The Breakfast Club - DJ Premier Talks Gang Starr History, Early Collabs With Biggie, Jay-Z, 50 Cent + More

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

DJ Premier Joins Us On The Show Today And He Talks Gang Starr History, Early Collabs With Biggie, Jay-Z, 50 Cent + MoreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams

and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best, and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or

maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records.

Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different, inspiring figure from history.

Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment.

Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together.

Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club.

We got a special guest in the building. Hello there. Primo, DJ Premier. What's up, what's up? Welcome back. Thanks for having me back again. Of course. I think this is the third time.

Third time. You got a new project, Hip Hop 50. Yeah. Tell us about it. Mass Appeal, the label, obviously, you know, Peter Bittenbender and Nas are business partners, and they approached me about this 10-producer EP where the one through nine are producers that they chose to do an EP that contains five songs. And the ninth one is going to be voted by the fans.

So they'll get to say, this is who we want to do the 10th one. The 10th one is going to land on the 50th anniversary of hip hop, which is August 11th, 1973 is the official birthday. So when the 10th one drops, it'll be on the 50th birthday. So we don't know who that's going to be since, I guess they'll probably wait until they get closer to the end and let the fans choose. So like every two to three months, sort of,

it'll be another one released. I think Swiss is next. Swiss is the next one. It only makes sense. You, Nas, you know, for you to kick things off. Yeah, well, I was like, yo, we get to pick who we want. So I was like, Nas, you got to give me one. I know you're part of the company,

but you got to give me at least one, and I'll figure out the other four. You got like an all-star cast for these five songs too, because you kicked it off with Joey Badass, which I love. He's from Brooklyn. Love Joey, man. Badman. And then of course you put Remy Ma and Rap City together, which was a great matchup. Yeah. And then I even, I love this song with Slick Rick and Lil Wayne too. Yeah, yeah. That was a last minute thing, but the dope part was Wayne had already laid his verse,

so when I told Rick about it, and you know Rick, let me hear the verse, see what he said. You know, he talks just like the way, like the children's story record, and I was like, as soon as he heard it, he was like, oh yeah. He said, do you want a hook, or do you want a verse, or do you want a verse and a hook? I was like, I want both. And he said, all right, I'll do both of them. And Run the Jewels, and then that. How long did he take him to do it? So those are the five songs. He did it I was like, I want both. And he said, all right, I'll do both of them. And Run the Jewels and then that. How long did he take him to do it?

So those are the five songs. He did it maybe in like two or three days. Really? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting to me because I feel like you have such a long history also in this game. You're from Houston, but then you moved to New York. By way of Prairie View. A lot of times it's left out, even though born in Fifth Ward and lived there and we moved to.

My father was a biology teacher at Prairie View, and that's how we ended up moving there because he wanted to be closer to the college. But it's only like a 40-minute drive, so he built a house in that town. And that's how our family moved from Fifth Ward to PEV. And I went to college there, too. Didn't graduate. And then you moved to New York. Yes. Now, why did you move to new york my grandfather lived in brooklyn uh and and his my mom my mom my mother which is his father

um which is her father um is from baltimore okay so every summer my whole you know you know after school that how we're going to new york for the summer and you know as kids were like yeah we're going to new york so we'd always, and my father's from South Carolina. She's from Baltimore. So we always stop in South Carolina and Sumter

to see my family there, which is the Martin family. Then we go to North Carolina to see our aunt and my uncle. Then we go to, and that's driving. Then we go to Baltimore to see my grandmother

and my aunt and my cousin. Then New York is the finale. so we always stay with my grandfather. Grandfather Bill was tatted on my arm because he was a major part of me wanting to be in the music business. And he was in bands and stuff. He used to brag and show me his photo albums of all the places he'd been, and I was just really into that. And I was really into video.

I guess you can't really call them video games in my age since I'm 56. I was a pinball expert. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's not video game. What do you call it, though? You don't call that video game, right? What do you call it? I don't know.

Arcade? Arcade. Arcade games. So I was always battling people in pinball. So whenever I'd go stay with my grandfather, and this was right before I was like maybe 11 or 12, because as I got older and like turned 13, 14, my sisters and them didn't want to go anymore.

They're like, we want to have summer with our friends and we're going to keep going to New York. Me, I wanted to go because he was into baseball. We would go to baseball games. That's how I got into the Yankees, even though I'm still a diehard Astros fan for life. I'm Houston everything for life on that. But when it came to my grandfather, we would always go to Playland in Times Square, and he'd give me mad rolls of quarters, and I would just battle people

in pinball, say, I'll play you, I'll play you. And I just loved the whole action of the city. And being that he went to I was in Tokyo I was here and he's showing all these pictures I was like man I want to do that one day one day he takes me to Playland and uh we see some b-boys breaking and stuff you know they put the guitar case open to put money in yep yep you put your quarters in yeah well just seeing all you know I didn't know what break dancingancing was and just seeing all that. And they're playing the hip hop and they got the big boom box. And I was like, this is different because growing up in my era, we liked our parents' music.

You know, now as, you know, my son is 11. He's not really into the music I'm into because the generation is different. But for us, we went to Gladys Knight and, you know, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, you know, The Temptations. We weren't like, ah, that's your old folks music. We all grew liking our parents' music until Prince comes out and the Confunction and Cameo. And we start to kind of, my mom was like, ah, that's y'all's music. And we separate. But when I saw them doing all that breakdancing in Times Square, I was like,

I want to move here. And then as it built and hip hop started to grow and then records started coming out, I was like, man, that's me. I could just totally identify. And I was like, this is what I want to do. Did you listen to disco, too? Did your parents listen to that? Yeah, that was it. Even that.

I mean, you as a DJ, the 12-inch single, I mean, to get into Rapper's Delight or anything like that, you had to only buy 12-inch. There weren't no cassette singles yet. There was no CDs. Even to have a turntable, you bought the record. Just to say, I own Rapper's Delight. We had a turntable. It wasn't 1200s, but we always had a turntable at the crib. Your mom always had a turntable

at the crib. That's with me in the basement. I used to put my headphones in and just listen to records on the turntable all day. Yeah, so even with that, as it grew, I was like, man, I'm going to move here. So in 87, I started to make my move, and I was still checking my, staying with my grandfather. Then he passed.

