QLS Classic: MC Serch

for D'Angelo. Oh wow. I took my daughter to this Europeans She was six years old and she would fall asleep behind a stage and you know, like just a mirror would be like next to her all the time. Like, so I was like, yo, let's get a picture. So I got a picture Quest and my daughter Mayana and then like every ten years like my daughter and Quest. Evolution chart. Yeah, it's like the evolution chart. It's exactly right.

So we have these like pictures and we just took one in Orlando a couple of weeks when the roots were in there. My daughter is now twenty two years old. I'll be ninety six when she's like forty.

of town. Oh so nice, so nice. What part of Long Island the Five Towns publicantemy, No, that's that's a little south that now you're going east and south. I'm more like inwood Ulett, see the Heurst five Towns like around that area. So that's real jew area, real Italian area. Columbo, crime family Iiha, Cohen, all the good shit, all the dudes that got laid up like Gotti, all those dudes,

they were all in my neighborhood. Really. Yeah. They would move people from Howard Beach into like Inwood and run like gambling spots and like poker parties and all sorts of crazy.

all the boroughs are like major cities within themselves. So, being as though you're all the way up there, every story I've ever heard of about you was Manhattan stories, and and and so it's like, how do you come from all the way out there? How do you even infiltrate your way into New York culture, at least the one that embraced you and took you in.

that the movie? It was Billy was William James con James Cone. So there were these public privates and I did not want to go to far Rock High School, like I just there was no where I was going. Was that the local high school? That was the local high neighborhoodhigh school famous for Jonah Sulk who invented penicillin. As you know, Oh wow, so Jonah Salk went there. Wow, phil oaks information too. Yeah you think you just a wealth of worthless information right now? I love that. So

I did not want to go. And my mother may she rest in peace, went to Music and Art High School in Harlem, so she said you should just try out. So in eighth grade I went, I tried out, and I got in and it turned out like even my guidance counselor was like, really, Michael, you're going to try out, Like only two students in the history of our whole school got into music and our like. I was like, well, you know, I'm going to be the third. And I

went in. I sang a traditional Hebrew song in Hebrew. Yes, bring it right now, shells the hot right now, chefs Shallo Salme, shells the hub exclusive. I'm in the movie I had. I had a mad I had a mad alto voice like alto yeah before drop so earlier Michael Jackson right like, enjoy yourself, Michael Jackson, right right up there. So I get into the school. It's amazing. And the commute from Far Rock Away to Harlem was two hours

and twelve minutes. So the A train the first the last stop on the A train is mot Avenue, far Rockaway, So you'd have to take the A train through Queens, through Brooklyn, through Manhattan to go to one hundred and twenty fifth Street, changed for the one to go to one hundred and thirty Fiftrey Confinent Avenue and then walk up to hill, Saint Nicholas Hill, And they called it a castle on the hill because music and art looked like a castle. So how that kind of transcended New

York was. I just knew the subways. I learned the subways from an early age. But when I went to Music and Art, the very first day I was there, they had freshman orientation and we got hooked up with a senior and he was like, yo, you want to coming to the lunch room, like you know, that's where

everything is popping off. So it's like nine o'clock in the morning and I hear these guys beating on tables and I hear these dudes doing they're ramen, and I'm like, I got some good Hebrew that could go along with that. I'm like, yeah, like I could, I could drop Yeah, I can drop some like and I'm hearing the skit and I'm like that sounds like he'll Billy girl from like they can't go Crew. I'm like, nah, they're just biting.

And there's this whole site for going on. A guy's bouncing on table and I get like on a table and I'm looking down and it's Lance Omega, Dana Day and Ricky d Wow and they are the King went to high school with Yeah and j Cool in the Frestrian Seas and Lord Treue from the Eternal Force so much. Oh my god. So I'm watching them do He'll Billy Girl, and I'm like, and we had like third fourth generation, you know, cassette tapes of what they used to do in the parks, Me and my man Greg and my

man Tommy, like we like listen to that. Like so I'm like, are you kidding me? Like these guys go to my high school. It's crazy.

dude starts beatboxing. Who doesn't go to my school? And they're like, oh yo, Douggie, you got to get out of here, like, just drop this beat real quick and then you can leave. So he's just like, so it's Dougie Fresh. He starts beatboxing. And then in nineteen eighty he's in the high school when he doesn't even there, No, he's just chilling in the lunch room, and I just hear Ricky go lotty dotty, lotty dotty.

I'm at Hot Skates and Lynnbrook chilling with my boys. Records on Kiss famined like midnight, you know somebody's playing it. I walk into McDonald's. I'm already EMC search, but I'm not like putting out records yet. I go in McDonald's. This girl I was kicking it with from Hempstead goes, oh, look it's Ricky D.

so much flavor? Yeah? So I'm like, all of a sudden, I'm like, Okay, I know what I'm gonna do with my life. I'm gonna be a rapper. Like that's it's really that same search come from. How did you get that?

And I'm like, why am I devil? Like you're a white man, you know, y da da da da da and like the white man is a devil when you don't know this comforts of the planet Earth and you don't know da da da da da and you don't have the ones attends. And so I was asking all these questions and they were like, yo, why do you keep searching for the answers? Man? Why you keep searching for the answers? Devil? Why you keep searching for the answers the door? Right? And they just so that's where

they called me search. So now, so now I'm tagging search s E A, R C H. Like that was my name right? That also?

twenty dollars for my sixteenth birthday. What was your friend's name? Kevin on Moore? Okay, keV Love, Yeah, love keV Love and if popped out, so I just said, you know what, fuck it, I'm just gonna keep it, sus h. And that's how I spelled the name, did I disappoint you, lazy no man, search man. I'm just mind blown. I am a most blessed white Jewish man in the history

of hip hop. Let's be very let's be very clear, like I tell that people all the time, like when people even meet me, Like my partner Matthew's behind me and we're doing an app called to Do Together, Like I tell Matthew all the time, I'm like, you don't understand. Like I would not be standing next to you, Matthew. We wouldn't be doing a dude, if hip hop didn't save my life, like I would be selling shoes at

fucking Macy's. Like I would I'd be shoveling dirt. Like everything I learned business, acumen, marketing, promotion, music, love of culture, like everything came from hip hop. You know. I mean I loved being a Jew and I loved my culture. But there was no way being a Jew was gonna get me to make rap records, you know, with and go onto a public enemy. It just wasn't gonna happen. So like it gave me my life, so like everything that I surround myself with even now is based on hip hop principles.

He was like, Yo, I never seen no bookshit like this in my life.

Like Chappelle always says, like always be scared of the white guy in the black Yeah, because ain't no telling what he did to get there?

eighty six? So really between eighty one and eighty five, I was really very quiet and very shy because with the exception of a white rapper, the first white rapper named Vanilla b aka Lord scotch aka Keo Blake Latham, there were no white rappers and Blake had the most flavor I'd ever seen in my life, Like he was wearing creased Lee's with like dark black wallabies and had a looseight cane with a latigra and like ghazals and like he was from Brooklyn, and I was like, whatever

you're doing, I want to match what you're doing, like because I don't have that flavor. In Far Rockaway. I was real humble, like I was just writing to myself, you know what I'm saying, and like I would like go into lunch room and I would like I would see a cipher go on and I'd be like, you know, oh you never rhind in us? Nah, I never never never rhymed at school ever.

On voice, I was singing Italian opera, and like my thought was, I would go to school because I couldn't afford to go to Yeshiva, and I would be either a rabbi or and I would learn how to sing in music and art, and then I would go to Yeshiva and get a scholarship. And I didn't. I wound up getting a scholarship to the Saint Louis School of Music at George Washington University, four year scholarship free ride.

And I had to make a decision signing day right and the weekend before, I tell my mom, like, yeah, I'm not going to Saint Louis any shiit for me in Saint Louis. I want to be a rapper. And she said, what do you mean You're gonna rap gifts its sears? Like what's a rapper? Really appreciate this? She said, Vashonista rapper like Vashnish. I'm like, mom, there's this culture called hip hop, and you know there's a music called rap and the guys who do it are MCS and

I want to be a rapper. She says, so, what's your plan? And I said, I just told you my plan. I'm going to be a rapper. She said, no, no, no, no, If you're going to give away four years of college, I need you to have a plan, like I need you to figure it out, Like you can't just say

you're going to be a rapper. And the thing that I had going for me is my mother was a child star in the Borsch Belt back in the thirties and thirty five, and she had to leave that to win the depre happened to like become a dental technician to help put food on the table. So she always felt like she couldn't fulfill her career. What's the Borsch Belt for? I'm sorry for Jews, right, that's exactly right.

There's so it's it's all in the Catskills, so Kutcher's brown, like it was all these different hotels in the Catskills. That was called the Borsch Belt.

the plant. So I spent all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday like writing this plan, like, well, I got got to gotta find a producer, and I gotta find a manager, and I gotta make a demo, and I gotta get in the studio and I gotta and so I'm going through this whole list all weekend like I didn't leave my basement, Like all weekend, I'm just going through this list. Hold this list. I gotta hit the clubs. And and she wanted to know how much time it was going to take me to do this, and I said three

and a half years. And three and a half years, I'm gonna have a record contract. And she said, I'll tell you what. I'll support you keep a part time job, pay for the insurance and the guests in your car, but keep it least a part time job or a job. I'll pay for your demo. I'll pay for your stage clothes. I'll pay for it. I'll support you. But you have two choices at the end of three and a half years. You go back to school and get out my house, or you get a job and get out my house.

But either way you get Yeah it was different. Wait, can we just it was different? Welcome to.

