Original subtitles

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

-♪ Uh ♪ -♪ One, two, one, two ♪

♪ Uh, uh ♪

♪ 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 ♪ -♪ It's bigger than hip-hop ♪

♪ Hip-hop, hip-hop, hip ♪

♪ It's bigger than hip-hop ♪

♪ Hip-hop, hip-hop ♪

[record scratch, sirens wailing]

[car whooshes by]

[Shad K.] If you took a snapshot of New York hip-hop in the late '80s,

it would look like this.

Lyrical,

political, and Afrocentric.

But this era would be short-lived.

[Shad] As hip-hop entered the early 90's,

hardcore West Coast rap was running the game,

capturing the nation’s attention and dominating the charts.

For the first time ever, New York City,

the birthplace of hip-hop was in a rut.

[Cheo Coker] The Chronic blows up and all of a sudden,

once Snoop hit, once those records hit,

I mean, it was like, "Commercially, this is passing us by."

Like, "This West Coast sound is taking over everything.

We can’t even get East Coast hip-hop records played on the radio."

[Bonz Malone] We were still struggling to match up

to the music on the West Coast,

so for New York,

it’s the producers that set the tone for the '90s.

[Busta Rhymes] We're some competitive motherfuckers-- Just New York, period.

Everybody wants to be better than the next motherfucker.

So, at the time, it forced you

to become your best self.

[Shad] In the early '90s, behind the scenes

a generation of New York producers were in stealth combat

to become the best beatsmiths in the five Burroughs.

For the producers, the tools of war lay where hip-hop started:

in the records.

But with the sampling police on them, and a drive to push their sound,

they needed to dig deep into the crates.

And they’d find all the vinyl they'd need to kick off an East Coast rap renaissance

in a dusty old building near Times Square.

The Roosevelt Hotel.

[drum roll]

[Evil Dee] The convention was dope. It would always happen on a Sunday.

Q-Tip would show up at my house 5:00 a.m.

and drive straight to the hotel

so we could look over the records before everybody.

And it was like, a handful of people there.

Kid Capri was always there early.

[Kid Capri] Being that it was in the hotel,

I said, "Why don’t I get me a room in the hotel,

come downstairs and get down there at six in the morning."

[Kid Capri] Come in when they’re setting up and that’s when I’ll start.

I’m walking out of there while everybody’s in line coming in.

[ding]

I did this four years straight.

[Jeff “Chairman” Mao] Before the Roosevelt,

there were certainly flea markets

and stores that you would go to dig for records,

but not with the same focus.

Not with the same targeted audience of producers and DJs

and people in the hip-hop community.

It was amazing walking into that room

and seeing the people who were there.

[Pharoahe Monch] The Large Professor, Buckwild, Q-Tip,

Lord Finesse, Diamond D,

Prince Be,

and so many producers that you’re just like,

"Am I looking at the records or am I looking at the artist?"

It was dope, man. And we looked forward to it.

Not only just for the opportunity to find records

but definitely the camaraderie.

[Shad] What was the vibe like with all those producers there?

-Was it competitive or was it love? -We had mutual respect for each other.

We also had our battle angle with each other.

I had to get the better joints than Q-Tip and than Pete Rock.

We all were like that. It was just our hip-hop competition.

I spent a lot of money at the convention.

[Pete Rock] My first time going in there was pretty hectic.

You got cats, you know, looking over your shoulder.

You got people just looking at what you got.

-When it’s time to compete... -[Shad chuckles]

-...you know, it’s an all-out war. -[Shad laughs]

[Q-Tip] You be digging through the bins and they’d be like: "What’s up, man?"

"What's up!" Trying to see what you get.

Pete Rock would get bullshit records

and be like: “Nah. I sampled off of this.” And be lying and shit like that.

Sorry, Pete, I had to blow up the spot,

but that shit is funny, nigga.

[both laugh]

[Large Professor] You would see a guy looking over in the next guys bin,

or you saw a little elbows.

-It was a lot of politics. -Getting angles.

Yeah, man. It was angles.

It was politics. Yo, you wouldn’t believe.

[Large Professor] The level of records always mattered.

I mean to the average person,

it’s like, "Oh, records..." and all that,

but to us it’s… something big, for real.

[Pharoahe Monch] It was secretive and competitive...

and it was expensive as fuck too.

[Shad laughs]

But you knew that you could possibly find that next record

that could change your career.

[Lord Finesse] That’s what made that era so unique.

The key was to come up with the most obscure loop

and I think the more you become enlightened,

the more you start digging even more.

You want other artists you’ve never heard of.

[Pete Rock] As you dig, you learn about musicians.

We’re always curious about credits

like, "Who’s playing on this album?"

Then you start looking for certain instruments

like sounds you want.