Once he passed, I moved in with one of my classmates' parents who went to Prairie View with us. They were from Brooklyn, and that's how I ended up in East New York and really deep in the hood and hanging around all these wild guys. And then you kind of start to blend in and become part of them. Some of them were just wild and crazy. I loved the action being from a smaller town.

And then, you know, I ran the streets, did all the crazy stuff, but not to the degree of where it would get back to my father from now that I was doing stuff. So it was like a gumbo of music. You had your taste from Houston and South Carolina and North Carolina and Maryland. And heavy metal. I remember seeing somewhere that you used to listen to heavy metal. I still do.

I still do. I love rock. I love jazz. And my mother's an art teacher, So she taught all of us art. And because of that, that's another reason why I was into vinyl because she had so many different types of records. And then me and her would go record shopping, and we went to concerts together.

So anything that had to go to concerts, my mother and I would always go. We'd go see Chaka. It was Rufus at the time featuring Chaka Khan. Our whole family would see Ike and Tina Turner. That's amazing. And I got lost. You know how you're in your seats, but there's always an aisle that separates each row. Yep.

I'm dancing, doing my thing. I kind of move to the left. And, you know, they're not looking. They're watching the show. And as I drift out of the aisle that takes the stairs all the way down to the bottom row of that section I ended up in the wrong one so now I'm looking like... You cried. Yeah. I remember the first time

I lost my mom in TSS. Boy did I cry. Yeah, you got me. I used to get lost all the time but like on purpose and I never was upset about it. What? And then my parents would be going crazy looking for me and the next thing you know I show up with a cop bringing me and then they feel irresponsible. Janet Casey casey your son is here we have your son that's what happened today the crazy thing is you know the usher's like where you don't know and i'm

like no okay and they tell they had to go make an announcement to tina so they stopped the music and they go we have a little boy lost. On stage? Yes. Tina Turner knows you. I had to make the announcement. This little boy lost messing up my show. They found me and my mother's like, boy, you're going to get it when you get home. My mother was a disciplinarian. My father was the extra disciplinarian.

But my mom was the one that taught me how to throw my hands up if I got into a fight, everything. Go get your shoes. We got to fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I learned early to be a stand-up guy because of my mom. And on top of that, don't you move out of that aisle no more when you're at a concert. So shout out to Ike and Tina.

Have you seen that challenge going around? The challenge where the parents are telling their kids, go get your shoes and we're going to have a fight? Now, it's funny. A lot of people are saying it's funny, a lot of people saying this, it's disrespectful, right? But I'll be honest, that's what I teach my kids. I teach my kids, if mom or dad or your brother or sister have a problem,

you put your shoes on and you got to help your family. So it's like, I tested one of my kids the other day and he was like, all right, put my shoes on. He's like, all right, we got a problem, dad, let's go. But that's what you want. That's what my dad taught me. It's traumatizing for the kids who start crying and then they're posted on social media forever.

They wasn't taught right. I literally just saw it just flashing the TV and TMZ was on and they were showing Donnell Rollins asking his son to do it. And even though he walked off and went back, they went to the airport scene like he walks back in like, I'm not doing it or whatever. And then they show the people, you know, the staff on TMZ, and the girl was going, that's wrong.

And she was like, you shouldn't do that. And, you know, with the whole energy of like, that's not cool. But Donnell did it, and so I was like, yo, I'm sticking with my pops. When he walked off, he thought he was going to run, but he stayed there, you know. So I'm sure Donnell's teaching him that. But that's what my dad taught me. My dad worked a lot, and he always taught me, if something happens with your mom, you have her back. You make sure she's good.

If I'm not here, and same thing with my grandmother. I stayed with my grandmother the whole summer. And my cousins, they always taught, if y'all get beat up, if one get a black eye, y'all all better have a black eye. And plus, Donnell's son, Austin, probably is going to have to protect him one day soon. Because I don't know if y'all seen donnell fight but no but yeah so let's get back into your story though so you're in brooklyn right yeah and so the first artist that you produced for was it um for gangsta for guru um gangsta as far as uh joining the group i was in a group called uh we used to be called ms in Control. It was my man Top Ski, Sugar Pop, and Styly T.

Styly T was our, he was our flavor, flavor of the group. This is all college buddies from school. And as it got to the point where we wanted to see if we could make it in New York, the only ones that could really afford to go was me and Top, because Top happened to be from Boston. So he would always go visit his pops. And the reason why he was in Houston is because his mother lived be from Boston, so he would always go visit his pops. And the reason why he was in Houston is because his mother lived in Mo City,

which if anybody in Texas knows, that's Missouri City, but we call it Mo City. So we would always go to her house during the summer or we would be up in New York. When I was trying to shop my demo, I was working at a record store in Houston called Soundways. It was the store in the hood that everybody, the pimps would come to.

They'd come in there with the gators and the hat, cock, they's deuce, and just, you know, with the gold, one gold, two gold.

Hey man, you got that Latimo? You know, they don't even say Latimore, they say Latimo. And you had to know every genre of music, and you had to know Zydeco music, which you know is,

you know, the Cajun music with the kind of the accordion sound. Oh, I definitely didn't know that. It's big down there. Look up Zydeco music, which you know is the Cajun music with the kind of the accordion sound. Oh, I definitely didn't know that. It's big down there. Look up Zydeco. It's super big. It's like very New Orleans, but Texas is big, and it's very heavy out there. Everybody knows the words to everything.

Like before I let go of Maze, they know the words to every Zydeco record. So we grew up with that. The boss at the store said, you have to know all that, including country as well and jazz. So I had a good knowledge of it because of my mother's record collection. And as that built, I was telling the guy that got me the job, his name was Carlos Garza. He's a big part of me getting here because hip-hop was just going on Billboard.

