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Dungeons of Rap · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of Hip Hop Now podcast, NAS and DJ
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Premier drop a new song and announce a new album. Lupe Fiasco challenges MC's
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to battle him again, and thirty years of Ill Mattic. If you're watching
0:25
a video version of this podcast, even waters shirt, you know the one
0:31
with all the producers on it. Pretty dope, Let's do it. Welcome
0:38
to your pop now pot fast as if you from the future. You know
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what the dude show ass out of. Don't disrespect the leg lack like hip
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hop is say this day. Let's get right into the business. What up,
0:58
y'all? I am your host Vegas and It's hip Hop Now Podcast.
1:02
It podcast specifically designed to keep you called up on all things hip hop,
1:07
music and culture that happened throughout the week. Big shout out to the supporters
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Also, also please know we are headed down the road to five hundred
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yo, if we could just get to four hundred. We got to
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cool. If I don't go viral and get a crazy fan base, it
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because this week, And if you can't tell visually, if you can't tell
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by the title of this episode Dungeons of Rap, If you can't tell by
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my shirt right on video large Professor DJ Premier, Pete rock l E s
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and what at the bottom? Hold up? What at the bottom? Elmatics
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at the bottom, If you can't tell, what's behind me? The vinyl
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of Ellmatic as well as the cassette tape the original cassette tape that I bought
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back then in ninety four. Right, No, no reissue. We rail
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out here, We was outside nine to four. You know what I'm saying.
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No, he ain't give me a copy. For those who accident,
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It's thirty years of Ellmatic. So this show is going to be pepper with
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Elmatic. Let's get right into the business s. So if you've been sleeping
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under hip hop rock or you from the future and you already know, you
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already heard the album, get your ass high here. But if you don't
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know, NAS and DJ Premier announced on April eighteen, twenty twenty four,
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that they would be dropping a new single entitled Define My Name. I think
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that's what it's called Forgive me Define my Name? Right, and social media
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was hyped, y'all know how y'all do. On Twitter, cats is debating
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back and forth, and the biggest debate was whether or not we want to
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hear new Nas in Premier, specifically an album, right, but they were
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announcing a single, so there's all kinds of speculation. And Nas even fan
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those flames on one of his joints with hit Boy where I think it was
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Magic three, where he mentioned like you know, he teased a Premier album
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possibly, but we have been here before if you don't know. As far
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as teases of a Nas and Premier album, right, the most famous tease
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was the Scratch magazine cover that had Nas with the Army Fatigue on Black Fatigue
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and had Premier in the background. And when people saw that and all the
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illmatic nostalgia just took over natures like, yo, we need it, you
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know, for the culture. Do it well? Now that this single has
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dropped, and I'll tell you what I think about it. They have also
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announced that Nas and Premier are working on an album together now. The first
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single, like I said, is called Define My Name, and I'm gonna
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just tell y'all, I'm gonna just be real. I've always been skeptical at
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this point of its sounding as good as I would want it to sound as
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a fan of those two collaborating with each other. And last year, during
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fifty years of Hip Hop, they did this compilation. Wal Master Pill was
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doing these compilations because Swiss Beats did one way certain producers work with different artists
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to commemorate fifty years of hip hop. So Premier did one. He did
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the first volume and there was a couple of people on there, like Joey
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Badass, and I was gonna say Rod Digger, but not Rod Digga.
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Remy Mind was on there, you know, like I think Remy Mind rhaps
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did. He had a song together, if I'm not mistaken. But also
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Nasen Primo had a song called beat Break, and that was the first time
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in a long time nas In Premier did a song together. Right now,
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Premier was in the video for Wave Guys, but he didn't produce the beat.
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He just did scratches on it. Wave Guys was produced by hip Boy.
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He thought it was Premier, but it was give hip Boys. Flowers
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Man stopped playing, but you know, it was a dope record, and
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people just still wanted the hip hop heads still wanted that collaboration. Well,
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I'm here to say that why I was skeptical was because that beat Break song
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just wasn't good to me, Like it just wasn't a good parent. It
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wasn't whack right. But I'm a spoiled hip hop fan, you know what
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I'm saying. I grew up in the nineties. I was dead for the
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Park Gams in the eighties. As a little kid, I've followed along.
