Original subtitles

["Hip-Hop" by Dead Prez playing] -♪ Uh, uh ♪ -♪ One, two, one, two ♪

-♪ Uh, uh ♪ -♪ One, two, one two ♪

♪ One thing 'bout music When it hit you feel no pain ♪

♪ White folks says it controls your brain I know better than that, that's game ♪

♪ And we ready for that Two soldiers head of the pack ♪

♪ Matter of fact who got the gat? And where my army at? ♪

-♪ Rather attack and not react ♪ -♪ Bigger than hip-hop ♪

♪ Hip-hop, hip-hop, hip ♪

♪ It's bigger than hip-hop ♪

♪ Hip-hop, hip-hop ♪

[music stops, sirens wail]

[fast-paced hip-hop beat playing]

[Shad] There's only one thing that hip-hop heads love more than hip-hop,

and that's arguing about hip-hop.

Ask seven hip-hop heads who the greatest MC of all time is,

and be prepared to get seven different passionate answers.

We can't even agree on major things, like when was hip-hop's golden age.

But if you came to a consensus, the golden age might start here,

in mid-80s New York, in a club tucked amidst the bright lights of Times Square,

The Latin Quarter.

[Shad] The Latin Quarter was neutral ground

for kids from across New York's boroughs,

and it was teeming with creative energy.

Energy that would create more styles and set more trends,

then maybe anytime in hip-hop history.

Energy that would be channeled

by a mink wearing, smooth-talking promoter,

who went by the name of Paradise.

-We're here in Times Square now. -[Paradise] Yes.

But what did this area look like in, let's say, 1985?

This was the red-light district.

We had nothing but XXX porn shops

up and down the street.

[Paradise] Live sex, video machines like you walked into Coney Island,

and the Stickup Kids came down here.

-Crazy. Yeah. -Then the Latin Quarter was right here.

Then you had the red carpet right in front of the club,

and the ladies would line up that way and go all the way around the corner.

Everybody in hip-hop would be in the building

or any given Friday and Saturday.

[Paradise] In New York, they would come from all five boroughs.

Even if you weren't performing,

you was here at the Latin Quarter as a fan.

This a sanctuary.

[Daddy-O] The Latin Quarter was the Studio 54 of hip-hop.

From the time you hear the music outside,

get into the door, where you get patted down,

and then getting ready to go up the stairs and hearing the music.

It's like you couldn't wait to get up there.

[shouting, whooping]

[Chuck D] The Latin Quarter was one of the great venues of all time.

It was the place to be if you was a hip-hop artist

and you had to perform in front of everyone notable in hip-hop.

At the Latin Quarter, we rolled out the red carpet

for anybody in the entertainment industry.

[Paradise] I was this mover, this shaker.

I was a human Rolodex. I knew everybody in the industry.

Doug E. Fresh, LL Cool J,

Slick Rick, Run DMC, Stetsasonic.

And they're mingling in the crowd, having fun like everybody else.

Jam Master Jay is right there.

You know what I'm saying? Curtis blows is right there.

You know, it was just ridiculous.

[Dante Ross] It was a wild fucking place. The energy was kinetic, dangerous and...

you know, shit was exciting, exhilarating. You never knew what would happen next.

All of the street thugs and gangsters was there.

The East New York hoodlums would say, "Daddy-O, who's with you?"

I said, "Him, him, him."

"Ten minutes, get off the floor." 'Cause they're going to rob everybody.

Girls get their earrings snatched.

Dudes get your fronts knocked out, your gold fronts.

[Paradise] One night, there was a dude

swinging a damn samurai sword.

-[Shad] What? -I was like, "What the hell?

Where did you get a samurai sword from?"

[Lord Jamar] Shit used to get crazy in there. But you had to be there.

If you was a real hip-hop motherfucker,

you had to be there to show your shit off.

[Daddy-O] The Latin Quarter was development camp

for the next group of guys that were going to come.

If you couldn't cut it there,

everybody was like, "You corny. You outta here."

-All the ladies in the house, say "Ah!" -[girls] Ah!

Say "Ah!"

[girls] Ah!

[Shad] Why do you think that place was important?

What do you think was special about it to hip-hop at that time?

It was everything. The Latin Quarters...

gave great opportunities to artists.

It gave you credit.

You got accolades for rocking the Latin Quarter stage,

and just for Paradise to even know your name

was a huge deal.

And Red Alert had it turned up

every time the doors opened

to the time they closed.

You could just go to the club,

with your vinyl and hand it to Red Alert.

If Red Alert banged your joint,

you didn't have to pay to get your song on the radio.

[Dante] You knew that what he played Friday night at work

was played Saturday night on the radio.

So, it was a direct line from what worked on the dance floor

to what was going on the air.

You went in there, you knew what records were real,

and if your record didn't get played, it was bullshit.

That was the pulse of music in New York City, undoubtedly.

the greatest breeding ground for talent of all time.

It was responsible, largely,

for the greatest changing of the guard in hip-hop history.

[Shad] The LQ epitomized the energy of next-generation New York:

raw, hardcore, and original.

The MCs and crews coming out of the LQ

were re-shaping hip-hop on a weekly basis,

and they were determined to get theirs.

But no one at the LQ was as hungry and determined

as an MC who called himself

Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.

What? Hmm.

[Shad] I'd like to start at the beginning.

Your first taste of hip-hop that you remember.

I was hip-hop from the time I was in my mother's womb.

