Speaker 1: Course Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2: What y'all is, Laiya and this QLs classic is taking
Speaker 2: us back to October nineteen, twenty sixteen. Imagine it Ruth's Picnic,
Speaker 2: New York City. Two days well, myself and Team Supreme
Speaker 2: decided we would hold up in a hotel across the
Speaker 2: street from the Ruth Picnic and interview as many of
Speaker 2: those artists as possible. Yeah, the first and the last
Speaker 2: time we did this, but check it out. This is
Speaker 2: the episode that features appearances from ex Ambassadors, Stretching, Barbido,
Speaker 2: and Lady Leisure.
Speaker 3: It's a good one.
Speaker 4: I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 5: What's up, y'all?
Speaker 1: Welcome to a very special edition of Course Love Supreme
Speaker 1: once again. This is a road trip, well, non exactly
Speaker 1: a road trip. We're kind of up the block from
Speaker 1: Bryant Park in New York City. I'll say that twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, when the Roots were first formed, we made
Speaker 1: and cut our teeth on the festival circuit, and festivals
Speaker 1: are like now a thing in America. Back in the
Speaker 1: early nineties, I was like really unheard of to have
Speaker 1: different genres together under one roof, like doing a festival.
Speaker 1: We always said that we had enough pool and of
Speaker 1: course enough finances, we were going to bring a festival
Speaker 1: to whatever city that we chose to do. And of course,
Speaker 1: I guess most of you guys are familiar with the
Speaker 1: Roots Picnic. That's our Philadelphia homegrown festival event. So this
Speaker 1: year we decided to take the Roots Picnic to Bryant
Speaker 1: Park in New York City and entertained over twenty thousand
Speaker 1: people for two days. So many acts played the picnic.
Speaker 1: David Byrne, Wu Tang, Clan di'angelo, John Mayer, even Alicia Keys,
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle, Common of course the Roots performed as well.
Speaker 1: We even Adnle, Rogers and Chic. That's a lot of lineup. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we recorded these special episodes of Quest Love Supreme live
Speaker 1: during the Roots Picnic. I was running around quite a
Speaker 1: bit too. I popped up in the show occasionally when
Speaker 1: I had a minute, but I was basically rehearsing. But
Speaker 1: don't worry, the team Supreme held it down and they
Speaker 1: really did an amazing job running the show with my absence.
Speaker 1: That's right, we got Fante Boss Bill still there, unpaid
Speaker 1: bills there, Sugar, Steve is there, Lai is there, and
Speaker 1: a whole cast to others. This particular episode, you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear some really really great interviews with DJ Mohma who else.
Speaker 1: We got the ex Ambassadors to Shiman Chill Moody Smashing Hearts.
Speaker 1: We got the legendary New York hip hop radio DJ
Speaker 1: Stretching Barbido, some of my favorites. I want to be
Speaker 1: them when I grow up, and all the way from
Speaker 1: the UK, we got Lady Lashure. I really hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the show. This is part one of the Roots
Speaker 1: Picnic New York edition, Quest Love Supreme, Let's Go.
Speaker 5: Soma.
Speaker 6: Something supremo role called Suprema suck. Something Suprema role called
Speaker 6: Suprema son, something supremo role called Suprema So.
Speaker 5: So Suprema role call.
Speaker 1: My name is Ponte.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but have no feel Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 7: Running this Yeah because quit say call Suprema so something
Speaker 7: Suprema roll call, Suprema So Suprema roll called bill.
Speaker 5: Yeah, y'all don't know. Yeah, Roots Picnic, Yeah, here we are.
Speaker 6: Son Son Supreme roll call, Suprema Supremo roll call.
Speaker 8: Yeah it is call Yeah, don't worry fellas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I.
Speaker 6: Suprema Son Son Supremo, role called Suprema So something Supremo
Speaker 6: role called.
Speaker 5: My name is Steve.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so tired.
Speaker 5: Yeah yet, Yeah, let's get high.
Speaker 6: Roll call Supremo Sun Supremo. Roll call Suprema Sun Sun Supremo.
Speaker 1: Role call hospital is here. Yeah, and I didn't prepare. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna read the rest of this ad
Speaker 1: from a first large, one bedroom, time dollars, New York,
Speaker 1: New York, one zero zero three.
Speaker 5: Suprema Suck Sun Supremo role.
Speaker 3: My name is MoMA. Yeah, I'm a music man. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm African.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I represent Queens, New York.
Speaker 6: Name Supremo So Sun Supremo. Roll call Supremo So Sun Supremo.
Speaker 6: Roll call Suprema So Sun Supremo, roll call Supremo Suck
Speaker 6: Suck Supremo roll call.
Speaker 8: I was trying to do the last.
Speaker 5: Like the Jadakids last crazy for this one. It's how
Speaker 5: he got in Phasema.
Speaker 9: Welcome to quest Love Supreme, our faithful and righteous cult leader,
Speaker 9: our furor. Quest Love is not here today. He's a
Speaker 9: little busy. He's a little busy. He's a little busy
Speaker 9: actually doing his job.
Speaker 5: Yeah, one of his jobs, of one of his nineteen jobs,
Speaker 5: one of his jobs.
Speaker 9: He's actually working today on the roots picnic, so were
Speaker 9: holding it down in his absence. I'm Fante fun Tika
Speaker 9: Newicticulo a k A Gully Blanche a k A hacks On,
Speaker 9: Jim Thu a k A Young Player, Underwood aka wood
Speaker 9: Fang Flowers ak that's.
Speaker 3: Enough aka album in stores, album in stores.
Speaker 9: I always got album in stores somewhere. Uh yeah, holding
Speaker 9: down fun Tickelow to my left is the lovely miss.
Speaker 9: I gonna do it to you because he, of course
Speaker 9: love came up with a great nickname for you, Margaret louder.
Speaker 10: Loud.
Speaker 8: I don't know. Okay, that's fine, that's.
Speaker 5: I love you anyway. We love you, we love you,
Speaker 5: we love you. All.
Speaker 8: Good to be here today, Hello fellas.
Speaker 5: Yeah, also joining us. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: My brother, my man's my millow, My man's unpaid Bill
Speaker 9: Bill Sherman, who is although I just I just found
Speaker 9: out he is now paid.
Speaker 5: He found he found out be a text message.
Speaker 3: Track.
Speaker 5: Yet got it. He got a big da big day.
Speaker 9: We got that PayPal notifications. So unpaid Bill Bill Sherman.
Speaker 9: He's in the building direct deposit though, Sugar Steve like that,
Speaker 9: Sugar Steve, your hardest working Engindy and show business. How
Speaker 9: how many hours have you been up?
Speaker 5: Like completely all of them? I don't know. The last
Speaker 5: last two nights. Have just gotten a couple of hours
Speaker 5: of sleep.
Speaker 8: So we're gonna get all into that.
Speaker 4: I wanted.
Speaker 5: You're a little delirious today every day. Yeah, a little
Speaker 5: more than news. We get medicine. Go gethim. We won't
Speaker 5: call it we I don't think we can do that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we're recording the show.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, well we're we're I have many jobs like
Speaker 5: quest also listen, Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 11: I work at the supervisor at McDonald's.
Speaker 5: You got promoted not watching Letus was le I was
Speaker 5: watching Lettus.
Speaker 11: No, we're simultaneously recording the picnic multi truck recording of
Speaker 11: the Picnic, and we're set up at S A R
Speaker 11: for rehearsals over the next two days as well, and
Speaker 11: we're recording those. And we're recording these. So I got
Speaker 11: like three pro tools riggs all around town.
Speaker 5: Steve's busy. Steve is the fucking man doing much. I
Speaker 5: have an assistant's doing much that's what's I got to
Speaker 5: get to that level. I can get me an assistant.
Speaker 1: If it ain't now, I don't know when.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I just I think I have a problem letting people
Speaker 5: in my life in that way. That just got really personal.
Speaker 5: Really at least you're not talking about, you know, writing
Speaker 5: stuff on the toilet.
Speaker 9: So what would you do within the system, Like, Man,
Speaker 9: I don't know. I just because you gotta let you
Speaker 9: gotta really trust in your assistant. Like that's somebody they
Speaker 9: got the passwords of your ship. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: If you got a side piece, they gotta.
Speaker 8: Know arrangements, arrangements, travel arrangements.
Speaker 5: It's like, so yeah, man, I don't know.
Speaker 9: Man, that's just someone else in your life that you
Speaker 9: that could just write a book about you later on.
Speaker 9: I don't know if I trust that end up as
Speaker 9: a guest on question Love Supreme after you die, after
Speaker 9: you died, be.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, was doing all the coke?
Speaker 5: Nigga? I don't want to. I can't. I can't funk
Speaker 5: with that ship. I don't know.
Speaker 9: So I don't I get through that. Maybe some counsel
Speaker 9: and all that I can get through that, But fuck
Speaker 9: my problem. The man we got right here, my man,
Speaker 9: right here, this brother. I will let him talk about himself,
Speaker 9: but allow me to introduce uh this brother. He is
Speaker 9: the lead, the head DJ every Day People, every Day People,
Speaker 9: which is Chef ro Blade.
Speaker 5: That's chefro Black. Oh awesome party a How long has
Speaker 5: pretty been around?
Speaker 12: This is like the end of the fourth season?
Speaker 9: Oh wow, okay, yeah, I was just funny. I was
Speaker 9: actually supposed to do one of them in Charlotte, right
Speaker 9: I was. I ended up having to go. I think
Speaker 9: we had a tour day or something, so I missed it.
Speaker 9: I was like, damn, I missed it. But anyway, ladies
Speaker 9: and gentlemen, the man of the hour, the man with
Speaker 9: the plan, with the sound, all that flash it, ladies,
Speaker 9: gentlemen giving up a DJ moment. That's up, man, Thank
Speaker 9: you for doing this, man, Thank you for coming here
Speaker 9: and getting up early in the morning.
Speaker 5: This is early for like musician hours and ship so
Speaker 5: pretty much it's new. Yeah, noon is thirty. Yeah, that's
Speaker 5: still kind of early.
Speaker 12: I biked hair so I could wake up, Did you really?
Speaker 5: Oh shit?
Speaker 12: I live in the city though, so I'm not like
Speaker 12: no hair.
Speaker 2: Biked over, but y'all, Wow, You've been doing a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff this week, this past week, right because you
Speaker 2: filled in for a quest feeling.
Speaker 12: For quests at Brooklyn Bowl and also did a closing
Speaker 12: event for Summer Stage with you Now Mone in Central Park.
Speaker 12: So it's been it's been a fun week, you know.
Speaker 12: And we got Roots Picnic tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Today, today, shoot today.
Speaker 9: Yeahs up, man, real, So tell me a little bit
Speaker 9: about your your style. Man, I was looking through your Unfortunately,
Speaker 9: like I said, I didn't get to come to the party,
Speaker 9: so I missed. I miss actually seeing you do your thing.
Speaker 9: But we had you send over just some tracks you
Speaker 9: know before, and I was just.
Speaker 5: Reading the tracks.
Speaker 9: I was like, Yo, this motherfucker is in my iTunes,
Speaker 9: like like some of the Jones just being like the
Speaker 9: Greg Reporter nineteen sixty but Donald bird Love has come around,
Speaker 9: like just I was like, oh my god, Like this
Speaker 9: dude is like me.
Speaker 12: Yeah, And I mean my style, you know, it covers
Speaker 12: a lot from like really like esoteric mixtape radio show
Speaker 12: stuff to like more mainstream generic and you know, when
Speaker 12: I first started djaying, I was in a place where
Speaker 12: I was either in like in a bar in Brooklyn,
Speaker 12: playing like Roy Airs, Vinyl and Weldon Irving or whatever,
Speaker 12: or I was in Manhattan playing like Britney Spears and
Speaker 12: justin Timberlating, and you know, obviously one of those two
Speaker 12: was a struggle for me, but I was getting it
Speaker 12: done because it was a check and I think, you know,
Speaker 12: after like twelve to thirteen years of djaying, I've been
Speaker 12: able to kind of like reconcile everything in the middle
Speaker 12: where I've just found that happy medium where in one
Speaker 12: of my parties you may hear like a soulful joint,
Speaker 12: but you're probably you're also gonna hear Drake in the future.
Speaker 12: And I've been able to kind of like eliminate all
Speaker 12: like the real disposable pop shit, you know what I mean.
Speaker 12: So in terms of my style, I would say it's
Speaker 12: basically like the best of black music that I love,
Speaker 12: you know, hip hop, R and B, Soca house.
Speaker 5: Comany. He's in New York, Oh way in New York.
Speaker 13: You got to yeah, you got to.
Speaker 8: Man said Africa, what part of what the are you're from?
Speaker 5: Part I'm from Sudan? Oh wow? Oh wow?
Speaker 3: So how does that?
Speaker 8: How does I mean?
Speaker 2: Because most people don't know the musical influence of Sudan,
Speaker 2: Do you is it any do you ever play anything or.
Speaker 12: You know, we don't have that big of a Sudanese
Speaker 12: community in New York, so if I were to drop
Speaker 12: a track in my bomb, but I'm also like part
Speaker 12: ever trying and the whole like East African connects, so
Speaker 12: there's a lot of like Ethiopians and Era trains that
Speaker 12: come through to my events. And so I got that
Speaker 12: music on deck, and when I do drop it, it's
Speaker 12: a riot. You know, you have people who are not
Speaker 12: familiar with it, like what the hell is going on?
Speaker 5: But the ones that are form they lose their mind. Yeah,
Speaker 5: totally got you.
Speaker 12: I mean I do that late night, not in the
Speaker 12: middle of prime time.
Speaker 9: So if it bombs, this is okay. Got my manly,
Speaker 9: I don't know if you're he's that's my homie, Okay.
Speaker 9: He's from Sudan as well. Odyssey UH producer EMCUH was
Speaker 9: based out of DC. I think he's here now. But incredible,
Speaker 9: incredible artists. Your start, Like what leads a person to
Speaker 9: want to be a DJ? Like what is the you
Speaker 9: know people have some people want to be MC, some
Speaker 9: people want to be producers. What is it that drove
Speaker 9: you to say I want to select the sounds for people.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 12: I think it was maybe the easiest way for me
Speaker 12: to touch music, being that I just don't play instruments
Speaker 12: and I don't sing. When when I was in high
Speaker 12: school in college, I used to rap.
Speaker 5: You know you're being We all did.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you had your.
Speaker 5: Little you you did? You know I did not, I
Speaker 5: did not. Have you heard me rap before I have,
Speaker 5: but you just did it exactly. Everybody wrapped in high school,
Speaker 5: Like I mean, that was like a rite of passage.
Speaker 13: I think, right.
Speaker 5: And I think.
Speaker 12: The Roots used to do something called black Lilies. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 12: I even like I got on stage on that. It's
Speaker 12: one of the MC's that went up during the open mic,
Speaker 12: and that was like, that was my hip hop career,
Speaker 12: highlight of my life. I don't remember what year. This was,
Speaker 12: late nineties, early two thousands, you know, I don't recall,
Speaker 12: but around that time, you know, I became like really
Speaker 12: disenchanted with hip hop. It was super jiggy, and I
Speaker 12: just kind of fell out of love with it. So
Speaker 12: I started researching all the samples behind the music, and
Speaker 12: that's when I started collecting vinyl and you know, to
Speaker 12: go back to your question, I don't think a lot
Speaker 12: of us who started djaying in maybe late nineties or
Speaker 12: before that. I don't think anybody starts djaying with the
Speaker 12: goal of becoming a DJ. You just love music, you
Speaker 12: collect vinyl, and after a certain amount of time, you
Speaker 12: have enough music and you have enough experience that you
Speaker 12: could actually rock a party, which is kind of different
Speaker 12: than the way it is today.
Speaker 9: There was never anything where you said, Okay, I want
Speaker 9: to get paid for this. It was like you didn't
Speaker 9: start off with the intention of hay.
Speaker 12: Now, because I was working a full time job. You know,
Speaker 12: I went to college for electrical engineering, and so I
Speaker 12: came out of school. I was working a full time job,
Speaker 12: which I actually held for like, you know, over ten years,
Speaker 12: and I was doing both at the same time, you know,
Speaker 12: living in Manhattan, working in Manhattan, uh, DJing in Manhattan.
Speaker 12: So I never really have to worry about getting paid
Speaker 12: for DJing. So I just kept like honing my skills
Speaker 12: and like refining my craft, and ultimately, you know, I
Speaker 12: became so good that I didn't have to work anymore.
Speaker 9: It's interesting you say that I had a talk with
Speaker 9: a friend of mine a couple of days ago. He
Speaker 9: was asking me about like, Okay, when do you make
Speaker 9: the leap from your hobby to your real from your
Speaker 9: real job.
Speaker 12: Your hobby to your jobby job hobby to your job.
Speaker 9: And my, my, I said, almost verbating with listen, as
Speaker 9: long as you got something that's paying you that steady check,
Speaker 9: stay with that ship.
Speaker 5: Don't walk away from that fucking check. The fuck is
Speaker 5: wrong with you?
Speaker 8: Better get that money, get fired, you get that unemployment first.
Speaker 9: Yeah, because you never want after, just like you never
Speaker 9: want desperation. A few of your artistic decisions, you know
Speaker 9: what I'm saying. You can't focus on being a great
Speaker 9: DJ when you ain't got no fucking roof.
Speaker 12: So and that job can finance your craft if you
Speaker 12: buy turntables, you want to buy pro tools, you want
Speaker 12: to buy mac you want to.
Speaker 5: Like getting.
Speaker 9: What so making that transition going from the jobby to
Speaker 9: the hobby, Like, what was that like? When did you know, like, Okay,
Speaker 9: officially I can do this full time and I'm good.
Speaker 5: What was that like for you?
Speaker 12: I just think it came at a point where I
Speaker 12: became feel miserable. This is like, honestly, I was going
Speaker 12: back and forth from the corporate life because I'm like
Speaker 12: you know what, I got enough money, I'm about to
Speaker 12: DJ and trial for a year or two.
Speaker 5: Now I'm like, oh shit, I'm broke.
Speaker 12: We go back and I think the last time I
Speaker 12: just like, you know, cut off the umbilical cord was
Speaker 12: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, yeah, so not that long ago.
Speaker 12: But I just started to feel miserable. There was such
Speaker 12: a huge difference between how I felt at the office
Speaker 12: and you know, I really like engineering. It's it's a
Speaker 12: great job. You're like really building things and it's problem
Speaker 12: solving all day long. But I just start to feel
Speaker 12: miserable versus you know, the high that I would get
Speaker 12: when I'm out DJing, you know, doing day parties with
Speaker 12: three hundre to my friends. I was like, all right,
Speaker 12: I'm not at the point where I can make up
Speaker 12: that income, but I think having my time and my
Speaker 12: life back was probably worth like six figures to me
Speaker 12: at that point. So I was like, fuck it. I
Speaker 12: start from the bottom and build it back up. And
Speaker 12: you know, it happened pretty fast. That's dope, man, It's
Speaker 12: really dope.
Speaker 9: I'm sitting here with the Man of the Hour DJ
Speaker 9: MoMA everyday people uh were sitting here, So this is
Speaker 9: Rooth's Picnic, So I want to talk picnic stuff. What
Speaker 9: is when you got this gig? Like what was your
Speaker 9: what was your mind state in terms of saying it's
Speaker 9: like setting up your crate or your playlist or whatever,
Speaker 9: Like what was what was that like for this kind
Speaker 9: of crowd? Like how would you rock this this kind
Speaker 9: of crowd?
Speaker 12: Well I had I had gotten the nod for Roots
Speaker 12: Picnic in Philly, Okay, so that that gave me like
Speaker 12: a good introduction. And then when when Quest told me
Speaker 12: about Roots Picnic New York, I was like, oh man,
Speaker 12: that's like a home game. That's it's going to be
Speaker 12: so easy, truth be told, I haven't even thought about
Speaker 12: it yet. It's going to be in a few hours,
Speaker 12: but it's it's not that long a set, forty five minutes.
Speaker 12: It's gonna be so easy. I'm just gonna do a
Speaker 12: mixture of like you know, like some hip hop hits,
Speaker 12: but also like some some more like global danceable stuff.
Speaker 12: I'm thinking Brazilian vibes, African vibes, try to bring something.
Speaker 5: Different, try to warm it up out there. It's cool.
Speaker 12: Yes, yeah, tickets take you guys to the tropics.
Speaker 5: So you don't you don't pre plan your sets at all. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that's kind of question. Yeah I did.
Speaker 12: I did the Red Bull three style the same way
Speaker 12: I pulled up to It was at South Paul and
Speaker 12: I was just chilling in the green room and I
Speaker 12: started looking at some crates, you know, because when you've
Speaker 12: DJ enough, you have all these micro sets that are
Speaker 12: in your head. So sometimes it's a matter of piecing
Speaker 12: the right micro sets together and having the right transition
Speaker 12: records to go from one genre to the other. I
Speaker 12: don't think I've ever done a set where I've gone
Speaker 12: song by song because maybe song number seven didn't hit. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 12: you know, maybe my intuition is like, nah, don't play
Speaker 12: this right now.
