The Making Of A Classic...

The Great Adventures Of Dope Boy C has been a year in the making. Started back in Feb. '06, I recorded "Know The Ledge" and the response from that prompted me to do an actual mixtape recreating that vibe from the early 90's. "Its The Shoes" followed a month after and the response from that let me know I had something going here. The mixtape was birthed in April of '06 and included revisions of "Ice Cream" by Raekwon, "Cant Stop The Prophet" by Jeru Da Damaja, and "Triumph" by Wu-Tang. The direction was not clear enough as to where I needed to go with it so I kinda put a hault on it until I could really narrow in on the sound. It took a trip to LA in August of '06, it was actually my birthday and I was in my hotel room by myself on the computer and I started listening to Ice Cube's 1st album "Amerikka's Most Wanted" on my itunes. Booom! Low and behold was the perfect blueprint to what I wanted to create as my mixtape. From intro to outro, that album was everything I wanted to do in a nutshell. It would take another 5 months before I actually started recording again, I took those 5 months to really "Become" what I wanted the cd to sound like. I dont know if some of you really get that but, from the dress to the speach to the movements, everything-I tried to perfect that era in my lifestyle to make it a natural sound on the music. And it worked out perfect. On Jan. 4th 2007 I had my 1st studio session for what was to become "The Great Adventures of Dope Boy C". Early versions of "Word Of Advice" (originally titled "I Dont Know"), The Return Of The Magnificent (originally titled "Talk Yo Shit"), "Get Down", "I'm Sorry Miss" and the original version of "Words From Mickey" (which originally was supposed to be a different type of song with me and Mickey Factz, he just never gave me the verse.). There were about 4 other songs that were recorded and mixed which never made the final cut ("Beats To The Rhyme" by Run DMC (which might appear on pt. 2 f.y.i), "Cant Do Nothing For Ya Man" by Public Enemy (same song as "Get Down" jus another break in the beat) which was the original "Extra! Extra!, with me doing 2 verses by myself, I just didnt like the beat anymore.) and there were 2 more other songs which were unfinished. But due to scheduling conflicts, school, doing the magazine thing, and traveling back and forth to LA every other weekend- Things just werent panning out. Finally again in June I got back on track with finishing what I started. I listened to what I had and I made a conscious decision to fine tune everything and start over. And what I did is what you are now bumping in your system:

1. Attack Of The Killer Goldiggers- I needed an intro and I kinda did some other bullshit where I had myself acting out 3 different parts. Didnt quite work out but one day after my homeboy Luke's b-day dinner, my homegirls from out here in LA came back to the studio to pick up their cars which they left parked here. Before they rolled out, I asked them to come upstairs real quick and lay something down. I had the idea of having the goldiggers on there for a skit before "Games People Play" but after hearing my homegirl Chevy say "Mah-se-ra-ti" I knew that had to be the intro. I'm glad I stuck to that choice. We did that in bout 30 takes! lmao. They are real sweet girls and I had them sounding like ghetto hoodrats. It worked out tho and its still funny everytime I hear it.

2. Dope City- I'm the hugest EPMD fan and I wanted to do "Rampage" over but couldnt find the break in the beat. So my next favorite EPMD tune is "The Big Payback" so I chopped and looped the break and just got busy for a verse. Just really introducing the vibe of the cd. My man Ray who runs the studio here in LA where I work out of is from Chicago and had the illest accent so I just had him talk some shit over the joint to give it that extra flavor.

3. I'm Comin- The movie "Juice" might be the sole inspiration for this cd so I had to dig more into the movie and get some breaks that took me back to that era. "Raw" is one of Big Daddy Kane's illest songs and that "I'm Coming" sample is so ill I had to incorporate that into the joint. The rhymes were real straight to the point fuck-you-ism. 2nd verse very straight to the point. My man Jason from the rock band Life9 signed here to Headquarter Ent. was in the studio and I just had him go in the booth and give me a lil intro. He put on the british accent and it was over!

4. Return Of The Magnificent- This is actually the original version I recorded, I liked it so much and those rhymes and the conviction was so real I had to leave it as is. This is the only song I kept from the original mix. Rhymes real brutal and swag on 100. Special Ed was always dope to me, plus he was in Juice so it fit.

5. Let Em In- This was on the original list of songs that was incomplete. It was spose to be me, smoke and numbers. It was a ghetto story that just didnt make sense at the end of the day. I really liked that beat so I kept it lingering for a while. One day I just started rhyming and laid down a long ass verse to the beat. Just gettin my thoughts off. I had been in LA for 3 months and ppl were talkin shit back home and I just had to let some steam out. It was spose to be me, Tyrese, and Stix but Gotcha came thru one nite and just blazed the beat. Smoke & Numbers and Den 10 came to LA for the Sean Kingston video shoot and came thru to the studio on a sunday afternoon and just layed their vocals down something crazy. Stix was still spose to get on it but it would been tooo long. So i just had Ray talk more shit at the end to add some character to it.

