Dope Wu-Tang/X-Clan story from the comments of
"True story. I was running with Blackwatch (home of X-Clan, Isis and Queen Mother Rage) in late 1990 into 91. We were up in INS (Ian North Studios) on Murray Street in Manhattan. We were in the recording room when we heard a brother in the next room mixing down a track called "Oh, We Love You, Rakeem" that we could hear blaring over the speakers. X-Clan were riding high at the time, so we didn't pay it much mind because it was kind of pop sounding (something we later realized was Tommy Boy industry fukkery), but the brother mixing it down was a cool as human being and a generally nice humble, but street dude... "one of us"...a Black geek/need type.
He had a strange vernacular and kind of talked fast, but with a pausing between certain words. He told Paradise of X-Clan how much he admired them and what we were doing, the movement and the Clan. He also told Dise about how he had to rerecord due to a sample clearance not happening in the form of Denise Williams "Free", which probably was the best thing that happened to this brother in retrospect. Long story shorter, the good brother left the studio and upon us moving into the mix down room, we realized he left his DAT (Digital Audio Tape), which without a music lesson, is everything. Your mix, next to as important as your master. Hours of work (and money) that can kill your record deal, single or career if lost. The next day Paradise instructs my brother Derek and I to return the DAT to the owner. Blackwatch was a movement of staunch protocol, but Dise was like a big brother to us and we had wanted to get out of the office, so we took no issue with skating for a few hours.
This was the last days of old NYC, so we'd likely hit the now defunct Playland Arcade while on the run. Anyway, we went down to what I think was Polydor or Tommy Boy itself in Manhattan (I'm skeptical about it being the latter is because it was supposed to be cloak & dagger down low that the DAT was even lost), but don't quote me on that met the brother who was ever so grateful and returned the DAT. Little did I know that we had played a minor role in Hip Hop history, not just with X-Clan and creating some of their memorable visual/audio aesthetics (i.e., the second logo, iconography for Professor X album, D creating the beat for Fire & Earth), but for getting RZA (Rakeem) that DAT back which effectively ended his career at Tommy Boy as chronicled in WuTang: An American Story. After watching the series, I wonder...had the original 'Free' Denise Williams mix blown up, he got an album out of Tommy Boy (who passed on Wu like idiots) and Rakeem not got dropped by, would his discontent with industry politics have been sewn into what we now know as WuTang? This is why I will always respect that brother. CFGodwell aka F.Corey"
"True story. I was running with Blackwatch (home of X-Clan, Isis and Queen Mother Rage) in late 1990 into 91. We were up in INS (Ian North Studios) on Murray Street in Manhattan. We were in the recording room when we heard a brother in the next room mixing down a track called "Oh, We Love You, Rakeem" that we could hear blaring over the speakers. X-Clan were riding high at the time, so we didn't pay it much mind because it was kind of pop sounding (something we later realized was Tommy Boy industry fukkery), but the brother mixing it down was a cool as human being and a generally nice humble, but street dude... "one of us"...a Black geek/need type.
He had a strange vernacular and kind of talked fast, but with a pausing between certain words. He told Paradise of X-Clan how much he admired them and what we were doing, the movement and the Clan. He also told Dise about how he had to rerecord due to a sample clearance not happening in the form of Denise Williams "Free", which probably was the best thing that happened to this brother in retrospect. Long story shorter, the good brother left the studio and upon us moving into the mix down room, we realized he left his DAT (Digital Audio Tape), which without a music lesson, is everything. Your mix, next to as important as your master. Hours of work (and money) that can kill your record deal, single or career if lost. The next day Paradise instructs my brother Derek and I to return the DAT to the owner. Blackwatch was a movement of staunch protocol, but Dise was like a big brother to us and we had wanted to get out of the office, so we took no issue with skating for a few hours.
This was the last days of old NYC, so we'd likely hit the now defunct Playland Arcade while on the run. Anyway, we went down to what I think was Polydor or Tommy Boy itself in Manhattan (I'm skeptical about it being the latter is because it was supposed to be cloak & dagger down low that the DAT was even lost), but don't quote me on that met the brother who was ever so grateful and returned the DAT. Little did I know that we had played a minor role in Hip Hop history, not just with X-Clan and creating some of their memorable visual/audio aesthetics (i.e., the second logo, iconography for Professor X album, D creating the beat for Fire & Earth), but for getting RZA (Rakeem) that DAT back which effectively ended his career at Tommy Boy as chronicled in WuTang: An American Story. After watching the series, I wonder...had the original 'Free' Denise Williams mix blown up, he got an album out of Tommy Boy (who passed on Wu like idiots) and Rakeem not got dropped by, would his discontent with industry politics have been sewn into what we now know as WuTang? This is why I will always respect that brother. CFGodwell aka F.Corey"
