Hip-Hop Evolution (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 2 - Life After Death - full transcript

[reporter] A Las Vegas hospital reports
rapper Tupac Shakur has passed away from wounds he suffered
during a drive-by shooting last Saturday.
[Biggie] Pac is a strong dude, yo.
So, when they was like he got shot, I was just more like, "Again?"
You know? He's always getting shot, or shot at.
He gonna pull through this one again,
make a few records about it and it's going to be over, you know?
But when he-- when he died, I was just like, "Whoa!"
You know, kind of took me by...
Even though we was going through our drama,
I would never wish death on nobody, there ain't no coming back from that.
But at the same time, you know...
things gotta move on, you know?
[mellow beats]
[narrator] Tupac's death in September 1996
sent shock waves throughout hip-hop,
serving as a reality check of the dangers and limits
of bravado and ego,
and as a reminder
of hip-hop's collective power and responsibility.
In the months following Pac's death, leaders from both coasts came together,
trying to bring peace to the fractured community.
But there was another side to this story.
Big's story.
♪ It's on you ♪
Because, throughout the beef, Big had a vision for his future.
He wanted to be more than just a rapper.
Big wanted to be a mogul,
and lucky for him,
his manager was a mogul in the making.
[interviewer] So I want to start just after the success of Ready to Die.
Big is-- is blowing up.
What were you thinking about the future together?
After the success of Ready to Die, we didn't want to lose it.
We hit it right at that spot where we had some turmoil
and we had some pressure.
So we don't want to lose the opportunity,
we didn't want to lose the success that Bad Boy was having.
You know this is a whole new era that we were really going into.
♪ Grab your dick if you love hip-hop ♪
♪ Rub your titties if you love Big Poppa ♪
A lot of people don't understand the relationship me and Big had.
We were beyond record company head and recording artist.
We were really true friends.
We hit the lottery together.
And we lived it like nobody ever lived it.
The B.I.G.
♪ If robbery's a class, bet I pass it ♪
♪ Shit get drastic I'm burying you bastards ♪
But Big had this concept that he wanted
to be in the power position, the executive producer,
be able to move next door to me.
So he had this dream of, you know, really starting his own label,
and I was just like, "This guy is bold."
You know what I'm saying? He wants to go do his own label.
He's not even trying to do it with Bad Boy, and I was like,
"I could really, really dig it."
That made no sense for my business, but it was just like-- it's my man.
♪ Just the way players play All day, every day ♪
♪ I don't know what else to say ♪
[Lance] One day...
Big asked me to start a record company with him.
We literally started a record company
out of a one-bedroom apartment.
And, you know, I was sitting down one day,
and we kind of just came up with this idea
about creating our own hip-hop family.
They were called The Junior MAFIA.
♪ Now who smoke more blunts Than a little bit ♪
♪ What are you, an idiot ♪
♪ Listen to the lyrics I spit like M1'S ♪
♪ Got mad guns up in the cabin ♪
[Lil' Cease] Junior Mafia, we were young kids that he just kind of like
kept a wrap of, like, trying to keep us off the streets.
You know, he had plans for us.
"This is how we gonna do your records. You need to do this."
"Rhyme like this, do this melody."
"I'm gonna write your rap, your song will be ready tomorrow."
It was that other side of him.
-Taking care of everybody. -Yes.
He took care of us and made us a lifeline,
that-- that still lasts to this time, because of him.
♪ Go on grit your teeth Go on bite your nails ♪
♪ To the cuticles like Murray ♪
[Lance] Junior MAFIA was really about a concept.
Biggie wanted to give the kids from the neighborhood
an opportunity to be successful.
That's why he has so many members in the group.
It was nine guys.
♪ Niggas Grab your dick if you love hip-hop ♪
♪ Bitches, rub your titties If you love Big Poppa ♪
♪ Gotcha, open off the words I say because ♪
♪ This type of shit it happens everyday ♪
[Puff] His whole vibe was that he wanted to put on his friends and his family
and he had some talented, really charismatic characters around him.
But he had this one gem...
and it was Lil' Kim.
♪ I used to pack Macs in Cadillacs Now I pimp Gats in the AC's ♪
♪ Watch my money stack Nines in the stores ♪
♪ Glocks in the bags ♪
♪ Maxin' mini-markets ♪
♪ Getting money with the Arabs No question ♪
Do you remember the first rhyme you kicked for Biggie?
It was on Fulton Street, right?
I was a baby. You know, 16-17, basically.
I was so embarrassed.
But I used to really like...
Buckshot.
-Buckshot. -I used to rhyme like him.
I would listen to Black Moon over and over again.
I don't remember it all, but I remember I said something to the sense of,
I'm so hot, I'm hotter than the sun, who dat a come or whatever.
-You hit him with the Buckshot flow. -Hit him with the Buckshot.
Hit him with the Buckshot flow!
And he was like, “Wait a minute, what?
Like, that big-ass voice coming out of this little ass girl.”
He was like... [chuckles]
♪ I used to pack Macs in Cadillacs ♪
♪ Now I pimp Gats in the Ac's ♪
I made my first song, which was "Player's Anthem," at 17.
I was supposed to be the little girl that was cute and made the guys look good,
but I liked being vulgar and explicit sometimes,
because it made me feel free.
Yo, I just want to say I love y’all motherfuckers.
Y’all motherfuckers be representing in Brooklyn.
That's all it means to me, you know?
Sometimes when I would go super nasty, Big would be like,
"Dang, girl!
I didn't know if I wanted you to go that far,
but I like it, keep going.”
Y’all motherfucking girls be representing, right?
With the...
♪ Niggas, better grab a seat ♪
♪ Grab on your dick As this bitch gets deep ♪
♪ Deeper than the pussy Of a bitch six feet ♪
♪ Stiff dicks feel sweet In this little petite ♪
♪ Young bitch from the street Guaranteed to stay down ♪
[Angie] The thing about Kim is,
nobody was attacking it the way she was in stilettos like that.
She just sounded so raw.
And she said all that shit that you, as a girl,
you're like-- you were kind of like, you wanted to say that.
♪ You want to be my main squeeze, nigga ♪
♪ You want to lick Between my knees, nigga ♪
[James] You see Kim, you sit down on the side,
have a conversation with Lil' Kim, and that's Kimberly.
As soon as she grabs that mic and hits that stage and starts to...
She's like, catching a spirit or something, you know?
And that's something that nobody had seen at that time.
I love y’all! Brooklyn in the house, right?
What? I can't hear you!
Lil' Kim...
obviously stood out from Junior MAFIA, um...
but, in a different way, she stood out in hip-hop because...
Kim's like sexuality was something
that both men and women weren't ready for,
but then wanted more and more and more.
♪ Lil Caeser ♪
And then Hard Core came along.
It was like building the most deadly fembot, and it was amazing.
♪ Yo shorty, won't you go get a bag Of the lethal ♪
♪ I'll be undressed in the bra All see-through ♪
When Big first played my album in front of Puffy,
Biggie played "Crush on You".
♪ The only one thing I wanna do Is freak you ♪
And Puffy was like...
He just stared at Big.
♪ Keep your stone sets I got my own baguettes ♪
♪ And I'll be doing things That you won't regret ♪
By the end of the record, he said,
"Money, what the fuck is this shit?
This shit is cra--
No, this shit is a platinum album. This shit is fucking crazy.”
♪ Yes indeed! ♪
She was the female Biggie.
This is how dope she is.
But she's like, way cockier.
When Kim came on the scene,
she took the sexuality away from guys.
She took the misogyny away.
She put an apple in your mouth.
Tired a rope around you
and just started spanking you.
♪ You know I love the way you feel-a Sip my tequil-a ♪
♪ Works from the dealers Full-length chinchilla ♪
People talk a lot about her to the representation,
what she wore, didn't wear, and the sort of sexual explicitness
of her lyrics.
But she really had a flow that just would stop you in your tracks.
She was an incredible MC.
Kim rides that beat,
that Brooklyn vibe
where you can lag behind a little bit,
catch up and run it and then get back again.
It’s the swag that's undeniable that comes
with Brooklyn.
♪ I'ma throw shade if I can't get paid ♪
♪ Blow you up to your girl Like the army grenade ♪
♪ You can slide on my ice Like the escapade ♪
♪ And itchy-gitchy-yaya With the marmalade ♪
[Joan] It was an ongoing narrative at that point,
that women rappers did not sell.
As beloved as Latifah was,
what people would constantly throw in your face
is that she's never been able to go platinum.
But when Kim came out and occupied a lane
that was about sexuality, was about violence,
and was, like, able to go platinum,
it changed the game.
Hi, MTV. I’m finally here.
♪ I gotta let you know That I got a crush on you ♪
[Biggie] That's Kim, you know? From day one.
She was always standing out.
-I knew she had some skills. -[TV interviewer] Right.
And I knew what I was planning on doing as far as with the Junior MAFIA project
and she just fit, she just fit the criteria.
[TV interviewer] All right, a new album coming to the forefront?
-March 25th. -[man] March 2-5.
Yeah, it’s gonna be on.
[narrator] Biggie's success with Lil' Kim and Junior MAFIA
proved he had the acumen to match his ambition.
And, after years of turmoil,
and with his sophomore album done,
Biggie was ready to put the beef behind him.
And, only six months after Pac's death,
Big would head out to California to promo his record,
and try to bring some peace to the still fractured hip-hop community.
-[Biggie] Sup? -[radio presenter] How you doing?
Y107, the Bay area’s party station. Notorious BIG is in studio.
We want to thank you right off the bat for coming in.
Let’s take a quick break. Let’s come back and talk music.
What his perspective was, there's all this
"East versus West and me versus Tupac.
Let me get out there. Let me start talking to people.
Let me do radio interviews.
Let them understand that I surely didn't want Tupac dead.
He was a friend of mine.
We gotta work this shit out.”
But I don't think that he fully understood
or anyone at that time really understood how much danger he was in being out here.
[police siren]
[Nashiem] And I told Big the night before they left,
we was all in studio together and I told him, "Be careful out there."
I think it was six months after Pac died.
That’s damn near a day and night when it comes to beef.
That's just enough time to plan.
It’s fresh. I’m from New York City streets.
You all know, I don't give a fuck
if you got beef around the corner from your crib.
You don't go around the corner until that beef is handled.
Mhm.
You understand? This thing is going to California?
[radio interviewer] You collaborate on anything with West Coast producers--
I haven't, but I will. I mean...
