Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: Honey, we are.
Speaker 1: Thanks take valotie. We are the authority on all R
Speaker 1: and B ladies and gentleman.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank Valentine and this, yeah, what is it.
Speaker 4: It's the R and B Money Podcast, the authority. Come
Speaker 4: on on all things R and B. Whatever it is,
Speaker 4: you gotta be good at it. Absolutely gotta have a
Speaker 4: level of skill mmmm to go along with your conversation.
Speaker 4: And then sometimes you from a place, you from the water,
Speaker 4: call that v A. I know a little bit about that.
Speaker 4: I was raised out there, So we got VA, we
Speaker 4: got skills. You put all that together and you get.
Speaker 5: Mad skills in the Yeah, come on, man, how y'all doing?
Speaker 4: Man? Man, bro Skills is such an underrated word.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And when I hear you and just and and watch
Speaker 4: just the things that you've skilled, if we can just
Speaker 4: say that, it's like, what the fuck is that?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Man, I come from a magical place, you know.
Speaker 4: A well studied place, and you know, I think I
Speaker 4: think you being here speaks to the idea of really
Speaker 4: dialing in to your craft, like really dialing in.
Speaker 6: Because how many rappers y'all have, maybe like a couple.
Speaker 3: Not many many? Problem on ot ot on.
Speaker 6: Not a lot.
Speaker 1: I think that's saying you.
Speaker 6: And ship yeah five rappers, I take it, I will
Speaker 6: take it.
Speaker 4: But you represent a generation of you represent skills that
Speaker 4: paid the bills.
Speaker 2: And it's just the writing, right, Like the writing and
Speaker 2: obviously because you know, we have our people just like, well,
Speaker 2: he's not R.
Speaker 3: And B and once again he's R and B.
Speaker 2: I'm R and B. This is R and B money,
Speaker 2: And we're going to have everybody that we believe should
Speaker 2: be on this show so that people can learn from them.
Speaker 2: With the fact that, oh, yeah he's a rapper too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: my bad, my bad, Like you can't do this with
Speaker 2: mad skills. You know, he got his break battling. What
Speaker 2: I'm saying that as a battle rapper, I will slide
Speaker 2: him a couple hundred dollars make yours real quick, taking
Speaker 2: mad R and B money versus oh my god.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying on my streets in the hood of Milwaukee, bat.
Speaker 2: I felt like turning a super high.
Speaker 1: I did go oh my god.
Speaker 2: But just the fact of just the writing, the level
Speaker 2: of writing should be studied. Yeah, seriously, what you've done
Speaker 2: as a writer and the things that you've written and
Speaker 2: the things that you've been a part of that people
Speaker 2: wouldn't even understand.
Speaker 3: YEA, that needs to be highlighted here.
Speaker 2: I appreciate type of platform, man, and that's why we're
Speaker 2: so happy that you showed up for us, man, because
Speaker 2: this is amazing.
Speaker 6: Listen to y'all, my guys. Man, there's no way I
Speaker 6: wasn't going to accept that invite. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I'm happy to be and let's let's get into it.
Speaker 1: So is is mad skills at birth?
Speaker 4: Or notice that journey start for you where you're like,
Speaker 4: this has to be this, this has to be mad skills.
Speaker 6: I say the first time I heard I remember hearing
Speaker 6: my mom played music around the house. Of course, so
Speaker 6: you know, cleanliness was next to golliess. So on the weekends,
Speaker 6: you know, I'm hearing Frankie Beveny and mays O Jays
Speaker 6: and James Brown, and you know, I saw her connection
Speaker 6: with music. So she and she had this little thing
Speaker 6: and it had a little RM morning and when she
Speaker 6: put that thing on top of those little black things
Speaker 6: they went around, they made noise. I was enamored with
Speaker 6: this machine that she had. So I remember hearing all
Speaker 6: these songs and she was always in a good mood
Speaker 6: when these songs were playing. It wasn't never no go
Speaker 6: go do this because boy, y'all playing too much, stop
Speaker 6: slaying on my door. It was never that when the
Speaker 6: music was playing and my aunts and uncles and people
Speaker 6: being around, and I remember them arguing over when the
Speaker 6: sugar Hill Game came out. So when Rappers the light
Speaker 6: came out, it was I don't know if that's really music.
Speaker 6: It's like, ah, but it's but it's it's jamming. So
Speaker 6: I remember it being a big conversation from the difference
Speaker 6: between the songs that I had been hearing to this
Speaker 6: one particular song, and I was like, what is the
Speaker 6: difference between the two? And then I saw it, Okay,
Speaker 6: they not singing, there is no don't you know that
Speaker 6: I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing niggas talking. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 6: that's interesting, and I'm young, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I'm young. And then I remember how big of a
Speaker 6: deal it was in my house and then I saw
Speaker 6: I remember hearing hard Times by Run DMC on the
Speaker 6: radio with that hard crash and I was like, oh god,
Speaker 6: what is this? And then I saw them on TV.
Speaker 6: And when I saw Run DMC on TV, it totally
Speaker 6: my life, Like Run was the skinny, cocky nigga with
Speaker 6: the side burns and this is my motherfucking house like
Speaker 6: his whole aura. And I was like, damn that I
Speaker 6: could see myself in them. And that's when the music
Speaker 6: journey started to at least to the hip hop thing,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying. I was already music heavy
Speaker 6: in my house, but that hip hop thing spoke to
Speaker 6: me directly. No I can't. I can't sing a lick
Speaker 6: at Oh yeah, listen, listen, me and my engineer shout
Speaker 6: my engineer in Jay right here, Jay Wright's he a
Speaker 6: big fan of the podcast, Me and him, Me and
Speaker 6: him have we in a group together called Noticing Noticing. Yeah,
Speaker 6: when we sing, when we when we sing our references,
Speaker 6: we notice it, you know what I'm saying. Like, So, yeah, no, man,
Speaker 6: can I can? I can write my ass off, but
Speaker 6: I never could sing. So once auto tune came along,
Speaker 6: it was like, oh, I can still get this idea,
Speaker 6: yeah for sure, and send it out, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. And that's how that's how it happened.
Speaker 3: This thing makes sense.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was hip hop man affected me
Speaker 6: in a way that it just changed my life from
Speaker 6: day one, Like, I don't know where I would be
Speaker 6: without it.
Speaker 4: I don't know whereout music did You start writing immediately though,
Speaker 4: like right after.
Speaker 6: That, immediately immediately in school, writing all day, not failing test.
Speaker 6: I ain't listening to nobody. I'm trying to write these
Speaker 6: little songs. And once I could distinguish what a hook
Speaker 6: was from a verse, like, oh, the part that keeps
Speaker 6: coming back that somebody told you that. No, No, nobody
Speaker 6: told me. I'm in ship fifth grade.
Speaker 3: Self discovery though, self.
Speaker 6: Discovery, you know what I mean. So I'm knowing that
Speaker 6: it's like that, and that's the way it is. That's
Speaker 6: the part they keep saying. I keep coming back to that.
Speaker 6: So once I started writing songs, man like I want
Speaker 6: to say, my first song was about it, so fucking goofy.
Speaker 6: But you know girl in class, I like her, of course,
Speaker 6: you know, And that was the thing. We send the
Speaker 6: notes back and forth, you know.
Speaker 3: Check check yes, check out play from the start, I.
Speaker 6: Might have been a player from way way back, my
Speaker 6: dumb ass. I write the box with yes and no,
Speaker 6: and then maybe because I don't want to get let down.
Speaker 6: I don't hard no. So I wrote a song called
Speaker 6: maybe maybe not, and I could beat box the hook
Speaker 6: with the rap, so it was maybe or maybe not,
Speaker 6: Maybe maybe not. And I'm talking about I wrote girls girls,
Speaker 6: girls before, way before it was a thing. So it's
Speaker 6: three different girls and they all gonna tell me maybe
Speaker 6: maybe not. That was the hook of my song this
Speaker 6: fifth sixth grade. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, man, real.
Speaker 3: Talk, Well, she tell you.
Speaker 6: One told me yeah, okay, the other one told me no,
Speaker 6: and the one the other one told me maybe. I
Speaker 6: went with yeah, Right, that's it. Y'all lost time your life?
Speaker 1: What was what was like?
Speaker 4: Would you say a turning point into it into it
Speaker 4: becoming serious? Like at this point you're a kid, you
Speaker 4: love it. It's you know, I can speak to that
Speaker 4: being a kid hearing certain music and it's just the
Speaker 4: vibrations and whatever it is, it's doing something to you
Speaker 4: don't know what it's doing, you don't know why it's right.
Speaker 4: At what point did you discover the why and maybe
Speaker 4: where it could go from there?
