Warning: Saigon

as told to Anslem Samuel | photography Teddy Sczudlo

Will Saigon’s major label debut The Greatest Story Never Told become the greatest album never released?

Three years is a long time—1,095 days to be exact. Despite signing to Just Blaze’s Fort Knocks Entertainment imprint via Atlantic Records way back in 2004, Saigon’s major label debut, The Greatest Story Never Told, has yet to see the light of day. With the Yardfather’s highly-anticipated opus living up to its title, the mixtape mainstay hopped on MySpace and threatened to leak the album if it wasn’t released. After a lengthy blog rebuttal from Just, an online apology from Sai and a pesky sample clearance, the hinges on the Fort Knocks vault are set to open this fall—or so we’ve been told. Here’s how it’s shaping up.

“Don’t Cha Baby” f/ Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze & Jay-Z
Produced by Just Blaze

This is actually the sample that was holdin’ us up. I don’t know the name of it but they eventually ended up clearing it. Swizz and Just are on the hook. The album version has Jay-Z on it. Jay didn’t clear it for a single, but he cleared it for the album. I might do a new verse ’cause Jay’s verse is stupid. I had that beat for like two weeks [before] I wrote something I liked. [Jay] heard the beat for 10 minutes and went in and laid some crazy shit.

“The Greatest Story Never Told”
Produced by Just Blaze

This is probably gonna be the first track on the album and it’s pretty much me lettin’ people know that I’m tryna change the direction of hip-hop. It shows how we look ignorant when we beef with each other. What we’re doin’ is proving that we can’t get along no matter what level we’re at financially. Lyrically, if you just listen to that record, you’re gonna be like, “Damn, that shit makes a lot of sense.”

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This is only a preview! To read all the details on Saigon’s album and read the rest of the Warning! section, pick up the SEPT/OCT issue of Scratch, on stands NOW!

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