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I've done hip hop radio, I rhynd myself, I DJ like I've done
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all of it. So I'm kind of spoiled when it comes to hip hop,
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right, especially from these two. When you remember, like New York's
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Date of Mind in New York State of Mind Part two, represent you know,
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NASA's like like they've they've done some magic, and Premier and the later
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his later years is his formula started to sound the same, and Premier back
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in the nineties all his beats never sound the same, just never. But
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after a while, you know, as time went on, a lot of
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his production just had the same flow to it, like you get to hear
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it before it even happened. It was the same rhythms, which isn't always
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a bad thing, right, people have styles, but that Premier wasn't that.
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That's not even how he got his name. You listen to Jay Rue
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The Damage his album, it's a variety of beats on that same thing with
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the Gangstar albums and the Group Home albums. So it just feels like it
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felt like DJ Premier didn't have those different styles of beats anymore. It was
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it wasn't as varied as it used to be. It was just always you
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know, it's premier because it sounds like this, right, And I'm not
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counting that one which was dope. That one joint that that NOAs was on
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that premier did, but I think rock Kim was on. It also was
10:16
like sneaking commercial or something like that, which was dope. But again,
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people were clamoring for a nos and nods on nothing but premier productions like Match
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Made and having kind of situations. And after that breakbeat joint, I was
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just like, nah, I don't think I I don't think I want that.
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You know, it's not necessarily necessary considering what hip Boy just did with
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nas Hip Boy helped as producing him, not just making beats, but producing
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him. He helped bring Nads up to prominence. They dropped six albums and
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even though Magic two is my least favorite, it's not garbage to me,
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Like that's a hell of a run. That's unprecedented. Okay, So I'm
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just was not I wasn't mad if they wanted to collab on a song or
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two, but I wasn't anticipating, right, But I was always going to
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listen to it because why not, it's not as the premier. Why wouldn't
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you listen? Well, I said all that just to say, defind,
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my name is dope, and what's dope about it? Honestly, it's nots
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because it is the Premier formula. Especially when it starts. It's it's the
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scratching. You know, it's the signature sound. And you know, at
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first I was like, well, there's there's a sound. You know.
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It doesn't sound terrible, but it's predictable. But when Nas starts rhyming over
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the verses or whatever. When he starts rhyming, you hear a little bit
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of the old flow mixed with the new flow, and it's all in pocket
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things he's saying. It's it's exactly what I want to hear. I just
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want Premier when this album come out. I just want Premier to reach for
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other sounds the way he used to. I don't want a ton of joints
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that's had that, you know, scratching different names of words, like,
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give me a couple of those on it. I'm not saying don't give me
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a couple of them joints. But I want him to really get in his
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bag like he used to. I want the same way Hit Boy inspired Nas
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to get back in his bag. I want Nas to inspire Pramer to get
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back in his bag because if you listen to that beat and you say to
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yourself, but this is what he do. You don't know Premier's production.
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You know why because we can start talking about Premier tracks from Gangstars Ja Rue
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to Biggie to what. They don't sound the same, unbelievable sound, nothing
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like the Way sound, nothing like mass appeal sound, nothing like New York
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state of mind. You feel me? So for me, it is absolutely
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capable of giving you variety. He just hadn't done it on a consistent basis
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to me recently. Even though that joint he did for Benny and What's Benny's
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Crew bs O something like that. That joint was crazy and I was like,
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yo, Premiere back, Like Yo, I'm a hip hop ast,
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so I'm all you gotta do is show. It's like boxing, right,
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Like with this Jake Paul Mike Tyson thing, you We're not gonna spend a
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lot of time because I to talk about. But like with this Jake Paul
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Mike Tyson thing, it's a part of me that feels like it should not
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happen. That is, he is not fighting to Mike Tyson. I grew
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up watching the man who became the man who we know today. The mystique
13:58
of Mike too old, and I don't want to see that. But if
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he shows a glimpse of old Mike Tyson, then I'm I'm back in the
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bad like GetUp, get the mic, like, so this is what that's
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what I want for premiere now the album and this was a little disappointing,
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but maybe this is what they had to commemorate thirty years of Ellmatic that this
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was clearly felt like an announcement song more than anything, which is cool.
