Word Is Bond Page #4

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and here for the fame,

here for the camera time,

et cetera.

Those were those guys,

and, like,

the lyricists

were guys who, like...

who never really

cared about that,

people who really

worked on their craft

and really, um, emphasized...

cadences and finesse

and style and, like, um...

choice of words and vocabulary.

To me, rappers don't

worry about that stuff.

They just have fun.

And so "lyricist"

is more of a...

I don't know.

You kind of gotta

drive yourself insane

just to be...

just to have your...

just to justify

calling yourself a lyricist.

[chuckles]

You know what I mean?

My desire's everything

that I acquire

Means nada if I'm not

one of the ghosts

Built the convocation

with this gospel I spoke

Am I not someone

you quote?

Prophesied I would

profit off what I wrote

Popular as the pope,

unlock and then I unload

[Killer Mike] By 1986,

I was seeing, like,

my world turn upside down.

And everybody talks

about crack, and...

Nobody was talking about it.

It was just going down.

[Rakim]

It was kind of necessary

for MCs to say something.

The hood was so conscious

at that point.

Rappers that wasn't conscious

started digging in and,

you know, picking up a book.

[Killer Mike] These kids who,

you know, through Reaganomics

and through a lack

of funding for music

got everything kind of

snatched from them

found a way to make music

with electronics

and to... to...

like jazz vocalists

that played and teetered

on the keys and notes,

found a way to make

the English language

an instrument within itself.

Once rap started to mature,

the 16-bar format came out.

But soon

you start to suffer

The tune'll get rougher

when you start to stutter

That's when you had

enough of biting

It'll make you choke,

you can't provoke

You can't cope,

you should've broke

Because I ain't no joke

[Rakim] Now I had to get

my point across

within 16 bars.

I mean, before,

I would take

30-something bars,

and I would

complicate the rhyme,

give you little, um, ideas

of what I was getting at,

but not give you the sum of it

till the end.

Word, yo,

what up D-Nice?

Yo, what's up,

Scott La Rock?

[Scott La Rock]

Yo, man, we chilling

It went from the "huh to

the huh to the"...you know,

Run-DMC style of, like,

cadence, back and forth,

to this new... these guys

had different nuances.

I mean, it was different

bounces within

just the traditional end

of your rhyme.

There was rhymes within rhymes

and different style patterns.

That's when that started

getting explored.

So for me, '86 is the year.

It's like the big bang theory,

'cause that's

when everything changed.

Many people tell me

this style is terrific

It is kinda different,

but let's get specific

KRS-One specialize

in music

I'll only use this type

of style when I choose it

You got guys that are, like,

watching all of this happen.

They watching the Salt-N-Pepas,

they watching the KRSs,

they watching the MC Shans,

they watching Rakim,

they watching LL for years.

They don't never get

the opportunity

to blow up quick,

but they're crafting.

They're working

and rehearsing.

And all this time

they're not getting found,

they're, like, getting nice.

"First, I'm starting

to copy Rakim,

and then I mix

my little bit of Rakim

with, like, Kool G Rap,

and then I'm mixing that

with, like, my original

LL thing that I had."

Before you know it...

you got Nas.

Packing like a Rasta

in the weed spot

Vocals will squeeze Glocks,

MCs eavesdrop

Though they need not

to sneak, my poetry's deep

I never fell, Nas' raps

should be locked in a cell

It ain't hard to tell,

it ain't hard to tell

You know, I'm the guy

who said hip-hop is dead.

J. Cole makes people

like me go, "Wow.

This thing of ours...

of J. Cole's, of mine...

this thing, it's serious.

It's real."

Freedom or jail,

clips inserted

A baby's being born

same time my man is murdered

The beginning and end

As far as rap go,

it's only natural

I explain my plateau and also

what defines my name

Yeah, long live the idols

May they never

be your rivals

Pac was like Jesus,

Nas wrote the Bible

Now, what you 'bout to hear

is a tale of glory and sin

No ID my mentor,

now let the story begin

I used to print out Nas raps

and tape 'em up on my wall

My niggas thought

they was words

But it was pictures I saw

"But let me do it slick

like this, on a, um...

on a sheet of paper

and on a song."

It's creative.

I never intended

to write that song, mind you.

You know, it's not like

I had a, like, "Oh, I got

a idea for a song.

I'm gonna do something

called 'Let...'"...nah.

I just started writing,

and that's what came out.

[]

[Pusha T] Yo, yo, yo, yo.

Yeah.

My process of writing,

a lot of times,

starts early in the morning,

in the shower.

Water. [chuckles]

Water in the shower is, like,

the best freestyle session.

Off-the-cuff, creative,

just my thoughts running wild.

We used to drive

from Virginia to New York,

pile up in, uh, Chad's car,

it was at the time.

Drive up here thinking

that we're coming to meet

with some VP of A&R,

and probably, it was just,

like, the mail guy,

by the time we got up here,

who was trying

to raise his position.

But, um...

you know...

that was the game back then.

Young, hungry... you know,

creatives, man.

Um... people who-who

had ambition,

they always, you know,

were the ones

who connected with, um...

with our movement

musically, man.

Always. Always.

We gonna take

this music sh*t

back to where we all began.

Yo, I go by the name

of Pharrell...

- I'm yo' pusher

- ...of the Neptunes

Come on, come on

[Pusha T] Put out a record

like "Grindin',"

with no formulaic...

structure of a hook

at a time when Pharrell

was at his height,

singing on every record

on the radio.

And he didn't sing on ours,

and "Grindin'"

is the cult classic.

From ghetto to ghetto

to backyard to yard

I sell it whipped, unwhipped,

it's soft or hard

I'm the neighborhood

pusher

Call me Subwoofer

'Cause I pump bass

like that, Jack

On or off the track,

I'm heavy, cuz

Ball till you fall,

'cause you could duck...

The "Grindin'" beat, man...

Pharrell was at the studio,

and he basically called me

and told me

if I didn't get to the studio

in 15 minutes,

he was going to give

a beat to Jay-Z.

I was like, "All right, man,

I'm coming."

Like, he was like,

"No, listen.

If you don't come,

I'm giving this beat to Jay-Z.

I'm telling you,

you better get here.

Don't sleep. Don't do nothing.

Don't hesitate. Don't stop."

He knew that would

get me there.

It was so unorthodox to me.

I think that might've been

the first time I had

to rewrite... rewrite a verse.

It took a while

to, like, get it.

You know, once I got it,

it was history,

and I knew it.

Radio DJs would say,

"Look, man,

I ain't gonna play this, man.

I mean, if you let me remix it,

I'll play it.

I mean, it's all drums.

Where that...

where's the synths at?

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