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  • 8 hours ago
Nas Time Is Illmatic 2014
Transcript
00:00:28Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
00:00:59Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
00:01:29Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
00:01:58Transcription by —
00:02:00Illmatic was a new beginning of rap.
00:02:03It was like living a hustler's life through poetry.
00:02:10That was a genius at work.
00:02:141994 classic, Illmatic, that he's prophetic.
00:02:17He had the courage to tell the truth about the dark side of black existence in America.
00:02:24Illmatic is one of those transformative moments in hip-hop.
00:02:28A hundred years from now, that title is just going to stand out for one of the strongest pillars in
00:02:34hip-hop, period.
00:02:35What he was able to do lyrically, completely shift the climate of how the MC was supposed to rhyme.
00:02:44It was so honest and it was so truthful that it's never going to not be one of the best
00:02:51albums of all time.
00:02:54When I made Illmatic, I was trying to make the perfect album.
00:02:58It comes from the days of Wild Style.
00:03:00I was trying to make you experience my life.
00:03:03I wanted you to look at hip-hop differently.
00:03:07I wanted you to feel that hip-hop is changing and becoming something more real.
00:03:12I gave you what the streets felt like, what it sounded like, tasted like, smelled like, all in that album.
00:03:19And I tried to capture it like no one else could.
00:03:56Going to a concert, I think to myself, wow, this is what I do for a living.
00:04:05I chose this, and then it happened, and now this is what I do on a regular.
00:04:14You know, you know, being from Queens, that's as good as it gets right there.
00:04:21Begin it.
00:04:23Oh!
00:04:34My musical journey ain't start with me.
00:04:37Y'all come from a long line of musicians and artists.
00:04:41It's in my blood.
00:04:45What I am today is an extension of what they were then.
00:04:52You can trace my artistic roots all the way through Natchez.
00:04:59Natchez, Mississippi.
00:05:23My ancestral name is Oludara.
00:05:32It means God is good.
00:05:36I was born in America, a place called Natchez, Mississippi.
00:05:41It was around the river.
00:05:44During the heart of segregation, the Klan, whatever, like that, you could see the burning of the crosses at all
00:05:53times.
00:05:55There were musicians all over the place, you know, on my father's side.
00:05:59He and my grandfather, they had a group called the Melodiers.
00:06:01They traveled all around America.
00:06:04But the family's been like this.
00:06:07Musicians, artists, teachers, you know, sharecroppers, farmers, hoes, prostitutes.
00:06:15But they all had a high grade of how they dealt with it.
00:06:19It was never like some low squaloring stuff.
00:06:22But it was always, were they going to hold?
00:06:24They'd hold the top up, hold them.
00:06:26Whatever they did, we always did it on the top.
00:06:29Make it dignified.
00:06:33I did four years in the Navy.
00:06:35I was discharged in New York City.
00:06:37That's when I met Naz's mother.
00:06:40So I stayed a couple of days too long, ran out of money, and I got stranded here.
00:06:47And at the same time, along came Naz and his brother.
00:06:53It was tough for the mother, me, for the whole family then.
00:06:57What I started to do is start going back and forth in Europe so I can have some kind of
00:07:01money.
00:07:02And she moved to Queensbridge, you know.
00:07:05And I was worried.
00:07:06I was really worried because I knew it was going to be rough out there for her and the kids,
00:07:10you know.
00:07:48In the 70s, you had mothers and fathers.
00:07:50In the 80s, you had a lot of single mothers.
00:07:52In the 90s, you had people being raised by their grandmothers.
00:07:56Historically speaking, you got to keep in mind, the GI Bill was a bill in which persons had access to
00:08:01education, credit,
00:08:02to gain access to houses so you could live in suburbs away from the city.
00:08:07So black folk receive very little of the GI Bill money in terms of housing, only 2.1%.
00:08:13That's why you could create a white middle class with black folk gaining no access to it.
00:08:18And then they create these housing projects that go all the way up to pack folk in like sardines.
00:08:23Down with hovels, down with disease, down with crime, down with firecraft.
00:08:28Let in the sun, let in the sky.
00:08:31A new day is dawning, a new life, a new America.
00:08:35Thank you, Mayor LaGlodio.
00:08:39Historically, they were built for working class families no matter what color.
00:08:44But because the color line is so thick in America, once black folk made their way from the south into
00:08:51the cities
00:08:51and began to, in significant numbers, fill up the projects, you got white flight.
00:08:56And that white flight resulted in a withdrawal of money and wealth from the city.
00:09:15You know, I'll tell you, Queensbridge, to me, it looked messed up.
00:09:19It looked like a buried diamond.
00:09:22And then, I had a chance to have a childhood for at least a little bit, you know.
00:09:29And then, you know, I had to, I felt like I had to become a man early to deal with
00:09:35my environment.
00:09:40So I saw the difference early on with type of parents I came from.
00:09:44Good people, hard workers.
00:09:47We had a color television, we had VCR, you know, we had a carpet.
00:09:51We had nice things in our places compared to some of our other friends who had nothing,
00:09:57who ate, who ate hot dogs for dinner, who ate, who had no furniture, you know, was living bad.
00:10:04Like, we didn't really lack food.
00:10:05My mom was a great cook.
00:10:07Everybody wanted to come to that house.
00:10:09Miss Jones cooking?
00:10:10I'm over there.
00:10:10She had a great spirit.
00:10:12She didn't talk with curse words.
00:10:13She didn't talk street stuff.
00:10:15You understand?
00:10:16She was, she was not like that.
00:10:18We needed stuff.
00:10:19She said, I don't want y'all to go out there and do it.
00:10:21Find another way to get it.
00:10:22I'll get you.
00:10:23My father had a library in the crib.
00:10:26We had, like, a wall unit.
00:10:27It was a library.
00:10:29We had all kinds of books.
00:10:30Everything from the Book of the Dead.
00:10:32Egyptian books about King Tut.
00:10:34Psychology of the Modern Man.
00:10:35Malcolm X.
00:10:36Chung Tzu.
00:10:37Instant facts about the world.
00:10:39History of Chinese philosophy.
00:10:41It came before Columbus, Biden, that's true.
00:10:43Aesop's Fables.
00:10:44Raffle centricity.
00:10:45A Dowdy King.
00:10:46From Superman to Man by J.A. Rogers.
00:10:48The Bible, Proverbs, trials and tribulations of ghetto life.
00:10:52I found that helped him a lot.
00:10:54My pop had been all over the world in the Navy and then traveling through his music.
00:10:59So he had a lot of stories to tell me and my brother about places outside the block, outside
00:11:06the neighborhood, outside New York, outside America.
00:11:10Man, I'm a poor man.
00:11:15So there'd be a xylophone made of wood, trumpets, guitars, maracas.
00:11:20They were toys to me, man.
00:11:22While pops would leave, we'd just be banging on those things.
00:11:26You know what I'm saying?
00:11:27See, Nas, I thought Nas was going to be a great trumpeter.
00:11:31He would play trumpet every day with drummers outside our building.
00:11:36I took the trumpet away from him.
00:11:37I said, you can't play now because your lip might get messed up.
00:11:40Wait until you're like seven, eight years old when your lip is more mature.
00:11:44He was very, he was furious about that.
00:11:46He loved it.
00:11:47So by the time he got to be seven, you know, I often horned again.
00:11:51He said, no, I'm into something else.
00:11:53He used to wake me up in the morning with rhymes every day.
00:11:56Like, yo, how'd it sound?
00:11:58How'd it sound?
00:11:58How'd it sound?
00:11:59But since he was waking me up in the morning, I would tell him, yo, yeah, I didn't like
00:12:04that word.
00:12:05You said this.
00:12:06You should have said that.
00:12:06You know what I mean?
00:12:07He used to come back.
00:12:08Wake me up again.
00:12:09Yo, how'd it sound?
00:12:10This is better than rhyme.
00:12:11But I knew he was the best as soon as I ever heard him rhyme.
00:12:17I had a friend, a real friend, William Graham.
00:12:21We called him Will.
00:12:23We used to play around and make music when we was young.
00:12:27Me and Will, we'd make tapes and stuff like that and play them for our friends.
00:12:33We looked forward to getting together and making tapes.
00:12:36Willie lived right upstairs.
00:12:37He was like my surrogate son, also.
00:12:39He had another way of looking at the world.
00:12:42And the combination of the two, their minds were like, boom, like an explosion.
