Hip Hop's Golden Era vs. Today (RRR #4)

Reem Raw: Yo! It’s your boy Reem Raw, man. I’m back, Reem Raw Radio, this Episode 4. This is The Golden Age vs. The Copper Age. It gets the people going. Today we gonna discuss the Golden Age vs. the 2000 kids and this new-age rap. This new era, it’s some good things and mostly bad things. I grew up in the 90’s. To me, that’s the epitome, they set the bar. I’m not just talking about New York hip hop, east coast hip hop, I’m talking about from the East to the West. Some people forget, the West was dominating. Shout out to the Hip Hop Debaters! group on Facebook. We gonna get in with them in a minute, but the whole game back then dog, how could you not love it? We had… what’s your favorite artist Cameraman?

Interviewer: All time? Biggie, man Biggie’s the best.

Reem Raw: Yeah Big. Of course Big is my favorite. You got your Jay’s. You got your Nas’s. Of course we all know those. What you know about the AZ’s? Even the Bussa Buss, he’s a legend too. We had one hit wonders that was better than a lot of these established niggas.

Interviewer: Even Cormega.

Reem Raw: Queensbridge. Shoutout to all my Queensbridge niggas. The fiends only buy from Corey. Camp Lo. Graffiti falling from the sky, this is it what? Hip hop man. Come on. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about. Ya’ll was there, ya’ll know what I’m talking about. And I’m not trying to downplay this era, but look at it. Look at what we’ve come to my people. Even… what happened to the R&B game? Did it die? Where’s the R&B groups? Where’s the crooners? The soulful singers? Where’s the Jodeci’s, the Dru Hills, the R. Kelly’s, the 112’s? Whatever groups. The females, the SWV’s, the TLC’s, where’s Troop? Where’s Escape? What happened? Total? We had it on both fronts. The hip hop and the R&B. All of that.

Interviewer: You know what? I realized it’s a whole lot less acts out there too. Not only is the quality down, the numbers. Look, who’s R&B? Chris Brown, Trey Songz, that’s it.

Reem Raw: Chris Brown, Trey Songz, August Alsina. And where’s the groups? Is the groups non-existent? It’s not the talent. What, everybody just dropped off the face of the earth that’s an R&B group? Nah, it’s not, it can’t be. I think it’s a mix of the consumer, a little bit and you know, those people from our era are getting older. And these new kids who purchase music. And maybe even the internet has something to do with it, the rise of social media, whatever. It’s not just one factor, but it’s just like where the fuck did it all go? The attention span?

Interviewer: Can’t remember five names no more. It’s all about me, me, me individuals. Even Destiny’s Child dropped off and now it’s Beyonce. They find their star player, there’s no team no more. All the marketing dollars go to one star player.

Reem Raw: True. So, here we are. 2015. We got the Young Thug's, we got the Rich Homie Quan’s, who else? The ASAP Rocky’s. The whole Freshman class. The Troy Ave’s. Charles umm, not Charles Hamilton. Somebody else. These new niggas. Ya’ll seen the freshmen class, and if ya’ll didn’t, ya’ll ain’t miss shit. Let’s just put it that way. Ya’ll ain’t miss a fuckin thing, man. Fuck it. I ain’t here to be politically fuckin correct. Let’s put out the good things that I see now. The power is being taken away from the machines, the machines being the record labels. It’s the rise of doing it on your own, the rise of startup labels. You feel me, Cameraman? Like, these niggas is taking the power into their own hands, they’re branding themselves. “We don’t need the big wigs spending all of these marketing dollars when we got the YouTube’s, the Instagram's, the Vine’s and all of that. You can be your own star. They didn’t have this in our age, which is a good and a bad thing. You couldn’t tweet 2pac, you couldn’t tweet Biggie. They didn’t have Instagram then, so it was exclusivity. It was a big thing when they was coming out because you barely seen them. They wasn’t so accessible. So it’s a good thing and a bad thing. I would love to tweet Big or Instagram Big like “yo, that shit was hot bruh” and have him respond to me. That’d be dope, but it takes away a little bit of the anticipation, a little bit of the mystery. Oh this concert is coming out, we have to be there. Now it’s like “ok, we can stream it. Or somebody is gonna share it on one of these social sites, we ain’t gotta be there. Oh we seen him. Oh yeah. Cool, cool, cool.”

Interviewer: Too much access.

Reem Raw: Too much access. So it’s a give and take type of thing. And these new artists, let’s get back to the artists. If you were born in the year 2000…

Interviewer: Damn shame.

Reem Raw: You’d be 15 now. So in your early years, meaning the early 2000’s, you would’ve had your Eminem’s, the G-Unit wave, the Game. 

Interviewer: Drake.

Reem Raw: Well, Drake is 2008-ish right?

