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DJ Premier Breaks Down "The Ten Crack Commandments"

DJ Premier Breaks Down "The Ten Crack Commandments"

Published Mon, March 20, 2023 at 5:39 PM EDT

On the latest episode of DJ Premier's So Wassup which was filmed on March 9, the anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.'s death, Preemo digs into "The Ten Crack Commandments" from Biggie's sophomore album, Life After Death.

"There's a lot that goes with this," Premier starts off. "You gotta rewind back. Goes back to Jeru Tha Damaja from the Gang Starr Foundation."

Premier tells the story of Hot 97's Angie Martinez and her start and the legendary station. "Angie Martinez was runnin' the show big time," Preemo remembered. "Angie was so hot during her come-up, that everyone who was anyone was doing promos [for her] that sounded like records, including us. Jeru was so hot during that era that he was also running Hot 97 along with Wu-Tang Clan and so many others, including B.I.G."

Premier then shares that the beat for "The Ten Crack Commandments" was originally a promo for Angie's "Hot 5 At 9" show.

Premier then explains that on the original version of the track that was done by Jeru, he only scratches up to the number five, and then nine, because Angie was counting down five songs at nine o clock.

"I'm only scratching up to five," he said. "I don't go any further than that because I'm being creative as a DJ."

Premier then plays a portion of the original Jeru promo track to illustrate his point.

"I'll explain how 'The Ten Crack Commandments' became," he said. "Puffy ran Hot 97. He could go there anytime he wanted and Bad Boy was just really running this in that era. Puffy happened to be there one day when Angie was playing Jeru's promo. Premier then shares the story of Puffy announcing on air that he needs Premier to call him. Puffy said that B.I.G. needed that beat. His album was already done, and I had already done 'Kick In The Door.'"

Although there was tension between Jeru and Puffy because of a Jeru song called "One Day," Jeru told Premier, "That's Hip-Hop — give him the beat. B.I.G is the homie."

Check the full episode above.

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