GRANDGOOD

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Marley recently stated that he feels that your second verse on ‘Live Motivator’ was the blueprint for the Queensbridge rhyme style. Do you agree?

I’m not gonna mention no names, but if you listen to that song, and you look at the date of when that song came out [1988], and then you go down a few years and then you hear another profound lyricist come out of the Bridge, you can kinda see where that type of style sparked that other individual. And then you could look at him and look at his date when he dropped and see how the ones that came after him – how he sparked them. So I think that’s pretty accurate in what Marley said. At that particular time, I was Queensbridge. Craig G is nice, but Craig G wasn’t necessarily spitting with a street type of style. Craig G was just a nice MC. My lifestyle and upbringing was a lot different – I emerged from the street. My house was like the corner, so I brung that energy to the music. You had the Juice Crew, but the Juice Crew in it’s totality didn’t represent Queensbridge. Marley represented Queensbridge as a producer. Shan represented Queensbridge in a sense that he made the theme song to the Bridge, but Shan wasn’t originally from Queensbridge – Shan is originally from Brooklyn – and Shan wasn’t in the streets like that. Craig G lived on the block and Craig was just a nice MC. G Rap didn’t live in Queensbridge, Biz Markie didn’t live in Queensbridge, Kane didn’t live in Queensbridge. Roxanne Shante lived in Queensbridge, but she was just a ill female MC. I believe that when I came I represented the streets of Queensbridge when I rhymed. I was the kid who hung-out with the hustlers – I was the kid who started hustling! I was the kid who did robberies, so I brought that energy to the track. I’m not proud of that, I’m just stating the facts. That was all Queensbridge coming out of me at that time. That’s all I knew!