My younger brother was engaged in some Twitter banter last night about how him & I caught the bus to buy a copy of NaS’ ‘Illmatic,’ in 1994.
This brief tweet did 3 things; First, it illustrated to me how long ago 1994 was. Secondly, it showed me that little brothers don’t forget shit. & lastly, it reminded me that I took that CD to a Music+ outlet about a month later, because Nas was having an in-store signing in L.A.
In those days, it was okay to support other people’s endeavors, & best believe I was there to get my (his) autograph. I still have that same old ass CD cover insert in a photo album. This is truly my most precious Hip Hop possession & effortlessly one of my top 5 rap albums of time indefinite.
I feel the same way about my copy of Only Built For Cuban Linx…. I just wish I was old enough to purchase it in back in 1994.
That’s dope! Can’t really name any current artists’ autograph I’d like to have (besides Redman) and that’s a shame.
I am the same way with Long Live the Kane.
Scraped together money at age 8 for my sister to buy the TAPE for me… Fast forward 10 years and Kane came into a store I was working in at the mall, I SPRINTED to FYE and bought the CD – which I’d already owned a copy of anyway – and had him sign it.
… then I went back to my friend working in the record store and had him reseal it after Kane left our store. 13 years later now, I still haven’t taken THAT copy back out of the plastic.
when i was about 15 Public enemy were on tour in australia. i traveled solo by train to melbourne in my full PE regalia (shirt hat) to go to their concert ,Ice T came too. i saw chuck D in the city the day before the concert . i was too awestruck to approach him. went to the concert and it blew my mind. US rappers don’t come down under too often.
fast forward to now and alot of US rap cats make it down here. especially “golden era” hip hop cats, looking forward to onyx and wutang touring here in the next couple of months
meeting nas would have been cool , my mate peformed at the same festival as him here in OZ and got a photo with him. Kelis was on the same bill too a couple of months back
I remember hanging at The Hip-Hop Shop in Detroit during the mid 90′s. This was the cypher portrayed in Eminem’s 8 Mile movie. It was called “the Shelter” in the movie, but local/underground cats know what’s up. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Eminem, Elzhi, Obie Trice, and other cats as we battled and freestyled against each other.
FutureProof, just like in the movie, played host to these Saturday afternoon events, and would sometimes jump in himself and kick everybody’s ass. It would be years later before I actually realized who these cats were, with the exception of Proof who was my homie since 4th grade.It’s funny to think about it now, but autographs were the last thing on our minds back then. Just being in that cypher, even on days when you clearly lost battles or didn’t get a chance to rap at all, was worth a million autographs to me. Good times!
J7 -
I got Red’s also. This girl I used to hang out w/back in the day went to Howard, & he was performing there. She got his autograph as a birthday present for me.
And just like the above mentioned Detroit cats, I met Redman before the world outside of Brick City knew who he was. It was at another Historically Black College that I attended for freshman year called Norfolk State University. 1992, Homecoming Week, EPMD was the headliner. I showed up earlier to get the best seat. I saw this light skinned guy with black shades on and a ball of tissue up his right nostril (remember that?). I said “what’s up man,” dap-dap, etc. I thought he was a stage hand until later on that memorable day. I ask him if I could pass Erick Sermon a tape and he said he couldn’t do that. But he DID give me a beeper number (YES, BEEPER number that WORKED!!!). A final dap-dap, we parted ways. He gets onstage to open with “Time For Some Akshun”…and a Redman fan is born! Without an autograph… Damn!!
KRS had a concert years back in Miami due to a cd he dropped that didn’t get much play. The next day he was in the venue as he said he would giving the new opus away with a signature. Of course, I took all the KRS cd’s I had in my collection to get those signed also.
too many flashbacks and tales 4 me…
“In those days, it was okay to support other people’s endeavors”.
Aint that the truth. I think they call that ****riding nowadays.
Redman, JYD, ATL Hawks (circa Wilkins/ Webb era), and a few others.
As much as I hated that damned store, it allowed me to meet Big Daddy Kane, then Busta Rhymes a few weeks later, Dres of Black Sheep came in all the time with one of my normal customers, and one time Slick Rick walked in on a random-ass Wednesday, lol…
I still talk to the manager and pick up a couple PT hours from time to time when asked, and the best stories they can give me now is about the time Waka Flocka came in and no one knew who the fuck he was.
I want a Tony Grand$ autograph….Word up!!
Roffle! Thanks tho…
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