Original subtitles

Today, hip hop is a reason to get up.

You can't wait to get up and hear that song you love.

You can't wait to feel better about your life

because of that song.

You can't wait to sing along with that record,

dance to that record, be inspired by the words

to that song.

Hip hop is our morning coffee, our vegan turkey and eggs.

It's our vitamins.

It's our power source.

It's our theme music.

Hip hop's growth and the globalization

is a wave, a tidal wave, that's taking the world over

and it's good for the world.

When I got into listening to rap music,

they didn't want it on the radio.

It was looked down as, like, hoodlum stuff.

It's gone from that to this global phenomenon.

The attitude of hip hop was to expose,

bring the truth to light, and live in your greatness.

Hip hop used to scare people.

It used to-- the music, the energy,

the spirit of it, it would wake you up, the drum, the voice,

[MUSIC]

We going ultra Black.

In this MasterClass, I'll be teaching you

about hip hop, lyricism, and flow.

I will show you how to write powerful lyrics that

paint a picture.

I'll be teaching you how to find your inspiration

and how to develop your point of view.

We'll really get deep into it so you

get a whole look inside my journey, what got me here.

Just by starting, you're halfway there.

You know more than you think you know.

[MUSIC - NAS, "MADE YOU LOOK"]

Now let's get it all in perspective.

For all y'all enjoyment, a song y'all can step with.

I was around seven years old when

I started to notice a certain concentrated sound,

a certain sound that was just different from disco

and the R&B that was out.

It was a sound that merged the two but there

was this cool voice telling you how it was, what was to come,

and it was just my language.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, somebody say ho.

Ho.

Say ho, ho.

Ho, ho,

And I would hear it from the big radios that the guys had

or the park jams where they brought all this equipment

and these huge speakers outside to the park

and played their music real loud.

I started to hear songs and you knew

something new was happening.

You knew there was something happening

and you felt like you belonged to it, it belonged to you,

and there was a lot we were going

to see with this new music.

The first ones I heard on record was Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel

and the Furious Five.

Eventually, it was Run DMC in 1983 and that was it.

I knew this is what I wanted, this is who I am.

I always felt something special in me as a kid.

I don't know if other kids felt that or not.

There was something about the arts that was calling me

and that probably had a lot to do with my pops who had

been on stages and wrote music.

And I would see, like, his sheets of music.

I never saw anyone write music before

and I would watch him write music.

And it was like another language.

And I'm like, how do you know what that means?

How is this marked at the top of this line, a sound?

And I saw that a lot goes into making music.

My first solo rap was my name is Nasir, the rhyme engineer.

And if you want to battle, I will end your career.

People perpetrating I possess much power.

Is too late to debate, it's emcee hour.

I will lead you to frustration.

You'll end up fail.

Emcees on their knees because they're so frail.

I'm the emcee mutilator and the gladiator, the exterminator.

You know, all of those "nator", all of that

was, like, big words to use in a rap back then.

Yeah, yeah, yo Black, it's time.

First timing, First timing, right?

Yeah.

Where I grew up in New York City,

the streets were paved with different colors

of broken glass from different colored bottles,

green, clear, brown, just all over the concrete.

And they sparkle like diamonds in the sun.

And our sneakers got tore up, our basketballs

got glass in them.

When we'd pick them up to throw it, we'd almost cut our hand.

Our bikes would catch flats a lot,

but it was the terrain of champions.

And this was the '80s, we thought it was normal.

We knew it wasn't right, but we knew

there was no one coming to clean up this mess,

so we kind of just made it our world.

It was our world.

Making music and rhymes was extremely therapeutic for what

I was seeing in the streets.

It was giving me a way to process

what I was experiencing.

I saw the neighborhood turned from fun loving,

strong, to it just started to rot.

You couldn't escape it.

Everyone was getting high and they came to buy the stuff.

Some people had to sell drugs because they had nothing.

I wasn't that far gone where I had nothing,

but I sure could use a pair of sneakers.

I sure could use that new leather jacket.

I like wearing jewelry.

I want that chain.

Next thing you know, there's semi-automatic machine guns

in my dresser in my bedroom.

It was for protection and it was for power.

I don't want none of this, but it was my reality.

So my raps were about me still maintaining my sanity

on a beautiful level in this ugly world.

I didn't know what tomorrow would bring--

dark times.

In hip hop, I wanted to be that voice, the voice of reality,

the voice for the voiceless who felt

like the walls were closing in and they

wanted to yell out to someone, you know,

stop doing this to me.

And I became that rebel mind.

[MUSIC - NAS, "THE GENESIS"]

My raps are trifle.

I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle.

I went to the studio at like 17.

I felt like this is now the point where

I'm going to find out if I should find something

different to do in my life.

Either I'm going to be good or this thing is over.

Luckily, it turned out to be a good demo that we recorded

that day, so that was a great sign because it was either,

I was going to get there, it was going to be wack.

This is finished, I tried it, now I know I'm not good

or I got something.

That day, I found out I had something.

Emcee producer large professor, and he taught me

how to deliver my raps.

He taught me really how to lay vocals.

Next thing you know, Large Professor

is working on his album with the main source, Breaking Atoms.

One day, he's like, man, check this out,

I want you on my album.

And I was like, wow.

You know, I was so happy for the opportunity.

And I'm on the record with Akinyele,

Joe Fatal, and Large Professor.

[MUSIC - NAS, "THE GENESIS"]

Disciple, my raps are trifle.

I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle.

Stampede the stage.

I leave the microphones but play Mr. Tuffey

while I'm on some pretty tone shit.

That was like one of the greatest moments of my life

because it's from that point to I'm in my neighborhood one

night and I hear the radio and the song is on

and I hear myself on the radio.

And that was a feeling that I will never forget

and the rest is history.

[MUSIC - NAS, "N.Y. STATE OF MIND"]

Nas'll rock well.

It ain't hard to tell.

Write it down and I watch it blow up.

Y'all know what I'm like.

You play it in your system every night.

Rappers are monkey-flipping with the funky rhythm,

I be kicking, musician, inflicting composition.

You a slave to a page in my rhyme book.

Getting big money, "Playboy" your time's up.

Where them gangsters at?

Where them dimes at?

Let's go, baby.

Chilling, chilling.

[MUSIC - NAS, "REWIND"]

Listen up, gangsters and honeys with your hair done.

Pull up a chair, hon, and put it in the air, son.

Dog, whatever they call you--

When I was first getting in the record business,

the hustle was making that train or getting that ride

to wherever you needed to go to get around

certain individuals who had the power

to sign you to a record deal.

The hustle was that back then.

Today, the hustle is many things.

You can make a song on your phone.

It's all about how much you want to work to get

to where you need to get to.

You got to get around people that's saying something, that's

doing something, that's moving, but you have to have drive

and, you know, you need that inspiration.

People can inspire you if they're out

and they're doing things.

You'd be surprised how fast things happen.

So without the hustle, you have nothing.

You have to have that and you have to keep that.

You have to keep that fire in you.

I felt like there had to be something out there.

You know, I felt it.

It was in my bones.

I knew that I was here for something.

I think we all are.

And if we don't believe in that, if we

don't dare to dream, if we don't follow our dreams, It's done.

There's nothing else.

It starts with the dream and I had that.

This class can make you a better creator, thinker,

and overall master.

I'm speaking directly to people, going inside, and showing

them what makes me tick.

I want you to gain some confidence in yourself

and your skill and your writing.

So go into a quiet room, buckle your seat belts,

and get ready for this ride.

I'm Nas and this is my MasterClass.

[MUSIC - NAS, "NY STATE OF MIND"]

I'm a gangster, drinking Moëts,

holding TEC'S. Making sure the cash came correct then I step.

We like to know we're not alone, so, when you write,

you can write your honest feelings.

And that tends to get through to a lot of people.

Straight to the heart.

That's what we need.

That's what we like.

It's time, nigga?

Yeah, it's time, man.

All right, nigga, begin.

Yeah, straight out the fucking dungeons of rap where

fake niggas don't make it back.

I don't know how to start this shit, yo.

Rappers I monkey flip them with the funky rhythm I be kicking.

Musician inflicting composition.

When I was writing, "N.Y. State of Mind,"

it was just raw expression of what

I had to think about in that situation,

living in Queensbridge projects.

Trying to not get caught in the traps,

but not knowing what was lying ahead for me.

It takes you exactly to the place

where I was at when I wrote it.

When I'm creating characters and creating scenes,

you create a universe.

You create a world that somebody can enjoy listening to.

It brings you to a time period that I

was coming up in where things were life or death situations.

Trying to make something of yourself

in this great city of opportunity.

The Big Apple, the Rotten Apple, whatever

you want to look at it, however, where you see it,

it's New York.

It was super important that I gave you that.

No cut.

No chaser.

Straight to the vein, and that's the way

it's supposed to be done.

Especially on a song called "New York State of Mind."

My state of mind was, let the people inside my mind.

Each block.

It's like black rats trapped.

Plus the Island packed.

