Big Daddy Kane – BDK Style
By: Michael D. McClellan | Spending time with Grammy-winning rapper Big Daddy Kane is to spend time at the feet of hip-hop royalty. He’s recorded with Tupac, posed nude with Madonna and Naomi Campbell, and mentored a gifted young rapper named Jay-Z. His breakout hit, Ain’t No Half Steppin, ranks No. 24 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 greatest hip-hop songs of all time. Cited by many as one of the greatest lyricists ever, respect for Kane is everywhere: Eminem raps on Yellow Brick Road that “we was on the same shit, that Big Daddy Kane shit, where compound syllables sound combined,” while Ice-T flatly declares that he would pit Big Daddy Kane against any rapper in a battle. Legend has it that the ‘80s greatest rapper, Rakim, turned down a challenge to go mic-to-mic with Kane. So when the opportunity to interview Kane presents itself, you jump at the chance – and you do your homework. There are the obvious nuggets – his tight friendship with fellow rapper Biz Markie, the velour suits punctuated by his iconic high-top fade and those four-finger rings, and that racy photo shoot for Madonna’s controversial Sex book – but to climb into the ring without fully immersing yourself in all things Kane is to do so at your own peril. BDK doesn’t do fakers.
“I like working with people who are committed to their craft,” Kane says, the words delivered with the same richness that fuels his records. “Everything else is a waste of time.”
Born in Brooklyn, Kane’s fierce presence behind the microphone was honed during his early years as a battle rapper. His reputation as an MC later opened doors, while his nonpareil lyrical ingenuity set the bar for others who followed, including Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar (whose earliest exposure to hip-hop was listening to Big Daddy Kane as a newborn on his way home from the hospital). Kane’s tight friendship with Biz later led to a stint in the Queens-based Juice Crew, a collective headed by renowned producer Marley Marl. It turned out to be his big break.
“Before I had a record deal I was going from project to project, block party to block party, battling other rappers,” Kane says, “and I’d perform at parties in Brooklyn as well, so I was already quite experienced by the point I got involved with Juice Crew. Marley Marl, Roxanne Shante, MC Shan, TJ Swan, Kool G Rap, Biz…Juice Crew was groundbreaking, ahead of its time.”
Kane would soon break off on his own, signing with Len Fichtelberg’s Cold Chillin’ Records label in 1987. The 12” underground hit single Raw was released a few months later, followed by his debut album, Long Live the Kane, in 1988. The video for Ain’t No Half Steppin introduced the world to the Kane high-top fade and helped propel Yo! MTV Raps into the mainstream.
A year later, Kane released his most critically-acclaimed album, It’s a Daddy Thing, which included 1970s sample throwbacks like Smooth Operator and the Teddy Riley-produced track I Get the Job Done. A red-hot Kane was also sought out by Prince, who asked him to guest rap a verse on the Batdance remix for the ’89 blockbuster movie Batman.
“Prince loved it, Warner Bros. shelved it,” Kane says. “They thought it was too different, and not commercial enough at the time.”
In 1991, Kane won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for his performance on the Quincy Jones collaborative track Back on the Block. He also posed for Playgirl and appeared in Madonna’s Sex book during the ‘90s (we’ll get to that in a bit), and hired an unknown rapper named Jay-Z to tour with him. Those crowd-pleasing freestyle raps during costume changes sold Kane on Hova’s vast potential.
“By that point, we were trying to shop Jay-Z to get him a record deal,” says Kane. “In the middle of my show I would leave stage and have Jay-Z and Positive K come out. They would rap on stage while I was changing clothes. He wasn’t a hype man; he was part of the show. It was clear back then that he was going to be a star.”
In ‘95, Kane recorded with MC Hammer and Tupac Shakur on the rap song Too Late Playa. In 1998, he released his final solo album Veteran’z Day, before turning his attention to live performances and collaborative efforts with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, and Busta Rhymes. He’s also appeared in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and acted in several films, including Posse, The Meteor Man, Just Another Day, and Exposed.
Kane’s legacy – and his place in the pantheon of hip-hop royalty – is secure. The high-top fade and eyebrow cuts have long-since been retired but he continues to tour, both domestically and overseas, and the next generation of rappers continue to sing his praises. He does the occasional feature for artists like Joell Ortiz and The Game, and he’s set to be an executive producer on a Netflix biopic of the Juice Crew (release date TBD).
