Speaker 1: And this drinks chess, motherfucking podcast makes he's a legends
Speaker 1: every Queens rapper.
Speaker 2: He ain't agreed as your boy in O r E.
Speaker 2: He's a Miami hip hop pioneer. What up his dj
Speaker 2: E f N?
Speaker 3: Together they drink it up with some of the biggest
Speaker 3: players you me and the most.
Speaker 4: Professional unprofessional podcast and your number one source for drunk
Speaker 4: drinks chants.
Speaker 2: Mother posty days, New Year CST.
Speaker 5: It's time for drink Champs.
Speaker 2: Drink up mother? What a good bee hoping to me?
Speaker 2: This is your boy n A O n A A
Speaker 2: one up his dj E f N and it's drink Champs. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when we started this show, we started this by
Speaker 1: saying that we wanted to give flowers to the people
Speaker 1: who came before.
Speaker 2: So people who paved the way for us.
Speaker 1: But people who are set, you know, all their market
Speaker 1: in this hip hop game.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Uh, these people in front of us are icons. They
Speaker 1: are more than legends. They are tycoons. I was so
Speaker 1: happy when we get to call that we get a chance.
Speaker 2: To interview us. So I want to do something.
Speaker 1: I want to do something personally, because we never had
Speaker 1: more than.
Speaker 2: Three artists at the time. So I want to pass
Speaker 2: them and let them introduce theyselves.
Speaker 1: We know the name of the rest of developmental know,
Speaker 1: I go create it to a question that to this,
Speaker 1: but I want everybody to introduce theyselves.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You gotta talk to the
Speaker 2: ladies because we were Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why I land, right, Okay,
Speaker 2: let's go, okay, okay, yeah, JJ buget from the at LS.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 6: This is for Rita a baby?
Speaker 1: Oh la okay, I'm one love okay, and speech from
Speaker 1: everywhere from because when you google you, it says Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: but you lived in Atlanta, but you got a soul
Speaker 1: named Tennessee.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: So, so let me ask all of y'all collectively as
Speaker 1: a group, how much do we hate to show arrested development?
Speaker 2: You're correct?
Speaker 5: Google?
Speaker 2: And that came up first, like me, bother. It bothered
Speaker 2: me so much. I was cursing about I don't even
Speaker 2: notice it, you.
Speaker 5: Never saw it.
Speaker 1: I was like them, we were talking about that earlier, right,
Speaker 1: because actually my very first album.
Speaker 2: Was called component Oriegga right.
Speaker 1: And and what I didn't know is when I signed
Speaker 1: my name, excuse me, when I signed for the deal,
Speaker 1: I signed my name.
Speaker 2: So that's why my next album, if you look at it,
Speaker 2: says n On right.
Speaker 1: Because I was in the process of buying back by name.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know you could sell your name. I
Speaker 2: would say, that's how naive I was. So let me
Speaker 2: ask y'all.
Speaker 1: Because you guys got Grammys, we're gonna go through all that.
Speaker 1: But how did like because I asked g Depp right,
Speaker 1: and g Depp was sitting right here and Lil Wayne
Speaker 1: had sampled this record, and I said, Gepp, how did
Speaker 1: you feel about that? And he said, on one hand,
Speaker 1: he enjoyed it because it was a new generation paying homage, right,
Speaker 1: But on on another hand, they didn't even have to
Speaker 1: clear it with him. So I want to ask all
Speaker 1: of y'all, like, you know, because you're all arrested Development,
Speaker 1: is that?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 2: How does how did that feel? When you first heard? It?
Speaker 8: Felt confusing because we heard it at the Super Bowl
Speaker 8: so day, many many years ago.
Speaker 9: Wow, And the announcer said, and.
Speaker 8: Coming up next is arrested Developership and I'm looking like, no,
Speaker 8: we ain't coming up.
Speaker 2: So I didn't get it.
Speaker 8: And it was a TV show, so I was confused
Speaker 8: to announce the TV show at that day, never announced it.
Speaker 9: First time announced it. They were saying it was coming
Speaker 9: on Monday or whatever, or tonight. Actually they were saying
Speaker 9: it was coming on tonight.
Speaker 8: And I was confused and so much the commentators on
Speaker 8: the super Bowl it was like you about the band,
Speaker 8: and it's like, no, it's a TV show. And so
Speaker 8: I found out that way and I was like, what's
Speaker 8: going on, Like I never heard of this. I don't
Speaker 8: know what's going on. So yeah, then we we sued them.
Speaker 1: Right, oh yeah, all right, so look look so I
Speaker 1: would make you feel better, let me go away.
Speaker 2: I feel better.
Speaker 1: I didn't know my record Superdug was in answerage who
Speaker 1: I watched Entourage.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so listen, everybody feel good. We don't like
Speaker 2: the result of that lawsuit, were you.
Speaker 9: We settled out of court.
Speaker 8: We settled out of court, but they we had the
Speaker 8: name trademark, so they want supposed you know, that we
Speaker 8: had a trademark.
Speaker 9: They were not supposed to use it. They just used
Speaker 9: it anyway.
Speaker 8: Wow, And they figured we was broke, that we had
Speaker 8: no way, you know, no means of fighting it, and
Speaker 8: so we was like, yeah, we had to go to
Speaker 8: court and everything.
Speaker 2: But for kids who's listening.
Speaker 1: That's something that you have to actually know, like there's
Speaker 1: other people who would come and take your name. You
Speaker 1: have to fight for it, especially if it's something that
Speaker 1: you noted his work fight for I'm glad to hear.
Speaker 2: That, make sure. So so it's it's amicable. It's amicable.
Speaker 8: It's able now, yes, now it was. It was weird
Speaker 8: at first though, for real, I still don't like the show.
Speaker 5: Exactly. A little bit.
Speaker 2: A little bit of the first.
Speaker 9: Episode and they made a joke about Babo j. I
Speaker 9: don't know if y'all don't know, they made a joke
Speaker 9: about one of our member that's our brothers recipes.
Speaker 2: J Yeah, and he was mean his grandfather, right.
Speaker 9: It means his grandfather.
Speaker 2: Didn't do what they were doing.
Speaker 9: They knew what they were doing exactly.
Speaker 8: But yeah, they made a few jokes about us a
Speaker 8: couple episodes, just little you know, little sucks, you know
Speaker 8: what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: Yeah, basically.
Speaker 1: So, so so let me ask you all this this
Speaker 1: famous big small line. It might sound cliche, but every time,
Speaker 1: you know, you get to hear you know, like a
Speaker 1: bad buddy doing a Super Bowl and you get to
Speaker 1: hear like you know, Kendrick, you know great race in
Speaker 1: these days. Did you ever think that hip hop would
Speaker 1: make it this far?
Speaker 9: You know what that is a great question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not for me.
Speaker 8: I didn't think it would make it, like meaning the
Speaker 8: super Bowl. You know what I'm saying, because I mean
Speaker 8: at that time for me, Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: That's what.
Speaker 9: Okay, So now I didn't I didn't think it would
Speaker 9: do the super Bowl. I knew, I knew it. I
Speaker 9: knew it should make it. Put it that way, you
Speaker 9: know what I'm saying. But yeah, what are you think?
Speaker 2: I agree? But you said I didn't think it would
Speaker 2: make it to the high school.
Speaker 4: It got to me it kind of got broad you
Speaker 4: know where you know, everything was kind of being called
Speaker 4: hip hop, and so it was being laid indoors that
Speaker 4: you know, what we thought was hip hop shouldn't necessarily
Speaker 4: be in hip hop. But I feel the same like
Speaker 4: a version of hip hop that i'mbly.
Speaker 2: So I didn't think it was, you know, to the extent.
Speaker 1: You know it's since you want to say, Okay, you
Speaker 1: know what's talk about me is if you asked me
Speaker 1: that question, I would think it was going that far
Speaker 1: because of you guys, Because I'm like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm forty eight, right, forty eight, so I'm
Speaker 1: like maybe a little younger, but like when I see
Speaker 1: y'all have that melodic, yeah, that sound that you knew
Speaker 1: it was still hip hop, like for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, like that's where like.
Speaker 2: Nate Doggs and you know, the Tea Pains kind of
Speaker 2: get that style from.
Speaker 1: Like the first time I ever see a melodic hip
Speaker 1: hop song that was still a hip hop.
Speaker 2: Song was you guys? So that's crazy if you ask
Speaker 2: me that out of the question.
Speaker 1: But but all right, boom moving on. Yeah, the Grammys,
Speaker 1: right like you guys got too, we got to Grammy
Speaker 1: you got.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry kids today that I'm sorry. I know some
Speaker 2: of some of you know and some of you and
Speaker 2: a lot of them. Listen, We're ain't a Grammy back then,
Speaker 2: it's right, that was opening doors.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they were not only representing black people, but
Speaker 1: but you also represent a whole genre of music. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't popular and then and then at that time
Speaker 1: you might have faced the backlash from your own peers.
Speaker 1: So so so describe to me, anybody who wanted to
Speaker 1: take this question, how was that moment in time.
Speaker 5: It was crazy. So we were up against Billy ray Cires.
Speaker 9: Like Billy was it Chris Cross maybe Chris Cross forget.
Speaker 5: Somebody else.
Speaker 2: Before they had category, had hit category, they had hip hop.
Speaker 5: Yeah they did. We got best best okay, So yeah
Speaker 5: the first time, I think, yeah, we were first rap.
Speaker 10: So we honestly thought that Billy ray Cyrus is gonna
Speaker 10: get it the best Cyrus pops, right okay. And so
Speaker 10: then they called our name and we were like what
Speaker 10: were just finished performing? And we went back out. It
Speaker 10: was just amazing, Like I mean, such an honor because
Speaker 10: people have been in the industry for years, legends, legends,
Speaker 10: they've never won Grande and then for our first time
Speaker 10: out and I just so happened to be sixteen at
Speaker 10: the time. We were all young in the early twenties,
Speaker 10: and it was just a blessing.
Speaker 1: And I believe that's the first time they televised it
Speaker 1: as well, so we got to see y'all eat.
Speaker 5: It's a good point.
Speaker 8: I think Fresh Prince in the wont something. But it
Speaker 8: wasn't television they were.
Speaker 2: Did they boycott that one? You know, I gotta be
Speaker 2: confused when I when I that everybody in hip hop
Speaker 2: tried to boycott. I think it was two.
Speaker 1: I think it was one with Will Smith and on
Speaker 1: the stage, and I think I think that's two separate ones.
Speaker 1: And I think when people bring that up, I think
Speaker 1: they mixed up the two.
Speaker 8: I don't think willing them was boycott necessarily. Maybe they was,
Speaker 8: but I forgot about it on our show, and we
Speaker 8: just forgot exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave it to him backstage.
Speaker 9: They gave it to him backstage, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: If you looked the footage from ours, you could tell
Speaker 3: it was like part of the first ones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right, But looking at it, looking at the
Speaker 1: Grammy shows from now to, do you see a more
Speaker 1: representation of the culture in it or That's.
Speaker 2: A great question to me.
Speaker 8: I feel like it can't really be said that it
Speaker 8: represents the culture perfectly everybody where it needs to be
Speaker 8: because tribes never won. I mean, so many people have
Speaker 8: never won a Grammy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: They get so much respect, right, I would say Nas
Speaker 1: didn't win one, but he won one, and we said.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he won one, his newer stuff, right right, So yeah, so.
Speaker 2: I can't say we have.
Speaker 1: That was on the Grammy campaign and he's let them
Speaker 1: have it, Uh.
Speaker 2: Wonder he's on he's like a little bit control all.
Speaker 1: But but I think that in my opinion, right, I
Speaker 1: think that hip hop is always just wanted a placements
Speaker 1: like like like like like when you when you see
Speaker 1: the rock and Roll Hall of Fame, right, yea, we
Speaker 1: know that's that's not ours right exactly, but we know
Speaker 1: it's still somewhat of an ironer like and we're going
Speaker 1: to salute We're going to sute him publican, I think
Speaker 1: that hip hop lead a full fledged awards show, like
Speaker 1: we had to Bet Awards. Everyone about it, but like
Speaker 1: like I mean, where it's where it's really the artist controls,
Speaker 1: not not not VC, not adventure capitalist?
Speaker 2: What do you what do you guys think?
Speaker 5: For me?
Speaker 9: Definitely that's exactly what question.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: The original Source Awards was Source Awards was don't but
Speaker 1: Zino and they've made we all owe your apology.
Speaker 2: We all the original source. Yes, they did a great job.
Speaker 2: We just did.
Speaker 9: The system was a great job made.
Speaker 1: I think the people because I was it little John,
Speaker 1: I forgot who who said it just recently was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we really don't have a platform where we're saluting ourselves.
Speaker 9: Like like that, and I agree with that.
Speaker 2: I think we're ready now.
Speaker 3: I think we're ready for something like that because the
Speaker 3: conversation is just bubbling and hovering.
Speaker 2: We're ready for something like that now. Yeah, we're sure
Speaker 2: enough multi generational now.
Speaker 3: I think we're mature enough to Yeah, because we're talking
Speaker 3: about it, but we can make it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even with old.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, even with the committees right,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know who these committees are, right, the
Speaker 1: community that people are, But what if this guy is
Speaker 1: a person that's just a risk guy that owns toys
Speaker 1: arrest and I know old school toys arrest, know, Like.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, Like like because because they never.
Speaker 1: Revealed who's in these committees, who actually does these vote tracts?
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't mind if it's always been off peers
Speaker 1: like like like like exactly, credible artist who's been through it.
Speaker 1: Maybe even when a Grammy, he's a credible artist that
Speaker 1: we respect and they be in charge.
Speaker 2: Like when you said Q Tip earlier, I.
Speaker 1: Thought of that automatically because I believe you Tip was
Speaker 1: mad at like what I believe it was cute, Tip,
Speaker 1: I forget what remember that he's credible, incredible, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so do you think that that would that that's what
Speaker 1: we need.
Speaker 2: We need our own committee, without a doubt.
Speaker 11: I think also, to be fair, hip hop is not
Speaker 11: a monolith. It's not just one thing. I think that's
Speaker 11: one of the things that's missing.
