Speaker 1: Cost Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: welcome to Part two of Kwame's interview on QLs Classic
Speaker 1: in October twenty eighteen. He went through so many stories
Speaker 1: about his.
Speaker 2: Childhood and growing up in his father's house and working
Speaker 2: with Herbie Lovebug and you know, Atlantic Records, and.
Speaker 3: That whole connection with Philly rappers and.
Speaker 2: Also the idol makers with Salt and Pepper and Kid
Speaker 2: and Play and all that stuff. You know, so much
Speaker 2: crazy buked out stories. Hope you enjoy Part two of
Speaker 2: QLs Classic and Kwamedy.
Speaker 4: Previously on West Loves Supreme, the legendary Kwame talks about
Speaker 4: growing up in Queens, discovered hip hop and rising and
Speaker 4: touring with the likes of Sony Pepper, can't play n.
Speaker 5: W w A, all that get stuck and uh when.
Speaker 4: You know I'm going to get into that lead thing
Speaker 4: as well. So here's part two. Of course, Love Supreme
Speaker 4: wouldn't okay, So I the one important aspect of your
Speaker 4: career that we've yet to get into, which is very
Speaker 4: vital to your career, is your sense of style and
Speaker 4: what you brought to it polka dots, the you know,
Speaker 4: two tuned hair, the crazy haircuts, and and the kind
Speaker 4: of the GQ dressing like.
Speaker 3: You were Urban Outfitters.
Speaker 5: I couldn't get.
Speaker 6: I couldn't get that I had a polka dot shirt.
Speaker 6: Mama will let me get the diamond, she would She
Speaker 6: wouldn't go.
Speaker 5: Poka shirt, wouldn't let me get the poke shirt.
Speaker 4: Me and to Rika brothers like we basically would just
Speaker 4: share three shirts like I had. I had the Urban
Speaker 4: Outfitters love shirt.
Speaker 7: Urban Outfitters.
Speaker 3: She was doing it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Urban outfit was Me and Toric would share that shirt,
Speaker 4: the preppie Benetton, the Coca Cola sweaters and all that stuff. Like, So,
Speaker 4: I mean your style was definitely it was it was.
Speaker 4: It was preppy and kind of progressive hip like, it
Speaker 4: wasn't street, you know, it wasn't dapper Danish. So what
Speaker 4: made you in the era where Dapper Dan was running
Speaker 4: ship and track suits and you know even with Philly,
Speaker 4: like with Alpianas and you know, the drug dealer looked
Speaker 4: like what made you like, Okay, I'm gonna go with this, Like.
Speaker 8: I think.
Speaker 9: Because of my influences and because of parental guidance. Actually,
Speaker 9: you know, like one of the biggest fights that I
Speaker 9: ever got into what my father was the fact that
Speaker 9: I went and I had a job at a sea
Speaker 9: town actually, and saved up my money and bought this
Speaker 9: fake fat rope, a sick giant fat rope, and my godfather,
Speaker 9: who was a cop, confiscated a beeper and gave it
Speaker 9: to me. So I had the beeper and the fat rope,
Speaker 9: and my father came downstairs and and that was just
Speaker 9: my rapper costume. And my father came into my room,
Speaker 9: I guess to get laundry or whatever he did, and
Speaker 9: he saw the fat rope and the beeper and he
Speaker 9: threw him out. So when I came home like it
Speaker 9: was my fat rope, it was my beeper. I'm about
Speaker 9: to go to this party. I gotta look like me
Speaker 9: and my pops, Like, you're not wearing that shit outside.
Speaker 9: You're not gonna, you know, look like a drug dealer.
Speaker 9: You know, on my watch, you're not doing that.
Speaker 8: No, but that's what I gotta do. That's that's me.
Speaker 8: That's that's that's I'm a rapper.
Speaker 9: Said, no, you're look an idiot, you know, like that's
Speaker 9: not even you you're not. You're not from that you
Speaker 9: wear you like to wear suits, you don't even wear
Speaker 9: you like to wear shoes. You asked me for money
Speaker 9: to buy you know. I definitely was into balleys and
Speaker 9: wingtips and all this stuff.
Speaker 8: What are you doing?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 9: And and we got into this knockdown, drag out fight,
Speaker 9: you know, like almost physical, like my pops had to
Speaker 9: like grip me up because I was popping so much shit,
Speaker 9: like you don't go in my room, touch my shit,
Speaker 9: you shit.
Speaker 3: Boom, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: It was like it was one of those.
Speaker 9: Things, and it was almost like a wake up call
Speaker 9: because then I sat there and I was like, you know,
Speaker 9: I cannot afford that a dat. I don't like to
Speaker 9: be fake in any way, shape or form. So I'm
Speaker 9: walking around with this orange, yellow and white looking chain
Speaker 9: that's been turning like the earth, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 9: the beeper don't work. You can't put the four one
Speaker 9: one on the nine one one in me, So like
Speaker 9: what it's not, It's not me, you know. And and
Speaker 9: I like to dress up. But then at the same
Speaker 9: time I know that I'm not I'm a different kid.
Speaker 9: I'm just I'm different, and I don't have a problem
Speaker 9: with expressing that there is a side of me that
Speaker 9: does like some of the hip hop things. So like
Speaker 9: if you look at like, for example, my first album,
Speaker 9: Covered Boy Genius, I'm sitting there, I have on a
Speaker 9: prepping Mickey Mouse shirt, you know, but I do have
Speaker 9: a sick cable tucked in the shirt. But and it
Speaker 9: was a real one. But that was like saying that, Okay,
Speaker 9: look I can go here, but I choose to go there,
Speaker 9: and you know, I had my nerd Wayfair glasses on,
Speaker 9: and it wasn't necessarily a gimmick at all. It was
Speaker 9: just saying that, look, man, I got to set myself apart.
Speaker 8: Now. The Polkadots came in three things.
Speaker 9: One, I was like, I said, I was a super
Speaker 9: big Prince fan, and Prince used to rock these on
Speaker 9: the Love Sexy tour in eighty seven and I just
Speaker 9: thought it was cool. And I used to love the
Speaker 9: Mad House album covered with the chick with the polka
Speaker 9: dot skirt on it, and I just wanted her to
Speaker 9: be my wife, man, I just like, I know, I wanted.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was always seeing it.
Speaker 9: So so I was like, you know, she can be
Speaker 9: my girlfriend, and I can just you know, but I
Speaker 9: can hip hop these like polka dots out a little bit.
Speaker 9: But then I'm like an overthinker. So I'm like, you know,
Speaker 9: anytime I look at I'm a heavy comic book guy.
Speaker 9: So like anytime somebody has like on polka dots, he's
Speaker 9: either the nerd or the clown or just the weird guy.
Speaker 9: So I think I'm gonna I like that. And like
Speaker 9: how you said you would share with with Tarik, I
Speaker 9: just had one Polkada shirt I swear, and I used
Speaker 9: that like five different ways. Was the shirt on my
Speaker 9: back of the album cover, same shirt. It was white
Speaker 9: with black dots, and I was like, I can find
Speaker 9: so many ways to match black and white.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my pokagont shirt was black with white dots.
Speaker 9: Yeah, So I just had my my white shirt black dots.
Speaker 9: I had a black tie with white dots, so if
Speaker 9: I had the shirt in that tie, I could just
Speaker 9: go crazy with the black and white and not spend
Speaker 9: any money. And then in the video it was my pajamas,
Speaker 9: and then on stage it was you know, my my
Speaker 9: stage stuff. But it never went really past the first
Speaker 9: album cover and then the video until I did my
Speaker 9: first show and everybody in the audience had on Polka
Speaker 9: dots and streaks in it here, and so I was like, Okay,
Speaker 9: somebody threw a joke on me, blah blah blah, and
Speaker 9: everywhere I would go, man, it was your Polka dots.
Speaker 9: And also I would never shop at normal stores.
Speaker 8: I was shot.
Speaker 9: There was a store in the village called Reminiscence, and
Speaker 9: Reminiscence only did repro fifties clothes. So I bought all
Speaker 9: my Polka dot ties from Reminiscence, all my Pokodat shirts.
Speaker 9: Everything I wore were reproduction fifties outfits. And then whatever
Speaker 9: thrift store I would find whatever, I would get everything
Speaker 9: from thrift stores and not spend. I was not chasing Gucci,
Speaker 9: I wasn't chasing Louis Vatano, Dappa Dan, and that just
Speaker 9: that was it. I was like, I'm not going to
Speaker 9: do that. I see I can buy NPC sixty instead
Speaker 9: of a fat chain. I can buy a SP twelve
Speaker 9: hundred instead of a two finger ring. And that's where
Speaker 9: it just all snowball from me.
Speaker 3: How did you sign? Who signed you to your first
Speaker 3: deal to Atlantic?
Speaker 9: So so Herbie Lovebug went to Sylvia Ron and so
Speaker 9: I got this kid act blah blah blah, and he,
Speaker 9: you know, the deal was met based on the fact
Speaker 9: that he was going to produce me, but Herbie was
Speaker 9: just so busy. Most of the album was already done.
Speaker 9: I'd like, saved up my money. And if anybody who's
Speaker 9: really deep into hip hop is a guy named Paul.
Speaker 5: C see Paul your Paul Seed disciple.
Speaker 8: Somewhat he taught.
Speaker 9: Paul taught me how to use the sp twelve and
Speaker 9: well basically it was a music It was called the
Speaker 9: Music Building in Queens and Paul had a studio, Studio
Speaker 9: twelve twelve. And I saved my money and I found
Speaker 9: out about it from a mutual friend. And I didn't
Speaker 9: understand what Paul was doing, you know, for hip hop
Speaker 9: at the time. I just knew it was a place
Speaker 9: I can record for cheap. So I went there and
Speaker 9: I was like, I got this amount of money. How
Speaker 9: many hours can I get? Eight hours?
Speaker 8: Cool? When can I get it? Christmas?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 5: Damn? Oh wow?
Speaker 3: Eight hours, eight songs.
Speaker 9: Midnight to eight o'clock in the morning Christmas Day? You
Speaker 9: want to do it? Fucking yeah? So I went and
Speaker 9: I did say, five of the eight songs on the
Speaker 9: Boy jeanis that on those eight houts because I figured
Speaker 9: that was all I'm want to get.
Speaker 8: But that's where the line came.
Speaker 9: That's that's how the line kind of formed itself because
Speaker 9: it was like, I gotta do this Christmas so so,
Speaker 9: but it really didn't mean anything because my father was
Speaker 9: like a devout Muslim, so I didn't really celebrate Christmas anyway.
Speaker 9: So I did did most of that album there, but
Speaker 9: gave it to Herbie. This was the second demo. Gave
Speaker 9: her the first demo he was not rocking with, so
Speaker 9: I gave him the second demo and the demo that
Speaker 9: demo had. If anybody's familiar with the album and had
Speaker 9: the song you had the rhythm on it, the mic
Speaker 9: is mind.
Speaker 8: Keep on doing? Yeah, the first one.
Speaker 9: There was another song called a New Beginning that never
Speaker 9: made the album. Is another song called mind Power that
Speaker 9: didn't make the album. And I want to say one
Speaker 9: more camera that's.
Speaker 7: Excuse me, dumb questions. So how much of your albums
Speaker 7: am I too? As soon? Did you produce everything that
Speaker 7: you wrapped on?
Speaker 8: Yeah? So so Herbie so to Herbie takes it in.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Herbie takes it in and you know, said, this
Speaker 9: is what I produced, and so she Sylvia gives me
Speaker 9: the deal. And I didn't have a problem with Herbie
Speaker 9: producing a record for me because you know, you know,
Speaker 9: I learned from him, so you know, hey, why not, well.
