5. Gang StarrStep In The Arena

I got into hip-hop before this record, but this is the one that really did it. And it’s one I go back to when I forget what hip-hop can do. I think DJ Premier is part of a small community of people – like J Dilla and Terminator X – that swing, they groove – you’re being told what to do by the music. There’s space in it and it makes me fucking happy as hell. I blast Gang Starr if I have to clean the house, and I’m just fucking happy. I’m in a wild way. Being happy is pretty wild these days in the world, it’s a psychedelic experience. It’s not so easy.

There are a couple of tunes on there where the rhymes are just mayhem. And I really love the braggadocio of the era. I got into hip hop through standup comedy, through Eddie Murphy. I was living in the suburbs, so not the easiest, and not coming from a musical family, and not really having friends that listen to music very much. It was a solitary thing. This record fascinated me, then EPMD going into A Tribe Called Quest, into De La Soul, and all the way into Common and Erykah Badu. That’s a line of shit I fucking love, and I think is radical.