Guru: We're going to do the video for that on Monday. That's going to be the next single.

Addicted To Noise: Tell me about that song. What musically and lyrically are you gunning for there?

Premier: Musically, I tried to follow the same vibe we did on "Royalty" but not do "Royalty." "Royalty" is over and done with. It's a whole different level. And the track, once [Guru] broke it down as to how he wanted to do it ... he actually left a message with me at 5 in the morning, calling from Florida, doing the hook on the phone. And I was so tired and my machine was up on full volume. I was too tired to get up and turn the volume down. He's still singing the hook over the phone. [Laughs] But the hook was dope. So I was like, "All right. Cool." So I made the track accessible for what he wanted to kick, and he killed the lyrics. It's definitely another complete record.

Guru: It's sort of about what we were talking about before when you asked us if certain instances change the way we carry ourselves or whatever. It's sort of a general thing about that, contrary to popular belief, guys like us, we exhibit discipline. We have to, as far as whether it's partying too much, chasing girls, whatever it is. And a lot of people have misconceptions about entertainers, particularly rap entertainers. I sort of addressed all of that.

Addicted To Noise: Was it sort of, "Hey, we're really people, too?"

Guru: That, and plus I've been in this too long. I'm not trying to make dumb decisions anymore.

Addicted To Noise: What's the other new track?

Premier: There's another one called "All 4 Tha Ca$h.

Addicted To Noise: That's like a scenario.

Premier: A story joint. It's real phat. Real ghetto.

Guru: It's about a girl who betrays her boyfriend, messin' around with his friend and then sets him up. And then it all ends the wrong way.

Premier: For all three of them.

Addicted To Noise: Something culled from actual experience?

Guru: It sort of is. It's like a few different things. It's one of those things that if somebody heard it, they'd be like, "I know somebody that happened to."

Premier: It's definitely universal. I think everything Guru lays is universal, when it comes to people being able to relate to him. But the record is hot. 

Addicted To Noise: This album ó what inspired a decade retrospective at this point? If you could talk about, when you look at these 33 tracks, what they represent and how do you summarize the body of work the two of you have been able to amass.

Guru: First of all, it's really, like, for all of the fans. I've had a lot of people come up to me and say, "Somebody stole my Daily Operation CD or my Step In The Arena, how do I get that on wax?"

Premier: Yeah. "How do I get 'The ? Remains,' because I can't find that. I heard it's only on vinyl." Stuff like that. This album contains every B-side we've ever released, except for maybe like one or two cuts. It contains every soundtrack that we've ever done. And it contains just selected singles and songs that we liked off of albums. There were still other songs that we wanted to add, but we couldn't go too overboard. We want people to buy our old albums, you know what I'm saying?

Addicted To Noise: Sounds like you had some fun with this.

Premier: Yeah. No doubt it took a while to arrange it but I like the way it flows. It's ready to go, you know? And it's just something ... our marketing director came up with the slogan, "Just a little something to tide you over until the next album drops." That's also what it's for, too. It's for the fans, and to just stall until we have something else new because we used to put out an album every year. To take a four-year break and to come back and still be accepted is a hard thing and a risky thing to do in the hip-hop game because most times after a four-year break, people really ain't feelin' you no more once all these new artists are out. For us to be able to cut through that and still make it in the market, it was like, "Let's give them something back to thank them for being with us for so long." And it helps the people who just got into us last year or the year before to see how long we've been around and to catch up on some homework that they didn't get to do before the test came out.

Addicted To Noise: Are you working on a new album?

Premier: Probably in the fall. We'll start another album. We definitely want to put out another album in 2000.

Addicted To Noise: Now, to go back to the beginning of your career. We're looking at mid- to late-'80s. This is when hip-hop is first becoming attached to recording contracts. What is it as young men coming out of college that attracts you to hip-hop as a musical form, being so new?

Premier: I saw myself in the music. As soon as I saw the way they were dressed, the attitude, the sound and the style, that was during my rebellious period, and it's like, as soon as I saw it, I knew it was me. I was automatically a part of it without having to study on how to be down with it because I can relate to it. It was from my hood, you know what I'm saying? I'm originally from Texas but it was still from the ghetto. There's ghettos in every city. It was hard to not relate to the whole game. Even though New York was the dominant factor in the music at that time, everybody from Texas to Wisconsin was up on all the stuff from New York. It was everywhere though, that's where it was coming from. That gave birth to all other artists who are coming out now. Now, everything is in cycles. The West Coast was running it for a minute, and New York was in a slump. Then the South and Atlanta and all that and southern states took over. And then the Deep South like Texas and New Orleans and stuff, now they're running things. It seems like New York is about to come back again strongly and on top of that, I think the underground is about to start running the game and being the thing that has sales on top of your quote-unquote "pop"-type hip-hop, rap records.

Addicted To Noise: Let's talk about that for a second. The underground's influence. Just how much do you see right now -- Rawkus, [DJ] Stretch and Bobbito [Garcia], Raw Shack, those labels here -- how much of an influence are they having?

Premier: That's a major influence for me as a DJ, because, I mean, I'm first-hand, really. Because all those people who make those records are dying to get it to DJs like myself -- your Stretches, RZA -- and get them in the Fat Beats stores. Look at how Fat Beats has expanded. They've expanded to Europe. Those people are fiends just like we are. The only difference is they live in the culture, but they don't live in the society that we're in when it comes to understanding what makes the music and the words come out the way they come out. They got hard times, too, and everything, but America is not as cracked up as it is looked at. Even though I wouldn't want to live any other place besides America -- unless it was Africa or something. But still, America, it's become more like a police state and everything else, which is how Europeans always complained about how it is over there. 

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