Speaker 4: Seeing his name on there let me that gave me
Speaker 4: the greenline. I don't know if I've been so quick
Speaker 4: to if you were just you and your name alone. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean the video was dope enough to meet me
Speaker 4: buy it, but definitely see I was like, oh, I
Speaker 4: gotta buy this because back then you brought the Birds
Speaker 4: of a Feather thing.
Speaker 9: So and then it said produced by Herbie Love Book
Speaker 9: and the Invincibles. So I was like, yo, man, I'm
Speaker 9: not gonna get no crazy no you the Invincibles.
Speaker 3: So who was the brother's Grim.
Speaker 9: The brother's Grim was just me and my boy A
Speaker 9: show are out. We used to like to come up
Speaker 9: with a lot of concepts, so major so so we
Speaker 9: would just sit around and come up with concepts. So
Speaker 9: just it was just like, you know, we're the brothers
Speaker 9: Grim and Grim. We we have a own We used
Speaker 9: to have our own little language, and we used to.
Speaker 8: Tell grims Grims were.
Speaker 9: Lies basically, So like say, for example, I'll say your
Speaker 9: Fante ninth one that said that you never wrote none
Speaker 9: of your wraps and you would be were talking about
Speaker 9: I said, no, I don't know.
Speaker 8: I was, I was.
Speaker 9: I was in a studio and he was just talking
Speaker 9: about talking so greasy about you. Man, I don't understand
Speaker 9: why why would he do that? And we would sit
Speaker 9: there and watch you just get heated. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 9: I'm talking about We've had like salt wanting to go
Speaker 9: fight emt like like like we would be terrible. So
Speaker 9: those were Grims. So when you get to your hottest point,
Speaker 9: we were like grim. So so that's where the brothers
Speaker 9: Grim came from, because that's what to the point where
Speaker 9: people would be.
Speaker 8: Like, look when they come around, don't say nothing.
Speaker 9: No, Yeah, So that that was how so Sylvia got
Speaker 9: the first demo and I just spent days and days
Speaker 9: and days waiting for Herbie to show up to give
Speaker 9: me a record, and I was like, man, I'm just
Speaker 9: gonna finish this shit up myself. And then you know,
Speaker 9: records like and this is how I met Slick Rick.
Speaker 9: For example, sweet Thing, I did Sweet Thing, and then
Speaker 9: somebody from the studio, and the studio was out of
Speaker 9: a house. It was a regular house and racist Bayside
Speaker 9: queens like we would I'm talking about. It was to
Speaker 9: the point where it was like old school seventies. Dudes
Speaker 9: with mullets and muscle cars.
Speaker 8: Would get out of the town nigger and chase something.
Speaker 9: We'd have to run into this house. And the house
Speaker 9: was owned by a man, Dave Ing, so it was
Speaker 9: like a Chinese family. So run into the Chinese house
Speaker 9: and downstairs was like the most incredible history making studio.
Speaker 9: All salt and pepper records, all kidn't play records, all
Speaker 9: of my records, day and day records.
Speaker 8: Everything was made out of this house and.
Speaker 5: Push it bathroom like where they did the vehicles.
Speaker 8: Yes, it's all in the bathroom. No, No, we had
Speaker 8: a we had a vocal vocal booth.
Speaker 9: But then there's you know between Herbie's bedroom, which was
Speaker 9: probably the push It was probably done there. But between
Speaker 9: Herbie's bedroom and this studio and Bayside called Bayside Sound,
Speaker 9: that's where everything was done. And I remember somebody calling me.
Speaker 9: It's like, yo, I think you need to get here quick,
Speaker 9: m So I'm running to the studio and I hear
Speaker 9: a beat that sounds like Sweet Thing playing, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 9: checking my ship. And then I get into the room
Speaker 9: and then you know, we had the two inch tapes,
Speaker 9: so I saw my two inch tape next to theirs.
Speaker 9: So I'm like, oh, somebody's really jacking. So I'm beefing, like, yo,
Speaker 9: who the fuck? So this dude is in there producing
Speaker 9: his beat off the Sweet Thing. I'm like, what the fuck, man,
Speaker 9: you jacking my ship? And then Dana comes running.
Speaker 8: No, no, that's Rick man, it's my man, Rick, slick Rick.
Speaker 8: Is your this year.
Speaker 5: About to go crazy?
Speaker 8: I'm like you just cause I was just seeing Flames.
Speaker 9: Man, my album didn't even come out yet, and somebody's
Speaker 9: trying to jacket and Rick was like, nah, you know
Speaker 9: he let me hear. I didn't know, so we're not
Speaker 9: going to use this because Rick was producing a record
Speaker 9: for Dana and you know, and that's, you know, my
Speaker 9: my introduction to slick Rick. But wow, it was crazy.
Speaker 9: So so back to the question, So Sylvia signed me.
Speaker 9: I was waiting for Harvey to finish producing. I was sixteen,
Speaker 9: so I had to get like I had to go
Speaker 9: to court and get a parental waiver. To sign the deal.
Speaker 9: And I just used to always be at the record label,
Speaker 9: just like a kid, hanging around, like anybody understandslantic records,
Speaker 9: like running into the office and chill. Not this is
Speaker 9: pre them, but running around and running into I'm at
Speaker 9: Erdigan's private office where he had made serving him breakfast
Speaker 9: and lunch, and like telling him how cool the record
Speaker 9: label is and he's looking.
Speaker 8: At me like I don't even know who you are,
Speaker 8: You're signed here, okay whatever.
Speaker 9: Or you know, and just hanging out with Sylvia and
Speaker 9: hanging out with the different because back then A and
Speaker 9: r's there were no an r's in our age range,
Speaker 9: in any way, shape or form. Everybody was like my parents' age,
Speaker 9: you know, Like my A and R was like the
Speaker 9: old jazz A and R guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah you know, did you work with Craig Common at
Speaker 4: all back when he was or what about uh, who's
Speaker 4: our guy reef?
Speaker 3: Oh uh no?
Speaker 8: Yeah no so so my an R, Well, Sylvia was
Speaker 8: my original an R. And then there was a guy
Speaker 8: named Merlin Bob Lecture.
Speaker 9: Yeah he was a yeah he was. He was under Sylvia.
Speaker 9: And then when Sylvia and Maryland were able to take over.
Speaker 9: When Sylvia was able to take over Electra and she
Speaker 9: changed the name to East West Maryland went with her
Speaker 9: and I felt like Mad abandoned. So then my A
Speaker 9: and R was guy named Richard Nash. Richard Nash is
Speaker 9: now the head of promotions at BMG if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 9: But Richard Nash was the head of Atlantic and he
Speaker 9: took my He took over, and he used to always
Speaker 9: confuse me with k Solo but that's.
Speaker 3: Fine, yeah, yeah both.
Speaker 9: He would introduce me, this is our artist kse Solo,
Speaker 9: the opposite of you and exactly, and and said.
Speaker 8: He was so.
Speaker 9: I said, but see what they were doing at that time.
Speaker 9: They were hiring house DJs to be A and L.
Speaker 9: So Meryland Bob was a big house DJ. My other
Speaker 9: A and R was a guy named Kevin Woodley. He
Speaker 9: was a big house DJ, and they were bringing them in.
Speaker 9: And then the first hip hop guy that came in
Speaker 9: was Clark Kent. So then they bring Clark Kent in,
Speaker 9: but he wasn't and that's when it started to kind
Speaker 9: of start. The industry started turning over and you're starting
Speaker 9: to let people actually know the music into the business.
Speaker 9: But it was real weird. They did not understand what
Speaker 9: to do with my records. They didn't really understand how
Speaker 9: to promote them. I was the first you know, solo
Speaker 9: male act sign. It was me, I want to say DC,
Speaker 9: but Doc was with Priorities, so it didn't really I
Speaker 9: mean ruthless, so it didn't really count. They were handling
Speaker 9: their own stuff. Mc light was with First Priorities, so
Speaker 9: she was handling her own stuff. But I was the
Speaker 9: one guy director on Atlantic, and it was just like,
Speaker 9: you know, my my publicist was you know, in her
Speaker 9: sixties at the time.
Speaker 8: It was just you know, it was just figure it out, man.
Speaker 3: It was real when the record became a success.
Speaker 6: What was it like to be sixteen years old in
Speaker 6: high school with like a hit record.
Speaker 9: Well, it was weird because by the time the record
Speaker 9: came out, they put me immediately on a tour. So
Speaker 9: I went to like this I don't know why I
Speaker 9: went to this thing, but I went to this alternative
Speaker 9: school in Bushwick.
Speaker 8: Brooklyn for like.
Speaker 9: Bad kids or pregnant teens or kids that risk I
Speaker 9: have to go to work to support a family, and
Speaker 9: but I was like full blown quame at the time,
Speaker 9: so I had to go to this. After that neighborhood
Speaker 9: was crazy.
Speaker 8: The school.
Speaker 9: The school wasn't bad. I don't think. I don't know,
Speaker 9: because I wouldn't have I didn't see anything. I had
Speaker 9: security guards, and he locked me up in this closet
Speaker 9: to do my work. I couldn't interact with.
Speaker 5: The kids, okay, because you were comment.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I had to be in I'm like, this
Speaker 8: is whack. And it was.
Speaker 9: You know, Herbie's management company recommended it because Spinderella had
Speaker 9: to go there, so so she went there the year before,
Speaker 9: and you know, I'm like, this is kind of whack.
Speaker 9: And I remember being in my regular high school and
Speaker 9: I would show up. This is pre me realizing who.
Speaker 8: I need to be, you know. I reverted a little bit.
Speaker 9: I got my advance money, and then I reverted to
Speaker 9: the gold chains and everything.
Speaker 8: I would like.
Speaker 9: Wear my goal chains and then I would borrow Herbie's
Speaker 9: gold chain. Then I bought Herbie's brother's goal chain, and
Speaker 9: I reverted to these gold chains. And I would walk
Speaker 9: around school, and they thought I was a drug dealer,
Speaker 9: so they would have they would hire a detective to
Speaker 9: follow me around. And when I found that out, I
Speaker 9: went to the principals office and this is how foul
Speaker 9: this was, went to the principal's office and showed him
Speaker 9: the layout of my album cover. I showed him the
Speaker 9: contract and said, well, this is what I do. I'm
Speaker 9: after school, I recall, I'm recording an album.
Speaker 8: So the principal.
Speaker 9: Looked at me and was like, well, if you're doing
Speaker 9: all this, why don't you just drop out?
Speaker 6: Spoken like a true education education?
Speaker 9: He said, why don't you just drop out? I don't
Speaker 9: know why would I do that? I'm saying because I
Speaker 9: was asking for permission to go on this nw A tour,
Speaker 9: and I was like, I know that there's a work
Speaker 9: study program. You know his name, I don't even remember.
Speaker 9: I don't remember half of my teachers. And I was like,
Speaker 9: there's a work study program. Why can't I just do that?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 9: You're going to be a big star, right, What do
Speaker 9: you need? What do you need this for? You know,
Speaker 9: and this is not the first time a teacher has
Speaker 9: told me that. Pre that, when I was in eighth grade,
Speaker 9: my math teacher was like, why would you go to
Speaker 9: art school? Or you do is sit around and try
Speaker 9: to wrap You're never going to become an artist.
Speaker 8: You know, you might as well just go to your
Speaker 8: own school, you know.
Speaker 9: So it's so it shows you like those type of
Speaker 9: teachers that didn't look like me and didn't understand what
Speaker 9: I do or what my perspective was. I was not
Speaker 9: a bad student in any stretch of their imagination. I
Speaker 9: may have been bored half the time so wouldn't show
Speaker 9: up to a class, But anybody to tell you I
Speaker 9: wasn't bad?