I grew up in the Bronx.

I was living next door to Kool Herc,

who is the recognized father of hip-hop.

I would hear the basement parties.

We had to creep to the window and listen. We were too young to get in.

You hear crews on live, you know.

[Shad] So what inspired you to pick up the mic and rock like those guys?

[KRS-One] To survive in the hood.

The average person on the street had a rhyme.

♪ Well, I call my girl up on the phone ♪

♪ To see if she was busy or all alone ♪

[KRS] If somebody run up on you, or you're in a conversation,

and somebody's like, "Spit a rhyme, man. What you got?"

If you didn't have something right there,

your credibility in the hood was gone.

"Yo spit your rhyme right there."

♪ Well, I'm ding, ding, dang From the blah, blah, blach ♪

Yeah, what?

That's when dudes say, "Yeah, don't mess with him right there.

He got the ill. Yo, he spit the raw."

This is how you survived in the hood.

[KRS] I was going through hard times.

I'm in the shelter in an Armory, 740 dudes.

I want to be a rapper,

but I'm bummy, I'm in a shelter.

In walks a social worker, Scott Sterling.

So, he starts with, "Why are you here?

"Obviously, I'm here 'cause I don't have a place to live."

"What are you going to do? What are your plans in life?"

So, I said sarcastically, "I'm an MC."

He was like, "MC?

What you know about that? MC?"

He's like, "Spit a rhyme right now."

I stood up, hit him hard.

♪ Every generation After every generation ♪

♪ The American nation Is hit with starvation ♪

♪ The exploitation, the quick sensation ♪

♪ Can only lead the mind To destructive creation ♪

He said, "Yo, what you doing in here?

Yo, you got real talent, man, yo."

He said, "Yo, this is my card.

My name is Scott La Rock.

I DJ at this club,

uh, in Manhattan.

Why don't you come down this Friday

and just hang out and watch me DJ?"

Friday comes. Got in there, place is rammed.

People, like this.

Scott was cutting up Fresh Is The Word.

And I was like, "I made it!

That's it. I'm good!"

Later that night, this group got on stage.

They had some sort of beef with Scott.

They were like, "Yo, man, you lucky you ain't got no MCs,

'cause we'd take them out too."

So, I said, "Let's get it on right here, right now.

'Cause I do this.

My bread is on the line.

Y'all look like y'all ate today.

Unh-uh, not happening. You had breakfast, I didn't."

The dude you're battling,

he slept on the 2 Train,

and if he wins, he don't have to sleep on the 2 Train no more.

"You're over. You're as good as done.

There's nothing that you can rhyme or say

that will take away this dude's hunger.

It's the hunger that's writing my rhymes.

Hunger, and scratchy stuff, and..."

[snarls]

It was less than five minutes. We destroyed these dudes.

[Shad] Scott La Rock and KRS-One

would recruit a young Bronx DJ, D-Nice,

and christen themselves BDP,

aka Boogie Down Productions,

a shout out to their home borough, the Boogie Down Bronx.

It was a chest-puffing moment, because by the mid-'80s,

the Bronx wasn't running the rap game anymore.

It was Queens' era, with Run-DMC on top,

and right behind them,

hip-hop's original super team, The Juice Crew,

led by Roxanne Shanté, Big Daddy Kane,

MC Shan, and Marley Marl.

[Marley Marl] Juice Crew was formed by Sir Juice, Mr. Magic,

who was the first rap DJ in the world

to really bring rap mainstream.

Mr. Magic was the hottest,

the biggest DJ of the time.

Welcome once again to the world-famous

Mr. Magic Rap Attack, and of course, I am Sir Juice.

[KRS] At this time now, me and Scott are making demos.

So, Scott takes one of our demos to Mr. Magic.

He was having a full studio session with Marley Marl.

We barged into his session.

Here comes two knuckleheads out of nowhere.

We were like this...

"We KRS." I said, "I'm KRS, he's Scott La Rock.

This is our demo." Just like straight up.

It wasn't a scheduled meeting.

[Marley] We was in the studio and BDP was on the other side,

and they heard Mr. Magic was there.

"Hey, we're in the next studio, we would love for you to hear our stuff."

He walks in. They're playing their music loud.

He's like, "Cut that shit off. It's garbage, it's whack."

He got in Scott La Rock's face.

"You want real hip-hop? It's Marley Marl.

It's MC Shan. It's Roxanne Shanté.

Y'all niggas suck!"

He walked out the room.

Door slams. I'm looking at these guys

and just broke their heart.

[KRS] He didn't like it, threw it in the garbage and said it was whack.

We took that as a disrespect.

Left the studio.

“He said we was whack. I'm not whack.

MC Shan is whack!"

["The Bridge" by MC Shan playing]

[Shad] Already feeling disrespected by hip-hop's kingmaker,

what happened next would further fuel BDP's fire.

The Juice Crew's MC Shan would drop The Bridge

a tribute to his Queens neighborhood,

but in BDP's native borough of the Bronx,

Shan's record was seen as a claim that hip-hop started in Queens.

It was based on a little misunderstanding about the first verse in the song.

"You love to hear the story, again and again,

of how it all got started way back when."

♪ The monument is right in your face Listen a while to the name of the place ♪

-♪ The Bridge ♪ -♪ Queensbridge ♪

[Roxanne] That's the anthem.

People needed to understand where we came from.

More rappers have came from Queensbridge,

from our six blocks,

-than any other place in the world. -Yeah.

