Props to Know The Ledge and Google Reader for bringing this to my attention. Long story short: ?uestlove started a thread in the Okayplayer forum where people give a famous person’s name and he’d tell a story of an encounter with them. As long as he’s been on the scene and various circles he’s in and out of you can only imagine the stories he has to tell…

Here a are a couple that caught my eye as I stayed up way past my bedtime (long but worth the read):

Alicia Keys

remember the “double trouble” story from TFA?
talib and mos?—actually scratch that….peep the homegrown story.
mos was being mos—late
and somehow talib (unknown to me back then im sorry lol) managed to spit a verse on this song without my knowledge.

so the cats cussed me out cause instead of “messing around with dange’NO i shoulda been in the C room telling kweli he can’t be on the song.”

dangeNO was not D.

dangeNO was that light skinned chick im always up under in the A room of battery studios.

i had met rapheal s’s longtime engineer Gerry during the “what they do” sessions. we got mad cool. so about a year later i saw some xmas lights in a box with some very specific decor that i remembered but couldn’t quite place.

so i asked the receptionist “who is in A?” she said the name and i laughed cause damn that sounded like a pretentious ass name.—but i saw the session sheet and it hit me!

those are the same xmas lights that gerry used in his bay area studio!!!!!!!

sure enough there was his name.

so i walked in

“gerry!!!”

“ahmir!!!!”

*daps and pounds….*

we talked and talked and talked…..

and then….

(simpsons harp)

she walked in.

(auuuuuuuuuuuwww—-the sim….p….sonsssss………*harp*)

“hey ahmir….met alish….

lish….ahmir…”

i won’t get into specifics…..but i pretty much neglected the things fall apart album for about 2 weeks cause i was always in her room. picking her brain…..talking about music….and our new favorite discovery of 98: KRISPY KREAMES!

meanwhile….

the mix was horrid.

kweli had managed to spit a verse.

i didn’t care if mos showed up or not.

i had neglected the highlight of TFA over a chick.

this lasted for about 3 weeks and i just KNEW i was in…..

then…..she mentioned a boyfriend.

3 hour calls turned into “i’ll call you back”….

until the fadeout.

i guess now i can also say that she was artist number one in the homegrown vol 2 track 4 story.

we saw each other at Fela 2 weeks back.

it just hit me that we actually were great pals at one point.

guess im the bad guy in this story huh?

Nas

you know….the weird thing about nas—i mean it could be kelis who is a fan of ours….but nas JUST started his fandom for us.

i mean he was the prototype of just a first glance and conclusion of “them niggas corny” and go on about his day….

meanwhile if he had just took 30 mins out he’d realize we are his biggest champion.

actually alot of the class of 92 cats are just coming around. bitter? perhaps….im like “wow raekwon if you had just answered our phone call in 96 im certain you woulda tore this SHIT outta “no alibi” but nawww…you took a glance and dismissed us.

my phone rings OFF THE HOOK with the cats i wanted to validate me and let play reindeer games with back in the spring of my career.

while watching us soundcheck at radio city nas was kicking himself for being wrong about us for 10 years….when he heard us freak “verbal intercourse”—my god he was jaw dropped. DAMNIT GHOST!!!—

now that there is a drought in “real hip hop” im everyone’s hero for managing to survive in this environment—but there was a time in which shit like this happened ALL THE TIME pre TFA.

aug 98-

electric lady.
i walk into electric lady coming from waverly diner across the street. bag of food in hand
i walk inside and walk downstairs.
nas is talking to the receptionist and hands me a $20
grabs my bag and says “its cool…keep the change”

i thought he was joking so i let 15 secs go by but he kept walking to studio b.

me and the receptionist were laughing and i thought…well maybe i should keep this 20 cause this story is too funny…

but i was starving…

and then i thought about it…and my ego kicked in…

how does this nigga not know im not the delivery boy from the diner and not questlove??!?!??

i mean for god sake he bitched to the source the HARDEST when we got a higher rating than It Was Written….so i KNOW he has to know….

i ran like “yo!!!!! i thought you were playing….that is my food yo..i thought you were joking”

“naaaaah….i….thought you were the delivery boy…”

*hands bag back*

*me and the receptionist were like “this nigga must be high as hell”*

there are 2 $20 dollar bills i have on my wall at home.

one from Prince–he tipped me jokingly for being funky

the other from Nas….i never gave him that $20 back

Beanie Sigel

the first night we met dude it was a (w)RAP.

best night ever in my south philly house.

mos
com
storch
trace
merce
hub
mal
riq
me
leslie (“…..its a lazy afternoon”)
and les’s best friend this girl name jill who earlier that day threatened to castrate someone
asia and her boyfriend fatin (future kindred)
friend of theirs from atlanta named india
“the pizza guy” (aka musiq)
pharoah
pos
nou
dan
malik
and his croonie who was annoying the shit outta the jazzies with his 25 min rhyme that we all called

“and em”

like who had the time to write a 20 min rhyme with “and em”?

we made him cut it 75% the next week when we cut that same song.

“Adrenaline”.

actually this lil 16 year old runt came in the weirded everyone out.

i mean by now we are used to bilal’s crazy shinanigans….but back then it was like “who let this lil freak inside my house?”

of course once listening to the performance i realized that kid is god.

haunted him down for 3 weeks.

first thing i played for him was dilla.

For more you gotta check out the OKP Forum thread. There are tons more and this is the perfect way to kill some time @ work or in between posts here. You won’t regret it.