Here’s a little something on the Naughty By Nature “It’s On” remixes I did for Tommy Boy back in the days… already covered on my short lived World Of Beats V.2 and Myspace blogs, but now with a little extra audio and back story-
Back in the summer of 1993, right when De La Soul‘s “Buhloone Mindstate” was about to come out, Rap Sheet magazine sent me to Tommy Boy’s offices to interview Posdnous of De La. Everything was cool, Pos was mad cool, schitt went well. Of course ya boy had to slip them a beat tape while I was up there- although I had gotten into the whole journalism side of Hip Hop by 1993, I was still trying to do my thing on the music side, too. What I did was put together about nine remixes of Naughty By Nature’s “It’s On”, which was a hit at that time. All of the remixes were pretty much just the hard hip hop type schitt that I love. But me knowing how people at record companies think and knowing that Dr. Dre‘s west coast “G-Funk” sound was killin’ everything right then, I did a tenth remix of “It’s On”… a funk version. Totally opposite of what I was into, but I just knew that this would make somebody at Tommy Boy’s ears perk up. Sure enough, I quickly got a call back saying that they loved my tape, especially the funk remix (I played these muthafuggas like a fiddle, mayne). They really wanted to use that remix, but decided that the song “It’s On” had run it’s course and had to move on to some newer music (plus they didn’t think Treach and Vinnie would like the funk sound anyway). So they gave me a new project to work on… I’ll get into that in the near future. TO BE CONTINUED.
A lot of stuff I did years ago I really can’t stand to hear today, but I’m kinda a-ight with these Naughty remixes. BTW, why does it seem like people barely remember Treach these days? For a minute there he was the chosen one… I guess so many super nice emcees started coming out of the woodworks from I guess ’93 to ’96 that Treach just got lost in the shuffle? I never understand how all this schitt works.
Like I said, I did like ten remixes of ‘It’s On”, so I’m gonna hit you with seven of ’em- why not, they’re just laying around doing nothing on my harddrive anyway, why not share them with whoever might like to check ’em out.
SOULMAN – NAUGHTY BY NATURE “IT’S ON REMIXES”
It’s Gonna Be On RE-UPPED
The West Coast New Phunk Mix RE-UPPED
Naughtilus Remix RE-UPPED
THAT REAL SCHITT 
what a missed opp. for Tommy Boy. The remixes are killing it and I bet they could’ve released them as an ep on their own. Looking forward to reading more about the Tommy Boy situation.peace and thanks for sharing
Just now reading this. I’m mad behind on my internets stuff. I’m grabbing the remixes right now but you are dead on about people writing Treach out of the books. That dude was killin it!
No doubt just didn’t do a lot but the work he did was suffice for me!! I’ts on didn’t require a remix to me, when I listen to a remix I am trying to hear if I would rock this song if I never heard the original thus bringing me to the 3 I just listened to!! The first didn’t move me much, the second was groovy but not my taste, the third was okay but didn’t give me enough!! I haven’t listened to all 7 but I am a hard man to move with remixes especially if the original is cool!!!Thanks for supplying the remixes!!!
gee, so tell me how you REALLY feel about those remixes, olskool4real! ha ha, it’s all good… those were the ones that tommy boy liked and would’ve used if it hadn’t been a little too late. i still haven’t put up the ones that they hired me to do but ultimately rejected… you probally won’t like those either, but what can i say… you can’t please errrbody.
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Don’t worry the remixes might be G to some cats!! The 3rd one wasn’t bad at all in fact none of them were!! They are remixes that I would probably hear in a mix and say damn that’s nice. It could be that I just like the original so much that hearing it differently doesn’t do much for me!! But yeah I’m going to check the other ones out you never know!!
these remixes are really good i can see why they went for the funk mix that was the one that jumped out straight away.i had to really go back & listen the o.g. version a couple of times to get back into that mind state. then i listened to your remixes again & realized how good they are.i can't believe you did so many versions you must have been sick to death of that vocal by the end.keep up the good work look forward to hearing more stuff from the vaults of soulman.peace out.
yeah, i hear what you’re saying about getting back into that mindstate… a lot of folks today probably find it hard to even remember that Naughty was runnin’ this rap schitt for a minute back in the early 90’s. when people talk about Hip Hop golden agers nowadays i don’t hear a lot of talk about Treach and them. I gotta admit I wasn’t the biggest fan, though… dudes like Dre and Puffy are usually noted when the “shift” in rap music is discussed, but really Naughty By Nature kinda had that pop / hip hop thing on smash even before they did. Nevertheless, I always had a healthy respect for what NBN was doing, mostly because of Treach’s mic skills.
i like the outrageous mix. i think that beat was also on your beats radio show mix you posted… which had a number of good beats in my opinion. off the subject, but curious if you have you ever laid vocals over some the beats that come at the end of each part on the drugs mix? fond of those.
never laid any rhymes over the “drugs” beats, olga… i’ve never stopped writing rhymes but at the time that I did the Drugs mix i definitely wasn’t rappin’ other than in the shower. that’s an idea, though… who knows what the future will bringeth. thanks for the comments!
i like the one with the Crusaders sample at least I think thats a Crusaders sample, sounds tight
when i’m in the shower i listen to d’angelo. live. he showers me.
he he… you funny, olga. that reminds me, i knew a girl in 3rd grade named olga… she won the award for “most excellent in math” that year, an award that i deserved. after the awards assembly, we returned to our room and the whole class played this multiplication game… i won’t go into ALL the details but i commenced to bust the whole class’ ass at that multiplication game. TWICE. including olga. the teacher (i forget that skank’s name) ended the game early and announced that “maybe the wrong person won the math award”. yeah, you damn right, because that was MY award and she knew it. maybe if more of my stinkin’ ass teachers would’ve recognized my superior intelligence at a young age maybe I wouldn’t have gone on to be a high school drop out, thief, juvenile delinquent… but i digress. your name just brought back a lot of memories that have been suppressed in a deep, dark place for many years, olga. thanks for the comments!
same olga. you give me your record collection and the award is yours!
that sounds fair, olga. hey olga… are you still as cute as you were in 3rd grade? i had a crush on you back then, ya know. i didn’t start hating you until you won that award… i’m over it, though. i know it wasn’t your fault. now that we’ve reconnected i think that old unrequited love may have returned. i’m gonna try to holla at you on facebook, okay? werrrrd…
olga and soulmansittin in a treepost a muffugginsigned copy to me
That’s what I’m talking about.Ebay some more GEMS!
really appreciate the remixes Phil, i love them unreleased schitts, keep dropping it.
Dear Soulman,Ebay some more.Love,Your Lovers
Love what you did with Nautilus..maybe the best use of it I’ve come across…REAL nice!!Snafu
hey man were you been?havent seen any post here for ages…i’m missing all that real schitt….