Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / Illmatic Live with Orchestra!

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Illmatic Live with Orchestra! · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Coming up on this week's episode of Hip Hop Now podcast,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It's my review of NAS with Orchestra in Philly performing Aromatic.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Let's do it. Welcome to Jipop Now, pot fat as
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: should do from the future.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: You know what's dot.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Your ass out of?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: So disrespect the leg like hip hop can say to day,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: let's get racist business.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: What up y'all?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Eye and yours Vegas and debts. It's hip Hop Now
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: podcasting podcast specifically designed to keep you caught up on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: all things hip hop, music and culture that happened throughout
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the week. This is a bonus episode. You saw the thumbnail.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You know what it is. You know what we're talking
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: about tonight, tonight today, whatever wherever you are. But first
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and foremost want to shout out to subscribers who have
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: been subscribing an audio.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Form for however long.
• 1:12
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• 1:18
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• 1:24
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• 1:28
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• 1:33
  Speaker 1: right here on YouTube. We are at sev thousand subscribers,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: which is great. I appreciate you. I think we can
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: get to twenty five thousand by the end of the year.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I really think it's possible now, because at first I didn't.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I just was like, whatever, we got to a thousand,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I was cool, five ten thousand, it was fine. But
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: now it's like, Okay, keep going up?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Why not? Why not keep going up? You know what
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. It just makes sense.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: So shout out to you the content on the channel
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: if you missed it and might want to check it out.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: And this is also in an audio form. Recently did
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a review of the Clips, which looks like album other
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah at this point, but we'll see, got a lot
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to go, Like, God sort them out. I'm not one
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: of you new guys who's just like yeah. For the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: first week or so, I was listening, but yeah, I'm
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: good now. No, I'm still listening. Also check out my
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: review in the last episode of Ray Kwan's brand new
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: album The Empress New Clothes featuring ghost Face Met the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Man Nas you know, Griselda. That being Westside, Gunn Benny,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the Butcher and Conway very dope album that even though
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: my review says it's a good album but it won't
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: make my top five. I'm not gonna lie. I've been
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: listening to Like That and clips back to back. I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: skipped the skits though now because they just they just
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: don't make no sense. I don't know why they're there,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: They're just there to be there. But as far as
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the music, Ray Kwon's performance as an MC the features,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I'm still not the biggest fan of gruff sounding voice ghosts,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: but lyrically he came through and did what he did
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: what he does, and I don't mind it as much.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So we'll see. That's what the deliberation between end of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the year means. Man just kind of listening to the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: best that drops and seeing where they fall by the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: end of the year. So my top five is not
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: safe because we got a lot to go. But let's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: get into what you came here for, what I'm here
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to report. So first and foremost, let me give a
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: big shout out to the homie Jamar who are called
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: me at the last minute or texted me at the
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: last minute to say, Yo, you want to go see
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: nas in Philly with an orchestra And I was like yeah,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: is it three ninety nine and he was like yep.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So me and my wife met up with him and
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: his lady and we went to Philly check out NAS
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: with the Philadelphia Orchestra and it was at the TD
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Pavilion at the Man So if you don't know, that's more.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: That's an outdoor venue, right, It's a pavilion. So you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: if you got good seats, which we really did. Again
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: shout out to Jamar, you're in the pavilion area, but
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: there's also areas behind that with grass and chairs and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: stuff like that.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: We was everywhere, y'all. Y'all know this.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: If you've been to any festival, it don't even have
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to be a hip hop festival. I've been inside venues.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: This is in Newark and Jpex. I've been inside venues.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I want to see Funkadelic, Parliament or George Clinton. Right,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And you would have thought we was outside the way
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: people were smoking in there. It was crazy. It was
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I was just like smoking inside like this. But whatever,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: but it was. It was a nice venue, you know
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We had good seats. It was hot.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: It was hot, and some of it just had to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: do with the fact that.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Everybody was standing up, as you can.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Imagine, because it was nas Is performing all magic and
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: it just was a type of concert where you wanted
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to stand up. You know, I sat down a couple