And they say it's something in the water.

♪ Third in line you know it's me MC Shan ha-ha in the place to be ♪

[Chuck D] MC Shan, The Bridge, big record,

getting a lot of play on Mr. Magic, primetime.

So, when Scott La Rock and KRS-One felt dissed

that their music wasn't accepted by Magic,

they had something to say about it.

They came out and blasted,

put the full blast on MC Shan.

KRS-One and Scott was like, "Fuck him”, you know.

We did a answer record to MC Shan's Queensbridge

called South Bronx.

We took that down to Red Alert,

who was playing at The Latin Quarter.

He threw it on.

When that record came on,

[vocalizing]

♪ Yo, what's up, Blastmaster KRS One This jam is kicking ♪

♪ We have to tell you a little story about Where we we come from ♪

South Bronx! South Bronx!

♪ South Bronx South, South Bronx ♪

♪ South Bronx South, South Bronx ♪

The place erupted.

♪ South Bronx South, South Bronx ♪

[KRS] Dudes from the Bronx felt the "S" on their chest.

A guy named Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone made this record.

KRS just gave it to you, right here. Boom!

♪ So you think that hip-hop Had its start out in Queensbridge ♪

♪ If you pop that junk up in the Bronx You might not live 'cause I'm from ♪

♪ South Bronx ♪

He put a whooping... He put a whooping

on the whole Juice Crew with that record.

[Lord Jamar] You've got to understand who the fuck MC Shan was at the time.

MC Shan was the motherfucking man.

For KRS to just be coming out "South Bronx"

and then when he come with "The Bridge is Over," it was just like...

"Who is this guy?"

[beat-boxing]

[vocalizing to the beat of "The Bridge Is Over"]

♪ I say, the bridge is over The bridge is over, biddy-bye-bye! ♪

♪ The bridge is over, the bridge is over Hey, hey! ♪

[KRS] "South Bronx" was out.

"The Bridge is Over" was out.

The album Criminal Minded is out.

I've already proven myself now as an MC.

There was nobody messing with BDP at all, okay, at all.

So, we're coming through.

♪ Manhattan keeps on making it, Brooklyn keeps on taking it ♪

♪ Bronx keeps creating it And Queens keeps on faking it ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[Shad] With their victory over the Juice Crew

and their breakthrough album Criminal Minded,

BDP shook up New York's hierarchy

and became the city's hottest underground crew.

But, just as BDP were gaining mass appeal,

the unthinkable would happen.

♪ They must be on the dick of who? DJ Scott La Rock ♪

[police sirens wail]

[police radio chatter, siren chirps]

[KRS] Scott was trying to break up a fight.

This was Scott.

He was always trying to make the peace,

always trying to find another way.

Somebody started shooting from a window

and hit Scott behind the ear.

[siren blares]

They rushed him to the hospital.

And Scott was up there fighting for his life.

The family decided to pull the plug

and then he went on.

[monitors beeping]

[Dante Ross] Scott La Rock was the first guy in the spotlight

in hip-hop at that time who got taken out.

When he got killed, it sent shockwaves through New York City

'cause this guy, he had his whole future right ahead of him,

and it got taken from him.

[Shad] Scott La Rock's murder galvanized the New York hip-hop community,

because Scott's death was symbolic of a bigger problem in New York City.

But, driven by a sense of their growing influence and power,

this time the hip-hop community was ready to do something about it.

That could have been any one of us.

That was us.

We had to respond.

We had meetings at The Latin Quarter

called the Meeting of the Minds

to see what we could do in hip-hop

to take a stand against the violence.

I remember them having an emergency meeting at Latin Quarters,

trying to come up with what we could do

to make some sort of impact on the culture

and turn the thing around.

And that is where KRS-One's Stop the Violence movement first began.

Everybody say stop the violence!

[all] Stop the violence!

[Daddy-O] We here to stop Black-on-Black crime.

'Cause we ain't with y'all killing and robbing each other. Y'all understand?

-[all] Yeah. -[Daddy-O] You understand that?

[KRS] We put the Stop the Violence movement,

it was to affect the existence of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is not about promoting violence.

That's not where hip-hop comes from.

Hip-hop is about peace, love, unity, having fun.

Alright, guys, ready? Three, two, one. Let's do it.

[all rapping]

[Ralph] KRS had an idea to do a record.

We started going through names of people that would reflect what was happening

and who people would take seriously on the record.

You know, from Kool Mo Dee to Heavy D.

And it had to have Chuck D.

-Yeah, what's up, y'all? -[all] What's up?

All right, peace. As-Salamu Alaikum.

[Chuck D] The Stop the Violence movement

was the first coming together of the hip-hop mind,

to see if we could make our words, into some kind of action.

♪ Well, today's topic, self-destruction ♪

♪ It really ain't the rap audience bugging It's one or two suckers ♪

♪ Ignorant brothers Trying to rob and steal from one another ♪

[KRS] Let's come to show the unity. We know exactly who we are.

This is what it means to be conscious,

to be awake, to be aware.

♪ Leave the guns, crack, the knives alone MC Lyte's on the microphone ♪

♪ Bum rushing and pushing Snatching and taxing ♪

That was monumental. That was a switch in hip-hop...

that ignited that fire inside of us.

What can I do to change these horrible circumstances for our people?

