It's May 23, 2024, 03:29:44 AM
Bit of background on the track Do you recall the first time you ever met Dr. Dre?Yeah, the first time we met was [in] 1989 at a Gang Starr release party for No More Mr. Nice Guy in Manhattan. It was him, Eazy-E, and MC Ren. That was a big deal because they were new to coming to New York, and then to come to our party when we were just starting to bubble with “Words I Manifest.” We weren’t at the level of what they were doing already. So, that was a big deal.How were you approached to be a part of Compton?I had already sent Dre tracks for something else last year that’s totally irrelevant to the Compton soundtrack. At that time, he didn’t have a plan to do anything. He was just focused on filming the movie, wasn’t working on the soundtrack or nothing. When we were on the phone, he was like, “Can you send me some tracks? I want to start working on some new stuff. I don’t have any plans yet, but I definitely want some Premier tracks.” So, I sent him like five demos, just a few to eventually work on. I wasn’t in a rush to stress him.All of a sudden, I’m working on a project in Russia with Boiler Room TV, with a producer named BMB Spacekid from Moscow, who’s like the top hip-hop producer in Russia. Boiler Room wanted to see if I could collab with another producer, which I don’t do, but I thought it would be unique for a Russian producer and I to get together, so I said I was interested in doing it. After saying, “Let’s do it,” [they] said [they] were going to get MF Doom to be the voice for the project once we could put our beats together, using Russian samples and stuff like that. The first beat that we worked on was the one that Dre took. It wasn’t intended for Dre at the time. When I was about to head out there, MF Doom was sick and couldn’t make it. He couldn’t fly due to a minor surgery he had. So when I asked, “Who are you going to get?” [Boiler Room TV] got a guy named Anderson Paak. I’d never heard of him. They sent me a video called “Suede” and I saw they had Stones Throw artist Knxwledge doing the beat. I’m a Stones Throw fan, a Peanut Butter Wolf fan, so the connection let me know he was official. I loved the video, loved the vibe in the basement, and he looked so confident in the video. I hit them back and said, even though I’d never heard of him, I’m totally down to put my name with his. He just so happened to be doing a meeting with Dre for some of his music, which was totally irrelevant to mine, so he already had his connection with Dre. We worked on two beats in Moscow. We did one song called “Til It’s Done,” which is more of a bounce/trap sort of the beat. The other one was a more boom-bap style that I do. BMB said I could do whatever I want when something comes around to it. When the Freddie Gray murder and the riots happened in Baltimore, Anderson called me and said, “Yo man, that other beat that we didn’t use, I just wrote some sh*t down about the bullsh*t that’s going on in Baltimore. It’s called ‘F.S.U.,’ which stands for ‘fu*k sh*t Up.’” He sent it, I thought, “Wow, this is ill.”Right around that time, he had a session with Dre and when Dre heard it, he said, “This is totally up my alley for the Compton soundtrack.” The ’92 riots happened with Rodney King and stuff, it coincided with what we wanted to do with the Compton album. He reached out and said, “I want to put a rap on it, a Dre verse,” and I said, “Hell yeah!” How am I gonna say no to that? “You should come out, and let’s work on it together because it’s your beat, and we can add on to it and mix it down together, sprinkle it with some stuff to make it a full song. Do you mind if I change the title to ‘Animals’ instead of ‘fu*k sh*t Up’?” and I said, “Yeah, that’s cool.’”Being you got to work so closely with Dre, do you find your approaches to producing have more similarities or differences?Honestly, the similarities were almost identical on every level. I’ve been in sessions with him back when they were working on Doggystyle. They had a concert they were going to do at Prince’s club Glam Slam and they had a new version of “bi*ches Ain’t sh*t.” They were going have Lady of Rage do a rebuttal called “Niggaz Ain’t sh*t” on stage. I was there when they were working on that, watching the D.O.C. freestyle with his vocal chords gone but still saying dope punchlines. Daz was in there, Kurupt’s in there.When I walked in the room, Dre was working on a song called “All in a Day's Work.” It was dope to see that process. There’s a lot to do and for him to be comfortable with me being in the room to watch him do it was super dope.At any point between 2002 and 2012, when Detox was still actively promoted as Dr. Dre’s next project, were you asked to contribute to it?No. Everything that you’re hearing for this project now is all brand new music. I asked how many songs he was putting on [Compton] and he said 16. I said “16! People don’t even do that any more!” They’re all really strong songs. When he had me record vocals for the end of the song that I did, he don’t have a vocal booth. He has you do the song in front of him. And even when I went to do my shout-out, he said, “Do it more like this. Give me a little more energy.” There was a certain energy he was looking for and I’m no rapper so I didn't mind taking the direction. For the cuts and scratching, I did my thing, and he was super cool about any adjustments I wanted to make. He wasn’t overbearing about my opinions. It was a really comfortable environment.http://ca.complex.com/music/2015/08/dj-premier-dr-dre-compton-interview
