Instead, the story of his early career is a classic tale of Defcon 7-levels of stupidity in the music industry: an album finished, with support and contributions from the heaviest hitters in the game (Premier, Pete Rock, and Prince Paul supplied production), which, due to misguided notions of “creative control” and “commercial appeal,” begun in 1995 and completed in 1998 is not released until 2001. If you were tasked with explaining the appeal of mid-to-late 1990s underground New York rap to an alien in 2115 or, say, a millennial next week, you could do worse (a lot worse) than simply cueing up J-Live’s “Braggin’ Writes.” In another era-one where artists ran their own labels or were able to efficiently release music sans executive meddling-J-Live might’ve been a star or at least pretty damn wealthy. The fact that artists who even attempt to carry NYC’s flag these days are inevitably crushed by its sheer weight is a testament to the city’s contribution to the foundation of hip-hop. Even Manhattan has its own Harlem World fresh with stars like Kool Moe Dee, Diddy, and Cam’ron.

Staten Island’s main contributions come from one camp but remain significant with Method Man, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon. Big Daddy Kane, the Notorious B.I.G., and Jay Z are all from Brooklyn. Slick Rick, KRS-One, and Big Pun all hail from the Bronx.

So it should come as no surprise that all five of its boroughs have produced many of rap’s greatest talents. Rap listeners around the world who’ve never been to the Big Apple still know places like Nas’ Queensbridge projects, the slums of Wu-Tang’s Shaolin, and KRS-One’s South Bronx. Which means New York City and hip-hop are forever intertwined. New York-and the Bronx specifically-is the birthplace of hip-hop.

But New York didn’t birth any of those things. New York City is a center for many things in the world: fashion, art, media, finance, subway rats fighting park pigeons in battles for ultimate supremacy, etc.

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