Like, there was an apartheid happening in hip-hop between the haves and the have-nots. QUESTLOVE: In which I was, quote, supposed to not - I was supposed to not like that record. I just sat there and listened to it, and a funny thing happened. And I just went in my room - which is weird enough 'cause I only listened to 'The Blueprint.' I got to my room and I just. I rummaged through all - I bought records I had already. I rummaged through the entire DVD section. And I ran in and just imagine, like, 'Flight Of The Bumblebee' - (vocalizing). Can you give me 20 minutes? I'm just going to run and get some things. I said, do me a favor, just keep the meter running. I said, can you drive to Virgin Megastore real quick? And I gave him $100. He was, like, the only calming figure out there. So I saw a taxi and, you know, he seemed rather calm. QUESTLOVE: I can't - I'm sorry (laughter). Like, I hate to say this, but - and this is kind of the basis of our friendship now, me and Jay-Z, I was just like, I got to hear what this Jay-Z record sounds like.

QUESTLOVE: I'll be honest with you, the way that Prince describes what the apocalypse was like in '1999,' the song, that's kind of what was happening. Through your mind when that's what you did? GROSS: It's like, the world may be ending. It's just amazing that your first reaction was, I got to get some more music. GROSS: You paid a taxi driver $100 to take you to the Virgin record store, which was. He slept late, and when he heard the news about the attack on the World Trade Center and the terror and chaos surrounding it, his first impulse was to find a way to get to a record store. That morning, Questlove was staying in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. In 2021, Questlove told me about the crazy circumstances in which he first listened to Jay-Z's album, 'The Blueprint.' The album was released on 9/11. He's also famous as a DJ and for his immense record collection. We talked about his early life in Brooklyn, his pivot from being a hustler to a rapper, how he writes and remembers his lyrics and how he got the rights to sample 'Hard-Knock Life' from the musical 'Annie.'īut first, let's start with a story about Jay-Z told by Questlove, co-founder of The Roots, which became famous as a hip-hop band and has been the 'Tonight Show' band ever since Jimmy Fallon became the host. When I spoke with Jay-Z in 2010, he'd just published his book, 'Decoded,' in which he tells the stories behind 36 of his songs. Jay-Z has also been central to the commercial success of other artists, including Rihanna and Kanye West. He's the founder and chair of the entertainment company Roc Nation, the former president of Def Jam Records and in 2019, he became hip-hop's first billionaire. For the past few years, he's recorded infrequently, but in 2018, he made an album with his wife, Beyonce, called 'Everything Is Love.' 1 albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, and in 2017, he became the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's won 24 Grammys, holds the record for the most No. He's often regarded as one of the greatest and most successful rappers of all time. He even sold crack for a time to support his family before he found a new identity in the recording studio and on stage. And in the 1980s, he watched as crack cocaine destroyed his neighborhood. Jay-Z grew up as Shawn Carter in a housing project in Brooklyn. Today, we conclude our hip-hop history series and feature the interview I recorded in 2010 with rapper and music entrepreneur Jay-Z.

December in hip hop history