Today DJ Premier is receiving the Life Time Achievement Award @ 2014 Global Spin Awards, we from djpremierblog wants to congrats him for this big honor! More media to follow, but first this interview before the awards:
Music Times: Now that you’ve been honored by the Global Spin Awards for your lifetime work as DJs, what do you think your legacies will be?
DJ Premier: I still just can’t believe I’m being honored. I mean I’m just thinking about other DJs that came before me that definitely deserve recognition before I do — well not before I do because I put my work in — but there are so many other DJs I look up to that don’t get recognized and people like me recognize them because without them I wouldn’t have done what I chose to do as a DJ/Producer, a recording artist and an entrepreneur. But I’m definitely honored because of the fact that they’re focused on giving me that type of attention and it let’s me know that what I’m doing is the right thing.
Music Times: What is the role of the DJ today in breaking music?
DJ Premier: The role is to always break the records based on what you feel what people need to hear. That’s the school I come from, and that’s the reason I have a radio show every Friday night from 10 p.m. to midnight EST on Sirius XM satellite radio channel 44, which is Hip Hop Nation. It’s called “Live From HeadQCourterz,” and that show is strictly to break anything new that’s hip-hop that I think sounds like the purest form, which is dope beats, dope rhymes. It doesn’t matter if it feels popular to radio. It has to feel popular to me or has a sound that I think people need to hear because I’m a tastemaker, which is what we all are as DJs. Every DJ has different jobs in this culture. We all do it differently. Some people have to follow playlists, but me, I set the playlist. I’m glad I have that window and I make sure that I only do it that way.
Music Times: Where are you finding the best music these days?
DJ Premier: It gets sent to me. It’s crazy. There’s people that are like “I got your email from so-and-so. Check this out, I think you might like it. I listen to your show every week.” So then I’ll download and listen to what they send and I’m like “Wow, this is hot.” And I’m excited to play it that Friday.
Music Times: How important is flexibility and having a taste for different types of music?
DJ Premier: When I’m out of town, I’ll get DJs who make it seems exactly as if I’m there because they do it live. I don’t like to pre-record. I can get DJ Scratch, I can get Kid Capri. I can get DJ Finesse, who does a lot of more EDM stuff and dance music, but as soon as he’s doing my show he’s playing straight underground, raw rap. You should be that flexible to DJ. If I have to do an EDM party, I can do it. If I have to do a rock party, I can do it. If have to do a party for weddings, where you have to have pop, rock, soul, new wave, dance, whatever, you got to be able to do it. Then you go right back to an underground show and playing straight gutter. There are certain DJs that are kind of dependent on one style. But a versatile DJ is what you are supposed to be if you want to be able to last in this game. You want to be able to do more than just one style because once that style starts to slow down, what are you going to do? Sit there and say “My life is over” or find something that can still keep you active as a DJ and get you work.
You can watch the Global Spin Awards live in a couple of hours here (but I don’t think it works outside the USA)
