DJ Premier Quotes

With Yo Gotti 'Rack It Up,' that was him hitting me like, bro, I'm about to put out a single next month, I want you to produce it.

I produced Run DMC. I produced some early records, lots of records early on.

If you can have Ed Sheeran on your record, you may as well.

I'd love to collaborate with Drake. I think he's awesome.

For a producer, you want to be in L.A. You want to be close to the action, and in L.A. there are always singers, artists, songwriters, collaborators and other producers. It's easy to get access to all that, which gives you more opportunity to work records.

I love working with different musicians in the studio, that's a real joy working with someone for the first time.

I would love to do a track with Will.I.Am. He's always creating amazing songs. I mean, to be honest, Chris Brown has always been amazing, so I would hop on there and let him do his thing and create some magic there. As for a producer, I would love to work with J.R. Rotem. He's my favorite producer out there.

Common would come to my house and give me a freestyle verse. I'd make a new beat for it and put it with something else. That's how I met Eminem - he came to my house back when he first started. He gave me a bunch of freestyles, and that's how we built a relationship. Everyone came to my house.

For people who love Tribe, I'm the defector. They say, 'You should get back with Ali to do the beats.' But a lot of people don't realize I did all the music in Tribe. In the first three albums, I did all the beats!

If I'm writing for a particular artist, I definitely think about their past records, pay attention to the type of tempos that they like. If I have the privilege of actually being in the session with the artist, I just like to have a conversation with them.

'Cruise Control' was the first track me and Wiz Khalifa ever did. I made the beat on that, and I played guitar on it.

I definitely want to work with Thom Yorke. I want to work with Damien Marley; there's a few international artists I wouldn't mind working with - like Massacre Children would be ill, and I still have an affinity for the U.K. hip hop scene.

When I work with artists, I give them a general guideline of what my vision is. Then they're going to speak their minds on how they view it, too. The song that defines 'Neon Future' the best is the title track. I wrote that with Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun. It's through his words. We had an amazing songwriting session together, connecting.

I did a couple songs with this hip-hop guy named Tim Dark. He was working in the same studio I've been working in, he heard my music and he said, aw man, I've got to do something with you.

I have always needed other musicians to bounce off.

I create the music, and if this artist could complement this record, I reach out.

For 'Dynamite,' Max and Luke went to dinner and left me with a melody, and then I put it together.

'Welcome to Atlanta' was a song I wanted to do on my first album. The idea was for me and Outkast to do it, but I could never come up with a beat for us to do it. Outkast beats and my beats were very different.

I love 50 Cent. I know it sounds weird 'cause a lot of kids might not say that right now, but I definitely want to work with 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Coldplay: I want to work with different artists that are going to push my music to a new level. Not just in urban music.

When you think about the industry, you think about people competing. You don't think about people getting together like, 'Let's do a record. Why not?' Especially R&B.

Me and Matt Terry would love to record music together, maybe something on YouTube to our fans.

Actually, for 'Family & Loyalty' I wanted Drake on the track but he was about to go on tour for his Scorpion album, so timewise it wasn't going to work.

With Mobb Deep, we have to agree on things. We have to agree that we want to use that beat or agree on the type of song we want to do.

When me and Gucci sit down, I make tracks real fast, and he can write songs real fast.

I'm actually good friends with Diplo, and we've talked about collab'ing.