Hip-Hop Evolution (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 3 - Pass the Mic - full transcript

[Talib Kweli] Yo, I just want to say, you know,
we're working hard, we're doing it because we love it.
You know? Niggas is trying to eat, and get paid,
we're not trying to exploit hip-hop for the sake of doing that.
You know? We're trying to do this because we love it. Thank you.
There is a culture
and we need to take it seriously for what it is.
[laid back beats]
[narrator] Hip-hop culture.
That's a heavy phrase.
Especially to those that were living and breathing it in the 90s.
But how it was defined and who got to define it,
that's another matter.
Because by the mid-90s,
hip-hop's most visible leaders had a new look for the culture.
Foreign clothes and cars, champagne and yachts,
shiny suits and icy chains.
This was a shiny suit era, the "Jiggy" era,
but not everyone was feeling it, and in response,
alternative underground hip-hop scenes emerged across the US,
trying to bring the culture back.
But when you're going against the Big Willies,
you can't just ask them to pass the mic,
you need to take it back,
one rhyme at a time.
[inaudible]
[Talib] The commercialization of hip-hop was just blatant,
and Puff in particular was leading the charge.
He was pulling no punches.
It was sacrilegious to our community.
This is a culture that you know,
we all take personal.
I have immense love and respect for Puffy now,
but back then, you know, I was annoyed as fuck. [laughing]
Hip-hop in its definition is non-commercial.
It's counterculture.
So, when it started becoming played on pop stations and mainstream stations,
it's just like it's becoming diluted, it's becoming uncontextualized.
It's becoming more digestible for the person
who doesn't live and breathe this. At the same time,
there was a whole community,
that was like, "Yo, we're going to fucking raise our fist
and keep this shit going strong."
One of the places that was bubbling was in Washington Square.
[narrator] Washington Square Park in New York's Greenwich Village
has long been a meeting point for NYC's merchants, artists and free spirits.
But when clusters of MCs started to gather in the park
for spontaneous freestyle sessions or what we call ciphers,
no one knew that they were witnessing hip-hop history.
And one of the best MCs to ever bless a Washington Square cipher
a true master of the art of freestyling, is this man.
Yes, sir!
The aptly named, Supernatural.
♪ Spitting off the top of the head ♪
♪ Supernatural like the dawn of the dead ♪
♪ What's he got to say? ♪
♪ I'm a world away And yo we love to rap ♪
♪ He felt the Supernat He almost missed his slap ♪
♪ Now that’s me running back ♪
♪ Yeah, the way that I can spit it ♪
♪ This is the way that I'm wicked When we killed the track ♪
♪ Boy it's all of that ♪
♪ Sit back in the seat ♪
♪ And this is the way that I speak When I bring the heat ♪
♪ When it comes to spitting Yo I'm never disrespecting ♪
♪ There is no confusion Write the constitution ♪
♪ Sitting here This is Hip-Hop Evolution ♪
♪ And yo I'm still here ♪
♪ And that's the way we take it It's nice ♪
♪ I'm going to stop right there ‘Cause we wrecking it, right? ♪
[Supernatural] So that's what we used to do in the park, man.
Washington Square was just probably
one of the most magical places at that point.
It was all about freestyle.
There would be friendly ciphers,
and sometimes there would be some battles that would ensue in the park.
You know, that whole conquest to be the dopest you can be.
♪ It's me Every time I rock this is a service ♪
♪ Emerge from the top Now I'm back on the surface ♪
♪ Love the way I move Because I truly do this wild ♪
♪ My profile Coming with the real freestyle ♪
♪ Any rap, son, is a contact sport ♪
♪ Rhyming in the place That they call New York ♪
[Mr Len] The park was where these cats got sharp.
That's where they sharpen their swords,
and, you know, they refine their darts.
And they got nice with it.
♪ Kicking the rhyme, I'm coming in With the remarkable time ♪
♪ And if you'll need to a new alignment When I started zigging up the side ♪
I've never actually seen the cipher start.
Every time I walk into it, it's like, you know,
three dragons breathing heavy,
and everyone is spitting the hottest thing they can think off of the head.
♪ You fear dope lines ♪
♪ Especially these, because K-Swift style Burns heads like STD's ♪
♪ Let me please bless you With the best flavor ♪
♪ I rip open ciphers Like they're made of wet paper ♪
[crowd whooping]
[Talib] Kids were free styling in the park and gaining notoriety.
The idea of making a record wasn't something people were striving for.
That wasn't the goal. The goal was cultural courtesy.
That thing that was becoming alternative to hip-hop,
but really was rooted in what hip-hop was supposed to be from my perspective.