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It might be on an album as a bonus, but you could tell us
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not necessarily a song for an entire album. It's literally like we back,
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We're back together, and I'm not gonna lie at the end of the song.
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You know. Now, it's like I'm an album mode. Premier sound
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kind of surprised on that track when he said when nine said that, like,
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oh, we we're doing it. Okay. Now, we don't know
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when this song was recorded. We don't know how far long they are until
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they start talking about it. If they start talking about it, so hopefully
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we get to hear a little bit more about that album, but they said
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later this year. I think at this point I can't see it would be
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highly disappointing if it didn't come out, because, let's be real, a
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couple of these legendary artists, especially those who have teased really dope records.
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I'm looking at you l L and Q Tip. You know you don't know
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when the album's coming out. The song was hot, you tried to make
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it an exclusive and nobody listen. Redman been talking about Muddy Waters too forever.
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Ghost fas don't talk as much about it, but you know he working
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on a supreme clientele too. Cats need to be more like Ray Kwan during
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the pandemic. He said, you know, you got to complete the trilogy
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so there'd be a Cuban link. Three. Also, I'm doing an album
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rateless of Raycord albums, you know. So check for that tune on the
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channel right here on YouTube. Subscribe hit the bell to find out more and
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get notified. That's all bars. So I'm optimistic. Man. I like
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this joint. You know, it's it's not It didn't blow me away or
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make me extremely thirsty. But what stood out is Premier's just gonna have dope
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beats. Doesn't matter if the formula is the same or as variety. He's
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just gonna have dope beats. But at the end of the day, as
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long as NAS is in the pocket, it won't matter because that's what we
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want, you know. And it'd be dope if on this same album,
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you know, we get a Pete rock joint and a large professor joint.
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At least we probably won't get a Q tip or l E s, but
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it'd be dope if they did that, or if they just did like a
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song that I had a bunch of beat flips, definitely get a Z on
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it, because you know we're talking about that. But we'll talk about Illmatic
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a little bit later. Loope Fiasco challenges MC's to battle again. A video
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surfaced. And when I say video surface, is not like it was some
17:22
secret or nothing. He was at the stage, he was performing, and
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he just wanted to let it be known he wants smoke with everybody. He
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was naming people like, yo, I'm out here, y'all battling while I'm
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out here too. But loop a Fiasco, and let me just say this,
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his fans came up. Yeah, you know, my man want that
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smoke? Who wanted Kendrick? You don't want it. Then loop A goes
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on to say that Drake is a better rapper than Kendrick. He said,
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Kendrick is better technically as far as his technique, but Drake's the better rapper.
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What Drake say? Shut your whole ass up. Sorry, family podcasts,
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we get, but we're gonna have to let that one slide. Just
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tell your kids you know it was about a water holes in a donkey.
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Okay, there you go. But this is why I say that. I
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and don't get me wrong, I'm not a Loop A Fiesco hater. I
18:30
own albums from Loop A Fiasco because I am a fan and he is a
18:37
worthy challenger. But he's been hated on Kendrick Flamarrow for as long as we
18:45
can remember, and every time he gets a window of opportunity he wants to
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say something right now. Some people will say, yo, it's hip hop,
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you know what I'm saying. Didn't take the challenge. But that's the
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thing, right It's sort of like me going outside and arguing with a bum
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about our place on the sidewalk. He like, I live here, I'm
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like, I'm trying to walk through. Why am I arguing with you?
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Man? Brother, i'mna just walk in the street, walk around with you.
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Why now is Loop a fiesco or a bum? No, but he
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looks like one when you are practically begging others to battle you. Now,
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if somebody disrespects you, go in, you loope, go in. But
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asking people to battle you, I just always think that's corny. Jim Jones
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did it a couple of months ago and nobody even cared. Now everybody trying
19:48
to battle everybody, and it just made me think back, like, damn,
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Jim Jones, you was asking people you went on a campaign and nobody
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responded. Same way with Benzino, right he coming up. We're all kinds
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of ideas, Eminem. What if we both battle underwater with a shock and
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blah blah blah. And Eminem is like, I say what I want and
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I don't acknowledge you, and people are like, oh, I would really
20:11
want to see that. Why would you want to see Benzeno battle anybody?