Speaker 9: So yeah, I was gonna ask you. So a lot
Speaker 9: of it is definitely you have to read the crowd.
Speaker 9: I mean, you can have something in your mind, but
Speaker 9: it's like, I don't think that's.
Speaker 12: One hundred percent. I think I think that's basically like
Speaker 12: my main attribute. I'm not necessarily like a turntable list
Speaker 12: or I don't talk on the mic too much. It's
Speaker 12: mostly selection, mixing and timing. So selection's key.
Speaker 5: If you hear some noise, it's just me and the boys.
Speaker 5: Goddamn symbol. Now we're a live on location. We're at
Speaker 5: the Routh's picnic.
Speaker 9: And so if you hear any kind of booming or
Speaker 9: any kind of just heard coffins, unpaid Bill in his
Speaker 9: inmphasema orde, or if you're any kind of drums or anything,
Speaker 9: it's probably our boss man Qus Love playing nearby.
Speaker 5: So it may be some sounds from the picnic that
Speaker 5: you guys here, but I think I think they got
Speaker 5: the picture.
Speaker 9: Okay, yeah, all right, the ambiance, you know what I'm saying, like,
Speaker 9: it's authenticity.
Speaker 5: Fuck it, ladies, gentlemen, we are we are proud once again,
Speaker 5: we're here. We're happy.
Speaker 9: Uh, these brothers took time on a show day to
Speaker 9: enjoy us because it really it really means a lot
Speaker 9: for them to come here.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 9: These brothers are based out of Brooklyn. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 9: please give a big, warm, quest love supreme round of
Speaker 9: applause for the ex ambassadors.
Speaker 5: It's up, fellas, fellas, how y'all feel.
Speaker 14: What feeling good?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 14: Feeling great to be back in New York. It's funny,
Speaker 14: you know, we uh we actually all I know this
Speaker 14: is gonna create some groans. We all just relocated to
Speaker 14: l Ah.
Speaker 5: My god.
Speaker 14: So I'm telling you, just like getting off the plane,
Speaker 14: it's it's like seeing this gray sky and it's like
Speaker 14: it's like low sixties. I'm feeling it, man, I'm so
Speaker 14: in it.
Speaker 5: How long have you guys been out in l A
Speaker 5: about it?
Speaker 15: I mean, yeah, you've been there a year. We've been
Speaker 15: on tour. So he moved there a year ago, but
Speaker 15: he hasn't been there. Yeah, I moved like two months ago.
Speaker 14: I moved there last September. I spent I've spent maybe
Speaker 14: like four weeks there total since I moved.
Speaker 5: Wow, you're not a douchebag yet, not yet.
Speaker 14: But I've had some avocado toast that was let's it
Speaker 14: hits your lips, it's so good.
Speaker 5: There's not much avocado toast. You're not up on that.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I'm in so much. This is true. Okay,
Speaker 5: So what okay? So you got to break this down?
Speaker 1: So is it toast spreads.
Speaker 3: It's simple.
Speaker 14: It's just avocado kind of smeared on on some toast.
Speaker 14: So it's still got the smear.
Speaker 5: The Jewish New Yorker rights like it's like a boogie peanut.
Speaker 7: But California just gentrified California cream is exactly.
Speaker 5: California is gentrified cream cheese. I got all good, Okay, well,
Speaker 5: thank you for coming through.
Speaker 14: Oh my god, pleasure man.
Speaker 9: So we got with us today just so everyone can
Speaker 9: hear and qualify I so we got Casey Harris on
Speaker 9: keyboards and then lead vocal Sam Harris, and then.
Speaker 5: On drums Adam Levigne or Adam Adam Levin.
Speaker 14: I didn't know how you can take no, no, no
Speaker 14: listen because because it's so funny every airport we're at,
Speaker 14: every time, like someone calls his name to the to
Speaker 14: the desk, the ladies like Adam Levi.
Speaker 13: Looking around.
Speaker 15: Is what it really is is the guy holding like
Speaker 15: the sign and the so there's like kids crowding around him.
Speaker 15: He like spells my name wrong, so it says Adam
Speaker 15: Levine and then there's like kids standing around him with
Speaker 15: cameras ready. But then I get there and say it
Speaker 15: to me, and everyone's just like a.
Speaker 3: Disappointment.
Speaker 5: Have you ever played to it, though, Like, have you
Speaker 5: ever actually like went with it?
Speaker 15: One time, I was in Mexico about a month ago,
Speaker 15: and I was trying to go to this really fancy restaurant,
Speaker 15: and I put my name down and I got there
Speaker 15: super late, and I guess Adam Levine had gotten married
Speaker 15: at this restaurant.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 15: And so I got there and they were like, oh,
Speaker 15: we thought it was going to be Adam Levine. And
Speaker 15: I smoozed him a little bit. So not it didn't
Speaker 15: truly like work in my favorite but I did get
Speaker 15: to sit you guys, I still got a little something. Actually,
Speaker 15: mostly it's just disappointment.
Speaker 5: This actually reminds me of.
Speaker 1: Something I read in the New York Post the other
Speaker 1: day about man in Manhattan. His name was Denzel Washington.
Speaker 5: Yeah he was. He was arrested for strangling a woman
Speaker 5: by the name of Aretha Franklin. Washington. Ultimate clickbait. Perfect,
Speaker 5: it was perfect.
Speaker 14: Only the post Man.
Speaker 13: Yeah paper, they know their headline.
Speaker 3: Yeah, slow news day.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's hilarious.
Speaker 9: I want to talk a little bit about how you
Speaker 9: guys first started and just you know, what turns you
Speaker 9: on to music, Like what made you, you know, want
Speaker 9: to pick up that instrument or start writing songs?
Speaker 5: What was the beginning for you guys.
Speaker 14: So, Casey and I grew up in college town upstate Ithaca,
Speaker 14: New York, and we uh, we always kind of have
Speaker 14: been playing music together since we're kids. My mom's actually
Speaker 14: here on the couch, and my mom is a singer
Speaker 14: growing up, so there's music in the household all the time.
Speaker 14: And we used to we used to sometimes accompany her
Speaker 14: at her shows. We'd like we'd be the guest the
Speaker 14: guest stars. This is like when I was maybe like
Speaker 14: eight or nine and uh in case he was ten
Speaker 14: and uh yeah, we started first band in middle school
Speaker 14: and and just kind of played music all throughout middle
Speaker 14: school and high school and then uh moved to New
Speaker 14: York and uh, you know, we we've been a band.
Speaker 14: We met Adam first year of school at New School
Speaker 14: University in the freshman dorms and uh, what year was this?
Speaker 14: Yeah doesn't Oh my god, I.
Speaker 5: Think y'all were there around the same time. I played
Speaker 5: one of my first gigs there. Oh yeah where my
Speaker 5: first group of Little brother we played.
Speaker 9: Uh we played New School University album around the time
Speaker 9: we released album The Mistters Show, and it was around
Speaker 9: that time.
Speaker 5: But New School always showed us love.
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's a great place and it was a nice chip.
Speaker 14: Oh remember, oh man, come on the first But you
Speaker 14: know what, here's here's the funny thing. So for us,
Speaker 14: we we have for many many years kind of based
Speaker 14: we can always judge and this is not always true,
Speaker 14: it's not always true, but back in the day, at
Speaker 14: least especially with college shows, we'd always judge like, Okay,
Speaker 14: if we're getting a lot of money for the show,
Speaker 14: it's gonna suck.
Speaker 5: More money.
Speaker 14: It's like the worst of the show. So the first
Speaker 14: show we played out of college, that was like the
Speaker 14: biggest check. It was like two thousand dollars or something,
Speaker 14: and we're stoked.
Speaker 13: We never made that.
Speaker 14: We never made that kind of money at a show,
Speaker 14: and we drove it was it was outside of Philly
Speaker 14: and it was at this Uh it was like on
Speaker 14: a Tuesday night in like the student lounge in the
Speaker 14: rec room at like ten pm and there's nobody there
Speaker 14: except the promoter and one guy playing pinball on the
Speaker 14: very back. The promoter left a guy who was playing.
Speaker 14: It turned into just a rehearsal that we got, very
Speaker 14: anti climact, very ante. Not bad that our highest paid gig,
Speaker 14: but I digressed.
Speaker 13: Sorry, We've been in.
Speaker 14: A band for about like ten years now, and uh, yeah,
Speaker 14: we we love it, man.
Speaker 5: That's what's up.
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 9: You guys know your music, like you have a lot
Speaker 9: of hip hop references, and like you use like interludes
Speaker 9: on your records.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you know the interlude is like a a staple,
Speaker 5: h staple. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: You could always judge your albums, you know, it was
Speaker 9: the music was the music. But so many classic skits,
Speaker 9: so many albums have been defined by.
Speaker 14: You remember the Carnival that Whit Records.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you but folks.
Speaker 14: Changed my life, changed my life shop, Oh my god,
Speaker 14: the greatest. And so so we grew up listening to
Speaker 14: records like that, like you know, like it even you know,
Speaker 14: even the skits on thirty six Chambers of Samples, you
Speaker 14: know Killope, Yeah and uh and like Sanconia Store.
Speaker 5: What are some of your favorite hip hop Like, let's
Speaker 5: re enact some of your favorite God this this is
Speaker 5: like one of mine. Is maybe like you can help
Speaker 5: me with kimm and Cookie from Come On Ring, Oh
Speaker 5: my god, hollout Word Records.
Speaker 14: The other day she got it on vinyl. It's like
Speaker 14: one of my that's that's one of my top five.
Speaker 9: My mine is definitely, uh, Red red Man, Muddy Waters
Speaker 9: that I Gotta Soda Buscuit on the on on Tyrese
Speaker 9: and he's picking on the Tyresse commercial. That might have
Speaker 9: been like before, but that ships hilarious. The carnival definitely
Speaker 9: is all though.
Speaker 8: Yeah, oh my god, I still a I I still
Speaker 8: like ghost. I'm stuck on.
Speaker 14: Those.
Speaker 9: These are all classes kits from hip hop albums. That
Speaker 9: was the ghost we were represent That's from a O
Speaker 9: y Bionics from Yeah.
Speaker 5: Time man, it was that like I love that.
Speaker 16: It was when when everyone was crushing the inters. Well,
Speaker 16: I don't know what it was about that, and it
Speaker 16: seemed like all the best albums had at least a few.
Speaker 14: Skits in the and we really wanted to kind of
Speaker 14: incorporate and incorporate that into our our sound too, you
Speaker 14: know them. The whole album itself is a kind of
Speaker 14: a throwback to to all of our influences.
Speaker 5: So that's dope, man. With you guys playing this gig today,
Speaker 5: this is something.
Speaker 14: That, I mean, the greatest show that we.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 14: So okay talking about bands that influenced us growing up,
Speaker 14: The roots were everything to me. They were everything to me.
Speaker 2: What was it?
Speaker 14: I don't know. I mean the fact that, well, first
Speaker 14: of all, I loved hip hop uh. You know, ever
Speaker 14: since I was in like elementary school. The first time
Speaker 14: I heard hip hop, I was like, this is the
Speaker 14: music that I'm going to listen to for the rest
Speaker 14: of my And they were also a band. They played,
Speaker 14: I mean, they played their instruments and they were so good.
Speaker 14: I was such a fan. I even saw that Remember
Speaker 14: that movie that Black thought.
Speaker 13: I saw that movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Brooklyn, I wasted ninety minutes of my life.
Speaker 17: It was actually I think was graating it though, Like
Speaker 17: I mean, it was okay, it was I think it
Speaker 17: was just a yeah story.
Speaker 14: Yeah, it was just like that Romeo and Juliet kind
Speaker 14: of yeah.
Speaker 9: But it just didn't have it didn't talk at my
Speaker 9: heart strings like an interracial little story. I need more
Speaker 9: passion from the black and Jewish love. I need to
Speaker 9: sell them a little more.
Speaker 5: Dude.
Speaker 14: It was it was.
Speaker 5: It wasn't convincing. It wasn't convincing at all. It wasn't
Speaker 5: fair enough. When we have Tarika on the show, we
Speaker 5: have to ask him about we will. We were all
Speaker 5: about that.
Speaker 9: So with you guys playing this gig, is there a
Speaker 9: different kind of preparation that goes into it, because oh, well,
Speaker 9: first off, what is it like to play for it,
Speaker 9: because I've been in this situation before, so I want
Speaker 9: to hear from you guys, what is it like to
Speaker 9: play for quote unquote your heroes?
Speaker 5: Like, what is that like? Is there a different kind
Speaker 5: of preparation? Terrifying?
Speaker 13: It's terrifying.
Speaker 14: But also you know that the lucky thing for us
Speaker 14: is that we have been again, we've been a band
Speaker 14: for so long that we've had a lot of preparation time.
Speaker 14: So you know, like at the end of the day,
Speaker 14: like I think, as as nervous as we might get,
Speaker 14: you know, playing in front of our heroes or playing
Speaker 14: for some of our heroes, I think I think we
Speaker 14: can bring it. I feel like it's when when the
Speaker 14: time comes, it's.
Speaker 16: Almost easier this way. This I'm pretty confident playing you know,
Speaker 16: our set. I have to admit that when we jammed
Speaker 16: with the Roots during south By, I was shitting my pants.
Speaker 18: Yeah.
Speaker 14: Yeah, So we sat in with them. They did the
Speaker 14: whole thing south By Southwest this year where they invited
Speaker 14: some of the musicians playing to play, and we were
Speaker 14: lucky enough to to sit in and play with them,
Speaker 14: and that was the craziest, craziest, you know, it's one
Speaker 14: thing to play like you know, you're set the music
Speaker 14: that you you know, have written and know you know,
Speaker 14: like the back of your hand, and it's nother to
Speaker 14: just you know, go into a live jam situation, you
Speaker 14: know where you've you've had maybe one quick rehearsal and
Speaker 14: and you know the you know, the roots of pros.
Speaker 14: He was such a tight ship out there.
Speaker 5: It doesn't so cool. We wouldn't but talk.
Speaker 2: About that real quick because the way that like throws
Speaker 2: his cues at the same time while he's playing drums
Speaker 2: like he's music director.
Speaker 16: Just you know, I'm sure they've run through the songs,
Speaker 16: you know, a couple of times. I don't think so
Speaker 16: they may just have Yeah, it's amazing. He'll just say
Speaker 16: you like, you know, all right, slow down, or give me,
Speaker 16: give me four hits or you know, just you know
Speaker 16: we're ending, you know, two bars, you know, and just
Speaker 16: and they do it like it like it was you know,
Speaker 16: practice a million times.
Speaker 5: Very Prince, Yeah, yeah, exactly. I read. Prince was a
Speaker 5: big influence.
Speaker 14: Yeah, man, he was a huge influence.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 14: I would say that my two pillars that I always
Speaker 14: go to with anything that I ever have written or
Speaker 14: write or will write in the future or do just
Speaker 14: in general. It's like there's always there's Bruce Springsteen and
Speaker 14: this Prince.
Speaker 5: What about those two? What about Well?
Speaker 14: I feel like if I do anything that I that
Speaker 14: I could see maybe being in line with either of them,
Speaker 14: then it's then I'm on the right track, you know.
Speaker 14: Like Prince was just the consummate entertainer and performer, and
Speaker 14: he just I mean, he's like so many people can
Speaker 14: speak way more eloquently on the man, the myth, the
Speaker 14: legend that was Prince, you know, than I can. But
Speaker 14: he was just a huge, huge influence on everything that
Speaker 14: I do, and such a great performer and sing a musician.
Speaker 14: And Springsteen is is storytelling is what gets me. And
Speaker 14: his his just authenticity and he's so generous.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 14: I just saw him play at Barclay's recently, and the
Speaker 14: way have you guys seen his his show, I mean
Speaker 14: it's like a yeah, Well, what he does is like
Speaker 14: he starts his show off and the house lights are
Speaker 14: up in the arena and he just walks on stage.
Speaker 14: Wo the house lights stay up for the first three songs,
Speaker 14: so it's just like a wedding band is there playing
Speaker 14: for an arena but it's Bruce and his whole band,
Speaker 14: and then the lights go down. He does the show
Speaker 14: and it gets more theatrical at the end. Lights come
Speaker 14: back up. In the last like six songs of the set,
Speaker 14: after he's played for what like three hours or something,
Speaker 14: he's he's, you know, taking requests from the audience, he's
Speaker 14: bringing people up on stage. He's just so he's so
Speaker 14: good with his fans and with his people that I,
Speaker 14: you know, I just like I really admire that.
Speaker 5: What's it like to have your songs everywhere?
Speaker 19: I think, like, like like I was in the Supermark
Speaker 19: the other day and Unsteady came on, and I feel like,
Speaker 19: you're like, it's like it's it's surreal to me to
Speaker 19: think that, Like you're in your house one day, right,
Speaker 19: it's surreal to.
Speaker 14: Me because I never hear it anywhere always, just like
Speaker 14: I hear it everywhere, but it's like, ah, what world
Speaker 14: do you live in?
Speaker 5: Because I don't hear it.
Speaker 19: Ever Like I have I have small kids listen to
Speaker 19: pop radio all day and it's one of the one
Speaker 19: of those sick songs that like every twenty minutes you
Speaker 19: hear it again and again.
Speaker 5: It's wonderful it's just it's.
Speaker 14: That's good to hear.
Speaker 16: Yeah, that's I mean, it's good to hear you say
Speaker 16: it's wonderful, because I was about to say it's one
Speaker 16: of those things where it's it's really flattering. But I'm
Speaker 16: also always nervous that it gets obnoxious for people. You know,
Speaker 16: I don't want our songs to become the that annoying song.
Speaker 20: Oh god, that's on again.
Speaker 5: Man, that's the children are annoying. Yeah, my children are young.
Speaker 14: And share their angels.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, total, So they just flap around, ye, daddy, daddy,
Speaker 5: That's how I go. Yeah, young lady, we have in
Speaker 5: the house right now.
Speaker 9: I first became familiar with her opening for Jill Scott
Speaker 9: back twenty fifteen, and I was just like, man, like,
Speaker 9: she's fucking dope.
Speaker 5: I just keep it real simple, dope.
Speaker 9: Some of you may have know if you're up on
Speaker 9: TOI dollar Sign shot him my man, tie dollar Sign
Speaker 9: his record, Horses in the Stable off for free TC.
Speaker 9: She wrote that record Yeah we Don't Talk, We Don't
Speaker 9: talk about also wrote for Diddy every Day. She was
Speaker 9: in the movie shytrack, which I want to talk about.
Speaker 9: I actually saw that one, and I want to talk
Speaker 9: to her about something that's very important and near and
Speaker 9: there to my heart.
Speaker 5: I want to talk about her. Got him ribs. That's
Speaker 5: really what I that's the focus episode.
Speaker 3: It's saying, my real game is crazy.
Speaker 9: Ladies, gentlemen, give a big question love supreme riperht plause
Speaker 9: for y'all's guys.
Speaker 5: To the show man, thank you, thank you for taking
Speaker 5: this time on the show day to do this with us.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 5: Okay, so listen, all right, yes.
Speaker 9: Okay, So what's your I don't want to give away
Speaker 9: your you don't give away your your formula, But what
Speaker 9: do you do?
Speaker 1: You do you smoke?
Speaker 5: Are you a what's your what's your what's your preferred
Speaker 5: mythic charcoal gas? Break it down for the people.
Speaker 1: Sweet baby, let's let's let's go.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about it.
Speaker 21: Well, first I gotta get some really nice pork They
Speaker 21: have to be pork ribs.
Speaker 3: Of course it's not. It's not saying out. It's like
Speaker 3: it's cool, but it ain't the same.
Speaker 21: You know, you got to get the pork ribs, you know,
Speaker 21: get a nice rack rip season these ribs overnight, not
Speaker 21: get a rib rub.
Speaker 3: You know you know, I get a Lorry's rib rub.
Speaker 21: You know, I rubbed down. You know I've massaged it
Speaker 21: into the rip. It's all about the massaging. You can't
Speaker 21: just like pour it on it.
Speaker 3: You gotta massage it in, you know, flip it over,
Speaker 3: turn it. Massage. You got to get involved. So I'm
Speaker 3: rubbing the ribs right now with the with the with
Speaker 3: the with the the rib rub.
Speaker 21: Now, I take a little a little nutmeg and a
Speaker 21: little cinnamon, and I get that in there and I
Speaker 21: crack that aver. I'm rubbing these things in and now
Speaker 21: I'm like, all right, baby, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Put it in the fridge. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 21: It's gonna stay in the fridge now. Yeah, because you
Speaker 21: know I'm loving this rib. You gotta make sure the
Speaker 21: drip got lots of love. When I cook, I cooked
Speaker 21: with love. I don't cook every day, but anybody who
Speaker 21: knows me knows when I cook, I cook with love.
Speaker 3: I go all out. So you know, the rib go
Speaker 3: in there now, minimum of three hours, but I've done
Speaker 3: it overnight. Thing.
Speaker 21: It depends on how soon I want to eat these ribs,
Speaker 21: I'm saying. So I let them sit in there for
Speaker 21: a couple of hours. Then I come back, put on
Speaker 21: a big pot of boiling water, and I put nutmeg
Speaker 21: in that water, cinnamon in that water, a lot of
Speaker 21: ground pepper.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. I'm trying to told you
Speaker 3: like this is like I just the process. It's the
Speaker 3: it's my one dish.
Speaker 1: It's my mac and cheese is hit he men.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's dry.
Speaker 21: Last time I made it, I messed it up, you
Speaker 21: know what I'm saying. So so I'm not gonna say
Speaker 21: that I got mad, but this one I got. You know,
Speaker 21: I got and my salad game is on too.
Speaker 3: Okay, So let's get back to the So I put
Speaker 3: them in the water. You know what I'm saying. The
Speaker 3: ribs are in the water.
Speaker 21: They're boiling. They're boiling on a nice medium fire. I
Speaker 21: leave them to do what they do with the water.
Speaker 21: They're boiling. They got the nutmeg. Everything's happening. I's gonna
Speaker 21: smell the aroma in the air. It's like you smell
Speaker 21: the sweet smell of cinnamon and nutmegs in the air.
Speaker 21: Now it's like, oh snap.
Speaker 3: So now you know what I'm saying. After like two
Speaker 3: hours of boiling them, I think they've already.
Speaker 21: You know, they gotta be falling off. You gotta see
Speaker 21: little meat bits, you know, foam at the top. That's
Speaker 21: when you know you like the foam? Is this, yes,
Speaker 21: now draining out the foam, draining out of the water.
Speaker 21: And I'm taking this nice succulent cooked meat already that's
Speaker 21: all marinated in this greatness, and I'm taking the Sweet
Speaker 21: Baby Race out now.
Speaker 5: Sweet Baby Race, for those of you who may be listening,
Speaker 5: is one of the top barbecue and black household. Yes,
Speaker 5: it comes in several varieties.
Speaker 9: It has a sweet and spicy, it has like it
Speaker 9: it's a lot they're coming for, they do. I wouldn't
Speaker 9: you want to stick with the sweet and spicy. They
Speaker 9: coming for Jack Daniels Mass like they coming for their corners.
Speaker 9: That's that's what they're doing.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 21: I stick with the original, the original sweet Baby, because
Speaker 21: you know, this is what I know. And I jazz
Speaker 21: it up though I don't just pour that on this.
Speaker 21: See that's not what we stop. First get sweet Baby
Speaker 21: Rais and I grab a little honey. Then I go
Speaker 21: grab the nutmeg and cinnamon.
Speaker 3: Once more. We got to I didn't even know that
Speaker 3: was cust I try to name the tyrone.
Speaker 21: That's crusty, baby, I said, I'll see the sticks now, okay,
Speaker 21: but yeah, so yeah, yeah, we're gonna cook you up crusty.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So you know what I'm saying. Now we done
Speaker 3: got the Oh shoot, well, crust lay down. Now we
Speaker 3: don't got the you know what I'm saying, we got
Speaker 3: the We gotta sprinkle that on.
Speaker 21: So now I pour the honey on top first, because
Speaker 21: that's gonna give it the stickiest part. You put that
Speaker 21: on once and now I'm turning this thing over about
Speaker 21: three or four times before I'm serving us first and
Speaker 21: doing this over and over.
Speaker 3: The first layer is honey.
Speaker 14: Boom.
Speaker 21: Then I go pour some of cinnamon nut man, because
Speaker 21: it's gonna stick to the honey. I get my little
Speaker 21: brush painted on.
Speaker 3: Boom boom. Then I poured sweet baby rays a little
Speaker 3: bit of a time on top.
Speaker 21: Then I cout another cook it for fifteen minutes, flip
Speaker 21: it over, do it again it, flip it, flip it,
Speaker 21: flip it, flip and flip it until I'm tired of
Speaker 21: flipping it. I don't really have no until I'm hungry
Speaker 21: and look good, and I just keep doing it.
Speaker 3: And by the man, I'm talking about like you got
Speaker 3: the rib, you got the thick layer of like glaze.
Speaker 21: Barbecue, and it's not it's not like all like too
Speaker 21: much juice. It's just like right on the rip and
Speaker 21: then the rib's just falling off.
Speaker 3: Hey, you know, I gotta do it again. I have
Speaker 3: a million ribs in a minute.
Speaker 1: But yes, ladies and gentlemen, with the award winning and
Speaker 1: as far as I'm hearing, I'm done.
Speaker 5: Just from listening to that recipe.
Speaker 8: Oh wait, she singing and she rhyme too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're gonna get to the We're gonna get to
Speaker 5: the music. But first ribs important.
Speaker 21: I just landed at six am because I just was thinking.
Speaker 21: I was like, if I would have known it was
Speaker 21: in my ribs like that, man, I.
Speaker 3: Could have hooked that up real quick.
Speaker 9: Man, you gotta show I got show that. Yeah, you
Speaker 9: got way more important things.
Speaker 8: Your first roots picnic performance.
Speaker 3: Right, yes, no, no, no no, no. I've done the
Speaker 3: Ruse Picnic.
Speaker 21: I did Ruths Picnic in Philly, but it's the first
Speaker 21: Rust Picnic in New York period, So I'm so glad
Speaker 21: to be a part of that.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 9: I listened to your music and I hear in a
Speaker 9: fantastic way, not in the the riveted at all. I'm
Speaker 9: definitely hearing some Lauren. I hear, Missy talk to me
Speaker 9: about your influences, like what uh, what kind of stuff
Speaker 9: did you grow up? Listening to you sing and rap
Speaker 9: like equally as well, which is very rare because like
Speaker 9: some cats can either do one or the other.
Speaker 5: You should know.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, you know, I tried every now and again,
Speaker 9: I get it right, but no, you have raw talent,
Speaker 9: and so talk to us about just honing that.
Speaker 5: Like what you listen to coming up? What was your start?
Speaker 21: I really loved music a lot so well, when I
Speaker 21: was very young, my mom had me singing under.
Speaker 3: A little a little light with her.
Speaker 21: I was like six, and we used to sing like
Speaker 21: all kinds of different old school songs because that's what
Speaker 21: my mother plays. So she had me singing Frankie Liman,
Speaker 21: you know, yeah, yeah, she she was all about that life.
Speaker 21: So she had me on the Frankie Liman. She had
Speaker 21: my sister singing Whitney Houston's the Greatest Love of All.
Speaker 21: I sung Dianna Warwick's That's what Friends Are?
Speaker 22: Food?
Speaker 5: Do you have to sing?
Speaker 9: Because I think it was the rite of fastage in
Speaker 9: every black like entertainer singing the Greatest Love of All
Speaker 9: at a talent show.
Speaker 5: Did you have to do that?
Speaker 23: No?
Speaker 3: You know at the time.
Speaker 21: See, that's what led me into rap because at the time,
Speaker 21: my sister could sing that, and I never got the
Speaker 21: chance because they my mom would.
Speaker 3: Be like, oh, you ain't got the chaps for that.
Speaker 3: You're gonna sing you know what you sing good, You're
Speaker 3: gonna sing.
Speaker 21: Dion woll And I was like, and I would be like, cool,
Speaker 21: no disrespect to Leon, She's a legend and amazing.
Speaker 3: But I was like, this is not that hard. That's
Speaker 3: what the friends are, you know. I and my sister's
Speaker 3: getting to go. You know what I'm saying, She's getting
Speaker 3: all the moments. I'm like, man.
Speaker 21: So I got into rap after that because I was
Speaker 21: getting tired of like told to saying this or that,
Speaker 21: and I was like, man, my sister could sing, Man,
Speaker 21: I don't need that.
Speaker 5: What was your first rap? What was your early hip hop?
Speaker 3: Shoot?
Speaker 21: Like my brother really because like, honestly, in my neighborhood,
Speaker 21: everybody rapped like that was just the way it was,
Speaker 21: like we hang out rap and my brothers were older,
Speaker 21: Like my brother's a few years older than me, and
Speaker 21: his friends were older. But for some reason, we we
Speaker 21: all wanted up hanging out all the time.
Speaker 3: Like it was kind of strange, like it was.
Speaker 10: Shoot.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, ninety three, oh wow, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: so we was rapping, that's what was popping like.
Speaker 21: So you know, it was interesting though, because I was
Speaker 21: probably about ten, and you know, but I was hanging out.
Speaker 21: Ever ever was hanging out, and it was just like
Speaker 21: lots going on, you know, we were like little adults.
Speaker 3: And we were rapping and that body wrap my brother
Speaker 3: rapped and everybody.
Speaker 21: I remember the first time I seen him rap and
Speaker 21: he was just like I don't know what he was saying,
Speaker 21: but I remember the word was like get off my ballsack.
Speaker 4: And everybody's like.
Speaker 5: I was like.
Speaker 3: Fishbowl and I was like, yo, that was dope. And
Speaker 3: I started like, actually I wanted to rap, and he
Speaker 3: started writing my wraps for me.
Speaker 1: My brother.
Speaker 21: He wrote me like two or three raps and they
Speaker 21: were dope and I would spit them and then people
Speaker 21: were like that sound good, but your brother wrote it.
Speaker 5: And I was like, do you remember any of those?
Speaker 16: Nah?
Speaker 24: Man?
Speaker 21: I mean, I remember my early raps that I began
Speaker 21: to write, like I think I don't remember anything he wrote.
Speaker 3: Because I was too young. But I quickly got out
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 21: I just started stealing his raps what I was permission
Speaker 21: and like rewriting him like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 21: because that's how I was getting my templates. And then
Speaker 21: I moved to a better neighborhood because it was real
Speaker 21: violent in that neighborhood. So it was like shooting all
Speaker 21: the time at robberies and everybody was fighting. I had
Speaker 21: so many fights, Like by that time, it was crazy.
Speaker 5: This is the Bronx.
Speaker 21: Yeah, yeah, this is the Bronx. So it was just
Speaker 21: a crazy time. So my mom was just trying to
Speaker 21: like get us away from there, so she moved us
Speaker 21: uptown to the Bronx.
Speaker 3: It was a little bit better.
Speaker 21: These kids weren't as wild as the kids I grew
Speaker 21: up with earlier, the little adults that when we were with.
Speaker 21: These were actual children. Their parents really like were in
Speaker 21: there and like, so when I moved uptown, wasn't nobody
Speaker 21: really rapping like that.
Speaker 3: So I kind of like just chilled. I was like twelve,
Speaker 3: and I was just like trying to focus on like school.
Speaker 5: But I was started writing like songs, okay, and these
Speaker 5: were singing songs now yeah, yeah.
Speaker 21: Yeah, because because Montel Jordan came out with this is
Speaker 21: how We do It. And when it came out, I
Speaker 21: just got transferred to this new school. So you know,
Speaker 21: I didn't know anybody really in my class. And I'm
Speaker 21: sitting there and I remember hearing the song and I
Speaker 21: just was in this class and I go, this is
Speaker 21: all we do.
Speaker 3: And the thing that everybody loved the best was out
Speaker 3: of there shine and everybody in class.
Speaker 5: I was like yo, and I was saying every day
Speaker 5: that was like.
Speaker 3: Saying. So after a while, I was just like I
Speaker 3: became that musical person. Everybody's like, yo, you funny musical.
Speaker 3: So they just called me Biggie.
Speaker 5: They yeah, man, why Biggie?
Speaker 3: Because I would rapping class and sing.
Speaker 21: And it got to a point like after the start
Speaker 21: of singing, I start being popular, you know, So I
Speaker 21: started loosening up.
Speaker 3: Just not the lunch when you come to lunch with
Speaker 3: we see me, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 21: We all telling everybody's like, oh oh, like Biggie, Biggie.
Speaker 21: And it was just like it was like and I
Speaker 21: was and you know what, Honestly, I was young. I
Speaker 21: was in an awkward stage. My hair was really weird,
Speaker 21: and like I was kind of fat. Yeah, I was
Speaker 21: like I'm chummy, said yeah, okay, so I sounded like biggie.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 9: So I was reading you know you have you know,
Speaker 9: been working out and you dropped more than forty pounds.
Speaker 3: I dropped seventy five pounds.
Speaker 13: O pounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you are like.
Speaker 9: Tweeting talking about my life right now because that is
Speaker 9: my struggle because like I won't lose seventy five.
Speaker 5: Pounds, but I love real talk talk talk us through.
Speaker 9: This is a very good question that process, like how
Speaker 9: do you negotiate Well, first of all, congratulations on amazing,
Speaker 9: thank you, And how does that, you know, being in
Speaker 9: better shape working out, how do you work that into
Speaker 9: your creative time?
Speaker 5: Like recording? Does it do your creative time? Like how
Speaker 5: does that?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 21: I wake her out every morning? Every morning I wake
Speaker 21: up and I go to the gym. It's just at
Speaker 21: this point it's part of my life. I mean, I
Speaker 21: think what happens is this. You know, when you were young,
Speaker 21: you can eat whatever you want and it doesn't affect you.
Speaker 21: You can drop pounds really easy, and it doesn't affect you.
Speaker 21: So as you get into your twenties, you begin to
Speaker 21: you still think this.
Speaker 3: Way, and it's not really necessarily that way. All the time.
Speaker 3: Your taoles absolutely slows down.
Speaker 21: And I had gotten into a relationship and my partner
Speaker 21: can cook, and she was just like she was cooking
Speaker 21: and cooking.
Speaker 3: It was like she's putting sugar in my water. I
Speaker 3: was getting so fat. I blew up.
Speaker 5: I blew up.
Speaker 3: No, it was like she pushed on a lot. It's
Speaker 3: like it's like I blew I blew up like a tech,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. I was so fat. I
Speaker 3: got to two hundred and forty pounds, you feel me.
Speaker 3: And and before that I wasn't really that big. I
Speaker 3: went through phases like blow up.
Speaker 21: I was at skinny, awkward fat stage at twelve. Then
Speaker 21: at sixteen I got hot.
Speaker 3: I thought I was a shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 21: I stayed this shit until like twenty four, and then
Speaker 21: I got a relationship, got chubby again, and I just
Speaker 21: kind of went back. I got the mortgage business. When
Speaker 21: I was there, I kind of got fat. But what
Speaker 21: what ultimately led it was just just come into an
Speaker 21: understanding that A I wanted to be able to perform,
Speaker 21: and that was the main thing. Like I really love
Speaker 21: to perform, and I wanted to be able to move,
Speaker 21: and I wanted to feel good, and I wanted to
Speaker 21: fit clothes.
Speaker 3: I wanted to fit jeans. I wanted to fit designer jeans.
Speaker 3: That was really the main thing.
Speaker 21: I was like, I have to can't They don't. No,
Speaker 21: they don't make if anyway us. No, you know, like
Speaker 21: you would think that you know, I could fit a
Speaker 21: man's pants.
Speaker 12: No.
Speaker 21: Yeah, yeah, they just like they don't make them. So
Speaker 21: I was like, you know what, I want to be
Speaker 21: able to perform, I want to look great. I want
Speaker 21: to buy clothes. I wasn't buying clothes. I was just
Speaker 21: like buying T shirts and stuff. And I wanted to
Speaker 21: just feel good. And it's the best antidepressant that there is,
Speaker 21: you know, like they're just working when you know you
Speaker 21: feel good and you're healthy, like nothing can get you down.
Speaker 21: You don't even have the money, but you feel good
Speaker 21: about yourself. It was just a dedication. And what the
Speaker 21: first thing you have to realize when it comes to
Speaker 21: losing weight is that it's a lifestyle change. But it's
Speaker 21: only like hard for a period of time. So like
Speaker 21: it took me six months to lose forty pounds to
Speaker 21: look good enough to be like, damn, I'm there to
Speaker 21: keep me going right. And from that point on, I
Speaker 21: was no longer to struggle to even go to the
Speaker 21: gym because I felt I seen the results.
Speaker 3: I want to see more.
Speaker 1: Seeing those results, was that how you got over the
Speaker 1: to keep it or to make it a more permanent.
Speaker 13: Part of you.
Speaker 21: No, it was permanent. From the moment I decided to
Speaker 21: do it, I was like, that's it, I'm going on
Speaker 21: a diet. I went on a diet intense, died of
Speaker 21: four ounces meet four ounces vegetables three times a day,
Speaker 21: broth and freaking two crackers a gallon of water.
Speaker 3: And that's what I had to do.
Speaker 21: And I was hungry, and I had to sit behind
Speaker 21: home sometimes a lot of the time and not drink
Speaker 21: and I went to the gym three times a day,
Speaker 21: and I went to hiking at the same same very.
Speaker 5: Strong will like to be, yeah, you ain't doing anything.
Speaker 21: If you want to, if you really think about it,
Speaker 21: you only had I only had to do that for
Speaker 21: like six months to a year, and then Now it's
Speaker 21: like I told through I would go based out on
Speaker 21: the milk, I'll gains. I gave twenty pounds on the left,
Speaker 21: you know what I'm saying. But when I twenty pound,
Speaker 21: I come home, I get a skin like, damn, you
Speaker 21: messed up. Come on, all right, now it's salad.
Speaker 3: It's salad. It's easier to go back.
Speaker 21: So it's just like it's like it's like a small
Speaker 21: period of time for you to change your whole entire life.
Speaker 21: But once you do it for one year, six months,
Speaker 21: one year, you're done, Like with the hardest part, you
Speaker 21: know how to do it.
Speaker 3: You're done, and you know what's healthy.
Speaker 21: You even like it honestly because you start to like,
Speaker 21: you like feeling like, all right, I'm not eating nothing
Speaker 21: too heavy.
Speaker 5: I can't even make it this week. Let's look, I'm
Speaker 5: sitting down, man, I'm wearing back gym visit.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 21: Three gym visits a week from being what you want.
Speaker 21: It's not about food for you really, because you're small.
Speaker 21: It's just like when you're bigger, you're trying to lose weight.
Speaker 21: So it's like kind of a little bit more of
Speaker 21: a struggle and what you know what, that's what they say.
Speaker 21: But you know what, as a woman, I will tell
Speaker 21: you it is not.
Speaker 3: It's not talk.
Speaker 8: Wait a minute, come on. They say that men shed
Speaker 8: weight much faster.
Speaker 3: They do shed weight faster with less. We just have
Speaker 3: to do the max and we'll shed the same. So
Speaker 3: basically like.
Speaker 21: Because they can because they got more tustostone and the
Speaker 21: muscle some of the things. That it will go to
Speaker 21: the right places. We have water and it just goes
Speaker 21: to the wrong places. So that just means that we
Speaker 21: don't cheat and we it will succeed.
Speaker 3: It's just you can't cheat. Men can cheat a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't think the water can go to a wrong
Speaker 5: place anywhere. On a woman, I like some problem with
Speaker 5: none of that.
Speaker 10: I don't mind.
Speaker 5: You know, if you got the tiger stripes, got a
Speaker 5: little hell damage, you know, a.
Speaker 3: Couple of stretch mosses or whatever.
Speaker 21: You know, it's like, no one's perfect, and honestly, there's
Speaker 21: not the wrong stretch masses like whatever.
Speaker 3: But it's just more about how you feel.
Speaker 21: And really, honestly, you only get one body, and the
Speaker 21: older you get, the more you need that body to
Speaker 21: work the way you want it to. And if you
Speaker 21: don't work it out and you don't take care of
Speaker 21: it now, it will affect you at some points. So
Speaker 21: it's either an hour or later. The harder it gets
Speaker 21: is the older you get, it harder it gets.
Speaker 3: So anytime, the time is.
Speaker 1: Now, as this conversation is so right on time, because
Speaker 1: I've been trying to get my ass back into them,
Speaker 1: and like I just kind of needed that push.
Speaker 5: I think we're just hard quest. I know we should
Speaker 5: do a Quest Team Supreme Fit challenge, like, so, well, see.
Speaker 1: If we do this, then I actually have to follow through.
Speaker 5: We got to hold each other count.
Speaker 3: Think about it.
Speaker 21: You lose three pounds a week on a good diet,
Speaker 21: like literally drinking a gallon of water a day, eating
Speaker 21: three four ounces of chicken, four ounces of vegetable or
Speaker 21: lean meat and vegetable three times a day. And when
Speaker 21: you get hungry sometimes it's not hungry, you're thirsty. Body
Speaker 21: process is the same. And if you honestly drink.
Speaker 3: A fucking bottle of water before you eat your meal,
Speaker 3: you'll be so full by the time you're like, you
Speaker 3: just gotta eat slow.
Speaker 21: It's like all mental, bro Your stomach does not you
Speaker 21: don't need that much to survive, you don't and it's
Speaker 21: just healthy for you.
Speaker 13: It is.
Speaker 21: It is good for you, and honestly it takes you
Speaker 21: can if you want to lose twenty pounds right three
Speaker 21: nine twelve.
Speaker 8: You know, yeah, y'all doing really.
Speaker 5: I was just this in two months.
Speaker 3: But you feel what I'm saying, like, are you really
Speaker 3: really look at it? Like boom boom boom. I swear
Speaker 3: you're just it is just changing.
