"The first thing that comes to mind with the photo shoot is Baby Chris (Chris Lighty) orchestrated it," Monie Love says.
Lighty, who founded storied Violator Management, was responsible for managing the careers of the aforementioned Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul, after getting his start in the business by carrying crates of records for DJ Red Alert.
Like the group itself, fun was a core tenet of how Native Tongues carried themselves, with was a divergent tactic in an industry where seriousness equated artistry. However, as Monie Love tells it, the day was cool and informal — not unlike the very jam session thy depicted in "Doin' Our Own Dang" video.
"He just was, 'Pick an instrument that makes sense to you,'" Love says. "So I went and sat on the drums, because I played drums in my Catholic high school in England. Janette, she's one of my favorite people that I've ever been photographed by, because the sessions were just always so dope with her. I'll tell you this though, I don't hate any of my pictures, regardless to how young I was or what I looked like. I don't cringe, because I feel like, anything you could possibly find represents a point and a time in my journey. My personal journey in Hip-Hop."