Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio Ladies and Gentlemen.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try to say this without bring up they
Speaker 2: grow up, Yes, exactly, breaking news. I don't have kids yet.
Speaker 2: I will say that I probably I heard that. I
Speaker 2: will probably say that I use my guests as an
Speaker 2: excuse to being with pride. Uh that of that of
Speaker 2: a dad watching uh his kid or an older brother
Speaker 2: watching his kid brother shine.
Speaker 1: And in the big game.
Speaker 2: It's it's literally because I've seen this person in his evolution.
Speaker 2: And yes, it's even scary to me, but you know,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna save as much. And this is where I
Speaker 2: get my fio. So on, y'all, if you are an
Speaker 2: entertainer or a singer, you know, worth.
Speaker 1: Your your weight in gold or whatever.
Speaker 2: Like, if you even think you're gonna do anything creative
Speaker 2: in this lifetime without this, gentleman, oh ho ho, you
Speaker 2: are sadly mistaken. Seriously, I can go through it. It
Speaker 2: will probably take a half hour before I say his name,
Speaker 2: Jill Scott needs work done, whatever you call Adam Blackstone,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Levado, Jonas Brothers, Adam Blackstone, Moroon five, Adam Blackstone, Algebra,
Speaker 2: Adam Blackstone and Al Green, Adam Blackstone, who's Doctor Drake
Speaker 2: call when it's Super Bowl time? Adam Blackstone, Who's jay
Speaker 2: Z call when it's time for his show to be tight?
Speaker 2: Adam Blackstone, even the artist now known as the unmentionable huh,
Speaker 2: Adam Blackstone, Jianna Jackson, Adam Blackstone, Eminem Queen Latifa, Alicia Keys, Timberlake, Rihanna.
Speaker 2: Like when you're watching the Oscars, even when I accepted
Speaker 2: my own Oscar, when you're watching The Voice, when you're
Speaker 2: watching the Grammy Awards, when you're watching the Soul Tree
Speaker 2: and Awards, all them specials on VH one, on BT,
Speaker 2: on MTV. Even my boss, Jimmy Fallon uses for that.
Speaker 2: That's my jam the masked singer Adam Blackstone. Let's not
Speaker 2: forget he's currently Yes, he will be an easy egot
Speaker 2: any day now, like he's currently working on his Grammy
Speaker 2: for his awesome I didn't even get to talk to
Speaker 2: you about this. I really like legacy, yes, even his
Speaker 2: awesome legacy LP.
Speaker 1: I just have to.
Speaker 2: Say that I don't have the worry to express the
Speaker 2: pride that I have for my guess. I'm sorry, I
Speaker 2: use the entire ninety minutes to brag about our guest today,
Speaker 2: Adam Blackstone on Quest Left Supreme.
Speaker 3: How you doing, man, I am wonderful. That was the
Speaker 3: best introduction ever.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. Man. You know you you deserve your your
Speaker 1: past flowers. Man, you're like you're.
Speaker 4: I think everybody needs to know that seventy five percent
Speaker 4: of the artist that you named for me came from you.
Speaker 2: Not no, not even like your your reputation, Like I
Speaker 2: remember the day that and rest in Peace Room Five's
Speaker 2: manager Jah Jordan. Yes, when Jordan hit me up, you
Speaker 2: know about adding some spices to the group and arrangement
Speaker 2: or whatnot. I don't know, Man, Like for you, I'm
Speaker 2: I'm in awe because of all levels of creativity, I say,
Speaker 2: even though people will say, like the greatest strength of
Speaker 2: my career or my legacy, of course is the roots
Speaker 2: live show. The pressure that it takes to think of
Speaker 2: ideas to spice up someone's live show, man is like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 2: I will say that it's one of the most things
Speaker 2: thankless jobs, because no one ever thinks about what the
Speaker 2: music director has to go for.
Speaker 3: Man, it's a it's a it's a beast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and you know I have so many questions
Speaker 2: to ask you, so thank you. I'm glad we finally
Speaker 2: got to take time out to do this. Where you
Speaker 2: hitting me from right now?
Speaker 4: We are in Las Vegas right now working on the
Speaker 4: Soul Train Awards. Of course left just left, which I
Speaker 4: didn't see you at. We're going to talk about that too.
Speaker 4: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Saturday.
Speaker 1: How was it?
Speaker 3: It was really good? Man?
Speaker 4: Andy Lennox asked me to move to London whe her
Speaker 4: you know, don't tell my wife, but nice, nice honored
Speaker 4: the rhythmics, Jam and Lewis right and Lewis.
Speaker 3: Charlie Simon and Eminem and Lionel Dolly Parton.
Speaker 1: Really did Lionel perform at you guys? He did?
Speaker 3: We did Hello easy and all night long? Was crazy?
Speaker 1: Bro Yo?
Speaker 5: Can I ask you Adam because you did a few
Speaker 5: up and even though you didn't invite me and Jimmy
Speaker 5: Jam did you did this nice tribute to Jimmy Jam
Speaker 5: and Terry.
Speaker 4: I just wanted this to be in the big quest
Speaker 4: love letters. You are invited to my life?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, well that's did.
Speaker 1: You know about the jam session?
Speaker 5: Layah when Jimmy Jam told me, oh after the fact, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I went. So that's what my question was, because he
Speaker 5: did this jam section with a lot of kind of
Speaker 5: maybe unknown singers that were very dope that did like
Speaker 5: all these Jimmy and Terry songs, and I kind of
Speaker 5: wanted you to talk about that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say that the night after. It's rare
Speaker 2: that Sean G h supermanager, Live Nation executive. It is
Speaker 2: rare that Sean Ge will ever.
Speaker 3: The house.
Speaker 2: That too, But it's very rare, like Sewan is a
Speaker 2: family man. But I will say that if we get
Speaker 2: a text from Sean G. Eleven o'clock East Coast standard time,
Speaker 2: like he's basically off the clock after five pm, he
Speaker 2: couldn't stop talking about how much he liked this damn legacy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and he called.
Speaker 4: Exactly exactly, Yeah, that's exactly what I did. And and
Speaker 4: you know, cultivating what you Rich Nichols, you know my
Speaker 4: my father in the game, and you know Sean G
Speaker 4: have brought to me. I brought East Coast vibes to
Speaker 4: l a man and it was much needed. Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's interesting that you said you didn't know. But one
Speaker 4: of the things that happened with the Lily before social media.
Speaker 3: It was word of mouth.
Speaker 4: I'm really cultivating that I didn't post anything about Yeah, no,
Speaker 4: it wasn't.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like a thing. It was just like, you know,
Speaker 3: one of the And.
Speaker 4: I hope I don't get in trouble for talking about this,
Speaker 4: but I felt really bad with Jimmy and Terry for
Speaker 4: Rock and Roller Hall of Fame not getting a performance slot,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Their their music has impacted me.
Speaker 4: And culture and the global world past R and B
Speaker 4: or pop or whatever.
Speaker 5: It's just their induction wasn't really promoted like that either.
Speaker 5: So it wasn't until he told me that, I was like,
Speaker 5: oh shit.
Speaker 4: And so when I found that out. This is my
Speaker 4: first year MD and the whole show. When I found
Speaker 4: that out, I said, yo, I gotta do something.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. That's because like this is
Speaker 3: what they need.
Speaker 4: When I called Jimmy, you know, we had an emotional
Speaker 4: moment because he was very thankful about what I was
Speaker 4: about to do. And we ain't know it was going
Speaker 4: to turn that into what it was, but it was.
Speaker 4: It was awesome.
Speaker 3: Man. I gotta give people their flowers, you know.
Speaker 2: So dude, where did you find because I've seen the clips. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And the one thing I always wonder about is the
Speaker 2: legacy like who you know? Where are where are the
Speaker 2: heads that would have been at Black Lily in twenty twenty?
Speaker 1: Like who's that audience?
Speaker 4: One?
Speaker 1: How how did you find the singers? Two? How did
Speaker 1: you find the audience that would receive them as well?
Speaker 1: Got you?
Speaker 4: So A big part of what I've been doing with
Speaker 4: this legacy experience I'm mayor, is that the narrative is
Speaker 4: that I've been on the road with everybody from Okay
Speaker 4: player tour to more recent you know Jay and JT
Speaker 4: or something like that, and so along the way, because
Speaker 4: I'm such a fan of music and vocalist, I find
Speaker 4: my own favorite singers by playing with these incredible artists.
Speaker 4: So a lot of them have either sang backup for
Speaker 4: who I've for who I've rocked with, or there'll be
Speaker 4: a new artist in the city. And you know how
Speaker 4: we used to like go to London or something and
Speaker 4: we just go to a jam session and find you know,
Speaker 4: Daily or find Amy or find Jesse j. I remember
Speaker 4: pulling up somewhere random and in London like and same
Speaker 4: thing with Philly is like you know, Jill Music, India, Erica.
Speaker 3: At any point, somebody could walk in there.
Speaker 4: But then you also get somebody like a new kid
Speaker 4: at the time, Blow, you know what I'm saying, or
Speaker 4: you get a new kid at the.
Speaker 3: Time, Vivian Green or something like that.
Speaker 4: So it's like I'm cultivating that same structure that you
Speaker 4: guys have laid in. What it is is I'm letting
Speaker 4: everybody shine in their element, but also trying to dictate
Speaker 4: the same sort of tour type of set lists that
Speaker 4: I would do if I was out on the road
Speaker 4: with a Jimmy and Terry and matching the voice with
Speaker 4: the moment. That's why we had somebody like a co
Speaker 4: Coke Jones do I guess so lonely who She's the
Speaker 4: new vibrant, sexy, you know it girl kind of doing that.
Speaker 4: But then I had a Naya Do Damage and she's
Speaker 4: kind of like this raunchy, you know, Houston rapper singer.
Speaker 4: And then I had somebody like Lena Byrd Miles new
Speaker 4: gospel album coming out, and she did I wanted to
Speaker 4: highlight Jimmy and Arry's Yolanda Adams catalog. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying who people don't know about? So she ended
Speaker 4: up doing Open My Heart and so like it was
Speaker 4: just a night full of gyms.
Speaker 1: Man Like, straight up.
Speaker 2: How many nights do you have to prepare from the
Speaker 2: moment you decide you know what I'm gonna pay, you know,
Speaker 2: pay tribute to them? How many nights do you have
Speaker 2: to prepare for such a thing?
Speaker 3: So this is where you have taught me wrong.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I have been in so many instances where
Speaker 4: it's the day of through roots, through play or whatever
Speaker 4: and it comes off without a hitch, or I would
Speaker 4: say externally without a hitch, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: Because you know I might get a I might get
Speaker 4: a every once in a while, but a note that
Speaker 4: I've been or whatever. But yeah, so I take about
Speaker 4: a day and a half to two days. Really, curating
Speaker 4: the set list is the most thing, is the most
Speaker 4: important thing for me because people move off of energy,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So it's like a bad
Speaker 4: set list again, which I've learned from you, is like
Speaker 4: a bad setlist can dictate a bad show. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. You got to know, you know we yelling.
Speaker 4: I've seen me yell you yell at key or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's like, go get you now, right, where's da da?
Speaker 3: Where's it?
Speaker 4: So that's kind of what I've been doing the week
Speaker 4: leading up to and then it's like, yo, I just
Speaker 4: want to catch a vibe, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: and let it.
Speaker 3: Let it be a natural thing.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So for our audience that is not familiar because I
Speaker 2: mean to the industry, you are literally the Quincy Jones.
Speaker 2: I mean, the part of Quincy Jones that I play
Speaker 2: is being a connector. I always say that Quincy Jones'
Speaker 2: telephone or his rolodex was always his best instrument his
Speaker 2: ability to reach people. But the idea of what we
Speaker 2: think Quincy Jones is, which he also is, is just
Speaker 2: to be the go to guy to get the right
Speaker 2: performance out of the artist, live, studio, whatever. And the
Speaker 2: thing is you you do have to do both because
Speaker 2: you know, in my world, I will say that maybe yes,
Speaker 2: with the addition of like Stroe Elliott, or even with
Speaker 2: Jeremy like in the Roots, we're now just adding sample
Speaker 2: elements to the show in the last for you know,
Speaker 2: four or five years. But with you, I know that
Speaker 2: you not only have to you know, comb through their
Speaker 2: entire studio history and grab that background vocals and are
Speaker 2: you doing this all yourself? Like, all right, take take
Speaker 2: me through a process of So I assume that since
Speaker 2: Rihanna's got something cooking in the kitchen for top of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, let's just hypothetically, let's just hypothetically say
Speaker 2: that you might have gotten a call from Rihanna, you know,
Speaker 2: saying that all right, I'm about to ramp up and
Speaker 2: surprise job this album then maybe April or of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, and she wants she wants to go on tour.
Speaker 2: And the way you're smiling right now, I think that
Speaker 2: this conversation actually might have happened, even though I don't
Speaker 2: know Jack, so I know how NDA's are.
Speaker 1: But walk me through the process.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem. So I used to do everything.
Speaker 4: I was super hands on as far as like curating
Speaker 4: the set list. I would sit down with the artists.
Speaker 4: I would say, what is the story you're trying to tell,
Speaker 4: like through either this album or through this live show process.
Speaker 4: I've done it with every artist. I just want to
Speaker 4: sit down and talk. I just want to see where
Speaker 4: your head was when you were singing freaking pour it up.
Speaker 4: I want to see where your head was when you
Speaker 4: wrote Diamonds. You know what I'm saying, like, what what
Speaker 4: is the story? Are you trying to go to the
Speaker 4: strip club or are we going to the stadium to
Speaker 4: hold up the phone light?
Speaker 3: Are you trying to do both? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 4: So now I take an artist like and say, you know,
Speaker 4: how do we start, what's the middle, and what's the end.
Speaker 4: I like to build my show in what I call acts, right,
Speaker 4: because you take the listener, the audience on the journey.
Speaker 4: So that first process is about getting the song list together,
Speaker 4: no specific order or anything.
Speaker 3: Then I kind of work backwards. I say how do
Speaker 3: we start?
Speaker 4: How do we end? And then I fill the middle
Speaker 4: end like that. Now with a pop artist and a
Speaker 4: lot of artists these days, but pop specifically, as far
Speaker 4: as getting the tracks and stuff together, the backing tracks,
Speaker 4: playing with a little bit of backing vocal stuff like that,
Speaker 4: I call my programming team, and I call my you
Speaker 4: know a lot of my lot of.
Speaker 1: My how many on the programming team, it depends on
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 4: What I just did with this past super Bowl was myself,
Speaker 4: Terrence Vaughn and Derek Cobbs, and I had Omar there
Speaker 4: with me. Omar Elwer was there with me every step
Speaker 4: of the way, because in a gig like the Super Bowl, specifically,
Speaker 4: I'm going to set design meetings, I'm going to choreography rehearsal,
Speaker 4: I'm going to how are the instruments gonna look? So
Speaker 4: once I have the concept and the idea, my team
Speaker 4: for sure begins to try to execute in a rehearsal
Speaker 4: setting where I'm in and out of because of the
Speaker 4: other things that are going on as a musical director,
Speaker 4: and like I said, I've learned that a musical director
Speaker 4: is half about the music and more about the other stuff.
Speaker 4: And it's really really crazy. The higher up you go.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna get blasted for saying this, but the higher
Speaker 4: up you go, the less it is about the music
Speaker 4: when it comes to the MD.
Speaker 1: All right question, So all right, you just you just okay.
Speaker 2: Now, in there's always an inside joke with musicians and
Speaker 2: we do it all the time, and that is hashtag
Speaker 2: you've been Blackstone.
Speaker 1: And this is a real hashtag.
Speaker 2: Whenever we joke you've been Blackstone, that always means that
Speaker 2: there's a part of the song that just has extra
Speaker 2: spice into it.
Speaker 1: Trademarks.
Speaker 2: But it's it's almost like the way I could just
Speaker 2: describe it to you. If you guys remember TLC's video
Speaker 2: version for Digging on.
Speaker 5: You, Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: If if you also remember the Hovie Baby sample Dan,
Speaker 2: and there's always that element in the song that happens
Speaker 2: and always wonder will you add your trademark, like that's
Speaker 2: your version of you add the trademark.
Speaker 6: Wow?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: But when you add your trademark Blackstone eyes thing, yeah,
Speaker 2: I wonder where's that come from? But then you tell
Speaker 2: me that you are also in the meetings with the choreographers.
Speaker 4: That's twenty seventeen and above. You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: This is why this interview is so good, because these
Speaker 4: young kids ain't see the work that I put in
Speaker 4: a four or five coming off of favor and like
Speaker 4: you throwing me to Kanye and you throwing Omar to
Speaker 4: Jay and all of that, where it was like we
Speaker 4: then had to take everything we had learned for the
Speaker 4: last seven years and put it together on our own
Speaker 4: and give that same amount of energy, same amount of
Speaker 4: musicianship to these new artists out there. And you know,
Speaker 4: I have been big. The Holy Baby thing means so
Speaker 4: much to me that you would even say that, because.
Speaker 3: I try to make my shows a movie.
Speaker 1: You know, you are the John Williams, a musical director.
Speaker 4: That is a really I appreciate that, but that is
Speaker 4: a great analogy because I want to take like, you know,
Speaker 4: I got a folder of sounds that's called Jurassic Park,
Speaker 4: you know, and it's just like shots, like it's like,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like I'm in my head.
Speaker 4: I'm like, yo, if somebody, if I start my show
Speaker 4: like that, you are tuned in from minute one, and
Speaker 4: it's very different than what I what I grew up on.