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: of times because I am deep, I'm a old man, okay.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And then there's a couple of songs I just took
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: time to, like look at the photos I got and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. But my review of it is going
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to be interesting. Let me just say, for those who
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: just want to know straight off the back shit, they
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: go see it. Yes, if you're a NAS fan, you should.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: If you're an Ellmatic fan, you should go see it right,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and I'll tell you why.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: But the way the show is set.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Up right, NAS is kind of telling the story with
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: this album Ellmatic about the time right about where he was,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: who he was, his history, how he just wanted to
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: have one song he wanted like, man, if I could
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: get one song in a radio, I would be happy.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I don't even need a record deal long, nothing like that,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: just one song on the radio, which I thought was dope,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: right and sort of like an inspiration for those who
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: want to get on right. I know, being on the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: radio isn't the thing as much as it used to be,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: but you kind of it's the equivalent of putting your
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: song out there and seeing people react in a positive way, right,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: or even going viral. That's kind of like how he
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: looked at it back in early to mid nineties, like
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: if I could just have one song that's a hit
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: that everybody know that's played on the radio, I'd be happy.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And throughout the performance of Illmatic, you know, he kept
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: telling these different stories, and most weren't necessarily like this
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: song is about, right, or this song is inspired by
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: It was more of a setup for the song, like
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: what the song is about, like a song like the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: world is yours?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Right. He's talking in real time, not just back then.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: But one thing I really liked about it was he
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: focused on the cassette, like, Yo, the cassette. Y'all have
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: cassettes back then, blah blah blah, Like we only halfway
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: through the cassette before we flip it over.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So it was it was pretty dope.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Because he was trying to paint the picture of what
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: it was, what it was like when ill Matic came out,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and how most of us absorbed that music.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I have the cassette behind me, but why show you.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: You've seen a cassette before, right, But I have the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: original that I purchased back in ninety four, and one
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of the things that stood out to me is he
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: did all he did all the joints right that you
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: know off the album, a couple of a couple of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the songs were dope, right, like he obviously did New
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: York State of Mind. It was it was like how
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the songs were building, you know, right. Some were medleys
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: like One Love, And when I say medleys, I'll tell
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: you it really wasn't a medley, but I mean the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Music League One Love was sort of teased would represent
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: at the same time because they kind of played a
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: little bit of representing. I was like, Oh, they're gonna
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: do represent but then it kind of transitioned into one
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Love and he performed One Love, but then they transitioned
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: back to represent and I was like, oh that's cool.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: That's different, right, same thing like with songs like the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: World Is Yours, not as far as the medley, but
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: just it was dope the way they didn't start like yo,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: just start playing a recognizable beat and that's it, right.
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  Speaker 1: It was a build, right. None of it started the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: way you would press play on a record. So I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: kind of liked that when he did it with one
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Love and representing the world is yours right, it ain't
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: hard to tell. And the drummer was singing Michael Jackson's
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: part on there, which was kind of crazy. But there
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: was another song and I'm mad, I'm forgetting it now
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Could be one Love.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: But the drummer was singing the lyrics or the harmony
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: or something like that from the original sample.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I thought that was hot because at first I was.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Like, you know, you had noding, like, oh, you know what,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: that's the sample for this song. But they're playing the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: sample out and the drummer is singing. When I say,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: those are two very different vocals that you gotta hit,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: vocal tunes that you have to hit to sing Michael
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Jackson's da da dot Like see, I can't even do
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: it sound oh dot dot dot. You know how Mike
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: sing it, Okay, But to have him do that, I
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: just thought it was nice touches right. First of all,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: nas was clean when it came out. The suit was crazy, okay.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: The jewelry looked like it had lights on it because
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: it was diamonds.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: It was hot, right, the glasses, the shades or whatever,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: everything was hot, So it kind of and the band
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: obviously tuxes and stuff like that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: So it was kind of dope to see.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Nas at this point in his career performing this album,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: his debut album, in this way it had a sense