Speaker 12: Throughout the life of hip hop is that, you know,
Speaker 12: in the beginning, everything was different. You had the West
Speaker 12: Coast to East Cote, and everything that popped up was
Speaker 12: so unique that that was kind of celebrated because it
Speaker 12: was all hip hop.
Speaker 11: Now you have such a wide variety of what is.
Speaker 12: Considered hip hop that isn't always represented in the mainstream,
Speaker 12: and you need to celebrate at all.
Speaker 6: So if you had something like that, you can have the.
Speaker 11: Categories and not that that's been the old now that
Speaker 11: you don't have to be too old to be a
Speaker 11: hip hop no more.
Speaker 1: We had ghost based on this show, and that's what
Speaker 1: he was trying to say. I believe he said it
Speaker 1: like a better version.
Speaker 2: He said, Yo, it's.
Speaker 1: Messed up to say like hip hop and then you
Speaker 1: go morn and you see das music, you see like,
Speaker 1: you know, a snapping music. He said, there should be
Speaker 1: different versions of hip hops like.
Speaker 2: You know, like sub genres, genres we deserve that.
Speaker 8: I mean, our new album is called adult contemporary hip
Speaker 8: hop because of that, we felt like there needed to
Speaker 8: be more, you know, split it up, you know what
Speaker 8: I'm saying, Like it's like talking.
Speaker 1: To your pres Yes that I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean that's why like four four four is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite jay z Holbem is because like and that's
Speaker 1: and that goes against his his original albums is because like,
Speaker 1: I like who.
Speaker 2: He as is as a black man.
Speaker 1: Now he developed and I identify with that more like
Speaker 1: like being in the streets when we me not be
Speaker 1: in the streets. I can't identify with that. So I
Speaker 1: love I love like people making should that genre music
Speaker 1: be called that?
Speaker 2: Adult?
Speaker 9: I personally love it.
Speaker 2: It's dope.
Speaker 8: I think I think there needs to be different categories,
Speaker 8: whether it's adult contemporary hip hop or anything else. And
Speaker 8: then whether you know, whatever the newer styles of hip
Speaker 8: hop is, that's cool, but like have a few different
Speaker 8: categories because that makes sense to me. You know, a
Speaker 8: lot of young people ain't vibing with what we're vibing with,
Speaker 8: you know what I'm saying, and they feel left out
Speaker 8: when it's only when the discussion is about whatever we're like,
Speaker 8: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: Has a facilion genre like cre like that to discard
Speaker 7: whatever they think is old or different like everything else.
Speaker 9: Right, Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2: But but but but we would give them their lane too.
Speaker 1: They would have the new hip I will say, drill lane.
Speaker 1: But then there's a lot of like you need a
Speaker 1: committee for that though, something and and and that's something
Speaker 1: I always wanted to ask, because like, do you guys
Speaker 1: win in the Grammar? You guys with like conscious music,
Speaker 1: you never like, you know, like winning the Grammy. I
Speaker 1: can imagine the knights, the parties you guys are inviting to,
Speaker 1: especially back then, it's probably cocaine everywhere.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. And you know, I can imagine.
Speaker 2: But you guys stuck with your guns. I mean, but
Speaker 2: I imagine because I mean those days different, that's any murk.
Speaker 2: How did y'all maintain because you've.
Speaker 1: Never heard like nothing like not like when they're out
Speaker 1: here getting pulled over some speed in Like, how did
Speaker 1: y'all maintain that? No Instagram and y'all just got.
Speaker 2: Away with it.
Speaker 5: So we just I can't speak for Rocks we never
Speaker 5: really we don't drink smoke. Ross were kind of seeing but.
Speaker 10: Right, so yeah, we just I think for us, we
Speaker 10: were so busy and just focused on what we were,
Speaker 10: you know, just the whole energy of the group, you know,
Speaker 10: and we were representing the black community, all these different
Speaker 10: facets of it, you know what I mean, and the
Speaker 10: music just life music.
Speaker 5: We just wanted to stay in that vibrant energy.
Speaker 10: And then we were able to do shows with like
Speaker 10: we did a show like Lenny Kravis came up staying
Speaker 10: to stay to us.
Speaker 5: Then we did like a whole tour with all.
Speaker 10: These African artists, a lot of stuff that jazz festivals,
Speaker 10: we went.
Speaker 9: On, tour, folk festivals, festivals, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5: Artists weren't able to do at the time.
Speaker 9: We were we were the only ones able to do it,
Speaker 9: the only ones.
Speaker 5: So yeah, and I was like, way too y'all to
Speaker 5: be doing any type of drugs.
Speaker 9: Let me let me keep it real.
Speaker 8: I won't say any names, but there was there was
Speaker 8: people in the group struggling, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: with addiction and things like that. We we were dealing
Speaker 8: with that, but it just it wasn't what we were
Speaker 8: striving to like chase after a du but there was
Speaker 8: you know, some real things going on, but we just
Speaker 8: you know, we was the ones trying to save everybody
Speaker 8: from it, and like, you know, let's let's keep it
Speaker 8: focused on what we striving to do, because going.
Speaker 5: We just found a lot of that out recently. We
Speaker 5: didn't even know you in that time that they were struggling.
Speaker 9: Yeah, at least some of them.
Speaker 1: He realized one of the worst druggs in the world.
Speaker 2: Is fame.
Speaker 9: And the most addictive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I say this all the time.
Speaker 1: It's hard being the person on Monday and not being
Speaker 1: that person on win hard.
Speaker 2: And vice versus some people.
Speaker 1: So some people chase that fame and they chase they
Speaker 1: chase it and instead of chasing the art, you know.
Speaker 9: What I'm saying, So like and that's that's I think
Speaker 9: that's the best way to say it.
Speaker 8: Like for me, I was always trying to just focus
Speaker 8: on the art, like, stay focused on the art despite
Speaker 8: these distractions that was going on at certain little times
Speaker 8: in our in our group, you know, in our tribe.
Speaker 10: Well, I know one thing that kept me grounded to
Speaker 10: whenever I remember after we wanted the Grammys, I came home.
Speaker 5: My mom was like, I need you to walk down
Speaker 5: to the corner and give me some was.
Speaker 7: Mama kept it real, But I'm sure it's all also
Speaker 7: just as difficult to be to want to be that
Speaker 7: example to people and to be in that positive lane,
Speaker 7: that has to be just so difficult.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially at that time. But I got the battle
Speaker 2: in the n w A right like it was.
Speaker 9: Well, I'll tell you this.
Speaker 8: I come from Milwaukee, and the disparities between black and
Speaker 8: white was so clear cut in Milwaukee.
Speaker 9: We're I'm raised.
Speaker 2: It was known.
Speaker 9: Statistically as the worst place for black people to grow
Speaker 9: up in.
Speaker 2: Wow, I heard you say that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, And so I did see the disparities.
Speaker 8: And my mom and dad were both civil rights leaders,
Speaker 8: so my mom owned still owns to this.
Speaker 2: Day, biggest black publication there you go, the biggest.
Speaker 9: Black publication in all of Wisconsin.
Speaker 8: And so for me, I had this burning passion to
Speaker 8: bring other things to the table for hip hop, like Okay,
Speaker 8: we got this, we got that, we got this, Now
Speaker 8: we need this part too, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: And that's that was a big thing. So my point
Speaker 8: is is not being distracted just like, Okay.
Speaker 2: We're on that mission.
Speaker 9: We was on that mission.
Speaker 8: So as far as how hard it was, it was hard,
Speaker 8: but it was also the passion we had it since
Speaker 8: day one.
Speaker 9: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like, yeah, I was gonna say the other
Speaker 2: thing is it was.
Speaker 3: It was definitely our backgrounds how we came up, Like
Speaker 3: my dad's a pastor, my mom you know, like these
Speaker 3: community people.
Speaker 2: I hooked up with them. Yep, more community people, more
Speaker 2: community people.
Speaker 9: She's mom was a dancing truck helping our community, right exactly.
Speaker 5: The stuff was coming at us, but it wasn't.
Speaker 8: And think about what we was doing back in those days,
Speaker 8: like when we first started, we would do sound check,
Speaker 8: leave sound check and go where y'all remember community center,
Speaker 8: two community centers. We go to the projects. We would
Speaker 8: go to the projects and speak about things there. We
Speaker 8: go to the homeless shelters and speak about things that.
Speaker 8: We had two tours going on simultaneously. One tour was
Speaker 8: the shows at the night and then we had a
Speaker 8: whole other person named Dearrel who used to work with
Speaker 8: Bob Marla. She she was in charge of making sure
Speaker 8: we were going to the community centers every day every day,
Speaker 8: so tours like living that. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: so non stop, NonStop, and we all you know, helped
Speaker 8: us focus, you know, to what.
Speaker 5: Speech was saying about and rise about the upbringing.
Speaker 10: My mom was one of the first black on dance
Speaker 10: schools owners in the States, so I grew up with
Speaker 10: the artists and.
Speaker 5: Just you know, coming from a t L. Being born
Speaker 5: in the Swats, we had a level of black xcents.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Well Sea Low used to take dance from my mom.
Speaker 10: My mother talked him tapping jail.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I went to school Sleeping Grown.
Speaker 10: Yeah, so shout out to Sea Loan and Sleeping Ground
Speaker 10: went to We went to there together.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we used to He was in the dance group.
Speaker 5: I was in dance room a lot of and we go.
Speaker 5: Wave was in that grop like it's just the whole
Speaker 5: at L, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember going to a c L and please
Speaker 1: people from at I don't kill me. Well, I remember
Speaker 1: back then and I used to say.
Speaker 2: It's Brooklyn in the house. People were.
Speaker 1: Because I remember ATL at one point didn't have an identity.
Speaker 1: Was like when you look at it now, like I remember, uh,
Speaker 1: I think I think he was on uh be Hot
Speaker 1: be High TV and you're saying that I couldn't go
Speaker 1: to people with a record label because they had no no.
Speaker 2: No, nothing in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And I remember just looking at it now, like every
Speaker 1: record label.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 10: So I want to shout out some artists like Atlanta
Speaker 10: did have a sound, but it was just I think
Speaker 10: it was just more regional local at the time when
Speaker 10: we came out and kund Of exploded because it was
Speaker 10: t O C. Criss Cross, I think we were all
Speaker 10: around the same time.
Speaker 5: But Sammy, Sam, Hitman Sam and Sam right in the
Speaker 5: dream him, Yes, it.
Speaker 2: Was a lot of that's the sound we were saying
Speaker 2: the South, Oh yeah, from from because.
Speaker 5: From someone else, but.
Speaker 8: He yeah, I think he was from New York originally,
Speaker 8: I think, and then he came down to the land,
Speaker 8: but he was doing this.
Speaker 2: Every day.
Speaker 10: But he made his mark in the at so yeah,
Speaker 10: so they you know, we definitely had a sound and
Speaker 10: then he was Yeah, but it was just not as.
Speaker 9: Global, but it wasn't labels at that labels.
Speaker 6: Shout out to the DJ dj is in Atlanta.
Speaker 11: They created like a culture around our music and our
Speaker 11: sound that.
Speaker 6: Was a very specific DJ smurf.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, what I'm saying sort of evolution of that.
Speaker 2: I feel like I saw the episode.
Speaker 1: Of that because I felt like it was so much
Speaker 1: time that they was gonna, you know, keeping to say
Speaker 1: like they're from over here, like they're like like it
Speaker 1: was one thing for short deep for certain I know
Speaker 1: this is so simplistic, but it was the waffle House.
Speaker 2: We didn't have to We're like, like, you got a
Speaker 2: club at the fucking.
Speaker 1: Like the Flex Club going on to me like this
Speaker 1: leaving the show was like they're like, they're like, where
Speaker 1: you're going.
Speaker 2: We were like, yeah, where you're going?
Speaker 1: And they said the waffle House and was like they
Speaker 1: were saying that like it was something to Julian.
Speaker 2: And then even the strip clubs like when when what
Speaker 2: was it? Players Club? When when? When we heard that,
Speaker 2: we were like us in New York, we were like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, you'll throw money.
Speaker 6: We were like talking about the German's Club, the.
Speaker 2: Gentleman's Club that I never seen.
Speaker 1: That's the first time in Atlanta and then I came
Speaker 1: to Miami, but it was the first time where they
Speaker 1: chilled like they and they were eating, how they were
Speaker 1: breaking they records they were like and it was a
Speaker 1: certain type of job I believe Jamaine called the strip
Speaker 1: club music. He's like, there's also strip club music that's
Speaker 1: just made for just strip clubs.
Speaker 2: But I had never seen that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but let me actually ask you, right, because from Milwaukee. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe you said that. The day you graduated, I left,
Speaker 1: someone pulled out a gun on you. Facts and you
Speaker 1: had left. Yeah, but at the time, Atlanta is not
Speaker 1: the place that it is now. What made you choose
Speaker 1: Atlanta of everywhere else you could have went?
Speaker 9: So I used to spend all my summers in Tennessee.
Speaker 8: My grandmother's from there, my father's from there, everybody on
Speaker 8: my father's side, So.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 9: I fell in love with the South.
Speaker 8: I fell in love with the community, the self determination,
Speaker 8: like people was growing their own foods. They was poor,
Speaker 8: but they were able to barter and make things happen,
Speaker 8: and it was all in the community. I fell in
Speaker 8: love with that.
Speaker 2: So when I.
Speaker 8: Graduated high school, which I did horribly in high school,
Speaker 8: so I knew I needed to do something different in
Speaker 8: my life because I wasn't going anywhere.
Speaker 9: And I got this gun pulled on me at my graduation.
Speaker 2: And I said the actually graduation after you left.
Speaker 8: After I, and so I said, you know what if
Speaker 8: I don't. If I don't leave here, I'm not gonna.
Speaker 8: I think I won't make it because stuff was getting tight,
Speaker 8: and so I I wanted to go down south. So
Speaker 8: I went to Atlanta because Atlanta was it had first
Speaker 8: of all school, which is where I met Headliner, who
Speaker 8: was the first person I brought into the group was Headliner.