00:12:46Mike would go upstairs in his crib, and he'd be baking brownies and taping videos.
00:12:50So, one time he said it to a girl on the phone.
00:12:53I guess she said, what you doing?
00:12:54He said, just baking brownies and taping videos.
00:12:57And he bust out laughing.
00:13:00You know, it gets to him, it sounded real soft.
00:13:03So, every day he'd say to somebody, what you doing?
00:13:07Taping, breaking brownies, taping videos?
00:13:09Like, he'd say this to everybody.
00:13:11It's all I want to hear.
00:13:12He made you laugh.
00:13:14He was all about having a good time.
00:13:16That's how we was.
00:13:17We was like two peas in a pod, you know?
00:13:20And we was working on music all the time.
00:13:23But back then, it was like just playing around.
00:13:27And if you want to see a smooth black cabin over, get this over.
00:13:34Tell me why, oh why, trying to make it that so, come with your way.
00:13:40Back then, the vibe was different.
00:13:42The music was, you know, bass, 808s in the music.
00:13:46And people was having a good time.
00:13:49I mean, the style was, like, fresh.
00:13:51It was colorful.
00:13:53It was rich.
00:13:55They used to have the jams in the park.
00:13:57And one of the DJs was from my block, DJ Hot Day.
00:14:03Hot Day was known throughout the neighborhood for bringing out his equipment.
00:14:07Everybody here that the jam was getting ready to happen.
00:14:09And you see them carrying the equipment to the park.
00:14:11And sometimes I try to help.
00:14:15It was life.
00:14:16It was greatness.
00:14:17It was, like, so much potential out there.
00:14:19It wasn't until later that I started to see the deterioration and see the effects of what they started to
00:14:28call crack.
00:14:30We're fighting the crusade for a drug-free America on many fronts.
00:14:36The city was about to look crazy.
00:14:38The city was about to look crazy.
00:14:39It's sad.
00:14:40And it wasn't just a gangster thing.
00:14:43Any and everybody made money off crack.
00:14:47It was survival to the fullest.
00:14:51The collapse of the inner city economy has created a new way of life, an economy based on drugs.
00:14:58People that was older than me were more hip to what was happening.
00:15:00They were making money off it.
00:15:02So, you know, it spread everywhere.
00:15:06And I'm just sitting back watching.
00:15:26I wanted to give you that feeling of New York at nighttime.
00:15:38You know, you look at things like shots going off every night.
00:15:46You're seeing what's happening around you and pregnant ladies trying to smoke crack.
00:15:51It's a $100 billion a year business.
00:15:55Crack-related crime is sore.
00:15:58Dudes is late night waiting to rob you.
00:16:00And you're just maneuvering your way through that.
00:16:05And then the crazy cops coming through.
00:16:08Because they have to be crazy running after somebody in that neighborhood at night.
00:16:11The atmosphere was lit.
00:16:13So now I'm jetting to the building lobby.
00:16:15And it was full of children probably couldn't see as high as obvious.
00:16:19It's like the game ain't the same.
00:16:20Got younger niggas pulling the triggers.
00:16:22Bringing fame to their name.
00:16:24And claim some corners.
00:16:25Cruise.
00:16:27In broad daylight.
00:16:28Stick up kids.
00:16:29They run upon us.
00:16:30Four fives and gauges.
00:16:31Max and facts.
00:16:32Same niggas.
00:16:33They catch you back to back.
00:16:34Catching your tracks in black.
00:16:36There was a snitch on the block.
00:16:37Hitting niggas top.
00:16:39So hold your stash to the door.
00:16:44To survive here.
00:16:46Well, the family at that time was help.
00:16:48Believe me.
00:16:49Especially if you didn't have any help.
00:16:50And we had no help.
00:16:59Yeah, my parents had reached like a final breaking point.
00:17:02You know, where it was it.
00:17:04My pop just kneeled down to me and gave me that one-on-one.
00:17:08I'm sure he said, you know, what he had to say to my brother, too.
00:17:11When he came and talked to me, he gave me that, you're the man of the house speech now.
00:17:14I'm not going to be around now speech.
00:17:16One day, they had a crazy fight.
00:17:19And my father never came back.
00:17:21And I used to look out the window.
00:17:23And my mom told me he wasn't ever coming back to the house.
00:17:26She said he can't come in if he do knock on the door.
00:17:29And I'm there and she ain't there.
00:17:30Don't let him in.
00:17:32And that shit just, um, that shit fucked me up in the mind a little bit.
00:17:37Because I was so young.
00:17:38My mom's never dealt with me as a kid.
00:17:40She always talked to me as if I was her age or I was smart enough to know anything that's
00:17:45going on.
00:17:45So, when she said that shit, you know, I just knew it was real.
00:17:50I'm like, fuck.
00:17:51I just kept looking for him out the window.
00:17:54But he never came back, man.
00:17:56You know what I mean?
00:17:58He moved around Harlem, you know, somewhere else.
00:18:02And I'd visit him there.
00:18:05My mom never spoke anything bad about my father.
00:18:08My mom felt that, you know, she had been done wrong, I guess.
00:18:14You know, she was a hard worker who took care of all of us, including my father sometimes.
00:18:19You know, he wasn't always working.
00:18:21She was the one who provided for all of us.
00:18:24My father had a lot of talent.
00:18:26We got the talent and, um, stuff from him.
00:18:29I think that's where, you know, the talent came from his side and, uh, you know, the intelligence.
00:18:36But the smarts.
00:18:38And then my mom's was so smart, man.
00:18:40Like, I don't even, my mom's is dead and my father's alive.
00:18:44And I don't really want my father to really fucking even, um, damn, I love you, dad.
00:18:50But, yo, my mom's, I wish he was here to be, like, praised as much as he is for Nas's
00:18:55life, especially for Nas.
00:18:57Anything to do with Nas, yo.
00:18:59My mother is the one that, you know what I mean?
00:19:01Without her, we'd be no nothing.
00:19:02And we'd have been going.
00:19:11I know there's times when my mom be crying or sad or she's just moments where she be hugging us
00:19:21when we're little and just talking about how things are going to be all right and all of that.
00:19:24But those were great times because we had a beautiful home inside that neighborhood.
00:19:31Our home was right for the most part.
00:19:35And we had a lot of love, you know.
00:19:37So she was just really positive and happy.
00:19:43You know, she laughed.
00:19:44We laughed together a lot.
00:19:46But, um, she really just wanted the best for me and my brother.
00:20:06I used to be going this way trying to go to school and shit and see all of that early
00:20:12in the morning.
00:20:12Somebody would get shot, all kinds of shit.
00:20:14It was less police, so shit was real.
00:20:19I had to go to junior high school 204.
00:20:21That shit was like Rikers Island.
00:20:23That shit was like jail.
00:20:24It was junior high school.
00:20:31When I found out in New York, they were not raised like we were raised in the South, nurturing, you
00:20:35know, with your own people, raising you.
00:20:38He had never experienced any love like that before.
00:20:44And I went over to enroll them in school.
00:20:46It was almost like enrolling them into hell.
00:20:50It was shocking to me.
00:20:52I felt very bad to see that my father was raised in a nurturing school system.
00:20:57I was raised in a nurturing school system.
00:20:59And here come my kids.
00:21:00I have to have kids in New York City, and they're into this.
00:21:05I did like school in the beginning.
00:21:09I only remember good teachers in elementary school and junior high school a little bit.
00:21:14There was Miss Procone.
00:21:44Well, Naz was in a bright class in first and second grade.
00:21:45And I thought, wow, this kid can express his feelings.
00:21:52They tried to put me into like a slow class in elementary school.
00:21:56And my mom raised hell and got me out of there.
00:22:00I still had dreams.
00:22:02Like, I wondered what it would be like if I was in art and design or some other school that,
00:22:08you know, that really would push some of my talents, you know, that I thought I had.
00:22:13But, um, when you grow up in an environment where the taxpayers are not making a lot of money, then
00:22:22they don't have the funding for schools.
00:22:24And, um, when the schools don't have any money, you get a no-money education.
00:22:31And you wind up getting people who's not motivated and start looking for other ways, faster ways.
00:22:39I would just stop paying attention.
00:22:41I would just daydream.
00:22:43And at junior high school, I got kicked out and put into another junior high school where I really didn't
00:22:48care anymore.
