Breaking Down The Beef Between DJ Premier And Canibus

If you’re a little confused about the recent dispute between DJ Premier and Canibus, you’re not alone. We decided to run down the facts and see if we could make some sense of the situation.

It all started when DJ Premier talked to VLADTV.com and was asked who comes to mind when he thinks of the most difficult artists he’s worked with.

Preem responded that he had a minor situation with Cannibus where he was asked to create the track for “Niggonometry”, which appeared on Canibus’ debut album Can-I-Bus. Heavy, hard bass was requested, and was delivered with what we now know as D’Angelo’s “Devil’s Pie”.

According to Preem, ‘Bis rejected the track citing that they weren’t on the same page as far as the direction of the record. Preem returned the money to the label, and that was seemingly the end of it.

Soon after the video aired, Canibus responded with a  track titled “Tell The Truth/Monsters”, where he spits a verse and then rants for about five minutes on the incident.

‘Bis goes as far as calling DJ Premier a liar, and cites the reasons for their differences surrounding the making of the song as Premier’s lateness and disinterest in doing the record.  He also speculates on why the legendary DJ and Producer would talk badly about him in public; how that helps him, and how that helps hip-hop in general.

“How does it help me for you to be out there saying that I’m difficult to work with? How does that help me? How does it help you?,” he asked. “Speak on the shit that’s good for hip hop. Good for you and good for me.”

Then, after the track, Canibus’ pens an open letter to the DJ, insinuating that the media is pitting them against one another.

[Listen to the track and read the letter here]

Last week on his Sirius XM radio show “Live From Headquarterz”, Premier elaborates on his version of the truth, noting that Canibus’ own facts aren’t straight.

DJ Premier in response to discussing his fees for Christina Aguilera’s Back To Basics project:

“He says that I told him that I was making $80,000 a track for Christina, but if it was in 2005 how in the hell did I tell you in 1998,” he asked. “And then on top of that, I don’t tell any artist how much I make because I don’t want nobody counting my checkbook.”

In response to Canibus’ “dirty ass D&D” comments:

“He says he came to ‘dirty ass D&D’. Hip-hop is dirty. But he said it like if D&D is not a place he should have been at. You a hip hop muthafucka, you should be happy to see dirt.”

In response to accusations that he was 10 hours late to the studio:

“If you’re doing deals with major labels there’s a thing called a PO which is a purchase order, if you do a deal, or you could do like I do which is called an “All In”. An “All In” means I get the entire payment and I pay the bills for everything,” he explained. “After we did not agree on the record; to get it done, I wrote the check back and still took a loss on whatever hours I didn’t show up, because I’m paying the bill, so I can come whenever the fuck I want to. That’s not to say that I don’t respect the fact that he’s there waiting for me.”

All in all, it’s clear that from where DJ Premier stands, Canibus is overreacting, and not painting a clear picture of what actually happened.

“He’s combining our session once we did squash everything with the 1998 sessions.”

Still, the fury that we hear on Canibus’ diss track is not present when Preem speaks.

“He’s my loved one regardless, because again it’s hip hop and I don’t take it personal,” he said. “I was just talking about a past situation and since then we’ve been happy and we had records on the streets.”

Premier’s final words for the rapper:

“Canibus, calm down, I still love you brother and let’s not take it past that cause I don’t want to take it to the level of doing a record that will outdo your record, cause nobody’s records on a diss record will outdo mine. Please believe it, it’ll be the funkiest thing since dog shit.”

See for yourself, is Canibus overreacting?

Preem on VladTV

Preem responds