S. Samuel
Renowned producer DJ Premier has caught heat this week by being the person allegedly responsible for not allowing pop sensation Justin Bieber appear in last week's BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher.
According to reports, Biebs’ aim to have Ludacris write his rhymes forced Premo to turn down the cypher request.
Don’t get it wrong, DJ Premier doesn’t have anything against Justin Bieber. The story goes like this, Justin Bieber asked if he could join the BET Cyphers ’11 which was cool for Premo and the staff. DJ Premier doesn’t care who joins the cyphers as long as you can spit dope verses everybody is allowed. But then Justin Bieber wanted Ludacris to write his rhymes and that wasn’t allowed by DJ Premier. Thanks to DJ Premier the BET Cyphers are still spitting ryhmes on dope breaks like they used to do it on the streets… Word! (DJ Premier Blog)
Controlling the cyphers’ beat, Premier stood behind the deejay turntable for multiple acts.
In the first cypher of the night, Atlanta MC B.o.B., Kansas City native Tech N9ne, Mississippi spitter Big K.R.I.T., Compton’s own Kendrick Lamar and new kid on the block Cleveland’s Machine Gun Kelly all traded bars while Primo manned the decks. Shady Records wasn’t the only label to represent as a team as Rick Ross and his Maybach Music Group cohorts took turns in blazing the BET Cypher. Opening up was Wale who employed his D.C. area accent to great effect. Atlanta’s Pill jumped into the circle next and showed his down south flair with ease. The heavily bearded Stalley got busy for the midwest but Philadelphia MC Meek Mill may have displayed the strongest set of bars among his MMG brethren as the audience welcomed his lines with cheers. (RapFix)
Virginia rap veteran Skillz recently discussed his disgust with a couple unnamed rap participants from the cypher.
“Watching some of that sh*t was sad. I watched two particular rappers who are all over the blogs, mixtapes, radio, and magazines stop and start their verses over 64 times!! 64!! I stood there and counted, yo! Between the two of them, they started over 64 times!! We talking 16 bars, yo! And I don’t mean they messed up at the 14th bar and started over. You f*cked up at bar three! I mean, damn, did you write the verse??? Watching that sh*t was sad, ‘cuz let the web tell it, you’re the new hot kid on the block. But, what I saw didn’t represent that at all. I don’t know. I expected more, I guess. Like, know your verse. Come prepared. I felt bad for DJ Premier. He had to sit there through that and remain professional.” (All Hip Hop)
The show’s official deejay, DJ Holiday, recently talked to SOHH about his take on the 2011 cyphers.
“We rockin’ that thing out again this year, I did it last year … it’s always a pleasure working with BET. So I signed my life away for a couple days [laughs]. The cyphers are definitely gonna be entertaining this year. It’s gonna be a big event. It can’t give it away, I signed a contract, man. But I’m lettin’ you know: Last year was cool, but this year they went all out. They got some heavyweights.” (SOHH)
This year’s cypher also caused tension with incarcerated rapper Max B who took offense to a reference from Slaughterhouse’s Joe Budden.
When incarcerated Harlem rapper Max B learned about Joe Budden’s freestyle lyrics during last week’s BET Hip Hop Music Awards, he had a few things to say to Budden. The lines under fire were spoken during the “Shady 2.0 Cypher,” which also featured other Shady Records artists like Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse. “She’s so bad I make her hit the telly from a taxi and dead her in that Holiday Inn, learned that from Max-B,” Budden rapped. Max B then took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the mention. (BET)
Check out DJ Premier speaking on Justin Bieber below:
