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“It all started at this club called Sensations, which was one of the biggest hip-hop clubs in New Jersey. Everybody went to it on Friday and Saturday…even out-of-towners went there. I was Djing for DoItAll of Lords Of The Underground at the time and this was in 1990. I was cutting everybody’s record from Rakim to Big Daddy Kane and I rapped on the side. So, MC Lyte was supposed to perform one night and I was going to stay home [because I had something to do.] But they told me, ‘Nah, man. Come out.’ We went down there and Lyte ended up canceling and EPMD performed. Now when I first heard EPMD’s first joint ‘You Gots to Chill‘ and later ‘So Whatcha Sayin’?’ I said, ‘I can do this!’ Right before they performed we went to the back room and talked to them. And one of the Dj’s told EPMD, ‘Yo, he’s a DJ, but he spits too.’ So they asked me to spit and ten minutes later I’m onstage with EPMD rapping!’
My boys are looking at me like what the fuck is this nigga doing? [laughs]. What is going on with this kid right here?’ Erick Sermon says, ‘Yeah, this is my new artist coming out.’ And I stopped and looked at him onstage like, ‘ Are you serious, nigga? I actually walked into this shit?!!!’ The ill part about this is I was letting my boy handle the business. At the end of the show, we went to the back of the dressing room where E was giving me his number. My hand goes to meet his hand but my boy’s hand comes in between and gets the number. But I’m like, ‘Cool.’ Because he was handling my business. But let me tell you something. Within that moment that the number was being passed I saw the paper and memorized the last seven digits. I figured the area code was Long Island.
So because my boy tells me he has the number I stepped back because I’m that kind of nigga. I know how to play my position…he’s handles the business, I handle the music. So the first week I didn’t even ask him if he called EPMD. But after a couple of weeks, I’m like, ‘Did you call them?’ And he’s like, ‘No.’ A couple of days pass by and he tells me he called EPMD but he didn’t get an answer yet. This goes on for months. And then he tells me he lost the number! So I ended up calling Erick myself and I didn’t get an answer. I finally reached Erick’s mom, but he was on tour. I’m like, ‘This is Doc from Jersey. Could you tell Erick to call me back?’ I finally reach E and he’s like, ‘Yo…what the fuck! We were waiting for you to call.’ He told me to come to Long Island and I ended up staying with the nigga for three years [laughs]. When I appeared in EPMD’s ‘Hardcore’ song and video that was just crazy. Def Jam had these little virals back then on VHS tape. Q-Tip was another very important person to my career. He had me in A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Scenario’ video when I was first coming out. Niggas in the ‘hood couldn’t believe it. It was amazing to me.”