Speaker 4: But I've always been a fan of pop music, and
Speaker 4: not like you know, just Britney pop, but just like
Speaker 4: you know, popular and what was on the radio. It
Speaker 4: was something for me about adding that backing track. One
Speaker 4: of the first times I did it was working with
Speaker 4: a sixteen eighty over at Carving and Ivans because they
Speaker 4: were pro and music soul trials show, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, and so they wanted some of those samples
Speaker 4: like Girl next Door because we didn't have an upright out,
Speaker 4: or they wanted like the Just Friends beat box, and
Speaker 4: it was like, how do we accomplish that, and so
Speaker 4: I started being like, yo, why don't we just play
Speaker 4: along to the loop, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 4: then that grew from there to me, you know, me
Speaker 4: and yay At Fade the Black and then like doing
Speaker 4: Glowing the Dark tour, and then it was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: there's a song with daft Punk in it, and we
Speaker 4: don't have daft Punk on stage with us, what's the
Speaker 4: best way to achieve that? Okay, let's run with their track.
Speaker 4: But then at the same time, I always like to
Speaker 4: have the backing track playing along with us. This is
Speaker 4: what I call it, and us not just playing to
Speaker 4: the backing track. If you notice with my tracks I'm here,
Speaker 4: they all kind of move even though we're locked into
Speaker 4: a tempo.
Speaker 3: It's a live, feeling thing.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, I've been the one to create that sound.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Now I'm able to when you laugh with me all
Speaker 4: the time, depending on who's coming on Foulan and you'd
Speaker 4: be like, did you do this?
Speaker 3: Did you do this?
Speaker 4: I'd be like, nah.
Speaker 2: You know, you're you're you now have a generation of
Speaker 2: new Blackstones, and that to me is even crazy of
Speaker 2: your legacy. Wait, I always wanted to know, all right,
Speaker 2: right now in the DJ world, Yeah, there's been a
Speaker 2: new development that's happened for DJs, and most of us
Speaker 2: are using beta beta products. And the risk with with
Speaker 2: when you're using beta programming is you might get a
Speaker 2: visit from.
Speaker 1: The rainbow will.
Speaker 2: Absolutely And I always wanted to know, Yeah, one, have
Speaker 2: you ever been in a predicament where you've been rainbow willed,
Speaker 2: or in a predicament where I left my laptop at
Speaker 2: a hotel or it fell to the like a hard drive.
Speaker 1: Crashed or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And how do you
Speaker 1: handle a situation?
Speaker 4: Well, this is where the musicianship comes in, right, Like,
Speaker 4: don't get it twisted.
Speaker 3: We are rocking with some.
Speaker 4: Backing track and we got some samples and some loops
Speaker 4: in there, and as budgets get cut, I may not
Speaker 4: have a percussionist and stuff like that, so it's like whatever.
Speaker 4: But when that swirly will comes up, we playing good
Speaker 4: and live like don't I will wear you out on
Speaker 4: that base like live, you know, and Omar will wear
Speaker 4: you out on them kids, and Brian Fraser Moore will
Speaker 4: wear you out on the drums, and you know, Randy
Speaker 4: Bolin will wear you out on the guitar, so like
Speaker 4: the backing track is there, but that's really given album vibes.
Speaker 4: Sometimes when we hit that swirly wheel, it doesn't happen.
Speaker 4: Often knock on would right, But when it does we
Speaker 4: are able to go live. I remember one time at
Speaker 4: Essence Fest with Janet, we was playing Funny How Time Flies,
Speaker 4: and we got the swirly wheel and we were able
Speaker 4: to just vibe, you know what I'm saying, because it
Speaker 4: was just like the two chords, and then we were riding.
Speaker 3: We had the guitar solo. It just come in until
Speaker 3: it so we had to.
Speaker 4: Shut down booooooo, re runned it up, but it was
Speaker 4: like we was playing.
Speaker 6: Is it like an eye.
Speaker 5: Language, y'all look at each other and even acknowledge it.
Speaker 6: Y'all just.
Speaker 2: There is there a warning that she gets like we
Speaker 2: might have a technical difficulty or well.
Speaker 4: I'm talking to her in her ears, or I'm talking
Speaker 4: to Justin or I'm talking to Red or whatever it
Speaker 4: might be, like, you know, give me a second, I
Speaker 4: need to like we're gonna vibe for a second. Don't
Speaker 4: worry about it, because you know, I mean, when that
Speaker 4: click cut off, we all look around like what the heck.
Speaker 3: It's like the sound silence is the sound.
Speaker 4: Of death when you run into it with with some
Speaker 4: backing track, but it doesn't happen often. One of the
Speaker 4: craziest things I remember is it's not that it crashed,
Speaker 4: but walking to the stage, Kanye said, oh yeah, Adam,
Speaker 4: I don't want to do the second verse tonight, and.
Speaker 3: It's like yo four three and the lights come on.
Speaker 3: I'm like, wait, what did he just say?
Speaker 4: And so I run over to the side of the
Speaker 4: stage with my programmer, Demetrius.
Speaker 1: The show is Demetrious is God?
Speaker 4: Yeah, demy is the guy. Yes, I run the show
Speaker 4: is playing on one laptop. We're editing on the next
Speaker 4: laptop for the next song, and we take the verse
Speaker 4: out of that song.
Speaker 3: We switched to the B rig.
Speaker 4: When it's the second song is about to come on,
Speaker 4: and then we switched back to the A rig.
Speaker 1: So you have two computers running at the same time
Speaker 1: in case.
Speaker 3: What we call redundant systems.
Speaker 5: But you also walk into the stage talking to Demitrius
Speaker 5: at the same time while you walking to the stage
Speaker 5: because you just said it and you got to hurry
Speaker 5: up and evain show.
Speaker 3: That all happens, right, he's.
Speaker 4: On this demy is at the stage already and me
Speaker 4: and Yay are walking.
Speaker 3: He's like, oh yeah, I don't want to do.
Speaker 2: And I was like, wait what So I was going
Speaker 2: to ask who is your Who's been your most wild
Speaker 2: pitch client.
Speaker 4: That's the question I've ever Kanye West after I did
Speaker 4: the Kanye West Go On to Dark Tour, I could
Speaker 4: do anything. He said, I want you to make a
Speaker 4: robot fly across the stage and score it, but I
Speaker 4: want the scoring to sound like flashing lights. I was
Speaker 4: just like, huh huh, and we bro we did it.
Speaker 2: Do your artists have a basic general understanding that any
Speaker 2: slight suggestion they might have might be a five minute timeout.
Speaker 1: Like a guy like Prince never had patience for his engineer.
Speaker 4: I don't think any of the artists do right now.
Speaker 4: And a lot of that is our fault, ar Mayor,
Speaker 4: because we make it happen, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You know, five minutes, fifteen minutes, whatever, it's just like
Speaker 4: get it done, you know what I'm saying. I pride
Speaker 4: myself on making sketches ahead of time so that they know,
Speaker 4: okay yo. I was feeling that, but I'm not feeling
Speaker 4: this work on this as opposed to showing up to
Speaker 4: rehearsal or showing up to the gig and then asking
Speaker 4: for the change then because it is a stop down,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But that's why team is so important.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: When I have somebody like Demetrius, or I have somebody
Speaker 4: like Danny Chung with me, I know they like boo boo,
Speaker 4: and it's like we speak the same language, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. But I think every artist is impatient,
Speaker 4: especially when you're on that stage, especially when you at
Speaker 4: the rehearsal studio.
Speaker 3: It's like, yo, let's let's get this popping, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean.
Speaker 5: I know that this is like a moment where y'all
Speaker 5: don't really get to talk that often, and we are
Speaker 5: in it. And even Amir even forgot to say our
Speaker 5: names or whatever. But Amir, you got to ask him
Speaker 5: the question that we ask everybody. We got to know,
Speaker 5: like the beginners and even y'all story I forgot to
Speaker 5: go yes, like who is the fuck Adam blaste Right.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Court. Love Supreme
Speaker 2: got sugar Steed, unpaid bills somewhere and making millions. No, no, seriously,
Speaker 2: y'all don't get.
Speaker 5: This time, and y'all don't get this time. So I
Speaker 5: totally get it.
Speaker 2: I'm so close to Adam that I'm actually having a
Speaker 2: conversation that I would have if we were actually on
Speaker 2: the telephone. You are all right, So yeah, let's let
Speaker 2: let us start at the beginning. What was your first
Speaker 2: musical memory.
Speaker 4: My first musical memory, yes, in life? Wow, yeah, Well
Speaker 4: I remember just playing at church. And one of the
Speaker 4: high praise moments was when I was about six or
Speaker 4: seven years old and I went from drums to base
Speaker 4: to Oregon and as a kid, and they everybody was
Speaker 4: like you better playboy, Oh my god, And I was cool,
Speaker 4: got up on the played the bass boom, sat down
Speaker 4: to orgon. I don't know what I was playing, good
Speaker 4: or bad, but they hyped me up and I just
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, I can do this. And one
Speaker 4: of my other early memories is more non direct musical.
Speaker 4: But my dad came home and quit his job and
Speaker 4: he told my mom like, yo, I want to do
Speaker 4: music full time. And we looked around like what are
Speaker 4: we about to do? And he supported us and sustained us.