They were having, you know, finally had a hip-hop chart. He became the Billboard reporter so he had me become the 12-inch buyer for all the 12-inch records that come in. So that he could occupy that and they're checking hey what's popping in Houston? Oh this record, this record, this record and a lot of independent hip-hop were called to get on that chart by having him report from Houston. While he was doing that he's like yo man you gotta check out this friend of mine he could dj he's dope and he's coming to new york for the summer stew fine who owned wild pitch records which gangsta was on at that time was like hey we um uh we want to hear the demo i wasn't ready for him to hear it it he he sent them a copy of it and i

was like why'd you do that it's not ready yet and they heard and they they liked it but they didn't want them they only wanted me and i was like well i'm not gonna go without my my group because i was even not even contemplating being in a group but i dj'd all the parties at school so everybody was like yo you should do it you should do it finally got my courage up to say, all right, we get to New York. He's like, I don't like your MC, but I'll put you in a real studio, and let's see if you can do a better demo of that, and maybe I'll like him, and we're interested in signing you. They put us in the studio, still didn't like it. Top was like, yo, man, if things don't work out in the next couple of months i'm gonna join

the military and tops a wild dude i'm like you ain't joining no military that's not even your style you're too street for that and he's like yeah i'm gonna do it one day when it was a weekend and we're all living at my man gordon franklin's parents house he made us get jobs everything he said you can't stay and they're all trinnies, so you know. You have to have a job. You can't stay here, man. And only, we couldn't come in until like after 5. So, you know, we get home at night from having to stay there.

And, I mean, we get home at night, and then we got to stay out until he gets back from work. So we have nowhere to go. So I was like, I can't keep doing this that one Saturday uh when we're chilling the doorbell rings and the recruiting officers in the outfit goes hey how you doing we're looking for Theodore Campbell and I was like for what he goes oh today is the day he's he's joining the Navy and I'm like no way and I'm like yelling down the basement yo top your time and he comes up the stairs like, yo, man, I told you. You know, they're not interested in us.

I'm gone. And I'm like, how long you gone for? He said, four years. Wow. I'm like, oh, I'm not waiting. If he had said a year, I 100% was going to wait. He said, four years. I'm like, dude.

He said, no, do your thing. I'm riding with you. He's my boy to this very day. We talk all the time, bug out. um next thing you know uh he's gone i called back to stew and said yo top just went they just the recruiting officer just took him he's like so will you join gangstar and i was like yeah and that's how i became the dj me and guru started just talking on the phone because i had to go back to school to get another semester in i made him beat to words i manifest and said I think this would be dope

for you to rhyme over. He called me back and said, yo, I just wrote a rhyme. Check it out. And he's like, I'm professing. I don't just for the words. I was like, ooh. Because they were already, Gangstar was already out. I was a fan of some of their 12-inch singles when 45 King was producing them. And then from there,

you know, and then I was a fan of La Tee, who was on Wild Pitch as well, who is Apache's brother. And La Tee was one of the first, and Chill Rob G. So all of that, and that was all 45 King Flavor unit stuff. Guru was the only outsider that was on that label at the time. And I was like, man, this could work. We recorded the record. Stu calls me back and is like yo it's popping on radio everybody's

playing it he said but your version on the album is a little too slow we need to make a more amped maybe speed it up I flew back there right before Thanksgiving recorded the record and did the extended one which everybody knows from the video he said we're doing a video and back then you're like oh we're getting a video right and we then, you're like, oh, we're doing a video. Right. And we shot the video, and then it just really took off. How was the money for you back then and deals that you signed? Zero broke, you know. And after we made a name for ourselves, then Guru used to listen to all the demos. So he would go to Stu's house.

It was a husband and wife label, and he'd have the shoebox of tapes. And when he heard my demo the the second demo he found was law finesse and law finesse's demo he's like yo i'm trying to talk to stew and sign this guy law finesse let tell me what you think i just found law finesse's demo that that i that we that he played me and i found i got my demo back from stew he gave me my demo back so i'm digitizing all that stuff so i can tell a story later on but But we listened to Law Furness, and he said, Stu was like, should we sign him? I'm like, yeah, sign him.

So Law Furness was the first artist I produced outside of Gangstar, and he became my label mate. And Law Furness brought Diamond D. He said, I got to have my homies from my block. He brought Diamond. He brought Showbiz. And he brought Fat Joe and AG. He brought all of them around. So that's how I met them. This brought Showbiz. And he brought Fat Joe and AG. He brought all of them around.

So that's how I met them. This is like, this is 88, 89. Wow. And you were supposed to produce Fat Joe's project, or the Terror Squad project. What was it that? No, he signed me to Terror Squad. And we were supposed to do a project. It's kind of like what I did with this, like a compilation album, like the way Khaled does albums and his features. And but then when Fat Joe left, I had it in my contract that if he leaves,

I can leave because they wanted it to where even if Joe leaves and goes somewhere else, we still got to keep you at the label. And I wanted the freedom to bounce if Joe bounced. So the first single I was going to drop was a 50 cent record. And this is when everybody wouldn't really mess with Fifth to the fullest because, you know, he was having so much drama from after doing How to Rob. And me and Fifth hit it off right away and clicked when I got on the phone with him.

He said he'll do the record. And right when it's about the time to do the record, boom, we get a call. And Fifth can't do it. And I'm like, why not? He's about to sign to do the record boom we get a call and fifth can't do it and then i'm like why not they like he's about to sign the eminem and dr dre and i'm like no because we already committed to us and they're like nah he and i talked to dre dre was like kareem i love you but he's not doing any more recording until he does his debut album which well not his debut because obviously power of the dollar is the debut but signed to them, get Richard Dodd trying and look what happened. Wow.

I always tell Fitt, you still owe me that track. I'm sure you do. I think you're going to do one last album. Yeah, I need you Fitt. What's up? I was going to ask, when you and Guru first met, how was it? Because you're coming from Houston, him coming from Boston, different slangs, different sounds. How did y'all connect?

