I think my earliest memories were hearing the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979, and then the Soul Sonic Force, “Planet Rock.” I remember Kurtis Blow had a record called “Way Out West” — “Way out West from way back East/Coming from the place you’d expect the least/There came a stranger dressed in black/from a Harlem town a long way back/Had a Stetson hat with a band of gold.” I still remember it ’til this day. That’s the impact Kurtis Blow had on hip-hop.

I started going up to New York in my early teenage years, and started hearing and seeing the real elements of hip-hop, listening to WBLS on the radio. My cousin from uptown would send tapes to me, so I would always have the new hip-hop first.

In Houston, there was a hip-hop show called “Kidz Jamm” that came on 90.9. FM. There was also a local D.J. by the name of Darryl Scott. That’s how we really got turned on to hip-hop. The first local artist I heard was Captain Jack. He was a D.J., and he made a record called “Jack It Up.”

I was a D.J. first. My main influence was Jam Master Jay, the ultimate of all D.J.s. Then came the D.J. that could rap: Grandmaster Dee from Whodini, right? I could rap, too, so I knew if I ever had to battle Grandmaster Dee I was going to douse his ass. That’s what I prepared my whole D.J. career on: battling Grandmaster Dee.

I liked to cut Eric B. & Rakim’s “Eric B. Is President” and the Beastie Boys’ “Hold It Now, Hit It.” I was more the backspin, cut and spin D.J. — I got into learning how to transform later. But as time went on I started moving more towards writing rhymes and producing.

The early Geto Boys made a song called “Car Freak,” and I thought they were famous, you know? But I didn’t know the realities of the music business until I got with Jukebox, Ready Red, Bushwick Bill and Willie D. Prince Johnny C had left the group, and when Jukebox left, it was just me, Will and Bill. That’s when we made “Grip It! On That Other Level.” Me and Willie did all the writing, we wrote for Bill.

I always tell people that I’m a hip-hop hybrid of Ice Cube, Chuck D and Big Daddy Kane. I wanted to be able to tell a story like CUBE. I wanted to be very lyrical like Kane. And I wanted to have an in-your-face delivery like Chuck. As much respect as I have for Nas and Jay-Z, if it hadn’t been for that previous level of intensity in rhyming, I wouldn’t be me.

I’m just thankful that LL Cool J talked to my mom on the telephone during the New Music Seminar. This was when I first started rapping, a few months before “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.” This was the first time the Geto Boys got the chance to perform in New York, had to be around ’90. I don’t know what my mom and LL talked about, but I was on a pay phone with my mom and I was just so glad. And the Geto Boys got booed!

I think there were some artists booing us. Some of the other group members think it was probably A Tribe Called Quest. Nah, I’m just messing with you, because me and Q-TIP are cool as hell. That’s where we met, out in New York. And we toured together, too.

Q-Tip and I have formed a really dope friendship. He’ll just call and say, “Man, I’m just calling to tell you I love you, bro …” Well, I love you, too, Tip. That’s a very different matchup.

Being somebody that was born with this manic depressive mind-set and just a sick disorder mentally, I found an outlet through my music. You saw me succeed. You saw me fail. I know that hip-hop saved me. But at the same time it took away from me being a good father, a good husband, a good son, a good uncle. The music stole me from everything that I should have been, but it still made me everything that I could have been, if that makes sense.

Related Artists
ICE CUBE
KRAYZIE BONE
BUN B
Q-TIP


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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