Speaker 6: I say, I say, I might have been about fifteen,
Speaker 6: And of course I'm immersed in hip hop, so we're
Speaker 6: doing everything cool. We got the shell toes, we got
Speaker 6: the canos anything, ll got the hat. We getting the
Speaker 6: fucking hat. You know what I'm saying, the shoes whatever.
Speaker 6: And then I started I was, I was at this point.
Speaker 6: I'm an advanced songwriter. You know what I'm saying at
Speaker 6: this point as far as rap, so I'm for you
Speaker 6: to know you're in advance. Yeah, I know I'm better
Speaker 6: than my peers as far as when it comes.
Speaker 1: To you quarter or anything.
Speaker 6: No, just no nothing. I just know when you come.
Speaker 1: Up again, when y'all start rapping in the cipher.
Speaker 6: Because my thing was because I'm easy, I'm easily. I'm
Speaker 6: a battle rapper at heart. Because it was about competition,
Speaker 6: so you got you know, I'm in the you know,
Speaker 6: I'm watching my friends. They playing basketball, to play football.
Speaker 6: It's all competition. So this thing that I'm doing now,
Speaker 6: where we get around the lunch table and we battle,
Speaker 6: it's like competition. So my thing was when I rapped,
Speaker 6: this ship had to be over when I was done.
Speaker 6: I ain't want nobody to feel confident enough to go
Speaker 6: after me. When I say my last line, this ship
Speaker 6: is all right, dog man, we got We're going back
Speaker 6: to beautiful class that nobody. I don't if you even
Speaker 6: think that you can start rapping again after me. Were
Speaker 6: about to have a problem because I don't think you're
Speaker 6: not You're not better than me. My name is like,
Speaker 6: it's my name. So we going back and forth in
Speaker 6: these ciphers, and I'm starting to realize. I was like, damn,
Speaker 6: I'm really good at this ship. I mean, I'm doing
Speaker 6: the other stuff to a kind of ratching on the turntables, whatever,
Speaker 6: you know, I mean, break dancing, spinning on my head,
Speaker 6: writing in my book. But I'm getting a response from
Speaker 6: this rap thing. And people are saying, like, yo, he's good.
Speaker 6: You don't want to fuck him on that. So we
Speaker 6: battling and I'm you know, I'm really going at it.
Speaker 6: And then I left. I was in favor of North Carolina.
Speaker 6: I moved to Richmond, Virginia, and I moved to Richmond,
Speaker 6: Virginia late late eighties, close to the early nineties. And
Speaker 6: I'm coming from military town and I go to Richmond,
Speaker 6: Virginia and it's like it might as well have been
Speaker 6: New York.
Speaker 1: To me, are you a military band?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 3: No, but you're you're just not out there.
Speaker 6: I just happened to be out there. So I get
Speaker 6: there and I'm like, Okay, this is dope. They got
Speaker 6: a fucking city bus, they got a skyline. That shit
Speaker 6: feels like it's like a baby New York City baby DC.
Speaker 6: You're like, oh, DC's on your hour fifteen minutes. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 6: the cat like it's a big thing. So I made
Speaker 6: that my home. And that's when the dots started connected
Speaker 6: as far as like, oh, it's people that's really doing this,
Speaker 6: like this this music thing. And what I would do
Speaker 6: is I would just connect myself with people that was
Speaker 6: doing it, and it just started steamrolling from there.
Speaker 1: Was it people like with studios or people who had
Speaker 1: like it.
Speaker 6: Was people with studios. You know, we recording and were
Speaker 6: recording on a DATS and you know what I mean,
Speaker 6: four track recorders.
Speaker 2: So had Teddy Riley come down to Virginia yet he
Speaker 2: came down, right.
Speaker 6: Teddy came down. I want to say it was ninety two, right.
Speaker 6: So I just graduated high school and where I'm from
Speaker 6: the beach is an hour and fifteen minutes towards the water, right,
Speaker 6: So imagine I'm at high school and we at the
Speaker 6: lunch table and somebody's talking and they're saying, like, yo,
Speaker 6: I heard Michael Jackson is in Virginia.
Speaker 1: That doesn't even make sense.
Speaker 6: What do you mean? No, no, no, no, no, Michael Jackson.
Speaker 6: And they said they they said Michael Jackson was recording
Speaker 6: studios today in Virginia. I will drive all the way.
Speaker 6: What do you mean I walked, Yeah, I walked there.
Speaker 6: What are you talking about here? So they're like, yeah, nah,
Speaker 6: you know you know Teddy Riley Man, Teddy right New Jackson.
Speaker 6: I'm like, of course I know. Teddy Riley is like
Speaker 6: he made the fucking show when he was fifteen years old.
Speaker 6: We listen to that song is ten years old already,
Speaker 6: damn there. So I'm like, he got a studio here.
Speaker 6: So then maybe, like the way you said, this thing
Speaker 6: called Greek Greek Week or whatever, and we would all
Speaker 6: go down to the beach, everybody showing off their cars
Speaker 6: and ship and you would ride by, you could ride
Speaker 6: by future and you're like, oh, ship, the lamp, it's
Speaker 6: a lambo outside, It's a fucking it's a Ferrari outside.
Speaker 6: We never even seen these cars in real life. We've
Speaker 6: seen these cars of Magnum p I. We never seen
Speaker 6: these cars in real life, so outside, so you're you're
Speaker 6: sort like like this, I think this is real. So
Speaker 6: Teddy Riley came to Virginia in the early nineties and
Speaker 6: changed the landscape of what music could be in the state.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. We didn't have no identity
Speaker 6: before that, like not that we were proud of, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. So early nineties, you know, we're
Speaker 6: doing our thing and it's little studios here and there,
Speaker 6: four track recorders, people starting to make cassettes, and it's
Speaker 6: this big city wide talent show that everybody was in.
Speaker 6: All of the schools in the district had you know,
Speaker 6: we had we all conjoined for this talent show. See this,
Speaker 6: this guy, this talent show. He went to Huguenot, when
Speaker 6: to Hugo and High School. He behind the keyboards, he's
Speaker 6: playing a fucking savant like savant singing, singing Teddy Riley song,
Speaker 6: singing our Light groove me. And this is Michael Archer
Speaker 6: who turns into no Way Yes facts. We used to
Speaker 6: do the same with the talent shows together. Michael Archer
Speaker 6: and Precise was the name of the band.
Speaker 3: That's crazy and he's doing Teddy Riley covers.
Speaker 6: Yes, not even knowing that this man is set set
Speaker 6: up shop an hour that.
Speaker 3: Way because he's a full church kid, gospel.
Speaker 6: You know what I mean, like and not even supposed
Speaker 6: to be doing this. But when I tell you, like,
Speaker 6: amazing to see him that early, that young, and we're like, yo, man,
Speaker 6: he's amazing. Like and then three years later, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean, it drops and we're like, oh shit,
Speaker 6: he made it. He's fucking DiAngelo, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Brown Sugar out of nowhere, first first artist that I
Speaker 6: ever looked up, and I was like, Okay, he made
Speaker 6: It's it's possuzle to make it out of here, D'Angelo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And what is your mission at this point now
Speaker 4: that you've seen the brown Sugar go insane?
Speaker 6: Because I'm watching it in real time? Backtrack? I had
Speaker 6: already connected with Q Tip from a trip called Quest,
Speaker 6: so he had kind of helped me out early.
Speaker 1: How was that I met?
Speaker 6: I met Q Tip at Jack the Rapper Jack, Rapper
Speaker 6: at a Jack, the Rapper Conn Jack, the Rapper b
Speaker 6: R E R all the conventions. See, y'all don't know.
Speaker 6: We used to. We didn't. We couldn't just upload our
Speaker 6: ship out right, dads, and go away for a weekend.
Speaker 6: So I met q Tip at Jack the Rapper Uh
Speaker 6: and he was downstairs in the in the in the
Speaker 6: Atlanta hotel with a box and cipher around him. He's
Speaker 6: playing a LAS beat and it's all these dudes rapping,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, that's fucking c Tip like ship, like
Speaker 6: one of my favorite rappers of all time. I'm a tribe.
Speaker 6: I just identified with that whole native tongue thing. I
Speaker 6: go downstairs. I can't get in. It's too it's too
Speaker 6: many niggas in the circle. I can't get through the circle.
Speaker 6: And it's like it's this big ass tree. It's almost
Speaker 6: like a tree in the lobby of a hotel. I
Speaker 6: crawl up the tree, go over top of the branch,
Speaker 6: and I'm over top of this nigga's ear. He looks like,
Speaker 6: way is this nigga in the tree? Somebody rapping but
Speaker 6: my cipher skills kicking. No, no, you not about to rap
Speaker 6: for Q Tip. I'm about the rap for q Tip. Boom.