You know, anything that had excitement.

What were very hunted albums at The Roosevelt?

-I can’t tell you. -[Shad laughs]

I can’t tell you that.

Listen, there’s something on everything. You understand?

It depends on how you hear it

and how you're laying it down with the beat,

you know what I mean?

[jazz trumpet playing]

[Shad] The art of finding the perfect record to sample

has a name in hip-hop: "digging."

But digging was only part of the job.

The real skill was turning obscure gems

into head nodding beats.

To do that, you needed a sampler.

And in the early '90s, there was one sampler of choice.

The SP 1200.

♪ Yeah, so lovely ♪

["They Reminisce Over You" by C.L. Smooth and Pete Rock]

[Large Professor] This is definitely a hip-hop staple, man.

You brought some records you got from The Roosevelt.

Oh, yeah. Some highly coveted records.

It’s a Gwen McCrae joint.

It’s a record I’ve loved for years.

[music playing]

[click, key shifts up]

[scratch]

[key shifts down]

[warbling, clicks]

You isolate the sound

and now you've taken that one sound

and you can expand it,

coming up with your own thing.

[pitch alternates]

[Shad] Different pitches?

Yeah.

[Large Professor] Throw the drums with it…

Hell, yeah.

[Shad] It just makes you wanna rap!

-[laughs] -[Large Professor] Exactly.

We got it.

[Large Professor] See, that’s the thing about the SP,

is that it has that real hip-hop kind of funky, smoky sound

to the drums especially.

[drumbeats]

Thunderous.

Yeah, no doubt.

You know, the circuitry in there makes it sound scuffed like that, man.

That real New York sound.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

[Q-Tip] Large Professor actually showed me all the guts of the SP 1200.

He would show me how to buzz through it.

And I was like, "Wow, I didn’t know none of this shit."

I came from a tradition of making pause tapes.

If you heard of a piece, you'd have to record it,

rewind it, get that piece back, record it.

Rewind it, get that piece back, record it, rewind, get that...

Like, for hours and hours.

So, the SP 1200...

once I saw that shit, I was like, "Fuck all that."

[both laugh]

["They Reminisce Over You" by C.L. Smooth and Pete Rock]

♪ Yeah, so lovely ♪

[Pete Rock ] Back in the 90’s, I was married to the SP 1200,

you know what I’m saying?

You've got to get every element to the beat

in 10.2 seconds.

So, what I did was put the record on 45,

and played it faster.

Then slowed it down in here.

Boom, that's it.

I don’t care what’s new out.

There’s no better machine in the music industry.

["They Reminisce Over You" by C.L. Smooth and Pete Rock]

[DJ Premier] Large Professor taught me things

that got me to another level.

The way he would truncate beats, he was like...

and he was doing it almost like doing a magic trick,

and I would just stare at him like,

"Damn, how do you do that?"

He taught me how to take it to that level.

The SP 1200 had the littlest bit of sampling time,

but I like the limitation so that you’re forced to be creative

with that little bit of time

and still make a ill-ass beat.

[Lord Finesse] It’s not just sampling loops in big chunks,

it’s taking a note, maybe two notes.

You add strings. You add horn hits.

You add little nuances that people don't even pay attention to.

[Busta Rhymes] At the time, Large Professor

was starting to really kill shit as a producer.

You know, Pete Rock was starting to really kill shit as a producer.

Preme-o was really starting to kill shit as a producer.

The climate shift that these dudes created through the music,

it was incredible.

And then they were all friends?

[laughs]

You really had the Avengers and the X-Men

in real life, as producer crews.

So that was just mind blowing to me.

I thought that they had super powers.

[siren wails, horns honk]

[dog woofs, bus squeals and hisses]

[Shad] With the soundscape of East Coast hip-hop being elevated

by this elite group of producers,

they now needed a new generation of street-hardened MCs to match it.

And one MC would stand above them all.

A raspy voiced teen from Queensbridge

would define this era and captivate New York.

♪ Yeah Straight out the fuckin dungeons of rap ♪

♪ Where fake niggaz don't make it back ♪

["N.Y. State of Mind" by Nas playing]

Let me formally introduce my boy.

Queensbridge in the motherfucking house!

[Large Professor] Roll that tape.

-[Nas] Queensbridge! -Turn that shit up.

-♪ Hey, yo it’s like that y’all ♪ -♪ That y’all ♪

[Shad] I want to ask you about Nas and how you started working with Nas.

[Large Professor] Got together through common acquaintances.

It was like, "Yo, you got to hear this kid Nas, man.

Nas."

-[Shad] In the streets? -[Large Professor] Yeah, in the streets.

NAS had a name ringing.

And we just linked up one day and I liked his style,

that he was out of the ordinary.

