WEBVTT - Christopher WIlliams 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:10.320 R and money than take Valentini. 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.800 We are the authorities. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:15.840 R and. 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:20.360 Ladies and gentlemen, money, mistake Valentine. And this is the 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:26.160 Yarvey Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.640 All right, dammit, ore c n B. 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.680 You understand what I'm saying. You do you understand what 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:38.080 I'm saying. The level of excitement in my face, you 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:38.559 see it. 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.720 I ain't dreaming this. She is not free. 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.680 This man here, his lesson here, talk about it. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:52.560 Huh yeah, My big cousins and they talked about this 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.360 man like he had came back as Jesus, like like 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.440 he was the gorgeous Jesus man. 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.200 They wanted to be saved by him. 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.560 He's just talking to themself. Listen, may he's still here 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:08.240 doing this thing. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:09.600 Man. This is this is man. 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:14.280 This is this is him, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.400 the Christopher Williams. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.920 Yeah, in the right ahead. What's up? Brother? Come on, man, 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.360 good to be here. My cousin, And I know she's 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:26.120 gonna be watching this. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.440 You're gonna shout, You're gonna say her name and everything. 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.600 You gotta say her name because you weren't. You weren't 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:37.560 Christopher Williams. You were Christopher fine Williams every time, every time, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.800 and and and I think you you might be. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.480 I don't know. Let's let's let's let's let's let's really map. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:54.080 This out this because you life skin, indeed, but you 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:54.720 dog skin. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:04.680 Yeah. Yeah. If you don't know, don't try to find out. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:06.520 Leave him alone. 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.280 If you got that bag, got. 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:14.959 See this sing alone. He's the head. 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:17.720 He might be fresh off a motorcycle too. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.840 Like, man, you. 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:24.480 Know, I got to forget. I gotta tell my story. 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.040 Was it R and B live? 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:31.560 R and B live? 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:32.560 School? 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.320 Wims is coming to perform. We're excited, coming to do 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:46.679 his thing. He walks in motorcycle, jacket, helmet bag. I'm like, okay, 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.320 you can set your stuff off to the side while 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.720 you perform. You know what I'm saying, Put it over here. No, no, 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:57.679 I'm good. Goes to the microphone. Hundreds of people in 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.080 the places, just performing, and he sets the bag right 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:08.960 next to himself and the microphone. Someone gets the bright idea, 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.240 he says, let me help Christopher Williams out and go 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.399 grab the bag and put it somewhere safe. Christopher Williams 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.720 looks at the nigga says, hey, don't touch my motherfucking 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:28.280 bag back to singing. I said, please don't touch that 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:34.280 because whatever's in that mother, I don't want to find out. 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.840 And he proceeded to perform and whoop on and be 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.440 live with the Bagay, man, what. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.880 Christopher Williams? What's up? How you feeling? 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:49.120 Man? 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:56.120 Jay? It's gone here man, it's yeah time. Yeah, you know, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.280 there's my guy. I'm always in mind you man, you're 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.080 just super dope, super talented, and you know what it is. Yes, 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.480 you're a real man's man. Just appreciate that talent and 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.080 just what you've poured into you know, music and continue 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.160 to and you know, just sitting the having to conversate 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.400 you with you about your growth and I never even 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.159 knew that you were on a stand up tip. But 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.640 then it made sense because you know, when I watched 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.200 R and B live, I was like, this is actually 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.760 more entertaining than just the normal battle of the music 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.640 or whatever, because you know, like some of those joints 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.920 you see it. You know, I thought Bobby and Keith 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.880 were going to go to severs. Yeah, yeah, you and 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.239 Tank's joint was super dope, super entertaining, and your jokes 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.159 roasted them. It was really good. No disrespect Toyr. We 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.200 love you too. But yeah, yeah, that's what I do 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.760 for a living man. It's Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis show. Great. 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.080 You know when you when you got Jamie Fox, you know, 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:56.920 talking about your outfit for a hour. 0:04:57.800 --> 0:04:59.240 You got to figure out. You got to figure out 0:04:59.240 --> 0:04:59.800 some comebacks. 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:05.880 You have some killers, thank you, brother, Yeah, brother, Christopher Williams. 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.000 What we love to do on this show is we 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.520 love to go back to the beginning. Okay, back to 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:19.880 the Bronx, to the beginning, Like where did music take 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.800 shape for you? Like the first time somebody pointed at 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.679 you or heard something you were doing, it was like, oh, nigga, 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:29.760 that little fella right there, I got something more or 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:31.040 you recognize it yourself. 