402 - Nas - Illmatic - Tony Baker

 

LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE ON SPOTIFY HERE

GET TICKETS TO A DIGITAL PEFORMANCE OF THE GODDMAN COMEDY JAM HERE — JOIN JOSH ADAM MEYERS, TONY BAKER AND ADAM RAY ON THURSDAY 10/15/20 AT 7P PDT AND BE PART OF THE INTERACTIVE AUDIENCE!

EPISODE SUMMARY:

Some music just hits harder if you can see yourself in the lyrics and find a personal connection to the stories being told in the songs. Queensbridge’s brightest son Nas is unparalleled in the world of hip-hop when it comes to painting a gritty and distinctly raw picture of life in the New York City housing projects where he grew up. And so it’s not hard to understand why comedian Tony Baker was so drawn to the rapper, from the moment he first saw the music video for one of the single’s from his 1994 debut album Illmatic. It mirrored the harsh realities of Tony’s own life growing up in Chicago, which Tony has drawn upon in his incredible work on NBC’s The Carmichael Show, HBO’s All DEF Comedy, and Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks.

Join The 500 Podcast Patreon!

SHOW NOTES:

00:30 - Intro
11:00 - Learning from Legs
17:15 - The Martin Scorcese of Hip-hop
24:00 - Creative cohesion
30:30 - A childhood of violence
38:00 - Some of the best words
42:30 - The power of saying “No”
54:00 - The best voice on Instagram
58:30 - Keeping the kids safe
1:08:45 - What’s beef?
1:16:15 - Never read the comments
1:22:30 - Teddy Riley’s technical difficulties
1:34:00 - Praise be to Nipsey
1:39:30 - Facts!
1:43:15 - Old friends
1:46:30 - Stop the movie, your wife’s water broke
1:50:45 - Outro/New music

ALBUM STREAM - IllMATIC:

NEW ARTIST INFLUENCED BY NAS: