WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Jermaine Dupri 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.199 Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:08.400 This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.720 This is Sugar Steven on this week's Quest Love Supreme. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:16.000 Classic hip hop icon and R and B hit maker Jermaine. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.400 Dupree tell us thirty years of industry tales from fresh 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:25.080 best days to career reviving remixes. Originally released August twenty second, 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:26.400 two thousand and eighteen. 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:43.480 Suprema Some Suprema roll call Supremo S Supremo. Ro called 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:51.120 Suprema Sun Sun Supremo, roll call Suprema s Sun Supremo. Roll. 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:52.480 My name is Questlove. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.400 Yeah, spitting hot tracks, Yeah, interviewing the man. 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.400 Yeah, the world's loudest high hand long time. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:07.160 Primo Supremo, roll called Suprema something Supremo, roll called. 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:08.319 My name is Sugar. 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:08.920 Yeah. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.600 Money ain't a thing, Yeah, because I don't have much. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:20.200 Yeah, sucks for me. Supreme Supremo. You're going against Suprema 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:22.160 something Supremo. 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.880 It shows up the hook, Yeah, like escape second LP. Yeah, 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.480 Boss Bill is my name? Yeah, O quls with JD. 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:38.959 Supremo, So Supremo, Ro Supremo Supremo roll. 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.600 Yeah, what the legend a D. Yeah, I've been down 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.280 with him, Yeah, because that was. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:54.480 The roll Supremo Supremo roll call Suprema Son something Supremo roll. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.560 Yeah, it's all about me. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:04.920 Yeah, celebrating twenty five years in this crazy ass industry. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:16.000 Yeah, h Suprema Subpremah Yeah sure, Son Sun Suppreva Subreeva 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:17.880 Son Sun Supreme. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.519 Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of Question on 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:24.000 the Supreme. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.560 All right, I gotta get this out once in the open. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.800 Why do you Why are your high hats so loud 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.239 on your record? That is you do you be the 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:36.799 only person that mentions, the. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.360 Only person that ever asks why? 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.240 Right, and and I'm glad that you ask why because 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.200 I feel like I don't get the credit for high 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:49.480 hats being that loud on records. Now, and I'm glad 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.480 that you're saying that because I did that deliberately. That's 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:55.480 my thing to make you know, like when I first, 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:56.840 I'm gonna tell you where I got it from, right, 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:02.400 I got it from seven seven seven ninety three elevels. 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.639 You have to ask because your. 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.560 Okay, all right, right, wait are you? Are we about 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:36.160 to break this art right now? I'll let the credit ahead. 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.760 Ahead, I mean the way that I hats sound on 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:46.120 that record. That's the focus. When I was younger and 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.280 I wanted I was playing drums, that's all. I used 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.280 to try to play that beat, and my focus was 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.640 that high hat. So then, you know, for some reason, 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.920 when I started making beats on a drum machine, I 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.640 just wanted my beats to sound like that. So once 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.920 I started making one and people said something about the 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.000 high head, I was like, oh, okay, this is my thing. 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.119 So then I did it on You Make Me Wanted 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:11.840 with Usher record, and it was like, that's the first. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:12.400 Time you've heard the. 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:14.920 Loud as his voice. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.159 Yes, very loud, and that's how I wanted. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:18.960 I wanted you to be a turn the record down 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:20.719 as low as you can possibly turn it down and 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:21.560 hear the vocals and. 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.920 The high hat though as well. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:31.000 Now we have like techno, you know, technology that doesn't 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.760 we don't have to spin on records anymore, you know, 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.920 because we used tourvive and whatnot. But the thing is 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:41.200 is that, uh usually shuffles and high hats leave an 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.200 imprint on the wax. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:45.280 Like if you look at Thriller. 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.040 The shuffle of Billy Jean leaves a sort of spiral 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.360 design inside the actual groove of the wax. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.719 So you're very technical. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.920 All of your Wait a second, you're staring at the 0:04:58.040 --> 0:04:58.440 final of. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.599 Come on, let me tell you something. This is something 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.080 I noticed when I was like three years old. 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.040 It looks like, yeah, the grooves of all the other 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.320 songs and thriller a look normal, but Billy Jean like, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.560 that's when I noticed, like, oh, high end, high end 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:19.240 Fidelogy stuff. They leave an imprint on the wax, which 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:24.200 leads to any time I've spun anything produced by you, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.680 especially money, ain't the thing. There's this whole what's what's 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.440 the game we used to get as kids where you 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:32.320 do like spy? 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.200 What was the spiral graph? It's not a game? But yeah, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:38.920 is that still a thing today? Or is that like 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:44.920 did I just date myself? Sigh? Where you were? 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:49.480 I don't know what that is? 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:58.520 Come on, spiro graph, will you take us? They're like, okay, well, 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:00.760 this is a classic quest of Supreme where I didn't 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.720 even officially introduce our guests. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.560 another episode. I had to get the high hair. I'm 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:07.960 a drummer. I had to get the high hat question 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.480 out of the way. All right, So another episode of 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.719 Quest Love Supreme. Hello, Team Supreme. I assume that Fante 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:20.760 is fixing his countertop or his pool or whatever. Yeah, exactly. 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.520 I will say that enough has not been said about 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.600 our next guest, and I believe that he also agrees 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.920 with me that enough has not been said about him. 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.760 That's sort of like one of the dangerous things about 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.040 hip hop culture, or this disposable hip hop culture that 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:46.160 we have, where you know, we discover great resources and 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.080 we use them to the hilt, and then we kind 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.120 of are onto the next thing, and revisionism sets in 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.440 and usually the person with the biggest check gets to 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.280 rewrite history, and suddenly everyone has a floggy memory on 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.920 who pioneered what and and Whatnotuh. But I will say 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.800 that numbers don't lie. And for thirty five plus years, uh, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.800 our guest today has been a figurehead and hip hop 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.840 in all the areas, be it as a producer, as 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.800 a songwriter, uh for some of the defining moments in 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.040 hip hop and R and B culture, or as a 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.000 label head, a manager, and as an artist in his 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.200 own right. I can even say a dancer. This man 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.000 is connected to more people that I care to announce. 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:28.920 If I announced them all, the show will be over. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.440 Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Quest of Supreme, the 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.200 one and only it shouldaine pre who. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:35.360 What an in? 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:41.480 I didn't use that intro my djama, I'm gonna use 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.920 that's what ladies and gentlemen. 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.880 So how's it going? Man? It's going all right? So 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.640 for our listeners, And I'm trying to pack every question 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:52.000 I can. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:52.920 Uh. 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:55.880 First of all, I was shocked you were born in Asherville, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:56.680 North Carolina. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:07:59.320 Isn't that the hippie community? 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.760 I'm I'm not sure I was. I left there when 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.680 I was two, Okay, because I'm not sure. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.840 Usually for the roots, usually Asheville, North Carolina is like 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.480 it's it's such a. 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:13.880 Hippie territory. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:14.840 It's a mountain town. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.880 So yes, like some of the things of like the boundaries, 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:23.480 but times a billion, Like there's always jam bands performing 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.640 there and you know we've done many a show there. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.040 Because it sounds like jd ain't been back. You know, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:32.040 I was. 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:33.480 I was put in Atlanta when I. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:38.640 Was two, Okay, So what what major family moved to Atlanta? 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.599 Because Atlanta's the big city to Ashville, and you know, 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.120 North Carolina is like that's what they look to I 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.199 guess back then it is the place to go to 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.640 have like fun. Like it's almost like how people go 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.760 from La to Vegas and you know what I mean, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.079 it's like that type of situation. 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.160 I think, I see, I think so. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:01.920 Uh, as far as you got in the business early, 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.199 But what described what life was like in Atlanta? Because 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:09.600 usually I'll say that for me, my first my first 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.559 education on Atlanta, especially being how old I was, or 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.920 the the the unfortunate, uh, the Atlanta child murder situation 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.200 with Wayne Williams. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:21.200 Who looks. 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:25.840 Boss Bill looking at me like, don't say nothing out 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.360 the line, but then he kind of looked like Walter Clyde. 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:34.120 Orange mccommodore's oh my god, wow wow, now that you 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:39.000 said he looked like Walter Clyde. Everyone's saying their head Walter, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:43.600 I love you your gruman. Anyway, that was my introduction 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.880 to Atlanta. But what was your childhood like in Atlanta? 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:48.480 Like did they always have culture? 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.559 And yeah, I think you know, you know, skating for 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.679 kids was the culture of Atlanta. Like so when you 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.079 see like at that movie was basically what child on 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.480 my childhood was That was it for me to go 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.160 to skate rink. You get away from your parents, you 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.000 get to listen to music, you get to dance, you 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.199 get to skate, you get to talk to girls. Everything 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.040 happened at the skate rink. That was for young kids 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.160 anyway coming up. Basically that was it for me. And 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.200 then talent shows. Atlanta was full of talent shows. All 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.400 the schools had talent shows. And you know, I was 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.000 just doing that, hitting schools and doing talent shows and 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:26.160 going to skate rink. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:27.120 It was not really much. 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.320 It wasn't really much of a music scene in Atlanta, 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.120 but it was a it was a scene for like 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.240 dancers and the culture, like I'm saying, like skating and 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.319 stuff like that. Musically, it wasn't really We had s 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:42.160 O S Band and we had Brick and that was 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.520 you know in Peebo Bryson and those were people was like, 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.120 you know, he was like Rick Ross and Atlanta back then, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:54.600 like that was his that's Peobo's town. He had. 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.719 He had the penthouse downtown. You know, you used to 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:58.880 drive by my days. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.600 Like that's that's Ale's house and she'd be like, man, 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.120 I'm gonna get me one of them shits one day 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:04.440 like he's just. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.560 You know like that. So okay, Yeah, So was your 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.840 father always in the music industry or Yeah? 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.240 From from what I can remember, my dad was basically 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:15.880 like a roadie that turned into like a road manager 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.280 that turned into like a you know, a production manager 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.199 more than anything. Because my dad played drums, so he 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.160 was like more like a production guy for the drummers 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.560 of Brick and you know, so Os band, and then 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.200 he got into you know, morphed into more doing more 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.319 production for you know, doing more production for all of 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.199 these artists. And I used to just be there rehearsal, 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:38.439 watching and looking and then cameo and you know, it 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.040 started growing, but it was just those those were the 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:42.400 main artists in Atlanta. 