Speaker 4: What you would call today, you know, a wedding band
Speaker 4: singer or whatever. But it's like, you know, he played weddings,
Speaker 4: bar mythahs, three services on Sundays, you.
Speaker 3: Know, banquets, all of that. He did it full time. Man.
Speaker 3: So it was like, that's one of my other early
Speaker 3: music memories.
Speaker 6: What did he play?
Speaker 4: My dad plays keys? My dad plays keys. As I
Speaker 4: look back at it, he was really the first MD
Speaker 4: that I saw, because I don't know if I knew
Speaker 4: what that was like, you know, getting into musical director terminology.
Speaker 3: But he have a little TR nine O nine.
Speaker 4: He just throw on a beat at one ten and
Speaker 4: he would play brick House, Electric Slide Macarena all to
Speaker 4: the same beat and just.
Speaker 7: Like, hey, she's all bread all night long.
Speaker 4: And then folks would just go crazy, like you know,
Speaker 4: like keep the party going. It's like, you know, it's electric,
Speaker 4: Like he was one of those dudes man. And as
Speaker 4: I look back at it when I became older, I
Speaker 4: was like, Yo, that's a big part of how I
Speaker 4: put set lists together for freaking justin Timberlake or Rihanna,
Speaker 4: I'm like, what's the feeling, what's gonna keep the party going?
Speaker 4: How I've done the last four Super Bowls is like,
Speaker 4: we can't stop.
Speaker 3: We only got twelve minutes, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And like a big part of that, as I look back,
Speaker 4: is my dad like curating his banquet sets or his
Speaker 4: Saturday night party you know lodge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, straight up, you know, and he sustained less.
Speaker 1: And did you ever join his actual.
Speaker 4: So I did as I became thirteen fourteen fifteen, Like
Speaker 4: I played drums with him a little bit. I played
Speaker 4: bass with them a little bit. But you know that's
Speaker 4: also another detriment to like non rehearsal, but it works, so.
Speaker 3: It's like like, oh, yeah, we don't need to rehearse.
Speaker 4: And I think when I got a little baby budget
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh I could rehearse for a week,
Speaker 4: it was like, oh we rehearsed.
Speaker 3: I'm tainted by questlove and my dad.
Speaker 1: Not no man, Sometimes you just got to sink or
Speaker 1: swim with it.
Speaker 3: You gotta go with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but those are my first early memories. And then
Speaker 4: moving to Philadelphia in two thousand just changed my life,
Speaker 4: like hand, So what were you previously? Before I was
Speaker 4: in Willingborough, New Jersey. I grew up born in Trenton,
Speaker 4: you know, Willingborough was like Jan Yay and Ty Triviat
Speaker 4: and City. They were like, you know, shout out.
Speaker 6: To Jayski poaching peace too. Yeah in Shaka Zulu.
Speaker 3: And Stupid Yes yeah, Mike Zombie all you know Mike Zombie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so William bor Man And then I went to
Speaker 4: college at University of the Artists and moved to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: And changed what year did you go to university?
Speaker 3: Two thousand? Make you feel old?
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, you did.
Speaker 2: I'll explain to our audience that you know, you know,
Speaker 2: back in back in ninety seven, late ninety seven where
Speaker 2: Richard Nichols our beloved North Star where we were trying
Speaker 2: to do this for a fourth time, and rich was
Speaker 2: sort of like, this is our do or die moment.
Speaker 2: And his suggestion was like, we gotta we gotta come
Speaker 2: up with a story for Philadelphia. This is what's not working,
Speaker 2: Like we got the critical claim and you know, we're
Speaker 2: getting slow traction, but we need a story that that
Speaker 2: will stick. And his version of the story was we
Speaker 2: got to have a jam session.
Speaker 1: And I was like, why do we have to have
Speaker 1: a jam session?
Speaker 2: He's like, well, one, you know, collaborators for your own record,
Speaker 2: but more than that we have to build a music community.
Speaker 1: And because he said that.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like we always thought we were going
Speaker 2: to be like the adopted little brothers of.
Speaker 1: You know, the Native tongues and yeah and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: And I mean, no, you know, they they were feeling us,
Speaker 2: but none of them were really in the mind state
Speaker 2: of doing those things that they were doing earlier in
Speaker 2: ninety one, like postsecuts and all those things. So you know,
Speaker 2: Rich was basically like, well, we could either wait for
Speaker 2: someone to adopt us, or we better just do it ourselves.
Speaker 4: So I'm so glad he did, because you guys became
Speaker 4: the Big Brothers instant, bro Like, instantly.
Speaker 1: We have no choice.
Speaker 4: I walked into the five spot and I was like,
Speaker 4: I ain't never seen nobody play like this, look like,
Speaker 4: smell like this, eat like this, thing like.
Speaker 3: This, dance like this, rap like this.
Speaker 4: It was just a card shifting moment for me, even
Speaker 4: as a black man, because I grew up in Wilborough,
Speaker 4: very affluent African American town, you know, almost you know, Huxtable, Like,
Speaker 4: but I thought Philadelphia was so far away culturally, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, And like just crossing the bridge
Speaker 4: thirty minutes. It's nothing, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 4: I thought it was so far away and it was
Speaker 4: a whole nother world. When it came to the music
Speaker 4: meeting rich and Jazzy fat nasties like changed my life,
Speaker 4: like straight up, like just my entire like literally changed
Speaker 4: my life.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, what I was going to say was that
Speaker 1: the plan worked.
Speaker 2: Everyone wound up getting record deals and every you know,
Speaker 2: then we wound up going on tour, and I will
Speaker 2: say that it morphed from the roots jam sessions, and
Speaker 2: then around ninety nine it became more black lily focused.
Speaker 1: So for you, can you talk.
Speaker 2: About just the the because even I don't know, like
Speaker 2: I would just come to the five spot to see
Speaker 2: the results of it.
Speaker 1: But are you guys rehearsing with Joe all those times?
Speaker 1: Are you rehearsing?
Speaker 6: And how did you get in the mix period?
Speaker 4: How I think I stalked Larry Gold studio. I stayed
Speaker 4: there for days on end, just with my guitar. I
Speaker 4: was the big dude that played the bass, waiting for
Speaker 4: my chance, like just waiting. I got invited down by
Speaker 4: a fourteen year old Jasmine Sullivan. She did invite I
Speaker 4: love it yeah, I mean her band, you know, Darn
Speaker 4: Robertson and Aaron Draper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and at that time, it was like.
Speaker 4: Aaron Draper and continues to still be the connector, like
Speaker 4: I don't care what nobody says. Yeah, Aaron Draper, you know,
Speaker 4: has has really plugged ninety percent of our generations musicians
Speaker 4: too rich to sean to my mayor to read to
Speaker 4: hug you know what I mean. Rest of Peace is
Speaker 4: like you know, Aaron Draper was that guy and he
Speaker 4: would just always say, hey, yo, come down to He
Speaker 4: wouldn't ask. He still don't ask. He's out with Adel
Speaker 4: right now. He's like, man, just come over.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, shout out to Aaron for my ADEL discount
Speaker 2: because you know, two thousand dollars a little bit too steep.
Speaker 1: Even for a guy with a good job like me.
Speaker 4: So we hear now, bro, and they killing it's gonna
Speaker 4: be worth it. We out in Vegas now they over there,
Speaker 4: they cross the street. And so when I got the
Speaker 4: opportunity to go to the studio, I just sat there
Speaker 4: like yeah, like I just sat there for days and
Speaker 4: weeks and then it was a few of y'all, it
Speaker 4: was a lot of It was a lot of us
Speaker 4: and then you know, Rich said, man, so y'all were
Speaker 4: just chilling wait see waiting, and then Rich would say.
Speaker 2: Laughing because she knows where I'm about to go with this,
Speaker 2: Like I might not have been paying attention or using
Speaker 2: the background like you were.
Speaker 5: Not you kept a straight D line to the studio.
Speaker 5: You know how I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: Be like damn who these niggas all right?
Speaker 4: Anyway, So there was a couple of times I think,
Speaker 4: like as y'all were making like this might be a
Speaker 4: little what's the album before Tipping Point.
Speaker 6: That's when they did the jam sessions Phrenology.
Speaker 3: That's when they started on Phrenology.
Speaker 4: It was like, let's just get our mirror and reek
Speaker 4: some ideas like you know what I'm saying, like you know,
Speaker 4: and uh Me and Omar and and Aaron and Daryl
Speaker 4: were just and Randy and Kevin Hansen like we would
Speaker 4: just go down there and just give I like, do
Speaker 4: loopy ideas with you for with you in mind, with
Speaker 4: wreaking mind from Dice raw and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: But at the.
Speaker 4: Same time we didn't know that that was our audition
Speaker 4: right for Rich to actually bring us to you, because
Speaker 4: there was a vetting process. I don't care what nobody
Speaker 4: say about that back room. You if you make it
Speaker 4: to our marror's room, you made it. Hey, Am I
Speaker 4: telling the truth?
Speaker 8: Nah?
Speaker 4: All facts you have to If you don't know that
Speaker 4: bell door to the studio and you can go straight on.