[clears throat] I’m just getting over, you know,
this whole situation with this East Coast, West Coast thing, and--
They’re going through their things, we’re going through ours.
I just came over, you know,
trying to basically squash it.
I mean, I, I hate to say squashing it, because it was never a beef to me.
-Right. -You know?
I never felt threatened by it, so I hate to say "squash it."
-I just want to end this-- -Put it behind us.
Let's put it all behind.
[radio interviewer] People are going to ask about Tupac.
He said, in one of his songs, he knows you sent somebody
to shoot him that first time. Is that true?
Why? No, it's false. Why would I do that?
It’s been a pleasure. Let me shake your hand.
-All right, man. -Thanks very much.
Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
We was doing interviews and we wound up at the Vibe party and it was
one of the best parties I had been to in my whole life.
It was like a real star-studded event. Nothing but love.
It was the one night we didn't get nobody throwing up a west side at us,
or giving us a funny face looking, or--
You know, it was really just a smooth, smooth night.
Nothing really got crazy
until we walked outside and got in that car.
That's when everything changed.
Went from the best night to...
the worst night of my life, to this day.
[tense, sparse music]
[reporter] Rapper Notorious BIG had just gotten into the Chevy Suburban
parked at Fairfax and Wilshire when someone drove by and opened fire.
I was at one light and his car is pulled up
to the other light as it changed,
so the red light hits, I'm at this light, I keep going up Wilshire Boulevard.
They’re at the corner of Wilshire, about to turn on,
because we were all gonna go to another party.
And I went to the party.
And as soon as I get there, my phone starts ringing.
Like, "Yo, your man."
And I was like, “My man what?” “Yo, your man got shot.”
“Who? My man Big. No, he didn't get shot. You sound stupid."
Call me back, "Yo, it's true. He's at the hospital."
And I go to the hospital and he's...
The rapper's driver raced to Cedar Sinai Medical Center
where the 24-year old was pronounced dead.
It didn't take long for rumors to spread that this was a revenge killing.
[Lil' Kim] The last time I spoke to Big was when he first got to LA.
He was like...
I just want to tell you how proud I am of you.
He's never said those words to me.
He was like, "I'm proud of you. I'm really proud of you."
And so, when I got the call,
I was like, “No.
No, they got a mistake.
I just spoke to Big, he’s fine."
You know?
I was like, "I'm going to the hood."
And when I got to the hood,
everybody Ms. Wallace, everybody,
they were all getting ready to go get on a plane and it just...
it was just like...
it sunk in at that point.
[reporter] Police were out in force, as the hearse
led a procession of mourners in limousines
through the streets of Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy section
where he grew up, and where his mother, Voletta Wallace, still lives.
[Lance] I just remember all the people out here.
I mean there was people out here for days,
I mean blocks blocked off, you know?
People hanging out their windows. People on top of cars.
That only happens for mayors and presidents and...
you know, people like that.
-[car horns beeping] -[wailing]
[Faith Evans] I was in that car with Miss Wallace, and I saw that moment
when she felt like, "Oh my God. My son was this huge!"
When you saw those people hanging off the bridge, and out of all the buildings.
You know, it just felt like, "Okay,
let's just kind of rejoice in the great person that he was
and why we all feel the way we feel about him."
[chanting]
[crowd shouting]
[Lil' Kim] I remember being at the casket, like, just grabbing his arm,
Mary had to hold me up.
and I was young and I was scared
and I was alone and I was angry and I was...
sad, and I was confused and I was...
"What's going to happen and what's-- oh my God."
[Puff] When you're...
really striving for your dreams,
you go through a lot of obstacles, a lot of different dark times.
But this was one that I just-- I just wasn't really prepared for that.
I didn't get into this...
to have to see anybody die.
We was on top of the world,
and then nothing-- nothing mattered.
When you have these two unsolved murders
of Biggie and Tupac,
you're wondering, what did it all really mean?
And why did it happen
and did it need to happen, because it didn't need to happen.
Ultimately, I think these two artists were the victims of circumstances
that they ultimately had nothing to do with.
That's really the tragedy of-- of what happened.
I remember the first day back in the studio after the funeral.
Puff comes through,
and I mean, he's done lost like 20 pounds.
And he comes to me, and is like,
“I'm through. I'm through with it.
I can't do it no more."
So, me and Dash looking at him like,
this ain't Puff.
[Puff] I was ready to quit. I wasn't going to put out more records.
Then I was watching TV one day,
you know, one of those times of despair that nobody is around,
and you're crying on the floor
and the self-pity is at an all-time high,
and you're asking God why,
and then I just heard...
"Every Breath You Take" by The Police.
[Intro to "Every Breath You Take", The Police]
I just took it as a sign,
and sometimes you need- you just need that little bit of light
to be able to express yourself,
and I thought that the best thing I could do was to not give up.
I was down and I was out, but I wasn't finished.
But all I could do was get up and start to fight.
That's the way Big would have wanted it.
♪ True love Check it ♪
♪ Seems like yesterday We used to rock the show ♪
♪ I laced the track, you locked the flow ♪
♪ So far from hanging on the block For dough ♪
♪ Notorious, they got to know ♪
♪ That life ain't always What it seem to be ♪
♪ Words can't express What you mean to me ♪
♪ Even though you're gone We still a team ♪
♪ Through your family I'll fulfill your dream ♪
♪ In the future, can't wait to see If you open up the gates for me ♪
From that day, I got up, I was in the studio that night.
