I just like I said, I love.

Speaker 8 (02:10:29):
When the streets have something that that that that that
feeds their their pain and anger and stuff, you know.
So that's why I like it just as gutter as possible,
so even even when it's melodic. But so with Memory Lane,
I was just like when I was laughing at the cover,
he was just like, yeah, he's like this, this dude
looks funny. And then we heard that dude, he was like, Yo,

(02:10:51):
that's it.

Speaker 2 (02:10:51):
That's it.

Speaker 8 (02:10:52):
I'm like, nah, that's too happy. He said, no, I
hooked that up. I'm like, nah, I need some hard stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:10:58):
That's the thing though, like I feel like you be
trying to match, especially like in Later. You gotta be
as gun as them.

Speaker 5 (02:11:05):
But if you if you think about it, some of
the most menacing sound in hip hop is when there's
a contradiction. Yeah, there you go, so that beautiful loop
over how he's delivering it. It works even when Shook One.
I'bout to say Shook Ones yet because he and them
they're not like I thought IRONX was the pinnacle of hardcore,

(02:11:26):
and then they come with this like Robert de Niro
deadpan ship and it stares the ship out of you.
It works that way, man, like the beautiful ship works with.

Speaker 8 (02:11:35):
And I put the drums to it and he was like,
that's it. But the one I heard him spit the
I rap for listeners, I was like, wow, this is
kind of cool, but I still was not crazy about it.
Then once I heard the one love, I was like,
I'm changing my represent and so I gave I gave
the new remix and he's.

Speaker 2 (02:11:54):
Like, no, I go back.

Speaker 8 (02:11:58):
I just pushed and pushed him, push, like come on, please,
like let's roll with this one.

Speaker 2 (02:12:04):
This is the one, this is the one. He was
like no.

Speaker 5 (02:12:07):
He totally was like, no, okay, before we wrap up
one more client, hoo, okay, your your whole process like.

Speaker 8 (02:12:18):
He for a reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt, he would just
call me and go, yo, I got this song, and
he would do the rhyme off of the phone and
be like, yo, and I want you to do this.
Dear god, I wonder, say me, I can't you know,
I can't die. I can't die all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:12:32):
Man.

Speaker 8 (02:12:32):
I was like, all right, I'll meet you down there.

Speaker 2 (02:12:34):
He got there.

Speaker 8 (02:12:35):
I had He's like, that's it, goes in and does it,
friend of foe. We I was just cause I make
my beats on the spot. You know, I'm known for that,
and that's how I've always that's always every time, every time.
I never be like, yo, his ten beats, pick one.
I sit there and make it right.

Speaker 12 (02:12:52):
There.

Speaker 2 (02:12:53):
Isn't that too much pressure when cats are watching you though,
It's the only way I know. I thought, that's how
you do ship.

Speaker 5 (02:12:57):
You know something, first time ever met you, you were
making him czach like they don't know. Oh, man, I
totally forgotten fucking we were with We were with the
Beat Beat minus making a sound treatment. Remissed the.

Speaker 2 (02:13:15):
Yeah, right, we were.

Speaker 5 (02:13:17):
And then I kept hearing this bell going off and
I was we were watching that ship. I totally forgot
you were like making that right, he's on the spot.

Speaker 8 (02:13:28):
Yeah and oh the rewinded the nas madic Sean Nicholson,
who did the Rebel Kings about all the Gangs videos.
He was a guest on my radio show and he said,
he said, yo, he said, I got a crazy story
for you because, like you know, he said, we met before.
I mean to tell you the story when we go
on here and he said, yo, he said, you came
in to give Nas the memory lane dat to let

(02:13:52):
him hear the final mix at Chun King. He said,
I was an intern there and he's said on the
way out and uh. And they introduced me a z
all that was there. They just don't likee and bits.

Speaker 2 (02:14:04):
They played it for me.

Speaker 8 (02:14:04):
I met Na's father. I watched father go in the
booth and do the horn part in one take. Well,
he did a couple of takes, but the one that
he said this is the one that's the one that
ended up on the album. But I remember he said, uh,
he said on the way out, I said, don't forget
when the phone, when the answer machine goes off, whatever
you do say I chill.

Speaker 2 (02:14:25):
He goes, okay, God, and you.

Speaker 8 (02:14:27):
Know, but for him to be in turn and and
he said, at that time, it was like, what is it?
Because I said, no, matter what you do, that's what
you guys say at the end of the phone of
the phone message. And he said he got hard to
earn and heard all right, chand plus starts it off
and he's like, wow, that's what he was doing. Sh
Shan Nicholson, which is a dope documentary. Yeah, I watched

(02:14:50):
you never seen, never seen rebbel Kings. Check out rubble Kings.
It's amazing documentary.

Speaker 12 (02:14:54):
Can I ask Christina agular question?

Speaker 2 (02:14:56):
Sure, I'm just saying, I just just, oh, George, do
it now.

Speaker 12 (02:15:00):
I just need to know because I feel like you
haven't done with so many R and B albums and
the full thing like how that happened? Because I know
she called you up first and what made you go, Yeah,
well I was I was.

Speaker 8 (02:15:11):
A fan of her.

Speaker 2 (02:15:11):
You know, I wasn't a genie in a bottle. You
know it was.

Speaker 8 (02:15:13):
It was a cute pop record and it is what
it is. But when she did Beautiful, even she did
Dirty with Redman, I was like, she got Redman in
her video and even even though she had she was
wearing the skippy chaps and showing up button everything, you know,
I was just like, you know, it's a Darren.

Speaker 2 (02:15:29):
Little chick and everything.

Speaker 8 (02:15:31):
So when it came to them reaching out to me, uh,
her ex husband Jordi got to get a lot of
credit because he put her on the Group Home album
and she was really into the Group Home album. So
when I met her, she's like, I love the music
in this Group Home album, the structure, everything, you know.
I want something like this and that type of a
vibe but using more jazz type samples or whatever. And

(02:15:54):
back in the day, it was the first song we did.

