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This first verse was originally a promo for Marley and Magic’s radio show. The other verses were added later

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Marley Marl claimed in a 1998 interview that his drums sounds were stolen in the mid-1980’s, and shortly thereafter started showing up on BDP records:

I lost my drum reel in Power Play Studios, the reel with all my shit – every drum sound that I made at the time. it just so happened that I was stupid enough to just forget it that day. [After that] all of a sudden Power Play became a big hit studio, like, “Wow, come to Power Play – we got the sounds!” So the engineers that was working there actually stole my drum sounds. Later in the ’90s I found out that DJ Doc got ahold of the reel and he made “The Bridge Is Over.” Matter of fact, Ced Gee got hold of them too. He started making fuckin’ Ultramagnetic songs. Nobody [at the time] knew what the fuck I was doin’. The day I lost my drum sounds, that let the whole engineering and producing world know how I did my shit

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Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor is a producer best known for discovering and mentoring Salt-n-Pepa, though he has also worked with Sweet Tee, Kwame, Kid ‘n Play, and more

While the exact cause of the “beat-biter” charge remains obscure, hip-hop historian Dart Adams speculates that it had to do with Azor’s work with Dana Dane. Azor produced the entirety of Dane’s 1987 debut Dana Dame with Fame

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John “Mr. Magic” Rivas was the DJ on rap’s very first radio show, called Rap Attack. Marley was his DJ on the show

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The “crew” here in question is Boogie Down Productions, who were close to Chillout and Red Alert. See a capsule history here of the beef between BDP and Marl’s Juice Crew, and see Marl’s take on the beef in this interview

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The “Duck Alert” refers to both Chillout and Red Alert. Marley explains in this book that he used to refer to Chuck Chillout as “Duck Illout”. The producer remembered in a 2003 interview for the book:

To be honest, I never saw Red Alert as competition on the radio, but it was just the thing to do, to make a dis track. Red and I both work for Power 105 in New York now and we chuckle about how much radio history we made back then

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This 1988 song is a dis to DJs Chuck Chillout and Red Alert, who were both on NYC’s Kiss-FM at the time. Marley Marl was at competing station WBLS. Both DJs were friendly with Boogie Down Productions, who were enemies at the time of Marl’s Juice Crew

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An all-star lineup joins your favorite drug dealer’s favorite rapper, Bleu Davinci and rapper/custom jeweler Calico Jonez on this ode to drug dealing even while unconscious

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Just when you thought this beat was over, Emilio brings some killer punchlines to this appearance on DJ Drama’s radio show

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A brief interlude, featuring singing by someone whose name we couldn’t locate. If anyone knows who it is, please leave a comment (along with documentation, if possible) below

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