Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: E four warrened Ladies and Gentlemen, It's gonna be one
Speaker 2: of those gargantuan long quest Love introus So you gotta
Speaker 2: go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Or you know some quest Love spream if you're if
Speaker 1: you're driving.
Speaker 2: Right now, or however you receive this podcast, just know
Speaker 2: you probably want to skip to the eight minute mark,
Speaker 2: which will officially start the program. So no for real,
Speaker 2: Welcome to quest Love Supreme, Ladies and gentlemen. I am
Speaker 2: your host quest Love. How's it going like?
Speaker 3: It's good?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 3: Good? The sun is out?
Speaker 1: So sun is out? Okay? And Steve, how's life good?
Speaker 4: The sun is out here?
Speaker 1: And uh as we see Yeah, life is good.
Speaker 5: And Bill Yeah, man, I'm in a basement. I don't
Speaker 5: know where the sun is, but I've never been been.
Speaker 1: It sounds like me right about now?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, great, okay, So there's probably one artist I mean, yes,
Speaker 2: you guys have all of your requests the rare times
Speaker 2: that I delve into the general population of my dms.
Speaker 2: You know, it's two types of dms, the dms that
Speaker 2: people you follow, and then dms of the other two million,
Speaker 2: nine hundred people you deal with, but I will say
Speaker 2: that there's probably one artist to whom the QLs listeners
Speaker 2: slash fam have probably been salivating over.
Speaker 1: For the last eight nine years.
Speaker 2: Like we could just round it off that we've been
Speaker 2: on for a decade, you know, cat years, podcast years,
Speaker 2: and it's really not like our guest has been hiding
Speaker 2: in the shadows. I will probably even dare say I
Speaker 2: probably have now seen her more in the context of
Speaker 2: her book club discussions than I've seen how I first
Speaker 2: got to know her and how we all got to
Speaker 2: know her as a musician singer, which you know is
Speaker 2: kind of a special thing. But this is court Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: And there is an itch I've Indynah scratch because that
Speaker 2: could probably falsely lead you into believing that our guest
Speaker 2: today her musical canon is easily bypassable, and that is
Speaker 2: a negative. I know, I'm world famous for my hyperbolic
Speaker 2: intros and whatnot, So yeah, just ride with me, all, okay, Look,
Speaker 2: disclosure of course, we know that Mary is the queen
Speaker 2: of hip hop, soul, hip hop, R and P.
Speaker 1: There's absolutely no disputing that fact. I feel like our.
Speaker 2: Guest is the god of boom Bap soul and my
Speaker 2: definition of boom bap soul boom Bap souls like when
Speaker 2: you display your talents, your vocal talents on top the
Speaker 2: rhythms that are so hard and I mean hard, like
Speaker 2: the way that dress says on the first Black Sheep
Speaker 2: album hard that it can easily be interchangeable with a
Speaker 2: credible rapper's voice, like and based on the.
Speaker 1: Events of Oh Shit.
Speaker 2: Single Demayo twenty twenty four, now, I mean you could
Speaker 2: be listening to this in the future and you need
Speaker 2: a reference. You know that time in single Demayo twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, I believe the entire world found out the
Speaker 2: difference between a credible let me not play sides, credible
Speaker 2: MCing and non credible MCing, And I believe that that
Speaker 2: is a compliment in the highest order.
Speaker 1: You love how a bullet dodge that?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 3: I look kim at, Yeah, you look right exactly.
Speaker 2: Little kim Oh, that's what we're doing instead of matrix dodging,
Speaker 2: we're little kim in it, yo, Like, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Use that from now on.
Speaker 2: That said, I feel like our guest has checked many
Speaker 2: requirement list in providing us with what I say is
Speaker 2: our undeniable bangers, like more bangers than some of my.
Speaker 1: Favorite rappers have made bangers.
Speaker 2: And if I keep it a buck, her music probably
Speaker 2: changed my opinion of the Tom Tom. There's a time
Speaker 2: when you knew Questlove had minimum drums, and then one
Speaker 2: day you saw, like, damn, he's playing real drums.
Speaker 1: He has a full setup there.
Speaker 2: I will say that our guest was probably the quiet
Speaker 2: paradigm shift in my relationship to my own craft that
Speaker 2: I've been doing since I was five. So it takes
Speaker 2: a mighty influencer to make that shit happen.
Speaker 1: Anyway, you gotta yell louder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for the people in the bet. Can
Speaker 2: I make this intro any longer? Absolutely, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: I feel as though our guest has never been given
Speaker 2: a proper due. I would say that our guest is
Speaker 2: probably the metaphorical giving tree. And I'm being very careful
Speaker 2: withe of my words right here. She's probably the giving
Speaker 2: tree who's every creative move has been analyzed, copied, eaten, regurgitated, refurbished,
Speaker 2: and resold back to us.
Speaker 1: And if there ever was.
Speaker 2: An artist to whom and I'm really passionate about this
Speaker 2: only because you know, I'm not doing the whole self
Speaker 2: deprecating thing of like.
Speaker 1: You know that was our story too. I'm not even
Speaker 1: making us about me.
Speaker 2: But there's ever an artist to whom I wanted to
Speaker 2: peek under the hood of creativity. I will say it's
Speaker 2: our guests a Marie Rogers Nicholson. Once we were successfully
Speaker 2: able to book her at the Roots Picnic, which passed already,
Speaker 2: and I'm manifesting that it was great. Yes, full disclosure,
Speaker 2: of course, ladies and gentlemen, we're doing this way before
Speaker 2: the Roots Picnic, but just pretend.
Speaker 1: So yes, I will just say.
Speaker 2: I will just say that, you know, we've had very
Speaker 2: few personal interactions, only because I really wanted this platform
Speaker 2: to be the first time that we had our real conversations,
Speaker 2: because I know that I tend to freak a lot
Speaker 2: of my peers out, because I probably come off more
Speaker 2: like a journalist than a human being to some people.
Speaker 2: So I figured, at least our first true interaction mixing
Speaker 2: can be on this platform, and then after this we
Speaker 2: could be friends. Not to be out done, I'm also
Speaker 2: obsessed with how she's pivoted into the world of literature,
Speaker 2: a world that I just stepped into in the last
Speaker 2: half year in the world of publishing, authoring, not to
Speaker 2: mention songwriting, producing, acting, and most importantly, what's commendable is
Speaker 2: what I believe is her decision to kind of get
Speaker 2: out of the cesspool of the old record label system
Speaker 2: that we're having, you know, God willing by the forties
Speaker 2: and fifties. Of course, I met my day job, so
Speaker 2: you have to hear what's happening anyway. Yeah, I did
Speaker 2: I even make it the eight minute. God damn, ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen. I always wanted to say this, Please welcome
Speaker 2: our guest. Finally A Mari I apologize. I think that
Speaker 2: was the longest intro I've ever done.
Speaker 7: Can I just tell our listeners if you want to,
Speaker 7: you can listen to two A Marie songs in that time.
Speaker 1: That's what I said, how are you?
Speaker 8: I'm so humbled by I'm humbled by everything that you're saying.
Speaker 8: I really appreciate that. You know, people always think that, Well,
Speaker 8: I guess I don't know. Every artist is different, but
Speaker 8: for me, you never know what people think. You know,
Speaker 8: you never know people tell you like, well this affected
Speaker 8: me this way or not. But you're living your own skin,
Speaker 8: so you just kind of that all just kind of disappears,
Speaker 8: and so it's easy to feel kind of like you
Speaker 8: just created yourself and you're just creating and nobody cares.
Speaker 8: And so that's just kind of like how everyone is
Speaker 8: different that I can say that's how I am. And
Speaker 8: so it's like, oh, I appreciate that, thank you, Like, wow.
Speaker 1: That's are you saying you feel seen right now?
Speaker 8: I feel seen right now. I feel heard. Like I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 8: you know, all right, all right. We've had some interactions
Speaker 8: before in the past, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 8: we've we've had some of that, but you're right, we
Speaker 8: never like had a full blown like conversation like like
Speaker 8: big ones. We've had little conversations here and there. But
Speaker 8: I always before I would have released anything, I would
Speaker 8: always feel kind of like some pressure because I would
Speaker 8: be like, I wonder what mirror thinks about this? What
Speaker 8: is he gonna think about?
Speaker 1: Dude?
Speaker 2: I'm such a fan of yours, like your demos, Your
Speaker 2: demos for other.
Speaker 1: Artists are like part of my daily my current DJ set.
Speaker 1: Like your work, you find.
Speaker 7: Demos from other artists a meter, How do you what
Speaker 7: are the demos from other artists?
Speaker 1: My name is, you know who I am?
Speaker 2: Like, I'm not even doing this to flex, like literally
Speaker 2: in this room are artifacts and I don't know. I
Speaker 2: think I've built up a cachet of which people know
Speaker 2: that I might be interested in certain things, especially on
Speaker 2: Okay Player.
Speaker 1: There's a severe underground sect of us that are into.
Speaker 2: How the sausage is made, and you know, like uh
Speaker 2: like for instance still to this day. I mean, I
Speaker 2: would say loves Off the chain was probably created in
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, maybe created.
Speaker 8: In two thousand and eight nine, No, when.
Speaker 1: When was that creative?
Speaker 8: First of all, I wondered, I was wondering, like, how
Speaker 8: did you get that? How do you even have that somewhere?
Speaker 8: I don't even know if I was crying some box somewhere.
Speaker 8: But no, love, love, lucks change, that was I did
Speaker 8: that when we did one thing during that time. I
Speaker 8: think that was thousand or three. Yeah, we just didn't know.
Speaker 8: We didn't we didn't know what we're going to do
Speaker 8: with it yet, but there were there were there was
Speaker 8: like a there was a I think I would say
Speaker 8: one main option. I don't know if oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 8: maybe did we talk about this before no, I just guess, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: I think.
Speaker 2: Janet, because Janet is the only person that I don't
Speaker 2: know has like received the Rich Harrison treatment.
Speaker 8: But I think I think it was It was Janet though.
Speaker 8: That's that's that's who has always been in mind. It
Speaker 8: was for But we didn't really we didn't really know
Speaker 8: that was going to maybe use it or not. I
Speaker 8: wasn't sure if it felt like me.
Speaker 2: I give credit where credit is due. Shout out to
Speaker 2: uh Philly's and Cosmic Keev, a guy to whom I
Speaker 2: would say probably I credit with my creative direction in
Speaker 2: DJ and the stuff I do to this day, and
Speaker 2: when he really likes a record, he'll just stay on
Speaker 2: that intro and not care.
Speaker 1: But for me, like to this day, I.
Speaker 2: Still spend those records like they'll they'll never and may
Speaker 2: still work. They still work, they still work. We'll get
Speaker 2: to that. We'll get to that. How are you today?
Speaker 2: Where are you speaking to us from?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 8: Where are you good? I'm in Atlanta right.
Speaker 1: Now, and so you reside in Atlanta?
Speaker 8: In Atlanta, yeah, and back and forth between LA and
Speaker 8: Atlanta a little bit, and yeah, everything's good. I actually
Speaker 8: on the deadline, actually just I have a lot of
Speaker 8: self and posed deadlines for writing stuff. But then I
Speaker 8: was just doing some past pages because I have a
Speaker 8: novel coming out. We didn't announce it yet, you know,
Speaker 8: we always meant to announce it, and we didn't announce it.
Speaker 8: But have a novel coming out next year. Nice for
Speaker 8: growing up because I did a children's book and everything,
Speaker 8: but it's like, you know, grown up novel. And then
Speaker 8: I'm just now getting into Like I just had a
Speaker 8: conversation with the producer that I won't name just yet,
Speaker 8: but we were just like, Okay, we gotta let's let's
Speaker 8: get in and play because I'm working. I'm just now
Speaker 8: beginning working on the next album. It's really this this
Speaker 8: next album. I mean, I always have a lot of
Speaker 8: ideas and projects. That's one thing I like about not
Speaker 8: being like in the traditional record label system because it
Speaker 8: didn't really work for me because so like I would
Speaker 8: by the time I would finish recording for a project,
Speaker 8: It's like for me, it was never like now I'm done.
Speaker 8: It was more like I'm just recording and just making stuff, creating, playing,
Speaker 8: and then we just have a cut off point. But
Speaker 8: by the time we would get to that cutoff point
Speaker 8: I would almost start getting into a different vibe. So
Speaker 8: if I kept going, it would just be a different
Speaker 8: project that doesn't go with the last one. So even
Speaker 8: by the time we started doing like visuals and all
Speaker 8: that stuff for the album, I was kind of like
Speaker 8: over it already, because I was already like, now I'm
Speaker 8: doing this sound and this vibe, and I don't want
Speaker 8: to do that other sound, and that that would frustrate
Speaker 8: me a lot, Like I would be frustrated with myself
Speaker 8: as an artist, because I'd be like, why don't you
Speaker 8: this is the visual vibe, the visual section, and why
Speaker 8: don't you just dig into that? But I'd be like,
Speaker 8: but I'm feeling a different mood now. Now I'm in
Speaker 8: this sound and this feel and these colors, and they
Speaker 8: want to drag me back into the thing. I already
Speaker 8: did it, Like I already got it off my chest.
Speaker 8: I've done, I'm moving on.
Speaker 1: But you lived with it. We haven't lived.
Speaker 8: With it yet, but right no one else lived with it.
Speaker 8: And plus I was doing stuff that you know, I
Speaker 8: know a lot of people like the visuals. Frankly, Bro
Speaker 8: and I talked about this once, like about how we
Speaker 8: see music, and like even like it's just like colors.
Speaker 8: It's just synesthesia, right, but not to the not to
Speaker 8: the degree where it's like a clinical thing, but like
Speaker 8: it's the point where, like, if I'm recording myself the
Speaker 8: pro tools, colors will mess me up because the hook
Speaker 8: should not be orange. It's blue and it should be here.
Speaker 8: So then I placed the tracks all these places. That
Speaker 8: makes my engineer crazy. But doing visuals I didn't like.
Speaker 8: I don't really like doing visuals to music. I do it,
Speaker 8: but once the visual happens, the thing that's in my
Speaker 8: head changes, and I think that's why I was kind
Speaker 8: of resistant to it as well, just why I don't
Speaker 8: always have a million visuals. If it was up to me,
Speaker 8: I would have no visuals. I would just have to
Speaker 8: here's some colors, here's some texture, and that's it.
Speaker 2: Are you a fan of the UK collective known as Salt.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of them?
Speaker 8: Familiar with them? No? I'm not familiar.
Speaker 1: S A U L T.
Speaker 2: I guarantee they will change your life like Salt basically. Okay,
Speaker 2: So they kind of started off with this daft punk
Speaker 2: mission where they didn't want to be known.
Speaker 1: All their album covers are black.
Speaker 2: They've since then they've since then, uh like adapted to
Speaker 2: you know, read and you know, but there's really no visuals.
Speaker 2: But initially they were mystery. But of course we know
Speaker 2: that Inflow Cleo soul Kid's sister. There might be a
Speaker 2: few other people contributing, but yeah, that's that's a group
Speaker 2: who has used kind of mystery to.
Speaker 1: The hilt where interesting and that's the thing like you,
Speaker 1: for instance, I wanted.
Speaker 8: To do that. My first album had almost had no
Speaker 8: pictures when we sent out the first Yes, when we
Speaker 8: sent out when I first came Outler.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Look, I've been saying this for years, but even from
Speaker 8: the first album, because I've been trying to be like
Speaker 8: you know what. And that's then I liked, like one
Speaker 8: of the albums I did. I like those visuals. I
Speaker 8: like those visuals because we did those visuals on our own.
Speaker 8: And I was like, Okay, I like this because I
Speaker 8: look like myself. I look like me. I look like
Speaker 8: me when I look in the mirror, like it just
Speaker 8: still looks like me. But in the very beginning, you
Speaker 8: probably have this sampler. I'd be surprised if you didn't,
Speaker 8: because you have everything pretty much. It was the first
Speaker 8: it was the first sampler and it was wan and
Speaker 8: fall in love. I think I just died is on
Speaker 8: it and like something else that I'm like holding on
Speaker 8: to a branch or something like like that. And and
Speaker 8: I love the way the shoot came out. But I
Speaker 8: was like, can we just have my name with no pictures?
Speaker 8: They're like what I was like, I always it a
Speaker 8: rope okay, rope okay. I knew it was something, and
Speaker 8: I was like, I just want my name on it.
Speaker 8: I was like this, no one knows who I am
Speaker 8: is the first impression. I really just wanted to be
Speaker 8: the music. If that's it, like no preconceived notions, no
Speaker 8: ideas of what it should sound like. Because we meet
Speaker 8: people at that time and I would tell I'm like
Speaker 8: I saying it came, it would come up. I never
Speaker 8: would just tell people that. They always kind of had
Speaker 8: this idea of what I would sound like, and they
Speaker 8: would always say Aliyah. I love Aliyah. But they were
Speaker 8: just they were just talking to me. They would just
Speaker 8: kind of I think I need to just be introduced
Speaker 8: to everyone with nothing but just the music and that's it,
Speaker 8: no visuals and that's it. And then they didn't they
Speaker 8: didn't want to do that they didn't want to do that.
Speaker 8: I kept bringing that up in later projects, even though
Speaker 8: people knew it was me. I was still like, I
Speaker 8: don't know. I thought about changing my name. I consider
Speaker 8: doing an album without letting anyone know who I was
Speaker 8: at all, and I was like, I think they'll still
Speaker 8: know that it's me. Though I actually created a sound
Speaker 8: cloud with a not a real name, I still haven't
Speaker 8: told anybody what it is because I was like, I
Speaker 8: think I'm going to just do this and this is
Speaker 8: why I'll release music like under this. So wait, they're
Speaker 8: touring with that idea for so years and years.
Speaker 2: There's a sound caou page right now that has your
Speaker 2: music that we don't know is you.
Speaker 8: No, No, there's no music on it. There's no music
Speaker 8: on it right now. I think I think I almost
Speaker 8: put something on there. And I was like, oh, I
Speaker 8: don't think so. Because then I heard this Beatles story
Speaker 8: and they were like they try to do that like
Speaker 8: where they were performing that people would know it was them.
Speaker 8: Then I was like, what if I only do songs
Speaker 8: that are definitely probably not what people would think about
Speaker 8: it being me? It might be easier. People who really
Speaker 8: know me will be like those harmonies and those it's
Speaker 8: very familiar.
Speaker 1: Your harmonies and your voice.
Speaker 2: Slidings give you away instantly, so you would have to
Speaker 2: sing super dry. No influx is no good like none
Speaker 2: of your slides and none of that shit. Right, Hey, Mariy,
Speaker 2: what is your first musical memory in life?
Speaker 8: My first musical memory? I have a few, Okay, so
Speaker 8: they're kind of like mixed up, but they're all in
Speaker 8: the same time period.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 8: One of the ones that really sticks out is like
Speaker 8: my birthday party and my dad was like playing Stevie Wonder,
Speaker 8: Oh digging it. But I was also like, Daddy, want
Speaker 8: this is something else? And I think I was like,
Speaker 8: I don't know, eight nine, and he was like you
Speaker 8: can name it. No, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 8: He was like dancing, and you know, all the kids
Speaker 8: are like, okay, I don't know what we wanted at
Speaker 8: that time, but it was something for the kids. And
Speaker 8: so I was like, all right, thanks Daddy, And so
Speaker 8: I remember that by Stevie Wonder was it was an influence, Okay.
Speaker 8: A big big memory was also the Grease soundtrack. I
Speaker 8: really liked that soundtrack one right, Grease, one Yes, And
Speaker 8: I would I would, I would swing on the swing
Speaker 8: set and she sing the whole thing before that. Because
Speaker 8: I got to go back in time.
Speaker 2: Let me interrupt you, Bill, what wait she mentioned that?
Speaker 2: And then lan you mentioned that, you know.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about Greece Too, because that's a terrible film.
