Black Thought returns for round three of his interview with The Combat Jack Show presented by Complex TV. This series of discussions with Thought could be the most revealing glimpse of his evolution as an MC to date. Thought talks battle rapping and takes it back to a few pivotal moments in his career. He cites the arrival of Nas‘ 1994 debut LP Illmatic as one of the first game changing events and a chance encounter with freestyle legend Supernatural as another – their meeting at a D.C. bus station would ultimately change his approach to rhyming and thus his life. Check the footage below.

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Black Thought is back for the second episode of his in-depth interview with The Combat Jack Show, dropping knowledge and bars as only a rap genius can. Thought breaks down his lyrics from “Boom”, drops flows at different speeds and gives a peek at a few of the key ingredients that go into creating a legacy as a legendary MC; South Philly’s what its built off in the case of this microphone fiend. Black Thought reveals the science behind impersonating his favorite rappers – Big Daddy Kane and Kool G. Rap most notably – and teams with in-house DJ Just Blaze to demonstrate the art of rocking over multiple beats at different bpm’s. The discussion is highlighted by anecdotes about Thought’s experiences rhyming with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Eminem during the 2009 BET Cypher and participating in the 1998 A Great Day In Hip-Hop shoot on East 126th Street in Harlem; Black Thought essentially received the hip-hop baton from the god himself, Rakim Allah. Check the interview for more.

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Providing listeners with a new platform to get their fill of all things beef, behind-the-scenes and other types of hip-hop head gossip, Complex TV has taken the popular  Combat Jack Show and turned it into a video series for their channel, and The Roots/Okayplayer’s own Black Thought performed guest duties for the debut episode.

To cut to the chase, the generally mild-mannered (but beastly on the mic) frontman of The Legendary spoke to Combat Jack and his co-hosts about that one time he and Nas almost went to blows over a comment, but decided to handle it like adults instead:

Nas got in some interview and he made a comment about how wack it was for us to do the movie, Bamboozled, with Spike Lee, and how you gon’ call yourself The Roots and Black Thought and you’re portraying a group called The Alabama Porch Monkeys?

I hadn’t really interacted with him at all up until that point. And then there was a show one night with Talib Kweli, and I think Kweli invited Nas and he invited me, and we were all there in the building together. I had a chance to meet Nas, and he explained to me that it wasn’t coming from a personal place, and he basically apologized.

I was ready for whatever. Yeah, I was gonna take Nas that night. When I heard he was gonna be there, I was like, “Should I just slap the shit outta Nas?”… But before any of that, he defused it, on some real, bigger man shit.

What Thought neglects to mention here was Nas’ own motivation for the comment, well-remembered by some of us in-house here at Okayplayer–apparently Nasir caught feelings when The Roots not only backed Jay-Z on his Unplugged special during the time when there was still a lot of ether–literally–between Nas and Jay but even played a medley of Nas beats including “Oochie Wallie” and “NY State Of Mind” underneath a segment of Hov’s performance dissing Nas, the kind of musical jokes only a band like The Roots can pull off. Their role in Bamboozled was apparently his first opportunity to slap back at the crew and the rest is history–just a little ‘behind the scenes’ information on the beef from the proud vegetarians here at OKP.

Although we’re sure a lyrical feud between Nas and Thought would have resulted in some of the best battle verses the game has ever seen/heard, we’re glad the two were able to settle things as a matter of differing opinions like grown-ass men. The brief interview also finds Tariq talking about his first impressions of a young ?uestlove, and the experiences of losing his parents to gun violence as a young man in Philly. Watch the full interview below and stay tuned for more episodes of The Combat Jack show on CTV.

shouts to CTV

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Black Thought and DJ J. Period are scheduled to appear at the Incredibowl 420 Extravaganja presented by G.T.D. Entertainment. The event headlined by DJ Premier and Raekwon, will feature the Shaolin chef performing his classic Only Built 4 Cuban Linx live onstage at Hoodlab. Immortal Technique will also be there to blaze the stage. The two-day event celebrating the mighty leaf kicks off tomorrow in Denver, Colorado. The 420 festivities will continue into 04/20. Check the video below for more details. Scroll down to purchase tickets.

>>>Purchase Extravaganja Tickets Here

The post Black Thought x J. Period Slated To Rock Incredibowl’s 420 Extravaganja appeared first on Okayplayer.

