Prince Paul Notebook

"...There was a music teacher in Amityville, who was putting out a record with this artist [and] asked me to come in to lay down a beat. When I went [in], Maseo was there as the artist’s DJ. ...And later Maseo approached me, and said, ‘Yo, I got a group I think you might like. It’s called De La Soul. I’ll bring the tape by your house later.’ He brought a tape, and it was a rough of ‘Plug Tunin’.’ It blew my mind. So I was like, ‘Yo, come back tomorrow with the rest of your group. I’m going to flip this demo.’ So I took it, overdubbed it, added other samples, and rearranged it. I played it for them, and they were like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy.’ It’s such an odd record. Nothing predated that, and it sounds like throwing whatever in the wind. You didn’t know where it was going to land. For the touchy radio world back then to play that record is when I knew I won.”