00:22:50So by the time it was time for high school, it was like, I mean, grades was terrible and I
00:22:55didn't care.
00:23:00So I found an assistant principal and a math teacher, and they told me, say, your kids don't belong in
00:23:06here.
00:23:07This will destroy them.
00:23:09They don't care.
00:23:10They were old enough then.
00:23:12They were men to me, because I felt I was a man at that age, 13, 14, or whatever.
00:23:16I said, I'll tell you what you do.
00:23:19Go work.
00:23:20Make you some money.
00:23:21This is America.
00:23:22Quit school if you want to save your own life.
00:23:26Develop your craft or whatever you want to do, and I'll back you.
00:23:30They smile.
00:23:31They smile.
00:23:32I got a call from my mother and my sisters.
00:23:34Everybody, how dare you?
00:23:35How could you do it, you know?
00:23:37I wouldn't have felt right the rest of my life if I had let them just stay in this school
00:23:42and keep being beat down and teachers not really having any love for the kids and stuff like that.
00:23:53Yeah, yeah, he told me if they're not teaching me nothing, then don't go and try and figure out life
00:23:58on my own, and I'm smarter than the teachers anyway.
00:24:02And, um, they was just there to hold us back.
00:24:05He said the whole school system was just holding black men back, black little boys back.
00:24:12So he told us, don't, um, you know, read our own books and, you know, teach ourselves what's going on.
00:24:18And, you know, he knew, I think he knew that we was going to be entrepreneurs, so he told us
00:24:22that we didn't need school.
00:24:24And my mother didn't agree with that shit, but it worked for us, yeah.
00:24:29You know, my mom's biggest fear was us not doing school, and at the end of the day, I didn't
00:24:35want to hurt her.
00:24:36My friends, you know, all of them were in the game.
00:24:39I didn't want to do that full time.
00:24:41I didn't want to do that at all, really, and I really didn't have to.
00:24:46I planned to be something, like, really something.
00:24:50You know, I was just really into music, writing, whatever, just anything around arts.
00:24:56And I just kept telling myself, this can't be my career, this other thing.
00:25:01It can't.
00:25:02I had a passion for creating things, so that was going to be my out.
00:25:13We came here tonight to get started, to go act ill or get retarded.
00:25:27Back in the days, Roxanne Chate was getting a name as this big rapper in the neighborhood.
00:25:35And she came in my building one time, and she heard us in the hallway trying to rap.
00:25:40And Chate said, look, you know, I want y'all to come perform with me.
00:25:45There was, like, some Queensbridge Park jam that was going to happen that we heard about,
00:25:48and she wanted to bring us on as a crew.
00:25:50It's like, oh, wow.
00:25:51So we talking about this every day, working on it.
00:25:53That's when we started to realize we're not really good.
00:25:56So she asked us, you know, spit for it.
00:25:59It's a different time.
00:26:00And we tried to rap, and we started laughing because it wasn't coming out right.
00:26:05She didn't laugh.
00:26:05She said, listen, if y'all don't have y'all routine, next time I see y'all, I'm fucking both
00:26:09of y'all up.
00:26:11She's older than us and taller than us, and we believed her.
00:26:15Basically, around 84, I started sampling at the crib in Queensbridge.
00:26:21Now, the funny thing about me making records, I didn't make records or get into this industry for the money
00:26:26or anything else.
00:26:27If I was making a beat in the window and it was blasting out, and somebody was walking through 12th
00:26:32Street,
00:26:32if they didn't stop and do a two-step or something, I would make a new beat.
00:26:36Ladies and gentlemen, we got MC Shane and Molly Ball in the house tonight.
00:26:41They just came from off tour.
00:26:42They want to tell you a little story about where they come from.
00:26:451985, maybe I'm 11, maybe I'm 12.
00:26:49My man comes to get me, yo, there's this new song by MC Shane.
00:26:53He's like, yo, he got a song called The Bridge about the neighborhood.
00:27:00Which was never meant to be a record, that's crazy.
00:27:02It was meant to be intermission music for Queensbridge Day.
00:27:06But the tape went around Queensbridge, and hey, it became a Queensbridge hit.
00:27:12And the rest is history.
00:27:14You love to hear the story again and again of how it all got started way back when.
00:27:19When I heard that record, I just stopped everything I was doing.
00:27:22It was like, oh, shit.
00:27:27You automatically knew it was a smash.
00:27:30You know, the pride was crazy.
00:27:32You know, we had an anthem.
00:27:33It was on the radio.
00:27:35People knew.
00:27:36Yeah, I'm from Queensbridge.
00:27:37I couldn't believe they lived in this neighborhood with us, you know what I'm saying?
00:27:40So that was amazing to me.
00:27:43Then you say, there goes Shan.
00:27:44There goes Marley in his car.
00:27:46You meet people and tell them where you're from.
00:27:48Most people never heard of this place.
00:27:50That song changed everything.
00:27:54I go down south.
00:27:56I'm a Shan fan and everything.
00:27:58I'm a fan of everybody else, but I'm really good.
00:28:00I'm really feeling good about my neighborhood and everything.
00:28:02I get back.
00:28:03The day I get back, the kids are talking about the South Bronx record.
00:28:09And I'm like, what?
00:28:10And it was like, yo, this is record.
00:28:11They dissed Shan and Marley.
00:28:13I'm like, all right.
00:28:15Let me hear it.
00:28:20Oh, man, you know how wild they all they hating, you know what I mean?
00:28:23Oh, they trying to be like Shan and Marley.
00:28:25But it was also raw that he was just going South Bronx.
00:28:30South, South Bronx.
00:28:31Get it, South Bronx.
00:28:32Oh, the beat is tough.
00:28:34I can't front.
00:28:35So Shan put out Kill That Noise.
00:28:38Rap in any style, all categories.
00:28:41Fresh freestyle, surreal, live stories.
00:28:43Jam is dedicated to you and your boys.
00:28:46And if you knew what I knew, then you'd kill that noise.
00:28:52And then the bridge is over, King.
00:28:54That's it.
00:28:54The bridge is over.
00:28:55The bridge is over.
00:28:57The bridge is over.
00:28:58The bridge is over.
00:28:59Hey, hey, hey.
00:29:03It just silenced everything.
00:29:06It was like, oh.
00:29:08Oh, they're not playing.
00:29:10Manhattan keeps on making it.
00:29:11Brooklyn keeps on taking it.
00:29:12Bronx keeps creating it.
00:29:14And Queens keeps on faking it.
00:29:23I was like, it's real.
00:29:26It was a battle.
00:29:27Shan was in that battle.
00:29:29Shan did his thing.
00:29:30KRS-One did his thing.
00:29:31The morale went down to Queensbridge until the Nas's came out.
00:29:35That was our lives, you know what I mean?
00:29:37That was not only our lives.
00:29:39That was the whole Queensbridge lives, you know what I mean?
00:29:41Then we knew fucking KRS-One just said, the bridge is over and all that shit.
00:29:47We was little kids coming up under that shit.
00:29:49Like, you know, the bridge ain't over.
00:29:50We super ill niggas out here.
00:29:52Like, so we had to let the world know how ill we was.
00:29:55Like, when everybody thought in hip-hop that the bridge was over, when you fucking crazy, we was ill.
00:30:07I already knew I had to prepare to block that hate out or to tear that down.
00:30:14And much worse was to tear it down.
00:30:46As a kid back then, I felt like every day was one step away from the end.
00:31:02Me, my man Will, and my man Bo, we went to see Aliens 3.
00:31:09Will never smoked weed, but we thought it was the best thing.
00:31:13Smoking weed just chilled us out, especially Will.
00:31:17He can, you never know, he's unpredictable.
00:31:19Somebody come around, say the wrong thing, he's on their head.
00:31:23So I felt like if he smoked, he'd be chill.
00:31:28We're watching a movie and it was, let me hit that.
00:31:32And he really hit it.
00:31:33We're like, oh, this is crazy.
00:31:35And when we got back to the block, me and Bo had went to go get some weed,
00:31:40but Will stayed on the block.
00:31:41And I think he was collecting money because we was throwing a barbecue.
00:31:45So everybody that's out there that's hustling, they got to put in too.
00:31:50Somebody thought that he was extorting them and started yelling and smacked them.
00:31:55He had a big Gucci link chain with a big Mercedes-Benz medallion.
00:31:59And she popped it.
00:32:00He was already on one.