Speaker 6: I start rapping and he looking like I'm rapping, dude,
Speaker 6: cut me off. Oh we got a problem now. Oh
Speaker 6: now it's a battle oh oh, y'all think I'm playing.
Speaker 6: I've been training for this. Bam cut him back off
Speaker 6: in his career.
Speaker 3: Are you still on the tree.
Speaker 6: I'm off the tree. I'm still in the tree.
Speaker 1: Balance. This is nice.
Speaker 6: I'm in the tree. I kill this other dude killing
Speaker 6: other dude. Security comes yo, yo, yo, y'all break this
Speaker 6: music off the you know, get off the tree. Come down,
Speaker 6: my man. And so people are walking up to him
Speaker 6: because this is the this is the summer of ninety three,
Speaker 6: so award tourist out right, and he's like he people
Speaker 6: walking up, Yo, I gotta tape, man, I manage an
Speaker 6: artist from something. And I see him signing and stuff.
Speaker 6: He's looking and stuff, and he keeps looking in my
Speaker 6: direction like like I just want to make sure he's
Speaker 6: still over there. And I see him put his hand
Speaker 6: up like hold tight, like hold tight. I'm like, was
Speaker 6: that for me? Ship he comes over. He's like yo, yo, son, Yo,
Speaker 6: what's your name?
Speaker 7: Son?
Speaker 6: I was like, maxkis you like yo? So you ill? Son? Yo?
Speaker 6: You so just like like yo, what you about to do?
Speaker 6: I was like nothing? And he was like you want
Speaker 6: to go to this radio station with me? And I
Speaker 6: was like hun, he's like, I gotta go to Georgia Tech.
Speaker 6: This is radio station. Like, yo, you're trying to roll.
Speaker 6: And I was like yeah, so's He's like, all right,
Speaker 6: fuck you come come upstairs with I gotta change. I'm
Speaker 6: gonna go upstairs quick. So I'm like, all right, cool.
Speaker 6: We go upstairs and the door open. This first time
Speaker 6: I've ever seen the sweet. I never knew hotels had
Speaker 6: a D I've never seen it. It's a hotel room, right,
Speaker 6: So I see the hotel, I see the sweep. He
Speaker 6: walks in. He's like, yo, I'm a change real quick.
Speaker 6: And he hits a button on the CD and I here,
Speaker 6: like the Midnight Marauders starts playing and he's like, yo,
Speaker 6: this is the album's son. And I'm like, I'm listening
Speaker 6: to drop calls this fucking album before it comes out.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 6: Right, this is summer. It don't come out to November.
Speaker 6: It came out the same day. It's thirty six Chames
Speaker 6: Wu Tang Clan. He comes back. I only heard like
Speaker 6: four tracks. I'm like, this album is about to be crazy.
Speaker 6: I go downstairs. We take a picture. I had the
Speaker 6: little Kodak disposable yellow and black picture. We take a
Speaker 6: picture and I get in a van. I get in
Speaker 6: a van in the middle seat, and he gets in
Speaker 6: the front and he goes. He turns around. He goes, Yo, Son,
Speaker 6: niggas so ill Son, and I look behind me and
Speaker 6: it's passed and Macio from Daylight so ship. And I'm like,
Speaker 6: you're in the native tongues. What the fuck do you mean?
Speaker 6: I'm really, my life is changed. I go, we rock out.
Speaker 6: I go, I go, we do the thing and he
Speaker 6: I give him my number. I go back home from
Speaker 6: Jack the Rapper. A week later, my mother. I walk
Speaker 6: in the house with my mom goes, Yo, you got
Speaker 6: a phone. You got a message on the phone. I
Speaker 6: was like from just like, I don't know somebody named
Speaker 6: Boo Rip. I don't hear what it is. I was like,
Speaker 6: what she said, somebody ain't rip, just hit the things.
Speaker 6: So I hit the button and I hear his voice, Yo, Son,
Speaker 6: you know saying the skill this tip. You're trying to
Speaker 6: get skills? Yo. Yo, I want to know, man, how
Speaker 6: far do you live from u v A. We got
Speaker 6: to show a uv A like, Yo, I want you
Speaker 6: to pull up son, And I'm like, my life could
Speaker 6: chake and it did it totally changed. I go to
Speaker 6: the show Dayla Soul Trap CaAl Quest. They let me rap.
Speaker 6: At the end of the show, I'm working at a
Speaker 6: parking deck in in Virginia. I've already had it, like
Speaker 6: I'm working in the parking deck. Like I go back home.
Speaker 6: Nobody believes me. I'm like, y'all, I was rapping on
Speaker 6: Q tip then yeah, whatever, like Nika whatever. They have
Speaker 6: another show in Hampton, Virginia.
Speaker 3: He calls you again, cost me again?
Speaker 6: Yo, how fuck you live from Hampton. I'm like it,
Speaker 6: don't I'm going. I go to Hampton, go on stage,
Speaker 6: spit the verse. This time, I take the camera because
Speaker 6: now I gotta take this this take these pictures back
Speaker 6: from fucking to the drug store and get them developed.
Speaker 1: I go.
Speaker 6: The show's over. I walk outside. It's me and my
Speaker 6: man walking into my car, and this dude grabs hit
Speaker 6: me on the shoulder. I turn around, I go, what's up.
Speaker 6: He's like, yo, when you just on stage with Q
Speaker 6: tipping them, I'm like yeah. He's like, so you got
Speaker 6: to introduce me to him?
Speaker 1: Dog.
Speaker 6: I got to meet them, and I'm like, I said, yo,
Speaker 6: I don't I think they I don't know. Bro. Like
Speaker 6: he's like, no, no, no, he gotta hit my beasts. Man,
Speaker 6: you gotta introduce me. Cute tip, Bro, you have to.
Speaker 6: And I'm looking at the tour bus at the light
Speaker 6: with the blinker on and I'm like, I said, Bro,
Speaker 6: that's the bus right there, like they about to they
Speaker 6: going to they going to DC. Like he like he
Speaker 6: was about to cry. That was Pharrell. That's how I
Speaker 6: met Pharrell.
Speaker 1: Nowhere.
Speaker 6: I met Pharrell in the parking lot of a trip
Speaker 6: Call Quest concert. Me and Farrell are probably the biggest
Speaker 6: Tribe Call Quest fans in Virginia. He looks like he
Speaker 6: was going to cry when I said they're leaving, and
Speaker 6: he's like, I said, yo, I said what you do?
Speaker 6: What's your name? He's like, I make beasts. I rap.
Speaker 6: I'm like, like, what's your name? He's like magnum verb.
Speaker 1: Lord, that was just magnum the verb.
Speaker 3: Lord, I'm so.
Speaker 6: Magnum verb.
Speaker 1: He was like, listen, you won't talent all the talent.
Speaker 6: He starts rapp. I start beat boxing. He starts rapping,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, Dan, he is dope, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. This was ninety three, ninety four six months later,
Speaker 6: maybe maybe a year later, I hear the s the double,
Speaker 6: the U, the VV. I'm like, yo, that sounded like Magnum.
Speaker 6: True story. He had already connected with magn Teddy who
Speaker 6: came to Virginia and he's I always say this, he's
Speaker 6: probably the only super producer that birthed two other super
Speaker 6: producers three really Neptunes and tim You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 6: because none of us knew this ship was possible until
Speaker 6: fucking Teddy came to Virginia Beach. Real shit.
Speaker 2: I want to ask him that one day too. I
Speaker 2: gotta ask Teddy, like, what made you go to Virginia Beach.
Speaker 6: He said that his brother had just got killed in
Speaker 6: New York and the level the ship that was going
Speaker 6: on in New York was just too much, and they
Speaker 6: used to always come down during the summer for that Greek.
Speaker 6: I like it out there, shut up shop down there.
Speaker 1: And nobody else was dead nobody. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I didn't hear about Virginia Beach until I didn't hear
Speaker 4: about Virginia Beach until Timberland.
Speaker 2: I didn't hear about it too, Teddy Riley, I heard
Speaker 2: about the Timberland. I wanted to know where the rough
Speaker 2: Shake video who had been I mean, I was a
Speaker 2: young nigga man. I was trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: the Roughshakers was church still.
Speaker 1: I was still in church, hadn't quite. I wanted to
Speaker 1: know who was blowing on that hour.
