Rhyme & Reason

Basically-- You know what I'm saying ?

Basically, and shit, Wu-Tang, we like this, man.

As far as the music go, you got your watered-down niggas,

then you got your happy-go-lucky niggas,

then you got your hard-core niggas and your underground niggas.

Basically, it's all drug blocks. Everybody's selling they dope on they block.

What we sayin' to y'all is like this: We got our shit sewed up.

So don't try and come on our block sellin' your synthetic shit,

'cause you gonna get blowed up; it ain't happenin'.

**

* Just another day's gone down Everybody, throw your hands in the air !

Come on, come on ! Busta Rhymes-- **

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* Personal hip-hop * Rest assured

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* Teacher, teacher don't try to flash *

* Busta Rhymes got a pretty cool place * Right on !

** * Word

** * No, no, no

* Now it's detention Now it's suspension *

- * Tried makin' the rounds - * It's down

**

* She's goin' Where's the party *

- * I hate this relationship to talk * - * Teacher

* What the teacher told me does not compute *

* Okay, I'll tell ya I'm the new school *

**

* Just another case of bad old P.T.A. * * Uh, uh, uh, uh *

Check it out ! Ha !

There's not one issue that takes place in this nation...

that hip-hop hasn't addressed yet.

There's nothing wrong with somebody who's not black...

seein' the sufferin' that my people been through and acknowledge that...

and come along with us.

Hip-hop is an expression of people that ain't got it goin' on.

It's what we see daily and what we're doin' daily;

that's what rapped about.

Yo, I mean, this is a new music where I can just say whatever I want on a mike ?

Freedom to create what your heart feels.

Makin' rhymes doesn't mean you're a hip-hop artist.

This is really the voice of the young generation.

Whatever I have to do to keep the hood goin' strong, best believe I was there.

If hip-hop didn't exist, I'd probably still be sellin' drugs.

They're not respecting the love of the rap music.

They're respecting the money that it generates.

Because they make rap records and happen to be bad people don't mean rap is bad.

- You gotta listen to this shit to understand it. - Rapper's delight.

- With these rhymes-- - Makin' music-- - Black--

- Hip-hop. - Break dancin'. - Families.

- Black music. - Graffiti. - Parents.

- Freestyle. - The ghetto. - Culture.

Call it rap. But it's all hip-hop.

Hip-hop is like a vehicle. You can use it to go anywhere you want to go.

Yeah, that's what hip-hop is. It's the way you dress; it's your style.

You know what I'm sayin' ? Some wear braids in the East.

Some wear the curls back in the day. Some used to wear the top fade.

It's about the culture you live in.

It's not just saying, "Yo, I do hip-hop." You gotta live it.

'Cause hip-hop is how you walk, live, dress, act, see, smell, fart, shit, fuck.

You know what I mean ? It's all that right there.

Everything we do. Like if I hand this to him, I'm gonna hand it to him hip-hop style.

I'm gonna go like this. I wouldn't just go, "Here." Hip-hop.

You know, I'm gonna do something that make it hip-hop.

I don't give a fuck what it is. I'm gonna put the hip-hop twist on it.

Everybody got different slangs.

You got the Brooklyn slangs; you got the West Coast;

you got the Down South, like the Goody Mobs, all that.

So it's a culture, and we're all part of it.

We all got our own type of slang.

It's like talking your own language.

Word up. I heard they had a hip-hop slang book.

And they had words in there like "b-boy,"

"b-girl," "fresh," "chill."

We ain't used them shit since we was, like, nine years old out this motherfuckin', man.

We don't even be saying "cool it" no more.

[ Chattering, Laughing Continue ]

If you say "what's up" to somebody and they say, "I'm chillin' the fresh way,"

motherfuckers'll look at you like you're from another planet or somethin', man, word up.

**

Well, when you discuss the history of hip-hop,

uh, you gotta understand that hip-hop has many starts.

Hip-hop had a start in gospel;

it had a start in jazz; it had a start in blues,

rock and roll, disco.

Hip-hop.

Hip-hop is a culture, the mother of four or five different elements,

like rap, scratching,

break dancing and graffiti.

**

Rap is something that's being done.

Hip-hop is something that is being lived.

A rap artist can be anybody from anywhere,

but you've got to visit the Bronx.

Period.

Wherever you are in life,

wherever you wanna be, you will always be a rap artist,

until you visit the South Bronx.