That song kind of-- really kind of saved my life.
Before that, I was really kind of nervous about being an artist.
Big was pushing me as far as being an artist.
I felt like I...
I'm a really good hype, man.
But I remember recording "Missing You," and
just knowing that it was going to change hip-hop.
Because hip-hop wasn't really vulnerable.
This was like hip-hop artists dancing in the rain,
walking up the green hills with kids and wearing a suit.
People may have considered it as not gangsta or not...
keeping it real.
And...
I didn't really care about any of that. I just wanted to express
the pain.
♪ It's kinda hard with you not around ♪
♪ Know you in heaven, smiling down ♪
♪ Watching us while we pray for you ♪
♪ Every day we pray for you ♪
♪ 'Til the day we meet again ♪
♪ In my heart Is where I'll keep you, friend ♪
That song humanized us.
We can be at our lowest point, and still...
have hope.
♪ I know you're still living your life After death ♪
- ♪ Every move I make -I miss you ♪
♪ Every single day Every time I pray ♪
♪ I'll be missing you ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
[Faith] I was really not in a place...
where I wanted to record anything.
And I was in mourning myself,
I just lost my husband, my son's father,
and all of these other things that I was now responsible for.
But "I'll be missing you"...
It was very healing.
♪ On that morning ♪
♪ When this life is over ♪
♪ I know I'll see your face ♪
[Puff] "Missing you" was the first record that was number one in every country.
So it wasn't all pain,
but it can never feel as great as it's supposed to feel,
with Biggie being here.
Yeah.
♪ Every time I pray I'll be missing you ♪
[Rashiem] "Missing you"...
that was the breath of fresh air
that was needed in Hip-Hop.
We seen that we could console our man's death, and continue
consoling each other through our music.
[mellow beats]
[narrator] "I'll be missing you" will go on to sell eight million copies,
and become the first rap single in history to debut
at number one on the Billboard chart.
But, with their star artist, Biggie, gone,
Bad Boy's dominance wasn't guaranteed.
Fortunately, Puff had a plan in place.
A vision he had started two years earlier,
when he assembled a crew of up and coming producers
that he named The Hitmen.
Puff, he wanted to put together a producing crew.
Why not? In-house producing crew. A Bad Boy thing.
And we weren't seasoned vets, we weren't... um...
seasoned at all.
I call us a bunch of misfits,
because he could have got much better talent than us as Hitmen.
But I guess Puff is the genius for that.
[laughing]
One day I see Puff, and he says,
“I got something important to talk about.”
So he invites Ron Lawrence, Nashiem, Stevie J and myself.
Gives us the whole spiel about The Hitmen,
what he wants to do, what his vision is.
He wants to kill the radio,
He wants us to...
each one of us have our own individual skills.
You got Nashiem Myrick.
Imagine the type of thuggedness hip-hop you’re hearing.
Then you got Stevie J who's picking up soup cans,
and spoons and knives, and making music out of it.
Then you got Ron Lawrence, who's the more technical out of all of us.
And then you got me who's like disco, hip-hop, dance,
Puerto Rican, salsa. So, all that...
and all that stuff you're hearing, I'm bringing all that.
I want to ask you about the Hitman and how you managed to achieve
a cohesive sound for Bad Boy.
I was always a big fan of Quincy Jones,
not as a producer, but more as an orchestrator.
I never saw him play an instrument,
and that empowered me, because I didn't play any instruments.
I saw him giving direction, I was good at giving directions,
and I was like, you know, I could do that.
[electronic beats]
The Hitmen, they believed in me and my leadership,
so you had that cohesive sound.
So it's coming from one brain,
like, our collective brain.
[Ron] The idea of The Hitmen was to dominate the airwaves.
It was like, every record got to be a Bad Boy record.
Every song you hear has to be us,
and has to be number one.
So, Puffy wasn't giving nobody any days off.
You all need to be kicking out at least four or five beats a week.
And, there was just so much going on at the time.
That whole Bad Boy/Death Row thing was a lot of tension for us.
I think the way to get away from that and to concentrate
would be to go away
and leave all the riff raff behind.
[Deric] Puffy put together the famous trip to Trinidad in '96.
Caribbean sound basin. It was beautiful.
[man] Here he comes.
What's up?
We shipped records out there, turntables, speakers.
We shipped all our stuff out there.
[Nashiem] I had never been to Trinidad before that.
Only island I'd been was Long Island.
Right? [chuckling]
Puff had put us into teams.
He said whoever comes up with the most hits...
I forget the prize.
I'm sure we was playing for something.
Everything was in-house, so we didn't have to go anywhere.
You wake up in the morning, you're on the drum machine.
And you're doing that all night.
It was just a workforce 24 hours around the clock.
Only time we had to leave out is if we went to the beach.
In Trinidad, I was in the room by myself, just going through records,
and Barry White is one of my idols. One of the greatest to ever do it.
And he had that Love Unlimited Orchestra.
Mind you, I'm still learning how to make beats.
I'm the rookie. So I took the sample,
slowed it down,
and I reversed it.
[mimics a reversed record]
I was like, "I got it."
["Barry's Theme", Barry White]
So, finally, “Hey, what you doing up there, Puff?
There ain't nothing going on. Everybody else-- you're getting on me.”