Speaker 6: A secret route, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1: You don't know.
Speaker 4: So when you go past the main door and you
Speaker 4: go to the back room, that's the audition that ain't
Speaker 4: and so and so listen and then fast forward where
Speaker 4: you make it through the big door. Right you be
Speaker 4: picking your head out like, oh y'all going in the
Speaker 4: back Yeah, no, we were in here, bro.
Speaker 3: We we're in the j room.
Speaker 6: In the room.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, so that we you know, huge, I can
Speaker 4: I can't do any interview with out big ing up
Speaker 4: Rich Nichols and his vision for us and his vision
Speaker 4: for for me and us as as a generation under
Speaker 4: you guys, where it was like we passed some of
Speaker 4: us as the test to make it to you for
Speaker 4: then you to say and James to say and and
Speaker 4: say like yo, come do black party or come do
Speaker 4: hole or come do whatever. Where it was like you
Speaker 4: guys were then to me like you know it it
Speaker 4: was hard to lock y'all down because you was on
Speaker 4: the road so much, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 4: we also make records and we were getting calls for
Speaker 4: bigger gigs and I got a whole.
Speaker 5: Nother still doing the Lily too though, right, Adam, Like, so,
Speaker 5: how does that work?
Speaker 1: When did you officially.
Speaker 4: Like li, No, I never outgreed. I'm bringing Lily. What
Speaker 4: I'm doing now is all Lily five on my head, So.
Speaker 1: I'm not that but I don't.
Speaker 4: But it's like, it's like, so, so you guys got
Speaker 4: all these people and themselves as well, So let me
Speaker 4: big up to all the artists. But once somebody gets
Speaker 4: a deal, they then have to They want that same
Speaker 4: vibe that got them the deal to have row with them.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Let me explain all so that once this outgrew my
Speaker 2: living room and then went to the Five Spot and
Speaker 2: sometimes Wetlands in New York. Then eventually these artists started
Speaker 2: getting record deals and next thing, you know, like they
Speaker 2: would pull six band members and whatnot. There was one
Speaker 2: point where I came home and without any context whatsoever,
Speaker 2: I was walking.
Speaker 1: Down the five Spot. I was like, Yo, that look
Speaker 1: like Diddy. And I called rich so I say, Yo,
Speaker 1: what the fuck's pop Daddy.
Speaker 3: Doing here watching the.
Speaker 2: New artists and literally, like you know, I've been going
Speaker 2: for like four months, and Richard's explaining to me like
Speaker 2: you don't even know, like now's the wild wild West
Speaker 2: and everybody done herd that Philly has the best musicians
Speaker 2: and they're really.
Speaker 1: Coming down stealing.
Speaker 2: But even even the musicians that I felt weren't even
Speaker 2: up to part on that left like everyone was getting work.
Speaker 4: The stigma of Philadelphia alone got people a lot of
Speaker 4: work based off of this city.
Speaker 1: Yo.
Speaker 6: It's funny. I just had a flashback.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I remember when Fonte had his album released
Speaker 5: at the five Spot in Philly, like Florney Change like
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 8: Nah nah.
Speaker 9: We had we had our release party at uh Fire
Speaker 9: Spight in Philly, and then when we did this is
Speaker 9: O three. I want to say, when we did the Roots,
Speaker 9: y'all did y'all Christmas Winter Break Tour, and that was
Speaker 9: when y'all you played you were playing bass for us,
Speaker 9: little brother.
Speaker 8: That was the first time we met. Yeah, straight up,
Speaker 8: that was the first time it was us.
Speaker 9: Jean Gray, okay player to that's right, it was okay
Speaker 9: Player Tour, yup, oh three, And that was the first
Speaker 9: time me and you worked together and you played for us,
Speaker 9: and I just remember thinking, like, Yo, this is the
Speaker 9: happiest bass player I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 4: I was like, I gotta say, man, going on then, okay,
Speaker 4: Player Tour my first tour.
Speaker 1: How was your first time?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: As I look back at a mirror, had us there
Speaker 4: to uh he overworked us?
Speaker 3: Right? But did I go no?
Speaker 4: Now, this is what I want to say you you
Speaker 4: stayed on the drums the whole night too. So it's
Speaker 4: like I always I tell young kids. Now, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 4: if i'm playing too, like, I'm not, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. I'm not telling y'all to do anything that
Speaker 4: I wouldn't do. And so I don't see it as that.
Speaker 4: What I see it as as setting the blueprint for
Speaker 4: how to work hard to achieve success and you have
Speaker 4: to go above and beyond.
Speaker 3: And we love music so much.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm going to play for everybody out
Speaker 4: here that they allow me to play for because that
Speaker 4: relationship equity means more to me and anything, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So, when was the first time that you played for
Speaker 2: a non Lily Act.
Speaker 4: My first big gig, I tell the story was you
Speaker 4: guys did Unplugged and the big homie called Yall said, oh.
Speaker 1: That's right, I forgot that philadelphonics.
Speaker 4: Ladelphonics, and so he was going to retire, and it
Speaker 4: was like and it was super loose though, Bro, I
Speaker 4: don't know if you remember that, but it was like
Speaker 4: we went up to sir wait.
Speaker 10: Faith the Black was your first big big gig, yes it?
Speaker 10: Oh three, yeah, Man, I could have sworn by then.
Speaker 10: You was kicking at Michael Jackson's house.
Speaker 4: And I mean, you know, Vivian music, so child all that,
Speaker 4: but oh three is like, you know, that's that's that's
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I was nineteen turning twenty.
Speaker 2: So that's the first time you were in like Madison
Speaker 2: Square Garden all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Absolutely first first time.
Speaker 2: You rarely hear me say, I mean, now I'm having fun.
Speaker 2: But that week was so fun to me, man.
Speaker 3: So fun, Bro, so fun.
Speaker 4: And that taught me so so much about how to
Speaker 4: curate a set. You know, at that time, we didn't
Speaker 4: know who was going on next, second, last, first, whatever.
Speaker 4: It was like, yo, I saw you put that whole
Speaker 4: thing together. But at the same time, utilize the genius
Speaker 4: people around you, and you know, young Beyonce and Mary
Speaker 4: and you know, just like this is Jay's last album
Speaker 4: and we're playing encore too, and everybody saying, oh right, yeah.
Speaker 3: It's just like super crazy.
Speaker 4: And that gig spawned me meeting Yay, which spawned me
Speaker 4: meeting Ree, which spawned me meeting Janet, which spawned me
Speaker 4: meeting Drake, which you know with spawn me meeting justin timulate.
Speaker 4: So that Fade to Black alone set the path for
Speaker 4: my entire career. And I like to tell the other
Speaker 4: thing I just wanted to speak on real quick, is
Speaker 4: that one thing in Philly that we do do as
Speaker 4: musicians is we try to be nice and speak to
Speaker 4: everybody because you never know who up next, right, So
Speaker 4: it's like, you know that week as well American expound
Speaker 4: on it, but like it was some heavy hitters in
Speaker 4: there and them rehearsals.
Speaker 3: That who they were then.
Speaker 4: Is not who they are right now, and like they
Speaker 4: we treated everybody equally like and so you know, Beyonce
Speaker 4: then was not Beyonce now, and you know, just blazed
Speaker 4: in and Swiss and you know what I mean, arguably
Speaker 4: even you know what Jay has done the last twenty
Speaker 4: years from that show alone.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. Right, They didn't even let
Speaker 3: yay on that night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say that.
Speaker 2: I I remember him not being able to get backstage.
Speaker 1: Yep, you remember speaking to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So one of the things that happened after that,
Speaker 3: he was.
Speaker 4: Like, Yo, I'm working on my music too, we should
Speaker 4: work together, Like you know.
Speaker 3: What I mean.
Speaker 4: I just just say yes to everybody, because that's how
Speaker 4: it was for me being in Philly, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. I was just like, you never know which
Speaker 4: opportunity is going to be the next big thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll ask you now because I know that you're
Speaker 2: older and wiser now when you are vetting and auditioning,
Speaker 2: if someone says, yeah I got this young boy, and
Speaker 2: d d d da da da da da da, Like
Speaker 2: my dad told me the audition process. He used to
Speaker 2: always make me audition musicians by playing a ballot. He
Speaker 2: would make me play the most simple He would say, no,
Speaker 2: don't do the intricate shit. He says, I'm gonna teach
Speaker 2: you something. Pick the simplest ballad that we got in
Speaker 2: our repertoire and make them audition then and sure enough,
Speaker 2: like musicians would fall apart because they couldn't play something
Speaker 2: so simple.
Speaker 1: They knew that intricate ship, but they couldn't play the
Speaker 1: simple shit. Well, first of.
Speaker 2: All, are you a don't come to me, I'll come
Speaker 2: to you type of cat? Like if I say, Yo,
Speaker 2: I got this young boy, da da da da use
Speaker 2: the shit? You should use him? How how do you
Speaker 2: know how good he'll be? Do you just go to
Speaker 2: his YouTube page or like what?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: But like you know, are we talking now, because before
Speaker 4: you know, twelve years ago, we ain't have none of that,
Speaker 4: like you know, so it was total word of mouth,
Speaker 4: and that's how I got on, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like my my career spawned from people singing and hearing
Speaker 4: the music on stage, but also a word of mouth,
Speaker 4: like yo, let me get that dude's number whatever whatever.
