DJ Premier Making A Beat In Studio

Footage of Premo making a beat in studio.  You can see the difference between Premo's 94-95 production (Hard to Earn, Group Home, Jeru's first two albums) and most of his production since Moment of Truth.  Mid-90s Premo would have left that original drum break (that you hear at the very beginning of the video) alone.  The Premo of the Hard to Earn era would have left that drum break naked, and only added a few sample chops for the melody.  As you can hear, Premo's more recent production style adds all sorts of "bells and whistles" to the original drum break, causing it to sound overly formulaic (IMO).