Speaker 3: What was your advance at that time? How much did
Speaker 3: they give you?
Speaker 8: Eleven? Yet that much?
Speaker 9: The first album cost sixty thousand dollars to make and
Speaker 9: I got eleven thousand out of it.
Speaker 8: That was my Evans eleven thousand dollars, I.
Speaker 4: Mean compared to other eighty nine brothers we heard that
Speaker 4: was Sylvia was sort of nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because Daylight solds did day three feet High? It
Speaker 3: was like twenty five dollars.
Speaker 8: It was supposed to be a but that wasn't a
Speaker 8: major label.
Speaker 5: Oh where did you say that?
Speaker 4: Because I remember that Funky Divers budget was two point
Speaker 4: five million.
Speaker 7: Wow, that was a lecture right or.
Speaker 8: East West?
Speaker 9: But so sixty that and the reason it was supposed
Speaker 9: to be one hundred and twenty but it was going
Speaker 9: to be an ep m HM. And I turned in
Speaker 9: the remainder of songs, and like, she didn't just give
Speaker 9: an album and say you can make it an album.
Speaker 9: We ain't giving you no more money. And I was like,
Speaker 9: I just thought the term having an EP I thought
Speaker 9: that was just whack.
Speaker 8: And I was like, nah, I want an album.
Speaker 9: So it was just an eight cut album supposed to
Speaker 9: be five cuts, not turned in the last three songs?
Speaker 3: What were the last three year? Remember?
Speaker 8: I don't I think I think the Manrion a love
Speaker 8: sweet thing. I don't even remember, to.
Speaker 6: Be honest, because always they seemed like the dope should
Speaker 6: always come at the end.
Speaker 9: I was it was never a beginning of the end.
Speaker 9: And it's just that I got three more songs to give, y'all.
Speaker 9: It wasn't you know. It wasn't like recorded in a
Speaker 9: certain way like oh this is the this is the
Speaker 9: hot one, It's the last song that I'm going to record.
Speaker 9: I don't it wasn't done that way.
Speaker 3: You didn't even know, like what your single was going
Speaker 3: to be, Like the rhythm, did you know?
Speaker 9: I had no idea? You know, we thought the man
Speaker 9: did we didn't hear. They didn't hear a commercial single
Speaker 9: off of that album. So the most. Yeah, of course
Speaker 9: they were definitely looking forward. So and I was very
Speaker 9: you know, in the beginning, I was very I was
Speaker 9: into being lyrical and telling stories and more serious about
Speaker 9: and the man we all know, One Love was a
Speaker 9: parody record technically, and I was if you look on
Speaker 9: the on the vinyl, it doesn't say it was performed
Speaker 9: by me. It was a character that I had called
Speaker 9: he Me and he is me so so he Me.
Speaker 9: That was just like a parody of just bugging out.
Speaker 9: That was like a bug out, you know. And that
Speaker 9: was like a throwback to Prince when Prince had his
Speaker 9: little come so so HEMI was like that, and they
Speaker 9: were like, we want this to be the single. I'm like, what,
Speaker 9: that's how heem you record? That's not even supposed to be.
Speaker 9: Like now, it's very entertaining and so you know you
Speaker 9: can visualize the and and my man Paris bar Clay,
Speaker 9: who's like in the video, right, yeah.
Speaker 8: He directed the video.
Speaker 3: Is he still alive?
Speaker 9: Yeah, Paris, you know, shout to Paris, because you know
Speaker 9: Paris is dope now like he he goes in like
Speaker 9: he's responsible for sons of anarchy.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we gotta get Paris Barkley run around the Way girl,
Speaker 7: just because I have never heard anybody talk about her
Speaker 7: in the last teen years. Anybody seemed big.
Speaker 9: Last all the time she was at my house, not
Speaker 9: even a year ago.
Speaker 8: She's in l A.
Speaker 10: Yep's in l A's from my neighborhood.
Speaker 8: I can link.
Speaker 7: Check check check it out.
Speaker 9: So so so Paris, you know, me and Paris came
Speaker 9: up with the idea for the man we all know
Speaker 9: in love and you know you mentioned Malcolm. Malcolm was
Speaker 9: studying under Paris to direct, and so Malcolm wanted to learn.
Speaker 9: So he came on the set and I was like, yo,
Speaker 9: you want to get in the videos? Like yeah, but
Speaker 9: you got to let my homeboy Brian in. And so
Speaker 9: this is a random kid like in the beginning, you know,
Speaker 9: in all the faces that you know, and then there's
Speaker 9: like a one guy that you don't know and that's
Speaker 9: his home book, so you know, because Brian was trying
Speaker 9: to be an actor at the time. So you know,
Speaker 9: it was just but and that was another thing that
Speaker 9: I don't think happens anymore.
Speaker 8: If you got win that there was a.
Speaker 9: Video being filmed, everybody showed up, you might not be
Speaker 9: in the video. Like, for example, I remember what EPMD
Speaker 9: record this was, but I remember that we've got when
Speaker 9: that they were filming in Central Park. We got to
Speaker 9: Central Park and I remember seeing Malcolm there. I'm like,
Speaker 9: what you're doing it? I'm just here and I was like,
Speaker 9: where's the video?
Speaker 3: Yo? It's underground?
Speaker 5: Like what so what you're saying?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 9: So we climbed down the sewer. Yeah, and everybody's in this.
Speaker 9: I'm like, how did.
Speaker 8: Y'all get a permit in a sewer? It was like
Speaker 8: it was like a.
Speaker 9: Whole city under Central Park, you know, and I think
Speaker 9: everybody if you found out that there was a video,
Speaker 9: everybody would show up just you know, you may get in,
Speaker 9: you may not get in it. But it was like,
Speaker 9: you know, an on set party at all times. So
Speaker 9: so so.
Speaker 4: Wait, A question about your performance is because in sort
Speaker 4: of slick brick mode or what you were saying your
Speaker 4: Prince Camille thing, because you did these character voices, uh,
Speaker 4: sometimes using your natural voice, sometimes very speeding your high voice.
Speaker 5: How would that come off in concert?
Speaker 4: Because I mean sometimes you were like three you were
Speaker 4: like your own muppets almost, You're like three characters.
Speaker 8: I would do it. I was just you know.
Speaker 9: You you know, just saying those I wasne man, you know,
Speaker 9: it was just like you know, I would just do it,
Speaker 9: or with the aid of the audience they would know some.
Speaker 8: Of those parts too. So so it was never I
Speaker 8: never thought about like that.
Speaker 11: But in which a question, Oh put you on the spot, Bill,
Speaker 11: this is this has to do with the second album too,
Speaker 11: almost there anyway, So on the second album, you introduced
Speaker 11: me to an album that I actually wouldn't hear for
Speaker 11: another four years.
Speaker 3: And I want to know if you cleared the sample
Speaker 3: on Skinny Mother.
Speaker 8: Yeah? Wait, what how Prince you clear Bob George?
Speaker 5: Okay, But what I.
Speaker 9: Want to know is further, even further than that, he
Speaker 9: allowed me to use I went Prince crazy on my
Speaker 9: third album.
Speaker 8: And I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 9: Know who who called me two people I got like
Speaker 9: super permission from two like whoever was running Joe Bet Music.
Speaker 9: Somebody from Joe Bet called my house. My mother answered
Speaker 9: the phone, somebody Joe Bett. I'm like, wait a minute,
Speaker 9: like you know what we you know, we're like what
Speaker 9: you're doing? Whatever Joe Records you ever want to use,
Speaker 9: you can you have full I'm like all right, and
Speaker 9: controversy music. I don't know who it was. I don't
Speaker 9: know when they called and was like, yo, man, it's
Speaker 9: not a problem, you know, and and you know, my
Speaker 9: my my experience, you know, I think you know, I
Speaker 9: know you you've had better experiences with him than I have.
Speaker 8: I've never had. I don't think I've had a good
Speaker 8: experience with him.
Speaker 9: But but he allowed me to use music when he
Speaker 9: wasn't allowing anybody to use.
Speaker 7: What does that mean? I'm sorry? Does that mean I
Speaker 7: never had a good experience.
Speaker 11: I think what it might have been because I kind
Speaker 11: of viewed you as a prince figure because you did
Speaker 11: it all and I.
Speaker 9: Was cool with like me and Jerome Benton was super cool.
Speaker 9: Me and Marris were cool, you know. So I don't
Speaker 9: I don't know. And I know that members like Tony
Speaker 9: m and other members of the crew would tell me
Speaker 9: that they listened as a collective listen to my music.
Speaker 9: So so I guess that I was in and around.
Speaker 8: I guess that helped out.
Speaker 9: But like I said, my personal interactions with him personally
Speaker 9: was never like it was not a super dope experience.
Speaker 6: Talk about Tasha, like I have, I have a thing
Speaker 6: where I just always keep tabs on, like all like
Speaker 6: obscure arm and B singers.
Speaker 9: So Tasha, this is a very interesting story. And I
Speaker 9: never let her live it down. Man, I get her
Speaker 9: every time. So Tasha and my girl Angie Angie would
Speaker 9: later on go on to write Empire State of Matt
Speaker 9: the singing part. But Angie and Tasha Angie used to
Speaker 9: know my boy. How Angie introduced me to Tasha. I
Speaker 9: used to think she looked like Shade, and then she
Speaker 9: said she could sing. So I wanted to make like
Speaker 9: hip hop Shota records.
Speaker 8: And they were a group.
Speaker 9: I can't even remember the group that I named them.
Speaker 9: They were like my version of Salt and Pepper but
Speaker 9: singing and rapping, and I made like the.
Speaker 8: Worst records for them. They were the worst.
Speaker 9: They had a single called the mic is My Boyfriend.
Speaker 9: It was like it was like this super whack record.
Speaker 9: I don't know what I was. It was very whack.
Speaker 9: But Only Only You was made for two reasons. One,
Speaker 9: Vanessa Williams was looking for a hip hop dance type record,
Speaker 9: and I wanted to marry Vanessa Williams, so I wrote
Speaker 9: Only You for her and I only girl female singer
Speaker 9: and no no and he goes even bigger thing. T
Speaker 9: Shena Arnold. Little sister Zena went to school with me
Speaker 9: and Zanae is a incredible singer. So Zenay I brought
Speaker 9: Zenay from school. Can you sing this song? I wrote
Speaker 9: called only You? So Zena sings only You, and I
Speaker 9: want Zena to be down. But they were very religious
Speaker 9: and their pops was not half in the secular music,
Speaker 9: not at all. So the second singer they only knew two,
Speaker 9: and the second one was Tasha.
Speaker 3: Where you're from?
Speaker 9: Tasha's from Brooklyn, from East flat Bush, Brooklyn. So Tasha
Speaker 9: comes in, and if you really listen to Only You,
Speaker 9: you will hear two separate singers. So Tasha singing, Tasha
Speaker 9: singing the lead, and a lot of the ad libs,
Speaker 9: but the first hook, the first hook ad libs is
Speaker 9: an A and the harmonies in A and then Tasha
Speaker 9: comes in after that. So that was and I didn't
Speaker 9: care because it was a demo for Vanessa Williams wait,
Speaker 9: so supposed to.
Speaker 7: Say, yeah, I can't, I won't even hear that loud.
Speaker 5: And that was comfort zone one.
Speaker 7: This would have been giving you the benefit.
Speaker 5: STUF was eighty eight.
Speaker 9: What song replaced nothing replaced it because I missed the album.