My father was around. So my father was the kind of guy like I would go to him, go, Dad, man, I'm you know, I don't know if I should do this, and you go, so don't do it. But like my dad like, I really want to do it, So do it. I'm like, I don't know, Well, don't ask me. Then either do it or don't do it. Yes, no, I don't know. There's your three answers. What do you want from me? So my dad really was involved in, like, you know, this career thing. He was just like, so

do it. I'm still mind blowing, Like, well, my mom I think would help. Well your dad was a musician as well, when you gave her this plan. But here's this three page plant. And after three and a half years, you either go back to school and get out my house or you get a job and get out my house. But either way, you get out my house. On my birthday, twenty one May sixth I signed my deal to death. Jim Wow. Three years at three years, three years. And the funny thing was the car that lasted me that

whole time. And I'll tell you about that car between me and Pete because we wrote most of the Cactus album in that car because it was called the think tank. Because it had no radio, all you could do is think in it, so we could just literally write rhymes like not even accept player that play instrument. No, she was dead, just dead. We would just think. That's We called it the think tank, like we drove it all over the place. It was in nineteen seventy four of

Volare and was just like a think tank. So I signed, So I signed deaf Jam. I get a fifteen thousand dollars advance right to sign a deaf Jam. I go to my mom. I show the contest it was like, and we had a beg for that money. We had a beg for it. So my mom gives me two letters. Yes, one letter says how proud she is of me, and that I won't really realize what I just accomplished until I have children of my own, and that the real work and the real testament is to how long I

ran no streets because I random streets. For three years, I treated my house and then we'll go to that. But for three years. I treated my house like a hotel, like I literally was at a shit shower shave, and I was in the streets six days a week, every club, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Stan Island, anywhere there was a cipher, I was there. I was there, like it was not even

a question. I was everywhere. I was every Like my friends like to call me the forest Gump of hip hop because from nineteen eighty five to nineteen eighty nine, anything that happened in the Five Boroughs that was historic, I was there. It's period period. I was just there. Let's go through it and we will. But I just want to just tell you this once quick story because

the Jews in the room will appreciate it. Yeah. So my mother gives me this letter telling me how proud she is of me, but that the real work starts when I signed the contract, like all the work was nothing. Now that I really have to do the work. Now, you got to keep it right, maintain it. And the second letter was a bill electric rent clothing season charge right seventeen nine hundred and thirty six dollars and forty three cents, And she wanted to know how I was

going to pay it. And that was three years period. Wow, So I said, Mom, I said, I only got fifteen thousand. I'll give you five thousand now and the rest of it, I'll give you my ass cap royalties, which for all those that don't know, is when your record plays on the radio, you make money. So for about ten years after, I would get phone calls at home and go, Michael, did you know your record Step into the Am played in Israel four times this month? You made that dollar

thirty one? And in Germany your record? And did you know that if your record plays on w any W you make more money than if it plays on Kiss FM. And so anyway, ten years later, in nineteen ninety seven or nineteen eighty ninety eight, she sent me a letter that said paid in full, that like my ass covered the debt. Damn. So people always say one or two things, either laugh at that or go, damn, your mom is fucked up. No, no, she rues, would you reap the one thousand?

ten wow, ten thousand wow. I gave him ten rex like.

not going to school and he's like whatever. Be And then you know, I graduate and I just become a beast and I have a meeting, like a meeting gets set up for me at Profile Records with their head of marketing named Steve plot Nikki and Steve plott Nicky. His fame real name, yes I was. His claim to fame was he created the Adidas deal with Leor for run DMC like he was a big marketing guy and he did retail and marketing for Profile. And I got a meeting with him and I thought, this is it.

Like one meeting, I'm signed done and he tells me I need to make a demo and I said great, and he said bring it back when you make a demo. Great, and I left that place. I left Profile, which was on Broadway across from NYU and I literally called my mom collect and said, oh, I just got a deal

I want signed to Profile Records. And I get on the Long Island Railroad and there's these bad chicks from Valley Stream that I've been kicking it too for a minute, and they're all like in the train and they're coming from the city and they're all giggly, and I'm like, I'm feeling myself because I'm like, yo, I just got a deal of Profile Records. I met Steve plot Nikki. I'm in and they're like, we didn't even know you rhyme.

So I start rhyming off the top of my head about all these bad chicks and what they look like and what they got on. And I'm talking about the conductor gets my ticket. I'm beefing about why the d LR is always late, and all these people start coming around me because I'm rhyming real loud because I'm feeling myself. I'm like, yo, you know, and this bad Dominican chick comes up to me. She goes, I talk to you a second. I was like, you could talk to me as long as you want, as long as you want.

She's like, you know, my name is Loridus and my boyfriend is Grandma was Tony d from the Bad Boys, and they had the biggest D expect the gadget like, right, that was the record and forget about that over Roonica was even bigger D. Right, Oh, Tony d Yes, Tony Dick. Right. So I'm like, yo, set up a meeting. She's like, yeah, but I got to be your manager. I'm like whatever, be like, it's all good. So she gives me his card and she goes, you know, give me your phone number.

I'll call you in a couple of weeks and I'll set up a meeting. She scratches out his number, but his name is there on the card, Anthony Dick and an address. So I'm like, I ain't waiting two weeks for this, bitch, Like, what are you talking about? I go home. I called four one one. I said, hey, can I get the number for Anthony Dick on Ccrest Boulevard, Brooklyn, New York. And they're like yes, seven one and AP blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Calling hello,

grand is it Tony dd is mc search. I just met Lordes. She told me you could sign me. He's like, man, look, man, I can't really talk right now. We're going to like Toronto for two weeks on tour. Call me in two weeks. I'm like, okay, click next day, next day, next, I'm like, two weeks to the day, ring, Oh, how is Toronto? Tony is search again? You know when can I come? Oh? Man, we're going on tour. Like yo, I'm gonna be going for like a month. Tic tic tic tic tic tic

tic tick. Thirty days later, Tony, what up? Man? Search? I did this for six months. For six months, he would tell me not to call. Wait a month. I would wait a month. I call. Finally, it's April. It's April in nineteen eighty six. It's pouring rain, it's it's the middle of the night. I'm like, you know what, it's not thirty at nighte you know whatever. I'm just gonna try him. Call on Hello, Tony Man, it's Search. He's like, you know what, man, just come over. I'm

like what even. He's like, I got some people over, but just come over. The car was acting funny and I didn't think I would get it all the way out there, so I called my best friend. I was driving so I called my man. I'm like, Billy, you gotta take me out to Seagate. He's like, yeah, it's porn rain. I'm like, bro, this is my shot. Like, you gotta take me out to Seagate. Like I gotta go. So he drives me out and where he was in

Corney Island. If people know Seagate, if you don't, this basically it's like the end of Corny Island is a dead end. And then there's these fences that are like ten feet high, these fences where like all the Italian mafioso stay over there. And Tony was in his brownstone right across from the projects, and there's these bad cars, like in his parking lot is an eighty five Jaguar x J sitting on Dayton's and there's like a ninety

eight Osmobile like Crispy, and there's a Cadillac. And I'm like, so, I'm telling my man, Billy, like, yo, let's go inside. And he's like, I ain't going in there, man, you can go in there by yourself. I'm like, word, you ain't gonna come in with me. He's like, nah, you go in, go in. Knock on the door. Tony opens the door. Yeah, I'm search whatever. I'm like, no, no, no, it's me. I'm search. He's like, all right, come on in.

So it's this really thin hallway and it was dark and it opened up to this living room and sitting on the couch was Lord Treue from the Eternal Force, who I knew from high school. Uh, Grandmaster D from Houdini, jam Master Jay right, and they're just sitting there looking at me. And Tony goes, let's go in the basement. And it's this dark, like musty basement and I'm going down these steps and I'm like, oh my god, like three of the biggest DJs in the world are about

to jump me. This is awesome jump. So we go down into this this musty, damp basement and he clicks this light and it's this little lamp and it's a little makeshift studio within a kai and a little studio right there, and he sits me down and Tony sits over me, and literally it was like jam Master j D Taru and he says rat and I went, so you think you rock well, got a snowball chance in hell to catch the empty search because I will ring your bell and soon you will tell them my record's

gonna sell because when I finished wrapping, home boys are gonna yell you will be so excited at my five's benic Night. And then all the party people have now been sighted, say if you have my sight, keep rocking all night and let the power of the party go far and bright. My name is empty, said, and I rhyme my ass off for like two minutes straight, spitting by and I said, oh, and there's dead silence, dead son,

and I'm like this dead silence, and jam asked. Jay leans back and he crosses his arms and he plits his hands over his mouth, and he goes, fuck, if white boys start rhyming like this, we're over yo. I need you to come on tour with me with Davy DMX, and I need you to open with Davy DMX and me and all Benny and Grandma aster D. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, I need you to write for Houdini. We got this new album coming out and we need you to write. And Tony D's like, nah, this is my artist. It's

my artist. You gotta talk to me. And I had no paperwork none, so I'm like so like, I'm like I made it and Tony hands me a contract and I signed it. Wait, power of attorney, power of signature, all of my royalties, all of my publishing everything. I signed everything over because I was just open. How old it is, open eighteen, I signed everything. I'm I tell my mom, I got a fair deal. Like She's like, we should have a lawyer look at it. I'm like, no,

he would never jerk me. Like took everything and I'm just open. Like I'm in the house with the bad Boys. They're talking about doing a new record. I'm helping in writing for the Glamour Girls who had the answer records of Over Veronica. And I'm meeting Sweet Tea, and I'm meeting this one and that one. And I'm going into the studio with Houdini and I'm writing be Yourself, and I'm writing all these other records and be yourself. Yep,

you might find yourself by yourself. Mill Jackson, Millie Jackson. Yeah wow. So I'm doing all this and I'm like, and I'm not making a penny. I'm just excited. Like I'm just excited. I'm going on tour and I'm doing shows.

I'm thinking. And it was terrible. It's a terrible record, and was in an em search EMC search great nicer, No, it's just me. It was Warlock Records. I was signed to Adam Levey and Morris Leevy. All right, wow yeah yeah. So I'm not making a lot of money, you know with my record deal and I'm doing like little shows. But I'm making your deal with what was like, did you get advanced or anything? No? Nothing, It all went to Tony D. So how are you living? So I'm

basically I'm working. I'm working two jobs. I'm driving Yeshiva kids from Queen's to Farakaway to go to Yeshiva. Bill just lit up. I bet they were paying that was sugar Steve.

I gotta tell you this story. This is and I know a certain DJ is gonna hate me for this, but I love him and he's a OG, but it is what it is. So nobody would play the record except for Bill Blast and Van d C. They would play the record and the Awesome Too would play the record. But I was like, yo, we got to get this record on Kiss FM. They got to get it on Kiss FM, and Red Alert had a theory. It was very simple. If he liked the record, he would play it. If it's not. He'd say that's not hot, and he

wouldn't play it. So my record was not hot. He was not playing it. But I heard we could get to Chuck chill Out if we paid him. So we go to see Chuck before he goes on the air, and I'm in awe because it's Chuck chill Out and it's kiss And I see Tony hand him the Melissa record with two hundred dollars attached to the record. Instead of seeing the logo, I see the bills, and Chuck looks down at me and says, the only reason I'm playing this piece of shit is because you paid me.

And I said thank you. I stuck my hand down. I said thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate it. He played that record for thirty six seconds and took the ship off. Wow, not even the first It's horrific. No, it wasn't. No record was horrific. Yeah, you don't believe the show right now, don't. Oh my god, you search please. I never knew that play the record. I love this is only because I love you and you've done so much for my family. Even well, look, I mean so

it's this song is thirty one years old. This is education. It's just my age. We promise not to laugh. No, you know, if you don't laugh, I'll be I'll be pissed. This is laugh because you think its been terrible. It's that terrible. But I'm one of them silver line motherfuckers. Be like, well, I like the breakbeats. So all right, ladies and gentlemen. Is Melissa on Warlock Records, I'm c search Grand Wizards, Tony d Yeah right here on quest Lo Supre I cannot wait? Fuck mid that's the B side.

Oh she's not considered the pleasant, you know. That's the B side.