He don't know I'm Brooklyn style. He has no idea what's happening up here.
You know, what I mean? He has no idea what he about to fucking hear.
All right, I come downstairs,
chest out. I got on shorts, it's hot.
You know, Bermuda shit.
[mimes lighting a blunt]
-[beat playing] -[men whooping]
[joins in reversed theme]
[men whooping]
Skin starts coming off of people's bodies,
snot start coming out people's nose and they're throwing up.
"What the fuck is that? Oh my God!" [whooping]
That was a moment for me, like,
"Yeah, let me play y'all this shit. Press play on that, motherfucker."
You know what I'm saying? That's how I felt.
♪ Now, what y'all wanna do? ♪
♪ Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers? Brawlers? ♪
♪ Who be dippin' in the Benz With the spoilers ♪
♪ On the low from the Jake in the Taurus ♪
♪ Tryin' to get my hands On some Grants like Horace ♪
♪ Yeah livin' the raw deal ♪
♪ Three course meals Spaghetti, fettuccine, and veal ♪
[Ron] In Trinidad, Puff was looking for a particular sound.
He was-- he was looking for something different,
and the way we did it, we were able to give it a certain flavor.
Even though it was commercial,
it was still hard at the same time and everybody can get to it.
It was unbelievable, the stuff that we were turning out down there,
because we were stuck on an island
and had nothing else to do but make music.
♪ You ready, Mase? ♪
♪ Party people in the place to be ♪
♪ It's about that time ♪
♪ For us to... ♪
♪ Yo, what you know about goin out? ♪
♪ Head wet, red Lex TV's all up in the headrest ♪
♪ Try and live it up Ride into bigger truck ♪
♪ Peace all glittered up Sticker kid, nigga what? ♪
It was like, every track we put out murders it.
We have Ma$e, we have Puff album,
then you have the Legacy of Big.
We can do no wrong at this time.
♪ Lighting up drugs Always fighting in the club ♪
♪ I'm the reason they made the drugs ♪
Post Pac and Biggie,
people needed a break, people want to have fun for a fucking minute.
Just fun music
to escape the fucking ills of the ghetto.
And here come the jiggy era.
♪ Bad, bad, bad, bad boy ♪
♪ You make me feel so good You know you make me feel so good ♪
[Puff] I just started to choose real big worldwide samples,
and I figured out how to keep them black as a motherfucker.
And they would go pop, but they would still be so fucking black.
We make that cookout music, we made that get married music,
we make that making baby music. It was uncharted territory.
♪ Do Mase got the ladies? Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Do Puff drive Mercedes? Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Take hits from the 80's? Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ But do it sound so crazy? Yeah, yeah ♪
[DJ Clark Kent] Puff Daddy made it absolutely perfect to be rich,
and be super-duper fly.
Puff was like, “fuck that - we're going to buy Bentleys, live in big houses,
we're going to have the most outrageous videos.
We're just going to be over the top.”
Motherfuckers wasn't comfortable dancing. He didn't give a fuck, he danced.
Motherfuckers wasn't comfortable with shiny suits,
he was like, “Y’all motherfuckers gonna put shiny suits on.”
And he made ghetto fabulous,
fabulous!
♪ Now with Sean on the hot track Melt like it's hot wax ♪
♪ Put it out, all the stores, Bet you could shop that ♪
♪ Leave a nigga with a hot hat ♪
♪ Fronting like Bad Boy ain't got tracks ♪
♪Nigga stop that ♪
♪ There's no guy slicker Than this young fly nigga ♪
[Andre] Puff was a coach, and Puff was a stylist, and Puff was a curator.
It was so ghetto fabulous and he was so slick,
and so attitude up.
Puff just became the big star of Bad Boy.
All of a sudden, what Puff and Bad Boy did,
that became the formula for successful hip-hop.
Like, it was just a completely different new
sound, vibe, excitement.
And it took over the clubs in a way that
we had never even witnessed before.
♪ Broken glass everywhere ♪
♪ If it ain't about the money, Puff I just don't care ♪
[Kevin] In '97, Bad Boy had...
a moment in time that you had to be in awe,
that these guys, they didn't treat themselves like rappers,
they treated themselves like rock stars.
And that's what, you know, allowed them to have
fans of, you know, all colors.
I think it was necessary for the evolution of hip-hop
and it gave our culture a breath of fresh air.
He elevated the sonic venture of hip-hop music in general,
because he was able to do what he knew best:
make you dance, make you feel good.
And he left you with words: can’t stop, won’t stop, never give up.
That inspiration, to me,
is probably the most impactful thing of Sean Combs.
You know, you have to have a certain, like,
cockiness and a certain swagger, to believe in yourself.
So, I couldn't do what Quincy Jones did,
I couldn't do what Teddy Riley did or what Dr. Dre did.
All I could do was what Puff, Bad Boy and Biggie
could do, and what we was doing was something special.
To be honest, I wanted to be the flyest, most money-getting
most record-breaking team in hip-hop history.
♪ Don't push us 'Cause we're close to the edge ♪
♪ We're trying not to lose our heads ♪
♪ I get the feeling sometimes That make me wonder ♪
♪ Why you want to take us under Why you want to take us under ♪
[narrator] Puff's success would open new doors for hip-hop,
and help the culture heal.
But from an MC-ing standpoint,
Big's death meant that the unofficial title
of King of New York was now vacant.