Interviewer: Think about it. If you were born in 2000, that’s when you about start listening to music. You’re a Drake baby!

Reem Raw: Kind of probably grew up on Drake. You was a Drake baby, yeah. Hahaha. That shit sounds fucking, blasphemous to even say.

Interviewer: He’s they’re Jay-Z.

Reem Raw: He’s they’re Jay. Picture that! He’s they’re Jay. Not taking nothing from Drake, but for him to be ya’ll Jay! Like, listen to that! For him to be ya’ll Jay-Z is kind of like, not even fair to ya’ll. And it’s like ya’ll look at Hov… Ya’ll looking probably at Blueprint Hov?

Interviewer: Like Grandmaster Flash and shit!

Reem Raw: Ya’ll don’t even know Reasonable Doubt Hov. Most of ya’ll. Not gonna say all of ya’ll. Most of ya’ll don’t know Reasonable Doubt Hov. Ya’ll don’t know Volume 2 Hov. That’s the one that sold. Ya’ll might know a little DMX It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, maybe. Maybe. That was in ’98 tho, ’98-’99. That’s really before your time.

Interviewer: They missed everything good.

Reem Raw: So, ya’ll niggas is growing up on Drake’s, and Tyga’s, and Young Thug’s and Rich Homie Quan’s… A whole bunch of Migos, and a whole bunch of other little offshoot artists that you hear here and there. Ya’ll was babies probably when the Crunk Era, when the Snap Era, the Little John Era, that shit is a shame. And it makes me think like, damn… You know?

Interviewer: What’s crazy is, if you saw Dope, shout out to Diddy. Great movie.

Reem Raw: Yeah, shout out to Diddy we just checked out Dope. It was refreshing. These kids were actually listening to the older music. ASAP was in the movie but they was… ya’ll gotta go check out Dope, period. If I’m telling you to fuck with it, it’s fuckwittable, it’s dope. And it was refreshing. Forrest Whitaker produced it, Diddy produced, and I think Pharrell. They paid homage to the Golden Era and it brought in the social media wave and kinda interwove the two genres. The soundtrack was very dope. Very 90’s stylish. I was in the movie theater rapping along to the shit. A little nigga was next to me like “yo, the fuck this nigga doing?” I got amped “like oh shit, they playing my shit!” The shit that raised me. If you’re a music junkie like me, Hip Hop helped raise me. Meaning, it helped shape my views, it was more than just music. It helped shape my view about life, my view about things that I went through. Like things that I went through, I could relate back to a lyric, ten, twenty years later, fifteen years later. Like “oh shit. Now I know what he was saying. Now I know what she was saying." Hip Hop is a beautiful thing, man. Can you imagine at a time people thought that Hip Hop was a fad? People didn’t think Hip Hop was going to go past the NWA’s, they thought it was just gonna die out. Look at where we’re at now. So, I’m praising it. It’s a genre, where we are the culture. We dictate what’s hot. What we say is hot and is acceptable is what the masses meaning, it’s black artists, it started with our people. But now the masses, the white boys, the Chinese boys, the Asians, all of that. We all embraced it. Now it’s like… they group us all into one too, and I don’t realy like that. Like Heavy Metal got Punk Rock, Acid shit, Alternative. We need to have levels like that too, so the lines don’t get blurred. Can’t put Drake with a Onyx. We need levels to this shit. We need to do things like that.

Interviewer: Shout out to Reem Raw, the authentic dreads. No Fetty Waps.

Reem Raw: No Fetty Wap shits, I earned these. Shout out to my nigga Fetty Wap. I support Jersey and all that, but I earned these. These ain’t faux lox. These the real things bruh. But shout out to everybody doing they thing. All my Jersey dudes. My OG’s, Gita, Speedy, NJS, GHF, all my dogs. Ya’ll already know how I rock out. Let’s get into these little debates real quick. We gonna dip back, me and Cameraman gonna come back into our original topic. But I wanna shout out my Hip Hop Debaters! group on Facebook. Let’s just take a few little debates that’s going on right now. My man is truly getting it in. He says “will Kendrick Lamar pass Jay-Z as one of the greatest rapper of all time?” Now that’s kind of a tricky question. He can be one of the greats, but are you saying “pass Jay-Z?” Jay birthed a lot of these, especially these 2000 niggas, as far as the business, as far as everything. Now pass him? No. Be up there? He probably can. I know it’s a lot of diehard Kendrick… And let me say, I love what Kendrick is doing. And I’m not even talking about his music. I like how he’s trying to bring back a aura of self-consciousness, self-awareness with the lyrics, with the griminess, with the spitting. I like how he’s trying to bring that back in the game, in the climate in a game where it’s saturated full of “everybody just wanna dance. everybody wants to dance.” Me and Cameraman was just talking like “nobody wants to think anymore."

