Produced by: Richard Frierson
"Black Rob had been signed to Bad Boy for a while. It was known that Puff's new artist could rap like it was nobody's business. And he could. After Big's death, Puff dropped his own album and then Ma$e's. Both records were huge pop/rap smashes. Bad Boy had suddenly moved from being a straight rap factory to becoming this rap/pop machine. A lot people hated on the 'shiny suit' era, but I thought it was good for business. A perfect transition from the loss we had all suffered. Still, Black Rob was Puff's anti-shiny suit remedy. I was representing Harve Pierre, then second in command to Puff. Harve was working with Puff at Bad Boy from day one, when Puff was doing business from out of his mom's basement. Harve was a no nonsense, by the book, workaholic kind of guy.

"On the low though, he started singing hooks, primarily around the time Rob was working on Life Story. Harve was concerned that his peers might start looking at him differently if he started wearing an artist's hat. Harve was in the middle of renegotiating his deal with Bad Boy, so we talked a lot about his options. I suggested he sing under another name, even suggested the name 'Joe Hooker' since he sang hooks. 'I Dare You' was Rob's first single, featuring Joe Hooker. The way Harve sounded like a Sting knock-off worked well. Things were starting to change. The Bad Boy name wasn't as bright as it used to be, and it didn't do the standard Bad Boy multi-plat numbers, but Life Story was a very solid album, definitely slept on. I bring this song up because 'Joe Hooker' was the only artist's name I ever came up with. Harve might play like he came up with the name, but he didn't, I did."