Speaker 8: He we met at Art Institute of Atlanta. So it
Speaker 8: was the one place that my low grade point average,
Speaker 8: which was a zero point nine, but my low grade
Speaker 8: point average could get into this school, the only school
Speaker 8: I could think of. So that's Atlanta was the place
Speaker 8: to come. Not to mention, it was a lot of
Speaker 8: progressive stuff coming up in Atlanta. It was like a
Speaker 8: little Africa like it was very progressive, Like people were
Speaker 8: thinking differently in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know, because what it is now is
Speaker 1: like it's almost baby Wakanda.
Speaker 2: That's what it was. Even more we didn't get to
Speaker 2: see that. Yeah, yeah it was. It was.
Speaker 8: It was a lot of like revolutionary stuff going on there,
Speaker 8: like the main community we grew up in, or at
Speaker 8: least I could speak for me and Headliner.
Speaker 9: We spent most of our time in West End. Well,
Speaker 9: West End is a very cultural center of Atlanta.
Speaker 8: All the Rosters, all the Africans, a lot of you know,
Speaker 8: Nation of Islam, Shrine of the Black Madonna, like all
Speaker 8: of these kind of like landmark.
Speaker 9: Places and so that's the area. And of course the
Speaker 9: HBCUs all of that exactly vegetarian.
Speaker 8: So so all of these places was where we used
Speaker 8: to hang out at. So it was sort of our
Speaker 8: like place to be, you know, it's where we felt
Speaker 8: the most comfortable, at the West End and the West End,
Speaker 8: West End which is still a dope culture there.
Speaker 1: So did it really take y' all three years, five months,
Speaker 1: two days, and did wow?
Speaker 2: It was like it's got to be true.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And the evolution of it all, it was really fun.
Speaker 5: So I mass speech and headliner, So my Ski and
Speaker 5: Bird we got a shout out.
Speaker 9: We got to shout out Ian birt Atlanta.
Speaker 10: I mean, if you were doing music in the nineties
Speaker 10: and and then blessed or touch it, it happened in
Speaker 10: the eighties, eighties, I mean speeching with eighty eight eighty nine.
Speaker 10: I was thirteen when I joined the group. My sister
Speaker 10: was offered the opportunity to dance, she didn't want to
Speaker 10: do it.
Speaker 2: So they want to dances, right, Yeah, I want her
Speaker 2: to dances.
Speaker 10: I went to the audition. I look because I love Come.
Speaker 10: I was dressed like come. We all did our audition
Speaker 10: and then we were together for a while. Then we
Speaker 10: had some people nicer ashtrak They came in some other dances,
Speaker 10: and then we met Rise and.
Speaker 2: Engaged.
Speaker 5: They were engaged.
Speaker 9: I think you all was engaged at the time we
Speaker 9: were working on it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, and when it was at a step
Speaker 5: show of Greeks, that's what we meant.
Speaker 9: Stuff we got booed on that show. We did miss
Speaker 9: the window we got, but it was ahead of his time.
Speaker 8: Atlanta was on a certain general I think it was
Speaker 8: ahead of his time. And and so for us, we
Speaker 8: were just doing crazy stuff like that they didn't get.
Speaker 8: And so yeah, they like, did you consider what you
Speaker 8: were doing? Experimenting?
Speaker 9: Like very much. So, But I'll say this, I got
Speaker 9: a shout.
Speaker 8: Out Dayla Soul because when they released three Feet High,
Speaker 8: or even when they released plug Tuning and stuff like that,
Speaker 8: they gave us permission.
Speaker 9: I didn't know them, but I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Meaning when they did it, it was like, okay, we
Speaker 8: could go further than because it worked and it.
Speaker 2: Was they were different and it worked, different worked.
Speaker 8: And it was dope, right, And so I always tell them.
Speaker 8: I tell them this all the time. And I used
Speaker 8: to call pass back then. I got his number from
Speaker 8: a sister named Kat and I would you want to.
Speaker 2: Be on Tommy boy?
Speaker 9: You can imagine? Was like, no, you don't want that.
Speaker 2: So it was like, no, do something different. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So you was raised Muslim? I was in California.
Speaker 11: Yes, Okay, my father is ma'am Okay, lame hot spun
Speaker 11: that's right.
Speaker 2: Mass Wow.
Speaker 12: And if we just finished the mass it there, We've
Speaker 12: been building it. He's been building it since I was
Speaker 12: in school there. It's just clear Muhammed and it's now
Speaker 12: a beautiful school.
Speaker 2: And Moss and he's.
Speaker 11: So dad yeah and I'm old, he's ninety four, like.
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, let's make it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because what was it?
Speaker 2: What was the fight for the religion? It was the
Speaker 2: joy that had.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that I never could understand, like
Speaker 1: of what religion I researched you.
Speaker 2: I knew you was a Muslim.
Speaker 1: But one thing that the group embraces is it feels
Speaker 1: like it's all religion. Is that something that could because
Speaker 1: it feels like it's Christians is down with y'all, it's
Speaker 1: father Sensus down with y'all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Am I accurate in assumption?
Speaker 8: In the beginnings it was just spirituality because for me personally,
Speaker 8: I really wasn't. I wasn't a Christian I was at
Speaker 8: that time. I wasn't a Christian. I was more so,
Speaker 8: you know, just just believer in spirituality, you know what
Speaker 8: I'm saying exactly. I was sort of on that tip
Speaker 8: at the time. And so, yeah, we embraced everything to
Speaker 8: some extent or another, you know.
Speaker 9: But it's funny.
Speaker 8: I did use a lot of talk like Lord, and
Speaker 8: you know, I say stuff like this, you know, Tennessee. Like,
Speaker 8: so I do think that it's sort of seeped into
Speaker 8: me from my grandmother, you know, just being raised around it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, But the gospel group they just labeled it
Speaker 3: conscious though. That was the easy way to talk about it,
Speaker 3: Call it conscious and conscious.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's the easy way to talk about it?
Speaker 5: Conscious's the easy way to accept all of it?
Speaker 3: Okay, exactly, we're just conscious, just conscious band, that's fact.
Speaker 9: That's fact because.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between conscious and backpack rack, right right,
Speaker 1: It's like I believe, like most is that all the
Speaker 1: people's party, And I assessed that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so well, okay, what's it called hold on? Hold on?
Speaker 2: Your father's club when you first learned how to dj?
Speaker 8: Yep, So my dad owned the night. He was a
Speaker 8: serial entrepreneur. So he started off with gas station. He
Speaker 8: had a fast food restaurant, he had a corn roasting business,
Speaker 8: and then he got this club corn roasting.
Speaker 2: I want to invest in that business. So he started a.
Speaker 9: Club called the Fox Trap.
Speaker 8: And at the Fox Trap, it was the best club
Speaker 8: in Milwaukee for black people. So everybody was going there.
Speaker 8: The DJs were crazy, but they weren't at that time.
Speaker 8: This is in the eighties at that time, eighty three
Speaker 8: somewhere in there. At that time, DJ's and Milwaukee at
Speaker 8: least weren't scratching and mixing and stuff. But I was
Speaker 8: because I was in love with like grahmm mix of
Speaker 8: dst and you know what I'm saying, like Herbie Hancock
Speaker 8: on the Grammys.
Speaker 9: Actually, when they did.
Speaker 2: Rocket, it was like that was my first time ever
Speaker 2: seeing scratch.
Speaker 9: So I was on that tip.
Speaker 8: So I learned how to do like the regular fades
Speaker 8: and stuff like that from the DJs. But then I
Speaker 8: was bringing to Milwaukee, you know, scratching and mixing and
Speaker 8: stuff like that.
Speaker 2: What was the name of the group, What was Attack?
Speaker 9: Attack was my first group, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And that was the first people on Whack in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: first black people at first hip hop's.
Speaker 8: It's argued that we're you know, there was another group
Speaker 8: that did like some kind of wrestling record that had
Speaker 8: rap in it, you know how like fat back, like
Speaker 8: you know, it's sort of like debated, but like, but yeah,
Speaker 8: we was one of the first without the questions.
Speaker 9: So it was probably the first or second, depends how
Speaker 9: you look at it.
Speaker 1: I went to Milwaukee one time and they had shootouts
Speaker 1: and pips. I was like, wait a minute, facts, I
Speaker 1: was like baseball team.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I want to talk about Tennessee, okay, because
Speaker 7: I was surprised to find out that this was the
Speaker 7: last record y'all recorded for that album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so what happened?
Speaker 8: We finished the record, We recorded the record album done.
Speaker 8: We did it in Milwaukee actually at a studio called
Speaker 8: Tracks thirty two, and then unfortunately my grandmother passed that
Speaker 8: same week my brother died, and so the last place
Speaker 8: I saw both of them was at my grandmother's funeral
Speaker 8: in Tennessee. So that song just was written out of
Speaker 8: pure motions, just like as you can see, you know,
Speaker 8: you can tell, you know what I'm saying with the
Speaker 8: with the lyrics and everything. So so you know, that
Speaker 8: was the last record we did, and we did that
Speaker 8: one at Bobby brown studio called boss Bosstown.
Speaker 9: He had a studio which is now stink Oni.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: So yeah, which is how good that record felt for
Speaker 2: me as a youngster. And I'm i'm uh.
Speaker 1: I was born ninety seventy seven, so I must have
Speaker 1: didn't pay attention to the lyrics and just pay attention
Speaker 1: to the feeling.
Speaker 2: I would put that record on for a good feeling.
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Here's because the melody and the message was so powerful
Speaker 1: that I might not never listened to the lyrics, so
Speaker 1: like I would take me to the place I didn't
Speaker 1: even realize you were.
Speaker 2: Saying out of this, like oh this might be with
Speaker 2: this record, like this is energetically a little bit, you know,
Speaker 2: so it is, but you know it's funny.
Speaker 8: Caris one called me one day, he called my I was,
Speaker 8: and I wasn't there. The answer machine picked up, and
Speaker 8: so he left a message and he's like, yo, speech,
Speaker 8: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: This ten years later, so it's like yo.
Speaker 8: It was so like it was encouraging to me because
Speaker 8: to me, that's a skill set, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: to be able to be able to talk about stuff
Speaker 8: that's really from your soul.
Speaker 9: But it doesn't bring you down. It lifts you up.
Speaker 8: And you don't even have to listen to it if
Speaker 8: you don't want the first time, Like the lyrical track,
Speaker 8: you know that track of it, you don't have to
Speaker 8: even be on that track, You just be on the
Speaker 8: five you know what I'm saying. It just that's the
Speaker 8: track you want to be on, you know. So it's
Speaker 8: just different people could get on different tracks listening to
Speaker 8: it a lot of times, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: Different different pathways or whatever.
Speaker 2: That's the power of music, though, it's the power.
Speaker 9: It's like I just I just saw what I saw
Speaker 9: and I felt what I felt exactly right.
Speaker 1: And every time I get it, it still goosebumps to
Speaker 1: this day, you know what I mean. I still remember
Speaker 1: the black and white video. I remember like Ralph McDaniel's
Speaker 1: I remember going to the jukebox, me trying to order
Speaker 1: it and get in trouble for you.
Speaker 2: So it's like it's like damn. And then years later
Speaker 2: I'm like, holy ship.
Speaker 1: As a as a lyricist, I'm listening to the lyrics,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you've been celebrating like almost.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: But then what's crazy about that is his what's the
Speaker 1: best thing about the group?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Is us all known? We come from Africa? Right, no
Speaker 1: matter what I don't keep, you're white, black, Germany's original whatever,
Speaker 1: you all, you all come from Africa. And the one
Speaker 1: thing about the act for him Proverbs is the family
Speaker 1: trade is the fact that like, you know, what's my
Speaker 1: man name, bob oj Like I love that even the
Speaker 1: story of you asking him, I wanted to elder person
Speaker 1: in the group at the time.
Speaker 2: I believe he was fifty seven or something like that,
Speaker 2: and it was just like when you hear that story,
Speaker 2: it's just like that's that.
Speaker 1: African uh, you know messages that we heard like how
Speaker 1: family was and how when they see it when they
Speaker 1: say when they say they take a village to raise
Speaker 1: the child, that's what.
Speaker 2: They talk about.
Speaker 1: The African villages and you sit there and when I
Speaker 1: look at the group always from from back then to now,
Speaker 1: I always say, damn, Like if I've learned something from them,
Speaker 1: I've always learned that the African caromatererie that y'all put together.
Speaker 1: And I even see like like like I kind of
Speaker 1: like kept going back to see like, you know, the
Speaker 1: interviews that was happening after the Grammys, and I'm sitting
Speaker 1: back and I'm saying, these guys have always been the same.
Speaker 1: They stayed the same, and that's a lot that's a
Speaker 1: lot harder to do. So let me get back to
Speaker 1: my original question is how hard is that?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 1: Because back then, uh, there was gang bangers, Like it
Speaker 1: really wasn't fly to where you know, it was the
Speaker 1: X Clan era for righteous teachers, and then that kind
Speaker 1: of like you know, you know, went out and then
Speaker 1: it was like gang banger's big, and you know, being
Speaker 1: a drug dealer was big, and then how how was
Speaker 1: it to navigate through that and still maintain who you are?
Speaker 1: I know I asked it in a different way, but
Speaker 1: I'm asking this musically now because like when you start
Speaker 1: to be along winning with this question, if you look
Speaker 1: at a lot of New York artists when when the
Speaker 1: South started to change, South started to take over a
Speaker 1: lot of New York artists started to play their bags
Speaker 1: with the South and change their their their their tone
Speaker 1: of music and try to see who they could fit in.
Speaker 2: What made y'all never want to fit in? For us?
Speaker 8: I guess the sort of good part about it for
Speaker 8: us was we was before a lot of that, so
Speaker 8: you know, it was before our cast was before. So
Speaker 8: for us, it was like, okay, you know we was
Speaker 8: playing it earlier. Mama is always on stage. We brought
Speaker 8: this like harmonica energy, you know, to the hip hop sounds.
Speaker 8: So it's like for us, it was just trying to
Speaker 8: be unique, trying to trying to bring that Southern energy,
Speaker 8: even the video Tennessee, making it in the rural South
Speaker 8: instead of in the city landscapes.
