Jeru the Damaja Talks 20th Anniversary of ‘The Sun Rises in the East’

On May 24, Jeru the Damaja's 1994 debut album, 'The Sun Rises in the East,' will be 20 years old. To commemorate the album's 20th anniversary, the good folks at Complex magazine have launched a new podcast called 'You Must Learn' with its first special guest, Jeru the Damaja.

On the premiere episode, the Brooklyn rhymer discusses the recording process behind 'The Sun Rises in the East.' Jeru gives a track-by-track run down of the LP's 13 songs, all produced by DJ Premier at the famed D&D Studios.

The centerpiece of the podcast comes when Jeru reminisces about when he first heard his classic song 'Come Clean' on the radio.

"We pressed it up ourselves. Guru put it out on his own label, Ill Kid Records, because no [record label] was messing with us," he recalls. "We had one of the dudes who was working down at the label ship it out for us to all of the DJs."

"Then one day... we're standing out there smoking an L, and a car comes by, I hear my song," he continues. "Then the next thing you know, we just getting mad phone calls, like, yo, mad labels wanted to sign me."

Finally, Jeru the Damaja said he recorded 'The Sun Rises in the East' to be "legendary."

"I didn't want to go down in history as a rap dude. That's why you made records," he said. "You made records in order to stand the test of time. To be known and be remembered as legendary."

Complex's 'You Must Learn' is a new podcast series narrated by Soul Khan and executive produced by Evan Auerbach (aka Ev Boogie) of the great Tumblr blog UpNorthTrips.com. The first episode is produced and edited by Peter Oasis and penned by Dharmic X.

Listen and learn.

Listen to Complex's You Must Learn - Episode 1: Jeru the Damaja