♪ Take me to a place called the BK Without pause or delay ♪
♪ Get my relay Don't care what he say she say ♪
♪ Ain't working for no cheap pay The Mos Def beat played ♪
♪ This is what they street say ♪
♪ Hey mister DJ play that double mo again That jam got me open ♪
[EL-P] It was this whole community that had kind of sprung up.
There was always an explosion of ciphers.
We were all just psyched about
being rappers.
That dissipated pretty quickly. Giuliani came into power,
seized control,
however you want to call it. How do you speak about dictators?
He locked New York down. He locked it the fuck down.
♪ Sadistic and I'm a misfit ♪
-Yo! -[police siren]
You've got to move. You've got to move. You've got to move.
When Giuliani became mayor, they were trying to bring more tourists
in from the outer Burroughs and other states.
It started with them breaking up the ciphers,
the cops would come and be like, "There's too many of you."
My first arrest was because of Giuliani and the Quality-of-life Crimes.
[Jean] Things were cool, then all of a sudden, it fucking wasn't cool,
and they were shutting down the park and horses were coming,
police horses. You’re like, what the fuck? We can't-- we're not doing anything.
They're just rhyming.
I remember t-shirts about, like being anti-Giuliani,
like when you start to crack down on culture,
that's when we have a problem. You know?
And he was attacking hip-hop culture.
[man] They figure any time the darker toned,
or just hip-hop generation, gather together,
it's something negative.
[interviewer] Giuliani was trying to clean up the parks.
Did that have an effect on what was going on there,
in terms of the scene?
Absolutely. I mean, you know, it created visionaries
to be like, "We're not going through that."
This deserves a better space than the street corner.
This deserves a better platform than just in the park, cold.
[narrator] Among the heads in the crowd at Washington Square were two teenagers,
Ant Marshall and Danny Castro,
who saw the talent in the park ciphers
and decided these backpack rocking MCs needed a venue.
A venue dedicated to the art of rhyming.
The first Lyricist Lounge was at its space on Archer Street,
in Lower East Side, and it was very shitty.
[laughing] The space was very shitty.
But this is what underground hip-hop was really about.
[Yasiin Bey] I remember the first Lyricist Lounge
it was like a AA meeting, almost. You know what I'm saying?
And I was like, "This is the most
polite,
well-mannered organized cipher that I've ever been to."
And I remember leaving, being like,
"This is never going to work." [laughs]
We didn't even know what we were doing. Let's just put it like that.
We would post these flyers up all over the city,
from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Uptown,
and...
it actually worked, people were coming out.
[Ant] Once people started coming, it was overflowing,
there was too much going on and so we ended up renting the club.
And from there, things snowballed really quickly.
♪ Give it up, yeah ♪
[Supernatural] Lyricist Lounge was the place to be, man.
I was totally blown away.
Like, yo - these is cats that we all started in the park together.
♪ You're just a fraud, getting floored Doubt you'll recover♪
[rapping continues]
[Bobbito] People, like, lined up to get onstage.
It was like a government cheese line.
There was just so much energy in there and it was predominantly dudes.
It was a sausage fest.
♪ I don't stop Get up quick ♪
♪ And you know I'm gonna kick The rough shit ♪
[Fat Joe] That's how I got my start,
networking and being in all these spots and rapping and...
Even though I wasn't the best,
I was thinking I was the best. It was raw,
underground, pure.
Could you get rawer than the underground?
That's what the Lyricist Lounge is about.
[Rah] At that time,
you pretty much had to battle your way through hip-hop.
They were probably about five or six ciphers going within the venue.
It's a hundred degrees, I'm 8 months pregnant.
Sweating bullets.
I got on that stage and I rapped like it was nobody's business.
♪ I'm badder than bougie ♪
[inaudible rapping]
[crowd oohing]
I remember at the end of the show saying, "I just got two things to say.
I write all my own rhymes, and this is all my real hair."
Like, those two-- I don't know what prompted me to say that but...
♪ I have no time to make foes With my black bros ♪
When my raps make stars collapse Like black holes ♪
[Talib] We didn't go to Lyricist’s Lounge to see nobody wack.
Quality is still profitable, you know?
And they developed a very quality experience,
and that's why it kept growing and kept growing.
It just opened up a lane for talent to be recognized.
As well as, you know, other places from across the country.
Were you hearing rumors and whispers of, "This scene over here is really dope"?
What else were you hearing about at that time?
It was LA, really.
LA was the place where I started
to know that there was an alternative universe of New York.
Like yo, they got some dudes out there
that are absolute animals, too, just like us. We're not the only ones.
[narrator] If the East Coast underground movement was a reaction
to the commercialism of the Jiggy era,
then the spark for LA was different.
Out here, rappers were looking for alternatives
to the gangsta rap scene that still defined West Coast hip-hop.
And they'd find that in an unlikely place:
a health food store at the edge of LA's historic Leimert Park.
