Kool G Rap Breaks Down His 25 Most Essential Songs

The Kool Genius of Rap breaks down some of his best known songs, including "Ill Street Blues," "The Symphony," and "Men At Work."

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Complex Original

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Kool G. Rap is a legend. This is an indisputable fact, in the same way that grass is green and water is wet.

The Corona, Queens native was a member of the Juice Crew, one of hip-hop's most dynamic forces in the '80s. His multisyllabic rhyme style has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Big Pun and Nas, and earned a spot alongside Rakim, KRS-One, and fellow Juice Crew member Big Daddy Kane on the Mount Rushmore of golden-era lyricists. He has as strong a claim to the invention of gangsta rap as any other artist, and his "mafioso" street tales set the stage for The Notorious B.I.G. to become "Frank White" and for Raekwon to make his seminal classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...

In a recent New York Times profile, L.A. Sunshine of the Treacherous Three said, "Somebody has to be the roots of the tree. Without the roots, that tree doesn't stand."

Looking at it that way, G. Rap represents roots for artists in the game today like Action Bronson and Rick Ross. And more often than not, those artists are more than aware of this fact. On "Encore," Jay compared his lyrical prowess to "G. Rap in his prime." On J. Cole's "Let Nas Down" Remix, Nas ended the song by saying "G. Rap wrote the Bible." And Ross featured G. Rap twice on the Albert Anastasia EP in 2010.

Never one to rest on his laurels, G. Rap has continued to release music that resonates with the underground. In 2011, he released his eighth album, Riches, Royalty, and Respect, with production from Marley Marl and The Alchemist. Just last month, he joined forces with Necro to form The Godfathers and put out album called Once Upon A Crime.

Complex talked to Kool G. Rap on the phone to break down his extensive catalog. His three albums with DJ Polo, his early work with the Juice Crew, the later solo albums, and even his collaborations with artists ranging from Reflection Eternal to Action Bronson. He talked about almost signing to G-Unit, riding around with 2Pac during the L.A. Riots, and the day he brought a young Nas to Def Jam.

As Told to Dharmic X (@DharmicX)

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Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "It's A Demo" (1986)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: N/A
Label: Cold Chillin'

Kool G Rap: “It was intended to be a demo. But when I laid it down at Marley Marl's house, shit just came out so raw that it ended up being my first single. Me and DJ Polo are from the same hood, Corona, Queens. His name was ringing bells in the hood as a DJ, and he heard of me because I was ringing bells as a rapper.



Rap Attack was the perfect setup for any Juice Crew member. If you recorded something, your song was getting played, bottom line.


“Before linking with Polo, I’d be spitting in the parks or at house parties, anywhere I got a chance. First I was in a group called Rap for Change, which was me and two other rappers. Eventually, I went solo. Polo linked me with Marley and the rest is history.

“The first time I heard the song on radio, I was on some pimp shit, on the track watching my chicks. It was played on Mr. Magic's Rap Attack show on WBLS. Rap Attack was the perfect setup for any Juice Crew member. If you recorded something, your shit was getting played, bottom line. When Magic used to say ‘this is a world premier,’ and play some new Juice Crew shit, that was the same effect as Flex dropping bombs.

“'It’s a Demo' was a hit record and I started getting paid to perform from it. I was doing shows in New York, New Jersey, and Philly. I wasn’t really hitting all the states until I dropped my first album, but I was still making money before that.”

Marley Marl f/ Big Daddy Kane, Craig G, Kool G Rap & Masta Ace "Symphony" (1988)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: In Control, Vol. 1
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros.

Kool G Rap: "I was told by my manager at the time that Marley Marl wanted me to come to the crib. When I got there, Masta Ace and Craig G were there, but Big Daddy Kane wasn’t. Craig G and Ace had laid verses. Marley was like, 'Yo G, I need a strong verse on this.' So I do a long ass verse. The verse I put on there was the verse that you hear on 'The Symphony' connected to the first verse of 'Men At Work.' The tape ran off the rail so I had to shorten it.



One time, me, Kane, and L.L. Cool J were in a hotel room in Los Angeles spitting rhymes in a cypher. We must have spit like five verses apiece.


"These were the days when I would just write long ass verses in case I ever needed them for a cypher. I always kept an arsenal for when I needed it. Like one time, me, Kane, and L.L. Cool J were in a hotel room in Los Angeles spitting rhymes in a cypher. We must have spit like five verses apiece. I would just have the beat in my head when I wrote, and then when it came time to record I would see what verse fit the track the best.

"I am a little less prepared these days, because there is no need. I became more of an on the spot type of writer. If somebody wants me to come to the studio now, I write the verse then and there and lay down a classic.

