In this special behind the scenes episode, I’m going to highlight one of my favorite artists of all time, who also happens to be a friend of our featured guest, a man who is universally considered to be one of the all-time great lyricists in hip-hop.

Mr. Tariq Trotter, also known as Black Thought, the lead MC of the Roots Crew.

He is a part of too many great songs for me to fit them all into one episode, so I am going to focus on some of my favorites, starting in reverse chronological order, with some of the more recent songs in the beginning, taking it back to some familiar classics.

As in all BTS episodes, you are going to learn about some of the great samples that made these songs possible.

Sit back, relax and enjoy, this special episode of BTS!

Attorney Rizwan “Rizzy” Qureshi is a partner at the international law firm Reed Smith. He specializes in white collar criminal defense and other related matters, and he has the distinction of graduating from THE Howard University School of Law.

Rizzy is the American dream, a Philadelphia native, whose family originates from Pakistan. He is a lifelong fan of hip-hop, and it just happens that he is friends with one of the all-time great lyricists in hip-hop history, Black Thought of the Roots Crew.

RIzzy and I talk about his friendship with Black Thought, the rich musical history of Philadelphia, his love of the Wu-Tang Clan, Little Wayne and (believe it or not) Simon and Garfunkel!

This was a fun episode. I appreciate Rizzy because he went DEEP into the crates, and we talked about it all.

Attorney Rizwan “Rizzy” Quereshi is a Washington D.C. based partner at the global law firm Reed Smith. Rizzy specializes in white collar criminal defense, securities enforcements, internal investigations and related civil litigation.

Rizzy honed his trial skills as a federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia where he rose quickly in the ranks to serve in senior roles in both the Violent and Repeat Offender Unit and in the Cyber Crime Section.

He is a Philadelphia native, and a proud graduate of THE Howard University School of Law. A true Howard man, Rizzy is actively engaged in many social justice and civil rights initiatives, and he’s taken a special interest in criminal justice reform.