Big Daddy Kane And Rakim To Perform At The Apollo Theater
On The State Of Rap-Rock Collaborations
Mike Shinoda: "A lot of that stuff, it’s more ingrained at this point. It’s more fused together. We always talk about when we make a hybrid of something, there are different ways to do it. Like, you can blend it together, meaning if you put something in a blender, you blend it and the two things become inseparable. It’s like you make a smoothie, you can’t see all the things that are in there. It’s just one thing. But, there’s another approach that’s called making a salad. Okay, you put all those things in there, and you can see every individual thing."You can approach all your songs any of those ways, but I feel like right now a lot of the stuff is out there is more like that first thing. It’s really blended together and you can’t tell when you listen to like a Lana Del Rey song. You know that hip-hop is in there, but you can’t pull it out. It's engrained in the beats and in the production approach. Similarly, you like listen to some rap stuff, like some of Kanye’s stuff. It’s very musical. It’s very rock. It’s jammed in there so effortlessly that you can’t discern one thing from another."
Rakim: "It’s been going on since hip-hop. I was one of the rappers that wished I had one of the Run-DMC beats. It’s really nothing new. We’ve been showing the similarities between rock and rap for the longest. I just felt it was my turn. Nah, mean?
Mike Shinoda: "This is a landmark in a certain category for us. We’ve never put out a new song on a new record with another artist this way. We’ve done collaborations with other people. But, like, the Jay Z record was based on music that was already put out. We did a song with Busta Rhymes that was a single, it was a one-off. That wasn’t our music either. That was his producer’s music. So, this is the first time we’ve had a track and we invited someone into our house. We don’t do that. It takes somebody that we have to have a special situation in connection and whatever to feel conformable to do that."
Rakim: "I appreciate that, man. Thanks for the welcome mat. I hope I didn’t burn it out, man. Leave it at the door and I’ll be back."
The Five Percent Nation is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and doing it big by bringing hip-hop legends to New York City's Apollo Theater. Featuring Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Brand Nubian, Erykah Badu, and DJ Kay Slay, the show is part of "The God & Hip-Hop Weekend" which will take place in New York City the weekend of October 3-5. The idea of the show is to offer the word life to counter the death the Five Percent Nation now sees being promoted by hip-hop music. The weekend will also feature panel discussions, a town hall meeting, new artist showcase, a family day, and a VIP Power 50 dinner. Check out noge50thyearconcert.com for more info.
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