00:32:02We was lit up for the movie, so he just reacted back.
00:32:05He beat up this girl and shit and, um, she called her baby father and her boyfriend.
00:32:11Her baby father and her brother.
00:32:13And the niggas had stepped to me.
00:32:15I remember I was sitting right here.
00:32:17My man ain't never hit no girl in his life.
00:32:19Matter of fact, if a girl got hit out there, they could come get him.
00:32:23And he's stepping to somebody for the girl.
00:32:25But it's just like, in the heat of a moment, certain violations, you know, you react to them.
00:32:32And that was a first.
00:32:34I was sitting right here and the niggas had stepped to me like, yo, where's Lil Will at?
00:32:38Where's Lil Will at?
00:32:39And one nigga was like, you know what I mean?
00:32:43He's like, he's going to do it.
00:32:44You know what I mean?
00:32:44So I knew they wasn't playing.
00:32:46I tried to lie to them, but they was serious.
00:32:48So I told him a super lie, like, yo, he went that way.
00:32:51Then when he came, when Will came, I was like, yo, he was over there where them kids is at.
00:32:55And they saw us.
00:32:57And I was like, Will, they coming now.
00:32:59He said, nigga, I'm not running from nobody.
00:33:01And then when the dude just did this shit, I looked at him and he looked at me.
00:33:07And his eyes opened up wide and I saw the life leave.
00:33:10His eyes stayed in one position.
00:33:12I was like, oh, shit, he's dead.
00:33:14So I was like, yo, shit, today's the day that everybody's going to do it.
00:33:18I thought I was going to die, too.
00:33:19And I felt the bullets plucking through my shirt and my pants.
00:33:23One right here in the shoulder up there.
00:33:25It grazed me, took a little meat off.
00:33:28And then one came through my leg from the back and came out right there.
00:33:33Nas came out this building right here.
00:33:35He's talking to a girl in this building.
00:33:37He came out this building right here and walked over there, looked at me on the floor.
00:33:41I said, yo, don't tell mommy.
00:33:43I swear to God.
00:33:44I told that nigga, don't tell mommy.
00:33:45Like, I could strength that shot and somehow spend the night out and come home without my mom's knowing I
00:33:51got shot.
00:33:52When I heard the shots, I came, you know, I knew that the shots would happen in the area where
00:33:57we're at.
00:33:57So I went downstairs and I came outside.
00:34:01And the first person I saw was my bro.
00:34:04Was Jungle.
00:34:04He was on the ground.
00:34:07And his eyes, he was, his eyes were open.
00:34:10He was, he was good.
00:34:13Then I see my man.
00:34:17And, um, so he wasn't moving.
00:34:29I mean, at that point, it was like we let somebody take one of us out.
00:34:34You know what I mean?
00:34:35Like, we, it's, it's it, man.
00:34:37Like, we might as well all go.
00:34:40Nothing mattered no more.
00:34:41We, whatever.
00:34:46I ain't blaming nobody, but I would have moved.
00:34:51You know what I mean?
00:34:51If my son got shot, all right, I used to tell my mother this shit.
00:34:55Why didn't we move, yo?
00:34:57I had to come outside and look at this block again and all that shit was traumatizing.
00:35:02That shit made me into, like, a crazy person.
00:35:04That shit made me a shooter and all that shit.
00:35:06That shit made me like that.
00:35:07Give me a cigarette, yo.
00:35:13You know, at that point, even life itself didn't seem too valuable.
00:35:18Somebody else's, mine, nobody seemed valuable at that point.
00:35:24Will was a lot of things to knowledge.
00:35:26He was very creative, just like knowledge was.
00:35:29He was very knowledgeable about a lot of things.
00:35:32They read, basically, they thought basically the same.
00:35:36And they were basically brothers, in a way, you know?
00:35:38So I noticed his demeanor did change.
00:35:41He got more, maybe cynical about the world or whatever.
00:35:45He had a little sadness in him.
00:35:48A little hurt.
00:35:49I can still see that in him sometimes.
00:35:53To me, it made him take life serious, because he was right on the verge of getting that record deal
00:35:58around that time.
00:35:59And it's either you sell drugs and be in the hood forever, or you do this music shit.
00:36:04Once Will died, he did music.
00:36:06We didn't even barely see him no more, because Will was down with what he was trying to do.
00:36:11They was all together trying to do the music shit.
00:36:14After he passed, it was like he was orchestrating things from upstairs.
00:36:22It was around that time, man.
00:36:24We felt it happening.
00:36:26We felt like something good was about to happen.
00:36:32We got introduced to Nas, dude, my homie Joe Fatal, and his boy Mel Kwan.
00:36:38They came to me and said, yo, we got this guy.
00:36:41He wants to make a demo.
00:36:42You know, he has his own money and everything.
00:36:45And he wants to see if you can make a beat for him.
00:36:48And he's like, yeah, I'm up here working with Eric B and Rakim and Coogee Rap and all these big
00:36:55names.
00:36:55And I'm like, damn, you know, this was it.
00:36:59This was where, you know, the hip-hop albums were being made in the studio right here.
00:37:05There's a lot of dudes, a lot of street dudes.
00:37:07Me and Nas being young, 15, 16, and we going inside.
00:37:14And Nas is like, yo, go in the booth.
00:37:17You know, everybody talking, and he just quietly, like, yo, go in the booth.
00:37:23Nas is going in the booth.
00:37:24He's throwing a beat, and he start rhyming, and everybody get quiet.
00:37:32I was in the Mecca.
00:37:34I was inside the place that everybody wanted to be.
00:37:40In my mind, this is what I was thinking, right?
00:37:42All right, all right, you wanted to do this, you're here now, baby.
00:37:47You're here.
00:37:49This is it.
00:37:51Do your thing.
00:37:56This rhythmatic explosion is what your frame of mind has chosen.
00:38:00I leave your brain stimulated.
00:38:02Niggas is frozen.
00:38:03Speak with criminal slang.
00:38:04Begin like a violin.
00:38:05End like Naviah thinners deep.
00:38:07Well, let me try again.
00:38:08Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit troop.
00:38:10I dominate break loops, giving Mike's ministry cycles.
00:38:13Streets disciple.
00:38:14I rock beats this mega trifle.
00:38:16And groove even smoother than moves by Villanova.
00:38:18You're still a soldier.
00:38:19I'm like Slotstone and Cobra.
00:38:21Packin' like a Rasa in the weed spot.
00:38:23Vocals are squeezed glocks.
00:38:24MCs e-drop, though they need not to sneak.
00:38:27My poetry's deep.
00:38:28I never fail.
00:38:29Nas's rap should be locked in a cell.
00:38:31It ain't hard to tell.
00:38:32Who's that back there?
00:38:33Who's that?
00:38:34Who's that?
00:38:34Who's that?
00:38:34Who's that?
00:38:35Man, that boy, nice.
00:38:37God damn.
00:38:38That nigga is old.
00:38:39Man, how old are y'all?
00:38:40It was just like, yo, that's crazy right there.
00:38:43Like, yo, you good?
00:38:46Like, yo, you good, man?
00:38:47I'm excellent with that, man, right there.
00:38:49So we was on from there.
00:38:51Let me formally introduce my boy.
00:38:53This is my man, the rapper Nas, Nancy Nas.
00:38:56You know what I'm saying?
00:38:57I'm a fucking man.
00:38:59I started off on my verse from Live at the Barbecue.
00:39:02Everybody was just excited.
00:39:03You know, this is something new.
00:39:04This is going to come up and change the game.
00:39:06They're not even going to see you coming.
00:39:07Hey, yo, it's like that job.
00:39:09That job.
00:39:11That job.
00:39:11That job.
00:39:12That job.
00:39:13That job.
00:39:14That job.
00:39:14That job.
00:39:15That job.
00:39:15That job.
00:39:16Nah.
00:39:16And that's all.
00:39:18I'm choosing the sight room.
00:39:19My rap's a trifle.
00:39:20I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle.
00:39:23Stampede to stage.
00:39:24I'll leave them like a false split.
00:39:25Blaine just cut me while I'm on some pretty dope shit.
00:39:27Yeah.
00:39:28I'm an assassin.
00:39:29Law of the tech pleases.
00:39:30When I was 12, I went to hell for stuff to Jesus.
00:39:32Yeah.
00:39:32My eyes is a weapon to America.
00:39:34America.
00:39:35Murderer, I'm crossing the stereo.
