New York’s Texas Import: How DJ Premier Helped Shape the Sound of Hip-Hop

DJ Premier on the Decks

There is perhaps no producer who has had a greater influence on hip-hop than DJ Premier. Over the course of more than three decades, the DJ/producer has provided soundscapes for some of the genre’s most celebrated records. In addition to his career with Gang Starr, DJ Premier has an incredibly long independent production catalog that is practically a who’s who of rap and pop all-stars. His legacy is cemented not only through his work, but also through his influence on his peers and the legions growing up loving his music. While Premier is now regarded as the embodiment of the NYC production sound, his musical journey began some 1,400 miles away.

DJ Premier was born Chris Martin in Houston in 1966 to a pair of career educators who passed on a love of music. Since his maternal grandfather was a professional jazz musician, his mother maintained a large collection of jazz records that complemented the soul music played around the Martin household. Frequent childhood trips to visit his grandfather in New York City left a lasting impression on the future production legend. During one of those trips, Premier chanced upon a group of B-Boys performing to early hip-hop. Smitten by the sounds he heard on the street, it was then that Premier decided that he wanted to be a part of hip-hop himself. Although Premier’s grandfather was wary of his dreams and skeptical about the future success of hip-hop music, Premier was undaunted. Confident that hip-hop would become a major genre, he was determined to hone his skills and return to New York when he was ready to show what he had been working on.¹

Following graduation from high school, Premier entered college at Prairie View A&M just outside Houston, where his father was Dean.¹ Early in his Freshman year, he met classmate Randy Pettis who was DJing a party under the name RP Cola. Premier expressed an interest in Pettis’ skills and the experienced DJ took Premier under his wing, teaching him the basics of scratching and mixing. Inspired, Premier procured his own set of turntables, and with Pettis’ help, quickly found himself spending more time DJing than attending classes. At the time he called himself Waxmaster C,² and joined another classmate, Gordon “Biggest Gord” Franklin, together performing as MCs In Control, Premier’s first “official” group. With more frequent performances, Premier’s confidence grew and he decided to record a demo tape. With the help of a friend who owned a four-track, Premier laid down his first recorded beats and enlisted local rapper MC Top-Ski to rap on top. When the school year was over, Premier stayed with Gordon’s family in Brooklyn for the summer, hoping to get closer to the hip-hop scene in the city.¹

Back at school, when he wasn’t skipping class to DJ parties, Premier worked at a local record store, Soundwaves. After noticing Premier changing price stickers on the records he wanted to buy, a record buyer at the store, Carlos Garza, took interest in the aspiring DJ and decided to hire him. As an employee, Premier was forced to learn all about every genre in the store’s catalog. This exposure to a wide variety of music would ultimately influence the eclectic sampling choices that defined DJ Premier as a consistently unique producer.¹

One day, Garza was on the phone with Stu Fine, the head of Wild Pitch Records. Fine complained about a new hip-hop group from Boston he had just signed called Gang Starr, expressing his belief that the artists were constantly fighting amongst themselves because they had no DJ to hold the group together and help them make music. Garza was convinced that Premier was the answer to Fine’s problems. Immediately after the call, he began organizing a way to sneak Premier’s demo tape to Wild Pitch Records in New York City. Since the label had no A&R department the tape fell into the hands of Guru, a rapper from Gang Starr. Guru, going by Key T at the time, loved what he heard so much that he insisted the label fly Premier and MC Top-Ski to New York to record a proper demo in a professional studio. The resulting tape convinced the label that Premier had the talent Gang Starr needed. However, both Guru and Wild Pitch were only interested in Premier’s talent. Unprepared to abandon MC Top-Ski, Premier rejected their offer and returned to Texas to work on tracks with Top.¹

By 1986, Premier dropped out of college to try performing in New York City with Top, where they would have a chance of attracting industry attention.² By now, though, Premier’s grandfather had died, leaving him without family or residence in the city. Fortunately, Gordon Franklin’s family again generously opened their Brooklyn home to the two young men. The arrangement came with the condition that they both get jobs. In compliance, the pair became daycare counselors, honing their talent in their off hours.¹

Just a few months after living and working together full-time, Top quit rap to join the Navy. Now alone in pursuit of his hip-hop dream and far from home, Premier called Guru to see if he still needed a DJ. The timing was opportune, as Guru was still excited to have the DJ from Texas as his partner on the decks. They changed their stage names from Waxmaster C and Key T to DJ Premier and Guru respectively, kicking off the start of a trimmed down and revitalized Gang Starr. By 1988, they were in full swing, working hard to bring new ideas into a hip-hop world where almost all of the samples supporting beats were coming from James Brown tracks.¹

