WEBVTT - Anthony Hamilton 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:11.399 Means money. Honey, say take about the time. We are 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.320 the authorities on all things. 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:27.600 What is the church? And wow? 0:00:34.280 --> 0:01:01.720 He thanks have to after. 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:32.920 Couns the world. I know it will yeah you. 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:32.480 I know. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:46.120 Wait, I to. 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:53.280 Well get into your bosom son. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.240 Yeah, yeah, you gotta be from that place to get 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:00.320 that bosom work done. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.240 That's the only way, ladies and gentlemen. 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.360 My name is take and this come on, come on, 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.560 the only money excity authority. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.880 Oh no, all things. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:19.920 R and B. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.120 We got a man. Tell me from in the building there, 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:26.839 from a place. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.919 Where everybody listens, from the street to the church. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.240 Tell him why, from the outhouse to the back house. 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:40.480 He's saving them one. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.440 At a time. Yes he is. 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.200 We like to call it lookal music from where we're from. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:56.919 Salvation is available for you today because of the man, 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.840 the mis, the legend, and the building. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:02.639 Make some noise. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.400 I want you to stand right now, wherever you are, 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.240 wherever you are, begin to shout, begin to praise some 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:09.680 for the Man of God. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:18.160 Hamilton. I think I need that for my life. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:18.880 you out did me. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.320 Hey there's some brother, as a as a fan, as 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:23.880 a peer. 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.040 Bro. You you really liked that, brother, Thank you, man, 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.480 I appreciate it. I love it. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:34.800 We've done many a show, oh absolutely, absolutely, many, many 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:40.000 a rundown we've done together, and you just do what 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:47.200 you do, period. And there is one Anthony Hamilton and 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.480 he goes to a listen I remember doing. I remember 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:55.840 doing seven hundred to one thousand venues. And then I 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.160 come see you in three thousand and four thousand. I'm like, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.160 is he doing that? And then you kick into a 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.360 gear where it gets soul stirring mm hmm. 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.560 That's what there is. Yeah. I mean when you love it, man, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.560 it starts to take shape of his own. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.400 But when you start piercing this thing, yeah, right, when 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.919 you when you can within what we do create a 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.400 spiritual experience mm hmm. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:28.240 Right. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.440 The gravity of the gravity of that, the pull on that, 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.320 it's different, brother, Yeah, it's different. Like when you're talking earlier, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.479 were talking about you and Tasa on that road together. Yeah, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:47.919 that's different. Yeah, Like that's like that's the original form 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:55.680 of the art because we had nothing else left. Yeah, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.200 but our spirit that we were praying to keep intact, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.599 and the music that we were creating was the soundtrack 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:10.640 to that. It's fighting to stay alive with everything that 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.080 was happening to us, the music and the spirit that 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:22.920 you represent, is that like and that right there? Brother, absolutely, man, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.400 I appreciate it. Got a lot of whoopings to get that. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.000 Come on, now, come on now. 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.440 It took a lot of who You're gonna be a 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:32.640 badass church to get the race. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.120 You know, man, I. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.880 Remember I'm arousing church and I was in the junior choir, 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.159 and you know, you couldn't you couldn't have Okay, we 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.280 had like a halftime at church, Okay, okay, okay. So 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:51.880 in the morning, you have Sunday School, so that's where 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.560 you go to your individual classes at church, and and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.480 that's it's it's almost like a class, you know what 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.599 I mean. And you have school in those classes, and 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.839 that happens for about an hour, hour and a half, 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.920 and then there's halftime in between, like an intermission where 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.680 you can go get your snacks, you know what I'm saying, cookies, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:15.440 you know what I'm saying, your little eminems. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:16.880 All of that, All that. 