Speaker 9: Which is what New York was already on that right,
Speaker 9: So just trying to be different.
Speaker 8: It wasn't that hard because back then you were celebrated
Speaker 8: for being absolutely unique. Like if you can bring something
Speaker 8: unique to to some extent or another, you're going to
Speaker 8: be celebrated.
Speaker 9: Because that's what that was. What was, That's what it
Speaker 9: was about. You know what I mean, and no one.
Speaker 2: Sounded like each other prob exactly.
Speaker 9: So no, it was it was, it was dope, it was.
Speaker 2: It was easier for us because of that, because but
Speaker 2: it was still hard.
Speaker 8: Because I mean, here we are, like I was, like
Speaker 8: we was talking about when we got booed at the
Speaker 8: Step Show, A lot of the music that was coming
Speaker 8: out in the South at that exact time sort of
Speaker 8: had that.
Speaker 9: Miami based style.
Speaker 8: It was, you know, one twenty you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 8: one thirty piece per minute, and we're.
Speaker 2: Coming out with this other vibe.
Speaker 8: We was very influenced by New York, very influent. Well
Speaker 8: I'm from Milwaukee, so for me, I was very influenced
Speaker 8: by New York, but also DC go go music, the you.
Speaker 9: Know, house music from the Chicago.
Speaker 8: Chicago meant a lot to us, Like that was a
Speaker 8: big deal ninety miles away, an hour and a half away,
Speaker 8: so house was a thing, you know, the house music.
Speaker 9: So so all of those different styles we embraced it.
Speaker 8: And I'm the producer for the group, so that early music,
Speaker 8: I was producing that stuff too, so it was like,
Speaker 8: you know, I wanted to embrace all of that sound.
Speaker 8: So it was a little easier because there wasn't we
Speaker 8: wasn't expected to do a particular thing.
Speaker 3: We had all those energies though. Some of those energy
Speaker 3: like I'm from Jersey, the same area where so me
Speaker 3: and pr T from the same neighborhood exactly, and Wise
Speaker 3: and culture Freedom from the same neighborhood. So when I
Speaker 3: met speaking, so when I met them, the Jersey energy facts,
Speaker 3: the New York energy, the house energy, because.
Speaker 2: Jersey was big in house at that time. It was
Speaker 2: huge in the house.
Speaker 9: I agree, I agree, but I was probably into New York.
Speaker 3: Okay, So like Latin Quarter going to uh uh, I
Speaker 3: wouldn't say Red Para, that's way, that's way back.
Speaker 2: Uh what is it?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: Anyway, Mars? You know, so I was. I brought that
Speaker 2: energy to the band fast.
Speaker 3: So when we started performing, people knew, like, oh, he's
Speaker 3: from up top.
Speaker 2: But it's not just the Georgia energy, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So we had to cover he had New
Speaker 2: York Atlanta. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I feel like, for lack of a better term, y'all
Speaker 1: officially a global band.
Speaker 8: We are global at the end of the day because
Speaker 8: and it's funny because while hip hop obviously represents wherever
Speaker 8: you're from, right, I was on to me personally, I
Speaker 8: was on a tip. It ain't where you're from, it's
Speaker 8: where you're at, you know what I'm saying. So it's like, Okay,
Speaker 8: I love Milwaukee, I love Atlanta, I love like I said, DC,
Speaker 8: blah blah blah. So for me, it was just a
Speaker 8: matter of, well, this is what we're doing, this is
Speaker 8: what we're bringing to the table at all, exactly exactly
Speaker 8: in the past thirty.
Speaker 1: IM trying to say, you know what I believe or
Speaker 1: like I believe on certain job advocations they should ask
Speaker 1: hip hop right, like, because I believe some people religion
Speaker 1: into some people who raises really hip hop Like.
Speaker 2: Just no, I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1: Like I know people who I don't consider black white nothing,
Speaker 1: I just considered them hip hop.
Speaker 2: We could just sit there and just talk hip hop
Speaker 2: for nothing else.
Speaker 1: And that's like crazy because this music raised this person.
Speaker 1: He might have not been raised by me at all,
Speaker 1: it might have been for Portland, Oregon, but his knowledge
Speaker 1: of hip hop.
Speaker 2: He knows g rapp like I do. We used to
Speaker 2: talk about the hip hop flag that you wish to see.
Speaker 2: That always the hotels, you know, flag.
Speaker 1: Just think about it, right, that's crazy, so so think
Speaker 1: about and this is a real ship.
Speaker 2: I know I'm saying this like you know, bucking out,
Speaker 2: but I'm not wucking out.
Speaker 1: Like if you was to check into a hotel and
Speaker 1: you was to see the hip hop flag and you say,
Speaker 1: this is, by.
Speaker 2: The way, I have to follow all the rules. It
Speaker 2: doesn't mean I could break the rules because but like
Speaker 2: for lack of like like a soho house, but these
Speaker 2: people go to whole house and they respect the rules.
Speaker 2: They do it.
Speaker 1: Imagine we had a hip hop so whole house. Like
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I know I'm bugging out.
Speaker 10: Are you?
Speaker 2: Are you setting it up? Because you're doesn't this No, no.
Speaker 1: No, no no, I'm I'm speaking at to Paris because
Speaker 1: I ain't no clue how to do it.
Speaker 2: I have a clue how would it would look? You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm saying like like me doing that, like you know,
Speaker 1: you know, going to Hollywood and hanging out and these
Speaker 1: guys going hold these clubs is here, and the clubs
Speaker 1: is here, and I'm saying, Okay.
Speaker 2: Then one day I was with alchemists.
Speaker 1: And alchemist says to me, we're in Amsterdam, and he goes,
Speaker 1: I go, I can't smoke at my hotel, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to smoke. And in the coffee shop. He goes, well,
Speaker 1: you can smoke at my hotel. And I go, well,
Speaker 1: what is your hotel? Why your hotel is special? He goes, well,
Speaker 1: I'm at the hip hop hotel. And I went to
Speaker 1: his hotel. It was graffiti everywhere.
Speaker 2: It was graffiti everywhere, and I was like, holy shit.
Speaker 1: And it was smoke everywhere too, though, Like I didn't
Speaker 1: agree with this smoking.
Speaker 2: The lobby more. I was like, hold on, hold on,
Speaker 2: hold on, hold on, hold up to boss some type
Speaker 2: of because some type of some type of But what
Speaker 2: I thought.
Speaker 1: About it is I'm like, okay, if this is an
Speaker 1: eighteen years or older, okay, but that's not that's not it.
Speaker 1: I want hotels where it's like a hip hop hotel,
Speaker 1: which we're accepted, you know what I mean, Like like
Speaker 1: and when we deserved that at this point, and we
Speaker 1: have we have the bank, and we have the characters
Speaker 1: to get behind a person like I always I always
Speaker 1: said this, I always.
Speaker 2: Wanted chrest One.
Speaker 1: And we bring up Karris one and me and me
Speaker 1: and him been fighting for the hip hop union forever.
Speaker 1: I always would put the budget in Karos one hand
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 2: I would put it in Chris hands like this, like
Speaker 2: it's sang for hip hop. Yeah, like Curtis Blue, Harris
Speaker 2: One is involved.
Speaker 9: So you know we're doing that.
Speaker 1: There were in there, yea, because when you think about it,
Speaker 1: the only other entertainment that doesn't have a union is boxing.
Speaker 2: We're not that bootle bro.
Speaker 12: Come on, is American worldwide culture now? Like everything is
Speaker 12: influenced by hip hop?
Speaker 10: Fact?
Speaker 7: Yeah, the biggest cultural export from this country.
Speaker 11: The country the country wave now that's out double hip
Speaker 11: hop is a little it's trapped country now like that.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love it. I love to think
Speaker 2: about this hotel.
Speaker 13: You see because because architect, you know, I'm like this,
Speaker 13: but beyond that, beyond that, beyond the hotel.
Speaker 1: Flag, the flag when you look at the establishment, like
Speaker 1: what we look at the establishment.
Speaker 2: If you see, uh a Jamaican flag, you know, I
Speaker 2: this guy might have some good chicken, you know.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying, Like like like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: like my bad Jamaicans a little good that's all we get.
Speaker 1: Jamaica flag you mean like that, But you know what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say. So I always wanted to hip hop.
Speaker 9: Flag like wherever we go, Like does Alchemists actually have
Speaker 9: a hip hop There was a.
Speaker 2: Hip hop hotel when he was staying at it, and
Speaker 2: he told me, and I don't I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't know if he was.
Speaker 1: It was actually called the hip hop he called okay,
Speaker 1: but I walked in and we smoked, and I was like,
Speaker 1: holy ship. But I knew what he meant because they
Speaker 1: accepted our kind of like, oh no, I'm limited just
Speaker 1: smoking that because that's that's like, you know, it's very simple,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying it's totality.
Speaker 2: What it meant was, Yo, you.
Speaker 1: Want to a room, you would go through graffiti in
Speaker 1: rue room, You'll go like DJ in run room.
Speaker 2: And I was just like, oh, that's kind of like
Speaker 2: that's crazy. Yeah, years ago. That is years ago. I
Speaker 2: want to track back to the album.
Speaker 7: Again, okay, because we're talking about how you guys were
Speaker 7: experimenting making the music and it felt maybe different, right
Speaker 7: than what was going on at the time.
Speaker 2: How do you get a deal two years? Okay? My bad?
Speaker 9: And you know everybody turned us down.
Speaker 8: So and I often say this, I think you already
Speaker 8: picked up on this, Like we we shopped everywhere, you
Speaker 8: know what I'm saying, But they just was turning us down.
Speaker 8: And there was no labels in Atlanta at the time.
Speaker 8: This was before La Face La Face South came soon
Speaker 8: after us, but there was no labels that was doing
Speaker 8: hip hop at the time. So you it was a
Speaker 8: tough It was a tough you know road, and only
Speaker 8: one label, which is Chrysalis, took a chance on us,
Speaker 8: and they didn't give us an album deal.
Speaker 9: They gave us a single deal.
Speaker 8: The first deal was for mister Wendell with a B
Speaker 8: side of Natural and this wasn't created yet, this song Wow.
Speaker 9: So we signed that deal.
Speaker 8: And I don't even know if y'all know this part
Speaker 8: because my mom told me I had two years to
Speaker 8: try to make it in the rest of development in Atlanta,
Speaker 8: and if I didn't make it, she said, you're coming
Speaker 8: back to Milwaukee and you're going to school. We didn't
Speaker 8: make it into year, which is why that three years
Speaker 8: school teacher, right she was, and you know that publisher
Speaker 8: this paper, and so two years it didn't happen. So
Speaker 8: I went back to Milwaukee, and that's why we ended
Speaker 8: up recording in Milwaukee. We got the single deal three
Speaker 8: years five months and we got that single deal and
Speaker 8: we ended up recording the album in Milwaukee, and then
Speaker 8: that single you Know a Little, the last thing.
Speaker 9: We did and that was in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: The album was.
Speaker 5: What speech was saying.
Speaker 10: I think we did a lot of shows, like back then,
Speaker 10: it was a lot of showcases and stuff.
Speaker 5: We performed all the time.
Speaker 9: All the time. Every weekend shows we did V one on.
Speaker 10: Three would have like stuff like that, we didn't do them,
Speaker 10: and so we were constantly like performing. We used to
Speaker 10: rehearse eight hours a day, and at this place called rehearse.
Speaker 5: Too much, and so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, jam.
Speaker 10: We started going to crossovers and rehearsing there all the time.
Speaker 10: I think we were the first hip hop out of
Speaker 10: crossover studios, So I think that.
Speaker 5: Has something to do with it too. And then I
Speaker 5: remember the year we did Jack the Rappers.
Speaker 10: So we did Jack the Rappers, and I remember when
Speaker 10: we did the performance, no one was in the room.
Speaker 5: No woman, no one heard, no one was. Let me
Speaker 5: tell you the power of the of the.
Speaker 10: Music vibrationally, we started playing one by one, then Naughty
Speaker 10: by Nature, I mean.
Speaker 9: And after the whole room was just packed out with
Speaker 9: just these people that we look up to.
Speaker 2: And this is the first time you're performing as Atlanta Group.
Speaker 10: Well yeah, and so after that, that's when I feel
Speaker 10: like everything kind of just took off.
Speaker 9: It was a very raw show.
Speaker 2: It was it was.
Speaker 10: It was a beautiful, vibrational thing. And I want to
Speaker 10: say the rest of open to me. We always have
Speaker 10: that vibrational energy, like when we come on stage.
Speaker 5: I think it moves.
Speaker 1: About y'all, me doing the research and seeing flyers and
Speaker 1: seeing y'all. Like some cases the groups, I was like
Speaker 1: they was there was the logical people tonight.
Speaker 2: Everybody had to see you like this is now that
Speaker 2: we're good? Yeah?
Speaker 10: You know that good?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So how about Easy? I was your ladyship with Easy?
Speaker 9: I never met you?
Speaker 2: Never met Easy? Okay, I never met Easier?
Speaker 9: Did y'all have you all met?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 9: I met you?
Speaker 2: Okay? And that was interesting? Okay because wait, wait, what
Speaker 2: about the airport? Wasn't that Easy at the airport?
Speaker 14: Tell me more?
Speaker 9: Maybe we were.
Speaker 3: Walking in the airport one time and they were together.
Speaker 3: This is when all the together can walk because they
Speaker 3: were gangster.
Speaker 2: We like, you know, we ain't know what we can
Speaker 2: speak about. We got going, you know, you're in an air.
Speaker 3: Going in the morning, and I think it was easy
Speaker 3: to say why they're to speak to us because he
Speaker 3: knew it was us.
Speaker 2: Somebody came and got us and we walked back. Okay,
Speaker 2: I didn't know that all right, So we walked back.
Speaker 2: We said was something that we went on the car.
Speaker 8: We definitely see I'm a huge fan of n W A,
Speaker 8: like a huge fan, so I mean, for me, it was.
Speaker 8: But I will say I now get what at that
Speaker 8: time period, we were sort of pitted against gangst to
Speaker 8: hip hop, and I think it was mistaken because I
Speaker 8: would get on stage and say a lot of our
Speaker 8: peers are calling black women bitches and holes.
