Sir Daniel:
You are listening to the Queue Points podcast, where
Sir Daniel:
hip hop lives breathes and booms.
Sir Daniel:
I'm DJ Sir Daniel.
Jay Ray:
And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my governments
Jay Ray:
as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III and Sir Daniel, one of the things that was
Jay Ray:
really important, something really important happened in hip hop history
Jay Ray:
in 1995, which is also the year I graduated from high school, just saying,
Sir Daniel:
You just had to rub that in.
Sir Daniel:
It's okay.
Sir Daniel:
I graduated two years earlier, but still, let's take it back to August, 1995.
Sir Daniel:
Jay Ray at the Paramount Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Sir Daniel:
Jay Ray, we're talking about the 1995 source awards.
Sir Daniel:
Now, Jay Ray, the Source Awards is a major, major magazine
Sir Daniel:
for hip hop at this point.
Jay Ray:
yeah.
Jay Ray:
So this is an interesting time.
Jay Ray:
Um, it, the source to your point is the Bible of hip hop.
Jay Ray:
It's helped us to discover so many artists, but this particular
Jay Ray:
year was really pivotal.
Jay Ray:
So this is the second year of the source
Sir Daniel:
Mm-hmm.
Jay Ray:
Hip hop is in.
Jay Ray:
Hip hop is basically bicoastal, right?
Jay Ray:
The way that people viewed hip hop is you viewed it from the perspective
Jay Ray:
of New York and Los Angeles, right?
Jay Ray:
That's kind of the lens that we were in.
Jay Ray:
But this particular year for August, it was tensions were really,
Jay Ray:
really high because by this point,
Jay Ray:
a lot of things have happened.
Jay Ray:
Tupac has been a shot.
Jay Ray:
Tupac is at this moment in prison.
Sir Daniel:
Yep.
Jay Ray:
'cause he's been convicted for sexual assault.
Jay Ray:
But there is this brewing tension, this East coast, west
Jay Ray:
coast tension that's happening.
Jay Ray:
And the source awards are the place where it kind of boils over.
Sir Daniel:
I mean, it comes to a raging boil and it, it's palpable.
Sir Daniel:
Um, you can hear it.
Sir Daniel:
You can see it, the tension, you can see it in people's faces the way,
Sir Daniel:
based on the way who they're sitting next to, who they're sitting behind,
Sir Daniel:
who they're sitting in front of it.
Sir Daniel:
It's kind of a cluster and, but it, it, I don't know.
Sir Daniel:
But it also is a moment where history is being changed specifically for a
Sir Daniel:
group that we are, that the world is very proud of and the world is, has
Sir Daniel:
celebrated time and time again, and they are about to become the choice.
Sir Daniel:
For new artists of the year.
Sir Daniel:
And so Jay, I think we just can't, I mean, we representing for Atlanta right now.
Sir Daniel:
We here at Banjee Boombox straight here in the Atlanta, in the A TL.
Sir Daniel:
And well, for the people that are listening right now, walking around and
Sir Daniel:
listening to us, let's briefly describe to them exactly what the new artists of the
Sir Daniel:
Year award consists of and who is actually being nominated this year in 1995.
Jay Ray:
Yeah.
Jay Ray:
So, um, there was a couple new artists awards for the source awards that year.
Jay Ray:
This one was, the one that caused a lot of attention was the group award.
Jay Ray:
So this is, so this particular award was for group, there were four
Jay Ray:
nominees, which actually says a lot about where hip hop was in this moment.
Jay Ray:
So nominated in this particular moment.
Jay Ray:
Was Bone Thugs in Harmony out of Cleveland, but closely
Jay Ray:
affiliated with California
Sir Daniel:
because of,
Jay Ray:
Records and
Sir Daniel:
we go.
Jay Ray:
So Outkast straight out of Atlanta.
Sir Daniel:
out, out of the a and really with no affiliation.
Sir Daniel:
'cause they're from the a they're, they're just there doing their thing.
Sir Daniel:
And next up we got ill and Al scratch and you real hip hop has, you know who
Jay Ray:
All right.
Jay Ray:
You know who Ill and out scratch
Sir Daniel:
Where am I?
Sir Daniel:
Whole Me.
Jay Ray:
right.
Jay Ray:
And last but not least of course, nominated in this category
Jay Ray:
was Smith and Wesson Bootcamp.
Jay Ray:
Click The Shining, one of my favorite albums from that whole run of albums
Sir Daniel:
You talking about New York,
Jay Ray:
You know what I mean?
Jay Ray:
So Sir Daniel, you know what I mean?
Jay Ray:
Set up though.
Jay Ray:
Who's so, there's, who's, who's like presenting this award
Jay Ray:
and how this thing went down.
Jay Ray:
Okay.
Sir Daniel:
So, and it's so funny because.
Sir Daniel:
The, the winners of the award and the presenters of the award are actually
Sir Daniel:
about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
Sir Daniel:
So, like Jay Ray said, let me set the scene.