Speaker 9: Ah okay, so Herbie pretty much put me onto it,
Speaker 9: excuse me, and Herbie wanted I think Herbie wanted me
Speaker 9: to do it, and then he was going to say
Speaker 9: he produced it, and so it just didn't happen. But
Speaker 9: then at the same time, radio was doing this campaign
Speaker 9: against rap and they would do this thing called a
Speaker 9: no Rap work Day ninety nine was the first station,
Speaker 9: but it was around the country or no rap crap Yes, so.
Speaker 8: From six am to six pm, no rap was allowed.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 9: So my thing was, Yo, put this record out. Don't
Speaker 9: say it's a rap record. Act like it's an R
Speaker 9: and B record from Atlantic. You know, let the arm
Speaker 9: because because Atlantic was separating, it was Atlantic Street, and
Speaker 9: Atlantic Street would do all hip hop Atlantic Proper would
Speaker 9: do like in the Vogue records and everything. So like, no,
Speaker 9: let the Atlantic Proper push this record to radio and
Speaker 9: let's see what happens. Wake up six in the morning
Speaker 9: and it goes only you. So it was just like
Speaker 9: it was really a social social experiment. But back to Tasha,
Speaker 9: I'm rambling. So Tasha, Sylvia gave Tasha a deal. So
Speaker 9: I go in the studio and while I'm recording my second,
Speaker 9: my third album, I'm recording Tasha's album at the same time.
Speaker 9: We actually and why you probably saw me in Philly
Speaker 9: a lot.
Speaker 8: Stone Creek Studios.
Speaker 9: The boys Man Studio used to be a studio called
Speaker 9: K JIM, and I pretty much owned K JAM. I
Speaker 9: had a house in Manyunk and I rented, and I
Speaker 9: lived in KJM and.
Speaker 8: You know all the owners. You know, we were all
Speaker 8: good friends.
Speaker 9: And I was doing the two albums, was at the
Speaker 9: same time, and the album got finished. I don't know
Speaker 9: if it was good, And honestly, I can't say if
Speaker 9: it was good because.
Speaker 3: I wasn't like my boyfriend's song scrap, but my.
Speaker 9: R and B chops wasn't where they like they are now,
Speaker 9: so it was just it wasn't. Yeah, I would bring
Speaker 9: I would bring some you know, like I'm I can't
Speaker 9: play every instrument in the world, so I would bring
Speaker 9: people in, but you know, I would play it, you know,
Speaker 9: electronically first and then you know, have somebody come in and.
Speaker 8: So so mainly strings, mainly horns. I don't like.
Speaker 9: I don't like fake strings and horns for nothing, and
Speaker 9: I don't like fake guitars or bass so you know,
Speaker 9: those four elements always.
Speaker 8: Put in.
Speaker 9: And then after recording that album, Tasha and I were
Speaker 9: in a relationship, and during that record we stopped being
Speaker 9: in a relationship, and she became, she became and you know,
Speaker 9: she got into a high school boyfriend, high school sweetheart
Speaker 9: and later her husband, and so they're in their relationship
Speaker 9: and he's full roster.
Speaker 8: So she becomes full roster dead in the middle of this.
Speaker 7: What does that mean? What does that tell me?
Speaker 9: Because you know, she starts, you know, she starts coming
Speaker 9: in locks, she starts coming in looking like Freddie from
Speaker 9: a different, different world. And and and for me, I
Speaker 9: understood that the nineties were coming in and that was
Speaker 9: the wave. But for me, I was like, yo, if
Speaker 9: it ain't GQ, it ain't strictly GQ going to fly. Nah, man,
Speaker 9: you're looking crazy out here looking them.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I was one of them.
Speaker 9: So you know, you know, it's like no, don't you
Speaker 9: know people were, you know, replacing flat tops for locks.
Speaker 8: And it was like, no, you got to keep sharp.
Speaker 8: You know. It was just on my little one year
Speaker 8: dumb stuff. So so she.
Speaker 9: And and and you know, nothing against anybody who partakes
Speaker 9: in in the Mary Jane, but I'm not. I don't drink,
Speaker 9: I don't smoke, and I don't want that in my environment,
Speaker 9: my work environment. I want my work environment conducive to
Speaker 9: how I live so I can have the best creative process.
Speaker 8: That's just me.
Speaker 4: So if you so, when.
Speaker 9: You're full blown Rosta, you're you're your outlook is different
Speaker 9: than that. So we started clashing creatively, but we still
Speaker 9: pushed on. But then from Roster they became like super saved.
Speaker 7: Christ that the Jeho.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so the super like I'm talking to about.
Speaker 9: It's quite a swing, right, but that's that's Tasha. So
Speaker 9: she knows that I'm not saying anything bad about her.
Speaker 9: She understands how teaser every I talk to her all
Speaker 9: the time. So so Tasha becomes, you know, the female
Speaker 9: Jerry Farwell or somebody. She's like, she's like a missionary,
Speaker 9: like everything is God is great, Guy is good good cool? No, no, no,
Speaker 9: she's back to so she's like a mix of everything.
Speaker 9: Now actually she's half Roster have Tasha have evangelists. So
Speaker 9: the album is done and it's being mastered. At this point,
Speaker 9: her solo album y she called Sylvia. The Lord tells
Speaker 9: me I cannot move any further.
Speaker 8: Oh the Lord with this literally music.
Speaker 7: For her signature saying something different though.
Speaker 8: I request and my church requests, let me out of
Speaker 8: my car.
Speaker 7: So what please tell me with Sylvia?
Speaker 12: Yeah whatever, Because you think about it like this, A
Speaker 12: lot of artists don't seem to understand there are two
Speaker 12: and I think Tasha probably fell into this category.
Speaker 9: And you know, artists will never want to admit it
Speaker 9: or or fear that fear this, but there are certain
Speaker 9: artists that are signed just for a tax right off.
Speaker 9: A label gets a high budget every quarter, so you gotta.
Speaker 3: You have to do.
Speaker 8: You gotta dump that money. Man.
Speaker 9: So if you give me one hundred and twenty grand
Speaker 9: to do Tasha's album and it don't come out, that
Speaker 9: is a write off.
Speaker 8: That is a good thing for.
Speaker 9: You and your your your your your quarterly balanced because
Speaker 9: it was something you spent. It didn't work cool, but
Speaker 9: it was an expense. It was a loss, and now
Speaker 9: we don't have to pay this much tax, so I
Speaker 9: think so. So you know, at that time, Sylvie had
Speaker 9: Keith Sweat, she had Gerald of Vert, she had in Vogue.
Speaker 9: Buster was coming in.
Speaker 8: You know, It's like Tasha, you know.
Speaker 9: And and nothing against the music that I did or Tasha,
Speaker 9: but it was just you know, it wasn't it didn't
Speaker 9: it didn't make a dent in her so with then
Speaker 9: Tasha started working for ASCAP and became head of special
Speaker 9: Awards at ASCAP. And she did that for a while.
Speaker 9: You know, her and her husband got married at a
Speaker 9: child they opened a dope candy store and parks Little
Speaker 9: Brooklyn called rappers Delight to put a dope candy store,
Speaker 9: you know, you know, and that that lasted for a
Speaker 9: few years and then you know, she just she's living life.
Speaker 9: She you know, she sings when she feels like singing,
Speaker 9: but you know, she just she's a mom.
Speaker 4: Okay, I have a question that concerns my group. How
Speaker 4: did you discover Kamal when he was newborn? You don't
Speaker 4: know that newborn.
Speaker 5: They kind of had a cover of I forget their name.
Speaker 5: They sound like a law for him.
Speaker 8: That came out newborn newborn, I mean Camal.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 9: Jimmy, Jimmy, well he was Jimmy at the time. Dave
Speaker 9: Howard was Jimmy like fourteen.
Speaker 4: He was fourteen, So Jimmy always stuck out.
Speaker 8: Well, like I said, he was fourteen he was fourteen.
Speaker 9: I was nineteen, so eighteen and yeah, I was like
Speaker 9: nineteen and the owner of k Jem Studios, my man,
Speaker 9: Kurt Kurt Sure Kurt, brought the group to me. And
Speaker 9: there was a group out of North Philly. It was
Speaker 9: a young kid at the time. He was seven years
Speaker 9: old and he was a drumming prodigy. His name is Sammy,
Speaker 9: and Sammy was he was a prodigy and his father
Speaker 9: was a prodigy, Big Sammy, and so they wanted to
Speaker 9: form a hip hop Jackson five things. So it was
Speaker 9: Sammy on the drums and rhyming, and his sister on
Speaker 9: a keyboard, and then there was a cousin on the bass. No,
Speaker 9: there was a brother, Mike. Mike was on the bass,
Speaker 9: and then another cousin played another keyboard, and that was
Speaker 9: the group. But the music wasn't wasn't dope, and they
Speaker 9: had a deal. I can't even remember what deal. I
Speaker 9: think there was like TVT, I can't even remember what
Speaker 9: label this was. They had a deal, but it just
Speaker 9: wasn't dope. So they brought me in to clean up.
Speaker 9: They brought me in to rewrite all the rhymes, teach
Speaker 9: him how to rhyme, redo all the ideas that they
Speaker 9: already had relativity. Relativity, yes, teach him how to do
Speaker 9: you know, redo the records? So you know, I was
Speaker 9: the cleanup man. But the father wasn't having it. He
Speaker 9: was like, I don't want to say Joe Jackson, yo.
Speaker 9: It was it was different, man. It was like that
Speaker 9: Falling in Love record that I did did very well
Speaker 9: in certain regions. So we would perform at six Flags
Speaker 9: and I would be in the group. I would be like,
Speaker 9: how how you would have like Rashad Smith on the
Speaker 9: drum machine while the real band I would be like
Speaker 9: on my NPC playing with the band and probably a
Speaker 9: keyboard here and there, just to keep that element going.
Speaker 9: And they were so afraid of their dad that they
Speaker 9: would perform to the side to him. There would be
Speaker 9: ten thousand people in the audience, but they would performed
Speaker 9: to the dad, and the father would be giving thumbs
Speaker 9: up and thumbs down during the performance and extremely abusive,
Speaker 9: extremely abusive, to the point where he had to get
Speaker 9: dealt with, like between me and the dad, you know,
Speaker 9: and I think my bond would Kamal was based on
Speaker 9: that because we weren't When Kamal was on the guitar
Speaker 9: so when he was brought in, he was the guitar
Speaker 9: player slash barber.
Speaker 5: He played guitar with us sometimes before.
Speaker 9: So Kamal and I bonded because we were the We
Speaker 9: were the outside guys. We weren't in their family. So
Speaker 9: it would be like, yo, man, did you see what
Speaker 9: the pops just did to the brother, like you know,
Speaker 9: and and and and I kind of like gripped him
Speaker 9: up like little brother, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 9: and and and That's how we we bonded from that
Speaker 9: group because we would go on the road like and
Speaker 9: and like Gilly the kids. Pops was down with the
Speaker 9: whole thing too, so young Gilly would be around like
Speaker 9: eight year old kid, you know. So so it would
Speaker 9: be like and you know, rest in peace because old
Speaker 9: the Samy's dead, so I can tell the story. We
Speaker 9: would be in k jam and I remember, you know,
Speaker 9: they would getting the advance and the father had no
Speaker 9: teeth in his mouth. Father would come and like, you know, man,
Speaker 9: you know, we write these records and we do these things.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 9: You know, you know, I like the fact that you
Speaker 9: came in with your published, with your records and everything.
