Before hip-hop was a global industry, Kurtis Blow remembers building the culture in a New York where “we had nothing.” In this Paid in Full fireside chat, Nas, Rev Run, and Roxanne Shanté celebrate one of hip-hop’s foundational artists and trace the influence he had on the generations that followed.

Kurtis takes Nas back to 1970s Harlem, when hip-hop wasn’t even called hip-hop, and explains how disco, DJing, block parties, and a city in crisis helped give rise to a new culture. Rev Run shares how Kurtis took him under his wing as a teenager, from carrying records and DJing his shows to developing the stage presence that would eventually define Run-DMC. And Nas explains why Kurtis’ “If I Ruled the World” meant enough to him to revisit it with Lauryn Hill years later.