I was at the video shoot for this way back in 1998 with Mic Meech of the legendary Fightins Phillies blog. For years I wanted to see the final video but I just never caught it on any late night hiphop video shows.
But that changed last week when I randomly searched for it on Youtube and BOOM — There it was. And posted online just the month prior, no less! Nearly 15 years later (!!) I finally get to see it, and it doesn't disappoint.
One of the greatest Philly hiphop tracks ever, check out the official video for Rahsheed (aka Maylay Sparks) and Ill Advised's "1.9.8.6." below. And look for Meech and I somewhere in the b-boy crowd shot:
New video from the upcoming album. Produced by yours truly.
Check it:
I love working with Maylay aka Rahsheed. He’s one of my favorite Philly MC’s of all time. So he and I started this track together and he came up with the verse: “Don’t talk shit / pull ya cash out”…As I was listening to it I was like, “Shit, know who else would rip this track? Reef.”
I had never worked with Reef, so I hollered at him and sent him a rough copy of what Rahsheed and I had done already. Reef was like, “Bet.” But even better: Reef was going to be in town in a week for a show, so I arranged some studio time with my engineer to cut the vocals.
First of all, if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Reef yet, he’s mad funny. Right off the bat, he was cracking jokes. But then homie pulls out his Sidekick and I’m like, “Oh shit, is he reading his lyrics off his two-way??” Lol. Homeboy hits the booth and is kicking his shits right off the screen. I don’t know, maybe I’m slow with it, but that was the first time I saw that.
So word, Reef comes in, smacks his verse up and the song is sounding pretty damn dope at this point. But it needed cuts…I always wanted cuts on it cause I knew it was gonna be kindof raw. DJ Icewater is my go-to DJ, so it was a no-brainer.
I knew I wanted that “What-What-What?” on Maylay’s verse to invoke some some good, classic shit talking (“I been at it 20 years / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction / your catalog is a fraction!”). Reminded me of popping junk in the arcade over a game of Street Fighter. Then for the cuts at the end I told Icewater, “All you, mang” and he kilt it…
So there ya go. “Pull Ya Cash Out”. Definitely a highlight of the new record for me personally. We recorded the song on November 7th, 2008, literally days after Barack Obama was elected President. Later that night, Reef performed at Slim’s here in San Francisco and rocked the Barack Obama t-shirt my jawn got him on stage (pics here).
Mr. Matt Kelley on the engineering tip, FYI. Hope ya’ll like it. Hit off the comments and let me know what you think! One!