With Gang Starr now recording in a professional studio, Premier was forced to reorganize his workflow. Having previously used only his turntables, mixer, and a four-track, Premier had to learn how to utilize professional studio tools to create the soundscapes in his head. The first song that the pair cut during the No More Mr. Nice Guy sessions was the immensely popular “Words I Manifest,” the first hit rap track to feature a jazz sample rather than the conventional soul dominating the SP1200s of producers around the city.¹ Premier felt assured they were getting serious attention when he heard Marley Marl play their track on Red Alert. “When Marley Marl, my biggest idol, opened his radio show with [‘Words I Manifest’], though, that’s all I needed to know.”³ Now with Marley’s cosign behind them, Gang Starr released their first full length studio album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, through Wild Pitch Records on April 22, 1989. Oozing with the jazzy sampling style Premier was pioneering and Guru’s unique lyricism, the album received high acclaim across the hip-hop community.²

With Gang Starr now dominating the airwaves in New York City, it was only a matter of time before Brooklyn native Spike Lee heard their music. After listening to the Gang Starr track “Jazz Music,” which paid homage to Premier and Guru’s musical grandfathers, the director decided to enlist the pair to provide a song for his upcoming movie “Mo’ Better Blues.” Happy to accept, Gang Starr provided Lee with “Jazz Thing.” The mainstream exposure they received upon the movie’s release in August 1990 allowed Premier and Guru to move from Wild Pitch Records to the more established Chrysalis Records. Their new deal allowed the group to gear up for a second album with better resources to distribute and market their music.¹

Chrysalis had signed the duo expecting Gang Starr would continue to just do their “jazz thing”.¹ This frustrated Premier, as he and Guru had decided from the beginning that each album would bring new ideas, techniques, and styles to the table.² Premier challenged the label, returning to the studio with a new, stripped down production aesthetic that ran counter to what Chrysalis had requested. Outlining his philosophy throughout his career, Premier has said, “… you’ve got to be different in order to stand out. People might not get it right away, but they’ll eventually get it if you believe in what you’re doing.” The first song cut with Premier’s new style was Gang Starr’s seminal “Just to Get a Rep” in 1990.¹ Loosely based on an experience Guru had himself, the song spread like wildfire on the streets of NYC. Even the music video exuded NYC street hip-hop culture, taking a tour through East New York with some of the city’s most dangerous stick-up kids at a time when that kind of visual was incredibly hard to market. During a conversation with Premier 30 years later, fellow NYC hip-hop legend RZA could still recall the first time he saw that video. “The homies you had in that video… East New York for real. And a lot of serious, serious dudes…”⁴ Riding the wave of popularity generated by that hit, Gang Starr released their sophomore effort, Step in the Arena, on January 15, 1991 through Chrysalis Records.¹

The album received critical acclaim and became yet another success for Premier and Guru, cementing their reputation as one of the city’s most consistent DJ/MC duos. Together they proved to the hip-hop community that they could not be boxed in to one style or gimmick, and that with their creativity, they could push the genre in a variety of directions. The true significance of this skill became apparent as the sampling world was rocked by the consequences of a pivotal lawsuit against Biz Markie decided in December 1991. As a result, all producers were required to clear their samples with the original artist before using them. Prior to the ruling, sampling was a Wild West of sorts, with little to no protection for the original artists behind the sampled content.⁵ Even Premier was not completely innocent. He too was targeted in a lawsuit over the hit single “Just to Get a Rep,” when French composer Jean-Jacques Perrey discovered his song was sampled by the DJ without clearance. This brush with music publishing law taught Premier a valuable lesson: if he still wanted to use samples, he would have to work to obscure them.¹