Just phone calls. And actually, it was during the New Music Seminar. So everybody was in town. I was a starstruck. There goes Ice-T. There goes Chuck and Flav. You know, just everybody. You couldn't go into the battle, the DJ battle and the MC battle.

And then we went to the world they had a showcase lot of showcases and the show I remember it was ice cream tea it was a strong city records out to Jazzy J and it was ice cream tea and busy B that's what suicide was out I remember he brought Melly Mel on to rock on stage with him and he was like when I was a young, and Melly Mel was flexing. I'm like, wow, it's Melly Mel. And then Coogee Rap and Polo performed after that. Wow, that's awesome.

And for me, at that time, when Road to the Riches was out, and I was just like, I got to be here. I got to get on. And I remember my father was like, hey, if you're going to stay out there and not finish school, please make a name that people remember. He said, I'm counting on you to keep our name hot. And I was like, all right, I'm going to definitely do it. You'll see.

And me and Guru would just talk about everything we had in common. The artists we liked, you know, Smokin' Blunts, you know, just everything was just so exactly in sync now i was gonna ask with with um big and jay-z how did you develop those relationships uh i know you talked about it before but right in depth and also with like one in a million and the beats changing you know did he always agree with that or was he like i don't know so talk about that the first call when you got in the studio with big and who called well with big with Big, we lived right down the block from him. That's how we met. Guru was the one that was going, yo, you got to check out this guy, Biggie Smalls.

It wasn't Big or Biggie Smalls. And I got to credit Mr. C because Mr. C lived down the block from us, and there was a weed spot down there where he lived at the time that had just opened. And any time back then in those days, since we were all promoting, getting lifted, you would go to the new spot. Hopefully they got some good good. So every time we went to the spot, we'd either go down the block where C lived, about his church, so we could park somewhere away from the spot, go get our stuff and move on.

And every time I'd see mr c he'd go yo biggie smalls when you gonna listen to that demo and i was like yo i'm gonna listen to it brush it off right going to the spot again you know and we're rolling mr c just happened to always be out outside yo biggie small he would do that every time biggie smalls and we're just like okay okay, okay, okay. Chilling at the crib because we lived in Brantford, Marcellus' crib on Washington between Lafayette and Green because he was moving out and he wanted somebody to rent the brownstone. He was trying to sell it, but he said just somebody to rent it. Me and Guru moved in together and rented it.

So every day pretty much, I was going to say every weekend, but every day we always go in about 40s, and we go to Fulton in Washington. We're big, and they're always hanging out. So Guru's like, you've got to check out this dude, Biggie Smalls. I'm like, yo, C's been pressing me about that. All right, I'm going to go with you. I go down to the corner. That's why the documentaries they've done on him.

I said he's on the green Army jacket and the hat. That's what he had on. And I'd go down there. We met the whole junior mafia. We met Kim, Chico, Nino, Delvec, Clep, D-Rock, Gutter, everybody. They'd be there every day just on that corner.

We'd drink 40s together, smoke together. And as that built, he was like, yo, Puff is interested in signing me. He hadn't even signed him yet. And I was like, go with puff he's gonna blow you up he's look what he did with uptown and jodeci and all that he's like but i want to get signed now why can't you sign me i'm like dude he's already in a different pocket we're just good on a certain level we're not even platinum artists to even be able to sign you like that and I was like puff gonna put you where you need to be and as time passed I remember I met Mark is Mark Pitts his manager he was like yo you think this guy should sign with this guy for management I was like yo Mark kind of never very resembled

yeah just a little bit I said give him a shot I mean if it don't work you fire him and next thing you know Gooch is uh is his his manager, and we all were cool. And so as it built up, we were one of the first ones to get his demo, the Big Mac, the cassette. I remember that, yeah, Craig Mack and Big Mac. At that time, remember, it wasn't Warning. It was called Hot Butter Soul because they, you know, from the record that Easy Mo B sampled.

So that's how early it was to hear Warning. And all his homies had it, the whole junior mafia had it, because back then in the 90s, you know, you want your friends to already have your stuff before it drops. You know, now we're afraid of leaks. Yeah, you don't want anybody to have it. Yeah, but your team, you want them knowing,

and they knew the worst of everything. And so from there, as he updated it and started finishing up Ready to Die, he was dropping Juicy as a single, and he said he's one song shy of just having a street record for the streets. he updated it and started finishing up Ready to Die. He was dropping Juicy as a single. He said he's one song shy of just having a street record for the streets. 10 Crack Commandments. No, no.

Unbelievable. Oh, unbelievable. Crack Commandments. The next album. Life after death. So from there, I told him that I don't have time to do it right now. And I was like, man, maybe next time on your next album. And he goes, yo, man, it's the your next album and he goes yo man it's the last

one and he said I'm out my budget's already run over I got five thousand dollars at that time I was making like 20 a track you were like five thousand dollars but big was such the homie I was like I'll do it for five thousand I said I don't know what I'm gonna come up with because everybody knows I make more songs on the spot. He goes, I don't care what you use. I don't care if it's in piece or present, whatever. I'm coming up. He comes to D&D.

I cook it right there on the spot. He's the one that told me to do all the boop-a-doop-a-doop and all the different things. I did it to his instruction, which I don't like people telling me to. But Big always had his stuff mapped out on how he wants to do it. Did the record. Boom uh we turn it in and i've told this story before where i'm driving and uh i know this is power so it was on another station it's all good we're riding and uh this is maybe two days after we're rolling and and uh we hear it blasting out of somebody's car. We're about to get on the Brooklyn Bridge over by all the courthouses.

And, you know, it's almost like a dead end. You have to make the left to get on the bridge. Soon as we're trying to pull up, I'm trying to get up on the guy before he can get past me because once you're on the bridge, you might go too fast. And I can't be going, yo! So right when we're about to make the left, I pull up on him. I go, yo, yo, where you get that from? He goes, it's on Hot 97.