Speaker 9: We're not down with that. But we weren't saying anything
Speaker 9: bad about those that were down with that. We're just
Speaker 9: saying we're not down. We're trying to do something different.
Speaker 8: But I understand how that could have been misconstrued as
Speaker 8: like we're dissing you know, anybody that's not you know
Speaker 8: what I'm saying, Like absolutely, So I think I think
Speaker 8: that's why we were probably in a in a zone
Speaker 8: of are we speaking like are we cool?
Speaker 9: You know?
Speaker 2: What I'm saying.
Speaker 7: It's funny you said, because we had come on last
Speaker 7: week and I didn't know that he was on the
Speaker 7: n w A tour with play and.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is this just makes so much sense.
Speaker 2: We just literally had said you come up with I.
Speaker 9: Mean it's a master like a boy Jains.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: For us, it was, you know, it was it was
Speaker 8: a little and plus our song people every day, I
Speaker 8: said in a lyric and I in ice Cube, but
Speaker 8: I had to take the brother out for being rude
Speaker 8: and to read. One of our members said who and
Speaker 8: she knew who he was. But so that was that
Speaker 8: I think came off to ice Cube is like maybe
Speaker 8: a disc And so when when we when I met him,
Speaker 8: we were at one of the award shows and I
Speaker 8: met him and he didn't want to speak, so he
Speaker 8: just gave me.
Speaker 9: That that famous ice cube.
Speaker 2: Look up. It was all good and I seen the record.
Speaker 7: For people that don't understand what's.
Speaker 12: Interesting about that time was I was in California at
Speaker 12: my dad's school and arrested. Development was at the heights
Speaker 12: of it. And because of the type of messaging that
Speaker 12: was like the set, because it was we was listening
Speaker 12: to all the ice tea ice cube and my brother, who's.
Speaker 6: Years older than me, he was all into that.
Speaker 12: So it was kind of like refreshing to have hip
Speaker 12: hop that was also okay for nine year old me
Speaker 12: to be listening to.
Speaker 6: And we was listening to all of it. But then
Speaker 6: when MTV.
Speaker 12: Came out and videos, was like, okay, now we're finn
Speaker 12: to see what these groups look like. And you see
Speaker 12: the group and they're in the rural countries and they're
Speaker 12: driving to pick up I'm you know, we're going back
Speaker 12: and forth from l.
Speaker 9: A to Georgia.
Speaker 12: So in l A you got the snoops and the
Speaker 12: you know, the l A vibe, and then you got
Speaker 12: Atlanta and and you being.
Speaker 6: There you know what it's like, but you know the difference.
Speaker 6: But it was like, wow, I can relate to this.
Speaker 2: I see, that's what I want.
Speaker 6: That's because in all the other wrap, you gotta end
Speaker 6: up up uh. To our Crew, my brother loved to
Speaker 6: to our Crew.
Speaker 12: The album cover, we're growing up where you had to
Speaker 12: be yeah, and you have to be you know, more
Speaker 12: conscious of females, queendom and all that, and that's what
Speaker 12: this group represented.
Speaker 2: So my my dad, my stepdad was to tell you.
Speaker 12: It's like, Okay, yeah I saw and I was like,
Speaker 12: we can still be hip hop and not represent that.
Speaker 2: Women right now? Whoever is is that rhapsody?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we love big fan of rap that comes from
Speaker 1: from direct from this lenient.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think the best, in my opinion, the
Speaker 7: best place for hip hop is when there's balance.
Speaker 2: In hip hop. Which is that balance?
Speaker 9: Definitely?
Speaker 12: Yeah, you point about having the the hip hop kind
Speaker 12: of coalition.
Speaker 11: It's like you can represent all of it and give
Speaker 11: it balance that you don't right now.
Speaker 6: It's so one sided. You only hear one see that.
Speaker 8: That's what I liked about those tours that Kwame was
Speaker 8: talking about, Like we were all touring with each other.
Speaker 2: You know, agredible to me, same tours.
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying, different region life and everybody
Speaker 8: represents exactly.
Speaker 12: I introducing every crowd a different thing. And so now
Speaker 12: if you weren't a fan of this or that when
Speaker 12: you got there, now you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah we did. That was in Alaska. Oh Ship white
Speaker 2: Clapp was on the bill. Okay, he's opening for us.
Speaker 5: Wow, you're shouting from the stage, arrested the unups contixt.
Speaker 2: Who's we wanted to be him. I can see it
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 5: It's like we model ourselves after arrested the untain.
Speaker 2: He's telling the audiences, so you can clearly see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple of years later, we can do a
Speaker 1: show with the Black Eyed Bes in Jerusalem. Wow, the
Speaker 1: last time of all back stage speech man, we wanted
Speaker 1: to be you guys when we started.
Speaker 2: We wanted model.
Speaker 9: The rest.
Speaker 1: I can see it, and not only that, you could
Speaker 1: see even like you know the Pharrals, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, which which is for my solo career, which
Speaker 1: means that I might not exist without me and his
Speaker 1: commodity together. And so you can see, like I said,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better terms, we can see your sons.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 15: But not I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not justing nobody.
Speaker 1: And but I think they'll agree with it too, because
Speaker 1: like that was like that was one of the first
Speaker 1: feel good hip hop moments for me, Like watching the
Speaker 1: rest of the better, watching what you guys are doing.
Speaker 1: And then here's here's what I wanted to know as
Speaker 1: a personal question, one thing about me, Helen like super
Speaker 1: Doug what what what what? And then I come out
Speaker 1: with another record. Oh well, let's not super dumb, and
Speaker 1: then cool I come out with Grimy and well, let's
Speaker 1: not super don and I come up with home Boy,
Speaker 1: I Can't a Body finally, and they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: that's better than super dumb, but is it? And then
Speaker 1: I come up with the next record and that's not.
Speaker 1: I gotta keep doing. Like you guys have major hits?
Speaker 1: Were you guys like what is it of your own success?
Speaker 2: Like you know what I mean? Because like when you
Speaker 2: met a year, watched it.
Speaker 1: Because you make Tennessee and then you know, you drop
Speaker 1: another record and they're like, well, it's not tennis.
Speaker 2: It's like you can't be tennis.
Speaker 5: We're not trying.
Speaker 14: To do that.
Speaker 1: So like like like of course or lustrious career, but
Speaker 1: you guys got these these super major records.
Speaker 2: That does it haunt you? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2: It does for me because I got you ton't me so.
Speaker 8: Because it's haunted because you're wondering if if the fans
Speaker 8: ever let you get past that particular thing and really
Speaker 8: embrace this thing which you're excited about, like you're in
Speaker 8: this moment now, you know what I'm saying. So it's
Speaker 8: not like you don't appreciate that moment, but you're in
Speaker 8: this moment.
Speaker 1: They don't sometimes let us go to that moment exactly,
Speaker 1: I see you having to say. Or the other day
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, I realized your fans are
Speaker 1: like your parents.
Speaker 2: They don't want you to grow up sometimes. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. You know that's what something to and
Speaker 2: think about it. If you think about it, that's.
Speaker 1: Their selfish needs because they don't want to grow up.
Speaker 2: They don't that time and.
Speaker 1: That you understand that time and that life was so perfect,
Speaker 1: and they're like, why are you growing?
Speaker 2: Why are you wear a suit? Now? Can you go
Speaker 2: back to the plea? I can't wear a suit one time,
Speaker 2: but you can put it on a tux.
Speaker 9: But I like what jay Z said.
Speaker 8: He said in one of his lyrics, basically like if
Speaker 8: you want to listen to that, go back to that stuff.
Speaker 9: But this is what I'm doing now, Like why did
Speaker 9: I go back? You know what I'm saying? Like it
Speaker 9: was Blue playing three, he was talking about that, Yeah,
Speaker 9: what we talk about. I think that was the song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But you have been haunted by this definitely. Okay,
Speaker 1: not only through the record labels, but through the fans
Speaker 1: to the fans questions.
Speaker 9: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 12: When you're doing the show and you start the show,
Speaker 12: start the show, and.
Speaker 1: Y'all got major, like y'all should have major major, Like
Speaker 1: with all love and respect to y'all, like y'all broke
Speaker 1: genres of music like like it was.
Speaker 16: It was.
Speaker 1: It's still a hip hop record, but it was played
Speaker 1: and it was like everywhere you went you heard this record,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like no matter where, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter what part you was at or whatever. So
Speaker 1: I know how hard that ship is and people come
Speaker 1: out like you know. I had one dude one time
Speaker 1: I was performing It's about me. He was like bloody money.
Speaker 1: I was like, the fuck man, like bloody money and
Speaker 1: no disrespect. So I couldn't tell you this disrespect.
Speaker 2: But it's like you got to shut up.
Speaker 1: But okay, so okay, flowers, man, listen. The show was
Speaker 1: about giving people they flowers appreciate.
Speaker 2: Man. I'm really like, man, you guys, what you did.
Speaker 1: Is legendary, but you continue to do is legendary. I
Speaker 1: love the fact that y'all still in the row.
Speaker 2: Other facts.
Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, they're gonna do sound check, right,
Speaker 1: now I said, damn, still, you told her like a wrestler.
Speaker 6: Let's do that like.
Speaker 2: Ste yes, yes, literal flowers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, this is crazy, ridiculous, it's better than you know.
Speaker 2: It's not a graphic, but.
Speaker 1: Because what you did is really really legendarius, ground breaking.
Speaker 9: I mean, I need to give you all these because.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, don't take yeah, but write my car.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be.
Speaker 1: This is crazy what you did, and y'all continue to do.
Speaker 1: It's legendary.
Speaker 2: Man. We all owe you, you know, hip hop owes you.
Speaker 2: Or the fact that y'all.
Speaker 1: Stayed down, the fact that y'all stayed family. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that is the first thing is.
Speaker 2: People people can't stay together two months.
Speaker 1: You've been together for decades. That's beautiful. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that to people to to just them. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that to people to here goes an example that you
Speaker 1: can you can actually do this.
Speaker 2: And here's a question I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: Right, you know, all the time the record labels would
Speaker 1: would always see that the guy artist, they call him
Speaker 1: the lead artists and call him the you know, the
Speaker 1: producer or whatever, and they always try to get him away, right,
Speaker 1: They always say, yo, you know what you can do
Speaker 1: the rest of development, But what do you think of
Speaker 1: about doing your own solo and doing your own and
Speaker 1: breaking off and you doing that?
Speaker 2: What made you not anticipate doing something like that?
Speaker 9: You know, It's funny because there was a lot of
Speaker 9: that going on, but on a micro level.
Speaker 8: So like at photo shoots, you would see the photographers say, hey, speech,
Speaker 8: come up to the front, come to the middle, do this,
Speaker 8: do that, headliner, you go back to the back, you know,
Speaker 8: like and.
Speaker 9: Those kind of things was happening all the time. I
Speaker 9: don't think the label ever told me to try to.
Speaker 8: Do a solo career. I did do a solo career,
Speaker 8: but it was after we took a break. We took
Speaker 8: a break from ninety five to two thousand. During that
Speaker 8: time period, I did start a solo career, but the
Speaker 8: label didn't push me to do that. So I would
Speaker 8: say that from a group perspective, I don't think they
Speaker 8: ever really the label ever really tried to make it like,
Speaker 8: you know, a speech thing or a headliner thing.
Speaker 10: I don't remember that, you know, Okay, yeah, I mean
Speaker 10: we had we definitely had our issues.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, definitely had issues.
Speaker 10: But I think what's so important is just getting together
Speaker 10: and talking things through speech. And I like a few
Speaker 10: months back, we had a beautiful conversation about the earlier
Speaker 10: years because I've known this man since I was thirteen
Speaker 10: years old. So it's like it's kind of those type
Speaker 10: of relationships regardless of what you go through, you're gonna
Speaker 10: make it. You're gonna make it and so and we've
Speaker 10: been able. Like now my role position, so to speak,
Speaker 10: is I've been doing a lot of stuff behind the scene,
Speaker 10: producing with speech on.
Speaker 5: Videos and you give what I mean, and so and
Speaker 5: and rise.
Speaker 10: You know, we do like special shows because we're you know,
Speaker 10: two of the original members, so we have special shows
Speaker 10: with a group and I just am so grateful for
Speaker 10: these people here that are continued in the legacy and
Speaker 10: keep us right. So I mean, it's just at the
Speaker 10: end of the day, it's so important to just come
Speaker 10: together and heal. And I think we had a lot
Speaker 10: of time to heal over the years. You know, speech,
Speaker 10: you know, I know, he if you're okay, I know
Speaker 10: I notice been publics, but he was sick and sometimes
Speaker 10: you know, I've been I'm a breast cancer survivor, have
Speaker 10: been through different things and when.
Speaker 5: You when you face things like that in life.
Speaker 10: You like, you know what, my little tiff with him
Speaker 10: or her, it really ain't that important. What's important that
Speaker 10: you know, we we can feel good about being in
Speaker 10: each other's space and really loving each other for really,
Speaker 10: you know, like genuinely really loving each other and caring.
Speaker 1: Because the one thing that seems like your group has
Speaker 1: expanded absolutely as opposed that, like most people like they
Speaker 1: get trapped in this industry and they say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I got to.
Speaker 2: Split the pot four ways, yea. And the fact is, like, that's.
Speaker 1: Why I broke up to a freaking family thing is
Speaker 1: because I feel like it's I feel like to y'all
Speaker 1: outside of looking at the inside of looking out, I
Speaker 1: feel like family is more deeply rooted into y'all.
Speaker 8: Really important with us. It's a big deal with us. Vibrations,
Speaker 8: that energy, like all of that stuff. We talk about
Speaker 8: a lot in this crew, and it's a very big
Speaker 8: deal for how we run things. We run things very
Speaker 8: different than a lot of other people do, but it
Speaker 8: works for us.
Speaker 5: Seeing everybody's growth has been.
Speaker 10: So beautiful, beautiful because we listen, we's like.
Speaker 11: Would to that point.