[Chali] The Good Life Cafe, it was a health food store
in a strip mall, small little strip mall on the corner of Exposition and Crenshaw.
It was smack dab in the middle of the hood.
You would walk in and see stuff like wheat grass,
and things of that nature that, you know, it's foreign to us at first.
Like, what the hell is that?
But it was decided upon by a couple of the neighborhood elders
who owned the health food store to make this an open mic spot,
and a kind of a sanctuary for a lot of these rappers
who were talented in the neighborhood and don't necessarily
participate in what's popular at the time, which was the gangster rap stuff.
And almost, I ain’t trying to say stoop down to the level of gangster rap,
it's not like that,
more like stoop to the level of trying to be something they wasn't,
in order to succeed within the music business.
[MC] Hey, what's happening? What happening, Good Life?
It would be wall to wall packed. Like, you can't move packed.
And whether you could get in there or not, it wouldn't matter.
People would gather at the door,
because the door was glass and they'd crack the door
so people outside can hear what was going on inside.
♪ As a specimen, yes I'm intimidating ♪
♪ And I'm waiting to caress and impress ♪
♪ I’m demonstrating My lyrics come up pathically ♪
♪ I got you fixed in ♪
♪ I brag and boast and i‘m ghost Like Richard Nixon ♪
I'm thinking, like, nightclubs,
that's where you want to go experience hip-hop and rap.
It's not at a health food store.
You know, with the fluorescent lights turned on.
In the middle of this part of town
where gangster rap comes from.
How does the complete antithesis
get born in that area?
That's always the case.
The antidote is always in the poison.
[chilled beats]
Thursday night you knew, you were going to see whoever was hot.
You know, you had Volume 10. Ganjah K. Pigeon John.
And it was a new way of thinking about the music,
because you didn't have to have a deal to do it.
[Snoop] I was just an underground rapper that heard about it.
I didn't have no record deal, they didn't know me.
I was just a nigga from Long Beach that just fucked it up,
and was able to get down with them.
And what I love about that, no two rappers sound alike.
If a motherfucker walked up in there and sounded like another motherfucker...
You couldn't even use a bar that was somebody else’s.
It was niggas there bar watching.
Like, "Nigga, hold on nigga, that ain't yours."
Medusa, she's a myth
But girls still clutch their pearls And make a wish
That their man's crew Ain't on my weak delivery hit list
[Medusa] Your word play and your rhythm play was everything.
You really had to have some bars.
You could not be Simple Simon rhyming.
You have got to come original.
You have got to come ready to smash that outside of your own box.
If not, you got to go. We don't care who you are.
Yo here's something real quick and get off
before I wet my pants from being nervous up here.
[crowd laughing]
My first performance a lot of anxiety.
Because of the the fear of rejection. [laughing]
Blessed that I didn't get booed, you know, or dissed.
It was a hard spot. This place is like Apollo.
[Chali] If you were bad, you would lose the crowd.
In a matter of seconds.
[MC] Please pass the mic. Dang.
"Please pass the mic" was a chant. If you was just whack, you'd get it.
It would start with like one or two people.
Then five, then 10, then 20, then the whole place.
Then it would turn into a song. Pass the mic!
And people would be like, "Please pass the mic!"
This ain't my crowd.
[crowd booing]
[MC] Brother didn't even get to say his first word.
That crowd was so vicious that something like "please pass the mic"
sound like, "Shut the fuck up nigga, get the fuck off the mic
before I fucking kill you."
[crowd jeering]
Fat Joe got up there,
and...
got booed, he got shit on.
I don't think they even gave me a chance over there in LA.
They just booed me. Like, "Boo!" Like, they ain't even hear me out.
♪ Fat Joe, you know the flavor's real ♪
♪ Every time I grab the clock I flip the script and get ill ♪
All right. I sense jealousy in the house. Peace, we out.
[mic drop]
Are you fucking crazy? You're booing Flow Joe?
You're booing Fat Joe? I'm the real.
That's the only time I ever been booed.
If you can get that difficult-ass bunch of people to be excited about you,
you became part of that scene. You won.
Freestyle fellowship is clearly an example of that.
[jazz starts]
[narrator] The intense open mics at The Good Life
created some of LA's most respected and celebrated MC's,
but one crew stood above them all.
The fourman collective of PEACE, Self Jupiter, Aceyalone, and Myka 9.
Better known as The Freestyle Fellowship.
How did The Good Life help your development as a group?
You got a chance to see
what other people was doing on a weekly basis.
I know me, I tried to push the bar up because...
I had tried to have something new. I never concentrated on one style at all.
"I'm going to be like this. I'm going to rap like this."
I was trying to stay fresh every week.