He's gonna come out and perform, and they would throw on the record and I would come out due to running Man, the crowd would go crazy, like, oh my god, he's like crazy. Right, So that helped like build my rep to get to my second single. But between eighty five and like eighty seven, what really kind of got my repout is that my man, understanding from Redfern knew that I was dope off the top of my head,

like and I would battle anybody. So what he would do is he would set up these battles in the Five boroughs, like Vandermere Projects in Brooklyn, and he would set up something in east Gate and like all of this, and he'd be like, Yo, my man search want a battle, and they'd be like, yo, put up a hundred, and you know, these drug dealers be like that, you know, fucking my man is dope. Like yeah, my man whatever, it's dope, Like he's dope in the projects, right, He's like, yeah,

my man will crush him. And then they would see me come off the subway like yeah, that's search and I'm having the glasses and the mullet and they're like, oh shit, two hundred, and I would I would get an these ciphers and somebody would beat box and I would always let the dude go first, and then I would pick apart his verse in front of him and spit his rms back at them and tell him how wacky was because he said something and he really should have said this when he meant this, and da da

da da da da da bake them, bake them like and then everyone ooh right. So one time in the Bronx, I'm at this battle and my man's dj inn and it was like some serious money. I think it was like two seventy five or something. This dude was putting up. So we're battling, and I'm like, it's just it's this Latin kid, like he's half Latin, half black, and I'm like,

I just went in. I don't know why. I think I was like smoking weed or like, I just went in and like I started talking about how it's sucking his sister and like and I just remember this, and this is the one thing I know. And then this is the one thing I said. I remember this, and I said, just realize a block Keto just smoked you up. Don't say a word. This motherfucker is looking at me like, Man, I'll fucking kill you.

It's just it's just the word spread like the social network news that like you can't battle this kid because you're gonna want to kill them. No more project battles, some more project battles after rest of all. Okay, that's how it's making my money. Like I would make like two three hundred a weekend because my man would split and.

And in Queen's like Tommy Mickens and like all those kids fat Cat, like all those dudes that got locked up for like one hundred years for like those were my boys. Like those were like just my dudes, and they'd be like, yo, Search, come over here, kick a little kick, a little rum about this this this kid

over here. So freestyling was your redemption after Melissa. Not only my redemption, but it's how I got my deal at Death champ Wow, because Deve Funk and klimmeh he Rest in Peace used to run the battle for World supremacy for New Music Seminar and I had a second single that came out on a label that my mother started with Tony D called Idler's Records. She put your mom owns Isler's. Well, she didn't own it. She put up the money to for the first single, which was hey boy.

being underestimated always so. And you know who has the tape of this is DJ cash Money or either TAT or cash Money. One of them have the tape. They have the tape of it. So I said, yo, why they boring me? And he said, it's because you're white, and I went, get the fuck out of here. If anything else see a white boy on say somebody say why, well the fuck up? Why say why? Motherfucker? I'll show you. Can I play Hey Boy? Yes? Absolutely? Yo? I love that record, Yo, Yo, I've never heard this.

Tonyd owned everything. So I go to funking Clin he'd seen me in the Latin Quarter and he says, Yo, you know you should be a part of this battle. I know you were on off top of your head. I'm like, yeah, cool, Like I'll show up, Yeah, no problem. You know there was a battle. There was like sixty four ms was crazy, and I battle this dude Ronan Row from BMO this source. Yes, he's an MC first. Yeah,

he was signed to Select Records. On the record he was a group called Big Men on Campus BMOC that was signed by Faith Newman, who started her career a single out. Yes, what year was it? Eighty seven? I

think I had one of those records. So anyway, I slayed them like it was embarrassing, Like I slayed them like I just just talked now battles, Okay, now, so battles that the Battles and New Music Seminar were really cool because they threw on beats that producers made, so all these producers would just throw on beats or we would rhyme to like records that were hot, and we were just and it was a countdown clock to ninety seconds and then you did what you did and you

were done. So were real time battles or was it real time stuff in your head? No? Real time? Like I was off the top of the head, off the head, so everything was for me. It was I mean, the dudes I was battling wrote and that was my That was my claim to fame was that whatever they wrote, I'd be like, yo, why do you say that when you should have said it like this and da da da da dada. Now you get me pissed because blah blah blah blah blah and you should have da oh.

I would rip people apart. So the finals were the next day at Webster Hall. It's top sixteen and the first battle I have is with this guy Raving Tea from the Mighty Dismasters. Ah love that record, and he's baking people with mama jokes, like he's doing like hip

hop mama jokes. So this is the only time I wrote in that whole battle, I'm like, I gotta come up with some mama jokes like to like slam, And I set a couple of them in rhyme for them and they were terrible, and I lost my flow and I froze, and the crowd starts booing me, and I'm getting nervous, and then out of his pocket he pulls out a piece of paper to get ready, and I went oh, and I started pointing at the paper. I'm like, yo, that's how you say your rhyme's off a piece of paper.

You know. Somebody out the crowd, come get me a way to so I could serve him a whole new plate of rhymes before he's done three to one. My job's done. Oh, slay them, Slay them A man you can't pull. Where are you are? You're naming? We wait? Wasn't Crazy down with the crew that did Veronica?

I don't give a fuck who you are. Right now, I'm about to go on stage and they call me and the dude douses me with a thing of water. So it was red Alert was a judge. It was the dude from Utfo who I'm also deed who went to rehab, not a gangle, no, not educated rapper. And somebody George Hinehosa from raps. Oh wow, they were they were the judges. And I was battling this dude Bango who was signed to Rap Syndicate, and I'm like, you know what, I'm not even gonna worry about this dude,

I said, Yo, put the beat on. I gotta tell you all the story. And then I went on a diatribe about how mister Maddie was really missed the tragic and w b LS was really w b L Fest because you couldn't get records played unless you put money under the table, and dude snorts coke and I'm going on and I'm like, yo, I would never go to BLFS. I'd rather listen to Red Alert all day, just going yee.

But there were two problems to that. Problem Number one was Tony d Problem Number two was coordinating everything with Pete and getting that together because he thought I was a soloist, right, So now I have a real attorney go through the Tony d contract and there's a bubble already in the street, like, oh, search a sign and

to death jam, search a sign of death Jam. So in the contract my lawyer finds it a clause that says, if you want release at the fourth year of the contract, you can at thirty days send a letter of release to a PO Box office in Brooklyn that I knew Tony never checked because that's where he sent all his bills. It was a really weird clause. It was an escape clause. Why would he provide that. I have no idea, Like I said, I think it was a boiler play contract.

And he didn't even really read it. So before I started negotiating with Russell, we sent them the exit clause. I had to wait six months and I sent him the exit clause and I sent it to that PO Box office and I sent it and I was out of the contract. But when I did that, I also when I did that, and when I did that, I also relinquished all the rights to Jambrowski, all the rights to Hey Boy. And that next month Red Alert did that nine hundred thousand dollars deal with the Jungle Brothers

to Warner Brothers. So I lost all that money to that deal because I was a partner in Idler, so I had to give I had to walk away from that. So they it was eight hundred and seventy five thousands. So I'm sorry that for done by the forces, done by the forces of nature. So did you always think you were going to get the money? And the first no,

I knew. My lawyer told me if he if they ever went and sold the Masters, that I would never get the money because this basically relinquished me from all rights. So I knew it was just like it was a rast wash. It was a wash. So it was like freedom for a wash. You know. I looked at my career the first half of my career as these are the dues I will pay to get to blank. You know.

I always thought that in the twenties you learn. At the thirties you churn, so you sift out, and then the forties you earn ye, and then sixties and then the fifties on you return, so you pay back. So that's how like I kind of always looked at my life and I always kind of because of that plan. I always said, Okay, I'm gonna be here when I'm thirty, I'm gonna be here when I'm forty. I'm gonna be here when I'm fifty. Like I always kind of try to map out my life and try to follow it.

And of course it didn't always I thought it would, but it was close. Like I said, Okay, I'm gonna be an executive producer of a record in ninety four, and then you know, NOAs came out and I'm gonna sign a production deal with Warner Brothers in ninety six, and then I did nonfiction.

valuable lessons. Like look, when the Roots got signed, you were like it was a demo of you guys playing overseas, Like it was like you know what I'm saying, Like when you did your deal with when the Goldstein, there was no even knowledge of the roots in the US. You know what I'm saying. So like whatever deal you made, that was, that was your learning period, that was your learning curve. It was and if it wasn't for those records, if it wasn't for those first two albums, you would

not have established yourself the way you did. And then the rest of it was churning, so sifting through people, and thank goodness you found Richard in your life. May you rest in peace. And then you had all of that, and now is your earning period and you deserve that, and then you will return that and you you know, so I'm saying, like, that's just I'm not returning money.

whole different paradigm shift of who I'm dealing with. Like Lyyor knew me because he'd seen me perform with jam Master J, and jam Master JA introduced me to you know, it was just like this whole connection of this insulated people that I grew up around over the last three years in hip.

career four beats with Sam, Sam and Mantronics together. Yeah, so all of that stuff, Hungry for You Love, Joyce, Sim's Colonel and Curl and Abrams all of that, and then he did the beats for Tougher than Leather and that's how he got connected into Rush and Deaf Cham and all of that. Really. Yeah, so Dante and Sam were best friends. They used to do graffiti together. Sam used to write sever and Dante Ross used to write system,

so they used to do graffiti all the time. And Dante was like, Yo, you got to hook up man, Sam. Sam will work on your demo for Deaf Jam. Right, So I'm going I'm doing these records and I'm gonna keep it one hundred with you. Like I was happy with them because I would love being in Chunk King and I love being the studio with Sam. And we would go to Sam's he I mean he lived right around the corner and Canal, Like we would be in

his apartment, He'd have his sp'd have his Acai. We would demo, demo, demo, and then we go into studio and then spend twelve, fourteen to fifteen hours in the studio like sandwiches, smoke weed and stay up all night and like be in a studio and Kevin Reynolds, who was our engineer at the time. It was just fun, but there was something that was like missing for me, like, and I know you feel this and fun, I know you can relate to this. The Jews can't, but I

know you can't. You know when you make a record and there's that thing in the back of your neck that's like not right, suspect, like yeah, loved it when I said it, played it back, skeptical suspect, but maybe right, and nobody will notice, but they always do. They always notice, Like that's how I felt about my demo. I'm like, eh, skeptical, little suspect topic, but as maybe I'm just being over critical.

And sure enough, Leon and Russell decide that the guy who created their deal at Deaf Jamm at Columbia, guy named Steve Rabowski who went to A and M and was the president at A and M. He was looking for two soloists. There was a kid in Euston named Raheem, and there was a kid in New York named mc search, and he was gonna sign one of us. So Steve Rabowski is being lined up like Lear's like, Yo, you

gotta sign this kid Search. He's incredible. So he's flying out to see me, And that same night Dante calls Sam and says, Yo, there's this dude, a friend of mine who I played ball with. He's stuck in the studio. Clark Kent was supposed to meet him. He fronted on him, He's got all this money lined into doing this demo, Like, can you, Sam, can you go over there and help them?

And Sam goes to Chunk King and it turned out to be this kid named Pete Nice and Pete Nice was working on this record that he had this sample from some alternative band Okay. And the next day in the morning, Sam calls me. He's like, yo, dude, you need to come meet this dude. I'm like who. He's like, Pete Nice. I'm like, I know Pete. Like he's managed by Lamumba Carson, Like I know Pete. Yeah. So I go to Sam's house and there's Pete and they play.