Interviewer: Dancing and singing like it’s all good all the time.

Reem Raw: Dancing, singing, everything is all good. I like some of it too, don’t get me wrong. I be in here, you know snapping and shit you know. You know how little shit gets stuck in your head, you know “Baby won’t you come my wayyyy.” That’s my shit! Not just Fetty Wap, but you know little shit like that, it’s cool. But anything without substance will eventually fade. You can’t pop in a nigga whole album anymore. Who wants to hear a Young Thug album or a Rich Homie Quan album? Them niggas don’t have no substance bruh. I don’t care how you wanna chop it down, “oh that’s my favorite. Oh he swaggy.” Oh this, that, and the third. Can you really pop that shit in the fuckin… well shit niggas don’t even use CD’s no more dog. I’m saying pop in the CD, now it’s just on your phone. That’s a whole nother… But can you really just sit down, embrace a whole album, take that into your thought process? Is it anything that’s gonna stick with you? And maybe this is how I was raised because the bar was so high that we sat down and we took that shit in. We took it personal, we loved it. It was jewels! Our artists in those days had jewels. The Pacs, even the Dilated Peoples, the Public Enemies, the what was Busta Rhymes and them… what’s my man, Q-Tip and them?

Interviewer: Tribe.

Reem Raw: Tribe, yeah the Tribe Called Quest. They had jewels then. Arrested Development. Offshoot groups like that. They all had jewels.

Interviewer: See, that’s the Golden Era though. If you’re talking about from the beginning, say Grandmaster Flash up until Digital Underground when Pac was all positive and conscious, that’s the era before East Coast/West Coast beef with Biggie and Pac which changed the whole game. Transformed it into some real… it went from kumbaya to gangsta gangsta. And then from Pac and Biggie passing to Jay filling that void all the way until I would say, the Drake era. What you wanna call it, it’s a new phase, the Bronze Era or whatever, or the Silver Era or whatever. Until after Drake really took over, you can call this what we in now, the Bronze Age. This is the third act of the play, so you’re gonna have certain values in each one of those. I feel like after Jay came up, he was really the first real superstar after Biggie and Pac did what they did and made those numbers in terms of his corporate pull and the money he was making.

Reem Raw: It’s just like the drug dealer when you break it down. Let’s put it in the street perspective. The big dude, the big guy on the block who got the most work, or maybe even the two big guys who got the most work. One dies, one goes to jail for forever, it’s a power vacuum. Who’s gonna step up? Who got the best dope now? Who got the most blocks now? Jay stepped in, Nas stepped in, X stepped in. To fill the powerhouse void that Big and Pac left. And it seemed like Jay capitalized the most off of that. The rise of Rocafella. The rise of Ruff Ryders. The rise of Cash Money. Master P was poppin before that on the independent grind. Those things that anchored the wave after the passing of Big and Pac. I wanna shout out my West Coast niggas too man, all my West Coast artists. My personal favorite rapper from the West Coast is Spice 1, period. Everybody like “Snoop, Snoop, Snoop”, that’s cool Snoop is dope. But Spice was the streets dog. Oakland, shout out to East Oakland. Spice was that nigga. And you know what, I’ve been blessed enough to live in a lot of different places. Like I’m from the East, I’m from New Jersey, I’m from New York, I’m from the East. A lot of my peoples who never got the chance to make it out of there might not have been exposed to the type of music that I’ve been exposed to because a lot of that shit don’t reach over to where we at. Same thing with the West, a lot artists probably don’t reach as far over there as need be. But Spice 1 is my favorite West Coast gangsta artist. I call him the undisputed king of drive by music. The undisputed king of drive by music, he be talking that shit! Shout out to E-40 and all of them, Domino, my nigga Domi-nizzo. I just love my era. So I be getting into my debates with my dudes from the group, some of them are a little younger them me, “aw, ya’ll niggas stuck in the 90’s. The 90’s this, the 90’s that.” All ya’ll talking about “embrace the new wave.” What new wave? Where’s it at? And I’m not talking about the radio, the radio plays garbage now, it’s all payola. It’s all whatever. What new wave? It’s almost like we were spoiled back then, because we had artists where… we could even take it to the New York thing me and Cameraman was talking about. New York, New Jersey. It wasn’t always kumbaya like it is now. The cardinal sin was for a rapper to sound like the next rapper. It was a no-no. It was a fucking no-no. You can’t sound like him or nobody’s gonna fuck with you. So it breeds diversity. You have to be inspired, created by your own wave. Now that alienates rappers from doing songs with each other, but it breeds competition. Some people, I know a couple of down south people be like “yeah, ya’ll don’t fuck with each other.”  Ya’ll fuck with each other a little too much sometimes because ya’ll let anybody in. When you don’t let anybody in, the cream of the crop rises. Feel what I’m saying Cameraman? Only the nice niggas will survive or break through the mold. So it’s a double-edged sword. Do you want to be cool with everybody? Bring all these trash niggas with you? Or do you want to breed a little competition where everybody ain’t all hugs and smiles? We trying to put out the dopest shit and put our team on and be labeled the king. Who got the crown? That’s what it’s about, like it or love it. Like Kendrick, had the whole Control verse, had the internet snapping. For ya’ll new niggas. What he said wasn’t even that vicious. I’m from the 90’s bruh! What he said? “I’m finna murder you niggas.” To ya’ll that was like Pac saying “Fuck you bitch and the clique you claim!” That was ya’ll version of Hit Em Up. That was ya’ll version of Ether or some shit like that. That was light! That was light bruh.

