On "Can't Hold It Back" (feat. Tuffy Tuff, Chris Lo, & Smash Money):
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It was just like… Okay, Tuff’s tryna get his foot back in, so Tuff jump on this joint. Chris was up-n-coming… and hungry… like “gimme that hard ass beat” … and I’m like just take it man, go… so he was like a little brother. Smash… what he did for me I couldn’t even repay him for. He was a perfectionist. He’s been in the studio where people are paying money or every take has to be right. Me… it’s hip-hop, if I miss a word or whatever, I just keep it moving. When he came along he cleaned everything up.
The significance of that song… It was an attempt to make an anthem. We call them symphonies, like Marley Marl’s “The Symphony.” There was a formula… we had to have a song for the ladies, a song for the club, a song for the radio, and a symphony.
On the Spice 1 concert at Station Square:
I was mad at my hood after the Spice 1 concert, because his manager heard so much about us... “I’m here to see y’all, I wanna see y’all” … That was actually the most we ever got paid to do a show and it was $1,500. I wanna say it was ’93 - ’94. It was at Station Square at the Ampitheatre. It was packed… Ron Brown and Ray Childress were the promoters and they did a good job, they got everybody there. The problem was… Hill and Hazelwood did not get along.
It was Mel-Man, us, and Kado from Homewood who has since passed away. And what they did was put Kado on, then Mel, then us… major mistake. I would even let Mel go after us… He was bigger than us as far as radio play, but we had the streets… The problem was that Kado went on… and the people from the Hill was up by the stage and they don’t care what you’re saying, they’re trying to intimidate you… So then Mel went on, and Mel did a hell of a show, it’s just that cats were booing cause he’s from the Hill… throwing shit and pushing up to the front so they can do what they do in his face. By maybe the third song all chaos broke loose. All I remember was jumping on stage to protect my equipment… Two SP-1200’s and two Technic 1200’s that nobody’s touching. I was so mad at everybody because cats from Hazelwood and Homewood almost couldn't wait to get in the middle of some shit... They didn't know it, but that may have been a major break for us had we been able to go on that night. I'm sure of it, pretty much.
They had a big ass picnic the next day, Spice One’s the guest of honor, Homewood Park is packed… I didn’t even go. No disrespect but like… we had the best show planned… I can’t even describe it, Rockin’ Rosh was gonna be beat juggling... We were gonna kill it, and we never got the chance.
But what came out of it was that Lil Dub, from up C-City.. I guess Spice must’ve heard him and he recorded a song with him. He put him in a national video, and Spice even rocked the ‘Homewood State’ hoodie in the video. The song was hot, too.
On battling Biz Markie and opening for Notorious B.I.G.:
I was a big Juice Crew fan… Gangstarr was probably my favorite group. Rakim is probably who got me motivated though.
I got a story though… I got into a battle with Biz. It was after a show at the Syrian Mosque, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn. I was feeling the pressure because Big Daddy Kane was watching. But I’m going in spitting freestyle, and Biz is up and he starts spitting writtens! So I’m like okay, let me spit something… And I spit this storytelling song called “Ruff Day.” I stumbled and couldn’t remember my fucking words, I guess I got a little nervous and shook. They asked if I had a tape but we didn’t have any. So, we flew home and did the tape [laughs]… But it was just funny that I was going back-n-forth for maybe an hour with Biz. And it was funny, because some months later on Biz's I Need a Haircut album I remember a lot of the stuff that he was spitting from the battle.
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We opened for B.I.G. around the time Ready to Die came out. Hill cats were feeling him, they knew every word to everything he performed. I didn’t know that this dude was gonna be who he ended up being.
And to be honest with you, I’m gonna tell you a little story. My man was the weed dude. So he goes up to serve Big, and Big says “I gotchu, I gotchu” … but Big never paid him, so he got him for like 15 bags. And we laugh about that to this day, like “Big got out on you.”
F3 - The Stretch Tape (1993)
01. Intro
02. Stretch
03. The Lady Hustla (feat. Lady Hustla)
04. Ruff Day
05. I Knew I Was the Man
06. Trapped In Homewood (perf. by Kado)
07. Can't Hold It Back (feat. Tuffy Tuff, Chris Lo, & Smash Money)
08. Outro
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Next up, Infinite speaks on the formation and idea behind Ruff Chemistry Records. And later, Infinite shares his experience working in Cali with Mel-Man, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and more.
-Rory
