12.08.26
Words by:

Surf Gang founder, sample drill pioneer and architect of one of underground rap’s most kaleidoscopic sounds, Evilgiane recalls the DJ Premier sampling masterclass that sharpened his ear.

When I first realised that shit [I was listening to] was DJ Premier, I was probably, like, 13 or 14. It was like some random fucking Gang Starr songs my mom put me on to. There’s one video from Zoo York, this mixtape that Premier put out, called New York Reality Check 101, with G. Dep on it. I was like, ‘Damn, the way he samples shit.’ Even the way he does his tags, you feel me? Pr-pr-pr-Premier… that’s like how I do sur-sur-sur-Surf Gang.

The way he sampled is kind of what I was trying to do when I was on my sample drill shit. He was just sampling unconventional things, but also sampling classics and keeping it in the feel of what a song’s actually about, using textures and shit. That’s why now, even with the mixtape I just dropped, #HEAVENSGATE VOL 2, that’s the vibe I be trying to push; like on New York Reality Check 101, where he’s getting n****s, whether they’re big or unknown, and just putting their music out there on his beat. Premier was more for the culture than just one specific sound. Even where hip-hop was in that time, like boom bap or whatever, the way he did it – n****s like him, Alchemist – they tried to keep it interesting and not formulaic.

I love how he actually DJed that shit too, besides just having the loop go back and forth for n****s to freestyle on. Like on Head Over Wheels by G. Dep. It starts with a crazy ass bar from G. Dep, and then he cuts the whole track and starts that shit over, just because you gotta hear the sample, which is already crazy in itself, from a really old soul song. The way he does his drops, that’s always stuck with me since I was a kid.

He’s definitely not spoken about as much as he should be, for sure, but I feel like a lot of n****s just don’t do their homework and know about this hip-hop shit. It’s not that people are not mentioning him, they just haven’t even been put onto the ways. Like going back to the tape I mentioned, New York Reality Check 101, I do graffiti, or at least I used to, but the fact that the tape’s cover is in the tunnels, on the trains, that’s some real hip-hop shit. It always stuck with me, like it’s the roots of hip-hop.

#HEAVENSGATE VOL 2 is out now on Surf Gang