Speaker 1: So what I look like, I mean more or less?
Speaker 2: Like I know that you should at least know two
Speaker 2: to three people that play the same thing. Like you'll
Speaker 2: use Klay Sears for guitar, it's not you'll use Randy Bowling.
Speaker 2: But I'm certain that there's put me in coach.
Speaker 1: Energy always all the time.
Speaker 2: So how do you deal with the expectation factor of
Speaker 2: the music.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure and right now is even past Philly.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that you know musicians worldwide Now it's global.
Speaker 4: Man, the dms go crazy with videos and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: Now I have to be honest and say, people hiring
Speaker 4: me are hiring me for my sound.
Speaker 3: So I'm not up.
Speaker 4: I'm not mad at using the same twenty folks because
Speaker 4: I know I get what I get out of them,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. It's very rare that, you know,
Speaker 4: even back in the day we used to just tag
Speaker 4: somebody in.
Speaker 3: It's very rare that that happens, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And so when it.
Speaker 4: Does happen, it's because they have a vocabulary of genre
Speaker 4: that I love, Like I love a dude to, you know,
Speaker 4: play country beat and then play a hip hop beat
Speaker 4: and it still feel very authentic, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And then just like feel timing and feel James Poyser,
Speaker 4: let me have it. The first time I played the
Speaker 4: bass show, I had a six string Ken Smith and
Speaker 4: he said, hey, yo, don't ever come in this studio
Speaker 4: with this furnit. He said it was a He said,
Speaker 4: my bass was a piece of furniture, yo, And so.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what that meant. I went to a
Speaker 3: jazz school, you know.
Speaker 4: I thought I was freaking Anthony Jackson at the time,
Speaker 4: like I was doing everything like that. And he handed
Speaker 4: me Little Brother Slum Village Voodoo and then I was
Speaker 4: like Pine, Pino Pine, you know, no he knew, and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, Pino Palette, okay cool, or like Dyla,
Speaker 4: oh okay, my electric bass should sound like some MPC pads,
Speaker 4: like you know what I'm saying, And like he he
Speaker 4: put me, James and Omar put me on so much
Speaker 4: music that you had either giving them or they that
Speaker 4: opened their ears up to when he told me my.
Speaker 3: Base was a piece of furniture, bro, I was like,
Speaker 3: I saved up.
Speaker 4: I saved up the fastest three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 4: dollars that I could to just go get a four
Speaker 4: string Fender Jazz and I don't know choice. It's still
Speaker 4: my weapon of choice. I do play five, but like
Speaker 4: that base. You know, we did Yes Sirs with We
Speaker 4: did joh Stone, That's on a lot of records.
Speaker 3: We did Our Green you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: That was the one and to the point where even
Speaker 4: Rich was like, hey, yo, where's the bring the four
Speaker 4: string in? Like, you know, like I had to learn
Speaker 4: genre specific vocabulary, not just what I hadn't known through
Speaker 4: chops or whatever. So that's even what I look for,
Speaker 4: you know, the antithesis of what I started is what
Speaker 4: I look for now.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? You hate the music.
Speaker 4: I'd made a lot of money and a big living
Speaker 4: playing low on the base, Like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: Like I don't have to do all that up high
Speaker 4: stuff to make it feel right for me personally, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. And like, coming from a dealer record,
Speaker 4: it's like that ain't even what he was doing, coming
Speaker 4: from a from a from a slum or a voodoo place,
Speaker 4: it's like, you know, I mean, Peanut can play anything,
Speaker 4: but it's like it was really about the groove and
Speaker 4: the feeling.
Speaker 3: So that's what I tried to hone in on for
Speaker 3: about two years.
Speaker 9: What were you listening to growing up? Because you were
Speaker 9: saying that James and everbody were putting you on like
Speaker 9: the slum.
Speaker 4: I had never listened to that stuff, so I was
Speaker 4: listening to the Clark Sisters gospel well, and then like
Speaker 4: a lot of now Rogers, but through samples, like you couldn't.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 3: I was Biggie Smalls in my head. So I was like,
Speaker 3: who's hot? Who's not? Tell me.
Speaker 4: Who got to So I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 4: but that that guitar part is cold, Like let me
Speaker 4: find now what that is?
Speaker 2: Edwards was your base god in and now Rogers.
Speaker 3: Now Rogers.
Speaker 4: And then I was like a lot of Yo, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna be I'm gonna keeping the honey. I ain't never
Speaker 4: said this out loud, but like, you couldn't tell me
Speaker 4: that Bad Boy didn't have the coldest musicians.
Speaker 3: Before I knew they were samples. I was like no, no, no,
Speaker 3: no, no no no. I was like what I was like?
Speaker 3: Boom boom? I was like, Yo, they killing in the studio.
Speaker 3: I was twelve years old, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So I'm listening to One More Chance, I'm listening in
Speaker 4: the warning, I'm listening to more Money, more Problems. I'm
Speaker 4: listening to hypnotized boom boom Oh. I played that at
Speaker 4: my marching BANDJO and they was like, yo, you Biggie Sall.
Speaker 8: But that was but the way you described that album,
Speaker 8: that's the same way. That's what midnight As was for me.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Dog, I swore you you couldn't have told me
Speaker 9: mann Mardas.
Speaker 8: Wasn't them playing all that role?
Speaker 2: Like you know what I mean the amount of times
Speaker 2: I grew Bob Power about Electric Relaxation. Yes, even Michelle
Speaker 2: Degolchella gave like damn near her whole entire Rolling Stone
Speaker 2: interview about like qtup is the the next uh just
Speaker 2: his court structure of blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: You buy the record like damn No.
Speaker 2: But I mean even then to Discovery and hear it
Speaker 2: in that way, that's still genius.
Speaker 1: So that's not to take away.
Speaker 4: From no no, no no, but I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 4: those are the baselines that like, tell me what you
Speaker 4: want from dude.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Yo, these dudes is cold. The Hitman is cold.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so you know, learning where they came from
Speaker 4: and Eld the Barge flips and and and you know
Speaker 4: Bernard flips and now slips, it was like it was
Speaker 4: mind boggling to me. So then when I finally dove
Speaker 4: into the original records and really honed in on my
Speaker 4: own tone, I was like, this is where it comes
Speaker 4: from you know what I mean, the original, the original vibe.
Speaker 4: And then like you know, a huge Ron Carter fan
Speaker 4: and you know, flipping that from tribe as well, Like
Speaker 4: was mind boggling too.
Speaker 8: Did you commission for hamm were you?
Speaker 3: I was more take six?
Speaker 8: You would take sick? Okay, gotcha?
Speaker 3: I was more take six.
Speaker 1: Wow the generation after commission?
Speaker 3: Right, I was, I'm being honest. I was a Fred
Speaker 3: Hammon fan.
Speaker 4: And then it was like, oh he came from commission,
Speaker 4: so you know, I'm just being honest.
Speaker 3: I'm just.
Speaker 1: Church all right.
Speaker 4: And then lastly, my uncle had a gospel group, so
Speaker 4: to me, they was like they was commissioned in New Jersey.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, that's they better than they like jobicy.
Speaker 8: In my town.
Speaker 2: I always wanted to know, have you ever been in
Speaker 2: a musical situation where it did not work out?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: I don't know if this is what you mean, but
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell this one story. We're doing Coachella with doctor.
Speaker 1: Dre Right, right, is this the Tupacca.
Speaker 4: He brings in, this this new young kid rapper from
Speaker 4: from from La Compton. Right, I was like, he's all right,
Speaker 4: I mean, y'all want me to arrange. He's gonna he's
Speaker 4: gonna do two songs in the middle of ourselves, Like
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, like he he okay, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I was like, you know what, i'ma I'm gonna let
Speaker 4: my man do this one because like I really want
Speaker 4: to concentrate on this pop and I'm a really, you know,
Speaker 4: I really want to get this right.
Speaker 3: Eminem's on the way.
Speaker 4: And it's like, nah, like yo, just you know, help
Speaker 4: the kid out. I was like, I can't do it.
Speaker 4: And I was like, all right, he comes in great energy.
Speaker 4: I was like, what's your name, man, Kendrick, And I
Speaker 4: was like all right, all right, okay.
Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying. So it's like I've
Speaker 3: lost twice like that in my life.
Speaker 4: Really wasn't really feeling it when I first heard it,
Speaker 4: and then I'm his his energy is what brought me
Speaker 4: into him, if I can be honest, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying.
Speaker 8: Before the music, before.
Speaker 4: The early music, it was like he was just like
Speaker 4: and then same thing, Sean G said, Yo, I need
Speaker 4: you to work with this kid from North Carolina. I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, you know, I'm busy, bro, Like he
Speaker 4: said listen to this he could rap.