Speaker 2 (02:15:59):
I love that song. I love that song. I love
that She cut that in D and D.

Speaker 8 (02:16:05):
And she came to D and D first, and then uh,
and I played it the beat because I was like,
I gotta have something ready, So I got there a
little early, cooked it up, did it, and then when
she got there, she was like I like this one
and and uh, then we went to record plant in
l A and cut it there. Remember Madonna was in
run room. Uh, Macy Gray was in another room. Then

(02:16:27):
Biscuit was in another room, and Evan Nessen's was in
another room. And remember cameras all outside because they had
heard she was getting married and they're waiting to get
pop Rozzi. So you know, I'm with her all the time.
And I would even see pictures saying uh with such
as then and bodyguard, and I'm like, I'm not the bodyguard.

(02:16:48):
I got to the car to go grab something of
the car, and they were like this Christine's bodyguard because
you know, you know, I guess it's the way my
statue or whatever. And I'm saying, like, little did they
know I'm not gonna making the be But back in
the day was the first one we did. She did
karade of GUARDI big up to her. She she wrote
that right on the spot. And she would sit there
with her little dog, with her little chihuahuah and uh

(02:17:10):
and and she would do it on the laptop boom.
They would go in the room and just vibe together.
Because Christina has to be involved with the structure and everything.
She's real meticulous and she cut her vocal real quick.

Speaker 12 (02:17:20):
The shoutouts in that song are.

Speaker 8 (02:17:21):
Real, like, yeah, she said do your thing, she said
do your thing.

Speaker 2 (02:17:29):
I'm skipping moment of truth.

Speaker 5 (02:17:31):
I know, I know, but I got it like in
my mind, I'm like, I got five questions, but there's one.

Speaker 2 (02:17:37):
For the owners. No hats, dog, Yeah, you started this
madness revolution. No high hat? Right? What made you even
think to go there? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (02:17:49):
Because and did you kind because a person?

Speaker 2 (02:17:52):
No more high hat?

Speaker 7 (02:17:53):
No?

Speaker 8 (02:17:53):
Because in a review a guy said, premieer, you use
the same high hat all the time, and I was
offended by it, and I was I was offended by it.
So I was like, you know what I'm not. It's
the same thing when I start stop using jazz samples.
I was like, because everybody keeps thinking saying there were
jazz rapping. It's like, we're not rapping about jazz where,
which is why gu always said I'll do the Jazzmatazz

(02:18:15):
Project to protect gangs, to different this category because we're
rapping about regular stuff. So I said, I'm gonna start
using weird sounds to show that I am a versatile
beat maker. So I did that on purpose because I
couldn't take criticism at that time when somebody.

Speaker 2 (02:18:32):
Was saying it's weird because then everyone followed suit and just.

Speaker 8 (02:18:35):
Yeah, it's the same high every single record. And I
was like, so that's why I started going all right now,
you know, and that was before the Internet. But it's
just like so I purposely did some spikes.

Speaker 5 (02:18:49):
But even with skills though, I remember when skills I had.
I first heard that Tony touch it, played it and
the rapper dubs never I was like, yo, like the
fact those drums that was kind of it's not as.

Speaker 8 (02:19:01):
A regular point where you take it god like. And
again I do that for people like yourself to get it,
like I know, quest level get it. I remember when
before we had already met there, but we got more
cool when I started hanging with the Angelo because D'Angelo
was just gotten signed to Crystalist. So because the rest
of development was our first label mates outside of hip

(02:19:22):
hop and then uh and then D'Angelo came. And I
remember when Lindsey who was a and R there whose
mother owned Sylvia's, and he was like, YO, tell me
what you think of this guy from Virginia, And so
when I.

Speaker 2 (02:19:32):
Heard it, I was like, Yo, this dude is dope.

Speaker 8 (02:19:35):
So we had to go on a lot of promo together.
They had already signed them. They just saying that the legit.
I'm like yeah to me and Danseelo got this super
duper cool and then you he started used to always
say he's getting with you, and he'd always be and
we get with Jay Diller too, you know, God bless him.
So I was asked the session when you were leaving,
when I was about to do Devil' SPI, I would

(02:19:56):
just you was on your way out from doing how
does it feel? You would just laid all the drum
pards and and he was like.

Speaker 2 (02:20:02):
Yo, I'm gonna be naked in the video.

Speaker 8 (02:20:04):
I'm like what, I'm not even thinking. He's like, yeah,
I got a trainer. I train every day.

Speaker 2 (02:20:09):
He's got me.

Speaker 8 (02:20:10):
He's getting me in shape. He said, well, I'm gonna
be cut And when that ship came out, I was like, damn,
this motherfucker's ripped. And you know, you know he's on
the regular shirt and he looked like.

Speaker 5 (02:20:20):
He cames up in the sea room literally cutting all
these stuff for Devil's part, like to see it made.
And me and Dyla are there like he's the reason
why double trouble exists when things fall apart because they
were all just like playing each other sit knock each
other out, and I had nothing that I was like,
I need a song, God damn, so don't show love

(02:20:42):
my life.

Speaker 2 (02:20:45):
Use a lot of vocal samples.

Speaker 9 (02:20:47):
Do you have a like a book that was just
like everything where you just have it all up here,
like because you just seem to be able to find
the most perfect vocal samples for every song.

Speaker 8 (02:20:57):
Based on either the rhyme or what the song is about,
or the title any of those that it's stuff will
just come to me going, oh so and so said that.
And then sometimes it won't work. The drums from the
sample might before you force you can hear the drums
from the original sample come in and it won't fit.
And sometimes and I called the other thing I called

(02:21:18):
called force fiting, like, you know, let me see if
I can force fit it, and if I can forcefit
where it doesn't sound really messed up, like with Master Appeal,
with with the Youngster's Remix, you can hear all the
yeah and and it worked, and I just said, stand
out ticket all.

Speaker 2 (02:21:36):
There's a block dedicated to every a cappella he ever
cut in. His crew's a block really and it's not
even called in this business of wow.

Speaker 10 (02:21:48):
I'm sorry you okay, okay, a Guru, So where were
you when you found out he passed? And what was
the what was the relationship between Guru and Solar like
and you know that dynamic?

Speaker 2 (02:22:02):
Like what was that all about? Because it just looked weird,
very very weird.

Speaker 8 (02:22:06):
I won't talk about him too much, but what I
what I can say is just because he's not worthy
of the energy. But but for one when he passed,
I remember I had just seen him in the hospital,
which I got to thank Guru's nephew and both of
his nephews, Justin and Denzel.

Speaker 2 (02:22:27):
Denzel's his is his young nephew.

Speaker 8 (02:22:29):
Denzel is the one that's like, yo, I just went
the song because then there was a list of people
that couldn't come in there because the whole healthcare proxy
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:22:36):
Assigned the old boy.

Speaker 8 (02:22:38):
So when when it came to I wasn't gonna go
see him, I was just like, you know what, I
just hope he pulls through. I hope he pulled through
because I already spoken to his father and his father
was keeping me up. I wasn't even on Twitter yet.
Buster and q Tip were the ones that were on
my behalf tweeting, Yo, just doctor prem that's not true.
He's not you know, he didn't have a heart he didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:22:56):
He never had a heart attack.

Speaker 8 (02:22:57):
He had a cardiac arrest from an asthma attack, and
he induced him into a coma to prevent him from dying.
He just did not recover from that because you have
to send signals to the brain to get your nerves cracking,
and there was nothing but silence in the room every day.
And and people that would they said, music, voices and

(02:23:18):
things that he loves will trigger his brain to get them.
He'll snap out of coma and.

Speaker 2 (02:23:21):
Go back to normal.

Speaker 8 (02:23:22):
He never woke up ever, so all that I'm up
and to my fans that and that didn't happen.

Speaker 7 (02:23:27):
No.

Speaker 8 (02:23:27):
So uh So, when it came to going to the hospital,
Denzel went because their family members and they were they
were Ghru's father was able to override the the illegal
people at the hospital because he got the power and
you know, you know, he's Supreme Court judge and he
got that to happen where they could go in. You know,
So when Denzel went Denzel called me and was like, Yo,

(02:23:48):
you need to go to the hospital.

Speaker 2 (02:23:49):
I'm like, dude, I'm not gonna get in.

Speaker 8 (02:23:50):
He goes, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (02:23:52):
There is a young kid.

Speaker 8 (02:23:53):
He's like, I don't care, but you need to be there.
Out of anybody else. You need to go, and the
way he said it, and I go, and I still
was like, nah, I'm good man. I'm just gonna pray
every day everything goes good.

Speaker 2 (02:24:05):
He goes, pream find a way. That's what he said,
and the way he said it.

Speaker 8 (02:24:10):
I was like, all right, I'm going Monday and I
can call two of my guys and said they two
of my guys had already seen him through certain circumstances
when they took justin up there, so being he got
in there through the right bit, you know, he was
allowed in and he got to see him, and he
was telling me what he looked like and all that stuff. Now,
they they came with me just in case, you know.

(02:24:30):
So I was like, let's see if we can get
in there. We got there, they stopped me and was like, yeah,
can help me. And then they're like, where are you going?
Because I was already told with room to sixty eight
and I was like, uh to sixty eight and and
Guru's father said, if they turn you down asked for
a health care I mean a proxy advocate, they can't

(02:24:50):
deny you and then they know you're on your ship.
I said, until I asked for a proxy advocate, because
the first day when I said, you know what room
going to, they're looking.

Speaker 2 (02:24:59):
At listen, you can't go in and whatever.

Speaker 8 (02:25:02):
That's what the proxy advocate said. It's gonna be a
half an hour to an hour. And I said, I'll wait.

Speaker 2 (02:25:06):
Waited, wait to wait, to wait to wait.

Speaker 8 (02:25:08):
It getting to the point where I'm getting restless. Where
I want to go in it's not working. This dude,
this black guy rolls in in a wheelchair and starts
he starts cursing up the information desk. God, I want
to see my doctor right now, and he's causing a
ruckus where now no one's really kind of paying attention.
I I go around Uh, I go around the back first,

(02:25:29):
but because I'm like, maybe there's another way to get
into the side. This dude's out there. He taking a
lunch break. Black guy taking a lunch break. He works
in the morgue and uh, of all places, gru's allowed.
This is this before you pass. Dude's working in the morgue,
sitting there and he's like uh. I was like, yo, man,
you know who I am. And he's like yeah yeah,
and he's like, anyway you can get me in, get

(02:25:50):
me in.

Speaker 2 (02:25:50):
You know what he says.

Speaker 8 (02:25:51):
He says, if he liftsen to my demo, wow, wow, And.

Speaker 2 (02:26:00):
You know what I said, I will listen to you.
I will listen to your owl.

Speaker 8 (02:26:06):
Just whatever you could do. He said, Well, you gotta
be back in a certain aunt that he said, I'll
be back, he said, but you had to give me
a minute. Man, he would be broke out. When we waiting,
we're like by trash, dumpster entrances and stuff, and and
he's like he takes forever to come and now my
my gut, which I always tell you you gotta go
with your gut. I was like, man, this is to
where I'm just gonna say forget it. But I'm not

(02:26:28):
really a quitter type dude and give up. And I
was just like, man, I gotta just do it my way.
And he's taking too long. And I told I told
Black was with me and my homie Eon, and I
was like, yo, if the dude doesn't come about fifteen
minutes after and I'm watching my clock hard. I'm gonna
do it my way, and if that don't work, I'm out.
Because they had already gone in to see him and
they got by, you know, so that they's got to

(02:26:49):
see him see him. This was he on the second
time because he came to hold Justin down just case
of these problems. So, uh, when when I go back in,
they're doing construction on the bathroom and interest, so being
at the construction in the bathroom was being worked on.