Speaker 9: But you know, I gotta say I wrote them records. Man,
Speaker 9: I'm like, well, first of all, you know, I'm not
Speaker 9: homie from down the block, you know, like I do
Speaker 9: have a name to myself, you know, so let's let's
Speaker 9: not forget this. Second of all, there's no way you're
Speaker 9: gonna get my publishing. Oh man, I'm getting that publishing.
Speaker 9: And you ain't gonna leave this studio without it a word.
Speaker 9: So we get to rumbling in the studio what so
Speaker 9: like very much? So yes, I mean, you know, but
Speaker 9: but so we're we're in the studio and it doesn't
Speaker 9: turn out well for Sammy. But the funny thing is
Speaker 9: we have to go on tour the next day, so
Speaker 9: I wish I could find this video. We're sitting on
Speaker 9: the plane sam he got the busted lip. I got
Speaker 9: a busted lip. Were all sitting there like the next
Speaker 9: thing we gotta do is a six flag show. And
Speaker 9: then I was like why am I and me? And
Speaker 9: Camal's like why are you even here? Like why are
Speaker 9: you even dealing with this? And I'm like, why are
Speaker 9: you dealing with this? And then I remember he called
Speaker 9: me up one day He's like, yo, man, being another group.
Speaker 3: What it's like, Yo?
Speaker 9: The roots I'm gonna be in the roots, like yeah, right,
Speaker 9: And I remember he gave me a call the day
Speaker 9: whatever whatever y'all did the yeah that because matter of fact,
Speaker 9: me and him went to see y'all at the track
Speaker 9: of Darrow I believe opening for Trot Yeah, and I
Speaker 9: was like, Yo, that is the dope group.
Speaker 8: It's like, yeah, man, it's they do. So for them
Speaker 8: to tell me, for him to call me, it's.
Speaker 5: Like maybe that group be seen.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: I'm in that group now, and I'm like, show that's
Speaker 8: what you want to do? You know?
Speaker 9: Is it anything like Newborn? It's like the real everybody
Speaker 9: knows how to play the music, you know, not like
Speaker 9: just one person.
Speaker 8: So so you know, you know that's how you know
Speaker 8: we are bonders. You know a bond is that old?
Speaker 3: Wo?
Speaker 8: So now you know why I hang out backstage you
Speaker 8: see me.
Speaker 5: I'm doing I proud.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna ask this question from a different angle, right.
Speaker 5: Have you and Biggie ever had a sit down or
Speaker 5: talk before?
Speaker 3: Never?
Speaker 8: Yes? Oh more than that what.
Speaker 3: You made it because you made a record on him?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 8: No, never, I never made a record on Biggie.
Speaker 9: But the video had visuals that that record was done right,
Speaker 9: It was like a year before Ready To That even
Speaker 9: came out. That record was done going through a real
Speaker 9: whack period on a real whack independent label. And yeah,
Speaker 9: it's wow.
Speaker 8: That was that.
Speaker 9: That experience is a movie in itself in Atlanta, Kennesaw, Georgia,
Speaker 9: and it was it was run by an old English,
Speaker 9: proper english man named John.
Speaker 8: And John would sip his tea every day.
Speaker 9: At four o'clock and and he would tell us what
Speaker 9: to you know, we do not want samples on this record.
Speaker 9: We would like you to like all your live instrument
Speaker 9: wrong and you know, very proper. And you know, you
Speaker 9: would go into John's office and you're like in somewhere
Speaker 9: in Surrey, somewhere. You know, it wasn't like anything. You
Speaker 9: didn't even think you were in Georgia.
Speaker 8: It were.
Speaker 9: He had like toy trains and weird stuff. So but
Speaker 9: so we do this at your Bond record.
Speaker 3: And this is the Incognito.
Speaker 9: Yes, Incognito album actually my favorite, one of my favorite productions,
Speaker 9: honestly because I was forced to learn not to sample,
Speaker 9: you know, I was forced to bring in a lot
Speaker 9: of live instrumentation and singers and just re imagine things
Speaker 9: that I could have easily sampled, and it was like,
Speaker 9: now now I'm gonna go in and actually be a producer.
Speaker 8: That I did.
Speaker 9: I become so so with Big I.
Speaker 8: Never took it personally.
Speaker 9: Somebody sent me the tape, a tape of the song
Speaker 9: like maybe six months before a record came out. I
Speaker 9: thought it was dope. I loved the record. I love Unbelievable,
Speaker 9: and I think people made it bigger than what it
Speaker 9: was because the wave changed so drastic that whatever bad
Speaker 9: Boy said or whatever death Row said was lost. So
Speaker 9: here you go somebody like me. You know, I have
Speaker 9: no beef with nobody. You know, I'm not that type
Speaker 9: of guy in any way, shape or form, you know,
Speaker 9: for the most part, and and everything that I represented
Speaker 9: was about, you know, just being laid back, cool, fun,
Speaker 9: having fun, blah blah blah. So then you have Biggie
Speaker 9: come out say that, you know, my style life has
Speaker 9: played out like the polkas blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: It's cool.
Speaker 9: But then people take that literally. You know, it's like
Speaker 9: it was a literal thing. I would come some going
Speaker 9: somewhere and it's like I don't let quame in.
Speaker 8: He's played out like, you know what, stupid shit like that.
Speaker 8: So Incognito album comes out, and.
Speaker 9: My only way to address it because this is not
Speaker 9: like the land of you know, you can make an album.
Speaker 8: You know, you have forty eight hours to respond.
Speaker 9: You know, all right, that doesn't happen in nineteen ninety
Speaker 9: three ninety four. So it's like I gotta go and
Speaker 9: make a record, you know what I'm saying. I gotta
Speaker 9: make a whole full record and get it pressed up
Speaker 9: and hand it to DJ. You know, like I don't
Speaker 9: have time on money for that, you know. So the
Speaker 9: only way to respond some way is to put a
Speaker 9: Biggie look alike in the What's It Like?
Speaker 8: Video?
Speaker 9: And it was just him in the background and people
Speaker 9: throwing stuff at him while he was on stage and
Speaker 9: his shirt said sad boy or whatever. And the thing was,
Speaker 9: Biggie was so hot at the time. Even the extras
Speaker 9: was not trying.
Speaker 3: To do it.
Speaker 9: It's like, yo, man, we can't do that, man, you know,
Speaker 9: woof we come in here. They thought everything he said
Speaker 9: was like, really, he might shoot us, man, he might,
Speaker 9: you know, like they were so brainwashed and some people
Speaker 9: still are, you know, like you know, it's like he's
Speaker 9: God to a lot of people, so you know, the
Speaker 9: brainwash was serious. So there was this thing if you actually,
Speaker 9: if you listen to reasonable doubt, there's a skit and
Speaker 9: a lady named Maria Davis, and she does a thing
Speaker 9: called Mad Wednesdays.
Speaker 8: So that's a real thing. So Mad Wednesdays.
Speaker 9: So on Mad Wednesday, I was supposed to perform. Was
Speaker 9: Biggie supposed to perform, Dave or was he just there? Yeah,
Speaker 9: So everybody came out to see to see me perform,
Speaker 9: and big was there. Meann't say anything, but Marie just
Speaker 9: like straight instigated it.
Speaker 10: Man.
Speaker 8: It's like you here, Biggie's here. Why don't y'all just
Speaker 8: deal with it now?
Speaker 9: Oh my god, you know, why don't you deal with
Speaker 9: it now?
Speaker 8: Why don't y'all just deal with it now? You know
Speaker 8: how y'all want to do it. Y'all can take it
Speaker 8: to the stage. I can take it outside how y'all
Speaker 8: want to do it, But y'all both here. We can't
Speaker 8: have y'all both here and have this issue.
Speaker 9: So it's so funny because it's like I'm still me,
Speaker 9: so I'm in a I remember exactly what I was
Speaker 9: when I was in a full black, like a money
Speaker 9: suit with slip slip ons and a black turtleneck looking
Speaker 9: like shaft And I remember Big in one of those
Speaker 9: nasty looking coogie sweaters and he came over and he's
Speaker 9: like five times bigger than me. I'm like only five six,
Speaker 9: he's like six two sixty three. He comes over and
Speaker 9: he's rolling like the biggest blunt I've ever seen in
Speaker 9: my life. It was like the size of this microphone
Speaker 9: is LANs like.
Speaker 8: You gotta fucking problem with me. I was like, no,
Speaker 8: you gotta fucking problem with So we're in there talking
Speaker 8: and I'm like, what am I gonna do with this
Speaker 8: big This big motherfucker's gonna kill me and all his boys.
Speaker 9: And the funny thing is I know so many people
Speaker 9: from so many places, which is a good thing. Like
Speaker 9: a lot of the people that's from his area I knew.
Speaker 9: So it was like it was just weird to know
Speaker 9: that I just had a problem with this guy for.
Speaker 8: No real reason.
Speaker 9: Yeah a word, just like he said things like that
Speaker 9: about so many people on that album.
Speaker 8: But I don't know how I caught that bullet.
Speaker 9: So we're in there just popping ship to each other,
Speaker 9: and I remember little seeds came in between us.
Speaker 8: I think that's supposed to be loving you and being
Speaker 8: and all. It's just all this commotion.
Speaker 9: I remember the dudes that I was with, I'm naming
Speaker 9: no names. Am I gonna say? You, Davey?
Speaker 5: Where are you there?
Speaker 8: Where are you there? So back to yo.
Speaker 9: I never knew that the two guys that I was
Speaker 9: with knew how to moonwalk, so well, oh my god,
Speaker 9: there was moonwalking and I saw it's just me in
Speaker 9: a suit, biggie and every person in Brooklyn, everybody in
Speaker 9: the seven one A area. Cord was right there, and
Speaker 9: I was like, this is some ship. What am I
Speaker 9: going to do?
Speaker 8: So so so so.
Speaker 9: Then it turned into y'all not gonna fuck this place up, Buffy,
Speaker 9: y'all get the fuck out.
Speaker 8: So they kick him out the front.
Speaker 9: They kicked me out the back, and luckily I knew
Speaker 9: the area very well. All angles, just Brooklyn, dudes and all.
Speaker 9: And I was like, oh man, am I gonna I
Speaker 9: can talk my way out of anything? But I don't
Speaker 9: think I could talk my way out of But I
Speaker 9: don't know if it would have came down to it,
Speaker 9: but Yo, my ninja skills was on ten billion and.
Speaker 8: Yo, man, I there you go.
Speaker 9: And and that was and then I think I saw
Speaker 9: And it was always weird moments like that that I
Speaker 9: would run into him. Like one time I was in
Speaker 9: his neighborhood with a girl and it was in the
Speaker 9: middle of the night. Were walking down the street by
Speaker 9: BAM music by BAM in Brooklyn, and there was like
Speaker 9: this little alley between right when you get Flatbush and Fulton,
Speaker 9: there's like a small alley, and I decided to cut
Speaker 9: down the alley.
Speaker 8: In the alley is Biggie and his boys.
Speaker 4: I'm like, but I knew.
Speaker 8: I knew the car that he drove, you know, I
Speaker 8: knew that.
Speaker 9: So his head was turned and I was just like, man, I'm.
Speaker 8: Just not gonna deal with this man walking.
Speaker 3: Exactly, you know.
Speaker 9: And it was it was always something like that, or
Speaker 9: be like in a party like this. The next time,
Speaker 9: he was in the party and I'm trying to cut
Speaker 9: through the party and I go through the shortcuts, just
Speaker 9: me and him. He's like, he just it was just
Speaker 9: so fucking funny.
Speaker 8: We just laughed and then I just walked the other
Speaker 8: way and he was you know.
Speaker 9: It was just those kind of kind of experiences and
Speaker 9: and It's just so weird because I was super cool
Speaker 9: with puff and and and we never really addressed it,
Speaker 9: but then we ended up working together at times. You know,
Speaker 9: I've ended up working with everybody pretty much around the situation.
