The death of Aaliyah hadn't begun to sink in when hip-hop was forced to mourn all over again on September 11, 2001. That morning, a quartet of synchronized planes overtaken by Al-Qaeda embarked on a terrorist mission. One plane flew into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, another crashed in a field close to Shanksville, Pennsylvania and a pair of jets flew in the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City. Both towers collapsed within two hours.

Out of 2,993 victims, 2,606 perished in the New York attacks. The economy plummeted and any mention of the World Trade was treated with extreme sensitivity. Radio stations edited The Notorious B.I.G.'s "blow up like the World Trade" lyric out of "Juicy," a scene featuring WTC was edited out of the original trailer for the upcoming Spiderman blockbuster and The Coup was forced to use an alternate cover—the original art featured group members Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress blowing up the Twin Towers—to their Party Music album.

Some turned to Jay-Z's epic sixth album, The Blueprint, and Fabolous' debut, Ghetto Fabolous—both released on September—to ease the pain. Eventually, the city moved on and 9/11 references became acceptable. Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the horrific attacks became a popular name-drop, M.O.P. released a song titled "Ground Zero" and the Dipset nicknamed its crew Taliban. A decade has gone by, but the wounds are still fresh.

In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, 10 New York rappers (one for every year) tell XXL where they were on the day of the terrorist attacks.—XXL Staff
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ LLOYD BANKS' 9/11 STORY

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Lloyd Banks
"I was in the hospital. I had just got shot. So I woke up in the hospital on 9/11. Jay-Z’s album [The Blueprint] and Fabolous’ album [Ghetto Fabolous] came out that day. Those were the two albums I had. Just waking up out of my situation believe it or not all I wanted to do is listen to music. I had those two albums and looking on the television I kinda realized what was going on so it all happened at the same time for me."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ RAEKWON'S 9/11 STORY

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Raekwon
"I was in New York. I was in the studio all night that night. I had wound up getting a hotel on the West Side and one of these hotels got an underground room and all of that. I could’ve been probably 20-30 blocks away. When I woke up that morning, I heard about it. You know how we wake up in the morning and turn on the TV? I was like why this shit ain't workin'? Next thing you know, I called downstairs and they were like, "You don’t know what’s going on?" I was like, "Nah, I don’t know what’s going on." And that’s when they told me. That’s when I found out. And that really struck a chord in me too, though, just to see so many people’s family’s lives get destroyed over something like that. Foolishness, man. [I] got dressed, jumped up out the hotel, just started calling everybody making sure the immediates, everybody’s immediates are alright. I had a partner whose girl was actually involved with it. She was at the World Trade that day. She had to run out of there. She was pregnant and all that! She made it out of there. That was my brother’s partner, a real good friend of ours. He was alright, he was starting to come out the situation. His own lady was coming through there. She was pregnant, but she made it out of there. She was a little bit traumatized, he was telling us for a second. She had the baby and they named the baby Miracle."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ TALIB KWELI'S 9/11 STORY

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"On September 11 2001 I was at my home in Park Slope, Brooklyn with my two-year-old daughter, Diani. My son was at day care. Right around the time the towers were hit, I was trying to make a phone call on my cell but could not get through, so I stepped outside for better reception. As soon as I stepped outside the air felt different, there was tension. People were moving extremely fast. I stopped one guy who was running to ask him what was going on. He replied that we were under attack, and pointed behind me. On my block, I had a clear view of where the Twin Towers used to stand, and now all I saw was a massive cloud of smoke.
I grabbed my daughter and ran about ten blocks to my son's day care, only to find out that my mother beat me there. I went to my mom's house, dropped off my daughter, and went home to get my bike. I needed to know what was going on in the streets, and the amount of people rushing into the outer boroughs from Manhattan Island made bike travel the easiest. I rode to my friend Rich Mason's house because he had a great roof. When I got there, Jeru the Damaja was also there, and we sat on the roof that night watching ground zero from Brooklyn."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ N.O.R.E.'S 9/11 STORY

