The Wildstyle Story #26-Song Breakdown “Met My Match”
This song definitely wouldn’t have been on any Wildstyle album. However, it has a rather unique story and background. Madd Maxx’s mom was a Paralegal at a law firm, where she specialized in working on trademarks for companies. At some point, she came up with the idea for a matchmaking board game for pre-teen/teenage girls called Met My Match. At work, she had a meeting with Parker Brothers (which I believe was) for another matter, and through that contact she reached out to them to pitch the idea. They liked how it sounded and gave her a green light to flesh out the idea and come up with some more details.
Part of what she wanted to do was get her kids involved, so she had the idea that her sons would make the theme song for the game. The way I understand it, the plan was the song, once completed, could be used for commercials to promote the game, and also there could be a cassette with the song included in the game as an added bonus.
The original plan was that Madd Maxx would produce the song, which obviously made sense. He was already doing music that his mom had heard and was supportive of. And, with her being a fan of our demo “Coolin’ On The Block”, I’m guessing she could hear the commercial potential in that song. Plus, at this time, I feel like Maxx was really digging what Kurtis Mantronik was doing, particularly with the release of the “This Should Move Ya” album, which was an album that was heavily played at our apartment when it dropped. I feel that album is when a notable amount of his fanbase started to lose faith in Mantronik, because he was seeing success in the dance world via his remixes and side productions, plus some of the bigger songs on the last Mantronix album, such as “Simon Says”. However, Maxx always had an appreciation for artists who could push the limits of being creative, but also be commercially appealing, a la Prince Paul, Cash Money, and obviously Mantronik. As for me, my favorite Mantronix album was, and still is, “Music Madness”, but I also really dug this new album, and even though I was disappointed that MC Tee was gone, I thought Bryce Luv was also a great MC, as I was already a fan of his group Q.B.C, so I was a fan of the new album also. Point being, I think that Mantronix album had some influence on Maxx’s production style at this time, and this song is probably the best example of that from the things that I recorded with him. Although there are a few other beats of his that fit that bill, such as this dance song called “Move” where he samples Duran Duran, which was originally produced to be a song for J-Bird of Chapter 2, at the request of someone that was trying to be the group’s manager. However, J-Bird decided to pass on the song, and that led to an idea of Gary, the hopeful manager, decided he would try to rap the song himself, and I was asked to write the lyrics, which I did, but I don’t think it ever got recorded. That process in mind, let’s get back to “Met My Match”…

Maxx’s mother also had the idea that her younger son, Rooter would do the lyrics, so he and a friend of his put some lyrics together and were preparing to do this song. The original track that Maxx produced was completely different music. And, being that Rooter had never rapped before, he was having some challenges delivering the lyrics, so they asked me to come over to offer some guidance. I went out to his Mom’s house in Kenosha and tried to help best I could. I think I made some suggestions on how to change some of the lyrics and how to switch up the flow, but mainly I was there to give some positive encouragement. But, the fact is, it’s rare anyone is going to be thrust into the idea of making a song, when they’ve never done it before, and be able to pull it off without a lot of work and time. Certainly, it’s even more of a challenge doing it with your mom and big brother trying to push you to get it done, and then having me, someone he doesn’t know that well, but who is probably the closest thing he knows to a professional rapper, being there as a mentor. That’s a lot of pressure. And, in the end, the idea didn’t work.
Plan B was that Maxx and I would do it. I don’t remember why, but Maxx completely redid the beat to what is on this version. I’m guessing it was because some time had passed, as I didn’t think the decision for me to do it came immediately. By the time that happened, Maxx and I were in our new Rage Cage location at Colonial Park Apartments in Park City, IL. The biggest challenge for this version of the song was that I didn’t usually write simple lyrics, and that is especially true at this point in time. This took place post-Wildstyle, so I was on a mission to be as lyrically potent as possible as I entered into a solo career. And, I certainly never thought about how to write rhymes focused on entertaining teen or pre-teen girls. I remember trying to write the song with Maxx right there next to me, which I don’t think ever happened previously. Usually LA and I were off on our own writing lyrics, and then presented things to Maxx. Anyway, I recall that as I would say some things, he had to keep reeling me in from being overly wordy and complex. Specifically, at one point, he just yelled at me, “NO METAPHORS!!!!” In hindsight, it’s hilarious, but at the time I was frustrated, and not at him, well, not entirely at him to be accurate, but in myself for not being able to pull it off. Even though I love writing complex lyrics, I also wanted to be able to adapt to any situation as a writer, at least that was the goal. So, I needed a new approach.

At that time, I didn’t have a car, and it was about five miles to work. This was an improvement from living in Foxcrest which was about seven miles, and I used to walk to work, work a full shift, and then walk home. I continued that process at Colonial Park also, but with a few less miles to worry about. So, I went to work that day for my closing shift after the failed writing attempt with Maxx. I had the instrumental in my Walkman, and I listened to it throughout the night when I could at work. I didn’t even try to write, I simply wanted to try and become one with the music. Then, on my walk home that night, I pushed myself to freestyle, improvising lyrics that were relevant to the concept for the entire song, rewinding the beat over and over to do it again, trying to remember the best-fitting parts from each freestyle. I continued to do this up until the point I was walking in the door of our apartment. I literally walked in the apartment, full of determination. I think Maxx was sitting at the dining room table (a folding card table), and I said something like, “Let’s record this RIGHT now while I’m in the zone”. He must’ve sensed the urgency, didn’t say anything, popped up and turned things on, and I just dropped these lyrics, and I honestly think I did it one take. I never wrote anything down. I don’t remember how much was from what I remembered from the numerous freestyles VS what I may have improvised in the moment. I wasn’t even really thinking while recording. I was blacked out, trying not to think, so that it would be as simple as possible.
I think achieved my goal. I feel it’s simple and I don’t cringe when I hear it. At the same time, it’s not really a great representation of what I was trying to do artistically, then or ever. But, I think it does work well for what it was supposed to be, which obviously was the goal. Now, while all of that may be true, I also think this is TERRIBLE dating advice…ha. . Basically, it’s a story about me going out to a club, and I’m expressing that I’m so cool and too smart for a girl to “juice” me for money. I finally meet someone and ask her to dance, and the description I give, “Sexy and short, a light skin complexion”, was my girlfriend at the time, Tracey Hunt. In the song, we end up deciding to go on a date, and the part that always cracks me up is when I say, “Two weeks later, I still date her/and as planned, that time made her/think about me, think about us/…I earned her trust/Two people together, a bond that could last forever/It took time, but it was worth all that, cause now I met my match”. I mean, even back then I didn’t believe two weeks was enough time to fall in love, much less, a long time to earn someone’s trust, but that’s what I suppose you get with a freestyle. And, it’s probably the way a lot of pre-teen people think as well, including myself in those years. That in mind, I don’t know if that’s really the kind of advice I wanted to be known for giving out to pre-teen girls or guys, so in hindsight, maybe it’s good this never came out in that game.

In the end, the game plan never fully materialized, and despite my feelings on the actual song, I always thought it would have been dope to be (what I assume would have been) the first Rap artist to have their song in a boardgame, and probably also one of the first to have their song used on TV and song commercials. It’s another one of those instances where I feel like Wildstyle was cutting edge, even in areas we didn’t necessarily set out to be. And, once again, this opportunity came about via Maxx’s family, so I have love for them forever!!
