"Anything worth having," says Sauce Money ... "is worth working towards." Todd "Sauce Money" Gaither, a product of Brooklyn's infamous Marcy Projects knows of what he speaks. Best known for penning Puff Daddy's mega-selling 1997 B.I.G. tribute, "I'll Be Missing You", Sauce spent the better part of this decade serving hard time in hip-hop's underground scene. He did everything from ghostwriting for Shaq to rhyming on the virtually forgotten Big Daddy Kane posse cut "Show & Prove" from Daddy's Home (MCA, 1994), all while he maintained a full-time job - until misfortune struck. "Them bastards fired me," says Sauce, as exasperated as if it happened last week instead of nearly two years ago. "I was like, How dare you? I worked in the fuckin' mail room at this bank for five years, and it was pure hell. And then I got the boot!" But two days later, thanks to a stellar appearance on DJ Clue's '96 Show Me The Money mix tape ("You must be Chinese / The way you try to duck Sauce"), Money scored a recording contract with Geffen (around the same time he had written "I'll Be Missing You"). After the 1998 joint venture with MCA and Geffen hip hop acts, he became an MCA artist. In creating his debut, Middle Finger U (from the title cut: "If you interfere with how I'm trying to get this paper -- fuck you!), due in late March, Sauce applied the same drive he had playing sports for Allen University in Columbia, S.C. "I got a scholarship to play baseball and basketball, and I was real good," he says with a smile. "That's what happened with rap. Once you find something that you're good at, there's nothing like it -- especially if you can make money doing it." Now that things are really going his way, don't expect Sauce to rest until he reaches the top. "I'm up 5:30 every morning," he says. "While n!@@as is sleepin', I've already written three or four songs. God blesses me, and I'm gonna keep workin'." It seems a hit maker's job is never done. - Vibe (3/99)