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: of mature already celebration. Even Na said, like, yo, we
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: made it right now, I made it. We made it right.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: If you've been listening to me since ninety four and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: all the things we've been through and you here tonight,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: we made it. I just thought that was so dope
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: because when you think about it, if you are like
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a hardcore fan of Nas and you've been on that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: journey with him and he's saying things like this, you
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: start to reflect off your own life and a part
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of one of the biggest reasons why we like artists,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: not maybe not all this point'd be the reason for all,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: but the majority of the time is because we can relate.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And here was Nas being relatable based off of his journey.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But his journey was your journey as a fan, because
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: you were there throughout his career, throughout his life, the
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: ups and down, marriage, divorce, mother, passing, rap, beefs, East Coast,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: West Coast, like all of it. So it was dope
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to see like this celebration. And what else was dope
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: was he didn't look old, right, he didn't look worn
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: down or like because you know how some celebrities you
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: see him on television.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Like still look good. He still look good, and.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Then you see him in person and you start to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: see the blemishes and you're like, oh, that must have
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: been the camera angle or something.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Uh, but not he looked good.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: And then also when he brought out as as looked
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: good like yo were healthy, we hear we you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the struggle hasn't beaten us down. As coming out and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: performing with nas was the crowd went crazy because it's
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: easy and nods together. There's more history. And obviously he
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: performed Lives of which was dope. But then later A
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Z came back and performed like a medley of songs,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: which I, honestly I didn't anticipate because after Nazda Illmatic
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: he did a few of his other songs, but with
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: a Z in particular, he performed like Affirmative Action right
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: phone Tap, because at first phone Tap was kind of
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: weird because now was like holo, holdo, I dropped something.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: People were like, oh, drop that watch, you know, drop
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that watch? With that Ice in it, but he was like,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I dropped my beeper. So at first I'm like, oh,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: they're about to do phone tap, and that's exactly what happened.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: But just to double back to Illmatic, and I just
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: want to point out a few things that stood out
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to me while he's performing Illmatic. One, if you've seen
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Nas perform in street clothes by himself, this isn't the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: same experience.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: It's just it just isn't.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: It's not Now if you've seen him perform a million times,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you've seen him perform those songs.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I doubt it's drastically different for you.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: But I think there's something to be said about Nas
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: being in a suit, orchestra behind him, his band members
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: being in suits. You know, it just it just brings
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: a different level to Ellmatic. It celebrates it in a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be elitist, but in a high
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: class way. And honestly, there should be more albums celebrated
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: in that way, you know what I'm saying. But we're
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: talking about el matting and Nas has already done it.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: So and not to say that nobody ain't rhynd with
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: no banjo bands or orchestra. Everybody's round with everything before
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the Roots was a band. Okay, what I'm saying is
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the presentation for that album where he's literally talking about
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: project steps and pissy hallways and crackheads and it's a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: classy affair. Now, the crowd, or at least in Philly,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: wasn't dressed that way. And I think it had more
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to do with it being outside because I came dressed
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: in a way where I was halfway right. I was casual,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you know. I had a T shirt, you know, some
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: something little ill you know, T shirt, had some light jeans,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: don't have some exclusive kicks on. But I left my
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: blazer in the car because when I saw how people
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: were rolling up, I was like, oh, I don't need it.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Plus it was super hot, like I was already hot,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: So it was all like a blessing.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: But that's the one thing to separate NAS with orchestra
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: versus NAS on stage with DJ. It's very different. I know,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: NOAs with DJ is probably just as dope, even more
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: hip hop. But I like this. I like seeing different
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: things done in hip hop. So if you felt some
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: kind of way, because in the past, for those who
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: don't know, NAS said that this was a couple of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: years ago that he's never performing Allmatic again. I think
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that was an emotional statement because I think this type
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: of performance with the orchestra gave the album new life
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and gave him motivation, because, to be honest, when he
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: said that, we killed him for it, Like what nope
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: are you sayings like Allmatic? You're not gonna perform anymore?