Interviewer: Shout out to Grafh. For the response.

Reem Raw: Shout out to my nigga M. Bates, my nigga Andy. My nigga Fitted. You know Baby. Grafh is a animal. We love spitters. Everybody loves what they love, it’s cool. But back to the original point, if something doesn’t have the substance, then it probably isn’t going to withstand the test of time. You don’t have no quoteables. You’re not gonna have no quoteables from fucking Young Thug. Or none of the niggas in that vein. To my new niggas, and I mean these 2k15 dudes, it’s cool. Set your own trends. Carve your own niche. But try to have some substance behind your shit bruh. Make something that’s gonna… you know everybody doesn’t want to dance all the time, everybody doesn’t want to think all the time. It’s cool. You know it’s a balance with everything. But too much of anything of course is bad for you. Now you got people in this new age that we like, we like the Kendricks, we like the J. Cole’s, J. Cole’s personally my favorite out of right now, the dudes that’s poppin right now. I like the J. Cole’s, I like my man from Baltimore… I forgot my man name, but he cool. I like some of Drake shit. Some people don’t like Drake shit when he sing bruh… I like it when he sings. He says things that niggas be thinking. However you wanna chop it up, you can pick a Drake song that you can relate to because he’s talking about something that involves a relationship or his own insecurity, and to me that’s keeping it real with yourself. He’ll put out his own insecurities out there. And it’s a lot of our own insecurity but we just won’t say it. And then we say we don’t like it. When really we can relate to it, let’s keep it all the way G. So, if you can keep it real with yourself, you like some of Drake’s shit. And then he can spit, I’m saying. He can spit. And he do his thing. So, shout out to the whole OVO and all that. Who do ya’ll think is better? Who you think better, Cameraman? Or who you relate to more, I should say?

Interviewer: Um, see to me… I think Drake is slick, I think Kendrick is slick, but I don’t feel like neither one of them is what we consider a battle rapper. So when they compete, they might be competing who has the better hits. You know what I'm saying? But just like Kendrick never responded to Grafh, there’s a certain level they can never get to because this class ain’t ready for war like that. They ain’t breeded like that, like an Eminem would be. You know what I’m saying? And they not microphone rippers in that sense. They’re good at what they do. What I see is a re-emergence of a 20 year cycle. So 20 years ago, was right before the Pac and Biggie East Coast/West Coast beef. So, rap to me is returning to that… after the storm of the East Coast/West Coast beef, which led to the Jay-Z afterwards filling in, and the flashy suit era, and the materialistic side of hip-hop, it became more backpack. Kanye started with it, I’m not saying he’s the first backpack, but I’m saying he began as a conscious rap type dude. And then of course came the Drake’s, the J. Cole, so it’s in a way returning to its roots, which it always has to return when it gets thrown out of balance. I feel like the money, the corporate label takeovers…

Reem Raw: I want to say, not to cut you off, I wanted say R.I.P. to Chinx Drugs man, from Far Rock, the whole riot squad. The whole Rockaway Riot Squad, man R.I.P. Chinx, R.I.P. Bundles. Shout out to Bino, shout out to Core 2 G’s, the whole Rockaway Riot Squad. I know ya’ll familiar with them, he was down with Stack Bundles and them at first, that’s the riot squad original members and then he got with French. The streets it eats its young. Some people debate should he have been there, should he have not been there… I don’t know the man’s pockets, but I don’t think he was a millionaire. All his features, all his show money, all the people who wanted to book him was from New York. He wasn’t getting these Dubai, “Just got a trip to Dubai!” That’s my shit, Young Abu Dhabi. But he couldn’t expand too far. The people who wanted to pay him for his craft was in New York, they was in Queens, they was in Brooklyn, they was in The Bronx. I see a lot of people “oh he shouldn’t have been there, he shouldn’t have went there.” No. Nigga, that’s where he built his name, that’s where he built his buzz, and that’s where the money was at. Now if he was getting money was in Dubai, that’s where the fuck he would be at. But, R.I.P. to him, R.I.P. Stacks, God rest his soul, hope his family is cool. Free my niggas Max B, the wave man. We miss the wave man. How you feel about Wavy Crockett?