The city needed a new heir to the throne.
And, as the hip-hop gods would have it,
a close friend of Big’s had long ago found
the rightful heir in a neighborhood not too far from Big's home.
[slick piano vamp]
[interviewer] When did you meet Jay-Z?
[man] In the Marcy Projects.
He was either 15 or 16.
I was working for a record company, and Jaz-O introduced me to Jay-Z.
If you knew anything about rap in Brooklyn, Jaz-O was, like
the elite of all elite lyricists.
That shit that he's saying is insanity.
♪ I'm teaching and reaching And flowing and growing ♪
♪ The rest of the best Right out of the box ♪
♪ I shoot the funky sweat socks ♪
But he had this guy that he would tell me about,
"My man Jay. My man Jay. My man Jay."
Jay was making money in the street,
but he wanted to be a rapper.
And we heard him rapping, I was just like,
“That’s some ill shit.”
♪ Wreckin in seconds less Than speeds of light ♪
♪ So the miggeda-more that come, The miggeda-merrier, right ♪
♪ Exciting the mic much to the delight Of millions of nubians ♪
♪ And amorites just can't understand The groove we're in ♪
♪ Cool, it might take a couple of takes For you to clarify ♪
♪ Don't lie, you coulda never got in On the first try ♪
♪ Never to worry, I'm not in a hurry Take your time ♪
♪ 'Cause it's my rhyme I siggeda-said so ♪
When I heard him, I was like,
"Jesus Christ, what the fuck is going on here?"
How could these two dudes who rhyme together be that good?"
But this guy had something else.
♪ And I'm J-A-Y-Z, y'all know me ♪
♪ I wish you co-write, cause you'd pay me All the rhymes you stole from me ♪
[Big Daddy] I knew Jaz-O from Brooklyn.
He asked me to get down with him,
and we did a little mixtape together.
Jaz said, "Yo, mind if my man rhyme on the tape with us."
And I'm like, "That's cool."
Afterwards, I'm like,
"I kind of like his little light skinned homie better.
Let me holler at him."
And that's how me and Jay ended up connecting.
So then when I went on the next tour, I took Jay-Z.
Can you do me a favor? Put your hands together for Jay-Z!
[audience screaming]
♪ Yo check this out Here I am, the man ♪
♪ I zigagedy digagedy The mic again ♪
[Jay Z rapping, inaudible]
[freestyle continues]
[crowd screaming]
I thought JAY-Z was a dope MC. You know, he was quiet, laid back,
but he was real sarcastic. He always had something smart to say.
[rapid rhyming]
♪ Wondering, who's that black man ♪
[Fat Joe] I was there the first time Big Daddy Kane brought him out.
And Jay-Z went up there and started doing the...
[mimics record scratches]
[freestyle continues]
No way I thought Jay-Z at all
would be Jay-Z now from that first introduction.
But I remember one time, in Brooklyn,
coming out of one of them underground joints,
and I seen him battling cats.
Ten, 15 rappers. He was...
He’s going crazy, like, "Are you fucking crazy?"
He was killing, destroying the crowd,
like a fucking superstar.
♪ Hoppin and poppin The lyrics you all saw ♪
[freestyle continues]
[DJ Premier] I seen Jay-Z when Jay was with Big Daddy Kane.
Because Gang Starrs, we would do a lot of shows opening up for Kane.
And it was like, "Jay-Z is going to be the next hot dude."
So, when Jay wanted to get a deal,
no major label was giving him any shots.
We were just like, what the hell?
We knew what level of the game he deserved to be in.
[DJ Clark Kent] He was so young,
but the shit he was saying, you believed him.
You believed him, and you believed in him.
Unfortunately, record labels didn't see it at that time.
♪ Jay-Z is outta here ♪
Jay was like, “Okay, I'm going back to the streets.”
I ain't see him after that for a while.
[car horn honking]
But no one wanted him to have a record deal more than I did.
And I used to go over to Marcy Projects, trying to find Jay.
But, when I did, he was doing way too fine in the street.
Jay was making a lot of money.
He didn't want to rap anymore.
It's hard to tell a kid who's making money in the street
"You're going to be the best rapper you've ever seen."
So I had to make him believe.
[rapping inaudible]
♪ Ay yo ♪
[narrator] Jay-Z's talent was obvious to those close to him,
but Jay needed someone to convince him that there was money in rap.
And he'd find the perfect person
in a fast-talking promoter with that classic Harlem swagger.
Tell me about hearing Jay for the first time.
Were you impressed the first time you heard him?
Clark had played a tape for me.
He was like, "Yo, Jay’s this dude that could rap.
He did nice, but he’s getting money,
so he’d prefer to go get money than to do the music.
So, I think a guy like you, he can relate to."
And I went and met him, he had Nike Airs on, like I have now.
And dudes from Brooklyn didn’t usually wear Nike Air, they was called Uptown.
So, I was like kind of impressed that a Brooklyn cat had on Uptowns.
I was actually blown away by that. [coughing laughter]
So, we kind of got cool as friends.
And I started managing Jay.
So, I met Dame, ‘cause he was like this figure in the neighborhood.
He managed Jay.
You know, Jay was just kind of coming on our radar.
He started, you know, coming out, doing his freestyles.
And it was kind of a peek into what he could become,
like the skill set was there.
