DJ Premier And Pete Rock Speak On Their Production On 'Illmatic'

Producers DJ Premier and Pete Rock reminisce on their work on 'Illmatic,' state that a new Nas album wouldn't be the same without them. 

In an informative sit down interview with producers Pete Rock and DJ Premier for DJPremierBlog.com the two producers discussed various projects and artists they’ve worked with including Notorious B.I.G., House Of Pain, Jeru The Damaja, Nas, and several other artists.

Among the most notable of the projects DJ Premier and Pete Rock spoke on was their work on Nas’ 1994 album Illmatic.

“I went first after Large Professor because I used to see Large Professor at Chun King a lot,” said DJ Premier in the interview. “He was playing me stuff. I was there when he made ‘One Time 4 Your Mind.’ Him and Nas would just be in there just bullshitting. I was like ‘Yo, is that gonna be on it? On the album too?’ And he’d be like ‘Nah, we just messing around.’ ‘One Time 4 Your Mind’ was just a messing around song. Then I heard the original way Large Professor did ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ and I remember when he remixed it. And really the remix version is the one that’s on the album.”

Later in the interview DJ Premier explained that his track on Illmatic, “Represent,” was somewhat inspired by Pete Rock’s production on “The World Is Yours.”

“From there I got with Nas. I remember he got in the studio and we did ‘Represent’ first. That was the first one we recorded, but the version I did didn’t make the album,” DJ Premier explained. “It was a bass-line version. I played bass and then I swear to God as soon as I heard Pete do ‘The World Is Yours.’ I heard his version and went back to the studio to remix mine because I wanted to have the hottest beats on there…I really didn’t feel like the version I had was up to that level. I pride myself on being on the same level so he [Pete Rock] brought a whole different spark to it.”

Aside from speaking on their past work with Nas the two producers also gave their thoughts on a possible new project from Nas. A project that if made Pete Rock revealed wouldn’t be the same without production from the two.

“Well, I believe honestly he cannot actually have the idea of doing this album without me or him [DJ Premier]. You can’t do it,” said Pete Rock. “Not saying he can’t do it, but you gotta include us. It won’t be the same.”