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 2: I was like Friday Night Lights all right, you know,
Speaker 2: ran Friday Night Lights down my throat man like yo,
Speaker 2: cold man.
Speaker 4: Jay Cole Bro, And it was like, Yo, just let
Speaker 4: me fly you to North Carolina. I was at ninth
Speaker 4: Wonder was like, come to North Carolina and same thing.
Speaker 4: His energy is what did it for me?
Speaker 3: Over to me?
Speaker 4: So I got two l's for sure, I got else. Like,
Speaker 4: you know, they arguably top ten of all time right now.
Speaker 5: Yo, But how many more Kendred shows have you been
Speaker 5: kind of forced to md anyway based off of like
Speaker 5: from halftime to award shows, Like it's been.
Speaker 4: Great to work with him, you know, specifically yeah, last halftime,
Speaker 4: you know, And like I said, the relationship and the
Speaker 4: energy is always right. But I'm saying I've taken creative
Speaker 4: l's because I was like, I don't hear it, Yo,
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't know what to do, I don't
Speaker 4: know how to range. I'm not I'm not connected to
Speaker 4: this two l's Kendrick and j Cole for sure, arguably
Speaker 4: like I said, number one, two great human black men,
Speaker 4: just great guys hey, and then arguably top ten lyricists
Speaker 4: and then it was like, you know, I almost missed it.
Speaker 2: I do want to ask I mean, so many questions
Speaker 2: to ask you about your career.
Speaker 1: But now with you winning the Emmys, yes, and I.
Speaker 2: You know, I know that to be in that particular position,
Speaker 2: like it's such a teugh line air tight space where
Speaker 2: one person can monopolized the whole marketplace.
Speaker 1: Like for the longest, I thought, what's the brother's name?
Speaker 1: A bass player?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I thought, like, oh god, Ricky Mine is
Speaker 2: going to own the Emmys until he's one hundred and
Speaker 2: ninety seven years old, like not ever giving up space
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: But tell me about navigating your.
Speaker 2: Way through non concert stage, non studio world, like getting
Speaker 2: into television scoring, and I mean eventually, I guess you're
Speaker 2: going to start doing movie soon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I'm looking forward to that as well. I've
Speaker 3: worked on a couple.
Speaker 4: Big ones, Greatest Showman, I did the soundtrack in the Heights,
Speaker 4: and I just did a kid's one called Lyle Lyle Crocodile,
Speaker 4: and all of that is what our brother our Philly brothers,
Speaker 4: Binge and pop.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you know how I got into the television
Speaker 3: space for sure.
Speaker 4: You know, I remember two thousand and twelve thirteen be
Speaker 4: ET Awards. I had about six.
Speaker 3: Or seven clients on.
Speaker 4: The BET Awards and Jesse Collins was like, y'all, I'm
Speaker 4: giving this dude seven checks, Like just hire him to
Speaker 4: do the whole show. We could save some money. I'll
Speaker 4: never forget that. I just remember like showing up to
Speaker 4: meeting after meeting and they were like, Yo, you hear again,
Speaker 4: you hear again. And that was one of the things
Speaker 4: that I saw Ricky Minor do, and you know, at
Speaker 4: the time like Patreus Russian and like you know, Ray
Speaker 4: Schu of course, and from the Apollo I had been
Speaker 4: doing killing touring sets. So in my head I was like, Yo,
Speaker 4: what of these artists for three minutes and thirty seconds
Speaker 4: get a touring Adam Blackstone experience on television? And when
Speaker 4: I'm made up in my mind, I was going to
Speaker 4: spend the same amount of time programming and arranging one song.
Speaker 3: As I did a whole show.
Speaker 4: It was a game changer, man, And they haven't been
Speaker 4: able to, you know, like move forward from that because
Speaker 4: I give each artist an experience in that TV moment
Speaker 4: that they've never had before. I'm not just playing the
Speaker 4: record most of the time, I'm giving them that live
Speaker 4: show experience in their three minute segment, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, and so that makes audiences excited, that makes
Speaker 4: the network excited. It was hard to navigate, though, and
Speaker 4: I'm still learning a mayor, like you know EMD and
Speaker 4: the Oscars last year and following you it was like
Speaker 4: making those sandwiches and writing out charts and you know, conducting.
Speaker 3: Sixty piece orchestra. It was like, Yo, I'm still learning.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, I believe in myself so
Speaker 4: much that I know I can do anything. And if
Speaker 4: I don't know something, huge question.
Speaker 2: Asker, So, all right, answer this question for me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've been dying to know for awards shows especially. Yeah,
Speaker 2: when you're doing award shows, how much leeway do you
Speaker 2: have a knowing who the winner is going to be?
Speaker 1: Or like, what is the process?
Speaker 2: Do you have five different sets of music on standby
Speaker 2: and they're like the winner is.
Speaker 1: Super so you're like, all right, see dude three?
Speaker 4: Like how so what we did for Oscars was the
Speaker 4: winner music. Specifically, I pre recorded down there in the
Speaker 4: pit each of the five nominees so that we could
Speaker 4: just trigger it almost like playback, depending on who won
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. They do not let me know.
Speaker 4: I want to be super clear with that. I do
Speaker 4: not know until it flashes up on the screen. But
Speaker 4: I've been able to kind of trick the system a
Speaker 4: little bit with how our normal playback works is now
Speaker 4: just putting all the music for that one moment in
Speaker 4: playback and they can play whichever one that they want
Speaker 4: to play.
Speaker 3: Now, if I'm doing something a little more general.
Speaker 1: Not even a ten second warning or.
Speaker 4: Not really, man, Nah, it might flash up on the
Speaker 4: screen five seconds before you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 4: if I'm doing something a little more general category, I
Speaker 4: might just do something super you know in that space,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, or tempo for somebody to
Speaker 4: walk up on.
Speaker 3: Stage or something like that.
Speaker 4: But when it's when it's it's a direct you know,
Speaker 4: Oscars movie song thing, I'm like, yo, without us messing up,
Speaker 4: let's record all of the nominees music and let you
Speaker 4: guys pick one's or what you want to play.
Speaker 2: So there's thirty seven categories for the Oscars.
Speaker 3: Times five or six or seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you're trying to tell me that you have
Speaker 2: to at least prepare once like one hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: plus music cues I did.
Speaker 4: I was at eighty seven because some of the categories
Speaker 4: weren't on TV this year. I did eighty seven music cues.
Speaker 4: Bro it was nuts and that's not also play on
Speaker 4: music when they say lazy and Gentlemen Puff Daddy or
Speaker 4: lazy and Gentlemen Danny.
Speaker 1: Oh shit, I forgot the nominees and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, no, it's like.
Speaker 6: What is that in time? Like in time? How many
Speaker 6: how long is that you think Christmas?
Speaker 3: To do the Oscars, which was April, and I work
Speaker 3: every day like straight up.
Speaker 4: My team Dante Winslow, thank god, and Derek Hodge thank god.
Speaker 4: I brought them on first, all black conducting team. Yes,
Speaker 4: and those of you who know those two gentlemen.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Derek Mann, Yeah, they don't. They don't let
Speaker 3: nothing get passed.
Speaker 4: So it's like we pretty much divvated up and just
Speaker 4: was like, yo, you take these thirty.
Speaker 3: I would do these thirty, but how.
Speaker 2: Do you notate like orchestral arrangements, because even you know
Speaker 2: there was orchestra there, you.
Speaker 3: Know, Summer of Soul, Big Winner.
Speaker 4: It's like, you know, we took one of those records
Speaker 4: from the thing, and I orchestrated it with no vocal
Speaker 4: So maybe trumpet is playing the lead line for a
Speaker 4: BB King joint, you know what I'm saying, right, And
Speaker 4: and then I put you know, low brass and strings
Speaker 4: playing like it's an organ.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So well, I'm only I'm only asking because like, all right,
Speaker 2: so the year before you did it last year because
Speaker 2: of COVID, I DJ'ed.
Speaker 1: It, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And even then, up until forty five minutes beforehand,
Speaker 2: you know, there were there are a lot of monkey wrenches.
Speaker 2: Regina King's going to now do the intro so fine
Speaker 2: to me, you know, to clear stuff like shit, we
Speaker 2: were calling Londel McMillan like a half hour before the Grammys, like, Yo,
Speaker 2: can we please clear this print song right now so
Speaker 2: I can imagine for you it's even more of a nightmare.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Interestingly enough, I will say about the orchestral music.
Speaker 3: If you choose four bars.
Speaker 4: And let's just say we're gonna vamp something or we're
Speaker 4: gonna move these four bars to a different intro because
Speaker 4: it has a similar vibe, you're able to do that,
Speaker 4: but that still comes with the preparation. I still got
Speaker 4: to do eighty nine ninety pieces to go which bars
Speaker 4: make sense for Regina Hall, and to know which bars
Speaker 4: make sense for Amy Schumer, to know which of the
Speaker 4: third set of bars make sense for Wanda.
Speaker 3: Sikes this year, like you know what I mean. So
Speaker 3: we had to play through the whole thing.
