“I went to do a show in South Africa,” he remembers, “and the promoter got a call the day we landed. He said he was Ndaba Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, and he would like to meet me. In exchange for meeting me in person, he would take me to meet Nelson Mandela. The promoters were like, 'Man, we don't know if this guy's for real or not; do you want to take a chance?' And I said, 'Absolutely'. So they said we'd go meet this guy the next day and see if he was for real.
“The next day, the guy calls and says, 'Hey, are you coming?' He gives us the address, and our driver says it's definitely where Mandela lives, so we decide to drive over. Once we get there, we call Ndaba's phone and he says he'll meet us outside, because they have armed guards all around the compound. He comes out to get us, and he looks just like Nelson Mandela! He looks like the young Nelson Mandela. Same face and everything. He comes out and he's like, 'Yo, are you ready?'
“He starts speaking to the guards, and they put their guns down and let us walk right through the gate. We walked right past the metal detectors. You know those little conveyor belts they have at airports, when you run your bags through the X-Ray machine? They even had one of those! They let us skip all of that and walk right in. We get inside and Ndaba calls out, 'Grandad!' He calls back, 'Are they here?'
“Ndaba walks us through to see Nelson Mandela and he's just sitting there reading the newspaper. Just kickin' back with his feet on an ottoman. We were thinking he was going to be brought through a big door and down a flight of stairs with a royal introduction, with horns playing, but he's just sitting there chillin'. He shows us around the house, we speak for a while, and somebody asks if we can take a picture before we leave. He says, 'Well, who's the star?'
“There are about eight of us — me, the promoters, the guy who drove us over there. They all point to me, and Nelson Mandela says, 'OK, all of y'all can take a picture but you'll have to take it as a group — but YOU can take one by yourself'. So I get to take the group picture and the one by myself. I'll never forget this — when we were done, he said, 'I now release you!' I felt like a little kid. I was like, 'Thank you, Mr Mandela, sir, thank you! I'll leave now!'”
Of course, there are a lot of hip hop fans who'd be just as excited to meet DJ Premier. After emerging as one half of Gang Starr alongside the late emcee Guru, Premo quickly became known for epitomising the New York sound and for 'speaking' with his hands, scratching together lyrics from older tracks to construct new choruses. He's produced classics for Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Big Daddy Kane, Mos Def, Fat Joe, Royce da 5'9”, Big L and dozens more, and he's not done (he and Nas plan to record a new album together soon).
One of the only hip hop producers on Premo's level is Pete Rock. First coming to prominence as one half of Pete Rock & CL Smooth (of 'They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.' fame), he lent his jazz-inflected style to classic records from the likes of Nas, Public Enemy, Big L, Common, Freddie Foxxx, Heavy D & The Boyz and Run-DMC, and had a massive influence on Kanye West and J Dilla.
Now, these two legends are coming together to launch the 'Collusion' series with co-op DJ sets across Australia. “Me and Pete have been doing this for two years,” Premo says.
“We always do a different set. We argue on stage when he comes up with a record I wish I played, and vice versa. Sometimes he plays all the Premier stuff and I play all the Pete Rock stuff. We just do all kinds of crazy things... We do karaoke. We get people up on stage who think they know the words to the record, and if they don't, we kick them off the stage. We do a whole bunch of silly stuff.
“When we did it in New York in summer, it was amazing, because so many people came and we just said, 'Yo, who wants to rock with us?' Smoothe Da Hustler was there, so Pete put on 'Broken Language'. Smoothe came up and rapped and the crowd went crazy. We were at the amphitheatre where they shot 'Wild Style' and it was packed to the bone. I see Lil' Fame at the back, so he comes up and I throw on 'Ante Up'.
"All of a sudden, I see Sadat X, and he comes up and does 'Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down'. I see Bumpy Knuckles, so I bring him on to do 'Shake The Room' and 'Militia'. Camp Lo comes on and does 'Luchini', and then Pete brings DMC on to do 'Down With The King'.
“That wasn't scripted or rehearsed, that just happened because everybody was there while we were battling, going record-for-record. I know we can't bring everybody with us to Australia, but that's how loose the show can get.”
DJ Premier and Pete Rock's trip to Australia happens to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Nas’ ‘Illmatic’ LP. Both men produced stand-out tracks for the album, which is still widely regarded as the best of its genre. “Once you make a classic, which ‘Illmatic’ is, it never goes away,” Premier reflects.
“For instance, right now, I’m playing ‘The Chronic’ again, because it’s a classic. It will not die out, it will never get boring, you will always want to hear it. You’ll miss it if you don’t hear it for a while. Same thing with ‘Illmatic’, every now and then I pop it back in. It’s like ‘Paid In Full’, it’s like ‘Low End Theory’, it’s like ‘Raising Hell’, it’s like ‘Radio’ and ‘Bigger And Deffer’ and ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’. It’s another one you chalk up for the books.”
All modesty aside, then, is DJ Premier the greatest hip hop producer of all time? “I mean, I think I am one of the greatest,” he says. “I don’t think I’m the greatest, even though you’re supposed to put yourself on the highest level of greatness. I admire other people who inspired me to do it, like James Brown, Prince, George Clinton, Rick Rubin, Dr Dre, Marley Marl, Howie Tee… you know, they’re my inspirations, because they did it before me. But I am confident that I am one of the greatest out there, because I strive to compete and destroy everybody else that’s out to be number one.”
DJ Premier and Pete Rock will play the following dates in Australia
Thu May 01 — Capitol (Perth)Fri May 02 — 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat May 03 — The Hi-Fi (Sydney)
Thu May 08 — HQ (Adelaide)
Fri May 09 — Oh Hello (Brisbane)