00:39:37My troops roll up with a strange force.
00:39:39I was trapped in a cave.
00:39:40They got out by the main source.
00:39:42Swimming in women like a lifeguard.
00:39:44Put on a bulletproof nigga, I strike hard.
00:39:46Kidnapped the president's wife without a plan.
00:39:49And hangin' niggas like a Ku Klux Klan.
00:39:51I melt mics to the sound waves over.
00:39:53Hey, yo.
00:39:53Before stepping on me, you'd rather step to church over.
00:39:56Slamming them seeds on cement.
00:39:58Cause I believe, I'm iller than an age patient.
00:40:01I move swift and uplift your mind.
00:40:03Shoot to death when I riff and rhyme.
00:40:05Hey, yo.
00:40:05Rappin' sniper.
00:40:06Hey, yo.
00:40:06Speak it real when the force reacts.
00:40:08Like Steven Spielberg.
00:40:10Moetry attacks.
00:40:11Parallel rap punch hard.
00:40:12My brain is insane.
00:40:13I melt your lunch guard.
00:40:14Sides drop.
00:40:15My raps are toxic.
00:40:17My voice box locks in itself.
00:40:18Hey, yo.
00:40:19It's like that job.
00:40:20That job.
00:40:20That job.
00:40:21That job.
00:40:22That job.
00:40:24That job.
00:40:24That job.
00:40:25That job.
00:40:26That job.
00:40:26Hey, yo.
00:40:29It was one of the illest lines anyone had ever heard an MC say.
00:40:32When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus.
00:40:37I mean, I must have rewound that like a hundred times.
00:40:42This main source album is brilliant.
00:40:44But who's that kid?
00:40:49It almost felt like within a week, everybody wanted to know who that guy was.
00:40:54Nas said the line, when I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus.
00:40:58And I said, like, who is this guy?
00:41:00You know, it's crazy.
00:41:02I went on a mission to try to find him.
00:41:04I originally met Nas in 92, and Nas was at G-Rap's crib.
00:41:08It wasn't until 93, when I was working on my solo album, that I really got to know Nas.
00:41:13And he came to the studio when I was doing Back to the Grill again.
00:41:15Back to the grill again.
00:41:16The grill again.
00:41:17Back to the grill again.
00:41:19So get up and get down.
00:41:21Search will never stand still.
00:41:22So here's the true or false.
00:41:23Tell me if it's factable.
00:41:24You want to kill the clan?
00:41:25Shoot the fans out.
00:41:26Attractable.
00:41:27Got crazy games, so no one can stop me.
00:41:29But, hey, yo, I'm white.
00:41:30I guess my game is hockey.
00:41:31Back to the grill again, the grill again, back to the grill again, the grill again.
00:41:36Grilled.
00:41:37Keep a tech nine in my dresser.
00:41:39Lyrical professor, keep you under pressure.
00:41:41Mind like a computer, the inserter.
00:41:44Paragraph's a murder, the nightclub flirter.
00:41:46This is Nas, kid, you know how it runs.
00:41:48I'm waving automatic guns at nuns.
00:41:50Sticking up the preachers in the church.
00:41:52I'm a stone crook, serial killer, who works by the phone book.
00:41:56Waving automatic guns at nuns.
00:41:58I never saw those verses as being shock and awe.
00:42:02They weren't just about the words themselves.
00:42:06They were about an emotion and a feeling.
00:42:09So you had to use an example.
00:42:12Like, I am so angry at the system that I have to channel that anguish and that frustration
00:42:21into waving automatic guns at nuns.
00:42:24For you, I got a lot to shoot, the songs are here.
00:42:27My rhymes are hotter than a prostitute with gonorrhea.
00:42:29On the mic, I live for carolary spills.
00:42:31It's like that jaw.
00:42:32That jaw, kick them in the grill.
00:42:34I get a call from my friend, MC Search.
00:42:36And Search says, I found that kid you're looking for.
00:42:40You know, that kid Nasty Knots from Queensbridge.
00:42:42And he said, not only did I find him, but I got two demos on him.
00:42:46I said to my boss, if you never let me sign anything, just please let me sign this kid,
00:42:52you know, and he said, okay, all right, all right, you know, and that's kind of how it
00:42:57happened.
00:42:59So I always wanted to be on Columbia Records.
00:43:02They just seemed like the most serious record label to me.
00:43:05But now I'm invited in, you know what I mean?
00:43:09And I'm like, it's about time you'll recognize, right?
00:43:12And I'm looking at all the history on the walls.
00:43:14I'm kind of looking around the place like, you guys are waiting for me.
00:43:19You know, I'm talking to the walls and the desks and the plaques and the floors and people
00:43:25walk.
00:43:25I'm like, this is, you guys have been setting this up for me.
00:43:30And I'm here.
00:43:31That's how I felt.
00:43:31I'm like, this is home now.
00:43:34He never told me I got the deal.
00:43:36He never said that shit.
00:43:38He just came back with the money.
00:43:40You know what I mean?
00:43:40Like, yo, I got some money.
00:43:42He didn't tell me how much he had or nothing.
00:43:44He just was like, yo, what you want?
00:43:46Go to Macy's and get it.
00:43:47You know what I mean?
00:43:48He brought me some gas jeans and shit like that.
00:43:51Like, yo, here.
00:43:52You want some money?
00:43:53I got you and all that shit.
00:43:54And I didn't even know what he was doing.
00:43:56I didn't know how.
00:43:56I just figured, cool, you got this little bit of money.
00:44:00That's the most money we ever going to have, ever.
00:44:04And you know what I mean?
00:44:05This is the end.
00:44:05You're going to do some videos and we good.
00:44:07We're back in the hood.
00:44:08And that's the shine that we got.
00:44:10I didn't even know that shit meant the world.
00:44:12You know what I mean?
00:44:13I thought that shit just meant the bridge.
00:44:14I hear the bridge beat.
00:44:16This the anthem right here, yo.
00:44:18That's what you got in the front, right?
00:44:20I think.
00:44:20No question.
00:44:21We need the bridge in the house.
00:44:23All right.
00:44:24One, two.
00:44:24Yo, but people, you know what I'm saying?
00:44:26Like, people has definitely been waiting for the album.
00:44:28Why don't you let them know what's going on with that?
00:44:30Yeah, the album getting ready to come out in January.
00:44:33The name of that is Illmatic.
00:44:35You heard live of the barbecue.
00:44:37You heard Back to the Grill again.
00:44:39So now is album time.
00:44:42New York State of Miles, I knew it was going to be the first record on the album.
00:44:45I'm bringing you through hell and back.
00:44:47I'm bringing you in.
00:44:48Here it is.
00:44:49This is song number one when you popping that tape.
00:45:03I said, I want to do something that's slow.
00:45:05So I'm already thinking, dog, some walk with me type of joint.
00:45:09Yo, it got to make you do this.
00:45:10And that make you do that.
00:45:19I don't know how to start this.
00:45:23Rappers are lucky, flipping with the funky rhythm.
00:45:25I be kicking, musician, inflicted composition.
00:45:28A pain, I'm like star face, sniffing cocaine.
00:45:31Holding the M16, see what the pen, I'm extreme.
00:45:34Now, bullet holes, left in my P-close.
00:45:36I'm shooting up with street clothes.
00:45:38Hand me a nine and out the P-close.
00:45:39When I wrote the review for Illmatic in the Source magazine,
00:45:43I didn't know that it was going to change hip-hop.
00:45:45I only knew that it changed me with one listen.
00:45:48Illmatic's the album for the 90s era where I was growing up.
00:45:52The stories he was telling was something I can relate to.
00:45:54Illmatic will always be number one.
00:45:56Coming from Dallas, Texas, Illmatic was my secret.
00:45:59It was my weapon.
00:46:00It was the steel that sharpened my steel,
00:46:02which set the tone for Badoism and everything else that I would do.
00:46:07In 1994, I was nine years old.
00:46:11I came up in Fayetteville, North Carolina,
00:46:12so a lot of things didn't make it to me.
00:46:14He hit us with life lessons and insight
00:46:16on how to maneuver through this world
00:46:18as just young black men in America.
00:46:29Fab Five Freddy, I'm in the laboratory with my man right here.
00:46:33It's big Nas, son.
00:46:35It's Illmatic.
00:46:35Illmatic.
00:46:36Illmatic.
00:46:37Illmatic.