Speaker 3: Was like I was.
Speaker 8: I was like Michelle Pfeifer though, like who's that? Who's that?
Speaker 8: Boy Wady become from Like yeah, that was. I was like,
Speaker 8: I want to be that cool.
Speaker 1: So wait last roots pick nick.
Speaker 2: There's a movie theater in Philadelphia and my hotel was
Speaker 2: across the street. They were having like a midnight showing
Speaker 2: of Greece Too. And I'm like, Greese Too. And I
Speaker 2: thought in my mind, like this is a flop movie.
Speaker 2: I know Michelle Pfeiffer's in it, but they are fans
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 5: It's the way of life, man.
Speaker 1: But I went to this thing and do the entire audience.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was almost like their version of uh or Rocky
Speaker 2: hardor Audience where the audience sings with them. I didn't
Speaker 2: realize that Greece Too was that big of.
Speaker 7: A just because Michelle, because she was yes, she was
Speaker 7: like cool, it's cool, writer, No, cool?
Speaker 3: Cool was the gym the first one.
Speaker 8: I wanted the jacket back then too, so like, you know,
Speaker 8: you can have it, look alike.
Speaker 5: My girlfriend has told me that she prefers Grease to
Speaker 5: up for like two weeks just.
Speaker 2: I'm meeting these people back to I'm meeting two people
Speaker 2: like Rider died Grease Tours, and I don't understand how.
Speaker 1: Now Yeah, yeah, sorry, friend.
Speaker 2: Anyway, you were eight at your birthday party, dad played
Speaker 2: Stevie one. There was eighty eight eighty nine, so you probably.
Speaker 1: Wanted to hear.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I thought, you know, maybe b C Boys or
Speaker 8: something like that. But I'm now I'm going back, so
Speaker 8: I'm going earlier. Okay, so if I say this, maybe
Speaker 8: it'll trigger something earlier. But I think this may be
Speaker 8: like my first strong because I remember like like a
Speaker 8: virgin playing in the car and we were singing along,
Speaker 8: and later I thought about I was like my mom.
Speaker 8: You know, my mom's Korean, she speaks English, but at
Speaker 8: that time too, it's just like she's not paying attention
Speaker 8: to the radio and the English was happening on there.
Speaker 8: I was like, didn't think that was kind of inappropriate
Speaker 8: for us to be singing that in the back. But
Speaker 8: this is back in the day, no car seats, no
Speaker 8: booster seat, You're just back there. And so we were
Speaker 8: singing that. But the Thriller video. I remember when the
Speaker 8: Thriller video came out. I remember we watched it in
Speaker 8: the living room. I was scared. He was so handsome
Speaker 8: and he's like, you know, as a kid, there might
Speaker 8: be effects, but your mind, you don't see the effects.
Speaker 8: You see the real thing. So to me, it was
Speaker 8: really really scary. The zombies were really really scary. But
Speaker 8: also I was dancing and I liked it, but I
Speaker 8: was also scared.
Speaker 3: Every week kid, that is, every kid that watch.
Speaker 8: It was nightmare and I wanted the jacket and I
Speaker 8: wanted to be her. I call her the thing is
Speaker 8: that the kid? You just everything is real and you
Speaker 8: don't you know. So to me, even though it was
Speaker 8: a different song, I see her in the video with him,
Speaker 8: she's Billy Jean. I'm like, I want to be really Jean.
Speaker 8: I want that outfit, like I want to be Billy Jean.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no, I thought, Jean.
Speaker 3: Okay, because everything's real, right real.
Speaker 8: So Michael Jackson, that's Michael Jackson and this is he's
Speaker 8: Is he really a thing? Is he really a thing.
Speaker 8: Maybe that's really him. He's like a really aware wolf.
Speaker 8: Oh there's that's that's Billy Jean. That's his girlfriend, right,
Speaker 8: And she's so like beautiful and they're real. They're not
Speaker 8: like playing a character on screen. They are real people
Speaker 8: that are really together. And she's really scared and she's
Speaker 8: really in this zombie thing and she's really gorgeous and
Speaker 8: it's like the epitome of like who you want to
Speaker 8: be as a girl.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 8: But I also wanted to be Michael Jackson too, and
Speaker 8: the knife fighting, like I was, I was into that.
Speaker 9: That was beat it.
Speaker 8: You know, all blends together.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was thinking bad, but yeah he bought
Speaker 3: a couple of.
Speaker 8: Times, right, yes, so it all blends together. So that's
Speaker 8: that's probably my my earliest earliest you know, I have
Speaker 8: that and my dad playing the Marvin Gay. So I
Speaker 8: listened to listen to Marvin Gay on my own, like religiously.
Speaker 8: He had the whole Marvin Gay collection and I would
Speaker 8: just listen to it. That's why I always say that
Speaker 8: Michael Jackson, Gay and Mary J. Blige are my top
Speaker 8: three influence Okay, okay, and Phil Spector probably yours choice.
Speaker 5: Okay, that was an interesting fourth choice. Did see that.
Speaker 8: The wall of sound? Oh okay, it was because the production.
Speaker 8: But what I hear is the instruments. But the one
Speaker 8: thing with Rich and I we would always like he understood.
Speaker 8: I was like, I hear those instruments, but the voice
Speaker 8: is an instrument. And so when we would create songs,
Speaker 8: it'd be like, we need this part, Like, no, I'll
Speaker 8: sing this vocal part, but it's like a trumpet. So
Speaker 8: I'm singing it but not like it's it's a trumpet.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have to interrupt and skip. You're forcing me
Speaker 2: to to to skipad no, no, no, no, because I gotta know.
Speaker 2: I gotta know your background trademarks are so unusual because
Speaker 2: I never okay. So as an engineer, if I'm dealing
Speaker 2: with background vocals, I would tend to think that the
Speaker 2: soprano voice, the highest one, would be sort of the ringleader,
Speaker 2: and then I'll figure out a way to tuck the
Speaker 2: tenor alto and base like the other harmonies, like under them,
Speaker 2: really not put them on top of the cause you know,
Speaker 2: I would think that the cherry on top, like the
Speaker 2: melody on top, is what drives the vehicle.
Speaker 1: But your tenor is always the loudest.
Speaker 2: Your tenor's louder than your your top voice, Your tenor's
Speaker 2: louder than your your out of voice. Like literally, I
Speaker 2: was like, wow, that's really curious that when she does
Speaker 2: like three four part harmony that she brings out the
Speaker 2: one voicing that I, as an engineer, would have tucked under,
Speaker 2: and it's loud and up front.
Speaker 1: Almost.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Marvin gay and I was going to ask,
Speaker 2: because especially on your first record, you do this kind of.
Speaker 1: Marvin Gaye does it.
Speaker 2: Of course, Marvin Gaye pioneered, and Slick Rick also did
Speaker 2: it where you know, sometimes the narrator, the lead person sings,
Speaker 2: but often the background vocal has just as much agency
Speaker 2: as the singer has. What is your method of song?
Speaker 2: Because then I'm wondering, like, are you writing this on paper?
Speaker 2: Like okay, while sing this and then the background singing that,
Speaker 2: and in parenthal, we.
Speaker 8: Do it all, we do it all. It's just like, okay,
Speaker 8: the backgrounds. It would be a lot of work because
Speaker 8: the backgrounds, and I did one project, but I was like,
Speaker 8: you know what, I'm just trying to not do any
Speaker 8: of those backgrounds. I'm just keep I just noticed people
Speaker 8: just only do top line. So I'm gonna just do
Speaker 8: some top line. Wow, this is way faster getting through
Speaker 8: a song because the backgrounds are always like really really
Speaker 8: important and so really it's just a matter of not
Speaker 8: writing anything down or anything, but just like listening and
Speaker 8: then saying, okay something. A lot of times how you
Speaker 8: would like bed the lower vocals, like the lower those
Speaker 8: would be more of the feature. Those will have more movement,
Speaker 8: so like I like to do like the high one,
Speaker 8: those would be sustained more like and no. But then
Speaker 8: underneath it like that, and then it's like, okay, let
Speaker 8: me have that in between, and it's like okay, what
Speaker 8: can go in the middle of that? Maybe a little
Speaker 8: something dumb, right and something like So then things are
Speaker 8: like kind of moving. And this is why I say
Speaker 8: I for me, the music is like visual, but in
Speaker 8: a different way. It's like it's movement like color and
Speaker 8: kind of like you know, like it's hard for me
Speaker 8: to articulate it exactly because it is something that's very visual,
Speaker 8: but not in a picture, not in a real human
Speaker 8: being colors, like if you look at the universe and
Speaker 8: the galaxy and you're like seeing like swirling. I know
Speaker 8: it sounds like silly, but we're not silly. But I'm
Speaker 8: not trying to be about it. It's just that that
Speaker 8: is literally how I'm creating. And Rich is similar in
Speaker 8: when we would do our vocals, we like collaborate really
Speaker 8: well because we think very similarly. When it comes to
Speaker 8: especially those kinds of background notes.
Speaker 2: Well, then my one question is how tedious is it
Speaker 2: if you're doing this live?
Speaker 1: Like how hard are you on.
Speaker 2: Either if you got background singers, like how hard are you?
Speaker 8: Like? Do not sing? I don't. I tried that and
Speaker 8: I was like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5: Say it.
Speaker 8: No you can't. You can't sing it there as when.
Speaker 2: I didn't know you. There's a moment ah damn, okay,
Speaker 2: it's it's actually one of my favorite albums of yours
Speaker 2: is the one that you didn't release in the United States.
Speaker 8: Because I love it because I love it.
Speaker 1: And the intro.
Speaker 2: And the thing was, Okay, the first song I would say,
Speaker 2: this is probably how she's gonna come out on stage,
Speaker 2: So this is gonna be the intro song that you know,
Speaker 2: because it's not a full song.
Speaker 1: It's like a two minute thing.
Speaker 2: So I was like, yeah, she's But then when I
Speaker 2: heard the backgrounds I said, Yo, this is this is
Speaker 2: really intricate. And then I said to myself, I wonder
Speaker 2: how hard she is on her background vocals.
Speaker 5: Like so hard they don't exist.
Speaker 2: She no, But then I think I actually put in
Speaker 2: my head she must be a hard, difficult person to
Speaker 2: work for, because.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't know, I don't know one singer that
Speaker 1: won't stop the world.
Speaker 8: I'm not kidding, I'm kind of kidding. I'll tell you
Speaker 8: the story.
Speaker 1: No, but that's the thing I actually said.
Speaker 2: I said, I bet you she's she's a hard person
Speaker 2: to work for because like, I can't see someone nailing
Speaker 2: me to perfection to the place where she wants it
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: So I bet you, like she just either just assists
Speaker 1: like pro tool all my background vocals. We'll trust that.
Speaker 2: But I was like, there's no way that someone is
Speaker 2: doing this live and nailing it because you were just
Speaker 2: your tag teaming with yourself in ways.
Speaker 1: It's like a cat and mouse thing.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I don't think this can be
Speaker 2: recreated on stage, so that's it.
Speaker 8: Really, no, it cannot be because everyone's voice is different.
Speaker 8: And I was joking when I said, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 8: and I don't mean that to say, no, no, I
Speaker 8: can sing it like me. It's not want to sound
Speaker 8: like yourself. It's just that one is not going to
Speaker 8: sound the same because it is someone else singing it.
Speaker 8: But because again, the backgrounds are not backgrounds. Backgrounds are
Speaker 8: like a lead. They are like the co stars of
Speaker 8: the songs. And I say that in an objective way,
Speaker 8: and that I'm not saying, well, that's me and that's
Speaker 8: my voice. No, I mean just how they're crafted is
Speaker 8: that they're very important there as important as the lead.
Speaker 8: They are in a sense their own lead. Which and
Speaker 8: since I'm not in a group, you can't sing that
Speaker 8: part because you won't sound like me because you're not.
Speaker 8: You're not you don't have my voice. You have your
Speaker 8: own gift, your own voice, and it's different. And I
Speaker 8: did try to have background singers before, and it wasn't
Speaker 8: that they weren't getting the parts, although they always had
Speaker 8: to be laid in there anyway, tucked because it would
Speaker 8: be hard to follow otherwise. But also it doesn't sound
Speaker 8: like me to me, And so when I'm singing, because
Speaker 8: the song is supposed to sound like this, it was
Speaker 8: another voice. It was throwing me off. And the textures
Speaker 8: just weren't coming out correctly to me, and I will
Speaker 8: I will say I'm a person I don't enjoy, generally speaking,
Speaker 8: not all the time. I don't enjoy watching performances when
Speaker 8: I'm listening to somebody singing their record and there's other
Speaker 8: people's voices that are there that wasn't there on the record. Personally,
Speaker 8: I don't wait.
Speaker 3: Do a live show in that way, right so you.
Speaker 1: Can pro to it.
Speaker 8: The vocals are all mine to p to it. We
Speaker 8: had we got to the point where we would have
Speaker 8: background singers miming they were they were mouthing, but don't
Speaker 8: you day and the throat.
Speaker 2: Right now, I feel like K pop is going through
Speaker 2: their nostalgia nineties R and B period right now, Like
Speaker 2: have you been approached to composed songs for any of
Speaker 2: those groups or I know.
Speaker 8: There was some talk about something like that maybe several
Speaker 8: years ago, because I did collaborate with a couple of
Speaker 8: artists a lot of years ago, like over a decade ago,
Speaker 8: and then a couple of artists and that it has
Speaker 8: been about that long in world, yeah, and then I
Speaker 8: performed with them and we did things together over there,
Speaker 8: and then there was talk about possibly doing some kind
Speaker 8: of like writing that kind of thing, but I have it.
Speaker 8: It could be cool, but there's so much that I
Speaker 8: want to do creatively, and you know, you realize your
Speaker 8: time is limited that I would just do my own
Speaker 8: thing and put it out, which to me, it's always
Speaker 8: made more sense than to go ahead and do what
Speaker 8: I'm going to create and then songs that I don't
Speaker 8: end up using that kind of thing seeing you know,
Speaker 8: then shopping those like that, but not actually going in
Speaker 8: and although I consider that too, like going in and
Speaker 8: working with someone or some people like justpecifically craft something
Speaker 8: for them, especially because as an artist, I feel like
Speaker 8: I can go in and really respect them as an
Speaker 8: artist and uh what they want to do and what
Speaker 8: they don't want to do or sing about, you know,
Speaker 8: just knowing from my own experiences. That's why I really
Speaker 8: work with like different producers, but I have like the
Speaker 8: ones that I really work well with. And the thing
Speaker 8: is that, sometimes, even to my own like chagrin, I
Speaker 8: have to write my own records. Really, the only person
Speaker 8: who could really write records for me would be Rich
Speaker 8: and we can collaborate, we can write them or like
Speaker 8: one or two other people. That's it because no one
Speaker 8: else is going to actually write a song. That's what
Speaker 8: I want. What I would actually say, because you know something,
Speaker 8: I've been in sessions where they'd be like, okay, da da.
Speaker 8: I don't want the sessions because someone at the label
Speaker 8: wanted me to go not no offense to the people
Speaker 8: who were there, but that wasn't you know, if I'm
Speaker 8: going to work with someone. That's why I never really
Speaker 8: want made people pay me. I think I think maybe
Speaker 8: probably people paid me a couple of times for a feature,
Speaker 8: but I always like, I'll do a feature they don't
Speaker 8: have to pay me because to me, then m I
Speaker 8: might be in a minority. I feel like there's something
Speaker 8: a little offensive about asking someone to pay me for
Speaker 8: a feature because I feel like, if I'm an artist
Speaker 8: and I appreciate you and you're like appreciating me, let's
Speaker 8: just let's let's create together, let's play together. Let's you know,
Speaker 8: And most of the time you pay somebody, it's going
Speaker 8: to that label on this and someone wants fees. But
Speaker 8: I don't know, I just felt a little weird about that.
Speaker 3: You don't want publish it, you just want.
Speaker 8: To publishing, publishing, you get publishing. But I'm talking about
Speaker 8: will you do this song with me? I'll pay you
Speaker 8: this money to do the song with you, and then
Speaker 8: if you're going to be in the video, I'll pay
Speaker 8: you more money to do the video. And I find
Speaker 8: I feel like if you agree to do the song,
Speaker 8: that inherent in that is the acceptance of doing the video.
Speaker 8: If there is one right, you don't have to pay me.
Speaker 8: But something about it feels a little like too transactional
Speaker 8: versus two artists coming together to create some magic.
Speaker 1: This out there with the same person real quick.
Speaker 7: Because we mentioned I want to go back to the
Speaker 7: K pop question that Amir asked you. Yeah, curious do
Speaker 7: they understand and accept you also as one of them
Speaker 7: in that way and do they see you as an
Speaker 7: asset because you are a part of them as well?
Speaker 3: How does that work?
Speaker 8: When I did collabse you know, back at that time,
Speaker 8: they were really like appreciative and my mom was with
Speaker 8: me too. But it was also interesting to see how
Speaker 8: the system works. It works really differently. Like you know,
Speaker 8: aretist in the States, they go show up to a thing, perform.
Speaker 8: The people that are in the doing the background stuff,
Speaker 8: you know, the show that you show up for to perform.
Speaker 8: All that the producers all that they producers of the show,
Speaker 8: they can tend to be more differential to the artists.
Speaker 8: Not saying that you want that, but that's just like
Speaker 8: they're just like, Okay, you're here to do the song,
Speaker 8: we appreciate you. We're going to some TV blocking, et cetera.
Speaker 8: But they're very differential. It's kind of was the opposite
Speaker 8: way what I was witnessing. Now. For me, it was different.
Speaker 8: They treated me very well with respect the people on
Speaker 8: the TV show. Because I'm also an American. I'm coming
Speaker 8: in so I'm a guest in more ways than one,
Speaker 8: you know, when I visited. But I noticed that for
Speaker 8: the artists who are and maybe it's different now this
Speaker 8: is this is back in you know, I forgot what year,
Speaker 8: but at least ten years plus, right, I noticed that
Speaker 8: the artists were deferential to the TV producers. They were
Speaker 8: the ones doing the the extra bo and the extra
Speaker 8: you know, and so that was interesting, you know, that
Speaker 8: was curious to me. But it's because it's the way
Speaker 8: that and the way I figured it was that their
Speaker 8: entertainment system, because we created our system entertainment system decades
Speaker 8: and decades and decades and decades we have so much longer.
Speaker 8: There was a change out of the old studio system,
Speaker 8: our old Hollywood studio system, where the actors and stuff
Speaker 8: probably were very differential to the producers back in Marilynroe
Speaker 8: pre Marilynda Lauren McCall days. Right, But it's grown and
Speaker 8: artists have learned their power and it's become a different ecosystem.
Speaker 8: And so I was like, where they are now is
Speaker 8: where Golden Age Hollywood was before. And as it progresses
Speaker 8: around the world, the entertainment system progresses, artists will be
Speaker 8: become more knowledgeable of their power and recognize their power.
Speaker 8: And then those around them who work for them when
Speaker 8: the TV shows, which the bikini producers, will understand that
Speaker 8: the art around the artists, the artist is the sun
Speaker 8: and everything else is revolving around them. Once the artists
Speaker 8: realize that, the system will change. So it's just that
Speaker 8: they're just behind. They're just it's like the uh, you know,
Speaker 8: the advance of humanity, right like and any kind of system.
Speaker 8: That's where they are and they're going to be in
Speaker 8: a different place and soon it's going to be totally different.
Speaker 7: It blows my mind because I don't think really people
Speaker 7: understand the concept that like I asked somebody Korean one dance,
Speaker 7: like what was before k pop?
Speaker 3: Like what is the original Korean music? And it doesn't
Speaker 3: you know that.
Speaker 8: Is It's an interesting thing and it's cool, but it
Speaker 8: also there's a certain sadness to it. I was sitting
Speaker 8: in an award show and it was an Asian theme.