♪ Yo Daddy-O, school 'em some more ♪

♪ From the mouth of Wise and Daddy-O Do a crime, end up in jail and gotta go ♪

[Daddy-O] There was a realization...

that cats could say something.

♪ Self destruction You're headed for self-destruction ♪

-Oh, yeah! -That's the day. That's a wrap.

I gotta learn that shit, man.

[Kevin] It was all part of us searching for our identity as people of color,

as Black and Latino people. Who are we really, you know?

It wasn't enough for us to have our own culture, called hip-hop.

We're like, "Wait a minute? Why don't we embrace where we came from?"

You know what I mean? You started hearing a lot about Africa.

I wore my African medallions.

Many of us took African or Islamic names.

We embraced it, and it was beautiful.

It was powerful, man.

[Paradise] We started giving rappers Zulu beads

and African medallions.

We were shaming people that still wore jewelry,

you know what I mean? We would get on them, and get on them...

and we used to put so much pressure on rappers themselves

that even LL Cool J and Run-D.M.C. took their jewelry off.

And, so, now, you had groups coming out, like

X Clan, the Blackwatch Movement,

Poor Righteous Teachers, Brand Nubian.

We were starting to really flex our consciousness.

[Shad] Hip-hop artists were putting Black and African pride front and center,

and informing the world about the issues

and history of Black people globally.

But at the same time, another movement was brewing.

One that would take many of these Afrocentric ideas

and add a twist.

At the forefront of this evolution

was another crew with its roots in the Latin Quarter,

the Jungle Brothers.

[Shad] Tell me about the first time you met Baby Bam

and how did the group form.

I first met Baby Bam in high school.

Initially, it was myself and Bam, and then I brought in Sammy,

'cause he DJ'ed for me all the time.

I would say it started in Bam's house.

He had a lot of his dad's old records,

and then from there,

we actually went to the studio

and we started rapping back and forth.

We weren't street.

We didn't portray super hip-hop dudes.

We would just have funky flows and dope beats.

["Straight Out of the Jungle" starts playing]

♪ Educated man, from the motherland ♪

♪ You see, they call me a star But that's not what I am ♪

♪ I'm a jungle brother, A true, blue brother ♪

♪ And I've been to many places You'll never discover ♪

[Busta Rhymes] Jungle Brothers is the first group

that did the pro-Black thing

without being preachy,

and being fun at the same time.

X Clan, Chuck D, they were militant as hell.

When Jungle Brothers did it,

it was everything we wanted to be like.

[Dante Ross] They had the wooden beads...

and, you know, they dressed really bohemian.

They were groovy. They were funky.

[Mike] We were really just trying to educate people to a certain extent.

There's so many instances, whether it be Latin Quarters or your neighborhood jam,

that ends up in gunfire, fighting, stabbing...

So, we really just wanted to create an environment where

people could come and have a good time,

go home, make love, and do what they want to do.

♪ Cool and quiet But quick to start up a riot ♪

♪ I write the rhyme Bums insist to bite it ♪

♪ I wear no gold around my neck Just black medallions ♪

♪ That show the home Of three black stallions ♪

[Monie Love] The Jungle Brothers album Straight Out the Jungle was a blueprint.

It lays down the foundation

for different sounding production to be accepted,

very jazzy, very quirky

Jungle Brothers fused that together.

They were the first ones to go absolutely against the grain.

The rest of us followed.

♪ My name's Mike G And I'm straight out the jungle ♪

[Shad] Rocking safari gear and flipping bugged-out samples,

The Jungle Brothers moved hip-hop beyond shell toes and Kangols.

They moved hip-hop beyond the block.

And it wouldn’t take long for the Brothers to find a like-minded family,

who would collectively reshape hip-hop's possibilities.

[Shad] Can you talk about how the Native Tongues came together,

and also how you got involved?

Native Tongues kind of all came out

piece by piece, Jungle Brothers first,

then De La, then Tribe Called Quest, then Queen Latifah.

I came in because Afrika, from The Jungle Brothers,

he realized I was a dope MC.

So, we started working together.

[Mike] Everybody grants us with the starting of the Native Tongue.

It was a group that really pushes hip-hop,

pushes creativity, pushes love for the music and culture.

We was just hanging out a lot.

Over a period of time, you build this family vibe.

You just feel this connection.

Buddy was the record that blew.

♪ Hello it's the Soul Troopin' in wit the Jungle patrol ♪

♪ And this one's about the KO's ♪

♪ The knockouts out there Who's holdin' my buddy ♪

-♪ Hold up ♪ -♪ Wait a minute ♪

[Bob Power] One of the things that was important about Native Tongues,

I call it the second wave of hip-hop,

and it really was.

In hip-hop, part of the verbal tradition was all about being

tougher and more clever than everybody else.

The Native Tongues were the first people that said,

"Well, we're going to talk about something else.

We'll talk about consciousness."

♪ De La Soul, on the flow Black medallions, no gold ♪

♪ Hangin' out wit Pos Hangin' out wit Mase ♪

♪ Buddy buddy buddy, all in my face ♪

[Shad] Tell me about the Native Tongues and what values you all shared.

Amazingly, Leaders of the New School

and Busta Rhymes was never a Native Tongue.

We wanted to be Native Tongue bad as hell.

We never got the chance to be official Native Tongue.

Fuck you, Native Tonguers, for not allowing us to be Native Tongue.

But they are our fathers and our mothers

and our big brothers and big sisters.

De La and Tribe are gods to me.