definitly a classic
DJ Premier Talks ‘Compton,’ Working With Dr. Dre for the First Time & Why ‘Detox’ Is DeadIt’s hard to name two hip-hop producers more iconic than DJ Premier and Dr. Dre. They’ve both had a hand in the genre’s growing canon, yet despite traveling in the same circles for more than 25 years, the pair had never worked together — until now.Compton, Dr. Dre’s first album in 16 years (which went on sale Friday), features “Animals,” the pair’s first collaboration. Billboard spoke to Premier about his contribution to the album, his history with Dr. Dre and what it means to be a hip-hop producer.When did you first meet Dr. Dre?We met back in 1989, when my first Gang Starr album, No More Mr. Nice Guy, came out. We had a release party, and N.W.A came. Eazy-E came, MC Ren came, and Dre came. They were in town, people were still new to N.W.A, but they were starting to make a little noise to where they were getting accepted in New York.They came to support our album, so we he had met them — but as far as having conversations and being around the recording process, I was around right after The Chronic came out, and I was there for when [Snoop Dogg’s] Doggystyle was still being recorded. I knew him and Suge [Knight] around that time, so we were already cool. I just had never really done any work with him on that process.I’d recorded and produced records for [Death Row Records artist] Lady of Rage — [but] Dre had already left Death Row at that time, so he wasn’t around.Was there ever any tension as far as West Coast vs. East Coast?It’s whatever — people like me and Dre are music people, so we’re beyond just hip-hop. We’re purists. Not everybody who makes beats is a purist.I did his radio show [The Pharmacy on Beats 1] that’s going to air in a couple weeks, and he dedicated the whole show to my career. We talked about the same thing you just asked — for one, what’s the difference between a producer and a beatmaker? I explained how I see it, and he felt the same way.We don’t just lay the beats down — we’re coaches. We tell you, “Your voice squeaked right there. You need to go back. Let’s fix that line,” or “Can you do that again with more energy?” or “Can you say this better?” We’re about more than just putting the track down and calling it a day.How did “Animals,” your track on Compton, come together?He was working on a different project — not for the movie [Straight Outta Compton], he just started recording again for a different project — so I was already sending him tracks because we spoke to each other last year.He told me, “I want to start recording, doing some new music, and I want you to get involved. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them yet, but I’d love for you to send a few tracks if you have time.” I said, “Yeah, I’ll put something together,” and I sent him like three or four. One he liked right off the bat, and he said, “I’m going to work on this.” He told me, “I don’t have a set time for it, but I do want to do it.”I went to Moscow earlier this year to work with, like, the top producer in Moscow, which I don’t do — I don’t need to work with any producers. The pitch was for me to get with a Russian producer, to use Russian samples and music, and then to have MF Doom rap on it. I was like, “Hell yeah,” because me and MF Doom had just done a song for the PRhyme deluxe album that’s about to be released. To get the opportunity to work with him on another project, with the producer in Russia, who goes by the name of BMB Spacekid.When we were about to head out to Moscow, MF Doom fell ill and wasn’t able to come out, according to what they told us. I’m like, “Well, who are you going to get to replace him?” He said, “We’re going to get a singer instead of a rapper, Anderson .Paak.” I was like, “Who is that?” They asked if I was down to do it with him, and I said, “I gotta make sure I like him first, I’ve never heard of him.”They sent me some YouTube links, and there was one called “Suede.” I saw Knxwledge doing the beat, and I know Knxwledge and his work on Stone’s Throw. So I already liked the track, and then I just loved the way [.Paak] looked in the video and his whole demeanor. I told them, “I’m totally in.”Once we got out there, we recorded two tracks. The first one was the one that ended up on the Compton soundtrack — we didn’t have any vocals on it, it was just a beat. BMB [Spacekid] programmed the drums. I liked the way he laid it down, I found some samples and stuff I liked, I laid that down and programmed it to have the same bounce that I do, so it would have the Premier style of sound. That’s all we did to it — it had a couple change-ups, but mostly we left it alone and started working on another track.The second track was more of a bounce record, which is already out, through Boiler Room TV. That’s how the whole project had come about, because I had done it with PRhyme, and [Boiler Room] was connected with people in Moscow, and they just wanted to show the process of me connecting with a producer in another country.They wanted to go with the second track, which ended up being called “Til It’s Done,” which has already come out. The first track was just sitting on the back burner, to be used for whatever we wanted to.When the whole Freddie Gray thing happened in Baltimore, Anderson called me and was like, “I’m real angry with what’s going on with the police, and I just wrote a song to that other beat. I want to sent it to you and see what you