I remember way back when

In my quest to entertain myself while my bosses are out of the office, I stumbled across a great site called Press Rewind, which presents a collection of old '90s-era interviews with rap artists. Here are a few highlights I came across, but I definitely recommend perusing the site from top to bottom on a rainy day.

-- "I ain't never seen no surgeon general on the side of my dime bag!" Redman circa '92, with an image of a young Tame One on the 2nd page.

-- "It's rap: young Africans and Latinos trapped in a cell of hell screaming, telling somebody we're still surviving out here. I'm doing my thing and nobody's stopping me, but I'm gonna tell you what's in my way." The Source's 5-mic review of Illmatic (authored by someone named "Shortie" who probably never realized what his/her relevance to rap music would become) and an early bio of Nas via Columbia Records.

-- "When we started playin' Hip Hop, there was basically no white kids that I knew about playin' Hip Hop at all. And like, people mostly thought we were probably Puerto Rican just by process of elimination. Just thought we were strange or odd Puerto Ricans." Beastie Boys interview just before Ill Communication. Gotta love the use of the word "phukk".

-- "Snoop and The D.O.C. record vocals as Dre's hands move across the large $750,000 mixing board -- twisting knobs and adjusting levels... [Dre] hits the STOP button. 'Damn, we gotta do that again.' His ears are focused -- a big part of his music is knowing what will sound right. The RECORD button is hit... STOP. 'One more time,' Dre says. Snoop, who has just borrowed $5 from me for a bag of weed, answers: 'Fuck, man!'" Big pre-Chronic feature on Dr. Dre from The Source, back when Snoop Doggy Dogg was simply known as "the vocalist on 'Deep Cover'". Dre talks about the NWA breakup, the Dee Barnes incident, and a bunch of other shit. Can't say I'm surprised to hear Daz open the door to Snoop's pad with a "thick butcher knife in hand".