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If you don't like Eminem, you don't like Eminem, but don't act like
20:22
Benzino is the guy to battle Eminem. Like if Eminem has a problem with
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somebody like a styles field Jadakiss, then I'm like, you know what you're
20:32
gonna do. M But Benzino, come on, man, let's stop being
20:37
enighblers of trash and Loope. When he does this, he just cheapens who
20:42
he is. And when I say he's a heter, this is why I
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think he say we all know it. Kendrick is the artist that Loop wanted
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to be. And I'm not talking about just music. I'm talking about the
20:56
reception. Kendrick is commercially accepted. He's popular, right, and he doesn't
21:07
have to compromise his lyrical integrity, and he makes what he wants. So
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it could be conscious, it could be anthems, it could be storytelling,
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it could be different flows and styles and techniques and blah blah blah, and
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he's successful at it. Loupe is kind of like the same artists, but
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when he tries to go and do something with more substance, people didn't pay
21:41
attention because of how he was announced or not how he was announced, bout
21:47
how he debuted it. Right. His debut was more commercial in a lot
21:52
of ways, and not in a bad way because I like that. I
21:55
love food and liquor, but it was more on a commercial level as far
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as the music, and then he's kind of gone, you know that to
22:03
that to the cool, which the cool was more like, Yo, that's
22:07
a hip hop album. That's more like an underground album. And that same
22:11
audience who was introduced to you one way is not going to get into that.
22:17
So some people tape it off. And then he did another album and
22:19
that was more on a commercial side, and it just seemed schizophrenic. And
22:23
I know some of it had to do with his label situation, so he
22:27
wasn't necessarily always creating a type of music he wanted to, you know,
22:34
but Kendrick had the freedom to do him and it was highly successful. And
22:38
when you see that, you're trying to do something in a specific way,
22:45
and it was nothing but brick walls for you, or the audience didn't responding
22:48
the way you thought they should have. And now this dude come along and
22:52
he's kind of doing a lot of the same things, but he's way more
22:56
accepted than you are. What does it boil down to or it boils down
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to personality? Right, people just like Kendrick. Also, some people don't
23:12
like you, Loupey, and you doing things that make them not like you
23:17
because they look at you like, oh, look at this cap, Like
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I know dudes who were huge Biggie fans who was not feeling Ray and Ghosts
23:26
taking shots at Biggie and Ray and Ghosts obviously were dope Cuban link classic,
23:34
but they just did not like, they didn't even want to hear from those
23:38
dudes because they looked at them mishten like, yo, you doing that and
23:42
that's dope? Why you looking over here? You gotta be hating. And
23:48
that's where you know, player hater not just for them, but player haters
23:52
anthem or whatever that was called. And the mad rapper like that's where all
23:59
those things came because dudes were just mad, like, Yo, how is
24:03
he dope it in us? Why is he more successful than us? Why
24:07
is he get more money than us? So they find things about you to
24:12
say, you know, you ain't got it, that's not real. That's
24:15
what haters do. Look, I didn't hate it on people too, like
24:18
you just don't you know. I'm like this, I don't like if he
24:22
ain't do nothing to me, but I don't like his face, right whatever
24:29
not saying is right. But that's the thing. So I kind of feel
24:33
like with Loupei, i'd rather him. I'd rather him say something like that
24:37
and release a dope album. Now now you're talking, but just to say
24:41
it because you see all these battles going on and you're trying to insert yourself,
24:45
like everybody's trying to insert themselves because they know what it means. At
24:49
the end of the day. Streaming service don't services don't pay a lot for
24:53
streams, but you know you can make money off of certain things. This
24:57
is why Benzino is practically at this point begging Eminem to collaborate with him,
25:03
right, you know, he challenges him to we can battle face to face
25:08
live and when nobody bites on that, then he's talking about it'll be good
25:14
for hip hop. Man, shut up, please, like, come on,
25:17
man, find another revenue stream if people don't care about your music or
25:25
anything you're doing at this point in time, but your daughter's popping, mend
25:30
your relationship with your daughter and find a way to assist in what she does
25:34
and maybe you'll find business in that way. Because I'm not saying he broke.