That's what I hear in all the stories

where my people come back.

Black.

I'm living where the nights of jet-black.

Fiends fight to get crack.

I just max. and dream.

I can sit back and lamp like Capone with drug scripts sewn.

The system was designed to keep us like animals.

The black rats trapped, the worst lowest level,

trapped with the cares that you would have for pests.

And you have no cares, and the Island is packed,

short for Rikers Island.

That's what I'm hearing in all the stories when my people come

back from Rikers Island.

I want to have the drug strip, the corner,

I want to have it sewn up like Capone.

Or the legal luxury life, but, either way, it's

going to have to be luxurious.

But, illegal or legal, I'm going to get there.

Or the legal luxury life.

Rings flooded with stones, homes, I got so many rhymes,

I don't think I'm too sane.

Life is parallel to hell, but I must

maintain and be prosperous.

Though we live dangerous, cops can just arrest us, blaming us.

We're held like hostages.

It's only right that I was born to use mics.

So I'm allowing you to get inside

to the darkest moments of my thinking

and me comparing myself to a pest in a trap or a hamster

on the wheel in a way.

But at the same time, "I got so many rhymes,

I don't think I'm too sane."

I'm basically telling you where I'm at.

Life is parallel to hell, but I must maintain to be prosperous.

So I'm trying to get to the American pie.

I'm trying to get to a great place.

I'm trying to get a piece of the pie,

and I need it by all means necessary.

And I'm going for it.

Laughing at baseheads, trying to sell some broken amps.

G-packs get off quick.

Forever niggas talk shit.

Reminiscing about the last time the task force flipped.

Niggas be running through the block shooting.

Time to start the revolution.

Catch a body.

Head for Houston.

Once they caught us off-guard, the Mac-10 was in the grass,

and I ran like a cheetah.

Thoughts of an assassin.

Pick the Mac up, told brothers, "Back up. " The Mac spit.

Lead was hitting niggas.

One ran.

I made him backflip.

Heard a few chicks scream.

My arm shook.

Couldn't look.

Gave another squeeze.

Heard it click.

"Yo, my shit is stuck."

Tried to cock it.

It wouldn't shoot.

Now I'm in danger.

Finally pulled it back and saw three bullets

caught up in the chamber.

So now I'm jetting through the building lobby,

and it was full of children probably couldn't

see as high as I be.

It's like the game ain't the same.

Got younger niggas pulling the triggers,

bringing fame to their name.

They claim some corners.

Crews without guns are goners, In broad daylight, stickup

kids, they run up on us.

In the world of this beautiful country of America,

we have so much opportunity.

But yet, in the inner cities, it goes down.

A situation may arise where there

are bullets flying at you.

Are you scared to grab it and pull it out?

So you think about these things.

You have to think about, do I have the courage

to protect myself if something was to happen?

And there you are, and you have to make grown, military, army

decisions as a teenager.

I think people connect with my music because a lot of people

think, hey, he's talking about something I think about,

or I thought about, or I haven't thought about.

And I think that's what being a good MC is.

I think being a good MC, you have

to kind of intrigue your audience.

To make descriptive storytelling,

you need a beginning, a middle, an end.

You need your characters, places.

You need to describe each scene like a movie.

You need to describe the emotions

of whoever's in your story.

You need to describe their goals, their setbacks,

a beginning, middle, and end.

My process is to find the details in everything.

I think details are important.

If it's a sweater this person was wearing, what kind was it?

How did it feel on that person's skin?

That might not even be what the story's about,

but it gives that description.

It gives you more visuals when you hear somebody rap.

Tell me everything about your day.

Tell me what's wrong.

Why do you see it wrong?

Say it straight from your heart.

If it's not clear, if you're not transparent then

come back to it and work on it some more, in an hour,

another day.

Come back to it too as precise, just the way you need it to be.

What I mean by details, was the wine chilled?

Is it what you drink all the time?

How does it make you feel?

How many glasses did you have?

Was the glass spotty?

Was it clean?

Was the waiter nice?

Did you get it out of your fridge?

Your cellar?

Do you like going to your cellar?

Is it dark there?

Does the wood crack on the steps to your cellar.

Do you even have a cellar?

Do you want a cellar?

What did you see in a wine cellar that

made you want a wine cellar?

Can you afford that?

Can you afford the wine?

Is it your friend that always has the wine?

He's the connoisseur?

He drinks because he celebrates life every day.

He's happy.

He smiles.

His beard is gray.

It wasn't like that last year.

Details.

That's the beauty of being a writer.

You can go in any direction you want to go.

There are psychotic people in prison

who could write a book about a beautiful family.

The pen, it doesn't matter who you are.

It's all about your imagination and how deep

you are willing to travel for your research.

You use your imagination, you can write anything.

Rapping is the head nod.

It's very street.

It's like snapping your fingers and bopping your head

and speaking in the rhythm of that finger snap and head bop

and making words rhyme.

I think I first realized that I could put words

together and rhyme rap style--

I think I was probably 10 years old, maybe nine.

I started to put things together.

I would imitate the songs that was out.

I would memorize it.

And it just became something that stayed in my head.

Everyone around me, even ones who wasn't trying to rap,

we were all repeating the songs, "Sucker MC" by Run-DMC.

Next thing you know, you're like, yo, we should try.

Maybe we could be a group.

Maybe we can do what Run-DMC is doing.

I just needed to find my own words.

I needed to have something to say.

And as a nine-year-old, there wasn't much you could say.

You would just talk about things like, I had a show,

and everybody went wild in the crowd.

I'm number one.

I'm the best that's out there.

You know?

That was as far as it went.

You know what I'm saying?

There was no shows.

I wasn't number one.

But to me, I felt it.

I believed it.

And you have to believe it when you say it.

Your rhythmic timing has to be on.

And you have to entertain me through the first bar

to the last bar till you break into the chorus.

I need to be entertained.

I need to be taken somewhere.

Bars is how you count music.

And it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

These are all bars.

It depends on how fast or slow the music is.

You can write-- you can count how long your verse is

through how many bars you use.

You construct bars by your timing.

You time yourself.

You can time yourself and write it to be how many bars you

like it to be.

I don't have any rules to it.

You know what the basics are.

It's staying on beat and staying in the bars.

I like to go beyond the bars, across the bar line,

get there faster than when the bar comes,

and not start on the one, and start wherever I want,

start where the feeling is at, and create my own timing

within the timing of the music.

A rhythmic pattern is another way of saying a style.

So your rhythmic pattern would be whatever you choose.

And you can stay into that pattern.

In your bars, you can rap (RAPPING) this, that, this,

that, this, this, that, this, or that,

or you could chain it to (RAPPING)

this and that, and this and that,

and this and this, this, that, that.

It's the pattern you use.

Sometimes you bore people when the pattern is the same thing

too long, so you switch up your pattern throughout the rhyme,

throughout the verse, to show how many ways you're

capable of rapping.

Some people can only rap in one style, one rhythmic pattern.

But the more you have shows that you are the better emcee.

A simple pattern is not many words.

It's simple.

It's an easygoing rhyme, easy to hear, not fast-paced.

Myself, me, I tend to want to say a lot each bar.

I'm trying to get a lot of words because I'm

excited to say something.

That's how much I care about what I do.

I can't hold it back.

It just explodes.

I want to beast it.

I don't want to play any games.

Even when I'm calm, when the flow is more calm,

I tend to say a lot of words.

When you're thinking of rhythmic patterns

and you want to study them, how to come up with them,

you should listen to some serious lyricists.

A lyricist I would recommend is Kool G Rap,

the song "Men at Work."

It's all craziness.

His rap style on that is fast, rapid fire.

It's easy.

It's easy to do what I do.

But you got to want to do it.

You got to really want to do it.

You can listen to some of my records.

You can listen to "One Love."

You can listen to "The Cure."

You can listen to any one of my albums

and pick a song and rap alone.

Next thing you know, you're doing it without me.

Next thing you know, you're doing it with your own words.

[MUSIC - NAS, "ONE LOVE"] (RAPPING) Shorty don't care,

she a snake too, fuckin' with the niggas from that fake crew

that hate you.

But yo, guess who got shot--

In my opinion, what makes a good rap rhyme

is if you can say a word that is tough to rhyme with and do

it effortless.

I like to find words that you wouldn't particularly

hear in rap songs because it goes what I need to say.

And at the same time, it's not a word that's easy to rhyme with.

Those are like two bombs that you drop.

You got to look at it like Mandarin, tambourine.

Those are two things that have nothing to do with each other,

but I can bring them together, bring two cultures together

through a rap, and have two people from two

different worlds hear something that resonates with them.

So now they're thinking about each other.

Oh, this guy just made this rhyme with that.

When you're structuring your rhyme,

here's a few ways to make this rhyme count.

Feel free to write a couple of rhymes.

Once you're done, usually there's

a strong part or one crazy line in each rhyme that you wrote.

If the rest of the rap is not giving you nothing,

get rid of the rest.