Flex is playing it right now. And I go, wow. And I was like, we just made an acetate. Flex had the acetate, which you know what acetate is? It's a dub plate. You know what a dub plate is? It's like a real thick record. You shouldn't really be DJing with it. You know what a dub plate is? It's like a real thick record. You shouldn't really be DJing with it.

You know what I mean? Every time you play it, the quality gets worse and worse and worse. Right. And it's really just to test out a song when you get something mastered. So they'll give you a dub plate just to test it and play it on a turntable. If you like it, then they start pressing the massive copies of vinyl. Ooh, times have changed yeah and well well well jamaicans yeah that's what i know yeah the same thing it's just they'll do

the 10 inch ones that are smaller you can play them a lot more times where and that's and it's an instant record just right there you put on a thing called a cutting lathe put it on there run the song and you already have and you can play it right away, you know, before taking it to a plant. So to have a dub played on a 12-inch, like you said, you can't even wind it back. It's that heavy. You've got to kind of just push it. Just push it, yeah.

Yeah, so hearing that, and they said, yeah, Flex got the acetate. It's called an acetate. And he said, Flex got the acetate. So I was like, wow, man, it might pop off. And next thing you know, Unbelievable was just summertime. That and Juicy together. And then what about Hov? How did you do Hov and some of your projects?

With a million and one questions, the crazy thing is he called me and said, I want to do this song that intros in my lifetime, Volume 1. He did the rhyme over the phone and and said just like he did with the evils he did the rhyme over the phone say i want he said i want these scratches here and i did the scratches to his instruction same thing with million and one he said he didn't tell me the scratches he just said i wanted to go into another song that's gonna be called rhyme no more he said but i need you to think like this when i say motherfuckers can't you gotta have something that just jumps out when i say rhyme

no more and he said so split them he said and he said those little breakdowns you do do a breakdown so we could weave them together as one song i said okay got it i go to dnd to start cooking the first one jay walks in with too short and i'm like like, oh, shit, Too Short's hitting D&D? You know, which we had been knowing each other for years already because of Gangstars history. But, you know, coming to D&D was like a big deal, especially for the streets. And Short was there to do a week ago.

So they were in one room working on that. And Jay said, he said, when you get the first half, let me know. I'll just come in and record it. Got the first half yo come listen to him too sure come in there listening i said you ready and for some reason uh leah a million and one in a million which is one of my favorite timberland produced songs just came to my mind just on some dj shit and i put it in he didn't have that he didn't know i was gonna to do that part. Loved it right away. He said, turn the mic on. Cut that one.

I'm going back in there with short. I work on round no more. Got it. And when I come in there, Jason, I say, I got it. He says, do not press that play button until I say, because I got to make sure it's the right vibe. He said, I'm going to say motherfuckers can't, and then you hit it.

I said, all right. And I'm just waiting he goes can't and he was like oh that's it and he said turn the mic on and cut it so that's one of my favorite records because of like the story i'm telling y'all was dope and tushar was there to witness it and uh it's just that was just an amazing thing and you know jay always came and got me for whatever for for every album. Out of all the artists that you worked with, who is probably the most amazing in the studio?

Who's your top three, if you can only name three, as far as you're surprised with the way they write or how they do it or how they record or how professional they are, their ideas? I got to say KRS-One for sure because for him giving me the opportunity when I wasn't really producing a lot of artists on his level, he reached out to me and said i'm doing this new album return of the boom bap or like krs i'm doing a new album return of the boom bay you know he talks to you the same way

like you know like he's lecturing you and and i was like uh so that was just a dope opportunity and that was 92. that was when I started to be confident That anybody that calls me I'm in, I can produce anybody Guru, I always put number one Because I can experiment with beats That other people would definitely not take Like Robin Hood Theory

On the Moment of Truth album Always loved the beat I knew he'll mess with it And he did write a dope rhyme to it And KRS always loved the beat i knew he'll mess with it and he did write a dope rhyme to it and uh um man because yeah because jay was fun big was fun nas nas another one that was fun just because he always visualized what he what he wants especially when i gave you power i want to do a song like if i was a gun and somebody like found it and picked it up and misused it and already i'm just like and this is after we done new york state of mind and all that

stuff so so with that i was like that would be crazy to do a record like that and look what it turned out to be at the time it was called gun and then we changed it to I Gave You Power. He said he didn't want it to just say Gun on the track list when he did it. But, yeah, he was, I don't want to keep saying, you know, Biggie J and Nas, but they were all fun sessions. You know what I'm saying? They were really fun sessions. And a lot of laughing, a lot of bottles everywhere,

and a lot of trees. Now, you also did a Gangstar album not that long ago. So can you talk about the process of that? Because clearly you had some vocals or were able to get your hands on some things. I know that was a whole process for you. Yeah, I bought vocals from his business partner. I don't like to say his name because we just don't click. And the crazy thing is I i'm pro tool savvy but not to the degree of where i see

the part where you can check date created and and when you look at some of the dates created that some of the stuff i bought were not from the era of when they would have been recording they were someone from 99 2000 we didn't need none of us knew that guy then oh so that means he got those from somewhere and well i figured when guru was or whatever, plus his house burned down in some type of way when he was in the hospital, maybe. I mean, again, it's all alleged, but somehow they were in his possession. You know what I'm saying? We don't know if he got them prior to, you know, prior to the house burning down. Who knows?

You know, but at the end of the day, we negotiated the price. I bought them, did paperwork to make sure everything was airtight. I have good lawyers, which I'm sure all of you do. And you're working with Guru's family also. Yeah, yeah, 100%. We have a great relationship.

