Darren Vegas speaks about Left Eye / N.I.N.A. album on Death Row

[donfathaimmortal]

"I had no idea she was even comin' to the label," says Vegas. "Her vibe was real cool," he says. "I expected her to be all wild and stuff from what I'd heard, [but] she was real laid back and calm." Recording as N.I.N.A., Lopes bonded with label-mates including Kurupt, Crooked I and Ray J. "I saw in the movie how she was drinking and all that," Vegas says. "When she was [signed] she didn't drink at all. She was on a cleanse, and she actually got artists at Death Row to do cleansings, as she was back and forth to Honduras."

"She just seemed real determined to have the world hear a solo album," says Vegas, who along with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.'s Monster O, manned the boards during her sessions. "The stuff we were working on, we weren't copying what she had done [with TLC]. We were creating a brand new sound."

Plans included collaborations with David Bowie and Missy Elliot. "Those were conversations Suge would have had," Vegas says of such deal making. "My job was to stay in the studio, making tracks." He adds that rapper Juvenile was in the studio recording with Lopes, and sessions also featured Dre's longtime percussionist, former P-Funk member Carl "Butch" Small, as well as Tupac's personal engineer Tommy Daugherty.

These sessions, however, led to only a handful of songs. Lopes was back and forth between Los Angeles and Honduras, doing charity work, and less than five months after her signing, she passed away in a car accident during one of these trips to Central America. "It was disbelief," Vegas says of the reaction at Death Row. "At the same time, there were so many deaths around [the label then] that it was almost routine."

However, Vegas says he and Monster were asked to patch together material following Lopes' death. "I certainly finished those records," he says. "There was a lot of red tape at the time." There's been no word on if the music will see the light of day. As for the N.I.N.A. master tracks? "I don't know who has 'em," Vegas says.


---------------------REMIX ALBUM CREDITS---------------------

The Block Party
(featuring Eastwood)
(add vocs : Phobia)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Let Me Live
(featuring Crooked I)
(original production : Salaam Rami)
(additionnal production [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Tru Confessions
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Life
(featuring Eastwood & Danny Boy)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)
(drum programming, sequencing, keyboards : Darren Vegas)
(guitar : Danny 'Monsta' DeVoux)

Life (alternate version)
(featuring Eastwood & Carl Thomas)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)
(drum programming, sequencing, keyboards : Darren Vegas)
(guitar : Danny 'Monsta' DeVoux)

Universal Quest
(featuring Crooked I & Esthero)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Rags To Riches
(featuring Kurupt)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Untouchable
(featuring 2Pac)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)
(drum programming, sequencing, keyboards : Darren Vegas)
(lyrics : Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes & 2Pac)

I Believe In Me
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Hot Lanta
(featuring Juvenile & Kurupt)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters)

Friends
(featuring Cassandra Lucas & Danny Boy)
(additional vocals : Kurupt)
(produced by [remix] : Tha Row Hitters


---------------------ABOUT DARREN VEGAS---------------------

Working with Death Row Records since 1995, Tha White Guy aka Darren Vegas was part of Triple Seven Productions with Crooked I & Gim Gittum before he ended up being at the helm of Tha Row production with Cold 187Um. During this years, Darren Vegas worked on several projects like 2PAC Until The End Of Time + Nu-Mixx Klazzics, CROOKED I Untouchble + Say Hi To The Bad Guy + Westcoasanostra Vol1, THA DOGG POUND 2002, N.I.N.A. album... to name a few. He recently leaked 3 songs off the unreleased Crooked I album Untouchable recorded for Death Row Records in the early 2000's.

Crooked I - Intro
https://soundcloud.com/darren-vegas/untouchable-cali-intro-darren
(featuring Daz Dillinger)
(produced by : Darren Vegas, Gim Gittum)

Crooked I - Untouchable Cali
https://soundcloud.com/darren-vegas/untouchable-cali-nu-mixx
(produced and remixed by : Darren Vegas)

Crooked I - Bang On Em
https://soundcloud.com/darren-vegas/darren-vegas-bang-on-em-feat
(produced by : Darren Vegas)

Darren Vegas & Crooked I present Westcoasanostra Volume One (Remastered)
https://soundcloud.com/darren-vegas/west-coasta-nostra-re-mastered
(produced by : Darren Vegas)