The highly anticipated Instagram Live battle between DJ Premier and RZA went down on Saturday (April 11). As expected, the event drew thousands of people. By the two-minute mark, over 90,000 people had joined and the number continued to climb until RZA finally appeared about 12 minutes after the stream kicked off.
With approximately 170,000 people watching, the Wu-Tang Clan luminary struggled with some technical difficulties. To kill time, Preemo continued to shout out people as they joined. Drake, Eric B., Killer Mike, DJ Numark, Cut Chemist, Shaquille O’Neal, Black Thought, Questlove and Alchemist were just a sliver of artists who tuned in.
Nas, De La Soul’s Pos, Joe Budden, Stretch Armstrong, Zane Lowe, Yo! MTV Raps icon Ed Lover, DJ Rhettmatic, Just Blaze and DJ Jazzy Jeff were also on deck to watch the historic IG Live event go down.
Iconic Producers RZA & DJ Premier Set To Battle On Instagram Live
Both RZA and Preemo planned to swap about 20 different beats. RZA went first with GZA’s “Liquid Swords” and Premier fired back with JAY-Z’s “A Million & One Questions.”
Check out Premier’s IG Live here.
Count was up to about 205K! Legendary!
Final count 849K and they did NOT disappoint!
Wow! That’s unprecedented!
This was legendary
Real shit!!
Great night in isolation… dope
This was a tie. Both iconic producers dropped street heat all night long.
EPIC SHIT…
Hip Hop won tonight REAL HIP HOP
Probably a bunch of old geezers from New York that probably figured out how to set up an Instagram account in time.
go back in your cave
I set up an IG account just for this, don’t quite get what you’re trying to achieve by your comment other than showing yourself up to be a bit of a prick. I mean, I don’t know what constitutes an “old geezer”, but Premo is in his 50s and still has more cred than someone like you could ever wish to have.
Caveman shut the fuck up Bitchboy
Ur dumb as hell
Coming from a stupid new generation fan that supports male rappers dressing and acting like females… Go back to your hole and keep your mouth shut.
I scored the battle 15-13 for Premier…but the real winner is HIP HOP!
Epic..
Anyone got a list of tracks they played?
Definitely legendary, I just wish RZA had his audio clear out the gate, they both came out swinging!
Epic battle between 2 heavyweights. Disappointed that Bobby Digital except for maybe a couple of songs basically just hit “play” when it was his turn, meanwhile Premo actually used his turntable and added some mixing & scratching. But an even bigger fail was when Premier went with a Christina Aguilera joint? Really Premo?
I mean, Ain’t No Other Man is fire, but see what your saying…In regards to the whole scratching vs just pressing play thing – Premo is a DJ and producer. RZA isn’t.
Nah fam, we not doing that. Might not have been a hip hop joint but that beat was fire and Christina has a great voice. That was a moment Preem rarely acknowledges, I’m glad he pulled it out
Ehh it was decent not the greatest producers
Shut the fuck up
“not the greatest producers”. Get da FUQ outta here if you can’t acknowledge Premo. For the laughs, whos the greatest producer in your opinion?
Yeah I’m curious too, other than Dre who?
You sir are an ass clown… those keyboard trap beats you listen do not qualify as great… They sound like built in drum loops on your grandmas church Casio keyboard. You clearly don’t know shit about hip hop.
Legendary moment from 2 of the greatest to ever do it. Couldn’t pick a better combination either. (RZA VS Muggs or Premo VS Pete Rock would also be epic though)… The battle could have easily gone deeper. Some of RZA’s greatest productions were not utilized IMO (rainy dayz, 4th chamber, wake up, the stomp come to mind)..
RZA also seemed to forget that he didn’t make the beat for Brooklyn Zoo (unless ODB, Tru Master, and the liner notes were all mistaken). Premo followed that up with ‘Come Clean’. Not sure if that was intentional or not but pretty hilarious either way. Hip Hop was still the winner tonight.
Madlib vs Pete Rock would be nice to see from a pure hip hop perspective. For the party vibes would be dope to see Timbaland go up against Pharrell dropping some old 90s/early 00s Neptune bangers. Just Blaze would fit that category too.
A few other producers who maybe wouldn’t fit the vs format as well but are still dope as hell would be 9th Wonder, Statik Selektah and Apollo Brown. And would love to see someone be able to step up and represent J Dillas production discography on a battle too, though I don’t know who would have the rightful honour to do so…
“I’m a True master you can check my credentials”
That is a hook to a PETE ROCK joint. Lol
It’s all good, still hip hop
That line on the Pete Rock joint was sampled from Jeru’s song Come Clean that came after RZA played ODB’s Brooklyn Zoo (which was produced by True Master, at least according to credits).
RZA is dope but not in the Premo level and is overrated unless you are a Wu stan. Maybe not their top 20 songs, but in terms of depth, Premo kills him.
Replace RZA with premier and wu with gang starr and you’re on point.
two legends in the game.
From an overall perspective, nobody does it better than Premo in my opinion. RZA produced a LOT of bangers but mainly in-house for the Wu and Wu affiliates. And not to shit on the guys legacy, but the production dropped off a bit on the last couple of Wu-Tang albums – Premo has been nothing but consistent for over 30 years now.