They're like, yo, I got this sample. It's from this band Depeche Mode. Sam's like, yo, I freaked the sample. I added the drums and I hear brown brown bam brown bam brom brown brown brown brown. Damn dun damn dawn durn damn. Don't darn hard at hard as Chinese arithmetic avant garda not a heredic stick out a ride around picking in my cranium. Pete nice elementary like uranium, and I'm just like, oh shit, I'm like, yo, I got a verse. We go back to the lab, so

where's it was? No original? We go back to the lab. We go chunk king. I drop my verse literally in three takes. Then Pete does another verse and I do another verse, and in the same breath we do triple stage darkness, and we do one other record like in a matter of hours. It's like Anna arranged marriage, Like no, no, no, you know each other's last names. No, we did, We didn't know we know each other. Look, I'm gonna keep

it like one hundred. Like I used to like laugh at Pete when he used to try to get in a Latin quarter, like he'd be like, yo, sir, took me up. And I'm like okay, pal, and I just keep it moving. And now here he is and he's like kind of a competitor of mine on rush and I'm like huh, you know, and I'm like, all right, let's just form a group. And Sam's like I'm gonna be the DJ and we'll be three to hard way. So prior to the recording, you and Pete, y'all knew

of each other, but didn't know each other. Didn't know each other.

esoteric versus. But I always connected to the street dudes, you know what I'm saying, Like, and that's kind of how we were always perceived, Like he was in a suit and tie and in a cane, and I was always like minister. Yeah. So Steve Rabowski comes to Chunk King and me, Sam and Peter sitting there and this other dude that used to do A and R who

wound up doing stuff for like Slayer. A guy named Scott Koonig is with Steve and he's like, yo, so Search, tell me about yourself and I'm like, yeah, but it's not Search anymore. It's this group called three the Hard Way. Check it out and we play him words a wisdom dumping, play him, triple stage darkness dumping, play him, prop of the environment, dump him. He's like, ah, I don't get the group thing. It's too much like the Beasties. And I'm like, wait, Beasties. Like I said, we got credibility

in the street. He's like, Eh, let me think about it. So I'm like, okay, you know, go think about it. An hour later we're in the studio. An hour later, John King, who owns Chunk King, goes Leor just cut all your funding. You're all fucking kicked out of the session. You're all You're all done, get out, Get out now. I go to rush. Leor is fuming like, Yo, you had a fucking deal, you fucking cocksucker. You had a fucking deal. I gave you a fucking deal. You fucked

up the deal with these two fuck cards. I don't even know who the fuck they are. And I'm like, wait, he's not signed to Rush. Fuck no, I don't know him, you fucking asshole. Get that right, Because Johntay and Sam had made it seem like Pete was also signed to Rush. He wasn't. He wasn't signed to Rush.

of developed itself. So yeah, so when when Rust came back, that was after correct they kicked on.

and then so they were still coming to the Latin Quarter. Yeah, they were all like busy Bee. For sure, Busy b would do his routines.

Latin Quarter. And basically what would happen is all the yardis would come out like they would do after hours party, I mean after work party, and then we would go in, you know what I mean. So the yardis like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Fat Raoul would be DJ. Rowl would be the house DJ, and then we would come in and then it would be the hip hop night, you know what I mean.

Crazy nineteen thirty eight. So he always knew that there was this vibe in this energy around this music, and his only concern was to keep people safe and to make money, like that's all he cared about, Like he didn't want anybody getting hurt and he just wanted to get paid, like that was no. But every night, like somebody got hurt, Like every night, it was like ridiculous.

Grapes of Sour and then a year letter they're the Audio two and they do you know, top Billin and you know supernatural mcs. All of a sudden they become salt and pepper like it was all of this amalgam. Like I saw Public Enemy performed through their first show and get booed the fuck off stage. Yeah, can you describe that because no one has the definitive? Okay, so they def jam booked like an album release party for

a public animals yo bummers. So yes, it was a Thursday night right, kind of half empty, a lot of industry types whatever, a lot of magazine people checking them out, and then the typical crowd that was in there, like you know fifty and Decepticons and Violators and like all the you know, five Borough kids and they come on with my nine gear o'smobile and all you hear is like boom and flavors dancing around and oh boom. I

mean it was horrific. Really, it sounded terrible and they did one song and what people they did you're going to get you us? Yeah? They didn't go over wow No, And literally Russell was like pulling them off stage. And what people don't realize is the Latin Quarter stage, even though it's ten feet high, was maybe only six feet wide, so you really didn't have a lot of movements. So the s ones are trying to move around and it

was just it was just it was not good. And then a year later so there really and it became literally like that became the song, Like what was the song that you had the rhythm of the rebel without a pause? I'm that was the club though. That was Tuck your Chain. B For about three months that record came on. Then you just danced your ass off touching chaining. No, you just danced your ass off, and that record became the biggest record in New York and the hypeist record

in New York. And month four it was tuck your chain and get off the fucking dance floor. And the kids who were Nujacks to Latin Quarter, they got robbed because all the other kids I owe you dances and all that. We were already on the side. We were just watching the girls violated like they would just be like pip off. Yeah, that became that became the record that like you just that you knew there was also ultra magnetic mcs. Here we go off the off the floor,

off the floor. So when you hear these gunshots not gunshots of.

music getting broke. It was literally the information super Highway because the five boroughs went in that building, even Connecticut, even some kids from like Rhode Island every once in a while, kids from Philly and DC, like you know what I mean. Like it was so if you ripped on that stage, within two days, everybody knew you would get a call from me, like your untie and like Allentown and like my aunt Caroll would call me and go, I heard you had a good show at the Latin

Quarter the other night. My student bleaz A Spleet I mean it was like the Information super Highway. So it was really like the center. The nucleus of New York music for four years was the Latin Quarter. And then were offshoots, like you know, you had the rooftop on one hundred and fifty fifth like that was cool, and you had Union Square and that was cool, you know, and you had little things like that, like you Square was a club. Union Square, was it? No one ever

talked about Union Square? Yeah, right right?

were underground pockets. So you had the world downtown and like Iced Tea and Ron Syndicate, like that's where Ice Tea got to start in New York with six in the morning like that that popped off in the world like that was and Russell would be a the world and then you'd go at four o'clock in the morning to save the robot across the street and then save the robot was like underground reggae and like really dark, deep dark like rap records like JVC Force Strong Island,

like you would hear it there, like you know what I mean. Or you would go uptown to the SNS one hundred and forty fifth in Lenox and Star Child would be in there and he'd be playing like unreleased shit, you know what I mean. And you'd be eating breakfast at like eleven o'clock in the morning after partying all night and dude shooting dice and like you'd leave it like twelve noon, you know what I'm saying, like, and

you would be you. And that was the rotation. That was a rotation four years Like that was the rotation. Eleven eleven two or ten two one at the Latin Quarter, one to two at Union Square, two to three thirty at the Rooftop, three thirty to eight thirty in the morning at SNS, you go get breakfast and then you'd head home.

I used to like iron their clothes, and like I used to have like a list of girls that like in San Francisco, this girl can't meet this girl, and Grandmaster he has this girl over here, and ecstasy and like you know, like I used to you know all of that. So they take me out to a celebrity basketball game and there's this new rapper in Oakland named Hammer who's doing this thing right, and all my boys are telling me, yo, you should battle him. He thinks

he can dance, like you should battle him. You should battle him, right. So he pulls up in this white Cadillac and I'm like, yo, man, let's battle. He's like, who the fuck is that's how you say hello? Yeah, that's exactly how Like I'm just balls in New Yorker like fuck you. I don't care where you're from. I'm from New York and what. So I'm like, yo, I heard you could dance. Let's battle and he's like fuck you. I'm like, fuck me, b come on, come out the call,

let's battle, right. He takes off. I'm like, ah, that kid's a pussy like whatever, right right, So we segue into like the new Music seminar. He gets booed like it's not gonna happen for him. Ya da da da da, and then he does that hole, yo, you hit New York, right, And then that's a disc to run DMC. What just don't do it's sacriligious, it's just you don't And the Beginning.

So now just and for me, for jam Master j to be the one in that room in that basement in Cgate in nineteen eighty five to co sign me and tell me like, yo, meet us at the bus outside of Hollis Ave and like get on the bus with Rounnie Ray and all of us and open with Davy DMX and do what you do and him giving me like great advice on how to rhyme and ron flowing and hanging out with Joey and DMC and just and being a part of that. Like my biggest mistake is I loved hip hop so much I felt I

had to protect it at all costs. Like I really thought it was my job savior. No, not the same captain. I felt like I was the night at the roundtable who was the defender of the culture because it had given me so much, like it had given me, the streets had given me so much, The Quarter gave me so much. Like there were so many times that fifty was like your search back out, We're about to stick this whole place up, like get out, Like these dudes

were looking out for me. So it's like this motherfucker from Oakland, the fuck you doing? You're whack. Your ship is whack. Period. It wasn't like, you know, f you as a human being, but it was like, you're a whack MC, You're whack.

Mother Out. Cactus Turned ham his Mother Out is like a that's a known fact, Like your shit is whack compared to the Cactus. Nobody's checking for your shit. Twenty five years later, my shit is still bumping and that's unfortunately, but that's how I feel today as almost a fifty year old man, Like I'm still like, Yo, your shit is whack, you know what I mean. So I took it on my shoulder like I was like, I have

to protect this, like I have to. So we're getting ready to come out to LA and we're doing a whole week of promotion like that Cactus is doing real well. We're doing a Product of the Environment Jeep giveaway a Kday. You're like, there's all this cool shit. I've never been to LA before. So I got chantel with me. Peek out his girl Rock saying Daddy Rich got his girl Mone. We're like, we're all all excited. We're getting to JFK.

We're getting ready to go on a plane and there's a call that comes into Carmen Ashhurst Watson, who is at then the president of Deaf Chain, and we believe it was Louis Barrell Hama's brother, and he says, YO is third base still coming to LA And she goes, yeah, why, He goes good, They're dead and hangs up the phone. So she's like, hmm, that's kind of weird. Like so she calls Russell and like, Russell, I think there might be a problem with third base, Like I think they

might be in danger. So Russell does what he does. He reaches out to the person who's closest to the street, which is Eric B and he calls Eric Barrier and he's like, Yo, Eric, can you find out if there's something going on about third base in LA. Within twenty minutes he gets calls Russell back and he's like, yeah, there's a hit. There's a hit out on third base. So Russell says to Eric, like, no, Eric, Eric, Well, Eric,

he is always like Eric, He's always been connected. So me and Eric were tight like and then something happened. I don't know, Oh no, I know it happened. Let me tell the story real quick. I'm signed to Rush. Third Base album is about to come out. We got about three or four songs to do. Lew York calls me out of the blue and says, hey, we got a problem with Rock Kim. He's got writer's block. I

need you to write a song for rock him. And I'm like, and just so you know, rock Kim's my favorite MC of all time, and I ain't no joke to me barnunn is the perfect rap record ever made, just period. So I was like honored. I was like flattered, Like you're gonna ask me like a white devil to I'm gonna write to God MC a verse. Yeah, I'm gonna write him a verse. I'm gonna write a beast. So me and Pete come to my parents' house and we're like, what would what would he say? What would?