Latifah is a female god to me,

Monie Love is a female god to me.

-That was the Native Tongue. -Mm-hmm.

They were everything.

[Shad] The Native Tongues brought a new energy to hip-hop

that was fun and inclusive on every level,

including giving women a platform to rock.

It seems like out of that era,

yourself, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah--

Why do you think that was an era

where there were these women in hip-hop

with strong messages and big records?

Honestly, let's start with Pebblee Poo.

Okay? Let's start with her

and Sha Rock, Debbie D, Lisa Lee, you know?

Let's start from all of them Real MC's.

I'm from a strand of females, women,

that are here to rhyme...

first.

As a female in hip-hop,

I really wanted to be taken seriously.

And at 16 years old, I couldn't care less what I looked like...

or, you know, how cool I was or whatever.

It was about my rhyme flow.

Like, "Pay attention."

Get taken seriously for the craft.

Absolutely. Everything else can follow.

What about Latifah?

What was her dynamic, her role?

Latifah was majestic.

There's a majesty about Latifah,

and there always has been.

She always gave us, like, mother of civilization vibe.

Latifah and I struck a friendship immediately.

And she said, "You know, we should do a song together."

We started talking about this concept.

We knew we wanted to write a song that celebrated women

as historical figures,

as MCs on the mic,

as your everyday mothers raising their children.

We knew we wanted to write a song that celebrated women,

but we didn't realize we were writing a female anthem.

♪ The ladies will kick it The rhyme that is wicked ♪

♪ Those that don't know How to be pros get evicted ♪

♪ A woman can bear you Break you, take you ♪

♪ Now it's time to rhyme Can you relate to ♪

♪ A sister dope enough To make you holler and scream ♪

♪ Ayo, let me take it from here Queen Excuse me but I think I'm about do ♪

♪ To get into precisely What I am about to do ♪

♪ I'm conversating to the folks That have no whatsoever clue ♪

♪ So listen very carefully As I break it down for you ♪

♪ Merrily, hyper happy overjoyed ♪

♪ Pleased with all the beats and rhymes My sisters have employed ♪

♪ Slick and smooth throwing down the sound Totally a yes ♪

♪ Let me state the position ♪

-♪ Ladies first, yes? ♪ -♪ Yes ♪

♪ Oh, ladies first ♪

[Monie] It was a very important moment for the Native Tongues,

which, is hence, why my rhyme in Ladies First was,

"I'm the daughter of a sister,"

meaning Queen Latifah,

"who's the mother of a brother," Jungle Brothers,

"who's the brother of another," De La Soul,

"who's the brother of another," Tribe Called Quest.

♪ Desperately stressing I'm the daughter A sister who's the mother of a brother ♪

♪ Who's the brother of another Plus one more, all four ♪

♪ Have a job to do, we doing it Respect due ♪

♪ To the mother who's the root of it And next up is me ♪

♪ The M-O-N-I-E L-O-V-E And I'm first cause I'm a L-A-D-I-E ♪

♪ Contact, the style, it gets harder Cooling with my European partner ♪

You had Latifah wearing this sort of paramilitary, you know...

Like she's commanding the free world

with Monie at her side.

And, here she is, you know, at the global board,

knocking off huge chess pieces

and just a very female-centric,

take-no-prisoners, laying-down-the-law type of track.

♪ Some think that we can't flow Stereotypes, they got to go ♪

♪ Imma mess around And flip the scene into reverse ♪

-♪ With what? ♪ -♪ With a little touch of "Ladies First" ♪

[MC Lyte] Michie Mee, MC Peaches, Harmony,

Ms. Melodie, Monie Love...

It encompassed everyone.

It was inclusive.

It definitely represented a different side

of black women.

"Ladies first."

What better title is there?

I think it was important for us to, like, brand it

with the fact that we are women,

we are here, we have something to say.

You know, forget what we look like.

We are here to rhyme.

[Shad] Monie Love and Queen Latifah

challenged expectations for women in hip-hop,

by being fiercely lyrical, feminine, and Black.

But the Native Tongues were not done reshaping hip-hop's norms.

Because, far away from the hectic scramble of the five boroughs,

another branch of the family had grown.

[Shad] So, why don’t you just tell me how you guys formed as a group?

-That story. -Um...

how we formed as a group was...

Pos, Dave and I went to high school together.

We were already in different classes together,

but summer of '85

was when we all failed school

and we had to go to summer school.

[laughs]

My house was directly across the street.

So, two periods a day, we were out by maybe 10:30,

so we were at my house for the rest of the day,

and things just started coming together.

-♪ Plug one ♪ -♪ Plug two ♪

♪ Now plug three Flock to a preacher called Pos ♪

[Posdnuos] At that point, we really wasn't doing nothing.

I happened to just go...

I was going through my father's '45s,

and I found this 45 and it said, "Plug Side," literally.

And I was like, "Oh, cool." I'll put it on the plug side,

Sounded interesting.

I turned it over...

that's when I heard-- [humming]

I was like, "Yo, this is kind of cool."

♪ Plug one, plug two, plug one ♪

"Plug Tunin'" was just us slacking.

It's us being in Mase's crib,

and he's DJing, and we should be trying to come up with routines,

but the cassette tape is still going,

and we start saying something silly.

♪ Answering any other service ♪

♪ Prerogative praised Positively I'm acquitted ♪

[Trugoy] We recorded "Plug Tunin'"

and Prince Paul from Stetsasonic was coming through there

and we was like, "Yo, we got some stuff we'd like to play for somebody."