All part of the mosaic.
A Big Daddy thing.
I’m geeked right now. I’m sitting here with a legend, an icon, Brooklyn’s own Big Daddy Kane. How are you?
I’m great, man. Wonderful.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover – Tupac, Madonna, Jay-Z, those limited edition BDK British Walkers.
Let’s cover it all. I’m in a mood to go.
You got your start in your Brooklyn neighborhood. Tell me about that.
I’m what you call a lyricist, but I started off as a battle rapper. At an early age I wanted to get down with a cousin of mine – he was around 17, and I might have been 12 or 13 at the time. He was telling me that I was too young, and he was rhyming with these other two guys. I felt if I became nice enough to beat his friends, then he would have to put me down for a battle. That’s how I started writing battle rhymes.
Who were some of the guys you battled in the early ‘80s?
Hardly any of the ones that I battled were known at that time. There were a few artists that had records out – Mike Ski of Dismasters Crew and Disco Ritchie from Divine Sounds are a couple that come to mind – but the majority of them were just regular cats on the street. Once I started making music and the world had a chance to hear me, nobody wanted to battle then.
One of those who did battle you was Biz Markie. Tell me about that.
We had a mutual friend in Long Island, and this friend used to always come around telling me about his man Biz Markie D – he was Biz Markie back then, he was Biz Markie D. He wouldn’t stop talking about him. He’d say, “Biz said this funny rhyme about such and such,” or “Oh, he rocked this party here,” or “He did the human beatbox.” One day he said, “My man Biz Markie D is at Albee Square Mall right now,” and I said, “Look, let’s go find him and we battling. Then, you go tell this Biz dude about me from now on, because I’m going to eat his ass up.” So we went over to the mall and battled.
Who won?
[Laughs] We were doing serious rhymes at first, and he saw that he didn’t stand a chance so he tried to do a funny rhyme about a girl. And then I did a funny rhyme about a girl. He started laughing, and he was like, “Okay, that was dope. Yo man, you got a lot of different styles, you’re bad, you’re dope.” And then he started telling me about parties that he was doing in Long Island and in the Bronx. He was telling me that he should get down with me and do some of these parties together and make some money. He said that we were going to get a record deal, and that we were going to be famous. And he kept his word.
The start of a beautiful friendship.
Biz was that dude that believed in me. After he signed his deal with Cold Chillin’ Records he brought me in to write the majority of his first album. Then he got me a deal with the same label, so he’s responsible for me having a music career.
And it started from a battle.
[Laughs] A lot of people that I’ve beaten in battles have never spoken to me again. This cat got me a record deal. I have the utmost respect for him, and anything that I can do for him I would be more than happy to do. I owe so much to that brother.
MTV ranks you at No. 7 in its Greatest MCs Of All Time list. What’s the difference between a rapper and an MC?
A rapper is someone who makes words rhyme. You can consider Dr. Seuss a rapper, because he’s just putting words together and making them rhyme. The biggest difference between an MC and a rapper is that the MC is the crowd controller. When I say crowd controller, I mean the MC gets on the mic and demands the crowd’s attention, and he is able to have the crowd do whatever he wants them to do – throw your hands in the air, slide from side to side, or ream something out. That’s what the MC does. A lyrical MC is an MC that puts together complex lyrics that the average human being ain’t going to think to do, and probably can’t do.
Let’s talk hip-hop lineage. Give me the Big Three the era preceding you, the era you came up in, and the era immediately after you.
It started off in the early ‘80s with Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, and Kool Moe Dee. Then it became about myself, Rakim, and KRS-One. And then after us it became about Biggie, Nas, and Tupac. That takes you up the new millennium.
There is no Big Daddy Kane without…?
Everybody in hip-hop always refers to my family tree, and me being a student of Grandmaster Caz. Once I heard Grandmaster Caz from the Cold Crush Brothers, I was blown away. Not only is he a great lyricist, he sounded like that dude that would come in the barbershop or into the pool hall talking shit, the dude that the kids wanted to stick around and listen to. So I’ve always had respect for Grandmaster Caz. I learned a lot from him when it came to writing rhymes.