Speaker 6: And her name was Tammy. She used to hairy. And
Speaker 6: it's funny because when they did something in the water,
Speaker 6: they brought her out. No, no, not shot my man Boogie,
Speaker 6: my man Boogie. We was watching the show and Teddy's
Speaker 6: on stage performing with Black Street or whatever, and my
Speaker 6: Man Boogie said, he said, skills. Do you realize that
Speaker 6: Teddy is performing at a festival doing the rap that
Speaker 6: is written by the guy that he put on on
Speaker 6: the same beat that they shot the video at in
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety three. And I'm like, god, damn, that's a
Speaker 6: six degrees of separation that he's standing on this beach
Speaker 6: and they shot Rupture at the festival now put on
Speaker 6: by You're young, your young boy crazy, who is totally
Speaker 6: eclipsed anything that you could have ever imagined as far
Speaker 6: as production wise, you know what I'm saying. So yeah,
Speaker 6: this early nineties when I met Pharrell.
Speaker 4: So you're you're friends with Tip now you meet the
Speaker 4: young Pharrell's getting crazy.
Speaker 6: Whenever I'm in, I'm in a I'm a group member.
Speaker 1: When is your shot coome?
Speaker 6: I get on in ninety I get on in ninety three,
Speaker 6: I get a record in ninety four, work on the
Speaker 6: record for ninety all year, record, don't come out to
Speaker 6: ninety six. It Shiit sat for like a year. So
Speaker 6: by the time, like Craig Calvin, I'm signed the Big
Speaker 6: Beat A land at Craig Calman, Fucking Mike Hearn's an
Speaker 6: intern Big Beat Atlantic, and it's me. It's me and
Speaker 6: this is this group called the Artifacts, and they had
Speaker 6: a group called a Double x Posse. They had a
Speaker 6: big song called I'm not Gonna be able to do
Speaker 6: it right. So I come out and I'm thinking I'm
Speaker 6: gonna change the fucking world like I'm when I come out,
Speaker 6: you know, nigga, when I come out rap, I come
Speaker 6: out moderate hits cool, but it's so old, the song
Speaker 6: so old to me because they've been sitting for a year.
Speaker 6: I got plenty more shit now it's ninety six, second
Speaker 6: single come out. I'm living in New York and they're
Speaker 6: like ah, And then the shiny suit era happens. So
Speaker 6: it's like, fuck, biggiest, biggiest biggie. He's brought the East
Speaker 6: Coast back. It's Jiggy World, our backpack. Niggas. I don't know. Listen,
Speaker 6: it's I go back home, like I gotta refigure this
Speaker 6: ship out. I go back to work at the parking deck.
Speaker 6: I'm literally writing songs every day.
Speaker 3: Wait, so what what was it with this parking lot?
Speaker 6: Man? It was just where I worked that and I
Speaker 6: used to Here's the thing. I worked there, but it
Speaker 6: was so easy. I was right next to the college,
Speaker 6: so it's plenty of, plenty of I.
Speaker 3: Can't They're gonna need somewhere to park.
Speaker 6: They're gonna need somewhere to park. Yeah, oh, you got
Speaker 6: class on Friday twice. You have to. You can't find
Speaker 6: a spot of street, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 6: here's the thing. My video is still playing on BT,
Speaker 6: so niggas coming out of the parking deck like and
Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, too fifty and they're like, oh, ship, nigga,
Speaker 6: I just saw your rap city.
Speaker 8: What the fuck?
Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, how do you I'm how are you handling that?
Speaker 6: I always tell niggas if it was now, Oh, I
Speaker 6: would have been a meme. E. That's a sweets shot.
Speaker 6: I would have been a meme. But I just had
Speaker 6: a kid. I know. I know a little bit about
Speaker 6: the business. Now somebody, Oh, nigga, I need these health benefits. Like,
Speaker 6: I'm not this record. This record deal, shit is real
Speaker 6: fucked up? Right?
Speaker 1: This work for hire?
Speaker 6: Right, it's work for hire. Biggie Biggie is going. I'm
Speaker 6: on the same label as Junior Mafia. So they're like,
Speaker 6: that's where the money go the money is. I know
Speaker 6: you've seen me on the video. True, that's where the
Speaker 6: money went, right. So I'm like, all right, call, I'm
Speaker 6: into parking. I'm like, I gotta figure this shit out.
Speaker 6: People starting to notice me. It's just breaking my soul.
Speaker 6: But I'm in there every day, right right. I go
Speaker 6: to Virginia Beach No, the Irony Puff Daddy in the
Speaker 6: Family tour comes to Richmond, Virginia. I go to the show.
Speaker 6: I'm a huge thing into the locks, right, I knew
Speaker 6: them from back in the day. We're kicking it. I
Speaker 6: go to the show. I got it's my town. Everybody
Speaker 6: know me. I'm front bro. I gotta pass and everything
Speaker 6: I see Magoo rest in peace magoo. I see Melvin.
Speaker 6: Melvin say, yo, what's up man? I said, what's up? Man?
Speaker 6: What you doing? I said, I came to see the
Speaker 6: show like everybody else. Hey, man, when your next album
Speaker 6: coming out? Man A man that last year you dropped
Speaker 6: me and they slip on you doll that shit. It's
Speaker 6: so hard dog. In my mind, I was like, I
Speaker 6: can't tell him, I guy dropped. But something said, Man,
Speaker 6: tell that nigga the truth. And I said, gool man,
Speaker 6: I ain't got no album. I ain't. I ain't got
Speaker 6: no situation right now. You ain't got no deal. I said, no,
Speaker 6: how the fuck you ain't got no deal, nigga. You
Speaker 6: the first nigga. Only reason niggas no bother Virginia hip
Speaker 6: hop is because you. You ain't got no deal. I said no.
Speaker 6: He said no, No, you got me tilling dog got
Speaker 6: meet you to tell them you got to come with us. Man,
Speaker 6: you about to be with us? Fuck that. I'm like,
Speaker 6: all right. So he walks me over to town. Who's
Speaker 6: sitting with Missy and Tim You know, with the with
Speaker 6: the light that this nigga.
Speaker 1: I love the light handshake.
Speaker 6: Crazy.
Speaker 2: The legend of his death, The legendary Spaghettian hand bro.
Speaker 6: It's so so weak. I don't know if he just
Speaker 6: don't want to give you a dap or what.
Speaker 2: What it was?
Speaker 4: So Tim is like, it's the equivalent to Michael Jackson's voice.
Speaker 6: So Magoo is bigging me up to Tim, like, no man,
Speaker 6: he'd have want him tell you his pen dog You finished?
Speaker 2: Though, I gotta admit something. I've met the man a
Speaker 2: few times. I purposely have not shaken his hand, just
Speaker 2: because because I just know I'm not gonna be feeling
Speaker 2: that that legendary death.
Speaker 8: So I always whenever somebody's like, yo, this Jay, what's up?
Speaker 1: Man? You know he's different now.
Speaker 6: I don't know if he was a German for with what.
Speaker 6: So Magoo Magoo is bicking me up to Tim and
Speaker 6: Tim like I come to the studio tomorrow, which is
Speaker 6: Virginia Beach, our fIF team minates where I'm from. I
Speaker 6: go to the studio with Tim. We do six songs
Speaker 6: the next day right which in turn two of them
Speaker 6: turned into Tim's Tim's bio which is his first ship,
Speaker 6: which Ludo was on Fat Rabbit. I think I had
Speaker 6: had two songs on there, and then I started working
Speaker 6: with Tim. So I'm in there with Tim, his brother Sebastian,
Speaker 6: everybody I meet, Blackground, Joe, Mo what I'm saying all
Speaker 6: of them? And then uh, I hear are you that's
Speaker 6: somebody mm hmm, and I'm like, this record's out of here,
Speaker 6: Like this, this record is crazy. So I hear the song,
Speaker 6: I'm like, Damn, why ain't the why rap over this shit?
Speaker 6: The flow is there, Like Tim, I was like his
Speaker 6: verse cool, it's cool. Baby girl's cool. But damn, like
Speaker 6: why he ain't let me on me? I would have
Speaker 6: game a killer verse. So in my mind, I'm like,
Speaker 6: all right, man, whatever. Like so I go back home
Speaker 6: and now I'm trying to get a couple of my
Speaker 6: homies in. So it was the DJ in the city
Speaker 6: from my say. His name was DJ Reese and he
Speaker 6: was working on a mixtape and a good friend of
Speaker 6: mine who I was in a group with named Danger Mouth.
Speaker 6: He rapped on the Leear remix. So when I hear it,
Speaker 6: he bodies it twenty four bars. I'm like, like this
Speaker 6: nigga rapped way too long. But I'm like he killed
Speaker 6: the shit. So then we send it to another homeboy
Speaker 6: and he like, shit, I'm getting on that nigga. So
Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna get the squad on it.
Speaker 6: So then I get on it, go back to Tim
Speaker 6: like play him the remix and I'm like what you think?