[Prince Paul] At that point, I made a record.

I'm the cool guy in the neighborhood.

I was in Stetsasonic, I had a record out.

Mase was like, "Look, I've got a group.

We call ourselves De La Soul.

Let me bring the tape over to your house."

I'm like, "Bet."

He brings it over. It's a rough of Plug Tunin'.

♪ Answering any other service ♪

♪ Prerogative praised Positively I'm acquitted ♪

♪ Enemies publicly shame my ability ♪

I'm like, "Yo, this is nuts."

♪ Simply soothe Will move vinyl like glue ♪

[Prince Paul] Tell your group to come over my house.

I want to meet them.

They came over.

I took the tape of Plug Tunin' that they had.

This is back in taking two cassettes, and I dubbed stuff over it,

like, put other loops on it and added things to it.

I was like, "Yo, check this out." They're like, "Oh!"

I'm like, "Yo, we need to go into the studio."

[Lynch] Listening to De La for the first time,

I was like, "This sounds like nothing I've ever heard."

So, I set up a meeting with the group.

They're very quiet, very shy.

And then they started telling me,

"Well, you know, my name is Posdnuos,

and that's 'soundsop' backwards."

I'm like, "Okay." You know? And... [laughs]

"My name is Trugoy the Dove,

and that's 'yogurt' spelled backwards."

In person, they were just as different,

so we quickly moved to sign them.

[Prince Paul] When we got in the studio,

it was just us not really knowing what we were doing,

but knowing we were having fun doing it.

[Dante Ross] You got four guys.

They all raid their parents' record collections,

and they were not afraid to just use everything.

"Say No Go" was a big one for me, because...

I knew I wanted to rhyme over this "I Can't Go for That" record.

You know, like...

[humming]

But there was nowhere on the record where I could do that,

because Darryl Hall was singing over it.

But the beginning was in the higher register.

[humming]

So, when I was shown in the studio

this piece of equipment

where I could pitch down a tone,

my brain went insane.

♪ You got the body now you want my soul ♪

♪ Nah, can't have none of that Tell 'em what to say Mase ♪

♪ Say no go ♪

[Lynch] Three Feet High and Rising set an entirely new template for production.

The sampling became a huge part of the story.

You could see that they listened to everything.

I'm going to find this insignificant snippet on a jazz record,

fuse it with an insignificant snippet from a rock record,

and create something you've never heard.

It was a beautiful thing.

♪ Don't even think about it Say no go ♪

[Prince Paul] We handed in Three Feet High and Rising.

We were done with it. Handed it to Tommy Boy.

They were like, "You're missing a radio song."

[sighs]

Really?

We were like, "Okay."

I just recall Mase at one point

wanting to use the Knee Deep Record.

[Maseo] Dave, Paul and I went to a Zulu Nation party.

I don't know if it was Bam or Jazzy J, but they dropped "Knee Deep."

The crowd went bananas.

[crowd cheering]

I elbowed the shit out of Dave and I was like,

"B, this is our record."

And, literally two days later, Paul was like,

"Yo, Mase, bring that to the studio."

Then we started building on it from there.

♪ Mirror, mirror on the wall Tell me mirror, what is wrong? ♪

♪ Can it be my De La Clothes Or is it just my De La Soul? ♪

To me, that record was like, "Okay, whatever...

If this is going to make Tommy Boy happy,

so we can put out this amazing piece of art that we created

and the fun we had...

then fine."

We took that song so...

We took the piss on that song. It was just like--

♪ Proud, I'm proud of what I am Poems I speak are Plug Two type ♪

♪ Please, oh, please Let Plug Two be himself... ♪

They tried to make it...

the worst record possible.

Because in their mind, the more stupid it is

the less it was going to be accepted.

-Yeah. -But, sorry.

The more silly we are, the more we popped.

♪ And from me myself and I ♪

[Maseo] Nobody in hip-hop was silly.

Nobody else was being class clowns.

Everybody else had a bravado.

[Podnuos] We threw these rhymes together quick,

and it wound up being our biggest song ever. You know?

They put it out, the record just blows up. We're like, "How did that happen?"

The party's kicking off real well.

I just got back from Mars. I'm kind of out of it.

They came out of nowhere with a sound that was so crazy.

To be that dope and to sound that hard,

while sounding so calm when they was spitting?

The way that whole shit came together was just crazy.

♪ It's just me myself and I ♪

[Dante] The greatest thing about De La

is that it allowed young Black kids to be bugged out.

I don't gotta be a stereotypical cat, trying to be hard and all that.

Being weird is okay, it's cool to be weird.

You know, it changed everything.

♪ It's just me myself and I ♪

[Shad] Decades after the Tongues first came together

to rewrite hip-hop's rules,

they still hold a special place

in the hearts of hip-hop heads across the world.

That's because the Tongues created something universal

out of something specific.

They were Afrocentric, but inclusive.

They were rooted in traditions, but endlessly curious.

And their kinship represented an ideal

that everyone could relate to.

But none of that would matter if the music wasn't dope.

♪ Do I love you? Do I lust for you? ♪

[Shad] That's what brought the Tongues together

and what drove them all to excellence.

And that what brings me here, to talk to the crew's most famous group

about the records that would cement the Tongues' legacy

as one of the most influential collectives in hip-hop history.