Without Big Daddy Kane, there is no…?
I think Biggie and Jay-Z took what I was doing lyrically to the next level.
How did you and Jay-Z hook up?
They were trying to get Jaz-O a record deal, and a producer named Fresh Gordon asked me to come in and make a tape. We were at his crib, and Jaz-O asked me if his man could rhyme on the tape. I was cool with that. It turns out that his man was Jay-Z. After we made the tape, Gordy asked me if I could work with Jaz-O, but I told him that I liked the other kid better. That’s how me and Jay first connected.
Was Jay-Z your hype man?
Jay was never my hype man. I went on tour with Patty LaBelle, and I saw something new that I hadn’t seen before – I saw people onstage doing outfit changes. I was like, “I’ve got to do this in hip-hop.” So when I came back off tour with Patty, I asked Jay-Z and Positive K to come on the road with me. I would do half the show and then I would leave the stage to do an outfit change. That’s when I would call out Jay-Z and Positive K, and just let them spit for about 10 minutes while I was changing clothes. Then I would come back onstage in a different outfit and finish the show. This was all during my Chocolate City Tour.
Sounds like a win-win for both you and Jay-Z.
His relationship with me was very similar to my relationship with Biz in the beginning. When Biz had the Make The Music Tour, he would call me onstage and I would just spit a rhyme to the crowd in the middle of his show. It was the same type of thing with Jay.
Did you have any idea that Jay-Z would blow up like he did?
At the time, I had no idea of the impact that Jay-Z would make. In my mind, I always thought of Jay-Z as a dope MC, and I thought that people would really love his skills. But Jay is a really quiet and shy type of dude, so I never envisioned him becoming the megastar that he became. I’m so happy for him because he really deserves it.
Are you and Jay-Z still tight?
We’re still tight. Jay had me come and do Summer Jam with him one year, which was the time he mentioned me in his song and rapped about the cuts in my eyebrows. And I performed with him at the Barclays Center when they opened it up. So we are cool.
All artists have their negotiables and their non-negotiables. What are your non-negotiables?
For one, no one is writing lyrics for me. That is a non-negotiable. There are people out there who write songs for some of the greatest singers ever, they write for legends like Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross. Luther’s whole career was pretty much remakes. Willie Nelson is a great singer, incredible, but a lot of the stuff that he recorded was Kris Kristofferson’s stuff. Nobody is writing for me. I don’t mind if somebody writes the hook on a song, but as far as my lyrics that I’m saying for my verse, no. I feel that that goes against the code of a real MC.
You mentioned Tupac. How did you meet?
In 1990, I took Digital Underground with me on my Chocolate City Tour. They were actually the opening act, and Tupac was one of the dancers there at the time. He used to hang with two of my dancers, Scoob and Scrap, all of the time. So I would see him every day.
Tupac wasn’t Tupac yet.
Not at all. He would sometimes ride on our tour bus, and he was always talking. I remember him telling me that he was getting ready to do his own solo stuff. He said it wasn’t going to be like this funny stuff with Digital Underground, because he was a serious rapper and he was going to be doing some hard stuff.
Did he rhyme for you?
Yeah. I felt like his flow was amazing.
Could you tell that he was going to be a star?
Yeah. He was just a cool dude, very bright. We would talk about hip-hop, how I got my start, things like that. He was always asking questions – questions about the stage show, about why you do this and why you do that, how you handle your business in the rap game. When he made his impact and became a superstar I was so proud of him.
You and Tupac have a Suge Knight connection.
The year before Tupac passed, Suge Knight was trying to start a Death Row East label and he wanted me to be on it. We all met up out in L.A., and then we went to Vegas for a Tyson fight. Then we came back to L.A. and recorded a song, so I have all kinds of crazy memories about that. Tupac was a great guy. It was sad to see what happened to him.
Do you think Tupac’s fate would have been different with different people around him?
If Pac had the right mentors, I think that a lot of the stuff that was going on could have been controlled. He needed encouragement, and it needed to be reinforced. I remember the trip back from Vegas, and he almost got into it with some drunk dude on the plane. I got in front of him and told him to chill. We talked about the situation and I explained to him why you don’t want to do stuff like that. And he was like, “You’re right. My bad. I didn’t know what I was thinking.”