"I was still there when Kane laid his verse down. When I heard that line, ‘Quarter in your ass cause you played yourself,’ I was like, ‘Oh shit, Kane killed that fucking line.’ He caught it on that song crazy.

"It’s an honor for me to be a part of something that people hold that dear in hip-hop history. It made legends."

Kool G Rap & Big Daddy Kane "Raw (Freestyle)" (1988)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: N/A
Label: Cold Chillin'

Kool G Rap: "Marley called me out of the blue to come to his crib. I got there and Kane was there and he laid a freestyle. I was watching, and then they both were like, 'Yo G spit something for us.' I just had written shit and it worked.



Me and Kane had a silent, friendly rivalry. Kane was so nice that anytime he did something, I thought he killed it. I think I had the same effect on him.


"Me and Kane had a silent, friendly rivalry. Kane was so nice that anytime he did something, I thought he killed it. I think I had the same effect on him. When I heard 'Raw,' I thought he bodied that shit. He probably felt the same way when he heard 'Men at Work.' When he did 'Set it Off,' I returned with 'Kool is Back.'

"Marley just started playing it on WBLS. It was just a recording and I don’t think Marley played it that often. Decades later people would go back to it like, ‘Yo, did you hear that freestyle G did on the ‘Raw’ beat?’ I think it became more of a cherished item because people didn’t hear it that much."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Road To The Riches" (1989)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: Road To The Riches
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "That was drawn a little bit from my life experience, and a little bit from made up shit. That’s what hip-hop is to me. You can’t just write strictly about your life all the time, because nobody’s life is a fucking amazing movie from beginning to end in most cases. Some people might be an exception to that. But ain’t nobody killing as many dudes as they say they’re killing in their rhymes.



Anybody that got a few dollars could go buy some drugs and stand on the corner. Being a lyricist was challenging. I came out with dudes like Rakim, KRS-one, and Big Daddy Kane. Competition was serious.


"If you’ve never dabbled in that lifestyle at all then I think it’s way out of character. But there is nothing wrong with being creative. That’s what music is and that’s what being an artist is. I’m not one of those people that hold rappers to living out their fucking rhymes. You want somebody to rap because you like the music they make, or do you want them to end up dead or go to fucking jail?

"I did work at the Key Foods store, and then we started selling crack in the Key Foods Store and outside of it. Once I started rapping though, I stopped because I knew that I didn’t want that. It wasn’t challenging for me to do that. Anybody that got a few dollars could go buy some drugs and stand on the corner. Being a lyricist was challenging. In my era you had to be nice, and I came out with dudes like Rakim, KRS-one, and Big Daddy Kane. Competition was serious.

"Saying that I 'loaned money to my dad' was an exaggeration. My pops wasn’t a drug dealer. He is deceased now. He left my mom when I was about five years old but I would see him from time to time. He divorced and remarried a total of two or three times. It wasn’t a super close relationship."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Men At Work" (1989)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: Road To The Riches
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "That came from the urge to have some crazy lyrical shit. There’s really nothing else to it. At the time nobody had the same approach I had. There were other people that were similar, but offsprings of G Rap wouldn’t come until Nas, Raekwon, Big Pun, and Papoose hit the scene. I don’t have to go through the whole list of people who credit me as a major influence.



Offsprings of G Rap wouldn’t come until Nas, Raekwon, Big Pun, and Papoose hit the scene. I don’t have to go through the whole list of people who credit me as a major influence.


"The first album was just me and Marley. I was bringing everything to him. I was playing the records I wanted to have him sample. Pretty much my whole first album was put together by me telling Marley, ‘Yo I want you to loop this and I want you to use these horns or pianos over this drum beat or over this bass line.’ So really you can say I co-produced the whole album. The only thing I didn’t do was press the buttons.

"Polo got credit because he’s the one who got me in the game. There was no argument. He’s the one that brought me to Marley’s house. I’m a loyal dude. So just off that alone it was going to be Kool G Rap and DJ Polo. And that was my man."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Poison" (1989)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: Road To The Riches
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "That one was inspired by the track. Originally, the beat was the same sample that Geto Boys used for ‘Trigger Happy Niggas,’ ‘Memphis Soul Stew’ by King Curtis and the Kingpins. But then we changed it and it ended up being the single. When I was saying ‘get off the microphone,’ I was saying that to any and everybody at the time. I was taking the world on. It wasn’t directed at anybody specifically.

"Bell Biv DeVoe sampled my voice saying 'poison' on their song. I was honored because they were the members of New Edition. And everybody loved New Edition. They could be compared to the Jackson 5 because they were all young and they were making hot music. And that became one of their classic singles."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Truly Yours" (1989)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: Road To The Riches 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "'Truly Yours' got protested against. Certain groups of people took offense to it and protested the album at the radio stations. That song pretty much got my album pulled off the shelves in the West Coast; all the protesting was coming from there. I was just being comical. This was a creative side of G Rap. It was nothing against homosexuals, I wasn’t even thinking that way when I wrote it. But some people took it to heart.