Speaker 9: So it was just like I think it was just
Speaker 9: more of a trumped up.
Speaker 4: Well I thank you because at the end of the
Speaker 4: what They Do video, he was after us.
Speaker 3: He's like, Yo, the nigga with the stick up.
Speaker 4: You said that that Yo, the old with the stick.
Speaker 5: Specified.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 6: So y'all never talked like y'all never like I guess
Speaker 6: squad did. It just kind of just faded away or whatever.
Speaker 3: They just walked.
Speaker 9: I got my my my Billy Jean jacket on my
Speaker 9: little boat time.
Speaker 4: Okay, so before we close, because I feel like the
Speaker 4: war really doesn't know.
Speaker 5: You didn't go anywhere. You elevate it to the next
Speaker 5: level with production. So was it just a do or die.
Speaker 3: Moment for you? Like I used to go out like
Speaker 3: I am?
Speaker 8: You know what I think? For me, music is just.
Speaker 9: It's not just what I do. You know a lot
Speaker 9: of people like you don't. You know, it's not who
Speaker 9: you are, it's.
Speaker 3: What you do.
Speaker 9: No, for me being creative doing music in some shape
Speaker 9: or form is pretty much my full makeup.
Speaker 4: And sir, you perplexed when people because I'm certain that
Speaker 4: people see you as carmea like, yo, what the hell
Speaker 4: you been?
Speaker 3: Like whatever? He fell off?
Speaker 5: And like when you say like no, I'm K one mill.
Speaker 9: No, no is it like it's not even that because
Speaker 9: like the K one thing that that that probably lasted
Speaker 9: two records, and it was because somebody talked me into like, yo,
Speaker 9: your name is mud Man.
Speaker 8: You gotta you gotta.
Speaker 5: Switch all this time that you were producing under.
Speaker 9: So it was like the Lloyd Banks on fire and
Speaker 9: I did a group of records. I did a Mary J.
Speaker 9: Blige record on her No More Drama album and uh
Speaker 9: two l O Cool J records, so four records and
Speaker 9: all in total.
Speaker 8: Yeah. So so after after that it came.
Speaker 7: I love her, She's amazing.
Speaker 8: JoJo's Jojo was actually dope.
Speaker 7: Her week and renditions.
Speaker 11: I heard that first album, I remember we put it
Speaker 11: on like what the.
Speaker 9: So so I think one of the the the changing
Speaker 9: points to not use K K one mill is ll
Speaker 9: When I got to the studio, He's like, why are
Speaker 9: you here? And I was like, because I'm doing the record.
Speaker 9: And like I'm on the record with him and the
Speaker 9: whole thing. He's like, wait, that's you. He's like why
Speaker 9: are you What the fuck is a K one mill?
Speaker 9: Like what the hell is that? And then you know,
Speaker 9: it was like you know what, yeah, and I'm like,
Speaker 9: you know, why am I allowing? Why am I allowing others?
Speaker 9: And it was done. It wasn't done in malice, you know,
Speaker 9: shouts to my man Ron Lawrence because he Ron Lawrence. Yes,
Speaker 9: I'm ra, i'men rah. He he's from my neighborhood as well.
Speaker 9: And he pretty much put me back in, you know
Speaker 9: what I'm saying. He through his through his connections and
Speaker 9: his production, he put me back in. But he was like, yo, man,
Speaker 9: don't use kwame because people they associated with something old
Speaker 9: and go buy K one mill. And K one mill
Speaker 9: was a joke. Actually it was me playing around on
Speaker 9: the microphone. I was acting like a robot. I am
Speaker 9: K one male and I'm here too.
Speaker 5: It was that.
Speaker 8: That's literally what I was doing was bugging out.
Speaker 9: And so so that turned into when Ellll was saying
Speaker 9: that and didn't realize that I was there. I was like, look, man,
Speaker 9: I can't, I can't. I am who I am, and
Speaker 9: I'm not gonna allow things to cut that short. So
Speaker 9: either you're going to accept this music if you don't
Speaker 9: accept the brand, I can't. I just I guess this
Speaker 9: is not for me. But the music should be able
Speaker 9: to speak for itself. And and I never wanted to
Speaker 9: be the producer that just did one type of genre
Speaker 9: or one type of artist, So I would you know,
Speaker 9: I'm doing say Switch from Will Smith and you know that.
Speaker 5: Record criminally underrated.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but it was a number one round fifteen countries,
Speaker 8: you know, what you know? And and and and.
Speaker 9: People everybody told me, don't do that, it'll destroy your life,
Speaker 9: like it changed my.
Speaker 8: What you know?
Speaker 9: But so you have Switched on one side, with Lloyd
Speaker 9: Banks on the other side, and then you have tweet
Speaker 9: over here. And then then I do a Christina Aguilero
Speaker 9: record and a Pussycat Dolls record, in a Mary J.
Speaker 8: Blige record. Then you know there'll be things for movies.
Speaker 9: Like Step Up and you know, just little things falling
Speaker 9: in to its places.
Speaker 6: And yeah, I remember we had music in that HBO
Speaker 6: movie Dancing in September.
Speaker 9: That was the first thing that was the first thing
Speaker 9: that you know that was like actually like kind of
Speaker 9: like my coming trying to really really come back.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 8: It was dominated for Emmy for.
Speaker 5: You know, so it was a one.
Speaker 3: It was like Bamboozoo.
Speaker 8: Nicole Ari Parker was in.
Speaker 6: It, and your boy that was on grades but got
Speaker 6: fired Isaiah Isaiah Isaiah Wathington.
Speaker 7: That takes place in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: No, she just from Baltimore.
Speaker 6: Okay, nah, there was like a TV and we forgot something.
Speaker 3: We skipped over something major. Okay, what poison?
Speaker 5: Excuse me? Wait what excuse me? What are you saying?
Speaker 5: What are you saying?
Speaker 3: You wrote that right?
Speaker 8: I wrote?
Speaker 9: I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, technically wrote the rhymes
Speaker 9: and then it just turned into Ronnie de Voe's rhyme.
Speaker 8: But it was wait what Yeah? It was. The funny
Speaker 8: thing was I never told anybody.
Speaker 5: I don't know because I know.
Speaker 8: Ship so so me, this is the weird story. I
Speaker 8: was in l A.
Speaker 9: I was staying in like that that that summer I
Speaker 9: lived in l A. One house party was being filmed
Speaker 9: and I ended up not doing anything but messing around
Speaker 9: with chicks. So this is one girl I was dealing with, and.
Speaker 8: It was just it was so weird. Man.
Speaker 9: I was like staying at this girl's house and she
Speaker 9: had a job, so I would like she would just
Speaker 9: leave me in her house with her little brother. And
Speaker 9: then her brother was like, hey, man, you're like new addition. Yeah,
Speaker 9: I guess, so you want to meet him? Sure, So
Speaker 9: he takes me to Ralph's house. Should we go to
Speaker 9: ralph house anywhere?
Speaker 8: Wait?
Speaker 9: What's like seven sixteen? So we go to Ralph's house.
Speaker 9: We're all in the valley somewhere. I have no idea
Speaker 9: where I'm at. I cannot because I was staying at
Speaker 9: the apartment complex called Oakwood, so Oakwood was in proper
Speaker 9: La and I was somewhere out in the valley. I
Speaker 9: have no idea because I had to wait for her
Speaker 9: to come home and take me back. So so, so
Speaker 9: the brother takes me to Ralph's house. So I spend
Speaker 9: like half the morning me and Ralph just chopping up,
Speaker 9: getting super cool, talking and everything. And he said, hey,
Speaker 9: you want to meet the rest of the guys. So
Speaker 9: then we go to this other house in the hills
Speaker 9: and Ronnie, Ricky and.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 9: Ronnie and Ricky were living together. Mike was there. So
Speaker 9: everybody's playing sega all day. No, So then Mike was like, hey, man,
Speaker 9: you want to hang out tonight. I'm like sure, sure,
Speaker 9: i'nna let you hear some stuff because we we're all
Speaker 9: gonna be a group. Who's the group us three? We're
Speaker 9: gonna be a group, yo.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 8: I was like get. I was like, man, what's the
Speaker 8: name of BB the Yeo? Exactly?
Speaker 9: So, So that night, me Mike, Dana Dane, and a homeboy,
Speaker 9: Dug well In. He had a Jeep Cherokee, a brand
Speaker 9: new Jeep Cherokee were it was the dopest car in
Speaker 9: the world. And we're driving to this club called the Palladium.
Speaker 9: And he puts on the demo the Beat of Poison,
Speaker 9: and I was like, just jacked, only you. That's almost like.
Speaker 8: Beat and.
Speaker 9: And so I'm like, all right, yeah, me, you should
Speaker 9: write some rhymes for us. And I heard like it
Speaker 9: was like a loose singing, and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 9: this is the worst thing. And that was kind of
Speaker 9: offended because the beat reminded me only you. So I
Speaker 9: was just like, I was like, give me a napkin,
Speaker 9: so in a napkin like poisoned, deadly moving in slow,
Speaker 9: looking for a mellow f like.
Speaker 8: Give the hard money.
Speaker 5: Half here.
Speaker 8: Like I was like, here, this will never come out,
Speaker 8: and I was like, play the beat. This is how
Speaker 8: you say it, you know. I said it to the beat,
Speaker 8: and it was like, hey, man, I think you got it.
Speaker 8: I think I got it. And the next year.
Speaker 5: And you didn't ask any publishing and then like that,
Speaker 5: please tell you did.
Speaker 8: Come on. It worked out after the but on the
Speaker 8: album it just says thanks.
Speaker 7: But technically I have a technically can you can? You?
Speaker 7: You could live off of this this song alone.
Speaker 4: And I already learned in previous episodes that when there's
Speaker 4: more than one, unless.
Speaker 3: You want to publish it.
Speaker 7: Okay, so already okay, money her money?
Speaker 5: Did you say?
Speaker 7: Sneak was? She was the worst example.
Speaker 5: She really did. She waited and waited.
Speaker 7: Do you know Ali Willis?
Speaker 5: She wrote September. She was the black whisper, the black
Speaker 5: barbecue whisper.
Speaker 7: Automatic.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I love Automatic, friends the friends, No, seriously, color purple.
Speaker 8: The lyrics to Automatic are incredible, Like I love that song.
Speaker 3: Pointed sisters Automatic. Yes, just making sure you get a
Speaker 3: print Automatic.
Speaker 6: Lyrics tron dance, Yeah, trying to dance to something about Automatic.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 8: Let me but yeah, so that's how that's how poisoning
Speaker 8: I was. I was in the video. I was at
Speaker 8: the video. I didn't get in the video.
Speaker 9: Matter of fact, the girl I was messing with was
Speaker 9: the poison girls. I was like making sure you know, y'all,
Speaker 9: just you know you can sing about her.
Speaker 5: But but wow, me, are there any other ghost weird
Speaker 5: stories that I don't.
Speaker 3: Know that.
Speaker 8: On that level? No, I don't. I don't think so,
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 7: Do you ask the random so Vin Diesel was the cousin,
Speaker 7: but he didn't help you get out your cousin.
Speaker 8: Yeah he's my cousin, but he's not.
Speaker 7: But he was a bouncer the club. I thought it
Speaker 7: one time in his life.
Speaker 8: So no, I would not. I want to call him
Speaker 8: up to fight.
Speaker 7: Nobody different than Diesel.
