Kool G Rap Reflects On Selling Crack Before Turning To Hip-Hop
Kool G Rap, one of the early pioneers of the mafioso rap style that was adopted by rappers like The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Jay-Z, and Raekwon, says he does not take pride in any of the real-life criminal activity he engaged in before embracing a career as an emcee.
“I was never proud to participate in any of the street activities that I was involved in that I did back then,” Kool G Rap tells the Village Voice. “This is why when Eric B introduced me to DJ Polo, and the first time Polo took me to Marley [Marl’s] house, I never went back to the block again to continue what I was doing.”
Kool G admits that he used to sell crack out of a Brooklyn Key Food store and an East Elmhurst motel when he was a teenager, but the Queens native feels that the drug dealer lifestyle is not one that should be glorified.
He takes particular aim at current emcees who he feels inappropriately sells the image of dealing drugs as a badge of honor.
“You get the rappers that brag about it and things like that, because we live in the day where the music scene and the records are cool when the artists are saying that, ‘I sold this and that, I flipped this into that,’ but they get that from us, the cats from my era… I was talking about things that were going on but I wasn’t really glorifying that. I was just saying what I was doing cause I was caught up in the street life, and I was doing this to put money in my pocket.”Kool G points out his 1989 song “Road To The Riches” as an example of telling the authentic story of life in the inner-city versus celebrating being a criminal.
“You can see in the record ‘Road To The Riches,’ I wasn’t really glorifying it. I was just speaking about my experiences to whoever I thought would listen at the time.”
On “Road To The Riches” Kool G uses the first verse to talk about the struggles of being poor. The second verse centers on the highs of making money from dealing drugs, and the third verse addresses the ultimate results for most people who choose to sell crack- death or jail.
To this day, Kool G Rap says his former life is not one he honors.
“I don’t really regret too many things in my life and too many choices I made, but I don’t take pride in selling drugs and stuff like that.”
