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2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Big Boi on Too $hort

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi, on Too $hort.

My uncles were in the military so they used to get stuff from all around the world.  I remember my uncles came back with Too $hort. They were my idols and I used to love what they were doing. Being in the military, they were still some street cats, too. My Uncle Trick and I just thought [Too $hort’s music] was the most fascinating thing ever, [raps] “Cuss words, just let ‘em flow, motherf*ck*n' sh*t b*tch god damn *ssh*l*.” It was the most filthiest mouth I ever heard. I was only like 10 years old, but I was like, “Okay, I’m f*ck*ng with him.” That’s what brought me and Dre [André 3000] together, our taste in music. We was and still are on Too $hort. We liked everything from Tribe to Leaders of the New School. [My favorite Too $hort album] gotta be that Life Is … Too $hort because it was the hardest one. That was the first one that I got introduced to. The beats and all the sh*t he was talkin’ about was for real from the whole Bay Area and how he came up. He was just so cool, like, “Damn, that’s a motherf*ck*r that I want a ride home from school with.” That’s an O.G. cat that’ll sit there and smoke a j with you and say some new sh*t.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring Too $hort and other artists discussed in this interview.]

2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Joe Budden on Naughty By Nature

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's New Jersey's Joe Budden on Naughty By Nature.

Joe Budden: I first got familiar with them with “O.P.P.” When it came out, I was in Queens, and shortly after, I moved to New Jersey. I wasn’t even thinkin’ about [them reppin’] New Jersey [at that time], it was just, “Damn, this sh*t is crazy.” I would hear it all up and down Farmers Boulevard. Everybody was bumpin’ “O.P.P.” But once “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” hit, I was hooked. [What caught my attention was] the music, the message, what Treach brought to the track, and the things he was talkin’ about. I’m a big fan of hip-hop, rebelling, puttin’ your foot down, and standin’ strong in whatever you believe in. To be able to put that record out as a single and have it do so well, as gritty as it was, and with all the commercial attention they were receiving at the time, it was dope. It was definitely one of my favorite hip-hop songs ever.

“Guard Your Grill” is probably my favorite record off [their '91 self-titled] album. That sh*t was just crazy. I stole that album from a friend of mine, B-Wise. He was the biggest, biggest Treach and 2Pac fan. He was pretty upset about it, too. He was lookin’ for it and I told him, “I took it that last time I was at your crib.” B-Wise was a rapper, too. He used to recite Treach’s lines and try to make me understand how ill he was, so maybe that’s one of the reasons “Guard Your Grill” is my favorite joint. 

2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Devin the Dude on Slick Rick

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Houston's Devin the Dude on Slick Rick.

Devin the Dude: When I first heard “La Di Da Di," it was a wrap. KTSU would play new hip-hop every Saturday morning. They were the first ones who played a lot of new hip-hop. I remember when it first came out, Jazzy Red and the DJs at KTSU like Marcus Love would get it while it was hot. ... The beatboxin’ from Doug E. Fresh [caught my attention] the very first time I heard it. I didn’t know what to pay attention to, the beatbox or the rap. When you tried to listen to the beat box, then Slick Rick hit this high pitched voice havin’ fun with the rhymes so it forced you to go back over to it. Every time you heard it, you laughed, danced, and at the end, it had a storyline. A lot of rap didn’t have storylines back then, but Slick Rick was real good at that. Anybody can just say they’re a story teller, but there’s an art to it and he figured it out. He should be credited for creatin’ a story that you can definitely see in your mind just by words. I was breakdancin’ at the time and I was considering rap, but he was one of the artists, if not the most influential, in [making me] say, “Hey, I want to do this.”

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the artists discussed in this post.]

2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: DJ Drama on De La Soul

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Mr. Thanksgiving, DJ Drama, on De La Soul.

DJ Drama: I remember when motherf*ck*n’ “Me, Myself and I” first dropped. I think seeing the video was the first time I really [was exposed to De La Soul]. Clearly, they were a little different. It became known as the D.A.I.S.Y. Age. They may have gone over a lot of people’s heads, but when you go back and listen to them, they were groundbreaking. They were a little eccentric, eclectic, and it was something interesting. I liked their sound. You couldn’t pinpoint it. It didn’t sound like anything else. As far as an album goes, the way their album was put together was groundbreaking at the time because, nobody had really did like skits back then, so they really kind of introduced that to the game. I’ve been a fan of De La ever since.

2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Killer Mike on Cypress Hill

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Atlanta emcee Killer Mike on West Coast hardcore rap pioneers Cypress Hill.

Killer Mike: 1991, there was a mom and pop gospel and hip-hop store -- in the hood you find the same stores do well with both of those genres -- and there was one right up the street from my high school. I walked in there and saw, in the 99-cent bin, a single for "How I Could Just Kill a Man." "Pigs" was on the B-side, I think. It was a cassingle. I saw that in the bin, and I saw the skull logo and that grainy black and white image of Muggs and B-Real, and the other side was red. So, just based on the imagery, I was like, "I gotta hear this." I just grabbed the tape, unheard, and threw it in the walkman. The walk from the record store to the train station was about five minutes. And in the span of those five minutes, I was a fan. I was like, "This is the dopest sh*t ever." I wouldn't even let my man listen to it.