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N.O.R.E.
"The craziest thing about that day was I had left [from shooting] the "Grimey" video around 6-7 right and I had to drive to Jersey, at this time I was living in West Orange, NJ next door to Ja Rule. I must have left the [video shoot at] like 6 or 7, I got in the house I'd say around 7:45-8. A little while after I got in the house, I just got settled and I didn't want my girl to know how long I stayed out so I stood in the living room and didn't go upstairs. I was tryin' to act like I was there all night. Ja Rule knocked on my door, boom [and said] "Yo they took down the towers!" Now I don't know if you know Ja Rule but, Ja Rule is a loud muthafucka. Not just in the vocal booth, you feel me? So, this nigga is ringing my door bell, ding, ding, ding and I'm like, "Yo, the mailman don't ring my door, who else could be coming at my crib this early in the morning. The kids had just went to school, so I opened up the door and he's like "Yooo! N.O.! They took down the towers!" I said, "What?!" I couldn't understand him because I'm still drunk from the night before. "They took down the towers!" So I laid back down and was like, "Shut the fuck up!" and he's tapping my shoulder "N.O.!!! WAKE UP!" I get up and he puts on my TV and showed it to me. I actually got to see the shit. It's crazy because at the top of the hill from where we was living at, you could actually see New York, so we drove to the top of the hill and all we saw was smoke comin'. Then me and him went and both got our daughters from school. It's crazy, when I remember 9/11 one of the first things I remember is Ja Rule knocking on my door and screamin', "Yoooo! They took down the towers!" Like, I always see Ja Rule's face first because I was still drunk and this was not the first time Ja has done this. He's knocked on my door [because] of some crazy shit before, but for some reason it was like the "Boy Who Cried Wolf," he did it one time, so I didn't listen to him this time and it was crazy. It was just ill because all my neighbors was outside, like white people you never talked to, Spanish people you never talked to, African people you never talked to, and we just all live in the same community and we're all outside on top of the hill just looking at the smoke coming from New York. It was a scary moment, but it was also a moment of clarity. You was just proud to be an American that day. I wasn't Black to nobody and the person standing next to me wasn't White. The person standing behind me wasn't Russian, you know, wasn't Jewish. We were all just American. It was a bittersweet, it was so foul because you knew the people that was suffering and not only that, my accountant was in that building. I had to sign papers for my accountant, [who] worked at 7 World Trade Center. I went the day before the video, had I not, she would've been there 9 O'clock in the morning waiting for me to sign the mortgage papers for my crib. Like I said you felt so sorry, you wanted to make sure your people was OK, people were callin' the phone, you couldn't call nobody and just to turn around and my neighbors were actually my family for that moment. Like, I turned and looked and they gave me that look like "I got your back" and I was like "I got your back, let's get these terrorists" [laughs]. I had that Hulkamania song playing in the back of my head, " I am a real American, fight for the rights of every man, I am a real American, fight for the right, fight for your life!" [Laughs]."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ RED CAFE'S 9/11 STORY

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"I was at home in Brooklyn. When I woke up and turned on the TV, I couldn't believe what I was seein'. The images of the plane crashin' and people runnin' for their lives felt surreal. This is somethin' that has never happened on U.S. soil before. To not know what was happenin', that collective feelin' of fear and uncertainty made me nervous. But to see the city pull together, every neighbor helping each other, made me very proud to be a New Yorker. My heart still goes out to those that lost a loved one."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ PAPOOSE'S 9/11 STORY

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Papoose
"I was in Bed Stuy, [Brooklyn] and I heard a knock on the door while I was asleep. This dude is banging on the fuckin' door. I'm like, "Who?" It was my next door neighbor. He's like, "Yo, the Twin Towers fell." I'm like, "Get the fuck outta here"...because in my mind this dude was high or must have smoked somethin' crazy. I was cursin' him the fuck out. I'm spazzin' on this nigga and he's like, "Yo, just look out your window." I look out the window and I could see this shit. I think as [my children] look back on it, it will be somethin' that's talked about years and years and decades from now. People will never forget it. It's interesting to see how people will look back on it."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ MAINO'S 9/11 STORY

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"I was in prison. I woke up that morning, they was like, "Somethin' hit the tower." They wasn’t sure if it was a small helicopter, or if it was a fuckin’ plane. They thought it was a mistake. And then I got up and went to the [TV] room and while [people] was talking another [plane] just went right into the other [tower]. I was scared to death, though, ‘cause I ain’t understand what that was about. But what was crazy to me was that as [the reporter] was talking it was like real time, like, they didn’t know. Right when she talkin’, she was like, “Yea, we’re reporting live and it seems as if Tower two is on fire. Were not sure if it was a small helicopter or small plane." And right when she talkin’, boom. Crazy. Unbelievable. What’s more unbelievable to me was the fact that they fell. I never thought that that would happen. The fact that they came down. That was really. Wow. I didn’t think that was gon' happen."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ HAVOC OF MOBB DEEP'S 9/11 STORY

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"I was in my crib on Long Island. You know, I'm a news-head, I always watch the news. I keep it on MSNBC. I just remember waking up and seeing one of the buildings on fire, and then another one. Everybody knows the rest, but I had to look out my window like, "Oh, shit, it's a war outside." I remember that like it was yesterday."

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ PRODIGY OF MOBB DEEP'S 9/11 STORY

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Prodigy
"I was on the highway. I don't remember what highway it was, but I could see the buildings right across the water. I was buggin', like, "Yo, this is crazy, man." Same thing [as Havoc], I thought we were at war. I thought a missile hit the buildings and bombs was about to start droppin'."
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ SAIGON'S 9/11 STORY

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"I was asleep in the studio and woke up to the news and looked outside and seen smoke and thought I was still dreaming."

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