Speaker 12: One of the things that I loved about being in
Speaker 12: this in this group is that if you've ever been
Speaker 12: in the band, you're a part of the band. Everybody
Speaker 12: from from early days, so if you've done a couple
Speaker 12: of shows, you're part of you're a part of the band.
Speaker 11: And when I came after.
Speaker 12: She speech never was like, Okay, she did this, so
Speaker 12: you gotta do this is what she did, so you
Speaker 12: got to do exactly what she did. He's the everybody's
Speaker 12: unique thing that you bring to the band is the band.
Speaker 11: That's the band, not one particular vibe.
Speaker 12: It's like we we all bring the energy, like there's
Speaker 12: a foundational energy that's that needs to be there that
Speaker 12: anybody that has been in the in the band embodied
Speaker 12: that energy.
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot of women that's rocking ball has now.
Speaker 1: She was like the originator.
Speaker 5: And you know what, Dion rocked one too, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I love.
Speaker 2: Like back then it was looked at like an Apple Central.
Speaker 5: South too.
Speaker 2: I got oh wow, I did you know.
Speaker 5: A lot of men will say why did you cut
Speaker 5: your hair?
Speaker 10: That's your glory and but I just felt comfortable like
Speaker 10: that headline used to cut my hair.
Speaker 2: Okay, headline, okay, headliners.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I would be walking around. Yeah, bald head.
Speaker 10: I mean I just recently started warning back now, but yeah,
Speaker 10: I loved it. It was such a freedom in it.
Speaker 10: And even now when like when I went through my breast,
Speaker 10: hands out shape, you know, shave it off started all over.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I still do it. Okay, okay, okay, because
Speaker 2: you're knowing for that one.
Speaker 5: The blind and short blind.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do a quick time I think. Okay, you
Speaker 2: got your said it all right. This is our drinking
Speaker 2: game that we're gonna play. Obviously, you don't whenever you're drinking.
Speaker 4: Michael B.
Speaker 5: Jordan's drinking.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, okay, I got socky. That's different. I don't
Speaker 2: know what soot.
Speaker 7: We're going to give you, guys two choices, and you
Speaker 7: pick one and we don't drink. But if you say
Speaker 7: both are neither, so basically you don't really want to
Speaker 7: answer the question, then we all drink.
Speaker 16: Some of us say one.
Speaker 7: I mean, this is disorganized anyway, But the real, the
Speaker 7: real point of this is not to peck people against
Speaker 7: each other the question. It's really to bring up any
Speaker 7: any stories you might have with that's really it's really
Speaker 7: to bring up names because we want to talk.
Speaker 2: About, you know, positively about people. Thank you, ad appreciate
Speaker 2: it all right? Public enemy or n w A who
Speaker 2: you pointing at? We're gonna start with.
Speaker 9: Public enemy, public enemy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tribe called quests or brand new.
Speaker 7: View quiz quests big l or Biggie.
Speaker 2: Big big, big girl. Okay, I think you might have
Speaker 2: to drink just because.
Speaker 1: I caught that let's do it was beef Okay, rock him? Okay,
Speaker 1: rest one, that's that was both, but that we gotta drink.
Speaker 2: Cheers. I like drinking out cast ghetto boys.
Speaker 6: I don't even know who else you said.
Speaker 2: Okay, I.
Speaker 7: Don't remember any stories, but anybody we mentioned, if you've
Speaker 7: got a story that pops off means telling us obviously outcasts,
Speaker 7: you know that's.
Speaker 5: From them, absolutely form one that they got their name
Speaker 5: from the the dreads.
Speaker 9: Because I say outcast, I don't know. I'm not saying
Speaker 9: they did, but I don't.
Speaker 2: Know if they did or not.
Speaker 5: I danced in their Rose Parks video.
Speaker 10: Video.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, shout out how can Yeah?
Speaker 9: Our cast is major?
Speaker 8: I mean and and to me, to me, they always
Speaker 8: anything that they might have been inspired by by what
Speaker 8: we did. They took it so much further and that
Speaker 8: always just blows my mind, like how far they took it.
Speaker 12: As much as we love our cast, I do know
Speaker 12: all words of my my mind playing trees.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, planets. I just wanted to say, I just
Speaker 2: wanted to say something back to you. Just you know,
Speaker 2: my mind's playing tricks on me. I'm a grown ass man.
Speaker 2: I still get kind of scared when I still.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I smoked out with.
Speaker 2: Wild Man. Yeah, he's a different one.
Speaker 8: I used to promote shows. So I used to do
Speaker 8: concerts and I brought outcasts. I brought there's somebody else,
Speaker 8: goodie mob outcasts, Fujis brought Fuji So like for me,
Speaker 8: like where were these shows at in Atlanta? I used
Speaker 8: to promote huge shows, well huge rap shows in Atlanta,
Speaker 8: and so yeah, I brought all of them to the shows.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and I'm assuming early on, right in their careers, early.
Speaker 9: On, h early on, but what they was already, they
Speaker 9: was already huge, you know, like doing their things. You
Speaker 9: know what I'm saying. But there's it was. It was great.
Speaker 9: It was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, far Side or Souls a Mischief, which.
Speaker 8: We too with them, just we literally just got off
Speaker 8: the road with them, and and I think They have
Speaker 8: a tour right now for Sight and Soul of mischie
Speaker 8: shows right now, which is yeah, yeah, we would love.
Speaker 9: To do shows with Souls and.
Speaker 12: Shout out to the far Sight. I went to school
Speaker 12: with the Flips, shout out the six Way.
Speaker 9: Yeah, heavy D or your rock.
Speaker 2: Heavy heavy D.
Speaker 9: I was.
Speaker 6: Heavy dance.
Speaker 9: Recipe. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: I love this question right here, X clan or parts teachers.
Speaker 12: Me.
Speaker 9: I'm gonna say X clan, But I like righteous teachers.
Speaker 9: I love both of them.
Speaker 2: But plan came teachers right so very close.
Speaker 9: Actually, yeah, you're drinking.
Speaker 2: All right. Main source of third Base m for me,
Speaker 2: It's gonna be main source for me. It's third Base.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 9: Main source.
Speaker 6: Main source from popcorn.
Speaker 9: Yeah, we got popcorn from third Base from I'm gonna
Speaker 9: interesting story.
Speaker 8: We did a show with Third Base arrested Development and Naughty,
Speaker 8: and I was backstage with Trench Search and speech and
Speaker 8: I didn't know all my career people come up to
Speaker 8: me and say yo trash or yo search, but I
Speaker 8: didn't know what was happening to them too. He took
Speaker 8: a special picture just exactly.
Speaker 9: All of us have been mistaken all the time by
Speaker 9: people saying speech you know, yeah, it's hilarious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, run DMC or Beastie Boys.
Speaker 9: That's a really good one. But I have to say
Speaker 9: Brandy would.
Speaker 2: Say Indian like they would say.
Speaker 9: Least these were incredible to.
Speaker 12: Sleep to, revolution, crazy and incredible for everybody black m.
Speaker 2: J or Michael Jackson. I mean, Prince, we know what gonna.
Speaker 11: Say, but I'm saying Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Says Princes from the Lake of Miltitoba.
Speaker 8: But I mean, to me, it's just all the instruments
Speaker 8: the brother played all he was crazy with it. He's
Speaker 8: you know, he's not just an amazing and entertainer, which
Speaker 8: he was, but he was also just this multi instrumentalist, songwriter, producer.
Speaker 9: I mean, I mean, come on, you know.
Speaker 2: Story got a million? Which one do you think about this?
Speaker 5: I was thinking of the one when he invited us
Speaker 5: to the club.
Speaker 9: Tell me that story, cause I forget about.
Speaker 2: The loss thing happened.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, okay, so yeah, so okay, now I know
Speaker 8: what you're talking about. So Prince, I'm a uge fan
Speaker 8: of Prince. I sampled Tennessee his word from Alphabet Street.
Speaker 8: He says, I want to take it to my back
Speaker 8: seat and drive a to Tennessee, and I grabbed that
Speaker 8: Tennessee for Tennessee.
Speaker 9: And sample it throughout the song, and the song went.
Speaker 8: To it was going up the charts and went to
Speaker 8: number one on the rap charts, number one on the
Speaker 8: R and B charts, and then it went to number six,
Speaker 8: I want to say, on the pop charts or whatever
Speaker 8: they call it, the hot one hundred. And the day
Speaker 8: it went down to number seven, our office got a
Speaker 8: call from Prince saying he wanted some money for that,
Speaker 8: that that word Tennessee, and so we had to pay
Speaker 8: him a hundred thousand dollars, which was.
Speaker 9: Then exact back then.
Speaker 8: And the truth is he gave he did us a
Speaker 8: favorite because that could have been he could have told
Speaker 8: us to take it off the shelf like this, He
Speaker 8: got his.
Speaker 2: Whole record taken off the record. Yeah, the whole record.
Speaker 9: He could have asked for any percentage he wanted for that.
Speaker 1: Because y'all have already did it without person.
Speaker 2: Already exactly exactly.
Speaker 9: And so what instead what he did is just ask
Speaker 9: for cash. He got one hundred thousand dollars right off
Speaker 9: the rit for that.
Speaker 5: He was showing up at all. That shows he was,
Speaker 5: and we did shows.
Speaker 8: At his club too, and he was up there we
Speaker 8: uh got man got mad and us Yeah.
Speaker 17: At glam Slam in the middle that my record mother
Speaker 17: here showing up with high hells like that.
Speaker 2: I was like, all right, cool, he got hurble, he
Speaker 2: wants some crazy.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite champs ever is I said with
Speaker 1: Nas And I asked Nas, I said, I don't feel
Speaker 1: like no one ever told Nas no?
Speaker 2: And he goes, yeah, someone told me no, And I go,
Speaker 2: who you go, Prince?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and then he goes, uh, Prince asked me,
Speaker 1: did I own my masters?
Speaker 2: I heard, and I said no, I don't owe my masters.
Speaker 1: And he said, well, come see me when you owe
Speaker 1: my masters, and when you're on your master, your master's
Speaker 1: And you wouldn't think that's like a harsh sting saying
Speaker 1: to a younger artist coming up in the game, but
Speaker 1: it's probably the exact statement that you need to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you went forward in this game. Maybe maybe it
Speaker 2: was like that Mike Tyson.
Speaker 1: You ever see Mike Tyson with a little girl said
Speaker 1: where's your legacy? And Mike Tyson like legacy. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was that moment for Nas with Rents. But maybe moving forward.
Speaker 1: NAS needed to hear that, you understand I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: we don't know that with Mike Tyson. I don't know
Speaker 1: if y'all seen this for this, but was the moment
Speaker 1: she did need to hear too. I just I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but that's crazy. So when you hear Prince he was
Speaker 1: so advanced in this game. You see about the slave tattoo,
Speaker 1: and you realize that years later, I had to buy
Speaker 1: my own name back, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, when he changed his name to the sign to
Speaker 2: I didn't know that then. I didn't know that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he was. He was definitely fighting that fight.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And to be honest, he might have been the
Speaker 8: first in our generation, like in our general generation, to
Speaker 8: fight that fight on such a public platform, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like and say against the machine, against the machine that's
Speaker 1: showing us exactly right.
Speaker 2: But see that was a whole nother you know, because
Speaker 2: Sam Cook did it as well. And you are right then, yes,
Speaker 2: all right? What was on that? Yeah? All right? I
Speaker 2: argue that ship right, all right? A ball m J
Speaker 2: G or Goodie mob. I gotta say goodie mom.
Speaker 9: I gotta say goodie mob.
Speaker 2: You know from the South with good.
Speaker 11: When I tell you, I can pick my friends by
Speaker 11: how much they know about a ball.
Speaker 2: M you like, do you know this song?
Speaker 6: Do you know nine millimeters?
Speaker 2: Boys?
Speaker 14: Right?
Speaker 6: Goodie mob?
Speaker 2: Though, all right, black Star, dead Press, that's.
Speaker 9: I'm gonna have to say both for me. I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 9: I can't. I can't say one or the other.
Speaker 2: I just can't do it. Wow. Yes, And by the way,
Speaker 2: dead Press, whatever, y'all we missed y'all. Man, everyone's in Africa.
Speaker 2: I think he moved to Africa. I want to go
Speaker 2: to Africa.
Speaker 7: Yeah, shut and man, they're great for you, man, Florida.
Speaker 2: That okay, that's don't know they weren't there.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 8: See, to me, both of them made such an impact
Speaker 8: and a totally you know, in the same way.
Speaker 9: But just I can't.
Speaker 8: I can't.
Speaker 9: For me, I can't choose either one as more important
Speaker 9: to me, Like Black Star.
Speaker 1: Because you know that Kanye made that beak that Yeah,
Speaker 1: Alchemist told us that we searched it, we researched it,
Speaker 1: we researched it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of yeah, it's kind of like up
Speaker 2: in the air.
Speaker 9: Baseline.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask I'm going to text that more baseline. Yeah, say,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, yeah what sorry, was he signed to
Speaker 2: produce already? I don't I don't remember. I don't remember,
Speaker 2: but I know that he had something to do with
Speaker 2: that production for sure. That but that's crazy. I't never
Speaker 2: heard of that. That's yeah.
Speaker 15: Lord, well, well he was a part of that, like
Speaker 15: dead press, like that's right, that h like I think
Speaker 15: helping them get the deal and yeah, like a whole
Speaker 15: I did not know that brand new and helped a
Speaker 15: lot of folks.
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah, yeah, we had Lord mar I guess I
Speaker 2: don't have to ask the questions.
Speaker 1: What were saying about Lord Moore said, we had Lord
Speaker 1: of Wall and it's his doc right, want we want
Speaker 1: the whole brand New being together, and we would need.
Speaker 2: Your Grandpool, but we haven't had Grandpooper yet. Man.
Speaker 8: I actually like Grandpoopa's album. He just dropped it out.
Speaker 8: He dropped it out either late last.
Speaker 2: Year or early this year.
Speaker 9: I forget because it's you know, it's been nine or
Speaker 9: ten months. But yeah, it was dope.
Speaker 8: I like it.
Speaker 9: I liked the shot Grandpool He's dope.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what's the next one. Let's see what we are?
