For the past year or so, Boiler Room has been in cahoots with Ballantine's to explore the local scenes cropping up all over the world as part of their Stay True Journeys. So far, they've been to South Africa, Chile, Germany, and Poland, all the while putting on live shows, filming documentaries and generally getting to the heart of each culture. I joined them in Moscow where they were putting on a showcase of the finest Russian talent, headlined by true hip-hop royalty in the form of DJ Premier, Black Milk and Samiyam. But nobody understands hip-hop and its long journey the way DJ Premier does.
When DJ Premier ("Preemo" to his friends) and Guru burst onto the hip-hop scene as Gang Starr with their 1989 debut No More Mr Nice Guy, the world was a vastly different place. Communism was falling, the Cold War was coming to an end and the first commercial internet providers were beginning to crop up. Fast forward to 2015 and though forms of Communism remain in certain corners of the world; Russia is no longer under a Communist regime, the Cold War has long since ended and the internet is an inextricable part of daily life. When I spoke to DJ Premier, we sat in an enormously plush hotel festooned with gold and diamonds while we discussed the merits and pitfalls of social media. But it's not just political and technological changes that Preemo has seen come and go, many different iterations of hip-hop have risen and fallen over the decades and DJ Premier has surpassed them all.
Interview by James Keith (@JamesMBKeith)
So, you're over here for Ballantine's x Boiler Room Stay True Journeys and the Russian beat scene. How does it feel being the source of inspiration for a lot of these kids?
It's a good feeling because we know hip-hop and music in general travels everywhere. When what I do gets to them and they wanna work with me on some type of level and it makes sense by collaborating my style with their style, then it's a beautiful thing. Not everybody gets the opportunity to see the world like that. Music brought me here. Hip-hop brought me here. What I do as a producer brought me here. I like to see the whole world and for it to show me how similar we all are in many ways. Music takes all the bullshit away and makes it happen and pop off.
Obviously, things over here in Russia aren't exactly ideal for a lot of people. For many, life is pretty hard. It kind of reminds me of how things were in New York in the late '70s and early '80s and how those hardships birthed hip-hop. What do you think it is about hip-hop that reinvigorates people and gives them hope?
Not everybody gravitates to the same thing. For me, it grabbed me because of the elements that were involved: scratching, rapping, the way samples are reconverted, the big drums. All that included, all those elements, and how it came out of the world of the DJ. I understood that world once I saw it and I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm a part of it." I didn't have skills yet but that's what I wanted to do because I knew how much music had already hit me as a kid. So now that I'm an adult it's even more understandable. I'm cut from the cloth of the people that did it before me. All those elements trickled down. You can't do it this long, whether you're 19 years old or 49 years old, unless you keep rooted in the whole heart of whatever your occupation is. I'm deep-rooted in my job so I'll never do it the wrong way. I'll always do it the right way. My way may not be the right way for some people but I know it's the right way to preserve the culture. If the culture's preserved, the culture always go further than anything else. There's so many different cultures and hip-hop is one of those cultures. Again, if you're really, really deep-rooted in the history—from the way it started all the way to where it is now—you can always survive and actually eat off of whatever your profession is. Mine just happens to be hip-hop.
You talk a lot about versatility. Is that what made you want to do this Boiler Room in Moscow with some of the players of the Russian beat scene and guys like Black Milk and Samiyam? There's a lot of different, experimental takes on hip-hop here tonight.
Everything I do is an experiment. So this is just another experiment that I haven't done yet. If I collaborate with another producer who makes drums and his own samples and can play instruments and I do the same thing, I could say: "Well, I can do this myself, I don't need you! But let's put all our shit together and see what we come out with." We just started today and got a good vibe going so we'll see what happens if we keep adding on to it and I'll do two or three weeks and we'll see which one's the best to roll with.
That seems to be your thing: collaborating with people. Not all the time, but you've collaborated with a lot of bands, MCs, even Christina Aguilera.
I'm into more than just hip-hop: I like soul, I like rock, I like new wave, I like punk music, I like blues, I like jazz, and I was brought up on all of them from a young boy all the way to my teenage years, when I was wild and crazy, in college. I went through all those phases but I listened to a lot of bands like Journey, Rush, U2, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, then you have Genesis, John Coltrane and on and on and on.
I watched the "Propaganda" video and the thrust of what you were saying was that for the most part the East/West Coast rivalry was a marketing ploy, initially, and was being deliberately exploited for cash.
You're always gonna have a couple beefs, but to actually use that to fuel all that East Coast/West Coast and all that dumb shit... You got to know how to look past that 'cause all of us had friends on the West Coast and they all had friends on the East Coast. So we don't wanna be like, "Fuck you too." We wanna be like, "Yo man, what's goin' on over there?" And when they needed to come to New York we would be like: "Yo, if you need anything, we're here. We're here for you all the way." And the same thing for us if we went to L.A. they had us covered all the way. We came through this journey together—'88, '89 and into the '90s, we were the hot ones back then. And we still get that same respect.
I've always wondered if the constant Twitter beefs are the same way, fabricated or exacerbated to boost record/ticket sales.
I just saw on CNN today that they're gonna start having more of a monitor on Twitter trolls. They say they're gonna really start cracking down on people who start beefing on Twitter and being disrespectful. If someone wants to do that to me I like to respond back, not in a beef way just like: "OK, let's discuss it." But you better be sharp with your shit because I'll destroy you in 140 characters! Certain people say the dumbest thing and I'm like, "Yo! You're tripping," and they're like, "No I'm not, you're tripping." I can ask them a basic question and they'll go, "Can't we at least agree to disagree?" Yes, but don't talk to me like you know everything or like you can out-debate me. That'll never happen! Never. I'm too slick [laughs]. That's how you know the level that they're on. You wanna play that way, that's fine. I can ignore it but there's certain ones I can't ignore.
The format's too immediate. Things get so heated so fast!
Sometimes it's fun.
It just seems like I'm reading about a new beef between new people every day.
That's the thing with social media: it's a gift and a curse. It's cool on one level, but it's also bad. It's the same thing with drugs—it's how you use them. You've just gotta know how to not let anything take you past a certain point. No matter how much peace and happiness you want, you're gonna get people who get really mad on Twitter, Instagram and all these different things. I have fun because I don't overdo it, and it's all good.
I want to ask you about the UK. Are there any UK artists you're feeling right now?
I've always wanted to work with Klashnekoff. He's been around for years! He's sorta my age but he is DOPE. The flow, the lyrics, it's just dope music. I've always been a big fan of his work, but I've never got to work with him. I would work with him in a heartbeat. Other than that, I've been working with Four Owls...
But you've not been tempted to work with any of the grime guys?
We sat down with Tinie Tempah and were talking about some stuff. We haven't done anything yet but we had a meal-meeting together and I like him. I like him a lot. He was really up on my music, and he knew all my history. He's a good kid, man.
Have you checked out any of Dizzee’s recent stuff like the Pagans EP?
Nah, but I'm gonna look it up tonight!
You're always pushing yourself outside the box with lots of different genres. Are there any records you look back and wish you hadn't done, or had done differently?
No regrets. Even the stuff I haven't finished, it's all in the right direction.
To check out all of the performances from the night, as well as all of the previous sets from Ballantine's and Boiler Room's Stay True Journeys series, click here.
