DJ Premier: Crooklyn Cuts, Volume 3 (Tapes A, B, C, D)

Apr 25

By the mid-90s, Christopher Martin, better known to the world as DJ Premier, had already earned his place among hip hop’s elite. As one half of Gang Starr alongside the late, great Guru, and as the producer behind numerous classics, Preemo's fingerprints were all over New York's golden era.

But the studio credits told only part of the story. Premier was also a DJ in the truest sense. A crate-digger, a selector, a man who understood that the music he was making existed inside a culture that ran on live energy, physical media, and the underground economy of the streets.

Preemo’s Crooklyn Cuts mixtape series was where those two worlds collided.

The series was released through Tape Kingz, the legendary NYC mixtape distribution operation that helped propel the mixtape era of the 90’s. And despite Preemo’s industry status at the time, these weren't slick mixes designed for commercial radio. They were raw, neck-snapping blends of the freshest underground records, deep cuts, and the kind of grimy boom-bap energy that only Preemo could curate.