DJ Premier

“The radio stations strayed away from the raw hip-hop that they were playing in the early 1990s. We were like, 'All this watered down stuff is dominating the airwaves. We should make a record...”

“I'm a bass player and I'm a drummer - I'm a big fan of bass players.”

“The passing of my accountant, Mary Coleman, who was the first person I shouted out on 'In Memory of...' was particularly devastating for me. She was beyond my accountant. She was my mother a...”

“The main thing is we never dissolved our Gang Starr contract. We are still signed to each other. We never disbanded the group. If Guru really wanted to super-dead it he would have said, 'Yo,...”

“Yeah, Travis Scott's dad taught me how to ride minibikes and how to repair the engines. His name's Jack Webster. Jack had a drum set and his brother had a bass. So I used to play with them,...”

“With 'Family and Loyalty,' I didn't already have an idea for that video. So I called Fab Five Freddy. I wanted to get a director that I didn't have to explain Gang Starr to and he was with i...”

“The great thing was that both K-Ci and JoJo told me to not make an R&B track that was reminiscent of radio hit records. 'Make a Gang Starr track and we'll write our lyrics to that,' they tol...”

“My crew used to listen to 'Taking It to the Top' by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.”

“I remember Bumpy Knuckles came in wearing all mink everything and said, 'Yo, when I spit my verse, I gotta pull my guns out and aim them.' He was serious! I told him that I was going to duck...”

“My mom's an art teacher, so I always had music in the house. She always had records, and I was mesmerized by the mechanics of how a turntable works.”

“Everything I do is in a New York state of mind. I'm indebted to preserving the sound of the city.”

“If I feel like something needs to be updated, I'll break my neck to outdo the original.”

“I love heavy metal, Metallica. I'm into Jefferson Starship and acid rock.”

“Guru was actually who A&R'd and got Lord Finesse signed because he used to listen to the demos at Wild Pitch. And he was the one who actually said, ‘Yo, this Lord Finesse guy is dope.' And S...”

“I would always have turntable elements in my records even if it was just one scratch.”

“Every now and then there might be a beat someone turned down that I have as an unused beat. But everything that predominantly matches the artist in my 30 years of doing this, it was me walki...”

“You can't do seven successful albums and just hate each other. Our yin and yang, and night and day, is what made us great when we went into the studio.”