A Dres-free picture from the session…
Here’s another piece to the ‘Scenario’ demo, taken from an interview that Phillip ‘Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa’ Mlynar did last week:
Here’s the the non-speaking half-Puerto Rican brother from New York on a session that apparently they were all too high and drunk to remember properly:
Dres: “Mista Lawnge is definitely on a version of “Scenario.” There was a version that didn’t come out that Lawgne was on. I was at a couple of sessions for it, I remember that, but there wound up being so many people on this song, literally. I didn’t even understand what he [Q-Tip] was doing, there were so many people, and it was already such a dope record before it came out. I knew it was going to be a hit.
“I don’t think I was on it, but literally I might have been – we were all so free with it back then, I really might have been; we all wrote so much and did so much. For De La Soul Is Dead I wrote some of Mase‘s verses, I helped him with a couple. “Afro Connections At A Hi 5?” Yes, that’s one – to which I never got any credit or publishing, but it was cool to me ‘cos I felt like if that’s the price of being in the room, if that’s all it costs, then I was elated.
“That he [Mase] would have me help, that alone was enough. So I never pressed publishing or anything. It’s cool. That was the price of being in the room and I’m good with it. It was an opportunity that anyone in the world would have loved to have been afforded. Like Lawnge gave Tip a few beats for their [Tribe’s] first album that we never got credit
for. But I’d say the same thing: If this is the cost for us to get on this road, let’s pay our fare.”
A Tribe Called Quest featuring Natives Tongues – ‘Scenario’ [Demo #1]
A Tribe Called Quest featuring Natives Tongues – ‘Scenario’ [Demo #2]
It’s crazy how they got from these demos to the final version, one of the greatest posse cuts, classic material…
PS any demos for the “Scenario” remix out there ???
always did suspect he wrote some of that de la soul album. really talented rapper. they shold do a megamix of all the scenario veres – would be dope
Who’s in the middle of the picture?
The stickler for factual information on hip hop in me really wishes stuff like this was in the liner notes or recognized by those that were afforded the ghost written lyrics or beats. Then again there are plenty of artists that would just lie about that shit anyways.
Brown was so fuckin annoying on these demos. They should have asked Pos to rerecord and given Brown the boot.
i puff a blunt, i dont front
smoke a spliff, get a stiff
then go hump a stunt
Hood!
Dres is such a skilled lyricist and a very underrated artist. His new album From The Black Pool Of Genius is the perfect reminder of the good old Native Tongues days, a laidback body of work with solid beats, great lyrics and a fine guest list.
It’s funny; I’m torn. Part of me wishes to get closure on this whole situation, yet another part of me enjoys the mystery of the situation. The historian in me wants to know the truth, while the cultural romantic in me says that some mysteries are best left unsolved.