Masta Ace

Wow.

And if somebody wanted a beat from me, I think right before I got with Jay, I did a record with Master Ace called Good Old Love.

And he gave me $2,000 for it.

Oh, wow.

I was like, oh, I kind of like this.

But there was something about Master Ace Incorporated that I was feeling like I might not like, even though they had an album before that called Slaughterhouse, and I slept on that one also.

But this one should have been right down my alley because...

It tells the story of Master Ace being from Brooklyn, having his cousin from the West Coast come through, and a lot of the beats are inspired by West Coast sounds.

Now, if you've been watching this podcast for a while and know, you know, As far as how I felt about early 90s West Coast hip hop, I loved it to death, but I wasn't really in the mood to hear like East Coast rapping over West Coast if it wasn't like EPMD sound, right? But EPMD kind of came out with that sound.

Whereas in early 90s, I wanted to hear West Coast accents about West Coast blocks.

It's way out there.

Here are the people that Brownsville, Brooklyn, has produced, going somewhat in alphabetical order because I would not have started this list with Masta Ace, but I guess they think that Ace is Masta Ace's last name, so it starts with Masta Ace.

[laughs]

Masta Ace.

Born to Roll Masta Ace, just for those who don't know.

Lyle Alzado.

Oh.

... which is about the record label, Cold Chillin', and, um, you know, the hip hop crew, the Juice Crew, who comprised most of that label.

Producer Marley Marl, rappers like Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shante, Biz Markie, um, Masta Ace.

So, um, then flash forward to December 2024, um, I get a, an unsolicited email from someone who works for Motor Books, which is a division of Quarto, uh, Publishing Group, and, and he says, "You wrote this, uh, article for U Discover Music in 2017 about the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill album, and it's the best thing I've read about that album on the internet, because we're putting out this book that's gonna come out in 2026 for the 40th anniversary of the album, and we're trying to find someone to write the book.

And, and I see that you have already written a book, and it got good reviews on Amazon." So this guy read this article I wrote that was maybe two pages worth of t- of text, and then saw that I had written a book, and said, "Do you wanna write this book for us? If you don't, we'll find someone else to do it." So I just had to say yes, because I grew up listening to Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill, even before it came out.

But, yeah.

Have, have you ever seen, uh, any of those guys live? Like, I th- I think Kane, Masta Ace, right? Jeru, uh, all, all those guys are, are Brooklyn MCs.

Have you had the fortune-

Yeah

I've, I've, I've seen, I've seen Ol' Dirty 'cause I saw Wu-Tang live.

Oh, that's dope.

Um, I saw, uh, Masta Ace live, definitely.

Um, Jeru I've seen live.

So he did all those.

So we did an album, um, with Jazzy Jeff, um, you know, uh, Ed Harcourt, uh, Masta Ace, Maestro, um, Keita, uh, Langley, all these people, and I love that album.

There's a lot of great songs on there.

That, that was a great experience because we're about...

From the bottom to the top, top to the bottom.

Come on, Masta Ace, get funky while we got 'em.

Three minutes.

Me and my partner from the start, we used to get together at the park.

I'm with him.

I don't wanna listen to Master Ace.

I'm with, I'm-

Hold on.

Let Lex go.

Let's hear what Lex say.

I'm saying fuck Master Ace because-

Hold on.