Take the good part, and take the good part out

of the other raps you made, and extract those lines,

and form a new rhyme based on only those strong points.

And the rest of the stuff that you

push to the side, that will become what it will become.

Maybe it will become garbage.

But you start a whole new round with all your good points,

and you try to stay consistent with good parts from that point

on.

And I find that way being really helpful to make

the rhyme strong.

Each year, beach chair, bum wear,

looking like I don't care.

Somewhere-- Cayman Islands maybe-- write a book.

NAS: I'm excited every time I'm about to create a song.

It's like this world that I step into.

I start to think about what should the topic be today.

So what happens is I hear the beat,

and the beat kind of tells me which way to go,

or it pulls me in a whole different direction.

And I'm excited all through it--

This is crazy, bro.

My writing process-- hmm.

I take bits and pieces from different stages of my life.

I take that and I work with it today.

I guess I was a young kid, trying to write,

and I would have notebooks of rhymes, stories.

I had note pads full of raps--

chapters, like this chapter is about girls.

So there'll be a certain amount of paper, and a divider there--

girls.

The next one would be about the next subject

and so on, and so forth.

And so if I had to spit something for you,

I had categories to go to.

It went from that to--

changing it up to just off the top of the head.

And I would go between off the top of head and writing.

Probably, everybody feels that way,

because once you do it for so long,

you don't need to write it anymore.

I like to just say stuff, and say stuff that feels good,

say stuff that matters to me.

When you write it down, you know,

you might lose some of that.

You might lose it-- at least for me.

So if I say it, it's right there on the spot.

It's spontaneous.

It's raw.

It's straight out the heart or the mind.

We're gonna need the pen and pad.

You be writing in the phone, right?

Yeah.

You have keep that shit natural.

Yeah.

Writing on phone--

Hey guys, can you take this-- this is not how we record it.

CREW: No problem.

And now, my writing process is notes in my phone.

Using my phone, opposed the paper--

I've done it on paper so long.

A phone is easier to handle.

It's like, I'm not sticking to a book.

I'm making it up as I go, and the phone

could easily be in my pocket.

I could pull it out to remember something, and put it back in.

It's way easier to me.

You, as a student, should do what works for you.

What's the best way you like to read your words?

What keeps you on time with the track?

How do you like to see words look,

because you could type them, or your handwriting might spark

something in your imagination that might bring something

else to the song.

The journey of the song is conversation.

It's like you got this blank canvas,

and we just throw on paint.

Me and my soul, that's divine...

You need words, and you need to rehearse how they sound to you.

You know, say them to yourself, say them in a sentence.

Mix a word up that people are not--

most people in your circle are not familiar with,

and put it in a sentence that's cool, so that it's

easier on the listener.

How will I know?

Pitch like a pitcher, a fastball.

So many ideas I have, and just trying to quiet some of them

down, so I can get out one of them--

is my process now, because the other ideas are screaming

for it to be given life.

You know, but meanwhile, I'm going to pick one.

And-- but the other ones are screaming at me,

like, this one's better.

This one's better.

So I'm not-- I'm not going to really get in front of it.

I'm just going to let it happen.

It's like I'm having a conversation with myself,

I guess.

Things pop up in your head.

You're in your creative space, so thoughts are open and free.

And I lay down some lines, and I go back.

I listen to how I'm saying it.

And I might just change it all together,

start it from the top, say something else.

Or maybe the last line I said should be the first line,

I need to hit them from the top of the line,

and keep hitting them.

There need to be no weak parts.

You know, and I'll go back and I'll do that until it's done.

And then, once it's done, I'll come back the next day,

and I'll change a lot of it.

I'll keep doing that.

Certain words have a certain rhythmic way to it,

so you know how it can--

certain words have the syllables that it takes up some space

to say, rather than word like great and late,

you have other words with more syllables,

like the word syllable in itself--

syllable.

It gives you a chance to break down your flow,

have fun within each line.

You know, when you have that rhythm in the words.

Putting words together in a rhythmic way is also fun,

and it's fun for the listener, and you take it from there

to metaphors, like my playing--

got my hands in everything.

You know, that's talking about business.

And it's, like, I got my hands in everything, like a kid

with bad manners, you know.

I guess you could call that--

the kid with bad manners is one of those punch lines.

It brings it home, you know.

This is crazy.

It's coming.

It's something.

NAS: The role of the producer is to take

an artist, what he or she is going through,

or what they want to get off their heart,

or what's heavy on their hearts, or whatever

it may be with that artist, and bring it to life.

Hit-Boy came up when there was a couple of different producers

coming up, too.

You knew it was a new wave of young talent

who was changing the game, and giving you that big sound,

but that right sound-- the raw sound.

Hit's beats, they have character.

It's alive, so that energy right there

was the energy I needed to be around.

Getting something.

Yeah, that shit crazy.

That shit crazy, bro.

The producer has to bring it to life.

The producer creates the sounds that evokes something in you,

so that you could pull something out of you didn't realize

was there.

And it gets you to create this art and put it down.

What you need to know about selecting a producer

is-- you take what you can.

Like, if you're just starting out,

you really can't be too choosy, because you're probably

going to work with whoever's around you who's producing.

By the time you develop the right vocal skill,

is when that better producer will hear you,

and want to work with you, too, because they're

looking for the right vocalist.

But you have to work on yourself.

NAS: We're about to get into it, lay down whatever

I came up with just now.

And so we brought the mic here so I can do it right here.

Yeah.

You got it all ready?

Test one, two.

Test, one, two.

Yeah.

Big Nas, old money, new money--

tech, turn it down a little bit, the track.

Turn the beat down.

Turn the beat down.

Yeah.

Cheer, cheer, track.

New music, new content, new programming.

I ran the gamut, got my--

new content, new programming, I ran the gamut.

Got my hands in everything like bad manners.

So save the high school banter for those

who are just like you.

Uhh.

Save the high-school banter for those who are just like you.

I'd like to write a book on the Cayman Islands.

I'd like to stay cool in the--

[LAUGHS]

Go up and-- see, that's--

I like to really--

off the top of the head, and it's a longer process.

I could just-- it's just a feeling.

And I could try it now, but it's like--

then I have to stop, and then I go back.

So I'll try-- I show you a little bit how I really

record in the studio.

You can play the track again.

So I'm just sitting here looking to ice this.

The vibes is something you never seen before.

I just relax in the zone.

Uhh.

Each year, beach chair, bumwear, looking like I don't care.

Somewhere, Caymen Islands, maybe.

Write a book.

It's crazy how I just, uh, recite the hook.

So what I would do--

can you stop it?

And now we'll go-- we will go back, listen to what I got,

see if there's anything good there.

If there's something good there, I start it

from where it was stopped.

I start it right there where it started to get bad.

I erase the bad, and then I put in the new--

the new next lines, you know?

That's how we do it.

HIT-BOY: Is there a way to hear back that first one?

Can we hear-- can we hear that back, some of that?

TECH: Sure.

You want it on the speakers or do you want it--

Uh, speaker, yeah.

HIT-BOY: Yeah.

That Cayman Islands shit was hard, too.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): Yeah.

Test, one, two.

Test, one, two.

Yeah.

Cheer, cheer, track.

Old money, new money, rap money, tech's money, flat money.

What's next, you funny?

Illicit live of recession in Dubai.

It's kind of, like, you go with the beat.

You go with the feeling.

And working with Hit-Boy is cool because he knows me.

He knows me, and he's like--

if I say-- he hears me mumbling a word,

and I might not be sure about it, but he's listening.

And-- and if it's good, he's like, "That's hard."

Hard.

Hard.

And that-- that way, it's like--

it's like when you're sitting around

with somebody to see if it's good or not,

they give you an opinion.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): New music, new content, new programming.

I ran again and got my hands in everything, like bad manners.

Save the high-school banter for those who are just like you.

Yes,

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): Save the high-school banter

for those who are just like you.

When I'm not writing, it's all off the top of the head.

You could say some stuff that's corny.

If the producer doesn't get it, doesn't

care, he's just thinking about his check,

he's just thinking about the next artist he's

going to work with, he's thinking

about his personal career more than he is present with you--

the producer-- you have to tell your life story to.

You can-- you should go into that third take, like,

piece them together, basically.

Like after the "Big Nas" part.

Like-- so it was like eight bars.

I think you did another four on that third take

that you could use.

NAS (VOICEOVER): The producer plays your therapist.

The producer allows you to to get

your message out the proper way, the best way it needs to be.

He's able to understand where I'm at and what I'm aiming for.

And he can meet me there and help me get that out.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): --it's like seeing--

I feel like you could clean up how you said that one,

but that was hard.

What about that--

"What's next, you funny?"

I'm like, what's next?

You know it's like, what's next?

I don't know if it's "you funny" can be something else,

and then go into--

The "you funny" was--

play them first four bars again.

That shit was hard.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): Big Nas, old money, new money, rap money,

tech money, flex money.

What's next, you funny?

Me, myself-- I'm the illest alive.