25:38
I don't know what he is, but sometimes you can see the desperation
25:41
and dudes on different levels. I'm looking at you, Dame Dash where Dame
25:47
Dash ain't broke, but you could tell he want more and it probably hurts
25:53
to see his man's his former business partners getting way more than he's getting right
25:59
now. And then that's why you go on a tour of speaking to everybody
26:03
about your business. So enough of that. And lastly, so if you
26:14
do not know and somehow you fell asleep at the whim when I started this
26:19
podcast, This episode today is the thirtieth anniversary of Illmatic. Illmatic was released
26:30
on April nineteenth, nineteen ninety four. It was NAS's debut coming out of
26:37
Queensbridge, No pun intended, and most notably the build up was kind of
26:45
crazy, right because at the time the Source magazine was literally the source for
26:51
hip hop. It was like, if you go to social media, any
26:53
platform to find out what's happening, or you come to this podcast to find
26:57
out what's happening. Was like, this is where you go right to find
27:03
everything, reviews, what to think, new versus whatever. And Nas,
27:10
as a rookie, had you know, a hip hop quotable. He had
27:15
an article leading up to his album release which at the time showed us that
27:22
he was working with some of the dopest producers in the game. And it
27:26
wasn't just the fact that he was working with various producers. It was like
27:30
it was the cream of the crop and they were excited to work with a
27:36
rookie Large Professor, Pete Rod Q tip l e S DJ Premier. Supposedly
27:45
Eric Sermon was supposed to be a part of it, but he fumbled the
27:48
bag on that one. Maybe he could do a beat on a new Premier
27:52
joint. I don't know. I know y'all wanted to all be Premier,
27:53
but sometimes they don't do stuff like that nowadays. Who knows. But that
28:00
built an intrigue into NAS where for people who didn't know, they was like,
28:07
yo, who is this can right now? Some people knew because you
28:12
heard nas on Large Professors or Main Sources debut album on the song or the
28:18
name of the album. For those who know, don't know because yo,
28:22
oh head slow down. Everybody here don't know everything. Okay, there's kids
28:26
watching and there's older people who are like, what's that hip hop about?
28:30
So we gotta tell them right Large Professor his debut album as a part of
28:37
the group Main Source called Breaking Adams. But the song Nows was featured on
28:41
was called Live at the Barbecue. He had a notable verse, a standout
28:47
verse with some intrigue was there on that. Then you saw nas again on
28:52
a mc searcher's song back to the Grill again. You know Vanessa, keep
28:57
protect Nae, Nim Madresser, coop professor, keep you under pressure, like
29:03
it was already came kind of crazy. We was like, yo, who
29:06
that? Right? That's how people felt, Yo who that? And then
29:11
then the zebra Head soundtrack that featured NASA's first song and video shot in Queensbridge,
29:21
of course, called Halftime. A lot of people thought that was dope.
29:26
So he was getting around and you know, the Source magazine. It
29:30
was a lot of build up. And then the Source gave it the Covenant
29:34
five mics, which meant it was a classic album. Now imagine that it's
29:41
your rookie season and you win MVP and a chip and off defensive player everything
29:52
you didn't there, win every award in your rookie year, like you Up,
29:56
Next You, the Goat, You, the Air Parent to Cool You,
30:00
Rap and rock Cam. It's you. And I just remember at that
30:06
time like it Illmatic was just impacted everything. Everybody, everything rate from from
30:14
radio to you know, magazines and all of that. Now, Illmatic did
30:18
not go platinum back then because as big as Illmatic is now, as far
30:26
as the mind share of people and hip hop rated because it's it's the it's
30:30
the holy grail to people, it did not show that in sales because honestly,
30:40
when it comes to successful products like music and film and stuff like that,
30:47
it's not just the hardcore that has to buy it. You need the
30:51
casuals to get on board also, And the casuals usually get on board because
30:56
there's a catchy record. And the single was it Ain't Hard to Tell,
31:02
which was a dope intro because it was just a dope display of Naza's lyrics
31:07
over the human nature Michael Jackson's sample. It was a perfect rollout. It
31:14
just felt like, man, this has happened a couple of times in hip
31:17
hop and not with everyone, not with everyone, but it just felt like
31:22
there is a new tier of MC happening and everybody has to raise their level
31:30
of artistry in order to match that tear of music. So ill Maatic was
31:38
just one of those joints. And like I said earlier, you know,
31:44
original cassette from back in the days. It is beat it is beat up
31:48
all crazy, but it should be because it is thirty years Oh hold,
31:55
I'm trying to get myself right on the video. Some of the things I
32:00
remember being said about that album back then that people don't even say now is
32:07
yo, it's crazy. But it's too short now, not short though,
32:13
but too short, uh in that pause. But it was because it wasn't
32:21
because well it was two things, right, the amount of songs, because
32:25
I think it was like what ten ten tracks on here man, Yeah,
32:30
and one was an intro and I did it even clock in that an hour?
