JadaKiss Speaks on His Greatest Guest Verses

Kiss has been a part of some the greatest hip hop joints of the past 15 yrs. Spitting along side his fellow Yonkers partners, BIG, Jay-z, Big Pun and more builds quite a catalog. Jada gets down with VIBE to speak on the many features.

“I don’t think I always get the respect that I deserve,” says a matter-of-fact Jadakiss, who, of all things, is getting a haircut during a spirited interview. “This is the first time someone has ever done a tribute on me.” Indeed, Jason Phillips has had a long career of playing the role of your favorite MC’s MC. And yet as a founding member of the 1990’s Yonkers, New York rhyme trio The Lox, Jadakiss has experienced the kind of longstanding career that most artists would gladly exchange their souls on Robert Johnson’s crossroads for. The list of esteemed artists that the respected spitter has shared the booth with reads like a who’s who of legendary game-changing music luminaries: Notorious BIG, DMX, Mariah Carey, Big Pun, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Lil Wayne. After nearly two decades of rewind-worthy verses, song-stealing cameos and stints as the people’s lyrical champion, Jada finally gets his close-up. This is Full Clip.—Keith Murphy

N.O.R.E. feat. Big Pun, Nature, Cam’ron, Jadakiss & Styles P “Banned From TV” (1998)

“When you talk about this song you have to start with Pun. He was my man. He used to always tell me that I was his favorite rapper. We used to kick it a lot and he had a lot of love for me. There will be no other. He was a priceless piece of work that was lost in this hip-hop game. We should never underrate him…never forget him. He was an incredible lyricist.

Having Swizz Beatz do the track for ‘Banned From TV’ was great. But you want to hear something crazy? My solo song ‘All For The Love’ on that first Lox album was Swizz’ first beat heard by the world. I rhymed on the first Swizz Beatz track! So I had a one-up on everybody on ‘Banned’ [laughs]. We already heard the beat in the studio before, so Styles and me new exactly how to approach the song. We had a special synergy. Me and Styles would do that back and forth rhyme style like Run-DMC and EPMD. We admired all the groups that had two MC’s. I think the first time we recorded in that style was on ‘Dope Money’ on that Ruff Ryders compilation album. We just kept it going.

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We knew when we laid our vocals on ‘Banned From TV’ we could not play around because we had all of these great rappers on one song together. Me and Styles sat down with each other like we were studying for an SAT or the Bar exam [laughs]. Styles would throw out a line and then I would bounce something off of him. Sometimes we shot each other ideas down. It took us hours to write it, but it was worth it. ‘Banned From TV’ is an incredible posse cut. I love all that ‘90s music. That’s what my IPod mainly consist of. Like I said, that was a golden era for hip-hop.”

Get your the full interview & breakdown over at VIBE.