"The ideology of what I considered "real" hip-hop died at the 1995 Source Awards. I was literally at its funeral-- I sat three rows behind Nas. In the audience, the Bad Boy camp was on the far right, all the West Coast and the Southern rappers were in the middle, and on the far left were all the New York underground rappers like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and us. That was the day when Suge called out Puffy, and there were fights in the audience. I felt like a bomb was going to detonate.
Nas' body language that day told the whole story of where we were about to go. The more he got ignored for Illmatic, I literally saw his body melt in his seat. Almost like he was ashamed. He just looked so defeated. I was like, "Yo, he's not gonna be the same after this shit." None of us were the same after that day. I feel like the true underground lost its oxygen that night."
-?uestlove (Pitchfork Interview - ?uestlove: 15 Years)
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