DJ Premier Quotes

I'd rather promote New York than anything else in this world because New York to me means the world.

By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.

Rap is definitely a youthful expression.

Two records put me over the top with hip-hop. One of them was 'Planet Rock,' and the other had no lyrics - it was called 'Numbers,' from a group called Kraftwerk. Every kid in the 'hood in New York and New Jersey was popping, locking, and breaking to that record. It was the hottest track on the street at the time.

I love New York. I love the people. I love the anonymity.

I got Sonny up to Harlem, and we started street playin' in New York. We did that for three or four years and survived. We brought it back to the streets again.

Ultimately I am happy that everybody is embracing hip hop and the sounds from the streets.

My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they're misunderstood. I don't think people realize how kind New York people are.

Hip-hop is like underground. I don't know if hip-hop exists anymore. I don't know if it does.

I've lived my entire life in New York, and it informs everything.

I grew up in New York where there is such a different variety of people.

It's the story of New York. Storefronts change and languages change, but at the end of the day, people come here to find opportunity like my family did.

I love New York. I'm a guy for whom a New York accent is a comforting thing.

The sound of the '90s, to me, is a combination of soul and street - it's a feeling.

There's only one New York.

The roots of rap are originally ghetto-ised or extremely working class. So when you're an artist who's making something which isn't how its mainstream appearance should be, there's always these strange questions of authenticity and what you have to do to be 'real' as a rapper.

As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It's the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.

There's a lot about New York that is unique, and there's always a culture and a subculture going on everywhere.

I do love to walk around in New York because people will notice me, smile, but they never bother anyone. New Yorkers are very cool. I love New York.

When you live in New York, one of two things happen - you either become a New Yorker, or you feel more like the place you came from.

So, rap has that quality, for youth anyway; it's a kind of blues element. It's physical, almost gymnastic. It speaks to you organically. Rap grows out of what young people really are today, not only black youth, but white - everybody.

Hip-hop was fast, originally. It was always fast music.

Everybody came from somewhere here in New York.

I really like the whole urban, hip-hop kind of thing.

I'm steady trying to make this bounce stuff mainstream and do some wonderful and great things for the culture of New Orleans.