♪ It's like Kool-aid Poppin a cap and lickin a fizzle ♪
[inaudible rapping]
♪ With one lump and a crumpet ♪
♪ You can dump it down your throat And blow the trumpet ♪
[crowd erupting]
The Good Life was instrumental. It was college.
Every Thursday, you really had to come with something
kind of, like, thought provoking. Witty. Peculiar.
So you have to say something a little bit, like, way left.
♪ I stepped out my mother When she was asleep ♪
[rapid rapping]
Freestyle Fellowship, they all had similarities, but,
in those similarities, were so different.
Like, Self Jupiter is totally different than Myka 9.
Myka 9 is totally different than Aceyalone.
But they all had unique jazz, scat style that was fresh.
Their sort of chopping technique,
they were trying to rap at the speed of thought.
You could almost see the words spill out of their faces.
♪ Chop up another seething carcass ♪
[rapid rapping]
Chopping, it was a way of expression.
Dud-du-du, dud-du-du. [scatting continues]
Flamboyant. You know what I mean? Just out there with it.
[scatting]
-[yelps] -[crowd cheering]
It was definitely evident
that the Freestyle Fellowship were the chosen ones.
It was so innovative in what they were doing.
Their talent was ahead of everybody else’s by light-years.
And I used to be...
trying my hardest to, like, act like...
yeah, whatever. You know? Because-- it was my peer group.
But I was a fan!
Any time you got to see anybody from The Fellowship
was special because they were the best.
They were the best performers, the most seasoned and ready to be signed.
And when it was their time... Man, it was pure b-boy jazz.
♪ Once we have ♪
♪ The knowledge of self as a people We could be free ♪
♪ No devil could ever Enter the boundaries ♪
♪ I stand in the center around All these sounds I see ♪
♪ Blessin' Allah that I found the key That's how we be ♪
♪ We are by no means ashamed of our Cultural background ♪
♪ Not a tad bit 'fraid of change ♪
-♪ Around the same old same old thang -Ay, what's going on? ♪
♪ You know I can't call it ♪
♪ Try to maintain Overlooking the boundaries ♪
[interviewer] Can you talk about the significance of Leimert Park,
the neighborhood, the community,
and how jazz became such an integral part of what you guys brought?
[Myka 9] Leimert Park is around the corner to The Good Life.
Leimert Park gave me my cultural dose.
It's like, you know, there was a place you can go to
without having to go to New York to experience
jazz at its highest form.
I would go to Leimert Park one Thursday instead of going to The Good Life.
I would see the musicians with their saxophones, oboes, flutes,
sitting on a bench. You know, they're just up there soloing.
However, I want to bust my rhymes.
I'm thinking of a rhyme I've been working on.
So, think about the melody of whatever they are playing
and put the melody into a syllabalization of how you are going to rap.
And I started just straight rhyming.
Then they started slowing down their playing.
Then they just stopped. This guy was in the crowd,
he was like, "Let that man finish his solo!
He's doing nothing different!”
So, they start picking up again and I started fucking that shit up.
Then all the jazz people started getting up
and getting with the hip-hop, just having a good time.
So that encouraged me more to keep that as part of my get down.
[Myka 9 scatting]
♪ Once we have the knowledge of self As a people then we could be free ♪
♪ No devil could ever Enter the boundaries ♪
♪ I stand in the center around All these sounds I see ♪
♪ Blessin' Allah that I found the key That's how we be ♪
Freestyle Fellowship created a delivery and a pattern that,
I think, was highly influential to...
everybody after them. I heard patterns and flows
that made me fuck with my pattern and flows.
People were immensely proud of them and people were blasting that record
wherever you went.
I feel like I heard it blasting up and down Crenshaw,
the same way that you heard the Snoop records. You know?
Me and Warren G used to bang that shit.
We used to bang the Freestyle Fellowship. They was hard as fuck.
Shout out to the Freestyle Fellowship, man.
♪ I gotta be righteous, I gotta be me ♪
♪ I gotta be conscious, I gotta be free ♪
Freestyle Fellowship. Are you kidding me?
Them voices and those personalities
were so big and they were developed out of a desire to not fit in.
It was such a dope way to have a balance in the West.
You had people taking pride
and being like, "Okay, I'm underground. I'm not that mainstream."
That opened up creativity the whole way through in hip-hop.
[analogue radio static]
♪ WKCR. ♪
♪ Here we are The MCs ♪
♪ And nobody's hit these ♪ [laughs]
♪ Here's to Stretch And Bobby too ♪
♪ And I'm rhyming through Your whole crew, that's true ♪
[narrator] From the parks, to the clubs and cafes,
the underground scene was bursting with talent.
But, unless you were there, you wouldn't know your Supernats
from your Self Jupiters.
It's going to take more than ciphers for these MCs to get recognized.
