DJ Too Tuff  Back to Wreck Shop

It had a big influence overseas too. Dutch outfit King Bee practically remade the track as 'Back By Dope Demand'. Did you hear their version?

King Bee's record didn't come out until after the 'Back To Wreck Shop' album. [4] I remember going to the record store and people were already coming up to me on the street saying "Yo I heard your new record" and I was like "What?" And they were like "Yeah, back by dope demand. [sings] Must be the music." So I went to the record store and I saw that there was a group called King Bee and the name of the album was 'Royal Jelly'. And I bought that album. I didn't really understand what it was all about but I was sort of impressed. Because at that time we didn't really know how big we were.

I mean we had been on tour with Two Live Crew and LL Cool J and a bunch of other people but from constantly being in internal conflict with our management and being famous but not having enough money to live up to the fame... Like we would go on tour with Public Enemy, Two Live Crew, LL Cool J, Tone Loc, Stetsasonic, De La Soul, K-9 Posse, Salt N Pepa and we would be stars while we were on the road but when we would come back to Philly, we would have to go on the corner and sell crack in order to pay for the cars that our manager conned us into buying. We all had brand new Suzuki Sidekicks and we couldn't afford the payments because we weren't getting any royalties. So we would have to go on the streets and hustle.

Is that why the group broke up after the 'Back to Wreck Shop' album?

The group broke up when I discovered a bunch of papers from live shows that we did that paid us $3500 a show and we ended up only breaking down like $1500 dollars. Which meant that Mitch kept $2000 for himself off of every live performance that we did and we broke down $1500 between four people. When I confronted him about that, there was a big blow up. Me and Ice originally left the group and went to sign with Ultramagnetic's manager who at that time was putting out Tim Dog. So for a quick instant, like six months, I became Tim Dog's DJ.

Ice Dog chose not to sign with this gentleman - his name was David Suckle. He had Blackstreet, he had Tim Dog, he had a group called Bass Hit from England and he had Ultramagnetic. Ice Dog chose not to sign at the last moment and re-signed with Tuff Crew for the last fatal album 'Still Dangerous' [Warlock, 1991]. This was the last album that Mitch owed Warlock in order to satisfy his contractual obligations and not get sued for breach of contract which he ended up fucking up anyway. In a crazy twist of fate, Tone decided not to re-sign with Tuff Crew and came with me and we went and did 'Flipping Kilos' and 'Back to Yell' on Sure Shot Records. Me and Tone did a couple of shows and then real life started to come into focus.

What do you mean by real life?

Tone moved away from Philly. I got married and had a daughter. My daughter had a brain tumour – her name is Felicity, she's doing fine now. Ice Dog got locked up for arson. I got locked up for a few other things and real life sort of just came into effect so the Hip Hop had to take a backseat. People had relatives pass away. L.A. Kid moved back to L.A. Mitch blended back into the woodwork that he initially came out of.

After all of that, the original members of Tuff Crew - Tone Love, L.A. Kid, Ice Dog and Too Tuff - we always stayed close. And as of now we are reuniting for a comeback album which is now in production. We speak regularly and are eager to recoup valuable time and money lost due to poor management.

Your experience of the music industry was less than positive. What made you decide to do a reunion album?

In the streets we would always hear the question "Damn, what happened to y'all?" From the time that we finished 'Back to Wreck Shop' up until today. So it was sort of a legacy and something that we had to do just to answer the questions that people constantly ask. Because everywhere I go – if I go to buy a bag of weed, if I go to Best Buy, if I go to the movies downtown, if I take my daughter to the playground - they always recognise me as Too Tuff from Tuff Crew and then I gotta give them the whole story. So rather than me keep on running into people and giving them this whole story, I would rather just drop a reunion album.

DJ Z-Trip brought you on stage during a set in Central Park last year. What role has he played in your comeback?

During the time I was down, between 1996 and 2000, Linkin Park performed in Philly numerous times. After each concert I would run into fans on the street who would tell me that Z-Trip had asked the crowd during his intermission cut break if anyone knew the whereabouts of Too Tuff. But I never believed them and, although it fascinated me, I wasn't in a position to do work or find out if this could lead to anything.

After a citywide declaration and world cyberspace announcement of my plans to come back in April 2005, Z-Trip found me and sent me enough equipment to begin remastering the unreleased Too Tuff chronicles of '94 to present. Z-Trip has been instrumental in my comeback as a close ally and motivator for me to attempt to regain my belt. Along with inspirational and creative motivation he has opened the industry's ears and hearts for the Detonator's return to the stage and the long awaited Tuff Crew reunion possibilities. Z-Trip along with Tim McCloskey and Butch Mayo, Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones Throw have been major reasons for the present buzz worldwide on my behalf.