Speaker 9: But but he's in he's in the he's in my
Speaker 9: nasty video, the nasty video, but he's dancing. No, he's
Speaker 9: the boyfriend that trying to beat me up in the
Speaker 9: nasty video.
Speaker 7: Hold on, because I mean he has hair. You know,
Speaker 7: he got to hide that from a soul.
Speaker 9: And the funny thing is me I was gonna. I
Speaker 9: was gonna put him he before he wanted to. Well,
Speaker 9: he was always acting and stuff. He was just a
Speaker 9: creative guy into the arts. And he's he's my he's
Speaker 9: my older cousins and he's not like we're not the
Speaker 9: same age, so they would have to watch me in
Speaker 9: types up. He has a twin brother, him and his
Speaker 9: twin brother I used to always hang out and.
Speaker 8: Fraternal twin.
Speaker 5: Paul.
Speaker 9: His brother Paul, he's a he's a dope video I
Speaker 9: mean film editor, like trailers and actual films like Paul.
Speaker 9: You look them at Paul Vincent and their younger sister, Samantha.
Speaker 9: That's she's my so we used to more.
Speaker 7: I need to see his hair text here. Hold on,
Speaker 7: I got to get one of these siblings.
Speaker 6: Hold on.
Speaker 11: There's a running theme on Quest of Supreme about Amere
Speaker 11: getting in trouble for records that our guests have done.
Speaker 11: But on this episode, we're gonna do a little different.
Speaker 11: This time it's me that got in trouble for a Kwame.
Speaker 11: Well what I did with the Kuame record?
Speaker 8: Okay, what happened?
Speaker 3: My parents got an answering machine.
Speaker 11: Shortly after the second album came out, and if you
Speaker 11: know how you remember the first album, the second album
Speaker 11: starts starts with Kwame leaving an outgoing.
Speaker 3: Message welcome to the bone. Yes.
Speaker 11: One day when my parents were out, I replaced our
Speaker 11: outgoing voicemail message with kwame.
Speaker 3: My parents were not pleased. That was stupid?
Speaker 8: Should do it?
Speaker 11: I mean it was the first answer machine my dad had,
Speaker 11: you know, some generic, boring outgoing messages like no, we
Speaker 11: can't be lame, like wow, we got.
Speaker 5: To put something cool on there, and you that was
Speaker 5: your outgoing message?
Speaker 3: Was our outgoing message? Yeah?
Speaker 8: So what somebody call and told your mom like, yo,
Speaker 8: what is going on?
Speaker 11: They were like what is It's on your outgoing like
Speaker 11: y'all need to change that, and so you know they
Speaker 11: did you get But I got on punishment for a while.
Speaker 7: I got on public punishment that that ain't weapons.
Speaker 8: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 9: I don't I can't go back and listen to the
Speaker 9: old records, not that I don't like them, I just
Speaker 9: just don't listen to them. I don't watch videos, I
Speaker 9: don't watch old records. And the only time that the
Speaker 9: old record will come on of mind that I listened
Speaker 9: to is because it's it's it's on shuffle.
Speaker 8: On shuffle.
Speaker 3: I thought you're gonna it's on fresh Princes.
Speaker 8: But you know what, I didn't see that episode till
Speaker 8: like ten years after.
Speaker 3: Wow, I think Jeffrey's dancing to it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, its called loving the episodes Loving the Elevator
Speaker 9: and then they use it again on another episode. But
Speaker 9: but now those checks were two pairs, yes, and I
Speaker 9: bought some milk and those there was some lean years
Speaker 9: and those those uh fresh Prince and I let Will know.
Speaker 9: It's like, let me tell you something, man Will has
Speaker 9: definitely Will shows up in my life at very pivotal points.
Speaker 9: So so the first time I met Will.
Speaker 3: He's like the real life back of Vents.
Speaker 8: First, the first time I met that was good was
Speaker 8: in eighty nine and where La and I met him.
Speaker 8: He hosted a show.
Speaker 3: It was me.
Speaker 9: Uh mc hammer, I want to say too short and
Speaker 9: Tony Tony Tone and he hosted this show. And it
Speaker 9: was actually that day I met ice Cube. He introduced, man,
Speaker 9: my name is ice Cube.
Speaker 4: I was about to say everyone that SI could wear
Speaker 4: those love shirts, but then I came in with the
Speaker 4: black T shirt, so ruined that fantasy.
Speaker 9: So I was Will saw me in the crowd. We
Speaker 9: used to go out into the crowd and try to
Speaker 9: get girls, and he just saw me in the crowd
Speaker 9: not being as professional as I could.
Speaker 8: Be, so I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 8: He's like, yo, let me pull He pulled me to side.
Speaker 8: Let me talk to you for a second. So you
Speaker 8: got to understand what you're doing.
Speaker 9: You know, you gotta you don't act like you're better
Speaker 9: than anybody else, but you have to understand that you
Speaker 9: have to put yourself on a level and and and
Speaker 9: even if you're not on that level yet, prepare yourself
Speaker 9: for a next level. And and and prepare yourself to
Speaker 9: be on the next level. And you know, like, I'm like,
Speaker 9: that's preaching to me, and but he you know, he
Speaker 9: kept talking and you know, and it it kind of
Speaker 9: changed my attitude at the time. And then he had
Speaker 9: like this house party and he had a house in Gladwin.
Speaker 9: I think he said that, but he has this house
Speaker 9: in Gladwin, Pennsylvania. And we went to the party and
Speaker 9: it's like, man, you know, I want to show you something,
Speaker 9: and I'm all right. So he takes me to like
Speaker 9: the living room or whatever and whatever. The Grammys he
Speaker 9: had wont at this point, I think it was like
Speaker 9: three at the time. He's like, you know, I want
Speaker 9: you to understand why I'm showing you this, he said,
Speaker 9: because you know, I don't know if you'll ever win one,
Speaker 9: if you ever won't. But a lot of times people
Speaker 9: don't set to achieve something because they can't visualize it,
Speaker 9: they don't see it, they don't understand it. So I
Speaker 9: think that you can at some point be able to
Speaker 9: achieve this. So I just wanted you to see what's
Speaker 9: what this is and and and understand. He was like,
Speaker 9: you know, he showed me the crib and it was like,
Speaker 9: you know, like a lot of rappers, they just try
Speaker 9: to buy chains and cars and clothes whatever. But you know,
Speaker 9: you know, should really point at real estate. You should
Speaker 9: really point looking at you know, understanding what the mortgage is.
Speaker 9: He was just doing all this real talking, you know,
Speaker 9: like preachy fatherly stuff.
Speaker 7: And and we should to each other as well, we
Speaker 7: should pass down and he was.
Speaker 8: Saying that and and so that was another point.
Speaker 5: And then.
Speaker 9: When I needed money the most, the fresh Prince of
Speaker 9: bel Air show did only you and that helped, you know,
Speaker 9: And then to bring me to another level as a producer,
Speaker 9: he shows up again and he picks switch and you know,
Speaker 9: and even recording switch just having real in depth life conversations,
Speaker 9: you know. And also he had a video so fresh
Speaker 9: and it was him and Bismarcky and I was like,
Speaker 9: at a you know, there was like I said, there
Speaker 9: was a period of time. It was nothing popping, you know,
Speaker 9: I just I did not have any paper.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: He reached out and said, yo, man, get in the video.
Speaker 8: You know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 9: Allowed me to be in a video. You know, he
Speaker 9: gave me some you know, some cool exposure. So there
Speaker 9: was always little points of points of light that that
Speaker 9: will will put down. So you know, I definitely appreciate.
Speaker 3: Him for that. You should probably hang out with him
Speaker 3: more often, you know, calm up on the regular. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Actually, okay, before I wind up, it's probably my last
Speaker 4: chance to have this movement to ask this question.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, dog, do you have any Latin Quarter stories?
Speaker 3: I was waiting for this. I don't, finally bust it.
Speaker 9: I don't because I was too young to get in there,
Speaker 9: so I thought, so Latin. So there was three clubs
Speaker 9: that that meant something, the Latin Quarter, the Union Square,
Speaker 9: and Red Parrot. Red Parrot that was like the Melly
Speaker 9: Mail crowd. But you know, you hear about the red Parrot.
Speaker 9: You gotta go, so I was able to. Sometimes I
Speaker 9: would tag along with Salt and Pepper and Herbie and
Speaker 9: Dana and sneaking places. But the Latin Quarter and Union
Speaker 9: Square that.
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 9: I'm pretty sure you've heard a million stories by when
Speaker 9: I tell you, it's like beyond the Thunderdome.
Speaker 5: And I've been.
Speaker 8: I've been outside the Latin Quarter.
Speaker 9: I've been at the door and the door swings open
Speaker 9: and everybody runs out, but wait outside.
Speaker 5: It's probably the most dance part of the more stories
Speaker 5: about outside the Latin Quarter than probably inside.
Speaker 8: The outside was grimy, inside was grimy the eighties.
Speaker 9: Man, like y'all don't understand New York City in the eighties.
Speaker 9: It's the Latin Quarter. That's the least of your worries,
Speaker 9: like going to a club like that, or going to
Speaker 9: the Union Square or even the tunnel, you know, early tunnel.
Speaker 8: It's the train ride home, you.
Speaker 5: Know, it's it's that's the that's the that's the Russian Roulette.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's the train ride home. It's trying to get in,
Speaker 9: it's trying to get out. It's it's kill man, And
Speaker 9: and I don't understand everybody played that Russian roulette. They
Speaker 9: get that chain, they get there whatever, Yo, you would
Speaker 9: get sliced for polo like if you had on a
Speaker 9: polo visor you would get lumped.
Speaker 5: And you were fresh all the time, so like it
Speaker 5: wasn't risky for you to be.
Speaker 9: Well, my fresh was thrift store fresh, so it wasn't
Speaker 9: like we don't want that. But then at the same time,
Speaker 9: like I said.
Speaker 5: You weren't ballied out. You weren't.
Speaker 9: There would be baallets, but then there's thrift store everything
Speaker 9: else because all the money would be at the ballot
Speaker 9: on the ballet. So yeah, So so it was never sneakers,
Speaker 9: you know. So you know like when jordan Ons came,
Speaker 9: it was like the first one hundred dollars sneaker. So
Speaker 9: it was like I was not I wasn't doing that.
Speaker 9: But outside of that, it was I'm telling you man,
Speaker 9: like a shark I lent him. Had a goose that
Speaker 9: resembled a polo goose.
Speaker 8: It was like Polio by Ralph Cramton.
Speaker 5: It wasn't me.
Speaker 4: And and.
Speaker 9: He he got sliced on the fore train from shoulder
Speaker 9: to hip and they sliced him. They sliced through the
Speaker 9: jacket and the slice was so clean. He didn't know
Speaker 9: until he got home and he's like, they were like, yo,
Speaker 9: your back is wet. The coat it just they sliced it.
Speaker 9: And I don't know what the commotion was, but it
Speaker 9: was my coat, and so I didn't put this way.
Speaker 9: He told me he got sliced, but he never told
Speaker 9: me he got sliced for my coat. And I didn't
Speaker 9: find out for like years. I was like, when are
Speaker 9: you gonna get my coat back?
Speaker 8: Oh? Man, my mom put it somewhere. I can't find it.
Speaker 8: He would. He was just so ashamed to tell me
Speaker 8: that that's why he got sliced, and I felt terrible.
Speaker 8: I'm lending him my gools. My mother's like, I bought
Speaker 8: you this coat and you're not. You don't wear it.
Speaker 8: I said, I don't know what al had it.
