For everyone that answered that question in the movie came a different tale of what initially inspired them to do what they do.
In this edition of Six Degrees Of Separation [Click for other editions] the focus is on the first album each artist bought, (for this writer it was Brand Nubian’s One For All album) and how it affected them.
This time around Asher Roth, Yo Gotti, Saigon, Detroit’s Finale, Willy Northpole, Slim Thug, West Coast producer J. Wells, and New York lyricist Dashah all share their own experiences on the subject. Maybe you have something in common—you never know…
[Click on names for individual interviews]
iHipHop.com: Do you remember one of the first Hip-Hop albums you ever bought?
That’s the first mothaf*cka I remember jamming to man, and the first time I remember listening to music, and that type of sh*t… It came out in the 80’s and I don’t remember how old I was, but I was young… I’m 28-years-old now, and I still remember listening to that sh*t all the time…
I didn’t actually buy it but, my dad had dropped it off for me; it was a UTFO album…
I was hooked from there…
Around that time, I think I was around 6-years-old…
All I remember was that I was really young…
So that’s the first record I went out myself and bought, but the first album that was given to me was 36 Chambers… My older brother gave that to me, and that’s what really got me going as an MC, and really made me want to do this…
I was about 5-6 years old when that came out, and my mom made me remember everybody’s verse, and I had to perform it at a talent show, and I won that sh*t… [Laughing]
So that was the East Coast, but as far as the West Coast goes, I would have to say Too $hort’s Life Is…Too Short album… That was a classic album, and my mom was into Hip-Hop, so she used to clean up to that sh*t…
I studied that tape from front to back, and I think that’s one of the most complete albums ever in Hip-Hop…
The way he spit on it kind of inspired me on how I approach a project… Not so much the way I spit, but just the way they put that project together—I don’t think there are too many projects our right now that is parallel to that…