00:46:38Illmatic.
00:46:38Illmatic.
00:46:38Illmatic.
00:46:39Illmatic.
00:46:39Illmatic.
00:46:40Illmatic.
00:46:40Nas called me, was like, yo,
00:46:42I got one more slider on the record.
00:46:44Come to the studio, bring all your discs, bring all your beats.
00:46:48I didn't even get a chance to play anything.
00:46:50The first beat that I pulled up was Life's the Bitch.
00:46:55Yeah!
00:46:56We've been doing that.
00:46:59The wasps is going to wifey.
00:47:00And you know how that go.
00:47:02Yes, sir.
00:47:02But my nigga, is it all about just getting money?
00:47:05Is it all about just driving the Flyers' car?
00:47:07Let's do it.
00:47:08If not, I need you to tell me what it's all about.
00:47:11I'm from Brooklyn.
00:47:12I'm from East New York.
00:47:13And, you know, where I'm from,
00:47:15the homicide of eight is like an all-time high.
00:47:18When I wrote Life's the Bitch,
00:47:21another one of my homies just passed.
00:47:22That was like the third one.
00:47:23A lot of brothers was incarcerated.
00:47:26I shot it at one of my homies,
00:47:27and they was like,
00:47:29damn, son.
00:47:29Like, oh, shit.
00:47:31I felt it from the heart.
00:47:33I felt it from the heart.
00:48:15The rhyme flow from an MC perspective that the nigga put down was crazy.
00:48:19But when you say,
00:48:21I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it,
00:48:25nestled within all of that street grimy shit the nigga talking,
00:48:30it's hope.
00:48:31I woke up early on my born day.
00:48:33Party is a blessing.
00:48:34That's just a battle that can lead my life.
00:48:36I'm a physical friend.
00:48:38Celebrated because I made it.
00:48:40I brought a new life that God created.
00:48:42I got promised to 65.
00:48:44Annual plus, so hold up the mic and bust one.
00:48:47That's what I'm going for.
00:48:47My skull is pain in my brain.
00:48:50Body maintained, I'm going to get some bread.
00:48:52Simple as mine.
00:48:53When I was young, I used to do my dick.
00:48:55Robin, father, to take their violence, they jury,
00:48:57a bitch that's a dream car.
00:48:59I trip to the hood, flash in my quick clashing.
00:49:01Got my first piece of ass.
00:49:03Just for your ass.
00:49:04It was all about cash and the bunnings.
00:49:06Niggas, I used to run with this bitch that you were years and the honey.
00:49:09I switched my motto.
00:49:11Shouted to Sam Buck, come on with that buck.
00:49:12And what about him?
00:49:13Just fuck the lotto.
00:49:15At times I look back, loose crass, with new stats.
00:49:18Tipped up, just small pieces, I get my boot back.
00:49:20Tom, Brazil, Maddox, keeps static.
00:49:22Wolf fabric, pack of four, Maddox.
00:49:24And wrap the oven.
00:49:30Early on, my pops told me, you know, you're going to be the man in the house, I'm out.
00:49:35My mom told us, you know, and he's still your father, he still loves you.
00:49:39You know, all that story, and it was like, I'm sure I wasn't happy about it,
00:49:44but, you know, to me, I always been like, that's life, you know, keep pushing.
00:49:55The track just had a jazzy feel to it, I just felt like I could hear my pop on it.
00:50:01I just asked him to play something that reminded him of what me and my brother was kids in the
00:50:06neighborhood.
00:50:28I mean, that record is the mindset of most people today still, it's still me.
00:50:37It's still who I am as far as, when you listen to those words, it's sort of like philosophy in
00:50:44a way, you know,
00:50:45it's like, you know, it's talking about life.
00:50:55That 19-year-old was the beginnings of me, you know, it was the beginnings of who I am today.
00:51:03And if it wasn't for me in that mindset then, you know, people wouldn't know, people wouldn't be with me
00:51:11today.
00:51:31The vibe of that song was straight Tony Montana, Scarface.
00:51:35The world is yours, that's what it said on the blimp.
00:51:38That was serious in the movie when he saw that.
00:51:43It was like a sign.
00:51:47I saw this jazz album, Ahmad Jamal, and I, you know, just threw it on one day as I was
00:51:53vacuuming my room
00:51:54and I heard the loop go by.
00:52:01So that's when I started making the drums, I was like, let me just put something in there that's kind
00:52:05of like,
00:52:06not just your regular boom bap, but something else, like a ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.
00:52:19That was the first beat, and when he heard it, I saw him just freeze, you know what I'm saying?
00:52:26And just, you know, just start closing his eyes and getting an idea.
00:52:31He came up with the idea of me singing the hook, and I wasn't with it.
00:52:35He was like, nah, I want you to sing it, man.
00:52:37And he started singing it the way he wanted me to do it, and then I did it, you know
00:52:41what I'm saying?
00:52:41Whose world is this?
00:52:44The world is yours.
00:52:45The world is yours.
00:52:46The world is mine.
00:52:47Whose world is yours?
00:52:50The world is yours.
00:52:54The world is yours.
00:52:56The world is mine.
00:52:58The world is yours.
00:52:58I said the world is yours.
00:52:59I said the dog piece.
00:52:59I said Gandhi till I'm charged.
00:53:01Writing in my book of rhymes.
00:53:03Word, God, God.
00:53:04Hard, yeah.
00:53:04The hope of Michael's driving.
00:53:05Mechanical movement.
00:53:07Understand I'm a smooth shit.
00:53:08Learn a smooth way.
00:53:09The thief stick.
00:53:10Play me a knife.
00:53:11It won't act like it.
00:53:12The feet of hip hop.
00:53:13It got me shot like a crackpot.
00:53:15The mind activation.
00:53:16React like a face.
00:53:17And now I'm like happy nation.
00:53:19The pins are creation.
00:53:20Wipe the sweat off my dome.
00:53:22The flim on the streets.
00:53:23Swayed tips on my feet.
00:53:24The time for complete.
00:53:25Weather cruising in the sixth camp.
00:53:27My mind's there on TV.
00:53:28I can't call it.
00:53:29The feet tell me fall.
00:53:31I keep falling.
00:53:32What?
00:53:32But never falling six feet.
00:53:33I'm out for presidents to represent me.
00:53:35Just forgot to say what?
00:53:37Presidents to represent me.
00:53:38Just forgot to say what?
00:53:39I'm out for dead presidents.
00:53:41Whose world is this?
00:53:44The world is your world.
00:53:45Think of the word best described in my life to name my daughter.
00:53:48My strength.
00:53:49My son the star will be my resurrection.
00:53:52Think of the word best described in my life.
00:53:54My son the star will be my resurrection.
00:53:57Born in correction, all the wrongs that I did.
00:53:59The lead is a right direction.
00:54:00How you living large or broken...
00:54:01I had no idea I would have kids in that order the way I wrote that rhyme and what their
00:54:07sexes
00:54:07would be.
00:54:07It's just I spoke that on my first album and that's how life turned out.
00:54:11That is just chilling.
00:54:17All right, peace.
00:54:19Peace.
00:54:25I was born right here.
00:54:28Snacky boy.
00:54:29Hey.
00:54:32What up?
00:54:33What up?
00:54:34Oh, shit.
00:54:35Oh, shit.
00:54:36What up, man?
00:54:37What up, man?
00:54:38What up, man?
00:54:39Karate K?
00:54:40What's up, baby?
00:54:42What's up with you?
00:54:43This is a dude here that used to snap on me every day.
00:54:46If I came outside and my sneakers was fucked up, he would send me back upstairs.
00:54:51This dude was the best ever.
00:54:53The best.
00:54:54What up, baby?
00:54:54Huge fan, man.
00:54:55Oh, love.
00:54:55This is a match.
00:54:56You already know.
00:54:57Yo, I could bring cameras.
00:54:59Y'all all right with that?
00:55:00Just wanna check with y'all to make sure.
00:55:03Peace.
00:55:04How you?
00:55:06How you?
00:55:07What up, baby?
00:55:07What up?
00:55:08Nigga, I'm big as hell.
00:55:09Yeah, I'm home.
00:55:11Ain't a little messiah no more.
00:55:12You ain't a little big messiah now.
00:55:14Welcome home, my nigga.
00:55:16Hey.
00:55:17What's up, now?
00:55:18What's going on?
00:55:19Yeah, dog.
