Never say never…and then never say never again. In 2013, legendary Hip Hop group 3rd Bass, made up of members Pete Nice, MC Serch, and DJ Richie Rich, briefly reunited.

“That reunion lasted two shows and one deposit,” says Pete Nice of the 2013 reunion. And for MC Serch, it wasn’t the right time. “Everything had to be right. The timing had to be perfect. I didn’t have the bandwidth,” states Serch.

While the timing may have played into the failed reunion, there were also real fences to mend between the group members who catapulted onto the Hip Hop scene in 1989 with their certified Gold debut album, ‘The Cactus Album.’ The album is best known for its single, ‘The Gas Face,’ which featured the recording debut of Zev Love X, later known as MF Doom.

‘The Cactus Album’ was followed in 1991 by ‘Derelicts of Dialect,’ another Gold album for the trio which featured the scathing Vanilla Ice diss “Pop Goes The Weasel.”

However, shortly after the release of their second studio album, 3rd Bass disbanded as group members pursued solo projects and ventures amidst reports of ongoing tensions between Pete Nice and MC Serch.

Surprisingly, on November 8^th of this year, Pete Nice and MC Serch reunited after many years of separation at the WBLS 50^th Anniversary concert featuring DJ Cassidy.

The Hip Hop Museum caught up with Pete Nice and MC Serch to discuss the latest reunion and Serch’s text that sparked it, the years of tension between the pair, and why previous reunions didn’t work, their infamous diss record “Pop Goes The Weasel,” beef in Hip Hop, and much more.

3rd Bass Interview

Adam Aziz: Starting with the obvious question first. What sparked this latest reunion? Was there a specific moment?

Pete Nice: It was the Summer of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. I got a text from Serch. How would you describe that text, Serch? An apology?

MC Serch: An amends.

Pete: An amends text. I was quite surprised by that, and since then, we had a conversation going, and then it stopped. My friend Van Silk, the old-school promoter and Mr. Everything in Hip Hop, when there was talk of Raheem getting back with the Furious Five and getting them back out on the road, he would ask me if I would get back together with Serch if he put it together and I said yes, you don’t even have to ask. It didn’t happen at the time.

Then Van Silk was talking to Chill Will, who was doing the talent portion of the recent DJ Cassidy show, where we reunited. We’ve known Cassidy since he was a little kid, and Serch had done the previous Pass The Mic events. Credit to Van Silk. He talked me into it. Serch and I didn’t have a one-on-one conversation before it or anything.

Serch: It was serendipitous.

Pete: I had said that if we were going to do this, Daddy Rich had to be part of it. I had been talking to Daddy Rich throughout, and he didn’t want to do it. And then, when Clark Kent passed, Rich had to come in for the funeral. And even though Serch and I had agreed to do it, Cassidy was supposed to set up a Zoom call with us. And when it didn’t happen going into five days before the event, I thought it wasn’t happening. But then we got on the Zoom call, which was the first time Serch and I spoke.

Serch: It was cool because the concert was on November 8th. ‘The Cactus Album’ came out around the same time. Our album release party was on November 14th, and Clark Kent DJ’ed our release party on November 9th. I celebrated 13 years of recovery on November 11th. When we talk about amends, it’s about taking responsibility. It’s easy just to say you’re sorry. Amends are more about taking responsibility for the demise of the relationship.

Adam: Was that what was missing when you guys tried to get back together in 2013? The making amends piece?

Serch: That was a whole different set of circumstances.

Pete: Yeah, that was different. That reunion lasted two shows and one deposit.

Serch: It was a whole different era in terms of where we all were. I was coming out of a liquor business. I had just moved to Orlando. I was going through a lot of transition. Doing the shows at the time, everything had to be right. If one thing was out of step, it didn’t work. I didn’t have the bandwidth.

Pete: I would describe our last reunion and breakup as the Dave Chappelle Show’s segment when keeping it real goes wrong. Just picture Serch saying, “I don’t like people playing on my phone,” and shit going off the rails.

Adam: Shifting gears a bit, I consider “Pop Goes The Weasel” one of the greatest diss records ever. What are both of your thoughts on the current climate of diss tracks and beef in Hip Hop? We aren’t that far removed from Drake Vs. Kendrick.

