Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne, the God.
Speaker 2: We are the Breakfast Club Lawla Rosa Filing. And for Jess,
Speaker 2: we got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 2: seemed like he's trying to take our job doing all
Speaker 2: these interviews and stuff.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, we have R and B sigat tag Tank.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to take your job.
Speaker 3: Doing a phenomenal guess.
Speaker 1: I am just catering to my people, Okay. I'm making
Speaker 1: sure that my community has a place to go, that
Speaker 1: the conversation is bridged from the old to the news.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: You know what I love about the Army Money podcast.
Speaker 3: There's always so many hip hop podcasts, and you know,
Speaker 3: the rappers got a place to go. The O g
Speaker 3: rappers got a place to go. R and B Money
Speaker 3: has created that space for the R and B world.
Speaker 1: And now and now the you know, not too much disclosed,
Speaker 1: but now the R and B Music Awards. What you mean,
Speaker 1: you guys have a dedicated hip hop don't you? Pop
Speaker 1: has a dedicated award show, right, whereas the R and
Speaker 1: B dedicated award show so that we can cover the
Speaker 1: entire gambit of R and B. R and B is
Speaker 1: so many things, it's so vast you can't cover it
Speaker 1: in two to three categories at at at some award
Speaker 1: show and think that that's going to do it all justice.
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 3: Yet, as an R and B icon like you are,
Speaker 3: what are the categories of R and B? Because all
Speaker 3: we think is R and B.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, let's let's let's do this right, let's
Speaker 1: go let's go soul, right, let's go progressive. Do you
Speaker 1: do ballots? Huh? Ballots? What do you mean? Ballots? Slow?
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you mean categories? Do you do
Speaker 1: army ballots? No? I don't think you do ballots. But
Speaker 1: I think you get into the songwriter aspect of it,
Speaker 1: the producer aspect of it, even the performance aspect of it.
Speaker 1: You know, all of these things are so different. Like
Speaker 1: a Jill Scott is uh is way different from from
Speaker 1: a Smer Walker, you know what I mean, It's way different.
Speaker 1: Calvin Richardson is way different from Chris Brown, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And so how do we how do
Speaker 1: we create these tiers and levels to where all of
Speaker 1: all of the nuances of R and B can be recognized.
Speaker 1: Give me an example of progressive. Oh c B is progressive? Okay, completely,
Speaker 1: He's He's the current state of R and B. Me.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. Even if we want to
Speaker 1: say what what Drake and Party just did? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? That's very progressive, very progressive R and B.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? If you want to say
Speaker 1: what is more traditional, I'm more in the middle of
Speaker 1: a traditional progressive R and B artist because I can
Speaker 1: do a record with Chris Brown. But you know, I
Speaker 1: can also do a record with God Rest their Stot
Speaker 1: and Stone. See.
Speaker 3: I like traditional, and I said that. When the Party
Speaker 3: and Drake album dropped, I was like, that.
Speaker 1: Ain't for me.
Speaker 3: And it was like, well, you know, it's for the
Speaker 3: ladies because the R and B, I'm like, no, God
Speaker 3: like R and B.
Speaker 1: I just don't like that type of arm exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: There's a difference. And so we have not we have
Speaker 1: not had the conversation about all of these things together.
Speaker 1: We just say best R and B album and then
Speaker 1: you got you got Chris Brown in the same category
Speaker 1: with Robert Glasberg. It's like, how do you do that?
Speaker 1: We're not all just one thing. So when are you
Speaker 1: doing this? Is it thought out to that where it's
Speaker 1: going to happen. It's been, it's it's been great conversations,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Me and my brother Jay Valentine.
Speaker 1: We've actually had this conversation with Jessic Collins and so
Speaker 1: you know, all of this. What I'm doing right now
Speaker 1: is just kind of creating the anticipation and the desire
Speaker 1: and hopefully there's enough comments will come and people will
Speaker 1: see the value, because that's where it starts. People have
Speaker 1: to see the value in what we do in order
Speaker 1: to create this next level platform would only.
Speaker 3: Black effect and I heart out the conversation, you know,
Speaker 3: to put together a good award.
Speaker 1: Show, Well, what do you want to do?
Speaker 3: I want to help with the Harvey Money Award show.
Speaker 3: That'd be fantastic.
Speaker 1: There you go done.
Speaker 4: Announce the categories and nominations.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Like we need a we need a Babyface Award, right, award,
Speaker 1: which is the songwriter and Producer. Right. You need a
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, right, there's one. They need a Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: Award Ultimate Performance, Right. We need a Smokey Robinson Award,
Speaker 1: which is just the writer. Right, we need a Uh
Speaker 1: I can't take I can't. I can't take writer out
Speaker 1: of Jimmy Jametary Lewis because they write it too. But right,
Speaker 1: you need a standalone producer award. Right, all of these
Speaker 1: things are so different and we don't get an opportunity
Speaker 1: to highlight them. But all of these awards need names
Speaker 1: from our legends. You know what I'm saying. The R
Speaker 1: and B Label Award, the Motown Award, where who's who's
Speaker 1: the dedicated R and B label? That's R and B money,
Speaker 1: That's what we're doing, right. So it's all of these
Speaker 1: things that we need to now highlight now that R
Speaker 1: and B has happening, this big, big conversation, right.
