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The Making Of Ready To Die01 "Intro"Produced by Sean "Puffy" CombsEasy Mo Bee: The whole story line for the album--starting in the beginning when you hear the robbery happening on the train and "Rapper's Delight" in the background and everything--that was Puff's concept: to create a story line for the album. He just gave me a list of recordsthat he wanted and I brought them back to him. He said he wanted "Rapper's Delight," AudioTwo's "Top Billin'," "Superfly." We had "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye, [but it gotchanged] probably for sampling reasons. Songs that explain their era."Prince" Charles Alexander: First of all, I'm the father on the intro. There are all these voiceson the intro. That "Wilona, what the fuck you doing? You can't control that goddamn boy!"That was me. And the guy at the end, the guard that lets them out of jail and says, "You'll be back," that's me also. And the reason that they used me is because three guys had gone in andtried, I forgot who. I was there, Puffy was there, Biggie was there. I was engineering and acouple of guys who were just hanging around went in and tried to do that part. And they'relike very stiff-sounding: "God damn it, Wilona." And I'm like, "Yo Puff, I am an angry Black man. You should let me try that." I went in there and I screamed. I mean, Goddammit,Wilona! What the fuck you doing?! I was way, way up in it. They fucking rolled. They lovedit. They kept it. That was one of the things that kind of helped me to bond with the whole project. 'Cause I'm about 10 years older than Puffy, so I was really professional. I had a really professional vibe. So when I went in and did that, that really broke a whole lot of ice.02 "Things Done Changed"Produced by Dominic Owens and Kevin ScottLil' Cease: That was one that was most played in the car. Big loved that song. There was no particluar story behind it. It was more of a song that had a concept behind it rather than a storyitself. Biggie made it to represent Brooklyn. To show how he grew up, how we grew up. Hewanted to show what he was accustomed to and the lifestyle he was used to. It was one of the
 
very first ones made. Whenever you make a track of that nature, with lyrics so real, it standsout.03 "Gimme The Loot"Produced by Easy Mo BeeEasy Mo Bee: When he did "Gimme The Loot" I was like, Whoa--dude's got problems!People who wanna battle him, go up against him? Nobody's gonna wanna battle this cat. If you heard everything he said in his lyrics, you won't live. I remember very clearly that thatsong was done during the daytime. It was still light outside. Junior M.A.F.I.A. was there. Iain't never really worked with nobody that really spit that hard before. So when I was in thestudio, I was like, "Yo, man you sure you ain't sayin' too much?" And I remember Cease andChico sittin' back and sayin', "Yo, Mo, just chill! You sensitive!" I was like, "I just wannamake sure we get sold. I don't want no records getting snatched off the shelves." That's mywhole thing. I guess that was their [definition] of being "sensitive."Maybe Puff didn't necessarily respond to me at the time when I came to him and presented[my concerns] to him, but I remember telling him, "Yo, the shit about being pregnant, and the'Number One Mom' pendant? Yo, be careful with that. Because you could have all kinds of Christian rights and women's rights organizations trying to pull your stuff down off theshelves and all that." At the time, Puffy kind of brushed it off. And I just walked away in mymind like, all right. But I guess later it made sense to him--even without him coming back tome. 'Cause [that lyric] got blurred out. So it worked out the way it was supposed to.[As far as Big rhyming the two different characters' voices], he went in the booth and then it just kind of happened. He just started doing it. He would do one voice, then come behind anddo the other one later--just like, leave a gap so he could come back and fill the spaces. I waslike, Yo, that's creative! And he really had cats fooled. Even just last year, I was aroundsomebody who was playing that, and still after all this time he was like, "Yo, who was that--that was Puff?" I was like, "Man, y'all really can't hear that? That's him! He did two voices."That just shows you how good he was.Mister Cee: I clearly remember "Gimme The Loot," because I did the scratches on it.Remembering that is like yesterday. I used Kid Hood's verse from A Tribe Called Quest's"Scenario (Remix)." And how I did the turntables and made the word "Bad, bad, bad" fromturning the knob off on the turntable from pressing the stop button. Each time that I broughtthe record back, it's a different effect to where you turn the knob off on the turntable to whereyou stop the turntable. You get a different effect on the record. So when you bring it regularlyit's like, "Bad." Turn the knob off, "Baaad"--slower. Press the button, "Baaaad"--slowest.04 "Machine Gun Funk"Produced by Easy Mo BeeEasy Mo Bee: Biggie picked that beat in my car. I had this green Acura, and we used to ridearound Brooklyn. Like Fulton St. and St. James where he lived. I'd pick him up off the stoopwhere he lived. It'd be me, him, D.Roc, Lil' Cease, Chico--as many as we could--ridin' aroundin the car. We'd just ride around and just blaze and listen to beats. And that's how he picked alot of the beats. But the actual session for "Machine Gun Funk"... It's vague to me, to behonest. Let's put it like this: There was some hazy years. I'm a changed man now.