Interviewer: Aw man, Max B was the shit. We would sacrifice any of you new niggas to get Max B back. Word up, I’d sacrifice all you new niggas…

Reem Raw: Don’t it seem like niggas who fuck with Jim either die or they go to jail? I fuck with Jimmy too, I fuck with Capo, but it’s like damn bruh. Come on bruh, it gotta be a better way.

Interviewer: Yeah we was talking earlier like, our generation is dying off. I feel like Wayne is really the last major rapper of our era to be relevant. People ain’t really waiting on no new Jay album. And he was smart enough to make the transition to the new era with Drake. So I feel like Drake starts this youth, these 2000 babies, he’s their Jay-Z right? So everything after Drake is what they're feeling. If you take it all the way back, you got your Grand Master Flash, Kool Herc's, up until I think the two phases of Pac’s career. From the conscious Pac to the Hit Em Up Pac, he kinda is the dividing line between the Golden Era to, I don’t know what you want to call it, the Silver Era, the ’95. And then from him, that ends with Jay being the king of the Silver Era, which kind of ended up with Jay got overtaken by Drake, which you can see from the Apple Deal. How you feel about that Tidal/Apple, Jay-Z/Drake thing?

Reem Raw: The Tidal/Apple thing… they’re trying to make their money. And Jay kinda pioneered it to where rappers are looking past just trying to sell CD’s and really be businessmen. Now whether Tidal works or Apple works… in the grand scheme of things, for them, who cares? It’s just another business venture, it’s another thing to branch off for that the youth and other young artists could dare to do things. Try it. Everything’s not going to work. Some things are going work, some things are going to be failures, but if you don’t try, if you don’t try to pioneer, if you don’t try to be the first person to do this or try this, you’ll never know what might inspire somebody else. So shout out to them for even doing that. And Jay, especially Jay, especially for me in my view of rap, he made it for me where “damn yo, let’s get our business right.” The music is the music, we love it, you can get your dollars, but what he say “ya’ll can bullshit with rap if you want, motherfuckas.” Let’s look at the 50 situation. 50 got $100 million dollars from vitamin water, and didn’t say fuck rap, but rap came second. "Now I’m in these circles. Now I can pull up beside another billionaire and a millionaire. Now rap is second. Rap got me here, but I’m big enough to expand." And that’s all you want to do. You want to get yourself in the door, and see where you can branch off at, take a risk. Try to, like my man Hawk said “Trust your hustle, use your muscle.” Challenge yourself, try to expand, dare to do better, dare to be the first one “Boom, I’m here.” So, we ain’t gonna talk ya’ll head off all day. We touched on the Golden Era, we touched on the 2k15 era, the Tidal thing, we broke down some of our favorite artists, and this is what we gonna be doing on my podcast. Man, I’ma talk my shit. Can I talk my shit? That’s how I’m coming, man. Reem Raw Radio man, you already now. Get’s the people going! Holla.

Here's A Little Story...

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Drugs, Gangs, and Jail (RRR #5 Transcript)

Reem Raw: Yo, yo, what up? It’s Reem Raw Radio: Fresh Perspective.

Interviewer: We talking today about the streets, jail, and gangs.

Reem Raw:  I want to warn all the youngsters that might think it’s a game, just like the older heads tried to warn me but I was too hard headed to listen. In a way I did listen, but I didn’t. So I want everybody to take heed. Shit is not a game, and plus the game is dead.

The game was dead in my era, so it’s really dead now. You know what I’m saying? Ain’t nobody kingpins no more. Ain’t nobody getting no bread, you know. It’s just "get by" money. That’s “Michael Jordan sneaker” money. It’s not “move your mom out the hood” money, you know what I mean? Let’s get to it.

Interviewer: Word. Alright so I want to ask… I guess we start with the streets because that’s where it all begins. In terms of the big debate on black on black crime and all of these things, what would you say is the number one contributor to black deaths, or what would you say is your top killers of black men in the streets, particularly those involved with drug life, gang life, the thugs, all of those people. What’s the most dangerous thing you’re looking for?

Reem Raw: Well it evolves around the money, first of all. So, we can’t get jobs, so we have easier access to drugs than jobs. So it’s drugs and then it’s from two different perspectives. So you got your hustler, and he wants the… once you start hustling and you’re getting the chips, you start falling in love with the hustle.

You start falling in love with everything that comes with the hustle. You start falling in love with the danger... you start falling in love with the danger, you start falling in love with the women that come with it, the lifestyle, the parties, everybody know your name, everybody know you get money, then you gotta try to keep up facade now, that whole “I’m the man.”

As soon as you go to jail, that shit meant nothing, those people that praise you “aw you fly”, you know what I’m saying? Bitches “ah, ah”… Fuck out of here, dog. It’s lonely when you in that cell. Believe me.

So it’s the drugs. So like I said, let’s take it from two perspectives, and drugs is the center. Drugs and money. Drugs, you got your hustler. Like I said, you start falling in love with it. Then take the man who was hustling or who’s hustling, and he starts tripping with these chicks with the drugs. So then you start partying with your product, the chicks that’s surrounding you start taking it, and one day you slip up and start taking it, thinking you can handle it. Now what?

Now the hustler turns into the customer. Now you're the custy, now you’re hooked on your own product. Now you got a habit, you got a monkey. So you see how the offshoot comes in? And then think about it, it’s all a trap.

Interviewer: Ok, so drugs are the number one killer. What's number two?

Reem Raw: Well, drugs and the lack of leadership, I would say. Because even in the era before me, yeah it was drugs but at least you had certain drug cliques who had a leader who could kind of keep things in order, that could run kind of a tight ship. Even though it was no rules, it was disciplines and checks and balances in place.

Now it's small cliques who... sometimes it ain't even about the money, it's what flag you got on, or this dude said some other shit. So the era before me, they had leaders that had some type of direction. This generation is leaderless. You don't have the OG's that the young boys look up to, or that the OG's command respect and they could make sure it's certain types of things going down to where war doesn't take over or disrupt business.

It was business first always. It should've always been business first, even when you're doing wrong. What's the main goal? It's the money. You can't beef and make money. You can't do it. So that's why older heads had made alliances, even if they ain't like each other. They made alliances, they did what they had to do in order to keep business flowing on both sides. That shit is over doggy.

So you mix the drugs with the lack of leadership with these automatic weapons, with these young niggas who not even smart enough to run nothing, that think a couple grams, or some quarters, or a half or something is really doing it... Or is ready to die over some Michael Jordan sneaker money, or some Michael Kors, or get a new belt, and it's over. It's over.

And then add on top of that, the type of laws that's been made, that's been put in place. That hang niggas. The type of laws that was made for the kingpins in the generation before me. That's who they made these RICO laws and these conspiracy laws for. So you're not even making their kind of money, but you can do their kind of time.

Not that any amount of money is worth it. Ask people like Rayful Edmond, who done made $300 million before he was 23? 24? So spend the rest of your life from 24 on up in a damn cell. Is it worth saying damn? Telling your cellmate "Yeah dog, I had $300 million." Or "I ran that type of organization, but it was over at 23" Or 24 or 25 or even 30? Or even 40? Nah, it's not.

Interviewer: Ok so we got the drugs, the lack of leadership... you mentioned the War on Drugs and the laws. What would you say caused the number one threat to you from your enemies in the street? Or what's your number one enemy in the street?

Reem Raw: Your number one enemy in the street is the people who are closest to you. And I say that to say - not that they're sinister - not to say that they start off sinister, but that type of lifestyle... once it can't be maintained or a hint of jealousy comes in, or a outside force convinces the people close to you to get at you...

I done been on both sides, like I said I'm talking from experience. I done been on both sides. It's people that you can get touched or somebody can throw a monkey wrench. They don't have to get directly at you, they get at the people around you. Whether it be your family, your girl, whoever. They see that weakness, if they can exploit it, they get you. That's number one.

The person that you know you got beef with, you can avoid him. Or you can get at him. It's the things that you don't see that'll cripple you. I've been on both sides. I've done it and had it done to me, so I know. It's the people closest to you, that's who gets at you the most. That's who you should have your eye on the most.

Interviewer: Ok so say we go through the streets. We talked about the death factor. Say you don't die in the streets. Tell me about the jail situation.

Reem Raw: Well the jail system, it's just madness. Especially in prison. Prison is madness. It's crazy when I see dudes like "Yeah, I only got two years, or five years, or eight years, I'll be home." But that's the thing. You're not guaranteed to come home.

Well let me speak from my position. Because I know if a nigga like me go in there and something go down, it's not a guarantee that I'm gonna be home because I'm gonna be forced to do something most likely that's either gonna get me more time or get me killed. Unless you're a hermit and you so happen to skate by, or you're just that dude. Some dudes is just that dude that they can do the time, they can mix and mingle without getting caught up, but that's not the case for most people.

You're gonna leave there with some type of scar, physically or emotionally. Just because you in don't mean you gonna come home at all, and if you do come home at all, are you gonna be the same person that you was when you went in? Or is some piece of you gonna be taken away while you're in there? No matter what form you think it is.