[Stretch] The Stretch and Bobbito show,
I didn't think that we were an underground show when we started.
But, as hip-hop started becoming much more mainstream and commercial,
we were aware that what we were doing, in some ways, had almost...
greater importance.
There was a war going on, really, for the soul of hip-hop.
We were that alternative to the commercial stations
that are playing mainstream music
that happens to have its roots in hip-hop, but in many ways, isn't hip-hop.
♪ Ok, uh-huh ♪
♪ No need to ask my initial ♪
♪ Lfl-b5d most official ♪
♪ Wraps fraudulent rappers Like tissue ♪
♪ What's the whole issue ♪
Having the live freestyle sessions was just sort of a part of that overall
desire to create something that was special.
I was trying to play music that you couldn't hear anywhere else.
[Bobbito] We were the gatekeepers for indie hip-hop in New York.
There was the old school, there was new school
and true school. The cats that didn't give a fuck.
You're being true to the culture? All right, cool. You're down.
Stretch and I used to book artists on our show,
we didn't care if they were unsigned. We didn't care if they had a demo.
We were the premiere, like, sort of unsigned artists
radio showcase.
For some MC's, their career goal was to get on our show.
[EL-P] A radio show like Stretch and Bob,
they were getting sent tapes from all over the country.
And I remember being in the car with my partner Big Jus,
parked in my mother's 1985 brown Buick,
in a parking lot, high as fuck,
waiting to hear our song on the radio.
Stretch Armstrong played "8 Steps to Perfection."
The first song, we were just like "Oh my God!"
I could have died happy. That could have been it for me.
I'll set it off first.
This is how we do, worldwide. Wake Up Show. Pirate radio.
[Stretch] The Wake-Up show, they had a value system
that was in line with what ours was.
We would send them tapes from our show.
They would often play the Freestyle segments.
There was just a synergy between the two.
We got MCs in here serving it.
Who's up next?
♪ Well I'm up, I'm about to erupt ♪
♪ I deducted all this time ♪
♪ Just to blow your mind ♪
♪ I'm grabbing the microphone To keep them swaying ♪
♪ Taking, these MCs are checking ♪
♪ They're getting checked and wrecked ♪
♪ Manifesting, pulling cards All off the deck ♪
♪ Take the bottom one, it's the ace I got them one ♪
♪ I shoot 'em, shot 'em one I plot 'em son ♪
[Xzibit] Tek and Sway was dope,
because it was like Gladiator School.
They would just fill up the studio with MCs
and we would just bust our niggas live on the air.
♪ They got a close ear, to the LA Style ♪
♪ Watch L.A take their styles back With a real big ole smile ♪
♪ Yeah, fool All that dudda dudda ♪
♪ Bone thugs ♪
♪ Leave that style alone, dud ♪
[men whooping]
If you couldn't hold your own in that fucking cipher,
then get the fuck out.
It don't matter what kind of chain you had on, what kind of status you had.
Nigga, can you rap? Can you rap?
God damn Thunder cat.
-[meows] -[smooth beats]
[Danny] These underground radio stations
were a blessing for all of these independent artists
because they were actually getting played
and then you also had
these independent record labels that were kicking down the door,
and letting people know like, "Hey, check this out.
This is the shit right here."
Blackstar, for an example.
They were with this independent label called Rawkus Records.
They were, like, untouchable at the time.
[Stretch] I was getting records that Rawkus was putting out.
I was getting Blackstar records, which were just really dope.
I mean, Mos Def was already one of the most important soloists
emerging from the 90s New York scene.
And Blackstar was kind of an extension of that.
They're probably the group
that was most concerned with preserving culture.
There was a nod to the past.
We're bringing love cuz yall Brooklyn niggas came all the way up here.
[narrator] When Talib Kweli and Mos Def,
two long time staples of the ciphers and open mics,
came together to form Blackstar,
they were more than a duo with a deal.
They were the messengers and flag bearers
for the entire underground movement.
♪ The new moon rode high In the crown of the metropolis ♪
♪ Shining, like who on top of this? ♪
♪ People was hustling, Arguing and bustling ♪
♪ Gangsters of Gotham hardcore hustling ♪
♪ I'm wrestling with words and ideas ♪
♪ My ears is picky Seeking what will transmit ♪
Yo!
[interviewer] That Black Star album,
do you remember what you were trying to convey with the vibe and the lyrics?
I think the best artists are the ones that learn
how to take that freestyle element and use it in the studio to be free.
I think that's what makes Black Star such an interesting dynamic.
The subject matter on that album came directly out of those ciphers.
And a lot of the freestyle was about preserving the culture.
He was very very focused on where's the vinyl?
Where are the break dancers?
Where is the culture and where is it going?
