Masta Ace won't reunite with Juice Crew at 2008 A3C Festival

JUICE CREW ALL-STARS: One of hip-hop's earliest posse cuts, "The Symphony," was produced by Marley Marl, who constructed the beat around a poignant piano loop sampled from Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle." Click here to listen to the original.

Ever since the organizers behind the highly anticipated A3C Festival announced that members of the legendary Juice Crew â€" including producer Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, MC Shan and Craig G â€" would reunite for a performance on March 21, heads have been wondering why at least one name (in addition to Kool G. Rap) was conspicuously absent from the bill.

Turns out Masta Ace is not missing in action, but he will miss the reunion.

Though a veteran of New York’s legendary Juice Crew, Ace never became a household name like many of them. But he has still enjoyed a remarkable solo career, releasing five well-received solo albums, including 2004’s largely slept-on A Long Hot Summer.

Later this month, his new group eMC will release its first album, The Show. eMC also features Lyricist Lounge staples Wordsworth and Punchline, not to mention longtime Ace collaborator Sticklin.

We talked to Ace about the new group, the surprising story behind his inclusion on the classic Juice Crew posse cut “The Symphony,” and the reason he won’t be participating in the Juice Crew reunion concert at the A3C Festival this year.

So why aren't you coming to Atlanta for the reunion?

It’s the exact same weekend that we’re promoting eMC in New York. We have a whole bunch of interviews set up, and release parties in Philly, New York and in Boston, all right around that weekend.

I had my stuff planned out already; when it’s a group effort, you have to sacrifice for the sake of the group. Cool V, who is Biz’s DJ, called me about a month ago, and mentioned the reunion to me, but we had already had this stuff planned. Our album comes out March 25, which is the Tuesday after the A3C Festival, but that whole weekend building up to the 25th we’re going to be doing promo and shooting videos.

Are you disappointed?

A little bit. If I didn’t have anything to do I’d like to go down there and see everybody. It would be cool to see dudes, and to see dudes perform. I haven’t seen all these people perform in a long, long time. I feel like I’d be more a fan than a part of the show.