Speaker 6: He like it's cool, it's cool, say y'all, cal Yeah,
Speaker 6: it's dope. It's dope. So I'm like, play the ship
Speaker 6: for Joe Moo. You're like, nah, this is crazy. I
Speaker 6: go back home like, yeah, now I'm giving this ship
Speaker 6: to my man at work at the radio station. They
Speaker 6: start playing on the radio station. This is the first
Speaker 6: unofficial like every niggas Brodie day. Way two months later,
Speaker 6: plaques in the mail. They call us like Aliyah wants
Speaker 6: you all to come out with her at the tunnel
Speaker 6: in New York, Nissan and all them raps, and I'm like, bat,
Speaker 6: we go to the tunnel and perform with with Aliyah, Midliney,
Speaker 6: Bat dangermin Like we had a crew called the super Friends,
Speaker 6: and that was the introduction where I really got in
Speaker 6: good with the camp. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 6: then Missy goes, yeah, I want to take you on
Speaker 6: the road because you remember everything. Like what you mean?
Speaker 6: She's like, you know, Missy ain't never want to be
Speaker 6: on the stage. Mona's like, oh, you gotta do this show.
Speaker 6: You have to do jay Leno, you gotta do it.
Speaker 6: Missing I fuck that. I just want to be in
Speaker 6: the studio on her like, no, well, we gotta do
Speaker 6: Hot nine seven summer jam, and and Sylvia wants she
Speaker 6: and she's like, skills, just come because you can remember.
Speaker 6: I don't remember this ship, so I knew when I
Speaker 6: was when Missy was rapping. If she turned and looked
Speaker 6: at me, that was finish line. So now I'm Missy's
Speaker 6: hype man.
Speaker 3: Hold on, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1: I see him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, get your freaking all that ship. I'm missus hype man.
Speaker 1: You just graduate right into it. Just not not even
Speaker 1: audition for.
Speaker 6: Not even audition for it. I just happened to be
Speaker 6: in the right place at the right time, and I'm
Speaker 6: Missy's hype man. Missy's at the studio and now I'm
Speaker 6: seeing I'm seeing this ship in real time because it's like, oh, Chris,
Speaker 6: of course I know about the Illiad records.
Speaker 2: She's right for everybody, everybody, and.
Speaker 6: She don't want to be an artist. She don't even
Speaker 6: want a record deal. And they're like, yo, we'll give
Speaker 6: you a label if you put a record she had
Speaker 6: already put our superduo fly Ship went what happens? And
Speaker 6: and I'm like, I'm watching her create these songs that
Speaker 6: she don't even want to be an artist. But it's
Speaker 6: literally a purple Lamborghini outside, and I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 6: start paying attention to this other shit because I tried
Speaker 6: to be in front of the camera. That got me
Speaker 6: back at the parking day, so speaking, and try this
Speaker 6: other ship. And I started paying attention to her and
Speaker 6: tim and crafting records and melody and and that's what
Speaker 6: the pen turned into. And that's how it started. So
Speaker 6: now you're talking ninety eight, ninety nine, get your freaking
Speaker 6: on one minute, man, and all that shit, right, And
Speaker 6: I'm you know, I'm running around with the black Ground camp.
Speaker 6: I'm out here at the Hotel Nico and all this show.
Speaker 1: You know what i mean.
Speaker 6: None of you know what I'm saying. But I've never
Speaker 6: been to La like that, you know what i mean.
Speaker 6: And I'm out here in all these studios and yeah,
Speaker 6: and I was like, yeah, okay, this is different.
Speaker 1: I like this.
Speaker 6: I go like being behind the scenes, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying?
Speaker 4: It what is was it a shock for you though,
Speaker 4: like in terms of like coming to the I don't
Speaker 4: know an understanding or realization that, you know what, maybe.
Speaker 1: This is more of what I need to do.
Speaker 6: You know what I understood early writing those songs in
Speaker 6: those parking decks and then watching them go those little
Speaker 6: verses here and there. I understood earlier. I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: people like what I say, even if I ain't saying
Speaker 6: that right. So for me it was like, all right, cool,
Speaker 6: I'll do that, but not even knowing what I'm really doing.
Speaker 6: And then one time I was in New York. I'm
Speaker 6: in New York. I'm writing for my shit be cause
Speaker 6: timn gotta be back on. I'm on z Man Records,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, which never fucking turned into nothing.
Speaker 6: But I'm writing and it's DJ from New York comes
Speaker 6: in and he hears the hook and he's like, Yo,
Speaker 6: this shiit fire, Who this for it? I'm like, it's
Speaker 6: for me. He's like, Yo, this shit doe. You should
Speaker 6: let me get it for my project. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 6: like let me finish it. He like, now, just let
Speaker 6: me get this. I'm like, nah, but I'm a rapper nigga,
Speaker 6: like let me put a verse. Let me get at
Speaker 6: least get one verse on. He's like, no, just let
Speaker 6: me take this. I'm telling you, just let me get this.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, all right, man, Like I give it
Speaker 6: to him. And then they tell me a month lady
Speaker 6: of the record coming out. I'm like, what fucking record?
Speaker 6: What's he talking about? I hear the record with my
Speaker 6: hook and these three other rappers on it. I already
Speaker 6: I had already did filled out. I don't know what
Speaker 6: the fuck I was feeling out. They're like, yo, you own.
Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, all right, whatever, and I'm still thinking
Speaker 6: it's fucked up. Man, they ain't put me on the song.
Speaker 6: And then the fucking song comes out, and then the
Speaker 6: check comes and I'm like, oh, yeah, I could do this.
Speaker 6: I can't tell you that.
Speaker 3: That's why he was noticed.
Speaker 6: A good ghost writer never reveals all his clients. And
Speaker 6: that record came out and I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 6: I could do this this and I was like okay,
Speaker 6: they and then my name started going around like yo,
Speaker 6: who the fuck wrote this? No skills? No skills from
Speaker 6: VA used to be Missy. Oh yeah, pull that nigga,
Speaker 6: don't pull up. So my name was in rooms that
Speaker 6: I wasn't in yet, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 6: that helped me too. I always and I'm from Virginia,
Speaker 6: so we always got a chip on our shoulder cause
Speaker 6: niggas don't never really give us the respect I feel
Speaker 6: like we deserve. It's like me and us us in
Speaker 6: Philly was always like the red head step child of
Speaker 6: It's like New York and the niggas is bounced straight
Speaker 6: to Atlanta. So I'm like I always, I'm like, nah, nigga,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna write ten verses, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Oh oh, he wrote two, Nigga, I'm right ten. He
Speaker 6: go ten different versions of this fucking song. You're gonna
Speaker 6: like one of these motherfuckers. And that's how it started
Speaker 6: to happening. Was I would o D because I'm like,
Speaker 6: I can't go back to that parking.
Speaker 1: Den and it was office set, all of it.
Speaker 2: So that's where your mind went where it was like, listen,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to put records on everybody because you
Speaker 2: got that purple Lamborghini in your head.
Speaker 9: Because I won't.
Speaker 6: And in my mind then when I did get the bag,
Speaker 6: because you always talk about what you do with your
Speaker 6: first check, I got the bag I got got when
Speaker 6: got a red BMW right red BMW. So I didn't
Speaker 6: even know that when you have a red car, your.
Speaker 3: Insurance insurance is way higher, right.
Speaker 6: So I get it. I got the red Beamer, got
Speaker 6: the red Beamer. And I'm still at the crib or whatever.
Speaker 6: And then I'm realizing I will go out and people
Speaker 6: be like, yo, what you as so and so apartments last
Speaker 6: Friday night? And I'm like, dad, I can't even move.
Speaker 6: So now I get another card some specific where I
Speaker 6: could just move without you know what I mean. And
Speaker 6: I come from a beautiful city, like I love everybody
Speaker 6: in my city. They love me like it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 6: But this is early on when I'm still like building.
Speaker 6: So it's like I saw him on TV. I saw
Speaker 6: my so and so. You know you got the ran car.
Speaker 6: You know you get his haircut at.
Speaker 1: So and so.
Speaker 6: So It's like I'm moving weird. But yeah, man, that was.
Speaker 4: It's like people track you but don't realize what they're doing.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying right and giving that information.
Speaker 6: And early two thousands, you know what I mean. One minute,
Speaker 6: I'm on spring Bling and with Missy and Little Mogga
Speaker 6: I mean, and then the next minute I'm at you
Speaker 6: know what I mean, this this hot ninety seven or whatever,
Speaker 6: because Missy was really like, no, mony, skills gotta come.
Speaker 6: I ain't doing the show. Un let skills come. And
Speaker 6: I'm traveling with Missy doing all these shows and ship
Speaker 6: and just learning the business. Man.
Speaker 4: I want to I want to ask you this because
Speaker 4: when I was singing backgrounds with genuine, I thought that
Speaker 4: that was going to be my job for life. And
Speaker 4: I was so happy to carry those bags, right and
Speaker 4: to sing those bags. I said, I can do this forever.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 1: G was like, now you gotta go do your own thing.
