Among the tracks recorded that day was “Check it Out!,” which featured Dana and ’Pac alternating verses in the braggadocious style of Run-DMC, before collapsing in a fit of laughter, a reminder of their relative youth and inexperience. In a style common to the time, two other tracks find ’Pac hyping up members of the crew: “That’s My Man Throwin’ Down,” which champions Bastfield’s skills as Ace Rocker, and “Terror’s on the Tables (Dedication to DJ Plain Terror).” Two others foreshadow the dual personas—the sexually ravenous ladies’ man, and the empathetic and socially conscious revolutionary—that would later be central to 2PAC’s artistry: the raunchy story rap “I Saw Your Girl,” and “Babies Having Babies,” a preview of themes he would later revisit on his 1991 breakthrough single, “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” and 1993’s classic “Keep Ya Head Up.”
In June, in recognition of his good grades, Gerard’s parents rewarded him with the party. He set up his turntables and lugged his records outside. Darrin created a commemorative banner for the party, onto which Tupac and others wrote inscriptions for their classmates. For the members of Born Busy, the future looked promising. “I remember ’Pac saying whoever makes it first,we’re gonna bring us all in.Unfortunately, that never really happened,” said Gerard, wistfully. Following his own move to New York City that fall to attend the School of Visual Arts, Gerard threw himself into design, eventually co-founding the graphics firm Dooable Arts with the late Matthew Reid aka Matt Doo. As he delved further into music production in the ’90s, working with the likes of Mos Def, Vinia Mojica, and others, the Tupac chapter of his life was one he kept private. “For so many years, I didn’t really like to speak on it…because, you know, that’s a friend of mine, and that part of my life was something I tried to protect and keep personal,” he says. As one gains in age, legacy factors more strongly into decisions. Now a veteran, but with his DJ and production career still evolving, Gerard—now GE-OLOGY—began recognizing the need to document his legacy for posterity. “I can tell the story about it because I lived it,” he says. “You know, this is my history as well, not just Tupac’s, and I think it’s only right that I tell it, so there’s no confusion about what really happened. Often, what I see, because I have so many friends who have passed on, people try to rewrite their story after they’re gone. No, I need to tell the story while I’m here.”
we [were] like,‘Yo, let’s be a group.’ Born Busy started with that.” The connection deepened on a Saturday afternoon in January 1988, when Darrin,Tupac, and Dana recorded a seven-song demo tape on equipment in Gerard’s bedroom. Perhaps the only surviving set of recordings from Born Busy, it offers the most comprehensive document of the NewYork-born Tupac’s formative era on the East Coast.The tracks, though, were all done a capella . “They were always writing rhymes all the time, but they would be writing rhymes with no beats,” Gerard says of Tupac and Mouse. “So they were like, ‘Yo, can you make a beat for this rhyme?’ I’m like,‘I’ll make the beat, but I need to learn the rhymes, so I can know how to formulate the beat to fit it.’ That’s so crazy because, as a professional, [it is] the opposite: I make beats, and people write to my music. But, at that time, I would make the beat to fit their rhyme.” ( above ) The banner designed by Born Busy member Darrin Keith Bastfield (aka Ace Rocker) to celebrate the 1988 graduating class at Baltimore School for the Arts. The banner was displayed at GE-OLOGY’s graduation party, where it was signed by classmates and friends, including Tupac, who inscribed both his name and his early rap moniker, MC New York. Bastfield is the author of the 2002 book, Back in the Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Shakur .
Research and reporting for this story were done by Ericka Blount Danois. Interview with GE-OLOGY by Alex Bruh and Standby Projects.
The Born Busy demo,“Who the Hell R U?” lyric sheet, and BSA Class of ‘88 banner were recently sold throughWax Poetics Collections. For more Tupac Grails and Hip-Hop History, visit Waxpoetics.com.
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