Speaker 2: Ice Cuba comment or common cute. Ice C's tough.
Speaker 9: For me, I'm gonna have to say.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 9: It was really Yeah, yeah they did.
Speaker 1: But I got to say both for them because they
Speaker 1: did barbershop together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they came, they came together.
Speaker 9: I didn't even know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that.
Speaker 11: That comment was such a cool guy.
Speaker 6: He's such a good spirit. He's a very kind I
Speaker 6: mean to.
Speaker 8: Me, those early ice Cube days, like his first number
Speaker 8: of solo bes that just from CERTI I could never
Speaker 8: put anything above that easily, Like, yeah, of course common
Speaker 8: is just He's ridiculous.
Speaker 9: I mean, I love that brother.
Speaker 2: All right. E p m D. Or Pete Rock and
Speaker 2: Steal Smooth.
Speaker 9: For me, I'm gonna say E p m D.
Speaker 2: Although I love.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're gonna go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm saying or Pete Smooth. We say both of
Speaker 2: them both official group. You're right, I mean would say
Speaker 2: p m D because came before.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, definitely, man, that stuff their albums is just major.
Speaker 9: And we just did a show with them too.
Speaker 2: Y E p m D. You do shows with everybody.
Speaker 2: Let's make some.
Speaker 5: Your favorite.
Speaker 2: I love that, I love that. I love It's a
Speaker 2: tough one. They lost so Jungle Brothers. That is tough.
Speaker 9: Wow, you're gonna have to say Daylight. I'm gonna have
Speaker 9: to say that.
Speaker 8: But it was tough one because to me, Jungle Brothers
Speaker 8: brought Daylight, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 8: but Daylight to me, the catalog is just so you know, expansive.
Speaker 9: I mean, just think they brought to your table.
Speaker 10: I mean your last year you did was it the
Speaker 10: the Love the Hollywood Bowl and they were there.
Speaker 5: It was just the energy was so amazing.
Speaker 2: Fact, there's so many people on this boy.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I just remember before when we were in Africa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, before we went.
Speaker 6: With Daylight.
Speaker 9: Oh, it was just such a South Africa too. In
Speaker 9: South Africa.
Speaker 1: Question, yeah, yeah, in South Africa it has black people,
Speaker 1: right because I always debate with him.
Speaker 9: Yeah ninety seven percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I told you, I know, I know, baby
Speaker 2: playing around.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, in South Africa. So we did the first
Speaker 5: time I went to South Africa was in nineteen.
Speaker 9: Ninety four and with Nelson Madella we did. We spoke
Speaker 9: with him and I spoke right before him.
Speaker 10: It was amazing. That was like it was amazing. And
Speaker 10: then we shot one of our videos and not in front.
Speaker 10: Antoine was our Yeah, the director that did on training day. Yeah,
Speaker 10: he did our video.
Speaker 5: Yeah, a song called United Front.
Speaker 9: Yep, you're not in Front.
Speaker 1: I did it in South ain't get a gang in
Speaker 1: South Africa to United Front, know what?
Speaker 2: Not in Front?
Speaker 6: I saw with the two kids walking down the dirt road.
Speaker 9: That was album cover. That was in South Africa.
Speaker 11: That was That's what I remember. I think that was
Speaker 11: Headliner was saying.
Speaker 7: That was.
Speaker 6: That was an amazing little moment.
Speaker 2: You gotta got Lauren Hill or Queen Latifa? Are you serious?
Speaker 11: Queen and Tifa help my baby?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: She she just came to say both for me.
Speaker 9: I can't say one of the other.
Speaker 2: One time when I saw her.
Speaker 10: Tifa as a young woman coming up and you know,
Speaker 10: before I got into rested, I would look up to
Speaker 10: her and I had all the crowns like the cat
Speaker 10: she used to wear the crown and I was like,
Speaker 10: I like this woman because to me she represented a
Speaker 10: cur hervy black woman and I can relate.
Speaker 2: And she said you why, oh my?
Speaker 5: She was just powerful, just everything about her just powerful.
Speaker 2: Damn covered up and.
Speaker 5: Were yes uns.
Speaker 2: Show trying to.
Speaker 9: Get her on the show. Yeah, Queena tifas she's but
Speaker 9: of course Lauren.
Speaker 2: Hill is absolutely We're not taking that away, not at all.
Speaker 10: And when shout la on her, Lauren Hill, let's talk
Speaker 10: about that mis education.
Speaker 11: Is a very kind spirit. She she is such a
Speaker 11: sweet person.
Speaker 2: She's Yeah, we we tour with her many times, an
Speaker 2: incredible career. And Lauren, I mean, like.
Speaker 8: I said, I brought Lauren Well, I brought the Fujis
Speaker 8: to Atlanta. They opened for us in Europe to I
Speaker 8: don't know if you remember that opened the front a
Speaker 8: lot of times.
Speaker 9: So we've known that for years.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Black Thought or Andre three thousands, no, no, you
Speaker 2: t t top of I gotta go both. Definitely both.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I have to say both.
Speaker 12: I have to say because they're they're two different there
Speaker 12: are dope, two different reasons. And we just we toured
Speaker 12: with Black Thought and the Roots and so yeah, they're awesome.
Speaker 2: Rod Digger, Lady of Rage, Oh my god, lay.
Speaker 9: Yeah I love Eire Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Rhap City or Lady London, Rhapsody. I'm gonna say Hapsody.
Speaker 2: We just did a show with Rhapsody too, So yeah.
Speaker 6: We we got another beautiful the last one to get
Speaker 6: back to the interview.
Speaker 2: Loyal to your respect, loyal respect, respect all the long.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'll say they almost mean the same thing.
Speaker 2: That they mean the same thing.
Speaker 11: But if you don't have respect, what good is your loyalty?
Speaker 9: Come on?
Speaker 2: That was deep, but.
Speaker 6: Repect exactly?
Speaker 2: It comes one.
Speaker 11: You can't have one when I respect.
Speaker 6: But are you loyal though, because you're.
Speaker 12: Just inside the crew, you might be part of a
Speaker 12: sabotage you if I don't have If you don't respect,
Speaker 12: you gotta respect.
Speaker 2: Respect.
Speaker 5: Go ahead.
Speaker 6: I don't think I could be loyal to someone I
Speaker 6: didn't respect.
Speaker 9: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2: That does make sense that.
Speaker 5: We didn't answer the question respect.
Speaker 11: I'm saying respect first and foremost.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna just drink because.
Speaker 1: The time that me and him we say that, this
Speaker 1: is the one time that we should say both. I
Speaker 1: do believe that loyalty and respect those That's that's.
Speaker 2: Why if you if you have to get both, give me.
Speaker 11: If you want you better be you're gonna be loyal
Speaker 11: because of your.
Speaker 2: Believe I believe that. I believe that.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that if you had and now with
Speaker 1: the conclusive quick time was fine?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 1: But is it anything that if you guys had a
Speaker 1: chance to do over, you would do over? The like
Speaker 1: basically I'm asking, is it anything you regret this beautiful,
Speaker 1: illustrious career that you guys are.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I mean there's a few things I mentioned a couple.
Speaker 9: One is I wish.
Speaker 8: If I knew better in the early days, I would
Speaker 8: have figured out a way to make sure that every
Speaker 8: body in the group felt appreciated thoroughly by me. So
Speaker 8: I'm just speaking for me right now. And then the
Speaker 8: other thing I wish I would have known and done
Speaker 8: differently is when we finished our first album put it out.
Speaker 2: We sold four million albums, five million albums.
Speaker 8: The label was really rushing us to put out new material,
Speaker 8: and I wish I would have just waited and just
Speaker 8: took a little bit more time, took as much time
Speaker 8: as we needed, because I do feel like it just
Speaker 8: would have gave us a chance to check out the
Speaker 8: landscape of what was happening, you know, because Wu Tang
Speaker 8: was coming out, there was a whole different energy dropped
Speaker 8: all exactly, so it's like just seeing, Okay, this is
Speaker 8: what's happening. Okay, now, this is what we can contribute,
Speaker 8: you know what I'm saying. I think that that would
Speaker 8: have been a good play for us. So that's for
Speaker 8: me that's what I'm saying here anywhere else.
Speaker 5: Nope out Like I shouldn't say regrets or anything, but I.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 16: I feel like artists need the opportunity to experiment, Like
Speaker 16: we need the permission to suck, Like, make some stuff,
Speaker 16: let it be as wack as possible, because you're letting
Speaker 16: your creativity go as far as you can let it go,
Speaker 16: and then you kind of reel it back in it,
Speaker 16: you know what I mean. But sometimes artists, I think
Speaker 16: we feel like once the first album is dope, the
Speaker 16: next album everything has to be dope after that, and
Speaker 16: if it's not dope, then you fell off. And it's
Speaker 16: like your creativity doesn't get this chance to be able
Speaker 16: to grow. And growth isn't It is not comfortable, it's
Speaker 16: not pretty, and it's not always like you won't always
Speaker 16: be on top every single time.
Speaker 9: It's not always linear too, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: Sometimes it's like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 16: So giving artists to the opportunity to put some stuff
Speaker 16: out that's different and give it a chance, like we
Speaker 16: open to just here something different.
Speaker 7: That'd be the difference between industry and culture, industry and art.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and that that means what andre three thousand and
Speaker 8: outcasts to do a lot of different stuff for that
Speaker 8: period of time, and it was dope, you know.
Speaker 5: I think for me, I was all passion and I
Speaker 5: didn't know much about the business.
Speaker 10: So I was very green when I came in because
Speaker 10: I was so young, and then we didn't have the internet.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: My mom, uh was an avid reader, So that's how
Speaker 5: I learned a.
Speaker 10: Lot about the industry actually through my mom just reading
Speaker 10: books and about the industry.
Speaker 5: But I was just all passion, all passion and no business.
Speaker 10: And so I think if I had to do it
Speaker 10: all over again, I would learned a lot more about
Speaker 10: the business. But back then someone literally had to take
Speaker 10: your hand and say just follow me, you know what
Speaker 10: I'm saying. It was just a different world back then,
Speaker 10: and I just I wanted to learn more from a
Speaker 10: business perspective because once we got out, the group.
Speaker 5: Came out, and just how everything moved so fast, and
Speaker 5: just how I was.
Speaker 10: In an adult world as a teenager, you know what
Speaker 10: I mean, And just how they were everything was more
Speaker 10: business than it.
Speaker 5: Was creative, you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 10: And then we spent more a lot of times being creative,
Speaker 10: you know, and parsing and stuff like that. So I
Speaker 10: didn't know about like copyrights and you know, writing, publishing,
Speaker 10: none of that stuff. So you know, learning through trial
Speaker 10: and narrow and then like latter years when we came
Speaker 10: back together and got to do records, we wrote.
Speaker 5: We wrote a lot of stuff on the.
Speaker 10: That was a third album, Your Hair's of the Harvest,
Speaker 10: So that was like our third album, and that was
Speaker 10: super fun. And you know a lot of growth had
Speaker 10: taken place through those years. Throughout those years, so you know,
Speaker 10: just just being in the industry, you know, not knowing
Speaker 10: how it really worked, you know.
Speaker 5: But honestly, I don't think we I mean speech, none
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 2: None of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looking like yeah, yeah, I wouldn't do my
Speaker 1: own ship that you would do.
Speaker 2: I didn't know nothing.
Speaker 10: Yeah, That's why I tell a lot of young artists
Speaker 10: now when I do have a chance to talk to them,
Speaker 10: like learn as much as you can, you know, And
Speaker 10: relationships are so important. You know, a lot of people
Speaker 10: don't build relationships now like we used to back in
Speaker 10: the day because.
Speaker 5: We didn't have the internet. You had to get out
Speaker 5: and talk to people. I don't think we do that
Speaker 5: as much anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something that if I could comment on what
Speaker 1: you just said his what's crazy about the new artists,
Speaker 1: They definitely don't need a label at all.
Speaker 2: True, Yes, like they don't need what we needed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, we needed a top forty record. We needed
Speaker 1: a record to go and travel right now, God bless me.
Speaker 1: NBA Young Boy is all over. He is selling out
Speaker 1: arena right now, and I don't know anybody in their
Speaker 1: thirties that could even quote a record.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying about that, I'm not dissing him. I'm
Speaker 1: giving him light. What I'm saying is that people under
Speaker 1: thirty could be the people that's that's that's doing it,
Speaker 1: that's quoting his records. What I'm saying is that's an
Speaker 1: example to us. It's an example to people that came
Speaker 1: before us, example people that came that's coming after us.
Speaker 1: Is that look, we don't even need these people if
Speaker 1: really apply the pressure to ourselves and say, look, let's
Speaker 1: it's a direct to consumer market right now, let's just
Speaker 1: talk to them direct and NBA Young Boy, I don't
Speaker 1: know who's behind you. I see bird Man sometimes behind you,
Speaker 1: I see whatever. NBA Young Boy, you're a great example
Speaker 1: of that. I see you selling out Arenas, I see
Speaker 1: you doing this shit, and I see you it's like
Speaker 1: what your.
Speaker 2: Fans that is? That shit is something to that school.
Speaker 2: What we strive to do is like you know what.
Speaker 2: That's the beautiful thing about this part podcast.
Speaker 1: Is I remember like going on tour and they sending
Speaker 1: me to places that it didn't matter to my career.
Speaker 2: I had to pay for it anyway. Right, So let's
Speaker 2: I had to go to which is all Kansas?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: I don't know, give me an example. I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: I mean I go to which of God to Kansas
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it's three people at my instos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's three people.
Speaker 1: But I was right next door in Cleveland killing them.
Speaker 2: I was right on the block. And they didn't have
Speaker 2: the algorithms back then exactly. Now we actually have the algorithms.
Speaker 1: Where you can actually see and say, oh, listen, we're
Speaker 1: not going to do a forty city tour with Drink Canser.
Speaker 2: We'll do a twenty eight city tour. All of these
Speaker 2: twenty eight cities is going to matter.
Speaker 1: It's the market still writing Marcus our mars Yes, and
Speaker 1: you young brothers. That's out there. You got the algorithms.