His son is now, you know, 21, so he's actually in charge of the estate. He was always in charge of the estate with his mom shout to lana and uh he uh now you know has meetings with us says and he's into fashion like guru was so he has a lot of dope ideas like we should do this we should do this and he's at the age i remember when guru passed and he was nine years old i was getting uh shot to mosh i was getting him certain sneakers made and he asked me when he was nine years old he said you know when I get older can I pitch into business ideas and now he'll see him present stuff that's dope well let's check this out check this out we'll you know check

the companies make sure they're legit but he brings dope stuff to the table that's dope and you we still we handle business with guru's sister shout to trish uh guru's uh son's mom and also his nephew justin who's the one that went on youtube to expose the guy about all the stuff that was going on that we didn't know about because i hadn't seen guru in a couple years so with that once we all teamed up and started the business i said uh let's let me see if I could put an album together and I just pull it up I had about 30 you know unused tracks some of them were not the groove the flow and stuff that I like

and know that's him but the ones that really stood out I'm like that's one that's one started putting beats inside and matching things and you know as a DJ we we do acapellas with beats and see if it flies, put in my Serato, fly it in. Yeah, that's dope. Dump it and make a beat. And we came together and put out one of the best shows, which did very well for us, and it also fed the family very well. And it made the other previous albums just get more streams.

Yeah, thanks to J. Cole, man, because when we were dropping the uh family and loyalty cole was the one that's like first thing he asked me he said how did y'all do y'all's promo back in the 90s and i told him how we did it he goes do that and i said because we always drop a street record first radio's record second every time yep boom maybe a week or two passes, we're getting ready to set up the single, Bad Name. Cole calls me out of the blue and goes, yo, that thing I told you about how you set up your 90s era of promo, don't do that.

He said, I think you need to drop mine first. I'm like, yeah, but that's more for radio. He goes, listen, I have a fan base that has no idea who y'all are. He said, I want you to take advantage of that time with me to pop that off. And they might go, oh, I like this one with Cole. Oh, let me look at these other gangsta albums. Oh, man, this is hot. This is hot.

Oh, man, I like gangsta now. So he said, I thought about it. I was like, wow, he has a point. So we switched it and made that the first record. And it worked all out. So shout to Cole, man. One thing I would say about Cole is shout to Cole. Cole is a student to the game. It doesn't matter how much money Cole has, how many fans.

Cole really loves those conversations. Like the how. How did you start the mixtape? I remember Cole called me one day out the blue. And he was like, yo, MB question. He was like, how did you get all the records from your mixtapes back then? I was like, what do you mean? He's like, how did you get the songs? from your mixtapes back then i was like what do you mean like how did you get the songs i was like well sometimes i paid interns i said

sometimes you know i remember we got a biggie song uh it was a valet guy and the valet was parking biggie's truck right and biggie had the cd at the time listening to his own music the valet guy stole it and sold it to me like different ways back then he was like really into like yeah i wanted i always wanted to know and i loved that I was gonna ask you you know we're producing all those songs from way back when you were early on started did you always get your proper royalties back then or is somebody take advantage because you hear so many crazy stories of people taking advantage because you know you were doing Nas's first album Biggs first album hoves first album did

you actually get all the money you were supposed to? Yeah, at that point. In the 90s, because I'd never had an attorney. Like, when I signed to join Gangstar, I shot to my man Lee Van Richardson, who told me in Texas, and when he looked at it, he said, dude, contract is not in your favor. I wouldn't sign it because you're signing your life away.

But I just wanted to be in a video. I just wanted to be on MTV Revs at the time. And I'm like, okay, I won't sign. You didn't even try to negotiate? Nah, because I was just. You're just so happy to be there. I know, but I'm saying you might have your lawyer look at it and be like, can we change this? Yeah, I just turned 20, going on 21.

You know, you're just like, man. You're thinking if I don't sign it, somebody else will. And I'm watching MTV raps and all this stuff, and I'm like, I just want to be on there with people. Like, I'm buying you because I saw your video. And even my father's like, don't do it. As soon as they were not in my – I mean, I think I signed it the same day. And my parents, I was eating some lunch or something.

Next thing you know, as it got to where i um was having discrepancies about payments and then i took it to a lawyer to look at it and they were like yo this thing is airtight you can't get out of this started looking for a lawyer on the a new york lawyer who was who was i'm still with this very day shout out to mark and uh he was like i found a loophole in there that could probably get you out but you got to buy yourself out i was like i don't care like we were they were interested in signing us at chris list records because we had done a record with spike lee from more better blues called jazz thing and brandt that's how i met brandt from marcellus to move in and how me and Guru moved in with him that's how we met him

because he was overseeing the project for Mo' Better Blues and so from there Chrysalis liked our music said they wanted to sign us the majority of our money went to buying ourselves out but now I had the freedom to just do how we wanted to do it

and we stayed with them all the way through EMI to Virgin which was all still part of the same family and that's how we wanted to do it. And we stayed with them all the way through EMI to Virgin, which was all still part of the same family. And that's how we finally started to get some gold plaques and things like that. But the best thing was, now that I had a really thorough lawyer, he's been making sure we've been straight from 1990 on. So you got all your stuff back from...

Oh, not all the other albums. They're still over at Universal. It's moved around from so many labels. Everybody sells their stuff, then somebody else acquires it, then they sell it. There was a rumor like after 20 years or something like that, you get your stuff back. Is that true or no? In some cases, it is.

After a certain period, you can either buy them back or they're just now yours. It's really what you want to negotiate on your paperwork but we have already been like we're gonna look into getting ours back because it's been a while and on top of that we recouped all the time absolutely we had you know getting 150 grand back in 1990 was like we're rich we got 150 000 right then the next one uh 175175,000. Woo! And splitting that with Guru and paying our taxes and living together, which was cool

because, you know, but he's getting two cars. I just bought my second car. He's buying his third crib. You know, like Guru had a crib in Miami. And this is without us being platinum. And gold either. And that's how I met Zopound, all of them way back in Miami.

Like Guru had the jet skis on the water. He had the crib in Valley Stream in Long Island. And he had a crib in Brooklyn. I was like, this is living. And we never cried broke because we always made money. Always made money. And you were also really cool with Rage, the lady of Rage. Oh, yeah.

She used to live by us. Oh, really? Yeah. When we moved into Branford, she and Nikki D lived together from Def Jam. Nikki D, you know, daddy's little girl. Daddy's little girl. Yeah, they lived together. I remember one time I met them because Nikki D was having her release party that Def Jam was throwing.