Hip-hop was catching a lot of flak. You had senators and reverends burning CDs and running over them with bulldozers. It hurt us because we were on a label that was pretty much a big corporation.


"My contract was more with Cold Chillin’ than Warner Brothers at that time, but there was nothing Cold Chillin’ could do. Warner Brothers didn’t know how to deal with rappers getting protested yet. When Ice T did 'Cop Killer,' and they started getting flak from that, they decided not to fuck with Ice T. Likewise, they didn’t want to fuck with my album. Their solution to the negative attention was to shelf it. That’s basically what happened.

"It didn’t make Warner Brothers shut me down as an artist on their label or nothing like that, because I another album through Warner Brothers. After Wanted Dead or Alive they got nervous because Ice T did 'Cop Killer.' Hip-hop in general was catching a lot of flak. You had senators and reverends burning CDs and running over them with bulldozers. It hurt us because we were on a label that was pretty much a big corporation. It wasn’t like Rap-A-Lot Records, where J. Prince could say, ‘Fuck the reverends.’

"'Skintight Levi’s even knee-highs/Don’t try to lie, sugar, I know why.' The world has fucking changed, hasn’t it?"

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Talk Like Sex" (1990)

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Producer: Kool G Rap
Album: Wanted: Dead or Alive 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "This was a concept. I had always been a rapper for the thugs, the drug dealers, the goons, and the dudes locked up. I wanted to make something in a different direction. It wasn’t meant to be smooth. It was meant to get chicks interested in me in that kind of light but be funny at the same time. Everything is not always straight-faced or ice grilling for me. I like to laugh, I like to joke around. I like when other people make me laugh.

"Concept songs were very important but I never forced them. I would just let everything come natural, whatever took over my imagination I’d just roll with that. But I did want to rap about interesting shit. I didn’t want to do a thousand 'Men At Works', or a hundred 'Road to the Riches.' I wanted to expand."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Riker's Island" (1990)

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Producer: Marley Marl
Album: Wanted: Dead or Alive 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "They put a remixed version on the first album, Road to the Riches. I think they put the original version on Wanted: Dead or Alive. It was the only song Marley produced on the second album, and that was the label putting a song from my previous album that was a hit.



I didn’t have any personal experience with Rikers and I’m glad I didn’t. Who the fuck would want to except for an idiot?


"Not working with Marley just happened naturally. It wasn’t a conscious decision to stop working with him. I started growing, meeting more people and more producers. Different people were catching my ear. Large Professor was the first producer that caught my ear after I did the project with Marley.

"I didn’t have any personal experience with Rikers and I’m glad I didn’t. Who the fuck would want to except for an idiot? A lot of my people did time at Rikers though. People I had to take care of went to Rikers and ended up in the penitentiary."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Streets of NY" (1990)

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Producer: Kool G Rap, Large Professor, Anton
Album: Wanted: Dead or Alive 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "I met Large Professor through Eric B. Large was working with Eric B. and Rakim, and I heard what he was doing with Main Source and thought the singles were crazy. It was fucking amazing watching that dude. That dude on the SP1200s was like a one man band. I never seen anybody function the SP1200 like he did. He would chop shit up like he was on a typewriter.



I never seen anybody function the SP1200 like Large Professor did. He would chop songs up like he was on a typewriter.


"I’ve seen things like a blind man playing saxophone driving through Harlem when I was young. That just comes from my involvement in New York City. All this shit you would’ve seen, especially in the ‘70s. You would see dope fiends on the corner, dudes with puffy hands from shooting so much dope. I’ve seen that shit a lot man. I’ve seen dudes with no eyes in their sockets. I’ve seen a chick with a fucking slit across her throat.

"I was always a part of the streets. You know how many dudes around me did shit, killed people and got killed? I wasn’t detached from the streets at all."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo f/ Big Daddy Kane & Biz Markie "Erace Racism" (1990)

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Producer: Biz Markie, Cool V
Album: Wanted: Dead or Alive 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Warner Bros. Records

Kool G Rap: "'There was a whole situation with Yusef Hawkins at the time. He had gotten jumped and beaten until he died. It was a racial attack. The song was inspired by this and came from the heart. We went to the same neighborhood where he was killed at to do the video. We had people who lived in the neighborhood out there in the video.



My relationship with the Juice Crew today is distant. Me and Kane speak every couple of years or so.


"I had already been to the UK twice by this point, and seen different places. Hip-Hop crossed a lot of bridges and made bridges too. It removed gaps between different ethnicities and connected the world, no matter what race.

