DJ Premier

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.

— DJ Premier

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

— DJ Premier

All of our other albums were consecutive year after year: 'No More Mr. Nice Guy,' 'Step in the Arena,' 'Daily Operation,' 'Hard…

— DJ Premier

Jazz came from the streets, hip-hop came from the streets. It's just a different language. It's all borne out of hard times,…

— DJ Premier

A lot of Friday nights, Guru and I would go kick it with Biggie, since he was just three blocks down from…

— DJ Premier

Guru's like Tupac. He just records and records and records.

— DJ Premier

All my idols have been in the studio with me, because they wanted to be there.

— DJ Premier

DWYCK' was only intended to be a B-side of 'Take It Personal,' because we had done a record with Nice & Smooth…

— DJ Premier

Guru's family gave me a piece of his ashes. I saw the gold box of ashes that his father had when we…

— DJ Premier

I always followed my heart and if my heart said I gotta pack up and go, I'm gone.

— DJ Premier

I believe in karma; what you do will come back.

— DJ Premier

Every now and then there might be a beat someone turned down that I have as an unused beat. But everything that…

— DJ Premier

I've always cared about how certain songs fade into other ones and which songs should follow others. I studied that as a…

— DJ Premier

I'm known for taking a long time getting music out, partially, my schedule is bananas, I'm only human, and then on top…

— DJ Premier

I grew up in a town called Prairie View. It's like 45 minutes outside of Houston.

— DJ Premier

Lil Wayne, I ain't mad at him man, he did his thing, he stepped up his lyrical game, he the most improved…

— DJ Premier

The ghetto music of my era is hip-hop. And Parliament, and Curtis Mayfield, and Marvin Gaye, that was all the ghetto stuff…

— DJ Premier

Me and Tupac were long-time friends.

— DJ Premier

I don't want to follow the map of what the music industry does because I've already lived the industry and I still…

— DJ Premier

Well, I've always held down Guru... His spirit knows this.

— DJ Premier

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

— DJ Premier

I used to lie about my age at first because you always want to be 18, but then you start looking at…

— DJ Premier

When I miss Guru, I bump one of our records. Then I shed a tear and get back to work.

— 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…

— DJ Premier

Everybody deserves a piece of where they live, in some type of fashion. Music is just my way of preserving that.

— DJ Premier