Last month, HipHopDX spoke to DJ Premier, Nick Javas and Panchi of the NYG’z in HeadCourterz Studios in Midtown Manhattan. The conversation happened in light of DJ Premier Presents…Year Round Records‘ Get Used To Us, which was released this week on the imprint of the same name. Nearing the end of the conversations that DX will share with you over the remainder of the year, the legendary producer was asked about Fat Joe‘s verse from “I’m Gone”
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“That record means a lot to me, ’cause I did it the day Guru passed,” DJ Premier told HipHopDX, about his partner in Gang Starr. “I really wasn’t able to talk to anybody; my phone was ringing like crazy. Even though everybody’s callin’ to check and see if I’m okay, I just didn’t feel like talkin’ to anybody. It was just too overwhelming, the simple fact that he died.” Premier said that his feelings also were in shock from visiting Guru just seven days before his April 19, 2010 death, and telling his friend, partner and roommate of seven years that he loved him.
Moving away from the song by Fat Joe, Premier continued, “I got my closure. We had a private funeral – I was there with his son, his family, the [Gang Starr] Foundation was there – Jeru [Da Damaja] was there, me and [Big] Shug were invited by Guru’s father to speak. That was so dope to me, to be invited by his father.” The producer and deejay was in Prague just hours before the funeral, and had to change in Logan Airport to make the funeral on time. A touched Premier revealed, “His father said, ‘I’m not starting the ceremony until [DJ Premier] is here.'” Additionally, Brownman attended and spoke at the funeral, who worked with Guru as a horn-player in the emcee’s post-Gang Starr years.
DJ Premier also confirmed that he’ll remain committed to the Elam family. Arguably the greatest deejay/producer of the 1990s, the Texas-born Premier revealed that he’s presently lending a master’s hand to Guru’s son, Keith. “I’m gonna make sure his son’s good. He wants to deejay, so I just gave him his first assignment: James Brown records. I told him he’s gotta learn ’em, study ’em, get ’em down pat so he can understand what it means for the deejay to be funky. Then I’m gonna test him, I’m gonna play the records in a different order and [see] if he knows the name of ’em, to see if he’s taking it seriously.”
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DJ Premier Presents…Year Round Records – Get Used To Us released this week.