Look at the projects. Look at the people.

See the environment that hip-hop started in.

Go to 123 Park...

and just stand there...

and imagine the birth of a culture...

happening in this very spot.

Hey ! Hey !

The Bronx is hip-hop.

Graffiti, break dancing,

MCing and DJing all came from the Bronx.

Yo, where we're standing right here, this is a historical place in hip-hop.

This is like where it all began pretty much.

The godfather of hip-hop, Kool Herc, used to live right here in this building, 1600.

And he used to give jams right here in this little park. You know what I'm sayin' ?

Plug up to a light pole, or get, like, electricity from one of the windows...

and just play right out here.

This was back in 1974.

Yeah, I was hip to New York hip-hop. You gotta give props where props is due.

They originated it.

Anybody that doesn't believe that is trippin'.

You know, see, I know niggas in the Bronx, they sparked it up.

But, you know, it traveled from project to project.

And they just spread it, and now it's bigger than ever, and it's gonna get bigger.

Ghetto kids didn't really have the money...

to learn how to play instruments or take singing lessons,

but they found a way, regardless, you know.

Because the spirit was still telling them to make some things.

So it's like they just used whatever was around,

whether it be a turntable or a little nasty mike and some old, dirty records.

** That's how the whole thing starts.

DJs are the ones who started this hip-hop thing.

Back when my man Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, all them in the Bronx, you know.

It was like radio shock waves with new styles of scratching and stuff--

This is one of the original instruments of hip-hop.

Us DJs would, like, go nuts and try to learn how to do those cuts.

Howie T might do a new scratch on this record.

He did this one scratch. He went like-- **

He did that. When he first did that, everybody was buggin' out.

And then, like, Mixmaster Ice did this scratch.

He did that.

And then, obviously, DST freaked everybody out on Herbie Hancock stuff when he was like--

* F-F-Fresh Fresh *

* F-F-F-F-Fresh *

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And early, the first DJs in the Bronx would spin the records,

and they would only play the breakdown of the record.

They would play-- Every record breaks down. * Get down

And it breaks into just the beat and the drums.

**

**

These are break beats. You know what I'm sayin' ?

And a break beat can be anything from any kind of record,

any kind of music, be it classical,

be it soul, jazz, pop, rock, anything.

It's any record that has a breakdown beat in it.

So, Flash and people like that-- Grand Wizard Theodore--

would spin these records, but they would only play the breaks,

and people would dance over the breaks in the record,

and these were called "break dancers."

Back then, everybody that I knew that really had mad flavor...

in b-boying or poppin' used to be a hard-core criminal.

Popping came along, and it made a difference in my life.

You're too busy learning how to windmill than to rob and steal,

and, you know, you're too tired to fight after you done battled somebody...

and took all your aggression out on some dancin', you know.

Hip-hop ain't no easy game to play.

If you ain't got no style, hang it up, sit down.

My characters make people enjoy themselves...

with how I move my body and everything like that.

So I feel it's a part of fun, poppin' and breakin' and makin' people laugh.

It's not just a hype thing,

something that we're just into just to make money.

It goes way deeper, deeper than that.

You know, they say, well, breakin' is not hip-hop, you know ?

Come on. If breakin' wasn't hip-hop, you know,

they don't know the history.

Breaking means to me that it's a way of expressing myself,

getting my anger out there, you know, instead of going out there...

and smoking or fighting, you know.

I go to my own little world, and I just express myself through breaking.

I dance, you know, and get creative.

I'm just spinning, and I feel like I'm flying.

I'm flying in the air, man, you know, and just-- I'm free.

- * Yeah The only reality is now * - * Come on

* But when I say free back-- **

The origins of graffiti go way past hip-hop.

That goes back to World War II when, I mean,

soldiers was writin' "Kilroy was here" and stuff on the walls,

and, you know, people were just making statements.

Here, it was just about gettin' up.

You wanted to write your name in as many places...

for as many people to see it so you'd be known.

Graffiti is one of the most beautiful art forms in the world.

You know, I'll be lookin' at some of the stuff Picasso be doin',

and I'm like, well, Picasso ought to had to be there...

to understand what you doin', you know.

But then brothers' graffiti-ing they're givin' you firsthand...

what they're seein' every day in the hood, you know.

They're bringin' the news to you.

Brothers shooting dice. They have dice there.