Speaker 9: Stop lending your clothes, Alan, because we used to trade
Speaker 9: like you, you know, like you and we would trade
Speaker 9: clothes and stuff. So that's like how it was going
Speaker 9: to these clubs. So you literally, if you didn't know,
Speaker 9: if you didn't have a crew, it was like the warriors.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 9: It's like that's the best way to describe it. Like
Speaker 9: you know you and your six guys got together. What
Speaker 9: we're gonna do tonight. We're gonna go to Latin quarters. Yeah,
Speaker 9: ready for this. We'll listen to some songs, we may
Speaker 9: meet a girl, we may dance, but you don't know
Speaker 9: that we are fighting our way out and it's gonna
Speaker 9: be we have to be one for all on this train.
Speaker 9: So it would and then you know, like I said,
Speaker 9: my age, I'm fifteen, you know, fourteen fifteen, Well when
Speaker 9: Latin Cols is really popping, so there's no way I'm
Speaker 9: gonna get in. I wasn't savvy enough for the fake
Speaker 9: idmember like the Fat Boys, right.
Speaker 3: Everyone.
Speaker 8: I couldn't do that.
Speaker 9: And Herbie was like, no, man, I can't subject you
Speaker 9: to this like you're you're a little kid.
Speaker 8: You can't do it, man. So we would just sneak around.
Speaker 4: But you know from okay, that's a non Latin courter
Speaker 4: of story enough to warrant this, anything to warrant that's so.
Speaker 5: It's a terfect conclusion community. That's great.
Speaker 10: Man.
Speaker 4: Wow, this is way beyond my expectations for this man.
Speaker 4: It was life lessons, it was a.
Speaker 5: Journey, It was everything that year old dream come true.
Speaker 6: Man, I don't know's it's Kayso you knowk he talks
Speaker 6: about how I you were his favorite rapper and stuff,
Speaker 6: like me and him we talked abut it, and like,
Speaker 6: I just want to just thank you man, Like you
Speaker 6: really you were like just the memories I have of
Speaker 6: my childhood of like buying your tape. You were my first.
Speaker 6: You were like the only music that my pops ever bought. You.
Speaker 8: Remember when we first met was this sean Berg Center, Harlem.
Speaker 5: No weed, it was this was was it that thing
Speaker 5: that it was like a form or something? Stop the violence?
Speaker 8: You know, really because there was violence in two thousand
Speaker 8: and six.
Speaker 5: No, it wasn't.
Speaker 6: It was like it was like shows when we get
Speaker 6: together to talk about like images and media.
Speaker 9: But like I got super cool at night from then,
Speaker 9: you know, I always thought that y'all was like super
Speaker 9: You know. My thing is it's cool to meet people
Speaker 9: on a musical level, but I'm more on a personal
Speaker 9: level on how people are as as people. You know,
Speaker 9: what we do is what we do, you know, and
Speaker 9: it's it's always a matter of opinion to whoever listens
Speaker 9: to it. But when you meet people on a personal level,
Speaker 9: I think that's dope. I just wanted to dropped out.
Speaker 3: Oh man, thank you brother, much appreciated.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: The same to you, like just just thank you for
Speaker 3: the music you will certainly inspiration and.
Speaker 7: Some beautiful music together. Every song is a hit.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 8: You know that's you know real quick.
Speaker 9: I know you want to wrap up, but you know, luckily,
Speaker 9: you know, I always wanted to control my own music
Speaker 9: and control the fate of my music. Being a producer,
Speaker 9: you just get a check and you don't know which
Speaker 9: if you're number one on the album or number seven
Speaker 9: on the album, and you don't know if it's going
Speaker 9: to be single or not. And if it is a single,
Speaker 9: you don't know. You don't know the ins and out.
Speaker 9: So I have a label, Make Noise, and it's distributed
Speaker 9: through Caroline Capitol Records. And the first artist on that
Speaker 9: label is Vivian Green from Philly, and and the way
Speaker 9: that turned out was it's weird because it turned out
Speaker 9: me trying to suggest that she makes a certain type
Speaker 9: of record and she's not being with it at all,
Speaker 9: and I'm sending her tracks and song ideas and everything.
Speaker 9: And we called this one record called get Right Back
Speaker 9: to My Baby. On over with Frankie bevery s and
Speaker 9: I just threw it out there without her knowing, and
Speaker 9: you know, it became it became a barbecue type hit record,
Speaker 9: you know, the piggyback off of the original record, and
Speaker 9: and it spawned the whole label deal and everything.
Speaker 8: So so you know, I enjoy.
Speaker 9: I'm at a point in my career that I don't
Speaker 9: know where things are gonna go. I don't know if
Speaker 9: it's gonna be a super hit record or whatever. But
Speaker 9: I'm also at a point where my concern isn't there.
Speaker 9: As long as I have an outlet to put something
Speaker 9: out creative, I don't know what's gonna happen. So like
Speaker 9: with the Vivian Records, you know, each record that we
Speaker 9: put out for the charts that she's on the UAC charts,
Speaker 9: we're like number ten five two, you know.
Speaker 8: So so we do well in that space, and it's cool.
Speaker 8: We do great.
Speaker 9: You know, I perform with the band, you know, it's
Speaker 9: it's it's great. You know, we do arenas, we do clubs.
Speaker 7: We do and she's doing more than ballots, so that's good.
Speaker 9: Yeah, And that's another thing. It's like I like I
Speaker 9: like live energy. I like live musical energy. So so
Speaker 9: it just gives me an outlet to to do that
Speaker 9: amongst you know, the other artists that i'll have coming later.
Speaker 9: But you know, there's another artist out of Philly named Michelle.
Speaker 9: She's out of Bucks County that that more of a
Speaker 9: pop pop, electro artist. So that gets me to explore
Speaker 9: that side of production as well. So that's that's the
Speaker 9: next situation coming Michelle.
Speaker 8: Yeah, just Michelle. She didn't want to change going.
Speaker 3: To be a search engines exactly.
Speaker 10: It's the way your spelling is am I S H
Speaker 10: E l O jesus. Hey man, you know what psychological exactly?
Speaker 10: The question deep?
Speaker 8: What can you do?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 9: It's like, you know, I think a name, a name
Speaker 9: definitely is very important. And I think an artist before
Speaker 9: they come out has a million names. So if it's Michelle, now,
Speaker 9: I'll go it could be poo poop poop by the end,
Speaker 9: by the end it comes out, you know. And and
Speaker 9: and I'm glad you guys are saying that. I'm glad
Speaker 9: you guys are you're you're saying what you're saying because
Speaker 9: sometimes artists need to hear that. You know, there's another rapper,
Speaker 9: there's another rapper that I work with, now phenomenal rapper,
Speaker 9: but the stuff isn't out yet. You know, he his
Speaker 9: name is, he goes by the name of Bobby J.
Speaker 9: So it's like, why are you using why are you
Speaker 9: saying that there's nothing against him? Because you are a
Speaker 9: great lyricist, You're a great MC. But sometimes artists feel
Speaker 9: like they are married to a name for a certain reason,
Speaker 9: and sometimes it works. Sometimes we'll hear a name and
Speaker 9: be like what, but it still works. Like when I
Speaker 9: heard Lady God Got for the first time, I was like,
Speaker 9: what is that?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: And it but it worked when I seen her, I
Speaker 3: was like so so so.
Speaker 9: You never know where it falls, but it's always good
Speaker 9: for that constructive criticism to hit you, you know, because
Speaker 9: I could have been Jazzy kg Q and y'all have
Speaker 9: not been talking to me.
Speaker 7: Would you be quest for love?
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Brother?
Speaker 3: Question rhythm? Well, first I was a sample.
Speaker 5: And then I was another name that divine technician and brother,
Speaker 5: you know you know, yeah, but but you yeah, you
Speaker 5: know that's why he left K one.
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 5: Your name is your name?
Speaker 8: Yeah? Because you know, like you know and.
Speaker 7: Twelve is out now you don't want to be affiliated?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: K twelve is the ship just killing niggas in d C. Oh,
Speaker 3: that's the new drug.
Speaker 8: Is the mountain that they.
Speaker 10: Yo.
Speaker 8: If you ever see somebody in real life on that run,
Speaker 8: eat your face. This we did. We did a show
Speaker 8: in d.
Speaker 9: C and these firemen were It was like, you want
Speaker 9: to show you something, man. We had to stop this
Speaker 9: guy on K twelve, and he showed me the video.
Speaker 8: This dude was butt.
Speaker 9: Naked in the middle street doing this crazy dancing, then
Speaker 9: starting to roll around. He thought monsters were eating him.
Speaker 9: That's something real. It's definitely like me.
Speaker 3: Once on.
Speaker 5: I accidentally had Brownie two. I told no, I just guess.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was bad, So I have a Brownie experience.
Speaker 8: Everything happens in l A.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 8: I swear.
Speaker 9: I got this weird cookie and I swear like I
Speaker 9: thought aliens were coming to get me. I thought Feds
Speaker 9: were coming and get me. I thought it was like
Speaker 9: I was driving home and I was super paranoid.
Speaker 8: I was like, if they stopped me, they can check
Speaker 8: my DNA.
Speaker 3: I wanted to go.
Speaker 8: I can't so bad man. I was like, I don't
Speaker 8: know what is the car actually drive?
Speaker 3: I was so fucked up, man, face The same. I
Speaker 3: want to cookie what.
Speaker 7: They won't do it, Steve, It won't do it for you.
Speaker 7: That's for them because they're you know, like weight, what's
Speaker 7: wrong that is there a three story? You got that
Speaker 7: Bnton jacket all because.
Speaker 8: Barcelona.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, but you got it in?
Speaker 3: Come on you?
Speaker 5: What about that weight?
Speaker 3: What about the hat though? Where can we get one
Speaker 3: of the hats?
Speaker 9: Actually with the logo what I'm doing, it's gonna be
Speaker 9: a thirtieth anniversary of boy Genius coming up next year.
Speaker 8: So all the like paraphernalia like.
Speaker 9: Dad caps, fitted pins, buttons, you know, like exclusive Letthermon jackets,
Speaker 9: all that, even a BMX bike we're doing.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the desktop that was on the front of you,
Speaker 5: I mean that yeah, oldboard.
Speaker 3: Everything all right.
Speaker 8: You can find let me say, my social media. I
Speaker 8: think that's everything.
Speaker 9: So at at Kuwame Vision on Instagram and Kwame did
Speaker 9: it on Twitter, and and I'll post I post a
Speaker 9: lot so but I'll post, you know, information about the
Speaker 9: paraphernalia and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, we will definitely, yeah, you will make sure that
Speaker 4: the socials get all the information.
Speaker 3: Uh br Like I said, it's been real.
Speaker 8: Thank you man. Thank you for having me. It's real.
Speaker 3: I still getting over poison.
Speaker 5: I where's that napkin?
Speaker 7: Instagram and blue checks playing?
Speaker 8: Yes, tell you know what Instagram said that I was
Speaker 8: not worthy of a blue check.
Speaker 5: Let me let me vouch, let me know. I'll make
Speaker 5: some phone call.
Speaker 3: I got you, I got you all right, you have company.
Speaker 11: Yes, I was just saying thank you for accompanying me
Speaker 11: on all those school bus rides.
Speaker 8: There you walk, man.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm having a moment. Yeah, I feel was that
Speaker 3: dude for me? Back to the day man? Straight up? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Anyway, Steve and the Sugar Networks, why are you hating
Speaker 5: I'm sorry? Yeah, say that out loud. Uh, it's like you.
Speaker 3: It's still like you.
Speaker 4: Uh, Boss Bill, unpaid Bill, and thank you very much.
Speaker 4: We will see you on the next go round of
Speaker 4: Quest Love Supreme. My name is quest Love and this
Speaker 4: is Pandora. See you later.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more
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