He wouldn’t say the predictable.

♪ My troops roll up with a strange force ♪

♪ I was trapped in a cage And let out by the main source ♪

♪ Swimming in women like a lifeguard ♪

♪ Put on a bulletproof, nigga I strike hard ♪

♪ Kidnap the president's wife Without a plan ♪

♪ And hanging niggas Like the Ku Klux Klan ♪

[Bobbito] Nas had the Live At The Barbeque verse.

That was it. He wasn’t signed. He didn’t have a single.

He didn’t have a deal. He just had one verse,

and we were revering him like he was...

the "La Di Da", you know, Rakim of the '90s.

-Wow, just off of one verse. -Off of one verse.

♪ Street’s disciple, my raps are trifle ♪

♪ I shoot slugs from my brain Just like a rifle ♪

♪ Stampede the stage I leave the microphone split ♪

♪ Play Mr Tuffy While I'm on some pretty tone shit ♪

♪ Verbal assassin, my architect pleases ♪

♪ When I was twelve, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus ♪

[Bobbito] That sort of gravely depth

that his voice had even at that age,

it’s like one of those voices that would be like:

"Come here, motherfucker."

[both laugh]

You’re like, "Oh, shit!"

♪ Science is dropped, my raps are toxic ♪

♪ My voicebox locks and excels Like a rocket ♪

-♪ It's like that y'all ♪ -♪ That y'all! ♪

I was like, "Wow. Dude is ill, ill, ill."

He was that energy and that voice

that was just real hip-hop.

When everybody's saying,

"Keep it real," or "real hip-hop,"

you know, Nas is really the archetype of that whole premise.

[Faith Newman] I heard about Nas the same way almost everybody did.

I heard him on the Main Source album on Live At The Barbeque.

I said to myself: "Who is this kid?

Seriously, who is this kid

who's making lyrics like

'When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus'?

That’s the kid I want to meet."

I went to Large Professor.

And I said you have to get me with this kid Nasty Nas.

I was just on a mission to sign him.

♪ Nasty Nas in your area ♪

♪ About to cause mass hysteria ♪

[Shad] After amping New York streets with just one verse,

Nas’ signing set up the most anticipated debut

in hip-hop history,

the cryptically titled Illmatic.

["Halftime" by Nas playing]

[Faith Newman] Originally, I thought

that it would be a project for Large Professor to do,

because that’s how projects got done then.

One producer would do the whole thing.

But Nas just had a wish list of people that he wanted to work with

and they all wanted to work with him.

-[reporter] Who’s working on the album? -Q-Tip,

Pete Rock, Large Professor,

my man L.E.S. from The Bridge,

and my man DJ Premier, you know what I mean,

just collaborated to help a brother out.

[Bobbito] Look, he had the most iconic producers of the entire decade.

It’s like Larry Byrd, LeBron,

Bill Russell and Tiny Archibald.

"Y'all just gotta run with my squad, all right?" "Yo, cool."

So, to me, there’s nothing that compares in any era of hip-hop.

That’s considered, you know, one of the great all-star casts

of producers to be involved with one record.

-That was monumental. -Absolutely.

What was the vibe like with all the different producers together?

[Large Professor] People always say, "Yo, was there a rivalry?"

It wasn’t.

Beat-wise, you know, we was all just rooting for each other.

I would see Prem and Nas coming back from the studio

and I would say, "Yo, let me hear what it is."

And he would let us hear and be like: "Ah, that’s crazy.

That's gonna get 'em."

[DJ Premier] When I started working on "N.Y. State of Mind,"

-I had the drums and the... -[Shad] Okay.

[DJ Premier] That’s all I had.

But I was like, "That’s how it’s got to start."

It’s got to start like it’s a lift off.

Nas said, "Let’s just play records."

So we just listened to records,

And we was just smoking and drinking

and thumbing around with the turntable.

Once I hit that Joe Chambers piano part break down.

We both looked up like,

"Ooh, bring it back."

♪ Rappers I monkey flip 'em With the funky rhythm I be kicking ♪

♪ Musician Inflicting composition of pain ♪

♪ I'm like Scarface sniffing cocaine ♪

♪ Holding an M-16 See with the pen I'm extreme ♪

♪ Now, bullet holes left in my peepholes ♪

♪ I'm suited up in street clothes ♪

♪ Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes ♪

[Faith Newman] His motivation was to tell his stories.

That’s what Illmatic is about.

This young kid looking out his window.

It’s like Shakespeare... but from Queensbridge.

♪ Nothing’s equivalent To New York State of Mind ♪

[Shad] Do you remember hearing Illmatic for the first time?

I was like, "Fuck, man!

How did he get to work with all those fucking dudes?"

I think every MC in New York felt that way.

