DX: I have to ask this follow-up: Did you ever regret at all suing over the “Shut ‘Em Down” [vocal] sample in
“Ten Crack Commandments”? ‘Cause I know DJ Premier was seriously pissed at you for years after that.
Chuck D: Me and [
DJ Premier] is cool. Matter fact, that was an issue before I even knew Preemo was a part of the thing.
Remember, Bad Boy [Records] was going around saying how much money they had and this and that, and I had songwriters who are connected to me who were basically saying, “Well, the song that they’re using, Chuck what’s up?” And the fact is that the crack commandments were something that I was like okay … I don’t agree with it, but … it’s a master use, whatever. But songwriters want their piece. And they, [the song’s producers, The Imperial Grand Ministers Of Funk], said, “Well, if they’re going around and flaunting and falutin about how much they got … then what’s up with our rights to the song?” And I’m like, “Okay, alright you guys.” So, I mean, this is not no kids game, this is real shyt.
Taking [my] voice to me is a defamation of character, but really the songwriters pushed the issue as saying, “Alright, that’s part of our song too and we helped write that, so where’s our royalties? Who handles that?”
DX: So this was more business really than a personal issue?
Chuck D: Well, my thing is I don’t go after anybody. But in that particular case, which was coming from Bad Boy, which was BMG, which was who sued me on another end – it was like one of those things. So it really had nothing to do with Biggie. Nothing. It had nothing to do with Premier. And at the end of the day, it was Def Jam and Bad Boy, it was BMG and Universal. It was really one of those … it was just stupid.
But at the same time, I told Puffy, I said, “You know, you guys, when it comes down to me give me a heads-up. Don’t be doing something [when] you know where I am and you know where I come from. How you gonna just go and do some shyt like that and not talk to me?” And from that point on, it was cool. That’s when you seen [Diddy remake]
“Public Enemy No. 1.”And he called me [about that] when I was in the middle of Guitar Center or whatever and said, “Yo, I just wanna know if it’s cool?”
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