In case you needed any more reminders, Black Thought is quite possibly the Greatest Rapper Of All Times. DJ Jazzy Jeff, for his part, is pretty much the top contender for Greatest DJ In The Entire World, year in and year out (Today show be damned). Put them together and you got a G.O.A.T. jamwich (hold the curry) made to Philly-famous hoagie proportions. Which is why this jamwich-building workshop that Thought and Jeff conducted to warm up the crowd on a recent taping of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is a priceless little artifact of rap history, even though for these two gentleman it’s the equivalent of what doing a few push-ups to get the blood flowing in the morning is for me.

Shot on a cameraphone by our some-remain-nameless Okayplayer mole inside the Fallon organization, this footage is clearly not of the archival quality the conservationists here at the G.O.A.T. museum would prefer for our permanent collection. But the audio is clear and we have a good view of Thought and Jeff at work–and as I’ve said many times, if the footage is from Mars, nobody gives a damn if the camera is a little shaky. All of which leads me to ponder; skip all these other cameos and supergroups–can we get a Black Thought and DJ Jazzy Jeff concept album?? They could call it Black Jazz and the concept would be ‘We Are The Shit’. Don’t believe me, juh watch:

The post Black Thought x Jazzy Jeff Warm Up The Crowd At Jimmy Fallon appeared first on Okayplayer.

If you thought that look with Premier was a big look for Joey Bada$$ (it was), look who they’ve got young boy rhymin side by side with now. Statik Selektah assembles a lyricists dream team with Joey, Raekwon and Black Thought for his Extended Play single, “Bird’s Eye View.” All three emcees go off, as you’d expect, but umm no bias, that last verse is somethin’ serious. From any view (bird or otherwise) this is a win for hip-hop. Extended Play will be out June 18th via Duck Down/Showoff!

The post Statik Selektah “Bird’s Eye View” feat. Raekwon, Joey Bada$$ & Black Thought appeared first on Okayplayer.

So we had all these Roots TV episodes lying around in a shoebox (dunks, natch) full of VHS tapes. If you were born in this millenium Roots TV was a documentary series that followed The Legendary Roots Crew on their globetrotting grind; rocking stages from Japan to Glastonbury, signing autographs and bringing the funk to pre-Gryffindor tour busses. Today we bring you episodes 1 through 4, originally released as a single VHS tape in 1998. Look for cameos from Common, Planet Asia, various guests at the infamous Black Lily jam sessions at Wetlands and the cowbell that will be played on “Double Trouble.” A special heads up: Episode 3 features studio sessions for the immortal “Step Into The Realm” jawn from Things Fall Apart. Watch below to enjoy all that and more…Happy Throwback Thursday, y’all!

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The Roots hung out with Hard Knock TV at SXSW 2013 for a backstage interview before their set at the Samsung Galaxy Sound Stage. Black Thought, Kirk Douglas and Mark Kelley talked about their childhood musical influences, top five MCs and upcoming projects. There were no impromptu freestyles, but there are plenty of gems. Highlights include Black Thought citing Afrika Bambaataa‘s “Planet Rock” as the song that made him want to be an MC and Kirk’s childhood belief that the Bee Gees were really KISS without the makeup – think Clark Kent and Superman. Check it out below.

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In case you didn’t hear, Prince was the musical guest on last night’s episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, performing two songs, his latest single “Screwdriver” and the 1979 classic “Bambi.”  Note that Prince borrows The Roots‘ guitarist, Captain Kirk’s guitar for “Bambi.”  Either Prince forgot that he wasn’t playing his own guitar, or just didn’t want to mess up his own axe, because after the song Kirk’s guitar went airborne and crash landed on the floor of Studio 6B prompting this hilarious tweet from Black Thought:

Kirk your shit is BROKE son!…it’s bleeding son… BADDD. #theinstrumentformerlyknownas

— black thought (@blackthought) March 1, 2013

Watch Prince’s performances below!

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The one Black Thought turned out the Let’s Move It Philly event held on February 16th at illadelph’s Sigma Sound Studios to benefit his beloved GrassROOTS Foundation (only one of his many sidelines, as we was just touching on yesterday), sharing the mic with The Roots a-phillyates Truck North and STS.  The beats are ratchet to the point of “Rack City,” the audio is crunchy to the point of being Not Safe For Earphones and the rhyme prowess is tough to the point of must-watch. Turn the volume down on your iDevice and enjoy freestyles on “Rack City”; “Otis”; “I’m A Coke Boy”; “Same Damn Time”; “Lemonade” and more below:

shouts to HHS87TV

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