Album Notes

From the very first time I heard “Listen Up, I’m About To Get Dope”, I knew that Mac Dre would be a star. We first met sometime in the late 1980’s at Rated Z Records in downtown Vallejo. Dre was releasing songs that were being circulated on underground cassette tapes and was fast becoming on the Bay Areas biggest names. After he released his first official album, the 4 song EP “Young Black Brotha”, his fan base started spreading throughout the West Coast. Around 1990, I did a song with Dre called “Do The Crew”, that was originally done on a 4 Track recorder. When we (N2DEEP) got our record deal with Profile Records, we starting recording at a real studio and were in the process of re-doing all of the songs that we had recorded on the 4 Track. I had just seen Dre at a music convention in San Francisco and let him know that we needed to go into the studio and re-do the song the following week. A couple days later, Dre was arrested for an alleged bank robbery and spent 5 years in Prison. The song never happened. I kept in touch with Dre during his sentence and even went to Lompoc Federal Prison to visit him. When he finally got released, he came and seen me and told me all of his plans about wanting to start a record label and wanting to do a compilation called “The Rompilation”. He wanted me to help him with it, so for the next 5 or 6 months, we put together an album that would be one of the biggest compilations ever to come out of the Bay Area. The album has sold close to 100,000 units to date. Me and Dre kept doing music and shows together throughout the years. Every album that I would put together, I would already know that I could count on Dre to come and lay down a verse. This album is a collection of songs that we did together over the 15 or so years that we were friends. Though he is gone, he will never be forgotten. Rest in Peace to the Mac Honorable, Andre Hicks.