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.000 Happened in the basement of the church, or the adults 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.320 and young adults will actually go grab a bite because 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.839 you had about an hour forty five minutes before big 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:30.680 service start. And then you go into big service. That's 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.680 when the choir, the preacher, the whole thing. You got 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.000 the ushers, everybody's all lined up, mother's board, deacon board, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.240 this show, the announcement, you know what that Yeah, I 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.040 will say the show for you. Jab all right, but 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.960 that was the that was the the grand part. And 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.559 when you go in there, you can't have no food 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.640 of candy. I'm not supposed to now meet me. I'm 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:57.599 sure me and Anthony are from the same kind of 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.520 church where the church had a wooden floor or absolutely okay, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.359 and it was kind of stadium seating. It was kind 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.320 of it went down this way in my church. It's 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:14.000 sitting on yah on the fourth row. I snug some 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.360 lemon heads in my pocket, you. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.560 Know, lemon heads Boston Big ban all let yeah, g babes, 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:27.800 and I'm pomping loving heads, thinking I'm sweet wow. The 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:33.440 preachers preaching, he and I'm kidding. The lemon hand was. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:41.600 It rolled out, hits the floor and rolls down. You 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.640 can hear it rolling to the front of the church. 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.040 It's like those movies movies when it's like oh God, 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:52.880 like you know. 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:54.880 A monster is getting ready to come out of nowhere. 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:55.720 Absolutely, nigga. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.280 My grandmama came from behind me. I don't even know 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.280 how she got behind me and grabbed the back of 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.440 my collar chirt neck and ripped me up out of 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:05.720 the church. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.920 And ran me out of there. Yeah, and gave me 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:08.480 the works. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.520 Oh yeah, yes, what. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.440 It could have been a paper wrapper with nothing in it, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:23.760 with no murder. You don't get no packet. You're gonna 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.400 get it like Grandma was not because at this moment 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.720 you were representing talk about the family. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.400 So you're embarrassing the family, and now you embarrassing her 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:38.120 in front of the pastor yep, yep, which makes her 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.679 feel like her house in and order. Oh you're about 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.240 to wear it. Oh you're gonna wear it. You're gonna 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.880 wear You might wear it again at home, easy. Yeah. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:52.800 From somebody else though, absolutely, granddaddy, your aunt, your mama. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:54.920 you might get two or three. You know what little 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.120 Anthony did today? Yep? Is that yep? Now now the 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.320 next person, Yeah, he knew better. Yeah, come in, let 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:07.320 me talk to you. Yeah, talk to me. And I 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.240 heard her real clear. Yeah, yeah, you know you sleep 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.640 by three three thirty four pm until they wake you 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.120 up to stop and eat you stop smelling that chicken, 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.240 crying on the talk about it. Yeah, yeah, cabbage, come 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.240 on with the with the pork grease and it come 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.760 on now. Was sitting on the stove that pork when 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.240 the shot? What I just go up there and grab 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.320 a piece of chicken and run. What you know, there's 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.800 look that want to for them to but that gets 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:38.680 you three Yeah if you get caught up burning yourself, 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:47.280 so you whooping yourself behind the count. Yeah, so you know, 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.959 you take care of yourself for anybody else care Elder Hamilton. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.480 Yeah, take me back man, mm hm, take me back 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:56.480 to the beginning. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:57.400 Wow. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:02.440 When when when somebody at the service said, and little 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:07.679 boy right there, he got it on him. You know what? 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.520 Back then, I wasn't trying to lead. I wasn't in 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.160 case neither. I wasn't a little cedric. Yeah. I didn't 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.560 have it in me. Yeah. I was too nervous to 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.880 go out there because I was like, they're asking too 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.800 much of me because I didn't know what I had. 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.559 They could hear something. They always wanted me to lead, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:26.880 but I didn't have it. I was staying behind the 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.719 kids with the dirty shirts, you know, and same my 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.320 little part. But when it was time to lead, I 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.760 didn't start to do that until I got older, really 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.000 like getting older. Yeah, like when was your first lead? 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.080 My first lead was about eight nine, But I wasn't 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:42.080 trying to tear it down. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.280 But you had something though, just for him to even 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.720 give you the lead. Yeah, yeah, but I didn't recommend 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.679 you didn't. I didn't know it that I knew. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.440 I loved it, but not enough to be leading for 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:54.240 all these people. 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:55.800 What was your first solo? 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:03.920 Was that? Well, I'm going dude down to well going 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:11.640 to the river? That that that was one? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:18.800 Anybody asked you around going where around going. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:20.760 Go? 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:24.000 Yeah? Man? 