1. N.E.R.D.
I think to this day that whole album, Fly Or Die is one of my top buys for so many reasons – every time I go back to it there’s other things I hear in it. Even bigger than that, it was Pharrell and what he did with N/E/R*/D. It was the first thing that I identified with. I used to skateboard, and I always felt like what I was doing was ‘other’. And then I saw that and I was like ‘Oh. Sick.’ Someone gets it. There’s another black guy, skateboarding and they were into rap and hip hop and making beats and he plays drums. It was like there’s room to do what I do, you know what I mean? This has never sounded old, like some records do. Some records of that era you listen back and they don’t age well. But I feel like that particular one, it’s still very raw, still very honest. That was one of the first CDs I got in secondary school. My brother went to America and brought it back. And I was like ‘What dyou get for me?’ and he was like ‘Uhhhh… here.’ I’m glad I asked that question.
