The day hip-hop changed forever

AS A PERSON WHO LOVES HISTORY, I'M one of those people who can spot a historical moment as it's happening-both as a participant and as an outside viewer.

- AHMIR "QUESTLOVE" THOMPSON

So, to be two years older than what we consider to be the birth of hip-hop, and to grow up with it like a sibling, is a fortunate feeling because I got to witness a lot of firsts. Sometimes, this shifting of paradigms was to the benefit of hip-hop and sometimes, unfortunately, to its detriment. But nothing could've prepared me for the moment when hip-hop, as I knew it, changed forever: the 1995 Source Awards.

The '95 Source Awards was a funeral in hiphop's history, and I don't say that in hindsight. I knew it walking into the Paramount Theatre in New York City on Aug. 3, 1995, and I knew it running away. And when I say running, I'm not exaggerating. I was running for my life-it felt like the creative version of Apocalypse Now.