One of the reasons I love social media so much, aside from the fact that it pays my bills, is following the day to day accounts of artists I’ve always admired or looked up to. If you consider yourself a 90s hip-hop head at all, you’re likely familiar with The Artifacts, who crafted my fave hip-hop song of all time, Wrong Side Of The Tracks. Well, I follow both El Da Sensei and Tame on the Facebook machine, and they both post gold.
El, in particular, has been sharing some amazing memories and stories every #throwbackthursday. With his blessing, I’m committing to sharing some of them here with all of you! So here’s this week’s story courtesy El Da Sensei.
The following story – still in its original form – accompanied the video below.
I been looking for this one here…lil history behind this. Party Arty (R.I.P) brought this to my attention while on a 25 city euro tour with AG in 2003. While packing the van he screamed, Yo El you ever heard this joint..listen to ya man Jay Z before he starts his verse. I’m like oooooh wooooow. Is he saying what I think he saying? Cmon wit da WHAT? Get down wit the What? Lol that was humbling respectful and crazy!
Years ago….on a bus to Morgan St College…Artifacts, Original Flava Ski Beatz Jay-Z, Leaders of The New School, Hard To Obtain, KMD, TCF Crew, Kurious to do a show there and back to NYC. long story short…me and Tame had a radio playing some of the album for Hard to Obtain then you here….Yoooooooo bring dat radio down here yo!!! Busta….we like word ok. We go to the front of the bus and busta snatches the radio ” Lemme see dat, y’all Artifacts right? I heard of yall on Stretch and Bob. Everybody staring and quiet. Dinco and Charlie watching. He rewinds the tape and listens to the songs. Get to Cmon wit da Get down and instantly the bus is like okaaaaay. He rewinds it like 8 times. Stops the tape and says…” If y’all ever do a remix for this I wanna be on it” Whoa!!! Whoooa! Bus is quiet now. He plays it again. Jay Z says “Yo dats some shit right there. Beat is crazy. Whole bus singing the hook. Wow. Get off the bus. Do the show. We all get back on the bus. Its dark. No music …out the darkness you hear “Yo El! Yo yo…Play that joint again!!!!! Jay Z. Whole bus Cmoooon Get doooooown lmao. Will never forget that moment or day. Which led to Busta being on the remix like he said and here Jay Z singing the hook on this song at 2:18 . #humblingmoment #life changing
— the above (verbatim) appeared on El Da Sensei’s Facebook page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWY2baR08C0
El Da Sensei is currently grinding like crazy! Be on the lookout for his Enforcers: Jersey Connection project with DJ K-Def, and his long-awaited XL collaboration album with Sadat X.
