Combat Jack Presents: True Stories Behind 25 Rap Classics

Take a behind-the-scenes look at how hits from Notorious B.I.G., 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Nas, and many others came together.

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Image via Complex Original
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To many of you, he's known as Combat Jack, blogger for Daily Mathematics and Internet radio DJ/personality for www.pncradio.fm. However, to people like Jay-Z and Missy Elliott, he is known as Reggie Osse, an entertainment lawyer who represented them at one time. Osse entered the music industry as part of Def Jam's business and legal affairs department, and has worked with artists like Public Enemy, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys. His storied career, which has spanned the past 20 years, has allowed him to be involved with-and in some cases see up close-the genesis of multiple rap classics. And now he's telling Complex his stories. Enjoy what we'll call the official Combat Jack Mixtape. Vol. 1.

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3rd Bass "The Gas Face" (1989)

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It Takes A Nation

LL Cool J "Jingling Baby" (Remixed But Still Jingling) (1990)

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Walking Like A PantherMama Said Knock You Out

Nice & Smooth "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" (1991)

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Ain't A Damn Thing Changed

Original Flavor f/ Jay-Z "Can I Get Open" (1993)

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Jay-Z "In My Lifetime" (1995)

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Reasonable Doubt

The Notorious B.I.G. "Who Shot Ya?" (1995)

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My Life

Junior Mafia f/ The Notorious B.I.G. "Players Anthem" (1995)

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Ready To Die

2pac f/ Outlawz "Hit 'Em Up" (1996)

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Jay-Z f/ Mary J. Blige "Can't Knock The Hustle" (1996)

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Reasonable DoubtThe Source

Jay-Z f/ The Notorious B.I.G. "Brooklyn's Finest" (1996)

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Jay-Z "Regrets" (1996)

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Jay-Z f/ Foxy Brown "Ain't No Nigga" (1996)

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Reasonable Doubtthe

Reasonable DoubtReasonable Doubt

Smoothe Da Hustler f/ Trigger tha Gambler "Broken Language" (1996)

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C.N.N. f/ Tragedy Khadafi "T.O.N.Y." (Top of New York) (1997)

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C.N.N. f/ Mobb Deep & Tragedy Khadafi "L.A., L.A. (Kuwait Mix By Marley Marl)" (1997)

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Produced by: Marley Marl
"I had been working with Trag since like '93. It was a while since he had dropped anything. Dude was always focused on his craft as a rapper. We'd be out at events, parties with chicks, and then he'd excuse himself briefly from the festivities, just to write some new rhymes he'd just come up with into a notebook or pad that he always carried with dude. Trag also had this uncanny talent to spot future talent, he was always signing or trying to sign new acts. One day, he even had a young Mark Ronson in my office. Trag was going to sign him to a production deal through his 25 II Life production company/label. Mark Ronson repping Queensbridge would have been one of the strangest unions of all time.

"Tragedy had just had me draw papers up for his latest act, Capone-N-Noreaga. Trag had printed up these realistic looking "wanted" flyers, one with Capone's face and one with Noreaga's. The mock "wanted" flyers had a list of each of the rappers' “rap sheets,” offering a reward of like $100,000 for each, dead or alive. He had put hundreds of these flyers up on trains, on buses, wherever. One day, he was in the train station by the Queensbridge projects when he overheard these two thuggish cats studying one of the flyers, speaking on the reward and how 'they couldn't wait to see this nigga in the hood' so that they could bag them to collect that reward guap!!! Trag immediately did his best to take down all them flyers. Reflecting, he told me 'I forgot how thirsty Queensbridge cats are. Any types of reward ads look real to them brothers. I didn't want one of them ruthless wolves to do some type of damage to my new artists, especially behind some realistic marketing plan that I came up with.'


"Shortly after that, Trag finally fired shots back towards Death Row. Where a lot of NY rapper cats was on that Martin Luther King, Jr. peace vibe with regard to all the disses that were coming from out West, them dudes from Queens wasn't having it. Tragedy was the elder statesmen, him having a hand in forming Mobb Deep (he reportedly blessed Prodigy with his name) and further armed with his new group, Capone-N-Noreaga. As their general, he and crew had enough of the East Coast bashing. Taking the hook from the famed 'New York, New York,' CNN and friends made it known that the returned shots were everything but subliminal. Before the record dropped, Trag played it in my office. I fake played lawyer, asking him if it was worth going to war with Death Row, and how two wrongs didn't make a right, but down deep down inside, I was cheering for the home team. A few months after Tupac died, Trag shared with me how 'Pac was always one of his favorite rappers and how, even though they had 'beef,' his talent could never be ignored. That bugged me out a bit because I didn't expect Trag to feel that way about Tupac."

The Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize" (1997)

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The Lox "We'll Always Love Big Poppa" (1997)

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Busta Rhymes "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See " (1997)

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50 Cent f/ The Madd Rapper "How To Rob" (1999)

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Nastradamus

Nas f/ Puff Daddy "Hate Me Now" (1999)

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DMX "What's My Name" (1999)

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Black Rob f/ Joe Hooker "I Dare You'" (2000)

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Life StoryLife Story

Shyne f/ Barrington Levy "Bad Boyz" (2000)

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Jay-Z "Izzo" (H.O.V.A.) (2001)

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Produced by: Kanye West
"I had known Kanye West from the mid-’90s, when he had been signed as a

producer to Deric 'D-Dot' Angelettie's Crazy Cat Catalog production

company. Kanye been hot as a producer. Early in 2001, Kanye

stopped by my office. He needed and was shopping for a new attorney. He

was going on and on about how his contract with Deric was over, how he

was about to take his career to the stratosphere, how he had the first

single off Jay's upcoming album called 'Izzo.' Kanye in person is the

same as Kanye on-screen: hyped about his God-given talents, amped about

his upcoming projects. Izzo, Izzo, Izzo is all he talked about, and I'm

sitting on the other side of my desk thinking 'What the fuck is an

Izzo?' Then he decided to drop the bomb on me about how he was going to

start rapping and how he was pissed that no one took his intentions to

rap serious. Like I said, I know Kanye, and when he mentioned he wanted

to rap, how he was going to be 'the biggest rapper ever' I was like,

'Riiiiiiiight.'


"There was no way I could imagine dude rapping. He wasn't very

'rapper-like,' in my opinion. Which meant that him being the next

biggest rapper wasn't even in the stars. Haha. I guess he picked up on

how I was that next cat that didn't take him serious about becoming a

rapper, so he left and hired someone else. Months later, as I was

driving up to the Hamptons with my wife, Hot 97 started playing 'Izzo

(H.O.V.A.).' My wife was in the middle of talking and I immediately

hushed her up. Now it started to make sense, Izzo, Izzo, Izzo. Years

later he went on to become one of the biggest rappers of all-time. He

was right, I was wrong. But I'm not mad though. I know Kanye, and

waaaaay before the money and the fame, that nigga been crazy. You can't

fault me for not believing the words of a crazy man. And that is mos def

a 'no shots.'"

50 Cent f/ Nate Dogg "21 Questions" (2003)

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Power Of The Dollar





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