“It’s a make-it-or-break-it period for us. We do the right thing, we’ll be able to pull into the 21st century with some kind of program. We do the wrong thing, the 21st century is going to be gone, there’ll be no coming back”
“Rakim's persona is that of a sagacious gangster, like Miles Davis's ... We're talking about that school of self-confirmed bad-assed-ness, where you don't need spectators to know you're looking sugarshit sharp. Drop Miles or Rakim on the moon, they'd still be chilly-most”
“Hiphop is the most modern example, after capoeira and basketball, of African culture’s bent towards aesthetic combat — what the graffiti movement itself long ago defined as ‘style wars.’ ”
“Forty-eight hours in the feeding cycle of New York City. There were Uzis, Public Enemy regrouping, and a clique of blond babes orbiting Axl Rose at the Cat Club. All of this connects. How was your week?”
