Missing In Action: Lazy aka Laze Mic

Stumbled upon this nugget of rap trivia during a follow-up interview with Dr. Butcher earlier this year – the brief story of a New York MC named Lazy who was carving out quite the name for himself on the street level in the late nineties before some he vanished from the music game altogether. These are the only four examples of his work I could find, but apparently he was at his best when freestyling or battling. I’d be interested to hear some of his appearances on The Stretch Armstrong Show if anyone has them.

Robbie: Any good Eric B stories?

Dr. Butcher: I remember me, him and Tito [Fearess Four] linked up and he told us he had a deal with Sony. He said, ‘I wanna sit behind the scenes, I want you and Butcher to be the faces of the label. Let me handle the business and we’ll put in motion.’ In the meantime I rounded up three of the best rappers that I knew about – Joell Marquis, William Millions and Lazy. Fat Joe and everybody was trying to get Lazy at the time, he was the hottest dude in New York. Battle-wise, he was destroying everybody on the streets, no one could touch him. He was like fifteen, sixteen years old. C4, who did [Akinyele’s] ‘Put It In Your Mouth,’ was doing a lot of the tracks and putting stuff together but then Eric wasn’t coming through and he just disappeared. He stayed in contact with Lazy, I guess he felt like he had his next Rakim, he was like, ‘Yo, Eric’s promising to fly to Miami and this and that.’ Things just never manifested into anything.

What happened to Lazy?

Stretch [Armstrong] had him on the show, many times, just getting busy on air. Fat Joe was trying to sign him, T-Ray came to me when he finally got his deal with Warner Brothers, he said, ‘Drew, what have you got? I’m giving you your own situation. I’ve got a label deal at Warner Bros. and I’m giving you your own album. Whoever you want to sign, let’s go.’ I said, ‘I want to sign Lazy – ask around.’ He called me back in ten minutes. ‘Yo, I can offer him three-hundred thousand dolars.’ I told Lazy and he said, ‘Nope, I need a million. Fat Joe wants to give me a million.’ I said, ‘If Fat Joe had a million you’d have it in your pockets. Let’s take this deal.’ But he didn’t want to take the deal so that fell through. On the [Kool] G Rap Rawkus album, the song that I produced for that record? He’s the last guy rapping on that song [‘Gangsta, Gangsta’]. He was running with G for a while but he was so cocky and arrogant because he was so young that he wouldn’t let anybody groom him. Then he moved to Baltimore and he just disappeared, ‘cos he wasn’t around experienced dudes that could make him sound the same way on tracks as he sounded in his battles. 50 Cent got good because he allowed Jam-Master Jay and the Trackmasterz to groom him into how to make records.

Lazy – ‘Make Em Jealous’

Prodigy and Lazy – ‘U Ain’t Real’

Kool G Rap feat. Ma Baker, Infa Diamond and Lazy – ‘Gangsta, Gansta’

Kool G Rap feat. Shaqueen, Lazy, Tiz & Jinx Da Juvy – ‘Planet of The Apes’