But then when you heard the project

you understood the specialness of this kid.

For a first album,

it seemed like very "elder statesman"

at such a young age.

And I think that’s what shocked the shit out of people.

The fact that he was from Queens was even more like:

“Yeah, motherfucker!

We’re running New York right now. We got this!”

♪ What's 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, it's done ♪

♪ Plus congratulations You know you got a son ♪

[Miss Info] Illmatic was so powerful.

Because it was as if you were dropped

into the middle of a place you could never go yourself

and you could just see things, but through

the most clear, sharp lens.

[Shad] Hmm.

That’s how I felt the very first time I listened to the album.

Like, I put the album into a Walkman.

I stood on a subway platform and

missed probably 20 trains.

["One Love" by Nas and Q-Tip playing]

I don't really remember getting home that day.

♪ So stay civilized, time flies Though incarcerated your mind (dies) ♪

♪ I hate it when your moms cries It kinda wants to make me murder ♪

♪ For real-a I've even got a mask And gloves to bust slugs for one love ♪

[Q-Tip] Illmatic is...

right there with What’s Going On,

Marvin Gaye.

Like it’s that good.

Like, it really is. It’s a masterpiece.

I don’t really throw that word around and shit,

but it’s a masterpiece. Yeah.

♪ One love, one love ♪

♪ One love ♪

♪ One love, one love, one love ♪

[Shad] For a lot of hip-hop heads, Nas’ Illmatic remains the perfect album.

One genius MC backed by the game's top producers.

[seagull squawks, boat horn blares]

[Shad] But in New York’s long forgotten borough of Staten Island,

they flipped the formula.

One genius producer backed by an army of lyrical assassins.

[Shad] I want to start with Staten Island, growing up.

Um, what it was like coming from Staten Island?

It was like the Forgotten Borough.

You know, you got to take a ferry that, literally,

you’re going to be on the boat for 30 minutes.

And we always felt like

nobody cared about Staten Island.

So we already had that mentality like,

"You don’t give a fuck about my borough."

We had that complex of not being respected in New York City.

You know, the majority of us all grew up together.

I grew up with RZA.

We used to go to school together as kids.

Genius, RZA and Dirty, they’re cousins.

So, it was already there like that.

Genius was like, he was the illest rapper

and Dirt used to beatbox too.

[beatboxing]

♪ Check it out. When i begin a rap, a hip-hop tune ♪

♪ The crowd reacts immediately If not soon ♪

♪ I’m black and proud, I move the crowd ♪

♪ I rage from hell Yo, my lyrics solo rock the bell ♪

[Ghostface Killah] RZA was already making tapes up in Park Hill.

The Hill had the best MCs.

That’s Method Man, Raekwon, they had U-God.

They had Inspectah Deck.

[Shad] So, you’re all aware of each other.

[Ghostface Killah] We battled each other.

Everybody did that at one time before.

[Method Man] The first dude that I wrote my first rhyme with

was Raekwon Da Chef…

That day when Rae was like, "Yo, you smoke?"

And I lied and said, "Yeah."

[laughs]

[Method Man laughs] And we went up in the staircase.

It would be a session where it could start with two dudes.

They start "cooking", meaning rhyming.

And next thing you know

those three guys would turn into like six, seven dudes...

and these dudes blew my mind

and after being in there with these dudes for a few weeks

and listening to this shit,

I wrote my first rhyme with Rae,

and that was it.

I always wrote rhymes to impress these dudes

in that staircase area,

and I still write like that.

I just want to impress my dudes.

Fuck everybody else.

[Raekwon] RZA had the idea.

He was like, "Yo, I’m trying to do a record."

I’m only calling specific dudes.

RZA seen the special powers in each one of us

to say, "Yo, you’re all fucking different."

and I remember him just saying,

"Yo, I’m going to book the studio,

and we need 100 dollars from each individual

to pay for the studio time." [laughs]

So, we were like, "Damn, yo.

Where the fuck can we get 100 dollars?

What the fuck? I've got to put 100 dollars up?

I was at my wits end.

No place to go, selling drugs...

That shit was getting to the point

where motherfuckers was dying every fucking week.

So, I’m on my way to the tree spot. RZA stopped me.

And I remember him saying something about,

"You know, fuck that street shit.

Give me this much of your time..."

I think it was a year, or some shit like that.

"And if this shit don’t work out,

you can go back to doing what you was doing."

I was fucking sold.

[Method Man] Next thing I know, dudes was in the studio.

Rae, you ready?

Yo Deck, tell Rae to get his phones on and let’s do this.

-[Rae] Yo. -Can you hear it now?

I can hear it but turn it up.

[Ghostface Killah] I was just glad to be n the team.

The energy at that time and looking at my brothers,

and knowing that "Damn, I’m surrounded by a team of superheroes right here."

