2Face - NYC /Hey Hey Hey - 1996

12" - 1996 - Blindside Recordings

This record is born in 1996 from the meeting between Natural Elements members L-Swift and A-Butta and UK producers Si Spex and Juliano (better known as The Creators) during the two MCs' visit to the United Kingdom. DJ Mayhem of Natural Elements brought L-Swift and A-Butta to England to work with Blindside Recordings, who in turn introduced them to The Creators. The producers played some beats, the MCs picked two and they recorded them.

Both songs are "NYC" featuring DJ Mayhem from Natural Elements on the A-side and "Hey Hey Hey" on the B-side, each presented in its original, radio and instrumental versions.

About the production of the track "NYC", the Creators used a sample of the song "One I Could Have Loved " performed by Steve Kuhn & Gary McFarland and released in 1966 on Impulse! Records. For "Hey Hey Hey", the sample comes from the song ""Foxtrott-Medley1" from a German organist called Klaus Wunderlich.

 

The story behind the name 2Face came out of a dilemma : their partner in rhyme, Mr. Voodoo, wasn't on the tracks. Releasing the record under the full Natural Elements name felt off, even misleading. As L-Swift would explain years later, "we didn't want it to say ‘by Natural Elements’, as to not do false advertising, since our homie Mr. Voodoo wasn't on those records."

Searching for another way to present the project, L-Swift leaned into his own zodiac sign. A Gemini by birth, he was all too familiar with the reputation that came with it, "two-faced". Rather than take it as an insult, he flipped the meaning into something clever. If he was one face, then A-Butta was the other. Together they became 2Face, a new identity born of circumstance, humor, and the kind of quick thinking wordplay that defined the crew. The name stuck and 2Face came to represent not just a momentary moniker, but the creative chemistry between two MCs whose styles mirrored and complemented each other.

About the wax, It remains really easy to find and won't cost you much, so if you're a big Natural Elements fan like me, you should grab this record ASAP. Peace