00:55:20Hey, y'all.
00:55:22Peace.
00:55:23Hey.
00:55:24Peace.
00:55:25What up?
00:55:28I love you, too, baby.
00:55:31I never saw that I'd be having this day to look back and think about where I come from
00:55:39and made it to where I'm at.
00:55:42This was a story that needed to be told.
00:55:44It was already told by MC Shan and Molly Ma, Craig G, Shantae, the Juice Crew.
00:55:51You know what I'm saying?
00:55:51It was already a tragedy.
00:55:53It was already told.
00:55:55So I was just an extension of that.
00:55:57You know what I'm saying?
00:55:58They paved this way.
00:56:00They made this happen.
00:56:02What's up, little man?
00:56:03Come here.
00:56:04Give me a five.
00:56:07How you doing?
00:56:08What's your name?
00:56:09Noah.
00:56:09What's your name?
00:56:10Noah.
00:56:10Noah.
00:56:11Nice to meet you, Noah.
00:56:12What's your middle name?
00:56:13Stay good, man.
00:56:14What's your middle name?
00:56:14Nasir.
00:56:15Nasir?
00:56:17Give me five, man.
00:56:19Yo, look.
00:56:20Everybody with that name are kings.
00:56:22So we are kings, okay?
00:56:24Just know that for the rest of your life.
00:56:26Don't ever think anything else.
00:56:28Just know that you're a king, all right?
00:56:30My man.
00:56:32Be good.
00:56:35What's up, man?
00:56:36Give me five.
00:56:37Give me five.
00:56:48I remember being in Europe
00:56:51and hadn't seen my boys for a long time.
00:56:53So I went out to Kingsbury's to look for them.
00:56:56And a man with a camera, a guy I knew,
00:56:58he said, hey, there you boys.
00:57:00And they come running over.
00:57:03They hugged me and kissed me and shit,
00:57:05and then posed for the photograph.
00:57:11I just never forget how they looked.
00:57:13Because they had changed.
00:57:15I had been gone so long.
00:57:17But you could just tell they had been released
00:57:19from their mother's arms,
00:57:21and they were just out there just having fun, you know?
00:57:30Yeah, it's Illmatic, yeah.
00:57:33When I first saw that Illmatic cover, I knew exactly where the photograph came from.
00:57:38From the look of the photograph, you could just tell.
00:57:40This way his mind just opened up.
00:57:44To me, his mind was saying, wow, what a world.
00:57:48What a world.
00:57:53So you'd have this your background for Illmatic.
00:57:58Danny Clintz, the photographer, when he showed us this picture,
00:58:02it just felt like you get a chance to see the neighborhood in a larger way.
00:58:18That day was a big day for me because we had made it.
00:58:21We were rolling out with an album.
00:58:23We were doing a photo shoot for the album.
00:58:26There was no stylist.
00:58:28There was no budget for anything except cameraman.
00:58:32To get to that point is the biggest day in your life.
00:58:35So we were celebrating.
00:58:50And I said, come outside, y'all.
00:58:52The camera crew is outside.
00:58:55Everybody knew Nas was a rapper.
00:58:57You know, he had a song out.
00:58:58So, you know, people came outside.
00:59:03There's a lot of people around that want to kill each other that just got together that day.
00:59:08Just for the pictures and shit.
00:59:12That was a crazy day in the world.
00:59:19Everybody got their turn in Queensbridge for something to happen.
00:59:25Some of them people are going to catch murders.
00:59:27Some of them people are going to get beat up.
00:59:29Some of them people are going to go to jail.
00:59:32But all of them people are going to have a story.
00:59:39Everything will happen to each individual in that picture one by one.
00:59:47He's doing 15 years.
00:59:50He's fighting a murder.
00:59:56He's doing life in prison.
00:59:59He just got locked up.
01:00:01No bail.
01:00:04My man is just...
01:00:06My man is just, um...
01:00:07He just did some tough shitload of time in fucking North Carolina.
01:00:11Bricks, crazy ass life.
01:00:14He do a bunch of fucking time in and out of jail.
01:00:18Well, this shit is real, it's the projects.
01:00:27That's fucked up.
01:00:37It's so fucked up just to see what happened,
01:00:40you know what I'm saying?
01:00:41Like, it makes me really realize if it wasn't for music,
01:00:44you would have told a story about that kid, too, on the bench.
01:00:48If it wasn't for music, you would have went along that line,
01:00:51telling that story,
01:00:51or maybe I wouldn't have even been in that picture.
01:00:54That's not what I wanted to see happen to nobody in that picture.
01:00:58You know, I wanted the best for my friends, you know what I'm saying?
01:01:01So, yeah, it's crazy.
01:01:11I still have dreams about being here.
01:01:13I still have dreams like I'm here.
01:01:15I don't know what it means.
01:01:17I feel like every hood is haunted by the brothers that walk through there.
01:01:20You know, the essence of them is still here.
01:01:23It helped make this place what it is.
01:01:26They kind of, like, govern it spiritually, you know what I mean?
01:01:29So, you always remember the homies.
01:01:31You always remember the ones that meant a lot,
01:01:33that died for even this neighborhood,
01:01:35that died for us to be here.
01:01:38I feel like a voice for those ones that passed on.
01:01:43You know what I mean?
01:01:45Because I was here.
01:01:46This was me.
01:01:47This was what it was about for me.
01:01:49You know what I'm saying?
01:01:49Man, this was like...
01:01:52This was life.
01:01:53This was a bad movie.
01:01:55Yeah!
01:01:56Yeah!
01:02:02This song right here goes out to everybody you love,
01:02:06and especially, all the motherfuckers on lockdown!
01:02:09Hold your hand!
01:02:10Yeah!
01:02:12Hold your hand, my niggas!
01:02:14Hold your hand!
01:02:14And from the L to the O.
01:02:17Now going with a B, with an E.
01:02:20Over here, we fist at, we rock out in our city.
01:02:26The L, the L, the L, the L.
01:02:36The O, the O, the O.
01:02:40Real love!
01:02:41Every day, repeat, repeat!
01:02:44If y'all know about love real, y'all!
01:02:49If y'all know about real love,
01:02:51remember you say love!
01:02:53Love!
01:02:54Love!
01:02:54Love!
01:02:57Love!
01:02:57Love!
01:03:01Love!
01:03:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:03:09Large Professor hit me and told me,
01:03:11yo, you need to link up with Nas, I know you got it.
01:03:15It was Large and Akineli and Nas that came out.
01:03:19We had a little set up in Feist's basement.
01:03:24Nas was like, yeah, I just need that shit you do.
01:03:27You know what I'm saying?
01:03:28Like, that mystic shit.
01:03:31I plead him what was to become one love.
01:03:53I find myself getting letters from friends
01:03:57who are locked up all the time.
01:03:59And, you know, me saying what's going on in the free world
01:04:02and him telling me how he's maintaining
01:04:05and asking me questions and us going back and forth,
01:04:08you know, on just keeping his brother's head up.
01:04:10I never heard a record where somebody's
01:04:13writing letters to people.
01:04:14If I did, it was like a love song.
01:04:16It was never from a street perspective.
01:04:19So One Love was about keeping people's head up
01:04:22in locked up situations.
01:04:23What up, kid?
01:04:24I know shit is rough doing your bid.
01:04:26When the cops came, you should have slid to my crib.
01:04:29Fuckin' black, no time for lookin' back, it's done.
01:04:31Plus, congratulations, you know you got a son.
01:04:34I heard he looks like ya.
01:04:35Why don't your lady write ya?
01:04:37Told her she should visit.
01:04:38That's when she got hyped.
01:04:39I heard he looks like ya.
01:04:40Why don't your lady write ya?
01:04:43That right there, if you examine those two bars
01:04:45and just look at what happens when we get incarcerated.
01:04:50You know, you're dealing with an African-American,
01:04:53a young African-American disease almost,
01:04:56is incarcerating black men.
01:05:01Not only do you incarcerate them in a physical sense,
01:05:06but you incarcerate, you emasculate them,
01:05:08you incarcerate their manhood, their identity, their spirit.
01:05:13What up, kid?
01:05:14I know shit is rough doing your bid.
01:05:16When the cops came, you should have slid to my crib.
01:05:18Fuckin' black, no time for lookin' back, it's done.
01:05:21Plus, congratulations, you know you got a son.
01:05:23I heard he looks like ya.