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.960 I liked it, but I recognized it. But I think 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.680 wanting to be an athlete. When I was younger, I 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.080 was really into baseball and I played a little basketball too, Jay. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:43.680 You know, I used to mess around, but I wasn't 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.919 ever a basketball player because I was I was a 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:52.200 four and a point guard's body, and so just with 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.359 that I would always be I kind of masked the 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.560 music and then one day in school, they had a 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.440 talent show and I got up and I felt that 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.240 energy that we get that act, that appreciation on stage, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:10.159 and I was like, okay, maybe. Then the thing that 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.440 sealed it was that I went down to see my 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.839 aunt perform Happy related birthday to my aunt elephantz Joel yesterday. Wow, 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:18.680 she would have been one hundred and nine. I went 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:23.240 to see her with Tony Bennett, Count Based. Yep, that's 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:26.280 my blood on That is crazy. So I went to 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.279 see at the Euresa's Theater and the way that Frank 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:34.280 Sinatra and Count Basie was so normal, but they were 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.560 bigger than life, obviously, because I thought my aunt was 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:38.160 bigger than life. I don't think I really spoke to 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.080 my aunt till I was about seven years old, and 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.000 then ironically, our conversation was always like she hated the Yankees, 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.320 I hated the Brooklyn Dodgers, who are now the LA 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:51.440 Dodgers and who are beating us again. But I just 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.920 remember how they embrace me and I felt comfortable. My 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.360 sister was nervous, but then I felt comfortable. And that's 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.400 the day I said. I even told my doctor parents. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:00.920 I said, you know what, but if I get an 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.240 opportunity to do that if I don't make it in baseball. 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.320 And then by fourteen, I knew I didn't want to 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.839 play baseball anymore, even though I played in high school. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.880 At that point, my life had started shifting from my 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.320 circumstances in the Bronx and life, you know, life, just 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.880 some of my choices had taken me away from school 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.040 and sports and stuff like that, and I was more 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.600 survival mode. And then watching a lot of my friends 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.680 and you know, obviously my OG's, my brothers, you know, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.440 they loved you too. And I started seeing a lot 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.800 of different people doing a lot of fed time. And 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:38.760 you know, my best friend got murdered on one hundred 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:43.040 and seventy fer College Avenue, and because I wasn't there 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.400 to watch over them, so that was like, okay, enough 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.880 of this, I gotta go do me. And I met 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.680 a chick who enticed me to do it, named Stacy dash. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.280 So Stacy was auditionated and had just done like The 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.040 Cosby Show and all this stuff, and because we were dating, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.680 she was like, you know, she's very dramatic. She was 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.120 like crying, like if you don't leave and go to California, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.960 that was the shift. So at nineteen, you know, I 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.360 basically left everything I had in New York, including you know, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.360 the entrepreneurship that I was, you know, involved in at 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.520 the time, and I bet on me. I just you know, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.160 I went to a guy named Timmy Allen and Fritz Cadet, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.720 who had worked with who eventually worked with Chris Brown, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.520 but they had worked with many people back in the day, 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:36.040 including Luther. They were the Change Band, and we made 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.640 these demos. And what's weird is I was in a club, 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:42.920 I think Danceyteryrian, New York, and I was with Stacy 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:44.640 and a lot of her friends from the Cosby Show. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.400 I want to say Lisa might have even been there 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.840 this time, but maybe not because it was many years ago. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.240 But I met Michael Rosenblack. So I me at the 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.480 bar buying drinks for everybody, got a bunch of pretty 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.720 girls with me, and this white kid walks up to 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.440 me and he's like, Hey, who are you and who 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.400 were you? He was like, I signed Madonna, and I 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:08.240 was like, and I'm Elvis Presley. And the fact is, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.800 because I was so raw in the business. You know 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.520 how when you first get in you start learning all 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.000 the play its like, you know, Wednesday's Radio Day, R 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.600 and R Billboard, and you start really and then you 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.839 become consumed with it. And Michael was that first thing 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.720 for me. And unlike most people, I wound up getting 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.959 a deal that next month with Geffing Records. Off those demos. 