Speaker 1: I was like, fuck my own thing? Like you got
Speaker 1: going on, like you got going. I like what you're doing.
Speaker 1: How did that feel?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: Bro, you're you're standing side by side with Missy.
Speaker 6: And the crazy boys. You gotta think I came out first, right,
Speaker 6: So it's like I came out and it turned into
Speaker 6: a synergy of or m v A niggas stick together,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying. Because he was the first one.
Speaker 6: Then he was the first it was di'angelo, you know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying. But it was weird because when DiAngelo
Speaker 6: dropped he dropped. It was critically he claimed it was amazing,
Speaker 6: but it was that he never really said where he
Speaker 6: was from, you know what I'm saying, and niggas in
Speaker 6: the city, niggas in the town. He was like, man,
Speaker 6: that nigga don't be he don't be represented. I'm like, nigga,
Speaker 6: he sing R and B, Like, what the fuck you
Speaker 6: wanted to do? He's supposed making a song called Cruising
Speaker 6: in Virginia, Like what the fuck? Like, what are you
Speaker 6: supposed to have a Virginia jersey?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 6: But I'm like, the hood wanted that, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: all right, I'll be that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: So it's like to see us all together like Missy
Speaker 6: tam Leah Seanna, you know what I'm saying, like everybody like,
Speaker 6: and we all sticking together and doing these shows. It's
Speaker 6: like I almost was like, we're like a real like
Speaker 6: the Avengers, you know what I'm saying, And you forrell
Speaker 6: of them hadn't even really made an impact because Teddy
Speaker 6: had no clue what the fuck to do with them niggas,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, right, But they're making in
Speaker 6: in you know, ninety four, they're making songs that sound
Speaker 6: like twenty twenty five. So it's like, I don't even
Speaker 6: know what to do with this shit, and it sounded
Speaker 6: futuristic then, so he just had to let them do
Speaker 6: their own thing, and they found their way, you know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying. And between Tim and Pharrell, they basically changed,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, they changed the whole landscape
Speaker 6: of music, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So, and then you and then you have Chris Brown, yes,
Speaker 3: and then you have Trey song yes.
Speaker 6: Like I'm from a magical place different.
Speaker 3: And then when you start and then if you can
Speaker 3: pile it and do the whole D m V thing.
Speaker 1: Now, your niggas.
Speaker 6: Is always say, I always say, the reason why we
Speaker 6: were so original because we knew what we couldn't do.
Speaker 6: We couldn't make bass booty music. Atlanta and Miami already
Speaker 6: did that. DC had Go Go, Baltimore had fucking house
Speaker 6: house music, Baltimore, New York had to boom back. L
Speaker 6: A had the g funk Ship, Houston, Texas had the
Speaker 6: chopping screws. So when you go in the studio, you
Speaker 6: know exactly what you can't do, so you're gonna fucking
Speaker 6: sample Godzilla or a baby, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He was just ill for that though, he was just
Speaker 1: out of his mind.
Speaker 6: Because I've never seen anybody beat box exactly what they
Speaker 6: want to make and then go over there and make it.
Speaker 6: I've never seen the motherfucker just like, nah, that shit
Speaker 6: gonna go boo boooo and then go over there and
Speaker 6: do it. And it sounds exactly like you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. So I'm watching him work, you know, with
Speaker 6: fucking Bill Petaway there, Bill, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Goddamn girl, you know it's true, Bill Petaway ass, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean. So it's like I'm I'm around
Speaker 6: this ship and I'm watching it happen, and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 6: that this ship is crazy. These niggas are really changing,
Speaker 6: and it's like everything is dropping. And then fucking Farrell
Speaker 6: comes out, the Neptunes come out, and it's like he's
Speaker 6: a savant, you know what I mean, Like he hears
Speaker 6: it different. And then you get Chad to come in
Speaker 6: and he put the bells and whistles on this ship.
Speaker 6: And then the next thing I know, fucking Justin is
Speaker 6: in this studio doing Senorita and Nori's in this studio
Speaker 6: doing nothing, and I'm like, damn, these niggas got a
Speaker 6: to Virginia. Right then you add in the bink bink
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, and knots you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So it's like in your contribution, Yeah, this R and
Speaker 2: B thing. Yes, hold on, hold on, hold on because
Speaker 2: Tank don't know this. I know this because it's the
Speaker 2: reason we know each other. You taught Harold Lily how
Speaker 2: to write songs?
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, nowhere.
Speaker 3: How about that? Tank?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Now you now, you fucker want to know why he really?
Speaker 1: No way?
Speaker 6: Harold Lily was in the ninth grade. I was in
Speaker 6: the twelfth grade. I used to pick him up and
Speaker 6: I used to take him in the car we go driving.
Speaker 6: So I get in the car with Harold and I'm
Speaker 6: playing Harold Jobsy. I'm playing Harold boys the Men and
Speaker 6: he like this my o G. I'm playing him Wou
Speaker 6: Tang Clan. It's this new nigga coming out of New
Speaker 6: York named Notorist big Is. It's his record called Flavoring
Speaker 6: Your Ears. You gotta hit the shit. I'm playing him
Speaker 6: all the new shit because I'm getting all I'm going
Speaker 6: back and forth to New York every fucking weekend, try
Speaker 6: and get on. So then Harold's watching me and that's
Speaker 6: my younger. And then he see me on TV and
Speaker 6: he's like, oh shit, this nigga made it between him
Speaker 6: and fucking Michael Archer. I got I gotta figured out.
Speaker 6: I got videos of Harold singing dedication dedicated at the
Speaker 6: Talent show. You know what I'm saying, like little Harold Lilly,
Speaker 6: which we I knew it because he was so good
Speaker 6: at such a young age, and he was he was studied.
Speaker 6: So when Harold first came out here, shit, Harold came
Speaker 6: to I want to say, Harold came out in like
Speaker 6: the two thousands, you know what I mean, And he
Speaker 6: had no clue what the fuck he was doing because
Speaker 6: Missy had everybody, and that everybody signed the deal. And
Speaker 6: then Harold was like, I don't know, man, my mama said,
Speaker 6: I don't know. And then and then this other nigga
Speaker 6: called him named Big John, and he like, man, my
Speaker 6: mama said. So everybody was mad at Harold because Harold
Speaker 6: ain't take the deal, but he took something that went
Speaker 6: down with Big John and that turned into way to
Speaker 6: turn away. Harold got his first check. He tried to
Speaker 6: fucking catch it at the check cash his bock. He
Speaker 6: ain't what the doing. I ain't you know, he ain't
Speaker 6: have a bank account. You're gonna give away like so Harold,
Speaker 6: you know. And then and it was like when he
Speaker 6: came out here, when he came to La, it was
Speaker 6: like we didn't know. He just had his head down.
Speaker 6: He was working. Because Harold's a reader. Harold read because
Speaker 6: he's like, when I came to LA, I ain't know nobody.
Speaker 6: So you know who was my friends, my.
Speaker 1: Book the books.
Speaker 6: So Harold will talk you. So when every time I
Speaker 6: walk into a room, Harold will tell you, like, soon
Speaker 6: we walk in the room, it don't matter who in
Speaker 6: the room. Hey, this is the nigga that wrote me songs, thog.
Speaker 6: This nigga showed me how to write. And I'd be like,
Speaker 6: come on, bro, come on's Swiss and Lisha bro Alicia. Yeah,
Speaker 6: this this is my old g This this who showed
Speaker 6: me the way. Come on, man, Like I'm just you
Speaker 6: know what I mean?
Speaker 3: They like, who is this one of the greatest humans
Speaker 3: on the planet.
Speaker 6: Yes, I love him. I just saw I love him
Speaker 6: to death. Man, he's still one of the most inspirational
Speaker 6: people I ever met in my life. He still inspires
Speaker 6: me to this day. Love her Lily.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that Virginian thing.
Speaker 6: Man. You know, I'm just and that's why we're so
Speaker 6: in the back.
Speaker 4: This ghost rider thing has just got me. Like, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm reeling right now, you know what I'm saying. I've
Speaker 4: seen so many pieces that I know you've written, and
Speaker 4: now I know that there's so many pieces that I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm itching, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: But it's like you have to, like there's a certain
Speaker 4: joy that comes along with, you know, being able to
Speaker 4: sit back and watch your work work. Yes, I remember
Speaker 4: when in the beginning of my career, like I didn't
Speaker 4: want to write or produce for nobody. I did out
Speaker 4: of necessity, But once I got on, I ain't want
Speaker 4: to no more my music just for me. And I
Speaker 4: got in, you know, I got into a little beef
Speaker 4: with the label with burying them, and you know, I
Speaker 4: got put on the shelf and I was cold, and
Speaker 4: I was like, fuck, how am I gonna eat? And
Speaker 4: so I just kind of started peeking my head into
Speaker 4: like writing and producing. End up at the Underdog building
Speaker 4: end up meeting this guy and starts going down this
Speaker 4: journey of writing hit records. And my first time like
Speaker 4: having that true satisfaction of seeing my work work. I
Speaker 4: was watching No Mario on stage wrote that, Oh and
Speaker 4: I'm sitting back at the sound booth. I mean because
Speaker 4: normally that's me, right, you know what I'm saying, But
Speaker 4: it can't be. And it's like I walk in the buildings. Man,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's not even it's not even a thing anymore.