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.680 How old were you at that point when you were 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:45.680 watching these bands? 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:46.680 Like nine. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:52.040 That sounds about right? Yeah, like nine that sounds about right. Yeah. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.240 Now, uh, we've discovered here on Quest Loves the pre 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.720 met all the name brand super producers have some sort 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:06.600 of DJ history before they went into production. So did 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:11.440 you have any DJ history prior to your Yeah? 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:13.080 I mean. 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:16.400 Well, when I went on the Fresh Vest at twelve, 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.599 Grandmaster D basically was showing me how to DJ. Like 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:22.760 I didn't know what to scratch, like scratch. He showed 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.240 me how to scratch. I used to just want to 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.000 always scratch. I used to go BEHD the turntables while 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:27.559 they was doing sound check and try to scratch and 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.839 he's like, yo, you know, don't don't don't touch my 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:31.559 touch my set. I'm gonna show you how to do it. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.760 So I kind of, you know, I can say I 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.319 got personal lessons from Grandmaster D and jam Ass the 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:40.400 j of how to actually DJ and you know, actually 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.200 scratch and you know, go back and forth on the records. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.360 Like that's what my introduction to DJing. So then I 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:48.199 left the tour and went home and I told my 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.480 parents that, you know, I want turntables for Christmas. 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:57.480 That's so weird because like coming up because run DMC uh, well, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.400 because Jay actually scratched or run DMC records. I always 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:06.720 wonder why Larry Smith never let Grandmaster D physically scratch, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.480 not until like the third record, when the open Sesame record. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.080 Then I finally heard scratch and I was like, oh, 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.040 he can't cut. But everybody and their mother swore to 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.600 guy that like Grandmaster D was like stealing the show 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.559 at the fresh Vest, doing like all these tricks on 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.920 his head and so he was a legit bona fide DJ. 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:27.480 Okay, yeah, I mean he was, you know, all the 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:29.800 tricks and they'll pick him up and he scratched, you know, 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.199 he with his mouth on the cross fader and yeah, 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:33.839 he was doing it. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:34.920 He was going so. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.480 Being as though the fresh Fest was the first major 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.439 stadium tour for hip hop one, how did you get 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.880 on the fresh Fest to what was that shit? 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.240 Like? Well, I got on the fresh Fest because the 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.480 fresh Fest was created in Atlanta by a guy by 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.320 the name of Ricky Walker. Ricky Walker now create has 0:13:54.440 --> 0:14:00.600 created Universe Soul Circus. Oh, the same guy. I created 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.679 that and then he went and did the circus thing now, 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.400 but he created the fresh Fest. And my father was 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.839 the production manager on the fresh Fest. And they just 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:11.559 needed to open act. You know, at that time, it 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.360 used to be like they need an opening act to 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:15.520 kill time or buy time or whatever it was. And 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.680 they just put anybody on, no in house music, playing 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.040 no iPods, yeah nothing, It wasn't nothing like that. They 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.840 needed somebody to you know, you know, I don't even 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.280 understand what that was. But they was buying time basically, 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.000 and you know, there was like we do y'all have 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.240 anybody to put on? And they suggested that I could 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.600 come out and dance, and they let me come out 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.760 and dance. And the show in Atlanta was the first 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.520 show of the fresh Fest and it worked well with 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.360 the time. So then it was like, well, can Jermaine 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:43.680 do this for the rest of the tour? 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:45.600 And I ain't know what that was. My mother ain't 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.040 know what it was. Nobody knew what it was. Won 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.400 no money involved. It was just like, what was your routine? 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.560 I had a dance routine where I came out to 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.160 its time and a couple of other records where I 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.600 just was just on stage freestyle and just dancing. And 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:00.760 I was little, so you know when you were a 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.880 little kid dancing the crowd goes crazy. So it was 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:05.560 like a it was kind of like the circus kind 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.960 of like you know what I mean, you just you 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.000 don't know what you're looking at. You it's watching and 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.160 it looks like I'm doing more than what I probably 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:12.600 was doing. 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.120 So how many acts work or well, I know it 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.040 was fat boys who Denie and run DM Seed who 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:20.920 like I'm sure there had to been. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.120 GTFO was on the tour, Grandmaster Flash was on the tour. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.480 Everybody was hot at that Arrow. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:30.920 Was on the tour. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.960 How long would each act get Probably. 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.120 Like fifteen minutes. I mean they never had that many records, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.840 and and Run Run was really like, you know, this 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.440 is my ship, so you gotta you know, oh, so 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.320 ill better hurry out, you know. Run Reverend Run had 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.400 a real you know, he had that real thing about him. 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:49.720 And Curtis Blow was on the tour, so it was 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.200 Curtis Blow, Run, DMC, the Fat Boys, who Denie, Grandmaster Flash, 0:15:53.680 --> 0:16:02.840 the Dynamic Breakers, and I think Old Zon and Turbo WHOA, yeah, yeah, See. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.480 This is what I appreciate because I know as a youngster, 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.880 as a person that was young then you were definitely 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.200 in a fly on the wall situation. 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:12.280 Anyone else couldn't. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.120 Like if I were whatever thirty plus years old at 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:16.600 the first, they'd be like, hey, get the fuck out 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.360 of it. But with you as a kid, I'm certain 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:19.760 that you allowed in spaces that. 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:22.320 I wasn't supposed to be in. But at the same 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:23.920 time they was trying to tell me to get the 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:25.600 fuck out of there. But it was like I was 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.160 just like, no, I you know, I'm here, I'm not 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.360 paying attention to y'all doing this, and I'm not you know, 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:31.440 I've seen everything. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.760 Anyone from that era never has a recollection like DMC 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:38.360 might you know. I'll ask him a few things and he, man, 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.440 my memory is fivevey, I don't remember man like you know. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:41.720 So I remember everything. 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.640 And I've been trying to do this movie about basically 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.960 about my life kind of like that. And I've been 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.800 having people tell me that it's hard to do a 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.080 movie for a kid showing what I want y'all to 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:57.080 see that I saw. 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.160 Go to Newtflix R rated and it's not. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.240 And it's not like a series too, because that's a 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:05.720 long life. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:07.639 That's that's I mean, I don't know how far to 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.440 get back, but I'm really more concerned about that because 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.040 what he's saying is that people, this is I know 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.639 the stuff. It's not even like history. It's like a 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.920 kid seeing what you don't understand. The kids saw like 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.600 I saw artists come to life, I saw artists doing drugs. 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.920 I saw I just saw everything that at twelve, you 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.000 don't really understand what you're seeing. 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.160 And at the time, since you're going you're touring and whatnot. 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.280 Is your dad your only chaperone because he's. 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.959 Working, not really chaperon. I'm out there basically by myself. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.680 He's working, I'm running around all of these other guys 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:43.440 on my chaperones. 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.600 That's why. That's why, like for. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.879 Really, that's why Houdini actually became like my brothers, and 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.080 you know, they became like the guys that was with 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.080 me all the time. Not that my father wasn't paying attention, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.000 It was just that I saw that as a move 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:57.960 for me to start getting away from him and just 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.160 like hanging out more. And I wasn't like out late 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.040 at night and nothing like that. None of them, none 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:04.960 of the guys ever let me do anything like that. 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.240 It was just all about the tour and like when 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.520 the show was going on, I was everywhere at the show, 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:10.480 all over the place. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.800 This is this is how nerdy I am because it 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.840 didn't even occur to me to ask about like, oh, 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.200 the relationship you saw my nerd ass is trying to 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.800 figure out, well, wait a minute, what's the back line situation? 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:24.840 So like what was sound check? 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.920 Like I know, monitors are ringing, like I'm trying to 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.600 figure out, like how does from a reduction standpoint, how 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.680 does the show run concurrently and smoothly without this DJ 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:35.240 being like who broke my mixer? 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:37.480 And now they all had different sets, so it was 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:38.159 like it was like. 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:43.680 Probably like five tables sitting in the back right, so 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.639 every time somebody come off, there'll move that table and 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:47.920 put that guy set up there, and nobody was nobody 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:49.160 was using the same turntables. 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:50.600 That definitely wasn't happening on that tour. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.639 See, that error was scaring me because I know that 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.479 with dancers there's always skipping records. 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:58.879 And that's what made jam Master J to me one 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.080 of the best live DJ ever because he knew, he 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:03.840 knew how. 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.359 To you know, move in a land of where that 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:08.240 would never happen. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.200 He was like a drummer on He was like you 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.840 on stage, like he could really just like do whatever 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.320 he wanted with those turntables and make them, you know, 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:16.880 play the way he wanted them to play. 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.119 So when they asked you, I'm sorry, I just want 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.760 when they asked you to do the record years later, 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.159 what was it down with the King Joint? Because that 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.320 was the that was the only time y'all worked together again. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.680 The next Yeah, that must have been like a whole 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.440 full circle moment, since you know, going from a kid 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.000 and what you were saying, how you know, run with 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:35.600 such a boss on tour or whatever. 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.480 I mean, it was all of us a full circle. 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.440 I signed who didn't need so Like it was a 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.960 complete full circle. Like I was a kid looking up 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:44.800 to these guys and they was teaching me and telling 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:49.320 me things, and then I felt so you know, connected 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.480 to them that I wanted to sign them and give 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:53.800 them what I felt like I was given to the 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:54.520 rest of the world. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.720 So when it was over, like the last day of 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:02.160 the fresh Vest, I don't even remember that. Well, well, okay, 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:04.440 were they all were? I know there were like two 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.399 or three Fresh fest Did you do it every year? Just? 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.480 Yeah, eighty forty five and eighty six? 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.280 Okay, So when the fresh Fest is officially over, like, 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.639 how do you return to normalcy? How do you go 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.800 back to Atlanta or whatever wherever your home base was, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.080 assuming that you lived in Atlanta, Like, how do you 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:23.160 explain this to your friends? 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:24.480 How do you explain what you saw? 