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So it's dope to see.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't have I don't have any grapes
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: about it. I don't go to a lot of shows,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: to be honest, unless there's some kind of band, So
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I'm cool with it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Some other things I noted now.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I say this all the time when it comes to Illmatic,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and most people say I'd like one time for your mind.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I don't see nothing wrong with it. I don't skip it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Some even say it's great. I'm not even arguing any
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of that. I just always felt out of everything else.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: It's the weakest link and the one that sounds out
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of place with the tone of the album. Now it's
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: dope because it's a lighthearted song on an album that
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: talks about so many strong themes, right serious themes.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: So I'm not against One Time for Your Mind.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: But every time I say it's the weakest link, or
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: sometimes I skip it, here come the Avenger Defenders, right
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and again I'm not gonna hold you.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: But guess what.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Nas is here to perform illmatic with an orchestra, and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: he didn't perform One Time for your Mind, only record
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: on that short album, because it is a short album,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: but the.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Only record on that album he didn't.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Perform was one Time for Your Mind. I'm just saying, okay,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: even Na, I skipped it. Okay, I'm just making that point.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Another thing that stood out. Now, forgive me if I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: missed it. If you've seen Nas perform with symphony in
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: another city and this did happen, then maybe he slipped
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: right and forgot. But again, as Nas is talking through
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the album, he said, Yo, you know, I was just
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: a kid who was blessed to have all these dope producers.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So he starts naming them like prem Large, Professor and
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Q Tip and l E S. And then it keeps talking,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, but no, he didn't. He didn't say
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Pete Rock. Now, one of two things, if you know
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the news and you know the history of Nas and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Pete Rock, there's always been issues there. The rumor back
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: in the days was their issues came when Pete Rock
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I guess tried to talk to his girl or something
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: like that was baby mama at the time, so.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: That so that was a problem right at the time.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Some people say, well jay Z, yeah, they wasn't together
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: when jay Z was messing with Carmen, so it didn't matter, right,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: players don't care about you know what you used to have, Okay,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: But I think the rumor back then was that, you know, Nas,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: this was his baby mother. He was actively with her
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: when this happened. Now, I don't know if that's true
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: or not, but it made a lot of sense versus
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: when's the last time you heard Nas and pe Rock
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And I'm talking about forget now, I'm talking about even
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: if you go back then, right, you would think, but
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: you've heard Primo and other large pro like you've heard
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: other collaborations with some of those people, so you know
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: there was that.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: But I think possibly it may have more.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: To do with the legal situation that came up, and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: there could be legal ramifications for even saying somebody's name.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: So I was thinking, like, well, maybe that's fine, or
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: or if we just want to go to the essence.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe he just don't rock with them based off of
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: their relationship over the years, but it didn't seem like
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: that when things came to a head in recent years,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: where you know, Pete Rock was I guess trying to
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: get some money for something, and not necessarily like I'm
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: getting at Nas for.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: It, but more so.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Something that he was probably old as a producer and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: you know and companies and you know, the industry. And
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I remember NAS's response not being a combative one. So
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: who knows, Maybe he just forgot But I'm sitting there,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: like he said Eance and I know Lis is from Queensbridge,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: so it's probably easier to say, but it's Pete Rock.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: So again, maybe he forgot to show. Maybe I missed
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it at this show. Maybe I didn't start paying attention
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: until after he said the other names. Maybe he said
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Pete Rock first. I don't remember, but I just remember
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: waiting to hear that and like, oh he didn't say
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Pete Rock. Okay, cool, But nevertheless, didn't really take anything
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: away from the show. It was just something I observed.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: So again, if you experienced it, and he said Pete
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Rock's name at another show. Leave your comments in a
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: comments section below. It's not my battle. I don't care
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: that much. Also, this is what stood out, so again
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: shout out to the homie Jamar. I leaned over to
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Jamar and said, yeah, it's dope that not started this