Speaker 4: I'm not even tank walking, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I don't nobody want to autograph, maybe like one person
Speaker 4: when you get a picture, but.
Speaker 2: Your mean moment, I mean for me right right right.
Speaker 4: At this point, I'm pulling up in a in a
Speaker 4: for that escort stick shift, rolling wind or nothing like
Speaker 4: this right now, you know what I'm saying. But I'm
Speaker 4: watching my work work. And that was the first time
Speaker 4: I had ever gotten true satisfaction.
Speaker 1: For where I was like, I can do.
Speaker 8: This what you got over the champ, Come on, champion.
Speaker 4: That's I gotta display my skills. Mad skills is what
Speaker 4: they call them. Yes, and your journey's your musical Josey.
Speaker 4: It hasn't just been hip hop. That's where the love began.
Speaker 4: But during those clean up sessions, you heard a lot
Speaker 4: of rms' also written.
Speaker 1: Some R and B m hm.
Speaker 4: And on his journey, you've you've you've discovered that you
Speaker 4: have some favorites I do. We don't want to know
Speaker 4: all your favorites skills.
Speaker 3: Because he's not mad anymore.
Speaker 6: I'm still madking.
Speaker 2: You're back, You're back to mad skills.
Speaker 1: We just want to know.
Speaker 4: Your top five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your top five?
Speaker 6: You know how your fun.
Speaker 9: Top five?
Speaker 7: Hey, your top five RB singer winning alre this song,
Speaker 7: this is a shoe. Please want the no steals on
Speaker 7: the pool.
Speaker 6: We got the gore. We're going.
Speaker 1: Yes, your.
Speaker 6: Fuck amazing, amazing.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, mad skills. Yes, your top five R and
Speaker 4: B singers. Mm hmmm mm hmm.
Speaker 6: I wrote them down.
Speaker 1: I know you, We know you right, That's what we
Speaker 1: do now, I'm a writer.
Speaker 6: Number five is Stevie Wonder off the Red Start the
Speaker 6: start there. Number four, it's a little sister of the bunch.
Speaker 6: That would be Janet mm hmmm. Because niggas never put
Speaker 6: her in texture.
Speaker 1: You gonna feel.
Speaker 6: Then we're going to nippy huh. Whitney Houston, The Voice,
Speaker 6: The Voice, Number two, Prince mm hmm, I'm on, Prince,
Speaker 6: are you? And Colorful Purple be exact the nineties girl
Speaker 6: Purple Brunch number one all time, Mike.
Speaker 3: Come on, come on, Joseph High Yeah, Jacks Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's so many mics too, Like it covers all the ground.
Speaker 6: Every all the ground I've never and I hate the
Speaker 6: set of debates now where people are like, oh yeah,
Speaker 6: oh Drake that no no, because y'all want a round.
Speaker 6: When we were y'all didn't see grown men faint and
Speaker 6: get carried out.
Speaker 1: Your top five R and B songs.
Speaker 6: I wrote those down to because I'm a writer.
Speaker 3: For yourself and others.
Speaker 6: Okay, five hands down?
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 6: Doom dude, mm hmmmm. Ass Stevie Wonder probably one of
Speaker 6: the most beautiful songs I've ever heard in my life,
Speaker 6: Like it automatically changes your mood when you hear it. Right,
Speaker 6: that's five four I Got, I Got the South Side, Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 6: How does it feel? Come on? Did' angelo Raphaelsa Di.
Speaker 1: Pemo Life Changing record? The changed that record, My life.
Speaker 6: That record alone, Pright that record by itself? You know,
Speaker 6: you know how it's only a few niggas that can
Speaker 6: disappear totally from the face of earth, from the face
Speaker 6: of music, and come back whenever they want to.
Speaker 3: He's one of them.
Speaker 6: He's one of them. If that nigga announced right now
Speaker 6: tomorrow yo, I'm doing it in the form tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: We were all going going.
Speaker 6: How does it feel, Maxwell? Anytime you come outside outside,
Speaker 6: were outside.
Speaker 4: The Angelo, How does it feel? I want to shout
Speaker 4: out to the A n R. Who said we have
Speaker 4: to do another single. Yes, that was single number three.
Speaker 6: Yes, I think the first one was Left and Right methods. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that one, I can't remember what The other one was
Speaker 6: Left Devils was off for there. I remember they shot
Speaker 6: a video for us send it on. It was a
Speaker 6: live video that was Anthony Hamilton was singing backgrounds then
Speaker 6: with paint on his face.
Speaker 4: Somebody said we have to get this record before it
Speaker 4: because it wasn't It wasn't it wasn't nothing, It wasn't.
Speaker 6: Connected right, No, and then it all changed.
Speaker 1: And then when that.
Speaker 6: God, damn that snare and that fucking and that it's
Speaker 6: almost one of the ones where it's like, damn, I wish,
Speaker 6: I wish, I wish when people always ask me and
Speaker 6: I and I always think it's like they'd be like,
Speaker 6: what records if it wasn't a record, what record did
Speaker 6: you wish you wrote with skills? I'm like, my first
Speaker 6: one is always Happy Birthday, Nigga, Happy Birthday. I wish
Speaker 6: I wrote Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Nigga who.
Speaker 3: Wrote Happy Birthday didn't make no money off Heavy.
Speaker 6: But I'm just I wish I were a time when
Speaker 6: I lost Happy Birthday and I always loved those are
Speaker 6: always my two right, So that record, it's like hearing
Speaker 6: how does it feel? Always you? Just like I just
Speaker 6: wish I could have been in the room. Yeah you
Speaker 6: know what I mean. I wish I could have been
Speaker 6: in the b room next door just to hear that.
Speaker 4: So, and I'm a musician. What they did with that musically, Yeah,
Speaker 4: they were high.
Speaker 6: No, it had to be.
Speaker 1: That's got to be an LSD record.
Speaker 6: Had to be. So that's that's four. Three is a tie.
Speaker 6: Three is two two records, you're artists. Three is Real
Speaker 6: Love Themix Real Love number two because it never goes away.
Speaker 6: It's it's synonymous with us, and it's certain. It's it's
Speaker 6: a certain thing about having records that they just click.
Speaker 6: So anytime you hear mm hmm, bro before I let go.
Speaker 6: Is the perfect It's so it's so perfect. Here's the thing.
Speaker 6: It's so perfect that we're not even paying attention to
Speaker 6: what he's saying.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, he's a professional at this, a professional this
Speaker 8: right here.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no nick, I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 6: I ain't saying no name.
Speaker 10: I ain't saying what you didn't saying no name.
Speaker 8: Oh ship, Oh god, come on, come on, come on, skills.
Speaker 1: You know you know what this is.
Speaker 2: You come on, you you've been quoting already something the
Speaker 2: ship we be saying on the show.
Speaker 3: So I know you watched the show.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So you know what this part of the show is.
Speaker 2: You know what this segment means, all right, and you
Speaker 2: know you can't disappoint in this segment.
Speaker 6: Man, we know already.
Speaker 2: Okay for me, for you start, I got to introduce
Speaker 2: it though, you know what I mean, I can't.
Speaker 1: I gotta give it to you the proper way.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 1: Pause, then to get out of there, Get me out
Speaker 1: of there.
Speaker 2: It is what it is, the Boss Show. So right
Speaker 2: now you are here on the r and b Money Podcast.
Speaker 2: Very important segment that I Ain't saying no names portion,
Speaker 2: Will you tell us a story? Funnier fucked up in
Speaker 2: the Journey of Mad Skills Skills VA the ship. You've
Speaker 2: seen shit, you've experienced.
Speaker 3: The only rule to the game. You can't say no name.
Speaker 6: Okay, you all ready absolutely all right. It's early two
Speaker 6: thousands now, we already talked about my journey Missy Q
Speaker 6: tip Timberland. For real. I'm out here working writing some
Speaker 6: hip hop songs. Nice studio, beautiful day in La. I'm
Speaker 6: in here for a week. They tell me I ain't
Speaker 6: saying no name, is working out the A room. I'm like,
Speaker 6: oh shit, really he ain't here this week? Yeah, all right, cool,
Speaker 6: that's dope. A couple of days later, see him in
Speaker 6: the hallway, speak, Oh what's up man? What's up? Bro?
