all of these issues, they should be addressing this with their >> the world has reacted with energy. ♪ planet earth ♪ it was my place of birth immense shock and grief to the first rock 'n' roll assassination. >> it was like in one moment the '60s and the '70s got murdered. >> rakim is the god emcee. >> in his life he's given more he single-handedly changed the phrasing of rap music and love than most men and women on the face of this earth. hip-hop. he came to the world like a we're here to prove that love is poet. not dead, even though john is. ♪ hard on the boulevard ♪ i never get scarred >> you know, you start the decade with the death of a beatle. you don't really know where >> i learned different rhythms listening to jazz. you're going to go from that point, you know, culturally or musically. i learned different rhythms. so i kind of incorporated that in my rhyme style. >> for a while it seemed there was nothing new on the horizon. not just the regular doom, doom, doom. i was in between, doo-doom, doo-doom, doo-doom. entertainment. the power of sight. video. ♪ see all there is to see the power of sound. stereo. before ♪ >> mtv. >> i'm trying to set an example music television. for the little kids, know what i'm saying. >> we all are so excited about got to teach the babies, know this new concept in tv. what i'm saying, try to lead them in the right path. we'll be doing for tv what f.m. ♪ did for radio. ♪ >> the summer of 1987, "rebel >> at the time the world was without a pause" comes out. saying, we don't think anybody is going to watch videos over it was a call to arms, it was and over. the sound of anger, it was the but we knew we had something sound of something boiling under. special.