Seeing me over here--

Right--

BOTH: Right here.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): --is like seeing a--

Cut it out at the illest alive.

Because you had caught that pocket

when you was just messing around the recession" in Dubai"

because if you fit it in there like that--

-

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm stopping to hear myself, my voice,

my timing on the track.

Did I say words clear?

Did I make any mistakes?

Was I too loud?

Was I too low?

(RAPPING) I'm the illest alive, seeing me off-grid is like--

Yeah, let me try that again.

Or just "me off-grid."

Me off-grid.

It's like seeing--

Yeah.

Where's the weak line?

So I could pick it up from there with something stronger.

(RAPPING) Like seeing--

Almost.

Come on.

New money.

We think faster than our fingers could type.

So if I think of a word, I type it down.

If I think of a color, I type it down.

And then I come back to it and I can form it into a sentence.

And sometimes it's too fast for me to write it

and I just want to say it while it's fresh in my head,

record it, and then I can try to write the next part.

(RAPPING) Got my hands in everything

like kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter for those who were just

like you and (VOCALIZING).

Those who were just like you, hoes are beside you.

Those who were just like you, go (VOCALIZING) dislike you.

I was trying to keep it as simple as possible too

because sometimes it's the simplicity of it that makes

myself sync with the beat.

It's easier when it's chill.

It just shows you have total control of what you're doing.

And that was a struggle because there

was a side of me that wanted to go (VOCALIZING) da da da da da

da da da da da.

But I had to control the flow.

(VOCALIZING) Always just like you.

Just like you.

No one is cold to this place.

Just like you and coexist with coexist with the self.

Where did he stop it at?

Banter.

NAS (ON SPEAKERS): New music, new content, new programming.

I ran the gambit.

Got my hands in everything like kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

(VOCALIZING) cut it out like cancer

Yeah.

Cut it out like cancer.

my jewels dancing.

(VOCALIZING) high school banter.

my jewels dancing.

(VOCALIZING)

You got to cut it out like cancer.

(VOCALIZING) ain't got the answer.

I like answer.

(RAPPING) Save the high school banter.

Like Sway.

Right.

Like Sway.

Sway In The Morning.

(BOTH) You ain't got the answers.

Yeah.

That's a real collaboration, him knowing what I'm saying.

He's listening to the lines and he's throwing things at me

just to keep this song pushing along.

So you get stuck sometimes, especially

off the top of the head.

(RAPPING) Kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

Sway In The Morning, you ain't got the answers.

I hear my calling, I hear the trumpets blowing.

(VOCALIZING) I hear my calling--

After "I hear my calling," cut it off.

(RAPPING) New music, new content, new programming.

I ran the gambit.

Got my hands in everything like kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

Sway In The Morning, you ain't got the answers.

I hear my calling--

Hear my calling.

One more time.

(RAPPING) Kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

Sway In The Morning, you ain't got the answers.

I hear my calling,

(VOCALIZING) I fear nothing, I fear the morning.

(VOCALIZING) When I'm performing, I hear my calling.

(VOCALIZING) Nothing like when I'm performing,

hear my calling.

It's nothing like when I'm performing.

I hear my calling, heart pounding out my chest.

(RAPPING) Kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

Sway In The Morning, you ain't got the answers.

(RAPPING) I hear my calling heart, pounding out my chest.

Wish I could bring back X.

(RAPPING) I hear my calling heart, pounding on my chest.

Wish I could bring back X.

--bring back X (VOCALIZING).

You know what I'm saying?

Then you can go to a different rhyme.

Wish I can bring that X (VOCALIZING).

Bring back X. May God bless.

(BOTH) Bring back X. God bless.

That's hard.

All right, cool.

Let's try it at bring back X.

He heard the word I was playing around and mumbling with.

I didn't want to say the obvious,

but he'll let me know sometimes the obvious is cool.

You can say that.

And it's like I could spend a long time on that

and he knows me by now.

So he's catching me like, nah, you got it.

Keep going.

And it's fun.

It's fun.

(RAPPING) Wish I could bring back X. God bless.

Damn what my man said?

Marshawn Lynch he kept saying that word over and over he

kept saying and hitting them.

It was some funny shit he was saying.

What he said so I don't--

"I'm just here so I don't get fined."

Right, right.

I'm just here so I don't--

shit.

(RAPPING) I don't practice, I don't be remembering the lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

That's hard.

[LAUGHS]

(RAPPING) I hear my calling, heart pounding out of my chest.

Wish I could bring back X.

(RAPPING) God bless, see.

I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so--

(RAPPING) I hear my calling, heart pounding out my chest.

Wish I could bring back X. God bless, see.

I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

One more time.

(RAPPING) I hear my calling, heart pounding out my chest.

Wish I could bring back X. God bless.

I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

What's practice?

Wish I could bring back X. God bless I don't practice,

I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

What's practice?

Yo, you had already said practice, though.

Keep that other practice out.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

(RAPPING) I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

(VOCALIZING) I appear when it's supposed to smile.

I appear when it's mostly.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

I'm a professional.

I'm like an athlete.

Athletic with the poetics.

Athletic with poetics.

That's hard.

Athletic with poetics.

(VOCALIZING).

Athletic with poetics.

Let me just get those two lines.

(RAPPING) I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

(RAPPING) I'm athletic with poetics.

That's hard.

(RAPPING) I don't practice--

The Marshawn Lynch line, I don't know where it came from.

It just popped up in my head.

"I'm just here so I don't get fined"

was one of the hardest things I ever

heard any professional say.

I didn't even know if it can work,

I just knew I wanted to remember it and try it.

And it worked.

(VOCALIZING)

(RAPPING) I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

I'm athletic with poetics.

Alpha male with the alphabets.

Alpha male alpha-- these are alpha male alphabetics.

Yeah.

(RAPPING) I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

I'm athletic with poetics.

These are alpha male alphabetics.

Lobster tail, lots of (VOCALIZING).

With poetics.

These are alpha male alphabetics.

Never touched a Rolling Stone cover but I don't sweat it.

Hard.

(VOCALIZING) Just here so I don't get fined.

I'm athletic with poetics.

I got more styles and one for, plus I'm flyer.

I got more styles and more vials

Flows must sound flyer.

(RAPPING) More styles and more fly--

I got more styles and more flows, and plus I'm flyer.

(RAPPING) I got more heights to reach than a (VOCALIZING).

I got more heights to reach--

(VOCALIZING) higher.

And I'm already high.

Rise and reach, yet I'm already higher.

Let me try that one.

(RAPPING) Imagine another rapper making me perspire.

I got more styles and more flows, plus I'm much flyer.

I got more heights to reach up but-- and I'm--

(RAPPING) Imagine another rapper making me perspire.

I got more styles and more flows, plus I'm much flyer.

I got more heights to reach, yet I'm already higher.

I just need this cannabis license from Albany higher.

[LAUGHING]

my cannabis license, light up.

Yeah, I like "light up."

(RAPPING) Cannabis lice-- All right let's get it in.

(RAPPING) More styles and more flows, plus I'm much flyer.

I got more heights to reach, yet I'm already higher.

When I get my cannabis license from Albany, we can light up.

I said high up.

But I was thinking about how high up we were

because the windows behind us.

And I worked in the studio before

and there's a good view of the city.

And he was saying something along those lines.

I don't know why I thought about--

I guess being in New York and the cannabis business

is growing.

So I'm like, I need a cannabis license because I'm

exploring that business.

So again, those raps are all about my truth.

So what I call it tweaking is go back with a chisel,

like making a statue.

I might get a different idea, different thought

for a different line.

Take that line out, change that.

But I like it.

(RAPPING) Big nines.

Old money, new money.

Rap money, tech money, flex money.

What's next?

You funny.

Me, myself.

I'm the illest alive.

Me off-grid is like seeing a recession in Dubai.

My daughter is a businesswoman, I'm so proud of her.

My son he's almost 12 and he's so knowledgeable.

New music, new content, new programming.

(RAPPING) I ran the gamut got my hands in everything

like kids with bad manners.

Save the high school banter.

Sway In The Morning, you ain't got the answers.

I hear my calling, heart pounding on my chest.

Wish I could bring back X. God bless.

I don't practice, I don't remember my lines.

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

(RAPPING) I'm athletic with poetics.

These are alpha male alphabetic.

Never touched a Rolling Stone cover but I don't sweat it.

Imagine another rapper making me perspire.

I got more styles and more flows, plus I'm much flyer.

I got more heights to reach, yet I'm already higher.

When I get my cannabis license from Albany, we can light up.

(ECHOING "LIGHT UP")

Sometimes it happens real fast and you're like, wow,

this came about real crazy.

And other times it's not done for me

until it's out, until we put it out.

Thank you for watching this process

you got a peek of what I do.

Sitting here with hip boy.

This is kind of like how we go.

The words need to taste like clear fresh water

in your mouth.

You need to be happy to say these words.

You need to fall in love with words.

You need to fall in love with the way you sound and the way

your voice sounds and the way you sound spitting off words

that express the vigor , express the angst and the attitude

in you.