Speaker 8: It was like one of the Gallas, and so it's
Speaker 8: all celebrating everything Asian and you see the actors and
Speaker 8: the argus, the movies and the films that are being introduced,
Speaker 8: and a lot of it is very Korean, but also
Speaker 8: Korean American and Asian American, an Asian American because it
Speaker 8: grew out of just being a Korean American thing to
Speaker 8: an Asian American thing. But once the music section came in,
Speaker 8: I was like, and this is something I always knew.
Speaker 8: I always I always recognize from again decades ago that
Speaker 8: before it was even called K pop, I didn't. I
Speaker 8: don't know what it was called. When I was growing up.
Speaker 8: It wasn't called K pop though, but you would see
Speaker 8: them emulating the braids and all that. It wasn't called
Speaker 8: K pop, but it was just pop, right, Korean pop
Speaker 8: music popular music. You know, we would watch my dad
Speaker 8: would comment those are black dances. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 8: and I'm you know, I'm eleven, I'm twelve at the time,
Speaker 8: and he was like that that was just cream people
Speaker 8: doing black music. And I was like, pretty much, what,
Speaker 8: that's what I'm seeing. But see, the artists were very
Speaker 8: very where they gave credit where credit is due with
Speaker 8: the music. Okay. So so the music that I was seeing,
Speaker 8: I was like, wow, this is so interesting because I'm
Speaker 8: watching all this stuff and I'm you know, Korean as well,
Speaker 8: but once because it comes to the music, this is
Speaker 8: black music. The only thing that's Korean about it really
Speaker 8: is there's a certain politeness, there's certain movements, the cute
Speaker 8: parts and stuff. I was like, you know, but that's
Speaker 8: that's also modern. But I was like, this is black music,
Speaker 8: and I was like, interesting, there's almost like this gap
Speaker 8: where there's no Korea because traditional Korean music is more
Speaker 8: like if you my mom will play it sometimes and
Speaker 8: so you just have the drums to do. And I
Speaker 8: wanted to do that too. Actually, I think I'm still
Speaker 8: going to do that. I want to do the whole
Speaker 8: thing in my mind. I won't say what it is,
Speaker 8: but it's a very it's like a very big do
Speaker 8: v M A type thing. But I wanted to do
Speaker 8: something really cool culturally, right, so the music will be
Speaker 8: like dum, that's not I'm not saying any words, but
Speaker 8: the no. So that kind of vocalization, that's one of
Speaker 8: the traditional like aspects. But that's like you know what
Speaker 8: people will call like you know, old old old old
Speaker 8: old old old old people made traditional. But see Korean
Speaker 8: people have a lot of soul too, so you have
Speaker 8: those like those side drums, those drums that are in
Speaker 8: the front and the so you just hear the the
Speaker 8: you know that that that vocalization again that I was doing.
Speaker 8: But I sat there at the gallapy thinking where is
Speaker 8: the bridge from that? And what I remember hearing as
Speaker 8: a kid when my mom will play that sometimes to
Speaker 8: the traditional young like where is because we can say
Speaker 8: this is pop music and R and B and we're
Speaker 8: getting the roots into blues and going way way back.
Speaker 8: But there those are bridges. I was like, where is
Speaker 8: the bridge? There's no bridge.
Speaker 7: It's crazy Coca cola yep.
Speaker 8: From that to a complete cultural import and so I
Speaker 8: was like, man, I don't know. I was like, I mean,
Speaker 8: I'm Korean, but I'm also black, so I view it
Speaker 8: like okay, But if I weren't black at all, I'd
Speaker 8: probably be thinking like yeah, having our own Like what
Speaker 8: is our I want to see?
Speaker 3: I got that I want.
Speaker 8: I am black in Korean, but I am black and Korean,
Speaker 8: but I still feel like I want to see that.
Speaker 2: Frankly, can we go back on the time machine so
Speaker 2: we can act to get to your story?
Speaker 8: Right? Oh?
Speaker 1: Shoot, like.
Speaker 8: We're just talking.
Speaker 2: I know we're just talking, but I gotta I know
Speaker 2: you're a military brat, But where do you consider home?
Speaker 1: Like where are you born and raised?
Speaker 8: Please say DC, because we claim you I wasn't born
Speaker 8: and raised well, I wasn't born and raised in anyone place,
Speaker 8: So to me, I consider myself like a citizen of
Speaker 8: the world, like home is where I am. I will
Speaker 8: say this about d C d C is where I
Speaker 8: really came into my self as an artist, Like d
Speaker 8: C d C kind of like that's where suddenly I
Speaker 8: knew how to dance. I couldn't really dance really well before.
Speaker 8: I'm not going to say I'm the most dopest dancer
Speaker 8: in the world now, but.
Speaker 3: And where did you learn to dance? In the club
Speaker 3: in d C or in the.
Speaker 8: Club, Yes, in the club. So d C was really
Speaker 8: important because it is where I like really really grew
Speaker 8: like exponentially as an artist, like where I came into
Speaker 8: my own because of who I met, because of where
Speaker 8: I was going, because of the vibe. I feel like
Speaker 8: DC is really like when I chose to go to
Speaker 8: college in DC, it was because it was close to
Speaker 8: New York and I knew it was culturally rich. It
Speaker 8: was a black city, and you know, I group as
Speaker 8: a military brat, so I didn't really get to just
Speaker 8: be around a whole lot of black people only it
Speaker 8: was always very mixed, which I loved as well. But
Speaker 8: I was like, I really want to like I really
Speaker 8: want to be in the city where there's a lot
Speaker 8: of black people, you know what I mean. And then
Speaker 8: I got to be close to New York because I
Speaker 8: want to try to get a record, deals like go
Speaker 8: down on the weekend, figure something out, try to get
Speaker 8: some meetings or whatever people do. I'm coming out of Alaska.
Speaker 8: I don't know. It's just like, Hi, I want to see.
Speaker 3: You came from Alaska to DC.
Speaker 8: Because yeah, I went to high school in Alaska, but
Speaker 8: only for three and a half years, because before that
Speaker 8: was high school and middle school in Texas. I was
Speaker 8: in Anchorage and Anchorage, Alaska, and then I went to
Speaker 8: I know, I cried when I was fine with moving
Speaker 8: around my whole life. When we were going there, I
Speaker 8: was like, wait, there's no people there. It's like a moose.
Speaker 8: There's a TV show with a.
Speaker 1: Moose, and you know, exposed.
Speaker 8: It wasn't like that. It wasn't like man. But then
Speaker 8: I went to d C. And I was like, like,
Speaker 8: for that freshman year, I would go to the club
Speaker 8: every Wednesday and then the weekend too, but also on
Speaker 8: Wednesday because they had like the stance hall thing. I
Speaker 8: think it was DC clud Okay, and then it was
Speaker 8: Republic Gardens Republic Gardens, and then this was before Dream
Speaker 8: even existed, and they became a club love, right, are you?
Speaker 3: I'm going to raise I went to high school right
Speaker 3: across from Howard.
Speaker 8: Yeah, okay, okay, so yeah, you know.
Speaker 7: That's why I really let me tell him my truths
Speaker 7: are just about to tell you that when I graduated
Speaker 7: from college, I moved to Philly and it became my
Speaker 7: home and I loved that place too.
Speaker 3: But I'm going to raise I guess.
Speaker 1: It's okay.
Speaker 8: It's okay, but I have a soft spot in my
Speaker 8: heart my death from North Philing. I'm a soft spot.
Speaker 8: I have a soft spot for Philly.
Speaker 7: Last DC question I got for you, tell me about
Speaker 7: did you have ever had the go go experience?
Speaker 3: Because I mean, I hear it in the music, but
Speaker 3: I was curious about it goes.
Speaker 8: Out because because I when I would go to the club,
Speaker 8: so I would go every weekend. I never went out
Speaker 8: really much, and after that freshman year, I was like, well,
Speaker 8: got out my system and I never never really went
Speaker 8: out again after that. But during freshman year I was
Speaker 8: out of the weekend and then every Wednesday at least
Speaker 8: we would go out and literally I would go to dance.
Speaker 8: I know that sounds like such a I just wanted
Speaker 8: to go out and dance, but I did. I wanted
Speaker 8: to go to dance and have a good time. And
Speaker 8: then it would be like reggae night and this night
Speaker 8: and that and then they have like a go go night.
Speaker 8: And again it's instrumentation. Sometimes for me, I would like
Speaker 8: a song before there's any vocals on something, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean, So I could just appreciate that, and
Speaker 8: that's why I say, Like DC, I really kind of
Speaker 8: like got my seasoning and kind of came into myself
Speaker 8: as an artist. I met Rich there and we like
Speaker 8: just created some It was a lot of like kind
Speaker 8: of like what are you ringing? Like this is what
Speaker 8: I've got? Okay, what do you have? But I have this?
Speaker 8: Oh that's what I've been looking for. Oh why don't
Speaker 8: we do this and combined? And it's very very magical.
Speaker 8: And so I think that's why sometimes people will ask
Speaker 8: like if I'm from DC, and I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 8: from there because I was. I'm the military, but that
Speaker 8: is where I really I have my influences. But the seasoning,
Speaker 8: the finishing, the cooking, the bake, it was all happening
Speaker 8: in DC.
Speaker 3: And Amir, that's how I feel about Philadelphia. That is
Speaker 3: how I feel about Philly.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, have commonality.
Speaker 5: Okay, we do have perfect pitch because we're talking about
Speaker 5: like synesthesia and the way your harmonies work.
Speaker 1: I guess this is that you.
Speaker 8: Do I have. Okay, Now I'm not always singing in
Speaker 8: perfect pitch, but I know when i'm not, when I
Speaker 8: can hear myself. Sometimes you get those performances and you're
Speaker 8: like what they want, but it's because I can't Half
Speaker 8: the time, I can't hear myself. Something always happens, especially
Speaker 8: when you do like one off. If it's a tour
Speaker 8: and it's my tour, it's all my people and we
Speaker 8: have it locked in. But when I'm going somewhere, it's
Speaker 8: a new person, a new sound person, and new someone
Speaker 8: else is going on before you and your things were
Speaker 8: touch you can hear yourself, then yes, if you hear
Speaker 8: me sounding bad ever, And I don't say this to
Speaker 8: like Bragg or anything, I might be under the weather.
Speaker 8: I could be under the weather like right now. But
Speaker 8: it's guarantee that I can't hear myself because I'm one
Speaker 8: of those people who can hear anything. If it's not
Speaker 8: absolutely perfect, I can hear it. I'm like, that's a
Speaker 8: little off, that's a little flat, that's a little sharp.
Speaker 8: If there I walk into a room and the table
Speaker 8: is slightly crooked, I can see that it's crooked, and
Speaker 8: I have to fix everything. So it's just perfect because
Speaker 8: I can hear when anything is off, and I can
Speaker 8: see when anything is off. And an engineer told me
Speaker 8: one time, I'm like, why did how could you? How
Speaker 8: could you hear that because I can hear like you
Speaker 8: can lay the vocals back. I mean you engineered, so
Speaker 8: you probably know what I mean. Like, lay it back,
Speaker 8: not like point one zero, not one point one five,
Speaker 8: lay it back point zero two, lay back point zero one,
Speaker 8: go back point zero one, go back back. That's like
Speaker 8: super super super super super super minimal. A lot of
Speaker 8: people can't tell, but I can tell. That was a
Speaker 8: long way of saying, yes, I can hear perfect pitch.
Speaker 8: I do have a perfect pitch because I know when
Speaker 8: I'm not on it. Ah, Okay, that means I probably
Speaker 8: can't hear myself in a moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got been a nerd all your life, a Marie.
Speaker 8: I have been a nerd all my life. I've been
Speaker 8: a nerd before i've been anything else. I love it.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry listeners, this episode is like Momento on Shuffle,
Speaker 2: like we're.
Speaker 1: Just going all over the timeline.
Speaker 2: But I mean pretty much, I would assume that you're
Speaker 2: in a rare case where like your first thing out
Speaker 2: the box is why don't we fall in love? But wait,
Speaker 2: before we get to that, let me at least complete
Speaker 2: the story. Please tell us how you met Rich Harrison.
Speaker 8: So I met Rich Harrison. You know again, I chose
Speaker 8: DC because it's a great school. I wanted to go
Speaker 8: to Georgetown. It's like, Okay, I worked, you know, academically,
Speaker 8: I worked hard for this. But it's also close to
Speaker 8: New York, so I can work on getting a demo
Speaker 8: because I do know what I want to do when
Speaker 8: I finished school. This gives me time to get to
Speaker 8: that point. And DC's very rich culturally, so great. When
Speaker 8: I'm there, I'm actively trying to make connections, figure things out. Well,
Speaker 8: I was in a group for a second. I'm not
Speaker 8: a group person. The group never worked out anyway. It's
Speaker 8: just I'm just not a colicky person. We didn't really
Speaker 8: ever have anything, and the names kept changing because we
Speaker 8: never actually that. No one ever stayed in the group
Speaker 8: long enough for us to actually be a group. So
Speaker 8: what I should say is I was trying to put
Speaker 8: together a group, that's what it is. And people that
Speaker 8: I was working with we were trying to put together
Speaker 8: a group, but it never worked and I was like, see,
Speaker 8: this is a sign I'm not a group person. But
Speaker 8: one of the girls who was not in the group
Speaker 8: was kind of like feeling her out. She also would
Speaker 8: put on fashion shows, and she was from DC, so
Speaker 8: to you know, in the name of like getting to
Speaker 8: know each other a little bit more, not just only
Speaker 8: in the studio stuff, I just like tagged along with
Speaker 8: her one night while she was looking for some space
Speaker 8: for her fashion show, and so we went to I
Speaker 8: guess it was DC Live at the time, but Ron
Speaker 8: de Berry was the manager at the time. So I'm
Speaker 8: just sitting there literally taking my legs. While I'm sitting there,
Speaker 8: I'm waiting for her to have these conversations about the space.
Speaker 8: And then so she's doing her thing looking around, and
Speaker 8: then he's just he and I just get to talking
Speaker 8: and I'm like, oh yeah. Then I go to Georgetown
Speaker 8: blah blah blah and I sing. He's like, oh great, okay.
Speaker 8: After that, That's kind of it. Every time I would
Speaker 8: go to the club on these nights I was telling
Speaker 8: you about, like every Wednesday or whatever it was pus
Speaker 8: the weekends, I would see him and he always remembered
Speaker 8: because he would always say, you're the girl that sings,
Speaker 8: Like right, you're the girl that sings. One of these days,
Speaker 8: you know. Much later, he was like, Hey, I have
Speaker 8: a friend who's looking to work with an artist he's
Speaker 8: a producer. I heard lots of things before. One of
Speaker 8: my things of policies was like, I'm never going to
Speaker 8: go out with a guy to see you know what's
Speaker 8: going on. I was never. One thing I was always
Speaker 8: very clear on with myself was I know what I
Speaker 8: want to do, and I'm not going to sacrifice any
Speaker 8: of my integrity to get there. I'm just not going
Speaker 8: to do it. That's just not my personality. So if
Speaker 8: people were like, oh this, you know, you meet a
Speaker 8: lot of this guy wants to help people want to
Speaker 8: help you, they don't. They want to help you so
Speaker 8: badly that you never even heard me sing a note,
Speaker 8: So like, what are you trying to do? So I
Speaker 8: was like, okay, He's like he's a producer, da and
Speaker 8: it's coming from him and that guy trying to pick
Speaker 8: me up. So I'm like, okay, Well, he's like, can
Speaker 8: I get your number and then you know, maybe put
Speaker 8: you guys in touch. Okay, okay, sure, So give him
Speaker 8: the number. Later on he calls and Rich and I
Speaker 8: talk on the phone and we agreed to meet up
Speaker 8: so I can hear his music and then he can
Speaker 8: hear some of the lifestyle The people think sometimes do
Speaker 8: we meet and the McDonald's parking, like happened to meet. No,
Speaker 8: that wasn't that. It happened just like what I told you,
Speaker 8: the McDonald's parking, Yes, McDonald George, that happened. So it
Speaker 8: was late after school at the nighttime. I chose. I
Speaker 8: chose McDonald's because again, I'm not going to someone's house
Speaker 8: and they say they're a producer, quote unquote, I don't
Speaker 8: know him from a cannon. So I'm like, let's meet
Speaker 8: at McDonald's. Let's just really see what it is, you know.
Speaker 8: So I was in my car then he showed up.
Speaker 8: I'm like, okay, you know again you never really know.
Speaker 8: But then we just chatted for a second. He just
Speaker 8: went right into like, okay, so I'm looking to work
Speaker 8: with an artist and I brought some music. Great, let's
Speaker 8: let's hear it. And I'm like, okay, he's serious. You
Speaker 8: know what I mean. He's serious. So he's playing me tracks,
Speaker 8: one of which ended up being the song float, but
Speaker 8: right now they're all instrumentals. But I heard, like I
Speaker 8: heard what I was looking for, what I've been looking for,
Speaker 8: and that was I was missing because what I wanted
Speaker 8: was so specific and what I wanted was I need
Speaker 8: Obviously it's gonna be tracks. I can sing to R
Speaker 8: and B tracks, but I don't want them to just
Speaker 8: be R and B tracks. They have to be hip
Speaker 8: hop R and B tracks. They have to have a
Speaker 8: great balance. They have to be hard, like they have
Speaker 8: to be a rapper would want to, you know, like
Speaker 8: they could do something over it. That's really really hard
Speaker 8: to find. Not so much now, but now music sounds
Speaker 8: a little different. But at the time that was really
Speaker 8: that was really difficult.
Speaker 1: To finow trust me, Okay, so you know it was.
Speaker 8: It wasn't easy. So when he was playing this for me,
Speaker 8: I was like, yes, and there was something special in
Speaker 8: his his production and the percussion. It was just so
Speaker 8: much of it. I was like, I felt like that
Speaker 8: was like what I'd been looking for, what I was missing,
Speaker 8: Like it was like the missing instrument. Because again I
Speaker 8: didn't look at my voice as being like I did
Speaker 8: love to sing to the thing, but I didn't. It
Speaker 8: sounds funny, but I didn't love to sing that much.
Speaker 8: I love to create music and to create sound. So
Speaker 8: that's why I would get asked to do so many
Speaker 8: like national anthems, birthday songs, and I was like, I
Speaker 8: don't like to sing national anthems. I don't like to
Speaker 8: think so, because then you're just singing because you want
Speaker 8: to sing it. I don't. Actually, I'm not that interested
Speaker 8: in just singing. Actually it sounds weird, but that's why
Speaker 8: Rich understood what I met. He was like, so, what
Speaker 8: are you into? And I was like, I didn't have
Speaker 8: my songs that i'd like sang on because for some reason,
Speaker 8: also so I note, whenever I would get in this
Speaker 8: group with someone, I ended up tending to be like
Speaker 8: a duet. Somehow, I never had any vocal so I'm like,
Speaker 8: I guess I'm the mastermind. But also not on any records.
Speaker 8: So I was like, I would, I would, I would
Speaker 8: my vocals because I was working with other people too,
Speaker 8: and for some reason, I could never get any parts.
Speaker 8: Can I Can I get a vocal? Can I get
Speaker 8: a no? No?
Speaker 7: No no no?
Speaker 8: In the back? Okay? I got some. I got some
Speaker 8: of that. Oh that was kind of it. So there
Speaker 8: was no use in playing him that, and so I
Speaker 8: was like just singing him things that I'd written and
Speaker 8: just songs that I love, like because he I think
Speaker 8: he asked me, like, who what artists I really liked.
Speaker 8: And then I'm sure I mentioned Mary, so I probably
Speaker 8: sang Mary, probably saying some lev probably, but I think
Speaker 8: when he was hearing me seeing Mary and I was
Speaker 8: like that she is one of my biggest influences, he
Speaker 8: was like, okay, because that's what he was looking for.