Speaker 2: I want to know how is it for you, right
Speaker 2: knowing all these R and B stories, Right, And I'm
Speaker 2: watching your podcast and I know you know the answers,
Speaker 2: but some of these times it hasn't been put out
Speaker 2: there and you're just feeding the person, right, Like I
Speaker 2: look at Stephen Hill, but the Chris Brown situation, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're leading him because you knew what happened, but making
Speaker 2: him explain the story was amazing.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what happened, really, I didn't even know
Speaker 1: he was part of it. I knew from Chris's side
Speaker 1: that they had they had they got him all the
Speaker 1: way to the point of where it was about to happen,
Speaker 1: it was about to happen, and then pulled the rug
Speaker 1: out from under him. I didn't know the intimate details
Speaker 1: and who all was involved. And hearing Steve like Steven
Speaker 1: is like, you know, he loves he loves that, he
Speaker 1: loves that. He felt like he was getting ready to
Speaker 1: create one of the most iconic moments of all times,
Speaker 1: and he worked for that rehearsal Jesus. He was. He was,
Speaker 1: and it hurt him that now he you know, has
Speaker 1: to go back and tell c B that it's not happened,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like that, that crushed him
Speaker 1: more than anything. And he was like, man, if you
Speaker 1: could ever talk to him, just let him know I
Speaker 1: love him, I want you know, I wanted that for him.
Speaker 1: I just they pulled it from me. Nothing I could do.
Speaker 4: I was going to ask that you put them on
Speaker 4: the phone after that, because he said in your interview
Speaker 4: that they hadn't he hadn't gotten well. He wanted to
Speaker 4: see him in person to apologize and stuff.
Speaker 1: Like that. So no we didn't. We didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to make that happen, okay, but but I'd love
Speaker 1: to make that happen for him.
Speaker 3: Another one of my favorite R and B Money podcasts
Speaker 3: recently was the l A Red.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 3: He really sparked a real conversation and it just had
Speaker 3: me thinking about, Yes, you need, you need Black Boutique
Speaker 3: everything you need that.
Speaker 1: We need to be able to operate the way we operate.
Speaker 1: Just let us do what we do. Like even with
Speaker 1: what you guys do. You guys do what you do,
Speaker 1: which is why it is what it is. There's nobody
Speaker 1: micromanaging or policing you. You get your paycheck, whatever that is.
Speaker 1: But it's because of how you do your thing. Nobody's
Speaker 1: interrupting that, which is why it's what how many years
Speaker 1: in the making, Jesus Christ, Imagine if you had no
Speaker 1: control of that, you know what I mean. Imagine imagine
Speaker 1: you being subject to somebody else's ideas, somebody else's and
Speaker 1: then you lose with that. That hurts worse than anything
Speaker 1: I lost listening to you. No, Noah, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: down with me. I'm gonna go down with me. And
Speaker 1: that's what we've lost, We've lost the people that have
Speaker 1: done it from here. I just believe, Like think about
Speaker 1: DeAngelo's untitled. If somebody just doesn't say, ah, I just
Speaker 1: feel like this is different, they never get to the
Speaker 1: third single, which is a life changing record. Don't have that.
Speaker 1: No more analytics say we're losing here, We're that, We're
Speaker 1: gonna move on right? Well? How does the Feel? Wasn't
Speaker 1: the third single?
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 1: How did it Feel? Was the third single?
Speaker 3: The butt Naked Video was the third single.
Speaker 1: Wow, I did not know that. How do we not
Speaker 1: get to That's gonna be the greatest songs of all time? Wow?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Genuine so anxious. If Joe
Speaker 1: Moore didn't say we gotta get to this month, we
Speaker 1: gotta get to this one, this one right here is
Speaker 1: gonna change it. Trust me. Maybe I Deserve was my
Speaker 1: second single. If we were just going off for first singles,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna name the first song I had out
Speaker 1: that I was dancing and shipping, flipping and blowing up Chris.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll take for a se I remember, because I remember.
Speaker 1: Maybe I Deserve shouldn't have brought that up when you
Speaker 1: said it.
Speaker 4: I just heard the song.
Speaker 1: Yeah maybe Wait. My first single was called Freaking, and
Speaker 1: it almost destroyed my career before it started. The label
Speaker 1: picked it, but I was very excited about it as well.
Speaker 3: When I googled it and said the song many have missed.
Speaker 3: His actually first single Freaky, which came out first, and
Speaker 3: it's pretty much become obscure.
Speaker 1: Today I was performing the song. I was on promo
Speaker 1: tour Fort Valley State homecoming and I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: coming out. I got my freaky interlude. You know, they
Speaker 1: want to get freaky, and then the song starts and like,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the first hook, these two
Speaker 1: little cute girls in the first row was like wack.
Speaker 1: I was like and this was in the dat tape era,
Speaker 1: so I couldn't stop it, damn, And I sweated the
Speaker 1: rest of the song and I never sang that song again.
Speaker 1: I said, don't put on the album, erase it, get
Speaker 1: rid of this song, and we did a hard turn
Speaker 1: cut the single Winter Maybe I Deserve Thank God. Wow,
Speaker 1: rest is history. Rest is history. Yo.