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: out right saying we don't we don't wrap over dubbed tracks.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: We got real live musicians here. And then he commenced
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to and and for the most part, not just illmatic songs,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: but even a couple of songs in the Medleague of Records.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Afterwards, he was performing all three verses.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Like for real, for real and it's hot and he
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: got a tux seedough and I think somebody brought him
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: some honey at one point. Like now, I don't get
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: me wrong. He did the majority of the show performing
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: them lyrics to a t, and in some cases he
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: made little edits, but the edits were dope right, and purposely.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: They're for breath control.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Man, you're yelling in the mic, you're walking back and forth.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you're jumping in the air like it's hot. You
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: know they had some air up there, but that don't
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: mean anything when you doing that kind of activity. So
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I get the editing of the lyrics, but the way
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: they were edited, they were edited for breath control, and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: they still sound dope in some cases sound cleaner, right,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: And I was like, damn, you don't see that enough.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And I don't go to a lot of shows, but
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: typically cats will give you a verse from this song,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: a verse from that song, like they'll give you verses, right,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: or if it's a real popular song, they might give
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: you two. If it's the song they known for, then
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: they'll give you all three, all three verses. You're talking
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: about Nas performing back during the days of sixteens, sixteen,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: sixteen sixteen on stage ninety degrees outside. They had air,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: but we were dying, okay, wasn't nobody cared though? So
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I thought that was dope to see because remember, this
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: man is fifty. It's not chiptooth NAS with mad energy,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, just with three thousand dudes
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: on the stage helping them, like and they just all
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: just b dah lahah.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: It's not all the energy. This is him.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: It's there's an orchestra, but it's him performing, right, And
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: he didn't take a lot of breaks to like let
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: beats build and stuff like that, and he didn't necessarily
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: rely on the crowd until a little bit towards the end,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: but understandably so the brother he looked tired. He looked
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: physically tired after a while, which was cool. Like my
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: homie said, you know one time, Nah stop rapping and
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: just closed his eyes and I was he was like
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: it was he sleep like?
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: And it was.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: But I mean, what after what we just watched with
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Illmatic alone? You know, I was hoping it was a
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: little bit more at the end. Plus I knew because
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I saw clips back in the days, but I didn't
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: know how much after performing Illmatic was going to be
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: at the end, which I think I'll get into right now.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: So he performs Ellmatic like yo, my first album Ellmatic
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: by Bah Bah Bow. The orchestra gets up and walks out,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: so I'm kind of like, all right, what we're doing.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: But then I'm starting to see, oh, his band's not
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: moving right. The DJ I think it was a dude
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: on keyboards, the drummer, and I think a dude who
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: had a base. They stayed, so I'm like, oh, I
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: know what we're about to get. And he starts saying,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you know, he start announcing or start like bigging up
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the years of his albums because he like, you know
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Ellmatic ninety four, and then he starts
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: going through the years of release, right ninety four, ninety six,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: ninety eight, two thousand, like so the crowd is just
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: going crazy because you know, they thinking about all them
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: records they bought. And I'm getting hyped because I'm like,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, now we're really about to Now we're going
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: back to q be with it. So he says we're
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: going to do a couple of those, and the first
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: record he does is the Message and if you could see,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: well you can see right the background I got here
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: with the with the red I think with I think
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the color changed to like a reddish green and if.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: You know, go watch it now on YouTube, if I
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Rule the.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: World right in the beginning, now imagine being back, being
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: back then ninety six promotional campaign was Naza's coming co
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: m I ng when you pause police and this is
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: off of Illmatic, So the hype is crazy. And when
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: you see that if I Ruled the World video and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: right in the beginning, NAS's in the lexus I Believe
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: front the Queen's Bridge with the red and green lighting
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: you know the hype William like put all over the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: car and he does the message and I remember hearing
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: it back.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Then, like yo, what's that?
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: That song is crazy?