Speaker 3: But he was looking go to marry.
Speaker 8: So I think you might have been oh no, I
Speaker 8: just wanted to make it wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so that's probably one of them. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: and it's on your mom and you see that. Could
Speaker 8: I can be able to stop baby admitted my mar
Speaker 8: your okay, well you're gonna beginning. We're beginning more of
Speaker 8: that because I I if I were not me, if
Speaker 8: I were not myself, I would probably and someone was like, well,
Speaker 8: if you're not, well, I guess that is me. I
Speaker 8: was like saying, I would be like a mix of Mary,
Speaker 8: Marvin Gay, and Michael Jackson. But I think that actually
Speaker 8: is me because they are state are so pivotal to
Speaker 8: me as an artist, that and Prince. But yeah, so
Speaker 8: I sang him back and he heard what he was
Speaker 8: looking for because he love love, love, love, love love
Speaker 8: love Mary J Blige. I think that was like one
Speaker 8: of his favorite artists, like he loved love her and
Speaker 8: he actually had just worked with her before too, but
Speaker 8: he didn't know who he was, but he was still
Speaker 8: like a huge fan. And so what he was looking
Speaker 8: for was someone who could have that like grit that
Speaker 8: he wanted, and that that R and B hip hop
Speaker 8: that could lend itself to that voice could lend itself
Speaker 8: to that. But then also, you know, why why did
Speaker 8: I even tell you line like something false? You know
Speaker 8: what I mean? Something soft too, And so he was
Speaker 8: looking for something very specific. So when we met, it
Speaker 8: was literally like we were the missing puzzle pieces like artistically,
Speaker 8: and we could play in the false like even I
Speaker 8: Just Died. I Just Died was a song that wasn't
Speaker 8: even supposed to be a song of false. When were there,
Speaker 8: Sarah Sarah, Yeah, I was like, Rich, that song is
Speaker 8: too low. I remember saying that. He was like, well,
Speaker 8: what do you mean? Because he would sing some of
Speaker 8: the songs right, and I was like, listen to where
Speaker 8: the track is. It's like staring at Amerror's e started
Speaker 8: to carefully called it. I was like, I can't even
Speaker 8: I can get there like this, but it begin get
Speaker 8: anywhere else, and I was like, all right, well, standing
Speaker 8: in ameera and I was like, I don't know, can
Speaker 8: I get all of that? And then I was like,
Speaker 8: oh yeah, I can in my false then staring, and
Speaker 8: then then when the song even gets higher. So we
Speaker 8: had so much room to play with, and I was like,
Speaker 8: I've been looking for this. It was literally like the
Speaker 8: perfect thing. We had this. I said, this track, this
Speaker 8: track right there that was gonna be float. I don't
Speaker 8: don't give it, don't give it away, it's ours. So
Speaker 8: we already knew from the meeting and sitting in that
Speaker 8: car that we had something. And we met right after
Speaker 8: that like a next week, and we started laying out.
Speaker 8: We started doing the demo right then and there those songs,
Speaker 8: some of those songs ended up being on the demo,
Speaker 8: and then actually some of those songs ended up being
Speaker 8: on the album, which we recorded sitting on the back
Speaker 8: of the sofa with the washing machine over there, and
Speaker 8: those ended up being the vocals because when we tried
Speaker 8: to go to the quote unquote real studio to do
Speaker 8: it for real this time, we had already done it
Speaker 8: and created the magic. So it wasn't the same, but
Speaker 8: it wasn't the same, like those vocals weren't the same.
Speaker 8: They really weren't the same. It wasn't it wasn't. It
Speaker 8: just wasn't the same.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you ever have did you have?
Speaker 8: That's what I needed to see. I'm gonna be surprised
Speaker 8: if you didn't have that.
Speaker 6: I don't just fun and needed the same Maha, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 6: that's that's one that That was one of the first
Speaker 6: ones we did and we loved, and I think that
Speaker 6: might have been the first.
Speaker 8: One we did, and and some of it it reminded
Speaker 8: me of a Leah actually a little bit, and I
Speaker 8: was like, wow, we really have something. But we were
Speaker 8: like at the same time, but this is not it,
Speaker 8: this is not it. We're getting there. But we got
Speaker 8: there like that next week, I mean song of the
Speaker 8: song of the song of the song of the song,
Speaker 8: because we understood like when I would say that that
Speaker 8: vocal was like, that's a trump I'm gonna sing it
Speaker 8: like a trumpet. I'm not gonna sing it, I'm gonna
Speaker 8: do it. It's a trumpet like, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 8: that's that's this or this is like a string. So
Speaker 8: I will do a vocal certain way. And so we
Speaker 8: just understood. We had the same language because we're looking
Speaker 8: for the same thing.
Speaker 1: Like what time is this period?
Speaker 2: And then how do you guys wind up at the
Speaker 2: offices of Columbia.
Speaker 8: Ah, four months, maybe maybe four or five months.
Speaker 1: So this is happening like lightning.
Speaker 8: This is happening lightning. Speed, we meet, we start recording.
Speaker 8: He already had connect seat Jeff Burrows and Darryl Williams.
Speaker 8: There were Darrel Williams Jeff Brows were working together. Jeff
Speaker 8: Burrows had worked at a bad Boy and he was
Speaker 8: at Columbia, so he had a situation there Rise Entertainment
Speaker 8: and they were already watching Rich for a few years,
Speaker 8: at least a couple of years, and so they were
Speaker 8: always just kind of like send some stuff along, you know, dad.
Speaker 8: But Rich had found an artist he wanted to like
Speaker 8: walk in with like that, so he did have someone
Speaker 8: who was ready in the wings when it was time.
Speaker 8: So once we created a demo, that's when he let
Speaker 8: them know. And then it was like so things were
Speaker 8: kind of there in place. When you have something, let
Speaker 8: us know that kind of thing. So once we had it,
Speaker 8: we did have an end.
Speaker 2: You told me, but like, this is what your dream
Speaker 2: was like, even though you're going to college you want
Speaker 2: to be a singer. How supportive is your family to
Speaker 2: the idea of you not doing academia and getting into
Speaker 2: the music industry as we.
Speaker 8: Didn't even Oh right, who were you supposed to be
Speaker 8: doing English major?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I was.
Speaker 8: I was an English major because I always loved books.
Speaker 8: But that's why it's naturally for some people. They're like, oh,
Speaker 8: you wanted to books? Are you pivoted? I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 8: I've always been. I've been writing books since I started
Speaker 8: journing when I was seven, and I've been writing books
Speaker 8: since I was that age, stapling little books, trying to
Speaker 8: making little newsletters. So that that's just me.
Speaker 1: Anyway, all your book reports looking perfect for school?
Speaker 8: Oh, I was the Oh, I know, we have this
Speaker 8: history assignment where we have to write these essays. Can
Speaker 8: I write like a short like story.
Speaker 1: Your extra credits?
Speaker 8: Murph? I don't want to write an essay.
Speaker 7: I want to Yeah, she didn't need the extra credit.
Speaker 3: She's one to do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I didn't need it. But you know, it's all
Speaker 8: always right now. I was like, let me just write
Speaker 8: this civil war civil war saga where the girl has
Speaker 8: two fat two members of or family fighting on opposite
Speaker 8: side instead of so it was it was actually kind
Speaker 8: of good actually looking for it for years. But so
Speaker 8: I was that was normal for me. But I wanted
Speaker 8: to sing and I want my last year of high school,
Speaker 8: I was like, you know, I think I want to
Speaker 8: go for this professional I think I want to do this,
Speaker 8: and that was another reason for choosing Georgetown. Right, So
Speaker 8: I'm there and then while I'm you know, we have
Speaker 8: a couple of slight bites maybe kind of sort of meetings.
Speaker 8: Doors might be opening, and so sophomore year, I was like, mommy, daddy,
Speaker 8: if it looks like maybe a deal could be coming.
Speaker 8: If I can get a deal, what do you think
Speaker 8: about me pausing university just to like pursue it. See
Speaker 8: my mom was like no, no, no. My dad was like, well,
Speaker 8: I don't know, those kind of opportunities don't always come.
Speaker 8: And I could see that both their opinions. But you know,
Speaker 8: I was like, okay, I had to think it over.
Speaker 8: But it didn't matter because I didn't even get the
Speaker 8: opportunity anyway until my senior year. Because Rich and I,
Speaker 8: I think we ron and I talked in December sometime
Speaker 8: or maybe it was January, Rich and I spoke, we did,
Speaker 8: we met up and started doing the demo in February,
Speaker 8: which is my last semester of senior year. And so
Speaker 8: thank god, it just kind of happened. I didn't have
Speaker 8: to try to make the choice, which which honestly, I
Speaker 8: think in retrospect it's not a good idea to leave
Speaker 8: school to do that. Like some people will be like, oh,
Speaker 8: take this chance. I'm a believer. If you all you'll
Speaker 8: do is one everything happens if it's supposed to happen.
Speaker 8: So it's supposed to happen for you. You know, alah, wah
Speaker 8: will it. It'll happen, don't you worry about it. But
Speaker 8: also you will become a better artist anyway, even always hone.
Speaker 8: You can always become better. But you already put in
Speaker 8: all this work. I mean literally, when you graduate from college,
Speaker 8: you're still like twenty one, like you know it felt
Speaker 8: old at the time, but you're twenty one, like you
Speaker 8: All you can do is just get better, grow as
Speaker 8: an artist, improve on your craft, get that under your belt.
Speaker 8: So you have that. And but at the time when
Speaker 8: I I didn't even have I don't know, I was
Speaker 8: like career fest resume. I don't even know what. I
Speaker 8: didn't do any of that. I was like, because this
Speaker 8: is gonna work, about to graduate in like four months.
Speaker 8: I don't know what's going to happen. But somehow I
Speaker 8: just knew. I mean I just had a feeling. I
Speaker 8: was like, it's going to happen, so I have to
Speaker 8: make that decision. But they were very supportive. All my
Speaker 8: mom was disappointed. I think she cried. Actually no, because
Speaker 8: she wanted me to be a professor or a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Got to live your dreams, not your parents' dreams.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and Angela, who wanted to be an ice cream lady,
Speaker 8: turned out to be a lawyer. So that's that's good.
Speaker 1: Wait, that's what wanted to be.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she wanted to be ice cream lady. I mean
Speaker 8: that last time we asked her was when she was
Speaker 8: like eight. But that was the last answer she gave us,
Speaker 8: the ice cream lady.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: See in my mind, you like said, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be a big star and you're going to be my lawyer.
Speaker 8: No, Angela was gonna she wanted to be a lawyer.
Speaker 8: You know, we had the conversations because there was a
Speaker 8: hot second where she was going to be maybe be
Speaker 8: my stylist, and my parents were like anybody stylist. Angela
Speaker 8: has her own path, and she's going to do her
Speaker 8: own path and it comes back around then she can
Speaker 8: do that. But the any times she's gonna do her
Speaker 8: own thing, which is good because then I would have
Speaker 8: been like feeling too much pressure.
Speaker 2: I know your sister's tired of me because I will
Speaker 2: always run up to her and reintroduce myself.
Speaker 1: She'd be like, it's Angela, a Marie's sister. Oh okay, sorry.
Speaker 2: It happened even at the Grammy's last Like I'm always
Speaker 2: meeting your sister and everyone else for the first time.
Speaker 1: See see Bill, You're not alone.
Speaker 8: It's a funny, little not so secret secret. But that
Speaker 8: happens to me as well for a lot of people
Speaker 8: that I know. It actually just happened to me the
Speaker 8: other day when I was at a party someone that
Speaker 8: I'm supposed to know pretty well, not pretty well, but
Speaker 8: we are passed across enough times where she's like hey, hey,
Speaker 8: and I'm like ah, and then I was like, no,
Speaker 8: I do know him from somewhere. It's like, yeah, you
Speaker 8: saw him two weeks ago. Remember that happened last time.
Speaker 8: You're like, oh, yeah, yeah, I was like, oh, it
Speaker 8: didn't click. Because we're in a different environment.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you the most loaded broad questionquestion
Speaker 2: of all time.
Speaker 8: Oh gosh, you're preface.
Speaker 2: No, it's just I'm gonna let you because you answer
Speaker 2: and paragraphs. I decide not to just go bit by bit.
Speaker 3: He's met his match a Moory.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Right, this feels like the battle of two worlds, like
Speaker 5: the same same person. Honestly, like talking to two versions
Speaker 5: of Save.
Speaker 1: We would have been vff is in a whole another lifetime.
Speaker 1: We're literally the same person. It's like talking to a mirror. Right,
Speaker 1: which your.
Speaker 8: Sign Cocorn sun sign a Quarius rising and Pisces moon.
Speaker 7: Wait damn wait wait where were you born?
Speaker 3: Girl?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: In January twelve. January twentieth twelve, you're January twentieth.
Speaker 1: Both of us are.
Speaker 8: So you're Capricorn too.
Speaker 1: Well, no, no, the other side for you, I'll say,
Speaker 1: I'm capable.
Speaker 3: Straight.
Speaker 8: Okay, your birthday is close as well. You're you're, you're
Speaker 8: we're the same day.
Speaker 2: We're both January twenty Oh wow, okay, but she was
Speaker 2: born twenty years after me.
Speaker 1: Oh no, anywhere.
Speaker 7: All look very very young, eh this Saturday morning cartoon
Speaker 7: step on.
Speaker 2: Anyway, So as broad as I can ask this question
Speaker 2: a Marie, and this is what we all want to know. Okay,
Speaker 2: can you give us your assessment of your experience recording
Speaker 2: for Columbia Records?
Speaker 8: Oh godding No, I didn't Brown, I don't say that. No,
Speaker 8: I'm just thinking I never felt like I was recording
Speaker 8: for them, because I came in, and I say, we
Speaker 8: we came in because me and Rich with our own
Speaker 8: music and our own sound, and they really did just
Speaker 8: leave us alone. They really did just leave us alone. Now,
Speaker 8: later they did try to play around with some things.
Speaker 8: I remember getting some different versions of hooks of one thing,
Speaker 8: and I was like what I was now, okay, they.
Speaker 1: Were trying to augment it or something.
Speaker 8: Oh no, it was like that hook is too linear
Speaker 8: quote unquote. I was like, I don't really know how
Speaker 8: to process that. I'm just feeling it out and it
Speaker 8: feels right to me. It feels good. But okay. So
Speaker 8: then there was this other worthy hook. I just wanted
Speaker 8: to them.
Speaker 1: The hook.
Speaker 8: Oh no, they had someone to sing it and everything.
Speaker 8: Then I was doubly offended. One thing I do get
Speaker 8: I can get offended when people try to change the
Speaker 8: thing unless it's solicited. But you know, sometimes the labels
Speaker 8: so jump in with unsolicited thought, how about this? Yeah,
Speaker 8: And I didn't like that, but generally they did just
Speaker 8: leave me alone with it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 8: Or maybe I just kind of just didn't really care
Speaker 8: because I just felt like I came in to do
Speaker 8: my own thing anyway. Like I was like, at my funeral,
Speaker 8: they're going to play Frank Sinatter's my way, That's what's
Speaker 8: going to be playing. I mean probably not really just
Speaker 8: little a little bit somber and weird to play at
Speaker 8: a funeral.
Speaker 1: Good question, I like that. What what song is going
Speaker 1: to play at my funeral? Guess what?
Speaker 2: And I've e'ched just in Stone with my lawyers. I'm
Speaker 2: not having a funeral.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: However, my plan is I will organize a bunch of dinners.
Speaker 2: We'll just cut to the chase, We'll go to the repast.
Speaker 2: I will organize a bunch of dinners.
Speaker 3: Like your birthdays.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I organized.
Speaker 2: A bunch of dinners for all my loved ones to
Speaker 2: just sit and have a meal. And that's remembering a
Speaker 2: mirror we're not. I'm sorry I've been to especially in
Speaker 2: the last three years post COVID. I'm done with funerals.
Speaker 2: Like I'm done Eye on the Sparrow. I'm done with
Speaker 2: Eye on the Sparrow. I'm done with that.
Speaker 3: Nothing mere. I no song we could play, not really.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would force y'all to play the most
Speaker 2: goofy song on earth.
Speaker 3: You know, it would be still, it'd be a theme
Speaker 3: song never mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, like you know, the Elmo Elmo's World something.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm so unseerious about that. So when I'm
Speaker 2: asking you your experience at Colombian Sony, was it hard
Speaker 2: just finding your space in your lane.
Speaker 8: Where you can just you know, Okay? Well, one, it's
Speaker 8: funny that you say that about the R and B part,
Speaker 8: because when I was creating, actually I listened to some
Speaker 8: R and B and that I was really looking to music.
Speaker 8: And before that, Yeah, but I had gone through a
Speaker 8: long period I actually didn't really like R and B,
Speaker 8: listen to it only but even when I was in college.
Speaker 8: When I was in college and a little bit after that,
Speaker 8: I only listened to hip hop, no R and B
Speaker 8: or what I called boring R and B and that's
Speaker 8: what I call it. It's boring. And so that's what
Speaker 8: I liked to about Rich too, because and there were
Speaker 8: great R and B rs, I'm sure, but it's just
Speaker 8: there was just just in general, like for me, the genre,
Speaker 8: it's boring and it's boring to me. So that's why
Speaker 8: I need that hip hop element in there, because for myself,
Speaker 8: you know what I mean. So I just didn't listen
Speaker 8: to any of it and then and then I fell
Speaker 8: back in love with it again, but I always needed,
Speaker 8: like my favorite era of R and B was hip
Speaker 8: hop and r Andy got married, So that's why we
Speaker 8: align on that. As far as like what was tough
Speaker 8: about Columbia, See, this is a thing like artistically, they
Speaker 8: really did leave me alone. Like I said, what was tough, Well,
Speaker 8: you had a lot of artists there who were like
Speaker 8: really big before I got there, So it wasn't hard
Speaker 8: to get traction or the building behind you in the
Speaker 8: sense that like a creative vibe. It's just there's a
Speaker 8: marketing department and their job is to do that, and
Speaker 8: this is their publicity department, and their job is to
Speaker 8: do this. And I can tell that as much as
Speaker 8: their kind and you know their kind and all of that,
Speaker 8: but their priority is not me. I am not their priority.
Speaker 8: I can tell it that that. This is just there's
Speaker 8: no priority.
Speaker 1: But then there saw a thing where it's like everybody
Speaker 1: can be on.
Speaker 8: Top, like I mean, honestly, you should be able to.
Speaker 1: Do that, but when it should.
Speaker 8: Be able to do that, That's that's what smaller labels understood.
Speaker 8: Smaller labels led by you know, black producers who had
Speaker 8: have an artist. Everyone was hottowntown and even with get
Speaker 8: Young money. For a while, it was like we have this, this, this, this,
Speaker 8: and the more successful we are, the more successful we
Speaker 8: all are, and we spread it and that's how it
Speaker 8: should be. But that's not actually, you know, it's more corporate.
Speaker 8: It's tony, so it's a much a more, much more
Speaker 8: corporate culture, and a corporate way of thinking is not
Speaker 8: like a crew with a figure or like. And they
Speaker 8: would try to do that like they try to do
Speaker 8: so many urban music dollans different things, but it was
Speaker 8: still very top down, you know, so they just they
Speaker 8: didn't get that. And then what I then there was
Speaker 8: a little I think a little bit of tension as well,
Speaker 8: because are some inner things that were happening with the
Speaker 8: people who I don't want to say too specifically because
Speaker 8: it's not my story to tell, but the people that
Speaker 8: I was working with, various people that I was working with,
Speaker 8: and the tensions between them and amongst themselves and the
Speaker 8: label and all the stuff that didn't have to do
Speaker 8: with me, but specifically with them, and so that kind
Speaker 8: of made it pretty difficult, I think as far as
Speaker 8: like because it was going all the way to the top,
Speaker 8: so it's very difficult to kind of get things to
Speaker 8: move because of that. Then on top of that, I
Speaker 8: was never in those conversations, but I definitely got wind
Speaker 8: of people trying to maybe like take a song, take
Speaker 8: my song and stuff, but I was like, well, you
Speaker 8: can't do that because I also co wrote the song,
Speaker 8: so you literally legal you don't have to deal with that,
Speaker 8: which I'm sure they found frustrating. So the thing with oh,
Speaker 8: I don't think I actually told you this part, or
Speaker 8: maybe I did. No, we didn't talk about this, So
Speaker 8: we didn't talk. One thing actually only came out we
Speaker 8: did talk.
