DJ Premier

Busta Rhymes, Ne-Yo highlight the 2014 Global Spin Awards

The 3rd Annual Global Spin Awards took place this week at The New World Stages in New York City, celebrating the achievements of the turntablists and beatsmiths that drive hip-hop artistically. Hosted by LaLa Anthony, the awards recognized luminaries such as DJ Khaled (who won for DJ Album of the Year), DJ Premier and Diplo.

DJ Premier on creating a classic

DJ Premier spoke to ROLLING OUT about the approach he took with recording the album, and revealed that he takes a more meticulous path to album-making than many of today’s producers

‘Illmatic’ turns 20; how Nas ignited a new generation of MCs

It was 20 years ago today that Nas released his seminal debut album, Illlmatic. It wasn’t the huge crossover hit that, say, The Chronic or Doggystyle had been in the previous years. And it didn’t quite re-ignite the East Coast’s hardcore aesthetic, either; acts like Redman, Onyx, Das EFX, Black Moon had started doing that as early as 1992. But what Illmatic did was introduce the world to a thoughtful and gifted rhyme-writer from the Queensbridge Projects, and in doing so, it returned the traditional New York City emcee to hip-hop prominence.