“In the beginning, with Who’s Hard?, everybody thought that Preme had to be doing everything for it to happen. Then with the next album, I did a whole bunch of joints and Preme came at the end with his tracks. When I got to Otherside of the Game, I was just going to have him do one track, but when he heard it, he wanted to get down with three or four of them.”
Although he’s the first producer whom major-label cats and drug dealers with disposable ducats tap for beats, Premier counts Shug among the few artists whom he blesses for the love and little else. Their relationship is deep; in addition to recording together, the pair host the weekly Live from HeadQCourterz show on Sirius Satellite Radio. Always the silent type, Premo recruited Shug to joke between bangers. “These kids call up just to mess with me,” says Shug. “And if I’m in the mood, they get it real good.”
There is, of course, a lot more to Shug than mirth and hilarity. He has a soulful side, and fans will soon see his recent hook work appear on Living Room, an R&B project that he’s cobbling with producer MoSS and Christina Aguilera engineer Charles Roane. Still, though he has too much music in his lap right now to be detouring through comedic pastures, it helps to keep a sense of humor — especially when he’s rolling around Braintree.
“It’s McCain country out here. I was driving the car the other day and some crazy white dude called me a ‘nigger.’ I just rolled my shit down, looked at him, and was like, ‘Yeah — like your president, muhfucka.’ ”
BIG SHUG + XL + RAY DIAMONDS + LEG + STUCAT + B-LUV + PAT G | Western Front, 343 Western Ave, Cambridge | November 21 at 9 pm | 21+ | $10 | 617.492.7772