Speaker 5: We're sitting here with Tish.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what I'm saying Tish titrible rapper, singer, rib Cooker,
Speaker 9: extraordinary motivational speaker. She is like doing all kinds of
Speaker 9: ministry right now. This is prest Love, Supreme Opendor with
Speaker 9: broadcasting Live from the roots. Picnic Uh, I wan't talk
Speaker 9: about your newest project dedication dedicated to, Yes, who is
Speaker 9: this project dedicated to?
Speaker 21: Dedicated to is dedicated to anyone who's ever felt like,
Speaker 21: because of where they're from or their circumstances, that they
Speaker 21: could not do more or they were in a bad place.
Speaker 21: And I'm also dedicated to letting these people and everyone
Speaker 21: know that no matter what it is you want to
Speaker 21: do with your life, you can do it. You just
Speaker 21: have to be dedicated to and you know, it's just
Speaker 21: a lot about the story. For me, the story just
Speaker 21: is is inspirational because I've been through so many things
Speaker 21: and I've still managed to be happy and be a
Speaker 21: nice person and continue.
Speaker 3: To do what I love. So I hope that inspires people.
Speaker 5: What are some of the things that you've been through
Speaker 5: that you felt oof?
Speaker 21: I mean, you know, well, first I was in a
Speaker 21: foster home when I was a kid for a few
Speaker 21: years and that sucked very badly. Lots of incidents in there,
Speaker 21: you know, lost a lot of friends to just different
Speaker 21: depths of violence, uh, drug abuse, accidents, jail, uh, my
Speaker 21: cousin got killed, and just lots of stuff happens in life.
Speaker 21: I'm sure everybody has their own hardships, but sometimes when
Speaker 21: these things happen to you, you feel like you're defeated
Speaker 21: and you think that it's over, but it's really not.
Speaker 21: So my whole point is like, one bad day doesn't
Speaker 21: make a bad month, one bad month doesn't make.
Speaker 3: A bad life.
Speaker 21: It's just like to stay happy and stay dedicated to
Speaker 21: being happy because it's free, honestly, and it's the it's
Speaker 21: the one thing that really can't no one take away
Speaker 21: from you so you can give that to yourself.
Speaker 9: Do you ever feel, uh, sometimes like being a person
Speaker 9: that like made it out of that you know, that situation,
Speaker 9: that neativity. Do you ever sometimes feel like you know
Speaker 9: survivor's guild or do you feel like the one that
Speaker 9: made Like? What is cause I have those feelings, you know,
Speaker 9: for me sometimes, But what is that like for you
Speaker 9: to know that you're one of the few, if not
Speaker 9: the only you need to escape that hardship?
Speaker 21: Well, it is definitely difficult though, and I definitely have
Speaker 21: felt that feeling. I guess more in the beginning of
Speaker 21: coming into any successes. When I was in the mortgage
Speaker 21: business and I was making money and and I was
Speaker 21: helping everybody, it still had it. It came with its
Speaker 21: feeling of damn, I wish that they were just good
Speaker 21: without me. Or and I moved to California and I've
Speaker 21: been there for five years, you know, getting the news
Speaker 21: from home that's not always feel pleasant. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 21: ultimately everyone's life is in their hands. I have to
Speaker 21: come to terms of that. And also I'm not giving anything.
Speaker 21: I'm working so hard to achieve the things that I
Speaker 21: want and I always have, and I think that that's
Speaker 21: the only thing that can get a person where they
Speaker 21: want to be. So ultimately, no, I feel like when
Speaker 21: I get these people that have things going on, or
Speaker 21: I feel these feelings, or people make me feel this way,
Speaker 21: I make them feel like, well, I can help you
Speaker 21: do something. But if you're not willing to do something,
Speaker 21: and then this is on you exactly, you know, and
Speaker 21: it's not, it's not, it's it's never.
Speaker 3: It's nothing to do with me.
Speaker 9: When you say you're working so hard, what is your
Speaker 9: average day like, what does in terms of your creative processes,
Speaker 9: it's something you do every day.
Speaker 5: What is just a day in the life of tissue?
Speaker 3: Well, they very surry. It's been. It's been through cycles.
Speaker 21: So when I first got to LA, every day I
Speaker 21: was in studio sessions about three or four day I
Speaker 21: was recording.
Speaker 3: No me and time met I hop Oh.
Speaker 21: Random, you know, me and Jill Scott mad at a party,
Speaker 21: you know, just hanging out by the pool freestyling for
Speaker 21: ten hours, so just random stuff. LA is very small,
Speaker 21: the in the street. But when I first got there,
Speaker 21: I didn't know anyone. I wasn't published. I needed to
Speaker 21: make money or figure something out, so I just went
Speaker 21: to as many sessions as I could. I worked so
Speaker 21: much I would sometimes not even be able to speak,
Speaker 21: but I could sing, and I would just go record.
Speaker 21: So that was the first two years, and then the
Speaker 21: third year I spent recording this album, and days were like, uh,
Speaker 21: those days were actu Actually I was going through a
Speaker 21: lot of financial strain and I was trying to put
Speaker 21: together the record. I was still very overweight, and I
Speaker 21: was not I wasn't managed, and I was just trying
Speaker 21: to figure it out.
Speaker 3: I did three or four records every three or four months. Wow,
Speaker 3: you know. So it was interesting that period.
Speaker 21: And in twenty fourteen, I spent touring a bit and
Speaker 21: like performing much more and started spreading awareness about the album,
Speaker 21: you know, and it's just been kind of like it
Speaker 21: just changes. But right now my daily day consists of
Speaker 21: I wake up in the morning, I go to the
Speaker 21: gym first thing. As soon as I wake up, I
Speaker 21: go to gym, spend about an hour there, come home
Speaker 21: and walk the dogs, and you know, just start working
Speaker 21: on the phones, you know, finding out what I have
Speaker 21: to do for the day. Right now, I'm recording a
Speaker 21: new album, so I'm doing a lot of that. And
Speaker 21: then bouncing around to performances.
Speaker 5: When you record, are you record yourself? Do you have engineers?
Speaker 3: I have Enginet.
Speaker 21: I record at Universal Studios, my publisher, and they are
Speaker 21: very supportive. They're the best publisher in the world. I
Speaker 21: think they've been great to me and they have always
Speaker 21: been behind me. So I used their studio and I
Speaker 21: have an engineer, and I have my producer friends kind
Speaker 21: of just all hang out power on the studio and
Speaker 21: I usually have ideas that I have already before I
Speaker 21: come to the studio, okay, so that we can kind
Speaker 21: of work on. And this album is just so awesome
Speaker 21: because I got dedicated to out the way. Dedicated to
Speaker 21: is the autobiography. Basically, this album is more about like
Speaker 21: what I'm doing in la or like or like love.
Speaker 21: It's gonna be much more sexual. There's a lot more
Speaker 21: going on on the second album, so I'm very excited
Speaker 21: about it.
Speaker 5: To Yeah, good to hear.
Speaker 3: I wanted to tell people the beginning.
Speaker 21: I feel like, uh, people skip steps and I don't
Speaker 21: wanna skip any So although I I was dedicated to
Speaker 21: is about how I felt from birth to maybe like
Speaker 21: in you know, early twenties. Now I'm in a whole
Speaker 21: nother place mentally, but I felt the need to make
Speaker 21: people sure people understood, like, Yo, this did not calm
Speaker 21: without this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It's so good to hear you say that.
Speaker 9: I have a son, My youngest w oldest son is fifteen,
Speaker 9: and he wants to do music, and I have to
Speaker 9: explain to him that. I think for kids coming up
Speaker 9: now on social media, pretty much all they're seeing is
Speaker 9: like a highlight reel, and it's trying to get them
Speaker 9: to understand that, like you're seeing a very carefully curated
Speaker 9: selection of shots from a person's life, so you'll see
Speaker 9: you know, Rick, Ross, Drake, whoever on the jet, but
Speaker 9: you don't see what it took for them to get
Speaker 9: that jet, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So for you to hear you say that, you take
Speaker 5: people through the whole journey and not just.
Speaker 3: Yeah and still building.
Speaker 21: There's a lot of glamorizing that happens outside of the industry.
Speaker 3: How I try not to.
Speaker 21: It's not like I'm trying to deglamorize it, but I
Speaker 21: try to be a little bit more real realistic about
Speaker 21: it because I don't want to. I don't like that
Speaker 21: all kids want to be artists and all kids want
Speaker 21: to be basketball players and all kauds. When I was
Speaker 21: a kid, you know, there was various fucking professions people
Speaker 21: said about.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be a doctor, I mean a lawyer, a
Speaker 3: fucking secretary, I mean fucking president. You know what I'm saying. Now,
Speaker 3: it's like, I'm be a rapper. I'm be a trapper.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be a rapper.
Speaker 21: It's like and it's ridiculous, and it's like, so for me,
Speaker 21: I try to tell them, like, look, before you get
Speaker 21: all those tattoos on your face and think that you're
Speaker 21: just gonna come in here rap about nothing and you're
Speaker 21: gonna make it, Yeah, you might want to think about
Speaker 21: it because there's not any money and unless you're trying
Speaker 21: to like really like these rappers. I'm know how they
Speaker 21: getting these changes. I guess they're getting them for freak,
Speaker 21: I don't know. But there's no freaking real money right
Speaker 21: now unless you really, really really are doing something. Now,
Speaker 21: there's a few that they pop up, and you know,
Speaker 21: you get your time, but if you're spending all your
Speaker 21: money foolishly, then you're you're getta be right back. And
Speaker 21: now and nowadays with the drugs being so heavily promoted
Speaker 21: in music. That's a big campaign I'm running now on
Speaker 21: my on my Instagram and social networks.
Speaker 3: I'm fighting lean. I hate Lean.
Speaker 21: I think it's I know it's synthetic heroin, and I
Speaker 21: know that it's being marketed in our communities and to
Speaker 21: our children via rap music. And I know it's no
Speaker 21: different that when crack was put on our corners in
Speaker 21: the eighties.
Speaker 5: No different whatsoever.
Speaker 21: Yeah, and it's so much worse than the eighties because
Speaker 21: at least in the eighties, no one knew. I mean,
Speaker 21: I guess it's the scene, but I guess crack was
Speaker 21: just so fucked By the nineties, you're like, don't do crack.
Speaker 3: It's like so obvious. But now it's like leid.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was different, Like I think in the eighties
Speaker 9: and in nineties rap we celebrated the drug dealer, which
Speaker 9: I mean had its own set of dysfunctions. Anyway, that's
Speaker 9: probably as well. We celebrate the drug dealer, but now
Speaker 9: we celebrate the drug user. And I'm like, how the
Speaker 9: fuck did we get here?
Speaker 21: I mean, even then in the eighties, if you really
Speaker 21: think about it, like the biggies and the drug rappers, right,
Speaker 21: they said in retrospective points points of view, like I
Speaker 21: used to sell this, now I'm doing that, and now
Speaker 21: I used to do it. The eve motherfucker's like I'm
Speaker 21: shooting niggas to day.
Speaker 8: Right now, right now, y'all gotta break down because I'm
Speaker 8: a die.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, horrible, Okay, we gon break that Lean.
Speaker 5: Okay for some people who made are culturally unaware listeners.
Speaker 3: Look, it's like it's horrible, okay.
Speaker 9: Lean its sizeling is a synthetic, fucking uhod substance.
Speaker 5: It's like spam.
Speaker 3: I'm glad somebody knew what ciceling was. I was like,
Speaker 3: is that Jamaican for sizzling?
Speaker 9: No, No, that's okay. So Lean is a substance. It
Speaker 9: is like coding mixed was promotouzine. It's promotzine and people
Speaker 9: will miss it.
Speaker 5: Mix it with so like this future. Yeah no, I know,
Speaker 5: I listen.
Speaker 3: It's in the music.
Speaker 21: And promoting it to children that are fourteen and fifteen.
Speaker 21: Let's just be clear. It's fucking heroin. They put it
Speaker 21: in a soda with some candy and they stir it up.
Speaker 21: They look like damn assholes and they make people think
Speaker 21: that that's cool, it's horrible.
Speaker 3: It's fucking horrible.
Speaker 9: Shout out whocame his exactly? Oh he dropped the gut.
Speaker 9: He is like vegetables and now, and you know what
Speaker 9: he is.
Speaker 3: That's his past right in front of him. That's his
Speaker 3: past right in front of him.
Speaker 21: I fucking love Gucci Man because you know what, I
Speaker 21: didn't even listen to his music. I only knew when
Speaker 21: Gucci Man's song was a very freaky girl, you know,
Speaker 21: scuse me.
Speaker 3: I always was missed on a lot of that era.
Speaker 21: So you know, when I seen Gucci Man come out
Speaker 21: of jail and like, just be this amazing example of
Speaker 21: what not wanting to be in prison can do to you.
Speaker 21: Because I'm not gonna say what prison can do to you.
Speaker 21: It's not wanting to be in prison that does this
Speaker 21: to you. It's like, oh, ship, I don't want to
Speaker 21: be here, and like I'm like, thank you. And I
Speaker 21: just hope and pray that he will make music that
Speaker 21: reflects his new behavior and his new train of thought,
Speaker 21: which I think he will. And not only that, but
Speaker 21: he's also a very respective man in the business and
Speaker 21: in the street, and I hope that this will bring
Speaker 21: some light to the shit, because this shit is killing
Speaker 21: these kids. Man, they fucked up. They walking around here
Speaker 21: looking like the zombies. And I've seen it. I've seen
Speaker 21: it too many times. I'm tired.
Speaker 9: We're broadcasting live today from the Roots Picnic in New
Speaker 9: York City. It's going down. I'm joined by three young
Speaker 9: men today. These brothers, Uh, their sound to me, it
Speaker 9: like belies their age. I listened to it, and they
Speaker 9: sound extremely polished, you know what I'm saying for their ages,
Speaker 9: way more polished than I was at fucking eighteen. My
Speaker 9: demo's eighteen didn't sound shit like what they were. My
Speaker 9: shit was actually really fucking bad. But uh, you guys
Speaker 9: are adult. Dylan Martin and Jaden, ladies, gentlemen, give a
Speaker 9: big quest love supreme round of applause for the Smashing Hearts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, how y'all brother's feeling the day?
Speaker 25: Man?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Alright?
Speaker 3: So is this so?
Speaker 5: Have y'all? Have they performed performed yet? Yeah?
Speaker 13: We just got off stage.
Speaker 5: How did it go? I was?
Speaker 26: It's crazy, like, like the vibe of the crowd and
Speaker 26: everything like that was awesome and especially playing like for
Speaker 26: the first time at the Roots Festival in New York.
Speaker 5: What was that so on on stage? What's the set up?
Speaker 5: Who does what?
Speaker 24: Since I I was played keys and I sing and
Speaker 24: I playing guitar and you have organ up on stage
Speaker 24: to Yeah, I had an organ today that was the
Speaker 24: B three.
Speaker 5: The good old him B three.
Speaker 9: What the preachers ring out and it's time to take collection,
Speaker 9: you know, it's time to get that money to the
Speaker 9: B three.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's what's up. Okay, So I think it's you Dylan, Yeah,
Speaker 5: Uh that I can clearly see the son of Dwayne Wiggins.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's both many brothers. Okay, I want to talk
Speaker 9: about you guys a sound. Listen to the EP. I
Speaker 9: was pulling it up, Like I said, I mean, just
Speaker 9: stuff that sounds really really polished, and it sounds very
Speaker 9: very focused. Then it just has a lot of I
Speaker 9: don't know, it's just a lot of maturity way beyond
Speaker 9: you guys's ages.
Speaker 14: You know.
Speaker 9: It just sounds very very you know, on point, and
Speaker 9: just way more focused than I was at eighteen. Uh
Speaker 9: tell me that, you know, being that you know your
Speaker 9: father was who is for those for the listeners?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 9: Their father uh Dylan and Jayden's father, Uh is Dwayne Wiggins?
Speaker 9: From Tony Tony Tony, an incredible H R and B
Speaker 9: soul group from Oakland.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. Okay, I'm thinking Oakland Stroke
Speaker 5: is it?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I don't want to up de Mahamma right Domenhamma. Yeah,
Speaker 8: And that's right.
Speaker 9: So big ups, the big ups to them. So being uh,
Speaker 9: did you guys growing up like, what was that like?
Speaker 9: Was being around the music?
Speaker 16: Like?
Speaker 5: What did that play in influence?
Speaker 13: Yeah?
Speaker 26: Definitely, of course, you know where you grow up and
Speaker 26: how you grow up definitely plays an influence of what
Speaker 26: you're gonna do. So the fact that our dad and
Speaker 26: his dad before that was in the music played guitar,
Speaker 26: BLUIESH player was obviously you know we're gonna We're gonna
Speaker 26: be musicians no matter what.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 26: Yeah, I mean not like forcing, but it's just like
Speaker 26: it just came to us naturally. It's what we wanted
Speaker 26: to do.
Speaker 5: So when did you guys start playing what?
Speaker 3: They?
Speaker 24: Just I don't remember not playing, Yeah, and then we
Speaker 24: started getting lessons probably when we're like seven five.
Speaker 8: Dwayne Wig is your father Rail your uncle? Were they
Speaker 8: harder on y'all?
Speaker 24: Honestly, I didn't even really know that there was a
Speaker 24: Tony Tony Tony until like maybe around fifteen fourteen. I
Speaker 24: went to a public school and everybody.
Speaker 13: Was like, do you know where your dad is? You
Speaker 13: know your I was like, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 5: But that's I mean.
Speaker 9: But that's interesting though, I you know, I was like,
Speaker 9: I said, I have a son name name Dylan, and
Speaker 9: it's it's very similar. You know your your kids, don't
Speaker 9: I mean, because you know, growing up it's just dad,
Speaker 9: Like you don't really know. I think it was the
Speaker 9: same thing my kids were younger, and it was just Okay,
Speaker 9: Daddy's going somewhere and he comes back.
Speaker 5: With money for food and that's just the extent of it.
Speaker 5: But you know what I'm saying. But then as you
Speaker 5: get older and people see it, it's like, oh, ship
Speaker 5: your dad is. It's on so and so.
Speaker 9: Were initially were they supportive of you guys like going
Speaker 9: into music?
Speaker 5: Definitely?
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 24: I wanted to be a basketball player though at first,
Speaker 24: you know, yeah, they were supporting me doing that too,
Speaker 24: like coming to all the games and like we go
Speaker 24: out to the state to do games and ship this.
Speaker 26: What's up you guys, ages, Jayden, I'm eighteen eighteen as well.
Speaker 13: Martin I'm twenty.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, okay, eighteen eighteen and twenty, Dylan, twenty, What
Speaker 5: am I doing with you? What y'all making me questions
Speaker 5: about right now? So, oh my god?
Speaker 9: Eighteen and twenty And for what I understand you, Dylan,
Speaker 9: I have already your like the musical advisor or the
Speaker 9: for Insecure, wish I.
Speaker 24: Was the advisor, but okay, I'm the scoring assistant, So
Speaker 24: like coming up with the scores behind certain scenes and
Speaker 24: like change an emotion with the score.
Speaker 5: That's what I do. And that is for for for
Speaker 5: the listeners.
Speaker 9: That is for HBO's news show Insecure, featuring Easter ray
Speaker 9: of Awkward Black Girl fame from the Internet. She has
Speaker 9: a new show entitled Insecure that is out now, and
Speaker 9: he what was the exact title?
Speaker 13: The scoring that's what it's labeled as.
Speaker 24: I don't even know. Yeah, that whole process is pretty easy,
Speaker 24: like because you you know how much work goes into it,
Speaker 24: and then when it comes on the screen, it just
Speaker 24: looks like so effortless, like even though a lot of
Speaker 24: things were like timed up and like we versed out
Speaker 24: and all this kind of stuff. So that's dope to
Speaker 24: see that happen and then we got a song in
Speaker 24: there too. We have a song called Girls that we
Speaker 24: haven't released that's gonna be on the show. So it's
Speaker 24: not in the first it's not in the first episode.
Speaker 24: It's gonna be in the season though.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, it's in the season. Yeah, okay, got you,
Speaker 5: got you, got you. That's it's really dope.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 9: So being that y'all have accomplished more in eighteen years
Speaker 9: and most people haven't.
Speaker 27: What we're looking at you, Bill, I've accomplished some ship
Speaker 27: that the situation, No, it was it helps from him.
Speaker 27: That was you have the G, the E, the T,
Speaker 27: the films.
Speaker 5: It's hard and.
Speaker 2: Hard.
Speaker 3: It looks like.
Speaker 5: You're like you said, like that ship comes easy. That's
Speaker 5: just not easy. It's very mathematical and very precise and
Speaker 5: and time.
Speaker 8: But he could do it.
Speaker 5: How much time do you guys spend on an episode?
Speaker 5: Would you say? A week? A week?
Speaker 24: Yeah, But there's a lot of changes that go into it, right,
Speaker 24: like little changes, and so then if they want to
Speaker 24: change one thing, we gotta rush back to the studio change.
Speaker 5: It before the day wow, before the day wow.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Man, So I guess. So my question where do you
Speaker 5: go from here?