It just-- Who is this guy?
♪ Knocking sense into those That oppose me ♪
♪ Enticing when slicing through tracks ♪
♪ You screaming Jesus Christ is back And God knows, he can rap ♪
♪ Me and Jaz put rhythm on the map ♪
♪ So give him his dab And, me, I just take mine ♪
♪ Give me those, gimme this, gimme that Fuck that ♪
[Dame] You know, I knew he was good,
but when I was making demos and shopping him,
people weren't signing us.
Everybody was telling me no.
You know how fucking aggravating it is
arguing with a motherfucker that has no taste?
And trying to convince him
how important things are, that they don't even realize exist?
Bottom line is, when we came through,
we had more money than the people we were talking to,
so it became somewhat of a demeaning kind of thing.
It was like these nerds wanted to tell us no.
[sucks air] And I was like, you can't stop me from putting music up.
We said fuck it, and so we started Roc-A-Fella.
[Kareem "Biggs" Burke] Jay and Dame came to me and said,
"Let's put this together," you know. "We can just do this ourselves," and
we end up forming Roc-A-Fella.
It was like, we could get in the music business
and we could do all of these other businesses after
and haves subsidiary companies.
We had this idea in our mind and we just knew that we would win.
And that's all it was.
Dame being that motivator, and a visionary that he was,
and then with the talent that Jay had,
and was getting better and better every song he made,
um... we knew what we had,
even though the world didn't know at that time.
Every week, Jay was performing. We took over every show.
Jay wasn't even supposed to perform at half the places.
He would just go on stage, grab the mic, and perform.
And then afterwards,
we would throw a thousand dollars into the crowd.
[crowd cheering]
We'd go to another club and do that, probably three or four times a night.
This was just what we did, everywhere we went.
So, that’s how we kind of got our name etched in stone.
[Fat Joe] Roc-A-Fella took the different approach
than everybody else.
When they first came in the game, they had money
and this incredible rapper Jay-Z,
but they were bragging about selling drugs,
ripping plaques off the wall, beating up execs.
And I'm like, what the fuck?
I'm trying to be the nice guy.
They're over here walling for the night.
[Dame] What people bought into when it came to Roc-A-Fella,
was the fact that we were bosses, that we was getting money.
We were giving you a lifestyle to buy into.
You wasn’t just hearing it, you were seeing it, and we held court
that was our marketing.
We had the money to do things other rappers couldn't.
I had this feature on my show called Battle of the Beats.
For an upcoming artist, it was a big deal,
because if you won a few nights in a row, you were gonna get played
every night until you lost.
I got this record, and it won five nights in a row.
Later, Damon Dash told me that
they paid people to call all night [laughing]
and flooded the lines for the song.
[Ski Beatz] First time I worked with Roc-A-Fella
was the song "In My Lifetime."
They paid me in cash in a book bag.
I just get on the train with, like, twenty grand in the backpack,
it was crazy.
They did everything big, you know,
they pulled up in the craziest cars.
It was a movement, from the women around to the jewelry.
When you saw them, you thought Roc-A-Fella.
Right now, I got the Roc-A-Fellas with me.
No doubt, Jay-Z, yo, you blowing it up, man.
I'm trying to kill it, man. The album is bananas.
When is the album dropping or...
In April. In April. Not yet.
What's what's the name of it?
Reasonable Doubt.
[Jay Z] The trial begins, you know.
Reasonable Doubt, when we was making it,
I remember Jay-Z pulling me to the side
and saying, "Yo, I'm about to make you famous."
I was like, "Whatever." Then, when that record came out,
and I saw how New York received it, it was over.
♪ While others spit that Wonderama shit ♪
♪ Me and my conglomerates Shall remain anonymous ♪
♪ Caught up in the finest shit ♪
♪ Live out my dreams Until my heart gave out ♪
♪ Involved with cream, you know exactly What this shit's about ♪
♪ Fuck y'all mean? Handlin' since a teen ♪
♪ I dish out like the point guard Off your favorite team ♪
♪ Without doubt, my life ain't rosy ♪
[Ski] Jay's voice wasn't the regular voice, you know?
He wasn't doing what all the other hip-hop guys was doing at the time.
Crazy word play, crazy metaphors, you know?
Double entendres, all kind of crazy stuff.
♪ Shit I'm involved with Got me pins and needles ♪
♪ And my cerebral bleeds The wickedest evil ♪
♪ Thoughts that this sport Will feed you ♪
♪ Deep facts in the game ♪
♪ So deep, fiends could catch a freeze ♪
[Dame] Reasonable Doubt, we were gonna try to make it like a movie.
It was supposed to be a story about hustling.
That shit was, like,
as if there was a newscaster just telling you exactly what was going on
in our life, and what we were feeling. It was a real perspective.
If you were in the game, you understood that we were brothers too.
♪ Rappers going broke Trying to keep up with me ♪
[Kareem] Jay really made that album for us,
for Roc-A-Fella, to impress us,
because we were all doing the same things.
As long as we were in there going crazy,
nodding our head, telling him how dope the verses were, he was happy.
They were three business guys.
They came from hustling, and then here was this opportunity
to make some money in a legal way.
Like, how do I take this to the next level, what do I do?
They’re looking at Bad Boy and seeing all of that,
like, "Okay, how can -- They making how much money over there?"