So I get into rock kim mode. I'm thinking about, like you know, payt in full, and I'm thinking about all of this, and all of a sudden, I write Ready in the intro cute the searchlight, Eric's to the Senate stage. I grab the first mic, projecting the voice with dis mike. Then I'm cuffing you ain't my knuckle something snuffing the word of rock him stands true to no pannikin man verse. Man you freeze a black mannequin could be a rock whoa to dwell upon the step

in on the trigger has a tomb smash. I could where be gave me the cue, So I'm gonna put up, shut up too, my gems through. So now I want to freak. And That's how I'm hearing rock Kim's voice in my head and I'm hearing him saying, now I want to freak them. So I'll embarked sparky mission posse the way pass dark, I'm park there's no standard. I'll plead the five. Oh you don't stop moving until rock Kemp says, so to keep trop hoping shooting out to play him. Me and Eric be a keep a stepping

to the am. Write the whole ship in fifteen minutes. So I write the whole record in thirty minutes. I go next day to Leor. He's like, yo, I'm gonna call Eric, and I'm amped. I'm excited. And when Eric picks up the phone and Leor goes Eric, I had such right a verse the rock him, I hear silent, and I get shook, and then I go, so, Eric, this is the record I wrote. Call step into the am click, and then Denise at the front desk goes Leor. Eric b's online too. He wants to talk to you

by yourself. So I'm shook. Now I'm really shook, like I don't know what I just did. Like I don't know what I just did. All I was trying to do is help, Like oh, it's all I was trying to do. They called you. Yeah, so I'm told by Simone, who at the time was the assistant for Russell and Leor. Leor doesn't want you to move until he tells you stay here and wait. That's all I get a message

for and I signed that office for five hours. At six point thirty, Leor called me upstairs and he goes, why didn't you tell me you had beef with Eric B? I said, I said, Leora, I don't have beef with Eric B. He's like, educates you. He doesn't know why he would you would think about writing a record for Rock Kim. He's fucking furious I almost lost him as a client and bla, He's going off on me. And I'm like, yo, I said, Leora, I had no idea, Like I didn't know. Like I started telling him the

wine Dance story. He's like, search, fix yourself, get the fuck out in my office. So fast forward. Eric Bee finds out there's this hit on third base. Russell says, no, I don't know what. To this day, I still know what the beef I don't know to be, but all I know is Eric's reaction and telling Rock Kim that rock Kim took two weeks to finish follow the leader, So I don't know if there's a connection there, but whatever, like whatever happened between Eric and Ra, like Ra either

got over his right. And I'm not saying I had anything to do with it. I'm just saying, like what happened with Eric and his conversation with rock Kim, rock Kim was motivated to finish follow the leadership. So Eric never stepped to me like we never had a problem. But I will tell you that I had a problem with rock Kim the same week with Hammer, and I'll tell that story too. So Eric finds out there's a hit, and Russell says to them, well, yo, can you do

something about it? And Eric says not, let it happen and hangs up the phone right now, let it happen. So Russell calls him back this and again I'm hearing this secondhand from Russell and Carmen, right, you know. But they call him back and they say, well, can you tell us who we need to talk to, and Eric says, yeah, this guy my Conception. So they call my Conception and they say, Mike, we hear there's a problem, you know with third base. He goes, yeah, you know, we got

to take care of those kids. I'm sorry, it's just it's the way it is. And Russell's like, I can't. That can't happen. He's like, well, I'll tell you what, because you're Russell Simmons, We'll just hurt them from the waist down so they still do television.

this can happen. He said, I'm having a hard time getting a distribution deal for a record that I'm trying to do about Peace Gang Piece, Cold War in the same gang. He's like, if you can help me get distribution, irony right right, If you're can help me get distribution, that would be A and B. Tomorrow night's the American Music Awards. I want to sit next to Michael Jackson tomorrow night. So this is yaterday. I have twenty four

hours to make designs, right. So they called Donnie Einer and Tommy Mottola and they basically say, Yo, Donnie, I need your tickets for the American Music Wards. Don't ask me why. This is some street shit. I need your tickets. And Donnie's like, I'm sitting next to Michael Jackson, like he's gonna be about to be the most celebrated artist of the decade. He's like, you don't understand. We got a guy in a wheelchair who's gonna need to sit

next to Michael Jackson. And sure enough, nineteen ninety American Music. I watched it last night. He's sitting right next, right right next to Michael Jackson.

head down, third base, put your head down. Everybody put your head down. Move, move, move, And I'm bent over and I can see Pete next to me bent over, and I look over to him and I go, oh my god, We're bigger than the Beatles.

We go to the Hollywood Hiat. They take us to the top floor, I mean top floor where little Richard had his condo right right that we take it and the whole floor is blocked off like no one, no one can go into them except for Little Richard. Every other condo is locked off. Everybody's off. We have security at the front, at the elevators. Everybody's being checked. There's a list of people that are only allowed on the floor. That's it like. And I'm like, fuck the Beatles. I'm

bigger than the and this is the album? Is that? How long have the cas I've been out at this time? Two weeks? Two weeks, two weeks. This is the impact I had on music cultures. Two weeks. I'm bigger than the Beatles. This is the only way I would be treated like this, either on Beatles or the ORNU right right. So I'm able to sneak by security. I don't know how I did it, but I get downstairs and outside

the hotel is Rock Kim and Supreme m hmm. And I'm like, oh my god, rock Cam Supreme like yes, Supreme, mathematics, yeah Supreme. So I go up to Rock Kim and I said, Row, are you here to see me? And he said yeah. I said I said what, Well, He's like, yo, I'm gonna take you around this hotel. Beat you ass real quick? What I said, wait? I said what And I said what? He said, Yeah, man, you know that's seeking a settlement, stunt, seeking a settlement. I know that

was about me, man. Eric told me that shit was about me on that Steven to the am joint. So I'm gonna come beat you ass real quick, I said, rock Kim, and my voice got real high. I was like, my favorite rubber time. I would never do you. That's crazy.

This is not real. So Pooky comes in and Pooky is like the six three skinny dude and he got little weltz like all on his arms and I'm like, yo, it's up with the mumps. He's like, hey, mumps, motherfucker. He's a bullet. And I'm like okay. I was like, well, then, yo, take me to the Beverly Center. Then you're supposed to hold me down, hold me down, take me to Beverly Center. And Uncle Mel's like yo, and Pook he's like, no, no, no, no, no,

Lil homie wants to go to center. I'll tell you the center, no problem, let's get in a van.

My wisdom, my earth is with me. You you are embarrassing in front of my earth, like I want to go to the Beverly.

So we came up to the balcony area and there's this escalator that goes down and at the time there was like a foot locker and a little hangout area. And Pooky's like, oh, you know, some people just noticed you. Why don't you go down there. I'm like, mother fucking right, I'm gonna go down and see my fans. I'm fucking I'm Elvis. So you look like MC search. Yeah, the whole shit, third base cutting in back, Sir Rock did it Crispy too? For the for the album release party.

Crispy Crispy, go down, Little Mexican chicks. Oh my god, em C Search, I love you. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. I'm signing some autograph. I'm feeling good about myself. I'm waving to wifeyet yeah, da da da, I see some guys coming this way. I'm like, uh hu huh, guys over here coming this way, Da da da, I'm

signing autographs. All of a sudden, the dude that's coming this way, he pulls the bandana up across his mouth, goes to get the ratchet and then I hear I hit his whistle loudest loudest loud whistle, and they all look up and Pooky does some gang signs. I don't know what he was doing. He says this, and the dude comes right into my face. He pulls down the mask.

He goes, man, I love y'all, motherfucking third base. I was finna smoke you, but you know I love y'all motherfuckers yo, yo, and I and I'll tell you right there it was the only time as a growing man almost pete on myself and the other two dudes behind him are like, yo, were good. I'm like yeah. He's like, yeah, this shit is over, this shit is good. It's good. And I was like, get me to the fucking hotel right now, the fucking hotel right now. I was so scared.

I don't even remember the ride out of the Beverly Center back to the Higher What what was the do you know what the value was? Fifty thousand dollars yo, fifty g's back in nineteen eighty nine. Fifty g's Yo. Both of y'all are just one no for both of us. Anybody who got to us it had to be both of us dead, not injured, dead dead. So we go back to the hotel. I now tell Pete shit is real, and Pete's like, yeah, motherfucker. I yeah, you didn't notice all of this shit, you know, But I was slow.

I'm Polish Jew slow. And so now we have to figure out all this strategic movement because def Jam had put so much into this this next three days, like we're giving away a jeep on Kday, we have this album release party, Fox five is doing a special on us. You know, we have all these moving parts that we can't just cancel, like God forbid Russell and Leo should cancel something right, like, you know, we have to do

all of this. And Pooky assured everybody that nothing would happen to us as long as Pooky's with us on our side. If anybody saw them and he did this, the gang signed, we were good. So we did not move out of the hotel. We didn't move right The next morning, we had to do the macatec Greg macat the morning show on KDE. Lisa Canning was his news person. It was like the only twenty four hour wrap show

in the country is the AM station. It was on this little dirt mountain with an antenna like it was in middle of nowhere, and the little said k day. And we went in and it was the night after the American Music Awards. And I didn't know anything about the American Music Awards. I just I didn't know anything about the deal. I didn't know anything. We just went to Greg Mattin, you know, to do the morning show and give away this jeep. And so we sit down and Greg Max, hey, what up third Base? How you

guys doing. I'm like, ah, it's cool, I'm cool. Yeah, you know, yeah, no, no, no, no, okay, good dude. You know, it's great to have you on. You know, this is Lisa Canning. Oh Lisa, what cracks some mic? Oh?

What do you gotta say? Third Base? Yeah? Man, you know, I just you know, I don't understand why you know you have to diss my mom on that record. I'm and I'm like, really, I'm heated. I'm heated. And I was like, yo, ain't nobody dissed your matriarchal idiot? Like nobody dissed that. You know. It's like, and you know what you did. Why don't you come get this ass whooping you punk? You a bitch? Hey, watch your language? Knowing you a bitch too, Greg Mac, you're a punk bitch.

Why don't you say that? Great Mac? Yeah, I said, why don't you go to the phone. See who LA likes better third Base of Hamm of that punk bitch. He's like, hey, watch your mouth is love Radio. I was like, yo, I'll say a whole lot worse, you bitch. All right, we're gonna go to the line, right, gonna go to the lines. First caller, oh I love third base, I love the Hammers. Whack Hamma gets a gas face. Next caller, oh I love hammer third base is whack those Wanda bees out of da Da da they're whack.

