Shit was fire! Simple, stripped down and to the point. I know I didn't want to add anything to it on my end. We felt that this was gonna play the role of the album's "pivot," something that could end "side A" of the record, which is exactly what it ended up doing once placed in the sequence.
Let's fast forward to July. The Foreign Exchange had a show at The Promontory in Chicago. On the way to the venue, Phonte popped the new album in so that the entire crew who was packed into a 12-passenger van could hear the FINAL cut of everything. Through the duration of it, I was analyzing it to see if I heard any new shit added to the versions of the songs I had already. "Sevenths and Ninths" came on. I noticed that the bass guitar was dropped from the first eight bars of the verse leaving keys only. Dope! But when that bass was finally introduced, for the first time, I heard the Moog lead that Nic recorded. I'm pretty sure I hit a, "Whooooooooooo!!!!!!" loud as shit in approval. I wasn't expecting it at all. Then it came in numerous other times throughout the song adding another layer of texture to it. I also heard some synth pads he layered in during the song's final phrase which thickened it up some and made it feel very final, Needless to say I was verrry pleased with it. Outside of it being just a really dope song, its place in the tracklisting was just as important as the quality itself. Sequentially, I think this one is probably the most important song of Tales because it serves as a perfect set-up for the album's wild card: the lead single, "Asking For A Friend."