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:26.919 Like, well, that's that's what actually really happened. 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:28.880 Is like when I was on I went on tour 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.920 at twelve, right, and in Atlanta wasn't a city that 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.119 was used to performing artists. We didn't we don't have 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.720 a performing art school or nothing like that. When when 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:39.879 I was twelve, so I was in a regular school 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.760 and I had a tutor. But when I came back 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:46.000 from tour and I took my grades back to the school, 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.840 the school system told my tutor that they couldn't accept it, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.280 like they just like, we don't that's not We're not 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.440 used to this. We're not going to accept all of 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.280 this work. So I'm like, wait a minute, I did 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:56.959 this work. You're not gonna really make it seem I'm 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.320 not gonna ready be left back. I was on the 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.359 bus doing work like I had a tutor, So right 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.680 then and there, I was like, man, fuck this, I'm 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:06.760 not I'm not I'm not doing this. So it was 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:11.439 like my life changed right there, at like fourteen fifteen 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.000 years old. My life just changed. Was like I became 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.520 doing home study and I didn't go to school anymore. 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.840 And then it was just like the drive to make 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.440 sure that this didn't turn into something completely bad. 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:24.520 But was it weird for you? 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.960 Because you know, on tour, I don't know if you 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.280 had anyone to relate to that was your age. And 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.440 then you're not an environment in a school environment where 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.280 you have stop hops or a prime or you know, 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:37.600 just like regular. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:45.880 You know, sock hops causton. That's worse than this. What sop? 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:46.639 What's sop? 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:47.080 What is that? 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:48.400 That's the sophomore prime? 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:49.040 What's a sop? 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.119 Hop? Sp stop hops? 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:52.000 I think. 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:55.040 Were you going to leave me out here alone? I 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.160 don't know because I heard you say sophomore shop shop 0:21:58.240 --> 0:21:59.000 hops are. 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.560 That's where John too, John, someone. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:04.840 That went to school in the eighties like that. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:06.320 It's a good reference. 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:07.240 Please explained it to me. 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.080 I thought you said so right? Where I get it? Jay? 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.159 You your I mean I was in two thousand, I 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:14.119 was twelve in the eighties. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.680 You're still twelve. Now, I get it what it was 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:18.479 you're young? I get it right. 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.679 Are like the senior dance things? You're going to your 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:26.680 junior prom, then you go on your senior prom. 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:27.960 But it happened in the fifties. 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:33.040 No, that's sock sock you're thinking of Greece. S o P. 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:37.640 I have a cold. So someone all right, okay, I'm 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.080 the oldest person in the room. Thank you, Steve. I 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.280 don't know what it is, your firstbeeing, your Hulu hoops, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.800 your nerve fall. All. Right, here's here's my point. 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:52.000 My point is that you know not I mean, I 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:54.320 don't know like what your relationships like with your cousins 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.920 or your like your your family, but just to not 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:04.000 to be isolated it from people your age, like, how 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:06.680 was it? Was it a lonely isolated experience where it's 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:08.560 just like hanging with these adults all the. 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.359 Time and not nah, because I looked at it like 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:13.040 this was the only way I was going to get 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.520 close to what I was in love with at the time, 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.640 and these guys was dancing all day to turn you said, 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:21.680 you want to know what soundcheck was like? Soundcheck was 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:23.720 like because we had two stages. We had a middle 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:25.840 stage and we had a big stage right the rappers 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:27.920 was on the main stage, and then the stage in 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.640 the middle was all the dancers. So in soundcheck, all 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:34.080 the dancers would be out there dancing together at all 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:36.800 at one time, like just everybody dancing. So it's like 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:40.399 I'm getting the opportunity to see moves and all of 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:42.600 this stuff, and I'm not watching videos. I'm actually watching 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:44.359 this and I'm learning so it was to me it 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:47.960 was like being at school, but the school that I 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:48.719 wanted to be at. 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:53.840 I first heard about you, like I before the internet, 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.480 right on magazine was like every every black teen is 0:23:57.600 --> 0:23:58.560 like religion. 0:23:58.200 --> 0:23:58.760 You know what that is? 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:00.520 J Yeah, yeah, okay, you better know. 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:01.920 I think that was his first article. 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:04.520 I was in there, shout out to Cynthia Horn and 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:05.040 she put. 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:06.159 Me in there. Yeah. I was going to say, d 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:07.399 do you remember being right? 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:07.880 Yeah? 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:13.399 So I think at the time was sometimes Leather your 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:17.359 first project or how did you get into production? 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:19.320 Well, let me sell you. 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:23.679 Sometimes Leather were girlfriends of Hudini, right, Okay, So they 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:25.879 was out on the tour doing with the girlfriends out 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:28.520 on the tour do basically, and I was on the 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:30.200 side of the stage when these girls came up and 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:32.000 I was like, you know, checking them out. I'm young, 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:34.399 so I'm checking the girls out and they was you know, 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.840 they was a guy's performing. So then we just got 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:39.399 to know each other because they was out there like 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:40.879 I was out there and it was like, you know, 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:44.120 I'm running around, they running around. So then they picked 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:46.159 me up, take me what we go to catering or 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:48.040 whatever it is. Was something that had something to do 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:51.639 with touring. So, long story short, I learned that these 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:54.440 girls were from Atlanta. So then it was like, oh shit, 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:56.680 yeah from Atlanta. They was like, yeah, so we going 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.000 back home. When you get back home, call us and 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:01.000 we'll come pick you up. We got car, take you 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:02.879 get something to eat. They was really super nice and this, 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.199 that and the third. So when I got back at the. 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:07.159 Time, because I don't even remember it sometimes like now, 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:07.720 so they were older. 0:25:07.760 --> 0:25:09.400 Yeah that's not cool, but you don't remember. 0:25:09.840 --> 0:25:10.160 I remember. 0:25:10.440 --> 0:25:16.520 It's not good. I wasn't born then, Yo, you were 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:20.080 born when was on Yeah, that's when he was born. 0:25:20.080 --> 0:25:21.240 When it came, when Rap City. 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:23.919 Came home whatever, all right. 0:25:23.960 --> 0:25:26.560 So so yeah, so you know they lived in Atlanta, 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:30.920 and basically at this particular point time, I was so 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:32.840 deep into hip hop and I was paying attention to 0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:37.280 everybody's movement. And Herbie Lovebug was moving. At this particular 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:40.040 point time, he had Salt Pepper. I think he had 0:25:40.160 --> 0:25:43.600 just dropped Kid and Play and Kwame was you know, 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:46.159 he had what I thought I was, you know, what 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:48.840 I was looking at trying to figure out, yeah movement. 0:25:48.960 --> 0:25:51.920 So the girls, they was, you know, they was into 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:53.560 Salt pepper, and some kind of way, I found out 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:55.480 that they wanted to be rappers or they was rapping 0:25:55.560 --> 0:25:58.119 or whatever, and out of nowhere, I just said, well, 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:00.359 y'all should let me write y'all songs. I don't know 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:02.520 what I was thinking about, because I ain't have no 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:05.720 drum machines or nothing, but I just felt like I 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:08.560 could do it. And they was like, Okay, well, how 0:26:08.600 --> 0:26:10.480 are you gonna do it? And I'm like, we'll figure 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:14.680 it out, right, So, and I'm guessing that I'm thinking 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:16.359 that when I said this to them, I didn't. I 0:26:16.400 --> 0:26:18.119 didn't think they was gonna take me up on it. 0:26:18.560 --> 0:26:20.639 They called my phone when I got back home, or 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:22.120 they called my house and they was like, we're gonna 0:26:22.160 --> 0:26:23.359 come over your house. So they came up with my 0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:25.359 house and they came. They got really familiar with my 0:26:25.480 --> 0:26:28.160 mom and got you know, really friendly, and my mother 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:30.280 trusted them, and I start going out hanging out with them, 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:32.160 and it was all about just hanging out. And then 0:26:32.359 --> 0:26:35.040 I was always talking about making music. So then I 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:39.760 figured out how to call the drummer from Brick Eddie Irons. 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:41.399 He was the drummer for Brick. I called him. He 0:26:41.440 --> 0:26:43.680 had a studio called twenty five sixteen in Atlanta. So 0:26:43.800 --> 0:26:44.320 I called him. 0:26:44.320 --> 0:26:46.159 I'm like, yo, I want to make some records and 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:47.840 he was like, okay, what you want to do and 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:52.040 I'm and I'm and I'm bartering his services. Yeah, I'm 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:58.200 bartering his services, like yo. And at this point, come fifteen, Okay, Yeah, 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:01.359 that's the thing that's amazing me because there's for you 0:27:02.240 --> 0:27:05.680 soject either technically yeah, well nah, well yeah I did 0:27:05.880 --> 0:27:09.280 so so ultimately, like my first song, Shoddy wrote my 0:27:09.359 --> 0:27:12.200 first song and this is yeah. MC shoddy wrote the 0:27:12.200 --> 0:27:15.160 first song that I ever did, and that he taught 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:18.000 me how to write songs basically watching him write this 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:20.960 song for me. So when he wrote this song it's 0:27:20.960 --> 0:27:22.639 called It's Me that I used to perform on the 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:25.800 Fresh Fest, it was a song that he wrote, but 0:27:25.920 --> 0:27:28.080 he wasn't really saying everything that I wanted to say. 0:27:28.480 --> 0:27:30.080 So I was in this position where I had this 0:27:30.160 --> 0:27:32.560 song while I was saying these lyrics that he wrote, 0:27:32.600 --> 0:27:35.280 but I wanted to say something else, and I wasn't 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:37.560 skilled enough to change the lyrics. While I was on stages, 0:27:37.600 --> 0:27:39.359 I thought I was just gonna destroy the song. So 0:27:39.880 --> 0:27:42.080 so I did the song the way I had learned 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:44.480 the song because I wasn't skilled enough to change it, 0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:46.000 but I knew in my mind I wanted to change 0:27:46.040 --> 0:27:49.080 the lyrics. So long story short, he got me into writing. 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:51.880 So from the Fresh Fest. I came off the Fresh 0:27:51.920 --> 0:27:57.399 Fest in eighty six with a rapping and writing songs, right, 0:27:57.640 --> 0:28:00.800 so and and I jumped the piece because I met 0:28:00.880 --> 0:28:01.560 Chad Elliott? 0:28:01.600 --> 0:28:05.119 Who was who was? He came in second place to 0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:08.440 the Fat Boys in the Disco Fever dude. 0:28:08.480 --> 0:28:15.480 Yeah, yeah, you remember crash Groove. Yeah, so he's real. 0:28:15.880 --> 0:28:21.080 Oh my god, Yeah, where is Chad Elliott? He's here, 0:28:21.160 --> 0:28:21.840 He's in New York. 0:28:22.840 --> 0:28:23.080 Chad. 0:28:23.600 --> 0:28:26.719 Chad actually is gonna induct me into the Songwriters Hall 0:28:26.720 --> 0:28:27.600 of Fame Thursday. 0:28:28.760 --> 0:28:31.359 Yes, so wait he has a oh some give you. 0:28:31.359 --> 0:28:32.440 I'm gonna give you all this history. 0:28:32.520 --> 0:28:40.400 So so you know Chad, Me and Chad because you 0:28:40.400 --> 0:28:42.240 said nobody I hung out with. So I met Chad 0:28:42.360 --> 0:28:44.800 later on in the Fresh Fest in like eighty five. 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:48.600 So eighty eighty three, eighty four, eighty five, eighty forty five, 0:28:48.640 --> 0:28:49.800 and eighty six was the fresh Fest. 0:28:49.840 --> 0:28:51.760 So in eighty five I met Chad. 0:28:52.240 --> 0:28:56.360 We started. They put Charlie Stetler. You know Charles Stetler, 0:28:57.040 --> 0:28:59.560 you know child steps Man. Yeah, okay, Charles Stetler was 0:28:59.600 --> 0:29:04.400 the fat Boy, his manager, He managed Chad. He started 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:08.400 managing Chad after the Disco Fever contest. He came to 0:29:08.520 --> 0:29:10.760 the tour and said, if the Fat Boys stay on 0:29:10.840 --> 0:29:12.680 this tour, y'all gotta put Chad Elliott on this tour 0:29:12.760 --> 0:29:16.960 because Jermaine's opening. So he made Chad the second opener 0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:19.320 after me. So it was like, I go in, Chad go, 0:29:19.640 --> 0:29:21.680 and then people start trying to pit us together and 0:29:21.760 --> 0:29:22.360 it never worked. 0:29:22.360 --> 0:29:24.840 We weren't you know, we didn't really care about it. Yeah, 0:29:24.880 --> 0:29:26.760 well that didn't happen. It was just like kicking it. 0:29:26.840 --> 0:29:28.400 And then it was like we should be a group. 0:29:28.720 --> 0:29:30.880 So this was like the first version of Chris Cross actually, 0:29:30.920 --> 0:29:33.760 if you think about it, one dark skinned, light skin kid. 0:29:34.000 --> 0:29:39.520 So fast forward to that, Me and Chad really start 0:29:39.560 --> 0:29:40.880 hanging out. So at the end of the tour, you 0:29:40.920 --> 0:29:42.360 want to know what happened at the At the end 0:29:42.400 --> 0:29:45.160 of the tour, I moved to Brooklyn with Chad Elliott, 0:29:46.000 --> 0:29:48.080 so he lives he lives in Brooklyn. I came here 0:29:48.160 --> 0:29:51.040 to Brooklyn and I lived almost a year with him 0:29:51.960 --> 0:29:55.600 in Brooklyn, basically soaking up every bit of hip hop 0:29:55.720 --> 0:30:00.320 and New York culture that I could actually right rebit 0:30:00.360 --> 0:30:00.920 of it everything. 