As far as first plays go, it wasn’t exactly ideal. Yes, DJ Premier was in his own studio, but he may as well have been in a courtroom as, flanked by lawyers, he listened to a series of song snippets on a laptop. What he heard may have been frustratingly short bursts of rapping – ones that faded out after just 30 seconds – but it was, nonetheless, the moment Premier had waited seven long, agonising years for.

The DJ ...