Speaker 2 (02:27:04):
You have to go.

Speaker 8 (02:27:05):
You have to pretty much be let in if you
need to use the bathroom. Here's the hospital. They got
it pretty much onto that. I was like, I really
got to go to the bathroom and anywhere I can go.
She goes, listen, you go around to the eleven, go
all the way to the end of the hall. But
I'm gonna be timing you to come back. And she said,
so go to the bathroom.

Speaker 2 (02:27:20):
Come back.

Speaker 8 (02:27:21):
Right when I'm going to the bathroom. There's the gift shop,
you know, you boy flyers all that stuff for people,
and the elevators right there.

Speaker 2 (02:27:27):
As soon as I look at the elevator.

Speaker 8 (02:27:29):
I see it's going four three two, and I'm like,
I gotta do this because they're so busy with that
guy still yelling.

Speaker 2 (02:27:36):
Even after all that time I went outside to the dumps.

Speaker 8 (02:27:38):
And everything, that guy still I want to see my doctor,
you know, he's still doing that boom. Next thing, you know,
a family of like five or six people, big family,
football player size, all come to the elevator and I'm like,
you know, I duck behind the because the guys like
for at least six five, and you know, the wife

(02:27:58):
is a big girl and she's got like three or
four kids and they're all kind of big. So I
kind of go in with them, and he goes.

Speaker 2 (02:28:03):
With floor and I go too. He goes, oh, we're
going to two. I was like, good because now they
can block me.

Speaker 8 (02:28:08):
Soon we get on the floor. The nurse, you know,
because it's still they think I'm going to the bathroom.
Soon as we get on the floor, we go. I
follow them, and I'm just thinking to sixty eight, two,
sixty eight too.

Speaker 2 (02:28:18):
Sixty eight.

Speaker 8 (02:28:19):
The nurse comes up and gets up. She's like, excuse me,
can I help you all yous? He goes, yeah, we're
seeing such and such and such and such.

Speaker 2 (02:28:25):
And you go room no, but they said two sixty nine.

Speaker 8 (02:28:30):
She goes follow them. Yeah, yeah, so she.

Speaker 2 (02:28:33):
To sixty eight.

Speaker 8 (02:28:34):
Two sixty nine. She goes following me. So I'll let
them walk in and I go and I back up
and then slide in the in the room. And I
had my mama the True CD and my Gang Star
shirt and I went in there and you know, and
pulled the cover down, and I wanted to see what
he looked like if he's been kept, because you know,
when you're in the hospital, either you pay them to
clean your fingers, wash you up and all that, or

(02:28:56):
you gotta do it. It wasn't I even asked, is
he on the thing to be cleaned up? And they're like,
you no family members gotta do it.

Speaker 2 (02:29:03):
So, you know, once I saw he was dirty, you know,
nails all, you know, just just not clean all this stuff.

Speaker 8 (02:29:08):
I'm just like, and he's just laying there, his eyes open,
but they're just because and he's on the uh the ventilator. Yes,
I was doing ah, you know that, and you know,
so that's going on, and he's just he's looking up
like he's awake, you know, son, he's already brained it.
And you know so because maybe it was almost three

(02:29:29):
weeks after I seen him and uh, and so you know,
I just it was just me and him. And it's
crazy because me I talked to doctor Dre about this,
like with the easy thing. It's almost like that same
type of thing, man, because I just talked to him,
put the shirt on him, saying, yo, you know what
this is all about. You know, I'll forever rerap this.
And and I wanted to put the CD under his uh,

(02:29:51):
under his mattress, but then the nurse walks in and said, hey,
you're not supposed to be in here. You gotta leave.
And I said, man, listen, and I showed her the cover, like, look,
this is us. This is the reason why I just
wanted to come in and see him. She goes, look,
got five minutes and she let me have my time,
said what I had to dude, kissed him, walked out.
Never saw him again until Static Selector called me like

(02:30:11):
six in the morning and he's like, please don't say
it's true, cause were already been getting Please don't say
it's true.

Speaker 2 (02:30:16):
And it was false alarm. So this one when I
called his sister and she was like I did. I
could see hearing her voice like.

Speaker 8 (02:30:23):
Don't, don't, don't, don't say anything getting I can't confirm that,
you know, because we were all in touch with each
other now and she's just like, I can't get confirmed yet.
Let me get back to you. I'm hearing the same thing,
but I don't believe it, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:30:35):
And I was like, all right, I'm gonna just wait
for you. And then then it got confirmed.

Speaker 8 (02:30:39):
Plus the great thing was his father, you know, was
able to obtain the body, get it back to Boston,
and he was like, he gave a funeral. Key was there,
the whole Gangster foundation was there. All of us met
up and came together, and he had a private funeral
privately maybe good two three hundred people, maybe it was. Yeah,
he had it on the campus. Marry two other people,

(02:31:01):
the clocks in the elms. That's to both sides of
the family. And his father called me and said, I'm
running everything, and you know, Judge iling you listening.

Speaker 2 (02:31:09):
He's a stern dude.

Speaker 8 (02:31:11):
I knew him when I iced to stay at their
house way when we were just on our first album
before Stepping Arena. Staying at the Elim's house and all
that stuff in Boston. So I've been around around and
his father said, I need you and sugar with sugar Bear.