"I was a fan of Biz, and I used to love watch him perform on stage. He might have had the best showmanship skills in the Juice Crew. He was a natural. I liked a lot of his records because the beats were knocking. My relationship with the Juice Crew today is distant. Me and Kane speak every couple of years or so."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "On The Run" (1992)

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Producer: Sir Jinx, Kool G Rap
Album: Live and Let Die
Label: Cold Chillin' Records

Kool G Rap: "At this point, DJ Polo was still my man, but we weren’t as close as we were early on. We had different lives. When we did the first album, we were running partners. By the time the third album hit, the success of having hit albums was forcing me one way and forcing him another way. I already had a little family. It wasn’t about running around in the streets all the time, with Polo or anybody. It was about raising my sons and playing home base. Polo was still my DJ for shows though.

"I did the third album with Sir Jinx. There was a lot of production that I was doing, I was tapping on the buttons now. I produced the original 'On The Run,' 'Edge of Sanity,' and 'Train Robbery.' Jinx just added things on top.



When I first went out to the West Coast, I didn’t understand seeing a dude wearing hair rollers but being a straight killer. I was getting used to their culture.


"Warner Brothers connected me with Jinx. I wanted to work with him because I heard some of the production he did for Ice Cube that I thought was crazy, like ‘Once Upon A Time.’ Jinx was located on the West Coast, so I went out there to do the album. Besides, I was loving Cali anyways, I used to have fun out there. This was before the East Coast versus West Coast beef. The cats on the West Coast were showing me love. When I first went out there, I didn’t understand seeing a dude wearing hair rollers but being a straight killer. I was getting used to their culture.

"Fortunately I never got to see the violence from gang culture on the West Coast, but I met Bloods and Crips. I hung out with both sides. I didn’t know the lines of separation then. I would learn later how serious they took that shit, but at that point, I didn’t understand that dudes were really seriously beefing over colors and territory.

"I was always a writer/novelist. The first thing I wanted to do before I started rapping was to write novels. I always had the instinct to tell stories, and that’s why I’m credited for being one of the most cinematic rappers. I never had any run-ins with the mob. That song was completely my imagination. It was all the gangster movies I watch and me being creative. My favorite gangster movie is Scarface; that might be the best movie, period. They haven’t topped Scarface to this date. I’ve been wondering why they’ve never done a Scarface 2, but now I’m thinking they should just redo Scarface."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo "Ill Street Blues" (1992)

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Producer: Trackmasters
Album: Live and Let Die 
Label: Cold Chillin' Records

Kool G Rap: "I linked up with the Trackmasters because they were doing production for a group that Cold Chillin’ started to work with called Lil Bastards. The material that the group had was hot on the strength of the production, which was all Trackmasters. My man up at Cold Chillin’, Fly Ty [Tyrone Williams, CEO of the label] linked me up with them.

"The first time we went to the studio in Queens, Frank Nitty [who was originally in Trackmasters] was like, ‘Yo G, I got this sick loop,’ but he didn’t have it on him. He had to go all the way back to his crib in The Bronx to go get ['Get Out Of My Life' by Joe Williams and the Jazz Orchestra]. As soon as I heard the beat it inspired the song. I wrote the first two verses right there. When we went to mix the record, I had the third verse prepared to lay down.

"Bill Blass was my man. He was a real street dude out of Brooklyn. He ended up being my road manager for awhile. He was in the video for 'Ill Street Blues' and 'Road To The Riches,' and on the back cover for Wanted: Dead Or Alive. I connected him with Eric B."

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo f/ Scarface, Bushwick Bill & Ice Cube "Two To The Head" (1992)

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Producer: Sir Jinx, Kool G Rap
Album: Live and Let Die 
Label: Cold Chillin' Records

Kool G Rap: "Jinx did that beat and then I ended up going back to New York for a little while. There were a couple of times while I was recording the album that I had to go back home because I had a family. This is one of the times where I went home and then came back, and Ice Cube had laid a verse to the beat. I think it was something Jinx had arranged. Me and Cube had a mutual respect for each other as artists. But I arranged for Scarface and Bushwick Bill to drop verses, I was always a fan of Geto Boys. They were already out in Cali for a music event, and so I took advantage of that and got them to come to the studio.

"I thought that the East Coast-West Coast beef was fucked up. There were dudes in Cali that I got to know, and it wasn’t like that for me and them. I was surrounded by the West Coast. I was disappointed.



I met 2Pac during the L.A. Riots. Jinx introduced us. We all got into the same car. It was me, Pac, Jinx, and my man. We were in a convertible BMW, riding around and shooting guns. People were wilding all over the city.


"I met 2Pac during the L.A. Riots. We were in the same studio recording for our albums. Jinx introduced us. Pac was excited to meet me and vice versa. I was bumping Pac’s first album before I even met him. I was crazy about 'Soulja Story.' We then all got into the same car. It was me, Pac, Jinx, and my man. We were in a convertible BMW, riding around and shooting guns. But there were a lot of pissed off people at that time out there. People were wilding all over the fucking city. Police weren’t even interacting, because it was chaos everywhere.

"We only met that one time, and then we spoke on the phone a couple of times. There was never another time to make a song together. I never met Biggie.

"I haven’t spoken to Ice Cube since that time. I think he’s been pretty busy doing his thing, making movies and next level shit. Me and Scarface were praising each other on Twitter not too long ago, he’s the homie.

"I was confident that Cold Chillin’ would put the album out without Warner Brothers. I wasn’t a new artist trying to break-in, I had a huge fan base and Cold Chillin’ was an established label on its own. I thought they could get the job done, maybe not on Warner Brothers’ level, but they could pretty much do what they needed to do."

Kool G Rap f/ Nas "Fast Life" (1995)

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Producer: Buckwild
Album: 4, 5, 6 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Epic Street/SME Records

Kool G Rap: "Me being a street rapper, I’m always competing against street rappers. There were a lot of serious ones starting to come out at that time, like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, and M.O.P. And I loved all of it.

"'Fast Life' was looked at as a passing of the torch to Nas, because before I had been shopping him around. He recorded his whole demo in my studio. By the time we did 'Fast Life' together, Nas had already started to make his entry into the game. That was the first time we had rapped together on a song, and the timing made it a passing of the torch.



I set up a meeting with Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles at Def Jam to talk about Nas. Kevin Liles was the one who said that he sounds too much like a G. Rap, and so Def Jam passed.


"Before that, I set up a meeting with Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles at Def Jam to talk about Nas. Kevin Liles was the one who said that he sounds too much like a G. Rap, and so Def Jam passed. I knew I had some influence on him but I knew he had his own identity.

"Buckwild did the beat. The remix was a situation where the A&R of the label having some different producers do remixes. We heard one that we knew was the winner. It was a sample off Caravan of Love [by Isley Jasper Isley].

"Nas wasn’t nervous when he recorded that verse. He had complete confidence. He knew he was nice. I haven’t heard from him in over a decade now, but he’s always the homie to me. I haven’t spoken to Large Professor in years either, but he’s also a homie."

Kool G Rap "4, 5, 6" (1995)

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Producer: Dr. Butcher, Shawn Brown
Album: 4, 5, 6 
Label: Cold Chillin'/Epic Street/SME Records

Kool G Rap: "After this Live And Let Die, I wasn’t with DJ Polo anymore, so I stopped using his name. I was using Roc Raida at first, and then years later I would start using different DJs.



Today, you put an album out and it’s already old in two or three months. Back then you put out an album and dudes were rocking it that whole summer, that winter, and then the next summer.


"The song and album was based on a New York dice game called cee-lo. 4, 5, 6, was the equivalent to the Ace of Spades and Jack of Spades in Blackjack; it was an automatic winner. Then you could win with trips, a head crack [two dice of the same number and a third dice of six], and a few other ways. It’s just like if somebody titled something 'Royal Flush.' Nothing’s beating that.

"It was produced by Dr. Butcher and CJ Moore. Together, they did 'It’s A Shame,' 'Money on My Brain,' and 'Executioner Style.' Dr. Butcher had rolled with me for awhile, but production wasn’t something he was doing at first. He grew into it after just being a DJ.

"The album took awhile because it was a transition for the label. Plus, back then I wasn’t making an album every year. Music was lasting longer back then anyways. Today, you put an album out and it’s already old in two or three months. Back then you put out an album and dudes were rocking it that whole summer, that winter, and then the next summer."

Kool G Rap "A Thug's Love Story (Chapter I, II, and III)" (1998)

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Producer: CJ Moore, Dr. Butcher
Album: Roots of Evil 
Label: Illstreet/Downlow

Kool G Rap: "That was just me being cinematic. I wrote this long story, and it was Dr. Butcher and CJ Moore’s idea to change the beat up for each verse. I don’t have a specific memory of writing that song, but once I start on a story like that, when I immediately love the first verse I’m not going to procrastinate writing the remaining verses. It probably took me two or three days to write.



I also used to always like to write in black ink only. It was a superstition of mine that verses would come out better when I wrote them in black ink.


"I never did a lot of rewriting, period. If I start writing something and I’m second-guessing it, I’m probably not going to use it. By the first four lines, if it ain’t moving me, I scratch it right then and there.

"My writing process has been different at different stages of my life. Early in my career I liked to write at night. But over the years it changed. It didn’t really matter what time, as long as I was feeling inspired. I also used to always like to write in black ink only. It was a superstition of mine that verses would come out better when I wrote them in black ink. Now, I don’t even write verses, I type them in one of my phones. I started typing them around 2003."