Speaker 9: Like, what do you guys see yourselves on the next cause,
Speaker 9: I mean, honestly, what you're doing now is generally thought of,
Speaker 9: I mean just working the music.
Speaker 1: That's goals, and that's like.
Speaker 9: Kind of like the form and grill of most musicians,
Speaker 9: Like they hope to get to the point where you're
Speaker 9: doing now.
Speaker 5: So what is the next step for you? Guys?
Speaker 24: We're gonna keep taking it day by day. It's like,
Speaker 24: because everything we've done so far, we haven't really planned out.
Speaker 24: It's just like we've been following what we wanna do
Speaker 24: and it just happened. So we just gonna keep following
Speaker 24: that and see what happens.
Speaker 9: Has has your dad is he giving you any advice
Speaker 9: in terms of okay, so let me tell you what
Speaker 9: not to do?
Speaker 5: Like what what has that been?
Speaker 13: Sometimes?
Speaker 24: Yeah, they're like my Ray, I mean my dad and
Speaker 24: Uncle Ray are both like they give their opinions a
Speaker 24: lot and they have no no filter.
Speaker 3: Fil that sounds sloppy, so.
Speaker 9: What they I mean, as much as you get shipped,
Speaker 9: you know, without like what what what's some of the
Speaker 9: Uncle Ray and and Pops.
Speaker 26: Well, Ray called Martin the weakest link of our band.
Speaker 20: You could say a bunch of ships.
Speaker 8: Said the whole time.
Speaker 5: I had to call him out.
Speaker 24: He said that on the first week, like when we
Speaker 24: started rehearsing at his studio, and then now he's like,
Speaker 24: Martin tearing that ship up.
Speaker 5: The baby was just trying to lot to fire. That's
Speaker 5: what it was.
Speaker 13: That's what he said. He was like, watch him come back.
Speaker 8: But but Martin, you're the drummer, right, so like do
Speaker 8: you what are you? Who are some of your drummer influences?
Speaker 8: I mean, you don't have to say.
Speaker 5: That, that's what I don't know.
Speaker 18: Everybody was ask that. Just listen to so many people.
Speaker 18: It's kind of hard, like everybody from like are blaky
Speaker 18: like back in the day to like Thomas Prig and
Speaker 18: you feel me like, like a lot of people.
Speaker 5: That's dope, man, that's dope.
Speaker 1: Nope, you passed that test.
Speaker 12: Love.
Speaker 8: Don't worry.
Speaker 9: He won't he won't be made, he won't be mad
Speaker 9: at all.
Speaker 5: Well, brothers, thank you so much for coming by. Thank
Speaker 5: you for your time.
Speaker 9: I know these things, doing this on a show day
Speaker 9: is like not the most fun thing to do, but
Speaker 9: you know, I'm in I'm into your music, and please
Speaker 9: just stay keep doing what you're doing, man, keep doing
Speaker 9: what you're doing, being blessed to have people in your
Speaker 9: corner that like kind of can guide you and hopefully
Speaker 9: can keep you from making a lot of mistakes that
Speaker 9: a lot of young artists make. And keep working, keep
Speaker 9: refinding your sound. And you guys are talented. Man, Thank
Speaker 9: you really appreciate that.
Speaker 5: Hey, what's up? You always question Love?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: And you're listening to a special roots Picnic addition of
Speaker 1: the Question Love Supreme Show. We're an hour number two
Speaker 1: of the show and I just wanted to jump in
Speaker 1: there because I wanted to make sure you guys really
Speaker 1: understood how important these two dudes coming up next are
Speaker 1: to the world of hip hop. Stretching Barbido Stretch Armstrong
Speaker 1: Babido Garcia. They hosted a radio show in New York
Speaker 1: in the nineties that fundamentally changed hip hop in our
Speaker 1: lives forever. What they would do is feature exclusive demo
Speaker 1: tapes and in studio freestyles for many unsign hip hop
Speaker 1: artists and gave them a chance to be discovered. Look,
Speaker 1: I know what you're thinking. Unsigned hip hop artists are
Speaker 1: on a radio show.
Speaker 5: Big deal?
Speaker 1: But you know it was a big deal, and there
Speaker 1: was a turning point for many artists. Here's the short
Speaker 1: list of some of the acts that were featured on
Speaker 1: the show before anyone knew who their names were, Nas
Speaker 1: Big Pun, jay Z, Busta, Rohms, Fat Joe, Cameron, dmx Wu,
Speaker 1: Tang Clan, the Fujis, teleb Kwali, Big l Notorious, Big Stretching, Barbido.
Speaker 1: Really really changed the game forever with the radio show,
Speaker 1: and it really had a huge impact on the roots,
Speaker 1: and they were important to me and any kid that
Speaker 1: loved hip hop. Uh So, I really wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure anyone listening knew how important these dudes were to
Speaker 1: hip hop. Oh and their documentary is really, really, really amazing.
Speaker 5: Check it out. Now back to the show. We're gathered
Speaker 5: here today with two luminaries, special Luminaris, gentlemen.
Speaker 1: But question, I'm like, I'm like Charlie Brown, I'm not
Speaker 1: even the star of my own Christmas.
Speaker 9: Special, the man of a million one jobs. He was
Speaker 9: able to step away from the drum kit and come in.
Speaker 5: And so it's always.
Speaker 1: Because our special guest are here without without without without
Speaker 1: these two literally I don't know, I mean there, I
Speaker 1: don't know if they are the Padlof's Bell of.
Speaker 5: Hip Hop or not.
Speaker 20: But that's a new one.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, you know, way back in even
Speaker 1: back before we got signed, I remember one of the
Speaker 1: first like the most exciting international things that ever happened
Speaker 1: to the Square Roots, back when we were still busking
Speaker 1: on South Street, was the fact that we got invited
Speaker 1: to play an event for Barbido. Who I guess you
Speaker 1: just recently left his def Jam post your job at
Speaker 1: Jeff Jam and you were just about to start the
Speaker 1: show up at Columbia, and so that was like a
Speaker 1: big deal, like super big deal. Anyway, I think, did
Speaker 1: I just take over this introduction? Ladies and gentlemen, please
Speaker 1: welcome to the show stretch.
Speaker 5: And Bob Yeah, wait as we need it, you got it.
Speaker 5: You make it official. Thank you.
Speaker 9: I just want to I just want to start off
Speaker 9: by saying that it is one of my life goals.
Speaker 9: It's one of my life goals to be as happy
Speaker 9: one day in my life, to be as happy as Babido.
Speaker 5: Was doing the ad libs at the end and at the.
Speaker 2: End of.
Speaker 1: Really Puss and I Get and I Get lost Man.
Speaker 20: We recorded that in my credit h M F.
Speaker 23: Doom brought his sampler, and you know, there was a
Speaker 23: lot of producers at the time who used to come
Speaker 23: by stress the same thing. We you know, we both
Speaker 23: have a ton of stories of cats coming to our
Speaker 23: credit Ball Records. But dude was like, y'all, I'm going
Speaker 23: to Ball Record and I'm gonna bring my sampler and
Speaker 23: and you know, he recorded. He looped it up there
Speaker 23: and he brought the mic and he was like, yo,
Speaker 23: just say some stuff at the At the end, I
Speaker 23: was like, all right, Wow, I was thinking about you
Speaker 23: know that death jam song from eighty five Russell Rush.
Speaker 5: Y yeah, cold rock stuff.
Speaker 20: Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about that too when I
Speaker 20: was like doing my little.
Speaker 5: Cold rock stuff.
Speaker 1: Russell Rush did y'all do that whole record in your
Speaker 1: at your crib? No?
Speaker 20: No, no, no, just that just the rhymes like down man, y'all.
Speaker 9: Want to talk about particularly Fondalum Records, which was one
Speaker 9: of the most uniquely named.
Speaker 13: Yes, I still it was a subsidiary of Squeeze Him.
Speaker 9: Fondalum Records. Yeah, much like what a mirror I was saying,
Speaker 9: and what you guys did for his band.
Speaker 5: Uh, well, my first group, Little Brother. I remember when
Speaker 5: ab B Bennie b. I remember him telling us that
Speaker 5: y'all were playing our.
Speaker 9: Stuff, and I was like, holy ship, that was we
Speaker 9: had a ride to us like stretching bibles playing as like.
Speaker 5: That was little?
Speaker 13: Did you know?
Speaker 10: Man?
Speaker 13: What was your arrival back then? Was nearly a memory.
Speaker 23: Let me let me backtrack a little bit, just to
Speaker 23: revise quest Love's history. So the relationship between the Roots
Speaker 23: and Me and Stretches radio show actually dates back to
Speaker 23: a cat I don't remember his name right now, but
Speaker 23: he had a hip hop.
Speaker 20: Show, aj aj Sh That was my former managers, yeah
Speaker 20: on Drexel.
Speaker 5: Yeah, aj was the stretching Barbido of Philadelphia, and.
Speaker 23: I used to send them records and so from eighty
Speaker 23: nine to ninety three, Hours promotions rep at Deaf Jam.
Speaker 23: So he sent me Organics CD when it was pre
Speaker 23: released and brought it up to the show. Me and
Speaker 23: Stretch played that this is like probably I guess ninety three, yeah,
Speaker 23: ninety three. And then so we had started on the
Speaker 23: radioho in nineteen ninety had been given love to plenty
Speaker 23: Philly artists that was like nothing brand new, I mean
Speaker 23: three times dough, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 20: All all all them.
Speaker 3: But but then I was.
Speaker 23: I was also hosting unsigned art the showcases at the
Speaker 23: New Yorkan Poets Cafe. Prior to that, I was doing
Speaker 23: them at the Village Gate. It was a jazz meats
Speaker 23: hip hop showcase called Bebop, which eventually became All That,
Speaker 23: and the Roots played that pre to Geffen signing. So
Speaker 23: there's a lot of organic, you know, messing of the
Speaker 23: two stretching Bob and the Roots from early early on,
Speaker 23: and then you know, as it goes on and Black
Speaker 23: Dog comes up solo, I was.
Speaker 1: I was going to add that that actual show, even
Speaker 1: though I physically wasn't there because Roselle was beatboxing.
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 1: I was stuck on a gospel tour, but it was
Speaker 1: it wasn't like you know, Ralph the Box of God
Speaker 1: just named Lelo Thomas. No, it wasn't that type of
Speaker 1: gospel tour like uh uh. Our bass player at Hub
Speaker 1: had a friend who did gospel music that basically toured
Speaker 1: churches like we toured nightclubs. So I just happened to
Speaker 1: you know, it was like extra money, which it's one
Speaker 1: of five hundred bucks for like two weeks of work.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't there, so Rozelle they got Rozelle to
Speaker 1: beat box the drums instead.
Speaker 5: And so I was in Oberland, Kansas and in the cornfields.
Speaker 1: And listening to them on long distance like like so
Speaker 1: you're on the phone, I'm on the phone, and uh
Speaker 1: one of my managers, Richard was on a pay phone
Speaker 1: playing playing the and.
Speaker 9: And then and they were playing know the roots were live,
Speaker 9: like oh, this was live on the show and you
Speaker 9: But it.
Speaker 1: Was that show that the an r that eventually he
Speaker 1: signed us to Geffen Well, Wendy Well, Derek Jackson, and
Speaker 1: uh the late friend.
Speaker 5: France. She just passed away, Franny. Uh, it's escaping me
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 8: Not the heart.
Speaker 5: Yes, she's still in my mind.
Speaker 1: Oh Spira, thank you for saying that. I don't know
Speaker 1: why the head not the art. I mean thinking of
Speaker 1: Francesca spirit. But yeah, Francesco Spira passed away, like uh
Speaker 1: like they used to work brush, Yeah, yeah, she passed
Speaker 1: away like like three months ago.
Speaker 20: Yeah, we used to work together when I was Yeah.
Speaker 1: But her and Derek Jackson, just because I always I
Speaker 1: always have a tendency to kill the mood.
Speaker 8: I was like a menunt another death, a total hashtag.
Speaker 5: It's thanks for coming.
Speaker 13: I'm doing so well.
Speaker 5: And sorry, we're gonna read it anyway. It was it
Speaker 5: was that show that that stretching up.
Speaker 13: Although coincidentally, coincidentally, that show was broadcast from a church
Speaker 13: really Wow for when they were redoing the station we
Speaker 13: were wk c R was in Riverside church.
Speaker 1: Matter. Yeah, so I was I was going to say that,
Speaker 1: I think that the first time that we came there.
Speaker 1: So that was a church I was coming to the
Speaker 1: whole time.
Speaker 23: It was the old w r v R jazz station
Speaker 23: that we that we lived in for like just two years.
Speaker 23: Wow bugged out a little little side fact.
Speaker 5: Talk about taboos sacrilegious on a weekly basis.
Speaker 13: Guaranteed if they knew, if if if the cloth knew
Speaker 13: what was going on in their building, I don't think
Speaker 13: we would have lasted.
Speaker 1: Wait this, this is what I would always want to
Speaker 1: know from you guys. How often would you guys, because
Speaker 1: I never saw muscle at your at your radio station,
Speaker 1: Like when I would go to death Jam, there was
Speaker 1: always muscle.
Speaker 5: There's always a big security guy and and.
Speaker 1: Plexiglass, and you know that's but how often would you
Speaker 1: guys have to say the word no.
Speaker 5: To certain people?
Speaker 13: And luckily, because I was I was DJing for four
Speaker 13: hours though we didn't have commercial breaks nothing. I was
Speaker 13: I was DJing the show.
Speaker 5: So this guy, damn Freddy Fox, I don't hear the
Speaker 5: phone ring? How does that work?
Speaker 25: No?
Speaker 23: I mean, you know, the muscle was the brilliance of
Speaker 23: our show. So luckily, like n of the cats in
Speaker 23: the world like so much respect for us and didn't
Speaker 23: want to cross us, you know. But there was definitely
Speaker 23: some incidences of defacing property at the station when when
Speaker 23: I was at the door and we're like, yo, I'm sorry,
Speaker 23: I can't let all thirty of you in the studio
Speaker 23: because we don't know you and we've never.
Speaker 12: Heard of you.
Speaker 23: And we had quality control about who will get on
Speaker 23: a mic, so you know, everyone wants to be on
Speaker 23: because they knew that death could be the step to
Speaker 23: get and signed or to getting you know, if you're
Speaker 23: assigned to step to get in love and recond sales
Speaker 23: and all that.
Speaker 1: But one time it's a group on step Son Bill
Speaker 1: Stephanie's label and.
Speaker 20: They had likes No, it was like no that soul,
Speaker 20: but oh.
Speaker 5: They had stop it, no trouble man. One time they
Speaker 5: came to Philly to a j Shin showed like.
Speaker 1: Fifty deep, like five van loads deep, and I was like,
Speaker 1: how does per diem working that situation?
Speaker 5: So yeah, like who had the biggest crew that would
Speaker 5: show up? Well?
Speaker 23: Actually, so little little background history for those who have
Speaker 23: seen Me and Stretches documentary title Stretch the by Beat
Speaker 23: the Radio to Change Lives. There's a moment in the
Speaker 23: film where we're discussing the Wou Tang moment, the wolf
Speaker 23: Tang incident where they showed up thirty deep.
Speaker 5: To I never knew she worked there. She worked there
Speaker 5: as the vibe better there. That did not like the Roots.
Speaker 5: You got to see the movie. I've seen the movie.
Speaker 20: It's not even so so stop stop stop it.
Speaker 5: I got over it. I saw the movie. But I'm
Speaker 5: a little salty that you know.
Speaker 23: See.
Speaker 1: The thing was me and tu Rika held to show
Speaker 1: up such a high honor that we thought that everybody
Speaker 1: that came on that show freestyle their ass off. We
Speaker 1: didn't know they were doing deep Cut album, so our
Speaker 1: standard was like, yo, we have to be as good
Speaker 1: as so that's why would just train himself like a
Speaker 1: boxer freestyle And.
Speaker 5: So to find out that it wasn't that that, it
Speaker 5: wasn't there.
Speaker 8: No, I just you know, that's what you had to
Speaker 8: get over to see.
Speaker 1: For some reason, the communication was down. We you know,
Speaker 1: I'm in like every music documentary.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and for the stretching.
Speaker 20: And you you were invited. We can we can show proof.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I know. Why didn't you?
Speaker 5: Why didn't you make I gave Zarah a week off.
Speaker 5: Blame it on the assistant.
Speaker 8: That's why she's not in here right now. She ran out.
Speaker 1: Anyway, My point was that, yeah, I didn't know that
Speaker 1: Meme Valdez actually worked out uh Uhi station.
Speaker 23: So anyway, so so going back, there's a little trick
Speaker 23: in filmmaking that. So there's a lot of moments in
Speaker 23: our film where we had no video footage of, including
Speaker 23: the Wu Tang moment. So we actually used footage of
Speaker 23: the Trouble Neck brothers walking through the.
Speaker 20: Entrance as the b roll.
Speaker 5: And cut that with with.
Speaker 23: Footage of the artifacts showing up to the station door
Speaker 23: and the b rope because you could just see silhouettes
Speaker 23: of people.
Speaker 5: It's the same thing, but.
Speaker 20: Trouble Mike get to get to vote for for biggest crew.
Speaker 1: Yes, I can tested that they were large building surrounded.
Speaker 5: I think they're still trying to do you out.
Speaker 20: That brothers and artifacts in the tank scene?
Speaker 13: I didn't yet cheating, I knew I knew was artifacts.
Speaker 2: I see you walking in can I interviewer question? Okay,
Speaker 2: who was the artist that came to see y'all? Who
Speaker 2: you You appreciate their presence, you respected them, But the
Speaker 2: interview process was kind of like.
Speaker 5: Ah, it's watch be rock him?
Speaker 13: No, are you going to answer that?
Speaker 5: Really?
Speaker 13: You want to know, I'm just surprised that you would so,
Speaker 13: mister Positive, you know, well no.
Speaker 20: I mean the thing is that we didn't really interview.
Speaker 5: I mean, who was not four loquats?
Speaker 13: Like you know, I'm saying, who is disappointed?
Speaker 20: We didn't do interviews? So we artists came up to
Speaker 20: our show.
Speaker 23: We had kind of like a high standard for people ramen,
Speaker 23: so when MCS arrived, they knew that they were there
Speaker 23: for one reason. If we wound up talking, snapping whatever,
Speaker 23: that was great on top of that, But the main
Speaker 23: thing was like, okay, yo, the mic is open. You know,
Speaker 23: kick your verse and and and stretch, would you know
Speaker 23: be doing the beats and everything?
Speaker 13: So there's nobody that we really were excited about. Let
Speaker 13: us down. Really, I mean, there were you know, there
Speaker 13: were people that don't even remember. You have a Doctor
Speaker 13: Dre story, Doctor j did he was there. Yeah, he
Speaker 13: can't keep him up. That was that was lackluster when
Speaker 13: he didn't really this is probably ninety five right, It was.
Speaker 5: So he can't kill us.
Speaker 13: Steve Rifkin brought him up right, and you know, Drey
Speaker 13: even then was larger than life, right, and the post
Speaker 13: w a chronic like that Doctor Dre And he didn't
Speaker 13: really know what he was doing there. Somehow Steve, I guess,
Speaker 13: convinced him to come up and he kind of was
Speaker 13: just looking around like what is this did I don't
Speaker 13: think he really knew. I don't think he you know,
Speaker 13: he just he always you know, just he just circumvented
Speaker 13: the underground. You know, he didn't really he really did,
Speaker 13: and he was he was kind of stuff.
Speaker 20: Yeah, he didn't. He didn't really joke around with us.
Speaker 5: It's like when D'Angelo showed up to our show.
Speaker 1: No seriously, he said he said three words and went
Speaker 1: out for a cigarette break and then.
Speaker 5: Lost bet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so episode one, I promised them two thousand dollars
Speaker 1: if I could get D'Angel very reclusive, extremely late all
Speaker 1: the time to.
Speaker 5: Show up to the show.
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, and the angel just accidentally just came
Speaker 1: in the shat down for a bit, technically said three.
Speaker 5: Words, it's more R and B.
Speaker 8: He was like, here the headphone and.
Speaker 1: Those are the three words he said, it's more R
Speaker 1: and B. He said smoke and his sister in family
Speaker 1: matters hashtag a band the room and.
Speaker 5: Never came back. That was it. Yeah, so grand Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: no no money for you.
Speaker 13: Steve Rifkin also brought up Quincy Jones, who, by the way,
Speaker 13: completely got what was going on and was and sat
Speaker 13: with us for an hour.
Speaker 5: I was about to say, did he always like what what?
Speaker 14: What?
Speaker 5: Was he loquacious? Did he talk a lot?
Speaker 21: Yeah?
Speaker 13: Yeah, he was great. He had attitude. People were trying
Speaker 13: to snap on him on the phone and he was
Speaker 13: telling people to sit down.
Speaker 5: He handled it to sit down, be a phone. You
Speaker 5: know what this reminds me.
Speaker 1: I think the night the night I mastered Iladulf Half Life?
