Big Punisher’s flow and persona was something unique to Hip Hop for the short time the culture was able to experience it. Few know that better than Black Thought.
Recently sitting down with Maria Myraine, The Roots emcee and Philadelphia native remembered recording one of the standout songs on Big Pun’s debut album Capital Punishment.
“He and I would talk on the phone often and exchange bars and when he was working on his album he said he wanted me to get on his album,” Thought recalled when asked about “Super Lyrical.” “When he recorded ‘Super Lyrical’ he wasn’t in the studio with me. He was on the road some place. I had just come from Europe and came straight from the airport to the [studio]… I knew the song, what I was going to spit, what the song concept was. I may have even heard his verse beforehand… It was an easy breezy recording session. I was trading Pun a verse for a verse.”
Black Thought spoke about Big Pun’s legacy as well and says that most artists from the 1990s are some variation of Kool G Rap and other greats.
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“Pun, in his interviews, he would always say that I was one of his favorite dudes,” he said. “I was also a fan from the gate from before ‘I’m Not A Player.’ He would spit those joints and I would be like, ‘Dude is nice. [He’s] a Puerto Rican [Kool G Rap], which essentially that’s what artists like Nas, myself, so many of us are some sort of variation of G Rap meets Rakim meets someone else. I appreciated that about Pun.”
Also during the interview, Thought spoke about his recent work with J. Period including their recently released collaborative single, “The Live Mixtape (James Brown Edition).”
Watch the full interview segment below:
For more The Roots coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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