0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:03.840 Were you in Brooklyn eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight. 0:30:03.880 --> 0:30:09.280 Yeah, right when everything happened, Everything's got you know, jay 0:30:09.360 --> 0:30:13.000 Z's coming to life in Fort Green and Big Daddy 0:30:13.080 --> 0:30:17.440 Knees recording demos in Fresh Gordon's house in Fort Green projects, 0:30:17.480 --> 0:30:19.760 all of this stuff. I'm right down the street from 0:30:19.800 --> 0:30:22.240 this and knowing that this is happening, right, So I'm 0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:23.280 staying in in. 0:30:24.840 --> 0:30:25.640 Brooklyn on No. 0:30:25.760 --> 0:30:29.640 Stern, New York Street, Eastern Parkway just for anybody's listening to. Yeah, 0:30:29.680 --> 0:30:34.040 who's staying over there? And I don't actually know that? 0:30:34.600 --> 0:30:36.520 Yeah, but yeah, that's right after there's a certain night 0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:38.760 club I whant they ask you about? But yeah, I 0:30:38.880 --> 0:30:42.120 was about to say, cueue that up? Do you have 0:30:42.240 --> 0:30:43.280 a Latin quarter story? 0:30:43.480 --> 0:30:45.200 No, thank you Lord. 0:30:45.680 --> 0:30:46.560 I couldn't get in there. 0:30:48.240 --> 0:30:48.840 That was too young. 0:30:49.240 --> 0:30:54.840 So so yeah, So Chad actually introduced me to break 0:30:54.920 --> 0:30:58.840 beats and the sound of New York at that particular time, 0:30:59.440 --> 0:31:05.479 and that's when my appetite for production and making records 0:31:05.520 --> 0:31:06.160 came to life. 0:31:06.320 --> 0:31:07.160 So what happened was. 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:09.800 I would take break beats and I would play the 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:12.360 breaks and I would start writing, and I knew. 0:31:12.160 --> 0:31:13.880 That you had to, you know, catch the break and 0:31:14.160 --> 0:31:14.800 play another one. 0:31:14.880 --> 0:31:16.680 So we was we you know, we had a box 0:31:16.760 --> 0:31:19.920 and we started pause taping and making these beats with 0:31:20.080 --> 0:31:24.000 break beats. So that's basically how I started. So when 0:31:24.040 --> 0:31:26.040 I got back to Atlanta, that's the part of the story. 0:31:26.120 --> 0:31:27.640 That's when I made the call and I'm like, yo, 0:31:28.160 --> 0:31:28.520 I want to. 0:31:28.520 --> 0:31:31.080 Make some record culture to Atlanta. 0:31:31.680 --> 0:31:32.840 Well, I don't think people heard it. 0:31:32.920 --> 0:31:35.080 That's what made me become more of a producer because 0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:37.880 I told this guy sample these beats. 0:31:37.920 --> 0:31:40.960 I told him, I want this beat to be the song. 0:31:41.840 --> 0:31:43.800 What was your weapon of choice back then? Like? What 0:31:44.200 --> 0:31:45.160 machine did they? 0:31:45.280 --> 0:31:46.000 I mean, I think they had. 0:31:46.080 --> 0:31:51.440 He had a what was it, DM DMX That's what 0:31:51.560 --> 0:31:54.400 he had, right, So you couldn't really sample. So then 0:31:54.440 --> 0:31:57.440 I found these these white guys across on the other 0:31:57.520 --> 0:32:02.440 side of town. They had an emulator. Emulator could sample, 0:32:03.040 --> 0:32:05.120 so I'm like, shit, they could do it with this machine. 0:32:05.520 --> 0:32:07.240 They didn't want to do it either. They didn't understand 0:32:07.240 --> 0:32:08.400 what I was saying. It was like, you want us 0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:11.960 to take people's music and I'm like, yes, take moral culture. 0:32:12.560 --> 0:32:13.720 I'm like, yo, take the beat. 0:32:13.760 --> 0:32:15.200 I want to wrap over this beat. So then they 0:32:15.280 --> 0:32:20.840 try to recreate the breaks with drum sounds and I'm like, ew, like, 0:32:21.000 --> 0:32:23.400 this is not what I'm talking about, right, So the 0:32:23.520 --> 0:32:27.080 frustration of this made me become a producer. So then 0:32:27.160 --> 0:32:29.920 I just started like, I'm gonna figure this out. 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:34.480 See this is weird. So you're the first person of 0:32:34.520 --> 0:32:37.080 a note that I know that's not from New York. 0:32:38.040 --> 0:32:43.720 That persisted until they found a satisfactory production technique that 0:32:43.800 --> 0:32:46.320 they knew in their heart they felt with hip hop 0:32:46.520 --> 0:32:49.680 because usually anyone else that I talked to from other territories, 0:32:50.440 --> 0:32:52.080 it's just like, okay, well I'll just do it on 0:32:52.120 --> 0:32:55.480 the drum machine, and you know, I hate it. 0:32:55.720 --> 0:32:56.200 I hate it. 0:32:56.600 --> 0:32:58.480 Like when I heard you, I was like, oh my god, 0:32:58.920 --> 0:33:02.360 this is is he real? Like this guy understands what 0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:04.920 I'm talking about. I'd be hating to hear drummers just 0:33:05.000 --> 0:33:06.400 play beats and it don't sound. 0:33:06.280 --> 0:33:07.120 Like like that. 0:33:07.280 --> 0:33:10.040 I wanted to sound like, like, tune the snail a 0:33:10.080 --> 0:33:13.080 little bit, make it do something right. So this was 0:33:13.120 --> 0:33:13.920 what I was going through. 0:33:13.960 --> 0:33:15.600 So the frustration that I was going through and not 0:33:15.760 --> 0:33:18.480 hearing beats the way I wanted forced me to become 0:33:18.520 --> 0:33:20.920 a producer and start like hitting the drum machines and 0:33:21.400 --> 0:33:23.880 whatever whatever. So long story short, I got in there 0:33:23.880 --> 0:33:26.120 and I started getting Eddy to, you know, let me 0:33:27.240 --> 0:33:29.160 touch the drum machine and give him ideas about the 0:33:29.200 --> 0:33:32.280 Silk Times Leather record. And I wrote a song called 0:33:33.320 --> 0:33:35.960 the Woman in Me or something like that, and I think, no, 0:33:36.640 --> 0:33:38.960 work it out, work it out by Silk Times leathern 0:33:39.000 --> 0:33:40.440 we gotta deal with Warner Brothers. 0:33:40.680 --> 0:33:41.400 They got signed. 0:33:41.760 --> 0:33:43.800 Okay, yeah, they was pretty girls. 0:33:43.760 --> 0:33:45.320 And you know, I think that's what they was going 0:33:45.360 --> 0:33:47.040 for more than the music. They didn't really care about 0:33:47.040 --> 0:33:48.840 the music. They didn't really care about me. But I 0:33:48.840 --> 0:33:50.360 think they was into the girls and they thought they 0:33:50.400 --> 0:33:51.800 could sell them based on how they look. 0:33:52.280 --> 0:33:56.000 So at what point are the training wheels taking off? 0:33:56.200 --> 0:33:59.280 And then you are like, okay, I can make these beats. 0:33:59.320 --> 0:34:02.200 Now supposed to sample this and sample that? 0:34:02.760 --> 0:34:05.600 Well, Silktimes Love I think they sold fifteen thousand copies. 0:34:05.880 --> 0:34:08.400 So fifteen thousand copies to the writer of all the 0:34:08.520 --> 0:34:11.120 music is like, you know, fifteen thousand dollars maybe or 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:13.520 something like. You know, So I took that money and 0:34:13.600 --> 0:34:16.160 I went and put my drum machine on Layoway and 0:34:16.800 --> 0:34:18.759 I got a five h five drum machine. I put 0:34:18.800 --> 0:34:21.160 on Layoway right because I didn't really have all my money, 0:34:21.200 --> 0:34:23.160 but I had enough to put the drum machine on Laiway. 0:34:23.200 --> 0:34:24.520 When I got the back end of my money, I 0:34:24.520 --> 0:34:26.479 went and got the drum machine. So then I start 0:34:26.560 --> 0:34:29.000 making beats, but the beat still didn't sound like I 0:34:29.080 --> 0:34:31.160 wanted them. So I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna 0:34:31.160 --> 0:34:32.560 make this beat of how I wanted to be. When 0:34:32.600 --> 0:34:34.240 I get to the studio, I'm gonna change the sounds. 0:34:34.239 --> 0:34:36.680 I'm gonna have him change the sound. So I started 0:34:36.680 --> 0:34:38.960 going to the studio and I was telling Eddie changed 0:34:38.960 --> 0:34:41.400 the sound or the kick. I wanted to sound like this, 0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:43.719 and I wanted to sound like this, and nobody was 0:34:43.760 --> 0:34:45.800 getting what I was saying. It's like, okay, this is 0:34:46.160 --> 0:34:48.719 just killing me. So then I got another check from 0:34:48.840 --> 0:34:52.399 the Silk Times Leather album that allowed me to get 0:34:53.239 --> 0:34:56.840 en Sonic EPs. Ah okay, right, So when I got 0:34:56.880 --> 0:34:59.319 the n Sonic EPs, I thought I had walked into 0:34:59.360 --> 0:35:02.080 heaven because I could sample and I could do everything 0:35:02.120 --> 0:35:03.480 that I've been telling everybody else to do. 0:35:03.920 --> 0:35:05.880 So I just stayed up night after night after night. 0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:09.680 I stayed. I ain't read nothing. 0:35:09.880 --> 0:35:11.080 I just read. 0:35:13.560 --> 0:35:14.160 I don't read nothing. 0:35:14.200 --> 0:35:16.400 I just started messing with it because I because I 0:35:16.480 --> 0:35:19.200 already dreamed that. They told me at the store that 0:35:19.360 --> 0:35:21.600 it would do what I wanted. So if I'm thinking, 0:35:21.600 --> 0:35:22.920 if you tell me it's gonna do what I want, 0:35:22.920 --> 0:35:24.440 then I'm gonna start trying to do what I want. 0:35:24.440 --> 0:35:26.400 I seen the sample button. I'm trying to do what 0:35:26.440 --> 0:35:29.360 I want. And I learned immediately that it didn't do 0:35:29.440 --> 0:35:32.239 what I want. But you know that's the learning car thing. 0:35:32.320 --> 0:35:32.880 Yeah, I caught on. 0:35:33.080 --> 0:35:36.040 So with that, I just started making songs because the 0:35:36.120 --> 0:35:38.360 EPs was easier, And I started making songs and just 0:35:38.440 --> 0:35:41.200 doing my own little demos. And I met Left Eye 0:35:42.040 --> 0:35:46.440 and then she started living with me, and she was. 0:35:46.600 --> 0:35:48.240 So she moved from Philly to Atlanta. 0:35:48.360 --> 0:35:51.279 Yeah, okay, So she moved from Philly to Atlanta, and 0:35:52.200 --> 0:35:54.239 she hooked up with this guy named Ian Burke who 0:35:54.320 --> 0:35:56.440 brought her to my house. Now I didn't have nothing 0:35:56.520 --> 0:35:58.560 at this and I just had equipment that I had 0:35:58.640 --> 0:36:00.480 just bought, and I was working, and he was like, 0:36:00.520 --> 0:36:02.759 you should go over to Jad's house and y'all work. 0:36:02.880 --> 0:36:04.640 So she came up to my house. We started working 0:36:04.880 --> 0:36:07.960 and we was writing songs basically together. And then I 0:36:08.040 --> 0:36:11.520 went to the mall with the DJ from Silk Tom's 0:36:11.600 --> 0:36:14.759 Leather and I saw Criss Cross and they was in 0:36:14.840 --> 0:36:16.120 the mall already just chilling. 0:36:16.440 --> 0:36:18.560 So that's a real story, Okay. 0:36:19.440 --> 0:36:20.879 All this time I thought, I was like, Oh, that's 0:36:20.920 --> 0:36:23.439 marking a story like church. 0:36:23.920 --> 0:36:25.919 One real story. I went to the mall. 0:36:26.320 --> 0:36:29.480 I'm in the mall shopping and I'm looking in the 0:36:29.560 --> 0:36:32.160 corner and it's these kids that people are actually paying 0:36:32.200 --> 0:36:33.960 attention to. And I'm like, why are y'all paying so 0:36:34.080 --> 0:36:37.240 much attention to these kids? And I'm thinking, like, okay, 0:36:37.280 --> 0:36:39.360 maybe it's like one of these Nickelodeon groups. I don't know, 0:36:39.600 --> 0:36:41.840 something like that. So I walk over to him. I'm like, yo, 0:36:41.920 --> 0:36:43.600 what's up? They like, what's up? I'm saying, like, what 0:36:43.680 --> 0:36:45.520 do y'all do? They're like, we don't do nothing. We 0:36:45.719 --> 0:36:48.880 just kick it, Like y'all just kick it. I'm like, 0:36:48.960 --> 0:36:51.279 why is people? Why the girls like all that y'all 0:36:51.280 --> 0:36:53.040 and they like, that's cause that's what we do. We 0:36:53.120 --> 0:36:56.320 got girls like that. What's happening? And it was like 0:36:56.840 --> 0:37:00.400 eleven eleven eleven eleven, twelve years old, and I'm like, 0:37:00.560 --> 0:37:03.120 they knew what swag was. They swag was. They was 0:37:03.320 --> 0:37:05.600 the definition of swag to me at that time, I 0:37:05.640 --> 0:37:06.880 didn't even have that type of swag. 0:37:06.920 --> 0:37:08.200 I was just trying to be a producer. 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:11.600 These guys was in the mall flexing, talking to girls, 0:37:11.640 --> 0:37:14.160 spending money, all kinds of things and getting sneakers. So 0:37:15.000 --> 0:37:18.120 I was like, damn, where y'all get all this from? 0:37:18.239 --> 0:37:20.040 All y'all a group. They're like, Nah, we don't rap, 0:37:20.080 --> 0:37:21.360 we don't do none of that. We just come to 0:37:21.400 --> 0:37:21.680 the mall. 0:37:21.760 --> 0:37:22.200 We cool. 0:37:22.920 --> 0:37:27.040 Everybody like us because we cool, and I'm like, okay. 0:37:27.600 --> 0:37:30.360 Immediately I just stopped and my mom was like, s 0:37:31.800 --> 0:37:33.080 if I write them a song. 0:37:33.520 --> 0:37:34.400 This shit is gonna go. 0:37:35.040 --> 0:37:36.600 Did they know who Jermaine Dupre was? 0:37:36.760 --> 0:37:36.800 No? 0:37:37.360 --> 0:37:39.880 They thought I was like a pervert or something. I 0:37:39.960 --> 0:37:42.040 swear they thought they was like, why do you want 0:37:42.080 --> 0:37:43.560 my number? Because I asked them for their number. And 0:37:43.680 --> 0:37:47.200 then luckily one of the the mothers, one of their mothers, 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:51.680 walked up and she read Jet magazine. So in the 0:37:51.800 --> 0:37:54.080 Jet magazine that had just come out, there was like 0:37:54.120 --> 0:37:57.480 a little issue about article about female rappers and it 0:37:57.640 --> 0:38:00.760 had Salt and Pepper and the girls grew girl groups 0:38:00.800 --> 0:38:03.440 that are coming behind them, and Silktimes Love It happened 0:38:03.480 --> 0:38:05.360 to be one of those groups. So she recognized the 0:38:05.480 --> 0:38:09.160 DJ from being in the Jet magazine, so she was like, 0:38:09.400 --> 0:38:10.880 I know her. I seen her in the Jets, So 0:38:10.960 --> 0:38:13.920 they are somebody that saved me because Chris, and Chris 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:16.239 was like, nah, I'm not giving you my number like 0:38:16.280 --> 0:38:16.600 you said. 0:38:17.440 --> 0:38:19.000 It was or in Atlanta about the. 0:38:19.080 --> 0:38:22.600 Missing, missing and murdered kids, and they was from that neighborhood, 0:38:22.719 --> 0:38:26.600 so you know, it was a stranger danger, you know 0:38:26.600 --> 0:38:29.359 of a situation. So I'm telling them like, y'all want 0:38:29.400 --> 0:38:30.920 you to come over to my house and kick it, 0:38:30.960 --> 0:38:33.200 and they were still like come over to your house 0:38:33.239 --> 0:38:33.640 and kick it? 0:38:33.680 --> 0:38:34.600 What is what are we doing? 0:38:34.760 --> 0:38:34.800 Like? 0:38:34.920 --> 0:38:37.600 Cause they weren't into music, so they didn't even understand 0:38:37.600 --> 0:38:40.000 what I was trying to get them to do. So 0:38:40.560 --> 0:38:42.319 you know, that passed and I would like go get 0:38:42.360 --> 0:38:44.200 them from school and just try to hang out with them, 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:47.200 and I become their friend more than just talk about music. 0:38:47.280 --> 0:38:49.960 So I did that and then I started noticing that 0:38:50.040 --> 0:38:52.920 they was in the back seat rapping to music that 0:38:53.000 --> 0:38:55.320 I was playing and they was rapping all the lyrics 0:38:55.360 --> 0:38:57.040 and really doing that shit in the car like that. 0:38:59.000 --> 0:39:02.560 Ice Cube America's Most Wanted the whole album. 0:39:02.600 --> 0:39:05.080 Wow, I heard pays some mother fuck. 0:39:05.480 --> 0:39:06.839 They was going crazy in my car. 0:39:07.040 --> 0:39:08.280 Let's word for me, Tomath. 0:39:08.360 --> 0:39:12.080 The kids actually gravitating towards it that I actually like 0:39:12.120 --> 0:39:15.200 because usually, like the generation with the Divide, kids are 0:39:15.200 --> 0:39:16.880 always liking the ship that I don't like. 0:39:16.920 --> 0:39:17.440 You know what I'm saying. 0:39:17.440 --> 0:39:19.320 I was about the same age as as Chris Carson 0:39:19.480 --> 0:39:21.800 came out hold On and like America's Most Wanted, like 0:39:21.880 --> 0:39:23.600 ice Cube was my shit around and avoidable. 0:39:23.680 --> 0:39:27.440 Yeah, that's that's what they was like ice Cube fanatics, 0:39:27.560 --> 0:39:29.080 but it's all they wanted to hear was ice Cube. 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:32.319 So we play a whole ice Cube tape from their 0:39:32.360 --> 0:39:34.479 house to my house, and they was rapping all the lyrics. 0:39:34.520 --> 0:39:36.840 So I was thinking, like, okay, so if they like 0:39:36.960 --> 0:39:38.759 this like this and they rapping every word and they 0:39:38.880 --> 0:39:41.120 doing all the inflections, they sound just like he sound 0:39:41.120 --> 0:39:43.200 when he moves his voice. I said, if I figure 0:39:43.200 --> 0:39:44.360 I how to do that and write a song for 0:39:44.400 --> 0:39:47.040 them that they like, they possibly could do the same 0:39:47.120 --> 0:39:49.200 thing for me. So then I just went in the 0:39:49.239 --> 0:39:50.640 house and I told them, so, I'm gonna write a 0:39:50.640 --> 0:39:52.520 song for y'all and if y'all like it, I need 0:39:52.560 --> 0:39:53.960 you all to rap it, just like y'all doing this 0:39:54.040 --> 0:39:57.960 ice cube shit. And they was like, okay, whatever. So 0:39:58.360 --> 0:40:02.200 I did this song where I sampled Michael Jackson and 0:40:02.239 --> 0:40:04.319 Paul McCartney called the Girl's Mind, and I was trying 0:40:04.360 --> 0:40:06.920 to make them fight about the girl is Mine. And 0:40:07.160 --> 0:40:09.240 this was the song that I wrote and I sampled 0:40:09.239 --> 0:40:11.279 Paul McCartney Michael Jackson, and I put Left Eye on 0:40:11.360 --> 0:40:12.560 the record because she was the girl. 0:40:12.680 --> 0:40:27.759 Girl listen, listen never she's the girl. 0:40:28.080 --> 0:40:30.160 So it was like my idea, like the girl is mine, 0:40:30.760 --> 0:40:33.600 he's Paul McCartney, he's Michael Jackson, and she's the girl. 0:40:33.800 --> 0:40:35.080 This was my whole little scheme. 0:40:35.200 --> 0:40:37.360 Okay, even though you won't let the public ever hear this. 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:40.400 Do you know where that tape is? 0:40:40.480 --> 0:40:42.359 I mean, it's a tape. Yeah, I know, it's a tape. 0:40:42.480 --> 0:40:48.800 Okay, So you know that was the beginning. I'm starting 0:40:48.800 --> 0:40:52.399 to make these songs. And then I realized that they 0:40:52.480 --> 0:40:56.560 weren't Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. They were little ice 0:40:56.680 --> 0:41:00.279 cubes like they want. They were from the south west 0:41:00.320 --> 0:41:03.480 side of Atlanta, which people call the Watots, that's where 0:41:03.520 --> 0:41:08.000 they're from. And they would come home from school and 0:41:08.080 --> 0:41:10.600 tell me stories about how Jamay, you don't even know. 0:41:10.640 --> 0:41:12.520 It's little kids in my school. It's eleven years old. 0:41:12.520 --> 0:41:14.279 They selling all a dope. They got all the dope, 0:41:14.320 --> 0:41:16.759 and they had like socks where they wear shorts and 0:41:16.800 --> 0:41:18.600 they have like multiple socks and they put all the 0:41:18.680 --> 0:41:20.320 work inside the socks and they go to school. So 0:41:20.360 --> 0:41:21.719 they used to give me all this game and I 0:41:21.760 --> 0:41:23.840 ain't know about because I didn't finish school like that 0:41:23.920 --> 0:41:26.200 and I ain't go with these kids. So I used 0:41:26.239 --> 0:41:28.040 to just listen to them and be amazed, like damn, 0:41:28.120 --> 0:41:30.000 this is crazy, and I'm like, who knows about this? 0:41:30.600 --> 0:41:34.080 So then I just start thinking about them wrapping ice 0:41:34.160 --> 0:41:36.680 cube and the stories they was telling me, and I'm like, 0:41:36.840 --> 0:41:40.160 little boys in the hood, this is what y'all are. 0:41:40.320 --> 0:41:41.640 Y'all are little boys in the hood. 0:41:41.640 --> 0:41:43.319 It's boys in the hood with y'all are little boys 0:41:43.360 --> 0:41:44.880 in the hood, and y'all see the crazy shit that 0:41:44.920 --> 0:41:47.480 everybody else sees, but don't nobody actually believe it. So 0:41:47.600 --> 0:41:49.359 that was my goal to write a song called Little 0:41:49.360 --> 0:41:51.360 Boys in the Hood. I wrote this song, and I 0:41:51.480 --> 0:41:55.480 sent the song to Jodah Butcher and Pilly. And when 0:41:55.480 --> 0:41:57.080 I sent the song to Jodah Butcher, he hit me 0:41:57.200 --> 0:41:59.560 right back like I love it, let's sign them. And 0:41:59.680 --> 0:42:02.439 I was like, what, oh shit, we got a deal. 0:42:02.800 --> 0:42:04.960 Just like that, he was ready to go. So then 0:42:05.160 --> 0:42:08.439 he brought us the rough house for basically it wasn't 0:42:08.480 --> 0:42:12.880 real deal. It was you know, development deal. So it 0:42:13.000 --> 0:42:15.759 was a five song development deal. I didn't have five songs. 