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.839 Story I have requested in my family, Uh, because I 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:29.760 don't come from church, I'm. 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:34.120 Sure you pak priority. Tell I know you've been, I 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.080 know you got off you town. Yeah yeah, And I've 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:37.520 been to a lot of funerals. Right. 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:42.520 So I have a request in my family that whoever 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:50.160 outlives me, do not let them sing going up for Yonder. Man, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.000 if I had at one more time, who going up 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.640 for yonder? Going up for your churchyard? 0:11:58.920 --> 0:11:59.560 Ain't going up? 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.960 Man? If I sing, listen. 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.560 You are out of my wheel, putting that there now 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.479 nobody sing going. 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.240 Up for yonder at my service. You know, there's a 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.800 lot of songs that you don't have to hear again 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.920 like those because they've been sung so so so many times, and. 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.920 They don't always sing it like you, brother, they don't. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.440 You know, it'd it's tricky sometime in there, and they'd 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:26.600 be like, okay, this. 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.120 Is it can wow, it can get note unfriendly. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:36.320 You know, no, no, take your time time. When when 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.000 do you When do you discover it? 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.960 Though? Like when do they? I think about thirteen thirteen, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:50.640 about twelve I started forming little groups and wanted to 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.440 sing around. And some guys from New York who came 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:56.640 to our neighborhood to live in our neighborhood. Well, actually 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.120 I moved into that neighborhood, and so one of the 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.200 guys could sing and show them. Some guys at my school, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:08.080 Gary Brown and Rodney Thompson and you Ryah, and these 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.040 guys were singers. 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.280 He's like ninth grade, right, yeah, yeah, it was like 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.520 maybe before then, oh eighth okay, okay, yeah yeah. 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.720 Maybe eighth grade, seventh, eighth grade started forming these little 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:23.559 groups and singing, and the girls started you know, oh 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:29.480 my god, hey, maybe there's something in there. Maybe there's 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.160 something in this that I need. And so I started 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.080 paying more attention to it because they had an effect 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.280 on people, and not even just the girls, but the 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.320 guys book you know, gather around and listen to us 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.840 sing and be like, yeah, if y'all sing that other 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.920 song that y'all sing last time, So when you hear 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.040 that from the guys, it's like, okay, well maybe it's 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.559 it's really something. Yeah, And so I started paying more attention, 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.360 started listening to my voice and started seeing what it 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:58.480 is I could do and what I couldn't do, and 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.000 what I couldn't do. I would practice, you know, listening 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.600 to somebody else who could do it, so I could 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.080 take it and add it to who I'm coming through music. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.600 And they started forming that. Then they started getting the 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:19.800 talent shows around sixteen seventeen, and soon after that reputation 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.840 got around in Charlotte. I got booed a few times. Yeah, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.480 oh yeah, I was singing. Me and my friend we 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.560 went to this little spot and we were singing Jodasy 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.960 and I think I don't know what happened, but there 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:38.880 was a boo going on. I don't know if it 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:45.520 was the outfit or trying to be Casey too, Casey 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.080 going there. I was trying to go there, and maybe 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:54.120 because Casey was still around, they didn't need me. They 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:59.000 let me know. Nah, bruh, he's still alive. Bro we 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.280 wait on it. We'll wait on it. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.840 And what was what did the outfit consist of? Do 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:05.400 you remember? 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.160 I think it was some kind of windbreaker thing. I think, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.960 you know what, at that moment, I was discovering myself 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.520 fashioned wise, and I was a barber. I grew up 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.840 as you know, cut head, went to school for barber 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.080 And now I think I had my smock on with 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.440 some windbreak of pants like a T shirt. But I 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.560 was rocketed like it was a long smock. It was 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:29.600 like a wind break smile. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.480 a It was a cool one. They wasn't to me 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.480 it was cool. But I think that had a lot 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.360 to do with it, because I know the vocals is right. Yeah, 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.360 you know, yeah, I think the outfit. I think it 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.280 was the outfit and a smock. And my friend was 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.080 a little tipsy, so he was kind of slum you 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.920 got the drunk drunk homie. He was saying it and 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:58.120 so uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it 0:15:58.200 --> 0:15:59.520 was a few of those factors that. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 Did us wrong at that time where you were, because 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:10.560 for me, I was pretty much all church right and 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:15.040 the only thing only things that crept in or that 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.200 I would listen to or that kind of even had 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.880 an influence on me, or joy and and some babyface 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.320 because I needed nice songs to sing to the girls 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.840 when they would ask me to sing. And then but 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:36.120 any heartbreak rap sure need a baker and guy m hmm, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.840 like those were all the those that was the template 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.680 that that was the only pieces of pieces of R 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.960 and B that I had that I would that I 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.960 would use to just calculate a little bit. But it 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.520 was still all church for me, Yeah it was that. 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:50.560 Was that the same for you? 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.080 Yeah? Yeah, you know when grandmother was around, all gospel 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.560 being played, but she did let me listen to long 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:04.200 swells swelth show he hall, I could I could watch 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:10.200 that nobody nobody yeah he sna those kind of shows 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.320 she would let me watch. And uh, every now and 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.360 a getting solid gold hmmm. They wasn't doing too much 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.960 too much. They wouldn't if it was too much of 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:26.560 them oh yeah, in there, in there, you know. So 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:28.080 it's like, all right, I'll let you see a little 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.040 bit of it. But why are you watching it? You're 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:36.080 a church lady, right right, wiggle you watching? I was 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.360 watching the wiggle, So I'm like, you're watching the weapons. 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:46.840 Maybe she had a wiggle grandma, you know. And but 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.560 then across the street my mother lived. We lived directly 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.320 across the street from my grandmother. My mom is playing 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:57.879 our Green Oh gosh, Little Rutha Franklin, Marvin Gaye. So 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.919 my mom, you know, my mom is living. Yeah, she was, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.040 you know, good woman, but she was my mama liked 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.720 to go out. She was still young, so she wanted 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.280 to go out. I smelled a newport here in there. 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:15.160 Yeah yeah, Miller, Miller highlight. I know what the cans 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.840 sound like. I can hear the can right now. So, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:22.919 you know, so I had the best of both world. 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.119 You know. In my neighborhood there was a path. I 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.000 was a store runner. So I used to go to 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.680 the store for my grandmother and my mother at least 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.040 about four or five times a day. I promise y'all, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.840 I get a nickel every time. But there was these 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.160 winos that be in the in the in the path. 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.800 It's a path across this big field. Then you get 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:43.800 to the main road. You walk down my street, then 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:48.159 that's this path. They sit on these milk crates and 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.399 they be singing. I mean, you're talking about singing, and 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.320 I'm mesmerhdes. So I'm sitting there taking it all in. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.520 So sometime I get in trouble because along and she 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.159 need she needed them off white stockings to go to 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.560 go where she was going. So I had to go 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.199 get penny whole stocking, give me the knee high, the 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:12.080 old pate. So so that's where I got a lot 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.960 of my employence to those guys were really saying, yeah, yeah, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.960 the pimp showed us how to sing. One of my 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.320 uncles daddy man. Sometimes you know, some kind of pimp. 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.600 Pimp got a nice half, you know, definitely got a 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.960 nice So got the false set off without a false 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:39.760 set window, doing a false settle that, you know what 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.840 you mean, Yeah, you've raised your voice absolutely after that 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.200 is a poking knight. Yeah you know what I'm saying. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:55.760 You talk about, gentleman, I'm glad you're seeing you know, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:57.440 you never know when you had to cut a box 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:03.480 in the warehouse, in the warehouse, going down in the warehouse, 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.880 leaving alone, trying to tell you got it on. It'll 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.200 run up on that. Don't run up on that. U. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.000 But yeah, man, you know all that stuff kind of 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.200 shape who I am at that time. 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.960 Did you think or have an idea that, okay, you 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.760 know what, maybe it would be this gospel artist and 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.920 I'm a you know, be like some of these guys. 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.600 No. I was a big fan of James Cleveland, Andre Crouch, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.600 and I just knew at that moment, I was like, 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.520 I want to sing. And when I heard al Green 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:40.960 and Marmon Gass like I want to be famous singing. 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.800 But that started way before I even knew I had it. 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.199 I was like, man, whatever God told me before I 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.320 got into my mom's womb, it was like, okay, I 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.760 never disconnected with that, and so I continue to believe it. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:57.960 I was like, I'm gonna be famous singing, be famous singing. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:20:59.760 And the older I got and the closer I got 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:05.200 to the real music, you know, it became something tangible 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:20.679 for me. Yeah, what was the that you can think of? 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:23.560 It was the break for a year as far as 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:25.920 just like into the actual music business. 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:27.920 Wow, It was a guy by the name of Mark 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:33.119 Sparks who was working. He had He was almost like 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.920 the Harriet Tubman for cats from south northern South Carolina. 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.800 I think Jodsy, you know Casey and those guys. He 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.920 knew them. He helped discover Sunshine Anderson, but he was 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.000 working had worked with Mary J. Blige. He did shoot 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.080 for Salt and Pepper Grand Pool on those guys. So 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.560 where he got around to him, he heard me. He 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.760 played some beats. They have no songs, but I was 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:00.800 able to freestyle because I was hungry. So when you hungry, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:02.280 you're gonna make up a song. You're gonna You're not 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.440 gonna let an opportunity to go by without representing yourself. 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.199 And so I was singing to his beats. He was like, 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.040 I'm gonna come and get you. I'm gonna take you 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:11.800 to New York Man, We're gonna get you a deal. 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.800 This was back in ninety ninety ninety one. So I 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.520 was in a barbershop cutting gonna be the singing barber, 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.040 and he said, I'm gonna come next Thursday to get 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.920 you or whatever whatever the day was. He never came, 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.000 and I'm sitting there. I was just ready. And then 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.480 they start calling the barbershop and I'm never there because 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.480 I'm outside. Back then, I but you know, partake it. 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.160 So I was outside and I came back in and said, 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:39.959 this guy, Carl said he want to take you to 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.000 New York. I said, man, I ain't worried about that. 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.480 But then they pulled up and I had made nothing 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:48.040 but sixty seven dollars, and I was like, do I 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.000 try to make more money? I asked everybody. I ain't 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.080 got no money at me. I was like, I'm going 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.400 how they say your name atne yep. I just want 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.199 to I just want to see. I ain't got no 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.639 money at it. I like it, you know. I got 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.440 in the jeeps the Sukie Sidekick, and we drove from 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.840 Charlotte to North Carolina in the side Kick. Oh yeah, 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:10.960 it was six of us from Charlotte shoe Work to 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.200 New York City. Yeah, in the side Kick in Suzuki 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:18.640 Sidekick White one. I remember there was not a lot 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:21.320 of room, no no, and they were smoking it out too. 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:24.800 It was the whole way. So I'm like, oh my god, 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:27.320 I can't. I ain't gonna. I ain't gonna. I ain't 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:31.560 gonna make it, Yeah, all the way to Suzuki side. 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:33.600 So give me to New York. What happens when you 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.600 get to New York. When I saw the bridge, I'm 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:39.960 coming in. We came through New Jersey, we hit the 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:44.240 George Washington Bridge, and I became a little nervous because 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:46.240 it was real a lot. I had never seen this 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:48.679 much building and this much energy. Had you you had 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:52.480 never left North Carolina at this point or South Carolina? 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:53.760 Okay? 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:57.480 Yeah, okay, all right, yeah at that moment. Nah, I 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:01.280 don't think. No, I hadn't been too far maybe Myrtle 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:02.600 Beach or someone. 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:09.440 Yeah yeah, still within the within yeah, within yeah, yeah, 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:11.600 got No, that was the furthest I've ever been. 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.320 Maybe Virginia. Yeah, I went to a wedding in Virginia. 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:18.560 But even that still feels like right now, you're in 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:21.680 a big city, like you said, yeah, you crossing the bridge. 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:25.200 Yeah, so I became a little nervous. Yeah, and it's like, wow, 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:28.240 I'm really here up a long way from home. And 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:30.800 even though I knew these guys through music, I didn't 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:34.320 really know so anything could have happened. Yeah, So I 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:37.480 just had to trust myself and my intuition, and you 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:39.880 know the fact that this is a dream I said, 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:42.840 I wanted, so let me make the best of it. 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:45.800 What office did y'all go to? We went to actually 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:49.800 sixteen hundred Broadway, I think that's where. I think that's 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.560 where Uptown was. Yeah, oh, Andre Herrel, you went to Uptown. Yeah, 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:55.000 that's when I got my first record deal. 0:24:55.160 --> 0:24:57.960 And so this happens, you go straight there. 0:24:58.200 --> 0:25:00.560 No, we didn't go there for We went to a studio. 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:04.920 The Elaine brothers had a studio called Concrete Studios, and 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.359 so we would go there and they had music and 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:10.119 I did some songs, and they wanted us to sign 0:25:10.200 --> 0:25:12.480