The Fugees, “Fu-Gee-La” (1995)
“Nappy Heads” worked and I remixed “Vocab,” and I was actually working on songs for Clockers, and recorded a song with them that’s still unreleased, and Spike turned it down. But during that same session, I had the beat I made for Fat Joe. Lauryn said play that Fat Joe beat, and Clef jumps up and says, “We used to be number ten, now we permanently one.” That was recorded and put together before they even had a second budget for another album. A lot of The Score‘s energy was based around “Fu-Gee-La,” so “Cowboys” beat was made to match “Fu-Gee-La,” and they did a good job at making it eclectic. I didn’t even need to go in there and produce records. I encouraged them to do it themselves. I had produced my two songs on the album, and the budget was super tight, so Pras calls me one day and says “yo, you remember that old record ‘Killing me Softly’? How would you do it, what would you do?” And I was like ummm it would be like some Bonita Applebaum type shit, “Oh that’s the same thing I was thinking let me call you right back.”