["Bonita Applebum" by A Tribe Called Quest playing]

Phife Dawg and I knew each other probably since we was, like, four.

Went to church together, grew up in the same neighborhood.

We did sports, girls, music.

Like, we was the best of the friends, you know what I'm saying? And, uh...

he's the one who actually got me into rapping.

We heard Rapper's Delight, he's like, "Yo, we could do that too."

At nine years old.

And I was the one that was like, "Okay, let's do it."

This dude had his mind at eight or nine,

he tells Tip, "Yo, I want to start rapping."

You know, he had that vision super early.

By 12, 13...

I don't know, we was on our second demo already,

you know what I'm saying?

-[Shad] Like serious? -Dude, yeah.

We were going to the studio.

We had a manager, B. It was serious.

♪ Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on ♪

♪ Bonita Applebum, I said you gotta put me on ♪

♪ Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on ♪

♪ Bonita Applebum, I said you gotta put me on ♪

[Ali Shaheed] For us, it was persistence

and our vision, and a belief in ourselves.

You know, we paid for our sessions,

we saved up our money to make things happen.

A song that came out of the early demo years

was "Bonita Applebum."

♪ Hey Bonita, glad to meet ya ♪ [chuckles]

♪ For the cunning, stunning you, miss, I must beseech ya ♪

[Q-Tip] I had half of the album pretty much locked in

when I was like 14, 15.

It was fun for me, you know what I'm saying?

Uh, did you have a specific vision for that album,

-or was it just... -Yeah, the album was the vision.

[both laugh]

♪ Ain't no need to question The authority ♪

[Jarobi] Tribe had the biggest advantage

when we made our record out of everybody else.

We had the committee of the flyest people in New York City

making records telling you if your shit is hot or not.

But it was super competitive,

because we wanted to stand out and be different

from all the people that we admired and looked up to.

We wanted to be like Earth, Wind & Fire,

and Prince and Stevie Wonder.

Our goal was just to be the flyest dudes.

That's it.

♪ Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on ♪

♪ Bonita Applebum I said you gotta put me on ♪

-What? -[crowd sings]

[all] ♪ Bonita Applebum ♪ ♪ You gotta put me on ♪

[Ali Shaheed] The first album allowed us to see

that this could be a very serious long-term career for us.

And so everything got more serious.

Making The Low End Theory,

we wanted to give a sound that had not been heard before.

["Check the Rhime" by A Tribe Called Quest playing]

♪ Check the rhyme ♪

[Q-Tip] The Low End Theory was about Black folks

being on the low end of the totem pole.

The other side of it was obviously the bass in the music.

♪ Back in days on the boulevard Of Linden ♪

♪ We used to kick routines And the presence was fittin' ♪

-♪ It was I the abstract ♪ -♪ And me the five footer ♪

♪ I kicks the mad style So step off the frankfurter ♪

[Jarobi] The second album is when the shit started clicking.

People's cars started having the booming systems,

and that was really important

to have an album that could stand up to that shit.

[Bob power] The thesis of The Low End Theory

was really clear from the beginning.

"You guys want a lot of bottom on this."

You needed to shake the Jeep.

[bass thumping]

[Bob Power] It was distorting how music had traditionally been made,

and my thing was, like,

"Okay, how can I have that kick drum, have that huge presence,

but be able to hear everything else clearly at the same time?"

Tip and Ali have always sort of told me up front,

"This is where we're going with this record."

♪ Check the vibe, y'all ♪

Tip was a visionary. He had big ideas.

His ideas sounded sensational and unreachable and crazy,

but there was something about that that was like, "Yeah, let's go."

We became, like... Tip and I was Batman and Robin.

Like, we the Dynamic Duo of the studio.

You know, he dreams it, and I figure out a way to make it happen.

And we knew, "We're gonna change everything with this."

♪ We got the jazz We got the jazz ♪

♪ Stern firm and young With a laid-back tongue ♪

♪ The aim is to succeed And achieve at 21 ♪

♪ Just like Ringling Brothers, I'll daze and astound ♪

♪ Captivate the mass, 'Cause the prose was profound ♪

[Bob] By the time The Low End Theory came around,

samplers couldn't hold all samples

that were the composite that made the song.

So, a lot of that stuff, the guys actually conceptualized in their head

without actually ever having heard it put together.

Which is really, really phenomenal.

They'd deconstruct things in their mind

and then reimagined and recombined in a way that never could have

or would have been played by live musicians.

[Q-Tip] When we came up, we didn't really have the curriculum

that allowed us to play instruments.

So, the records would become

our session players, if you will.

["Jazz (We've Got)" by A Tribe Called Quest playing]

♪ We've got the jazz We've got the jazz ♪

[Ali Shaheed] Tip taught me a lot about jazz.

When a lot of these records were created,

there were many limitations on their life.

So, the only opportunity that maybe an artist had

to completely express themselves

without being smacked over the head

and thrown into jail, just for feeling,

was when they got in those records...

and they played.

So, if you hear a Lee Morgan,

there's so much in every note,

in the melody, the grace, the freedom.

There'd be a few notes and this space.

That's jazz.

♪ The jazz, the what? The jazz can move that ass ♪

♪ 'Cause the Tribe originates That feeling of pizazz ♪

♪ It's the universal sound Bless the brothers on the ground ♪

♪ And the ones six below You didn't have to go ♪

[Bob] Tip, as a producer, he will never do the straight and narrow.