Speaker 1: Did you not have back on the show once?
Speaker 5: Nor was it either?
Speaker 1: Did Mike de called the show and y'all either spoke
Speaker 1: about that, Like I turned on the radio was like
Speaker 1: five in the morning.
Speaker 13: Mike never called when when I was there.
Speaker 20: I don't recall that it was maybe m c A
Speaker 20: because m c A used to hang out.
Speaker 13: That may have happened.
Speaker 20: M used to hang out on our crib. But also
Speaker 20: the b c's sampled our show.
Speaker 5: Yeh yeah yeah, yeah, that's my ship. I'm sorry. So
Speaker 5: that was you?
Speaker 1: That that beatboxing? You tell him what was what song
Speaker 1: was that off the b c's. It was before on
Speaker 1: Hello Nasty uh on Bill, that's what you're here for.
Speaker 3: This is more fun.
Speaker 28: That's right now album now, I have to yeah, it
Speaker 28: was hello Helloa the Beastie Boys guy?
Speaker 3: Is that what I'm here?
Speaker 13: I'm happy. I'm happy to think you are because because
Speaker 13: I get that, and I'm not house.
Speaker 5: Paying in b people with knowledge.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, Stereo, you're here for Richard Field, and.
Speaker 5: You're here for t.
Speaker 23: Yo Fonte and quest Love. I want to flip this around.
Speaker 23: I want to ask y'all a question because this happens
Speaker 23: to me and Stretch. This happens to me and Stretch
Speaker 23: all the time for twenty five years, and it happens
Speaker 23: between me Legs and Tony Touch as well, all the time.
Speaker 23: And I don't think I look anything like Stretch and
Speaker 23: me and Legs don't look nothing alike except that we
Speaker 23: both bought Igua. But Yo, does that happen to you
Speaker 23: where people be like Yo ninth wonder Like Yo, the
Speaker 23: other day I'm in Harlem and this kid recognized Yo.
Speaker 23: I listen to radio show, Yo be I just I
Speaker 23: just saw the film on showtime. Yo, It's crazy your
Speaker 23: word up Beat gave me a pound of hug with
Speaker 23: my son, Like, YO, good look at Beat.
Speaker 29: He's like, all right, Stretch. Later, I'm like in Hall
Speaker 29: and come on, got white Downtown, you know uptown Stretch,
Speaker 29: Stretch has Caroline, Stretch.
Speaker 1: Has the more exciting name, like you see Stretch of
Speaker 1: Arms songs in that sort of DC comics, froont or
Speaker 1: that Marvel front. Maybe that just occasionally, yeah, because people
Speaker 1: occasionally will say.
Speaker 5: Your black thought black Stretch is bet like.
Speaker 1: Because people naturally think that I'm the leader of the reach,
Speaker 1: not the guy in the background.
Speaker 5: So but last week with nine at the opening.
Speaker 2: Of the Museum National American History and Culture, that's what
Speaker 2: you're here for, the National Museum, excuse me, the National
Speaker 2: Museum of African American and History and Culture.
Speaker 5: Say that one more time fast.
Speaker 8: African American.
Speaker 5: Was that that would be about.
Speaker 13: Yo. You know this is like say, can you can
Speaker 13: you do that quick? Quicker and quicker? Pretend it's pass over?
Speaker 9: Can we turn the air on it? It's some hot Wow.
Speaker 9: I've never I've never gotten knife before, I've never got
Speaker 9: got big knife.
Speaker 1: Got most like gets most n was chilling with me,
Speaker 1: and some people just naturally thought it was like, what's
Speaker 1: not the most death here he is?
Speaker 9: He's very angry and Knife looks like also he gets uh, well,
Speaker 9: we would joke on him.
Speaker 1: God David from Beach Street, he looks like double k.
Speaker 5: That's too obscure reference.
Speaker 16: That was like.
Speaker 1: Making the beach in the balance. What's the big deal
Speaker 1: about me?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: He's Wait, who in this lifetime would be that deep
Speaker 1: for you to know that that reference?
Speaker 5: You have to know your hip hop?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean that was like inside me. We
Speaker 1: would joke him about that ship.
Speaker 9: But I gotten knife, I've never gotten I've never getten nice,
Speaker 9: I've got big pool, I've got said entertainer before, I've
Speaker 9: got said entertainer when you do, I got said entertained.
Speaker 5: And my latest and greatest uh misnomer is Wendell Pierce.
Speaker 8: That pers don't say that you are you're I mean,
Speaker 8: not sexy, but you got that boom you know work.
Speaker 1: Craig Robinson once told me and showed me proof of
Speaker 1: the joys of him being quest loved whenever he goes
Speaker 1: like Canada. So I can say on record that Craig
Speaker 1: Robinson has enjoy being quest love more than.
Speaker 3: I ever had.
Speaker 8: That is a different thro It's just a little bit
Speaker 8: more Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's like all looks same dot com man. It's just
Speaker 1: he's up in Northern Canada, you know. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: if you're in Northern Canada, if you're in Northern Canada, like,
Speaker 1: how would you not know the office?
Speaker 5: And no quest Love? Can you tell?
Speaker 13: The air on him?
Speaker 14: Wild hot?
Speaker 8: But you guys because you laughing so hard.
Speaker 16: It is it is.
Speaker 20: Can I share something again?
Speaker 5: Yes? And we keep into the Stuarts. We're new with this.
Speaker 23: This is like, no, yo, fante, It's a pleasure to
Speaker 23: meet you. Hey because your friends with Zoe wife, Sidney
Speaker 23: from d C and bus How yo, I'm never I
Speaker 23: never knew what you look like. Now you know what
Speaker 23: I'm gonna be. I've met a bunch of times, right,
Speaker 23: but yeah, I'm a Vinyl dude. So when the records
Speaker 23: were coming out A B B. There was no artwork,
Speaker 23: and then you on Donnie's album, which.
Speaker 20: I love, Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 8: After the color sections.
Speaker 20: I mean, you know, Foreign Exchange and you know all that.
Speaker 20: I've never knew what you look like. No photos of
Speaker 20: you on Foreign Exchange albums either.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't really Yeah what did you think? And
Speaker 5: it's weird that him and didn't even know what they
Speaker 5: looked like.
Speaker 13: I don't know what your what your preconceived picture was.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 20: I don't think I ever had a No, I've never
Speaker 20: even had a conception of what you look like. I
Speaker 20: just my wife will telling me that you sent her
Speaker 20: funny videos off of YouTube.
Speaker 5: And her with like all ship Yeah, we would just
Speaker 5: be like we would just have threads. I can remember.
Speaker 9: It was just like it's so cold and to be
Speaker 9: that's one I feel bad about that. I was wanted
Speaker 9: people to help break that video you did. Yeah, you
Speaker 9: did a bad that. I released that scourge upon America.
Speaker 9: Fucking it was it was worth it, but nah, yeah,
Speaker 9: I was very surprised, you know, Zoe. He was telling
Speaker 9: me he was like, man, Bob like loves my record,
Speaker 9: and so I just didn't know, and I kind of
Speaker 9: want to ask you guys about that. As much as
Speaker 9: you are, as much as y'all known for like hip
Speaker 9: hop and you know, like playing all that you guys,
Speaker 9: you know, house soul like funk.
Speaker 5: I mean, where does where did all that influence come from?
Speaker 5: Like how did you guys get into that?
Speaker 20: We're getting serious?
Speaker 9: I mean, we got to keep it serious, but like
Speaker 9: I was just when I heard I mean, when Zoe
Speaker 9: called me, he was like, yo, man, He's like Bob
Speaker 9: Love Sunstorm.
Speaker 5: I was like, are you serious he was? He was
Speaker 5: like yeah, he was like man, Bob, he was hit
Speaker 5: me up. And then when he put out Man Made,
Speaker 5: he was like, yo, Zoe is for the listener.
Speaker 9: Zoe is the musical director of Foreign Exchange and our
Speaker 9: touring band keyboard player.
Speaker 1: We're in the Jefferson's Apartmentelo.
Speaker 9: Yeah, some say three more words, but Noah, he was.
Speaker 9: He was just always saying, how big of a supporter?
Speaker 20: Now, my dude, I'm gonna keep it one hundred with you.
Speaker 23: Like during the nine months of my wife's pregnancy, we
Speaker 23: used to listen to Man Made Wow, And even the
Speaker 23: night that she went into labor, we were listening to.
Speaker 5: Right now I'm just first not hearing this.
Speaker 23: No no, no, told Ois we were listening to the
Speaker 23: album as a means to, you know, just get like
Speaker 23: them Beyonce and the environment positive in the house.
Speaker 5: Every one much loved that is amazing.
Speaker 13: Are you going to share what what your son was
Speaker 13: conceived to was that the Angelo?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Percy Miracle's greatest is there?
Speaker 16: It is?
Speaker 23: But no, I mean, you know, for me, my dad
Speaker 23: was a Latin jazz musician and my mom was just
Speaker 23: heavy into all the great vocalists of the fifties and sixties.
Speaker 23: So you know, I'm born in sixty six, study piano
Speaker 23: for ten years, uh, played drums, played drums in college.
Speaker 13: I'm just thinking about the movie where a lot of people.
Speaker 20: Don't know that I was horrible, show a photo of
Speaker 20: me playing, and you know, it's just music is music.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 23: We got known around the world for hip hop, but
Speaker 23: even during the nineties when we were breaking nas and
Speaker 23: Biggie and Wu Tang and you know all the you
Speaker 23: know at the crib, we were just listening to, you know, everything,
Speaker 23: Probably like in any era of my life, I probably
Speaker 23: have always listened to hip hop the least of any genre.
Speaker 23: But that's not you know, in the nineties, that's not
Speaker 23: what we were known for. But if you read my
Speaker 23: Vibe magazine con that's where all the other love for
Speaker 23: you know, other music came spilled out and people like,
Speaker 23: oh wow, you know, and then when.
Speaker 5: People yes, that's our version of.
Speaker 20: Stretch, I mean, you know, he's a I mean, he
Speaker 20: can speak for himself.
Speaker 13: Well, I mean I grew up in the house with
Speaker 13: a father that was like a classical music nut, and
Speaker 13: I was just not feeling it at all. He played violin,
Speaker 13: he made violins, but he did a lot of he
Speaker 13: he played semi pro basketball. He's a pro tennis player,
Speaker 13: like a unique renaissance man. But wait, but your uncle
Speaker 13: was a uncle was a conductor. But I have another,
Speaker 13: uh second cousin, Mike Lipskin, who's like an incredible jazz pianist.
Speaker 13: So music's in the blood. But just in New York,
Speaker 13: I had a older sister that was into disco, and
Speaker 13: but I had parents that were just super liberal and
Speaker 13: open like whatever. Like I mean, they dropped me off
Speaker 13: at the pier when I was like I couldn't have
Speaker 13: been more than thirteen years old to go see the
Speaker 13: clash and and uh, Curtis blow open for them, and
Speaker 13: I'm like thirteen, like completely, and I look back now
Speaker 13: and I actually I've seen pictures of that show and
Speaker 13: the type of people that were hanging out outside, and
Speaker 13: I'm wondering, were my parents good parents to drop me
Speaker 13: off there? Because it was it was bananas, But I mean,
Speaker 13: I'm lucky that that they were like that. But I
Speaker 13: look back and I got a question like where my
Speaker 13: parents saying yeah, but definitely having an older sister that
Speaker 13: you know, she became like a she became a punk skinhead,
Speaker 13: so like she was bringing reggae reggae records home and
Speaker 13: that's all I did. The trickle down, yeah, because she
Speaker 13: was she was only a year and a half older,
Speaker 13: but as a as a female, she matured a lot
Speaker 13: faster and she was wilding out, going to clubs and
Speaker 13: coming home like she was hanging out with the Beastie
Speaker 13: Boys Rick Rubin, like, and I'm just like soaking it all,
Speaker 13: trying to get out of the house so I can
Speaker 13: just get downtown and be in that.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say that post, uh, the post the
Speaker 1: post radio show period. Haven't seen you guys DJing a
Speaker 1: lot in New York like ninety eight ninety nine. That
Speaker 1: really opened me to the idea of breaking a lot
Speaker 1: of rules that I didn't know I guess, the idea
Speaker 1: of open format d jan I mean before before it.
Speaker 13: Was called that now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean like there was one night where you
Speaker 1: just started playing just some obscure heavy metal song I
Speaker 1: never heard before. So this is before the days of
Speaker 1: sus Am so Hi's Arah, how you doing? We were
Speaker 1: talking about you theah. This is the reason why I'm
Speaker 1: not in the movie. But anyway, anyway, Yeah, I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that, yes, I know you guys' knowledge is is crazy.
Speaker 1: For those of y'all just joining, we're broadcasting Line from
Speaker 1: the Roots picnic in New York City. We really want
Speaker 1: to thank you guys for everything that you've done hip
Speaker 1: hop culture for real.
Speaker 13: Thank you.
Speaker 9: You guys have really been ambassadors just for the world,
Speaker 9: the lawge, just for for good music all the way around,
Speaker 9: and just you know, to know that y'all a fans
Speaker 9: still the music we do.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, I can't thank you guys enough for what
Speaker 5: you've done.
Speaker 1: Siously or you as a former college radio DJ, I
Speaker 1: just want to say that basically every college radio DJ
Speaker 1: copied you guys. That's basically, you guys were the blueprint
Speaker 1: for every read everything that came after.
Speaker 23: Thank you, Thank you yo, well yo. Being here makes
Speaker 23: me remember, makes me reminisce about our own show. Gud
Speaker 23: y'all having mad fun. So thanks for having us as
Speaker 23: a guest, and thank you for all those out there.
Speaker 23: The film is called Stretching Babido Radio That Change Lives.
Speaker 23: It's available on Showtime. It's about to kick off on
Speaker 23: Netflix Public now No not really, but whatever.
Speaker 20: We ain't gonna be ont on iTunes. It's on iTunes, Vimeo, YouTube, Amazon.
Speaker 23: You could download it directly from our website Stretching Bobido
Speaker 23: dot com.
Speaker 1: It's on DVD at local barbershops to the bootleg version.
Speaker 5: Right here, I'm.
Speaker 9: Sitting in front of a young brother who I feel
Speaker 9: is uh not just EMC is a dopam just coming
Speaker 9: out of Philly. I think he simplifies, uh, the things
Speaker 9: that I look for in an MC. When I'm listening
Speaker 9: to an MC, I'm looking for wordplay. I'm looking for
Speaker 9: a command of the microphone. You know, you want charisma,
Speaker 9: you want some engagement, and you want a cat that
Speaker 9: really sounds like he's living what he's talking about you
Speaker 9: want a guy that walks it like he talks it.
Speaker 9: And uh, this young brother certainly sympathies all those things
Speaker 9: lazy and gentlemen. And he's a and he like has
Speaker 9: his hands on a lot of super entrepreneur entrepreneurial like
Speaker 9: a motherfucker.
Speaker 1: Gentlemen.
Speaker 5: Let's give it up one time for my brother, Chill Moody.
Speaker 3: What up?
Speaker 5: That means a lot.
Speaker 22: It means a lot in my top five mcs. That
Speaker 22: really means a whole lot. That you said that I
Speaker 22: was trying not to tear up.
Speaker 5: Crying in your bear.
Speaker 8: You gotta you gotta tell you.
Speaker 2: I know you're tired of me saying this to you,
Speaker 2: but they are new to they don't know. You got
Speaker 2: to tell you the story of your Roots Picnic evolution.
Speaker 2: So how you got to this stage because you are
Speaker 2: an unsigned artist still and you come from philadelph but
Speaker 2: now you're doing this New York.
Speaker 22: This is my third Roots Picnic that I've performed at.
Speaker 22: I meant to ask quest when I seen him, as
Speaker 22: it like a law that you can't do it more
Speaker 22: than once because I don't know nobody.
Speaker 4: I don't know nobody that's done it.
Speaker 22: More than once other than me and litl Uzi now
Speaker 22: because he did the one earlier this year. But I
Speaker 22: went from like legit, sneaking into the roots picnic, sneaking backstage,
Speaker 22: to you know, one year at least, getting like a
Speaker 22: general mission ticket and sneaking back stage again meeting I
Speaker 22: ran into Actually one year you were in the crowd
Speaker 22: watch it. Yeah, I think Red and Meth was on
Speaker 22: stage at that time, and I got to meet method
Speaker 22: Man that day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just went from from that to performing.
Speaker 22: We did the joint the two day, the first time
Speaker 22: they tried to do the two day joint, and I
Speaker 22: went on right before rock Cam and it was like
Speaker 22: a hurricane, like legit, like the craziest torrential downpour you
Speaker 22: have ever seen.
Speaker 4: And I was performing. That's when we had the tent.
Speaker 22: Everybody flooded into the tent because of the rain, and
Speaker 22: you know, escaped the rain. So I went from at
Speaker 22: that point, which was a crowd of like let's say
Speaker 22: like two thousand, to like five like that quick in
Speaker 22: the middle of my set, and I'm just looking like, yo,
Speaker 22: this is crazy. Like bill Board wrote about me and
Speaker 22: hot as hell that tips really hot. But Billboard magazine
Speaker 22: wrote about and I'm like, I'm not. I wasn't even
Speaker 22: selling music at that.
Speaker 5: Point that when the tent flooded.
Speaker 8: Oh, I don't know. That's the Daylight year.
Speaker 22: No, that was the the year Kid Cuddy didn't come.
Speaker 22: The two day train with Rock him and Kid Cuddy.
Speaker 22: I think I think Major Laser went on, and then
Speaker 22: Diplo went on in the an intent.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because I do remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they called it right, yeah.
Speaker 22: Oh, Diplo body and then from there did the the
Speaker 22: first year they had the ping pong and stages. I
Speaker 22: think Bronson was on that year with me on Channelle Monday,
Speaker 22: I believe. So it was like, what's this twenty sixteen?
Speaker 22: So I did twenty twelve, twenty fourteen, and now twenty
Speaker 22: seven two years.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Man, so with all that you've gotten into, we're going
Speaker 9: to get into that. So you know with your beer
Speaker 9: that you're drinking.
Speaker 13: Yeah, and thank you.
Speaker 8: By the way, nobody brought anything, but yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, mama, My mama told me right, she did, you
Speaker 1: come into a picnic, you gotta bring something.
Speaker 5: You gotta bring something and.
Speaker 9: Not cups, ice, bring ice, bring utensils like you people
Speaker 9: who raised you.
Speaker 5: I was, I was broke man, I was broke.
Speaker 9: Will excuse you, boss Bill. You keep it, you keep
Speaker 9: it together, so we'll excuse you for breaking cups.
Speaker 21: Uh.
Speaker 9: So with all that you have going on, you know,
Speaker 9: with the with your with your beer, Doc Street, nice things,
Speaker 9: I p A and this man has he's the Prince Beer.
Speaker 5: When I say he has, he has his own beer,
Speaker 5: you gotta check that it's delicious too. I have so
Speaker 5: with with the hands, with everything that you know, you
Speaker 5: have your hands in, is it even worth signing a
Speaker 5: deal for you? Do you weigh that out at all?
Speaker 4: I mean, if somebody's listening wants to sign, it's definitely.
Speaker 5: Worth because you on your own way more than some people.
Speaker 5: Very true, very true.
Speaker 22: I don't know nobody else a rapper with a beer
Speaker 22: like like I made this beer. It's not like I'm
Speaker 22: not endorsed. I didn't get signed to some rock and
Speaker 22: you know produced, I mean endorse it or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's like I made this.
Speaker 22: I went and sat Doc Street probably like four months straight,
Speaker 22: twice a week, maybe just rigorous hours of drinking, but
Speaker 22: I'm talking like from.
Speaker 4: Like twelve to like five, like just drinking.
Speaker 22: The restaurant they put a white board up and they
Speaker 22: teaching me about you know, so I learned a lot
Speaker 22: about beer too. So like I really like got into
Speaker 22: it and got heavy into the Philly beerson We got
Speaker 22: like a crazy bear scene in Philly right now.
Speaker 5: Made you want to get into that.
Speaker 22: I mean, beer is good, really good, it's lucrative, is
Speaker 22: moving right now in the city. And I had hosted
Speaker 22: a couple events for Philly beers scene. I did the
Speaker 22: presented award the Philly Beers Scene Awards, and they have
Speaker 22: a band of brewers or Battle with Brewers where every
Speaker 22: brewery somehow when it's city for some reason, all these
Speaker 22: guys play music and so they do a Battle of
Speaker 22: the bands, but you have to work at the brewery.
Speaker 3: And they did that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was crazy. They did a World Cafe live
Speaker 4: and it was popping.
Speaker 22: So I hosted that and like every after every band performed,
Speaker 22: I brought a couch onto the stage and I said,
Speaker 22: and I interviewed you know the band, what do you.
Speaker 5: Think about your performance? Whatever? Whatever?
Speaker 4: What beers y'all got coming up whateverever.
Speaker 22: So doing more stuff with with the beers scene, I
Speaker 22: kept getting into it, and I'm like looking around, like
Speaker 22: hip hop's not here, like there's no hip hop here.