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: So he starts this medley with the message and the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: crowd goals bonkers as a result, and he.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Goes on to do a couple of joints again.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: He brought a Z back out and did Firmative Action
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: right which everybody went crazy, like yo, you want doing
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: firmative action phone tap like I said, And then A
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Z did also did sugar Hill, which was the debut
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: single for him off of his debut album Do or
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Die and I'm Not Gonna Hold You.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: At least where I was, I was the only one
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: with the sugar Hill, like like, I knew every bar
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: and you know what I'm saying.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Not to say that, you know, the crowd was faulty
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: because they didn't know, but I'm just saying, I'm hip
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: hop I know A Z too. I know his bars
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: as well, every bar. So that was a moment for
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: me to be like, you know sugar Hill, baby, you
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Plus it sound good. But then
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: he this was the other takeaway before I finished. There's
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: always debates online about certain songs that NA done in
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: his career that the boombappers.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Hate, right, and really they say, yo, why you know
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: why he had to do if I Rule the World?
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: You know, do that commercial song, which is crazy because
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: for one, Lauren Hill's on the hook and the Fuuji's
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: were hot as rappers back then.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Show what she's singing, if I Rule the World.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: If I Rule the World is a song by Curtis
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Blow which is hip hop, right you ever heard it?
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: She's singing the hook to Curtis Blows song right now,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: No R and B sexy, you know joint Curtis Blows song.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: If I Rule the World Lauryn Hill singing the hook
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and the beat is from Houdini hip hop one Love.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Please children, go and listen to these records before you
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: listen to these boombappers from back in ninety six. They
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: were lying to themselves. If I Rule the World is
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: hip hop through and through, no R and B beat,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: no R and B hook, It's all hip hop, which
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: is dope.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I always had a problem with the lyrics of I
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: opened every selling now that could send them to Africa, Like, Yo,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: you want to send a bunch of criminals to Africa.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: But that's just me being a comedian, okay. But nevertheless,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: when that song hit, all them same dudes, who was
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: in the crowd, Oh no, you know, getting excited and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: all of that. You know, I could see the boombappers
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: in the crowd. They was hyped too, and the ladies
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: were drowning you out if you wasn't nyped. So the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: reaction was what it was. But it wasn't just that song.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Another song off of Nostra Damas, which is an album
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that I believe it might be his second worst now
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: before it was his worst album because NA says eighteen
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: albums not see it might be his worst album. Nastra
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Domas is probably better than that, but you owe me,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and I remember cats hated that. Now that was more
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: R and B radio ready, genuine on the hook singing.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: But I was in the club back then, what was
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: that ninety eight? I was in the club heavy in
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: DC almost every weekend. And when I tell you that
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: song came out, me and my homies already knew what
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it was, so we loved it the minute we heard it.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: We thought it was dope.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: The ladies was drowning this Pavilion out when that came on,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: and I don't even think it was just the ladies.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I think it was everybody, boombackers included.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: They were probably happy because he fed them allmatic first,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: so now they were good like oh oh, I I'm good,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I got my I got my head nod on.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: He also performed.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Uchi Wally, which was which was also you know, like
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: okay Uchi Wally. He performed his verse, but I ain't
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: gonna hold y'all. I don't care what jay Z said.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: The best verse on there is Jungle, and I hope
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I was hoping, like just bring Jungle, little young thing
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: go without like please, but Jungle didn't come out okay,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: which was cool. NA has performed his verse and lastly,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and he did more than that in the medley. I'm
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: just naming like like almost like the party records that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he performed.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: But he he did.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: He did made you look. You already know I was saying, yo,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: he definitely gonna do made you look. But when you
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: think about the nas and Hip Boy run, he did spicy. Now,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know if boombappers like that one, but it's
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: impossible not to like it's all King's Disease one. It's
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the bonus track. But NAS got busy on that joint
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: and that beat.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: When I say Na's doing a medley of songs ending
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: with one mic.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: We expected, which was also dope because of the appearance
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and how it was and you know, people knew all
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the lyrics it was.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: It was dope to see right and uh dot way