Speaker 2 (02:31:23):
Back in the day. He said, I need you and
sugar Bear to speak, he said.

Speaker 8 (02:31:29):
He and when he brought us on stage to speak,
the first thing he said is I don't care what
my son went through ever. All I know is him
and this man and sug was the best part of
his career, he said. And that's why they're here, and
I want them to speaking. And we spoke and I
told crumb little jokes and had everybody laughing. You know,
just crazy girl used to do, you know, because he's

(02:31:51):
to steal my clothes. And since he's so small, since
he so you know, he's real skinny, he's real skinny.
So like you know, you know, I've seen him with
no clothes. He a bony kids, but very well athletic,
get built, six pack stomach, you got, you got got,
he got the physique and everything. But he used to
wear sweatpants, you know, the cotton ones. And then so

(02:32:11):
you wouldn't see the sweatpants coming out the bottom, he
would put rubber bands around the ankles so that they
would stay stay held and he would put my pants on,
so I've come back to the house and be like,
where's all my pants at? And he'd come in later
on from working stuff because he was a caseworker as well,
and he's got my shoes on, my pants on, my
jack and my shirt and then he would always go
all Premiere ship, all premier shit, burn up man like

(02:32:35):
like that became that became a that became a regular thing.
That became a regular thing. But yeah, but as far
as when they connected was close to when the owners
happened shot the Black Jesus. Who really is where the
connection came from? Because they were they were doing work
together and uh things. You know what, we always saw
the strangeness too, but we always ignored it.

Speaker 11 (02:32:57):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:32:58):
It was just like.

Speaker 8 (02:33:00):
You know what we when Google did Ill Kid.

Speaker 2 (02:33:03):
And uh uh Ball had slip Project.

Speaker 8 (02:33:07):
He always had a string of producers that would do
the do beasts for him, So we just figured he
just another one of those guys. And then it just
got to a point where as time built, I mean,
you really noticed that the the us being around each
other was very very minimal, you know what I'm saying.
The same people that you pretty much saw all the
time was around around us and we didn't travel with us,

(02:33:28):
nothing like that except one time to Colorado.

Speaker 2 (02:33:31):
So the other the Owners was doing like so that
was Owners was four three three three.

Speaker 8 (02:33:38):
On tour with taller Quality and Uh and yeah, Tyler
quality Common. No, it was common Electric circus to and
Uh and Quality opened up. And that's when Quality was
bringing Kanye. We're like, why you keep bringing Kanye to
the tour. He said, because he gave me my first
hit record and he didn't charge me for it, So
now I'm bringing him because he's in. And then Kanye

(02:33:58):
told me that day, Yo, I'm about to start rapping.
He said, I'm about to do an album and it's
gonna be called College Dropout and he said premiere, it's
gonna go double platinum. I was looking at him like, man,
that's a cocky thing to say, but I ain't doubt it.

Speaker 2 (02:34:11):
I hope it up. I'm gonna be bigger than you want.

Speaker 8 (02:34:14):
And watch and man it happened. College Dropout just popped off.
But yeah, we saw the strangeness and it was weird
to all of us. So it ain't just us, it's
everybody you know, And then you know even just the
people's just spreading stupid stuff about like we were hating
on the situation. It's like, no, everybody's grown men. Whatever
you just said, you choose to do is what you

(02:34:35):
choose to do. Just tell the truth as far as
what's going on with with with the how you represent yourself.
But as far as not like the gay rooms and
all that, that part I didn't believe it.

Speaker 2 (02:34:45):
I never believe that that prot I wasn't worried about it.

Speaker 8 (02:34:47):
That was all just nonsense because everybody but I understood
why people were like, well it's a weird relationship. But
that part I never was like, well, damn, maybe changed. Nah,
he was still Gool, just just in a different mental
space where he that wasn't him. You know, the way
he was looking, the way he was dressing. I know
Goo when to get Goo had his own style. I
started seeing the similarities and dress and everything.

Speaker 2 (02:35:08):
I was just like, this is not my dude.

Speaker 8 (02:35:10):
So even when people post certain pictures of him, I'm like,
that's the that's afterwards. I don't acknowledge any of those
pictures and none of that.

Speaker 10 (02:35:18):
By the time, by the time when when him and
Solo working together, was Google getting clean at that time.

Speaker 2 (02:35:24):
I heard it. He was drink.

Speaker 8 (02:35:26):
He's gotten cleaner several times. And one of the first
times he got clean, you can vouch for this was
when we were in Seattle and he spassed out hard
body on stage. It was the second time he did it,
because the first time he was flipping, uh was Roode Yeah,
Rhode Island, but the one that he filmed, and we
showed Guru on the tour bus, this is how you

(02:35:47):
look when you wild out. And he remember we kept
we were all playing cards, and we used to play
cards every day and be you know, pugging out, laughing,
some people watching movies, almost playing video games. And Goos
is still staring watching what he looks like on stage
because he's never seen himself that wild and out on
you know, in that And the next day he quit,
he quit drinking, quit drinking, so he would he and

(02:36:09):
he real laps, yeah, but he was still he still
quit again again, then started back. He quit again. So
when Kess is talking about yeah, yeah, we got him clean,
it's like, no, we got him cleaning. We watched him
watch that tape, you know what I'm saying, and he
would not stop rewinding.

Speaker 2 (02:36:23):
And this is not DVD.

Speaker 8 (02:36:25):
This is like when you got to go you know,
this ain't DVD era, And he kept over and over watching.
He was wilding that day at that show. It's crazy,
you know, shout out to uh Goldie. He got into
a fight with Goldie. I had to break It's It's
one of the craziest nights ever in Seattle. And anybody
that was there even calm and will tell you that

(02:36:45):
was a crazy night.

Speaker 2 (02:36:46):
And we got it all on tape.

Speaker 8 (02:36:48):
So that was the day and the next day is
when he stopped drinking.