Speaker 22: It's not a bunch of brown in the room either,
Speaker 22: but it's really like no hip hop. I'm like, all right,
Speaker 22: I'm all about putting hip hop and places that it
Speaker 22: hasn't been. Like I'm the first artist to perform at
Speaker 22: City Hall, first hip hop artists perform at City Hall
Speaker 22: in Philly. It's been a couple since then, But I
Speaker 22: can honestly say I opened the door for that to happen.
Speaker 22: Like my mom is hyped that I can be able
Speaker 22: to say shit like that, stuff like that, but I
Speaker 22: can say it, but.
Speaker 4: I can't say ship and my mom. I was apologizing
Speaker 4: to my mom. But yeah, so I forgot your question and.
Speaker 5: Your taste good. That was a very simple answer. Tastes
Speaker 5: good and that and that's good.
Speaker 9: To damn all right, keep it simple. Hell, don't don't
Speaker 9: make it calculus when it's arithmetic is good. Don't make
Speaker 9: it calculus when it's arithmetic.
Speaker 5: Is that it original? That's original? You know, I have
Speaker 5: every now and again, I get it right every now
Speaker 5: and so.
Speaker 9: Uh So, talking about in terms of coming up in
Speaker 9: Philly just as a as an outsider, uh you know,
Speaker 9: coming up in the South, I didn't really get into
Speaker 9: the geography of rappers until I really, you know, kind
Speaker 9: of started rapping myself. So to me, everybody's from New York,
Speaker 9: like you, y'all all had accents like I couldn't imrientiate
Speaker 9: like rock him and three times and cool See and
Speaker 9: like it was all just like New York with chains
Speaker 9: on and I just love this ship that was that
Speaker 9: was just it was just one big kind of blur
Speaker 9: coming out of Philly.
Speaker 5: What was that like for you coming up? And who
Speaker 5: were your influences? Like who were you looking up to
Speaker 5: by the time you came along.
Speaker 22: There's a lot of different different answers, like coming up, Uh,
Speaker 22: you know, Cool Sea lived around the corner from me.
Speaker 4: I remember Cool Sea pulled up in the in the
Speaker 4: G wagon.
Speaker 22: No, it's like one of G money joints, like the
Speaker 22: G Money g with the with the whole everything off
Speaker 22: told everything.
Speaker 4: He hopped out and I'm actually cocaine.
Speaker 5: For your face New Jack City modern Negro classic.
Speaker 22: I'm grabbing my mom some mom some saying like one
Speaker 22: hundreds from the from the Chinese Story and I'll come
Speaker 22: out in Cool Seas right there.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, that's dope, Like.
Speaker 22: Can you sign these like this pack for me like this,
Speaker 22: like seeing how like he hopped out with chained on
Speaker 22: and everything, like just running the store to get probably
Speaker 22: something drinks, I don't know, but just seeing that he
Speaker 22: was just still in the hood, just doing things like chilling,
Speaker 22: like it was like, oh, I could be I could
Speaker 22: be that. And then as I got into that, and
Speaker 22: I'm like, all right, I could be more than that.
Speaker 22: Like I don't want to just be a Philly celebrity
Speaker 22: neighborhood superstar. I can be more than that. So I
Speaker 22: start seeing, you know, stuff that the Ruce was doing.
Speaker 22: You see the stuff that right now, I'm admiring stuff
Speaker 22: that like Kevin Hart's doing.
Speaker 4: Taking out of Philly.
Speaker 22: You see stuff like like that fifty always did he
Speaker 22: these people all did more than just the music. They
Speaker 22: I always say, hip hop got me here. So the
Speaker 22: music got them there, but then they expanded into something else,
Speaker 22: like Queen Latifa and Will Smith again, like just just
Speaker 22: watching them, I'm like, I want I want to be more.
Speaker 22: I want to do more than just rat But you know,
Speaker 22: I'm good at this, So I'm gonna use this to
Speaker 22: get me you know, every yeah, and get everything else.
Speaker 5: I gotta get you remember like your first rhymes, like
Speaker 5: you remember.
Speaker 22: Yes, my first first raps was in like third grade.
Speaker 22: We won this third grade talent show and then it
Speaker 22: turned into like a weekly talent show we used to
Speaker 22: have in Doctor Mason class. We had a residence and
Speaker 22: so we won every week. Then me and my guy
Speaker 22: a little smrtsial shout out a little martiall.
Speaker 5: My rap.
Speaker 4: But it was like I had like three bars.
Speaker 22: It was like, yo, back in the days, I used
Speaker 22: to hate my teachers, and everybody said I used to
Speaker 22: wear crummy sneakers.
Speaker 13: That was it.
Speaker 4: That was it, and that was third grade, and then
Speaker 4: it was something and then and that was it.
Speaker 5: Nigga. You took a couplet and stretched it into a residence.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: And I'm saying back in the days, I'm in the
Speaker 4: third grade, like a not happened before grade.
Speaker 5: It was popping. Oh man.
Speaker 9: So from those from Bristol's early you know, back in
Speaker 9: the days, my sneakers all that, from that couplet, How
Speaker 9: did you go into building songs? I know for a
Speaker 9: lot of mcs A lot of times, you know, you know,
Speaker 9: when I was coming up, it was we just wanted
Speaker 9: to rap. You know, were just like bars, right and
Speaker 9: bars and bars and raps, but rap because I'm rapping,
Speaker 9: so I'm just gonna wrap.
Speaker 22: Like after a while you're rapping about rapping, so like
Speaker 22: it's like, all right, let's make some some music. So
Speaker 22: what happened was when I started college, City Bank or something, Yeah,
Speaker 22: I did finish.
Speaker 1: When did you when you come out of colle where'd
Speaker 1: you graduate.
Speaker 22: From Millersville University? I graduated in two thousand and Who
Speaker 22: went to Miller's Bill? Yeah exactly, Sean G.
Speaker 3: Who else went up to the league?
Speaker 4: What was your public public relations?
Speaker 5: Speech?
Speaker 4: Communications?
Speaker 8: Of course?
Speaker 22: So originally it was psychology I went with I had
Speaker 22: a full academic scholarship, drank that.
Speaker 5: Away, and.
Speaker 4: It had changed my major like junior year to.
Speaker 22: It was it was psych and then I switched to
Speaker 22: pr because I'm like, yo, you only need like one
Speaker 22: hundred and seventeen credits to finishes.
Speaker 4: Let me just get out of here.
Speaker 22: But uh, when I started college, you know freshman orientation,
Speaker 22: these credit card people.
Speaker 1: Is out there, Yo, you need you need to.
Speaker 5: Discover got me?
Speaker 4: So City Bank got me on two joints one of
Speaker 4: their free T shirt, didn't he?
Speaker 5: Yo?
Speaker 4: That's what it was said college. I'm not lying, No,
Speaker 4: I know, I know college a free T shirt you
Speaker 4: can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can get anything out of collegehoot if
Speaker 1: you offer them a free T shirt.
Speaker 3: I got shirts.
Speaker 21: Bet.
Speaker 22: I went in studio equipment with the with the credit
Speaker 22: card went you know, but the mic book like Q base,
Speaker 22: cool edit and a bunch of stuff, and I I
Speaker 22: don't know any of this stuff. I'm not like musically inclined,
Speaker 22: like you know, I'm not an engine.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 22: But I just start recording stuff and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 22: let's make songs, making records or whatever. And just seeing
Speaker 22: my family is huge, so all of them, Like I
Speaker 22: started wrap to fitting with my bigger cousins, my older cousins,
Speaker 22: Like they introduced me to Woo Tang and nas and
Speaker 22: all of that like early on, so I wanted to
Speaker 22: wrap the fit in with them. But growing up at
Speaker 22: Philly at that time when I started rapping, it was
Speaker 22: the figures was out state property.
Speaker 20: So I was happening.
Speaker 22: I bought some nonsense like I'm like I said, I
Speaker 22: had a full academic scholarship, but I'm I shot everything
Speaker 22: and killed everybody.
Speaker 4: I did all kind of stuff and.
Speaker 20: Right right.
Speaker 22: So my cousins was like, yo, it's lyrical, it's there,
Speaker 22: but that's not you tell your story. And that came with,
Speaker 22: you know, rapping as my like I had rap names.
Speaker 22: And then it was like, yo, your name's chill, like
Speaker 22: why not just be chill? Like I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 22: soill is I've been chilled since I was six months.
Speaker 22: I've never heard nobody call me nothing. I mean I've
Speaker 22: heard people say that, but like my father's never called
Speaker 22: me nothing different. Teachers always called me chill or they
Speaker 22: called me moody. Mood is my real last names. So
Speaker 22: I've always been chill Moody. But I had like I
Speaker 22: was tagged. I was young chilled a block captain spelled
Speaker 22: young yo.
Speaker 25: I'm a spell if it was y U n G
Speaker 25: of course C H I T H A B L
Speaker 25: O kk C A P c A p t apostrophe
Speaker 25: and do not forget my posture.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be a problem. That is so like that
Speaker 5: were you were like Emerson Pop before you were the block.
Speaker 22: Anderson called street cleaning like I was young child the
Speaker 22: block and I had street cleaning, and then I had
Speaker 22: the neighborhood Watch and then I had the neighborhood watch too,
Speaker 22: and then I was like, yo'.
Speaker 9: It's so interesting that you had that name because that's
Speaker 9: such like a nineties because because the nineties rap template
Speaker 9: name was like name.
Speaker 22: The adjute, the damage head, pudgy, the fat, that's.
Speaker 9: Right right right, herald, the bilateral metaphor, I had to
Speaker 9: have like this is me and I am the adjective,
Speaker 9: this is how I do it.
Speaker 5: And then this is my time.
Speaker 1: JT, the bigger JT, the bigger just the figure, the
Speaker 1: bigger I'm the bigger fie the larger one greadom statue
Speaker 1: than yours. Wow, but that's real though. When you made
Speaker 1: that shift from you know, I made.
Speaker 22: That shift and also made the shift in the lyrics
Speaker 22: like all right, let me tell my story. This is
Speaker 22: shill movie, this is who I am. I'm a Philly guy.
Speaker 22: Let's let's you know how was that?
Speaker 5: What was what was that story? What did you what
Speaker 5: did you want to come up?
Speaker 22: What did you want to above all those It's like, yo,
Speaker 22: I wraped like better than your Like I just want
Speaker 22: to like it, like express that and like really be
Speaker 22: like on my you know, this is me and you
Speaker 22: know it's lyrical like I ain't got a lie and
Speaker 22: be lyrical, like it's lyrical at first, but it's like no,
Speaker 22: like I can I can just tell my story. So
Speaker 22: it's like big family oriented guy. Like I said, my
Speaker 22: family is huge. I can walk to like probably like
Speaker 22: twelve family members houses from from outside. Yeah we're all
Speaker 22: from yeah, shout at school my guy.
Speaker 9: Yeah schoolly d. We had an interesting, uh interesting night
Speaker 9: with him one time playing the rout show.
Speaker 5: It was I think it was interesting bring the fell?
Speaker 1: Did he bring thea? He didn't bring the feather board?
Speaker 1: He he it was boy boy.
Speaker 5: This was like man, he like you know, this was
Speaker 5: got five.
Speaker 9: Something I can't remember, and he was doing a mirror
Speaker 9: was playing I'll never forget this. And just to see
Speaker 9: the sheer look of terror on a mirror's face when
Speaker 9: schooly wouldn't leave the stage, man, that is hilarious.
Speaker 22: I don't think it's one person in music that doesn't
Speaker 22: have a schooly D story like that. Guy is epic,
Speaker 22: like and then his stories are even more epic than
Speaker 22: anything you could say, like he like so it.
Speaker 4: Was me, prince, what's the story?
Speaker 20: Told us?
Speaker 22: Donald was there, but anyway, let me he's telling me
Speaker 22: about like the sneakers he had on that's the point
Speaker 22: of the story. Like, but yeah, so Prince is over there,
Speaker 22: he's doing his ship whatever. But the sneakers like like,
Speaker 22: but you're just gonna buy press the fact that Prince
Speaker 22: with Donald's over there, like yeah, they always stay with whatever,
Speaker 22: like school, he's a homie. He been to the house
Speaker 22: like he like come to the cookouts and stuff, my
Speaker 22: mom graving stuff.
Speaker 8: But another MC.
Speaker 2: I'm always fascinated by mcs who take and then do
Speaker 2: other great things with them.
Speaker 8: Adult swim carts.
Speaker 22: He painting now, like or he got back into the art.
Speaker 22: He just did these converts like the what's the first
Speaker 22: album s?
Speaker 4: Not Saturdaynight? You know the album he drew is the
Speaker 4: Yellow And yeah.
Speaker 22: He did some converse that like it's just the artwork,
Speaker 22: but he's drawn, like doing them himself and like just
Speaker 22: selling them, like just really like going old school.
Speaker 9: From listening to you man, you sound one of the
Speaker 9: things that I find very refreshing is that you seem
Speaker 9: to God damn that you got a whole jug.
Speaker 5: I'm about to ask for some more on the Doc
Speaker 5: Street Brewery. Yo, this isna pulled out the prohibition.
Speaker 4: Crowns.
Speaker 5: This is the moon shine that it.
Speaker 8: Comes to that kind of in the house.
Speaker 5: It's there a pineapple situation. Yes, Yes, is that like
Speaker 5: a thing?
Speaker 13: Yeah?
Speaker 19: Is that what I was telling I was trying to
Speaker 19: that when you went to like beer beer class and
Speaker 19: you sat there for six years, learned all about beer
Speaker 19: and brood it with your own goddamn hand.
Speaker 5: But you learned all about the ship, and then you
Speaker 5: took the fucking cut up the pineapples.
Speaker 22: We really cut the pineapples up, like we really like
Speaker 22: he actually cut a couple of pineapples up. My attorney
Speaker 22: and put and put a couple of Jason there.
Speaker 5: You got your lawyer cutting up pine.
Speaker 9: You performed already, Yeah, you earlier too, crazy, complying crazy.
Speaker 5: My family.
Speaker 22: I got a lot of family up here in New
Speaker 22: York too, So a couple of them came through and
Speaker 22: like my mom my sisters, my sister's birthday.
Speaker 4: So they're there and in the.
Speaker 22: Middle of it, or towards the end of the set,
Speaker 22: I see the guy say you got five minutes left,
Speaker 22: and I'm like, all right, I got one song left
Speaker 22: and then on like three, so I'm like, I can
Speaker 22: probably just get acapella off real quick, and I just
Speaker 22: start rhyming. And then as I'm rhyming, I'm like, oh yeah,
Speaker 22: that's the first time rapping right now.
Speaker 5: So like I just start.
Speaker 22: I just went off and in the verse, I shout
Speaker 22: out my mom, I shot out my sister and talk
Speaker 22: about some things that we you know, got going with
Speaker 22: the family and you know whatever, whatever, and no bullshit.
Speaker 4: It's tears.
Speaker 5: Like I was like, wow, what works.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just a verse, just just a verse.
Speaker 22: But I you know, I said this LP that I'm
Speaker 22: working on, I might call it, Mom, you ain't gotta
Speaker 22: work no more. Tell my big sister she ain't got
Speaker 22: to hurt no more. That's all I'm working towards. And
Speaker 22: then everybody just.
Speaker 5: Hugged each other. I was like, oh, suld have done it. Na,
Speaker 5: that's that's a great moment.
Speaker 3: It just kept good.
Speaker 5: I just I could never that was always hard for me.
Speaker 5: I mind people that can do that, Like I always
Speaker 5: would tell my family never to come to my gigs.
Speaker 5: Really yeah, I was like, y'all stay with that because
Speaker 5: it just kind.
Speaker 9: Of it just adds unnecessary not pressure, it's pressure, and
Speaker 9: it's just like.
Speaker 5: It's almost like from just for me.
Speaker 9: I mean it almost feels like you're undressing in front
Speaker 9: of your family, like that is the most vulnerable really.
Speaker 5: You know, I mean I don't really like having my family.
Speaker 5: My kids told me played for the first time last night.
Speaker 5: Take some four. They came to the show. Did they
Speaker 5: enjoy it? They just kept on waving to me. Yeah.
Speaker 19: I felt like, yeah, show yo yo, it's sold out
Speaker 19: in six seconds.
Speaker 5: What we played the Grammarcy Theater last night.
Speaker 8: Oh it was fun, chalented and bill I got ship
Speaker 8: to do.
Speaker 5: I got he's got that oscar to work on.
Speaker 1: He got that, he got the g T.
Speaker 5: We gotta give him the win an oscar whenever you
Speaker 5: want to do that.
Speaker 22: My first couple of shoes, like having a family there
Speaker 22: was the most vital part because they like thirty deep,
Speaker 22: so all his family comes to that.
Speaker 4: That helped fill the crowd up.
Speaker 22: Like they thirty deep, everybody bring one friend and it's
Speaker 22: a small old I got sixty people in there right now.
Speaker 22: I was like, so that's how that's really how the
Speaker 22: buzz started in the city, because you know, when the
Speaker 22: family leaves, everybody goes back to a different spot and
Speaker 22: they telling more people and more people and all it
Speaker 22: all just worked out brilliant.
Speaker 5: That's dope, man.
Speaker 22: So I'm happy when I when I look out in
Speaker 22: the front my mom right in the front row every time.
Speaker 9: Like listen, man chill man brother, thank you so much.
Speaker 9: Thank you for taking his time, for coming out and
Speaker 9: and for doing this on a Showdring bringing up.
Speaker 5: Thank you for showing up. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: It's Fante Fantigolo holding it down for the boss man
Speaker 9: and our coat leader quest Love, who is busy working.
Speaker 9: Today we were broadcasting live from Roots Picnic in New
Speaker 9: York in New York, New York City, the city and
Speaker 9: the state. We got uh, we got lovely unpaid Bill Sherman,
Speaker 9: my Man Sugar, Steve my Man, Scott yea yo.
Speaker 5: This young lady is one of the new.
Speaker 9: Voices and one of the more prominent voices of the
Speaker 9: grime hip hop movement coming out of the UK. And
Speaker 9: she has been very patient with us after coming out
Speaker 9: of her performance today, Uh from the Roof's Picnic and
Speaker 9: waiting for us.
Speaker 5: And she showed up with some liquor and.
Speaker 9: To get to people's heart ladies and gentlemen, And I'm
Speaker 9: gonna and I'm gonna say, and I'm gonna say her name,
Speaker 9: and then after I'm gonna take your sip, and that
Speaker 9: ships gonna sound.
Speaker 5: Got like that. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for
Speaker 5: Lady Lasia.
Speaker 3: I told you that.
Speaker 8: First Picnic performance.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, how was it?
Speaker 30: It was amazing?
Speaker 31: You know, I didn't think I was gonna get that reaction,
Speaker 31: but a lot of them out that knew he was already.
Speaker 30: It was incredible.
Speaker 9: One of the things I think is so fascinating about
Speaker 9: mcs from the UK is that we speak the same language.
Speaker 5: I mean, we're both speaking English, but that right almost
Speaker 5: the dialect, it's just something.
Speaker 30: It's the accent really, that's that's.
Speaker 9: Well, the accent to me, I can, I can, you know,
Speaker 9: listen to the accent and I can. The accent doesn't
Speaker 9: get in the way of me understanding what you got
Speaker 9: to say. A lot of times it's just the I
Speaker 9: guess most of the dialect is how you just will
Speaker 9: have certain terms from words that we just you know,
Speaker 9: we just don't use or even like the way. Another
Speaker 9: one of my favorite singers from you came my man
Speaker 9: Doring It, who is incredible. He does the same thing
Speaker 9: I noticed you do will you guys use f's for
Speaker 9: th h. So it's the I don't even know if
Speaker 9: he knows it. But like you don't say think you say, think?
Speaker 30: Yeah, I say, think you said.
Speaker 5: You said or was it she didn't say the F? No,
Speaker 5: she said think she said think she did something with
Speaker 5: the F.
Speaker 3: She said that.
Speaker 31: You know what it is is because I'm actually from
Speaker 31: Birmingham and maybe he's from London. Because London accent and
Speaker 31: sound and dialect is completely different to anyone from up
Speaker 31: north in the UK. We have like a lot of
Speaker 31: melody and a you know what I mean, and they're
Speaker 31: very monotone London.
Speaker 5: Do you think that comes from like there's that, like
Speaker 5: the kind of Caribbean influence.
Speaker 24: No, I don't.
Speaker 30: I don't think it's that.
Speaker 31: I think I think it's just basically, you know, you
Speaker 31: have Birmingham, not in Manchester. They're north and they have
Speaker 31: a different sound, a different vibe and energy to Londoners.
Speaker 31: Londoners they just laugh at us when we speak, you know,
Speaker 31: because it sounds like we're singing that they say we're
Speaker 31: singing basically when we're talking. And yeah, some things they
Speaker 31: say that we don't say in something.
Speaker 30: So they say.
Speaker 31: Glass past fast. We say glass past fast. Is there
Speaker 31: in fast and past? You know it's it's glass. It's
Speaker 31: not glass, it's glass. So that's what we do, that's
Speaker 31: what we say. We pronounce things properly. What London is,
Speaker 31: you know, they always win because the biggest.