We come in like, "We’re gonna crush these motherfuckers."

The Wu is the way.

The Tang, that's the slang in there.

It’s the sword style.

They said it's sharp

We'll make it to the next war.

We're going to rock the fucking rap industry.

We're going to fuck everybody up.

So, just watch your step, kid,

and protect your fucking neck.

♪ I smoke on the mic Like smokin' Joe Frazier ♪

♪ The Hell-Raiser, Raisin' hell with the flavor ♪

♪ Terrorize the jam Like troops in Pakistan ♪

♪ Swingin' through your town Like your neighborhood Spider-Man ♪

[Raekwon] On the record, Protect Ya Neck,

the main thing was to make sure

that we represent fucking Staten Island.

We was getting fed up with the fact

of hearing Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx...

They've got to know Staten Island is real live man.

The borough's got to be fucking heard one way or another.

♪ Hit you with sixteen shots And more I got ♪

♪ Going to war with the melting pot hot ♪

♪It's the method man, for sure Mr. Meth ♪

♪ Moving on your left, ah! ♪

♪ And set it off, get it off, Let it off like a gat ♪

♪I wanna break through, cock me back ♪

[Bonz Malone] RZA came to see me at Island,

and was telling us: “Yeah, we got this group. It’s called Wu-Tang.

We’re from Shaolin, Staten Island. We call it Shaolin,”

and he played Protect Ya Neck and I’m like,

"Nine dudes? [laughs] You've got to be crazy."

Man, I laughed so hard.

I took the tape out, I said, "Take this, man.

Nobody’s going to understand this shit."

[laughing] Yo...

Yo... what a mistake that was.

[Bobbito] December 1992...

I’m up in the studio by myself,

the premier hip-hop radio program of the world at the time.

Five people knock on the studio door.

I’m thinking like: “How the F did they get into the studio?”

The front door to the building was locked

and the front door to the studio was locked.

So that means they had to have gotten through two locked doors.

They’re like, “Yo, Money, play this.” Trying to strong arm me.

“Yo, yo, Bobbito. Play it right now, son.”

I’m like… “Y'all gotta chill.

I’m about to get kicked off the air for even having you all here.

You all got to be out.” So, I play the record.

Woo-ha!

You know... Karate in the beginning.

I’m like, "What the, what is a Wu-Tang?"

What the fuck is a Wu-Tang?

But it was cool because

that record was as raw as you could ever think.

And it was a hit.

It wasn’t just a hit, It was a smash.

♪ Feelin' mad hostile, Ran the apostle ♪

♪ Flowin' like Christ When I speaks the gospel ♪

♪ Stroll with the holy roll Then attack the globe ♪

♪ With the Buckus Style the Ruckus ♪

[Mimi Valdes] Protect Ya Neck was like, a moment that like...

time stopped in New York.

You could not explain that record.

You just have to hear it,

and you're just like, "Wow, this is... different."

[Mister Cee] It was just so grimy and just so raw.

There’s no chorus. There’s no hook.

There’s no, there’s just...

"First things first man…"

♪ With the worst I'll be stickin' pins in your head ♪

♪Like a fuckin’ nurse, I'll attack ♪

♪ Any nigga who's slack in his mack ♪

♪ Come fully packed With a fat rugged stack ♪

[Angie Martinez] I just remember being like, "There’s so many of them.

What is this?"

They just sounded like something new and exciting

and hard and dark.

♪ To my crew with the sue ♪

[Steve Rifkind] I never felt energy in my life

off a cassette that was dubbed,

you know, like three or four different times.

And I remember just listening to it

over and over and over again.

If anybody is a true hip-hop fan,

it’s going to feel this energy like there’s no tomorrow.

[Jeff “Chairman” Mao] They just sounded hungry.

And sonically, it’s unlike anything else.

RZA’s producing records where the loop is off.

It was kind of like all of these things

that had mystique to them coming together.

I know the sound.

Sound travels at 1120 feet per second.

I matched the sound. For my beats is foul.

[man laughs]

[mixed samples playing]

[Shad] RZA’s production on that album,

what was different about what he was bringing at that time?

[Raekwon] He already had a certain sound.

It was slow and dreary

and he was able to do what he do

to make it sound new and fresh.

And all he needed was some guys to understand that sound

and we all were able to relate.

♪ I grew up on the crime side, The New York Times side ♪

♪ Stayin' alive was no jive ♪

♪ Had secondhands, Mom's bounced on old man ♪

♪ So then we moved to Shaolin ♪

♪ A young youth Yo rockin' the gold tooth ♪

♪ Yo goose ♪

♪ Only way I be gettin' The g off was drug loot ♪

♪ And let's start it like this, son ♪

♪ Rollin' with this one and that one ♪

♪ Pullin' out gats for fun ♪

♪ But it was just a dream For the teen who was a fiend ♪

♪ Started smokin' woolas at 16 ♪

[DJ Premier] 36 Chambers. Such and incredible record, man.

