This Jeru The Damaja Hip Hop Connection interview is from 1994, Issue #60, right as “Come Clean” was starting to spread and before The Sun Rises in the East even dropped.
Jeru talks about linking with Gang Starr years earlier, the “I’m the Man” feature on Daily Operation, and what he was actually trying to say with “Come Clean” — pulling hip hop back toward skill instead of the gun talk that was creeping into everything. He also gets into what he means by hardcore, and it’s not what people assumed at the time.
Print interviews like this one didn’t get archived anywhere. If you didn’t keep the magazine, the conversation was basically gone.
Thomas Dishaw is the creator of Rap Therapy and a lifelong Hip Hop fan with deep roots in the culture.