Mass Appeal kicks off The Soundtrack series with DJ Premiere: Hip Hop 50 Volume 1.
The five-track EP marks Preemo’s first record release since Gang Starr’s 2019 swan song One of the Best Yet. The project includes contributions from music icons like Lil Wayne, Remy Ma, Slick Rick, Run the Jewels, Joey Badass, and his frequent collaborator Nas. Premiere spoke about the Nas record during an interview with Uproxx this week, recalling how the East Coast rapper convinced him to participate in the Mass Appeal series.
“When Nas says, ‘Hey, man, I want you to be a part of something,’ obviously you don’t really want to say no,” the DJ said. “In my whole career, I’ve never done an EP. And then Nas said, ‘You get a record from me.’ …. The ‘Theme From the Planets’ is one of my favorites out of all the ultimate breaks and beats and that’s the reason why I shout it out. When I told him, ‘Let me do a quick chop of it on my Serato’ just so I could just figure out an idea of reworking that song, he fell in love with it right off rip. He said it reminded him of the park jams.”
You can stream DJ Premiere: Hip Hop 50 Volume 1. on Apple Music and Spotify. Mass Appeal’s The Soundtrack series, which celebrates 50 years of hip-hop, will include a total of 10 EPs each curated by hip-hop figures, like Swizz Beatz, Mustard, The-Dream, Mike Will Made-It, No I.D., Hit-Boy, Take a Daytrip, and Tainy.
“I will always seize the moment of being unique when it comes to releasing music” Premier said in a statement. “To be a part of Hip Hop 50 is an additional blessing to preserving the culture.”