“I was scared to do this song [laughs]. It was such a difficult situation because we had to convince Russell Simmons to like the song and understand who Pete Rock was. This is Run-D.M.C. we are talking about. This is one of the greatest groups of all time and “Russell started out with them. To listen to a young producer like me, I was only 20 at the time. Russell was like, ‘How old is this guy? He doesn’t know anything.’ I told him this was the new ‘90s shit…you have to get with it. But Russell wasn’t with it. For a while I was losing hope that it was even going to happen. But Jam Master Jay was with me on it! He came to my house one day ringing my mother’s doorbell [laughs]. I open the door and it’s Jay at the door. He was like, ‘Yo, let’s go make this song. Don’t worry about shit…watch this. We are going to make this happen!’” —Pete Rock, from this essential Vibe feature.
