"It's all about knowing that a song is hot before other people," says Clue. Do you remember when DJs broke records? Yup, that was a thing - pardon my sarcasm to the younger cats reading. I've said this before, but NO ... I was never DJ Clue's biggest fan; but acknowledged that he always knew where his strengths were, and that was at getting the exclusives and breaking records in the mixtape era of rap. Smart in business, too, for sure - he started his tape series at #24, making heads think they were already behind on discovering his tapes, lol ... then, navigating and capturing market share with every new tape he released, flipping that into a radio show, label deal, etc etc all without a visit from the Feds. Revisiting "The Professional," which was released on Roc-A-Fella Records in 1998, tracks from DMX + Ruff Ryders, Nas, Nature, Big Pun + Cam'Ron + Noreaga + Canibus, Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, and more carried what were always front-loaded mixes. In the mix-tape days, you wanted to be in the top 5-8 tracks because we'd just run them back, over and over as the hottest of what was new at the time. The favorite track for most is normally "Fantastic 4," but I was a Queens cat, I went straight to "Queens Finest" with Nas (and that Nature track was flames, too) ... "Get brains with the f#ckin Hilfiger, nah..." In business, being first is a huge advantage.