One of the most celebrated producers in Hip-Hop history, known as the architect of Hip-Hop’s venerated boom-bap sound, DJ Premier first caught people’s attention with Guru in Gang Starr in the late ‘80s. Guru’s lyrical precision over Premier's jazzy, sample-based beats made Gang Starr one of the most influential rap duos of the next decade. Outside of Gang Starr, Premier has produced classic records for a long list of Hip-Hop luminaries including New York’s big three—The Notorious B.I.G., JAY-Z, and Nas. His expert ability to create a patchwork of musical and lyrical samples is both instantly identifiable and impossible to replicate.

During their live conversation recorded for the On Air Podcast Festival, Premier shared stories about starting off in Texas, his determination to make a name for himself, his Gang Starr beginnings, and more. Talking in detail about hanging out and working with his late friend, The Notorious B.I.G., Preemo recalled meeting the rapper who was called simply Biggie Smalls at the time, after Guru kept urging him to hear him rap. After that, “every Friday we would go hang out with Big, and we met Lil’ Kim, and the whole Junior Mafia and that became the norm.”

Noting Biggie’s natural charisma, Premier recalled, “he was funny naturally, not trying to be jokester. Him and Big L, God bless him. He was another one that was just naturally funny. They weren’t sitting there tryna to be the funny guy on the block, they just were naturally with that type of humor.” After reminiscing about the time he and Biggie went to go pick up Guru from jail, that put Biggie’s comical charisma on full display, Premier talked about working on Bigs debut studio album. First praising Easy Mo Bee, who he credits for being “the DJ premier of Biggies first album because he did the 90% of it,” Preemo talked about how his contribution to the album came about.

“They needed a street record for the first single which was ‘Juicy,’ so I did ‘Unbelievable,’ but being that it popped off they added it to the record.” Which Premier noted was “already done, mastered and sequenced.” After Premier did his thing and made the beat, Biggie hopped in the booth, well after spending eight or so hours drinking Bacardi Limon, hanging out, and playing dice. “It was getting really late, so I’m like ‘Yo Big if we ain’t gonna record anything tonight, let’s come back tomorrow.’ He goes, ‘Oh, I’m ready,’ and he goes in the booth, and I’m like ‘did you write it down?’ And he goes ‘nah, it’s up in here.’ And that’s my first time witnessing him record with no paper.”

For more stories from DJ Premier, listen to the full episode of Broken Record here.