This prison shit, everybody knows is a billion dollar industry. This shit is not a game, this shit is not going nowhere. If anything, people is investing in it. These privatized prisons, half the black people and the brown people, it's just ridiculous. And they keep it to where it's hard for you to get a job, so you're going to come back. And it's hard for you to leave that type of lifestyle. It's not like you're rehabilitated.

I hope nobody is dumb enough to think that jail is really rehabilitation. That shit is to house you and feed you for small portions and a high outcome. They're there to make money. And they make it to where these probations and paroles are so strict, they make it to where it's a revolving door.

Interviewer: Ok, so one aspect of the jail life is gangs, and tell us more about what they daily prison life is like and how gangs also are a part of that, in and out of the jail.

Reem Raw: Well certain places call for certain things. In some prisons, it's not about gangs per se, it's about your race. It don't matter if I'm a blood or a crip in some prisons. If you're black, we're black, and we gotta watch our backs against these Spanish people or against these White people. Prison will turn you racist if you stay there for too long and you see it because it's so segregated. And it's not by a certain street, it's by your color. And people go to war, get cut, die, or get stomped out over minimal shit. But it's about your color, we segregate ourselves which is crazy to me. It's kind of crazy when you think about it. Black and brown going to war with each other. Over drugs, of course it's drugs in there and that's where everything stems from, people trying to make money and things of that nature.

But it's a racial overtone, it's a racial atmosphere. It's not that we hate blacks or we hate browns or we hate whites. Once you segregate yourself... your whole group and the whole cloud settles over the jail of a racial climate, if I owe you drugs, "Oh fuck you, you're a spic anyway, let's go to war. Oh fuck you, you're a nigga anyway, let's go to war. Oh fuck you, you're a cracker anyway, let's go to war." It's like that.

And that's what makes it complete madness because it's Spanish people you might've grew up with, black people you might've grew up with. You see them in jail, you can't say nothing to them. It's no "oh that's my homie from the block, I knew him for 23 years." No. Your own race will murk you for that shit. Take heed to that too.

Interviewer: Ok so tell us how the typical day in jail is different than what most people go through normally.

Reem Raw: It's routine, and the routine will kill you mentally. It's routine after routine after routine. Same shit after same shit after same shit. Nothing changes. Nothing changes. It's monotonous. Everything is repeated, repeated. Same stinking niggas. Same stinking cell. Same shitty food. Same guards.

It's to the point where you start thinking the nigga that brings you your tray everyday is the reason that you're in there. He holds the key to the whole jail. This one guard. Just because you see him everyday. You know his name. You know his middle name, you know how he talks. Your brain will start thinking he's the source of all your problems. "He's the fucking reason that everything is wrong in this jail. He's the reason this food is shitty. He's the reason these niggas is aggy. It's him, it's him, it's him!" That's why guards be getting fucked up! People don't be trying to think of the mental aspect of it, but that is exactly why because the cycle doesn't break. It's everyday, it's everyday.

Interviewer: Alright so take us from wake up to sleep.

Reem Raw: Wake up. Five o'clock in the morning. Chow. Eat some bullshit before the sun even comes up, damn near like you're fasting. Go to sleep. Lunch might be around 1. Five to one and then dinner is at five. And then you're done for the rest of the day until five again the next morning. People gamble, you get more soups, more sodas.

Like food is money in jail. The more food I got... the more coffee I got, definitely coffee, the more coffee I got, the more I could manipulate things. Like I was in there, they made a mistake. I ordered five things of cocoa, hot chocolate... they brought me back five big ass bags of coffee. I'm like "damn I ain't order this, coffee cost like six dollars on the canteen." But it's all free! And I don't drink coffee at all. So I don't sell it by the bag, I sell it by the cup.

I got niggas lining up to the point where... I'm hustling! Get the fuck away from my cell dog! It's to the point "Yo I'll give you my trays", so now I'm going to the chow hall, I'm getting 3, 4, 5 trays. Niggas giving up their food for the coffee. So the coffee, the food, and the snacks, that's all money. It's called the store. Whoever got the store runs shit most likely. Because the store buys you drugs. It buys you this, it buys you that. It buys you "tell your girl to sneak me this in here. Do this, do that." The canteen is money, man.

Interviewer: So what's the wildest thing you've seen or heard of in jail?

Reem Raw: Well, it's really endless amounts of wild shit that I heard of in jail, but I seen niggas get their shit stomped unconscious, I've seen niggas leaking, I've seen niggas get ripped and zipped up. I've seen the regular shit. I ain't see nobody get killed per se. I've seen somebody slip in the shower. My man slipped in the shower, banged his head against the concrete. If anybody know where I'm talking about... Concrete cell, he slipped, banged his head, internal bleeding, he's dead. And he was about to get out the like the next day. And this was just in the county, not prison. This was in the county. So anything could happen.

