"Scenario" is loaded with clever wordplay and an unforgettable gang-vocal chorus:
Here we go yo, here we go yo
So what so what so what's the scenario
A "scenario" is the outline of a plot, providing an overview of the story, so "what's the scenario" asks what's going on. More importantly, it's a very melodious word, loaded with vowels and easily rhymed.
"Scenario" features members of the Long Island hip-hop collective Leaders Of The New School, who released their debut album a few months earlier. Among them, Busta Rhymes, who was 19 at the time. The song was a breakout for Busta, who found fame as a solo artist, releasing his debut album in 1996.
According to Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest, the song wasn't planned out - they just invited their friends to the studio and everyone came up with verses on the spot.
Five rappers get a verse on "Scenario." In order they are:
Phife Dawg (Tribe)
Charlie Brown (Leaders - he sounds a lot like Will Smith here)
Dinco D (Leaders)
Q-Tip (Tribe)
Busta Rhymes (Leaders)
The drums are sampled from "Little Miss Lover," a 1967 track by Jimi Hendrix. Other bits in the song come from "Oblighetto" by Brother Jack McDuff (1970). The group Das Rascist then sampled (re-sampled?) "Scenario" in their single "Who's That? Brooown!"
On March 24, 1992, "Scenario" was released as the third single from A Tribe Called Quest's second album, The Low End Theory, following the more mellow cuts "Check the Rhime" and "Jazz (We've Got)." This was a time when gangsta rap was hot, but Tribe bucked that trend. "Scenario" is filled with energy (Busta Rhymes is like caffeinated bull terrier), but it's pure fun, with no implication of violence.
The music video harks back to a time when not everyone had a personal computer and digital editing software like Pro Tools was just starting to emerge. The video replicates a digital audio workstation interface, but with video integrated... futuristic stuff for 1992. Spike Lee and De La Soul also show up.
It was directed by Jim Swaffield, who did most of the group's early videos.
De La Soul's Posdnuos says there are several different versions of "Scenario" that have never been released, including one with him rapping instead of Busta Rhymes. Although he didn't make the album cut of the song, Posdnuos says that he's happy with how it ended up.
A Tribe Called Quest
performed this on The Arsenio Hall Show, fitting as they mention Arsenio in the lyric (a good way to get invited on a show - it also worked for Eric B. & Rakim when they shouted out
Soul Train on "
I Know You Got Soul."
Phife Dawg had fond memories of the performance, saying "everybody was juiced" to do it. When Busta started his verse, Phife held the mic while he turned his Dr. Seuss hat inside out.
Phife's opening verse lyrics are a reference to the sports star Bo Jackson:
Bo knows this
And Bo knows that
But Bo don't know jack
'Cause Bo can't rapNike ran a
famous ad campaign called "Bo Knows," where Jackson, who was both an all-star Major League Baseball player and an all-pro running back in the NFL, was portrayed knowing other sports as well: basketball, cycling, even hockey.
Nicki Minaj quotes Busta's line "Rawr, rawr, like a dungeon dragon" in her 2010 song "
Roman's Revenge." Also owing a debt to Busta are the Barenaked Ladies, who in their 1998 #1 hit, "
One Week," sing, "Chickity China the Chinese chicken," a variation on Busta's "Scenario" line, "Chickity choco, the chocolate chicken."
The actor/director Michael Rapaport had to take "Scenario" out of his documentary Beats, Rhymes, & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest because of clearance issues with Busta Rhymes. Rapaport also had to take out bits with De La Soul and Native Tongues for the same reason.