Next caller, Oh, I love Hammer. Hammer is dope. You know, third base is whack. Blah blah blah. Next caller, I love third base. Yo, search is dope, Peter's dope, Hamm's whack. I don't know this whole thing about this and that Ya Da da da da. We're gonna take more calls after this, and you know, right, So then he starts taking more calls and I'm telling Mel, I'm like, Yo, Mel, if you want to fucking smoke this motherfucker, go ahead, man, I'll give you ten thousand dollars. You put a bullet

in this motherfucker's head. And very great. Yeah, And he's like, Yo, you need to fucking calm down. And I'm like, calm down, Like you just set us up our first time in radio, Like this is some good radio to you. Ps, it was good radio, right, But I'm like, you know, but I'm insulted, and I'm young, and I'm dumb, and I'm full of com and I'm like, yo, I'm gonna fucking smack somebody. So he goes to the callers. He tapes

two or three calls. It's between Hammer and Ya Da Da da dah, and then he takes a live call caller, who's this rolling sixty crib were coming for you, Pip. Time out there we go. Mac didn't know what was going on. He had no idea. We get in the van, we start going down the dirt road. There's these two sixty four's that come this way. Oh lord, six dudes come out with ars and ratchets and like, and Pooky jumps out whistles this some wild sign still third base

if he bunts. Alright, he just gave he gave some signs and those dudes get back in the car and they just back out.

the tour business. Right, there were blue cars circling all on Hollywood and Vine, just blue cars, tons of blue cars, tons of blue cars, and we can't figure this out. Chantella's crying. Our girls are crying like, oh my god, you're gonna die. Like one person says, hey, let's cancel la. Definitely not. There was no way to. Like Russell and Ley all put our lives in jeopardy. They were not canceling nothing because POOKI short and he got him the

seats and ya da da da dad. So what Leor and Russell did was send their guy, Big D, who used to be the he sent how do you know that from the It was one of these documentaries you met, all right, go ahead, So Big D comes in and his job is to stay next to my conception the whole time, Like his job is to act like my conception security because he wants to make sure that Mike's gonna keep his word of his word is bond. The

next day he's doing the final recording. The same day we're doing the Palace, Hammer is recording his verse for role in the Same Gang, and my Conception is there and Big D is there. Hammer. Before he goes into the and I got this from D. Before he goes in, he says to Mike, hey, can I talk to a second and you know for private He's like yeah, but my security god come with me. He's like, yeah, that's fine.

They go into a room. Indeed, literally said Hamma. Turned that, turned turned to Mike and said why ain't they dead yet? And Mike said, yeah, that's not gonna happen. But I'll tell you what, if anything does happen to third Base, I'll kill your brother, your mother, your father, your sister, your cousins. I'll come to Unkland and wipe your whole fucking family out. Now, get in a fucking booth and do your verse.

up as security guard. So we put on the csc security jackets, keV Lar, I cover in my high top, fade with a Scully Pete Sku, and we got dark glasses and my and my girl's crying and like it's all upsetting and everybody's upset, and we sneak into the venue, and like they make they make a comment like everybody who's wearing blue blue jeans you gotta get out, And Pooky has lound now like ten dudes with them, and they're like checking the audience and we're backstage for like

two hours and Pooky's like, yeah, venue's clean, nobody's here. Ya da da da da? Can how come Pooky just didn't come out on stage first? And then I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Oh my god, the original Twitter r Pooky is Twitter. So we find out it's all clear, it's all good. Girls come in. N w A is there. I take a picture. I gave n w A. I gave easy my third base gives him the gas face hat. I wear the Oakland rate I hat. We're taking pictures with Dre and d C

and De La Soula is there. Ll jumps on day. It's just a free style, like have a great night, great night, everything's peace, all done. And that's the empty Hammer story and Mike conception. He's still alive, still alive, lives in Malibu, lives in Malibu. He's still power liized, but you know he lives in Malibu and still involved in the music business and if.

And I said, let's take it one step at the time, because I don't think Hammer will ever say it's okay to make this this story. And you know, because basically, and I didn't know this, but I found out later that even the idea and I forget what it's called, but even to commit murder. The oh yeah, conspiracy. There's no statute of limitations. You go to jail for any conspiracy to murder is a twenty five, regardless if it

happened in eighty nine and ninety six or yesterday. So it takes about a year and they finally sit down with Hammer and his two agents from CIA, right, and I get a call from Scott and you know, this is a process has been taking a year. So I get a call from Scott. He goes, Yo, you're sitting down, said yeah, what's up. I met with Hammer and I said really, I said, He said yeah, Hammer wants to

do the movie. He said, Hammer has one request that at the end of the movie, he's the hero that his mom said he shouldn't do the hit, and he didn't do the hit, and he's the hero of the movie.

So never never right. So we start going through the negotiations. We start talking to and and the first person we go to seth Rogen and he's like, Yo, I want to fucking do this movie, like I want to fucking do it, like no doubt, I want to do it. But Hammer didn't know. I was still telling the story right. And it gets back to him I did the Champs right, and he hears the story and he's like, oh fuck Search. He can't let that shit go fuck him, and the movie was dead. So the closest I ever got to

Hammer was the Final Yo MTV Raps. I'm now senior Big, I'm senior VP. A whild pitch. I get a call from Ted demimeye rest in peace, like, Yo, we're doing the final YO come through. I come through and I was just in some workshit like I wasn't even like stage dressed or nothing like that. And I got like ten goons with me, like I'm already with like nonfiction.

So they are just a bunch of goons and we come in and for whatever reason, there was no metal detector, and like three of my boys got they ratchets with them and like we're just you know, but we're not thinking anything bad. We're just like, you know, just coming from the street. My boys were from Brooklyn. Whatever we do the cipher, I do my little verse. Everybody does their little verse. Ed Lover comes over and goes, come on, man, it's the last show and they're taping this. He goes, Yo,

it's the last show. Hamma's back there, Like, come on, let's make peace, man, let's just the last young TV raps. And I said, Hammas here. I was like, oh, My boys pulled out. The ratchets started going through the crowd like looking for him. Hammer ditched. He went down into his car and took off. What the very last episode said, They never aired it. That didn't make the cut. God, that's the closest I've ever been to face to face with him.

doesn't care about it. But I told him, I have this amends I have to make with someone who really wanted to do bodily harm to me. And he said, the eight step talks about making amends with people unless it will cause injury to them or others. He's like, so, technically, if you don't want to make amends, you don't have to. You don't really have to. It's really up to you

if you think it'll do damage to that person. And I was like, I don't think it'll damage that person, but if he says something smart, I'm going to definitely knock him the fuck out, you know what I'm saying. Like so it's like it's one of these things that I battle with as a grown ass man, even to this day, Like I'm forty nine, years old, like let it go, you know what I mean. But then I think about that day. I think about the black tarp, I think about the guys with the masks. I think

about going into my own party as security. I think about Greg Mack and it's all like yesterday that you all like yesterday, And it's a part of me that's like, fuck, I gotta let it go sometimes, like when am I going to let it go? Like when am I just gonna let it go? So everything happens for a reason, right, So this year, we were doing a TV show called They Call Me Search. We're in the process of shooting the pilot and getting the sizzled and getting ready to

shop it. And that's where I'm gonna make peace with it. That's what's up. That's where we're going to do an episode where I make peace with it. Just about your life and the show is about my life. And this is you and hammer y'all want to do it? No, no, no, I ain't got none to do with him. This is my This is all my stories in a series, not even a documentary, thirty minute dramedy.

this shit is dope. If he if he's not going to use it, me and Peter are going to use it. So I called I called Dante. I was like, Yo, Dante, can you hook us up with like Eric, Vietnam Sadler and Keith Shockley and those guys like I want to go out to Hempstead. I want to demo this song. And we did it in about a day day or two. We did it with them out there, Vietnam, Keith Hank did.

And then Keith would be like, oh wait wait, I got this, I got this, I got this for that, I got this for that. And then they would lay it down and be like, all right, going to the going to the booth, Pete, you start do your verse first search you come in da da da, And then we go back and forth. And then we were like no, no, no, no, no, let us do all verse like that. Oh okay, okay, okay,

we're gonna lay the beat down over here. You guys go figure out your verses and and and it was really like Vietnam was the instigator and then Keith was the agitator. He'd be like, yo, that shit not and they would go back and forth, and Hank would literally was the one who came in and did the final mixes. So Hank would come in, he would tune everything, he would hear everything, he'd listen to both speakers, he nod yes, and then he was out, you know what I'm saying.

Like he was like the orchestrator. Hank was like Puffy, No no, I wouldn't say, well I don't I've never seen Puffy in the studio and no, no, no.

We go to Irving Plaza and at the time, Keith was kicking his sumb shorty right and he's going up the stairs in front of us, and I go and I go to give somebody a pound behind me, and all of a sudden, I hear, oh, oh, stop, bitch stop, and I go upstairs and Keith is getting pounded like to the midsection by this little five to two shorty. She's just pounding him. And he's doing the right thing. He ain't hitting her, but he finally gets her off of him and yah da da da da, and I

look in at Chantelle. That's how you met Chantelle. No, it's not how I met Chantel. So we became friends, like just through the club scene. And I always kind of I called her Lefty. I was like, yo, what up Lefty? Because she had that wicked left And she would always see me like coming to clubs with all different chicks and like ya da da da da. And her favorite record was Super Hope by bdp uh huh, so she would always call me the super ho She

was like, oh, there was miss the super Hope. So me and P used to host a party at Irving Plaza on Wednesday nights, and she used to come and check us out and yah da da da da, And she always thought it was kind of whack as an MC. She didn't really like me. So we had recorded we had recorded Step into the Am and we were just finishing up the album and I get an invitation through Russell to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing after party, right right, So I get a pass and it's for

two people and and it's the date was March. Uh. It was like March eighteenth, and I called Bobido. I called my man, I call cool Bob Love. I'm like, Bob, come with me. He's like that. He's like, I'll meet you down there. I was like, all right, you know, doors open at six. What time are you gonna meet me. He's like, I'll meet you there like seven. So I get down there like five thirty, like a little early, right, and the crowd is like, so on hip hop of you? No,

it's so, but it was an early party. Was it was a rap party. It wasn't like a hip hop party. Was Spike throwing a party? DJing like Red Alert was djaying And at the time, Red Alert was dating a girl named Darlene. And then there was another girl that was Sabrina, who was literally the first superhead of hip hop. Like she was like she was like that was that was and that was it was a claim to fame. And I went to high school with us, so like

I kind of knew, like that was her ship. And then there was another girl, and there was another girl, and there was Chantelle and what was happening is my man Big Daryl was doing the door and he was just taking the girls in one of the time because they didn't have passes, but he was like hooking them up and letting them in, and I was like, cool, you know, I'll just hang out and kick it with y'all. And I had my walkman and my cassette of my demo and the whole thing, and then I didn't see Barbido,

so I went to the pay phone. He's like, yeah, man, I come in. I'm I'm not gonna be there, so I come back out and I was like, you know what, you guys go in, and when whoever's last, I can take them in with me because I got a plus one. So they all go in and Chantell is the last one, and I'm like, oh, you want to hear my demo? She's like cool and like she was always cool with like Q Tip and Fife, and she was always cool with everybody in the native tongue. So she had a

really good ear. So I was like, damn, Chantell likes this, like so she listens to it and she goes it's cool, and I'm like whatever, be like whatever, this is absolutely going nowhere. So we walk in and Big Daryl says to me, yo, who's shorty? And I'm like, oh, that's my wife. And she goes, yeah, right and keeps it moving and keeps it moving. So I go one way, she goes the other. We're chilling. It's getting like late. The think tanker died on me. I don't have the

think take anymore. I'm living in my parents' house and the Long Island Railroad that took me to my house because you didn't take that. I was done with the A train, the Long islandrail which was close to my parents' house. If you didn't get on like the one fifty seven or the midnight train, the next train was like six o'clock in the morning with some dumb shit. So I'm like looking at my watch and I'm like, okay, I got a time this right, I got a time this right?

