Big Daddy Kane Provides Update On His Doc Starring Eminem, J. Cole, Common & More

Big Daddy Kane has been enveloped in his upcoming Netflix documentary, Paragraphs I Manifest, for years now. In a recent interview with AllHipHop, the Hip-Hop pioneer provided an update on the film’s progress.

“We’re in the editing stages right now,” Big Daddy Kane says. “And hopefully, we’ll be finished within the next two months. That’s what I’m praying for, you know, because I really feel that it’s important to get this out as Hip-Hop is celebrating 50 years.”

Originally announced in 2021, the film boasts several high-profile interviews with everyone from Common and Eminem to J. Cole and MC Lyte. Despite Big Daddy Kane’s reputation as a premiere lyricist, he learned a lot from speaking to his fellow MCs.

“The most rewarding part of this experience is hearing different artists’ perspectives,” he says. “To sit with someone like Common, who I respect as a great lyricist and is someone with a unique flow other than the norm and representing a city other than New York, to hear his influences and his thought process, things of that nature. To hear Eminem talk about losing a rap battle. To hear him talking about what motivated him to write a song, who he listened to and studied, stuff like that.”

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Big Daddy Kane continues, “The biggest thing I learned was something Eminem said, because I never really thought about it. When I’m writing and I’m doing what I do, I’m just in my zone. I’m listening to him talk, but as I’m listening to him, I’m trying to think who did it before me, and I actually couldn’t come up with no one. I was just sitting there really blown away.

“When we left, I actually went listening to different artists that had songs out before me to see if anyone else did that in their writing style, and I didn’t find no one. I’m not saying that I’m the first, I’m just saying that so far I haven’t found anyone. It was crazy.”

J. Cole, who is 16 years Big Daddy Kane’s junior, really made an impression on the Brooklyn legend. As he explains, Cole is someone who clearly cares about the craft of writing.

“When you look at the era of the Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz and Kool Moe Dee and then you see how it evolved and became Rakim and KRS-One, and then you see how it evolved again in the era of Nas, Biggie and JAY-Z, from a lyrical standpoint, you want to see it keep evolving,” he says. “But by the time the ’90s came around, Hip-Hop had become so commercial, that it was more important about having commercial songs and something more simplistic. A lot of the artists that came after that, their mindset wasn’t really on being lyrical, it was on writing catchy songs. That’s really where their mindset was.”

He continues, “So when you see people like J. Cole, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Kendrick Lamar and Lady London, I have a special respect for that because they’re true to lyricism.”

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As expected, Big Daddy Kane has a full schedule as the 50th year of Hip-Hop continues. On Saturday (June 10), he’ll be in Miami with Large Professor for a special event.

He’s also part of the lineup at the second annual Rock The Bells Festival in Queens on August 5. He’ll perform alongside Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Ludacris, De La Soul, Slick Rick, Rakim, Yo-Yo, Redman + Method Man, Roxanne Shanté, MC Lyte, MC Sha-Rock, Boot Camp Clik, Swizz Beatz, Cold Crush Brothers and Salt-N-Pepa. Find more information here and check back with AllHipHop soon for Part II of the Big Daddy Kane interview.