32:38
I don't even think it was an hour. So there were a lot
32:43
of people who that was the knock on Ellmatic, and it was mainly because
32:49
they just wanted more, and at that time having more, people had tons
32:54
of records on one album, you know what I'm saying. So people wanted
32:59
more, and they knew back then he wasn't dropping another album, you know,
33:05
a couple of months later like they do now, or sometimes a couple
33:07
of weeks later. Usually you were waiting a while, you know, for
33:15
Nas it was only two years in between. But there were times where you
33:19
know, artists were dropping an album and you listening to that album for probably
33:22
three four years. Now, it's different. So a lot of people felt
33:28
like, damn, you know, we want more, that's all. We
33:31
just want a little bit more. And I think I felt the same way
33:37
now. My my connection and my story if you don't know to nas and
33:44
specifically Illmatic, is a little bit different. And one of the things that
33:49
makes it different is for those who don't know, my cousin is ill well,
33:55
my aunt is mss Versy, which is my mother sister. I spent
34:02
so much time in my youth traveling to Queen's Bridge on weekends to hang out
34:08
with my family all the time, Like it's I'm from bed Start, Brooklyn,
34:14
but I feel like there's a party because I you know, we were
34:17
so close because you know, you have cousins. You know, you got
34:21
you got your cousins who are like you know this my my brother and my
34:24
family, and then you got them like we're related. Right. This was
34:30
different. You know, my mother and her sister were very close. Obviously,
34:35
well not obviously, some people don't have that, but you know,
34:38
they were very close. So we were always over there and they were always
34:43
at our house. So you know, I grew up around Queen's Bridge,
34:50
and you know this is this is my cousin's friends now see it. Who
34:52
lives you know, on the fifth floor right below my aunt. So obviously
34:57
I knew him and other friends just by being around. And you know,
35:01
when he was killed in ninety two, you know, I have a bunch
35:07
of you know, I have episodes where I talked about it, and I've
35:10
been on other podcasts when I talked about it. But you know, that
35:15
was like a crossroads for a lot of us, and I came This wasn't
35:19
like a conversation that was had. It was just that, I know the
35:24
way I was, I kind of kept to myself, but mentally I changed
35:30
the way I looked at life and I focused on school as my way out
35:37
of a situation that just felt like we all were statistics waiting to happen,
35:43
and I, you know, looking at articles and stuff like that or interviews
35:46
from nas. It was a lot with him, but for him, he
35:51
was going the path of music. You know, I got to make this
35:53
happen, especially because ill Will was there when he was grinding, He was
35:59
there for live at the barbecue and all of that for the recording. So
36:05
it's just one of those things where this album was kind of like a signal
36:13
of a traumatic experience for me, you know, something that I didn't share
36:16
with a lot of people. I remember in high school. I remember when
36:20
not ninety four when Ill Manic drop and my man Reggie rest in peace.
