88: I THINK it was only about $700 & I (vaguely) remember getting shorted for some reason but I was happy as Hell anyway. + I was pretty psyched to have had Bahamadia on that track. Even though she tracked her verse during a different session so I didn't have the honor of meeting her @ that time, I was pretty excited to have had her vocals on 1 of my beats. I also remember, @ the start of the session, I was trying to get the artists to choose a different beat from me because I felt that I had WAY better material by the time the paper work & deal went through. The beat that you hear on that song was literally my VERY 1st MPC 3000 beat. Ewwww...

DM: What artists have you worked with thus far?

88: Well since then I've worked with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Pharcyde, Musiq, Kanye West, Black Thought, Jane Doe, 3LW, Macy Gray, Joe Budden, Foxy Brown, Beanie Sigel & Grafh just to name a few.

DM: How did you get involved with the Black Star album?

88: I met Kwe' during the infamous "Lyricist Lounge" days. For all those involved we can definitely tag that as an "era" in our careers; I'm talking to YOU Hi-Tek & SHA MONEY XL [G-g-g-G-UnIT]... So I just kept in touch w/Kwe' because he was (& still is) a cool dude. I used to go to his shows @ the Nkiru Books store he used to work in. By this time, I already knew Mos' pretty well & was already hitting him w/beats. Kweli actually picked the "Thieves In The Night" beat from me & Mos' didn't like it. So 1 day Kwe' hits me up & was like, "Yo, we're gonna do that piano joint you gave me." I was still living with my folks on Long Island back then. Mos' & Kwe' (& Kwe's then toddler son) took a cab all the way from Brooklyn to record the song on my 4 track. Mos STILL didn't like the beat until Kweli wrote his verse then broke the song down to Mos'. After that Mos' thought the beat was hot, got into the "Dante zone" [anybody who knows Mos' knows how he zones out & locks himself in his head] & wound up writing a 44 bar verse which he REFUSED to cut short because the content of everything he said was pretty deep, right & exact.