There's a business around this culture that says,
if you want to succeed in this,
then you need to be this.
And it was like...
that's not who we are.
Everything else just started to feel like noise after a while.
Puffy and Jay, and what was happening on the charts, who was popping.
We just turned all that down.
We was just talking to the interested.
♪ The beast crept through concrete jungles Communicating with one another ♪
♪ And ghetto birds where waters fall From the hydrants to the gutters ♪
♪ The beast walk the beats But the beats we be making ♪
♪ You on the wrong side of the track Looking visibly shaken ♪
[interviewer] You guys represented the culture, represented the underground,
but reached a level of success
that some people would maybe not consider underground.
Underground is an aesthetic.
It's a feeling and it's a sound.
What we considered the underground were Platinum hits.
I'm talking about Gang Starr, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul,
all of them got platinum plaques.
But the sound, the aesthetic,
captures something that we call underground.
[Mos] The only criteria is that it has to rock our world.
It has to be something that makes us be like, "Yo!
That shit was like--."
That's all we're going for.
Making money was in the car, but it wasn't the driver or the engine.
It was maybe sitting in the front seat. With the window down.
You comfortable? [laughing]
If you want to make a stop, you let us know.
♪ Lawd have mercy All nice and peace and true ♪
♪ Follow me now, we say ♪
♪ Say Hi-Tek yes you're ruling hip-hop ♪
♪ Say J. Rawls yes you're ruling hip-hop ♪
♪ Redefinition say you're ruling hip-hop ♪
♪ Say Black Star come to rock it ♪
♪ From the first to the last of it Delivery is passionate ♪
♪ The whole and not the half of it Vocab and not the math of it ♪
♪ Projectile that them blasted with Accurate assassin shit ♪
[crowd cheering]
[Rah] Black Star were definitely rock stars in underground hip hop.
Fighting to preserve the legacies of...
of Chuck D and KRS-One and all of these things that,
you know, our forefathers preach to us.
♪ Hold your heads When the beat drop ♪
[crowd cheering]
[Will-I-Am] Kweli is like one of my favorite MCs.
Mos Def. Whoa!
Like, I love Mos Def. That's, like, rebel music.
The tone, the sentiment, the content.
That's rebel music. That's thought thinking music.
♪ What they dealing with Is weak derivatives ♪
[rapping continues]
♪ The world that we livin in Filled with ignorance ♪
♪ Belligerence Stock market dividends ♪
♪ Global imprisonment ♪
[crowd erupting]
[interviewer] What do you think is the legacy of that era
and what you guys were doing to preserve the culture?
[Mos] I wanted to be as good as anything that I've read,
from, like, my favorite writers.
I was like, I want to write on that level,
in this space.
And I think that Kweli had that...
similar focus with wanting to be like...
the lyrics matter.
Because, in hip-hop, they do.
I don't care what anybody says. The feeling, the vibe and all that, but
when the MC's great, they're just great.
[narrator] To the underground scenes in New York and LA,
there was only one currency that mattered.
Cultural currency.
It was about getting props at an open mic,
or landing a punchline so nasty that the whole cipher fell out.
But what if you come from a city
where the whole hip-hop scene can fit
into a cipher in the back of a denim shop?
How much is a rhyme worth when that's all you got?
Yes, sir!
-What's up, my guy? -Thank you.
-How you doing? -Appreciate it.
-Thank you for coming. -Anytime.
The Hip-Hop Shop. What did that spot mean to hip-hop in Detroit?
[Royce Da 5'9"] The Hip-Hop Shop, it was a known staple in Detroit.
As soon as I graduated high school in '96,
I started going to The Hip Hop Shop. Every Saturday morning,
it went down.
Right in the back of The Hip-Hop Shop, that's where battles took place.
DJ Head is on the ones and twos, up high.
And Proof is hosting, you've got like a few seconds
to say the right shit to captivate the crowd.
♪ I'll break your neck Leave your ass broken ♪
♪ Flip your fast ass in the air Like a token ♪
[crowd oohing]
I've never seen people standing in front of each other,
rapping off of the top of their head about what you're wearing and all that.
My first time really hearing punch lines,
on that level.
Okay, freestyle, but you know what? Your ass is kind of big, nigga.
[crowd laughing]
Rappers would come to battle, in order to win,
you had to get the crowd on your side,
you had to say something funny or witty
about who you were battling,
to get everybody laughing at that person.
And, you know, that's how you won.
Everybody put their name in the hat,
and you would pick two names out of the hat and they'd battle.
That room was full of so much motherfucking talent.
All the names in the hat are fucking fire.
So, no matter what the combination, the two names come out,
and the crowd is like, "Oh shit!"
[crowd oohing]
Fat Cat. Swifty and Beretta. Proof. Proof ran it.