01:05:25Why don't your lady write ya?
01:05:26Told her she should visit.
01:05:27That's when she got hyped, boy, flippin'.
01:05:30Talkin' bout he acts too rough.
01:05:31He didn't listen.
01:05:32He be riffin' while I'm tellin' him stuff.
01:05:34There's a thing that we say in the hood,
01:05:37yo, she's a good bitch.
01:05:39She gonna bid with you if you get rocked.
01:05:41She's not fuckin' around.
01:05:44She's galvanizing on your people,
01:05:46making sure you getting visits.
01:05:48She's holding you down.
01:05:51But when you're black and you're in America
01:05:53and you're in the hood, no income, hard to find a job,
01:05:57crime all around you, there's a cloud of dysfunction
01:06:00that just hovers over that young sister.
01:06:05So just in that line,
01:06:07I heard he looks like you, why don't your lady write you,
01:06:09shows how the prison system also destroys,
01:06:15you know, union and love and family.
01:06:21You know what I'm sayin'?
01:06:22And destroys promise and hope.
01:06:24Not only for the person who's incarcerated,
01:06:27but those people who are attached to them on the outside.
01:06:31I heard you look like you, why don't your lady write you?
01:06:34Tell her she slip, isn't that sweet, she got high-fives.
01:06:36Flippin', talk about he asked to rock.
01:06:38He didn't listen to the riffin'.
01:06:40Tellin' him stuff.
01:06:41I was like, yeah, your girl don't care.
01:06:43She a snake, too.
01:06:44Fuckin' with them niggas from that bankroom.
01:06:46Ain't you.
01:06:46But yo, guess who got shot?
01:06:48Don't beat Jerome's knees.
01:06:50Go my way home from Joe's beast.
01:06:52Spock.
01:06:52Plus, Little Rob is sellin' drugs on him.
01:06:54Huggin' down with young dogs at home.
01:06:56Don't tell me that.
01:06:57At night time, it's one try to never.
01:06:59When I went out for Cormac and did you see him.
01:07:02I got so, pull her sweat down, represent,
01:07:04said, I'm full of s***.
01:07:05Said, what's up to her?
01:07:06I used to pull her.
01:07:07I left for half a hundred in your couch,
01:07:09say, one.
01:07:09He was my nigga when we pushed Kayner.
01:07:11One, one.
01:07:12One, one, one, one, one.
01:07:13Put your wants in it.
01:07:14One, one, one, one, one.
01:07:18Put your wants in it.
01:07:20One, one, one, one, one.
01:07:21For the people who're not here, yo.
01:07:23One love, one love, one love, one love, one love.
01:07:26Let me hear you say it.
01:07:28One love.
01:07:28One more, one more
01:07:30My love
01:07:32One more, one more
01:07:35Thank you
01:07:38Thank you
01:07:41Yeah, rest in peace to my nigga Draws
01:07:45Rest in peace to ill will forever
01:07:48Rest in peace to Bar Kip
01:07:51Represent all my niggas
01:07:53We will here for you still
01:07:55We love you
01:08:11We'll hire more
01:08:11We will hireера
01:08:16Now what Çünkü
01:08:16Cast in peace
01:08:16Question
01:08:16Disappreted
01:08:16Question
01:08:16Question
01:08:43The Hip Hop Archive was established at Harvard University to support art
01:08:47culture and knowledge of hip hop and its followers.
01:08:49The Nazir Jones Hip Hop Fellowship is designed to provide students and artists with the opportunity
01:08:54to demonstrate that education is real power.
01:08:57Can we all just welcome Professor Morgan, Mr. Nazir Jones and Professor Skip Gates.
01:09:05Everybody I grew up with, no one finished college, no one owns the store, owns a bank.
01:09:14Dudes is doing life, you know, dudes are dead, dudes are, you know, in the streets, don't
01:09:23know where they're at, you know, so an album comes out during that period, right?
01:09:28Could you imagine being approached by Harvard at that point?
01:09:31It's like, if it's going to be the Nazir Jones Fellowship, it's got to be someone who's been
01:09:37consistently working and building.
01:09:39You want to make a contribution to the world.
01:09:48I said our friends be in the projects of jail, never Harvard or Yale, years ago, and here
01:09:57we are.
01:09:58So that they realize that this is an art form, this is a contribution to world civilization,
01:10:03being studied at a university like Harvard, being preserved in a Hip Hop Archive, having
01:10:07fellowships created for the geniuses of the genre, like Naz Jones.
01:10:12I represent my friends that didn't make it, I represent all the guys, because they helped
01:10:16me get here.
01:10:17They, just their conversations, just us riding out together as young teenagers, the things
01:10:24they told me, the things that I told them, and we mix it all up, and the things we survived,
01:10:29and the things that we lost, like, I represent all my guys, you know what I'm saying, that
01:10:36didn't make it here with me, you know what I'm saying, that were there with me from the
01:10:40beginning.
01:10:41I didn't trust anything.
01:10:43I didn't trust anything outside the world that I lived in.
01:10:46I didn't care about politics, I didn't care about America that much.
01:10:50I didn't care that much because I didn't believe that it believed in me.
01:10:54So today, you know, thank God I'm here.
01:10:57I made it through the storm, and this is an amazing honor for myself, and if I may say
01:11:05so, to hip-hop too.
01:11:06Oh man, give it up, give it up.
01:11:11A kid dropped out of school, kid from projects in New York, you know what I'm saying, gets,
01:11:20you know, gets recognized.
01:11:21This ain't about just music.
01:11:27I wanted to do Illmatic to leave my voice, my opinions, my philosophies, my ideas in music
01:11:35form, in rap form, as something that was proof that I was here.
01:11:56It's yours.
01:12:07It's yours.
01:12:10It's mine.
01:12:10It's mine.
01:12:11It's mine.
01:12:12It's mine.
01:12:12Whose world is this?
01:12:13The world is yours.
01:12:15The world is yours.
01:12:16It's mine.
01:12:16It's mine.
01:12:17I sip the Dom P watching Gandhi till I'm charged and writing in my book of rhymes all the words
01:12:22past the margin.
01:12:23To hold the mic, I'm throbbing.
01:12:24Mechanical movement.
01:12:26Understandable smooth shit, the murderous move with the thief's theme.
01:12:29Play me at night, they won't act right.
01:12:31The fiend of hip-hop has got me stuck like a crack pipe.
01:12:34The mind activation, react like I'm facing time.
01:12:37Like Pappy Mason with pins I'm embracing.
01:12:39Wipe the sweat off my dough, spit the phlegm on the streets.
01:12:42Suede Timbs on my beats, mix my cypher.
01:12:44Complete weather cruising in a six cab.
01:12:46I'm on a tarot jeep, I can't call it.
01:12:48The beats make me falling asleep, I keep falling.
01:12:51But never falling six feet deep.
01:12:53I'm out for presidents to represent me.
01:12:55Say what?
01:12:56I'm out for presidents to represent me.
01:12:58Say what?
01:12:58I'm out for dead presidents to represent me.
01:13:01Who's world is this?
01:13:03The world is yours.
01:13:04The world is yours.
01:13:06Who's world is this?
01:13:08The world is yours.
01:13:10The world is yours.
01:13:10The world is yours.
01:13:12Who's world is this?
01:13:14It's yours.
01:13:15The smartest mind is mine.
01:13:17Who's world is this?
01:13:19The world is yours.
01:13:21The world is yours.
01:13:23to my man ill will god bless your life to my peoples throughout queens god bless your life
01:13:28i trick me box some crazy bitches aiming guns in all my baby pictures beef with housing police
01:13:33release scriptures that's maybe hitlers yet i'm the male money getting stout rolling foul
01:13:37the versatile honey sticking wild golden child dwelling in the rotten apple you get tackled
01:13:42a court by the devil's lasso shit is a hassle there's no days for broke days we're selling
01:13:47the smoke pays where all the old folks pray to jesus soaking their sins in trays a holy
01:13:52war the odds against knives and slaughter finger the word best describing my life to name my
01:13:56daughter my son to start will be my resurrection born ain't correction all the wrong shit i did
01:14:01he'll lead in right direction how you live in larger broker charge cards are mediocre you're
01:14:05flipping coca playing spits phase and strip poker it's yours it's mine it's mine it's mine whose
01:14:13world is yours the world is yours the world is yours it's mine it's mine it's mine it's mine
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