0:42:15.800 --> 0:42:19.520 I had four songs, and he was like, well, we 0:42:19.640 --> 0:42:21.759 need five songs. So on the night or the day 0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:25.880 before we was going to Philly, I wrote jump. 0:42:28.520 --> 0:42:30.200 Classics always written. 0:42:31.840 --> 0:42:34.400 I wrote this song. I wrote this song in thirty minutes. 0:42:35.400 --> 0:42:36.399 Yo, everything song? 0:42:36.480 --> 0:42:37.359 Where did it start from? 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:37.600 What? 0:42:37.840 --> 0:42:38.279 Jump start? 0:42:38.360 --> 0:42:38.400 Like? 0:42:38.440 --> 0:42:39.719 What was the first thought in your mind? 0:42:40.480 --> 0:42:40.840 Kids? 0:42:41.640 --> 0:42:45.879 Something something something kitty, something kitty. So I went after 0:42:45.960 --> 0:42:48.160 Michael Jackson like he was a kid. This was they 0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:50.080 was they was kids. So he was a kid artist, 0:42:50.800 --> 0:42:53.800 sample something Michael Jackson. So I started playing with the 0:42:53.840 --> 0:42:56.279 turntables and I heard this ABC and I was like, 0:42:57.920 --> 0:42:59.520 I shouldn't let it play all the way out of 0:42:59.560 --> 0:43:02.040 shitch it and just catch something. And I don't know 0:43:02.160 --> 0:43:03.640 what made me do that, and I just caught the 0:43:03.719 --> 0:43:06.320 first part boom boom boom, and I left it and 0:43:06.440 --> 0:43:08.839 I was like, this ship sounds crazy. I went back 0:43:08.880 --> 0:43:11.840 and I did it again. Boom boom stopped it and 0:43:11.920 --> 0:43:12.960 I'm like, I'm not letting the. 0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:14.600 Rest of it play. I'm gonna just keep doing like that. 0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:24.360 Wait mother trying to wait to do not say do 0:43:24.560 --> 0:43:28.399 not say it like we all know that's I want 0:43:28.440 --> 0:43:28.960 you back, And. 0:43:29.320 --> 0:43:30.920 I mean I said the wrong song. My bad. 0:43:31.120 --> 0:43:37.239 I got to say, come on, dog, you know that 0:43:38.640 --> 0:43:39.360 I do now. 0:43:43.520 --> 0:43:46.879 I want you, I said a b C. I said 0:43:46.920 --> 0:43:49.400 ABC because I was she still. 0:43:49.200 --> 0:43:50.239 Didn't know that I want you. 0:43:53.640 --> 0:43:56.839 Here's the ship that's killing me. The ship that's killing 0:43:56.880 --> 0:44:00.120 me was the whole genius of that song is the 0:44:00.200 --> 0:44:03.400 fact that you managed to find a way to make 0:44:03.440 --> 0:44:08.719 funky worm oh sh match perfectly in key. I mean, look, 0:44:09.040 --> 0:44:10.880 I love the bomb Squad to death, but we know 0:44:10.960 --> 0:44:13.319 the calling card was just throw it on the wall 0:44:13.360 --> 0:44:16.520 and see what works. They were not atonal and you 0:44:16.600 --> 0:44:20.680 know radical. So when I first heard that ship, I 0:44:20.760 --> 0:44:22.480 was like, yo, there's some genius ship, Like how do 0:44:22.600 --> 0:44:24.759 he know that these ships are going to seem to 0:44:24.920 --> 0:44:27.560 be in the same bpms and in the same key. 0:44:28.080 --> 0:44:32.080 So I'm thinking this whole time you scientific experience. But 0:44:32.480 --> 0:44:35.879 as with every producer that comes on the show, their 0:44:36.000 --> 0:44:39.080 their PEACI resistance is always like some afterthought, like ten 0:44:39.120 --> 0:44:41.120 minutes ship, like I got, well, no, what the. 0:44:41.160 --> 0:44:44.640 Funky worm part. I played with it for a minute 0:44:44.880 --> 0:44:46.640 to get it to sound like that, or you bend 0:44:46.680 --> 0:44:47.920 it down to yeah, yeah, yeah, I was. 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.759 That was that was like, oh, let's go, because you know, 0:44:52.880 --> 0:44:54.040 like I said, you got to think about it. I 0:44:54.160 --> 0:44:56.879 just explained to you exactly who Chris Crust was. Chris 0:44:56.960 --> 0:45:00.200 Cruss was two kids from the Hood that I was 0:45:00.280 --> 0:45:03.840 in love with, the West Coast Rappers basically ice Cube 0:45:03.840 --> 0:45:06.759 at that point in time, right, So the Funky Worm 0:45:06.960 --> 0:45:09.200 was me grabbing what I thought was the West Coast 0:45:09.280 --> 0:45:12.920 for them so that they would like it. The sample 0:45:13.080 --> 0:45:15.760 was me trying to find something that was like Kitty 0:45:15.800 --> 0:45:18.400 because Michael Jackson was a kid in this era. So 0:45:18.480 --> 0:45:20.160 I was just trying to put all these elements into 0:45:20.239 --> 0:45:22.840 this one song out of every song. I mean, we 0:45:22.880 --> 0:45:24.439 already had to deal with little boys in the Hood, 0:45:24.480 --> 0:45:26.160 but I was just like, it could be better than this, 0:45:26.640 --> 0:45:30.080 and it could be better than this, and I just 0:45:30.160 --> 0:45:32.480 started and I started thinking about every element of hip 0:45:32.520 --> 0:45:34.080 hop that I could give these kids, because I knew 0:45:34.080 --> 0:45:35.960 that they could rap at this point, like if they 0:45:36.040 --> 0:45:38.239 was really rapping what I was doing, they I mean, 0:45:38.800 --> 0:45:41.000 for whatever reason I said they could rap, they was rapping. 0:45:41.320 --> 0:45:44.080 Whatever I sent them, they would do it. So I 0:45:44.239 --> 0:45:49.680 was like, shit, let's diss ABC and let's just let's 0:45:49.760 --> 0:45:50.680 just go all the way here. 0:45:53.520 --> 0:45:55.239 Can I just asked, this might be a crazy question, 0:45:55.280 --> 0:45:57.120 But now that the bail is up and Chris I 0:45:57.200 --> 0:45:59.319 know now that Chris Cross didn't write their lyrics leave 0:45:59.360 --> 0:46:04.279 me alone? Is that that was a surprise me A 0:46:04.280 --> 0:46:05.719 little bit just not a little bit of a surprise. 0:46:05.719 --> 0:46:07.480 I thought more of a collaboration. But does that mean 0:46:07.520 --> 0:46:09.200 the same thing for another bad creation in that way? 0:46:09.280 --> 0:46:11.280 Like I used to to assume that, like Michael Bimins 0:46:11.320 --> 0:46:12.000 did the same thing. 0:46:15.440 --> 0:46:17.120 You were. I get it. 0:46:17.239 --> 0:46:17.600 I get it. 0:46:18.280 --> 0:46:20.719 The first like child rappers or bow Wow, the first 0:46:20.920 --> 0:46:23.120 kid rapper to really start writing. 0:46:23.200 --> 0:46:24.840 Then you know. 0:46:24.960 --> 0:46:25.920 JD wrote everything. 0:46:26.160 --> 0:46:28.719 No, he didn't know bow Wow wrote some stuff? Right, 0:46:29.280 --> 0:46:29.520 come on? 0:46:30.760 --> 0:46:32.840 Can I get to the science of him as a producer? 0:46:32.920 --> 0:46:37.480 I'm sorry, question, but listen, wait, act, but I'm just 0:46:37.560 --> 0:46:44.680 saying that in terms of of of who taught you, 0:46:45.160 --> 0:46:47.440 because this is the thing. You're the first producer that 0:46:47.520 --> 0:46:52.040 I've spoken to since the show that it is putting 0:46:52.400 --> 0:46:57.640 marketing savvy also in his production thoughts, because even me 0:46:57.760 --> 0:47:00.920 as a producer, I'm certain that there's some you know, 0:47:01.040 --> 0:47:02.960 like the equivalent of when you lose your glasses and 0:47:03.000 --> 0:47:06.160 they're on your forehead. Now I'm thinking like, damn, what 0:47:06.400 --> 0:47:10.240 hopper shit should the Roots have done to really grab 0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:14.040 fans of like live music that we didn't do? Because 0:47:14.360 --> 0:47:17.319 never once in my history did I think of, Oh, 0:47:17.840 --> 0:47:19.160 what's what's the marketing thing? 0:47:19.640 --> 0:47:22.080 We need? A new earthworod and fire. Why don't you guys? 0:47:22.200 --> 0:47:25.320 You know, I'm I've never heard a producer talk like 0:47:25.480 --> 0:47:27.800 a manager. So what I really want to know is 0:47:29.160 --> 0:47:33.279 where did you get your manager marketing savvy from? 0:47:33.320 --> 0:47:35.839 Because that from the doors being closed? Right. 0:47:35.960 --> 0:47:38.200 So, when I was here in New York and I 0:47:38.320 --> 0:47:41.239 had Silk Times Leather, I knew Red Alert and Chuck 0:47:41.320 --> 0:47:43.000 Chill Out from being on the Fresh Fest and I 0:47:43.080 --> 0:47:44.920 knew them as a kid. And then when I started 0:47:44.920 --> 0:47:46.600 making records, I'm thinking like, oh, I'm gonna just run 0:47:46.719 --> 0:47:47.920 up on here and they gonna play my records. 0:47:47.960 --> 0:47:48.960 It's cool. I know these guys. 0:47:49.000 --> 0:47:51.640 So I went up to you know, to radio shows, 0:47:51.680 --> 0:47:53.840 and Red was like, this shit is wack, like this 0:47:53.960 --> 0:47:56.000 ain't this, ain't no, this ain't a ork Jed. 0:47:55.960 --> 0:47:58.120 And I'm like, and they told you at the time, 0:47:58.160 --> 0:47:59.120 you're like fifteen. 0:47:59.480 --> 0:47:59.880 They told me. 0:48:01.320 --> 0:48:04.040 And they also was like, Atlanta's not you know, it's 0:48:04.040 --> 0:48:06.439 a country y'all niggas country and blah blah blah blah. 0:48:06.480 --> 0:48:10.320 So I started building this mindset that it was gonna 0:48:10.320 --> 0:48:12.880 be hard for me to make music anyway or to 0:48:12.960 --> 0:48:15.360 put my music out because people weren't gonna listen to it. 0:48:15.440 --> 0:48:17.359 That's what I just started thinking. So I started thinking 0:48:17.400 --> 0:48:20.800 about everything that I could possibly do to get people 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:25.200 to pay attention to my artists besides the music as 0:48:25.239 --> 0:48:27.400 well as the music. So and then left I was 0:48:27.440 --> 0:48:30.240 big on helping me do that because she was starting 0:48:30.280 --> 0:48:33.000 to put this condom over her left eye and just 0:48:33.120 --> 0:48:35.719 thinking of crazy shit. So I was cutting my eyebrows off, 0:48:35.760 --> 0:48:39.759 and I was doing all you know, haircuts and ear 0:48:39.840 --> 0:48:41.759 rings and nose and we was doing everything that we 0:48:41.800 --> 0:48:44.160 could possibly do to make people pay attention to us. 0:48:44.480 --> 0:48:44.640 Right. 0:48:44.719 --> 0:48:46.840 So then it was like, we need something else. We 0:48:46.960 --> 0:48:48.960 got the song I got jumped, We need something else. 0:48:49.320 --> 0:48:51.799 When I did a jump. When we did jump, they closed, 0:48:51.800 --> 0:48:53.800 weren't even on back was when we did jump, they 0:48:53.800 --> 0:48:55.360 didn't have braids. Let me say this, they didn't have 0:48:55.440 --> 0:48:57.680 braids on the first on the jump cover. They don't 0:48:57.719 --> 0:49:00.200 have braids. If you look up, they got fla they 0:49:00.239 --> 0:49:02.440 got flat tops, right, they didn't have braids. So then 0:49:02.480 --> 0:49:05.000 it was like, we gotta take this another level. We 0:49:05.040 --> 0:49:06.880 gotta take it to another level. We're gonna go to 0:49:07.000 --> 0:49:09.640 the mall. You're gonna put your jump on backwards, and 0:49:09.680 --> 0:49:12.200 we're gonna see how this works. And they was like 0:49:12.280 --> 0:49:14.360 why and I'm like, just listen to me. Put the 0:49:14.480 --> 0:49:16.360 jump on backwards. He had to jump on already. I 0:49:16.440 --> 0:49:17.399 just said, flip the shit around. 0:49:17.520 --> 0:49:18.239 Let's go to the mall. 0:49:18.880 --> 0:49:20.520 He put his jump on backwards and we went to 0:49:20.600 --> 0:49:23.520 Linux Square and it looked like he had a sign 0:49:23.600 --> 0:49:26.279 on his chest that said come towards me. People was 0:49:26.360 --> 0:49:28.279 walking up to this kid, and I was like and 0:49:28.400 --> 0:49:31.600 I just sat back, like, oh, this is it. It's 0:49:31.719 --> 0:49:33.000 over It's over with. 0:49:33.239 --> 0:49:33.719 This is over with. 0:49:33.800 --> 0:49:36.000 Because once these people hear this song and they see 0:49:36.040 --> 0:49:38.879 that they dressed like this were gone And I don't 0:49:38.920 --> 0:49:40.759 know what was the attraction with the backward James. 0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:41.600 It just happened like that. 0:49:41.760 --> 0:49:43.400 You don't know what made you go turn it around 0:49:43.560 --> 0:49:44.480 or do something I do. 0:49:45.400 --> 0:49:48.160 No, I mean, he's the only person I knew that 0:49:48.600 --> 0:49:51.879 spoke of a marketing angle and shit that I never 0:49:52.000 --> 0:49:53.560 even once bothered to think about. 0:49:53.719 --> 0:49:55.080 Yeah, we was trying to do things. 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:57.160 We was in the house making tied our shirts and 0:49:57.239 --> 0:49:59.880 tied our jeans and just trying to you know, because 0:50:00.120 --> 0:50:01.320 you ain't got shit, you try. 0:50:01.239 --> 0:50:02.920 To make something right. So that's what it was. 0:50:03.040 --> 0:50:04.839 We didn't have nothing, so it was like, what can 0:50:04.920 --> 0:50:07.880 you do to make that sweatshirt look better than what 0:50:08.000 --> 0:50:08.520 it does? 0:50:08.680 --> 0:50:10.800 Right now? Cut the sleeves off. You know, we just 0:50:10.880 --> 0:50:11.719 try anything right. 0:50:11.800 --> 0:50:14.319 So it's just to try to get attention and put 0:50:14.360 --> 0:50:15.440 the word quest love over it. 0:50:15.520 --> 0:50:15.680 And that. 0:50:19.840 --> 0:50:23.040 This jumper was already one hundred sizes too big. It 0:50:23.120 --> 0:50:25.080 was like a Jibo jumper where you could get in 0:50:25.200 --> 0:50:27.879 there with him, right, So it's just like just flip 0:50:28.000 --> 0:50:31.160 it around, just flipping around. So he flipped it around 0:50:31.160 --> 0:50:32.920 and it you know, people were like bugging out, like 0:50:32.960 --> 0:50:33.920 where did you buy this at? 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:35.480 And I'm like, it's the same shit you got on. 0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:38.160 But were they fearless enough to be like any crazy shit, 0:50:38.239 --> 0:50:41.200 I'll do it, because I would have. 0:50:41.200 --> 0:50:41.480 Been like. 0:50:43.360 --> 0:50:46.160 They they started doing talent shows. 0:50:46.160 --> 0:50:48.600 I started taking them to do talent shows and performing 0:50:48.719 --> 0:50:51.560 songs before we had jumped. So they started getting the 0:50:51.640 --> 0:50:54.239 bug to be artists. And they started seeing how more 0:50:54.280 --> 0:50:56.399 people liked him than what was liking them in the mall. 0:50:56.920 --> 0:50:59.640 So once you get that going, then you start trying 0:50:59.680 --> 0:51:01.480 to make sure that people recognize you. 0:51:01.840 --> 0:51:04.320 So how did you feel about when another bad creation 0:51:04.640 --> 0:51:08.600 was starting to garner steam and you know, in your 0:51:08.640 --> 0:51:10.120 head you're like, Okay, this is good for us, like 0:51:10.200 --> 0:51:12.520 we have someone to compare them to, And no. 0:51:12.680 --> 0:51:14.920 Nah, I wasn't really paying too much attention to that. 0:51:15.000 --> 0:51:17.719 It's time because another bad creation is from College Park. 0:51:17.800 --> 0:51:21.759 We all from College Park, right, say all of my 0:51:22.000 --> 0:51:25.319 like me and Dallas Austin is like this, that's my dude, 0:51:25.480 --> 0:51:28.000 Like so we all they was all at my house, 0:51:28.120 --> 0:51:28.600 Like when. 0:51:28.480 --> 0:51:31.040 He making ABC, I was at the studio with him. 0:51:31.080 --> 0:51:32.839 He was doing this, like we all cool. 0:51:33.000 --> 0:51:36.200 They feel a certain way with inside out that. 0:51:36.400 --> 0:51:39.280 I mean, you know, at one point it was like listen, 0:51:40.120 --> 0:51:42.680 JD got a little boy group. We got a little 0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:45.600 boy group. It's a competitiveness going on. So I started 0:51:45.680 --> 0:51:48.920 feeling that this competitiveness of people talking. So I was like, 0:51:49.000 --> 0:51:52.080 you know what, y'all gonna be real rappers. And if 0:51:52.120 --> 0:51:54.000 you're gonna be a real rapper, we're gonna We're gonna 0:51:54.040 --> 0:51:55.400 make sure that people know that they want to be 0:51:55.440 --> 0:51:57.200 an R and B group and y'all over real rappers. 0:51:57.239 --> 0:51:59.360 And that's the only way we could make people understand 0:51:59.440 --> 0:52:01.520 that was to say something about them. 0:52:01.640 --> 0:52:03.560 So at this point, how are you splitting up your 0:52:03.640 --> 0:52:05.719 brain because you said that you and Left Eye or 0:52:06.520 --> 0:52:08.600 y'all are friends. She just got to the condom in 0:52:08.640 --> 0:52:11.839 the eye and where is the where's the TLC bus? 0:52:13.760 --> 0:52:14.319 No, no listen. 0:52:14.400 --> 0:52:17.280 So at the same time that I'm making Chriss cross, 0:52:18.480 --> 0:52:22.880 Ian introduces Left Eye to t Bos. So then they 0:52:22.960 --> 0:52:25.160 become a group in my house called second Nature and 0:52:25.200 --> 0:52:31.160 they become my group. And the way t Bos sings 0:52:32.239 --> 0:52:35.680 is did Jermaine do pre style of singing? Like the 0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:40.399 way she sounds? The way reason why she sounds that's 0:52:40.480 --> 0:52:43.359 me because you can hear me, that's me doing that. Now, 0:52:43.480 --> 0:52:45.920 that's how she sounds because I demoed the songs and 0:52:46.000 --> 0:52:48.759 I told her she should sing like me and for 0:52:48.880 --> 0:52:51.000 the rest of her life. I mean, it became the 0:52:51.760 --> 0:52:53.520 It just became the cool thing for her. So the 0:52:53.600 --> 0:52:55.680 first song that I did for her was this song 0:52:55.760 --> 0:52:57.160 called I Got It Going On and it was like, 0:52:57.280 --> 0:53:02.319 oh God, it going and that's the tone that she took. 0:53:03.000 --> 0:53:06.280 And Dallas heard that and started making these TLC records 0:53:06.680 --> 0:53:08.880 and they used that tone for the rest of her 0:53:09.160 --> 0:53:09.640 their career. 0:53:09.880 --> 0:53:11.840 But why didn't you. 0:53:13.520 --> 0:53:14.000 Sign them? 0:53:14.920 --> 0:53:17.880 Because the boys got signed first, right, So I was 0:53:18.000 --> 0:53:21.480 more connected to Chriss Cross and more into their project, right, 0:53:21.640 --> 0:53:23.239 and then left. I called me one day and she 0:53:23.360 --> 0:53:25.080 was like, Yo, we just had this meeting with Pebbles. 0:53:25.880 --> 0:53:28.920 If y'all watch the VH one movie, she makes this 0:53:29.040 --> 0:53:31.080 phone call and she calls somebody, but they don't say 0:53:31.080 --> 0:53:34.239 it's me. She's calling me, and she's calling me to 0:53:34.320 --> 0:53:37.239 see if I'm cool with them having the meeting, right, 0:53:37.400 --> 0:53:38.800 And I said, yeah. 0:53:38.640 --> 0:53:39.879 Go ahead having me. I'm cool. 0:53:40.320 --> 0:53:42.840 At that point, I wasn't thinking about having all of 0:53:42.880 --> 0:53:45.200 the artists under my unbrother. I was thinking about them 0:53:45.280 --> 0:53:47.000 getting signed so I could get some more money to 0:53:47.120 --> 0:53:49.040 make records. So I was like, shit, if they gonna sign, 0:53:49.080 --> 0:53:51.000 you just make sure I produce it when I get 0:53:51.040 --> 0:53:53.960 some money. So I encouraged them to get signed to 0:53:54.040 --> 0:53:57.480 the face and you know that was my group walking 0:53:57.520 --> 0:53:57.960 out the door. 0:53:58.120 --> 0:54:00.200 But they all started at my house. 0:54:05.640 --> 0:54:11.080 With UH. I believe. 