Speaker 1: I hadn't know that, but I'm building the drama here.
Speaker 2: We never talked about this thought.
Speaker 1: Did she freeze?
Speaker 5: That's what you get for put in so much drama
Speaker 5: of the world.
Speaker 1: Did you freeze? I'm freeze, amany please?
Speaker 5: I sort of kind of thought she was praying that
Speaker 5: last one freeze.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 3: That's lining he liked this thing over.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: We don't necessarily want to gaslight you, uh visually. So
Speaker 2: what had happened was about well five weeks ago, back
Speaker 2: in June, oh, two months ago, eight weeks ago, we
Speaker 2: had a Wi Fi discreption and see and then it
Speaker 2: became the most hilarious game of kick the can down
Speaker 2: the road and we'll do the episode tomorrow. All right,
Speaker 2: Well next week's cool. Ah damn, I'm out of town.
Speaker 2: The week after, well damn, I'm going on tour after that.
Speaker 2: So now here we are some two months later, janky
Speaker 2: as possible.
Speaker 1: We're not even going to try to This is.
Speaker 7: Good a mirror because you know what, you know why
Speaker 7: I'm excited while we're two months later, because I can
Speaker 7: talk to y'all about the picnic. I could talk to
Speaker 7: y'all about a Marie performing with the Go Go Bank
Speaker 7: like I. So I'm excited. So I'm no shade. But
Speaker 7: things happened the way they should.
Speaker 2: We did weird enough stop at the entry point we did.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that we spent an hour forty minutes in
Speaker 2: social foreplay. I'm talking about life and our philosophies, and
Speaker 2: we started recording Career one hour.
Speaker 1: Forty minutes into the conversation.
Speaker 2: All right, so, and I'm glad we have this time
Speaker 2: because then there's a lot of milks and crannies that.
Speaker 1: We did and pick up for starters.
Speaker 2: Fall in Love is one of the shortest sing I
Speaker 2: almost consider it an interlude more than I consider it
Speaker 2: a full flit song.
Speaker 1: Was that truly the goal?
Speaker 9: Like it was technically an intro.
Speaker 8: Technically it wasn't made to be the intro, but we
Speaker 8: were like, this where the sequencing goes, this is the intro,
Speaker 8: and it is the intro to the album. It's the
Speaker 8: intro to me. I felt like that was a perfect
Speaker 8: song to introduce me. I was like, if I could
Speaker 8: encapsulate who I am as an artist right now, I
Speaker 8: feel like this is probably the best introduction that I
Speaker 8: have right now, and I felt.
Speaker 9: Like it works perfectly. So it was an intro and
Speaker 9: it wasn't going to be the first single.
Speaker 8: Talking to Me was the first single technically that the
Speaker 8: record label had chosen, and then I.
Speaker 9: Was fine with that. It was a little slow for me,
Speaker 9: to be honestly, to be the first single.
Speaker 8: I was like, I don't know, it's a little slow
Speaker 8: to be the first single, and maybe something a little
Speaker 8: bit more aggressive is what I wanted. But I was like,
Speaker 8: you know, I don't know, so that's fine. We shout
Speaker 8: the video and everything.
Speaker 1: First thing.
Speaker 2: I was like, wow, this is something that we were
Speaker 2: rhyme too. And you know there's been Marx and history
Speaker 2: to where none EMCs were picking music that was almost
Speaker 2: MC ready, Like I remember rhyme.
Speaker 7: Talking to me, That's what I was thinking to talking
Speaker 7: to me.
Speaker 2: I remember, I mean the day, the day that Mary's
Speaker 2: My Life came out.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, didn't you give us that cassette?
Speaker 2: I remember you being in the we were like doing
Speaker 2: DC heavy, like we were in the DMV doing Howard
Speaker 2: and our usual promo thing. You were in the van
Speaker 2: with us, and I remember, like we just got in
Speaker 2: a promo of Mary's My Life.
Speaker 1: And suddenly.
Speaker 2: I had the same issues with the music as my
Speaker 2: parents had with hip hop, because it was like, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, why she's singing.
Speaker 1: Over a loop? What like this is just for rappers
Speaker 1: and rappers only.
Speaker 2: Like when My Life came on, I was crying foul, like, no,
Speaker 2: can't take Roy Air song and just I don't remember
Speaker 2: the lyrics on top of it, and she can't sing
Speaker 2: over like she just singing.
Speaker 9: Over him hop beats. I remember that was a big complaint.
Speaker 2: Right, And then one someone said, well, oh so it's
Speaker 2: cool for brand newbie and a rhyme over it, but
Speaker 2: it's not cool for Mary to do it. And I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, but R and B people are supposed
Speaker 2: to create the music that we want to.
Speaker 1: Take, but they can't. Wow, what the line in front
Speaker 1: of us?
Speaker 2: That's how I was thinking in ninety four, and even
Speaker 2: though like since that point people have done it. When
Speaker 2: fall in Love came out, that was like, Wow, finally
Speaker 2: there's a producer that musicallyague kind of things like I do.
Speaker 1: Like I felt that that was the closest to.
Speaker 2: A non commercial, Like it just sounded too real to me,
Speaker 2: and I was just like, whoa, who's this?
Speaker 3: And samples and fall in Love? Right, I'm trying to
Speaker 3: think there is what's the sample on the phone?
Speaker 8: Oh wait, I'm thinking about the Love remix, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: Gene carn what gene corn? Yeah, man startist stripping?
Speaker 9: Well, what's the sample in the fall love? Remax?
Speaker 8: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 9: We always felt like that should have gotten.
Speaker 7: The beginning of a song is the beginning of something,
Speaker 7: huh that international?
Speaker 1: Oh me or shame?
Speaker 2: I know, I feel my city, I feel my city.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I felt yeah.
Speaker 2: But for me, At no point did anyone at the
Speaker 2: label say, yo, make this joint into a full fledged
Speaker 2: song if we're going to shoot a video to it, or.
Speaker 8: Some people did ask like, oh, it's kind of short,
Speaker 8: you want to make it longer.
Speaker 9: But I think we agreed.
Speaker 8: Everyone pretty much agreed from job that better to have
Speaker 8: people want to repeat it than have it.
Speaker 9: Go on too long.
Speaker 1: See you're ahead of the time.
Speaker 2: See now we live in that age where most songs
Speaker 2: are under two minutes.
Speaker 9: You know, really, are they not sure?
Speaker 2: There's there's an artist now whose complete album, like the
Speaker 2: average song is like under two minutes and fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1: Like that's wow.
Speaker 2: Socially and politically, not only are we emulating the fifties,
Speaker 2: but even creatively, you know, which tells me that, Okay,
Speaker 2: the rebirth of the album era might come back. Maybe
Speaker 2: in the twenty thirty.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 8: You know what, that's a good point because you know,
Speaker 8: we always want whatever's going on now than the pendulum swings,
Speaker 8: and it's you know, I think you mentioned the fifties,
Speaker 8: and then I think about even like just throughout human history,
Speaker 8: like thousands of years, we have a way of thinking
Speaker 8: that whatever is happening now is the first time that
Speaker 8: this has happened, or that we're on a progression, like.
Speaker 1: The end of it, right, the end of it right.
Speaker 8: But where's everything's just cyclical, like there's nothing that's they
Speaker 8: say there's nothing new under the sun, or I think
Speaker 8: that's actually in the Bible. But everything that's happened has
Speaker 8: already happened. Whether people are thinking like this is a
Speaker 8: super progressive idea. It's like throughout human history there have
Speaker 8: been times where things have been way over here and
Speaker 8: way over there.
Speaker 9: We just repeat because we're still the same beans.
Speaker 3: They knew its technology.
Speaker 9: It feels like the one that's new is technology.
Speaker 8: I wonder what kind of sounds like if someone's playing
Speaker 8: like an ood or whatever, like back in the day
Speaker 8: and they're like, oh, this is kind of I like
Speaker 8: that beats and then things are all slow.
Speaker 9: Again, I don't know.
Speaker 2: No, you're right, I mean, because look, when the Summer
Speaker 2: of Life happened with Woodstock, you would have thought, oh,
Speaker 2: this is a rival something new. No, Woodstock was the
Speaker 2: end of that period, civil rights period, the summer of Love.
Speaker 2: When satur nighte Fever came came out, you would have
Speaker 2: thought that was the arrival of the disco era in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Here it is Nope, the.
Speaker 2: Backlash happened immediately, and sad to say, when Thriller happened,
Speaker 2: you would have thought, hey, this is this is the
Speaker 2: arrival of Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Where now we could sort of kind of say Thriller was.
Speaker 2: The ending of Michael, the undoing of Michael Jackson.
Speaker 9: Michael Jackson, you know, custin dude.
Speaker 1: And he's my idol. This is no, it's not shade
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 7: But if he make me scared about where bad comes
Speaker 7: into conversation, but that's just yea well, because.
Speaker 2: The thing, see, the thing that at least he was
Speaker 2: genius about was that in his mind, like I've always
Speaker 2: been historically afraid of kids are so damn honest, like
Speaker 2: they don't know how to be cynical or they don't
Speaker 2: know how to be They don't know how to bullshit you.
Speaker 1: So if a.
Speaker 2: Kid immediately likes the song, then that song's forever, no
Speaker 2: matter what.
Speaker 1: And George Clinton said the same thing.
Speaker 2: But I think where Michael sort of discounted was Thriller
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with the music or the talent
Speaker 2: or any of those things.
Speaker 1: Thriller had with timing.
Speaker 2: MTV was a year old, and I mean, just like
Speaker 2: Drake took advantage of viralness and Instagram, and you know,
Speaker 2: like Michael took advantage of MTV. Thus that is why
Speaker 2: he sold one hundred million units, because he was he
Speaker 2: was the one that mastered the ideal viralness. But also,
Speaker 2: unfortunately Thriller, what's most talked about is never the quality,
Speaker 2: it's always the quantity. How many awards did it win,
Speaker 2: how much money did he make, how many units did
Speaker 2: he sell? And thus that caused a flooding that never stopped,
Speaker 2: which is why money became more important to us. How
Speaker 2: much we sold, you ain't ship because units sell. This
Speaker 2: units like Thriller was one of the greatest moments. But
Speaker 2: I also see Thriller as a burden that no one has,
Speaker 2: including Michael, has been able to cross. So I considered
Speaker 2: thriller at best, I can say thriller is a penultimate
Speaker 2: to the ending of Michael Jackson as opposed to the arrival.
Speaker 2: But that's with everything with Obama. We were all happy
Speaker 2: days are here again. Nope, I feel like Obama's Eero
Speaker 2: was the last time that we had the wool over
Speaker 2: our eyes, like, yep, nothing to see here, Everything's okay
Speaker 2: until and once the unarmed shootings happened and everything, So
Speaker 2: I feel like now and.
Speaker 8: Siclicoles, it sounds like you always feel like the pinnacle
Speaker 8: is the beginning of the end.
Speaker 9: But you know what, that is the climax.
Speaker 8: In any story or in a movie story, right, the
Speaker 8: climax actually is the end. After that, you just have
Speaker 8: the dinner mart, you just have you have the everything's
Speaker 8: cooling down after that. But the climax is at the
Speaker 8: end of the story or near the end of the story,
Speaker 8: and after that you do just have a denim wall
Speaker 8: into the and then the beginning of the next.
Speaker 2: Story, which which is why I feel with no hesitation
Speaker 2: of doubt whatsoever, no matter how much they trying to
Speaker 2: move the gold.
Speaker 1: Post or whatever politically.
Speaker 2: This is why I feel the Harris Wats administration will
Speaker 2: truly be the beginning.
Speaker 9: That we're on a different page. But we're not going
Speaker 9: to talk about politic.
Speaker 7: Mead, we ain't gonna talk about politics.
Speaker 9: We ain't gonna talk about that to you either.
Speaker 7: Oh I'm intrigued, though, Amory on some other platform, I
Speaker 7: would love.
Speaker 3: Long, But I know it's good. I know a.
Speaker 8: Whole bunch of could have should have would as a
Speaker 8: whole bunch I could have should have would put it
Speaker 8: this way, Yes, unless you are standing for a against genocide,
Speaker 8: I just can't.
Speaker 9: I'm just I'm just not.
Speaker 8: And I've heard people throw out the H for the
Speaker 8: H name towards all these other candidates, one in particular.
Speaker 9: But I'm like, all right, but did he help kill
Speaker 9: two hundred thousand people? I'm just I'm just that's what
Speaker 9: I'm saying.
Speaker 8: You say, you could say all these other things, and
Speaker 8: maybe someone the next response is, well, he would have,
Speaker 8: he would have it, maybe he would have done worse.
Speaker 8: And I'm like, well maybe maybe maybe, maybe maybe not,
Speaker 8: maybe yes, maybe no, but I can't go on.
Speaker 9: Maybe. I just know what I see, and I know
Speaker 9: we have.
Speaker 2: To go in as You're right, I know we have
Speaker 2: to go as right.
Speaker 8: And also it's kind of like, I don't know if
Speaker 8: we were If we were, this is a it's not
Speaker 8: a direct parallel to that. But if we were like
Speaker 8: living in the Confederacy right now, I don't really know
Speaker 8: if I would have been really arguing that hard on
Speaker 8: which Confederate president we're going to get and how much
Speaker 8: it would have made a difference, like necessarily to me
Speaker 8: if I was enslaved. I'm sure there have been something,
Speaker 8: some minor things maybe, but generally, you.
Speaker 7: Know, if we were living in the Confederate moment, that's
Speaker 7: a huge if it.
Speaker 8: But what I mean is that sometimes you know, people
Speaker 8: will try to do the lesser evil thing. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: Well that's why I said this is a long this
Speaker 8: is a whole other thing.
Speaker 2: I mean I've heard yes, I've heard that too. I mean,
Speaker 2: right now I'm doing whatever possible to stop forty five
Speaker 2: from what's happening.
Speaker 3: And giving their women rights back for their bodies. I
Speaker 3: don't know that's important too. So it's a whole list
Speaker 3: of importance and things.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's a.
Speaker 8: Whole the topic as well, unpopular opinions on that as well.
Speaker 7: But oh I'm dreaming Marie, when is the podcast for
Speaker 7: my friends?
Speaker 9: My friends have I have friends who are just like
Speaker 9: some of some of a couple of them maybe who.
Speaker 8: Are like vote blue no matter who, some who are
Speaker 8: like no, I think that this is actually good to go.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: I have some people who are like, I'm definitely gonna
Speaker 8: do third party support that build the framework while everybody
Speaker 8: else is doing all the other stuff, because it's just
Speaker 8: build a third party frame.
Speaker 9: Which is it has to be done.
Speaker 8: If we want to have like four or five parties,
Speaker 8: we're gonna have someone have to do it.
Speaker 9: So while everyone's in the frame.
Speaker 1: Till Jill come back.
Speaker 9: Wait, No, it's no, it's.
Speaker 8: Always going to be a boogeyman. It's always going to
Speaker 8: be a boogeyman. It's never the it's never the best time.
Speaker 8: So someone just has to do in the meantime. Because
Speaker 8: it's a five to ten year, twenty year. You gotta
Speaker 8: think like China thirty years down the road, you know
Speaker 8: what I'm saying. You can't just think about right now.
Speaker 8: So it's like someone has to do that while everyone
Speaker 8: else is doing the other thing.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 8: I also know people who are super pro black, like
Speaker 8: Pan African they send it priate after schools.
Speaker 9: They voted Trump last time, and they'd be voting for
Speaker 9: him again.
Speaker 3: That's crazy. Things are better pregnant.
Speaker 9: But well, I don't know if they're black. I would
Speaker 9: hope that we have more babies.
Speaker 8: I'll just say that, Oh I'm tired of I'm just
Speaker 8: saying we've been sitting at thirteen percent.
Speaker 7: Who as long as somebodyiest marine, as long as somebody
Speaker 7: could be the babies.
Speaker 8: There's that.
Speaker 9: There is that.
Speaker 8: But the majority of the world is more impoverished than
Speaker 8: we are, and they don't tie their family to money.
Speaker 9: They have kids.
Speaker 8: And but some people will be like, you know, because
Speaker 8: I was reading this one book, I had a book
Speaker 8: club book, and they were like one of the moments
Speaker 8: in the book, I was like, interesting, I never thought
Speaker 8: about it like that.
Speaker 9: The woman was a housekeeper from South America.
Speaker 8: And she was cleaning the house for the lady and
Speaker 8: the lady lived in a big house, a white lady,
Speaker 8: and they had one son. And she said, you're pregnant again.
Speaker 8: And of course she was like, why do you people
Speaker 8: keep having children that you can't pay for? And she's like,
Speaker 8: you don't think about like how you can provide and
Speaker 8: she said no, Senora, And I was like, interesting, because
Speaker 8: when the lady got pregnant, I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 8: y'all are living in this shared space.
Speaker 9: You got two kids, it's hard. Now you're pregnant again.
Speaker 9: I don't know, girl, what's going on. And she's a
Speaker 9: grown woman. But when she.
Speaker 8: Said that to the lady, I thought, interesting, we have
Speaker 8: so much on this side and there are people who
Speaker 8: are struggling. But I'm just saying there's different it's relative,
Speaker 8: there's different level. I was like, she's sitting in this
Speaker 8: wealthy woman's house.
Speaker 9: She's not even that welly. She's probably up middle class.
Speaker 8: White lady, big huge, three hundred square thousand square foot
Speaker 8: house me before thousand square foot house, just her and
Speaker 8: her husband and one child. And they were like, this
Speaker 8: is all we can do to provide what we want
Speaker 8: to provide for our son, which is fair. But then
Speaker 8: you have another woman who's like, the amount of children
Speaker 8: I have is not determined by our finances. It's about
Speaker 8: family and growing the family. And many people in the
Speaker 8: world think like that, and I never really thought about
Speaker 8: it that way until I read the book.
Speaker 3: We're capitalists as fuck, I mean, as America, so.
Speaker 8: It's like, well, when you when you're like, yeah, when
Speaker 8: you're throwing all the women in the workplace and everyone's
Speaker 8: feeling like they don't have enough to survive and everything inflation,
Speaker 8: you can be like, man, you got to pay for this,
Speaker 8: And I agree, But also I can see the other
Speaker 8: side and say, well, people make do with a lot
Speaker 8: less and still have five six kids, And so there's
Speaker 8: no real answering there. It's just more of a question
Speaker 8: and a perspect something to think about. But I just
Speaker 8: know me myself, I'm not on the page of like
Speaker 8: when it comes to like those women's.
Speaker 9: Rights, da da da da da da. I have mixed.
Speaker 8: Feelings because I know that when it came to the
Speaker 8: BLO population anyway, it wasn't because they were like, you
Speaker 8: need some rights. It was like, it's too many of
Speaker 8: y'all and we don't want that. So we're gonna put
Speaker 8: this here and here and here. Now what y'all do
Speaker 8: with it is what you do with it. But I'm
Speaker 8: just saying I'm not gonna be waving the batter and
Speaker 8: say this's a black and white thing.
Speaker 9: It's individual.
Speaker 3: But it's just nice to have the choice. It's just
Speaker 3: nice to have.
Speaker 9: Sho, I'm not happy.
