Outside the Lines With Rap Genius - Adam Mansbach/J. Period Excerpt #1 - #RageIsBack Mixtape lyrics

J. Period: One of the things I do as a mixtape DJ in all my projects -- because all my projects are part documentary, part mixtape -- is really try and track down bits and pieces that are applicable to different sorts of things, and then when a project comes along like this, something's already sitting there ready to go As far as the structure of the whole tape, Adam and I have been talking [for] six months about this idea of a mixtape to promote the book, and then pushing that even further, like making a mixtape into a book, almost. When I was a kid, I had these book-and-record sets, and so I used that as an inspiration for the structure of the tape The songs themselves, I think that one of the themes in the hip-hop I love is the preservation of hip-hop. So for this, which felt like it's about the vibe and era of late 80's/early 90's New York and that brand of hip-hop, I sought out things that were like that. Or [I] took things -- some of the tape is existing tracks that I flipped and remixed. But it might be a specific verse. So it's Nas' third verse of "One Love," where he's telling that story, and that'll be the verse that I flip over another beat With regards to the new stuff, it's more about the artist than about me telling them what to say. So you have Common in the studio, I'm already going to be like, I want Common. I want that real, raw, gritty Common. And what he came with was this sequel to "I Used to Love H.E.R.," which any fan of hip-hop, that was tremendous and epic. Part of it is fortunate, but there's definitely thought behind it. We had in our minds what this was going to be before it came to fruition