[MUSIC - NAS, "IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

I leave your brain stimulated, niggas is frozen.

Speak with criminal slang, began like a violin.

end like Leviathan, it's deep, well let me try again.

Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit, troop.

I dominate break loops, giving mics men-e-strual cycles.

Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega-trifle.

I leave your brain stimulated, brothers is frozen,

speak with criminal slang began like a violin, end

like Leviathan.

It's deep, well let me try again.

Wisdom be leaking out my grapefruit troop.

I dominate break loops, giving mics men-e-strual cycles.

Street's disciple, I rock beats that's mega-trifle.

You need words that do that for you

so that when you're giving them the attitude, when you're

saying these words, you're actually saying words

on top of your own attitude.

The words you're saying are matched with your attitude

and it's double the explosion.

When you're creating a song, start

where you feel it's comfortable for you to start.

I don't always pressure myself at the top

because then everything I write will be super intense.

But if you just take the pressure off and let's

see where it goes, you know, then you know.

Then you kind of get your rhythm going.

Make sure you feel good.

When you're saying it, when you're

listening to yourself say it, it should feel good to you.

[MUSIC - NAS, "IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

I leave your brain stimulated, niggas is frozen.

Speak with criminal slang begin like a violin,

end like Leviathan.

When I say stuff like begin like a violin, end

like Leviathan, the metaphor is I begin sweet

and I end different.

I begin lovely, fluffy, soft, beautiful, sounds, imagery,

and ends with uncertainty, mystery.

And it's just a play on words, words

that rhyme that are not being used together as a norm.

You can use one word in more than one way.

It ain't hard to tell, I say wisdom be leaking out

my grapefruit, troop.

Well, let me try again, words still

be leaking out my grapefruit, troop.

That's a little wordplay there.

My grapefruit, meaning my head.

You know, my grapefruit.

You find different ways to describe things.

It's how you throw words around like a pro.

In a way, that makes your mind go, wow,

that was just beautiful.

When crafting lyrics, metaphors are important.

Those are like the brain busters.

When you can come up with a great metaphor,

that can change everything in a positive way.

It can really take you into a career.

And the metaphors have to be a way of unpacking a story

and in a way that makes you think, like,

how did this guy just say compared this one

thing to something I didn't even see coming?

And it blows your mind.

You want to place your metaphor at the right time in your raps.

You want to land with the metaphor.

So once you know it, you write the setup line

for that metaphor.

So they'll never see it coming.

And when it comes, it lands, it's explosive.

And then you go from that to a different style

for the next few bars.

Then, you might want to bring back a metaphor.

Or you might have multiple metaphors

that's coming back to back and that's what everybody's really

going crazy listening to you.

Thinking figuratively elevates the way songs

go because it's a way that you use your imagination to--

it's a way to tell a story in a unconventional way.

It's a way of teasing your listener.

Give them a little, bit not too much.

Save it for the next few lines when

you hit them with the line.

[MUSIC - NAS, "IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell,

from the spliff that I lift and inhale.

It ain't hard to tell.

I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell from

the spliff that I lift and inhale.

It ain't hard to tell.

Now, when I'm saying I give her shotguns,

that's when you smoke the blunt and you blow it through

and the next person inhales it because your faces are close.

You're not supposed to look at Medusa,

but being this close to her that you're not even worried.

You're smoking a blunt and you're sharing it with her.

You're blowing it out and she's inhaling it

right from your mouth.

That's a shotgun.

And we're doing this in hell because where else could we

be because that's where Medusa is from, right?

But I'm not staying there, she is.

And it's only from-- this is coming from the spliff

that I lift to inhale.

So it's like hell and inhale.

You using hell twice, but it's two different ways.

It's not hell.

It's that's hell, then it's inhale

because I'm talking about the weed.

You wouldn't think that I would end a rhyme like that,

but it was just to show you how crazy I can get,

even as the verse is ending, the last line,

to remind the listener, you're on a journey with a wild one.

[MUSIC - NAS, "IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in hell,

from the spliff that I lift and inhale.

It ain't hard to tell.

Rap brings all things together.

What's the newest movie?

What's the best movie?

What's the best movie you've seen in a long time?

What's the best this or that or what's

the scariest this or what's the hardest that?

[MUSIC - NAS, "IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

And groove even smoother than moves by Villanova.

you're still a soldier.

I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra.

And groove even smoother than moves by Villanova.

you're still a soldier.

I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra, packing

like a Rasta in the weed spot.

So smoother than moves by Villanova, college basketball

team.

I'm like Sly Stone in Cobra.

That was a mistake.

I was trying to say Sylvester Stallone

but I winded up talking about the musician.

And Sylvester Stallone, I said Stone instead of Stallone.

And in some off way, it still got

through the people because of the mention of the movie Cobra.

At the time, Cobra was hard.

It like sums up, what's the current events?

The current events are in this verse.

I come up with my analogies like just the things I think about.

I want to lay it out for you real nice.

Nas is like Earth, Wind, and Fire, rims and tires,

bulletproof glass inside is the realest driver.

I'm just talking about myself and this car.

And I'm just making earth, wind, and fire rap.

Earth, Wind, and Fire being one of my favorite musical groups.

You kind of have that double thing going there.

I'm like, Nas is like earth, wind, and fire.

And I'm like those actual elements, earth, wind, and fire

in my own way.

Rims and tires-- you know, at that time,

rims and tires was hot.

You got to throw that in there, whether it's slang people are

using at the time, whatever brands are popular at the time,

you throw that in there to keep the people's attention span

and to stay hip, alert, and current with what's

happening in the world.

So it's important to you know drop those candies in there

so that people, it catches their ear.

Inside is the realest driver, you're

just talking about yourself.

Bulletproof glass-- you know, that means life is lit

and I need bulletproof glass.

I'm that kind of guy.

It's presidential.

It's diplomatic.

It's big time.

You're painting the picture.

I use slang to speak directly to the audience that

created hip hop, the audience that

loves hip hop, the audience that's voiceless so that they

know I'm there for them.

They know I got their interests at heart because what

affects them affects me.

So I'm speaking to them in our language.

That's very important.

The power of slang is is the way we communicate.

It says what needs to be said in the coolest way.

It's making up a code word for certain things.

And slang always changes.

There's a few words that still around from the '80s.

People used to say that's fresh.

Fresh was a word we said years ago.

Everything was fresh.

That turned to dope, ill, lit.

Slang is always changing with each generation

or with each new shift in the things

that people are interested in, the way we talk about things.

When you put it in your music that you're

speaking the right language to the right people,

it feels like it's just you and that person.

It's the language of the people and it's the way

you connect on the real side.

Sometimes, flaws make things better in the song.

Sometimes, flaws mess up the song.

I like to lean toward the first part,

like, flaws can make things like its own unique design.

It changes it from--

its the imperfections of it that makes you love it even more.

It makes you relate to the artist in a way,

like it humanizes the artist.

It ain't hard to tell it has a lot of mistakes in there.

[MUSIC - NAS, IT AIN'T HARD TO TELL"]

So analyze me, surprise me, but can't magnetize me.

Scanning while you're planning ways to sabotage me.

Analyze me, surprise me, can't magnetize me.

That was a play on the word.

I was saying magnetize.

You can't magnetize me, pull me in, control me,

get my attention.

I'm not even fazed by you.

But it was a street way of saying magmetize

because I heard Rakim say magnetized on the mixing.

And sometimes, to me, it was like he was saying magmetized.

So I never changed it because I thought

it had that old feeling when I said it and people got it.

Magnetized from Rakim became magmetized.

When writing, never be afraid to make mistake or flaws.

That's going to happen.

Anybody that just writes perfect all the time, it's not human.

Most things you hear are songs that took a lot of work.

By the time you hear it, you don't

realize the work that was put into most most of the songs

you hear.

There was a lot of flaws.

There was a lot of mistakes before the song

became perfect and ready for your ears so

don't be afraid of that at all.

I came up with the song Rewind as sort of a punishment

to myself because I didn't feel creative that day.

It's funny, I didn't know--

I didn't know what to write about that day.

I'm in the studio.

We're in Long Island.

I'm with Large Professor.

He's working on tracks.

And he plays something I liked.

The original T La Rock It's Yours drums, I loved.

So we were listening to that song

and he just chopped it up and made it into a beat.

And I felt like it was getting late

and I wanted to get home soon and chill.

So I said, I need something because I couldn't come up

with anything good today.

I'm just going to make a story that starts at the end

and make it go backwards.

[HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING]

Listen up, gangsters and shorties with their hair done.

Pull up a chair, son.

Put it in the air, son, dog, whatever they call you.

God, listen.

I spit a story backwards.

It starts at the ending.

The bullet goes back in the gun.

The bullet holes close on the chest of its brother.

We're back to square one.

Scream and shoot.

Don't, please.

He put his fifth back on his hip.

It's like a VCR rewinding the clip.

He put his hand--

something like that.

If it's going to go backwards, then everything

has to go backwards.

