I tried to rep but it said to slow down lol. This is all facts.
I was working with Little Brother when they were on Atlantic at the same time as Saigon. LB and Saigon were both sort of self-contained, and didn't need much from Atlantic. Combined with neither sounding like what was trendy, and lots of re-staffing inside Atlantic's Hip-Hop division, they didn't know what to do with either act. Little Brother got lucky and was able to drop Minstrel Show, and Saigon got unlucky.
If GSNT dropped when it was supposed to, it would've been a real gem and ahead of its time. There were a few sample clearance issues too. They had to remake The Invitation, Better Way, and a couple others.
Little Brother and Saigon were both stuck in that in-between era. I don't know if Atlantic said this to Saigon, but I remember they told Little Brother that they knew they had fans online, but "
if only there was some way to measure how many fans or followers you truly have online" that they'd be more confident getting behind the album.
They tried to link LB and Saigon. Saigon was supposed to be the last verse on the final track, but instead of rapping about how he had next (the topic of the song) his verse was about how gays spread AIDS and how he needed to be saved.
Another fun trivia fact (
@old boy you said to tag you). Alchemist gave the Say Yes beat to Saigon for 100 dollars when Saigon got out of prison for the Rawkus Records 12" single. They worked a lot after that, but for GSNT Saigon didn't reach out to Al to even listen to any beats for the album. Al was a little bit annoyed at it, but they patched it up by the time the album actually hit shelves.
EDIT: JUST BLAZE YOU PROMISED BACK ON SOHH YOU'D DROP THE ORIGINAL INVITATION AND YOU DIDN'T!
when he thought it was over, and then
got hammered again on the last verse.