0:54:13.719 --> 0:54:21.840 I believe my internship at UH at Roughhouse was the 0:54:21.920 --> 0:54:26.080 first day that you guys went to Europe to open 0:54:26.200 --> 0:54:29.040 up for Michael Jackson. Because I know, I know that 0:54:29.120 --> 0:54:31.440 Chris Cross opened up for Michael Jackson on the Dangerous Tour. 0:54:31.520 --> 0:54:36.120 Then yes, so what was were you a part of 0:54:36.160 --> 0:54:36.840 their setup it? 0:54:38.239 --> 0:54:39.279 What was that ship like? 0:54:39.480 --> 0:54:43.920 And how could like where the audience is as familiar 0:54:44.080 --> 0:54:46.960 with you guys there as it was in the States. 0:54:47.040 --> 0:54:50.839 Totally jump was crazy, Oh it did. Being on tour 0:54:50.920 --> 0:54:56.040 Michael Jackson was just like nothing that you could ever imagine, 0:54:56.200 --> 0:54:58.520 you know what I mean. It's like the way this 0:54:58.680 --> 0:55:02.400 guy came into his show. Just just the whole setup 0:55:02.440 --> 0:55:04.400 of the whole ship, like save f instance, this was 0:55:04.480 --> 0:55:08.000 like the cafeteria area when you're eating right, and you 0:55:08.080 --> 0:55:10.360 know how cafeterias are when you're in tour, it's the 0:55:10.480 --> 0:55:12.640 open or it's a place that you go into. Well, 0:55:12.719 --> 0:55:14.920 on his tour, it was always an open space. They 0:55:14.960 --> 0:55:16.560 did it in the open space. They didn't do it 0:55:16.640 --> 0:55:20.120 inside the thing because he wanted everybody to see when 0:55:20.160 --> 0:55:22.799 he was coming in, and how they draped us off 0:55:23.040 --> 0:55:24.560 so we wouldn't see him where he went. 0:55:25.040 --> 0:55:28.040 It was like like they would like, he's coming. 0:55:28.200 --> 0:55:37.000 So you're sitting there knowing that he's going, and he's 0:55:37.040 --> 0:55:38.879 walking by, but you could see him on the way 0:55:38.920 --> 0:55:40.600 in because he had a police following him. 0:55:40.640 --> 0:55:41.799 He would do this was real ship. 0:55:42.200 --> 0:55:44.480 He would come in and then he'll cross and then 0:55:44.520 --> 0:55:47.640 he would and he would you know, he had He 0:55:47.680 --> 0:55:50.080 would tell the managers, you know, tell Chris, I'm in 0:55:50.160 --> 0:55:52.040 the you know, I'm in my dressing room, come hog, 0:55:52.160 --> 0:55:54.799 let me whatever before they whatever. So he never let 0:55:54.880 --> 0:55:56.440 me go because it was just like, you know, not 0:55:56.560 --> 0:55:59.000 too many people go in the dress room. So christ 0:55:59.040 --> 0:56:00.759 Nam there go back there kicking with them, and they'll 0:56:00.800 --> 0:56:02.799 come back and they be like, yo, he fucking with us, 0:56:02.880 --> 0:56:04.880 Like he really be like he know who we are? 0:56:04.960 --> 0:56:05.680 Da da da da dah. 0:56:05.680 --> 0:56:07.480 Because that's why I was always trying to figure out 0:56:07.920 --> 0:56:11.720 if Sony made the move, because everybody was on Sony 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:13.879 to put crisscross on there, and he was really more 0:56:14.040 --> 0:56:16.719 like really focused on Crisscross being on his tour, and 0:56:16.800 --> 0:56:17.879 he liked the fact that they. 0:56:17.880 --> 0:56:22.000 Was young and they had that energy to give before 0:56:22.040 --> 0:56:22.759 his show came on. 0:56:23.600 --> 0:56:26.960 Was it was it easy to teach them, like, uh, 0:56:28.520 --> 0:56:32.319 things that you don't learn. Uh you know, I mean 0:56:32.520 --> 0:56:36.520 they're they're in stadiums, in soccer stadiums. I know he's 0:56:36.520 --> 0:56:38.440 playing like eighty five thousand people, Like, how do you 0:56:38.560 --> 0:56:43.160 teach them how to project to eighty five thousand. 0:56:42.880 --> 0:56:44.920 People's That's what I tell people all the time. 0:56:44.920 --> 0:56:46.640 You know, I got this TV show, The Rap Game, Well, 0:56:46.640 --> 0:56:49.239 I teach these kids and I try to tell these 0:56:49.320 --> 0:56:51.920 kids all the time, like everybody think they can rap, 0:56:52.080 --> 0:56:54.560 and everybody think they got the swag, but they ain't 0:56:54.600 --> 0:56:58.160 really got that shit like what I've seen Crisscross, Like 0:56:58.239 --> 0:57:00.279 I said, when I met them, they had a whack 0:57:00.400 --> 0:57:02.480 that I had never seen in eleven and. 0:57:02.480 --> 0:57:03.200 Twelve year olds. 0:57:03.239 --> 0:57:07.160 So they was instantly easy to grab on to what 0:57:07.280 --> 0:57:09.400 they were supposed to do to continue to have that 0:57:09.560 --> 0:57:12.839 swag that they thought they had before. So when their 0:57:12.880 --> 0:57:15.399 record blew up, they was doing shows every day. Chris 0:57:15.520 --> 0:57:19.600 Cross was like the first rap group to do K 0:57:19.760 --> 0:57:22.160 and O Summer Jam. Then catch a helicopter to do 0:57:22.360 --> 0:57:25.160 Power one oh six in the same day, and then 0:57:25.200 --> 0:57:26.640 get on a plane and come back to New York 0:57:26.680 --> 0:57:27.840 and do something the next day. 0:57:27.920 --> 0:57:29.960 Like that's how they was. They were performing because of 0:57:30.000 --> 0:57:30.400 that song. 0:57:30.520 --> 0:57:33.080 So they got the practice in and they got enough 0:57:33.120 --> 0:57:35.120 practicing to know that when we get out here, we're 0:57:35.120 --> 0:57:36.840 gonna go into a stadiums. 0:57:37.040 --> 0:57:39.440 They their mentality was we gonna kill this, and they 0:57:39.600 --> 0:57:40.280 just was into it. 0:57:41.440 --> 0:57:45.320 Was it overwhelming for them, Like it's to start at 0:57:45.360 --> 0:57:48.600 that level, Like how do you how do you come 0:57:48.680 --> 0:57:52.640 down from that level when you're you know, one of them. 0:57:52.840 --> 0:57:54.760 I'm certain that you didn't have any idea that this 0:57:55.000 --> 0:57:57.600 I just want to sound like seven eight million units. 0:57:57.680 --> 0:57:59.439 Yeah, you don't know what to do. You're just going 0:57:59.480 --> 0:58:00.920 with the flow, you know. 0:58:01.160 --> 0:58:03.080 It's like I said, it's like a it was a 0:58:04.160 --> 0:58:06.360 thing that wasn't even supposed to happen, and I've learned 0:58:06.360 --> 0:58:07.760 that these kids could rap and they did it and 0:58:07.880 --> 0:58:09.720 it just turned into that and you just like sitting 0:58:09.760 --> 0:58:11.240 back watching like this is crazy. 0:58:11.320 --> 0:58:12.960 And it wasn't hard to keep them focused at all 0:58:13.000 --> 0:58:14.440 on nah. 0:58:14.720 --> 0:58:16.880 I mean, because like I said, once again, once they 0:58:17.040 --> 0:58:19.440 realized that they was rappers, and people was looking at 0:58:19.480 --> 0:58:21.560 them like this. They were so into it. 0:58:21.640 --> 0:58:23.960 I wouldn't. I didn't have any problem they was so 0:58:24.280 --> 0:58:25.800 their appetite was worse than mine. 0:58:26.520 --> 0:58:28.920 So it was through them that you got to develop 0:58:29.040 --> 0:58:30.400 your label. 0:58:30.720 --> 0:58:33.040 Yeah, so Chris crossed SOA eight million, and then Sony 0:58:33.080 --> 0:58:35.960 wanted to do more business with me, right, and they 0:58:36.080 --> 0:58:37.880 wanted me to have my own label, and they wanted 0:58:37.880 --> 0:58:39.640 to see what I could bring. They didn't know they 0:58:39.880 --> 0:58:41.600 I was nineteen years old, by the way. They didn't 0:58:41.600 --> 0:58:42.160 know what I could do. 0:58:42.360 --> 0:58:45.000 So what did you see an Escape that told you, Okay, 0:58:45.320 --> 0:58:47.320 you guys are next. I see how I can well. 0:58:47.440 --> 0:58:49.880 Escape came to my house. The same guy I who 0:58:49.920 --> 0:58:52.320 brought Left out of my house. He brought Escape to 0:58:52.360 --> 0:58:54.520 my house to sing for my birthday. And there was 0:58:54.600 --> 0:58:56.800 this girl group from College Park that was out there 0:58:56.880 --> 0:58:59.280 doing things and they came and they sung Happy Birthday 0:58:59.320 --> 0:59:02.520 to me, and I was just like, y'all sound different 0:59:02.560 --> 0:59:05.280 than regular happy birthday than I'm usually here. I'm just 0:59:05.560 --> 0:59:09.360 I'm liking this happy birthday, right, So I'm like, when 0:59:09.400 --> 0:59:11.360 I get my label, I'm gonna sign y'all. And they 0:59:11.480 --> 0:59:13.440 was like, yeah, okay, what if I ain't have social death. 0:59:13.520 --> 0:59:14.880 I just told them I was gonna do it, same 0:59:14.880 --> 0:59:16.520 thing I did with Sometimes, Like I just said, I'm 0:59:16.520 --> 0:59:18.400 gonna do it. I ain't have no label yet, but 0:59:18.480 --> 0:59:19.800 I knew I was gonna get one because we was 0:59:19.840 --> 0:59:25.240 selling too many records. So they came and like, I 0:59:25.320 --> 0:59:27.120 got my deal, and I'll call in. I say, y'all 0:59:27.160 --> 0:59:31.160 want to sign these girls? And at that point, I 0:59:31.240 --> 0:59:34.160 knew that I had to define myself as a producer, 0:59:34.160 --> 0:59:36.320 because that's what I wanted people to pay attention to me. 0:59:36.400 --> 0:59:39.920 As as a producer, you have to show people that 0:59:40.320 --> 0:59:42.680 you have the skill to do more than what people 0:59:42.760 --> 0:59:44.800 thought you could do as you know, just rap music 0:59:44.920 --> 0:59:45.200 or whatever. 0:59:45.280 --> 0:59:46.400 This that and the third. And I had all of 0:59:46.400 --> 0:59:46.960 this other. 0:59:48.360 --> 0:59:51.360 Musical talent inside my body that I hadn't let out 0:59:51.400 --> 0:59:55.080 on the Crisscrush record. And I signed Escape and I 0:59:55.160 --> 0:59:57.439 started writing their songs. And the first song I wrote 0:59:57.480 --> 0:59:59.120 for them was just kicking It and I, you know, 0:59:59.800 --> 1:00:03.000 and and I made Candy sing just like I made 1:00:03.080 --> 1:00:05.480 Tea Boss sing that's why She's low in that song, 1:00:06.680 --> 1:00:08.880 and you know, it was the same. I had already 1:00:08.920 --> 1:00:10.680 been setting myself up for this type of stuff, so 1:00:10.720 --> 1:00:13.320 I just was sending whoever came in through the same 1:00:13.440 --> 1:00:15.160 process that I had already started earlier. 1:00:15.800 --> 1:00:19.040 Now, I mean around ninety three, ninety four, ninety five. 1:00:19.400 --> 1:00:22.880 I mean we're getting into what I feel like the 1:00:24.080 --> 1:00:27.960 true the business element of hip hop, where now bad 1:00:28.040 --> 1:00:32.680 boys developing, bad boys developing, Death Row's developing. But then 1:00:32.760 --> 1:00:36.880 there's also like kind of we're entering the danger zone, 1:00:36.920 --> 1:00:39.400 like it's not well. I mean, you've been around since 1:00:39.440 --> 1:00:41.520 you was twelve, so I'm sure you saw some dark 1:00:41.560 --> 1:00:41.920 shit that. 1:00:43.440 --> 1:00:45.840 You know, yeah, twelve years shouldn't be seeing. 1:00:46.000 --> 1:00:49.040 But I mean I've seen people get stabbed after midnight 1:00:49.960 --> 1:00:50.400 in Philly. 1:00:51.840 --> 1:00:55.240 Jesus Christ the spaghetti Factory. 1:00:57.440 --> 1:00:58.280 I wasn't born yet. 1:01:00.160 --> 1:01:05.160 It was on Spring Garden Spring Gardens who anyway, but it's. 1:01:07.440 --> 1:01:11.160 At least at that time in ninety four, I considered, okay, 1:01:11.400 --> 1:01:14.680 now the business mecca to be New York, which is 1:01:14.720 --> 1:01:18.360 Puffy La, which is sug and Atlanta which is you 1:01:18.880 --> 1:01:23.479 and Okay, I'll throw in uh Houston, which, of course 1:01:23.480 --> 1:01:24.880 because I fear for my life. 1:01:25.040 --> 1:01:25.520 Jay. Friends. 1:01:27.560 --> 1:01:31.320 So now that you're you're empire, how do you deal 1:01:31.360 --> 1:01:34.720 with the not the muscle aspect, but now you're playing 1:01:34.760 --> 1:01:37.160 with the big dogs, and you see what's going on 1:01:37.400 --> 1:01:39.800 rivalry wise and all that stuff. You've kind of been 1:01:39.880 --> 1:01:43.040 Switzerland with all this stuff. As far as Neutral been 1:01:43.080 --> 1:01:44.320 cool with New York Cats, he's. 1:01:44.160 --> 1:01:44.840 Been cool with LA. 1:01:46.560 --> 1:01:50.520 How hard was it to maneuver, you know, through what 1:01:50.920 --> 1:01:53.640 was developing and hip hop at the time in ninety 1:01:53.640 --> 1:01:54.240 three ninety four. 1:01:54.280 --> 1:01:56.520 Well, it wasn't for me because I felt like, you know, 1:01:57.440 --> 1:01:59.280 I started out on the fresh face. So I started 1:01:59.280 --> 1:02:02.080 out with everybody being my friend. So that was my mentality. 1:02:02.200 --> 1:02:04.439 So like when Puff started doing parties here in New York, 1:02:04.760 --> 1:02:06.960 I heard about him. I come to New York and 1:02:07.720 --> 1:02:09.320 come to Puff parties and see what it was. I 1:02:09.400 --> 1:02:11.440 wanted to be around all my competition to see what 1:02:11.480 --> 1:02:13.080 they was doing. So I came to New York. I 1:02:13.200 --> 1:02:15.520 became Puff's friend. We called it hang it Out. I 1:02:15.640 --> 1:02:17.840 go to his party's party kick and see how he's 1:02:17.880 --> 1:02:19.600 throwing parties. And I go back to Atlanta. I throw 1:02:19.640 --> 1:02:20.640 my parties right. 1:02:21.000 --> 1:02:21.560 And then. 1:02:23.720 --> 1:02:26.640 Once I would come back to Atlanta and throw my parties, 1:02:27.400 --> 1:02:29.520 I would say, like, Yo, I met these guys. I 1:02:29.640 --> 1:02:31.680 need to call them down to Atlanta and come, you know, 1:02:31.800 --> 1:02:33.880 come party with what I'm doing, right, And they and 1:02:33.960 --> 1:02:38.200 they I think my non interest in what they was 1:02:38.320 --> 1:02:41.600 doing was interesting to them. Like I wasn't interested in 1:02:41.760 --> 1:02:44.439 what whatever they was, Whatever they was doing, that was cool. 1:02:44.440 --> 1:02:45.960 I was still trying to do what I was doing, 1:02:46.200 --> 1:02:49.040 you know what I'm saying. So, like when all the 1:02:49.200 --> 1:02:51.320 artists or record labels was doing rap, I went and 1:02:51.400 --> 1:02:53.560 did R and B album, so they wouldn't really they 1:02:53.600 --> 1:02:54.360 couldn't follow. 1:02:55.000 --> 1:02:57.120 I didn't have no pattern that everybody was going on. 1:02:57.200 --> 1:02:59.640 I was going through. Like when I did Escape, nobody 1:02:59.680 --> 1:03:01.920 else was making R and B. You know R and 1:03:02.000 --> 1:03:02.400 B groups. 1:03:02.400 --> 1:03:04.959 Everybody wanted the rat right, So then when I would 1:03:05.120 --> 1:03:07.960 did the Brat, nobody wouldn't fucking with female rappers. They 1:03:08.080 --> 1:03:09.880 was all trying to do guys, and it was like 1:03:09.960 --> 1:03:12.240 so I just kept seeing this like, oh, I'm a 1:03:12.360 --> 1:03:14.160 maneuver like this, I'm gonna do something differ, I'm gonna 1:03:14.160 --> 1:03:17.640 do something different. So long story short, I just I 1:03:17.960 --> 1:03:19.760 saw that as my place. I saw these guys just 1:03:19.800 --> 1:03:22.000 trying to fight for the same space, and I'm like, shit, 1:03:22.040 --> 1:03:23.920 I'm cool, I'm getting my money, I'm doing I'm doing 1:03:23.920 --> 1:03:26.080 in my own space, and I'm gonna just be cool 1:03:26.080 --> 1:03:30.520 with them. I didn't even know like how serious this 1:03:30.800 --> 1:03:34.360 East Coast West coast thing was getting. So I invited 1:03:34.760 --> 1:03:37.960 both Puff and Shug to my birthday party in Atlanta 1:03:39.960 --> 1:03:43.680 and not thinking about anything, like, you know, just come. 1:03:43.760 --> 1:03:44.920 I want you all to be there. I want to 1:03:44.960 --> 1:03:48.040 have that flavor in Atlanta and at my birthday party, 1:03:51.280 --> 1:03:56.680 I don't know, somewhere around before well, this is when 1:03:56.720 --> 1:03:57.240 it hit the fan. 1:03:57.560 --> 1:03:59.919 I remember, this is this is when it hit fans. 1:04:00.000 --> 1:04:03.959 Wait a minute, that was your birthday in the movie, 1:04:04.000 --> 1:04:05.040 but they never said it was. 1:04:05.880 --> 1:04:07.960 It was my birthday party when the ship hit the fan. 1:04:08.720 --> 1:04:09.320 I didn't even know. 1:04:10.040 --> 1:04:12.800 Yeah, and I didn't I didn't realize that that was 1:04:12.840 --> 1:04:15.960 what was happening. But they both were brought to Atlanta 1:04:16.000 --> 1:04:18.920 by me, and they came to Atlanta and you know, 1:04:19.920 --> 1:04:21.880 they were eyeing each other throughout the party and it 1:04:22.000 --> 1:04:24.680 was like a thing. But I'm thinking, you know, that's 1:04:24.680 --> 1:04:26.640 how hip hop is. And then it got to it 1:04:26.760 --> 1:04:28.920 after my after my party, went to an after party, 1:04:29.480 --> 1:04:33.400 and you know, words was said and somebody got killed. 1:04:35.800 --> 1:04:42.920 Y'all. I didn't even know. Okay, that's course. Now I'm 1:04:42.960 --> 1:04:46.080 like trying to figure out where, like where does the 1:04:46.200 --> 1:04:51.120 B side fit into this okay, so so so there's 1:04:51.120 --> 1:04:51.800 so many stories. 1:04:51.800 --> 1:04:55.040 But all right, So, when like I said, me and 1:04:55.120 --> 1:04:57.960 Puff was cool throughout this whole period of making music, 1:04:58.040 --> 1:05:01.520 and at this time, Functified came out, and it was 1:05:01.640 --> 1:05:05.040 three hot records that came out. One was super Hot, 1:05:05.120 --> 1:05:07.760 which was Flavoring in Your Ear, the second one was 1:05:07.840 --> 1:05:10.240 Functified with Me and the Brat, and then the third 1:05:10.360 --> 1:05:12.600 was Juicy Fall of Hip Hop. People that it wasn't 1:05:12.640 --> 1:05:17.439 a successful record like Functified and Plaving Year, so Big 1:05:17.640 --> 1:05:21.560 was all. Big was so frustrated with the fact that 1:05:21.680 --> 1:05:26.160 we was having success and Flavor Year was killing him 1:05:26.200 --> 1:05:28.280 and he was coming on stage and people weren't really 1:05:28.440 --> 1:05:32.280 like understanding who they was looking at. So then Big thought, 1:05:34.160 --> 1:05:35.840 I'm gonna get cool with JD and I'm gonna get 1:05:35.920 --> 1:05:38.840 him to make me a beat. So every day we 1:05:38.920 --> 1:05:40.720 went on this tour, we went on a chintlest circuit 1:05:40.720 --> 1:05:43.000 tour where it was just these three artists to Brad, 1:05:43.080 --> 1:05:45.640 crag Back and Biggie and we went all around the 1:05:45.720 --> 1:05:49.240 little chitting thirds and did all these shows. So in 1:05:49.360 --> 1:05:51.760 that time period, me and Biggie became really cool, and 1:05:51.840 --> 1:05:54.000 he talked to me all the time about how did, 1:05:54.240 --> 1:05:55.360 like how did you get honeyed? 1:05:55.800 --> 1:05:56.960 How you get honey popping? 1:05:57.080 --> 1:05:57.240 Like that? 1:05:57.480 --> 1:05:59.920 Like why people don't like my record? Like he used 1:05:59.920 --> 1:06:02.040 to asked me all kind of crazy questions, like because 1:06:02.360 --> 1:06:05.520 he was under the impression that nobody like she was nobody, 1:06:05.840 --> 1:06:08.240 like because we was in the South, but what this 1:06:08.400 --> 1:06:10.160 is not New York, this is the South. We was 1:06:10.240 --> 1:06:14.440 in Florida, we was doing in Atlanta. Juicy wasn't nothing serious, 1:06:14.680 --> 1:06:16.880 nothing but the numbers. 1:06:16.960 --> 1:06:19.640 So that was all New York. That's all Northeast, all Northeast. 1:06:21.440 --> 1:06:24.080 That's crazy because even culturally, I would think that when 1:06:24.160 --> 1:06:29.520 the smoke clears mm hmm, Juicy sort of inched everybody 1:06:29.600 --> 1:06:32.320 freestyle over yeah, out of your ear. 1:06:32.440 --> 1:06:34.800 But I feel like Juicy is more iconic. 1:06:35.160 --> 1:06:37.120 It is, but it was like it took forever. 1:06:37.480 --> 1:06:38.240 You had to die too. 1:06:38.720 --> 1:06:40.560 No, No, it wasn't that. It was it just had 1:06:40.600 --> 1:06:41.840 to be worked. It was just, you know, it was 1:06:41.880 --> 1:06:43.640 the beginning of working your rap records. 1:06:44.120 --> 1:06:44.560 Hard sell. 1:06:44.760 --> 1:06:46.880 It was a hard sell work. The Juicy record was 1:06:46.920 --> 1:06:50.440 a hard sell for for for the other areas, like 1:06:50.840 --> 1:06:53.720 the South, you know what I mean. It's almost like yeah, 1:06:53.800 --> 1:06:57.080 so you know, Biggie was like, yo, you know, make 1:06:57.160 --> 1:06:59.040 me a record, do something for me, man, let me 1:06:59.120 --> 1:07:01.160 do something, do something. So he asked me so many 1:07:01.280 --> 1:07:05.560 times that once they released Big Papa, he wanted me 1:07:05.640 --> 1:07:09.760 to do the Big Papa. So he told Puff JD's 1:07:09.800 --> 1:07:11.640 doing the remix of Big Papa. Because he didn't believe 1:07:11.640 --> 1:07:13.080 in the success of Big Paper. He didn't think it 1:07:13.120 --> 1:07:14.840 was gonna work. He thought they was gonna have to 1:07:14.880 --> 1:07:16.200 put out the JD version. 