And sometimes just being along for the ride

is a tremendous pain in the ass.

But you've got to go there,

because you're there to realize the artist's vision.

[Q-Tip] When you have that feeling, and it connects, and it resonates,

you have the confidence

to be able to say, "Okay, now I could play even more..."

And this'll be the perfection part in me,

the perfectionist bullshit coming with me,

it's like I know I have it,

so then I say, "Well, let's try this.

We know we already got that.

Let's totally flip it on its ear, because you never know."

I would come in the studio with Phife,

sometimes before Q-Tip would get there,

and there's shit that Bob Power got

that Q-Tip might have laid beat-wise in the studio.

It wasn't definite if they were gonna use it,

but the shits were still fucking incredible.

Q-Tip would come into the studio,

me and Phife might have some crazy shit for him,

and be like, "I don't like the beat."

He'd say, "Guys, I don't know, I'm not feeling this."

And we was, "Yo, we think it's great."

And then he'll just go, "You know what? Erase this shit."

Gone.

-[cassette erasing] -See ya.

"You just wanna erase this shit?

One man's trash is another man's treasure."

He wouldn't give a fuck.

But I figured out if the beat that he erased

was dope as fuck and it was gone,

He had to outdo it.

["Scenario by A Tribe Called Quest playing]

[Shad] Tribe's Low End Theory set a new bar for hip-hop production,

achieving instant classic status,

and shaking Jeeps from the Bronx to Massapequa

and forever cementing Tribe's place

as one of the most innovative groups in history.

But even on an album loaded with bangers,

one song would become legendary.

♪ Here we go, yo, here we go, yo ♪

♪ So what, so what So what's the scenario? ♪

[Bob] I remember the night of "Scenario" really well.

It was an electric night.

♪ Ayo, Bo knows this And Bo knows that ♪

♪ But Bo don't know jack 'Cause Bo can't rap ♪

[Bob] There was a party in the lounge, and there were

people coming in and out of the room,

and that kind of electricity, and that tension.

You know, it's one of those examples of what you hear in the art

was actually evident in the room that night.

If this was the studio, it was just like this.

But there was this smoke and movement going back and forth.

It's like a dream.

♪ Head for the border, go get a taco ♪

♪ Watch me wreck it from the jump street Meaning from the get-go ♪

♪ Sit back, relax, and let yourself go ♪

♪ Don't sweat what you heard But act like you know ♪

♪ Yes, yes, y'all ♪

[Q-Tip] Back in that time,

there was a lot more what they would call "posse cuts,"

that last spot on the record

It's like the Reggie Jackson when you clean-up,

like you're batting fourth.

So, I was like, "Busta, you're going last on this record.

You're gonna get it on this one."

My perspective was, I'm gonna make sure

that I fuck this record up so bad

that they're gonna put me on anything I wanna get on after that.

Q-Tip gave me the alley-oop.

So now was time for me to dunk the shit.

♪ So here's Busta Rhymes With the scenario ♪

♪ Watch as I combine All the juice from the mind ♪

♪ Heel up, wheel up Bring it back, come, rewind ♪

♪ Powerful impact (Boom!) From the cannon! ♪

♪ Not bragging Tryna read my mind, just imagine... ♪

There's so many motherfuckers on this record,

when it's my time to come through, I'm like... [smacks lips]

[grunting] "All over the track."

♪ Unh! Unh! Unh! All over the track, man ♪

Pardon me! Let me through!

♪ As I did it, yo, I had to beg your pardon ♪

♪ When I travel through the town I roll with the squadron ♪

♪ Rawr! Rawr! Like a dungeon dragon ♪

♪ Change your little drawers 'Cause your pants were saggin' ♪

♪ Try to step to this, I will twist you in a turban ♪

♪ And have you smelling rank Like some old, stale urine ♪

♪ Chickity Choco, the chocolate chicken ♪

♪ The rear cock diesel, buttcheeks They were kicking ♪

♪ Yo, bust it out Before the Busta bust another rhyme ♪

♪ The rhythm is in sync (Uh!) The rhymes are on time (Time!) ♪

♪ Rippin' up the sound just like Horatio ♪

♪ Observe the vibe And check out the scenario ♪

♪ Yeah, my man, mothafucka! ♪

[Dres] Every record changed after that.

I think that just took their whole movement

sonically, lyrically...

to exactly where it should be.

[Busta] There was nothing fucking with Tribe.

They are probably the best exemplification

of timeless greatness in its most impeccable form.

No matter when Tribe put an album out,

their sound was consistent to Tribe's sound.

It didn't matter what climate shift was happening in the game,

what was cool to do, what wasn't cool to do,

Tribe always won doing Tribe.

♪ So what, so what So what's the scenario? ♪

[Shad] Tribe's Low End Theory, De La's Three Feet High and Rising,

and The Jungle Brothers' Straight Out the Jungle

are all part of New York's golden age cannon.

And they all have something else in common:

ingenious and prolific sampling.

Unfortunately, the sampling free-for-all that made these records possible

was coming to an end.

Hip-hop's success meant lawyers were now paying attention,

and they were coming for hip-hop.

Sampling lawsuits would put a major dent into hip-hop's money

and forever change how New Yorkers made rap music.

But this wasn't the only change to New York's rap supremacy.

The West was on the rise, and with it,

the tenor of hip-hop was shifting.

The '80s had been a golden age for the five boroughs.

But could New York figure out a way for the '90s?

[outro music playing]