DJ Clue - Show Me The Money
One of the greatest Clue tapes of all-time.
By the mid-90s, DJ Clue was the number one mixtape DJ in New York City, hands down. Every tape was littered with exclusives that no other DJs had, as well as buzzworthy artist freestyles.
Show Me The Money was the perfect marriage of both. He had exclusives as big as The Notorious B.I.G.’s now classic singles “Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems” well before Life After Death came out, plus custom-made freestyles by three of the hottest artists in the streets at the time—The LOX, Nature, and Mase. Not to mention a ton of other timeless joints by stars and up-and-comers, most heard for the first time on his tape.
Here’s Genovese on the making of “Genovese’s Thesis” featuring Styles P, one of the new artist gems that broke first on Show Me The Money. And check out Genovese inside the pages of Do Remember! for more on his Clue tape debut.
Genovese: At that time, me and Styles were roommates. There were like five of us in Yonkers—142 Woodworth Ave. It was the time when The LOX were with Puff and all those hits like “You’ll See,” “Done Started Something”—all of those joints were coming out of our apartment.
“Thesis” was a song that I wrote to one of their beats. They were getting beats from the hottest producers at the time like Havoc, Premier, the whole Bad Boy camp. So beats were flying in. I would be writing while they were writing. I knew I probably wasn’t going to be on the song but in my mind it was like, “Maybe I will.”
I got that beat from I-Witness when I was at this indie company called Die Hard Records that birthed a lot of stuff. They were Harlem dudes, but the investor had a triplex down by Wall Street so that's where the office was located. A lot of that early LOX shit was recorded at Die Hard, and I recorded “Thesis” there.
The funny thing about the song was that I didn’t write my verse to that beat, and Styles didn’t write the hook to that song. We were at the apartment, and I told Styles I got this song and I need a hook. He starts saying the hook and I was like, “Did you write that?” He said he had it in his head.
We went to my man J-Blend’s apartment in Mulford Projects in Yonkers to record the song on some raw shit. It sounded crazy and it was hot as hell. It felt like it was 100 degrees. So Styles was like, “This isn’t going to work, we gotta go to the studio.” We ended up going to Die Hard to record it.
During that time, I was very raw in terms of recording. I recorded before, but I didn’t have the greatest flow at that point. I felt like with writing, I was there with anyone. But being around Kiss and Mase especially, their flows were so impeccable. They used to call me the white Nas. They would always tell me that my lyrics are ridiculous, but I had to work on my flow.
“Thesis” created a whole different thing for me. I remember while we were recording it, Styles came in and told me, “Just talk. This is a story, so when you rap, talk it out like you’re telling me a story.” I did it in one take. When he told me that, something clicked in my mind and boom—it was done.
“Genovese’s Thesis” is now officially available on DSPs for the first time. Go add that to your playlists. And while we’re on the topic of Yonkers, here’s another Show Me The Money street classic — The LOX performing their “Chest 2 Chest” freestyle live at last year’s epic Verzuz battle against Dipset at The Garden.
Oh wait, you thought we were done? Nah, son. You see how Clue snuck a crazy exclusive in there on Side B? That “One Plus One” joint with Large Professor and Nas? Anyone else would’ve had this as the first song on their tape, but Show Me The Money was that stacked.
Here’s Extra P on the making of his melancholy classic “One Plus One,” which was recorded at a time when he was having difficulties with his label. This is an excerpt from a 2012 Complex interview with Do Remember! co-author Daniel Isenberg.
Large Professor: It was sad, man. It was sad for me. I kind of knew that they were getting ready to drop me. We were starting to go from different studio to different studio, like, “Well, maybe it’s the studio. Maybe it’s the engineer.” But it was like, “Nah, I’m good. I’m just recording my shit.”
So we were going to different studios, and that day, I was at Battery. And I was actually getting ready to record that, and then, all of a sudden, Nas pops into the studio. And I’m like, “Oh shit. What’s up?” And yeah, he was really good at that point. That was right after It Was Written and everything, so he was good.
So he was like, “Yo, I’m here, man, what’s up? Let me hear what you’re working on.” And I was kind of like, “Yo, who told you to come here? What’s going on?” But either way, I’m like, “Yo, bust what I’m working with.” So I played it, and he was like, “Oh, that’s hot. I gotta write something to this.”
So he sat down and wrote. And I had my rhyme already, and was like, “Yo, this is the kind of the shit that I’m talking about.” He was like, “Aiight, cool.” Then, he laid it down, and it was me, him, and Grand Wiz in there. And I was like, “Yo, that shit is crazy.”
But that song is really sad to me, because I knew they were getting ready to drop me, and I was alone. Before Nas and Grand Wiz came in the studio, I was alone. I was for self. It was just crazy where I was. When I started working, I had a lot of people around. And it seemed like the people were slowly fading away. And now, I’m not at my studio, I’m at this other studio. It was kind of on some problem shit. Then Nas comes in, and he’s problem free, like, “Yo, smoke heavily..” and that type of shit. And I’m sitting there ready to get dropped from the label! I was on some other shit.
That was a sad time for me, man. I love the song now, when I listen to it, and think about how I survived the times. But it always brings that back fresh. I know the listeners, they don’t know that part of it. But for me personally, that’s a sad one. But it was a nice joint.
Stream Show Me The Money below, and stay tuned for more 50 TAPES posts as we celebrate the release of Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes, out now via Rizzoli.
DJ Clue - Show Me The Money
*Bonus*
While you’re at it, go ahead and stream Show Me The Money Pt. 2 also. Check for the classic posse-cut style freestyle featuring Mase, Cam’ron, Noreaga, Tragedy, and more on Side B. That one right there, when beat switches and N.O.R.E. comes in—sheesh!
DJ Clue - Show Me The Money Pt. 2