Serch: I’m a huge Kendrick fan. I was talking to a class in Jersey about this. When you look at Kendrick’s “Not Like Us” and you look at how diss records…I don’t want to say have matured but have become different. The acceptance of the understanding of how a diss record becomes a diss record has become so obvious to the audience. Most rappers nowadays won’t diss somebody they don’t know. That’s the one common thread – even when you go back to the Treacherous Three battles or the Kool Moe Dee battles, it was always about people they knew. Diss records were always about how I really know you and how I’m going to expose you.

With “Pop Goes The Weasel,” we knew what everything was and what everything wasn’t, and it was really obvious to us. I don’t know if Pete remembers this, but we would go to pop stations with a list of records they should be playing.  Why are you not playing De La Soul? Why are you not playing Public Enemy? Why are you only playing fucking Vanilla Wafer? It didn’t make any sense to us, so we’re like, all right, let’s take the most obvious sample and just shit on everybody and try to create an element of authenticity that we could bring to pop radio. It’s still the best part of the game.

Pete: Serch actually had a diss record at me recently. I was like, how did this come about? I didn’t even talk to this dude in I don’t know how long. It was a diss line or two with my face superimposed on the side of a car.

Serch: It’s a funny story. I did a record called “Round Here” with Bobby J from Rockaway. I put out new music all the time. I just do it for myself. We started shooting content against a white vehicle. I’d never seen it done before in a Hip Hop video where you actually use the car as a screen. When I saw the playback with our old video, I didn’t want that because the lines I was saying weren’t about Pete. And then the director and Bobby all were like, nah, it’s perfect timing. So I was like, fuck it. Because I really didn’t care at that point. I didn’t care one way or the other. I didn’t care if Pete took it one way or the other because the record itself wasn’t about him. At the time when we put out the record, it wasn’t even a thought in my mind that I was going to make amends with Pete or I was going to talk to Pete ever again.

Adam: On “Pop Goes The Weasel,” Serch, you Rap, “Hip Hop got turned into hit pop/The second a record was number one on the pop charts.” For both of you guys, has your stance changed on the commercialization of Hip Hop ver the years?

Pete: That was a different time. We got offers for Sprite commercials. They wanted us to be on Beverly Hills 90210 as the band on an episode where a kid gets drugs slipped in his drink. Tommy Mottola and Don Ienner were begging us to do the show. It was a time when you were looked at as a sellout if you did anything commercial, so we missed the wave of getting paid.

Serch: I don’t know if we missed the wave. I do agree with Pete, though. At the time, you couldn’t be true to who you were. There was no depth of understanding of the culture. Now, you can have a Progressive commercial with Kid N Play, where it has an actual legacy and cultural preservation. Back then, Hip Hop wasn’t commercially viable as a culture – the individual artists were.

My personal favourite story about commercialization was when Spike Lee asked Pete and me to read for Malcolm X. The role he asked us to read for was the two prison guards. I finally said, “I can’t do this.” Pete did a great job.

Pete: He wanted us, and I remember saying, “Are you serious? People are going to go to the theater and see us?”

Adam: 3rd Bass is referenced on so many great records. One of my favorite references is on Dead Prez’s “They Schools” when stic.man raps “I went to school with some redneck crackers/right around the time 3rd Bass dropped ‘The Cactus Album’, but I was reading Malcolm.” Given that you only put out two albums, how did 3rd Bass carve out such a special place in hip hop history?

Serch: My personal favorite reference is Rick Ross saying t-bone steak, something, something 3rd Bass on his ‘God Forgives, I Don’t’ album. We’ve stayed relevant in a lot of ways other artists don’t stay relevant. It’s the businesses and brands I’ve been involved in. Pete’s involvement with The Hip Hop Museum. It’s about doing important things towards our legacy without hyping ourselves up and pumping our chests. There is no ego about it. How we’ve moved over the past 35 years is to remain part of the culture because we understand the importance of the people who created the foundation of the culture.

Pete: We knew everybody and respected everybody. Everybody loved us and also because we put out two really good albums. People love those albums, performances, and being out on the road for so long. People connected with us. When it came to white boys in Hip Hop back then, you had the Beastie Boys, but we were different, and good or bad, we opened the door for people who came after us. To now, if you’re a white kid rhyming, nobody thinks twice about it. When Serch and I started, it was not a thing other people were doing.

Adam: What’s next for 3rd Bass?

Serch: We want to get the tour dates figured out and get the dates out there. Everything has been really fluid, which has been the best part. ‘The Cactus Album’ is out on vinyl again after many years after they stopped pressing it. I’m glad people can buy it again.

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