A few months back I went through all of DJ Premier’s production wiki and listened to every single track that was listed. Mostly it was boom bap hip hop, my uncontested favorite type of hip hop, but occasionally there were some outliers, like songs with Christina Aguilera and Torii Wolf. But it’s like 99% hip hop. I added all the tracks that I dig to a Spotify playlist, Preem! You know, maybe I should make a mirror of the playlist on YouTube as well. We’ll see. This playlist is in no particular order and is meant to be listened to with shuffle enabled.
Flash forward a month, and wouldn’t you know it, my day job called me up and asked if I’d be a camera op for an interview in Queens, NY. Guess who the subject was? Preem! I played it cool all day. The consummate professional. I sat 10 feet away from someone who’s music has played an enormous part of my life for well over half of it. And there he was, sitting so close and recounting incredible stories of his personal history. Then we wrapped. I was helping to repack the cameras and reorient the studio and I mentioned to a colleague that I really wanted to get a photo with Preem. He said, “me too!” On our way to find Mr. Premier, crew member after crew member joined us in our unapologetically giddy plight. We found Preem, and of course he obliged. That’s one thing I noticed, he’s as humble as he is talented.
Here are some photos that I took on the brief trip to Queens.
