"The Thinking Man’s Rapper", Black Thought interviewed by Touré [The Daily Beast]

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The Thinking Man’s Rapper

In a rare interview, Touré talks with Black Thought—front man for The Roots and the new house MC of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

— about what Chuck D. taught him about race, why rapping is like jumping rope, and the reasons behind his rhymes.

Black Thought is not just one of the best-named MCs in hip-hop history, he’s one of the best. As the front man of The Roots—Jimmy Fallon’s new house band for his late-night talk show—Black Thought is both a rapper’s rapper and an intellectual’s rapper, who doesn’t brag about the ghetto and never has to say how tough he is. He has a deliciously deep and steely voice, a tremendous rhythmic sensibility, and a pen that delivers furious flurries of rhymes about everything—politics, women, language, whatever. He’s got a personal style that’s as serious as a heart attack—he evinces that there’s-no-smiling-in-hip-hop thing, as if he’s not here to be loved by you, but instead here to slay you with his skill, take your respect, and leave.

Over the years, Black Thought, born Tariq Trotter, has done very few interviews—preferring, he says, to let his rhyming speak for him. But as The Roots will appear every night on Jimmy Fallon, he’s growing a little more amenable. I pulled him aside during a band rehearsal in a rehearsal space in Manhattan one day, found a tiny room, and talked to him about some of the science behind being an MC.

Who are the MCs you most closely studied and learned something from?

Kool G Rap. Big Daddy Kane. Rakim. KRS-One.

What have you learned from them?

From G Rap, I learned not to be pigeon held as regards to my vocabulary. The young Kool G Rap, when he was the cool genius of rap, ...

Original URL

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-06/the-thinking-mans-rapper

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-06/the-thinking-mans-rapper