Sway and King Tech f/ RZA, Tech N9ne, Eminem, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap, Jayo Felony, Chino XL & KRS-One "The Anthem" (1999)

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Producer: King Tech, DJ Revolution
Album: This or That 
Label: Interscope

Kool G Rap: "Sway and [King] Tech reached out to me. They hosted one of the most historical, memorable hip-hop stations on the West Coast. These are the dudes that were bumping real hip-hop early and sticking to it. They reached out and I made it happen. I recorded my part in the studio by myself and then eventually they wanted me to do the video. I flew out to Cali to do the video.

"I already knew Chino XL before the shoot. I met Jayo Felony there and he was real cool. I appreciated what Jayo Felony, was doing around the time. I was around when Tech N9ne was there but I didn’t know who Tech N9ne was at the time. I thought he did his thing on that record though.



I never got involved in the Bridge Wars because then I would’ve been fighting somebody else’s battle and that would make my man Shan look weak.


"I never met Eminem, not even on set for the video. I think 'The Anthem' was the first time hearing him and I was like ‘Yo, he fucking killed this shit.’ I’m a fan of his first album. It was kind of amazing how nice he was because when Em first dropped he was still really hungry. Just flow wise and wordplay, shit was real catchy.

"I never got involved in the Bridge Wars because then I would’ve been fighting somebody else’s battle and that would make my man Shan look weak. KRS-One was ill but I think Shan did his thing coming back with 'Kill That Noise.' It might’ve not hit with everybody as much as 'South Bronx' but Shan held his own.

"Me and KRS would bump into each other years later and end up on the same venue doing shows. One of the last shows I did with him, there was a point in his set where he called me out on stage and gave a little hip-hop history lesson to the audience. He put up a chart with MCs on it. It was really an honor especially coming from him. He’s a dude from my era who I really respect too."

Mobb Deep f/ Kool G Rap "The Realest" (1999)

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Producer: The Alchemist
Album: Murda Muzik 
Label: SME, Columbia, Loud

Kool G Rap: "I was in New York at this time, promoting Roots Of Evil, and we were in one of our promotional vans. Up by the Apollo Theater, Prodigy had seen my van and he ran up on the van, right up on my side. He was like ‘Yo G Rap! Yo!’ and dudes in the van were like, ‘Yo that’s Prodigy!’ He told me he loved my shit and wanted to work and I was down. So we ended up trading contacts and he hit me up a couple of weeks later.



Up by the Apollo Theater, Prodigy had seen my van and he ran up on the van, right up on my side. He was like ‘Yo G Rap! Yo!’


"He wanted me to come to the studio and I went. He pulled up this track The Alchemist had just done. I wasn’t familiar with Alchemist at the time but once I heard the track, I knew it was hot. I did the verse right then and there. Me and Prodigy had our verse and we had the chorus. Havoc wasn’t even there. He laid his verse another time when I wasn’t there.

"I’m just glad The Source acknowledged [my verse] as a Hip-Hop Quotable. I thought the verse was fire and I saw the reaction the night I laid it down at the studio."

Reflection Eternal f/ Kool G Rap "Ghetto Afterlife" (2000)

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Producer: Hi-Tek
Album: Train of Thought 
Label: Rawkus/UMVD

Kool G Rap: "I don’t even recall some of my features. I do so many features. it’s hard for you to tell me titles and then have me know the feature. But I actually went to the studio to do this with him. We both were signed to Rawkus Records. And he kind of revered me as one of his influences so I’m sure that’s why he wanted to do a feature with me. I think real highly of Talib as well.



By the time I had finished my album and Rawkus was ready to put it out, they had lost their distributor and their whole financial backing. That delayed the release date of my album.


"I was already in contact with Rawkus [prior to signing] because they were talking about a single with a friend of mine named B1. And I had B1 on my album four to six years prior. So we were already handling business.

"By the time I had finished my album and Rawkus was ready to put it out, they had lost their distributor and their whole financial backing so they had to find a whole different situation. It led to a bunch of complications. And that delayed the release date of my album. I wasn’t happy anymore."

Kool G Rap f/ Snoop Dogg & Devin The Dude "Keep Going" (2001)

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Producer: Hi-Tek
Album: N/A
Label: Rawkus

Kool G Rap: "This was a record they already had with Devin The Dude and Snoop on it and they suggested that I lay a verse on it. I wasn’t trying to be a hard head and not take any of their suggestions. I had already done the bulk of the album, doing everything I wanted to do.



But you know, Rawkus Records, I think it did a lot of trying to follow trends and trying to follow what was hot at the moment. This is probably one of the reasons why they’re not around right now.


