Since I had him cornered in the back-seat of the car while on our way to the mall, I just had to get us some info...

“I started thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected, how many dead folks this art resurrected...”~ lyric from LWFC



B.Kyle: You said, “How many dead folks this art resurrected...”

Common: Yeah.

B.Kyle: What went behind those lyrics... in that line? Because I have my own interp... I was moved by it, and..

C: Tell me what you interpreted, brugh.

BK: I wanna know what you thought.

C: (Laughter) Naww, I...

BK: (laughter) ‘Cause YOU wrote it!

C: I wanna know what you thought.

BK: Naww, cause this is probably gonna be the right answer, and I wanna see if in fact I interpreted it correctly or not.

C: (Giving in) All I was sayin was it’s like, a lotta dead men walking. It’s a lotta people that ain’t aware, that aint conscious, you know? That’s like mentally dead. And it’s saying that this art has like awakened a lotta people to a lot of things… including myself. So I was saying that this art has resurrected the people in a sense. Cause man, I was a pork-eatin’, no knowledge-of-self type ni**a... until I heard Rakim and KRS1.

BK: Right, right, Okay.

C: So what did you interpret it as? (In the ‘now it’s ya turn’ tone)

BK: My interpretation hit two fold. One was from the standpoint of those Afro-American or Spanish kids in the communities where they don’t have a voice, hip-hop music has lent them the opportunity to voice their frustrations, or thoughts, or ideas… as a way of expression. So they were kinda, in a way, spiritually and socially dead...

C: ...and resurrected. YEAH. YEAH. That's fresh.

BK: Right, so they were socially resurrected through this hip-hop form.

C: Naww, I ugh...

BK: That was one of them.

C: That’s dope. I didn’t feel like we was dead, but I definitely feel like this is a way for us to express ourselves. It IS. (pause) But what else… (fishing for more) what was your other one.

BK: The other way was within the music itself. By sampling older music, it has brought those… artists that may have been deceased, you sample their music and you put it into hip-hop. And it’s a way of giving rebirth to those previous musicians.

C: Awww, I wasn’t thinking that way. Yeah. But that’s DOPE, though.

BK: I was like damn, hip-hop has resurrected this old music that’s been dead, and no one has paid attention to it, but it’s resurfacing through hip-hop.

C: Yeah...

BK: ... so hip-hop is bringing life to the dead.

C: That’s real though. I mean, I felt like it was resurrecting the spirits of the ancestors though, in a way. Like, they are definitely coming through, through our music. They are letting a lot of things be known. But, yeah, your interpretation is fresh. I wish I woulda thought of that.

BK: Now that’s why I didn’t want to give my reason first, ‘cause you woulda been like, “Hmmm, that’s EXACTLY where I was coming from!”

C: (More laughter) Nawww, Brian. You funny dude!

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Well... so there we have it. HOLLA! (I'll be back w/ more)

Brian 'B.Kyle' A.