Speaker 8: I'm not happy that the majority of children the potentialized
Speaker 8: whatever you want to say, I'm not It doesn't make
Speaker 8: me happy that the majority of them, or like it's
Speaker 8: not thirteen percent, it's like a twenty five, thirty percent
Speaker 8: or half, or that doesn't make me feel.
Speaker 9: Good, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: So I don't know what the answer is, but I
Speaker 8: know that doesn't make me happy.
Speaker 2: And on the other side of that argument, there's also
Speaker 2: like health issues we have to figure out. Yeah, there's yeah,
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people just for health issues
Speaker 2: reasons have to terminate a pregnancy.
Speaker 9: Yes, that sounds real. I mean that's what I say.
Speaker 9: It's complicated. But I'm just like, yeah, who do you
Speaker 9: need this?
Speaker 7: I'm like, h No, I think people are just fighting
Speaker 7: for their choice, to make their choice for themselves. So
Speaker 7: just like, just don't tell me what to do. Just
Speaker 7: let me. My man said last night, too many people
Speaker 7: in the hospital room with me. Let me make my choice.
Speaker 8: I'm a firm believer in body sovereignty and you need that.
Speaker 8: But across the board, so when now the COVID now
Speaker 8: they're talking about empos, I'm a believer.
Speaker 3: And I am accination too. I see you A Marie.
Speaker 8: I am A my body, it's my body, it's my choice,
Speaker 8: it's my family's choice.
Speaker 9: It's like this is bully.
Speaker 8: I'm a and I'm a free speech absolutist. I'm not
Speaker 8: for that censorship either.
Speaker 3: My friend was like, are you at Africanist as well?
Speaker 3: A Marie? Are you a little bit of a pan
Speaker 3: Africanist as one?
Speaker 8: I think so, but I'd have to look at and see,
Speaker 8: like what what technically that is?
Speaker 9: But I fall into that as well.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 8: My friend was like, I don't know what they ever
Speaker 8: trying to figure it out, because you know, I got
Speaker 8: a Republican friends. People who don't were independent just across
Speaker 8: the board, They're like, well what are you? And I
Speaker 8: was like, I've always said I'm just independ But I
Speaker 8: was like they were like, I know what you are.
Speaker 8: Someone just texting me out the blue. They're like, you're
Speaker 8: a libertarian. And I was like, you know, there was
Speaker 8: a point where I thought maybe I was because I'm
Speaker 8: just like everybody just.
Speaker 9: Do what they wanted. But I was like not quite.
Speaker 9: Then I was like maybe not.
Speaker 8: I think what it is is I just don't really
Speaker 8: have any kind of I can't fall into any niche
Speaker 8: because I agree with this and I don't agree with that.
Speaker 9: I agree with this, but I don't agree with that.
Speaker 9: I agree with this, but I don't.
Speaker 8: Agree with that, meaning this, this group, this group, this group,
Speaker 8: this group.
Speaker 9: So I think I'm more of.
Speaker 1: An American.
Speaker 7: Because you have the right to be that way, right,
Speaker 7: Like awful you you know what I mean.
Speaker 9: When those people were tearing down those COVID masks and
Speaker 9: they were being belligerent in the targets and knocking on
Speaker 9: them racks, and everyone's.
Speaker 8: Like they're being stupid, and I was like, I mean,
Speaker 8: it's really out of control. But they're also the first
Speaker 8: line of our civil defense actually, so let them just
Speaker 8: be doing their thing. They don't really necessarily care about
Speaker 8: my civil rights necessarily, But it's okay.
Speaker 3: You don't need you don't.
Speaker 8: You just need people to act sometimes and you it's
Speaker 8: just like whether it's political parties, whether it's certain groups
Speaker 8: of why certain groups can come together and they may
Speaker 8: be completely our opposite side of the political spectrum, but
Speaker 8: on one issue they agree. People have to be able
Speaker 8: to find common ground and you have to understand, like
Speaker 8: when the chess pieces are moving like, for instance, all right,
Speaker 8: they're going to use this democratic president to do these
Speaker 8: things while they're trying to do that, and now when
Speaker 8: it's another time and it's like a Republican president, that's
Speaker 8: going to be the time to usher in these other things.
Speaker 8: But see what ended up happening. You're like, well what happened?
Speaker 8: It's like, actually it's from the president that was sent
Speaker 8: when the Democrat democratic president was in or what's happening now, Well,
Speaker 8: that kind of got kind of slid in when the
Speaker 8: Republican was a president. It's like two hands to the
Speaker 8: same body. Yeah, which is why we need more political parties.
Speaker 1: So what was it?
Speaker 5: What was your second single?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: In terms of the first album? First of all, who
Speaker 2: were the higher ups at Sony Columbia. Was it Donnie
Speaker 2: and Tommy still or was at that time.
Speaker 9: Donnie was still there?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, I'm always I'm like the worst at
Speaker 8: remembering things, honestly, but yes, I remember Donnie was still there.
Speaker 8: I don't know if Tommy was there. I never met him,
Speaker 8: so I don't I don't think he was there. How
Speaker 8: I got into Sony at Columbia was because I think
Speaker 8: we talked about that I was. I met Rich, but
Speaker 8: Rich already was being someone was already kind of just
Speaker 8: like watching out for him to see how what was
Speaker 8: developing for the last couple of years previously when we met,
Speaker 8: before we met, and that was Jeff Burrows and Darryl Williams.
Speaker 8: They had a Rise Entertainment and Jeff had really come
Speaker 8: from Bad Boy and then he had a situation he
Speaker 8: was trying to get going with Columbia. He just didn't
Speaker 8: have an artist that he wanted yet, and so he
Speaker 8: was just kind of watching with Rich. So we kind
Speaker 8: of created that and they brought us into the system.
Speaker 1: So at that time, like who was your A and
Speaker 1: R at the label?
Speaker 9: I remember Space, I remember his name, but it's because
Speaker 9: we didn't.
Speaker 8: Have an R ring at that time. We did did
Speaker 8: our project. It was like a thing that we did
Speaker 8: and we delivered it and that was done. It was
Speaker 8: really just like finishing touches.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like feedback and hay, I like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: try and go back and do this again.
Speaker 9: No, the feedback It was pretty much like this is great.
Speaker 9: And that was it.
Speaker 8: Because also there was Rich and I and then we
Speaker 8: had Jeff and Daryl, their partners.
Speaker 9: And then we had Columbia. So by that time we
Speaker 9: had kind.
Speaker 8: Of already vetted it, and Jeff had already vetted it,
Speaker 8: felt good about it, and they trusted him with it.
Speaker 8: So someone hearing something, Yes, they tried. They did try
Speaker 8: to get certain things finished, like just the label was
Speaker 8: really instrumental in closing out the project, mixing and all
Speaker 8: that stuff like that. But the an R for the
Speaker 8: first album, that really was.
Speaker 9: Just us for that development.
Speaker 7: That's because I was like, what about the vision where
Speaker 7: they had their hands They didn't even have their hand
Speaker 7: in the vision.
Speaker 8: I remember Donnie got really mad at my first shoot.
Speaker 9: I heard in the meeting.
Speaker 8: He was so upset about not the is the shoot.
Speaker 9: So on the back of the album, the back.
Speaker 8: Of the album has the song titles on it, and
Speaker 8: it's just me on a chaise lounge or whatever, and
Speaker 8: it's just like wearing like black shorts are pretty listen.
Speaker 9: It's quite It was to me.
Speaker 8: It was kind of tame then, but it's super tame
Speaker 8: compared to what's happening now.
Speaker 9: But it was just he said, why what is this?
Speaker 9: Why is it all liked? And he was really upset.
Speaker 9: Most people will have their labels like trying to make
Speaker 9: them naked. But he was just he just that was
Speaker 9: just too much. He was upset.
Speaker 8: I mean, hen' telling me that, But that's the feedback.
Speaker 8: They're like, he really didn't like that.
Speaker 9: I was like, this just sitting down, you can't even
Speaker 9: it's not even frontwards, just from the side. It's just legs. Really,
Speaker 9: that's it. And he's just like he thought.
Speaker 1: It was easy. Well whatever you call that thing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, lying down, lying on the shades, and then it's
Speaker 8: just a.
Speaker 9: Complete side view. So it's just like leg But again,
Speaker 9: super tan people would look at and be.
Speaker 1: Like, what bad album. I don't call that, but okay,
Speaker 1: he is.
Speaker 9: The back is the back of the album. It's the
Speaker 9: back of the album where the song titles are.
Speaker 8: That's what I'm saying, Like, you probably not even thinking
Speaker 8: about it that way because it's it's super tank. But
Speaker 8: I remember when I went to the Soul Train Awards too.
Speaker 8: I remember they were the label's nervous. They're like dresses,
Speaker 8: the dresses really well, it was it was kind of
Speaker 8: it was kind of risque. It was kind of risque.
Speaker 8: It was like basically basically like a David Downer but
Speaker 8: Patricia Fields, they made that dress and it was like
Speaker 8: a dress that was like a body suit, like a
Speaker 8: bathing suit body suit, but we added more because I
Speaker 8: didn't want cheeks to come out. And then it was
Speaker 8: just like the train of it all was black, like
Speaker 8: chiffon or something, so it was black just see through,
Speaker 8: so it was it was it was quite revealing, but
Speaker 8: you couldn't see any cheeks.
Speaker 7: It's just shocking because you would think all labels want
Speaker 7: all their female singers to be.
Speaker 3: Like shoo shoo, you know, pow powow.
Speaker 8: So yeah, but I think it depends on what they
Speaker 8: want to do, right, because if they're just like, we
Speaker 8: don't want we wanted a little bit more wholesome maybe
Speaker 8: or something.
Speaker 1: And my ve cass, I thought you were the girl
Speaker 1: next door.
Speaker 9: I felt like it was. I didn't think it was
Speaker 9: too much.
Speaker 8: But you know, it's funny because my thing was like
Speaker 8: I was like, listen, I like short shorts because they
Speaker 8: were also kind of like shorts of the video kind
Speaker 8: of short. They were like okay, okay, you know, but
Speaker 8: I was like, listen, I love short shorts.
Speaker 9: And here's the thing about me.
Speaker 8: I was like, you know, whether I show a lot
Speaker 8: of skin or whether I show no skin. My whole
Speaker 8: thing about who I am is I'm going to do
Speaker 8: what I want to do because I will be in
Speaker 8: control of my own image and I will be in
Speaker 8: control of my sexuality. No one is going to be
Speaker 8: in control of that. So if I want to be
Speaker 8: like I have the legs out on the chadels, or
Speaker 8: I want to wear short shorts in the video, but
Speaker 8: you know, it's still it's still tame. But then if
Speaker 8: I do im Mense magazine thing, I don't want a bikini,
Speaker 8: I don't want I want pants and I want this.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 9: My whole thing was like, you know, I have to
Speaker 9: it's my it's.
Speaker 8: My, it's it's me, it's my body, it's myself, and
Speaker 8: I want to be in charge of myself, you know
Speaker 8: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So for the three years that transpire between all I
Speaker 2: have in touch, was there active conversations on how to
Speaker 2: build up on the momentum. Because the thing was, when
Speaker 2: one thing came, nobody saw that shit coming. It just
Speaker 2: literally landed out of nowhere like a boulder out the sky,
Speaker 2: like oh shit, what And then that's a good way
Speaker 2: just landed on us. In such a hard weight, like
Speaker 2: I distinctively remember like when I first heard I just
Speaker 2: got my license.
Speaker 1: That was like one of the first songs that like
Speaker 1: my whole.
Speaker 5: Listen, let's get to it.
Speaker 1: No, let's not get into it.
Speaker 2: No, I graduated, Listen, I graduated high school and immediately,
Speaker 2: like setting the motion, like a big part of the
Speaker 2: root stories that we had to move to Europe, you know,
Speaker 2: like two years after regraduating high school and us making it,
Speaker 2: we moved to Europe and lived in London for like
Speaker 2: the longest. But even at that, like we were touring
Speaker 2: two hundred days out the year, so like I mean,
Speaker 2: I just brought my first real, real real house, like
Speaker 2: my first hey, let me take my money and do
Speaker 2: something nice for me thing, like I did that and
Speaker 2: maybe three years ago because the day that things fall
Speaker 2: apart came out to Wrek got his license.
Speaker 1: Okay, uh huh so what were you saying? Okay, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: We were in the gallery doing an in store and
Speaker 2: it was like where's to riqua?
Speaker 1: Oh he went to go get his license and buy
Speaker 1: his car. I'm like, we make money enough to buy
Speaker 1: our lights in the car.
Speaker 2: No, but one thing was one of the first things
Speaker 2: I remember blasting and I was just like, I can't
Speaker 2: believe that the hardest hip.
Speaker 1: Hop song of all time is not Buying MC and so.
Speaker 7: Hip hop mixed with Go Go hip hop mixed with
Speaker 7: Go Go don't all right.
Speaker 2: Look there's one ConA and that's the thing I wanted
Speaker 2: to spend. I know there's Go Go leanings into it.
Speaker 1: It's not a Go Go song. I'm sorry. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of Yes, there's a lot of musicians in.
Speaker 8: The video expectful if I was like, yeah, that's a
Speaker 8: go Go record, like go Go, let not get out
Speaker 8: of control. He got little flavors, got the tinge of it,
Speaker 8: but that's a whole different vibe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it's it's I mean because of the drum
Speaker 2: rolling and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, it feels it feels like, it feels updated. I
Speaker 1: love it. So did the labels see that coming at all?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 8: One thing?
Speaker 9: Are you talking about the second album? You're talking about
Speaker 9: the creations?
Speaker 2: One thing which I hope let you hey, you have
Speaker 2: more of this, and then we could put.
Speaker 9: No, it was the opposite.
Speaker 2: It was the almost feel like you you made it
Speaker 2: against there.
Speaker 9: I mean, we did it right, we did it we
Speaker 9: were creating the album.
Speaker 8: It was kind of really difficult to create that second album,
Speaker 8: honestly because.
Speaker 9: Rich was like doing I don't know what was going on.
Speaker 8: He was kind of like in a different space and
Speaker 8: it was like almost like chasing him down. And he
Speaker 8: works in a very specific way, which is basically in
Speaker 8: isolation where he has to he has to get a
Speaker 8: lot of his ideas, but he has to be like
Speaker 8: a complete isolation.
Speaker 9: So the label was also.
Speaker 8: Meanwhile trying to create that for him, like you know,
Speaker 8: putting him up here or there. Also, he had different
Speaker 8: people who wanted to work with him, so there was that,
Speaker 8: but he still needed to have his isolation.
Speaker 9: And he doesn't work fast. He doesn't work fast.
Speaker 8: He's more he takes his time and it takes it
Speaker 8: can take a long time while he's putting things together,
Speaker 8: he's getting his thoughts together right, So that was also happening,
Speaker 8: and meanwhile, it's like, okay, time to do the second album.
Speaker 8: Once we got into the flow of it, though it
Speaker 8: was pretty good, then I almost did like this part
Speaker 8: of the album separately, like we did it together, but
Speaker 8: then separately because of that timing because it was taking
Speaker 8: so long. So like the record I did with Carl
Speaker 8: Thomas and stuff like that. That was just something that you know,
Speaker 8: we were putting together because at the time, you know,
Speaker 8: Lenny was also putting that project together. It was really difficult,
Speaker 8: but we eventually got it and then we ended up
Speaker 8: doing one thing.
Speaker 2: How do you normally work with rich Like does he
Speaker 2: go off on his own and comes back and says,
Speaker 2: this is one I prepared in the Mountain cabins.
Speaker 8: Yes, he normally just goes off his own and then
Speaker 8: I can finish the thought, depending on like, you know,
Speaker 8: what's what it is. But he needs to have his
Speaker 8: space to finish his own thought first. But he's got
Speaker 8: to complete his thought musically, and then I can see,
Speaker 8: you know, because a lot of times I did the
Speaker 8: bridges a lot because he just doesn't really do a
Speaker 8: lot of bridges, you know what I mean, Like he'll
Speaker 8: get all the other things there. But that's normally how
Speaker 8: it would work. We have to see for the future,
Speaker 8: you know, should I will see what happens. But how
Speaker 8: we worked in the past was he has to finish
Speaker 8: his thought. He has to finish the thought. I just
Speaker 8: remember it being painstaking that second album. It was just
Speaker 8: it was just difficult to finish. But once we got
Speaker 8: it though, then we had it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: So we had one thing we had talking about. We
Speaker 8: felt like it was special, we felt like talking about
Speaker 8: was also really amazing. Actually, I feel like I actually
Speaker 8: like talking about it even better than one thing. Lav
Speaker 8: told me that before that was that that was his favorite,
Speaker 8: and I like, yeah, you know, that's the one. I
Speaker 8: never I don't get tired of performing either one, but
Speaker 8: that one just something about it is like I think
Speaker 8: it like it's in my essence, like that's very me.
Speaker 8: But we did one thing and we felt like, Okay,
Speaker 8: this is something really dope, but we couldn't say like
Speaker 8: because it's kind of like this and that one was big,
Speaker 8: so this one it was It wasn't. It was just
Speaker 8: it didn't sound like anything. So we just knew how
Speaker 8: we felt about it. So it's kind of like deflating
Speaker 8: when the label just completely didn't get it at all.
Speaker 9: That's actually how they were, like.
Speaker 1: They said this, I didn't play it.
Speaker 8: And I wasn't there, but I know, you know, it
Speaker 8: was played for them, and the reaction was pretty much.
Speaker 9: Like not is this it? This is?
Speaker 8: This?
Speaker 9: Is this is that.
Speaker 3: You came up with this is one thing.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was just like this isn't it?
Speaker 8: And at the time if everything was almost like culminating.
Speaker 8: And it's interesting because you talk about like things of
Speaker 8: like things that can be like the biggest thing, but
Speaker 8: it's also like the ending, the shiftings to something else
Speaker 8: because with the way that it was so painstaking to
Speaker 8: put the album together, it's taking a long time, and
Speaker 8: you know, that time, the label starts wondering what's going
Speaker 8: on because meanwhile, looking at the rich, I've got him somewhere,
Speaker 8: but it's kind of like taking a long time still,
Speaker 8: and I'm creating what I'm creating, and it's like it's
Speaker 8: all kind of been a painstaking process and it's very
Speaker 8: drawn out right, really really drawn out, and normally and
Speaker 8: I get into vibe, I want to just like boom boom,
Speaker 8: bom boom, I'm quick. So that it was kind of
Speaker 8: hard for me too because I'm also working, you know,
Speaker 8: like partner it up, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 8: and he is his process is different, so it's a
Speaker 8: little antsy for me. But that taking a long time,
Speaker 8: the label not really knowing what's going on, I think
Speaker 8: spends a lot of money just trying to like figure
Speaker 8: out how to just create that artistic oasis.
Speaker 9: For Rich I feel.
Speaker 8: I don't I don't like to speak for him because
Speaker 8: he knows his experience, you know, but just from from
Speaker 8: what I what I was seeing and what I knew
Speaker 8: of what I was privy to, that it's taking a
Speaker 8: long time.
Speaker 9: And then and.
Speaker 8: Then after all that, like ooh, this has been like
Speaker 8: I don't know, a year or a year and a
Speaker 8: half just trying to get the scenario.
Speaker 9: Going, and then they come with this what is what
Speaker 9: is even?
Speaker 7: This?
Speaker 9: What is this even?
Speaker 8: And so I think at that point, and there were
Speaker 8: some other political things I don't even know about, honestly
Speaker 8: to this day, I don't really know. But somehow there
Speaker 8: were some issues with the head of the label and
Speaker 8: with maybe Jeff, you know, with a Rise I think,
Speaker 8: and then there were.
Speaker 9: Also issues maybe with the label and Rich.
Speaker 8: So there was all these little splinterings that were happening
Speaker 8: in the meantime, and then of course then we come
Speaker 8: with this.
Speaker 9: So at that time I think it was really.