You know, Da da da da da. I'm hanging out. I'm hanging out with Red yah da da. I'm bumping into Chantelle with making fun of people, and I'm like, oh, that's kind of funny. Ya da da da da. Red goes into his reggae session, you know, Barrington Levy like who'sia bon time and all. I'm like, oh, this is my shit.

because I gotta go. And I'm like, you know, we're talking and she's telling me she's kind of kicking in with k rock, EMPC, lights DJ and they're like kind of friends. And ya da da da da da dah. And I said to it, like, look, I'm gonna go. You mind if I give you a kiss ad night? She was like, yeah, mind if you give me because I don't even know you. I'm like, okay, like all good. So we're talking a little more, talking a little more. I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, yeah, I really

gotta go. I'm like all right. I said, look, I really had a good time. It was great talking to you, you know, is it okay? If I give you a kiss good night, and she was like yeah, okay, and I kissed her and it was just fireworks, like I'd never felt like that from a kiss before. So there were these big fucking weather balloons attached to cinderblocks and real cool like rap party shit right like right corny, and I d dragged one over, just like what the fuck are you doing? And I said, this is what

you're going to tell our grandchildren. I gave you as my first gift. I said, I gotta go, and she's like, no, you don't have to go. Why don't you just, you know, stay at our apartment And she was like, I was like what, She's like, relaxed, We got a sofa. So I stayed. And the next day, March nineteenth, was my dad's birthday, so I had to run back home and I celebrated with my dad real quick, and then I went back and we have been together ever since twenty

eight years and that was what year was that? That was eighty nine? Yeah, and this is before then, before the record, oh yeah, even before.

it for Russell. He was like, Okay, we're gonna put the record out. And then two days later we got with Prince Paul and then we did Brooklyn Queens and gas Face. I see, okay, all right to.

we'll have kids and that'll be enough. But that wasn't enough. The one thing I have to say, in all honesty is that the only reason I know unconditional love is because of she can't tell because I know I didn't give her unconditional love for most of our marriage. I sat my girl down when we first moved into our apartment and I said to her, to her face, you are second to my music, and if you can't live with that, there's the door.

gotta do right. But I didn't, even even though I was raised in a family, an insulated family. Mother and father. They were neurotic Jews from New York. Like they they talked by yelling at each other, like you know what I'm saying, Like say that like it's a bad thing. You know what I'm saying. So like when we would have loving conversations, I'm like, no, this shit is wrong, Like I gotta go fuck up so that we can start yelling at each other and have a relationship, you

know what I'm saying, Like you know. And we got to a point where she was like, I want to know everything. This was about six months ago. She said, I want to know everything. She because I need to know everything everything, everything, mean everything everything? Does she really want to know? She really wanted to So I wrote it down. I wrote it down in a letter everything.

this was wow. Yeah, that's amazing because it's what led to that point.

the fuck up, Like I'm forty nine years old. I got to grow the fuck up like this is this is like the woman I've been with like forever, and she put up with me forever, and she gave me three amazing kids, and she like sacrificed and like, and I gotta make the next fifty years as good as you know, I gotta make I gotta.

me Goo. Music got me you know, all of the things, all the blessings that I have is because of hip hop. And she is the biggest blessing and I took advantage of that for most of our marriage. And now it's about time to give back.

I had a kid, I was in DC. I was at the Children's hospital for kids, were terminally ill children, and we Cactus album just came out and we went to make a visit. We were with a station there called PGC, and we made a visit and this kid came up to me and he said, black cat is bad luck. Bad guys were black. Must have been a

white guy that started all that. And I looked up and there's about ten nurses behind him and his mother and they're bawling, and I just and he hugged me, and I hugged them and I'm like, yo, you spit some good rhyme, shorty. And he went and he went back and they came over to me and they said that's the first words said in his life. Oh whoa wow. And then I started palling, you know what I mean. Like, I've had moments where like we went to London and did gas face at a time where there was a

British literally almost an overthrow called the poll tax. That was Parliament was trying to make a tax where they said that every member in a household had to pay a tax. So it really affected poor people because they had large like especially in Brixton and Brighton. In a hood you'd have ten or twelve people living under a roof and it would literally be like a year's salary just in tax. And there was graffiti everywhere, and I mean,

I'm talking about like burning streets and people walking. And we're on tour with Pe and we do a show in Brixton and we're opening and we're about to do gas face and shut it down and I turned off. I told Rich cut the music and I went black cat as bad luck. Bad guys wear black must have been the same queen as set up the poll tax play started going crazy, people ran into the streets. The

show was over the next day. The daily like third Base sets riots in Brixton and Yata and we're like in BBC and like tell us how you and I mean, but the only moments that I can equate to that is watching my like my children come into this world, like watching my wife give birth to our kids. Like music, there's something so powerful about music that defines and goes, especially for a musician. I'm not talking about music lovers.

There are certain levels of music lovers, but creative people that have this gift from the most high that they can take something transcribed and then record it and then spend the hours in the studio to mix it and get it right and master it and then have it touch somebody six months later, and then a year later, and then five years later, and then ten years later and twenty years later. I mean, that's like, that's like giving, That's like raising a child, you know what I'm saying.

And it's and and again. It's like one of the things that like, really I'm passionate about more than anything. Is this what I like to call a social music commune, about people that speak the language of music, not different languages or not different creeds or races or just who all speak the language of music, that have a mutual

love of music. And about two years ago, my daughter came to me and she said, Dad, you know when I when I meet people, whether it's on Tender or Facebook or you know whatever, everybody always asks me like what kind of music I listened to? What's the first album I bought? Where did I you know, what show did I go to? And it's a connector And she said, is there is there an app out there that connects people on their mutual love of music.

in and break it down into genres. BPM's the music that you listen to the most. The algorithm will literally feed that. And then we put out what's called a tuner in a thousand mile radius and somebody else you can connect with and you can get we say you can get in tune with them. You can tune in or tune out. So when you tune in, it'll say,

oh shit, funk got these songs. This is what we have in common, but this is what we don't have in common, Like I got like a j Cole like lights please unreleased joint that you might not even know about and you'll see it on your device, because this is the music that we don't share, and you'll send me a share button. I'll show you the app. When we leave, you'll send me a share and I can send you that song and we can build and then we have a whole chat about it. We can build

and break bread just on music. And we're doing the beta. We're doing the beta now like we're setting the beta, and if you want to get on the beta, go to beta at get a do a due dot com. But it's that language that we all speak. It's the language you've spoken since you're eight years old. Bro, It's that language of music. And now I feel like if John.

you are. And especially for us who are old enough to say, okay, we we knew Ohio players, but we also knew talking heads, and we also knew rapture, but we also knew Parliament Funkadelic, and we watched it develop into the Last Poets or the Last Poets developed into Lord Tim, and Lord Tim developed into sugar Hill, and sugar Hill developed, and we were we were privileged enough to be a part of that, to be a part of that, that language that we all got to speak,

even though people you know what I'm saying.

I don't just have to keep it when you play it for me, I'll get a chance to listen to it, and I say, damn, I like that, and then I can press another button in my tuner and I can buy the record. But we won't be a streaming service. That's not what we're about. We're about people connecting on music.

So an another thing we have is called the en sync option, where Sam might be walking by me and he'd be listening to Masters of Ceremony right, and then I'm happen to listen the same thing, and we'll get a ping and be like, oh shit, Sam's listening to the same song you're listening to. You care to tune in and we can tune in and then boom, I get his entire library. He gets my entire library, and I say, hey, what's up man, I'm Michael, Oh what's up?

I'm Sam? Like, Yo, you got that Beacy Boy cookie? Push? Shit? Yo? Can you share that with me? And then he can share it with me in a matter of seconds, and then I can either buy it or I can go to you and say, damn, yo, amir, you remember this cookie? Pushit? Share it with you. You know what I mean? And it's that language of music, and that's a positive thing. In twenty seventeen. That you know, that's one good positive thing. Yeah, twenty seventeen, that's but ters.

on all the knowledge I got. I've been so blessed to be around these people. I ask a lot of questions. That's why my boys call me search because I'm always looking for the answer. I'm always asking questions. I'm always trying to figure out what the next thing is, what the next thing is. And for me when my daughter, you know, and again my mother said it to me. She goes, you really won't understand what you created until

you have your own children. And she said in a letter, And my daughter Mayana created a do what that was? It was her idea. She was a senior. She was going to be a senior at the university and shout out to the canes. So it's it's all of that playing itself. It's that born to born, you know what I'm saying. It's that that recycle. And I'm going to say something that might offend you a mirror, but I think the greatest tragedy in your life right now is

that you don't have children. And I think that that to me. But the child that you're going to create is going to be so impassioned by so many things that develop who you are as a human being. And it's why I've had a friendship with you for so long, because you are true passionate artists.

I'm like what he's like, Yeah, this is too dark. He's like, you got a record called Pop Goes the Weasel and you Pop in the Weasels and all of that, and this is dark shit. That record went golden fifteen days. On the sixteenth day, I was like, Yo, what's going on with those impulse buyers? Cocksucker, It's called fans, bitch, look at it. But it wasn't dark. And I was in a dark place. And Pete, we were in a dark place in our partnership. And I'm just gonna keep

it one hundred. Pete and I just like you said, we were just like we were putting together. Yeah, we were arranged marriage. And by the second album, what we

wanted was different, different. What did he want? So for me, I wanted I wanted a New York Street record, Like I was already like fucking with NAS and fucking with O C. And like I wanted, like I wanted to do that like my techniques and like that was the album I wanted to make ladies gentlemen, right, you know in als ABC's and like that was like I love that ship. Yeah, that was my show. And even Daddy

Rich in Atlanta twelve ten. Ye, like you know what I'm saying, Like that was, but Pete really was like making these dark, archaic, like alternative samples and like because I was already with my wife. So he was a problem. He was the problem child, see because I don'g Godzilla is my ship? Yeah, like that was my that was

Why was that not a single? I'll tell you. I felt like y'all could have because we fell out white, because we fell apart, because we fell apart when we went out with Popco's The Weasel, when we went out with that tour. No, we got thirty minutes. And please tell me how y'all got what's his name in the video to play Vanilla Ice? Oh Rollins? Henry Robinds. You get Henry Robins. Jesse Jesse Himmelman aka Jesse Dylon was best friends. Jesse Dillon directed that video. Oh that's it, Okay, Okay,

that's crazy. So Bob Dylan's son, right, But he wasn't going by Dylan. He was going by Jesse Himmelman, right, right, So but he directed the video. So I was in a very different place in nineteen ninety one. I I didn't want to be the kid who is freestyling with shak G and Tupac in the lobby till four o'clock in the morning. Like I didn't want to be the one who was running around being a clown in his underwear, you know, laughing, you know, and all of that shit.