[Kareem] Roc-A-Fella was always about independence.
We did everything by ourselves.
But, now, we have a gold album,
and we had all this momentum, and we just used that
to close the next deal.
And that’s how, eventually, we end up doing a deal with Def Jam.
[Kev] I was known for getting records played on the radio.
One day, I was in Baltimore and it’s Thanksgiving night.
Irv called me and said, "Kev, Dame, Biggs, and Jay gonna come see you."
I said, "Oh, Roc-A-Fella." He said, "Yeah."
And I remember seeing a bunch of guys in black leather jackets
with the Roc-A-Fella logo. [laughing]
Them boys would always roll like that, you know?
So, my mom cooks food and everything.
I went and got plates for everybody.
So, we ate-- We ate Thanksgiving dinner in the club.
You know what I mean? So, I said, "Jay, why don’t you rock with us."
And the rest is history.
Anybody who signed with Def Jam at that time, your life changed,
and you made records for the radio
and your approach to making music changed.
More radio play was going to get you more money.
And Jay is the boss, so he's going to be like, "Okay, got it."
[interviewer] With Def Jam, what was the vision for that second album,
In My Lifetime, Volume 1?
Money.
Just trying to do what Puff was doing.
[both laughing]
You know what I'm saying? Like, we did that Sunshine video,
with them shiny fucking suits, dancing around.
Everybody laughing at us.
I hated it. It wasn't us.
It broke my heart.
[loud laughing]
♪ Who be in a Japanese restaurant ♪
♪ Eating sushi, drinking saki It's me ♪
♪ And my mommy with the doobie ♪
♪ Smelling like miyaki ♪
♪ Half Philippine thing For now let's call her Suki ♪
♪ Got me booty banging properly ♪
♪ In Versace pants Cocky boot legged stance ♪
[DJ Clark] Here's the crazy part about "Sunshine."
If you listen to it, that shit is fire.
It's not whack.
It's just that for the person that he was at that precise moment,
it just wasn't the right thing, because it sounded like something
somebody else would have done.
It wasn't us.
I always looked at Puff and them like Motown,
like they were more R&B, where we were hip-hop.
You know, no disrespect or anything like that.
It just two different lanes.
So, that record, that wasn’t what Roc-A-Fella was about.
But, it evolved us, and as we evolved,
I wanted to see more and I wanted it to mean more
and I wanted Roc-A-Fella to be more.
♪ Just continue to be my sunshine ♪
[Kevin] Jay wasn't afraid to experiment,
but afterwards, he looked at it and said, "I'm not doing that."
His heart was always coming from the point of view of being street.
Jay always gonna be in Tims and a hoodie.
That’s just—That’s who he is.
You know, and that shift happened with Hard Knock Life.
Jay-Z took it back to the streets.
♪ From standing on the corners bopping ♪
♪ To drivin' some of the hottest cars New York has ever seen ♪
♪ From droppin' some of the hottest verses Rap has ever heard ♪
♪ From the dope spot, with the smoke Glock Fleeing the murder scene ♪
♪ You know me well From nightmares of a lonely cell ♪
♪ My only hell ♪
♪ But since when y'all niggas Know me to fail ♪
♪ It's the hard knock life for us ♪
[Ski] When that song came out, that put him in a whole different light.
You know it’s commercial, you know it’s mainstream.
But at the same time, there's something about it.
The beat is so hip-hop.
♪ And sip the Cris' and get pissy-pissy ♪
♪ Flow infinitely like the memory Of my nigga Biggie, baby! ♪
♪ You know it's hell when I come through ♪
What Jay did, remaining exactly who he is,
that street theme rapper,
he knocked it out the park.
"Hard Knock Life" sold six million albums.
As Jay started to cross over,
the appeal started to cross over as well.
You know, he became a worldwide icon.
So now, when Jay raps about cars,
clothing lines, liquor businesses,
people gravitated toward it, and then we started to see
brands go from zero to 100.
What I saw was people making money off of, and leveraging our celebrity
and bringing awareness to brands and selling.
I was like, we might as well just make the brands
and bring awareness to them ourselves, and that's what we did.
So we started Rocawear.
Rocawear launched.
Eighteen months later, it was already doing 80 million dollars.
We knew we were building something that was gonna be bigger than ourselves.
And we had to learn how to make money from the street.
When you hustling, and you on the street,
general principle is having a product and selling a product
and making a margin, and reinvesting it,
and putting it back in the street. It's called flipping.
With Roc-A-Fella, like, that’s what we was doing.
You know, we had control over the music, we had control over the fashion.
To me, we could do everything better than everybody,
because we had these real authentic experiences
that people now say are legendary.
And also, that the originating of cool comes from the street.
And we're in the street.
But... it almost killed us, you know what I'm saying?
[both laughing]
♪ It's the hard knock life for us ♪
Roc-A-Fella Records forever, y’all.
Yeah!
Ah ha!
[crowd erupting]
♪ It's a hard knock life ♪
[narrator] Jay’s success with Roc-A-Fella, and Puff’s success with Bad Boy
signaled the beginning of a new era and mentality in hip-hop.
Not only did they show hip-hop the true value of their music,
but they also understand that hip-hoppers were cultural leaders
and trendsetters on a global scale.
Together, Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fella made hip-hop
about more than selling records.
They were selling hip-hop culture.
-Wow! -[crowd cheering]