Doo Wop - 95 Live

Wop gathers the brightest MCs from across the boroughs for an epic freestyle intro.

Doo Wop’s name was already ringing bells in the streets thanks to his stellar mixtape releases and club-rocking prowess. And on many of his tapes, Wop, along with his crew The Bounce Squad and other guests, would set it off with a freestyle intro, giving listeners something homegrown and exclusive that only he had. 

By 1995, The Bounce Squad disbanded, inspiring Doo Wop to come up with a new concept to open up his tape with. On 95 Live, he gathered some of the top MCs from across the five boroughs to spit back-to-back freestyles, creating an extended, cross-city intro of epic proportions. Here’s an outtake from our interview with Doo Wop on how it all went down with Bounce Squad standout Snagglepuss and the rest of the crew, and what led to 95 Live:

Doo Wop: Noo Trybe/Virgin wanted to sign me to a deal. So me, being ignorant to the business, we added The Bounce Squad to the same deal. They were so interested that it could’ve been two separate deals, but I didn’t know the business, I didn’t have a manager, so that was a mistake. But I let them into my deal, which was a great thing for them. They all got like $25,000 a piece as up front money.

But then, this is the problem. When we sit down with Noo Trybe/Virgin to discuss what they want to do with the album, they tell us they want us to move to California for a whole year to record because that’s where they were based. But we had such a great buzz in New York, we didn’t want to lose our spot if we were in L.A. recording. It was like, “We want to record here. We want to go in the studio with Preemo, and Pete Rock.” But they were like, “No, we have a vision, and we have this house set up for you out there.”

So a week after that meeting, I told my lawyer, “Get us off that. We’ll give the money back, whatever.” He was like, “Fuck that. You’re not giving the money back, but I’ll get you released.” So he got us a release, but he said, “On one condition. They’re gonna keep Snagglepuss, and he’s gonna do a solo album.” I didn’t like that, but I said, “Cool.” And I agreed to it. And he moved out there, and I don’t know what happened to him after that.

Snag leaving kind of fucked us up. He was our Method Man. All of us together sound dope, and if one is missing, it’s not gonna sound right. And people were acting a little crazy in the squad, so I said, “Let me just chill, and try something different.” And that’s when 95 Live came about. I figured, what better way to come back than with the hottest rappers at the time.

And here’s an exclusive snippet from the book—Wop remembering one of his first freestyle sessions for 95 Live. You can read more about Doo Wop’s 95 Live series, his favorite artist freestyles, and The Bounce Squad inside the pages of Do Remember!:

Doo Wop: These niggas all came to the studio. I had them in a little studio where only four people fit comfortably—Q-Tip, M.O.P., Raekwon, Busta Rhymes, and Fat Joe. All in there at one time. And not a dime was exchanged. They never talked money or nothing. They wanted to be on my tape. They wanted to have that street outlet to say what they want and not worry about the labels. 

---

Stream 95 Live below, and stay tuned for more 50 TAPES posts as we make our way toward the release of Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes, out October 3rd via Rizzoli.

---

Doo Wop - 95 Live

---

*BONUS*

Since we’re giving you 95 Live today, we might as well go ahead and give you 95 Live Pt. 2 while we’re at it as a bonus, which is equally if not more fire. Catch the stream below after you read another outtake from our interview with Doo Wop about two legendary freestyles on the tape:

Redman and Keith Murray Freestyle (95 Live Pt. 2)

Doo Wop: On 95 Live, Keith Murray sets off the tape. And he killed it. I had gotten him through Eric Skinner, who was the marketing guy at Jive. He was always a big fan of mine, he’d always send me records first, and he always said, “If you need Keith Murray to do a drop let me know.” So when I had the idea of doing the rhyming shit, I was like, “Boom.” When he brought Keith to the studio, this nigga was one of the few that got on my nerves, because he had the big head, like, “Nah, I don’t want that beat. Nah, I don’t want that beat.” I had to search through all these beats, but I played along, because he’s fuckin’ Keith Murray. And he didn’t diss me, but he didn’t pay me too much mind. He did the tape and broke out. This nigga got such a big response from the tape that Eric Skinner called me and Keith was on the phone like, “Yo, can you be my tour DJ?” I was laughing, like, “Yo, he’s crazy.” He was really a cool dude, he was just an asshole that day. 

Then, Part 2 comes about, and I got Redman—I forget how I got him—and Keith Murray comes walking in behind him like, “Yo, I’m getting on this one too, fuck it.” I was like, “Go ‘head.” So him, Redman, and some drunk ass nigga named Kel Vicious who I couldn’t stop from going in the booth went in. They all did that in the booth together. There was no punching. You could tell it was a freestyle. When you listen to it again, every time you hear Kel Vicious rhyme, you can hear Redman laughing in the back. He’s standing right next to him, dying laughing. That was Keith’s boy, and he was dusted. And Redman’s laughing his ass off the whole time he’s rapping. 

That was off “You’re a Customer.” But they also rhymed off “Believe in Love” by Teddy Pendergrass. It was out at that time, it was a real commercial record. And they rhymed off it, but there’s no way for me to even find it. It was on a reel. I don’t even know if that shit even exists.

Mobb Deep and Big Noyd Freestyle (95 Live Pt. 2)

Mobb Deep and Noyd all rhymed off of the same beat, but then when I mixed it, I switched it on Noyd because the beat was too long. It was the same tempo as “How Many MC’s,” so I put that Das EFX loop in there, and switched it without them even knowing. Then I was DJing for this Russell Simmons roast down in SoHo, and I took a break, and I’m in the bathroom taking a piss, and someone comes in. And I didn’t look, because I’m taking a piss. So someone’s standing there, and someone goes, “Yo, I like the way you switched that beat under Noyd.” And I look, and it’s fuckin’ Prodigy. He didn’t even say what’s up at first, he just said that. Like, “That shit was gangster.”

---

Doo Wop - 95 Live Pt. 2

---