Speaker 3: That's very interesting because I don't know whether I think
Speaker 3: it's the labels not doing their jobs, like you know,
Speaker 3: I don't think they give they don't care about.
Speaker 1: The music like they used to. I don't think labels
Speaker 1: care about music.
Speaker 3: Like what was your first budget for your first album?
Speaker 3: Like it was a thing to be to get signed
Speaker 3: to a record deal.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you like this, there was a budget. There
Speaker 1: was a number in in the contract. But again I'm boutique.
Speaker 1: So they're like, well, let's just keep going till we
Speaker 1: get it because we can't lose. Like, you know, at
Speaker 1: that time, in terms of earners, you know, it was
Speaker 1: Aliah rest Soul. She was, she was, she was making
Speaker 1: the bank for all of us, right in order for
Speaker 1: us to have budgets, Aliah was, she was funding us.
Speaker 1: So you know, we were in a position where we
Speaker 1: couldn't lose. So Verry, you know, Barry, we was gonna
Speaker 1: let me lose. Nah, let's go to the next one.
Speaker 1: Let's spend I spent four hundred thousand on my first
Speaker 1: four or five hundred thousand my first video. Then I
Speaker 1: spent another seven hundred on the next one. Like this
Speaker 1: is what was happening. We blew up an actual building,
Speaker 1: Like we're running out of building, and slowly the building
Speaker 1: blew up behind us. We had to dive onto a mattress,
Speaker 1: don't turn your phones on because you might kill the artists.
Speaker 1: That that's what's missing. But you see the difference in
Speaker 1: between the people that are still doing that. You still
Speaker 1: see Chris Brown spending real money to make real videos,
Speaker 1: still see Ponce spending real money to make real videos.
Speaker 1: You still see Drake spending real money to make real videos.
Speaker 1: That's the difference. It's why they're in arenas, that's why
Speaker 1: they're in stadiums, all of these things. So we just
Speaker 1: need that level of belief and that level of investment
Speaker 1: in order to get it back to where it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be. Like, look at movies. How much money spent
Speaker 1: on promo? Yeah, put it on TV. They put it,
Speaker 1: they're they're doing it, and before other movies are coming on,
Speaker 1: they're out on the streets on the buses. Like we've
Speaker 1: lost all of that, but they still want the same result.
Speaker 1: That's not how that works.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you're so right. I mean, I'm learning that through
Speaker 3: just dibbling, dimbling, dibbling and dabbling in the movie world.
Speaker 1: But you're right. It's like, Yo, if they'll.
Speaker 3: Spend money to promote a film, these labels will just
Speaker 3: be like put it online.
Speaker 1: Literally, you can't tell a movie. You can't tell the
Speaker 1: good to the people that are putting out the Wolverine.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Just we're gonna just use
Speaker 1: our socials and we're gonna use our socials and hopefully
Speaker 1: go viral and and see what happens. We're trying to
Speaker 1: guarantee ourselves a return, right, low visibility. Low visibility is
Speaker 1: going to get you low results, just is what it is.
Speaker 1: Does that have a change though? Again, we got to
Speaker 1: get back to this boutique space where you know, where
Speaker 1: a lot of the budgets and the freedom to do
Speaker 1: it the way we know how to do it. We
Speaker 1: come from the street Team era. We come from passing
Speaker 1: out ten thousand flyers. You know what I'm saying, Bus stops, buses,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Commercials. We used to run
Speaker 1: commercials on be et, actual commercials. Where's all that it's gone,
Speaker 1: But you still want the same results. There are outliers
Speaker 1: with those things can happen. But R and B is
Speaker 1: not a it's a it's not completely a viral genre. Now,
Speaker 1: the residuals challenge, I mean, you know that's a thing,
Speaker 1: but that's just fun. It starts out fun, but then
Speaker 1: you then you tap into what's really out there, right,
Speaker 1: And so now what we're able to see is, oh shit,
Speaker 1: look at how many R and B singers, songwriters and
Speaker 1: producers are just waiting in the wings for an opportunity
Speaker 1: that are really, really dope.
Speaker 3: Did you feel any guilt enjoying R Kelly's residual it?
Speaker 1: I feel guilt in enjoying it. I mean, everybody knows
Speaker 1: knows me, knows that I've always been an R. Kelly fan.
Speaker 1: They know I've always you know, I was as I
Speaker 1: was raised in trying to be R and B coming
Speaker 1: out of my gospel space, babyface R Kelly, Brian Knight,
Speaker 1: like those were my study guys. So no, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel away enjoying it. I couldn't. He's talented.
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't grab it him posted on a page.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: gotta I got Hell's Kitchen to promote, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And and and I think it's tough because
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people have been in my
Speaker 1: comments saying why you ain't post R Kelly thing? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, guys, why do I have to
Speaker 1: insert myself into that back and forth? You know? You
Speaker 1: know what I thought?
Speaker 2: You know, listening to R. Kelly, he still sounds good
Speaker 2: of shit right, he can still write. I wonder why
Speaker 2: and I don't even know if he could, why people
Speaker 2: wouldn't tap into his writing behind the balls because he
Speaker 2: can still write amazingly and I'm sure he could put
Speaker 2: still put numbers on the board.
Speaker 1: You don't have to say it's R. Kelly. I wonder
Speaker 1: why that wasn't a thing? Why people don't go to
Speaker 1: him for that same reason why you know, the younger
Speaker 1: cats don't go to Babyface, same reason why the younger
Speaker 1: cats don't go to Jimmy Jeanme, Terry Lewis, same reason
Speaker 1: why I can go on and on why we have
Speaker 1: a thing with us where if it just seems or
Speaker 1: sounds old, we don't tap into it.
Speaker 4: You think that will R Kelly though he.
Speaker 1: Didn't sound old on it. He's an older artist. He's
Speaker 1: done it, he's had his time. And to us, the
Speaker 1: fad chasers, our culture that what's next or what's now
Speaker 1: culture is what we are. We don't maintain a tradition
Speaker 1: like like there's no way that new edition or any
Speaker 1: of our elder statesmen shouldn't have sold out. Arenotaurs easily
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones can come back anytime they feel like it.
Speaker 1: Do what sold out to a queen? Anytime they feel
Speaker 1: like it sold out to Paul McCartney can say I'm
Speaker 1: going out, sold out, sold out. We are the only
Speaker 1: people that separate ourselves from our foundational and our traditional
Speaker 1: moments and cast it away like it's old, it's no
Speaker 1: and and that's us. That's what we So when you
Speaker 1: say why not like me, I'm like, I gotta get
Speaker 1: a Babyface came to the opening my opening on Hell's Kitchen,
Speaker 1: and as I'm looking at it, I'm like, Babyface really
Speaker 1: pulled up to my opening. I got one of the
Speaker 1: greatest singer songwriter producers of all times sitting right here
Speaker 1: is a friend of mine and I don't have a
Speaker 1: record from him. That can't happen again. I can't know him,
Speaker 1: and that not happened.
Speaker 2: And I don't understand why you look at I want
Speaker 2: to say something.
Speaker 3: That's why you got to give people credit like Scissa people,
Speaker 3: baby Face produced news. You see how big snooze is
Speaker 3: when you get an o G like that who gets
Speaker 3: with a super talented young and you see what can
Speaker 3: come about.
Speaker 4: I think that the artist because Scissa is like, like,
Speaker 4: I'm not surprised that she understands and her like you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like there's wasn't.
Speaker 1: On purpose either, So there's that because we're in the
Speaker 1: room making something and she heard and you know there
Speaker 1: was a it was a thing where it just people
Speaker 1: in the right place here. Okay.
Speaker 4: I think sometimes too, it's about like who the artist is,
Speaker 4: because there are some artists who like understand you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, like baby facing and like the moment
Speaker 4: you had that are younger. But then other artists are
Speaker 4: chasing the producers that are making things that go viral
Speaker 4: on the tiktoks or the reels are created to because
Speaker 4: their labels back to you saying that they're not doing
Speaker 4: their jobs. Their jobs have shifted where that's all you're
Speaker 4: looking at. So if you don't have those metrics, you're
Speaker 4: not doing your job. But you might be the artist
Speaker 4: A it's like your baby face needs to be in
Speaker 4: this studio.
Speaker 1: There's no reason why I don't have songs with babyface.
Speaker 1: It's the true.
Speaker 2: And I was saying like, if you look at Quincy Jones,
Speaker 2: what age was Quincy Jones when he was doing all
Speaker 2: that stuff with Michael he was yeah, yeah, that's my point.
Speaker 1: Maybe the greatest album of all time. He was fifty.
Speaker 1: We produced Thriller. It was fifty. Imagine the information he
Speaker 1: was able to impart to Michael Jackson because everything that
Speaker 1: he had done and everything that he had seen. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, Michael, this is great. But
Speaker 1: if we just take this two moments and just move
Speaker 1: these things right over here, you trust me, you're gonna
Speaker 1: love it. Like when you talked about the intro, we
Speaker 1: can't kill that, Michael, That's that's the call out. Michael
Speaker 1: wanted to kill it. What do we do better than that?
Speaker 1: As soon as they come up with ship, that's Quincy Jones.
Speaker 1: And so in my mind, I'm looking at baby face
Speaker 1: like my Quincy Jones. How do I how do I
Speaker 1: not tap into that? How do I not ensure this
Speaker 1: level of greatness somehow pours over into what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I would have loved it here, Quincy.
Speaker 3: I have heard Quincy on R and B Money podcast man.
Speaker 1: By the way, but man, it's that information that that
Speaker 1: that we need that needs to continue to pass down
Speaker 1: and that's our job. We're the bridge. We want to
Speaker 1: be the bridge. Like we we tell all the young
Speaker 1: cats all the time, Hey, we were rocking with you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need from us, And then we tell the
Speaker 1: older cats like we when we had Smokey Robinson, we
Speaker 1: was like, you know, we're coming to your house. We're
Speaker 1: coming over. We want to talk to you like you
Speaker 1: did it, like you talk about building something, build an
Speaker 1: entire your uh uh franchise on his back writing and produced. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we got the R and B Awards, which Charlemagne
Speaker 1: and I Heart have committed to. Now we're going somewhere.