Not just the story but the words coming out these people mouths.

So you just say the words backwards just

to really keep the whole thing tight.

It was one of the fastest songs I ever

wrote because I wasn't trying.

I wasn't trying hard.

The next day, we heard it and we said, it's a keeper.

It fits.

It's right.

And that became one of my most talked-about songs because I

couldn't figure out--

I couldn't find a song that I wanted to write that day.

So I didn't want to go home empty-handed so I made

a simple song going backwards.

(RAPPING) Listen up gangsters and honies with your hair done.

Pull up a chair, honey, and put it in the air, son, dog,

whatever they call you.

God, just listen.

I spit a story backwards, it starts at the ending.

The bullet goes back in the gun.

The bullet holes close in the chest of a nigger.

Now he back to square one.

Scream and shoot.

Don't, please.

I put my fifth back on my hip.

It's like a VCR rewinding the hit.

As a writer, I think you should give yourself

writing challenges like I did with Rewind.

Pick a topic.

Pick something that no one's done, something that is simple.

But it's up to you to make it good.

Any idea, and you make it good.

Make sure you put that much into it so that it's descriptive,

it's good, it's on beat, and you say things and do things

that no one's done.

The world is your oyster.

And you have your paintbrush, which

is your pen or your phone or your computer

or whatever you write on.

And you can do whatever you want there.

It's your world.

There are no rules.

Eminem's song Stan, where he talks about a fan,

it doesn't happen.

That's not something that happens in rap.

And on top of that, it's a tragic ending.

It's like a movie.

You get to know Stan.

You see where his thoughts are twisted.

You think about Eminem's safety.

That's just one way.

That's one great writer that was able to do something different,

was able to take his imagination and take something

as simple as a fan and making a movie out of it.

You have that ability.

You are the gold.

You are the treasure.

You are the dream maker.

You are the one that can change your reality

and uplift the art of rhyming by you being brave

and bold enough or daring enough to try to do something

that hasn't been done.

It's important that people know the evolution and origins

of hip-hop because it's the most exciting thing ever.

And you're robbing yourself of a great education

or a great treat to know how it started, where it started,

who started it, how it evolved, or how did these labels form--

Def Jam Records, all of these labels--

Cold Chilling Records-- all of these great records,

all of these production techniques

that were started back then.

I like to watch stuff on BB King, Muddy Waters, Marvin

Gaye, Al Green, Elton John, Queen, Elvis, Sinatra.

I want to know about these guys and they're not even rap.

So it's cool that now we can go back almost 50 years

and trace where--

how this thing got to where it is today and then

you can learn from them.

You can learn from the pioneers and it could help you today.

You know, when you go back and listen to those artists

I named, you're going back, listening to musical geniuses.

Not to take away from us today, but these guys

wrote original music.

They didn't sample.

They may have been inspired by other tunes

and did their own versions of it.

That was their way of sampling artists.

They would hear something-- a blues song would inspire a rock

song and a rock song would inspire a R&B song.

And then Queen, "We Will Rock You", that's a rap song.

He was rapping.

So that's one of the first rap songs ever heard.

That got played on the stations that

played black music because it was that feeling,

it felt like hip hop, and it was hip hop.

So these guys were geniuses, guitarists, pianists,

drummers--

these are the guys we sample but they made that stuff

from themselves from scratch, like, that's missing today.

So we're going back to a lost art

when we go back and listen to these artists.

One of the most defining moments for me,

I was watching the movies "Wild Style" and "Beat Street".

First off, they were no hip hop movies

so these were like the only hip hop movies we got

and these guys documented a time period we knew that there

was no limits for it.

We knew that you didn't just have to listen to hip hop,

you could watch a story about hip hop.

Not just a story about hip hop, a movie

starring hip hop artists.

"Crush Groove" with Run DMC and Fat Boys,

another big defining moment because it took hip hop just

off the radio and the mix shows and the concerts.

It took it to the main stage, the world stage.

In the '80s, the artists that I saw coming up

were just some of the most profound,

incredible sounding artists I ever heard.

I go back to Melle Mel from the Furious Five, LL Cool J

when he came on the scene, Public Enemy just taking

on social issues like no other music group in the world,

especially at that time.

After you see what Rakim did, what Kool Moe Dee did,

what Kool G Rap did, what Cool J did,

you're trying to find what they didn't do.

And I was looking for what they didn't do.

I was developing my style while listening to them.

At some point, I had to find a pocket that they left for me.

So I had to find my own pocket.

As the '90s approached, it was guys like myself,

B.I.G, and a host of others who kind of grabbed

the baton from those '80s guys and we

wanted to kick the doors open as they were closing

and kick them open so that they'd never close again.

And it was our duty to see it through that this thing that

was built by these pioneers stays and gets bigger and gets

the respect it deserves.

We wanted more.

We didn't just want to ask for Yo MTV Raps

to please play our videos.

People wanted to see the hip hop tradition go from the '80s

into '90s.

They wanted to see it because there was a lot of new voices.

Ice Cube is '80s but, you know, these voices come from places

we never heard of--

Compton.

And this thing was like at such a rate,

there were records that with too many curses,

the language wasn't allowed on radio.

So that left an opening for more artists to say,

OK, they're not allowing us on the radio.

Maybe we put a little R&B in there.

Maybe if we take a record that used to be a hit

and flip it with rap on it.

These were ways to get on the radio.

We worked hard until the game changed in our favor.

It was a lot of work.

Two artists that shaped hip hop, in my opinion,

is B.I.G and Tupac.

B.I.G not only was his style, his voice, the pictures he

was painting, not only were they great,

but he changed the fashion world.

He made Versace a household name in the hood along with DKNY

and a lot of different high living things

that the hood guys didn't care about.

Tupac introduced tattoos to hip hop.

Today, tattoos are normal but before Tupac, they

didn't exist at all.

It wasn't even a cool young Black thing

to have many tattoos until Tupac.

Tupac rapped about the struggles in America

and he was somewhat revolutionary.

And rap music, we never saw that--

I don't think in all music we've seen anything like that.

We saw two great artists on their way

up to being the biggest artists in the world be killed

and these are kids--

basically, still kids, you know, early 20s.

And killed over the East Coast West Coast thing.

There's other things in the middle of it,

other reasons it happened, but it

was the energy behind the East Coast West Coast beef

that put both artists on such high alert

and made their worlds close in.

I saw Tupac a couple of days before he was shot.

I was supposed to meet him in Vegas.

He was in the hospital by the time I got there.

Biggie-- supposed to meet him that night.

We were supposed to talk because a lot of time

had escaped us when we should have been talking,

so we made up a time to talk.

So it affected me in a major way, to say the least.

[MUSIC - NAS, "ONE LOVE"]

What up kid, I know shit is rough doing your bid.

When the cops came, you should've slid to my crib.

Fuck it black, no time for looking back.

I think Illmatic was a defining moment

because it was putting a light on the essence of hip hop.

My love for the music made the album sort

of like a recharge for hip hop.

I paid homage to the styles that came before me, the people that

came before me, always kept that alive, always

kept that in my walk.

I always spoke highly of the guys

that inspired me to be here and Illmatic shed light on--

just the name itself, Illmatic, shed light on a time

before that that present time we were in.

The importance of hip hop was pieced throughout the album,

whether it was a scratch, whether it was something

I said, whether it was a breakbeat that was sampled,

it was all in there.

And then lyrically, it was put together like all

that mattered to me was lyrics.

And there's a lot of people that care about lyrics so, you know,

I could say that's probably what it was.

It was like that album was homage to the ones before me

and carrying on tradition.

All those producers I worked with on Illmatic,

I was just big fans of them, Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr,

Large Professor, Pete Rock, and CL Smooth.

I felt like if I could get a beat from these guys,

I'm in the game because anything else would be kind

of like disrespecting myself.

I worked really hard on the writing so I needed the best.

Anything else, I felt like, would be a waste.

I didn't know that they would all work with me.

I was lucky, they was all into it.

So I just wanted their production.

When I was putting it together, I

knew it would have a crazy impact because of everything I

was putting into that record, the way it was sounding,

the people, the producers I worked with.

I put that album together knowing

that it would have an impact.

When I hear Illmatic is greatest album of all times,

I feel very accomplished.

I feel like I set out to do something

and I actually did it.

And it says that if this kid could do it,

coming from where I came from, anybody can do it.

You know, that's what it proves.

I hope that I captured a time that you can sense, smell,

taste, feel, enjoy on play.

The moment you press play, I want

to take you through the sounds right

where I was at, right where New York was at,

where Queens was at, where Queens Bridge was at,

where America was at in 1994.

If you're listening to Illmatic for the first time,

I want you to hear the sounds, the smell, the taste.

I want you to feel it.

I want you to be there.

I want you to close your eyes and be right there.

[NO AUDIO]

Hip hop was always truthful.

It uncovered the ugliness in society, in American society,

from the man on the ground.

It told the truth.

It told what Americans were thinking.

