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VIBE: Do you feel like your relationship with Guru has been misrepresented by Solar?

DJ Premier: Well, I’ve always held down Guru… His spirit knows this. He used to get upset about so much stuff when we were dealing with the label all the time. We both would be upset. But I would take the calls because when he was upset he would flip [Laughs], where you might not be able to handle him when he’s wilding out. With me, although I had a temper, I was much calmer about it. But I always remember whenever I would tell him, “Yo Guru, don’t worry about it, they are going to take care of it,” he would be happy as fuck. He would be like, “Yo, let’s go out for a drink.” He was the go-out king. That was his routine. He was definitely a celebratory guy. Anyone from our era knows that Guru was in every club and every bar and every spot. He could go all night, all day. And he would never be tired!

When was the last time you spoke to Guru?

It was March 30, 2004. April 1 was the last email I received from him and I just found it in my computer. We were pretty much going at it about him straightening his life up with the drinking and everything… just getting himself together. Because talent wise, drinking or sober, he was always on point in the lab. He could lay down his vocals with no problem and he always wrote his rhymes dope. When he wrote his rhymes on page they were so messy [Laughs]. I used to ask him, “How can you even recite the verses and flow?” He would be in the booth turning the paper upside down while he’s still rhyming and without having to punch in.

Was there ever a time when you felt Gang Starr was going to break up during your successful run in the ‘90s?

Yes. That was with the Moment of Truth album, which was the most emotional album for both of us. I had actually left the group before that album came out. I’ve never really told that story, but even Guru knew although he’s not here to defend that—but I had left the group. We were not getting along over stupid shit so I straight up said, “I’m out of here.” He was going through his gun trial and facing a five-year bid. I have to thank our tour manager who I went to college with and who is a major part of my life to this day. Even with his own problems with Guru, he was like, “Yo man, you need to go back to him. Y’all were meant to be a duo, man.” Then the trial was about to happen and I called Guru and said, “I want to do this.” We made up, everything was cool and I went to his trial everyday with his parents and our Gang Starr lawyer and our criminal lawyer. We were there every day. Guru was so scared that he could have gone to jail for five years, so that’s why that whole time was very emotional. I had just had a major death in my family. I was not really focused. I just remember our lawyer telling us, “If Guru goes to jail, you are going to have to promote the album by yourself.” That entire time was crazy.

How ironic was it that the Moment of Truth ended up becoming your first gold album?

Guru used to always say from every album, “All I want is a gold album…we deserve it; we are as hot as all these platinum artists.” So when we got that one he was the happiest guy in the world. He even designed the gold plaque. I remember we spent almost $10,000 on buying plaques for everybody that we knew deserved one [Laughs]. There was a DJ who taught me how to scratch—I brought him one; I brought my parents, my sisters, all my friends who was hanging with us from day one. That’s real talk. That’s why that album is so special.

What kind of sense did you get of the future of Gang Starr from your conversations with Guru?

It was pretty much stay focused on getting your life together. Everybody knows he had a history of drinking. That was no secret. But he had cut down some. He was getting it together, but he kept going back to it. His attitude could switch from being the funniest guy, joking around to just flipping out. But we were so used to him after all these years that we just dealt with it.

What are your favorite memories of Guru beyond the music?

Besides the music and the tours, I lived with him from ’88 to ’93. That’s a lot of years to live together. Everything would come through our house… wild parties every night. We lived that rock-and-roll lifestyle and weren’t even going platinum. We were making steady money because we did a lot of shows, but we lived that rock lifestyle to the fullest. You look at any rock group that had all the girls and the wildness, we did that. It was like college. There would be liquor bottles almost a mile long still in the house, some of them half empty. Guru was the type of dude who would get up, hold it up to the light to make sure there were no ashes in it and guzzle it the next day. [Group Home member] used to hide pizza in the dishwasher so no one would take his food. We used to be together in Brooklyn all the time. We would run around with guns and stuff, acting like we [were] fly. We were aiming the guns at each other like idiots [Laughs].

Now that’s crazy…

Yeah. It was dumb shit like that, but you laugh at it now because those were the fucking days. We had the party house, which was Brandford Marsalis’ house on Washington Ave. Cypress Hill was at our house before they even came out with “How I Could Just Kill A Man” video. They had just come to New York to meet up with Ice Cube. Easy Mo B would tell you, RZA would tell you… He was there before the Wu-Tang Clan. We met Biggie around that time before he had a record deal. Puff used to come to Brooklyn to come scoop him up to go to the studio and BIG was frustrated because he was stressing to get money. We would be on the corner smoking and drinking with BIG everyday. It would be me, Guru, Big Shug and Dap, who I remember had the biggest crush on Lil’ Kim and this is before she was even rhyming. We used to trade porno flicks with BIG’s man Mr. Cee on the way to the weed spot. Everybody would be in there blazing, drinking and girls, girls, girls would be there all the time.

What do you make of the rumors that Guru was gay because of the close relationship he had with Solar?

Like I just said, I don’t believe it. All these little rumors about Guru and some other shit… it can’t be. Because he had too many women.

How hurtful was it that one person could destroy someone’s legacy the way Solar has?

It hurts. But that’s based on the fact that none of the things being said are true. Just from the amount of work we have put in… We talking about almost 18 years. That’s a long time. If we didn’t make history, maybe I could deal with it a different way. But we made history together and he was alive to see it. Guru was able to get two gold albums; he was able to do the Jazzmatazz album. So everything that we gained makes you think, “You mean to tell me you are going to blow it all away and act like that’s not an important part of what made us who we are?” With a silly ass letter like that??? When you say ‘Ex-DJ’ where is my name at? Because there are two other DJ’s that was DJing with Guru besides me. There was Doo Wop and Shawn Ski, who was our backup DJ when I had to go back to college. He always held us down. Calling me the ex-DJ doesn’t mean anything to me. Why don’t you just say Christopher Martin?