Speaker 2: So what did you What were your thoughts when you've
Speaker 2: seen how I will say he was disrespected at the
Speaker 2: award show when he.
Speaker 1: Was doing an interview and they was like, okay, this
Speaker 1: is this next baby news.
Speaker 2: Moment, oh with with baby face babyface when he was
Speaker 2: on the carpet.
Speaker 1: You know, I definitely thought it was I thought it
Speaker 1: was disrespectful, but I don't think it was consciously disrespectful.
Speaker 1: I think that no one's teaching people how to do
Speaker 1: things anymore. They're just throwing them out there, right Because
Speaker 1: if you're on that red carpet there. You have to
Speaker 1: know who right, did who's well who? You have to
Speaker 1: know who people are right in this music in this
Speaker 1: music business. Right. But then two, you also know how
Speaker 1: I have to know how to conduct yourself right. This
Speaker 1: is these are the things you do, these are the
Speaker 1: things you don't do. And that was just a thing
Speaker 1: that was just kind of like, uh host t one
Speaker 1: oh one, you don't do that. You don't you're not
Speaker 1: ever talking to somebody. Yeah, and so how do you
Speaker 1: fit one second? Can you nobody's teaching her. Nobody taught her.
Speaker 1: It's not her fault. I'm sure she didn't get fired.
Speaker 1: She didn't know well, somebody production told me that. Like,
Speaker 1: so it was it's a disconnect, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We aren't having those hard lessons in those classes like
Speaker 1: I went to. You know, I went to media training.
Speaker 1: We were from from the school of hard knocks, so
Speaker 1: we get it media training. So I know both sides
Speaker 1: of it. I know being on this side, I know
Speaker 1: being on your side. And these these people aren't being trained, man,
Speaker 1: and they're getting thrown out there and putting these positions
Speaker 1: to where they look bad. I don't think she meant
Speaker 1: to do it anything on purpose.
Speaker 3: Once again, you're talking about a budget. You said media
Speaker 3: training artist. They don't give an Artists are spending no
Speaker 3: money on media training nowadays.
Speaker 1: Anybody, Like if you if you're bringing somebody in to
Speaker 1: represent your brand black Effect, like you want to know
Speaker 1: two things first, okay, what what do you do? How
Speaker 1: do you do it? Okay? And then are you trained
Speaker 1: to do it? Because there are things that are going
Speaker 1: to arise that you have to be prepared for. That
Speaker 1: are moments they're going to have. What would you do
Speaker 1: in this situation. Let's have some scenario training. Let's have
Speaker 1: somebody get really boisterous in the room and feel see
Speaker 1: how you handle it.
Speaker 3: So Tank, remember when you was on the Breakfast Club
Speaker 3: and you talked about getting your ass eating about ten
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 1: I don't mind put my legs up. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, that's that's okay.
Speaker 4: You know you don't like tongue action.
Speaker 1: I don't mind, not at all. Down I try to
Speaker 1: tell them all the time. For a girl, each your
Speaker 1: I have your hands free just in case you get tricky.
Speaker 1: The way there you go.
Speaker 3: If somebody brings that up. Now in twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: and they said, thank do you enjoy getting your ass eating?
Speaker 1: How do you respond? I would say that was the
Speaker 1: old me, you know, when I was younger, you know
Speaker 1: I enjoy things and said how I enjoy things a
Speaker 1: little bit too out loud, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Some of those things should have been a lot more quiet.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think I was. I think I
Speaker 1: was beata. I think Charlomagne baited me. He was very
Speaker 1: he baited me.
Speaker 3: You should give a little fake chuckle question after the
Speaker 3: question is. After you do a little fake chuckle, then
Speaker 3: give that.
Speaker 1: They old me I was so wild back then. That's training.
Speaker 4: That is because people still bring that up.
Speaker 1: But I think you so they will be a follow
Speaker 1: up question, not going to just let it go. Here's
Speaker 1: the other thing, too, is that you know anything that
Speaker 1: has been put out there, anything that I've put out there,
Speaker 1: I'm able to stand up period tribe. I have I
Speaker 1: have lived and I have lived in front of the world,
Speaker 1: in front of the world for all of them to see.
Speaker 1: So I don't really have any secrets, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So the things, those things don't scare me.
Speaker 1: I'm not rattled by those things. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So there's that part of it. But I do I
Speaker 1: do know how to divert if I was.
Speaker 4: Bringing I said that because I was going to big
Speaker 4: you up for when it was brought up not too
Speaker 4: long ago. You use it as a moment to talk
Speaker 4: about like homophobia in the black community, and like that
Speaker 4: created a powerful conversation, And I was like, I don't
Speaker 4: know if he did it on part it did come
Speaker 4: back up. Who were you talking to?
Speaker 3: It was?
Speaker 1: We talked about it in here.
Speaker 4: We didn't jest with the message.
Speaker 1: You were talking to.
Speaker 4: The holding court, big court. Yeah, But I but the
Speaker 4: conversation that it created, I don't know if you saw
Speaker 4: the conversation, I know you'd be online though, like you've
Speaker 4: been seeing some things. It had people really having a
Speaker 4: conversation about men being able to be vulnerable and just
Speaker 4: have conversations anywhere they want to, and and black men specifically.
Speaker 4: And I was like, okay, was that the media training?
Speaker 4: Was that?
Speaker 1: Like? No, that was just real. I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: what I believe. But I also believe that you can't
Speaker 1: really have intelligent conversations online, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So as he and I were having that conversation, like
Speaker 1: we were having a real conversation. But in terms of
Speaker 1: going back and forth online trying to get something very
Speaker 1: thought provoking across, it never works.
Speaker 4: They don't.
Speaker 1: You'll never win that.
Speaker 3: Also, I think people forget the comedian Tank era. Yes,
Speaker 3: when Tank was on stage to an actual comedy, so
Speaker 3: a lot of that was jokes.
Speaker 1: Coming your legs up in the chair. You was just joking.
Speaker 1: You're going back to a gag. Everybody's so serious. It's
Speaker 1: not that serious, man. I have some fun and relax
Speaker 1: every you see me, Every time you see me, I
Speaker 1: gotta smile on my face and I'm having a good
Speaker 1: time because I don't take this stuff too seriously. Man.
Speaker 1: What I take seriously is when I get in that studio,
Speaker 1: when I get on that stage, That's when I'm serious
Speaker 1: outside of that and I'm having the time of my life.
Speaker 3: Why Broadway right now? Because you are featured in Luisa
Speaker 3: Key's Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker 1: And it's timing, bro Because for me, twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: was the hard pivot into acting. You know, the music
Speaker 1: thing has been so much of my bread and butter
Speaker 1: and so much of my focus for so long. I
Speaker 1: was like, I gotta get to the other thing that
Speaker 1: I love. And Charlie mccatt had always been telling me, Bro,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to make a hard pivot in order
Speaker 1: to really do it the right way. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. And with
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five coming in the way that it did
Speaker 1: and having a free moment and opportunity, I'd always heard
Speaker 1: horror stories about Broadway, you know what I mean, just
Speaker 1: in terms of the workload and the pain to pay,
Speaker 1: the facility, all of that, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I probably never do Broadway. And then I get you know,
Speaker 1: we get this call from Alisha like, hey, Alisha is
Speaker 1: looking for you to do what And I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: the name Alicia Keys is already like that's interesting. Got
Speaker 1: to at least see what that's about, right, And so
Speaker 1: I sent some papers over for me to look at
Speaker 1: the I'm like, okay, I'm looking at it. I'm all right,
Speaker 1: I'll go see you know what I mean, just out
Speaker 1: of respect for that name itself. So you want to
Speaker 1: watch the play before you absolutely? Okay. So you saw
Speaker 1: when Brandon V. Dixon was playing actually, well he wasn't
Speaker 1: he wasn't there. His sub was in Who's Who's Who's
Speaker 1: Who's Dope as well, And and I watched the play
Speaker 1: and I fell in love with it, and the next
Speaker 1: day was actually my walk in audition, and so I
Speaker 1: kind of knew where I needed to be and and
Speaker 1: at that point it was just like, I think it's time.
Speaker 1: I think I think it is. It has answered the
Speaker 1: question for me, I you know what I mean. Me
Speaker 1: and Lulu were telling my manager. Lulu was talking to
Speaker 1: He's like, I just it just does something different for you, brother,
Speaker 1: It just does something really different. And in deliberating, I
Speaker 1: was just deliberating, like is this the time to like
Speaker 1: just take a hard left and out of nowhere. Charlie
Speaker 1: Matt cost Me hadn't talked to in a minute, and
Speaker 1: he's like, what's going on wrong. I was like nothing,
Speaker 1: I'm just just chilling. He wanted to come to my
Speaker 1: Atlantic City show. I'm like, I got you, love, he said,
Speaker 1: I said the magic question. I got this on the
Speaker 1: table right now. And he said, what the fuck are
Speaker 1: we talking about? I said, well, I'm asking you. You
Speaker 1: don't need my opinion. You know what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: There was that here I am. And so you know
Speaker 1: when I said, I said with Alisha the other day
Speaker 1: learning Adam Blackstone, and she was like, tank, I just
Speaker 1: felt like it was you. It's like, I didn't know why.
Speaker 1: She's like it was it just to me, it just
Speaker 1: felt like it was you. And She's like, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know if he could act. And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: you ain't. You ain't seeing me on Lifetime or BT
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying a TV one, I'm the
Speaker 1: Denzel of that space. You know what I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 1: a Denzel of that space. You ain't sing none of that.
Speaker 1: But she had never seen me act, and she was like,
Speaker 1: and then when I saw you in the audition, she
Speaker 1: was like, I was just blown away. And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I do. Singing is that's whatever. And
Speaker 1: so she and I went back and forth, singing back
Speaker 1: and forth, her, you know, singing her amazing catalog and
Speaker 1: my debut on Tuesday. And so now it's like, how
Speaker 1: tough it's real?
Speaker 2: How tough is it to rehearsals? And do you have
Speaker 2: to shut everything else off? And do you need time
Speaker 2: for yourself now? Because it just seems like a does
Speaker 2: it stop.
