Stretch was really hurt by 2Pac. I would hear him talking about how 'Pac was so mad at him because Stretch was with 2Pac when he got set up and robbed in the lobby of Quad Studios in Manhattan, in Nov. 1994. 'Pac was mad at everyone after that. I felt bad for Stretch because he really had a lot of love for 'Pac and couldn’t believe that 'Pac thought he had something to do with it.

Stretch dropped me off at home, then went home and was killed [ in Dec. 1995, in Queens ]. That was a real great guy. He produced “Take It in Blood” and “Silent Murder”—the irony. It was just a messed up moment for me. It was the last work he did.

"NAS IS COMING"

Produced by: Dr. Dre

Nas: I’m a big fan of Dr. Dre. When Illmatic came out, he came to a show I did at a club that Prince owned called Glam Slam West in L.A. It was one of the illest L.A. clubs back then. Someone would always get shot outside but important people would be there and it would always be live.

I came on stage holding a cognac glass of Hennessy, with a cigar in my other hand—that was my style then. Someone told me Dre was there, and so I went to see him after my show and we kicked it.

Steve Stoute: I thought working with Dr. Dre was important for marketing the album, trying to do something special to reach a level higher than Illmatic.

Nas: We wanted to show that a New York rapper could rap on a Dr. Dre beat and it’s all love.

Steve Stoute: Dre went on record saying that the best rapper he thought in the game was Nas. He told BET or MTV, “Nas, if you’re looking at this, I want to work with you, man—you’re my favorite rapper.”

But Dre had been basically on hiatus. No one could hire him or even find him after he stepped away from Death Row. [I found him because] I’m the commissioner, that’s my job.

Nas: When he did Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath he called me and I got on a song with him and a few people called “East Coast/West Coast Killas.” I saw right there, Dre wasn’t about the drama, he was about making records.

He called me and said, “I got this record for you.” He played the sample over the phone and I went crazy.

I recorded in Dre’s house, at this banging studio he had. It was real chill, just us, happy to work together.

Tone: That spun off Trackmasters and Dr. Dre doing the Firm’s album. That’s how that whole relationship came about.

“AFFIRMATIVE ACTION” f/ AZ, FOXY BROWN, AND CORMEGA

Produced by: Trackmasters and Dave Atkinson

Nas: AZ was my man and he told me about Foxy Brown; drove me to Brooklyn to meet her at her house. I wanted to put the Firm together and she fit perfectly. It was the first song we recorded together.

Tone: Nas always wanted to get his crew together; he’d been calling it The Firm for a minute. We had been trying different members out. We had 50 Cent in it for a little while. It just didn’t work out, though we made a record.

Poke: [The song with 50] came out on mixtapes and the whole cycle. It was 50, Nas, and Nature. Mary J. Blige was going to be a part of the Firm too at one time. She came in, we entertained it. She did a record with us and Nas that we put out with. Nore slipped in there, Mobb Deep. We made it a real Queens thing. That’s why we tried to put 50, because 50 was from Queens, as well.

Tone: Not to mention that we were trying to get 50 out there. [Laughs.]

Poke: We were trying to promote him, he was on our label, at the same time.

Nas: I saw the future being albums, tours, Firm athletic wear. We had all those meetings and shit. But the politics of this manager, that manager, this label, that label—it just got in the way of what I thought could’ve been huge.