High times with Tone Loc
January 18, 2000
Some of you may remember last year’s Veishea when Tone Loc played a show at the Rec Center. I was one of the music coordinators for that week, and it was my job to drive Tone Loc around. I have a story from that week that none of you know about.
The day he performed, we picked up Tone Loc, his manager and another rapper named Bo from the airport in Des Moines. They requested a limo to be picked up in but got the next best thing — a brown, 11-passenger van with the words Iowa State University on the side.
Always looking to experience everything in life, I volunteered to drive the beast.
We met the guys at their gate, and walked them down to the van, loaded them in and went on our way.
About five minutes onto the road I noticed Tone Loc doing something behind me involving a little plastic baggy. I turned around and noticed he was rolling up a fatty blunt in the back seat.
“Don’t worry man, I ain’t gonna smoke this in here,” Tone Loc said. “I’ll just have you pull over somewhere.”
Thinking he was joking about me pulling over, I just laughed continued on my way.
Some time went by, and I was talking to Bo about his past jobs as a bodyguard for Brandy and Bone Thugs N’ Harmony. Being the curious basketball fan that I am, I started asking about Kobe Bryant (who was rumored to be dating Brandy).
I came to find out that Bo had played basketball with him a few times, and that Brandy and Kobe weren’t exactly dating, “they were just fucking.”
Suddenly I heard Tone’s raspy voice say, “So are you going to pull over or what? I want to smoke this.”
Not knowing how to handle the situation, since I don’t usually spend my time chauffeuring around pot-smoking rappers, I exited at Ankeny and pulled on to a side road.
With the approval of the rest of the passengers, I stopped the van, and Bo and Tone stepped out and lit up.
Tone’s manager, Johnny G., began talking about some business stuff and was mentioning something about how he doesn’t smoke (which I saw him doing later on in his hotel room).
I wasn’t listening, because all I could think of was a cop driving by and seeing two big dudes outside an ISU van smoking a blunt.
What would happen to me? Expulsion, arrest? I didn’t have a clue. I just wanted them to suck it up as fast as they could so we get back on the road.
With their experience, we were quickly back in the van, leaving just a strong weed smell as a memory of our stop.
We dropped them off at the hotel and went back to work, deciding we better not tell anyone — especially the Veishea committee.
Why come clean now? I figure if anyone in a high authority gets mad about it, I’ll just say I made it up.
Those of us involved hold it as a special day in our hearts, but if anyone asks, we drove straight to Ames.
Kyle Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.