Speaker 2 (02:36:52):
From that day.

Speaker 8 (02:36:53):
That's why I was like, man, not they got him
got him well? No, we got him well first.

Speaker 2 (02:36:58):
And that was why I was touring the owners. So
by this relationship, y'all were still, but were.

Speaker 8 (02:37:03):
Still when we're rocking, because we always would have drama
over some nonsense nonsense, never nothing like really really substantial nonsense.
And even then it's like this is not worth it,
you know, because I'm always it's not worth a god,
because I don't want to.

Speaker 2 (02:37:19):
Fight and beat up my boys.

Speaker 8 (02:37:20):
That's my dude, and he's not he's not my size,
he's not he'll he'll throw it, he throw down, he
will knuckle.

Speaker 2 (02:37:26):
Up me and he doesn't care what size you are.

Speaker 8 (02:37:29):
But I don't want to fight him. That's my partner.
But all the fights we've had, it's always went to love.
I love you, my nigga, let's go and and that's
his line.

Speaker 2 (02:37:38):
I love you man, I love you.

Speaker 8 (02:37:39):
You'll let's go out and we'll go out and celebrate,
getting get drunk and come back. But now he's the
happy drunk, he's the best.

Speaker 2 (02:37:47):
I'm the nicest.

Speaker 8 (02:37:48):
Oh no, no, no, that's what he's mad. And you're
still not bad that they can't outrap me. But yeah,
but but but yeah, it's like the thing that really
touched me the most when his father said I need
y'all there. I need the two of you there. If
not anybody else, do you two, and that that was
a big deal. Even when his father died, his father

(02:38:11):
wanted to make it to his ninety first birthday or
his ninetieth birthday. I think it was ninety first, could
be one of the it's either ninety or ninety one.
He was doing really bad just after grew had passed,
and he said, if I can make it to my
birthday party, Even the doctors told him no, don't do
the party here?

Speaker 2 (02:38:27):
Really not well?

Speaker 8 (02:38:28):
He said no, if I can have this party, I'm
ready to die, you know. And so the day he passed,
I had to go to Switzerland to do Switzerland do
a festival, and when he passed, they were having the
service the following day and I asked his sister, Trisha,
shout out to her. She's a soldier man, Trisha, I
asked her, Hey, is it anyway I could go to

(02:38:48):
the funeral home and go see your dad before I
go to Europe, because I don't want to miss the funeral.
But I really can't back out of the gig because
I had already canceled one when I had my knee surgery.
And I've never canceled a gig in my life. And
they were letting you, I don't want to be one
known for you know how I get my artists don't
show up. They started to say, oh, yeah, do a
video showing that you're here because we want to make sure.
But I did all full video showing at my knee

(02:39:09):
I just had surgery, and they said it was I
could have a blood clot and had a heart attack
on the plane because it was too close to my surgery.
So when his father passed and they were having the
service the next day, she said, I'll call on your
path and tell him it's okay for you to go
see him. She said, you and Shug, and uh. So
I called Shug and I said, listen, my flight's the
same day to go to Europe. I'll catch a quick

(02:39:31):
shuttle to Boston see him and then fly back to
New York and then get on the plane in Europe.
And that's exactly what I did, and met Shug, showed me,
pick me up at the airport. We got to the
funeral home and they were like, hey, we got them
to a point where you could see him when song.
First thing I said was thank you so much for
giving me your son. And you know, we just stood

(02:39:51):
there for a while, just talked around him and you know,
rubbed his hand, gave him a kiss, and then I
went back and got on the plane, transferred to know
the airline and went on the road. But I felt
like I got that that was a certain part of
closure I needed. That's why, you know, And again I
wanted to thank him even in the even though he
had sold it already left. I was like, I gotta

(02:40:12):
touch him.

Speaker 5 (02:40:17):
Well, Primo, thank you for making our dreams come true. Yeah,
but I mean just that it's just just a chance
to fan out. I mean, there's definitely enough for it
to Jesus Christ. Mean, get to the half of your
production work and the breaks and shout out to the breakdown.

Speaker 8 (02:40:41):
Since I scored it all, I've seen them all.

Speaker 5 (02:40:43):
Well, thank you very much. Yes, I appreciate your work.
Thank you, DJ Premiere, Lady.

Speaker 8 (02:40:49):
Thanks for having me. Everybody in enough respect to both
of all all of the accomplished artists that I'm a
fan of. You know, I'm a big fan of both
of you. Quests you already know. And uh and we'll
be able to work on records with this man like
to oh my gosh, yeah and uh yeah man shout
the Dan Charna's the seats man and all the casts
man man Antoine Harris. Uh, it's so many Taylor too,

(02:41:16):
She's she's good. Yes, yeah, all right, one love y'all.

Speaker 2 (02:41:20):
All right.

Speaker 5 (02:41:20):
This is a superstar group home produced by the Great
DJ Premiere on Quest Love Supreme on Pandora.

Speaker 2 (02:41:27):
About that poring in the ghetto.

Speaker 13 (02:41:29):
It's hard to survive somehow, a chief that many from
a shot, but I real biz, which life to choose?
I want to make money, so I got a pad too.
But there's no brutal and you only have one chance.

Speaker 2 (02:41:42):
If you use your face.

Speaker 13 (02:41:43):
The circumstance at night, I used to scream a shout
living in the ghetto, trying to get the hell out.

Speaker 2 (02:41:49):
So watch my friends got I was superstar shout out.
The cameo, uh dog.

Speaker 5 (02:41:59):
Now now now that we're in reflection time, there's so
many questions that I forgot to ask him.

Speaker 2 (02:42:07):
Man, mostly samples. I man, the.

Speaker 5 (02:42:12):
Freaking unbelievable sample. Yeah, I hate him for that. Man,
I'm gonna have to go.