RZA created a new era of sound for New York.

Things would be out of key and just not the norm.

Just dirt. Nothing’s clean.

[Sophia Chang] He created this sound that said,

This is my New York City."

and I’m going to lift up the hood,

and you get to see how your car really runs,

and that shit is dirty and it’s smelly,

and it’s hot and it’s dangerous.

♪ Cash rules everything around me ♪

♪ C.R.E.A.M., get the money Dollar dollar bill, y'all ♪

♪ It's been twenty-two long hard years I'm still strugglin' ♪

♪ Survival got me buggin' But I'm alive on arrival ♪

[Kid Capri] What made them so special

was these different MCs with these different styles,

that could rhyme on any type of beat and make it hot.

And they were all skillful.

All of them had their own individual style.

You had Method’s flamboyant ass.

Then you had Ol’ Dirty with his crazy lookin’ self.

Everybody had an identity.

That's why they were all able to do their own separate deals the way they did.

[Bonz Malone] They signed as a group to Loud,

and then they got individual deals at other labels.

Man, that’s some cartel shit.

You ain’t ever going to see that again. Never.

♪ Cash rules everything around me C.R.E.A.M. get the money ♪

[Ghostface Killah] There’s never gonna be nothing like what we did.

Ain’t another nine-man team coming in.

Ain’t nobody in rap like this W right here.

Dirt always said "Yo, Wu-Tang is for the children.

It’s for the babies.

This is for the human families of the planet Earth right here."

♪ Dollar, dollar bill y'all ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[car whooshes by]

[Shad] The Wu and Nas were part of a larger wave of hardcore hip-hop

that would dominate '90s New York.

Alongside legendary crews like the Boot Camp Clik,

Mobb Deep, Gang Starr Foundation and DITC,

they formed the pantheon of New York’s so-called Boom Bap era.

But as lauded as these acts were,

their popularity was mostly an East Coast phenomenon.

New York needed something else to grab the nation’s attention.

They needed something "big."

["Gimme the Loot" by The Notorious B.I.G. playing]

[Shad] I want to start with when you first met B.I.G.

-at like six or seven years old. -[Lil Cease] Yeah.

-[Shad] What do you remember? -We grew up on the same block.

I just remember him giving me money all the time,

every time I used to walk to school and I had to walk past Fulton Street,

he would be out there hustling, doing what he do.

And he would just always, he’s always just took a liking to me

Always like: “Yo, what’s up? What’s going on? You good?”

He’d give me two or three dollars to buy some candy.

Once I got old enough to go sit out on Fulton Street, 11, 12 years old,

that's when I got more close to him, you know?

We’d just sit outside,

smoke weed, drink and we always had a box with us, a radio

and we was always playing just albums.

[Shad] Do you remember the first time you heard him rap?

Yeah, we was at this club.

We had this little spot called The Paul Robeson Theater out here.

One day B.I.G. actually got on the mic and did a freestyle there.

And like, you know, he did this one line

where he said, “You think about battling me from where,

Attica?" That's a jail out here.

The whole crowd went crazy and jumping around.

It was nuts. That's when I was like, "Okay...

B.I.G. is going to be something serious." Know what I mean?

♪ Yes, it's me, the B.I.G. ♪

♪ Competition ripper ever since 13 ♪

♪ Used to steal clothes I was considered a thief ♪

♪ Until I started hustlin' On Fulton Street ♪

♪ Makin' loot Knockin' boots on the regular ♪

♪ Pass the microphone I'm the perfect competitor ♪

♪ Jewels and all that My clothes is all that ♪

♪ Chumps steppin' to me, That's where they took a fall at ♪

[Lil' Kim] The first time I met Biggie, it was on Fulton Street.

I was coming home from work,

I had on, you know, heels.

I had on like a leather motorcycle jacket.

He was like, “I’m fucking with you, shorty”.

I was like, “Okay...

Let’s roll Big Papa.”

When I first heard Biggie rhyme,

immediately I felt the energy coming from his whole body.

It captivates you.

♪ And I love ya Cause you're a sweet bitch ♪

♪ A crazy crab That might make my dick itch ♪

♪ I flow looser than Luther Words ya get used ta ♪

♪ B.I.G. is a born trooper ♪

♪ Like ice cream I scoop ya My music you wanna get loose ta ♪

♪ Stay pimp, and I'm not a booster ♪

♪ So what'cha got to say? This mackin' word is bond ♪

♪ There's no other assumption I got it going on ♪

[50 Grand] First time I met Big, I was on Bedford and Quincy.