We all went to the party, and I gave them a ride home because they lived near us. Chub Rock lived near us. We'd all see each other at Chub Rock. This was before Big, but still Rage, and we'd hang out. Easy Moby would always come by. The RZA would come by. The GZA would come by. Cypress Hill came and stayed with us before they went to their first video shoot for How I Could Just Kill a Man.

They needed a place to hang out. Our house was the frat house for real I feel like you see that no more you don't see artists like that all the time and it's like you know you don't see it anymore you know it was just crazy our house was a you remember animal house it was like that minus jumping through the window and getting thrown out but it just it our house was that crazy you ask any of them they'll tell you our house was the house to stay at and hang out it was party party party party party party party party party party fights shooting in front of our crib oh my gosh everything is so different now than yeah

yeah people waiting outside the gate and i'm like yo who's that and we all have we were all strapped back then and we all just looking yo who's that and we all kind of go out there yo what's up no i just want to get my cd uh you know you listen to my cd and you know next time some other hoodie dudes out there we're all nervous like who's that you always want to give you my cd it was always just somebody just wanted to hear that hit him rhyme you know blase blase you know out loud and pf cutting we'd all everything on that song soliloiloquia, Chaos, and The Daily Operation, all the names he said, that was really how we were rolling every time we were making a move.

How was your ego back then? Because you're a huge producer, right? Were there ever times that you needed something from, like, an artist and they didn't come through in time? Like, how was that for you? Nah, we were really cool with everybody. I mean, we had drama and fights just like anybody else over some knucklehead acting up and we were wild out but never to where anybody had like like some problems with us or anything like yeah y'all think y'all

hot man y'all never you know the only one that was really a crazy story was when guru got robbed uh for his truck at gunpoint and they took his brand new forerunners with forerunners but the new style was hot and they they robbed him for his forerunner because he went to the store by himself it was his brooklyn queens yeah brooklyn dude called him took the took the truck i remember we had to go pick him up because he called us tell us he got robbed and he's standing on the corner rolling a blunt going arguing with the other guys on the corner even after they took his truck going you know this is fucked up what y'all doing right you know this is really fucked up y'all it's a punk motherfucker like they could have jumped him and beat him down and do whatever he's still like you know i can't stand you over there i can't see

y'all believe y'all did this to me and then the illest story and i've told it uh a few years ago they're still we're still looking for the guys that took the and I've told it a few years ago, we're still looking for the guys that took the car. You know, obviously, it was cell phones were only car phones at that time because he had to call us from a pay phone to tell us he got robbed. They finally see the guy with the car. It was days later. So he's still driving around with the car? Yeah.

That's crazy. That's Brooklyn for you. This is how Just to Get a Rep was born. There's chasing after him in the car. Cops start going, you know, seeing all this high-speed chase. And they're like, that's our car. You just stole our car. So now the cops jump in to help following the dude, too.

The dude's swerving, and he slams into an ice cream truck and dies instantly. Wow. And that day is the day we said that we're doing Just to Get a Rep, and that's how the song was written that day. We went to Brooklyn to Such a Sound Studios and cut the record, and that's why we did it, because of that. Wow. Just to Get a Rep

is a true story. He altered it, as we know, things come back, and it wasn't about stealing a car, but it was relatable the way he wrote it, but he wrote it based off of... And the crazy thing, too, is when about stealing a car, but it was relatable the way he wrote it, but he wrote it based off of... And the crazy thing, too, is when he got the car, I wish we had these pictures still.

When he got the car, we both bought a... I bought a Mazda MPV, he bought the 4Runner. We're in front of our crib posing like, yeah, we got our new ride. And then we're at the precinct and the car is all smashed up like an accordion. It's all squashed and Guru's standing next to a go-on. So we had the before, yeah, and after.

Did he have insurance on it? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yep. But it was smashed up bad. You couldn't survive behind the steering wheel. It was that smushed up. But we had to go to the precinct to fill out paperwork.

But the cops were there as witnesses chasing the guy too. And, you know, that was a crazy, crazy event. And you had quite an air for talent back then too,

working with J. Rudy Damager, Group Home. What happened with Group Home? TAP is in, is out, is out,

I think, in the Poconos. Melikai I talk to all the time. I talk to TAP from time to time because obviously I got him to get on the Gangstar album that we did in 2019.

And they're all chilling, you know. They still get a lot of shows. They've been going to Japan. They did a Gangstar Foundation tour with Big Suge, Group Home, and J. Rue. J. Rue was living in Germany. J. Rue, out of everybody, was the most that learned the business from us

teaching them and seeing how we did it you know and from that point he's he's got his own website he's you know he sells his own sneakers everything and he just stays really in the know he's promoting shows and you know he's all you know his instagram is really interested in the stuff he posts you know so he's still the same J. Rool. Real loud Brooklyn boy. Y'all praying. He talks like he rhymes. I was going to ask you, you did production for every artist down there.

Now you see law enforcement using hip-hop lyrics in courts against artists. What are your thoughts on that? Because we see it with Young Thug, we see it with Gunna, we see it with a bunch of other artists. What are your thoughts? They shouldn Because we see it with Young Thug, we see it with Gunna, we see it with other artists. What are your thoughts? They shouldn't do that because music is music and yeah, some of the lyrics are harsh, a lot of them are real, you know,

be it fabricated or not, you can't really mix the music in there. Leave that alone and just deal off the stuff you know. I mean, don't get me wrong, some people do be dry snitching on their lyrics, but I still don't think it should be used. You know, if't get me wrong, some people do be dry snitching on their lyrics, but I still don't think it should be used. You know, if that's the case, rock and roll,

they've talked about how somebody said, oh, the song told me I'm with the devil and to kill everybody. Same thing. You can't use that. Yeah, because we saw people go to jail for like doing scams and they'll write a song about the scams. Yeah, you know, exactly. Show the money in the video and then they end up getting arrested, and then they use that. So that shouldn't be allowed. Yeah, the music should be kept in its own lane. The evidence should strictly be based off of what you have.

