In the middle of the record Mos just said “I’ll be back. I’m gonna go get a fish sandwich” and he didn’t come back for a week. I thought that was weird then. ha ha Now I know that’s just Mos. ha ha

Recreating the routine was, I think it was both of our ideas. What could we do to get out of this record. When I arrived at the studio that day to do it, Mos was in the booth working on his verse and Kweli was there working on a verse too. I didn’t even know him that well at the time. I didn’t even realize that he and Mos was like a real group. You can tell when someone is doing a verse for the beat playing so I was thinking “damn he really thinks he’s gonna get on this”. Santigold was the one who really introduced me to Mos. We were trying to diplomatically figure out how we’d tell this group that they uh weren’t getting on this record. It’s like double — DOUBLE Trouble. hahaha

Originally when we began as hip hoppers, we tried to uphold all the pillars. I used to write a bunch of different shit “deal, dealer…” but the thing is, what you excel in is what you excel in. I was always a visual artist so I always excelled at that.. at rhyming and writing raps.

I’ve only heard it on tape and the legend. I know Jazzy Jeff and Cash Money. All the people I rap about in that verse became my friends and my peers. The time they were in the game was impactful. What they did in the span of 4 or 5 years and moved on shaped my career but I’ve been doing it for 20 something years. So I’ve seen it enough to shape a whole career.

After Midnight is a legendary hip hop club in Philly that when it was really popping I was too young. And when I was able to go in there and kinda creep in there, the golden era was kinda gone but it was still interesting. Public Enemy came to perform. Or Big Daddy Kane came and battled a rapper from South Philly. Or when a 16 year old LL Cool J came to After Midnight and did what I think is, the best performance I’ve ever seen by him or best rhyme I’ve ever seen him spit was the same rhyme at the After midnight. For us here and the place the US sakting rink that I reference, just from the bat, the same way Ghost’s verse was what hip hop meant o him in NY in the 80s. This is what it meant to me. And not to take a shot at NY, many famous rappers from NY came to Philly to go here. There was a rivalry but not a beef, it was more a sportsman at that stage in the game. Or at least thats how it appeared to me.

It kinda speaks to the fans who think the Roots are the thinking man’s music. Or the fans who think of me as the thinking man. The rapper’s rapper. I prefer it to the idiots… you know the dumbed down
http://soundcloud.com/rapgenius/sets/black-thought-on-being-called

The lines explain themselves

No. The thing is, my close friends like Pharoahe & Dice are but I am not. I see my friends with asthma smoke and smoke. But when I was talking about myself it was in relationship to the line before about blunts and liquor, which are things I do do.

Asthma is no laughing matter… (everyone laughs)

That was the beginning. I wrote my first rap at 9.

It was in the style of speed rhyme.

Throughout the record, I definitely identified with the character. With different songs I identified with different pieces of his story.

I feel like it’s an oxymoron in that, I mean, some things don’t matter until you’re dead and gone and some things never matter until you’re dead and gone. A visual artists, your stock is never going to go on during your life. But you struggle as a visual artist… you