People were getting together and listening to these breaks,

and listening to these rappers, emcees,

speak about their generation, their demographic, their world.

That movement was a movement of young people

who were dealing with the truth--

that was from the beginning.

Creating music for underrepresented communities,

speaking on injustice and equality,

and not having equality was my life--

and it was like a cycle.

It was cyclical.

It was something that I was living,

but I wanted to call out.

I wanted to call it out.

I wanted to address it.

I wanted to address the powers that be during this lifetime,

because this is what I'm here to do.

I'm not going to just sit back and watch.

I felt like a lot of people felt like black people were invented

in the lab to be slaves, like they didn't have a history.

They didn't deserve equality.

And that, to me, was just like a lazy way of thinking

for white and Black people.

That was like a low-level mentality for America to have.

So I felt like it was important for me

to open up this subject matter in rap music.

I wasn't the first.

I won't be the last, but my experience here on Earth

could not allow me to just witness everything that was

happening and not say anything.

(SINGING) They hate you.

But yo, guess who got shot in the dome piece, Jerome's niece,

on the way home from Jones Beach.

Plus little Rob is selling drugs on the dime,

hanging out with young thugs that all carry nines.

And night time--

What up, kid?

You know shit is rough, doing your bid.

When the cops came, you should have slid to my crib.

(SINGING) Should have slid to my crib, fucking black,

no time for looking back is done.

Plus congratulations--

I heard he looks like you.

Why don't your lady write you?

I told her she should visit, that's when she got hyper.

Flipping.

Talk about he acts too rough.

He didn't listen.

He'd be riffing while I'm telling him stuff.

(SINGING) Be riffing while I'm telling him stuff.

I was like, yeah, Shorty don't care.

She a snake too.

Fucking with them niggas from--

One Love was a song, which was letters

to people I knew from my neighborhood who were in jail,

whether they did something bad or not, they were there.

Because you didn't have to do anything bad or not,

just be at the wrong place at the right time, and it's over.

I was a teenager and some of my boys were getting locked up,

so I just wrote it in a song.

It had never been done before, just saying Dear Born,

you'll be out soon, stay strong.

I don't know if I heard a rap song with--

in a letter form, so that to me, I knew

would be fresh to the game.

And that these were letters to prisoners,

and I shout them out at the end of the song--

these were people that I used to hang with.

Some people older than me.

Some of these guys are legends in the neighborhood.

To me, they were incredible people, you know?

The bigger message was--

there's something going on out here.

And two words-- mass incarceration.

And we were hit with it.

We heard it was coming, and it had

been there before we were born, but you know what?

I'm still going to take my chances.

Still going to have fun.

I'm still going to be mischievous.

I'm still going to be--

you know, that's the attitude young people have,

and what happens is you realize that there's

a serious thing happening.

I think they were the topics that people could relate to,

that people wasn't hearing, and that was real to them,

and gave them some peace and some solidarity with the song

being a song there's so many people can relate to together.

(SINGING) We going ultra black.

I got a toaster that we don't fold the crap, we going--

a cage and we rose to that, fuck going postal.

We're going ultra black, watching the global change,

hopping the coldest rain.

Ultra Black came about when I was recording

the album, The King's Disease album from 2020,

during that time George Floyd was killed.

And the world was upside down, like I ain't seen before.

I couldn't figure out what was missing from the music.

I wanted a record that felt like it was basically

a reaction to what I was seeing happening.

People want you to be afraid to be Black.

I don't know if that's the case or people

want you to silence your Blackness or silence yourself,

so I went the opposite direction,

which was ultra Black.

(SINGING) We going ultra Black.

Raiders, Oakland hat, I'll smoke to that.

Pre rose and yet, what's the results of that?

C notes in bags.

She knows I'm classy like I'm Billy Dee Williams.

Go Ultra Black, eyes a Kennedy film, penitentiary too,

Black like out on the loo.

Black don't crack.

It's like the fountain of youth.

The coach is Black, like Yvonne, she beautiful--

going ultra Black.

To Africa, you say go back.

I stay pro Black.

My Amex black.

High, black like cornrows, afros--

(SINGING) Black like cat, black ball from the Super Bowl,

holler, no, I can't go for that.

Motown museum, Detroit, we ultra Black.

This for New York and all the map, no matter your race to me,

we all are Black.

It's like, if you want me to get in my place--

go back to Africa or behave or go along

with this sickness that's terrorizing the world--

I'm not going to be quiet.

I'm not going to go away.

I'm not going to tone it down.

I'm not.

This is the time where I'm most happy to let

the world know it's great to be whoever you are.

If you're white, Italian, Ultra Italian, Ultra Chinese, Ultra--

be that.

That is not a crime.

(SINGING) Pitch black like the night, I'm ultra Black.

Except for the sun, reruns jokes are Black.

Oh yes, oh yes, God bless success.

We're going ultra Black.

Like the S is best, with a mask on.

The freshest breath, African Black soap caress the flesh.

In the middle of the chaos in the world,

I wanted to push the light, so I wanted

to show the beauty of these people that

was falling underneath this heavy blanket of hatred.

I wanted to show the beauty in it, in a celebratory way.

Talking about these subjects that are going on

in your community makes it that you

can write a song about yourself, you

can write a song about your love for someone,

but it's selfless to take on serious situations

that affect you, affect your community,

affect the future of your community,

affect the future of the country.

It may help someone if you can enlighten us with your view

on the way things should be.

The poet's moved the world for centuries.

Writers are revered.

People talk about writers centuries after they're gone.

Their words are what your presidents read.

You may not realize what you're doing at the time,

but years to come, you'll be sitting where I'm sitting,

and someone--

like cool people like you--

are wanting to know, what was it all about?

Why?

I would say never stray away from what's on your heart

when it comes to writing.

As small as you think it may be, as little as you

think it may mean to people, you'd be surprised.

[MUSIC - "THE GENESIS"]

(SINGING) Street's disciple, my raps are trifle.

I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle.

Stampede the stage, leave the microphone split.

Play Mr. Tuffey while I'm on some Pretty Tone shit.

(SINGING) Verbal assassin, my architect pleases.

When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffin' Jesus.

Nasty Nas is a rebel to America.

On "Live at the Barbeque," I said a lot of wild things.

Entering into the rap game, I needed to know--

I needed people to know I was a force to be reckoned with.

I was going to take people on a journey

that they never saw before.

And it was going to deal with everything that society

has laid on our front doorstep.

And I was hitting it head on, and I

wasn't happy about it, what was happening around.

So I spoke out.

The president's this, the cops this, even Jesus this.

Why are we going through this?

What's happening?

Something's not right.

Something's not being told right.

I didn't believe in anything, you know.

I believed in the reality that I was in.

And I felt like my future was uncertain.

Things were changing, you know.

We dealt with street things.

And we were involved in the streets.

That made me think that tomorrow might not come.

It was a possibility.

And I felt like I was a good kid.

I felt like I didn't deserve that.

I stopped saying stuff like "snuffing Jesus"

because I love Jesus.

I don't want to offend anybody like that.

And I don't want to offend anything

that's holy or powerful, godly, divine, peaceful.

Anything that represents peace and love, I'm for that.

So as I got older, I stopped saying it.

"I went to hell for lovin' Jesus"

is what I started to say.

It was very raw back then.

There was a point in time in hip-hop

where the crazier the thing it was that you said,

the more people paid attention to you.

When you're young, you're a big conspiracy theorist

because you haven't lived, so you just make assumptions.

And you see things, and you think you

know what you're talking about.

Sometimes young people do know.

A lot of times they're misinformed, not

educated about what they're really looking at.

I think, over time, I changed lyrically

because there was a time where I felt I was in the war

still, in the street.

Then I grew up.

And now I'm an old guy telling Vietnam War stories

from a wiser point.

I leave out the gory, unnecessary stuff.

I say it in ways where you get the picture, but there's--

I'm not right there.

You get the picture of what was happening,

but this is from a survival standpoint.

Before, it was, I didn't know.

I didn't know if I would survive.

When I released "It Was Written,"

I was still very competitive, lyrically.

I still had some points to prove coming into my second album.

I still had to prove that I had it.

The first album, and that's great, but can you do it again?

And there's a lot of competition.

"King's Disease" was more comfortable, more freestyling.

Some type of messages in "King's Disease."

You could do too much to yourself.

You can eat wrong.

You could be living wrong.

You could be your worst enemy.

Back then, your enemy was the haters,

hanging in the hood too much, young guy stuff.

"King's Disease" was more, no, you

can be your worst enemy because now it's a different time,

and you got to take care of self.

[MUSIC - "BLUE BENZ"]

(SINGING) I used to be at The Tunnel, 20 deep in the huddle.

Razors on us that we'll make skin bubble.

Moet, we guzzle.

Chris Lighty let me in a few times with nines.

That's on God, wish you woulda walked by and bumped me hard

or just looked at me wrong.

"Blue Benz," on the "King's Disease," you know,

we were working, me and Hit-Boy, and he plays the beat.

And it felt so warm.

It felt so dark.

