To further expand on the point on what is a good emccee....


You have to understand that Tariq [Black Thought] is the last MC of his kind, which sort of puts people in an uncomfortable position, because the standards have been changed. Tariq is studying under the school of battle rap, the Kanes and the KRS-Ones of the world. I'm not even saying that the stuff isn't timeless, but, it's just that that's not existent in the marketplace. People want characters. Jay-Z is the bad-guy-turned-good. You know what Lil' Jon's character is. You know what Busta Rhymes' is. You know Eminem is crazy. 50 Cent was a gangsta, you know what I mean. The market has been marginalized with more characters than MC's. There are some people that coincidentally happen to be excellent rappers. Jay-Z, for instance. Whenever we do shows together, I'm always fighting for him to do...like "Yo do this other verse, my favorite song," and he's like "No, that won't translate to the audience." At Madison Square Garden, he did a portion of the show which was like "I'm dedicating this one to the real MCs" and we only did two songs like that, and it was the only time the audience was like "yeah, you know, let me sit down for this one." Then, he turns around and winks at me like "I told you so."




MR. SANDMAN