Speaker 8: Like, Okay, I'm probably going to just like lose my
Speaker 8: deal or you know, just it's just that's just it.
Speaker 8: That's kind of like the vibes I've been getting and
Speaker 8: pretty much what we're feeling like is that that I'm
Speaker 8: just about to just not be with them anymore.
Speaker 9: They're about to drop me on from the label.
Speaker 8: And I was like, I mean, the thing about it is,
Speaker 8: I was like, I don't even care about any of
Speaker 8: that stuff. I just really care about the music. And
Speaker 8: I was like, this, this is great and somebody's gonna
Speaker 8: hear it. So if they're not going to put it out,
Speaker 8: I guess I just will. I'll just give it to
Speaker 8: everybody for free then. And that's really that's how it
Speaker 8: got out. It was really, uh, thanks getting a DJ
Speaker 8: getting we'll work with Charles Dixon and Charles Dixon.
Speaker 9: I remember DJ Charles Dixon.
Speaker 8: Charles Dixon had like this, this is that back in
Speaker 8: the day when you know, people would have these massive
Speaker 8: DJ lists all over the world and DJ's had a
Speaker 8: lot more.
Speaker 9: I feel like maybe it's like that again. Yeahtonomy and
Speaker 9: they could just do what they want. They could actually.
Speaker 3: Break records, so that helped too.
Speaker 8: And record pools. Yes, so we basically did that. We
Speaker 8: did it to Sundays of the record pool, send it
Speaker 8: to the list, and so all the DJs like around
Speaker 8: the world got it, and I think the UK might
Speaker 8: have gotten it first, like a day before everyone else,
Speaker 8: maybe half a day, you know, because just the way
Speaker 8: that the list was sent out or the record was
Speaker 8: sent out to the list, and they just started playing
Speaker 8: it like immediately, like a lot of d started playing.
Speaker 9: It right away. And that was that was kind of
Speaker 9: my parting thing.
Speaker 8: That was to me, that was my you know, and
Speaker 8: it was just my decision because lendy Als is our thing.
Speaker 9: That was the parting thing that.
Speaker 2: Was like, well, you know, I'm gone, let's prepare for
Speaker 2: part two. Okay, wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Then we put it out and it took off
Speaker 8: over Christmas break, so this is Christmas, no one can
Speaker 8: do anything. So it was actually a good time too
Speaker 8: because everyone was like on their vacations so there was
Speaker 8: on like these crazy calls and all these things happening,
Speaker 8: and I was like, great, we'll just do this at
Speaker 8: the end of the year, and this is my parting gift,
Speaker 8: I guess, and I just want people to hear the record,
Speaker 8: that's all. So I guess I'm done and we'll figure
Speaker 8: out what you do after that. And that was it
Speaker 8: and come New year's. It was just building so fast,
Speaker 8: and the label then had to pay play ketch up like, Okay,
Speaker 8: we need to do the video, we need to do this.
Speaker 1: Because answer this thing.
Speaker 2: Though, was there any sort of moment of redemption, like hey, we.
Speaker 1: Were wrong about this.
Speaker 2: Non or were they mad at you for ruining their plans?
Speaker 8: You know? The thing that's so weird is no, it
Speaker 8: wasn't that. And I can't say specifically because I wasn't
Speaker 8: in the meetings, but there was the feeling that they
Speaker 8: were that would be weird though, so I never knew
Speaker 8: if that was the case.
Speaker 9: What I was gonna say was they were like.
Speaker 8: Actively trying to tamp down the record because there were
Speaker 8: other records at the label that they wanted to pop,
Speaker 8: and they were shift They wanted to shift the attention
Speaker 8: of other records, so they're trying to shift people away
Speaker 8: from that. And so really one thing did what it
Speaker 8: did in spite of the label, not because of it.
Speaker 8: And I don't mean that to disparage any particular person,
Speaker 8: because I actually had a really great relationship with people
Speaker 8: who were there. So some people are just doing their jobs,
Speaker 8: you know what I mean. It's more like I think
Speaker 8: when you go on the higher up, the higher, higher,
Speaker 8: higher up.
Speaker 9: Part of it, because the people who are really insitionally working
Speaker 9: but are great.
Speaker 2: You literally just said, I mean, I think when you
Speaker 2: work for or when you work with the system, that's
Speaker 2: kind of more or less prioritizing their job safety as
Speaker 2: opposed to creativity. You often find a lot of cutting
Speaker 2: off the nose despite the face. Because my whole thing
Speaker 2: is that, well, if you win, then they all win,
Speaker 2: and then other people can win. But there's this whole
Speaker 2: thing where it's just like one entity can only share
Speaker 2: the spotlight.
Speaker 9: And I never understood that. I didn't understand that.
Speaker 8: And we said that at the time because I was like, listen,
Speaker 8: and I think when people started looking at like rap
Speaker 8: smaller rap labels, they understood that the strengthen numbers because
Speaker 8: I was like, listen, they're thinking too corporate. They're thinking
Speaker 8: in a very old, staid corporate way, which is this
Speaker 8: is the van guard, this is the this, and this
Speaker 8: is that. And I'm like, you want everyone to win
Speaker 8: because then everyone can help each other, and everyone even
Speaker 8: just by the nature of being successful, it helps give
Speaker 8: you leverage for this and that I'm like, why am
Speaker 8: I the only one who's seeing this over here? I
Speaker 8: mean my team was seeing it. I was like, you
Speaker 8: want more artists to be super super successful? Do you
Speaker 8: only want one or two to keep your lights on?
Speaker 8: Because that's not a good that's a precarious position for
Speaker 8: you to be in as a label.
Speaker 1: Why would you want that?
Speaker 3: It's not the lady model. Like when you go back
Speaker 3: and you talk.
Speaker 7: To even some of these female singers and legends of
Speaker 7: the days, it's like one Diana Wannareita. They can't even
Speaker 7: talk to each other. They don't not imposed to like
Speaker 7: like it's a thing. Even when we look at female MC's,
Speaker 7: there is one who does this and one who does that,
Speaker 7: and they cannot.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, there's an artist.
Speaker 9: Tokenism, don't I don't like that either.
Speaker 2: There's a really awesome book that I read like five
Speaker 2: years Well, he's a comedy writer.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: His name is Jason Carp. Back then, I believe his
Speaker 2: MC name was Hot Karl, and Hot Karl was he
Speaker 2: made his mark in the early aughts whatever the Hot
Speaker 2: ninety seven is of la. They used to have this
Speaker 2: Freestyle Friday's thing where you know, they would have different
Speaker 2: people call him Freestyle Battle and whatnot and this guy
Speaker 2: was at one point just had the world in the
Speaker 2: palm of his hands, and so he signs to a
Speaker 2: particular label and his memoirs called Kanye West Owes Me
Speaker 2: three hundred Dollars and other true stories, and basically Jensen
Speaker 2: goes through his whole from being a battle MC to
Speaker 2: being signed to Innerscope Records, and he reveals something. So
Speaker 2: right now, the story that you're telling me is I
Speaker 2: believe the same story that Bubba Sparks went through at Innerscope.
Speaker 2: So the way that Jason painted the story was that
Speaker 2: they were so invested in a particular money making MC
Speaker 2: on that label that their plan was to sign everyone
Speaker 2: that was kind of like under his umbrella and freeze
Speaker 2: them so that they don't stand in the way of
Speaker 2: their star producing.
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2: Like, if you were to tell this story without me
Speaker 2: reading that book, then I would have just been like,
Speaker 2: Okay's But once I read Jensen's book and then started
Speaker 2: asking around to other ex label execs, and they were like, dude,
Speaker 2: that is part of the course that happens all the time.
Speaker 1: It's kind of.
Speaker 8: Weird, they said, they just signed I mean I feel
Speaker 8: like that's actually extra like where they went out of
Speaker 8: their way to sign people that were similar to him.
Speaker 2: We just had Senata Matrea that was kind of his
Speaker 2: at the label because his debut was so magnetic and
Speaker 2: sold so much that it was problematic for Sony's biggest artist,
Speaker 2: who was the biggest.
Speaker 1: Selling artist of all time. That was a problem for.
Speaker 2: Him, and he kind of rang the alarm a little bit, like, Yo,
Speaker 2: this can't happen, and in their way, they kind of
Speaker 2: let the air out, which you know, is kind of weird.
Speaker 1: His take on it.
Speaker 2: When he did Quest Love Supreme, he was very bitter
Speaker 2: about it for about twenty years, and then he realized
Speaker 2: that his life was saved because he's still alive, and
Speaker 2: he realized, like, wow, that person unknowingly saved my life
Speaker 2: because but you know, I personally believe that you can
Speaker 2: manifest a successful future without this whole idea that if
Speaker 2: you become the biggest thing in the world, then suddenly
Speaker 2: you're gonna die or meet the fate of what Whitney
Speaker 2: met or Prince met or Michael met or you know,
Speaker 2: this whole idea that only the biggest artists fall off
Speaker 2: the hardest.
Speaker 1: I believe that we can control that as well. Y'all
Speaker 1: doing it.
Speaker 7: Now, right, if you think about it, it's like, also,
Speaker 7: you don't have to go to the same five white
Speaker 7: men to get a record deal to make you change
Speaker 7: your life anymore. And so that's the thing too, Like
Speaker 7: these kids understand now that you don't have to do that.
Speaker 8: You don't need to the label, and the label doesn't
Speaker 8: do as much as they used to do for you know,
Speaker 8: for people, which was you know, a long time ago.
Speaker 8: This is before I came into the music business. They
Speaker 8: actually would develop the talent, you know, help make.
Speaker 9: You who you became.
Speaker 8: They really helped develop those artists that that was kind
Speaker 8: of gone when I came in. And then now it's
Speaker 8: really they just want I don't know, they might as
Speaker 8: well just be distribution because they really just want the
Speaker 8: the artists already to be there, have the music, and
Speaker 8: have the audience already via social media. So you know,
Speaker 8: but people can so many more artists can make a
Speaker 8: living and they can do really well and be successful
Speaker 8: without that now, so that's a really wonderful thing.
Speaker 9: But you know, regarding the story that you're telling about him,
Speaker 9: you know, only he knows himself.
Speaker 8: Though, so he if he says that, it's probably because
Speaker 8: he recognized what kind of like issues or what kind
Speaker 8: of demons could be awakened if the things that we're
Speaker 8: just like lurking beneath the surface. You know how someone
Speaker 8: could say, like, Okay, maybe if I went down this path,
Speaker 8: I would have done really well with the success, and
Speaker 8: other people can say, actually, if I went down that path,
Speaker 8: I think I would have turned into a really arrogant
Speaker 8: jerk because I already could sense that it would have
Speaker 8: been happening like for instance like that.
Speaker 9: So can probably sense.
Speaker 8: No, not me.
Speaker 9: I'm just saying anyone, No, not Medy.
Speaker 8: Just anybody that could say, these are the things that
Speaker 8: I think could be my potential pitfalls and issues, because
Speaker 8: I do believe everything happens for me. Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 8: So even if you think, if you are a believer
Speaker 8: in that, then you really believe that there are no
Speaker 8: missed opportunities, that no one ever took anything from you,
Speaker 8: because what God has for you is for you, and
Speaker 8: no one can take what is for you if God
Speaker 8: has that for you.
Speaker 9: So it's really just you finding your path.
Speaker 8: And feeling out what that is.
Speaker 9: Because if you believe that God's got you. Then.
Speaker 8: Really, even when like your worst enemy tries to make
Speaker 8: you fall, they're only still they're doing their part in
Speaker 8: God's plan, you know.
Speaker 9: What I mean.
Speaker 7: And that is the fight, and that is the fight
Speaker 7: to continue to try to keep your mind like that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, remember that.
Speaker 2: So even though for me one thing is your Monsters single,
Speaker 2: my favorite album of yours is actually because I love it,
Speaker 2: which that.
Speaker 9: Is so interesting.
Speaker 2: Well because it also happened to Calice, Like Kalie's second
Speaker 2: album never came out in the United States.
Speaker 1: I had to go overseas to.
Speaker 2: Find Chalicea's Kaleidoscope album and that's the same because I
Speaker 2: love it was all over Europe, but not in America,
Speaker 2: Like what what happened with it?
Speaker 1: Because I love a project in general that it didn't
Speaker 1: get any light whatsoever in the States.
Speaker 9: What label was that?
Speaker 8: What was it?
Speaker 9: Because of Love? It was that Columbia as well.
Speaker 1: Columbia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, that's.
Speaker 9: Probably the last one.
Speaker 8: That's what I was really thinking of leaving the label
Speaker 8: because it's just like even when I wanted this single,
Speaker 8: it's like it was like so hard to move and
Speaker 8: like to do anything, and then.
Speaker 9: We were going to release it.
Speaker 8: And it was like, Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna come
Speaker 8: out in the States, and I was like, but why
Speaker 8: are they coming out at different times? We live in
Speaker 8: the Internet era, just it should be one date. I
Speaker 8: don't believe in this different dates for this and that
Speaker 8: I have fans that are going to be like, hey,
Speaker 8: I didn't get the album, so what what is the
Speaker 8: good reason for having them come out at different times?
Speaker 9: Oh, We'll just do that. And I was like, I
Speaker 9: don't know.
Speaker 8: I'm feeling like that is just leaving it possible that
Speaker 8: it doesn't even have a US release. I wasn't really
Speaker 8: confident in them at this point regarding them following through.
Speaker 9: So I really that was just completely.
Speaker 8: Out of my hands regarding why and that that album.
Speaker 9: I'm really proud of that album. It's not perfect, you
Speaker 9: know what I mean. I can definitely be critical of it.
Speaker 2: I loved it, Like the ship you did with the Bchanons,
Speaker 2: like then't make me be believed thing that kids.
Speaker 9: Are so great. I just was just asking after them.
Speaker 9: Actually I got.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, we still when I heard that, we
Speaker 2: to this day do that flip whenever the roots do
Speaker 2: the seed like I played the Ship out out of
Speaker 2: that song when it first came out, like DJing and whatnot?
Speaker 2: Shit you also worked with them from Formerly of the Youngsters.
Speaker 1: Karan, Yeah, Karan did. Uh he did some like it.
Speaker 1: I believe he a little bit. You know, it's weird
Speaker 1: I thought initially I thought.
Speaker 9: It was Actually that was mostly me and Lenny did
Speaker 9: that one.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say you and Lenny came
Speaker 2: like also would hate to Love you, which I thought
Speaker 2: was outstanding.
Speaker 9: Thank you did? I love you hate to love you too?
Speaker 9: Who did that?
Speaker 1: That was you did?
Speaker 9: But we're also no, not that one up?
Speaker 1: Yeah, one up?
Speaker 8: And went also I love to create tracks while we're
Speaker 8: creating the song like that way we can you know
Speaker 8: what I mean?
Speaker 9: Like it's really like musicianship that way.
Speaker 8: It's it's not just like writing to a track, it's
Speaker 8: just something that's living.
Speaker 2: And breathing by this point where you rich creatively, Like,
Speaker 2: are you guys not working?
Speaker 1: Was there a tension there?
Speaker 9: What? No, there's no tension. But I have to see
Speaker 9: what he's doing. And we haven't spoken in a long
Speaker 9: time as of today. As of today, we haven't spoken
Speaker 9: because I.
Speaker 7: Could have just heard you say something like it is
Speaker 7: a potential for some thing in the future with the
Speaker 7: two of you.
Speaker 8: Always there, always is. I just have to literally be like, hey,
Speaker 8: what's going on? Because for a second he wasn't doing.
Speaker 1: Any music for I was not to say, is he
Speaker 1: actively still working?
Speaker 8: I don't know if he is now, but before he
Speaker 8: wasn't and then he was again, So I'm thinking that
Speaker 8: he still is, but just some just cooking.
Speaker 3: What state does he live in? I just he's such
Speaker 3: a mystery. What state does richer.
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna say, because I don't know if he
Speaker 9: wants to anyone to know.
Speaker 3: Say city. I just is he okay, see in this country?
Speaker 8: Okay, I'm assuming he's still in the country unless he's
Speaker 8: unless he's just visiting somewhere.
Speaker 9: But yeah, he listens.
Speaker 2: I hope he's still a DMV, but I hope. But yeah,
Speaker 2: So what is the division of labor between the two?
Speaker 2: Like working in the studio? Do you work from soup
Speaker 2: to nuts together? In terms of that would have been.
Speaker 8: The idea for this next time, if we do something
Speaker 8: together again, we'll be doing it like that, like because
Speaker 8: my face, I don't know if that's like his his
Speaker 8: zone though, but he's a musician, so I know he can.
Speaker 9: I just don't know if he's comfortable doing that.
Speaker 8: The favorite way I like to work is I'm at
Speaker 8: the mic and they got the musicians here.
Speaker 9: I did this.
Speaker 8: Session of where I went in with a producer and
Speaker 8: it was like, let's just play, let's just let's just
Speaker 8: see what happens.
Speaker 9: Just let's just feel it out. Got these vibes and
Speaker 9: he was like, okay, well, you know what.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna bring some I a guitarist in, I'm gonna
Speaker 8: bring in some piano, a couple of pianists.
Speaker 9: Let's just do it. I'm like, okay, it was gonna just.
Speaker 8: Be really a meeting and it's just like, let's just
Speaker 8: but I always like to the reserve room to play,
Speaker 8: just because you never know what happens. And we were
Speaker 8: just like in there and I just stand at the
Speaker 8: mic and then it's like, give me a you know,
Speaker 8: something like this, something deeper, okay, add something in, like
Speaker 8: some piano now or something. Then I'll just give those
Speaker 8: general directions. Right. Sometimes I'm specifical. I'm literally like do that,
Speaker 8: you know, I'll be very specific.
Speaker 9: But sometimes not.
Speaker 8: And then so the producer was also like getting them
Speaker 8: together while I was like, yeah, this feels like this,
Speaker 8: give me a little something like that, and I turn
Speaker 8: off all the lights so it's very dark, so kind
Speaker 8: of it's hard for people to work for a second.
Speaker 8: They only have the lights of the board and the
Speaker 8: stuff are around them because it has to be like
Speaker 8: boom dark for me. So then I'm just like I'll
Speaker 8: just start singing stuff and I like do the lyrics
Speaker 8: as I'm just filling out the melody, and I'll just
Speaker 8: start saying stuff. But I'll just be like laying it
Speaker 8: out and then it's like, oh, now we're adding in
Speaker 8: building and we built some songs like that. We had
Speaker 8: like fifteen dope records just from that one evening. That's
Speaker 8: my favorite way to work. And then we can figure
Speaker 8: out what to take further, you know what I mean,
Speaker 8: and what musically what's going on. But we've got the
Speaker 8: feel of it, the sound of it. That's my favorite
Speaker 8: way to work. I don't like to get a track
Speaker 8: and be like write something to the.
Speaker 1: Track, write something I don't know.
Speaker 8: It's not my I don't really like that because I
Speaker 8: feel already boxed in already, you know, and that's not
Speaker 8: the melody that's in my head.
Speaker 9: It's in a whole different key and it's not that vibe.
Speaker 2: So again, I'm only laughing because I prefer to work
Speaker 2: the way that rich does, Like I need silence and
Speaker 2: I need isolate, because if I'm in front of somebody,
Speaker 2: I'll be less. Steve's my has been my engineer since
Speaker 2: since you got your driver's license. Yeah, yeah, before I
Speaker 2: got much driver's license. Like, Steve has engineered all the
Speaker 2: common stuff. He was there for all of the D'Angelo stuff,
Speaker 2: like all that stuff. So you know, I don't feel
Speaker 2: stupid or silly when I'm trying to experiment that may
Speaker 2: or may not work, you know. But oftentimes I'll feel
Speaker 2: like if people are in the room, it's too much pressure.
Speaker 9: Yeah you are afraid to mess up?
