My first memory of hip-hop would have to be around third grade when I first heard 2 LIVE CREW. Bass music was basically taking over Miami and, you know, you always wanna listen to what you’re not supposed to be listening to. You could hear it in the corner spots where they were washing cars and the flea markets. Another place where I would find music was this thing called the Box, that was basically something that you could see on local television. At the time that was our MTV before MTV.

But bass music has always been about underground. It’s all about pirate stations. It was all about, No. 1, finding a way to get this music out because nobody would believe in it. No. 2, it was too nasty, too dirty, too raunchy for them. And so we always had to find ways to get this out.

It always feels like we’re the underdogs in Miami, because we’re used to being counted out. Pirate radio, independent labels — that independence allows us to maneuver and navigate differently so we are not, for lack of a better term, choked by a major corporation or company.

I started the whole freestyle thing when I was about 15, 16 years old. I went to a lot of different schools in Miami. Lived in a lot of different neighborhoods, good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, worse neighborhoods. And Miami being the melting pot that it is, it allowed me to dibble and dabble in different genres and different cultures. So I could spit at you in English, Spanish, throw some patois at you, throw a little Creole in there as well.

A teacher happened to change my life. Her name is Hope Martinez, and she gave me an invitation to a DMX video shoot. I ended up battling an artist from the Ruff Ryders called Drag-On. It went eight rounds. I did my job, and Irv Gotti pulled me to the side and asked me, “Hey, do you write music?” I said, no, I just freestyle. He said, “Yeah, freestyle is great, but it don’t make no money.”

My brothers had a lot of Eric B. & Rakim, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Black Moon — they had a lot of hip-hop. But what I really related to is when I heard Nas, “Illmatic,” when he’s using lines like “Got my first piece of ass, smokin’ blunts with hash/Now it’s all about cash in abundance.” You know, these are things I can relate to, these are things going on in my neighborhood.

B.I.G. was such an amazing storyteller. Pac was a revolutionist, Snoop had a flow that you never heard before and Jay-Z was the ultimate hustler-slash-entrepreneur at the time, and I grew up around a lot of entrepreneurs. They had their start-ups. They were looking for angel investors. They just had a different product. It was called cocaine.

Latins have always been involved in hip-hop, from the days of graffiti and breakdancing. You had your Mellow Man Ace, you had your Kid Frost. You even had Gerardo, which is what really broke Interscope Records. Then you had Cypress Hill, where you had a Mexican and a Cuban represented at the same time. And then you have Fat Joe, and from Fat Joe, you have Big Pun. Pun was arguably one of the best rappers ever in the history of hip-hop. He just didn’t have the time to prove himself.

Now remember I grew up around merengue and salsa. And then around dancehall reggae, and you have reggaeton, all this that you could throw in the pot with rap. I was never afraid to think out of the box. People don’t want to try that because it might mess with their credibility. I say if you’re worried about your credibility, you were never credible in the first place.

The person that really pulled me to the side, this had to be about 2002, was Lil Jon. He said, “You need to rap more in Spanish. I see how you flipping it. I see how you taking it in and out, but you need to rap more in Spanish.” So he’s the one that really saw it and said, there’s gonna be a lane here. And sure enough, the lane exploded, in the middle of hip-hop, crunk and reggaeton. And that’s where I was at.

Bonus
PITBULL ON TONY ROBBINS
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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz