Devin Lazerine - Rap-Up: The Ultimate Guide to Hip-Hop and R&B

Copyright 2008 by Rap-Up, LLC

Foreword copyright 2008 by Tip Harris

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Grand Central Publishing

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First eBook Edition: February 2008

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ISBN: 978-0-446-51162-9

This book is dedicated to Mom and Dad.

By T.I.

I WAS BORN IN 1980, NOT LONG AFTER THE SUGARHILL GANGS Rappers Delight became the first hip-hop song to blow up nationally. So I guess you could say that hip-hop and I grew up together. As a kid I never imagined that the South would explode the way it has, but as an adult Ive been fortunate enough to be part of hip-hops evolution. Its exciting to think that kids today grow up listening to me the same way I grew up listening to Scarface, Master P, and Bun B.

Like pretty much everyone, I was into Run-D.M.C. How couldnt I be? The look, the songs, the attitudewhat kid could resist? But the first joints I remember really, really getting into were N.W.A.s Straight Outta Compton and LL Cool Js Im Bad. Its hard to say exactly what it was that struck me about either of these joints except that they felt really young and raw and dangerous. They moved me in a way nothing had really moved me before. They grabbed a hold of me and made me think, Man, I wanna do this too.

So I started rapping along to all the songs I liked on the radio, but then around 1988 when I was seven or eight I started writing rhymes of my own. At first I rapped about typical kid shitbeing the best rapper, having a good time, and taking pride in my hood. But I also rapped about the things my uncles used to be motivated bynice cars, having lots of money.

As a kid it never occurred to me that people made money off of rap, let alone that I could pursue it as a career. Who thinks that far ahead? I was just having fun. Besides, hip-hop wasnt the big business it would become. It was more local and underground. Then the first acts from the South started to explode. You could hear the Geto Boys Mind Playing Tricks on Me everywhere and not just in the South. Then Kris Kross came with Jump and I started to put two and two together and realize what hip-hop could do for people. Then OutKast came out.

Growing up, OutKast, Scarface, and UGK were the undisputed kings of the South. No question. They were the acts that held it down until the rest of the country was ready to hear different voices from the South, the Master Ps and Juveniles and T.I.s.

People sometimes ask me what rappers Im influenced by, and Ive got to say Im influenced by life more than anything else. When Im writing rhymes I think about dealing drugs and people I know and shit that Ive been through rather than another rappers style. I didnt listen to Jay-Zs Reasonable Doubt over and over and over again so I could study his rhyme patterns or flow so I could imitate them. I didnt sound anything like Jay-Z back then. I did listen to Reasonable Doubt over and over and over again, but that didnt influence my style.

Jay-Z and I were worlds apart. I could relate to a lot of what he was rhyming about on Reasonable Doubt but there was a lot of shit on there I didnt really have knowledge about at the time, like Cristal. I didnt know what the fuck Cristal wasand Range Rovers. There were maybe four or five Range Rovers in Atlanta at the time. I couldnt really identify with a lot of what Jay was talking about, but I could recognize skill. With B.I.G. and the Coogi sweaters, I knew what that was all about. Jay went over my head at first with Reasonable Doubt. It took me a minute. But I did salute it. And I appreciated it.

When you show money and cars and the trappings of the good life to a kid whos never had anything, theyre not really going to understand it all immediately. Thats how it was for me with Reasonable Doubt. I was sixteen years old, man, a sixteen-year-old kid selling drugs, selling dope every day. I was listening to Master P at the time, 8Ball and MJG. Imagine listening to that every day and then coming to Reasonable Doubt. Its like, Woah. This shit here is a world away from what Im looking at.

Me and Jay-Z may have been rapping about the same thing but we did it differently. Back then when Jay rapped about vials, people in the South didnt know what he was talking about. I did because Id come up North every summer, but down in the South we used different packaging and different marketing structures. So even though we were both selling drugs, we were doing it differently. There was a culture clash.

But if there was a culture clash there was also a cultural exchange. I learned about what life was like in New York from listening to Jay, just like folks can hopefully learn a little bit about where Im from just by listening to my records.

Everything happens for a reason. So while I was disappointed that my first album, Im Serious, didnt blow up, it just made me work harder on making my next album as strong as possible. I called it Trap Muzik because its inspired by the Trap, that cornerstone of the underworld where drugs are sold and money is made. So many people have asked me why I wear rubber bands that I decided to put the explanation in a song (Rubber Band Man). I wore rubber bands when hustling drugs to symbolize the money Id be making.

But when I made the song, it came to represent something else entirely. It symbolizes where I come fromthe streets, the Trap, hustlingbut also how far Ive come. Thats one of raps greatest gifts to our countryit helps people transform something negative into something positive. Thats why I think everyone has a responsibility to give back to their communities, not just rappers. There are no exceptions. Thats why Im involved in the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, King Foundation, and a bunch of other charities. Im just happy to be able to help.

For me, the biggest problem in hip-hop today is oversaturation of the market. People have been burned by labels promising the latest hotness so often that they dont trust them anymore. The major labels are going to have to switch up their hustle if theyre going to stay in business, but the music will always survive as long as it continues to speak to the everyday struggles of the hip-hop nation. A lot of people talk about hip-hop being dead, but I know that as long as I remain sincere and true to myself, then Ill be all right. And if hip-hop follows suit, itll be straight as well.

It Was All A Dream

T he 70s were a time of great upheaval for New York, a funky-fresh decade of Studio 54, polyester suits, Reggie Jacksons booming bat, the Son of Sams reign of terror, Saturday Night Live, and John Travolta disco-dancing up a storm. In the streets of New York throughout the 70s a revolution was brewing that would have profound ramifications for the decades to come, a musical and cultural upstart that began in noisy, disorganized park jams but went on to conquer the world. It was a revolution that flourished everywhere. There were black and white and Hispanic kids and Jews with kinky afros with too much time on their hands and not much in the way of money, resources, or parental supervision. It was an outlaw movement founded in the minor criminality of spray-painting graffiti (or bombing trains, to use the vernacular) and jacking public power sources to power up the turntables that got party people dancing.