DJ Premier Quotes

I'm universal. As much as I can get out a 'Firework' with Katy, I can get a 'Lil Freak' out with Usher. Or a 'Lay It Down' with Lloyd. I can get Caribbean as I did on 'Rio,' then go from there to working with No Doubt.

I'm quite an eclectic musician.

Musically, my palette is eclectic.

I'm not loyal to one genre. I want to mix it up.

My favorite band of all time is The Clash. The thing I love about The Clash is they started out as guys who could barely play three chords. They dabbled in reggae, punk, rap, jazz. They came to a sound that could only be defined as The Clash. It was impossible to say what it was. I admire them for that.

With my music, I don't have to stay in one lane. One day I'm in Motown, and the next day I'm in reggae.

We've got many different sides of music to us.

I love all kinds of music, and I would write really traditional country songs and songs that were just really out there, that didn't sound country at all, and everything in between.

We don't want to box ourselves within any type of genre, you know? Whatever feels good, if it moves us and we like it, we get on it and make it our own. That's what we do.

I can go from doing an electronic track to hip-hop to even folk songs. I think people like that variety in me.

I grew up with so many different sounds, and 'Lost' allows me to express all of it, the melodic and the atonal.

I try to not go, 'I'm writing a pop song.' Music is inherently genre-bending.

For anybody to say well this is not Hip Hop and that's not Hip Hop, that is not the way the formula was laid down. It was for the people who were going to continue take anything musically and string it along.

They believed you can't mix rock, country, and rap, and that crossover is dead. I always knew it would work. And it will always work as long as you're really into it and like what you're doing.

I can make any type of music, so I wouldn't want to describe myself as having one type of sound. I think music is about keeping it diverse.

I'm a huge stadium rock fan, but I'm also a fan of everything from Massive Attack to Peter Gabriel, U2, the Police, Radiohead, and Coldplay. I've realized that I love all forms of music and get excited when any artist goes crazy and creates something that is an experience.

I pride myself on being the type of artist who can work half in the R&B world and half in the pop world.

The biggest misconception about us is that we're just a rock band. We think our music is a cross-section of many genres; a hybrid of what the six of us have grown up on.

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante.

I'm a lover of all sorts of music, which makes me a chameleon when it comes to performing anything, whether it's opera or whatever. As long as it's good and it feels good, I'm going to cling to it.

Seattle isn't known for a particular production sound, so that leaves a lot of great producers in Seattle doing kind of their own thing. And I think, for me, I was probably enough removed from hip-hop that my style was even a little bit weirder than that.

I think that a band that cannot limit themselves to one genre and can kind of do a lot of different things.

Ween is in my top five and have always been a huge inspiration.

Being genre-bending doesn't really cross my mind. I don't consider anyone I work with a specific genre.

I just don't feel limited by genre.