"Bill Adler speaking on early tension between Run & LL"
the changeing of the gaurd in hip hop has always been interesting to me wether it was Melle Mel/KRS or anyone else you have the elder statesman refusing to give up their crown even though a newer and fresher style is breathing down his neck.
This gives some great insight as to how things went down behind closed doors for 2 teamates playin on the same team
Bill Adler: You ever see the movie Downhill Racer? It’s with Robert Redford, and he’s a downhill racer at a very high level. And at the end of the movie he wins this tough race. And he’s crossed the finish line and he’s breathing heavily and he’s smiling and he’s accepting congratulations. And it looks like he’s won. But the very next guy coming down the hill is moving at a record pace. So Redford is interrupted in the middle of his so-called victory lap. He’s thinking: this motherfucker might beat me. And he turns around and the next guy down the slopes is just about to beat him, but he trips and falls. And so Redford kind of breathes a sigh of relief, and goes on and takes his congratulations. That scene is a lot like what Run felt with LL. Run was Redford. LL was the next guy on the slopes. They were very competitive. And I think they had mixed feelings for each other. I think that LL admired Run a lot and looked up to him a lot. But also he was endlessly ambitious and was gonna do what he could to be king of the hill.
They used to battle in the office when we were at 1133 Broadway. This is in the middle of the day. These were both very kind of jumpy, high-energy guys. They called Run “Run” for a reason. He had that kind of energy. LL at 16 was jumping out of his skin. So the two of them in the same place at the same time – our little two-room office wasn’t big enough to hold the two of ’em. One day they started snapping on each other. And they went from room to room finishing each other’s snaps. It couldn’t be a two-line rap. If one of them came up with one line the next guy would come back with a rhyming insult to the first line. That’s how fast it was. And it was a game but it was pretty serious too. I don’t remember exactly how it ended. LL I think left the room and Run came over to me and said, “I don’t like that man.” But you could tell there was something in that. There was some recognition of young LL Cool J’s skills even in that statement. In the Def Jam book there’s a picture of a Rush/Def Jam basketball team at Madison Square Garden. They played a little game between halves, a charity basketball game. And you see LL standing next to Run. When we set up the picture they were separate. And then Run walked over to to LL and he said, “Let me stand next to my son”!
-------------------- "Good hair"-Uzi
1619 the 1st slaves are brought to American shores thus begins the phrase “mine is better than yours?” (huh?) forced to serve-too broke to by freedom the systematic rape of African culture has begun little time
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