DJ Premier took some time out of his insanely busy schedule to hop on the phone with XXL and talk about some of his upcoming projects, including getting Joey Bada$$ back into the studio after his long tour to work on his debut album, and a beat he did for Rapsody’s upcoming mixtape and the Slaughterhouse album.
“[Joey Bada$$ and I] actually just got a chance to go back into the lab, ’cause he’s been on tour quite extensively with Statik Selektah,” Preem said on working with the young Brooklyn MC; the two collaborated previously on “Unorthodox,” which was released in January and eventually found a home on Joey’s recent Summer Knights mixtape. “They’re actually booked into one of my studios here to just crack down and knock the album out. I just did a Slaughterhouse record, I just got a call to work with Jadakiss on his record. The Slaughterhouse [one], we finished it yesterday—or we recorded it yesterday, didn’t finish it yet.”
Premier also has a couple new artists he’s working with signed to his Year Round Records label—Khaleel and Boston-based R&B singer Frank Vocals—and did some work with Rapsody on her upcoming mixtape, due out August 20th, which also features a number of other big name guests. “I did some work with Rapsody—there was a beat that I had while I was working on the Ludacris sessions, it’s very left field,” he said. It’s for her new Gangsta Grillz mixtape that she’s doing with DJ Drama out August 20th. I gotta get the master to 9th Wonder, and I’m sitting here talking to you; they need it right now. But they got Raekwon, me, quite a few people, Wale. Mine is just a little short jam.