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: that ended.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: But I think like in general, with this performance of Illmatic,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: celebrating Illmatic, telling the story, bringing out a Z more
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: than once so that you get the you know, the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: not you get your feel of nads and as as
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: far as like how they've been linked across the years
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: through their music together and you get like splashes of
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: songs throughout his career, that was dope.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: He even did his verse off of.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Missy's joint Hot Boys, I think that was the name
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: of that joint, which was dope. I forgot how violent
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: his verse was in there. I was like, damn bodies chapter.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I was like, whoa damn Like yo, y'all don't know,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: like back then you get rappers was on R and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: B joints talking like that, talking crazy. But it was
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: just dope to see a small snapshot of his career
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: starting with Ell Mattic and the things he did from
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: there all the way up to Spicy. It just was
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: a fantastic show for those who don't know. And I'm
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: definitely gonna end with this because I was gonna say
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: it anyway. So I basically grew up with us. I'm
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: not from Queensbridge, from Brooklyn. Don't get it twisted.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: My cousin is ill Will. Our families is very close,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. My mother and his mother
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: are sisters. When I say, back in the eighties and
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: early nineties, we me and my younger sister were in
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Queensbridge like every weekend. It got to the point where
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: my mother was like, oh yeah, staying home this weekend.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: It's because Malon Versary's house was the fun house, so
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: obviously hanging out with my big cousin ill Will all
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the time. And when Nas came out, it was difficult
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: for me for like maybe a good ten minutes to
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: not see him as the person I grew up with,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: in a person I know. I'm I'm just keeping it
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: the buck with y'all, because that was the first time
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I've seen him in person in decades now. I've talked
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: to him before since then, since you know, back in
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the days. But that was the first time me seeing him. Now,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: some people would.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Say, oh, you backstage, you get up on stage. That
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: wasn't the situation.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: When you put it this way, if you know somebody
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: who's a celebrity, you real cool with him like that,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: that's not really how y'all connect, you know, you connect,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: phone call, private situation stuff like that. I'm not running
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: up on stage so he could see that I'm there. Okay,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I can say that later like oh, I was in
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Philly when you did blah blah blah. But it was
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: from a personal perspective. It took me a minute, right
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: because I'm like, oh, let's not see it right then
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: as he starts to perform the songs as I and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: this is how it played out in my life. I
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: saw him as nas like you see him right, but
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: watching this, like this culmination of where he started and
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: where he is now and watching him perform at this
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: point in his career, it was like, he said, we
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: made it.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: That's how I felt proud. I was. I was proud
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: of him, I was proud of us, and I don't
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: mean me and him.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just everybody who was around during that time, whether
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you knew somebody or not that we were here.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: We were help, We made it right. I'm not fat,
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: you know, because you can turn into that. Okay.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: He rich, so he can get a trainer. Me I
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: got in old a plan of fitness, you know what
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. But I just enjoyed the experience overall. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I again, if you're a NAS fan, illmatic maybe ill
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: maadic is the only joint you really like, go see
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: it if you can, go see it, because this experience
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: is very different from seeing him at sobs and like fatigues.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: And stuff like.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, that's just as dope. But this
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: felt more for This felt more appropriate for his journey,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and it feels like this is how hip hop should
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: be celebrated. Also, it doesn't have to be you know,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: let's get hoodied and timed out, you know, let's celebrate
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: this classic album that goes beyond the genre of hip hop.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Did you go see Nas perform with the orchestra in
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: your city or another city? Leave your comments in a
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: comments section below. On YouTube, Tell me about your experience,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Follow me on social media at Vegas World.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: I n c.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to the audio podcast if that's your bag, on
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: an Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast listening,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: or if you prefer the video version you want to
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: see me say these things and check out all the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: additional content I have on the channel, including a new
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: episode of back Time and hip Hop That's under way.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Subscribe to the YouTube channel hip Hop Now Pod. Hey, y'all,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not a critic, a fan.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: Peace,