With the legal issues settled and a new sampling paradigm in place in the music industry, Premier and Guru got back to work in the studio on yet another new style. During these sessions, Premier pioneered what would become his signature: truncated bits of songs stitched together over hard boom-bap drums. The result, Daily Operation was released through Chrysalis on May 5, 1992. While the album received critical acclaim again, their biggest song of that year did not make the final cut. Inspired by a marketing tactic employed by Prince and James Brown, Premier and Guru began to include exclusive B-Sides on their singles in order to boost sales and exposure. The most popular of these releases was the B-Side to “Take it Personal,” the album’s lead single, called “DWYCK.”¹ While less accessible to average listeners than “Just to Get a Rep” may have been due to its very limited release, “DWYCK” had just as much of an impact on the hip-hop community, with RZA remembering that, “All of Staten Island had that on when they were heading to the city…”⁴ Even though Premier petitioned Chrysalis to include their new hit on Daily Operation, the label executives decided to leave “DWYCK” off after changing their minds regarding a re-release.³ Regardless, Daily Operation is also notable for the first appearance of a young Brooklyn rapper named Jeru the Damaja, a classic lyricist in his own right who would become one of Premier and Guru’s first mentees.²

At the end of 1992, Gang Starr was back in the studio again working on their fourth album and a new soundscape. While on tour with EPMD in the South after the release of Daily Operation, Premier became reacquainted with the big sound systems that defined the truck culture he grew up around: big engines, big rims, and sound systems that would shake the frames of the vehicles. Inspired by muffled basslines and hard hitting beats that sounded best played loud, Premier was ready to debut yet another new sound.⁵ By mid-1993, the duo finished what would become one of the best golden age hip-hop albums. Released on March 8, 1994 through Chrysalis Records, Hard to Earn was proof that Gang Starr was one of the greatest hip-hop pairs in history.¹ In addition to the inclusion of “DWYCK,” the album featured Gang Starr’s signature song “Mass Appeal.” Conceived as a response to an influx of songs designed for commercial radio, Premier’s control of the beat and Guru’s tremendous lyricism turn a joke between the two into a must listen for any hip-hop fan.³ The album also features artists from the Gang Starr Foundation, the duo’s new collective, including Jeru the Damaja and both members of Group Home on the same album for the first time.²

Reflecting on the period around the production of Hard to Earn, Premier noted a turning point. For the first time in his career, he felt confident in producing for people other than Guru.¹ One of the first beneficiaries of Premier’s new accessibility was a teenage rapper from Brooklyn named Nas. First discovered by legendary NYC rapper and producer Large Professor, Nas had been rocking stages since the late 1980s and had the city salivating in anticipation of his debut album. Aware of the budding artist since Large P showed him “Live at the Barbecue” in 1991, Premier was eventually put in charge of production on three tracks for Nas’ 1994 Illmatic.¹ Widely regarded as one of the best hip-hop albums ever released, Illmatic is as inescapable in the hip-hop canon today as it was when it dropped. After the Wu-Tang Clan got their hands on the album, RZA recalls “we played it back… just playing the tape back to back.”⁴ Not surprisingly, the genius behind one of Nas’ signature tracks, “N.Y. State of Mind,” in large part comes from Premier’s production prowess. Nas’ unending rhymes glide effortlessly over a haunting yet simple beat from Premier which highlights the artist’s vivid lyricism. Premier also handled production duties for my personal favorite cut from the album, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in the Park),” providing an aura of nostalgia over which Nas is able to take his listeners on a journey through his mind.

In addition to his work with Nas, Premier and Guru were busy successfully developing and producing hits for other artists within their budding new collective. In 1994, Jeru the Damaja dropped his debut album The Sun Rises in the East, featuring exclusively DJ Premier production, to critical acclaim. While it may have been overshadowed by albums like Illmatic and Ready to Die which came out the very same year, Jeru’s first release stands out as one of hip-hop’s classic albums. A year later, Premier provided 11 of the 14 beats for Group Home’s debut Livin’ Proof. Another criminally overlooked album, Group Home’s incredible interplay is complimented by some of the best production a hip-hop artist could ask for.²

While Premier continued to find success on his own lacing up beats for classic projects like Jay Z’s seminal Reasonable Doubt and Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die and Life After Death, the fate of Gang Starr as a group was far less certain. By the time the duo headed back into the studio for their 5th album in 1997, popular hip-hop had made a major shift to the more refined styles of Bad Boy and Death Row Records.⁶ Having built their career together on grit and lyricism, many were unsure if Gang Starr would still be able to release music that could capture the public’s attention.⁵ But, on March 31, 1998, Gang Starr would shock the hip-hop world with Moment of Truth, released through Noo Trybe and Virgin Records. The album would be Gang Starr’s most commercially successful and has since been regarded as one of the greatest rap albums of all time. Moment of Truth cemented the group’s legacy and proved that no matter how much hip-hop had changed in the 9 years since their debut, Premier and Guru would remain creative enough to stay both relevant and unique.²