6. Extra! Extra!- This was supposed to be me and Brandy (yeah the r&b singer) well Brandy raps and she's actually ILL! I wanted to have her get super busy on some old school shit, and who better than MC Lyte? It never worked out, she couldnt get to the studio, she had to take care of some b.i, (i actually heard her verse and it was crazy) but I kinda forgot bout it and we just couldnt get in the studio together at the same time to do it. So one day i'm goin thru beats and i bounce up on it and I start rhyming bout clothes. Just straight fashion talk. Me and Mello was jus on myspace talkin bout some other shit and I just said aye jump on this song, talk that fly shit (Mello has dope style) but he emailed me his verse back the next day. It worked out beautifully. Taz Arnold was also spose to be on this but it didnt pan out.

7. Its The Shoes- Recorded way back in March of '06 and just had that real sneaker lingo flowing through it. Self Explanatory.

8. The Revenge Of The Dopeness- Known as "Know The Ledge '06" for so long, I decided to not keep the original song titles and recreate the sound but give it my own identity. So I just got busy over the "Know The Ledge" beat and shot a video and named it as the 1st single off the mixtape. Mickey Factz later on asked me to give him my verse for his mixtape, I was gonna actually use the version with both of us, but I hated what his boy did to the beat so I just kept my version as is.

9. Can I Get Down= This was another joint from the original mix but I re-recorded the vocals, added more to it, added the female parts and made it sound 1000 better. This is official begining of the story where I meet the young lady. Thats actually my homegirl Jazzy on there who sings on "Games People Play"

10. La, La, La, La, La- I promised La-La (name changed to protect the guilty) to never reveal her identity. But that was the very last thing I did on the mixtape, I needed to give this female character a platform to introduce herself and this was it. Also I wanted to use "Do Me Baby" somehow someway on the mixtape and I had her on the phone so it just worked out perfect. P.S-It was all rehearsed, thats not a real convo.

11. I Wanna Get Lost- My lil sis Tiffany got me into techno/disco music a lil while ago and I wanted to capture that vibe a lil bit. The song is really like me talking to "LA-LA" gettin my lil game spit on. "If you were my girl, i'll be your easter/ ressurect your closet like good Jesus/ baby girl cuz your muy bonita" vicious rhyming!

12. I Took You To The Movies- My boy Albee ("Brooklyn" from the movie ATL) was hangin out at the studio and my homegirl Vash LVVR was there from Vegas jus hanging out. I said yo, why dont ya'll just do a skit for me. They got in there and just flowed with it. It came out magical. I actually edited it down a little bit but thats the core of what they were doing.

13. Word Of Advice- This was everyones favorite joint before they heard it. I released the snippet on myspace a while ago and people just went nuts. This is the only Ice Cube song from "Amerikkkas Most Wanted" that I actually used. Just a straight hood story with social commentary buried under harsh comedy. Brilliant in its approach and delivery. Originally there was a hook and only 1 verse. I added the 2nd verse and took off the hook and added the actual dialog. Thats Ray and Vash together. Total comedy going on there.

14. Words From Mickey- Originally I rhymed on this beat and left a verse open for Mickey. He took so long to get it to me that I just said fuck it and scraped the song from my memory. One day he hit me and said he was bout to email me the verse. I liked what he did it just didnt match what i had did previously on it. But it kinda added a little twist to the whole plot I had goin here, so i just kept his verse alone and made it an interlude, adding some flavor to the story.

15. Games People Play- My man Plain Pat put me on to this Pete Rock record while we were at MIMS album release party. He told me that i needed to rhyme to this beat on the mixtape. I got the record, chopped it up, looped it and went in on the story. Jazzy came through and I told her what I wanted for the hook. I had 3 other singers who never seemed to show up to the studio but Jazzy came thru at the last minute. My homegirl Lynette was in there so I had her be the goldigger in the begining. My boy J-Doe came through later that week and I just had him say some shit over Lynette. My man Legacy had just sent me the new HiRoller mixtape and I just loved how he was sounding on them records. I sent him the joint and told him to hop on it, I told him what to talk about and he nailed it. I added my homegirl Airess later on at the end to segway into the next song.

16. I'm So Sorry- That was me explaining my behavior in relationships. Not saying this is how i am now, i'm just saying this is a phase that I went through that i felt needed explaining to women whom i've dealt with. There was supposed to be a hook but the girl never seemed to come by while i was working. I took some of Vash's vocals from "Favorite Day" and used it on the end of this song to really add more to the story line. It worked perfect. I still dont know the original song this break is from, all i know is that its a UMC's song that my man Chris Live had put on an old school cd for me.

17. My Favorite Day- I was watching State Property 2 and Nore said something to the effect of "i got a bitch for everyday of the week" Kinda reminded me of someone I knew (LMAO) but anyway the rhymes just flowed out so natural. I told Vash to talk some shit to me at the end and she did me one better. She changed her voice bout 10 times sounding like a different nationality. If you listen it sounds like 5 different people. Thats just Vash getting busy!!!!

18. Just My Luck- Smoke said I was gettin my Will Smith on. I was just trying to find a perfect ending to a never ending story. And the rhymes just came to me and the story worked out. Thats Vash and Albee again at the end talking. Another MC Lyte classic.

Thats bout it! Thanks again to everybody involved and I hope ya'll enjoyed it.

www.firstplacelosers.com/dopecity
myspace.com/thegreatadventures
myspace.com/curtains