Speaker 6: What you're working on? Man? You know? At this point,
Speaker 6: I'm I think I was on I might have been
Speaker 6: on Rockets or some shit. Well I wasn't. I definitely
Speaker 6: went on No A list, but I want no death
Speaker 6: jam mouthers bitch might have been Rockers or cotch right,
Speaker 6: one of them. Niggas only gave me twenty five thousand
Speaker 6: leaven make an album. So I'm making this album on favorites.
Speaker 6: We in this studio on a favor See him in
Speaker 6: the hallway. R and b artists got two smashes and
Speaker 6: one of them a ballot, and this ballot got niggas
Speaker 6: in the choke hold. Budget is right, Videos is crispy,
Speaker 6: Chris Robinson ish and hype, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Videos looking video one.
Speaker 6: O six part every day And he said, what you're
Speaker 6: working on? Its working on some hip hop. Said I'm
Speaker 6: gonna come and check your shit out. All right, cool bet,
Speaker 6: come to the studio, listen to some of my ship.
Speaker 6: She kod me help me, man, I want to write.
Speaker 6: I want to raise some raps too. I said, yeah, sure, yeah,
Speaker 6: I'm dead serious man. I want to do some hip
Speaker 6: hop ship like you know, that's that's what my heart
Speaker 6: is really and in my mind I'm going I wish
Speaker 6: I had your career right now? You white hot? What
Speaker 6: do you mean you want? Fuck?
Speaker 8: You mean?
Speaker 10: Nah?
Speaker 6: Man, we gotta do some ship totally abandons this session.
Speaker 6: Come into my ship. He got beats, put him on
Speaker 6: a CD. What you think about this? Some cool ship?
Speaker 6: Like yeah, I was thinking that like this nigga really
Speaker 6: wanted to work right now. All right, we start working
Speaker 6: on some records. Do a couple of songs, come back
Speaker 6: the next day, do some more songs come back to
Speaker 6: the third day, we do. We damn fucking got an album.
Speaker 6: He like, yeah, man, this this is where I really
Speaker 6: want to be. Y'all. Y'all can express y'allself in a
Speaker 6: different way. Third day that he comes in the studio
Speaker 6: engineer hit play. He goes in the booth to beat
Speaker 6: us up. I kind of mumbled out a little hook.
Speaker 6: He like, I'm I'm I think I'm I'm gonna throw
Speaker 6: some mumbles on the see see if I can get
Speaker 6: into a pocket. I said, go do a scratch oog
Speaker 6: man h check yo. For all my niggas and my bitches,
Speaker 6: all the records before this was cool, very cool. He
Speaker 6: had cursed once my niggas in my pitches. For the
Speaker 6: pitches and the niggas. I'm like, yo, this nigga rapping
Speaker 6: like dn Max got off. He comes outside, Nah, this
Speaker 6: the one that little part right there, We're gonna make
Speaker 6: that the hook. That's gonna be my verse and my mom.
Speaker 6: I'm like, you sound like Earl Simmons. He's dad serious,
Speaker 6: this is gonna be my single. I'm like, you're putt
Speaker 6: out a rap out. Yeah, bro, you're gonna help me.
Speaker 6: I said, ship, I'm thinking about it. Ain't gonna this
Speaker 6: ain't gonna fly. The ballad that you have is so big.
Speaker 6: There's no way you can ever say the word bitch
Speaker 6: in your life. Black women will leave you and they
Speaker 6: love you right now. You can't ever say the b
Speaker 6: word in a song. But this ship, this ship just
Speaker 6: fell in my lap. Earl Simmons on it. That's how
Speaker 6: he's saying recipes and he sound the niggas and bitches
Speaker 6: on the song and he's saying bitch like bitches.
Speaker 3: Not a nice way.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 6: Next day, come to the studio. I'm in the studio.
Speaker 6: He don't show up. I start working back on my ship.
Speaker 6: Phone ring engineer like hello, yeah, he's right here. I'm
Speaker 6: like hello, Yeah, you have some guests out front, I said,
Speaker 6: I do. Yeah, told me who it was. I said, okay,
Speaker 6: it's his managers, Like, I ain't never met them. They
Speaker 6: coming to the studio. Yo, what's up? Man? Say what's up? Yo?
Speaker 6: And we heard the joints y'all been working on you
Speaker 6: helping him write those. Uh yeah, Hey, let me tell
Speaker 6: you something, my nigga. What listen, he's a little off
Speaker 6: his rocker right now. I don't need you to take
Speaker 6: him serious, I said, Oh okay, I said, listen. We
Speaker 6: as management team. He got He has a whole team
Speaker 6: of people behind him, artists, he got dancers, he got
Speaker 6: a band, he got background singers, we got engineers. If
Speaker 6: you help this nigga write one more fucking rap song,
Speaker 6: you done, we gonna come see you. What said, Bro,
Speaker 6: I ain't trying to fuck up. No, no, you about
Speaker 6: to fuck were about to go on tour. Bro with
Speaker 6: can't say her name either, were about he can't ever
Speaker 6: be heard saying the word bitchy because they think I
Speaker 6: wrote every word. If you see him in the street,
Speaker 6: she's walking, don't don't help him. You're about to help
Speaker 6: him end his fucking career. Nigga. Do you like the song?
Speaker 6: I said, Bro, I love his song. Well let's stay
Speaker 6: that way. Damn. I thought you v a. I thought
Speaker 6: you was folks, I said, I am. I love this ship. Bro, Bro, Bro,
Speaker 6: we some dudes from we trying to come up. He
Speaker 6: don't help him, bro, I said, all right, man, fuck
Speaker 6: and that was it. He called me. I stopped answering.
Speaker 6: I couldn't do it. I was like, I ghosted the ghostwriter,
Speaker 6: ghosted artists. And when he walked in that room and
Speaker 6: said niggas and bitches, I was like, in my mind,
Speaker 6: I'm going this ain't gonna never work. But he was
Speaker 6: so passionate about it. But I was in my mom
Speaker 6: I'm sitting there going, bro, I'm on a fucking indie.
Speaker 6: I would love to be where you at, just writing,
Speaker 6: and you want to come down here and rap about
Speaker 6: niggas and bitches. That's the music visits and shop and yeah,
Speaker 6: I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 6: Hey man, I ain't say your name. It wasn't it
Speaker 6: wasn't it wasn't you. You have written a lot of
Speaker 6: songs that women love, written and performed. You know deep
Speaker 6: in your heart you can't never get on those stage.
Speaker 6: I don't even you feel that way. He can't never
Speaker 6: get on the stage and say that. And that's this
Speaker 6: artist was right there.
Speaker 1: I get it. I get it.
Speaker 6: I don't even know what made him want to say it,
Speaker 6: But hey man, you know the niggas and the bitch
Speaker 6: has never heard it sometimes.
Speaker 1: You be enamored, flabbergasted.
Speaker 4: I got this bit that I do in my comedy
Speaker 4: set where I'm like, I'm like, tonight, I get to
Speaker 4: call you bitches.
Speaker 6: She liked that.
Speaker 1: I get to be a rapper only in the comedy bitch.
Speaker 6: Like that that nigga said it different. Where's my bitch?
Speaker 1: It was, that's a that's a rally call. That's a
Speaker 1: rack call.
Speaker 4: Brother Man, skills man, listen man. The name speaks for herself.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: And it is a testament to hard work and true
Speaker 4: dedication man, and and the craft the craft man. It's
Speaker 4: just being a craftsman is different. What we do serious man,
Speaker 4: and it takes you serious and and and that is
Speaker 4: where true longevity lives. It lives and taking this ship serious.
Speaker 4: And I pray that everyone watching this that they get
Speaker 4: that message. And I pray that all of the people
Speaker 4: who are in charge and that are handling these budgets
Speaker 4: and that are signing these these artists and that are
Speaker 4: looking for these creatives and these writers and these producers,
Speaker 4: that we uh that we don't turn a blind eye
Speaker 4: to the truly gifted, the truly talented people, and we
Speaker 4: get them a shot at that Longevity Man and and
Speaker 4: and we get more mad Skills to get.
Speaker 1: Ladies, Gentle money and Tank.
Speaker 4: And this is the R and B Money podcast, the
Speaker 4: authority on all.
Speaker 5: Things R and B and mad Skills, R and B Money.
Speaker 2: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 2: Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3: Don't forget to subscribe to and rate our show.
Speaker 2: And you can connect with thus on social media at
Speaker 2: j Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
Speaker 2: subscribe to YouTube dot com or slash R and B
Speaker 2: Money