Madonna asked you to pose with her and Naomi Campbell in her Sex book. How did that happen?
Warner Brothers had sent me, Madonna, and Color Me Bad out to do walkthroughs at three Manhattan hospitals. We talked to kids in intensive care, took pictures with them, stuff like that to cheer them up. Unfortunately for me, all of these hospitals were in upper class neighborhoods. None of these young white kids knew who the hell I was. At one particular hospital, Madonna was pointing to me and telling the kids that I was a famous rapper. She was showing the kids how to sing Ain’t No Half Steppin’, and I’m just sitting there amazed. It was like, “Wow, Madonna knows my shit.” We talked afterward, and I thanked her for that, and that’s when she said that she was doing a book. She wanted to know if I’d be interested posing in her book, which was all photos. And I was like, “With you? Hell yeah. I would love to. I would be honored.” And she was like, “Well, it’s going to be a book of nude photos.” And I was like, “Shit, even better.” That’s how it happened.
Did you know that the photo would depict a Big Daddy Kane, Madonna, and Naomi Campbell threesome?
I knew there were going to be nude shots, but I didn’t know it was going to be a sexual thing. I didn’t learn the title of the book until later.
What was the reaction when the book came out?
There were a lot of mixed feelings. There were people who thought I shouldn’t be naked in pictures with a pop star. And with my Islamic background, there were a lot of people who really had a problem with me being in those photos with a white girl.
What was your take?
Madonna is a great person, and a great artist. She showed me a lot of respect, so I enjoyed being there. She’s a multi-talented megastar, so I was also honored that she chose me to be a part of the book.
Let’s switch gears. You’re still one of the most fashionable hip-hop artists in the game today. Is there an NBA player, past or present, that reminds you of you?
Clyde Frazier all day. If you didn’t know him, your first assumption is that this dude is a pimp. He rolls in with the big brim hat, and the long, leather quarter field jacket with the fur collar. His hat has got that lean to it, tilted to the side. Oh man…
When did style become important to you?
Early in the game. I just felt like, as an artist, you should never be onstage, look out in the crowd, and see somebody dressed like you. You need to look unique. Prince was Prince. Michael Jackson had the glove, Cyndi Lauper came at you with that crazy colored hair, and Isaac Hayes had the bald head. That stuff that was always important to me.
You recently helped design those BDK limited edition British Walkers.
It brought back a lot of memories. We were rocking those British Walkers in the ‘70s, so I think bringing them back was a brilliant idea. British Walkers were the official dress shoes for hip-hop. You’re going to a party, you want that b-boy style, you want to be dressed up, you got your British Walkers on. You put your British walkers and a double knit sweater on, and that was pretty much the equivalent of a three-piece suit for the adults. You know what I’m saying?
What other shoes did you wear back in the day?
In the ‘70s it was either Clyde Pumas or the Pro-Keds 69ers. In the early ‘80s I rocked those shell toe Adidas for a while, before switching over to Fila in the mid-80s and stayed with them until the late ‘90s.
Were sneakers a territorial thing in the New York hip-hop world?
Yeah. You could look at someone’s feet and know where they were from. You see someone in a pair of shell toes and you immediately know that they were from Queens. You’d see those Air Force 1s and you knew that they were from Harlem. If you saw the Filas, you knew they were from Brooklyn. You saw Pumas, you knew they were from the Bronx.
You’ve been performing for a long time. What’s the secret to your success?
One record can make you successful, just that one song. It can make you successful enough to go down in history books. Toni Basil has Mickey. That’s all she needed. She’s set for life. You know what I’m saying? So, one song can make you successful. But if you are really a student of this craft, and you really respect what you are doing as an art form, you are going to be so deep into it that the song doesn’t even matter. In the hip-hop world, it’s about rocking the mic and making other MCs fear you. It’s about making the crowd love you. I’ve been doing that for 30 years.
If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring artists, what would that be?
Be yourself. Don’t try to follow the trend and be like whatever is popping at the time, at the moment. Be yourself. Give your fans you. If you follow what is trendy, once that trend is gone, you will be gone. If you share what you’re really all about, they will ride with you until the end.
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