Speaker 2 (02:42:18):
Yeah, I don't know what that. You just got to
go go to the studio, find out what is, and
report back to us. That's all I think.

Speaker 5 (02:42:24):
Even then he was like, he'll give me the stab,
but just won't tell me what it is from which
it came.

Speaker 2 (02:42:31):
He's so old school with it.

Speaker 5 (02:42:32):
I'm like said, he said. All the pads are laid
out right there, so you just gotta go. You can
find out what the sample is. I just want to
go to sleep at night. I don't want to redo
this song.

Speaker 2 (02:42:40):
I don't know. You don't have to redo the song.

Speaker 9 (02:42:42):
Just go and hit one pad in the next pad
and then you're like, oh, by the third one, you
should have it figured out.

Speaker 10 (02:42:49):
I still believe that it's you remind me, you remidy.
If you think it's you remind me, I would say
that you got to recreate it. Then if you can
recreate it, off you remind me, then challenge.

Speaker 2 (02:43:00):
Yeah, tap on.

Speaker 10 (02:43:02):
But but you know he said it and you remind me,
so was it well? You know right, yeah, this was
on taken no loops, man, you know what I mean?
But no, man, pre black Dog. He's so like just
working with him, he does you saw them old school
like he is very old school. He still very much
operates like it's still in a good way, you know

(02:43:22):
what I mean. Like it's just well, he's true.

Speaker 2 (02:43:24):
Man.

Speaker 9 (02:43:25):
I just realized something else. We forgot to talk about
the Limp Biscuit record. Oh I forgot about the balls. Yeah, Like,
I just hope he got paid very well for that,
because to the front, it was too good. It was
too good for Limp Biscuit. It should have been a
Method Man solo record.

Speaker 2 (02:43:43):
We could. Man, we forgot, well not forgot, but uh
we the Black Eyed Peas.

Speaker 8 (02:43:48):
Oh yeah, BP Empire and I forgot to ask him
about in this business of rap. So we still haven't
figured out what that what that sample is?

Speaker 2 (02:43:59):
What evers?

Speaker 5 (02:44:00):
I don't have like half the acapella's he does like
and it's not like m P or like it's where
are these records coming from?

Speaker 2 (02:44:11):
That? The copellas you know, one that's always also bugged me.

Speaker 9 (02:44:15):
It's it's not primo, but it's a high text The
Sun God the Common record Common Sense in a.

Speaker 2 (02:44:20):
Ghetto in Chicago, Like that's too perfect for a common
to perfect. Somebody made that one. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 10 (02:44:28):
I don't know that the one I know for the
one he just did the record with God, the Dre
record the Animals that on Compton.

Speaker 2 (02:44:38):
I listened to that album Animal Animals is the one.
I'm with you. Animals is that one is dope? He chop.

Speaker 5 (02:44:46):
Okay, this is supreme, but nah, he chopped up some
It's like some guy from Detroit, Like he samples a
lot of like Indie twelve inch like Sandbox out of
Man right right right, Like he does a lot of that. Well,
I just want to know what his filing system is,
Like he just listen. I don't believe that he's got
it all in his head because it's like he has

(02:45:06):
to take time to figure out loops, figure out drums,
and now figure out a cappella's and practice scratching them shits.
That's like four extra jobs.

Speaker 10 (02:45:17):
I think he I can believe it because Knife is
like that to a degree, Like Knife will pull like
vocal samples and stuff like you know, cut he would.
I think sometimes it comes to them as they're making
the beat and it's just kind of recall, you know
what I mean, like this will sound good with that.

Speaker 5 (02:45:31):
So see if any memories of because you engineered for
some of the people that don't know Sugar Steve was
a full time engineer at Electric Ladies Studios during the
time of d'angelo's Voodoo Album and some other things. Actually,
you did two primo songs. You did you track uh

(02:45:54):
for common Uh the Sun God one he was just
talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:45:57):
I was for that. Oh that's right, high technology, that's right.

Speaker 5 (02:46:02):
By that point we were just you know, everything was
getting done on Electric Lady. But you also for the
Sixth Sense. Oh yeah, you were there for that, and
you were there for Devil's Pie.

Speaker 7 (02:46:11):
I'm actually on the skit with you right after the
sixth sense or right before it.

Speaker 5 (02:46:15):
Right before the Yeah, what is that you dis retrospect
me like that? I was like going, I'm the worst
at making skits. And of course I even said later,
you know, someone called Prince Paul up to do these
skits correct, because.

Speaker 2 (02:46:34):
You know, it was a last thing on my mind.
But do you have any memories of a primo like well, yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:46:39):
The Devil's Pie sessions are very memorable because I had
never seen anything like that, you know, being done by even.

Speaker 5 (02:46:48):
Remember a stack of record, like he had his stack
of records, like it was at least one hundred deep,
and he was just going through stuff. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
nope no. And after a while, like I after forty
five minutes, and I just went into the break.

Speaker 7 (02:47:02):
Room and are you talking about for when he was
putting the scratches on? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah,
he kept coming up with the slice.

Speaker 2 (02:47:11):
And the pie and yeah, you know, the whole trying
to eat.

Speaker 7 (02:47:14):
And yeah, I've just never seen anything done like that,
you know, by anybody.

Speaker 2 (02:47:21):
And then and we were doing on two inch, Yeah,
we're doing on.

Speaker 13 (02:47:24):
So it was.

Speaker 5 (02:47:27):
Just the amount of precision. That that's when we realized.
That's when I realized, like, oh, dude's not normal.

Speaker 2 (02:47:34):
He's really no, he's not. He's really not. And it
sounds even though it sounds, uh simple, it's really hard
to damn.

Speaker 5 (02:47:44):
Now I'm thinking of all these things now, I want
to ask him why he uses deep snares instead of
crack snaes with the exception of coming.

