SameOldShawn: So before we get really into it, I have to ask something. We have a very loyal listener of the show over in England, and he demanded that I ask you about "Dope on Plastic." Who is this guy, why did he never release another record?
Dante Ross: He was a real street dude. He was related to Mase from De La -- it's his cousin. He was a wild dude from East New York. We made that one record, and he kind of disappeared. Like, he wasn't seen. He was a real street guy -- I'll just leave it at that. I don't think that rapping was at the forefront of his daily needs
So he just kind of disappeared. And that record -- I made that record on the SP1200, and I made it in about...I didn't have a lot of records. I made it in the studio. I had Kool & the Gang's Greatest Hits and a couple other records. I think, like, a P-Funk record. I had an early Kool & the Gang Greatest Hits, I had a couple of 45s, and I had a P-Funk album. And so I basically used every single record I had with me in my record bag, which was, like, all of six records. And that's what became "Dope On Plastic." That was it, and he did it really quick
My man CJ engineered it. And what's funny to me is, basically Eric B and Rakim jacked the whole record a couple years later, right? They used all the same sounds, the same drum loop -- "Chocolate bu*termilk" -- the same horn squeal and everything. I was like, wow. It was weird to me that that happened, because I recorded at 1212, where Eric B used to record, where Paul C was from, where Large Pro always worked at. So it's bugged out that I did it in that spot
It's weird how that record had such a big effect. When I met the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., they were like, "Yo, you made that record? Yo, that's our favorite record." This was a million years ago. And they, like, adopted me because of that. So that record is...it's funny, the cult following of that record