He was a ringmaster, so he wanted to bring the greatest talent.
When Proof walked up in the shop with this white kid one time.
♪ Slim Shady Brain dead like Jim Brady ♪
And the motherfucker got on the mic
and it was like, what the fuck just happened?
What just happened, yo? Like, this dude was fucking incredible.
[Royce] The first time I heard Eminem was Hip-Hop Shop.
He was shredding this dude, bro.
I've never seen nothing like it.
I didn't even know white people rapped, you know?
[both laughing]
♪ Talking that shit behind my back ♪
♪ And telling your boys I'm on crack ♪
♪ I just don't give a fuck ♪
[Trick] I remember when I saw Eminem murder a motherfucker in there.
I said, "Goddamn! This motherfucker is cold!"
He crazy as hell, too, you know?
Marshall looked like...
He looked like he had a fucking problem.
♪ Any rapper saying those kinda rhymes ♪
♪ In this day and age In this period in time ♪
♪ Tryin' battle Eminem ♪
♪ It's worse than David Starr Tryin' to battle Bizarre ♪
[crowd laughing]
♪ You acting differently ♪
♪ You ain't got no style Do not deliver ♪
♪ I don't need to boast Look my face is pale ♪
♪ But you look like you seen a ghost ♪
[crowd erupting]
[Kuniva] He said, "My face is white, but you look like you've seen a ghost."
I don't even remember the rest of the rhymes after that.
They were waking me up with smelling salts. Smelling salts--
I was like, "Cut me, Mick. Cut me!" [both laughing]
He fuck me up.
He gave me a proper ass whooping, but I learn from it.
It made me a better MC and I was taught by one of the best.
[interviewer] What about Proof's role in Eminem's career?
[Bizarre] They grew up together, you know?
They lived next door to each other since they was kids.
He used to give a speech, like,
"Y'all give it up for this-- this is my white boy."
You know, "He's dope."
He would get a disclaimer before he rapped,
and getting everybody to pay attention.
I don't think people would have paid attention
if he was just a white boy trying to grab the microphone.
[House Shoes] White rappers were fucking terrible up to that point.
You know what I mean?
Em comes in and motherfuckers like, "Yeah, he the baddest motherfucker."
You don't understand how serious that is.
For a city as racially-divided as Detroit? Are you kidding me?
But Em yo was a fucking monster.
[inaudible rapping]
So, the problem with The Hip-Hop Shop was that nobody was buying clothes.
[both laughing]
Maurice Malone closed The Hip Hop Shop down.
Now, where were we going to go to rap at?
They used to have battle trips.
You know, we was going to rap conventions.
Like, where the next battle? Okay, LA?
Just became battle crazy.
♪ I'm going to tell you this for your own benefit ♪
♪ Your shit was dope as hell Especially when you wrote 90% of it ♪
♪ What you need to do is Practice on your freestyle ♪
♪ But you come up missing Like Snoop Dog's police file ♪
[rapping continues]
♪ But it wasn't ♪
♪ Could kill a dozen rappers When I'm buzzin ♪
♪ Guzzlin Beat your ass like a jealous husband ♪
♪ Now your boys are about to Suffer a team loss ♪
[inaudible rapid rapping]
♪ Cut the damn machine off ♪
♪ Need a clean cloth To wipe this bloody video screen off ♪
[record scratches] Victory!
How important do you think the battle circuit was to him
in developing his skills?
Traveling from city to city, battling all of these people,
built his confidence up to a way where he started recording.
His confidence was so high and he was so sure about what he was doing,
it came across in the music.
♪ Slim Shady Brain dead like Jim Brady ♪
[voices overlapping]
♪ I'm buzzin Dirty Dozen ♪
♪ Cursin at your plans ♪
[beat drops]
[rapping continues]
[Kuniva] Em was mad, it was so many people saying,
"You punk ass white boy, you ain't no MC.
You just trying to be black. Blah blah blah."
He went totally nuts and he just was like, "Man, fuck it," and...
that's how Slim Shady came about.
♪ You gettin' knocked the fuck out Like Mike Tyson ♪
♪ The Proof is in the puddin' Just ask the DeShaun Holton ♪
♪ I'll slit your motherfuckin throat Worse than Ron Goldman ♪
[Kweli] Eminem was in New York,
going to all the open mics and all the battles,
and he had a white cassette called the Slim Shady EP.
I remember listening to it thinking, "This is like the worst...
most violent shit I've ever heard."
But the rhymes were so engaging.
It was really, really, really, really really, really great raps.
But with subject matters I couldn't relate to.