think — maybe we could leak it out, put it out in the streets and show that we’re angry too.”When he sent it to me it was called “F.S.U.” — F— shyt Up. In the hook he’s saying, “Don’t come around these parts, the whole world thinks we’re animals/ The only way they want to turn the cameras on is when we’re f—ing shyt up.” When he said that, I was like, “Yo that’s dope.” Anderson just happened to be going to a meeting with Dre — he had already done a few songs with him, through their management. Anderson’s from the West Coast as well.When he told him he had a record with Premier that he did in Moscow, Dre said, “Let me hear it.” Once he played it for him, [Dre] called right away and said, “Yo, I want to do this song for my soundtrack. I decided to do a soundtrack album last minute, and I want to put it out with the movie.”I said, “What do you want to do?” And he said, “I want to put a verse on it.” Like, shyt, Dre rapping on a verse? Hell yeah. The song was already done, and I explained how it came about with BMB Spacekid. He said, “I’ll spit the verse and let you hear it and make sure you’re cool with it, and if so let’s add on to it. Come out to L.A. and we can add on a few more things to it.”I flew out just to add a few more things to the production side with some of his musicians. A couple more vocals were added in the hook, Dre already had his verse down — even Talib Kweli showed up and put a verse on it. We’re not going to use it for the album version, but I told him maybe we can do a remix version and maybe add Common or somebody. That kind of commentary with police brutality and killing black men is totally up their alley.Next thing you know, it’s on the soundtrack.Does Dre’s verse fit in with the theme of fighting police brutality?[Dre] showed me [Straight Outta Compton] in the studio, so I got to feel the whole energy of the movie. He had already said that the 1992 riots, with everything going on with the police after the Rodney King beating, was totally in that same vein as Anderson .Paak’s lyrics. His verse is about the same thing: Why the f— are they hassling me? They’re harassing us and doing all this stuff, so it’s still relevant to this day with how we’re being treated.He said, “All I’m going to do is change the title, from ‘F.S.U.’ to ‘Animals,'” because that’s what Anderson says in the hook.Is this the first time you’ve worked together, officially?Yes, this is the first time. We went in the booth together and talked a little shyt at the end of the song, me and him. I scratched on it, with my traditional scratches. Just saying that we’re collaborating together — buggin’ out and having fun. A real dope experience.Have you gotten to listen to the rest of the album?First thing I asked him was how many songs he had. He said, “16.” I was like, “Wow, that’s a lot.” People don’t do that anymore.I heard about seven of them, they were all dope.What’s the vibe like?It’s very now. Even just the people that are on it… Snoop Dogg, you’re not even going to know it’s Snoop. He played that one for me, it’s like a rock-type of song. When he played it for me — I went to the house that night, to do some work at his home studio — we’re chillin’ and he’s playing this hard guitar shyt and I’m just boppin’ my head and all of a sudden the vocals come on and I’m like, “Damn, who’s that guy?” He said, “That’s Snoop.” I’m like, “That’s Snoop?!” You’re gonna be surprised — it doesn’t sound like “One, two, three and a four” [imitating Snoop Dogg’s voice]. It’s a whole different thing.Dre just looked so happy — you can tell that he knows this album’s solid.Did he talk to you at all about scrapping Detox?Yeah, he just said it’s not up to his standards of quality. He said it is officially over. But when they hear this album, they’ll understand why. It’s well-produced, well-done — he does this record with The Game that’s just straight raw boom-bap, hard lyrics and head-nodding, snap yo’ neck type shyt. “All in a Day’s Work” is crazy — I kept bothering him while he’s recording, like, “Can you play ‘All in a Day’s Work’ again?”There’s this one called “Deep Water,” I got to watch them record that — Anderson .Paak recording the drowning. He’s rehearsing with a bottle of water, swigging the water [makes choking noises], and I think that he’s choking for real. I get up to grab him to give him the Heimlich maneuver, and he was like, “I’m just rehearsing!” He was like shaking his body and trembling, but he was just preparing to do what Dre wanted him to do to sound like a drowning man. Once they have all the effects on it, it sounds like a guy really drowning.It was fun to witness all of that stuff.How long were you guys in the studio together?Four days the first week. I went home, and he flew me out three days later to mix it down and to put on the finishing touches on it. [Dre] was like, “Yo, I’m making this date.” I said, “You still got six more [songs] to go!” He goes, “I’m gonna make it, I’m gonna make it.” Everyone’s always like, “Oh, it’s coming out” and it doesn’t.The day that I was leaving from finishing my song, all of a sudden he had a chart on a dry-erase board. He had the sequence — he was moving fast, like “I’m gonna make this date.” Very determined. He said once the movie got to a certain point, he started watching it and was like, “You know what — I’m doing an album right now.” That’s what inspired him to do it.
Produced by DJ Premier, add. prod. by BMB SpaceKid.No Dre production.
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