Absolutely, yeah. Not with the music. No way. Now, who is your Mount Rushmore of producers? Definitely Marley Mall was just a big impact on me because of the rain on the bridge. I seen Marley Mall yesterday. How crazy is on me because of the rain of the bridge. I seen Marley Mall yesterday. How crazy is that? At a restaurant in Queens. He's so, man, he just revolutionized sampling on a whole nother level. To hear a record like The Bridge, and I was just like, how are they making it not sound like all the drum machines we were using in hip-hop prior to sampling how is he doing it you know and then uh him uh definitely the bomb squad um man when you when you don't eat

we can't hear it i i feel like these mics pick up it was like the bomb squad uh definitely the bomb squad what they did with public enemy was just amazing um It was like the Bomb Squad. Definitely the Bomb Squad. What they did with Public Enemy was just amazing. I got to say Larry Smith. He did all the Houdini records. He did everything. Houdini records, Run DMC. From the time we heard Suck MC, he said, Larry, put me inside.

It's cat and to lap. And we asked DMC, was that true? He said, absolutely. Everything was really what Larry did, doing all the classic records like that. You said Mount Everest was his foreheads? One more. Somali, Bomb Squad.

I always got to put Dre in there for just him bringing a sound that we didn't even know about until I went to college. And I'm like, who's Eazy- and you know my friends from either the west coast like yo they put me on the boys in the hood and everything he always just said Dre Dr. Dre and sometimes they would say Yella you know on the side but I always put Dre in there there's there's more than than the four but I always put them in there because you know I'm a big fan of Rick Rubin, you know, and, you know, even, you know, from Knott's and Chauvin's and, you know, even Pete and a lot of pro, but for what influenced me in the beginning,

definitely Marley, the Bomb Squad, Larry Smith, and Dre. How do you feel about modern technology making, producing so accessible? People using like, what is it? Fruity loops? Fruity loops, yeah.

And Logic, and it was a lot different when you were coming up and having to make beats. Do you think that the sound gets more watered down or you think it's a great thing that pretty much anybody could be a producer? I think it's just whatever works for you because a lot of people ask me,

which NPC should I get? And I'm like, the machines are useless without your mind manipulating it to do something. It's like, I can get behind a Ferrari somehow, some way even though I don't know all the extra switches. I still know how to drive a car. I'm a

race demon so it's like, it's the same thing. If I'm behind but and and I'm a demon I'm a race demon so it's like I it's same thing if I'm behind the wheel shout to my man Pansy of the NYGs he always says yo you have two modes you have driving mode and you have airport mode because I've had to rush to the airport right before the plane's taking off and I will get you even if I gotta go on the shoulder hop I'm gonna get you there and you only have to go oh on a shoulder, hop, I'm going to get you there. And you don't even have to go, oh, look out, look out, look out. You're going to be fine. What's your preference, personally?

MPC became my preference. I started out on the SP-12 just as 12 before there was a floppy disk. Then the SP-1200 came out with its floppy disk. And I stayed on that and then all the way till uh 1992 when i met eddie sancho who we worked at dnd as an engineer that you had to hire when you just did a record uh showbiz was doing a remix for lord finesse uh it was called return of the funky man remix and they wanted me to do scratches so uh show uh law finesse booked a session that's how i got to dnd he's like we're going to be at the place called dnd show uh they had me lay the scratches he said he had to leave

he said can you get the mix and just bring me a cassette of the mix i had my sound system in the mpv i listened to it and was like wow this is this is knocking. Boom, I said, we were going to go to Collide, where we did Steppin' the Arena, because Queen Latifah, Jungle Brothers, Ultra Magnetic MCs, De La Soul, they were all working there. And I was like, I want my stuff to sound more grimy and dirty like them. I did the first album there with Steppin' the Arena. We just got our budget for daily operation.

I said, I'm going to D&D. Never left from that point. When we were recording the last song, and we were about to work on Dwick, I did it on that. No, Take It Personal was the last song we did. In the A-room. Everything was done in the A-room.

Eddie was like, yo, the way you're laying your beats down you should use this he said i'm about to sell it but this is called an npc 60 and i said i know what it is he said well let me show you what it does he says almost like a tape machine without a tape he's showing me how the way i'm laying my tracks individual and i was like wow i like this thing ended up doing that and did Dwick on it. But we couldn't book the A room. They put me in the B room.

I was like, damn, I want to do it in there. I've never been in there. I go in there, we do it, and just say, when the room opens up, you can do maybe another mix in the other room. We mix it. Me and Greg Nice, Dub C was there when we did Dwick. And Don Barron of the Masters of Ceremony, he came with Greg Nice.

We did the record. It popped off. It was knocking. I was like, damn, the mixing here sounds better. And from that day, I stayed, and that became Premier's Room. The B-Roll. At that point, and I've been on the MPC-60 ever since. I'm on the MPC Renaissance now because of the computer

and more memory time, but still, I'm on the MPC. Wow. Well, we appreciate you for joining us. Hip Hop Thanks for having us. Joey Badass, Reddy Marr, Rhapsody, Nas, Run the Jewels, Lil Wayne and Slick Rick. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm about to shoot the video with Remy and Rap.

That's going to be amazing. They were talking a lot of ish on there too. You know, I like that though. They both could spit. That's why there lot of ish on there too. You know, I like that though. They both could spit. And that's why there are two different combinations of MCs. You know, rap is to remind me of kind of like the Lauryn Hill type of lane.

And then Remy is just Remy. You know, so. She gonna talk that talk. So we're about to shoot the video to that. That's going to be so much fun, man. We already got our, how we're going to dress already mapped out. So That's going to be so much fun, man. We already got our, how we're going to dress already mapped out. So it's going to be gutter. All right. Well, thanks for having us.

It's Primo DJ Premier. Yes, indeed. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine.

I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakatistan.

That's Escape from Z-A-Q-A-S-T-A-N on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself.

It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best, and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories,

their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey y'all, Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone.

The crack of the bat and another one gone. The tip of the cap, there's another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.

Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills,

and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you? Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.