Speaker 9: City, you know, that's where ours comes from. The RS
Speaker 9: that's yeah, that's extra, so many extra fucking continents, good father.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So, so in doing your performance today, do you notice
Speaker 9: the difference between performing for crowds in London versus here
Speaker 9: or are there any adjustments you have to make?
Speaker 5: Uh in performing in the U in the US?
Speaker 31: Yeah, I feel like in the UK they get it
Speaker 31: straight away because the music I make is grime, and
Speaker 31: that's straight from the UK. That's gritted. That's that's us,
Speaker 31: that's what we've created. And when you try to take
Speaker 31: another jumble of music that people might not have heard
Speaker 31: of to another another state, another area, they might not
Speaker 31: take to it as well as the original place it
Speaker 31: was created in. So in America, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 31: gonna lie. I think it's incredible when they actually when
Speaker 31: they're nodding their head and they're listening and they're vibes
Speaker 31: into the music because it's it's UK music, you know,
Speaker 31: and I respect that. But at the same time, what
Speaker 31: I try to do whenever I come and do is
Speaker 31: showing America. Is I try to merge American beat or
Speaker 31: I try to connect with the crowd by you know,
Speaker 31: today I play Biggie you know that's it's New York
Speaker 31: and I got New York on.
Speaker 30: But I wear these all the time.
Speaker 3: This isn't just I.
Speaker 31: Just didn't fake it today, But yeah, man, I tried
Speaker 31: to connect with the crowd as much as possible and
Speaker 31: and yeah, and try to show them that I'm British
Speaker 31: as well as being able to understand and relate to
Speaker 31: them as well.
Speaker 30: So it goes, it goes down of it, it depends.
Speaker 2: Actually, the Americans are kind of assholes when it comes
Speaker 2: to like listening, like music, appreciating music. I felt like
Speaker 2: that when it comes to America comparing them to the UK. Yes,
Speaker 2: I feel like you guys are way more open minded
Speaker 2: and accepting.
Speaker 8: That's why a lot of groups wilsta Europe. But that's
Speaker 8: why a lot of groups here like he I think.
Speaker 2: Of the Roots, you know what I mean, Like the
Speaker 2: Roots were touring three hundred days a year, in Europe.
Speaker 8: Up, they can do that here.
Speaker 5: Let me used to be I think that used to
Speaker 5: be the case.
Speaker 9: I think more so now I think the Internet is
Speaker 9: kind of the great equalizer, you know what I'm saying. Like,
Speaker 9: I think back in the day, like maybe tweeny years
Speaker 9: ago or so or whatever, like the UK and like
Speaker 9: Europe was kind of seen as the Promised Land. So
Speaker 9: it's like, if you were fucking bricking over here, you
Speaker 9: could go to Europe and you could be the guy
Speaker 9: right now. If you're bricking here, you're fucking bricking everywhere,
Speaker 9: you know what I'm saying, Like, no one.
Speaker 5: Like the jig is up because you're just a Google
Speaker 5: search away.
Speaker 9: And if you're whacking New York, you're whacking London, Birmingham, Manchester, England, England, everywhere.
Speaker 9: I don't nobody want to hear that shit. So it's
Speaker 9: not I don't think that's the case anymore. In terms
Speaker 9: of your music, how did you get started and what
Speaker 9: were some of your earliest recordings?
Speaker 5: What were they?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 31: Okay, so I wrote my first le Week when I
Speaker 31: was six years.
Speaker 5: Old, and that was just like a lot of young writers.
Speaker 31: Six eight A voicemail for my mom on that phone,
Speaker 31: so whenever anyone would phone, it would go straight to
Speaker 31: and that was over a reggae track sister Nancy Bamba. Yeah,
Speaker 31: So everywhere I go, I have to perform that. I
Speaker 31: don't care if people don't even know about it or reggae.
Speaker 31: That's something I have to do for myself. And then
Speaker 31: at the age of twelve, I discovered Eminem and I
Speaker 31: was just totally in love with him, and I knew
Speaker 31: from that point I wanted to be a rapper. There
Speaker 31: was nothing else for me. Like you know when you
Speaker 31: just feel like you know you're certain of something, I
Speaker 31: knew that I didn't want to do anything but rap.
Speaker 31: So from the age of twelve to fourteen, I learned
Speaker 31: how to mix and master my own stuff, produce, DJ rap,
Speaker 31: sing at dance. I was trying to do everything, you
Speaker 31: know what I mean, and at a young age, and
Speaker 31: I had the experience, you know, to be who I
Speaker 31: am now, you know, and to perfect on my craft.
Speaker 31: So I've been working for so long. I had my
Speaker 31: first show when I was fifteen. And because I'm Caribbean
Speaker 31: and I watch a lot of like dance hall shows
Speaker 31: and stuff.
Speaker 30: The way they they've got the crowd put the flag
Speaker 30: in the air, all that stuff.
Speaker 31: I learned that from early, so I'm not I'm not
Speaker 31: scared to to put myself out there when I'm on
Speaker 31: the stage. Even if the crowd doesn't react to me,
Speaker 31: I don't care because I'm in my zone and I've
Speaker 31: learned from the best.
Speaker 13: You know, So, who are your teachers?
Speaker 31: Eminem, Lil Wayne, He's just He's one of my biggest teachers,
Speaker 31: A little bit of Missy Elliott as far as just
Speaker 31: having fun and not came what people think. And the
Speaker 31: crazy visuals, Buster Rymes saying with the visuals, Ludacris with
Speaker 31: the visuals and the flow. But there's a few UK
Speaker 31: artists I used to listen to as well. So there's Cano.
Speaker 31: I don't know if you've heard a Cano.
Speaker 5: Was he so solid?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 31: No, he wasn't so solid. Crue He he was in
Speaker 31: a crew called the Movement. But then they were all
Speaker 31: doing their saying that their their own thing. So there
Speaker 31: was scorch Air, Cano, Ghetto and Deviling in this crew
Speaker 31: and Ghetto is like he so amazing. I think he
Speaker 31: would do great here. I think the UK don't get him.
Speaker 31: He's so he's like Eminem, like he's so articulate, he's
Speaker 31: crazy with the flow, and because of that, I don't
Speaker 31: think the UK get him, and I think he'd be
Speaker 31: amazing here, like people would respect him on here. But
Speaker 31: Gets was a big part of my career, like as
Speaker 31: far as like flow and technique and content and syllables
Speaker 31: and trying to hit every pocket.
Speaker 30: He was that guy.
Speaker 9: In terms of listening being in the UK and hearing
Speaker 9: American music, were there some parts of our music that
Speaker 9: just did not translate over there? Or were there some
Speaker 9: parts that culturally it was kind of like, Okay, I
Speaker 9: like the music, but what exactly are they talking about?
Speaker 24: Not at all.
Speaker 31: I think for a very long time England and UK
Speaker 31: have worshiped American music. We've even me growing up, I thought,
Speaker 31: you know, to be a rapper, you had to be American.
Speaker 31: So when I was younger, I was speaking in an
Speaker 31: American accent because I just thought that was it that
Speaker 31: you know, I'm not going to make it with a
Speaker 31: British accent, especially from Birmingham, that's a completely different accent.
Speaker 5: What does you rap like in an American accent? Like
Speaker 5: what does that sound like?
Speaker 2: Or not?
Speaker 5: Just like talk an American accent? What does that sound like,
Speaker 5: Oh my.
Speaker 30: Gosh, got bars Son. You know, I really do this.
Speaker 31: I don't know what this accent is from. I don't
Speaker 31: know what city, what area, New York. Okay, I got
Speaker 31: the New Era on the New York you know, we
Speaker 31: got this.
Speaker 4: I'm in sad with pandormic.
Speaker 31: Seriously, like literally, I do this so with this time,
Speaker 31: like when I'm on Snatchat, I always do the American access.
Speaker 30: So I love it. I actually love America, like I
Speaker 30: just think, you.
Speaker 31: Guys, at the time, at the time when I started
Speaker 31: rapping and stuff, I thought that was the only way
Speaker 31: to make it. But I think after like a decade,
Speaker 31: things of change now and and a lot of the
Speaker 31: American artists are looking at the UK and it's it's
Speaker 31: refreshing to see that there they're finally reaching out to us.
Speaker 31: Like Chris Brown has worked with a few UK artists,
Speaker 31: Draker's co signed a few.
Speaker 5: UK arts usually like Stic.
Speaker 30: Yeah, and hence Skeptic has.
Speaker 31: Been doing it for so long, you know, and it's
Speaker 31: just good to see that finally, something that the UK
Speaker 31: has created, which is grime, it's finally getting seen on
Speaker 31: really big platforms.
Speaker 8: Can you break that down.
Speaker 5: Grime is like over there, grime.
Speaker 31: Is one forty b pm, so it's quite fast. It's like,
Speaker 31: it's quite fast. It's a slower than drum and bass.
Speaker 31: I don't know if you've heard. It's slower than drum
Speaker 31: and bass. But it's very it's very it's very raw,
Speaker 31: it's street, it's it's just us, you know. It's you
Speaker 31: can tell a grime beat from a hip hop beat.
Speaker 31: And whenever an American artist goes on a grind beat,
Speaker 31: they always hit it in a different way to a
Speaker 31: grime EMC.
Speaker 30: You know, we're hitting with.
Speaker 31: The speed flows like, and then American artists would be like,
Speaker 31: you know what I mean, So we have we have that,
Speaker 31: we have our own sound, you know what I mean,
Speaker 31: and we hit it. It's very aggressive, it's very hard hitting,
Speaker 31: it's powerful, it's energic, SOMNISSI man, it's it's.
Speaker 8: It's we haven't tried to steal it from you yet.
Speaker 10: Come over and.
Speaker 5: A couple of years, don't speak.
Speaker 8: So after they leave the count in Africa, they'll be back.
Speaker 9: In terms of like, because I also saw that you're
Speaker 9: a singer as well, like you sing as well well.
Speaker 31: I tried to sing I'm not singer. Let's swiftly move on, singer, guys,
Speaker 31: I actually not that. I just know how I used
Speaker 31: to up in a church, like I used to be
Speaker 31: in choirs and stuff like that, So I know about
Speaker 31: melodies and about harmonies and stuff like that.
Speaker 13: But I.
Speaker 31: Think she, I think she can actually sing with me.
Speaker 31: I need I need a lot of work. I need
Speaker 31: a lot of melody, and I need a lot of
Speaker 31: auto tune. I need a lot of that because I know,
Speaker 31: I know I can't hit those notes that Maria carry hitch,
Speaker 31: you know what I mean.
Speaker 30: So I saw her. But I performed at New Orleans
Speaker 30: Essence Festival.
Speaker 5: Because that's a very black experience. Okay, that was very
Speaker 5: African American.
Speaker 2: That is specifically it's put on by Essence magazine, Black
Speaker 2: women's magazine.
Speaker 31: Just you know what I feel like, Because I'm British,
Speaker 31: they straight away that just they're lucked in because they
Speaker 31: hear a different accent. It's refreshing for them, it's unique,
Speaker 31: it's new. So I didn't really have to do so
Speaker 31: much to win the crowd over there was just like wow,
Speaker 31: you know is it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 30: But I saw Mariah Carey at this this festival.
Speaker 31: And she performed every song live except for Heartbreaker, and
Speaker 31: she managed to hit that. I can't even do it,
Speaker 31: but you know what that that she does, She managed
Speaker 31: to hit that. And I always just like, Okay, you've
Speaker 31: still got in you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So that's dope, yo.
Speaker 9: That the voice is something that is very It's an
Speaker 9: instrument that's very delicate. I mean, you have to really
Speaker 9: treat it like it's an instrument and it's something that
Speaker 9: you know. One of the greatest tips I received was
Speaker 9: from a guy who's telling me. I was asking about
Speaker 9: care and stuff, and he was saying, you know, you
Speaker 9: have to treat if you look at what all the
Speaker 9: other players do at the end of the night, they
Speaker 9: put the instrument in the case. So you gotta do
Speaker 9: the same thing with your voice. You know, at the
Speaker 9: end of the night, put it in the case.
Speaker 8: And a little bit.
Speaker 5: Get those real that that that real grit.
Speaker 9: Of course you've been saying in them holes where you
Speaker 9: want to remember, it'll get you there.
Speaker 5: So we're here now.
Speaker 9: So where are you at now in your creative process
Speaker 9: in terms of what you're working on? You know, in
Speaker 9: terms of records, what is your what is your creative process.
Speaker 31: Like Okay, So at the moment, I'm working on my album,
Speaker 31: Queen the Listine, which will be out next year, and
Speaker 31: my process is quite weird because if I'm not in
Speaker 31: a good place, I can't make good music. I know
Speaker 31: that sounds as easy as as I've said it, but
Speaker 31: it isn't that. Mentally, I have to be in the
Speaker 31: right place to make fun music, which is what the
Speaker 31: Queen Speech project was all about. So if I'm in
Speaker 31: a happy place and I'm in a good place, I
Speaker 31: can make happy, funny, good music. If I feel sad
Speaker 31: one day, I'm going to make drake music.
Speaker 22: You know that you know.
Speaker 30: Music?
Speaker 9: You know?
Speaker 5: Is it is it that you prefer to do like
Speaker 5: happy stuff or in the dark snus do?
Speaker 31: I do prefer to do happy stuff because I just
Speaker 31: love to see people laugh, man, That's that's what I'm about.
Speaker 31: Like my personality off Mike as Militia, because that's what
Speaker 31: Miami is. I just love to see people laugh, make
Speaker 31: people laugh, and just you know, have a good time
Speaker 31: with more people. So that's that's the only reason why
Speaker 31: I thought of doing a project that is funny and
Speaker 31: relatable and can connect to any common man around the world,
Speaker 31: you know what I mean, Like Queen's speech. The things
Speaker 31: that I say in that are things that people can
Speaker 31: be like, Oh yeah, I know someone who does that.
Speaker 31: I know someone with Christy Bacon lips. I know someone
Speaker 31: who don't change their planeties.
Speaker 8: I know someone someone you know.
Speaker 30: You know some people do that.
Speaker 31: You know, some people just wake up, they've got their parties,
Speaker 31: an't already, they've slept in their planeties, and they just
Speaker 31: they boss out.
Speaker 30: They go, they go work, they go, they go to
Speaker 30: their friend's house.
Speaker 14: The base.
Speaker 5: Say, there are some men, now I don't.
Speaker 10: Okay, yeah, some men did like a little twang on
Speaker 10: that thing, you know, you know, one.
Speaker 5: Can't blame.
Speaker 30: Wait, I'm going to ask you guys a question. Ever
Speaker 30: left the house without watching underneath?
Speaker 5: You don't want to ask question I do.
Speaker 8: That's why we want to.
Speaker 5: Not by choice. Not by choice.
Speaker 1: It depends, Okay, all right, Okay, it depends.
Speaker 5: Okay, here's the thing.
Speaker 9: Right, If I'm just in the house, just in my
Speaker 9: natural just whatever, then yeah, I mean, it may not
Speaker 9: be necessary for me to shower if I'm just running
Speaker 9: the store because I haven't been like sweating. But like
Speaker 9: if I didn't left the gym. I'm not going to
Speaker 9: go to the gym then hot my ass in the
Speaker 9: bed and then get I'm pretty sure they are like
Speaker 9: laws and doing that.
Speaker 31: There are so no but noah, but okay, So have
Speaker 31: you ever came out your house without washing? But you've
Speaker 31: gone to a club as well? You accidentally just ended up.
Speaker 5: That's that's happened. That's happened.
Speaker 4: Ain't no shame.
Speaker 1: Because listen, if we were there's been times back in
Speaker 1: the days, you know, back before I was covered by
Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus, back when I was out there
Speaker 1: in the world, there was a time in my life.
Speaker 5: Well I will go to the club, go to the club.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: You sleep, you know, you come home, you crash like
Speaker 9: two three in the morning, wake up, you know what
Speaker 9: I'm saying, and then you realize, oh shit, I'm hungry.
Speaker 5: Whatever.
Speaker 1: So then you make your way to like the hop
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you still are in your club.
Speaker 31: So what happens when you're you're in the club and
Speaker 31: you meet a beautiful woman and then you connect and
Speaker 31: then she's like, okay, I'll come home with you, and
Speaker 31: then I So what happens then the whole.
Speaker 5: Time you're praying that until the next time you got
Speaker 5: into it. Well, well, I mean, listen, man, let me
Speaker 5: let me, let me, let me say something.
Speaker 9: You can record.
Speaker 5: He's covered in the blood of Jesus. Let me play something.
Speaker 9: Let me say Okay, listen. I personally like a woman's
Speaker 9: natural firm, you know.
Speaker 1: So for me, I'm the.
Speaker 9: Type of guy's like, listen, if you go to the
Speaker 9: gym and you and your spind class or whatever when
Speaker 9: you come back, so it's like, I don't want you to.
Speaker 1: Watch that off just yet.
Speaker 8: Okay, swing around.
Speaker 5: Listen.
Speaker 3: I like some twang on that thing. So you know
Speaker 3: what I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's at flavor, it's at a presence. I need
Speaker 5: to know it's there, like I know, it's like it's
Speaker 5: that let me know what.
Speaker 31: Yeah, yeah, you know, real woman doesn't need that. I
Speaker 31: did an ingredients. You know, we have that old record.
Speaker 1: It's about me, lady.
Speaker 5: I got a lady in my life.
Speaker 1: This is not new she except.
Speaker 5: Last but you know what I mean, there's just things
Speaker 5: that I ever said.
Speaker 9: So so yeah, so for me, if I felt if
Speaker 9: answer your question, if we're in the club and it's
Speaker 9: been a night and it's been a little must or whatever.
Speaker 5: You know, I might want to freshen up or whatever.
Speaker 3: But for her, hold on.
Speaker 1: If you're in the club, everybody is a little musk stinky,
Speaker 1: and and that's what drives it mean equalizer. Yeah that
Speaker 1: we're all funky. So let's be from we're drunk. Let's
Speaker 1: go we're drunk and funky, we're drunk. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a combination. So so yeah, so that's the thing. But okay,
Speaker 1: so now let's get off.
Speaker 5: Women's hea. She took the conversation.
Speaker 3: I respect.
Speaker 12: With you.
Speaker 5: So working on working on a new record. If you
Speaker 5: need an interlude talking about that and feel free, you
Speaker 5: can drop that.
Speaker 30: I'm gonna need you for that.
Speaker 5: I got you. I drop it all this. So you
Speaker 5: working on it? On the new record be out next year.
Speaker 5: In the meantime, what are you just touring the e P.
Speaker 31: Yeah, so I'm just touring at the moment. A lot
Speaker 31: of shows, a few special features. Yeah, man, I'm just
Speaker 31: here and there and tomorrow or flight to Atlanta for
Speaker 31: a C three.
Speaker 30: If you see a free see a C three, get
Speaker 30: yeah a C three. So yeah, I'm just I'm just
Speaker 30: all over the place.
Speaker 1: Man, enjoy it, enjoy are you still do you still
Speaker 1: have your your clothing line, the freaking out line.
Speaker 31: No, it's so crazy when people say that to me,
Speaker 31: because I just didn't think people will be researching to
Speaker 31: see that, you know what I mean. That was just
Speaker 31: a little thing I was doing on the side of music.
Speaker 31: But at the moment, I'm just it's our Yeah, that
Speaker 31: could uk. It's got all the you know, the little
Speaker 31: the relatable quotes. I say, my queen's beeches like crispy bacon,
Speaker 31: bushy teeth, change your panties, you know, all that fat
Speaker 31: if one eye and your man fit you up.
Speaker 30: Little things there, you know what I mean?
Speaker 31: Because I knew, I knew people would want at least
Speaker 31: some type of merchandise. I've got the tooth bushes with
Speaker 31: the bushy teeth on my logo. I've got the crispy
Speaker 31: bacon lip balm.
Speaker 30: I wish I brought something you guys saying that you
Speaker 30: need it bacon.
Speaker 31: No, it doesn't actually actually tastes like cherry. It's actually nice.
Speaker 30: It's actually nice.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 8: It's okay, you brought brown around next time and have
Speaker 8: to have.
Speaker 30: To hook you up with some some stuff.
Speaker 9: All right, Well, lady, thank you for probably one of
Speaker 9: the most open quest Love Supreme and you know what
Speaker 9: I'm saying. We wish you much love and much success
Speaker 9: on your on your journey and on your tour.
Speaker 13: You know, be saved.
Speaker 5: Good luck if you see. And just thank you for
Speaker 5: being a part, thank you for taking time your day
Speaker 5: and waiting and just you know, I know how it is.
Speaker 5: So ladies and gentlemen. Lady on question screen, Lady Lake
Speaker 5: Shop Lady.
Speaker 9: It's a song by Johnny gil called Lady du jour
Speaker 9: and I just in Johnny Gill is in my.
Speaker 10: Brain right now.
Speaker 5: I hit me up, I Do I Do funk.
Speaker 1: Cost Love Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at a Door.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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