36:24
I remember he like hunting me down in the hallway, like y'all tell me
36:30
you heard Ill Man, and I just didn't know what to say because part
36:36
of me wanted to share with him, you know, my connection, but
36:40
part of me didn't because I didn't want that attention, and I started hiding
36:45
it for years. I started hiding my relationship to all of it for years,
36:51
and I just couldn't enjoy it in the same way I enjoyed other hip
36:54
hop classics. Now, obviously, eventually I enjoyed it like everybody else,
37:00
but that moment when it dropped, it was just different for me, and
37:07
I just couldn't, you know, take that away, because first of all,
37:09
this is a guy who I'm around all the time, who's now a
37:13
hip hop star, right, but also at the same time, knowing how
37:19
much Ill Will wanted to be in hip hop, it was just sad that
37:22
he wasn't there. So there was a lot of emotions attached to trying to
37:29
enjoy Illmatic, and obviously I got there, but I just remember, like
37:36
I remember going to Queensbridge when ill Madic dropped, and when I tell you,
37:45
you walk into the project, somebody got their window open, they don't
37:47
put the radio. It's not even summertime. Really like that, they don't
37:51
put the radio in the window, and they just playing it on repeat,
37:55
Like the whole project is gonna hit Illmatic all day. If you're from the
38:00
projects, you know, especially back then. I don't know what they do
38:02
now, but back then you already know that's what it was. You walk
38:07
in the building, you hear somebody blasting it from outside there still door,
38:12
you know what I'm saying. And it was just it was just everywhere all
38:15
over those projects. And a couple of times I remember Na's coming through right
38:21
after that. I saw him several times once Illmatic was like that, I'll
38:27
give y'all a couple because I don't want to make it too long. But
38:30
I remember one time, you know, he just came by the crib,
38:35
my aunt's crib, and I happen to be there and he just hung out
38:39
with me and my little cousin, Kennedy. Right, it was little brother.
38:46
And even then I just felt some kind of way because we're you know,
38:49
we're in Will's room, and you know, you could tell they ain't
38:53
teach us how to mo on, y'all. Like in the ghetto. Sometimes
38:57
you ain't got your father around, and sometime your mama too stressed trying to
39:01
take care of y'all. So you know, things get missed, you know,
39:06
And that's cool. But there was another time he was around and I
39:10
was going to college, and my university was like, yo, come by,
39:16
have some money for you for when you go to college. Right,
39:21
I was getting ready to go away. So I you know, I go
39:23
to her crib and we're getting ready to walk to the train station or wherever
39:28
he was going. And who's there on the bench, you know, outside
39:32
the building with a couple of dudes nas, and you know, we're telling
39:37
him, yeah, I'm going to Morgan you know, I'm going for this
39:39
and that, and he's like, Yo, that's what's up. Blah blah
39:43
blah. Now I went to school. I went to Morgan State nineteen ninety
39:47
five. Was my freshman year I didn't know, and even damn sure ain't
39:52
say it in the moment that he did homecoming the year before I got there,
40:00
which was crazy, which was probably, you know, somebody looking out
40:04
for me, because God forbid, he would have did homecoming in ninety five
40:08
hour while I was there, and I would have been on stage, and
40:10
you go to coll it Use freshman and you already know how it could get
40:17
okay, and wen't even just talk about the ladies. It's a lot of
40:21
you hang around dudes who just would have been like, oh, were you
40:24
what? You got? What? You know? What you so? Again,
40:29
getting back to Illmatic, it was a strange situation for me personally,
40:37
but at the same time I was able to recognize what he was doing and
40:43
Howard was impacting hip hop and other people. Now, in the description of
40:49
this very episode is a link to a chapter of a book I wrote called
40:54
Experience hip Hop. The book was about or is about me buying different hip
41:01
hop classics and where I was in my life at that time and basically recounting
41:08
like what I did when I went to purchase it in some instances, and
41:13
I talk about Illmatic, and that link is in the description of this episode.
41:17
The book is basically a couple of different albums. So before that,
41:22
the first chapter was Ice Cubes Death Certificate. If y'all know me, y'all
41:25
already know my way of the shirt one Day on the Shelf. But was
41:31
that bars No. But the latest chapter, chapter two, is entitled represent
41:39
and it's about Illmatic And I just want to leave y'all with this. You
41:44
know, I want to pose a question and I'm going to tell you what
41:46
I feel, and you put what you feel in a comment section. We
41:50
could chop it up. Where is Illmatic in the history of hip hop?