That’s where I hustled at.

I met him when he came on my end of town.

First thing he said was, "Yo, I know you know a lot of people.

I want you to be my DJ."

When I heard him spit, that was crazy.

So, I took him to the basement.

I had my equipment down there.

-[Shad] Mm-hmm. -No fancy shit.

We had the basement surrounded by Old English bottles.

We cut four demos that same day.

He had the beat. He had the hooks...

and all that.

-It was like it was all written. -Yes, he knew what he wanted.

Went outside, let my friends hear it.

Everybody bobbing their head to it.

So I said: “I got something."

Me and Mister Cee, we go way back from high school.

He was Big Daddy Kane’s DJ.

I hunted Cee down.

I said, "I got something you need to hear."

50 Grand wanted me to hear this demo.

Yo, I got this guy named B.I.G. from Fulton Street.

I said, "Yo, I’m going on tour with Kane. I can’t listen to it right now.

When I come back, I’ll listen to the tape."

The night that I came back from tour,

50 Grand was in front of my house waiting for me.

So, I listened to the tape.

For me, it was like hearing Big Daddy Kane all over again.

The cadence, the rhyme pattern, how Biggies was rapping.

♪ Microphone murder Mass mayhem maker ♪

♪ B.I.G. is on the mic Called the undertaker ♪

♪ Make an appointment. Schedule an interview ♪

♪ Because you know What B.I.G. man’s about to do?

♪ 50 Gran' on the technic At the right peak ♪

♪ Brothers wanna hear The words big man speak! ♪

♪ The microphone I rip it The burner got the clip in ♪

-♪ Slammin MCs like Scottie Pippen ♪ -♪ Paper! ♪

♪ Flippin on old gold Cold as the rhymes you stole ♪

I submitted that demo to Matty C

who was running the Unsigned Hype

with The Source magazine at the time.

Matty listened to it and fell in love with it,

and featured Biggie and 50 Grand in Source Magazine.

Once he gave me the tape, I mean, I loved it.

It gave me a similar chill, of course,

that Big Daddy Kane did.

It was even a bigger voice to me, you know,

like KRS sized voice...

Big Daddy Kane flow,

and still, like, just this presence

that... I mean I just kept playing it over and over.

[Shad] B.I.G.’s shout out in The Source Magazine

would catch the attention of hard hustling,

up and coming A&R.

who was looking for the East Coast savior.

Can you take me back to what motivated you to sign Biggie?

This is coming off of really desperation, you know?

I'd just had a child.

I just got fired from Uptown

and I wanted to start my own label.

Things were very, very uncertain.

I wanted to try to do something

that was a reflection of our times, our culture and our community.

Dre and them were doing their thing. The Chronic was the bar that was set,

but we’re the mecca of hip-hop.

I wanted to tell the Brooklyn story.

To tell the New York story.

[Cheo Coker] Puff tells him, "I've got your check right here.

Come sign. Let’s do this."

B.I.G. told me the story where

he tells the guys in the house where they’ve been dealing drugs

that, "All right, I’m, I’m out."

He leaves that night,

and the next morning, that whole house got raided by the cops.

He said that after that, he was 100% committed to hip-hop

and he left the street life behind.

[Puff Daddy I knew that I had an artist that was really, really special,

but he had this desperation combined with the hustle,

combined with the brilliant words and artistry

and the truth from the streets.

And it was hard and direct.

♪ My man inf left a tec And a nine at my crib ♪

♪ Turned himself in, he had to do a bid ♪

♪ A one-to-three He be home the end of '93 ♪

♪I'm ready to get this paper, G You with me? ♪

♪ Motherfucking right My pocket's looking kind of tight ♪

[Lil' Kim] B.I.G. was a genius in the studio.

I mean, I used to just love to watch him work.

He was so vivid and colorful when he wrote his music.

Puffy would make B.I.G. rewrite verses.

BIG would be like: “Oh, okay,

Oh, that wasn’t hard enough for you? Oh, okay." [chuckles]

Then he would give Puffy something so hard,

Puffy would be like: “Dawg. We can’t say that.”

[both laugh]

♪ And when I rock her and drop her I'm taking her door knockers ♪

♪ And if she's resistant "Baka! Baka! Baka!" ♪

[Mister Cee] "Gimme The Loot"

represented you know, what New York in the '90s was really about.

Cats was on the corner, really waiting for you to come home

to see if they wanted to get you.

If you were looking right, you would get got.

It’s real, you know?

They was robbing babies' mothers for the "Number One Mom" pendant. [laughs]

-♪ Gimme the loot, gimme the loot ♪ -♪ I'm a bad, bad ♪

-♪ Gimme the loot, gimme the loot ♪ -♪ I'm a bad, bad ♪

♪ Gimme the loot, gimme the loot ♪

[Andre Harrell] It was raw. It was in your face. It was dangerous.