1:07:16.120 --> 1:07:18.640 In Indiana where I grew up. That's the version. That's 1:07:18.680 --> 1:07:25.360 the version we heard on the radio all the time. Damn, goddamn. 1:07:27.720 --> 1:07:28.040 All right. 1:07:28.160 --> 1:07:33.440 So when Biggie, when Biggie came to do well what 1:07:33.920 --> 1:07:35.920 So Biggie said, Yo, I want to do a real remix. 1:07:36.000 --> 1:07:38.080 I want you to redo the beat. I don't want 1:07:38.080 --> 1:07:40.040 to rap over this, I want you to take Let's 1:07:40.080 --> 1:07:41.840 do a real remix. So he wanted to actually make 1:07:41.840 --> 1:07:43.600 a new song. In his mind, he was like, Yo, 1:07:43.640 --> 1:07:44.920 I'm gonna go to Atlanta. I'm gonna make a new 1:07:44.960 --> 1:07:48.080 record and it's gonna relaunch my career. So he came 1:07:48.160 --> 1:07:51.200 to Atlanta. I said, we're gonna re vocal Big I 1:07:51.240 --> 1:07:53.360 mean Big Papa. I'm gonna give you a beat and 1:07:53.400 --> 1:07:56.080 you could do the rap over. So I made the 1:07:56.160 --> 1:08:00.320 beat and he rapped the song over when he finished rapping, 1:08:00.320 --> 1:08:02.160 because he rapped the song so fast and he was 1:08:02.240 --> 1:08:04.400 done so quick. When he finished, He's like, let's make 1:08:04.400 --> 1:08:06.920 another song. And he was like, where honey at? And 1:08:06.920 --> 1:08:08.720 I'm like, who you talking about it? He was like, Brat, 1:08:09.560 --> 1:08:14.080 what's she hit her over here? Brad Brat actually lived 1:08:14.160 --> 1:08:16.960 upstairs in my mother's house, so she was upstairs and 1:08:17.040 --> 1:08:18.560 he ain't no, So I was like, she upstairs, I 1:08:18.680 --> 1:08:21.040 tell her come now, So he came downstairs. He was like, Yo, 1:08:21.080 --> 1:08:23.240 I want to do so on honeyman make a record 1:08:23.240 --> 1:08:25.000 and do some on honey. I'm like, all right, let's 1:08:25.040 --> 1:08:28.800 do it. So I wouldn't. I was just like I 1:08:28.960 --> 1:08:31.000 know what he want. I was just trying to think of, 1:08:31.160 --> 1:08:35.080 like what would be a jump fast record for Biggie 1:08:35.320 --> 1:08:38.200 if I could give him that record, and I wanted 1:08:38.240 --> 1:08:38.960 to give him a loop. 1:08:39.000 --> 1:08:39.400 I wouldn't. 1:08:39.439 --> 1:08:41.160 I wasn't trying to just make a beat. I was like, 1:08:41.160 --> 1:08:43.360 we're gonna sample something. You know, we're gonna figure it out. 1:08:44.160 --> 1:08:46.400 And I put up the outstanding beat the loop, and 1:08:46.640 --> 1:08:49.479 I was like, rap over this, and you know this 1:08:49.680 --> 1:08:52.880 guy's look incredible. He made that beat sound like it 1:08:52.920 --> 1:08:54.479 had a bass line on it before I even put 1:08:54.520 --> 1:08:56.720 the bassline on there. So then I was just like, 1:08:57.040 --> 1:08:58.640 he was like, brat, you're gonna come in after me. 1:08:58.760 --> 1:09:02.000 So he started making the song and I'm trying to 1:09:02.080 --> 1:09:03.960 make the beat at the same time while he's rapping, 1:09:04.040 --> 1:09:06.000 and this song just happened. That's why we don't have 1:09:06.080 --> 1:09:07.680 no titles called the B side. It was just like, 1:09:08.320 --> 1:09:09.240 what's the name of this song? 1:09:09.280 --> 1:09:11.720 Went fuck? That just rap and it was like that's 1:09:11.760 --> 1:09:12.759 how the song came about. 1:09:13.280 --> 1:09:18.880 So man, all right, so I okay, I'm skipping a 1:09:18.920 --> 1:09:21.800 little bit because I know we got limited time. But 1:09:23.960 --> 1:09:27.400 even though I mean, you're you're associated with many artists, 1:09:27.439 --> 1:09:31.080 I always feel like your crowning achievement as a producer 1:09:32.320 --> 1:09:33.439 was working with Usher. 1:09:35.280 --> 1:09:35.880 Yeah, And. 1:09:37.360 --> 1:09:43.000 First of all, how does that happen? Because you you spearheading, 1:09:43.240 --> 1:09:48.160 like how do you take the little kid who did 1:09:48.320 --> 1:09:51.320 just call me a mac? And how did you how 1:09:51.400 --> 1:09:55.720 did you take him and fully develop him into the 1:09:55.920 --> 1:09:58.479 artist as far as like choosing his songs and like 1:09:58.640 --> 1:09:59.760 what was it that? 1:10:01.960 --> 1:10:04.599 It's basically the same situation that I had already been through, 1:10:04.920 --> 1:10:09.800 right I started Usher, Usher came to me when Chris 1:10:09.920 --> 1:10:12.479 Crust was popping and he asked me to sign him. 1:10:13.000 --> 1:10:14.840 I told him no because I was tired of dealing 1:10:14.880 --> 1:10:17.240 with parents at this particular point point Whence Chris Cruss 1:10:17.280 --> 1:10:20.120 was getting big and they parents was like arguing and fighting. 1:10:20.160 --> 1:10:21.640 It was all a parents and I'm like, I'm not 1:10:21.720 --> 1:10:23.040 dealing with this shit no more. I don't want no 1:10:23.120 --> 1:10:25.840 kid rappers, I mean kid artists. So I passed on 1:10:25.920 --> 1:10:29.200 signing Usher, and then Face signed Usher, right, So then 1:10:29.560 --> 1:10:32.320 that called me a mac album didn't really really work, 1:10:32.760 --> 1:10:36.599 but everybody felt like Jamaine could revive your career if 1:10:36.640 --> 1:10:42.519 you go to a remix. So they brought me, what's 1:10:42.560 --> 1:10:44.439 the song think of You? 1:10:44.840 --> 1:10:44.960 Right? 1:10:45.200 --> 1:10:46.840 So they brought me think of You and they said, Jamae, 1:10:46.960 --> 1:10:48.840 please do a remix to think of You. So I 1:10:48.920 --> 1:10:50.960 did a remix to think of You. And in the 1:10:51.000 --> 1:10:52.920 midst of that, I felt like the song needed a 1:10:52.960 --> 1:10:55.840 bridge cause I was just trying to figure out some 1:10:55.960 --> 1:10:57.960 way to make my remix feel different than the record. 1:10:58.000 --> 1:10:59.400 So I added a bridge to the song and I 1:10:59.439 --> 1:11:01.040 told Usher he had to come in and sing the 1:11:01.080 --> 1:11:03.760 bridge over. So when he came in, he sung the 1:11:03.800 --> 1:11:05.559 bridge that I had written for him and he sung 1:11:05.600 --> 1:11:07.240 it just like I had him, like I did it. 1:11:07.360 --> 1:11:10.120 And then they heard his vocals and they was like, 1:11:10.160 --> 1:11:12.640 oh shit, what did you do to him? And I'm like, 1:11:12.760 --> 1:11:14.680 I just told him to sing the bridge? And they 1:11:14.800 --> 1:11:16.800 was like, well, would you work on his next album? 1:11:16.960 --> 1:11:18.720 Like just take him and do whatever the hell you 1:11:18.800 --> 1:11:21.719 want to do with him, And I'm like that sounds crazy, 1:11:22.080 --> 1:11:24.400 but okay, and I ain't know what to do, you know, 1:11:24.439 --> 1:11:26.080 I mean, I didn't know. They just put it in 1:11:26.160 --> 1:11:27.960 my hands and I felt and I found out that 1:11:28.640 --> 1:11:30.840 if it didn't work with me, Usher would have probably 1:11:30.840 --> 1:11:33.960 got dropped, right, So yeah, So, I mean, you know, 1:11:34.280 --> 1:11:36.040 Usher came to my house and he became like a 1:11:36.120 --> 1:11:39.160 social death artist. He basically stayed in my house every 1:11:39.280 --> 1:11:41.320 night and we just talked and worked and talked and 1:11:41.400 --> 1:11:43.479 worked and talked and worked until we got to my way. 1:11:43.600 --> 1:11:46.719 Well, what's the process of you getting these songs album? 1:11:46.880 --> 1:11:49.000 Because I mean, these aren't like average songs, these are 1:11:49.040 --> 1:11:51.040 like staples you make me wonder and all that stuff like. 1:11:51.160 --> 1:11:52.000 How did you. 1:11:53.880 --> 1:11:56.080 What's your process of getting to know the artists and 1:11:56.120 --> 1:11:57.559 what type of songs the right song? 1:11:57.680 --> 1:11:58.400 And hoot it? 1:11:58.600 --> 1:11:59.960 I mean, well, I went through a bunch of record 1:12:00.120 --> 1:12:06.400 I've started making songs that I thought were like I 1:12:06.479 --> 1:12:08.280 don't even know what you could call the first songs, 1:12:08.320 --> 1:12:09.880 but I know that he said, y'all, I don't want 1:12:09.920 --> 1:12:12.439 to be like that. I want to be like Bobby Brown. 1:12:12.600 --> 1:12:14.640 I want Bobby Brown to fear me. So then I 1:12:14.760 --> 1:12:16.280 started looking at my prerogative. 1:12:16.880 --> 1:12:17.120 Check. 1:12:17.520 --> 1:12:20.920 So I started looking at my prerogative and I'm like, okay, well, 1:12:21.520 --> 1:12:22.679 I'm thinking like, I can't. 1:12:22.520 --> 1:12:24.800 Make no harder record than my prerogative. 1:12:24.800 --> 1:12:27.200 This shit is crazy, and Teddy Rowley's my idol, so 1:12:27.240 --> 1:12:29.559 I'm not. I'm like, he, I can't make a better 1:12:29.640 --> 1:12:31.920 record than my prerogative. So I was just trying to 1:12:32.000 --> 1:12:34.439 make records that I felt like would go to bat 1:12:34.479 --> 1:12:37.479 with these songs at least, right. So I made Nice 1:12:37.479 --> 1:12:40.040 and Slow and I played it for La and he 1:12:40.080 --> 1:12:43.080 didn't like that song, and I'm like, how do you 1:12:43.120 --> 1:12:45.240 don't like this song? And I'm like, nobody's doing this, 1:12:45.400 --> 1:12:48.800 nobody's doing you hear how Usher's singing seven on the 1:12:49.720 --> 1:12:51.120 top top dudes in the streets. 1:12:51.120 --> 1:12:52.680 I'm saying, who you know talking like this? 1:12:53.200 --> 1:12:55.920 As an R and B artist, they wonn't getting none 1:12:55.920 --> 1:12:58.080 of that shit, so that song was like put to 1:12:58.160 --> 1:13:04.280 the side. So then Usher was like, man, this I 1:13:04.439 --> 1:13:06.720 need something like prerogative. This is my I want this 1:13:06.760 --> 1:13:12.000 ship my way and I was like, oh, my way, okay, 1:13:13.000 --> 1:13:14.960 let's do that. Let's do it your way, and we 1:13:15.120 --> 1:13:17.120 started making my way and then we got to my way. 1:13:17.840 --> 1:13:19.479 My way was probably gonna be the first single. I 1:13:19.520 --> 1:13:21.719 didn't have You Make Me Want him, and my Way's 1:13:21.720 --> 1:13:24.439 probably gonna be the first single. And I wrote him 1:13:24.439 --> 1:13:24.720 a rap. 1:13:24.800 --> 1:13:26.439 He was rapping it. It just felt like it was 1:13:26.560 --> 1:13:30.400 like the new sounds for Usher, but I still wasn't convinced. 1:13:30.920 --> 1:13:33.160 I wasn't sold yet. I was like, uh, d ain't 1:13:33.240 --> 1:13:35.040 like nice and slow and I was on the nice 1:13:35.040 --> 1:13:36.760 and slow shit. I was trying to get that off 1:13:36.960 --> 1:13:41.400 like the singing rap type singing right, and they weren't 1:13:41.439 --> 1:13:45.000 really soul on it. So LA was like, we're gonna 1:13:45.000 --> 1:13:48.760 put out My Way as the first single. And when 1:13:48.800 --> 1:13:50.560 he told me that, I left the office and I 1:13:50.640 --> 1:13:52.840 went home and I started making you make Me Want him? 1:13:52.880 --> 1:13:55.479 And I was like, I just felt like he didn't 1:13:55.520 --> 1:13:57.680 have that one yet. I was didn't he didn't have 1:13:57.800 --> 1:13:59.400 that one, So I started making you make Me want 1:13:59.439 --> 1:14:01.400 and I wrote the first verse and I had to 1:14:01.479 --> 1:14:03.880 hook and I played it for USh and he was like, man, 1:14:04.320 --> 1:14:06.960 I ain't really what I'm talking about, because he wanted 1:14:07.000 --> 1:14:10.160 tomorrow way. He wanted the prerogative, you know, he wanted that. 1:14:11.080 --> 1:14:13.280 So I was like, I say, you tripp him. So 1:14:13.400 --> 1:14:15.040 I left and I took this song back to the 1:14:15.120 --> 1:14:16.519 Face and I played the song for l A and 1:14:16.600 --> 1:14:18.760 he was like, yo, go finish that song right now. 1:14:18.840 --> 1:14:19.080 That's it. 1:14:19.880 --> 1:14:21.519 So I went back to the studio and I finished 1:14:21.720 --> 1:14:23.240 you know you make me want to and I got 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:25.280 Usher on the song and he sung the song like 1:14:25.360 --> 1:14:27.599 he loved it, and the rest is history. 1:14:28.160 --> 1:14:33.080 How often do you have to browbeat your artist when 1:14:33.120 --> 1:14:33.920 it comes to vocals? 1:14:34.760 --> 1:14:35.120 Bribe? 1:14:35.760 --> 1:14:36.960 No, browbeat. I'm sorry. 1:14:37.000 --> 1:14:39.960 I've made it known on the show that the one 1:14:40.040 --> 1:14:43.599 process of production I hate the most is vocal takes. 1:14:44.320 --> 1:14:46.400 I hate that shit. So usually I have someone else 1:14:47.160 --> 1:14:49.960 because I don't have a good chemistry. Yeah, I don't 1:14:50.000 --> 1:14:50.559 have the patience. 1:14:51.760 --> 1:14:52.559 So how do you. 1:14:54.640 --> 1:14:56.800 Especially at the time, I mean, I mean, pro tools 1:14:56.880 --> 1:15:00.639 was the thing here and there, but you weren't mid nineties, 1:15:00.680 --> 1:15:01.599 early mid nineties. 1:15:01.680 --> 1:15:04.479 You work, yeah, literally working this well. 1:15:04.520 --> 1:15:05.360 See, my thing is this. 1:15:06.200 --> 1:15:10.120 You know, if you can really sing and you understand 1:15:10.600 --> 1:15:14.800 music and you listen to my demo, then automatically it's 1:15:14.800 --> 1:15:17.280 gonna sound better than what I'm listening to anyway, or 1:15:17.320 --> 1:15:18.400 what I'm thinking anyway. 1:15:18.600 --> 1:15:20.040 Right, So that's how I make my records. 1:15:20.080 --> 1:15:22.320 I'm like, listen to me first, and do exactly what 1:15:22.400 --> 1:15:24.160 I'm doing, but do it the way you would do 1:15:24.200 --> 1:15:25.920 it in your real singing voice. So most of the 1:15:25.960 --> 1:15:27.800 time when they do that, that shit starts starting to 1:15:27.840 --> 1:15:29.639 sound way better than what I'm thinking. 1:15:29.800 --> 1:15:32.920 So for every for every hit that you have that 1:15:33.040 --> 1:15:33.439 I wrote. 1:15:40.439 --> 1:15:42.880 So I mean, I did this last like two weeks ago, 1:15:43.360 --> 1:15:46.560 three weeks ago at the ASCAP convention in LA and 1:15:46.640 --> 1:15:49.040 it was like going start play go under the Hood 1:15:49.120 --> 1:15:54.000 of Confessions, and I gave them basically a snap look 1:15:54.120 --> 1:15:56.000 at how I wrote that song and how the song 1:15:56.120 --> 1:15:59.200 came about and let them, you know, listen to me 1:15:59.400 --> 1:16:00.680 actually sing a song like that. 1:16:02.640 --> 1:16:04.519 That's interesting. I would know. I would love to hear that. 1:16:05.640 --> 1:16:08.600 No, not just because it's interesting, Like I was the 1:16:08.640 --> 1:16:10.320 type of kid that took all my toys apart because 1:16:10.320 --> 1:16:12.120 I wanted to see how they worked. So like to 1:16:12.200 --> 1:16:14.080 be able to hear a demo, your demo of a 1:16:14.160 --> 1:16:15.840 song like nice and Slow or something like that, but 1:16:16.080 --> 1:16:18.479 just is fascinating to me. It's bad, but you know, 1:16:20.160 --> 1:16:22.040 but it's still but if I heard it, I could 1:16:22.080 --> 1:16:25.240 still hear how from that to the version that we do. 1:16:26.360 --> 1:16:28.640 And that's why when you introduce when you sound get 1:16:28.680 --> 1:16:31.400 the credit. I feel like people don't really understand that 1:16:31.640 --> 1:16:34.599 those Usher records is why Trey songs sound the way 1:16:34.640 --> 1:16:37.560 he sounded and the way Chris Brown started singing the 1:16:37.560 --> 1:16:38.160 way he sings. 1:16:38.240 --> 1:16:40.800 This is these records created that sund Yeah, it was. 1:16:40.800 --> 1:16:44.080 Definitely the template for it. I know that. Also, Mariah 1:16:45.200 --> 1:16:49.080 came to you at a crucial point in her career. 1:16:51.880 --> 1:16:52.639 Not a crucial point. 1:16:53.080 --> 1:16:54.960 I did always be my baby, That's what I'm talking about. 1:16:55.040 --> 1:16:55.679 That wasn't crucial. 1:16:55.760 --> 1:17:00.920 She was the thing was you gotta understand though, always 1:17:00.960 --> 1:17:04.479 be my baby in Fantasy Remix. That was a very 1:17:04.680 --> 1:17:07.160 radical term for her, at least from the tutelage that 1:17:07.280 --> 1:17:10.800 she was under with Tommy Mintolan with making sure that 1:17:10.920 --> 1:17:14.160 I mean okay, like dude, dream Lover had the break 1:17:14.200 --> 1:17:16.559 being and all that stuff. It was cute, but it's 1:17:16.560 --> 1:17:19.479 still like it was in major key like it wouldn't 1:17:19.479 --> 1:17:22.800 start no riot at no mall in America, but at 1:17:22.880 --> 1:17:25.360 least with nineteen ninety five, with her insistent like yo, 1:17:25.439 --> 1:17:28.280 I'm trying to make some shit that like I would 1:17:28.320 --> 1:17:31.840 listen to in the club, like her going to Wu 1:17:31.920 --> 1:17:36.479 Tang and Puffy and going to you. It's like that 1:17:36.920 --> 1:17:40.640 was in my eyes radical, which you know, getting the 1:17:40.680 --> 1:17:44.320 record and being a connoisseur of credits, I'm like, oh, 1:17:45.160 --> 1:17:46.640 they're loosening the reins on her. 1:17:46.880 --> 1:17:51.880 They're letting her work with us. Yeah, and that's what it. 1:17:52.120 --> 1:17:55.800 So first of all, in working with her, was it 1:17:55.880 --> 1:17:58.960 a thing of like you getting extrustions like don't go 1:17:59.080 --> 1:18:01.360 to hardcore, don't you know we already have one moot tak, 1:18:01.400 --> 1:18:03.240 so only just try to give her no. 1:18:03.360 --> 1:18:07.400 We had this conversation last night. I'm I'm the musical 1:18:07.479 --> 1:18:10.040 person when it comes to Mariah Carey, she's the rapper. 1:18:10.720 --> 1:18:13.799 It completely a flip when we go in the studio. 1:18:13.880 --> 1:18:15.760 We had the same conversation last night. 1:18:15.840 --> 1:18:18.280 Oh, so you're the conservative one and she's the one that's. 1:18:18.080 --> 1:18:21.280 Yeah, because I'm like, I'm trying to protect who she 1:18:21.560 --> 1:18:24.960 is at all times because I feel like I feel like, 1:18:25.160 --> 1:18:28.960 you know, she has an image that you can you know, 1:18:29.120 --> 1:18:31.679 if you can keep it in this space, just don't. 1:18:31.760 --> 1:18:33.680 You ain't got to go overboard. You could just keep 1:18:33.720 --> 1:18:35.360 it in this space and put like you just said, 1:18:35.600 --> 1:18:37.880 she had a loop, but it wouldn't get people killed. 1:18:37.920 --> 1:18:40.360 It was still what we liked, but it was not crazy. 1:18:40.920 --> 1:18:44.160 And I'm always like, let's make records like that, like 1:18:44.320 --> 1:18:48.000 let's continue the seventeen million, twenty million spot. I'm cool, 1:18:48.040 --> 1:18:50.400 what's wrong with it? Was never broken? Let's let's do 1:18:50.520 --> 1:18:53.240 it or you on the Grunde came out and like 1:18:53.439 --> 1:18:55.360 that's basically what she wants to do. So it's like 1:18:56.479 --> 1:18:59.960 Mariah's a rapper. The first day I worked with Mariah 1:19:00.040 --> 1:19:01.640 where I came to the student, she brought cream and 1:19:01.720 --> 1:19:02.840 she said I wanted to sing over this. 1:19:03.400 --> 1:19:03.960 And when she was. 1:19:05.560 --> 1:19:07.600 And I said, so, how were you like back a 1:19:07.640 --> 1:19:07.920 little bit? 1:19:08.200 --> 1:19:11.800 And I'm like what And I and Tomy Mattle was 1:19:11.840 --> 1:19:13.960 standing there when she did this, and I'm thinking, like 1:19:14.080 --> 1:19:16.960 you said, I'm like, I'm not fucking with this cream ship. 1:19:17.120 --> 1:19:20.240 That's not going to happen. I'm not doing this. Was 1:19:20.760 --> 1:19:23.400 it the fear of you didn't want to be the 1:19:23.479 --> 1:19:25.600 guy that the career? Yeah, I. 1:19:27.160 --> 1:19:30.320 Knew because that would have been a great idea. 1:19:31.280 --> 1:19:32.439 At the time when she asked me to do. 1:19:32.479 --> 1:19:34.439 It would have made amazing, but you didn't want to 1:19:34.479 --> 1:19:35.400 be a guy holding the. 1:19:36.920 --> 1:19:38.840 And I and like, like I said, I'm I have 1:19:38.960 --> 1:19:42.439 a super super musical side of me. Right when I 1:19:42.560 --> 1:19:44.600 start doing R and B records, I turned into a 1:19:44.960 --> 1:19:47.600 very musical person that wants to hear a lot of 1:19:47.640 --> 1:19:50.200 different chords and different things and the way the song 1:19:50.320 --> 1:19:50.920 is supposed to go. 1:19:51.120 --> 1:19:55.479 So and I had just did you know usher? So 1:19:55.800 --> 1:19:58.080 it was it was R and B time for me, right, 1:19:58.160 --> 1:19:59.960 So I was like, I need. 1:20:00.040 --> 1:20:02.800 Something that fits into what I just did with so 1:20:02.880 --> 1:20:06.280 I'm having success here, Let's do something that has this field. 