Like my biggest fear when I was in there wasn't even for me. It was for if something happened to one of my family members and I couldn't get there because I was in jail. That's what scared me, not nothing in there. It was like "damn, what if something happened to one of my peoples?" Because I seen what it did to people who was in there, they broke down like "damn I can't get to my mom" or "damn, my girl" or "my brother" "my sister", and that will weigh. Mix that with the same thing everyday, everyday.

And then mix that with the something happened with your family member, and you feel even more caged in like "Damn, I can't break the fuck out of here... it's the CO (correctional officer)! It's him! It's him! He gotta get it! He gotta get it!" Your mind is gonna make something. Something gotta give, and it's this nigga. He gotta go. That's why they be getting gassed, they be getting stabbed, shit thrown on them, piss, everything. Because people just think "oh inmates are wild." It's a psychological thing built over time. This is the gatekeeper. He's the one I take my shit out on because the authority figure in your eyes after a certain amount of time. So it is what it is.

Interviewer: Alright. Next question. Let's talk about beefs. We did the drugs, we did the jail, we did the gangs. How does beef play a factor into all of these dangers? Or what's the source of the beefs?

Reem Raw: Well, as long as I've been in the street and know of others who've been in the street, it's rare that you beef with a total stranger or something. It's your friends. It's niggas who are playing the same game as you that turn around and turn out to be you're most lethalest enemies. Because ain't no friends in this game.

You start off as friends, but if you're not tight the money can get in the way. Jealousy can creep in. Little things like that. It's "friends turn into enemies" in this game. And then what's more lethal than a enemy who knows everything about you? Who knows where your mama at? Who knows what pisses you off? Who knows your little sisters? Who knows your little brothers? What's more lethal than that? He's not a stranger. He was your friend. And then friends start gunning each other down.

That's why, when the police come and see a dead body, what's the first thing they do? They ask who his friends were. He asks who he had beef with second. They pull niggas into the jail, they be like "do you know anybody who were his friends?" first. Okay, now "do you know anybody he had problems with?" And if they say, "yeah I know who he had problems with" 9 times out of 10, it was his friend who he had a problem with and a issue with. So it's your friends. The beef starts with niggas who supposed to be your friends dog.

That's why the line Jay said, this is why I started liking Jay more, when I started going through the streets "Shit is wicked on these mean streets, none of my friends speak. We're all trying to win." If you've never been in that situation, you don't know how potent those lines are. That's when I felt for real Jay was really who he was, because I've been through that shit and I know how potent it is.

When you stop speaking to your friends for months, and ya'll both getting it, ya'll in the streets, ya'll kind of competing with each other, ya'll both up for days, ya'll both trying to snatch the same sales, both trying to fuck the same hoes, trying to get one up on each other. When you see each other it's in passing. "What's up? Yeah, yeah, yeah." It's fake love at that point. "Yo wsup? How your moms doing? Yeah everything's alright." And ya'll back to doing what ya'll doing. It's breeding animosity. Even if it's not blatant at the time. It's breeding separation. It's breeding contempt for one another. You're trying to get up on him, he trying to get up on you. "Oh this nigga think he me." Ya'll was just freinds for years. Until this game fucked you up.

Interviewer: And with that said, it's a wrap.

Reem Raw: Fresh persepctive, your boy Reem Raw, man. Camera man, we in the motherfuckin building yo. We just gonna keep knocking ya'll in the head with this. We out.

Reem Raw Radio Episode 4: The Golden Era of Hip Hop

Reem Raw discusses the difference between the rap music of the past and what we have now. Listen to the episode on his SoundCloud page.

Reem Raw Radio Episode 3: Questions

Reem Raw answers a few questions from fans, readers, and friends. Listen to the episode on his SoundCloud page.

"Reem Raw Radio: Episode 2" Reem Raw Interview, Book Releases, & Giveaways

In this episode, Reem Raw answers a few personal questions from the readers and announces the upcoming releases of Red Hot Liar and the G-Spot 2: The Seven Deadly Sins all-in-one paperback version!

Sign up at http://bit.ly/noiregiveaways for a chance to win a free copy of Red Hot Liar or the G-Spot 2: The Seven Deadly Sins all-in-one version!

Pick up other books by Noire, including B4 The G-Spot: The Legend of Granite McKay at NoireStore.com!

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"Reem Raw Radio: Episode 1" B4 the G-Spot: The Legend of Granite McKay, Noire Clothing, Reem Raw the Album, And More!

Rawsky's Back!

Wsup my peoples, its ya boy raw... Bout to hit yall with sum of that fire..