 
Chucky Thompson: Big was crazy. He was just in there with some socks on and some boxer drawers--'cause it was really hot--doing his rhymes. That's when he was actually writing stuff down. He didn't take long at all. It was like he knew what he wanted to say. He'd be in therechilling, smoking or whatever and then he'd write two words, and then he'd go back tochilling and write two more words, and then he'd go in the booth.05 "Warning"Produced by Easy Mo BeeEasy Mo Bee: The significant thing about "Warning" is--and I'm definitely not trying to disshim, he put me on the map, he's the first I ever worked with, so total respect to him--but that beat was offered first to Big Daddy Kane. I remember him sittin' in my crib, and I was playinghim beats. I forget the album at the time that he was doing. And you know Kane was alwaysinto the Barry White, Isaac Hayes thing. So I did this joint off of Isaac Hayes, and I'm justfeelin' it. I'm feelin' myself. I just know he gonna love this. This is the vibe. But he was like,"Play the next beat." I was like, "Yo, hold up, man. You sure you don't want that? That's IsaacHayes!" He said, "You heard what I said, play the next beat."So I just kept the beat and held onto it. A few months later when it was time to play Big beats,I played it for him. Aw man, Puffy went crazy! He went crazy, like, "Yo man, this is it!"06. "Ready To Die" - Produced by Easy Mo BeeEasy Mo Bee: Again, here we go with the 'sensitive' part. When Big said, "Fuck my mom...",when he said "Fuck the world, fuck my moms and my girl", I was like "Damn! Okay, maybe'fuck the world'. Maybe 'fuck your girl', but 'fuck your moms?!" We all know he didn'tliterally mean that. Anybody knows that. That was just his whole intensified approach toexplaining just how much he felt. He was ready to die. It was just an emotional expression.But again, when he said stuff like that, I was like "It's like I'm working with Ice Cube!"Amerikkkaz Most Wanted? I was like, Brooklyn's Most Wanted! I'm sure Cube and N.W.A.and stuff like that had a profound effect on him. I'm sure in some type of way, he wasinfluenced by that stuff. At the time, we all were.07. "One More Chance" - Produced by Norman & Digga \ Bluez Brothers, Chucky Thompson& Sean Puffy Combs...Additional Vocals by Total...Instruments by Chucky ThompsonLil Cease: My sister did the interlude for "One More Chance" - with all the girls on it. Theother girls on it, that's just my sister's friends. My little niece, she did the intro part before"One More Chance": 'All you hoes calling here for my daddy...' It was just people that was just around. If you're around and he need you - "Yo, I need a hook done.""Prince" Charles Alexander: "One More Chance", I remember specifically. That song has a piano figure that goes 'ba-bu-da-na-na-na-na'. One of the things I did is, all the way throughthe song there are two parts of that piano figure, and the second part I had to keep riding, so Ihad to raise the level. So it's like 'ba-bu-da-na-na-na-na' and louder, 'ba-bu-da-na-na-na-na'. Sothat it would be the level of the first song. And it was a request. Puffy actually asked me to dothat, because it was a sample, and he didn't want the sample to sound just like it had sounded before. He wanted a nuance. He wanted something that had its character in the Bad Boyworld. It was little stuff like that he was requesting that really gave Bad Boy a sound. I
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