With all respect to Premo, but he peaked as producer in 2003 with release of The Ownerz album by Gang Starr. He is using the same formula and hasn’t really progressed through last 15-20 years, nor is he doing tracks as memorable and as good as before, that’s my opinion as a person who’s crazy into production though.
Also – for anyone that gives a flying f – I can drop my Twitter handle on here if anyone wants a DJ Premier playlist ive put together; it’s 128 tracks deep and features a load of variety in terms of artists, and I’ve steered clear of using multiple tracks on the same albums as much as possible too, so there’s a lot of lesser known heat on there. If anyone cares for that kind of thing hit me up and I’ll point you in the right direction. Peace.
Drop it fam
Next battle: The Hitmen vs Organized Noize….two mega producing teams with mega hits!!
Calling it now.
RZA BODY BAGGY PREMO LAST NIGHT!!!!!!
Premo kinda held back for some reason, he was admiring rza’s work more than anything, he was too humbled…pay attention to how he was bigging up rza’s work but rza spent more time bigging up the artists on premo’s tracks more…but rza really showed that he is not a producer to be fcked with
DJ Premier should produce the next Wu Tang album and RZA should executive produce, master, sequence it, & produce a couple of beats as well(like how he did for Supreme Clientele). This is the perfect time to do it. It will be monumental for hiphop and the world. Who else agrees?
Why is watching people play songs entertaining? I have all of those tracks … I’ve listened to those tracks an uncountable number of times ….. is the hook the social media aspect? Is it the desire to see celebrities? You pressing play and then me pressing play is not a battle lol
True…But the stories behind the songs and the comradeship and the mutual respect of these guys was a great thing to see
Hip Hop needed this… especially now. These new artist just don’t have the same passion. Make a shit song with 1 bar and loop it for 2 minutes… Seeing these two legends come out and do a set was EPIC. They are paid. They didn’t need to waste their time on this, but they did it for the fans. If you can appreciate that than something is wrong with you. You were probably watching LIL XAN snort pixie stix on Live.
Because you don’t live or appreciate the culture so you don’t understand…
RZA deserved a matchup with Dr Dre. It was pretty evident that preemo was not on his level. RZA has produced timeless classics while anyone born after 90s hardly remembers gang Starr’s stuff.
Dr Dre hasn’t done shit worth listening to since Chronic 2001 and he barely even produces his own beats, he buys beats and adds tweaks then slaps a “produced by Dre” sticker on the shit.
You’re crazy, anything premo touches is gold…premo is far more skilled than dre, dre uses other producers works and put on the finishing touch and calls it his…ask daz
Pure trash….someone remind these fuckin Grandpa’s it’s 2020 ain’t nobody under 40 checking for a RZA or Premier joint. Now all the losers will get there panties in a bunch,RZA has always been a washed up Coke head lazy producer.
Some of the best hip hop producers to ever exist… to the kids trying to hate…Go listen to your Little Nas X songs while you dance around in your moms pink cowboy boots. Lets see if anyone is listening to that trash 20 years from now.
Nobody is listening to this shit 20 years later either except middle aged men? Liquid Swords isn’t getting any spins in 2020 fool wake up.
Plenty of true hip hop heads from teens to seniors still fucking with Wu.. especially Liquid Swords. The fact that you cannot respect that song speaks volumes about your character. Go pop a Xan with your uncle Stitches and have a 3 some with Riff Raff. Bunch of booty busters…
Lazy Cokehead? Does that even exist? I never met a Coke head that was lazy.
I get that people are bored for entertainment but watching middle aged men replay 20 year old songs on there computer doesn’t qualify as a “battle” to me.
Did you mean; “Their computers”, instead of “there computer”? Go back to school, kid.
Let me guess… you made two trap songs on your dads Yamaha keyboard and used your sisters moans as the hook and think you can do better? These 20 year old songs still harder than anything out today. Prove me wrong…
If you don’t like it move on. Just don’t watch. People are trying really hard to give people something to entertain themselves and watch these days. Find something better to do with your time than complain online. Lots of people really enjoyed watching.
HIP HOP WON!!!! If you know what real hip-hop is you LOVED last night. We got a private concert by two legends, with a hip-hop who’s who and too many celebs to count. IG couldn’t handle the 200k+ on channel it kept dropping folks.
All the negative comments, keep it moving – hip-hop isn’t for everyone.
AND before you start saying folks are old or irrelevant, you might want to check who your favorite rapper/trapper was inspired by.
Thank you to Swizz, Timb, RZA, Premier and everyone else that made this happen. Hip-hop will never die, 20+ years and going strong.
…make that 40+ years. SMH
That was not a battle by any means they just played the same 20 plus songs they play on every 90s throwback . If you listen to 90s hip hop you were not surprised by not a single song. There was no blending or original tracks. They were not even djing just playing records and talking And there was massive technical and sound issues what the hell are you all talking about. That shit was wack
stfu. It was a good night for the true fans… Go listen to Your goofy ass rainbow haired metal teethed trapper and stay away from real hip hop.