Masta Ace Explains Transitioning From Masta Ace Inc. To The eMC, Making Slaughtahouse (Video)
Masta Ace’s career spans three highly-respected crews. The Brownsville, Brooklyn MC came up alongside Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, MC Shan, and the rest of Marley Marl’s Juice Crew. However, between 1990’s Take A Look Around and 1993, The Juice Crew was largely dissolved, due to financial disputes and label reconfiguration.
In that interim, Ace headed west, where he inked a deal with the famed Delicious Vinyl Records (Young MC, Tone-Loc, The Pharcyde), and worked on several iterations of a new sound. By 1993’s Slaughtahouse album, Ace had formed a crew known as Masta Ace Incorporated, including Lord Digga, Paula Perry, Eyceurokk and Leschea. The May 1993 LP debuted in the Top 200, and included singles “Jeep Ass Nihgguh” and “Born To Roll,” in addition to the title cut. Making light of prevalent violent themes in mainstream Hip-Hop, the album would be a deep inspiration to Eminem and D12, as well as a foundation of sorts for the lyrical quartet of the 2000s.
Following a sophomore Masta Ace Inc. LP, Ace went back to solo album-making. In the mid-2000s, he formed another collective, with some of his frequent collaborators, The eMC. Lower East Side veterans Punch & Words (Punchline and Wordsworth) joined the collective, along with Milwaukee’s Stricklin (a/k/a Strick). Now releasing their second project, The eMC stopped by Juan Epstein (Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds), with Ace going in-depth about making his ’93 cult-classic concept LP, and why some of his former cohorts are publicly unhappy with him to this day. Ace fears no discussion, as the 25+ year rhyme veteran shows off his latest knocker.
Related: Try Out To Masta Ace, Punchline, Wordsworth & Strick’s Sophomore eMC LP (Album Stream)