One story that a lot of people aren’t aware of is how I ended up being on “The Symphony” record.
It was recorded in ’88 at Marley Marl’s townhouse in Astoria, Queens. Everybody assumed that it was planned out that the four of us [Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Craig G, and Ace] were going to be on it, and it was going to be a classic record. But MC Shan was actually supposed to be the fourth MC on that song. But since he was a bigger name at that time than all of us, he felt like it wasn’t a good career move for him to be on this record with a bunch of new artists.
It came about only by virtue of me wanting to tag along to the studio. I just wanted to see these guys record; I was just there to see the process. When it came time to get in the booth and rhyme, there was this big tug of war about who would go first. Nobody wanted to go first.
“You go first!”
“Nah, you go first.”
So Marley put me on the spot, and said, “Ace, you got something? Maybe if you warm the mic up these guys will stop being scared. Just go in there and do a little something.”
And I went in and did a verse off my mental Rolodex, something from my memory, and that became the verse that made it on the record. I don’t think he had any intention of keeping the verse originally, but after he heard the whole song together, he decided I did a good enough job on it to keep it. And the rest is history.
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