Speaker 2 (02:47:53):
For that ass which it was blindellity. Yeah, like that
was a departure for him. But it's like next week anyway.
Anything else we want to.

Speaker 10 (02:48:07):
Wish we could have asked them, man, I think we Well,
I want to get into Uh so here's second album.

Speaker 2 (02:48:15):
Rath of the Math physical stamina. I did not like
physical stamina. I appreciate physical stamina. Now you know what
it is? You know, I don't. I didn't. I don't
know what it is. But okay, so.

Speaker 5 (02:48:27):
You know when when I remember that album and Ladulph
Half Life came out the same day and we were
on tour together, uh like in ninety seven with uh
Jay Rue and and and us, it didn't hit me
like the first record, Nah, not at all.

Speaker 2 (02:48:46):
I'm not saying it was a bad record, but it
tested my patience. It tested my patience.

Speaker 10 (02:48:52):
The moments on that record were like high because like
like fucking invasion that frustrated and frustrated nigga, fucking Cowboys
and I did with.

Speaker 5 (02:49:03):
Cowboys because of the disc and what do you call
it was the other joint, the one fucking whatever? Well
he redid the field, oh right right there? Yeah, Oh
my god, man, that was the one.

Speaker 2 (02:49:21):
I was like, you know what I didn't like. I
don't think I like what I felt. One Day was
half cooked. I can Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:49:31):
First of all, it was like an interlude and it
was released as the first single. That was the first single, Yeah,
dog like And that's back when like labels were sending
you like by that point, I was in a few
DJ pools, so it was like, you know, Sticker New
ruled the damage to One Day.

Speaker 2 (02:49:51):
And you know, there was like like there was like
bus sheets, tim sheets.

Speaker 5 (02:49:56):
On there with the DJs of the country like oh man,
he's going home hard or you know, or Biggie and
Foxy Brown and you know, and I got it and
I played it and it was just like there was
no hook, yeah, and it was kind of I felt
it was very convenient how he just tiptoed around when
hip hop got to the West Coast, and then it

(02:50:19):
got to the West coast, I was like, hey, shiot
night and I got playing ticket home.

Speaker 2 (02:50:22):
Man that that night one day? Yeah he did kind of.

Speaker 10 (02:50:30):
Yeah, damn that was I didn't was because the first
one I heard was you're playing yourself, which well.

Speaker 5 (02:50:34):
Yeah, one day was like a white label preview, and
then you're playing yourself came out, and damn I never
got to ask him.

Speaker 2 (02:50:41):
What was Biggie's reaction to your playing yourself?

Speaker 8 (02:50:44):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:50:44):
Man?

Speaker 5 (02:50:46):
Because I mean obviously, I meant when you feel some
sort of way, if absolutely like yeah, yeah, yeah, no
for real, for real? Well, uh, what is your all right?
Closing out?

Speaker 2 (02:51:02):
What is your bill? Boss bill? What is your Desert
Island premiere album? Single? Song? Song? God? Can you come
back to me?

Speaker 9 (02:51:19):
This?

Speaker 2 (02:51:19):
This is hard. Part of me wants to say mass appeal,
but then there's all right, non single, non single? What
is yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:51:31):
That island one song? It's all you get, non single, primo,
non single, so Dodgs fuck never even to ship, So.

Speaker 2 (02:51:47):
So does that counter know? So non single? All right,
non single? Give me whatever by Jay Rue, give me whatever, whatever,
whatever you want to do. It's whatever. I gotta do
my thing. I gotta oh, y'all cruise whatever. That's Phillips
John Off the second j Robber, give me that, give
me three? Okay three, give me that? Give me uh

(02:52:13):
give me above the clouds? Was that a single? Technically
was a B side, But I'll let you have it. Okay,
give me above the clouds and give me man ship man.
Give me X to the next to the next. Okay,
that was a single.

Speaker 5 (02:52:29):
Damn it was a single. Fun it was a sing Okay,
all right, non singles? Okay, give me uh hmm, give
me take to him pass there you go. I'll take
that well or behalf.

Speaker 7 (02:52:49):
I this show does not care about my reflections whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (02:52:53):
Yeah, that's that, Steve. Is this the second week? Yes,
we got a minute left, give us a.

Speaker 7 (02:53:00):
I liked what he was saying about the labels on
the records. They're hypnotizing their magic. I agree with them
about all that.

Speaker 2 (02:53:05):
For me, it was Sole Records, the two circles, watching
them around the circles. Yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 7 (02:53:10):
I mean, I had the same experience growing up with
the with the The Delight and street Wise and Bell Records.
If you ever heard of them? Yeah, yeah, and now
it's the Jazz Records, the ct I S and the
e c ms. The labels are I think an underrated
part of the record experience. And then his whole thing

(02:53:34):
about about taking the turntables apart and really being in
love with how turntables work. And then you know, just
how something that that he was so enamored with when
he was so little became his entire career and he
you know, really took it to the next level and
all that.

Speaker 2 (02:53:49):
That's just incredible single. No, it was. It was a video.

Speaker 5 (02:53:55):
Yeah, you know, it's weird and other reflection.

Speaker 2 (02:54:00):
I have I date it yo yo.

Speaker 5 (02:54:04):
Here in sideiffic, I dated the person to whom two
Honey Buns was directated to.

Speaker 2 (02:54:12):
Yes, and it was kind of a Jay Rue versus
a mirror movement. Also exclusive anyway anything else, Steve Nope?
Well yah, Boss Bill Fontigelo, Thank you again, premiere. This

(02:54:35):
was uh course Love Supreme on Bandura and we will
see you guys on the next go route. Thank you West.

Speaker 1 (02:54:43):
Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Andorra. For more
podcasts from iHeart radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple
podcasts

Speaker 2 (02:54:59):
Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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