1:20:06.360 --> 1:20:12.200 So then Manuel started playing the boom and I'm like, 1:20:12.479 --> 1:20:14.360 see if we put some eight o weight on that ship, 1:20:14.400 --> 1:20:16.240 it's oh we that's all. I believe in eight o 1:20:16.280 --> 1:20:17.040 weight on anything. 1:20:17.120 --> 1:20:17.560 And that's it. 1:20:22.240 --> 1:20:24.800 It's about this period. Okay, Now I'm using a fantine term. 1:20:24.920 --> 1:20:29.240 What's the division of labor as far as uh, who 1:20:29.560 --> 1:20:32.840 is in your team, your production team? As far as Okay, 1:20:32.880 --> 1:20:35.920 it's nineteen ninety seven and I'm riah carry I want 1:20:35.920 --> 1:20:38.880 to get it. Make sure that you know I'm rya 1:20:38.960 --> 1:20:41.160 carry Okay, I work with my car. I'm like, yo, 1:20:41.280 --> 1:20:44.760 produce a record? What is team dupre like, what's going on? 1:20:45.439 --> 1:20:49.640 Songwriting? So what's the songwriting session? Like? 1:20:51.400 --> 1:20:53.880 He's like, do you have something or is it like 1:20:54.040 --> 1:20:54.320 you work? 1:20:55.040 --> 1:20:56.920 Yeah, he's you just work right off the you know, 1:20:57.000 --> 1:20:59.519 right off the cop he's he's an extra keyboard player, 1:20:59.600 --> 1:21:04.519 guitar player, you know, he plays instruments. And I play 1:21:04.600 --> 1:21:06.360 what I play, and then I make the beats and 1:21:06.439 --> 1:21:08.880 I have the ideas basically, and I write, I write 1:21:08.880 --> 1:21:10.800 the lyrics. Basically it will have it, you know if 1:21:10.920 --> 1:21:12.439 with Usher, that's how it was. It was me and 1:21:12.560 --> 1:21:14.840 him and we basically did the song that whole album 1:21:14.960 --> 1:21:17.760 like that, and we went Tim Mariah was me and 1:21:17.960 --> 1:21:20.120 Emay when we made always be my baby. 1:21:20.000 --> 1:21:22.880 The engineer or or mix your own records as well. 1:21:23.120 --> 1:21:25.920 Nah, yeah, I mean I do it, you know, I 1:21:26.000 --> 1:21:27.960 do my rough before it goes. But I don't yeah, 1:21:28.000 --> 1:21:28.519 don't touch that. 1:21:29.080 --> 1:21:31.599 Amir mentioned nineteen ninety seven, and I always I feel 1:21:31.640 --> 1:21:35.040 like with Atlanta something happened between like ninety six and 1:21:35.320 --> 1:21:38.280 I don't know ninety nine where of course, starting with you, 1:21:38.400 --> 1:21:41.479 the music industry just built faster than any other industry 1:21:41.520 --> 1:21:42.559 in most major cities. 1:21:43.520 --> 1:21:46.519 Can you kind of or Jack the Rapper, Well, all. 1:21:46.720 --> 1:21:48.479 I mean you got to consider all those things, like 1:21:48.600 --> 1:21:49.439 conferences were coming. 1:21:49.880 --> 1:21:52.120 You did have Freaknick, but like it just was a 1:21:52.200 --> 1:21:54.800 crazy like five years in Atlanta, and I don't know 1:21:54.840 --> 1:21:57.639 if everybody understands and how it broke down and whatnot. 1:21:57.760 --> 1:21:59.519 I mean, well, like you said, it was Freaknick. It 1:21:59.600 --> 1:22:02.640 was things weren't happening in other major cities that that 1:22:02.840 --> 1:22:06.000 people were like looking like in post Olympics. 1:22:06.240 --> 1:22:06.920 So what point? 1:22:07.080 --> 1:22:11.200 What point was Atlanta seeing as you know, because I 1:22:11.320 --> 1:22:15.120 know that Northeast Northeastern people are very cocky and whatever, 1:22:15.280 --> 1:22:18.760 like you country five, Suddenly Atlanta's the ship. 1:22:19.120 --> 1:22:21.280 Like when do you feel that Atlanta like. 1:22:22.920 --> 1:22:26.240 Arrived, Like when when I was when I was having 1:22:26.320 --> 1:22:31.200 parties and everybody started coming. When when when if JERMAINI 1:22:31.240 --> 1:22:33.600 pre have a party, everybody was going to Atlanta for 1:22:33.720 --> 1:22:36.200 the party. Freak Nick was the start of this, But 1:22:36.320 --> 1:22:38.599 then I started, you know, I did this. How can 1:22:38.680 --> 1:22:40.759 I live weekend where. 1:22:41.000 --> 1:22:43.519 Your version of the n W a pool party? No? 1:22:43.720 --> 1:22:45.800 No, no, no, no, no, matter of fact, it wasn't. 1:22:45.920 --> 1:22:47.880 It was My thing was called can I live right, 1:22:48.080 --> 1:22:50.040 because I had just did I had just did the 1:22:50.120 --> 1:22:53.640 Money Anything record. And what what was interesting, what I 1:22:53.720 --> 1:22:57.000 was getting back was that people felt like in the South, 1:22:57.160 --> 1:23:00.720 I introduced them to jay Z right because people in 1:23:00.760 --> 1:23:03.720 the South weren't listening to Reasonable Hell, you know, that 1:23:03.880 --> 1:23:06.400 wasn't their album. They weren't into that, none of those 1:23:06.439 --> 1:23:08.800 records in Atlanta, none of that was happening. So people 1:23:08.920 --> 1:23:11.120 was like they felt like I was introducing them to 1:23:11.160 --> 1:23:13.479 them and and Jay and everybody was coming to Atlanta, 1:23:14.280 --> 1:23:15.200 you know, taking this love. 1:23:15.320 --> 1:23:19.360 Yeah, people come to you to besides. 1:23:19.720 --> 1:23:21.519 Yeah, So that's what happened, so people, I think people 1:23:21.560 --> 1:23:24.800 started paying attention to this, like this momentum. You know, 1:23:24.920 --> 1:23:27.479 Mace came to Atlanta for my birthday party to get signed. 1:23:27.880 --> 1:23:29.680 Nelly came to Atlanta to try to get me to 1:23:29.720 --> 1:23:31.599 sign him. At my birthday party, I had this crazy 1:23:31.640 --> 1:23:34.920 birthday party at the High Museum on P Street, and 1:23:35.080 --> 1:23:36.640 I had all of. 1:23:36.640 --> 1:23:37.320 Those guys there. 1:23:37.320 --> 1:23:40.679 I had new Audition there, I had Maya, Elton John, 1:23:42.320 --> 1:23:45.120 everybody was you know, whoever was somebody was trying to 1:23:45.120 --> 1:23:47.000 be at Jamaine the pre party and people were like, 1:23:47.080 --> 1:23:51.160 I remember like yesterday that even the paper. It said, 1:23:51.720 --> 1:23:54.439 what does Jamaine Dupree have just making everybody wanted like 1:23:54.479 --> 1:23:56.120 Elton John, what do you have a reason to be 1:23:56.240 --> 1:23:58.880 around BBD and Maya and Jermaine Deprie. 1:23:58.960 --> 1:24:00.519 What's the purpose? What's what's internection? 1:24:00.600 --> 1:24:01.799 I'm trying to imagine that conversation. 1:24:02.320 --> 1:24:07.160 Now, Well, you know Elton John like for real, like 1:24:07.240 --> 1:24:08.080 he loves black. 1:24:08.000 --> 1:24:09.840 Music, but still it's just an odd parent. 1:24:09.920 --> 1:24:11.519 Yeah. Well, I mean he wanted me to know he 1:24:11.640 --> 1:24:14.280 was cool and he came to party. But I think 1:24:14.320 --> 1:24:15.800 that's what it was, what you're talking about. It was 1:24:15.880 --> 1:24:18.400 just like people saw that happening, and it was it 1:24:18.520 --> 1:24:20.599 was just like like I said, I wasn't paying attention 1:24:20.720 --> 1:24:23.720 to everybody else. Whatever people was doing in New York, 1:24:23.760 --> 1:24:25.800 that's what they was doing in New York. I. I 1:24:26.000 --> 1:24:30.040 was determined to make Atlanta stand out just like New 1:24:30.120 --> 1:24:31.000 York in LA Like. 1:24:31.160 --> 1:24:33.360 See, then there was a point when Atlanta started taking 1:24:33.439 --> 1:24:35.600 in this and pushing his chest out with pride to 1:24:35.720 --> 1:24:38.360 the point where like it wasn't so much the Northeast 1:24:38.400 --> 1:24:41.000 record would get played first. Now Atlanta is supporting each 1:24:41.040 --> 1:24:42.880 other on the radio, and it's records that you would 1:24:42.920 --> 1:24:45.640 never hear other places. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I just 1:24:45.720 --> 1:24:48.280 think that people don't really understand that about Atlanta in 1:24:48.360 --> 1:24:50.120 that way, Like I always say that about like somebody 1:24:50.120 --> 1:24:52.920 like Rashida, Like Rashida is a star in Atlanta because 1:24:52.960 --> 1:24:55.880 of Atlanta and Atlanta Radio and everybody embracing her. 1:24:56.000 --> 1:24:58.080 When she was seeing Yeah, I mean it was you know, 1:24:58.200 --> 1:24:59.880 it was a it was a it. 1:25:00.000 --> 1:25:02.839 It was a tug of war type of mentality because 1:25:03.040 --> 1:25:05.840 people weren't really receptive of things that was coming from 1:25:05.880 --> 1:25:10.200 Atlanta like that, almost to the point where Jermaine Duprex 1:25:10.280 --> 1:25:12.080 was getting the success. So a lot of people in 1:25:12.160 --> 1:25:15.040 Atlanta was mad at me because I was getting success 1:25:15.160 --> 1:25:17.840 that a lot of them weren't getting at the same time. 1:25:18.320 --> 1:25:20.519 So it was like they didn't understand why my records 1:25:20.600 --> 1:25:23.200 was working. So then they that I've heard people say 1:25:23.240 --> 1:25:25.679 crazy shit about my records and you know, jd ain't 1:25:25.680 --> 1:25:27.960 from Atlanta and here I don't sound like outcasts and 1:25:28.000 --> 1:25:29.720 this that and the third like it was. But my 1:25:30.040 --> 1:25:32.479 my childhood and my life was different than that. 1:25:32.600 --> 1:25:34.400 I wasn't. I didn't grow up in Atlanta. I grew 1:25:34.520 --> 1:25:35.160 up on tour. 1:25:35.439 --> 1:25:38.120 So can you explain can you explain the science of 1:25:39.080 --> 1:25:42.479 what would be now known as trap culture because initially 1:25:42.600 --> 1:25:45.600 I thought that you guys were more of a refined 1:25:47.720 --> 1:25:52.760 what was supposed to be Miami's identification of bass music. 1:25:53.600 --> 1:25:56.280 I always felt that you guys were a more refined 1:25:56.840 --> 1:25:59.120 bass music, Like you guys did better work with those 1:25:59.160 --> 1:26:03.600 type of planet rock beats and stuff, you know, and 1:26:03.800 --> 1:26:06.000 then trap culture. 1:26:07.720 --> 1:26:13.280 Develops. How how do you feel, like, are you in 1:26:13.360 --> 1:26:14.519 your heart the old. 1:26:14.400 --> 1:26:16.760 I know, you're technically not supposed to agree with this, 1:26:16.960 --> 1:26:19.439 like are you the old schooler that's sort of looking 1:26:19.560 --> 1:26:23.840 like okay whatever, or like are you still about like 1:26:24.560 --> 1:26:26.760 if kids are about it, then that's the future and 1:26:26.960 --> 1:26:28.800 I support it and that sort of well, I. 1:26:28.840 --> 1:26:31.080 Mean, it's it's hard to it's hard for me to 1:26:31.120 --> 1:26:34.439 even have talk about this because if you listen to 1:26:35.200 --> 1:26:40.519 Jermain du Pre records that are like some non social 1:26:40.640 --> 1:26:43.800 death artist records, the records are trap. Like if you 1:26:43.920 --> 1:26:48.360 listen to Grills by Nelly. Okay, this was before people 1:26:48.479 --> 1:26:52.320 start saying trap records, this is, but but it's by 1:26:52.439 --> 1:26:55.160 Nelly and it became a number one that top one 1:26:55.240 --> 1:26:59.479 hundred records and it's not connected to the trap. 1:27:00.360 --> 1:27:01.639 It don't come off like that's. 1:27:01.520 --> 1:27:01.960 What that is. 1:27:02.080 --> 1:27:04.640 But the sound of the record. The sound of the 1:27:04.720 --> 1:27:05.519 record is one. 1:27:09.200 --> 1:27:09.479 Boom. 1:27:09.720 --> 1:27:11.439 It's all the same elements. 1:27:11.600 --> 1:27:11.760 You know. 1:27:11.840 --> 1:27:15.640 The eight eight is overbearing, the small little kick, the 1:27:15.760 --> 1:27:19.840 Franchise Boys, Bone Crusher, young Bloods, all of this shit 1:27:20.000 --> 1:27:23.479 is what you're basically listening to now. So to me, 1:27:23.640 --> 1:27:26.800 i'm i'm I think people disconnect me from being with 1:27:26.920 --> 1:27:29.400 that sound. But that's that's been the sound like you 1:27:29.520 --> 1:27:31.439 make me wanted to me, sounds like a trap record. 1:27:32.320 --> 1:27:33.400 Guitars on it, right. 1:27:34.880 --> 1:27:35.080 Music. 1:27:35.160 --> 1:27:36.880 Yeah, So I just I don't look. 1:27:36.760 --> 1:27:38.920 At it as I look at it as like people 1:27:39.000 --> 1:27:41.120 were listening to that sound and they just decided what 1:27:41.200 --> 1:27:46.000 to do. I also feel like trap music ultimately, I 1:27:46.080 --> 1:27:48.840 don't like that title because I think people use that 1:27:49.000 --> 1:27:52.719 title to let us in as opposed to just saying 1:27:53.240 --> 1:27:56.200 it's the Atlanta sound. I wish people would stop calling 1:27:56.280 --> 1:27:59.679 it trap and say Atlanta music like they say everybody else. 1:28:00.000 --> 1:28:02.920 That's that La sound, that's that New York sound, That's 1:28:03.000 --> 1:28:05.640 that Atlanta sound. Stop saying trap because trap makes it. 1:28:06.200 --> 1:28:08.080 Puts it in a box and it's like, Okay, you 1:28:08.160 --> 1:28:11.080 got a trap set. No, this is two hours of 1:28:11.120 --> 1:28:15.120 Atlanta music. Music from all of the artists in Atlanta. 1:28:15.160 --> 1:28:16.720 You go to New York right now, you're gonna hear 1:28:17.760 --> 1:28:20.880 two hours of records from Atlanta. Stop saying trap. That's 1:28:20.880 --> 1:28:21.800 what I wish people would do. 1:28:22.680 --> 1:28:25.760 So what do you feel now? Is the future like 1:28:25.880 --> 1:28:28.160 are you done with Atlanta or is it just starting? 1:28:28.920 --> 1:28:31.320 Like for you? Is there more to reveal to the 1:28:31.360 --> 1:28:34.479 world as far as what your next move is going 1:28:34.560 --> 1:28:35.160 to be? I don't know. 1:28:35.280 --> 1:28:38.479 As executive or nah, I mean I you know, you 1:28:38.680 --> 1:28:41.400 have to continue to keep finding ways to open the 1:28:41.479 --> 1:28:43.840 doors for Atlanta. So I got the TV show, and 1:28:44.160 --> 1:28:46.360 you know, with the TV show, I bring five kids 1:28:46.400 --> 1:28:51.599 to Atlanta and expose them to what kids in Atlanta 1:28:51.680 --> 1:28:55.000 are exposed to. Kids in Atlanta have it better than 1:28:55.400 --> 1:28:58.719 mostly every other city kids out here period. 1:28:59.200 --> 1:29:00.719 Like in Brooklyn. 1:29:00.760 --> 1:29:02.640 I don't think they have talent shows for kids with 1:29:02.800 --> 1:29:04.360 kids can do do things. I don't think they have 1:29:04.520 --> 1:29:07.160 skating rinks where they allow you to perform. I don't 1:29:07.160 --> 1:29:09.960 think they have it just when you want to be 1:29:10.000 --> 1:29:12.800 an entertainer. In Atlanta, we have more elements than you know. 1:29:12.920 --> 1:29:14.880 I find out because these kids coming, they're like, yo, 1:29:15.040 --> 1:29:16.559 we don't have nothing. Like one of the kids came 1:29:16.600 --> 1:29:19.559 from Chicago and she was talking about how they close 1:29:19.640 --> 1:29:21.920 the skating rinks and kids don't really have anything to do. 1:29:22.439 --> 1:29:24.840 Right in Atlanta, the kids got they can go. 1:29:25.000 --> 1:29:27.240 To things and perform and people see them and do 1:29:27.439 --> 1:29:29.840 just so many different outlets that people are opening that 1:29:29.920 --> 1:29:36.120 we already had Wednesday, every Wednesday, every Monday, every Sunday. 1:29:36.280 --> 1:29:37.040 This is going on. 1:29:38.080 --> 1:29:41.160 So with all of this stuff going on, I'm still 1:29:41.360 --> 1:29:44.760 pushing Atlanta culture. I think that that's that's the most 1:29:44.840 --> 1:29:46.800 you know, that's the most important thing. And I still 1:29:46.840 --> 1:29:52.320 feel like Atlanta's yet to have their Kendrick Lamar or 1:29:52.400 --> 1:29:53.720 their j Cole or. 1:29:53.720 --> 1:29:56.160 Their jay Z. Yet in this era. 1:29:56.439 --> 1:29:59.280 We had it prior to No No, No, No No, 1:29:59.320 --> 1:30:02.120 I'm saying we had it prior. I'm just saying I'm 1:30:02.120 --> 1:30:04.880 saying in this era. In this era, it feels like, 1:30:05.439 --> 1:30:08.200 you know, it's a new artist every week, right, feel 1:30:08.200 --> 1:30:10.160 like it's a new hot artist every week. So I'm 1:30:10.200 --> 1:30:13.160 just saying, I still feel like the city is so 1:30:13.640 --> 1:30:17.519 hot that one of these rappers that people look at 1:30:17.600 --> 1:30:22.160 as a problem rapper, because like I said, they label 1:30:22.200 --> 1:30:24.479 everything in Atlanta so much as trapped that they don't 1:30:24.560 --> 1:30:27.040 fear anything, right, you know what I mean? If you say, oh, 1:30:27.080 --> 1:30:29.960 he's just that's that's just trapped. So it don't it 1:30:30.000 --> 1:30:33.640 don't ever get into the box of oh ship you 1:30:33.720 --> 1:30:35.360 know this guy. You know what I'm saying, it's never that. 1:30:35.600 --> 1:30:38.040 Who do you feel that's unbeknowns to us? 1:30:38.160 --> 1:30:40.559 But who do you feel that's bubbling under that's gonna 1:30:40.840 --> 1:30:41.920 make an impact right now? 1:30:42.080 --> 1:30:43.800 Like what artists do you feel that are? 1:30:44.120 --> 1:30:46.080 I mean, it's a lot of underground artists in Atlanta 1:30:46.120 --> 1:30:49.519 that really raped that that could possibly do this. I 1:30:49.640 --> 1:30:51.479 feel like I felt like Saha was gonna be that 1:30:51.560 --> 1:30:54.840 guy for a second. You know, he's with the right 1:30:54.960 --> 1:30:57.680 crew and he understands what I'm talking about. Like a 1:30:57.720 --> 1:30:59.280 lot of people might not even know that this is 1:30:59.320 --> 1:31:04.360 from Atlanta, Chicago. No, he's from He's from He's from 1:31:04.360 --> 1:31:05.040 the East side. 1:31:04.840 --> 1:31:09.720 Of Atlanta, and he I know that Kanye was from Atlanta, Atlanta. 1:31:09.400 --> 1:31:10.880 Too, So I mean, you know, like I said, it's 1:31:10.920 --> 1:31:14.599 it's it's we still got room because of how people 1:31:14.640 --> 1:31:16.320 put it in the box. If people open up the 1:31:16.360 --> 1:31:17.680 box and do what I'm doing, and it might be 1:31:17.680 --> 1:31:20.080 a little different. But I'm saying I wish people would 1:31:20.080 --> 1:31:22.679 stop that because I think trap the word trap music. 1:31:22.600 --> 1:31:24.519 Came from E D E. 1:31:24.680 --> 1:31:27.679 M d j's wanting the ability to play rap music, 1:31:27.720 --> 1:31:29.960 and they said, and call it and not call it 1:31:30.040 --> 1:31:30.519 rap music. 1:31:31.439 --> 1:31:36.160 Let me as we're talking about wait, can I can? I? 1:31:36.760 --> 1:31:39.360 It's what I pushed open the trap. 1:31:39.560 --> 1:31:43.120 No, it's never a battle, boss, it's never a battle. 1:31:43.240 --> 1:31:46.160 I'm about to about the reign on parade. 1:31:46.800 --> 1:31:49.920 How happy are you to do an interview in which 1:31:50.120 --> 1:31:54.000 no one has to ask you any Jana Jackson questions, Yes, 1:31:54.080 --> 1:31:56.920 it is, that's why. 1:31:57.560 --> 1:31:59.680 No, Actually I didn't. I have little John questions that one. 1:32:00.479 --> 1:32:01.400 I want to be the first. 1:32:01.680 --> 1:32:05.479 I mean, listen me, let me say this. I don't. 1:32:07.920 --> 1:32:10.360 I don't look at any of that as a problem 1:32:10.680 --> 1:32:15.000 because my life is not regular, right, And if you 1:32:15.320 --> 1:32:18.200 if you don't understand that your life is not regular, 1:32:18.360 --> 1:32:21.800 then you won't be celebrating your life the way you're 1:32:21.800 --> 1:32:28.040 supposed to write. I had a girl tell me, like, Nigga, 1:32:28.080 --> 1:32:30.400 do you even know that I don't know another person 1:32:30.479 --> 1:32:33.800 that's dated James Jackson. This is what the girl told me, right, 1:32:34.000 --> 1:32:36.960 And I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm listening to her. I'm like, 1:32:37.040 --> 1:32:39.920 and I'm listening to her in a in a not 1:32:40.080 --> 1:32:42.760 paying attention to what she's saying, mindset. But then it 1:32:42.880 --> 1:32:47.080 hit me like that's what people actually think. So if 1:32:47.120 --> 1:32:49.240 you don't ask me the questions, and it didn't, it 1:32:49.479 --> 1:32:51.760 wasn't something that resonated in your life. 1:32:51.800 --> 1:32:52.559 But I'm saying. 1:32:54.720 --> 1:32:59.120 And it overshadows, but I'm saying, she's such a cultural 1:33:00.320 --> 1:33:03.479 staple in our culture that it's hard for people to 1:33:03.720 --> 1:33:04.120 ignore it. 1:33:04.240 --> 1:33:06.840 Right, so I understand it. It's not something that you know. 1:33:07.320 --> 1:33:09.400 It is what it is. Okay, well, ask one question.