Speaker 1: You have a advantage that we didn't have. Better take
Speaker 1: full advantage, and please continue to take full advantage, because
Speaker 1: this is like I love Leo Cohen, right, I don't
Speaker 1: care whoever feels about Leo. Come, that's who y'all feel.
Speaker 1: Your relationship with Leo Cohen told me this is one
Speaker 1: of the best times to get in the industry. And
Speaker 1: you say why, Okay, well, you don't got to press
Speaker 1: up an album. If you're producing your own album. You
Speaker 1: have a relationship with a person that's producing your own album,
Speaker 1: y'all can make a deal and you can say, you listen,
Speaker 1: let me do this, this and that, and then you
Speaker 1: can really own everything, get algorithms from the photography, everything,
Speaker 1: and it's not as expensive.
Speaker 2: Remember your album packaging was.
Speaker 1: One hundred and seventy thousand, when you can include it
Speaker 1: who you travel to your stylist and you know all
Speaker 1: that you spending money that you didn't even really understand.
Speaker 1: But now it's like I can look at everything and
Speaker 1: I can control it. So I want elder artists, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, younger artists, don't. Don't be confused about these algorithms.
Speaker 1: Understand these algorithms and said, you know what, continue to
Speaker 1: promote to your own fed.
Speaker 7: I agree, but I want to ask them in to
Speaker 7: that because one thing we got to be careful with
Speaker 7: is as independent as we feel in this tech age.
Speaker 2: These platforms are the new record labels and they can
Speaker 2: platform you.
Speaker 9: So make discussion.
Speaker 7: Should also understand that I don't think you're totally I'm
Speaker 7: this indie artist, like diversify these platforms that you're on,
Speaker 7: try to find the most independent ones your audience.
Speaker 2: And have a grassroots part of your campaign as well. Agree,
Speaker 2: there's a.
Speaker 9: New platform called Coda that I think is dope.
Speaker 2: So I'm just saying that, and I want to just
Speaker 2: add I think that what.
Speaker 5: Needs to happen or continue to happen, I know I
Speaker 5: actively do it.
Speaker 10: I know other people to actively do each and different people,
Speaker 10: but a lot of older artists, we got to embrace
Speaker 10: these younger artists and bring them up. And then the
Speaker 10: younger artists also, Like I spend a lot of time
Speaker 10: with younger artists and they teach me a lot of
Speaker 10: stuff I did not know about the Internet, and they're
Speaker 10: like this easy, you can do this, Miss.
Speaker 5: Easy, you can do that.
Speaker 10: And so I'm learning too, and I think it's you know,
Speaker 10: we got to take the old and the new and
Speaker 10: bring it together because that's what's gonna make us greater,
Speaker 10: you know what I mean. And because I think a
Speaker 10: lot of the ways, like our work ethic and how
Speaker 10: we came up everything, literally we want a carbon copy
Speaker 10: like that was considered whack if it was like somebody else.
Speaker 10: Just the individuality we have back then. I think we
Speaker 10: still need to embrace that, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 10: But also understand this tech world because AI is here
Speaker 10: and it's here to stay. You gotta, you know, we
Speaker 10: gotta embrace stuff that's coming, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So cautious absolutely, but it's coming. It's coming, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean.
Speaker 9: I understand, Yeah, I mean, you know what I'm.
Speaker 5: Saying, It's coming.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that I really would love to
Speaker 1: improve on this bridge in the gap. And what I
Speaker 1: say about bridging the gap is, you know, sometimes I
Speaker 1: listen to these young brothers and I don't mean to
Speaker 1: sound like the old dude, but fucking let me just
Speaker 1: sound like the old dude for now.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: They'll be like, yo, man, you know, I got the
Speaker 1: Jordan's on and I got on Patrick Ewings or they'll do.
Speaker 1: And you know the sneakers that you're wearing when it
Speaker 1: comes to basketball, you know the throwback jersey that you're
Speaker 1: wearing when it comes to basketball. But here you are
Speaker 1: making money off of hip hop and you don't know
Speaker 1: who fucking Biggie Smalls is exactly right that it is disappointing.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to be the old homie that
Speaker 1: critique you, but I also have to be the old homie.
Speaker 1: They'll be like, yo, you're not right when you come
Speaker 1: on the block. Got to tie your shoelaces, you got
Speaker 1: to pick up your you're.
Speaker 2: Suspended this homie, you got to do that.
Speaker 1: Like, I have to be that person because it's like, damn,
Speaker 1: we're all being the fitting off for this. And you
Speaker 1: could tell me that Jordan One needs fucking right. It's
Speaker 1: that eighty seven. You could tell me that, But you
Speaker 1: can't tell me Biz Markey's record is you.
Speaker 2: You got.
Speaker 5: In the world.
Speaker 2: Of the girl. You want to take your platonic to wherever.
Speaker 2: You can't tell me you're not going to sing bis marks.
Speaker 2: Yeah on, bro, But you know what's happening in baseball,
Speaker 2: and you know Messi's watch like I can't I can't respect.
Speaker 12: And I think to that point, as a culture, we
Speaker 12: need to stop pitting generations against each other, because everybody's
Speaker 12: going to have a different greatest of all time thing
Speaker 12: based off of what era you came up in. But
Speaker 12: but I don't like the idea that it's like the
Speaker 12: older generations like, oh, that's whag, and the younger generation
Speaker 12: is like all the.
Speaker 11: Old stuff is whack. It's like, nah, it's just different.
Speaker 12: And if you educate yourself, like the idea that what
Speaker 12: happened before you isn't important anymore because it's about the now, well,
Speaker 12: you'll end up making the same mistakes that the artists
Speaker 12: before you did that we were hoping you would push
Speaker 12: it forward, and then there's gonna be another generation after
Speaker 12: you that's going.
Speaker 1: To build off of what you do.
Speaker 12: But we have gotten into this this pie, these pods
Speaker 12: where it's like the only thing that's dope is this,
Speaker 12: and that's not that's not true. And if if we're
Speaker 12: more celebratory of every it doesn't we don't have to
Speaker 12: like or everything don't have to be your cup of tea,
Speaker 12: but just the idea that anything but your stuff is
Speaker 12: whack or the older generation or newer generation.
Speaker 6: We just got to get out of that.
Speaker 9: I wish it was a podcast that gave flowers.
Speaker 1: And I have to say this, but I wish there
Speaker 1: was a real platform where it was a hip hop platform.
Speaker 1: Like what I mean by that is like, and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying we're not the platform. What I'm saying is
Speaker 1: we prefer to give flowers to people that has been here,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, ten years or more. Right, But
Speaker 1: then there's a platform where we should all co exists, right, meaning.
Speaker 18: The newest of the newest guy from fucking you know,
Speaker 18: Indiana should be connected with the newest newest guy from Compton,
Speaker 18: and you know, and vice versa.
Speaker 2: Do do what the fuck we do in hip hop?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, like.
Speaker 1: We do is so beautiful, and it's like it's like
Speaker 1: that's the one thing I regret when you said I
Speaker 1: forget what you want to say like the younger generation.
Speaker 2: I always regret that because me.
Speaker 1: As a OG, sometimes I look over there and I
Speaker 1: want to say to him.
Speaker 2: Similar to like that you said the new intervw RA
Speaker 2: story there say, so I.
Speaker 1: Similar I look over there, and then I can look
Speaker 1: and I can see one of his homies, and I
Speaker 1: can feel like one of the homies, Like look at
Speaker 1: the old nigga trying to say, I've got that guy
Speaker 1: over here, my own smoking, of my own jam, none
Speaker 1: of that ship.
Speaker 2: That's me as an og being wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be able to supersede that and say,
Speaker 1: all listen, let me introduce myself, right, young homie. Look
Speaker 1: regardless if you know who I am or not, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like, I know, I met Young
Speaker 1: Doug one night, and I did the wrong thing. I
Speaker 1: walked up to Young Doug and he uses slim. Slim
Speaker 1: is my my sling. Slim is my slang since two
Speaker 1: thousand and the more you can pull it up. And
Speaker 1: I walked up to him and I was just like,
Speaker 1: what's up, Broke. He was like, oh, what's up, Broke?
Speaker 2: And I was just like, all right, I.
Speaker 1: Know it's me that was wrong though, Like I fully
Speaker 1: didn't introduced myself.
Speaker 2: I just wanted him to.
Speaker 1: Know who I was right then and there, and he did,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, you know what, stay in
Speaker 1: your own zone.
Speaker 2: But that was wrong of me.
Speaker 1: Like you know what, sometimes we can even bow down
Speaker 1: to ourselves because this is our community. And by the way,
Speaker 1: the reason why your name slime is because of me.
Speaker 1: Someone else's name you Slim, but that original.
Speaker 2: Name was was me since two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: And I could have easily said that. I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to say it, but I knew that that was
Speaker 1: the problems for us. Sometimes it's like I didn't know
Speaker 1: how to be like yo, yo home. I just want
Speaker 1: you to know you made a whole career ten years
Speaker 1: and you kind of took my ship.
Speaker 2: Laugh about it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But that's the part that I wish we could improve
Speaker 1: and hip hop relations I was looking.
Speaker 5: Like that when you said that, because that happens to
Speaker 5: us a lot.
Speaker 2: We're weird.
Speaker 5: It's like I don't want to introduce myself.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: I don't want to sometimes yeah, yeah, I'm good. I
Speaker 1: want to get your handshaken. You be like, what's something
Speaker 1: like it should just be real?
Speaker 2: Really needed it all more than that.
Speaker 1: But then you got you got you got, you got
Speaker 1: this younger generation that does know you got a Kendrick
Speaker 1: Lamar that would sit.
Speaker 2: There and be like, yo, what's up bro? You be like,
Speaker 2: oh ship you everybody.
Speaker 1: I didn't expect that from you, and you got J Coles,
Speaker 1: you got these people who will sit down.
Speaker 7: But I think you could easily say that there's artists
Speaker 7: that are culturally invested and artists that are just here
Speaker 7: for what.
Speaker 2: Let's just make this buck.
Speaker 7: And so I think my issue for for generationally going
Speaker 7: younger is that there's no problem with you not knowing something.
Speaker 2: We all don't know everything. We don't know that there's
Speaker 2: a problem with you not wanting to know. You should
Speaker 2: want to know. I know that about my thing that
Speaker 2: I do. Let me know that history will say for us.
Speaker 8: We're getting a lot of young people coming to our
Speaker 8: shows all of a sudden, All of a Sudden'm talking eighteen.
Speaker 2: You know, they weren't even born when we were. Because
Speaker 2: you know why hip hop is trying to learn.
Speaker 9: They want to learn, which is encouraging, right what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, Yo, man, I had so much fun doing that.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: But you guys are a group that people should study.
Speaker 1: People should understand definition of loyalty, people should understand the
Speaker 1: definition of respect, and people should understand the definition of unity.
Speaker 1: Facts that is not that is not common in hip hop.
Speaker 1: I've been in this motherfucker twenty five years. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I see, motherfuckers can't even survive two months, let alone
Speaker 1: two years, let alone twenty seven to thirty years.
Speaker 2: And that shit is not normal.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take the time out to respect y'all.
Speaker 9: Thanks.
Speaker 1: Tell y'all how much y'all mean to not only me,
Speaker 1: you know, not only say EFN and a drink chance
Speaker 1: it's a hip hop. Think you man, there's an example
Speaker 1: that we should all study and continue to study and
Speaker 1: continue to represent and respect because it's not a lot
Speaker 1: and the fact that y'all are one of many, but
Speaker 1: y'all are probably the first. I have to salute y'all.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you how much I respect y'all.
Speaker 2: Thanks. Tell y'all. Man, like the ship that y'all did
Speaker 2: is not normal. It's not normal.
Speaker 1: Like like all right, all right, there was a Rockefeller
Speaker 1: tree right one time, and they said Rockefeller. But then
Speaker 1: they seen every group that could be related to rocket
Speaker 1: fell word up. Do you know understand every group that
Speaker 1: if we did that same shit, every group that could
Speaker 1: be Lady, y'all, y'all would look like Johangti word up
Speaker 1: in the field, because it would look and it would
Speaker 1: keep going because there's certain groups that y'all birth that
Speaker 1: birth to other groups, so that ship keeps going.
Speaker 2: So in casey I didn't know it, I was just saying.
Speaker 19: We made it to drinks. But it always has to be.
Speaker 19: We always have to validate each other sometimes.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, but it's well warranted. Man, we were waiting
Speaker 2: for this. Okay, one last question.
Speaker 1: Okay, one last question. Because you know hip hop, we
Speaker 1: always have these crazy names. How you get the name speech?
Speaker 8: I used to be called DJ and you know, you know,
Speaker 8: and they used to call me DJ Peach because in
Speaker 8: my head and how big it is, so period a
Speaker 8: name peach. Of course, when I started rhyming, I didn't
Speaker 8: want to be known.
Speaker 7: As m C.
Speaker 9: Peach. That's like, so why I put an in front
Speaker 9: of it?
Speaker 8: That was it?
Speaker 9: Speech? It just made sense. I just started rhyming. I
Speaker 9: was like, this is this is it?
Speaker 2: This makes sense? Yeah?
Speaker 9: I had something to say, So that was it.
Speaker 20: Please take a look at the record because it's dope,
Speaker 20: the actual take a look at But he's.
Speaker 1: Very he's very about this one. Yeah, about the old
Speaker 1: school one we had we had on head and he
Speaker 1: gives one of the old.
Speaker 2: Records, like that record, right, So this this, this is
Speaker 2: the care, the care.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Drink Champs is a drink Champs ll C.
Speaker 7: Production hosts and executive producers n O r E and
Speaker 7: d j e f f N.
Speaker 2: Listen to drink Champs on.
Speaker 14: Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 14: Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs
Speaker 14: hosted by yours truly, d j e f N and
Speaker 14: n O r E. Please make sure to follow us
Speaker 14: on all our socials that's at drink Champs across all
Speaker 14: platforms at the Real Noria go on I g at
Speaker 14: noriag on Twitter, Mine is at Who's Crazy on I
Speaker 14: g at d j e f N on Twitter, And
Speaker 14: most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases,
Speaker 14: news and urch by going to drink champs dot com.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm