Rapper Fabolous and sports and entertainment journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Credit: Angie Vasquez

Rapper Fabolous Chatted With Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about rapping the intro of EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 on Scoop B Radio

In today’s video game world, face and tattoo recognition and a soundtrack littered with hot tracks is a must for gamers. After an unsuccessful run with NBA Live 2002, EA Sports went back to the lab and brought in some fire power. NBA Live 2003 featured then-New Jersey Nets All Star point guard Jason Kidd as their cover athlete and keyed in on the halfcourt game; much to the delight of San Antonio Spurs fans everywhere.

The defensive strategy was also a focus with Dikembe Mutombo and Kenyon Martin having nightly block parties on their respective teams. But quite honestly, the thing that stood out the most was the game’s soundtrack.

Anyone who purchased a copy of NBA Live 2003 got an added bonus. They got a copy of the NBA Live 2003 soundtrack on a CD. The tracklist included cuts like Busta Rhymes and Flipmode Squad’s Here We Go, Angie Martinez’s If I Could Go, Joe Budden’s Drop Drop, Freeway and Memphis Bleek’s Let’s Go.

“It’s In The Game,” the game’s intro song performed by Fabolous and also featured DJ Clue. Fabolous’ wordplay was insane especially when you say things like:

‘I’m the crowd favorite and I believe the fans love the way I finger roll it with either hand, my handles pull it through presses plus I can play the lane and block shots like bulletproof vestes.’

 

Fabolous had a buzz going strong on the mixtape circuit at the time and was also coming off of a successful album, Ghetto Fabolous, that he’d dropped two years prior to NBA Live 2003’s release. The Brooklyn rapper was in a league of his own, rapping about sports and donning the most exclusive of exclusive Mitchell & Ness throwback jerseys. Fab was a natural fit as the game’s intro vocalist. “I was a bigger video game fan then,” Fabolous told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“It was a cool experience. The whole video game. I actually got to visit the EA Sports headquarters and got to see the stuff behind games; the real geeky, techy side, that was even cool. It was really, really, really a cool experience.”

The song’s producer, DJ Clue had fun working on it too. “I think that sometimes  you get caught in the moment and you don’t realize how big something is that you are doing,” DJ Clue told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“They gave me no restrictions on how to be with sound, but they gave me sound effects that they wanted me to actually incorporate into actually beats.The whistle, the feet squeaking, the dunk, they gave me all those sounds. So I was in the studio, I was doing a beat and I came up with the beat and they came up with the rap and I had to go back and put the sound effects in from what he was rapping about.”

According to the Fabolous, the coolest part was that while being on tour. He did a promotion in conjunction with EA Sports.”I did a tour stop where in each city somebody would come on the bus and play me in NBA Live,” Fabolous said. 

“I pretty much beat everybody that we played. A couple of them were girls, I had to beat them too.”

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The post Scoop B: Fabolous Recounts What It Was Like To Rap The Intro To EA Sports’ NBA Live 2003 appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Power 105’s DJ Clue and Scoop B Radio host Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson in New York City. Photo Courtesy of: The Brandon Robinson Brand

Check out DJ Clue and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio

The NFL and NBA’s season are literally around the corner. That means one thing: the release of Madden 18, NBA Live 18 and NBA 2K 18 video games are a fast break pass and a 2-minute drill away from releasing.

Over the last ten-plus years, the NBA 2K franchise has established itself as a premier hoops platform. This year, EA Sports has made a comeback with their release of NBA Live 18 and James Harden as the game’s cover athlete. One of the coolest features of the game is a mode that allows you to play with WNBA teams; the first of its kind and according to my buddy Brian Mazique at FORBES Magazine, by way of Chicago the game’s soundtrack is pretty solid!

Speaking of soundtracks, I’m always enamored by the evolution of video game soundtracks. One of the catalysts of that was NBA Live 2003.

The game had Jason Kidd on the cover and the game’s intro, ‘It’s In The Game,’ was performed by Fabolous with DJ Clue producing the track. “You know it’s funny I was just thinking about that today,” DJ Clue told me on Scoop B Radio.

“I was thinking about how,  I think I saw James Harden say he was on the cover of the new Live. So I was thinking: ‘Man it wasn’t too long ago that I produced the intro to Live and it had rap on it.”

Added DJ Clue:

“I think that sometimes  you get caught in the moment and you don’t realize how big something is that you are doing.”

The track and video was pretty legit!

“They gave me no restrictions on how to be with sound, but they gave me sound effects that they wanted me to actually incorporate into actually beats.The whistle, the feet squeaking, the dunk, they gave me all those sounds. So I was in the studio, I was doing a beat and I came up with the beat and they came up with the rap and I had to go back and put the sound effects in from what he was rapping about.”

That he that DJ Clue is referring to was Fabolous.

Fabolous’ wordplay on the track was insane:

“‘I’m the crowd favorite and I believe the fans love the way I finger roll it with either hand, my handles pull it through presses plus I can play the lane and block shots like bulletproof vestes.’

How the heck did Fab turn the plural of the word ‘vest’ into his own wording? Years later he’d do it again in his song “Breathe,” when he changed the plural of the word ‘mask’ into ‘maskes.’

But I digress!

“It was a cool experience,” Fabolous told me in a recent interview.

“The whole video game, I actually got to visit the EA Sports headquarters and got to see the stuff behind games; the real geeky, techy side, that was even cool. It was really, really, really a cool experience.”

According to DJ Clue, not only did he take part in the producing process of the game, in the NBA Live 2003 game, EA Sports created a creation of the DJ Clue if you put a special code in. “If you typed in the code ‘Mixtape,’ I personally came up in the game as a player you could play with a 96 rating,” said DJ Clue while on Scoop B Radio.

A 96 rating Clue? Don’t let current NBA players hear that!

Apparently EA Sports crafted the Power 105 dj’s likeness after Tracy McGrady, who will be a minted an NBA Hall of Famer in a couple of weeks at the NBA’s Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Make sure to check out DJ Clue’s interview in its entirety by clicking here. Not only did DJ Clue discuss NBA Live 2003, he also discussed his infamous ‘Clueminati’ and William M. Holla Drops before the start of songs.

“I have always heard people talk about the Illuminati,” said DJ Clue.

“But it was, I wanted to try and put my own little twist to it. So I came up with Clueminati, Clue Fargino you know all those names, just to keep it interesting. You know Fidel Cashflow, you know.”

DJ Clue also discussed what it was like working with Mariah Carey on tracks like  “Thank God I Found You Remix,” a track that DJ Clue produced:

“Mariah is a super perfectionist man,” he said. “So she wants to make sure that when she does vocals that it are done right. She definitely is that person that if she wants you to hear her music it has to be right. She isn’t playing around.”

Clue says Working with Tamia on the So Into You Remix with Fabolous challenged Tamia in a good way: “I feel like I pushed her,” he said.

DJ Clue weighed in on why Jay-Z doesn’t write his lyrics down: “I think Jay started doing that because I think it helps him remember songs,” said DJ Clue.

“There have been times when we have been on stage when he first started. He would be on stage and he would forget a line or two. He would tap me and be like: ‘Yo what’s the line?’ I think coming from that he would just sit and be like: ‘yo maybe if I just memorize it better if I just sit and say it to myself over and over again.. He used to get in the car and be like: ‘yo give me a day or two. He would ride around with his driver and make up his lines. He would call me up and be like: ‘Oooh I got a line.’ That is how it would be.”

He also says Puff Daddy has a pretty good routine while in studio:

“I think with Puff working with him; when I would go to Daddy’s House [his old recording studio]  he would have Total in one room working, then you would have BIG working in another and then have Craig Mack working in another room. He would be bouncing from room to room working on songs; it was crazy! Je would say: ‘Ok I’m working with Total in one room and then be back in an hour, he was going for it. He had a movement, he would be there all times of the night, working on songs. Puff’s work ethic was serious!”

DJ Clue also discussed his own business ventures like his DJ Clue Ap, his forthcoming documentary and his no-tie shoelaces that he has called Clue Lace. The partnership that he and business partner, Randy Parker, a fellow DJ who goes by the stage name DJ ESSO is successful so far. “It is definitely the first no-tie shoelace,” DJ Clue told me.

“If you have kids out there, you know how strenuous it is when you get yelled at to tie your shoelaces. You don’t got to do that! These are the no-tie shoelace. They are flexible, they are dope. They are good for kids in sports. You don’t want to stop the game from the moment on the court because their shoelaces are untied, or trip over them. You can set them one time and it will never go loose. They look stylish too.”

 

There are about 12 varieties of his laces available.

As for DJ Clue’s forthcoming documentary he told Scoop B Radio:

“It is going to take you into different phases of my career,” he said. “The start, obviously you have to go into Queens and check out mom’s crib and the place it all started at. Different times when I was producing with different people, my different travel, of course. It is going to have my trials and tribulations and that kind of stuff. It is like any story. You have to make sure you focus on the good and the bad and all the positives and all the negatives. We want to have it well-rounded so that people can really understand the story and know where the grind came from.”

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The post Scoop B: DJ Clue Discusses Working With Fabolous on NBA Live 2003, Clue Lace, Documentary, Producing For Mariah Carey, Puff Daddy & Jay-Z appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Former Seton Hall university forward Marcus Toney-El drops by episode #60 of Scoop B Radio with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Courtesy of: NJ.com

Marcus Toney-El ran Essex County, New Jersey in high school and college. A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Toney-El joins a list of other movers and shakers from Ill-Town to make a difference like Queen Latifah, Treach and Vin Rock from Naughty By Nature, actor John Amos, retired NBA player, Brevin Knight and Cleveland Browns all-purpose athlete Jabrill Peppers.

I first met Marcus Toney-El during my one-year stint as a columnist at Seton Hall Prep High School at their Pirate newspaper (I’d later transfer to Don Bosco Prep). I was a freshman, he was a senior. I was new to the school and adjusting to high school life and here was this larger than life figure floating the halls at The Prep.

What drew me to Toney-El was his magnetic personality. Everybody wanted to be around this tall 6-8 kid that reminded me of Tracy McGrady.

Check Out Marcus Toney-El and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson On Scoop B Radio

Eventually we’d speak and created a player-writer bond.

I’ll never forget that bond because he was the first story that I wrote about in my column at the Seton Hall Pirate newspaper called, Scoop B’s NBA Beat.What was cool for me personally is that at the time, no freshman ever came into that school with their own column in their freshman year and what was even cooler is that Toney-El would create history in his senior year when he committed to Seton Hall University and was the guy that other top recruits to join him. That class would include, the late Eddie Griffin, a forward out of Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia and Andre Barrett a speedy guard from New York City’ s Rice High School. They’d join center, Samuel Dalembert and Ty Shine and were coached by current Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker.

Those guys were a good squad, their skill set was awesome to see, professionally, I believe that they were still maturing yet were ahead of their time as their height, depth and skill-set represent what is today’s AAU, college and NBA mandates: small ball!

They were special! 

To me, locally they were to New Jersey what Jalen Rose, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard were to the University of Michigan and the Fab 5.  “Yeah I have heard that,” Marcus Toney-El told me on episode 60 of Scoop B Radio.

“Obviously what we accomplished in that first year with what those guys did. But as far as putting that together, what is now called a ‘super team,’ the Wolverines, I think we were the next ones to do it and what is now the modern era of basketball. At a time where the sneaker companies really started to come in and started taking over and running the AAU circuit and putting people in places in college we was like right on the cusp of that.” 

Eddie Griffin would declare for the NBA Draft, Tommy Amaker would leave. Shoulda, coulda, woulda easily creeps in. How successful would Seton Hall men’s basketball have been? “I think about it often, Marcus Toney-El told me on Scoop B Radio. 

“Every time I take a trip down to memory lane. If TA [Tommy Amaker] doesn’t leave my freshman year and Eddie Griffin doesn’t leave, Sam Dalembert doesn’t leave and though we had some problems within our teams function at that time and Louis Orr was the new coach, we would have had the same team back next year. This was a team that preseason was ranked ninth in the country, the same team that should have beaten Illinois at Illinois after being up 20. This is the same team that even though we wound up having a mediocre record we still would make people nervous in the Big East Tournament. It provided at least a silver lining for the future but once TA left, Eddie left, Sam left Coach Orr came in and then we had to start all over again. Once we started over, it took a while for us to get back on track.” 

We even talked about Eddie Griffin. Having played for Tim Thomas’ Playaz AAU team together, Toney-El and Griffin were besties. That relationship carried over to college. Skill-wise, Griffin was a monster. Griffin, the seventh pick in the 2001 NBA Draft was a Rasheed Wallace clone, I swear! 

“Rasheed Wallace is Eddie’s favorite player,” Toney-El said. 

Eddie Griffin At Philly’s Roman Catholic High School

In college, I was an avid NBA Live player. I’d picked the Houston Rockets often on NBA Live 2004 and would start Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley Yao Ming and Eddie Griffin, when going head to head with my roommate and other classmates.

What fascinated me was how much of a double team that Griffin commanded. Griffin was so potent he could take his defender off the dribble, post up his defender, get closer to the basket and take the jumper, shoot the three or pass the ball. He had too many options available, it was scary!

I’d often find Steve Francis open in the corner for a nifty three pointer or I’d feed the ball to Yao Ming in the post for an easy jam.

But I digress.

Griffin’s start in the NBA was rough. He had a series of suspensions, court dates and missed practices during his first two years in the NBA with Houston and the New Jersey Nets. He’d also spent time in the Betty Ford Center for alcohol treatment in 2003-04.

Griffin died in a fatal car crash in 2007. His SUV collided with a freight train in a fiery crash. The crash was so bad, the only way that authorities could identify him was by dental records.

What was frustrating about Griffin was that he was so talented, but his body, his age and his maturity hadn’t caught up with him just yet. Griffin was a fantasy basketball player’s dream and an opposing coaches nightmare. Any basketball purist was praying for the day, that those stars aligned, because homeboy was a special player!

I’d often wonder if Eddie Griffin knew how talented he really was.“Eddie knew,” said Toney-El. 

“Eddie knew that he was talented. Eddie could do what he wanted to do. He was a triple double in high school, he was double-double in college, but the one thing he also knew was he probably shouldn’t have gone to the NBA after his freshman year because of everything that comes with it. He would call back home and say: ‘I wish I stayed in college.’ Not because of his talents, but because of everything that comes with it.” 

Biggest misconception that people had of Griffin?” [That] Eddie was crazy,” said Toney-El.

“Now I can tell a kid who doesn’t like the way I run things or isn’t playing the way he wants to play:  ‘I was you, I was in your shoes. I understand that feeling but this is what you gotta do so that you don’t have that feeling, so that you can learn.’  More than just basketball its more of a life lesson I got from Coach Orr. Honestly he has even brought me closer to God. Like I shared that with him and I thanked him before, because I didn’t grow up in a household that went to church and prayed everyday, was holier than thou, I didn’t have that.”

 “They want to punch your name in Google and see if your background checks out. Once it checks out they want your ear. So it makes my job easier when they know who they are dealing with. It makes the parents a little easier, but it is always a battle, it always is going to be athlete and parents alike that you aren’t going to be able to get through to which is fine its the nature of the business. But we know the system isn’t perfect nothing is perfect but I do it because I love it.”

The post Scoop B: Former Seton Hall Prep & Seton Hall University forward Marcus Toney-El Talks Tommy Amaker, Eddie Griffin & Coaching appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

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