Sir Daniel:
Presenting the nominations and the award for best new artists of the year
Sir Daniel:
group is none other than salt, pepper, and spindarella and their homeboy.
Sir Daniel:
Uh,
Jay Ray:
Kid from.
Sir Daniel:
kid from kid and play.
Sir Daniel:
Exactly.
Sir Daniel:
And so, you know, salt and pepper, they, you know, at this point, salt and
Sir Daniel:
pepper are, are relishing in the fact that, you know, they're very necessary.
Sir Daniel:
You know, people are shooting and they, they've gone multi-platinum.
Sir Daniel:
They got some coins.
Sir Daniel:
They're about to, they've got this, this crazy new record deal.
Sir Daniel:
Well, we saw what happened with that, but, um, but they're, they're on top of
Sir Daniel:
the world and they're feeling themselves.
Sir Daniel:
So they're reading off the nominations.
Sir Daniel:
Bone Thugs in harmony, Outkast Ill and Al Scratch, Smith and Wesson.
Sir Daniel:
And then the pivotal point of the evening, they read off the
Sir Daniel:
name of the actual winners.
Sir Daniel:
And you think that, you know, Sope will just like fake it till they make it?
Sir Daniel:
Nah.
Sir Daniel:
They print, they gave the most lackluster and the winner is out.
Jay Ray:
Okay.
Jay Ray:
The looks.
Sir Daniel:
And they, they used the tiniest fingers to clap to, to, you
Sir Daniel:
know, I mean, just no way of shielding their disgust for like, who, who,
Sir Daniel:
who is these country bumpkins, you know, who, who are they, you know,
Sir Daniel:
bootcamp clickers from Brooklyn, Ellen.
Sir Daniel:
I scratches from New York.
Sir Daniel:
We represent New York.
Sir Daniel:
You know, and, and that's that, that, that shows how deep the RIF was.
Sir Daniel:
The regional rifts were between artists from different parts
Sir Daniel:
of the country in that moment.
Sir Daniel:
And so for Salt Npe who are pretty, are pretty well respected at this
Sir Daniel:
point, that was such a theme.
Sir Daniel:
That was a big deal for them to carry on in that manner.
Sir Daniel:
And Andre of course, has been observing what's happening.
Jay Ray:
the energy
Sir Daniel:
and the west coast, and it's like, you know what?
Sir Daniel:
In this moment he's happy to accept this award because they worked really
Sir Daniel:
hard and, but he, but he said something.
Sir Daniel:
It's a quotable to this day, this is the moment, 30 years ago,
Sir Daniel:
August, 1995, Andre 3000 proclaims.
Sir Daniel:
His best, uh, south side voice.
Sir Daniel:
The South got something to say.
Sir Daniel:
And Jay Ray, like, can you tell the people what the reactions were at that moment?
Jay Ray:
the reactions were, well, so here's the thing.
Jay Ray:
So to that point, right, the setup was people didn't know what to, I
Jay Ray:
don't think people really knew what to think at that moment, right?
Jay Ray:
Two out of the four nominees are not from New York, right?
Jay Ray:
New York has been lifted up as kind of the center of gravity
Jay Ray:
as it relates to hip hop.
Jay Ray:
And the fact that this group who was really new, right?
Jay Ray:
They didn't show up until a year before from this place called Atlanta.
Sir Daniel:
but Outkast, to your point, was rapping.
Sir Daniel:
Rapping.
Jay Ray:
They were rapping.
Jay Ray:
Rapping and they, they were about bars and they were from Atlanta and they sounded
Jay Ray:
like they were from Atlanta, and their sound was unique and from Atlanta, so.
Jay Ray:
The room, the reason why out, uh, uh, Andre says this thing is, of
Jay Ray:
course they can feel the tension.
Jay Ray:
One, the people that were presenting them the award didn't even care that they won.
Jay Ray:
The people that were in the room didn't care that they won.
Jay Ray:
And it was just like, yo, how did, he was really looking them in their
Jay Ray:
face and like, yo, we are here.
Jay Ray:
And the South got something to say and he couldn't have been more, right?
Jay Ray:
What's up y'all?
Jay Ray:
So this is not the end of this conversation.
Jay Ray:
Me and DJ Sir Daniel, we have so much more to talk about.
Sir Daniel:
the juiciest part of this conversation is on the other side.
Sir Daniel:
And what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to come back
Sir Daniel:
by the table and talk to your boys.
Sir Daniel:
You're gonna have to talk to us.
Sir Daniel:
You're gonna have to scan that QR code so you can hear the
Sir Daniel:
rest of this conversation, because the really iconic moment
Sir Daniel:
of the 1995 source awards.
Sir Daniel:
Oh, we gonna talk about that.
Sir Daniel:
You thought Outkast was it?
Sir Daniel:
Mm. Trust me, you don't wanna miss this.
Jay Ray:
See y'all over at the table, y'all.
Jay Ray:
Peace.