♪ I'm nicer than Pete, but I'm on a search To crush a milk bone ♪
♪ I'm everlasting ♪
♪ I melt Vanilla Ice like silicone ♪
♪ I'm ill enough to just straight up Dis you for no reason ♪
♪ I'm colder than snow season When it's twenty below freezing ♪
I would play his tape for people,
and they would be like, "That shit is garbage.
Get that shit out of here!
That's a white boy? Man, that shit garbage."
I just be like, "Okay.
Okay, we gonna see about that."
♪ Hi! My name is (what?) ♪
♪ My name is (who?) My name is Slim Shady ♪
♪ Hi! My name is (huh?) My name is (what?) ♪
[Kuniva] "My Name Is" is on TV.
"Hi, my name is!" And it's like a dream.
Because I'm like, this is fucking MTV?
We just talked to him like yesterday. Why didn't he say anything? [laughing]
It's like, what the fuck?
♪ Hi kids! Do you like Primus? ♪
♪ Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails Through each one of my eyelids? ♪
♪ Wanna copy me And do exactly like I did? ♪
No one knew Marshall got signed.
That's the crazy part about it.
I was in Texas.
I was a fucking security guard at a hospital.
My supervisor, she hit me on the walkie talkie,
"Mr. Johnson you have a phone call in the shack."
I was like, "Who is this?" 'This is Marshall, man."
I'm in LA, man. I just got signed to Aftermath.
I'm like, "Man you're lying."
He was like, "I'm not lying bro, I'm dead serious.
I'm going to fly you out Friday."
Hung up the phone. Told my supervisor I quit. [laughing]
♪ I don't give a fuck God sent me to piss the world off ♪
♪ Hi! My name is (what?) My name is (who?) ♪
♪ My name is Slim Shady Hi! My name is ♪
Me and the homies first heard Eminem, we was like, "He dope."
but then when we heard him after Dr. Dre produced his album,
we was like, "Damn, he's super dope."
And that's what Dr. Dre do for you.
I'm pretty sure motherfuckers that heard me on cassette
was like, "He's good."
But then when they heard me with Dr. Dre, it was like, god damn.
♪ My brain's dead weight I'm tryin' to get my head straight ♪
♪ But I can't figure out Which Spice Girl I want to impregnate ♪
♪ And Dr. Dre said, "Slim Shady you a base-head" ♪
♪ "So why's your face red? Man you wasted" ♪
Every line was built to make you giggle or laugh.
You didn't really hear that kind of style pre-Eminem.
He brought that battle rap style to the masses.
♪ All my life I was very deprived ♪
♪ I ain't had a woman in years ♪
♪ And my palms are too hairy to hide ♪
♪ Clothes ripped like The Incredible Hulk ♪
♪ I spit when I talk I'll fuck anything that walks ♪
♪ When I was little I used to get so hungry ♪
♪ I would throw fits ♪
♪ How you gonna breastfeed me mom? You ain't got no tits ♪
[Kahn] But it was very witty, very smart ass,
but still lyrically superior.
This wasn't Vanilla Ice.
It's no question, the kid is rapping his ass off,
like-- if Dre is fucking with you,
that's like the ultimate form of music street cred.
♪ By the way when you see my dad? ♪
♪ Tell him that I slit his throat In this dream I had ♪
I didn't know that Em was white,
and I'm listening to this shit and I am
all the way confused.
I was like, who brave enough to say this shit that's black?
Because black people don't talk like this.
Tie a rope around your dick, jump off a tree?
Stick nine-inch nails in your eye and all this crazy shit?
What the fuck?
He's probably one of my favorite MC's ever to touch a microphone.
♪ Hi. My name is (what?) My name is Slim Shady ♪
♪ Hi. My name is (huh?) My name is (what?) ♪
♪ My name is Slim Shady ♪
[Bobbito] Eminem's success is like an anomaly
because no one thought that there was even a window
to sell 150 million records.
You got to be out of your mind to think that that's possible.
You got to be outta your mind to think this platform,
this genre is capable of reaching that many people.
Eminem did it, though.
Even if he does a completely mainstream album
with mainstream artists,
and on some of those songs you want to hear some Slim Shady on there,
telling you to kiss his ass some type of way.
Because he don't care. He don't give a fuck.
♪ My name is Slim Shady ♪
[narrator] The underground movement of the 90s
all started with the same goals,
to take back the mic from the mainstream,
and maintain the original ideals of hip-hop.
While many of these MC's went on to become cult heroes
and unsung innovators,
outside of Eminem, few found mainstream success.
But the message of the underground still spoke to something bigger.
The East-West beef, the commercialization of hip-hop,
and the rise of gangster rap and jiggy music
had created divisions in hip-hop.
Hip-hoppers on both coasts weren't sure what they wanted the culture to be,
and the music reflected that.
But all the confusion also created an opportunity,
a chance for a new region to emerge and re-enliven the culture.
And down South, they were ready.