It felt so hard.

It felt so sinister but yet beautiful, at the same time.

I saw the color blue.

And I just started rapping.

My chain on, try to book me, you're gone.

Goons, Italian leathers, couple bottles of Dom.

Took risks.

This ain't what you want.

There's rules to this.

Don't get it misconstrued.

My suit game was crisp, silk, linen, chiffon,

Dior to Diadora.

But I rock custom more, that hustler aura, tap in.

"Blue Benz" was just a freestyle and just ended up--

ended up about blue Benz's.

It's sort of like the things that, you know,

I was doing in the early '90s, I'm

having that conversation on the song.

Razor cutter, nineties, eighties lover, raised in gutters,

raised above it.

They made it up out of the hood subject.

I made you love it.

"That hustler aura, tap in."

You know, "razor cutter," you know, razors were big.

"Nineties eighties lover," I'm still that to this day.

I've raised above all the BS.

I raised-- raised--

whatever I said.

"Raise above it.

That made it up out of the hood subject.

I made you love it."

Yeah, you know, that's been my topic, man.

Early '90s, you know.

I just talked about a time period, right there.

And it ends off with, you know, "congratulations

to your success.

You deserve the best."

In the '90s, I just wanted to be the king.

2000s, I wanted to be Marvin Gaye.

The early 2000s, I wanted to be Frank Sinatra.

I wanted to be Michael Jackson.

I wanted to be Prince.

And then I came into my own again

and I just wanted to be me.

And that's where I'm at.

That's what where I'm going to always be, forever.

Think about your journey and how do you want it to be.

Because you can plan it and it can go according to your plan,

but believe me, there's going to be

some things that happen that you're not

going to be ready for.

And that's cool too.

If you plan on making a couple of albums, then think about--

what I would do is, like, sometimes I

would, like, create.

I would draw, like, album covers to albums

that I didn't even make yet.

I would just draw.

Here's five albums.

Wow, imagine having five albums.

It's like clay.

What do I want it to be?

What do I want this album to sound like?

Who do I think I should be working with by that time?

You know, plan, plan.

My hip-hop evolution is really just going with the flow

and seeing which way things are turning.

I'm always watching to see who's saying what,

and what people are liking.

And my evolution is now, I'm very, like,

stuck to observing what's happening in hip-hop all

the time, and comparing it, or realizing the new realities

and thinking about the origins that I grew up

watching, had a front row seat to watch it,

from the origins to what people are doing now.

And to me, it's all beyond fascinating to watch

new artists come out and crush it.

That's amazing to me.

Want to make music?

Well, you got to sign contracts.

But if you're going to sign contracts, guess what?

You're a business man or woman.

You're in the business world.

So whether you wanted to deal with it or not,

you have to because someone's going to make money off of you.

And you should know what's going on.

In America or anywhere in the world,

you want to be a business person because that's

what it's about here.

And you want to be the one that says,

this record could be in this commercial.

This record can be licensed to this movie, this video game,

not the record company licensed it to all of these things,

and you don't even know.

You want to be the one that does it

and make the money from your work.

Years ago, wasn't like that.

In the beginning, the only way into the business

was through the record companies that

had been around for a while.

And most of them didn't have any real respect for rap music

because it was this new, young thing that

was a street thing that didn't really carry heavy weight.

When I got into rap music, R&B was the bigger thing.

We were just happy to get record deals and happy.

It was like, again, it wasn't as easy as it is today.

It was like a miracle.

We had to play by their rules.

When you're in control of it, there's

nothing that's done in the dark.

It's really that simple.

You have more peace of mind.

And you need a team who want what you want who has, like,

the time to go on this journey with you.

No one could do it by theirself.

I never met somebody who ran a successful record company alone

by themselves.

You need a team.

And you don't need to live in a fantasy.

You don't need to look at some successful rap label story

and pretend that you're going to do the same thing.

You need to do better than they did.

Because chances are, today there's

better ways of doing business than it

was for that big label 25 years ago.

There's more freedom today.

With Mass Appeal, starting my own label was inevitable.

It's the only way I would want to make records

at this point in my life so that I could find artists and help

them have their voice heard where, you know, I feel them.

You want to learn how to really make

a company go from the start to the top with you and your team.

Takes a lot of work.

I had my label.

We started it in '14.

And it was years before I put out any records on it.

I was just trying to figure that out.

You learn as you go.

Believe in yourself.

And no one is going to do it for you.

Nobody's going to wake you up in the morning

and give you your assignment and tell you what to do.

You got to want to do it.

And yes, it's a lot of work, but that's what we're here to do.

It's no easy shortcuts, you know.

So we have to stay in that mind frame that, you know,

it's not going to be easy.

But the more you give to it, the more you give back.

I think that there's a lot of record companies

that have the experience that you don't have.

So that might intimidate you.

You might give up.

No, because they'll respect someone

who respects themselves.

You're going to do business with the Warner--

Warner Brothers of the world and stuff,

they respect you when you respect yourself.

Early on, what I learned about the music industry and label

deals that I like to pass on to you

is that you have a right to want to own your masters.

The name masters is even yikes.

You know what I'm saying?

There's a psychological thing there

that's underneath it all for anybody Black or white,

you know.

Someone owns your masters, you know.

You want to own your masters.

If you own your label, you own your shit,

you're in control of your future,

of your family's future, and of your own art.

You should look at it like this, up-and-coming artists.

Unless you want to give everything away for free,

you're going to have to figure out how your art can help

more than just you financially.

Because your art will help more than just you, but then

you need to be able to do something with it

so that you can help someone else.

And at the same time, study the art form

that you're in because the money will come.

Be careful for what you ask for because you'll get it.

The more important part is the craft, the art itself.

If you make a lot of money, then you have more resources.

You have more ways to--

to study your craft.

You have to make the decision partying or working,

researching, experimenting, caring, having a vision.

You have to make the decision.

But you can tell when someone is really

invested in the stuff they're working on

or if it's just for money.

You could tell.

We all make those--

those mistakes?

No, it's just life.

You may do things that are a little out of the ordinary,

but then you come back.

You realize where you got off track, and that's just life.

That's you being who you are.

But coming back and getting back to the craft, that's

the most important thing.

Hip hop started in the street raw.

And it should remain that way.

If we can curate it and keep it rocking

and show the world what it means, it can be better.

It can be bigger.

Because now there is no--

it's not diluted, the message.

It's about giving it to you in the purest form.

[HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING]

I love hip hop music that's about partying, money, cars,

and sex.

I like movies about that.

I like books about that.

There's a place for it.

And because I come up from the Rakims and the Kool G

Rap and all these lyricists, I'm more of a lyricist guy.

So even though this fun party record's out,

I'm still more drawn to the lyricist.

So I think to each his own.

I think hip hop has always talked

about things we didn't really have but things we aspired

to go for, to get after.

It was always a color TV so I could see

the Knicks played basketball.

And it was always ride around in my--

in the fresh OJ, that car from--

what was that car?

OJ was broken down for something.

And yeah, the suits were clean.

It was always about the better life.

There was a message in it, years ago, that was consistent.

It was about the social ills.

It was about crack is killing America.

Chuck D. was basically a street news reporter.

So I mean, KRS-One was teaching Black African history.

It was a different time then.

And those records were needed.

Coming out of that era, we needed a change.

We needed a different outlook.

We needed to step up into America in a way

where we're not going to allow the doors to be closed anymore.

We need record companies.

We need to own our record companies.

We need to be the managers.

We need to be the clothes designers.

We need to because we know what we need to look like.

We know we need to sound like.

We need to be the producers, the engineers, own the studios.

We needed that all around the board.

That meant money.

That meant more business.

That meant better lifestyles, bigger lifestyles, more

entourage, more records sold.

It was inevitable.

I never minded it.

It was only to the point where it

seemed like that was a one-trick bag for certain artists.

Then to me it was like, nah, this is wack.

But I can't be mad at somebody talking

about how their life is leveling up

and they want to chill in the Hamptons now.

It's not for you to know.

Listen, I personally like the Hamptons.

Going through my past works in this class

has been something I needed because these

are songs that I didn't think about in a long time.

I didn't say the words in a long time.

It was good to go back to those places

and remember what was spontaneous,

what took me a long time to write, my writing process.

I like to go back and think about, what was it like for me

to get started?

And go back to that kid who knew but didn't know.

I think we all kind of know, but there was still

so many surprises.

I hope I was able to let you in my world.

I just wanted to talk to you straight from the heart.

My parting message to the youth and all you guys

is don't listen to anybody.

Don't even listen to me.

You already know what you need to do.

It's in you.

It's talking to you all the time.

You downplay it because you think you're not experienced

or you know you're not experienced so you're

scared to listen to yourself.

But you know you.

Your soul knows you.

And that's what you're listening to in your head.

Trust it.

Trust your gut.

Go with your first instincts.

You can't lose.

Words are life.

Speak things into existence and create your universe.

Protect yourself with your words.

The universe is listening.

It's your world.

Do the right thing with it.