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.960 Off those demos, it flew out to California, and that 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.280 really changed my life a lot. So I was really 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.680 grateful for that. But then I had to go through, 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:38.960 you know, learning the business, and then it was a 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:40.880 different term. But from the beginning of the Bronx that's 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.560 how I got out the Bronx again. I started seeing 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.040 a lot of my my OG's and my friends either 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.559 dying or going to jail. And it was a you know, 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:50.360 it was a crack academic so it was like I 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.720 saw a lot of strong dudes that I admired folding 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.199 to the to that, to the crack and the whole 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.400 epidemic that it was. It was causing good and bad. 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.480 So I was like, I'm out, I'm going to I'm 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.240 going to try to make it as a singer and 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.680 an actor, and I left and I was like, no 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.400 more Plan B. And from that time I left all 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.440 that other stuff alone, even though there were times because 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.319 of the business of music, I had to I had 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.520 to find a way to take care of myself in 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:21.840 a way that I wouldn't be one of those stories 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.360 of like down and out and whatever. But I had 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.280 made some choices in music, honestly, with people that I 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.040 even loved that you know, disappointed me. But we you know, 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:31.840 we made up. We still love each other. Andre and 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.800 Russell and I had to accept that, you know, this 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.520 is a business in your corporation, there's a certain way 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.160 you have to act, and mentally, it's a chess game, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.480 it's not checkers. And I lost my temper, and you know, 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.800 it became like now he's got the plague, and like 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.720 it became and it went, you know, like you said, 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.920 is he in your office with a bag? Or and 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.760 then I think it's worse because it's funny. One day, 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.680 my ex wife was at a convention with because a 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:03.840 lot of the people we grew up with, like Terry Haskins, 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:05.880 they were marketing for bad Boy. They really were the 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:10.079 people who were you know, Francesca Spiro. They were people 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.760 with spearheaded behind the scenes and doing great work. And 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:20.000 I'll never forget that I was like trying to figure Outkay, 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.240 who am I as an artist? What am I going 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.720 to do as an artist? And I would always pick 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.880 Andre and Russell's brain. So when I finally got a 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.120 chance to leave Geffen after the album, I went with them, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:34.720 and then all the calamity broke loose. So I made 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.959 some decisions, and then I kind of got blackball for 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.520 making those decisions. And I don't know if you can 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.440 really say blackball, and I don't even I'm a person 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:47.040 who doesn't blame anybody else because I'm an old fashioned man. 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.080 I put my pants on the same way whether I 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.400 got a dollar in my pocket or a couple of 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.560 million in my pocket. And you know, coming from where 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.280 I'm from, nothing it's any worse than a lot of 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.160 the places that all of us share. We all, I'll 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.800 have an urban story all and even if you haven't 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.240 even indulged in that life, I think all of us 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.800 have a cousin or uncle law a situation where we 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:09.840 could have went down that road, but you're like, you 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.079 know what, I'm gonna go down this road. So you know, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.120 for me, I sat back after that happened, and I 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.040 became a fan again of music. And it was even 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.320 a point, honestly, Jay, where I was like, I'm cool 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.880 with never making music again because I was able to steal, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.760 like I have a vegan restaurant coffee shop. After I 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.640 was spot in Brooklyn, I still through real estate in 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.960 Saint Louis and Oklahoma, and I was like, Okay, I'm 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:39.480 sustaining cool. I'm cool, my kids are cool. But I 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.120 got sick and I woke up out of a coma 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.840 one hundred and thirty pounds after twenty four days, and 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.520 all I can remember that I wanted to do every 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.160 day was like the beginning. I just wanted to sing again. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.280 I started putting ideas down and I just was like, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.680 I just want to do this shit again. And while 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.200 I was paralyzed, I wrote the book of Acba. I 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.600 wrote a movie about my aunt Ella, and I wrote 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.960 a joint calls life is a song We're singing because 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.920 Teddy's my musical father. I wrote a sort of bioptic 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:13.000 thing with a live black orchestra about Kenny and Teddy's 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.199 musical journey, that Philly sound that affected me so much 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.560 as a kid. So I know I jumped all the 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.360 way past the beginning and how it kind of led 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.040 to now, but it does still go back to the beginning, 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.480 because I think the beginning over for me was waking 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.960 up out of that coma and being the first time 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:30.840 I was ever sick. And you know I used to 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.480 again like you know, alpha males, we deal with our 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:40.000 physical powers. So imagine how I felt waking up. Nothing's working. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:47.520 Nothing's working, Johnson, Nothing everything it star hairs falling out. 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:52.760 I got the Willie Elmo. I'm looking at myself like death. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.880 And it's funny when I first thank God for the 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.320 angels who are in the hospital at the time, because 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.240 I wouldn't take the vacs. So all the years I've 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.439 been paying into health insurance, I was supposed to go 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:06.719 to Santa Monica Hospital, you know the one out right 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.719 there on Pacific where it's looking over the ocean. They 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.520 sent me to Inglewood, to the Dirty Dirty Sniff. So 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:15.880 some of the things that happened while I was paralyzed 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.280 in the Dirty Sniff as a car, a gang banger 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.280 drove into the hospital. We had one murder, to shootouts 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.280 in the hospital. In the hospital and inside the hospital. 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.240 The Thaie women ran the facility, but they would go 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.840 to war with the night African shift, so we had 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.120 the African nurses at night, and one night they put 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.800 the whole facility on lockdown and I was like, Yo, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.560 I'm in jail. I literally felt like I was in 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.000 C seventy six again. I was like, Yo, this is 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:51.520 crazy in the hospital and this place is still in Inglewood. 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:54.000 You know, It's funny. I blocked the name out because 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.440 when I walked out of it, I walked out shaken. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.560 But my whole goal was to reach those twenty five steps. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.600 I was like, I don't care if I die. I'm 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.080 getting out of here. And I think that's been the 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.920 thing my whole life is coming from the circumstances that 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.560 I've been is that I realized young that no one 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.680 really cares. And that's not a bad thing, because the 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.040 thing is, I think most of us are trying to 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.160 get an understanding of what life is instead of getting 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.960 an innerstanding of what your purpose in your life is. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.920 And when I got out the hospital, if that revelation 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.480 hit me, and Creative just started giving me stuff and 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.720 then it was funny. A lot of weird occurrences, And 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.920 I had put a guy in the business named Vincent 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:42.920 Herbert when he was fourteen. Vince would come to my 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.320 apartment in Jersey all the time and get like two 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.440 three thousand dollars a week in the going bedroom studios. 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.160 So me and Vincent had gotten back together, as people 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:55.720 saw in the breakfast club, and you know, we started 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.520 talking about the good old days and it was good 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.920 to see him, and truthfully, I love Vincent, but unfortunately 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.040 weren't able to work out. He has a different way 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.200 of doing business. I like to do straight up clean business. 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.520 I'm not one of the things, as you guys know, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:10.600 is an artist. We've been through so much where people 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.240 are trying to take advantage and possess you, you know 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.960 what I mean, because they see what's in you, and 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.440 especially you know when you start reaching heights like yourself, 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:24.160 because you've you've had a long run and your catalog 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.520 is rich and you still have the same energy for 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.520 newness and creating new stuff and being involved in new ventures, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.000 and that's something that people try to possess instead of saying, hey, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.200 I'd like to just do clean business with you. So 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:40.640 I had to learn all of that in so many 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.560 different facets, and for a long time, I can say 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.760 that I was clearly a little bitter, but I knew 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.640 that I wasn't ready to address it because in my life, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:57.000 in adverse situations, I had reacted violently instead of reacting 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.920 like a smart, mature man, and that those were things 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:02.760 that I need to change, not just even for me, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.680 because now I had daughters looking at me, my two 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:10.040 sons looking at me, and eventually my grandson and granddaughter's 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.560 looking at me. So I'm at a place now, Tank, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:14.840 honestly where I'm like man. So we started talking to 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.440 me and Vince. We put this record out good enough. 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:21.720 Twenty nine years later, I'm thinking everything's great, and I've 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.800 got these new ip that are good, and I'm working 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.840 with a great new artist named Shakira, and these are 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.200 the things I'm focused on. Let's see if I can 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.280 do a miracle again. Can I get out the projects 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.320 and change my life around? And one day I'm in 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.040 New jack City, and then I got the same epiphany 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.080 coming out the hospital. I was like, can I own 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.760 my label? I've done good. Now I'm gonna put my 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:47.520 I'm a bet on me like, I don't need your 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.880 two hundred thousand dollars. I'm a market myself. I'm gonna 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.840 hire my own publichers. I'm gonna hire my radio people. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.760 I'm gonna go after I'm gonna understand the difference between 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.159 terrestrial radio on satellite radio, how it pays out. I 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.080 wanted directly, but again for five seconds, I took my 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:05.800 hand off the wheel and I said, I'm going to 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:11.359 trust somebody to be the anchor in that h worst 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.240 thing I did. So over the last six months, we've 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:19.119 had to rekindle from people forging my signature and different 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.040 things like that, but bye bye, Grace. Everything's good. Now 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.000 we're moving on with a different distributor and we're looking 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:27.320 forward to just everything new. 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:27.520 Man. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.119 I think good Enough proved that we dropped a single 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.240 in November seventh, which is a bad time obviously gonna 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.840 drop a single because Christmas is coming. But it proved 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.160 through all of it that it stood fast. It got 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.560 me in a position to be number one on satellite 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.840 radio at heart, so not number one ter rest you 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:52.440 like the big dog, but one and after twenty nine years, man, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.800 and I remember, it just made me think of Charlie Wilson, 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.719 and I just said, you know what, it's possible, Yeah, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.240 it's possible when you love it. And I'll never forget 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.120 when the last conversation I had with Olie Woodson from 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.280 the Temptations, he said, hey boy, he said, I'm gonna 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:09.800 tell you something. If I get on out of here, 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.280 keep that song in your heart. And I didn't know 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.040 what he meant when he was saying it, but you know, 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.359 I'm because that's big bro. I'm like, I treat him 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:17.840 like a lady. 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.040 Whatever you say, whatever you say. 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:26.440 Yeah, but I remember how crazy that resonated. And I 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.560 always he used to always teach me lessons when we 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.480 were on the road. So I got a chance to 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.119 do a lot of different things in my career and 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.960 it led right back to after twenty nine years, people 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.800 still accepting music from Christopher Williams at this phase of 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:44.040 my life, so humble, grateful, and the boxtail. There's a 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:45.280 lot to this broxtail. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:56.160 Yeah, So let's let's get to. 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.080 Like you said, to the music right where. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.919 You go to la you get a deal within a 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.840 month of pretty much being there, which is unheard of. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:13.480 And do you immediately start recording like I mean, obviously 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.680 you had your demo, but I'm talking about now you're 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.680 life fully immersed into Megan Now. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.159 It was that was that was fun, and you know, 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:26.680 being a different Records was different too, because again coming 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.080 from the inner city, I'm in parties smoking weed with 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:34.159 guns n' roses and Joni Mitchell, Dedie Burkel, Peter gabriel 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.960 A's office, Like this is Don Henley. Fuck this guy, 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.520 you know, Like that's the nigga who made Hotel California. Yeah, 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.240 so definite epiphany for me. But I had I had 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.720 again an upper hand because I've always had this dual 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.400 Audi in my life, it seems because on one end, 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:56.000 I grew up in the project. I grew up in 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.560 Edenwall Projects in the Bronx. Then on the other end, 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.920 my family was fortunate enough to be able to ship 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.120 me to California or some of my aunt would send 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.480 for me and my sister. So I got a chance 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.600 to see Ella's life and that was obviously That's why 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.920 when I say what changed it, it really had a 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.520 lot to do with my aunt because her allowing me 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.359 to be around her the way she did and just 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.800 in a normal, non non entertainment way, Aunt nephew, it 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.479 really made me feel like I could touch it. Yeah, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:27.679 you know, and I'm sure all of us know what 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.520 that is because a lot of times, younger people come 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:32.960 to you and they feel like, man, if this dude 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.480 will talk to me and just share his wisdom and 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.560 just give me something that it's like jet fuel, You're like, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.840 I can go out and do the rest now. So 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.679 I started recording, started learning about the big studio, started 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:47.879 learning about big studio bills. 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:47.679 And. 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:54.920 Made a good record my first album. Unfortunately I wasn't 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:58.440 the executive producer of so I wasn't really to have folk. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.960 I didn't have folk control, but learned a lot. Geffen 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:08.040 was a great record label. They just didn't really label rock. 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.080