B.I.G. came with the answer to the severe streets of LA,

but New York style, Brooklyn style.

The way Puff groomed B.I.G. was take a freestyle artist

and to tell that artist, "You've got to write hooks."

And then he didn’t just have B.I.G. street.

Puff started using good R&B samples

and made B.I.G. more commercial.

♪ It was all a dream I used to read Word Up Magazine ♪

♪ Salt'n'Pepa and Heavy D Up in the limousine ♪

♪ Hangin' pictures on my wall ♪

♪ Every Saturday rap attack Mr. Magic, Marley Marl ♪

♪ I let my tape rock 'til my tape pop ♪

♪ Smokin' weed and bamboo, Sippin' on private stock ♪

♪ Way back, when I had The red and black Lumberjack ♪

♪ With the hat to match ♪

[Lord Finesse] That’s where the transition began.

Biggie did it in a way where you wasn’t mad.

You know, we hardcore hip-hop,

"Yo, what the fuck with this commercial shit?"

But he could do it and you would not be mad.

You’d be like, "That shit is hot."

♪ 'Cause you're the only one I'll give you good and plenty ♪

♪ Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis ♪

♪ When I was dead broke Man, I couldn't picture this ♪

♪ 50 inch screen Money green leather sofa ♪

♪ Got two rides, A limousine with a chauffeur ♪

♪ Phone bill about two G's flat ♪

♪ No need to worry My accountant handles that ♪

♪ And my whole crew is loungin' ♪

♪ Celebratin' every day No more public housin' ♪

[Lil' Cease] B.I.G. just really shifted the energy.

You still have people doing their thing.

Nas was killing with Illmatic, you know what I mean?

We had Wu. We had artists that was really putting work in

but no rapper had the guys and the girls.

Either you were just straight Street, or you were just straight R&B,

or you were just straight Soul.

BIG was both and both loved him.

♪ First thing first I, Poppa, freaks all the honeys ♪

♪ Dummies, playboy bunnies Those wanting money ♪

♪ Those the ones I like 'Cause they don’t get Nathan ♪

♪ But penetration Unless it smells like sanitation ♪

♪ Garbage, I turn like doorknobs ♪

♪ Heart throb never Black and ugly as ever ♪

♪ However, I stay... ♪

[Kid Capri] You got this big dude that ain’t super attractive,

talking that fly shit out of his mouth.

With Biggie, it was, "I’m big, black, ugly and fat."

[laughs]

But he was sexy to the women. Loved him.

♪ From the back I get deeper and deeper ♪

♪ Help you reach the climax That your man can’t make ♪

♪ Call him Tell him you’ll be home real late ♪

-♪ Now sing the break ♪ -♪ Baby, here I am ♪

♪I got the good love, girl You didn’t know? ♪

♪ All I need is one... ♪

[Shad] What was it like in Brooklyn when those records came out?

We was... People was like, "What?"

Dude, they never imagined him rapping

over R&B songs, but was gangster.

He would say something, I mean gangster.

Once you put everything together,

the look, the voice...

It made perfect sense.

And it went well together. It was, it was so dope.

He made gangster rap look beautiful.

♪ As I laid down laws Like Allen Carpet ♪

♪ Stop it If you think they gonna make profit ♪

♪ Don’t see my ones Gon' see my guns, get it? ♪

♪ Now tell your friends Poppa hit it Then split it ♪

♪ In two as I flow With the junior M.A.F.I.A. ♪

♪I don’t know what the hell Is stopping ya ♪

♪ I’m clocking ya Versace shades watching ya ♪

♪ Once ya grin I’m in, games begins ♪

♪ First I talk about how I dress in this ♪

♪ Diamond necklaces, stretch Lexuses… ♪

[Cheo Coker] The importance of Ready to Die

was that Biggie was able to

basically make an East Coast gangster record.

but make it in a way that was uniquely New York,

that was uniquely Brooklyn.

Can everybody here make some noise for B.I.G.

for bringing it back to the East.

[crowd cheering, whooping]

Bringing it back to the East!

This is a nigga from East Coast.

He ain’t from the West Coast. He’s from the East Coast.

Give it up for this nigga right here, straight from Brooklyn.

[Puff Daddy] When Ready to Die dropped,

it was something that really shook hip-hop.

We knew we put out a classic,

and we felt like we had New York on our backs.

When you put on Ready to Die,

you got transported to Brooklyn,

just like when you put on The Chronic,

you got transported into a lowrider in LA.

We were globally big when this album dropped.

Everything started being clear.

The impossible was about to happen.

[outro music playing]