Will I Am : "Black Thought Is A Trillion Times Better than Jay Z"

[Standing on business]

Ask yourself why rakim don't got that problem

Because saying Rakims name wouldn’t make headlines

 

[Westbama Heartthrob]

Because saying Rakims name wouldn’t make headlines

This ain't about the media. It's about Hip hop

You think if somebody drop disrespect on rakim name there won't be any backlash, you bugging

 

[Red Money]

I don’t care that much about mainstream success which is a different subject to how good a rapper you are. These things somehow became conflated as hip hop became more commodified but was never traditionally the most dominant factor. No one really gave a fukk how Rakim sold in comparison to BDK.

I know it’s hard to believe but some emcees never cared about “mainstreaming” or at least not to the extent where they were going to alter their whole sound to do it. We’ve now gotten to the point where people watch first week sales and use that as some kind of indication of the quality of the music. That’s what “mainstreaming” got hip hop. Oooh so and so did 100k. Oooh so and so didn’t do 100k they flopped. Who gives a fukk? Drake is the most mainstream rapper of all time and I always thought he was wack. Funny how many people 20 years later suddenly figured that out.

The Roots “mainstreaming” or not “mainstreaming” has fukk all to do with how good a rapper Black Thought is.

The job is to rock as much of the crowd as possible.

I guess you can make a distinction of the crowd demographics and if their fanship matters ....but on a stage you want to rock the crowd more than the next rappers and that pretty much translates into record sales over the last 30 something years.

 

[Yaboysix]

But ..he IS...

I named my Son Tariq after that nygga cause he so got damn Raw.