Jeru The Damaja - 10 Crack Commandments Original (HOT 97 Promo)

Here’s another gem dating back from the early 90’s which reveals the original production of Premo’s infamous “10 Crack Commandments” production laced up originally by underground hip-hop legend, Jeru The Damaja. It appears Diddy was on air while the beat played and instantly wanted to acquire it. From there, we all know the rest is history with Biggie Smalls. Here’s DJ Premier’s recollection of how it went down:

That was actually a promo that me and Jeru did for Angie Martinez on Hot 97. Back then she did a show called the “Hot 5 at 9″ where she would play the top 5 records at 9 o’clock. If you listen to the scratches, before I added “ten” later on when Biggie got it, I just keep going to five right after the beat drops because it was for the top 5 at 9. Puffy was guest hosting the show and when he heard the promo he was like “what the hell, who did this?” and Angie told him I did it. So he goes live on the radio like “yo Premier, if you’re out there, call me.” One of my homeboys paged me and told me that Puffy was on the radio telling me to call him. I turn on Hot 97 and right before I was about to turn the dial off, I hear “Premier, Premier, please call me if you hear me on the radio.” He told me he wanted to buy the promo. I told Jeru and he was like “yo, it’s hip hop. No big deal.” So I sold it to him and Biggie already had a concept, he wanted to call it “Ten Crack Commandments.” I took the “Ten” from a spaceship count down when they go “ten, nine, eight, seven…” And Biggie just rapped over it right there.

Source: DJ Premier Blog