Speaker 2: Well yeah, But then also like I'll be in a
Speaker 2: situation where one particular artist wants to be there from
Speaker 2: the suit to nuts thing instead of like, here's what
Speaker 2: I prepared for you, and oftentimes I'll have to I
Speaker 2: did this once to a client where I already had
Speaker 2: the song down, but I literally spent five hours acting like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I did.
Speaker 9: Just so many situations here do you do this to
Speaker 9: your you know what you're still not for confrontational. We
Speaker 9: need to talk about that.
Speaker 1: I just learned the word no like five years ago.
Speaker 1: So no, i'm me now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I put on this, I put on a
Speaker 2: whole horse and pony show and accidentally wound up into
Speaker 2: the idea that.
Speaker 9: I can't I can't believe you did that. But from
Speaker 9: what you told me last year spoke, I can.
Speaker 8: I can't believe that you spent five hours with tending
Speaker 8: that you were coming up with something because you're so
Speaker 8: sweet and non and you were non confidation.
Speaker 1: That was old me. This This was back in like
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: No, now, I'm I am new in my communications.
Speaker 1: You set up like, all right.
Speaker 3: You're working on it. You are in progress, he's in progress.
Speaker 8: I can understand you needing that time because see, even
Speaker 8: if I'm there we're doing this thing, I have closed sessions.
Speaker 8: I don't like you know, people are in there. They
Speaker 8: don't have to be in there because then it gets
Speaker 8: like uncomfortable and all. So you want to be able
Speaker 8: to feel free to make mistakes.
Speaker 9: But also like if I was writing a record, if
Speaker 9: I was writing a record at.
Speaker 3: Hard about your ship, I got you.
Speaker 8: No, I understand that you would want to finish your
Speaker 8: thought and be like, let me finish my thought, like
Speaker 8: in peace.
Speaker 9: Because if I'm writing.
Speaker 8: A song or something like that for someone else, or
Speaker 8: just even if I was just writing something for me,
Speaker 8: but the music was done. If if there are other
Speaker 8: writers in the room, and usually there aren't, because I
Speaker 8: find it hard to work with other writers, no, because
Speaker 8: they never say what I would say, no, because they
Speaker 8: never say it. Then that's when you I'm sorry, but
Speaker 8: that's when you come out with something like none of
Speaker 8: the chicks like this. The chicks like me sing. You
Speaker 8: walk into the room and I'm like, that's not even me.
Speaker 8: I would never say that, and I would never feel
Speaker 8: like all these other girls are trash but I'm so great.
Speaker 9: It get jump inded it out like that. You get
Speaker 9: stuff like.
Speaker 7: That, and meanwhile, e Marie, it's funny as you say that,
Speaker 7: I'm curious what's moving you these days. I would never
Speaker 7: ask you the elementary question of like what are you
Speaker 7: listening to?
Speaker 8: But what?
Speaker 9: Well, let me say first, let me finish.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 9: The other people I've worked with that did not because
Speaker 9: they might well we worked together.
Speaker 8: I was like giving you stuff like that, so that's
Speaker 8: not I was being facetious.
Speaker 9: That's not all that comes out of it.
Speaker 8: But I have to be particular with the writers I
Speaker 8: work with because they do have to know me and
Speaker 8: what I would say and how I was saying. Now,
Speaker 8: I'm also a writer, like a fictional write, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean, Like words are important.
Speaker 9: What I say and how I say it is really important.
Speaker 8: So yeah, so, but but I've worked with really talented
Speaker 8: writers and when we gel, we gel, and then I
Speaker 8: know like they'll you know, that's what's great about rich too.
Speaker 1: Person or just a music person.
Speaker 8: He can be with the lyrics too, but his stuff
Speaker 8: would I think it's melody and feel and like the
Speaker 8: rhythm of the word. What I mean? Okay, And then
Speaker 8: you were asking me something about what am I into now?
Speaker 3: No, I said, musically, what is moved for you these days?
Speaker 9: Here's a thing about me.
Speaker 8: I'm kind of weird and I sometimes feel uncomfortable honestly
Speaker 8: having music related interviews.
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get the books.
Speaker 9: No, No, I usually don't.
Speaker 8: I'm just saying because I feel like people will be like, dang, well,
Speaker 8: she's not listening to anything no more. Her habits are weird,
Speaker 8: and so I feel like I don't I don't really
Speaker 8: want to talk about.
Speaker 7: It because you're not supposed to care, supposed to be free,
Speaker 7: say what you feel, okay.
Speaker 8: I usually will go through pockets of time where I
Speaker 8: listen to no music. It might be half a year
Speaker 8: where I don't listen to anything, or it might just
Speaker 8: be instrumental or if I'm listening to music because I
Speaker 8: do that because I don't listen to music so much.
Speaker 8: I listen to music that came out years ago as
Speaker 8: if it just came out.
Speaker 9: So it's new to me.
Speaker 8: But the interesting thing is I do get a feel
Speaker 8: for what can last and not feel old right although
Speaker 8: I'm like, well I don't really know what's the new
Speaker 8: things like whatever. But so I'll be listening to something
Speaker 8: right now and playing it out like but it's.
Speaker 1: Like they don't look.
Speaker 9: Then I'll look and I'm like, oh, DAGs fourteen years old?
Speaker 9: This no, but like I'll be like, this album's really dope.
Speaker 8: I like this.
Speaker 9: Oh wait, oh he came out with this on twent fifteen, Well,
Speaker 9: well great job, you know what I mean. It's like late.
Speaker 9: So I'm listening right now. Actually, I've been listening to
Speaker 9: a lot of Chris Brown, right, Chris Brown.
Speaker 3: But he put out something every month.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm.
Speaker 8: Not as late on Chris Brown stuff because but still
Speaker 8: some of the songs I am a little late on,
Speaker 8: and they're new to me.
Speaker 2: This is precisely the reason why I have you on
Speaker 2: the subscription list.
Speaker 9: I know you said, Okay, so you do know that
Speaker 9: you're sending it to me. Honestly, I'm just like us.
Speaker 8: I always feel like you're sending it to me, but
Speaker 8: like you're not even realized.
Speaker 9: I'm just a number. I'm I'm just a notch in
Speaker 9: your head.
Speaker 2: There are one of four hundred and thirty eight people. Wow, Okay,
Speaker 2: but no, no, no, I don't do it. I literally
Speaker 2: I say, a lot of friends.
Speaker 9: Do you have a lot of friends? So is that
Speaker 9: special for you?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 9: Is that a small There's all right?
Speaker 1: This is what I do. I do it for two reasons.
Speaker 2: Okay, Primarily I know that people my age and adjacent
Speaker 2: to my age.
Speaker 9: I'm twenty four. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: But okay, keep exactly.
Speaker 2: That's so I know that oftentimes we'll get comfortable in
Speaker 2: our comfort zone and Our comfort zone is the seventy
Speaker 2: five songs we know you know this Stevie Wonder song,
Speaker 2: that that song, And we'll tend to our gym list.
Speaker 2: Our walking lists are Sunday Afternoon cleaning a house mixed.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's all my playlist.
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2: So we tend to get trapped in that. So number one,
Speaker 2: I do it because you know, it started with one person.
Speaker 9: Is that what it is?
Speaker 2: It started with one person and then it wound up
Speaker 2: being ten people, and then one of those ten people
Speaker 2: told the world and then they were like, where's my list?
Speaker 2: And then it wound up being four hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: something people.
Speaker 7: You're one of those the million, because they're not the
Speaker 7: four hundred you put These are the playless conversations. You're
Speaker 7: talking about your Spotify situations.
Speaker 9: Yeah, will actually text. I keep the text from his phone,
Speaker 9: and you know, but because it's like.
Speaker 2: You know text, I individually go through all four hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty eight names twice a month and send them.
Speaker 9: It should take to everybody.
Speaker 1: This should takes nineteen hours to do.
Speaker 3: We want I feel less special.
Speaker 7: I want you to know I'm in that four So
Speaker 7: I'm just gonna sit here and ask you to send
Speaker 7: me those for later.
Speaker 2: Fine, Lai, yeah, you will be four hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: nine people. No, But but when I got the three hundred,
Speaker 2: I was like, I can't do it no more. My
Speaker 2: hands are hurting. And then if people tell me, yo,
Speaker 2: I'll come in on the list, then I do it.
Speaker 2: See you just said I'll come on the list.
Speaker 1: So I did it.
Speaker 2: But the second reason why I do it, okay, it
Speaker 2: is because it forces me to constantly search for music,
Speaker 2: because at this age, I too can get stubborn and
Speaker 2: just stuck in.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm just gonna listen to prints for the next.
Speaker 2: Eight months and stay in that cycle and miss all
Speaker 2: that behind me. So in this process I go through about, realistically,
Speaker 2: three hundred songs a week, and of those three hundred songs,
Speaker 2: maybe eleven are cool and so I'll just stuck up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's why do it.
Speaker 8: So it's hard, I feel special, and I think that
Speaker 8: it totally makes it. Everything that you said totally makes sense.
Speaker 8: The thing about it is that if like, I'm always
Speaker 8: thinking all the time, right, so I usually am like
Speaker 8: the kind of the way that I like take in
Speaker 8: information is like this is what I'm in and I'm
Speaker 8: in this for like I'm in.
Speaker 9: Trench for this amount of time.
Speaker 8: It could be months and months, it could be a year,
Speaker 8: and that's all I'm doing. If I'm not eating and
Speaker 8: taking care of my family, I am just doing that.
Speaker 8: And then I'm super in this and that. So I
Speaker 8: can I feel like I can have a lot of
Speaker 8: in depth knowledge on different things because I spent like
Speaker 8: time and trenching it.
Speaker 9: The issue with.
Speaker 8: Music and listening to music, because someone was recently asking me,
Speaker 8: like this summer, when you told me you didn't listen
Speaker 8: to music like that, I was like what. I was
Speaker 8: kind of sad and I was like what really, And
Speaker 8: they were like, I use it for everything I do
Speaker 8: And I was like, yeah, but I can't do that
Speaker 8: because here's the thing. If I listen to music, I
Speaker 8: won't ever stop. If I listen to music, I start
Speaker 8: thinking about what project I want to do.
Speaker 9: I want to do this. Then I'm thinking about this.
Speaker 8: And that and the colors of that and what I
Speaker 8: want to create and what do they do?
Speaker 9: And that's really interesting and now going down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 8: I will do nothing else but only that, And so
Speaker 8: I get in my moments where I'm like, I'm into
Speaker 8: some history thing grabs me.
Speaker 9: I'm pouring the internet, I'm.
Speaker 8: Pouring books to learn about this particular thing. Or like
Speaker 8: right now, I've been very like into geopolitics. So I'm
Speaker 8: all about, like the economy, geopolitics. That's all my videos.
Speaker 8: If I'm exercising, it's geopolitics. If i'm you know, I
Speaker 8: had to you know, go to the doctor and get
Speaker 8: a shower or whatever.
Speaker 9: It is.
Speaker 8: My distraction thing is the geopolitical thing on the economy
Speaker 8: and what happened to the middle class. Like I am
Speaker 8: in that, and that's all I can do because the
Speaker 8: I process my information at night, I talk to myself.
Speaker 8: So at nighttime usually whether i'm you know, in the
Speaker 8: shower or whatever, people will hear me. Well, I don't
Speaker 8: think that this is it because first of all, the
Speaker 8: reason why you do that, And people might come in
Speaker 8: and be like, well, I'm talking to me, I'm talking,
Speaker 8: I'm talking to me, and so I'm like, just you know, cure,
Speaker 8: it's a lot. Someone was like, dang Amory, sometimes you
Speaker 8: can be a lot like being around I'm like doing
Speaker 8: about how I feel I have to live with me
Speaker 8: and I can't escape myself.
Speaker 2: You're taking in a lot of podcasts, a lot of books,
Speaker 2: a lot of so using. When a person takes in
Speaker 2: a lot of information, it usually to gather and sort
Speaker 2: the information so that they can.
Speaker 1: Do something with it, do something with it. What is
Speaker 1: your end game?
Speaker 8: That's what I'm trying to figure out. And that's that's
Speaker 8: because I'm revisiting that question. Before I had a lot
Speaker 8: of information and I remember thinking, I all this information,
Speaker 8: I need to put a put this in like a book,
Speaker 8: and I was thinking of doing that, and I've done
Speaker 8: some of that. But then I was thinking, okay, you're
Speaker 8: doing all these things. And then yes, there are a
Speaker 8: couple of people who are like, you need to do
Speaker 8: like a podcast, you need to do that, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 8: do I though, like, okay, one in one universe, I
Speaker 8: do do that. Uh And people love me and they
Speaker 8: also hate my guts. So there's the information information, but
Speaker 8: they love the information, you know. But so I'm saying
Speaker 8: that there's there's that, and I think it would do
Speaker 8: really well actually, But then the question is because they
Speaker 8: were like, but you know all this stuff, and I
Speaker 8: was like, but then the question is is everything always
Speaker 8: to be commodified know a lot of things.
Speaker 9: Does it mean like I need to try to get
Speaker 9: famous in this lane with it?
Speaker 8: I mean, can you just have information to have information
Speaker 8: to inform how you live and what you do? Or
Speaker 8: is it like worthless unless you get big off of it?
Speaker 9: And then that's a question. I don't know.
Speaker 3: That's right there. Yeah, that's a you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: very valid, very valid.
Speaker 1: Well, I just sent you your.
Speaker 2: Own mix of what I'm listening to now, which isn't music.
Speaker 2: It's literally tones, because yes, I know what it is.
Speaker 1: For your brain to constantly in thinking mode. I sent it,
Speaker 1: you send me. I just yes, what is this?
Speaker 9: Listen to it?
Speaker 2: I listened so basically, Layah. It is where Fante always
Speaker 2: clowned me. You know, like when Spotify snitches on you
Speaker 2: and says you've been listening to you know, it gives you,
Speaker 2: like your top five what you've been listening to, and
Speaker 2: people look at my things like, wait, there's no music
Speaker 2: on here, so all I do, Layah, it's tones of
Speaker 2: hurts where I'll send it to you.
Speaker 1: Layah.
Speaker 2: It's just it's a chord that you know, what you
Speaker 2: listen to when you go to the spa. You hear
Speaker 2: the like eight wait a minute, time out, It's like
Speaker 2: the sound.
Speaker 9: Remember I told you about my project Simatica. Remember I
Speaker 9: told you that's the whole cimatic of the trilogy. That's
Speaker 9: my long I'm going to put it together. I have
Speaker 9: three songs I want to keep from it, but I
Speaker 9: wanted to record it actually in I was going to
Speaker 9: record it in either four.
Speaker 8: Now am I doing four thirty two? But like the
Speaker 8: frequencies we talked as a.
Speaker 3: Frequency Rogers, I hardly knew ye, she's a Helen nerds,
Speaker 3: blurred blurred power.
Speaker 9: He's like reset.
Speaker 3: You're like, is it Vargus nurse?
Speaker 9: Is it parison? But that paris?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're nervousness. I tell you, I get into something.
Speaker 8: I get a.
Speaker 1: Dude, I feel like I'm on the Nard War episode
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 3: What does a Marie mean? Is that what we're missing?
Speaker 3: Is that what we're missing? Did your parents do all along?
Speaker 3: What does Amrie?
Speaker 9: My mom made it? My maid made it?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I'm glad you said it to me because
Speaker 8: I was listening to it because I was like, you
Speaker 8: need to like heal, you need some like healing vibes.
Speaker 2: But this is the rabbit holest of all Quest Loups,
Speaker 2: supreme rabbit hole.
Speaker 3: Similar to the Bulge, y'all making it sound like the bulge.
Speaker 3: Y'all know that right, like it's sounding.
Speaker 2: We're gonna do another episode where we just talk about
Speaker 2: your world of books. I literally thought when we did
Speaker 2: this episode, we were going to talk about us an author,
Speaker 2: you as a book club person, because you really got
Speaker 2: me in the game.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, my ninth.
Speaker 2: Book coming out soon, the Kid book I wrote, my
Speaker 2: first kid Yes, yes, exactly beautiful. I will be like
Speaker 2: she she got me into the rabbit hole. But we
Speaker 2: obviously this can go on for twelve hours, but we
Speaker 2: do have to wrap up. Listen, can we do a
Speaker 2: retreat with Marie?
Speaker 7: I feel like it's a it's a it's an event,
Speaker 7: like we need a retreat. We need to do some
Speaker 7: sound baths.
Speaker 9: We need to you know, we would sound bask sing.
Speaker 8: We would have some political conversation, exchange the books, have
Speaker 8: some debates, a political exchange.
Speaker 1: A Marie is about to be the next member of
Speaker 1: Quest Left.
Speaker 3: Would you guess you could?
Speaker 9: That'll be dope special special, whatever whatever you would like
Speaker 9: or whatever you would invite me to.
Speaker 8: I'm there.
Speaker 1: Okay, Wow, it's not a party.
Speaker 9: No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: Awesome, you're not.
Speaker 6: No, you're not.
Speaker 1: And also, if ever you know you're in your creative mood, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would like to collaborate as well. I just text
Speaker 1: I don't know. After this, I'm like, nah, music's not
Speaker 1: your calling. This is Julie. This is Julie where your
Speaker 1: passion lives. Well, what is this?
Speaker 5: What do you call this?
Speaker 9: Because I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 7: What is this?
Speaker 1: What is this?
Speaker 2: I think this is called life pivoting. I think both
Speaker 2: of you and I are discovering what information you can't.
Speaker 2: We can't put a title on it until maybe twenty
Speaker 2: twenty eight.
Speaker 8: The truth.
Speaker 3: Now you're gathering information.
Speaker 8: I know I'm always seeking the truth. I'm seeking the
Speaker 8: truth about everything always, But I don't know what to
Speaker 8: call it. And that's someone when you were asking me
Speaker 8: what I would want to do with it, my friend
Speaker 8: was like, you do the podcast.
Speaker 9: I'm like, I don't know. I'm trying to right now.
Speaker 8: I'm just trying to be still and let God because
Speaker 8: i know I'm doing the things that i'm doing, like
Speaker 8: I'm got to start working on the new project, finishing
Speaker 8: up doing the novel that I'm working on.
Speaker 9: But then I'm also like, there's another thing that's happening,
Speaker 9: and I'm just trying to be still for it. So
Speaker 9: God can like be like, okay here, because I also
Speaker 9: don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: You're finding out what it is you're you're finding out
Speaker 2: right now. But this is why being still and silent
Speaker 2: also helps. And take it from the guy that had
Speaker 2: nineteen jobs and always the second I did this, the.
Speaker 1: Answer comes to you. I promise you. I promise you.
Speaker 1: The answer comes to you. Thank you.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna I need to text you sorry. I'll just
Speaker 8: just you know, we gotta just talk.
Speaker 9: We've got to just talk off off time as well.
Speaker 8: Yes, absolutely, now that we're allowed, because you were like,
Speaker 8: we do the interview interview.
Speaker 1: Now, yes, we're allowed.
Speaker 7: He didn't have no real conversation until we did the
Speaker 7: podcast because he wanted to spoil.
Speaker 2: It exactly exactly. Now we're friends, all right, Well a
Speaker 2: mariy I thank you. We having Siger Steve and Layah
Speaker 2: and and the family.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Bok Supreme. I appreciate you, and I will
Speaker 1: see you on the next round.
Speaker 9: Y'all.
Speaker 4: All right, this is sugar, Steve, thank you for listening
Speaker 4: to Quest Love Supreme. This podcast is hosted by a
Speaker 4: mere Quest Love Thompson, Liah Saint Clair, Sugar, Steve Bandel,
Speaker 4: and unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are a mere
Speaker 4: Quest Love Thompson, sewn G and Brian Calhoun. Produced by
Speaker 4: Britney Benjamin, Jake Payne and Liah Saint Clair, edited by
Speaker 4: Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown West Love
Speaker 4: Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 4: iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast Asked
Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.