I’ve started speaking to my son about police, but very lightly. He actually brought the conversation up when we were in the car. It took me some time to answer.

I was told not to play with toy guns because some police don’t know the difference. And they’ll kill them.

Everything in New York is clean compared to the ‘80s. The '80s—don’t even talk to me about clean. We’ve come a long way as a city, but some people might look at this shithole and think fantasy or Netflix series—but that stuff was real. That really happened. Broken-down buildings, electricity being cut off, the city being bankrupt. People in the community would try to do whatever they could to survive. That pushed us to where we are today, so I’m thankful to people from that time period.

I remember that day like yesterday. I wrote it down, maybe it’s something that people will see in print. My brother was two-and-a-half, and he remembers it too.

It was just me, my brother and my mom at home. We didn’t know many people. I remember the first night—people knocking on our door with candles, checking to make sure we were cool. As a kid I could sense that I was in a wild neighborhood in Queensbridge. The energy outside of the apartment was crazy. And I remember the love of human family, the human being, human nature.

When Baz played me that, that was the most emotional point while working on [The Get Down]. That hit the hardest.

I don’t like racists.

I couldn’t wait to see [DJ] Esco to laugh about [this] with him. We were cracking up about that. We found that funny, it was all love. It was dope for us. That was a fly moment.

Scarface let us know we could get money, like, fuck your rules, we can get money here in America. But that was fictional. Pablo Escobar was the first time we’re seeing it for real, but even bigger than Tony [Montana]. That shit was just mind-blowing.

I didn’t read Fortune 500 when I was watching Scarface. The streets told us what Fortune 500 people were on the street side. And you come from places like where I come from, that’s very appealing and interesting.

America is a violent empire. It loves stories of violence. We love the underdog who makes it from nothing to something—to the top. No matter what it took to get there. That guy has heart, we all love that.

I was thinking, ‘How do you pop shit?’ I’ll be standing here for a while trying to fit all the things that I put in the game into a verse, the “seasons.” I had to pick and choose the first ones that came to mind and shot that out there. But the list is long. Everybody got a list. You shine a light on that—that’s hip-hop. Hip-hop is poppin' shit.

Police who are bad, and wish to put fear in people just because the law is on they side. That’s coward business to the fullest. Do your job correctly.
But karma don’t need gps. It finds you. No matter who you are. And justice WILL prevail, one way or the other.

Bitch you guessed it is a hot record. Shit go hard.
I was addressing Bitch people.

Dilla’s name been in my ears for years. I caught on late, while he was passing. I never met him, may the Almighty be pleased with him .
His joints been important .