Word Is Bond Page #9

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these sounds?

Ain't never been a problem

'specially when I can

Knock 'em down like

a lower octave

Down like a frown

when no one's watching

- [applause]

- I say I rap until

My fingers bleed, I write

until my throat is sore

Check, I wrote this

in my sleep

Woke up,

then I wrote some more

I wrote this in a cell

Surrounded by 1,000 niggas,

I hope to cultivate

My people like bees

from pollen, flowers, givers

They say that there's

a mental illness

Planted deep

within our culture

Many free

but still enslaved

And waiting till they

sentence over

So I encourage you

to make a change

And don't wait until I end

this sentence

And if I ever shown

you love

I just hope you know

I truly meant it

[students murmuring

in approval]

Watch me back up on you,

'bout to back up on you

Watch me, watch me

back up on you

'Bout to back up on you

So we are in the Bronx.

We are in the Boogie Down,

which is the birthplace

of hip-hop.

Queen of the bodega,

real Garcia Vega

Throw it back

like it was Sega

Her papi be the plug

and her mama from Grenada

she say, "Dime, dmelo,"

but she never do no favors

- Hay la negrita

- [horn honks]

- She winding up the time

- [Nitty Scott] Annoying.

Ba-ba-di-da, she like

the wave up above us

Sguela,

sigue la negrita

Excuse me, papa.

Yo!

This is B. I. C.

It's the homies.

We had a show where it

was us first and then her.

- [Nitty Scott] Mm-hmm.

- It was at Southpaw too.

- Downstairs.

- [Nitty Scott] I'm so mad

- that sh*t closed.

- With Q, right?

With Q.

You remember that?

- Yeah.

- Oh, you was on that day?

Yeah, she went after.

She killed that sh*t.

So early, yeah.

That's, like, Baby Nitty.

And when you opened up

for Kendrick.

- Mm-hmm.

- You're able to-to grab

the crowd by the nuts

and just make sure

that they pay attention to you.

Nobody wants to give

a sh*t in New York.

Yeah, like, and you can't

get by off being cute.

You know what I'm saying?

New York is not

gonna turn up because you're

a bad b*tch or something.

Well, if you try

to just live off...

And to my exes that

regret it, that's enough

Go send another email

and handle my nuts

'Cause I'm in

another chapter

And I left you

where you are

I guess you didn't know

That you was f***ing

with a star

[man] 2 Chainz, Young Thug.

- [man] And Lil Wayne.

- [Nitty Scott] Me too!

I let the 808s in.

- [man] Yup, 808s in.

- [all talking simultaneously]

You need to let the 808s in.

- You need to let them hit.

- [Nitty Scott] Stop resisting.

The bass in trap music,

like, you can feel it

in your chakras,

and I feel like that...

that-that's what it is.

It's like we're feeling

- this rumble in, like, our...

- Bass is always important.

Yeah, it's, like,

in your, like, muladhara.

- And that's-that's...

- [laughter]

That's why it's speaking

to you, and, you know,

and you're getting

in this trance or whatever.

So it's like... you know,

I-I see it now,

- and I respect it.

- You see what we...

[man] You need

a ghostwriter.

[man] I don't care anyway,

to be honest,

because I feel like

music in general...

I mean, if you look

at singers in R&B

and pop and everything,

they ghostwrite to make

- a bigger...

- [Nitty Scott] Record.

...a bigger record

for the world.

It's bigger than one person,

bigger than one hood,

bigger than one...

[Nitty Scott]

It takes a village sometimes.

[man] Royce Da 5'9"

wrote a song

about Dr. Dre's brother dying.

So I answer the phone.

Dre identified himself.

I didn't know who he was

at the time.

I knocked on

the bathroom door, and I said,

"Ryan, there's somebody

named Andre

on the phone

wants to talk to you."

"Dr. Dre is on the phone?"

I was like, "What the f***?"

[Gregory]

So next thing I know,

the shower door falls off.

There's all kind of slipping

and sliding going on.

He comes out of the bathroom

half-dressed.

[Royce Da 5'9"]

And I was like, "Hello?"

And he was like,

"Yo, what's up? It's Dre."

And I was like,

"Yo, what's up, man?"

It was literally

my first time

ever talking to a celebrity...

even coming close.

If you only knew

the way I felt

Before they ruined

the crew

I thought I learned

from Eazy

Now I'm going through it

with you

He said he liked my music,

and he wanted to know

if I was interested

in coming out to LA...

and just kind of helping out,

you know what I mean?

They was working on

The Chronic at that time.

Would I be interested?

And I was like, "Would I?

- I would love to."

- "That was Dr. Dre."

I'm like, "Dr. Dre?"

At first, I thought

he was kidding.

Like, "Yeah, right.

Go clean the bathroom up."

- No, that was Dr. Dre.

- I got on a plane

- and went out there.

- And I do think

that's a skill, to be able to...

like, if you ghostwrite...

yeah, to be able to kind of

fall into their persona

and be like, "This is what

I would say if I was you,"

or be like, "So what are you

feeling right now?

What are you going through?"

And take that and be able

to do... like,

that's a skill too.

So I think it's like,

different skill sets

have different roles

in the game.

A lot of these pop artists

and everybody got writers...

you know, Beyonc got writers.

This is hip-hop

we're talking about, though,

and in hip-hop,

it's from the streets,

and you're supposed

to write your story.

So there might be a problem

if somebody else

is writing your story.

An MC having someone else

write his rhymes... is wack.

An artist having someone write

their rhymes is understandable

because every other artist

in any other genre

of music does that.

With me, I call myself both...

but MC first.

What is allowed?

My friend that I do music with

my whole life can't tell me,

"You should say 'the'

instead of 'that'

at the end of that bar"?

Is that him...

now I have a ghostwriter?

Am I wack now?

And no other genre is like...

would they even, like,

think to have

this silly conversation.

Like, "Is it oaky to get help?"

And this is the only reason

I will say maybe it's not okay

to have people write your raps:

it's 'cause rap is rooted

in authenticity.

Rap is rooted in, "I did this."

- [students] Right.

- "I went here

and did that there,

and this is how I came up."

You rap about what you know.

You rap about, you know,

what's going on outside.

I try to rap in real time

all the time.

You don't gotta...

you don't gotta make up stuff.

But what's crazy

in hip-hop now is,

there is no rule.

Like, Rick Ross don't have

to be a drug dealer

to say, "I'm really

a drug dealer."

And then kids

is listening to it.

[woman] Right,

thinking that it's...

[Rhymefest] Be trying

to act out different things.

Like, rap is like the Bible, G.

Like, there was this one point

in hip-hop where

it was like, "You have

to write your own sh*t."

But that was only

a point in hip-hop.

- [man] A phase.

- [John The Author] Right?

You know what I'm saying?

Well, a lot of people bought

into that belief, but, like,

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