"I was never really with doing a feature that’s not organic. If I do a feature, I like to touch base with the artists. But this wasn’t the case. Nobody at the label could make me do anything, but they were being very suggestive.

"There was no concrete decision on whether this was going to be a single or an album cut. I know they were hoping it was going to be a single but they never put it out as a single. I think they serviced it to radio to get some spins on it to see if it would manifest itself into a single. But nobody ever pushed a button on it. But you know, Rawkus Records, I think it did a lot of trying to follow trends and trying to follow what was hot at the moment. This is probably one of the reasons why they’re not around right now."

LL Cool J f/ 50 Cent, Kool G Rap, Prodigy & Tony Yayo "Queens"

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Producer: Unknown 
Album: G-Unit Radio: After Curtis
Label: N/A

Kool G Rap: "One time, 50 did an interview on a Florida radio station and the DJ happened to be my dude. They were interviewing 50 and I think my name was brought up so my man asked him, ‘Yo would you do something with G Rap?’ And 50 said, ‘Absolutely.’ So my man passed him my number and 50 called. My man didn’t give me a heads up. My phone just rung and somebody on the line was just like, ‘Yo what up G, it’s 50.’

"This had to be around 2006. This is when G-Unit was exploding. He had just signed Mobb Deep and I think he had signed M.O.P. already. He was starting up a label movement and he was looking to sign artists in the realm of what I do. He wanted to see if I was open to possibly doing some business, and at the time I definitely was. But it never manifested into anything besides the conversation at that time. We spoke a couple of times and then it just dissipated.



When I was at 50’s house, he told me that he never pressed the gas pedal on my deal because he was in the middle of changing buildings. 50 talks in code sometimes so you gotta piece together a puzzle when he talks. He meant like a different home for G-Unit, the label.


"A year later he reached out again through his people. This was after I did a mixtape with Whoo Kid. They said 50 wanted me to come out and record at his house that he had bought from Tyson. He was working on the LL Cool J album [Exit 13]. And I recorded a song called 'Queens'—me 50, LL, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and Tony Yayo.

"When I was at 50’s house, he told me that he never pressed the gas pedal on my deal because he was in the middle of changing buildings. 50 talks in code sometimes so you gotta piece together a puzzle when he talks. So I know what he meant by changing buildings. He meant like a different home for G-Unit, the label. And that’s eventually what he ended up doing.

"That was the first time I ever recorded with LL. We go back though. I first met L through a homie of mine named Silver Fox. We were all at this club my man had. This was before either of us had done a record. I had to be 15 or 16 at the time.

"And then LL started making records and blew up. I would occasionally link up with LL after that through Doc Da Butcher, who was also tight with him. He was real cool. One time LL came through to my crib with Doc, and drove us out to Long Island. He wanted to show us this crib he had just bought. It was a mansion. And he had a brand new Porshe he drove us in.

"LL’s one of those dudes that became a star right out the gate. He was an immediate overnight sensation, but with staying power. He continued to be an elite rapper for a very long time."

Kool G Rap f/ Haylie Duff "On the Rise Again" (2007)

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Producer: DJ Premier
Album: Half a Klip 
Label: Chinga Chang/Latchey/Koch

Kool G Rap: "That was just somebody giving Preemo my vocals and him laying the beat to it. It wasn’t like me and Preemo were in the studio together at the same time. The vocals were laid to a different track. I used the Preemo version because that’s Preemo. He is an undeniable hip-hop producer. Who in their right mind is going to deny a DJ Premier track?



I wasn’t as involved in Half A Klip as I wanted to be for any G Rap project. But that’s because I had a lot of s**t going on in my personal life. It was pretty much left in somebody else’s hand to see the project through.


"I don’t know how Haylie Duff came about as a feature. I was told she did that but I wasn’t as involved in Half A Klip as I wanted to be for any G Rap project. But that’s because I had a lot of shit going on in my personal life. It was pretty much left in somebody else’s hand to see the project through its completion while I was dealing with other shit.

"I’m not going to get into what I went through personally about that because my personal life is for me and I give the public what I want to give them.

"I think my whole career has been slept-on. In the past decade I have had no major machine behind the records. I had no million dollar marketing promotion budget to really push it out there. Music was coming out and people weren’t even aware that I put out some new shit. Promotion and marketing is an extremely important thing."

Rick Ross f/ Gunplay, Kool G Rap & Triple C's "White Sand II" (2010)

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Producer:
Album: The Albert Anastasia EP 
Label: Maybach Music, Def Jam

Kool G Rap: "Ross’ management reached out to my peoples and me and Ross got on the phone and wanted me to drop a verse for something. I ended up doing that and it led to him hitting me back and wanting to know what my situation was. I told him, ‘Right now I’m a free agent,’ so he wanted to sit down and talk.