Like I wanted to have my wife on the road, like I promised her, like I would take her to see the world. So I was like, we all made decisions, like who you want to have on the road. So Peple was like, yo, I want my man shot Meek and Rich said I want this person. I said, yoa, I want Chantelle And they were like huh fun crusher. Yeah, but shan't tell. Like, but chant tell like you got it. She's a fucking g Like she told all of them to the fake that their faced, like I don't give

a fuck about your girls. Fuck who you want to fuck. As long as my man is straight, I'm good. She would like set up towels and water for us on the side of the stage. She didn't have to do that shit. She would do it. She made friendship bracelets with the girls and like she she just did her shit, like she wasn't getting in anybody's way, and Pete was doing his dirt and like we weren't getting in the way.

And then one night in Saint Louis, like he decides that he wants to just come fuck some chicks in the back of the bus. And we're like, okay, whatever, But the bus drivers can only drive for a certain amount of time of night before they have to pull over. And he had a place, We had some place to go, and where we did the show in Saint Louis was an hour away from the venue, so it had taken us and he wanted to take them back because their

car was back at the venue. I was like, Yo, get them tricks off the fucking bus man of the cafe, right, like the get these holes off the bus man. It's time to go.

some shit. So I go to the room and I see my two dancers who were my boys I grew up, Me and GYP with like sub Rock and KMD like my man. I'm met in Otis like my people. They're sitting around Pete and I'm like, Pete, why'd you take per diem for three days on the road?

ass right damn. So he's not coming out. He's and what happens is he's on the phone with Leor and Leor and they're hearing this. So I called Leor and at the time, our booking agent, Lee Stoleman, was working at Rush and I said, look, how many weeks we got in deposits on the tour? He said another two weeks and we already we had taken Cypress on the road. Cypress was our opening act. So like we're like I said to Lee, I said, look, we got to come

off the road and regroup. Don't take any more deposits on this tour. And right now, like Popco Zuis is number two in the country, it's like number two pop Wreck in the country. Like we're selling out like ten thy twelve thousand seed arenas, like we're doing our thing. I'm like, look, we need to regroup. We need to come off this tour. We need to come off this road and regroup. So the tour was going towards New York. We land in Philly. It's the last night of what

I think is the last show. I've been traveling behind the tour bus in a car, in a rental car with my girl, like not even going near them. At the Philly show, Pete's girlfriend, Daddy Rich's girlfriend, they those guys told their girlfriends that my girl was fucking up the relationship in the group, they try to jump my

wife up behind on the side of the stage. Wait what yeah, Pete's girl and this girl Monet, who's richest girl, they try to jump my girl Like I'm like watching this from the side of Like I'm like so, I'm not even like I'll do my verse and get off stage and like protect my girl. Like that was it. I'm all my way home. I'm on my way home. I'm on my way home. And I said, Yo, I said,

this shit is crazy. I'm on I'm literally on the phone and I'm saying to Leor like Leo, this shit is crazy, Like they just try to jump my girl and ya da da da dah, and he goes. We booked another three weeks and I said, ah, damn, I said, you just killed the group. I said, you just killed the group. Because at the end of these three weeks, I'm done. So those three weeks, I would literally get on stage and Dispete in front of our crowds, like, instead of Pete, tell him manifest this like in words

of wisdom, I say, yo, bitch, tell him wow. And I would come off stage when he would rhyme, and when he was finished, I'd come on stage and do my verse and then leave the stage. And the audience was no, no, no, they were Oh they would, they would. MTV was Kurt Loder, Yo problems with third Base got the number one record in the country, and the great group is falling apart. And I basically told I told Leo,

I told Leora and Russell like I'm done. And my wife is like, you know, is this really what you want? And I said yeah, And I said, in fact, I said, let's go get married. Let's go get married. Fuck them, let's get married. Like I'm ready. And she's like, well, I've been ready. So we got our blood work, we got our blood work. The one day we went to Queens County, We went to Queen's County Court, got married, and I headed out to La to live with my man.

Epic from Wolf Epic right it comes, Yeah, that's exactly right. I have so many questions about returning of the product, so I go to live with them. I started recording Return of the Product. I'm with wolf Fin Epic. We're doing hard but true. Here it comes like all of that ship. I'm in LA just like chilling, like I'm chilling, like me and my wife, we're just chilling. I don't even want to go back to New York. I got a house there. I'm not even in there, like I'm

paying bills like cross Country. Yah da da da da. Russell says, Yo, you gotta come home. This is this is enough. It's it's enough. You gotta come home. I come home. I go to see him here that apartment shares old apartment on West fourth Street. I go upstairs. He's trying to yell at me. I'm like, I grabbed the Dead Player. I put in his that machine. I play here it comes. He starts hearing here it comes, and he starts bouncing on his bed like this, Oh my god. We okay, you could do the solo record.

And that's how the solo record happened. Wow. And but that was a dark but that was the dark place, and it started with the darkness of the recording of the album. It started with you know, Pete being like disillusioned and me being disillusioned with the partnership. It started with a lot of that, and and really the relationship started with he challenged me. I didn't really feel like I was making great records as a solo artist when

I was with Sam. Sever Like as soon as I heard Words of Wisdom, I was like, oh, I gotta set my fucking game up hardest, hardest Chinese arithmetic. Like I wasn't thinking no shit like that, Like I I gotta I gotta step my game up, you know what I mean? Like in and that's what I did. Like he challenged me, I wasn't challenged. Yeah, it just didn't sound like it sounded like whatever fun or passion. It

was gone. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I was like, man, and it's you know, and it's it sucked the life. That album sucked the life out of me and more ways than one. And also there was a transition in our audience that sucked the life out of me.

was like and didn't understand. He just jumped in, just got stage dived, And we're like, what the fuck is going on? Like we're going to like pop stations and we're telling pop stations like you realize we're dissing you on this record, Like you do realize we're disincaparating. You're not playing day La Soul, You're not playing a tribe called Quest. You're playing Hammer and Vanilla Wafer Like you're playing bullshit, Like you should be playing Big Daddy Kane.

You should be playing Queen Latifa, you should be playing Tribe, you should be playing pe like that's real hip hop. And they're like now SEC Music Factory like and I'm

like I'm like fuck, Like what who am I talking to? Like, I don't even know these people, And again going back to the whole thing, I have to protect hip hop, but I'm at a point where i don't even know what hip hop is when I'm looking at these dudes, I don't even know what you produced pop goes U S fifties, So like at the time, is this like almost like a fight for your right thing where it's like, okay, so no, I always thought that she was dope, like I thought that sample was. No.

I'm talking about, the same thing. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. But at least public enemy, they were smart enough to educate the people. Like Chuck would look at these people and say, you are not my enemy, but here's why you were my enemy. You know. He would have that conversation like we weren't having a conversation. We were like, you guys look like dicks, Like we don't look nothing like you, Like we are nothing. I hated

those kids. And you know what a lot of those guys now that come up to me and they're like CEOs of companies and like, dude, we used to rock you and you know the frat and I'm like, yes, let's do business. So it's really funny, like now I'm glad you respect me. Like I need I need money for a dude, We're doing this DC fund and like we need to raise money. Here's my mayn and Matthew like, yo,

let's let's raise this capital. Because you were a frat boy who liked you know, Pop goes the weasel, so like you know what I'm saying, goes to weasel crowd.

to who you are. And I'm like and I'm letting my man reefing, I'm letting my May and Mattie see here, and they're like, yo, Bi, you got to get back to the street, like here's some peace, like go go listen. And like that's when I made, you know, back to the grill. T Ray double xp so so yeah, so and then you know, and then that brought me back, like and meeting Nas and doing all of that that how did you know that t Ray oh I had

the double Xboxy album. I thought I was knocketting on the edge of the door.

with baseball. He would always like go hunting for like rare artifacts of baseball, baseball artifacts, cards, gloves like that's been his passion for a long time. I guess what I had heard, And if you really want to see the whole thing, you have to google Peter Nash. There's there's a five thousand word essay that Sports Illustrated did

on it. So supposedly, from what I understand, is that Pete got involved in some counterfeit signatures and counterfeit baseball card collecting, and he basically sold them to a very high and well known like the j Z of collecting, this guy, Barry Liftson, and he gave and Barry Listen gave him loans of up to eight hundred and seventy five thousand dollars against this phony cards, and then he told Pete that he had like a certain amount of

time to pay. Pete wouldn't pay, and then he had the stuff like insured or try to, you know, and then they found out it was worthless. So Pete, damn. I think I think Pete has a warrant. I don't know what's going on. I think there's some warrants for Jersey in New York that is not really on the run. I know he doesn't have a cell phone, like I know. I know that to get in touch with him, there's one number that you can call on like a Wednesday, and it's somebody I don't want to know.

I will never go on stage with Third Base ever again. It's it's just done. I tried in twenty thirteen as a favorite to a friend. We did a show at SRB and Brooklyn as a favor, and we got on stage and I had a good time, but I was so I already have a tremor as it is from like medication that I take. But I was on stage literally like this. I couldn't control it. And it was nervous energy and it was excitement. It was a lot of different things that my father's watching and I'm like,

I'm just like shaking and but whatever. For whatever reason, we got a whole bunch of dates after that. Oh wow. So then we do another date and a festival in Indiana and my wife is looking at me like, oh God, like I don't really want this life again, like and

I don't want this. So she says to me, she you know, she finally said, because I said to her, I was like, look, they're putting together a European tour, like thirty dates like and She's like, look, if you do that, like you might as well just divorce me. I don't want that life. So I said to our road manager at the time, my Manikey Palms. I was like yeah, oh you know, I'm sorry. I'm not doing any more dates. And he said, what do you mean? I said, what do you mean? What I mean? I

just told you he goes. I just advanced Pete ten shows because he told me you were doing the shows. And I said, yo, I mean, I said, first of all, I never said I was doing those shows as A and B. I feel bad for those promoters, but I ain't got nothing to do with that. My name is pauled Us between y'all, like, I ain't got nothing to do with it. And moreover, don't ever call me about that again. Don't ever call me about a show again.

So this past New Year's we got an offer for one hundred thousand dollars to do one night in Pittsburgh for New Year's Eve, and I said, no, not gonna happen. Just not gonna happen. And Daddy Rich with his sixty followers, went on a diet tribe talking about how I try to fuck his girl, how I used to fuck prostitutes on the road, that I gave my wife an STD A lot of that like this is on Twitter on Twitter.

If you would never beat it, right, yeah, petty, pet So I just literally just said I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Never talked to me again, never see me, you know. So it's that dude is literally to damn, it's that to me. Well, Search, I'm giving you. I'm very blessed. We're doing our wrap up with you. Normally we do it once once our guest is out. But what did you learn, man? Man?