I've legit been wondering this for 20 years and have never gotten to the bottom of it.

Somewhere in the early days of napster/audiogalaxy I, like many others, came across this track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa3_ikQhU_o

And it goes. Dope track. Dope Lauryn Hill verse. Dope use of that Kool & the Gang track.

So why wasn't it released? Right issues?

But more importantly, how did this rapper, who no one has ever heard of, get a song with Lauryn presumably when she was at the height of her powers*?

I thought maybe it's a homemade remix but Lauryn Hill says his name and they rap back and forth. This is definitely a collaboration.

It's also crazy their is nothing on the neet that I have found about Paid & Live. No other songs. No real name anywhere. Just this super dope track.

Anyone knows the story here?

I think close to launching a hip-hop mysteries podcast investigation unless there is an easy answer to this story.






*discog puts the making of this song as 1997 which is Post the Score but pre-Miseducation.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"