Speaker 1: I'm a machine, So I'm a routine guy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I'm gonna get up, help get
Speaker 1: the kids to school, do cardio, eat, go to the gym,
Speaker 1: do the second lift, go to the studio, either work
Speaker 1: on music or do pod get back, eat, dinner with
Speaker 1: the family, get some lifetime in, and the next day
Speaker 1: do the same thing. I'm a machine. I'm built like that.
Speaker 1: So Broadway schedule works perfect for who I am now
Speaker 1: eight shows a week crazy. That's where it get different
Speaker 1: because you know they call it. You know, you have
Speaker 1: an A show, a B show, and a C show. In
Speaker 1: terms of how you perform. I've never been able to
Speaker 1: do a B show and feel good about it, like
Speaker 1: because all of those people, whether it's a Wednesday or Saturday,
Speaker 1: they spent their money to see something great. They spent
Speaker 1: their money to see somebody go all out. So I'm
Speaker 1: doing a shows from Tuesday to Sunday. And we got
Speaker 1: one day off that's Monday, and right back to it.
Speaker 4: What's your rest day? Like on a Monday?
Speaker 1: Like I just so I'm going to have my first
Speaker 1: Monday next to the next Monday. Nothing, go to the gym,
Speaker 1: you know, what I'm saying, he eats, eat some cool
Speaker 1: food somewhere. You know, maybe keep it Charlomagne and my
Speaker 1: heart and talk about this's awards. What about the family? Like,
Speaker 1: because family was just here. They came for the for
Speaker 1: the for the debut, My mom and then came up,
Speaker 1: wife zoeian Zion came up, and it was really it
Speaker 1: was really really cool. Man.
Speaker 3: The thirteen weeks is a long time to be away
Speaker 3: from them, especially if you've got a routine.
Speaker 1: Like you say, it's it's tougher for them than it
Speaker 1: is for me because for me, I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: hyper focused. I'm in it, and I have something to
Speaker 1: do every day, something to look forward to. And so
Speaker 1: you know, the wife is at home doing the kid
Speaker 1: thing and all that. But that's why, you know, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. It's a teen she holds that down.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hold this down. But this to me is
Speaker 1: like was the opportunity for people in that space to
Speaker 1: understand that I'm serious about going here. You know, Kevin
Speaker 1: was in town the other day, so when it you know,
Speaker 1: saw him and chopped it up with him and he
Speaker 1: was like, I'm really really proud of you for making
Speaker 1: this move. It says a lot about the next level
Speaker 1: of where you can go and who you can be.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I'm looking forward to. I'm loving
Speaker 1: like all the horror stories that they told me about Broadway,
Speaker 1: they lied to me. They were trying to keep me
Speaker 1: out of here. They didn't want me just you know,
Speaker 1: pay the facility, the workload and all these things. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: take you know that's not for you, you know, Oh.
Speaker 4: Man, I think it's a different day and age as
Speaker 4: far as like work rules and stuff. But also to
Speaker 4: you're like, you're I don't know if this is true,
Speaker 4: but I would feel like, because your tank, you're coming
Speaker 4: into it a little bit differently, where like they can't
Speaker 4: really play around with certain people too much.
Speaker 1: Now, well, I don't know. Of course, this is my
Speaker 1: first time doing it, and I think, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's Tank. I'm always going to be received differently, but
Speaker 1: I haven't desired, I haven't asked to be treated differently,
Speaker 1: you know, where they would maybe try to make concessions
Speaker 1: for me, and it's and certain things like no, I
Speaker 1: don't want that. I don't want to feel like that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. Like as soon as
Speaker 1: I walked in, I'm like, hey, guys, coach me hard,
Speaker 1: like don't don't don't handle me with kid gloves like
Speaker 1: I'm an athlete first, you know what I'm saying, like
Speaker 1: like like like let's cuss, let's really get into the
Speaker 1: ship of how this ship works, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And let's really grind it out, like don't don't treat
Speaker 1: me like and don't do that. And so once we
Speaker 1: established that, we got to work. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: want none of that preferential treatment. I'm new to Broadway,
Speaker 1: so I'm here to learn your ways, not vice versa.
Speaker 1: And so that's how I kind of introduce myself into
Speaker 1: the situation. And once you do that, everybody can They
Speaker 1: can be and do what they're supposed to do to
Speaker 1: get me where I need to be to be part
Speaker 1: of something great.
Speaker 3: Now, this is interesting because I remember on R and
Speaker 3: B Money podcast one time you said Jamie Fox had
Speaker 3: to keep you from quitting music. Yeah, and the way
Speaker 3: you in here talking about acting right now, you sound
Speaker 3: you got a new.
Speaker 1: Boo, got it in love, cuddle it, caud feet to feet,
Speaker 1: go to the side, or like you don't love music, No,
Speaker 1: more do I absolutely love me.
Speaker 3: You don't love the music business.
Speaker 1: For me? The music business is amazing. Okay, okay, but
Speaker 1: it's not all that I do, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And so you know the thing about me that you know,
Speaker 1: even retiring at one point was just I couldn't find
Speaker 1: you know, in losing my hearing and getting vertigo, I
Speaker 1: felt like I was running out of time, and it
Speaker 1: was so many other things I wanted to do. So
Speaker 1: are the many of the things that I loved that
Speaker 1: I wanted to get to. And then I was just
Speaker 1: blessed with the you know, the age old concept of
Speaker 1: time management. Simple. It sounds simple, but it's not, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And so it's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: for these three months, this is all I'll be doing. Well.
Speaker 1: I'll be leaving a lot of money on the table, absolutely,
Speaker 1: But will I be growing abs look.
Speaker 4: And positioning yourself very well? I think I haven't seen it,
Speaker 4: but I can imagine you on Broadway, but just because
Speaker 4: of how your voice is.
Speaker 1: When are your guys coming? I love Broadway. I'm coming.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely in the next week or so. Well. I
Speaker 1: have eight shows a week. I'm only off on Monday.
Speaker 1: So whenever you guys come, we'll set up.
Speaker 3: I saw Stephanie Mills was on Broadway. She was on
Speaker 3: a Damn I forgot what the show was called.
Speaker 1: And I saw Stephanie Mills on Broadway. Yeah, she was amazing.
Speaker 1: You got you're gonna love it. Bring it, bring it,
Speaker 1: Bring your kids.
Speaker 2: I take my kids off to the Lion's King, the
Speaker 2: Michael whatever, the kid friendly Broadway Place.
Speaker 1: Incredible. My seventeen year old daughter and my ten year
Speaker 1: old son at the time of their lives in this play.
Speaker 1: Alicia is seventeen, so it's really like it really meets
Speaker 1: these kids where they are. It's incredible. My daughter was
Speaker 1: crying and I was like it was it was a thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, coming out afterwards and seeing so many
Speaker 1: kids and signing autographs for kids, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: One of one of one of our one of our
Speaker 1: stars in the play, Keisha, she had a she had
Speaker 1: an acting school. These kids, these students that she works
Speaker 1: with that came up from New Mexico and there's a
Speaker 1: kids and they loved every minute of it. Like you know,
Speaker 1: for me, I'm like any high school in this New York,
Speaker 1: New Jersey Pennsylvani in this area. They should be having
Speaker 1: a field trip to see Hell's Kitchen. To me, it
Speaker 1: is it is that impactful of a moment for for
Speaker 1: young kids to see that are inspired aspiring to do anything.
Speaker 1: So you gotta shows the night. Yeah, oh ship chen.
Speaker 3: One one thing to Saturday, April twenty sixth and the
Speaker 3: third Annual Black Effect Podcast Festival.
Speaker 1: Yea make it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Saturday taking Jay Valentine is gonna be there.
Speaker 1: He's got I'll be there. Got one day off, that's okay,
Speaker 1: just making sure one day you have.
Speaker 3: Y'all thought about what that's gonna look like live R
Speaker 3: and B Money podcast on stage.
Speaker 1: Nope, Nope. We're thinking about it though, because it's got
Speaker 1: to be sexy. You know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 1: y'all gonna be singing. I'm hearing, guest, I've seen you
Speaker 1: in person. We can't do the pod. How come I
Speaker 1: got to sing? You said?
Speaker 4: Was wondering because I've seen you. And when you came
Speaker 4: back after you said you were retiring, you did something
Speaker 4: to the Peppermint Club and Jamie Fox was there.
Speaker 1: That's my album release, Yeah that I was there.
Speaker 3: With the label.
Speaker 4: It was my first time seeing I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: I was there with a fairly okay yea, So y'all
Speaker 4: gonna be singing, you don't have to.
Speaker 1: I just want to podcast. Man, he's seen you on
Speaker 1: the podcast. It seems podcast the spirit moves them. If
Speaker 1: the if this, if you know, if it moves me,
Speaker 1: then I promise you, yeah, you know, we gotta we gotta,
Speaker 1: we gotta figure out what that's going because this will
Speaker 1: be you know, this will be our first time doing
Speaker 1: it like we do it, first time doing it live. Well,
Speaker 1: we've done R and B Live, R and B Money Live,
Speaker 1: the event where it's been strictly catered, where it's banned
Speaker 1: DJ you know, karaoke vibes like that, really really dope.
Speaker 1: We've done that up up in Phoenix. Has stayed in
Speaker 1: with one of my guys two spots, so we've done that.
Speaker 3: But this is for people who like the podcast and
Speaker 3: enjoy the conversation exactly.
Speaker 1: So this is pod and conversation. So in terms of
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what makes ours a little different,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, we're still formulating that. Well.
Speaker 3: Saturday, April twenty six, third Annual Blackfec Podcast Festival, Go
Speaker 3: get your tickets Black Effect dot Com Slash Podcast Festival.
Speaker 1: Make sure you check our Tank in the Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker 3: What the weisha Key's on Broadway right now.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you, brother, I'm reporting on y'all. Man. If
Speaker 1: y'all don't, y'all don't show up. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: abroad with all the time. That's one of my I
Speaker 1: enjoy broad with absolutely, and when I'm not here, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, I still want to hear somebody say,
Speaker 1: if you've seen Hell's Kitchen, did you go? Did you
Speaker 1: you know? Let me tell Alicia in Swiss.
Speaker 3: We'll meet you up and make sure you subscribe to
Speaker 3: the R and B Money podcast on the Black Effect
Speaker 3: I Heeart Radio podcast network.
Speaker 1: That's right, It's Tank, ladies and gentlemen. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning. The
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club