Following the success of that album and the compilation Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Star which they released a year later, Premier and Guru took a break from the Gang Starr project. While Guru worked on his own material, Premier continued to produce for classic artists like Nas, Mos Def, and Jay Z, further establishing himself as one of hip-hop’s most revered and in-demand producers. In 2003, Premier reunited with Guru one last time under the Gang Starr banner for Ownerz. Received well by critics, the release reaffirmed Premier’s uniquely creative style and let people know that Guru was as lyrical as ever.² A planned seventh Gang Starr album came to a halt with Guru’s sudden death from blood cancer in 2010.¹

In addition to his contributions to the hip-hop industry, Premier has demonstrated the skills to translate his talent for creating vivid soundscapes to other genres. While Premier has produced for a variety of pop and R&B artists throughout his career, his most notable cross-genre contribution came in the form of an unlikely relationship with Christina Aguilera. Aguilera’s husband at the time, Jordan Bratman, introduced her to Premier’s production catalog and she instantly fell in love with his style. She requested Premier join her in the studio to create one track, but by the end of their sessions together, the duo had collaborated on five that made it to Aguilera’s 2006 album Back to Basics.³ Premier produced the album’s lead single “Ain’t No Other Man,” which helped propel the album to massive commercial success. Aguilera eventually won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for that song and received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2006 Grammys. That industry recognition cemented Premier as a creative whose immense skills were not limited by the bounds of the hip-hop genre.²

In the years following the 2006 Grammys, Premier remains one of music’s most in-demand producers. He’s laced up beats for everyone from Kanye West and Ludacris, to Fat Joe and Bun B, to Drake and Westside Gunn, and even Maroon 5. It’s incredibly rare in any industry to find someone who has been at the top of their game for over 30 years, but the undeniable talent and experience of DJ Premier has made him a mainstay in hip-hop since his first appearance as half of Gang Starr in 1989. DJ Premier’s legacy is evident in countless producers today, with his stylistic innovations continuing to affect the sound of popular music. The jazzy sampling he helped pioneer alongside the Native Tongues movement in the late 80s spread to Atlanta, where the Dungeon Family hip-hop collective added a unique spin and created a movement of their own. The raw and grimy boom-bap style he helped pioneer in the early 90s was the standard in the hip-hop genre for years and continues to influence the production choices of artists inspired by Illmatic and Ready to Die. While hip-hop producers have also adopted his truncating of samples, perhaps the most interesting iteration can be seen in the Electronic Dance Music community, where roughly chopped vocal samples have become standard fare on commercially successful tracks.

To this day, DJ Premier is still regarded as one of hip-hop’s most inventive and revered producers. During the genre’s Golden Age in the 1990s, Premier’s name was a mainstay in classic East Coast album liner notes. Unlike many of his peers, Premier’s creativity allowed him to transition his success across eras of hip-hop and into other genres. Although he may have been born and raised in Texas, Premier’s music is New York to the core. After 31 years on top of the production world, there are no signs that DJ Premier will be letting up any time soon.

Sources Cited

1. DJ Premier. “You Know My Steez” by Jeff “Chairman” Mao. Red Bull Music Academy, September 2007, https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/dj-premier-you-know-my-steez. Accessed 13 April 2020.
2. Ambrose, Patrick. “DJ Premier: Hope to the Underground.” The Morning News, 11 September, 2009, https://themorningnews.org/article/dj-premier-hope-to-the-underground. Accessed 17 April 2020.
3. Newman, Jason. “DJ Premier: My Life in 15 Songs.” Rolling Stone, 1 May 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/dj-premier-my-life-in-15-songs-630261/gang-starr-words-i-manifest-1989-629145/. Accessed 18 April 2020.
4. @djpremier (Chris Martin) and @rza (Robert Diggs) “Swizz Beatz and Timbaland Present: DJ Premeir Verzuz RZA.” Instagram, streamed by @djpremier and @rza, 11 April 2020. Accessed 11 April 2020.
5. Tompkins, Dave. “Where We Dwell: How DJ Premier Changed Hip-Hop.” Vulture, 20 December 2017, https://www.vulture.com/2017/12/how-dj-premier-changed-hip-hop.html. Accessed 11 May 2020.
6. DJ Premier. “DJ Premier Breaks Down Battle with Rza and Their Long History” by Sway Calloway. Sway’s Universe, 13 April 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9lBYkb4ZnY. Accessed 21 April 2020.