"I went out to Florida and kicked it with Ross for three days. That’s another situation that didn’t pan out, but it’s because I was going through the same complications I was going through that didn’t allow me to be as involved with the Half A Klipproject. it was the same situation. At the same time he was shouting Maybach Music already but Maybach Music was still a baby at the time. The relationship just kind of dwindled out.



I’m not delusional. Once you start making albums and records and you become a recording artist, you're not living the life of a gangster, and that doesn’t mean you're less of a man. It just means you did something positive with your life.


"Ross is a pretty witty dude. I love his wordplay, I love his flows, I love him as an artist in general. He makes good fucking music, bottom line. In my opinion, he makes good fucking music. If G Rap says somebody is kind of witty with their lyrics, I’m not saying it because Rick Ross is selling a million fucking records and I’m following the crowd of a million that purchases his shit.

"I ended up doing three songs. One was supposed to be for Ross but never came out. Another song was 'White Sand II.' The third song, 'Knife Fight,' was supposed to be for me. But I guess when he put his mixtape, he just wanted something with G Rap and decided to release the song. I wasn’t really upset because at that time the record would’ve gotten a lot further with Rick Ross putting it out on a Rick Ross mixtape than if G Rap just leaked it out. Even if I had made a conscious decision, I would’ve wanted it to be that way.

”I didn’t really feed into him being a corrections officer when I was asked about it before because what dude did prior to me meeting him, that’s just business. As far as him denying it, I think it hurt him at the time but obviously it didn’t hurt him in the long run because he’s still Rick Ross, he’s popping and people are still into his music and he’s successful.

”People need to stop relating this music shit to real life. Like, why don’t people do this shit to actors? Why don’t people want Robert DeNiro to fucking go out and shoot up an armored truck because he played that role in Heat? I wouldn’t want to put that pressure on anybody, not even an actor.



I really don’t think Biggie had business going out to L.A. when there was such beef between East Coast and West Coast. I don’t think he should’ve been out there doing a release party. Dude ended up getting his life snuffed out because of that. You don’t go in front of a pack of wolves dangling meat because nature will take its course.


”I’m not delusional. Once you start making albums and records and you become a recording artist, you're not living the life of a fucking gangster, and that doesn’t mean you're less of a man. It just means you did something positive with your life. A lot of these dudes left the block because they wanted a better way. Why make it into the game and still do the dumb shit that brings you down? That defeats the purpose.

”I really don’t think Biggie had business going out to L.A. when there was such beef between East Coast and West Coast. I don’t think he should’ve been out there doing a release party because it was a dangerous climate for him out there. And dude ended up getting his life snuffed out because of that. You don’t go in front of a pack of wolves dangling fucking meat because nature will take its course. None of the people that would’ve said he was a coward for not going to Cali would be rushing to send Biggie’s mother money for his daughter.

”Music does come from a personal place, but that’s what you call an artist, not a criminal. Criminals stick people up, they do robberies, etc. If you want to be a criminal and an artist at the same time—there is no fine line. You can’t have one foot in the life of crime and the other foot in an honest career.

"A painter can paint a picture of a place he has never been using imagination. The place can exist in reality or it doesn’t have to exist, but it’s your imagination and that’s what being an artist is. But too many times in hip-hop, people keeping it real are keeping it real stupid and they get the two confused."

Tony Touch f/ Action Bronson & Kool G Rap "It's A Queens Thing" (2013)

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Producer: Statik Selektah
Album: The Piece Maker 3: Return of the 50 MC's 
Label: Touch Entertainment, Red River Entertainment

Kool G Rap: "Tony Touch just asked me for a verse. He didn’t even really get into who was going to be on it. It was kind of a surprise for me. I like how it came out. Bronson’s people reached out and I spoke with him. He let me know he wanted to do a track with me for his album and that was another situation where I was happy to be a part of it because I think he’s an artist that has skills. I did this one in the studio with him.



I look at Action Bronson like one of the promising lyricists coming up in these times. It’s sort of like being in the studio to record for Pun 13 years ago. It’s like going back to those times.


"He definitely showed a level of respect and appreciation for me being a part of his project. It was a mutual thing because I look at him like one of the promising lyricists coming up in these times. It’s sort of like being in the studio to record for Pun 13 years ago. It’s like going back to those times. Or M.O.P. when I did a song for their album.

"I hear the Ghostface influence somewhat. I don’t even think Action Bronson denies that. But I don’t think he’s a carbon copy of Ghostface. He still has his own, separate identity.

"It’s not like I hear him sound like Ghost in everything that he does because I’ve heard songs where he doesn’t sound like him but then I have heard a couple of songs where he does sound like Ghostface, which is not a bad person to be compared with. I love Ghostface."

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