41:59
As an now? Like like, where do you put it now? I
42:01
know some people say, yo, it's number one, some people say nas
42:05
is number one. I remember doing the show Strictly hip Hop Shout Out to
42:09
Big b More and we did an anniversary show and we had mc light on
42:16
an interview and I remember, and I've said this on the podcast before,
42:21
she was asked, what's the greatest hip hop album of all time? And
42:23
without hesitation, she said ill Madic And that caught me off guard. And
42:29
this wasn't nineteen ninety four we talked about. This was years later, like
42:32
wait later, and we talked in this empty light and without hesitation, she
42:38
was like Illmatic off the Rip, and I thought that was crazy because that
42:45
I wouldn't call ill Madic the greatest hip hop album of all time because I
42:50
think there are a lot of albums that as a whole are better produced.
42:55
And I'm not just talking about beats. I'm just talking about it's a entire
43:00
experience when you listen to this album, right, So I feel there's a
43:05
lot of albums that do more. Illmatic was just kind of like which is
43:08
dope because it was raw, it was just yo, it's nas in his
43:15
raps and dope beats, and it's something special to have people not only call
43:22
it a classic but consider it the best of all time when there's so much
43:27
there are albums that have so much more to them than that. Like I
43:30
said, with Death Certificate, it's just so it's just way more production going
43:36
into that album than Ellmatic. But Ellmatic's impact is the lyrics, which is
43:45
I mean, you can't argue that me personally, I still feel it is
43:52
one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. Hands down. It
43:59
should only be top five or top three, and I think what it did
44:05
for people was it's not about the street lyrics for those who tune in and
44:13
have never heard it, And just like I don't, I don't see what
44:16
it's not necessarily about street lyrics, even though that's it's it's how Nas conveyed
44:23
those stories. He put words together in a way, in the same way
44:29
as a as a poet, right, with a lot of reflection on things
44:34
that some people would consider normal. Right, Some people would say, you
44:39
know, we in this building on the staircase, and that's that's it for
44:45
the visual side. But Nas basically found a way to bring all the characters
44:51
from the hood together in the situations and things like that where you can visualize
44:58
what he was saying by the words he used. Again, I talk about
45:02
it all the time. New York state of Mind feels like New York in
45:07
the early to mid nineties, right, it felt like a turning point before
45:15
stuff like Ellmatic New York, specifically East Coast hip hop was very playful and
45:22
wordplay and you know, disaffects and blue Cheese and even tribe like. It
45:28
was just a different It was more fun, you know what I'm saying,
45:30
And it was more it was less about what was really happening, you know
45:37
what I'm saying. And nas on Ellmatic was a reflection of what the world
45:43
was today for him. And let's be clear, with everything being said about
45:49
this album, people considering it create us of all time, mainly because of
45:55
the lyrics Pizza Don't get me wrong, the Pizza Classic beats some of the
46:00
dopest beats ever in hip hop, but mainly because of what he did with
46:04
the lyrics. And this man was a teenager. He was a boy because
46:10
you look at it when it came when it came out, well he was
46:13
no when did he write it? Man, he Ben wrote some of this
46:16
stuff. He was a teenager who hadn't graduated from high school and he was
46:24
rapping like this. So that's what my appreciation is. It's about the maturity
46:32
of a project by a kid who has to grow up too soon. And
46:38
I feel like a lot of us black young men in the hood even to
46:45
this day, have to deal with that, and women but have to deal
46:50
with that. And this was kind of a reflection, a diary of a
46:54
person who was paying attention to everything around him, beyond glorifying some things that
47:02
some people will consider ignorant. It's not about glorifying it. It's the fact
47:07
that it was our world. It was our reality. It is still the
47:15
reality of many, and Na's did an excellent job of basically being no different
47:24
from what they how they said the star Spangled banner was row right, like,
47:28
which I always was like what, but I get it. You know,
47:31
oh, bombs going on outside, blah blah blah, and somebody in
47:34
there pinning bars like you know, the star Spangled I'm gonna call this the
47:37
star Spangled band, you know, like, oh they You know what I'm
47:42
saying. If that's the true story, I don't. I think I remember
47:45
that. Who guess? So what do you think about NAS's debut Illmatic thirty
47:53
years later? Were you around for that? You know what I'm saying?
47:59
Were you outside? I did it come to you a little bit later in
48:01
life? You know what I'm saying. Maybe you heard it today for the
48:05
first time. Leave your comments in the comments section for Love Also, trying
48:12
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48:15
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48:19
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48:29
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48:43
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