Today my former boss (Dr. Dre) makes another trip around the sun, which gott me to thinking about my time spent with him and the staff at "The Math". I remember once "2001" was in its finishing touches phase, we were already beginning to come up with ideas for my album. Since I didn`t produce but had a keen sense of what I like to rhyme over, I would bring "pause tapes" to demonstrate to Dre, Mel, Battlecat, or whoever what I wanted to make. A few times I recall playing the ideas for Mel when Dre would walk in while I explained. On cue, Dre would start bobbing his head to what he was hearing. I`d be like "Dre, what musicians in your arsenal do you feel would replicate this accurately?". He`d give me somewhat of a baffled look and say, "I think you should keep it just like it is" or, "it`s raw just like that". Mel and I would glance at each other and start laughing. Dre then wondered what the hell was so funny? I`d fill him in on the joke, "This is not a beat, it`s a pause tape". He always seemed to be genuinely stunned by two things at once. The first was the fact that I was still making pause tapes in 99/2000. The second was how he was fooled into thinking it was actually a beat already. He was impressed by how it was EQ`d as well as how it was already in the pitch I preferred. I described to him my process, how I`d set the desired pitch then EQ it to my liking before making the tape. It also tripped him out how he could barely hear air in between the pauses too (those who have ever made a pause tape knows what I`m talking about). I never knew if he was just trying to encourage me or really meant it when he`d say "HITT, if you ever really gitt into production, you could fuck around and become a monster". I had no aspirations to be a producer back then, not only was I solely focused on rhyming (and possibly getting more into ghostwriting) but I knew I didn`t have the patience to really sit and gitt nice with the drum machine. Now here I am in 2021, dabbling with music production. Thanks for planting the idea in my mind many moons ago Young, LOL!

-H>