Speaker 4: It was I was one of my hardest jobs ever
Speaker 4: and very much like my first big, huge, huge tour
Speaker 4: with Kanye.
Speaker 3: I feel like like now orchestral wise, I can do anything, you.
Speaker 4: Know, and as you know, with the Oscars or Grammy specifically,
Speaker 4: we're not linked to any time thing.
Speaker 3: So all this talk about playback and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: No, we're rocking live, So if somebody trips or if
Speaker 4: somebody starts way.
Speaker 3: Back you was kind of far. Oh, we had to keep.
Speaker 1: Playing, Like I was gonna say, Matt.
Speaker 2: One, I can say with certainty that I had the
Speaker 2: most slowest awkward walk of all time to that podium
Speaker 2: all time.
Speaker 6: Well, who could blame you? Who could blame you?
Speaker 1: So it's a processing thing.
Speaker 3: Are we going to talk about this or no?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I'm going on record before, but.
Speaker 6: I do want to hear from the three.
Speaker 5: It's interesting two coming from like y'all who also share
Speaker 5: this night of being from the same area. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's just so many levels to it, right, Like.
Speaker 4: I cried in that moment, happy for my brother.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: You know something though, I will say this much.
Speaker 2: So yes, they they because of the whole COVID situation
Speaker 2: first of all. And you know, they chose the right theater.
Speaker 2: It was the Kodak right where we at the right,
Speaker 2: so they sat us. They set the documentary people way
Speaker 2: in the back, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So even then what they.
Speaker 6: Do every year, it just happened that they got you
Speaker 6: this year.
Speaker 1: So well, I think in normal times we would have
Speaker 1: been a.
Speaker 3: Little closer and like a little more intimate.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and if it were normal times, we would
Speaker 2: have been in a bigger thing and we would have
Speaker 2: been closer to the front. But they had us all
Speaker 2: spread out because of COVID and the documentary people way
Speaker 2: in the back. And so even then, I mean, three
Speaker 2: things are happening in my head. One was that was
Speaker 2: that a bad sketch going wrong, going wrong, And it
Speaker 2: wasn't until you know, and then like I'm managing my
Speaker 2: mom and she crying on my shoulder.
Speaker 1: Whatever, So that's distracting.
Speaker 2: And then I distinctly all right, I distinctly remember by
Speaker 2: the time I got towards the front, I was looking
Speaker 2: at the Williams sister and the look, the look they
Speaker 2: had on their face, like we're being held hostage. Then
Speaker 2: I was like, oh shit, that might have been real, right,
Speaker 2: because even then, when it's happening.
Speaker 4: No, you go, I was in the pit bro watching
Speaker 4: it from underneath directly, and I was like, I was like, man,
Speaker 4: I'm yo, I'm mayor, I promise to God.
Speaker 3: Like yeah, I'm like, I'm like, that's not in the script.
Speaker 1: I'm like, right right, And even as it's happening.
Speaker 3: Like, yo, somebody, what where was that?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: Where? Right?
Speaker 2: So one, I was doing transmeditation. When you're doing transmeditation,
Speaker 2: I mean I do all the time, even with the Grammys.
Speaker 2: Knowing I'm not going to win, I'm like, okay, and
Speaker 2: remember your mom and remember I'm like trying to remember
Speaker 2: names and ship. And only when I heard the word
Speaker 2: fucking came out. When I heard fucking twice, I looked
Speaker 2: at my mom like, Yo, that's how.
Speaker 4: You knew it was That's how you know it was real.
Speaker 4: When the expensive started.
Speaker 8: Right, no.
Speaker 2: Even then I said, I said, dag, Mom, like will
Speaker 2: will Packer is allowing.
Speaker 1: Cursing on television. Take a risks, right.
Speaker 2: And so I'm talking to my mom, still not hearing
Speaker 2: what's happening, and there's no television monitor.
Speaker 1: I'm way in the back.
Speaker 2: So when I'm walking to the front, the first thing
Speaker 2: that I noticed, I was like, Ah, these bastards they're
Speaker 2: playing it.
Speaker 1: They they're they're playing the.
Speaker 2: J Dilla, the j Dilla sample, the fat Cat loop
Speaker 2: that was in Summer of Soul. So that was the
Speaker 2: first thing that helped me down. And then once I
Speaker 2: got closer, then it.
Speaker 1: Was like, oh shit. And then you know, by then
Speaker 1: my mind went blank.
Speaker 2: But I do remember at least walking to my chair
Speaker 2: to when I saw the Williams sisters, I was like,
Speaker 2: oh damn, Adam Adam chose a jay Dilla sample from
Speaker 2: Summer of Soul to bring me on to that.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate.
Speaker 4: It ran up there because, like I said, in my head,
Speaker 4: I'm about to go crazy because I'm like, y'all didn't
Speaker 4: tell me about this, this this.
Speaker 1: This extra skit.
Speaker 3: And then by the time I got in the room,
Speaker 3: I saw.
Speaker 4: Tifa and she was just had a dejected, sad look
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, that was real. And then they.
Speaker 4: Said quest love and these four of the white guys
Speaker 4: that it was just so much.
Speaker 3: It was, yeah, I got it just was like a.
Speaker 5: I was like, y'all should have seen us at home watching, like,
Speaker 5: oh god, yah.
Speaker 1: Yo, I'll say I'll say this much.
Speaker 2: I never went on a record with this before walking
Speaker 2: off stage, maybe I mentioned it obviously, you know, like
Speaker 2: once you win your award, you got to take the
Speaker 2: march to the backstage in the press room. So I
Speaker 2: don't know what segment was next. I assume that it
Speaker 2: had something to do with the anniversary or either The
Speaker 2: Godfather or something my field sewish because backstage, I'm looking
Speaker 2: at the Niro but Sheino like Scorsese, like all the
Speaker 2: characters that I've known from these gangster drawings right and
Speaker 2: walking past them, and you know, Chris kind of went
Speaker 2: to them, like I remember hearing like that heavy talk,
Speaker 2: like just fucking got like that sort of.
Speaker 3: Thing like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't want to you know, I'm not even
Speaker 2: trying to lose. But it was definitely that sort of
Speaker 2: energy of like, oh my god, this entire cast of
Speaker 2: like The Godfather and Goodfellas like here in the corner,
Speaker 2: and they were definitely like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was. It was weird, but I
Speaker 3: will say in that moment, man like we.
Speaker 4: Was also proud and his speech was amazing.
Speaker 3: You honestly brought us.
Speaker 4: Stephen Hill just text me, he said, you brought it back,
Speaker 4: and then shout out to Amy Schumer because she came
Speaker 4: in the next seven and said, man, I was in
Speaker 4: the back.
Speaker 3: It's real heavy in here. What happened?
Speaker 4: I just remember laughing like about that, like you know,
Speaker 4: like she was like, did I miss something?
Speaker 3: Like it's real heavy in here right now?
Speaker 4: So so yeah, man, but that was an amazing expert
Speaker 4: to see you represent Philly. And I felt the same way,
Speaker 4: like going up to get my Emmy, I was like, yo,
Speaker 4: like all the work that you do because listen, Summer
Speaker 4: Saul was never going to be a bad movie. I
Speaker 4: feel like the super Bowl, my super Bowl was never
Speaker 4: going to be bad. We do things in excellence, right,
Speaker 4: But it feels a different way to have the outsiders
Speaker 4: recognize it as an award winning whatever, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like whether you want or not.
Speaker 3: And I gotta say I might be easier to say
Speaker 3: this now.
Speaker 4: Because we got the trophies, but whether you want or
Speaker 4: whether I want, it doesn't diminish the work that we did.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, And that's instilled in us
Speaker 4: at such a young age that, Yo, whatever you do,
Speaker 4: I don't care if you at the five spot, I'm Meares,
Speaker 4: living Room, Wetlands, Oscars, Emmys, do it in excellence and
Speaker 4: that's what I continue to strive to try and do.
Speaker 1: What is hard as super Bowl preparation or like award chills.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say award shows for me because the last
Speaker 4: four Super Bowls I've done, I've been fans of the artists,
Speaker 4: so it helps me navigate how I would want to see.
Speaker 3: And hear it as a fan.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm a fan of Justin Timberlake and Timberland music.
Speaker 4: And then after that, I did Shakira and j Lo,
Speaker 4: so I really dove into what that Latino sound and
Speaker 4: culture was and.
Speaker 1: Doing is it the Weekend before? Right?
Speaker 3: I didn't do the Weekend. I didn't think that.
Speaker 4: That year is when I did Jasmine Sullivan, Yes National Anthem,
Speaker 4: that was yes, I raised the anthem, and then Dre
Speaker 4: last year, huge fan and then coming up now you
Speaker 4: know we got a special one.
Speaker 5: I need to I need to know this, Adam, because
Speaker 5: for a lot of folks that don't know, like you're
Speaker 5: connected in a lot of different ways, whether you're music direction,
Speaker 5: whether you're for award show, for a tour, but then
Speaker 5: also your business, your agency with your wife. So I'm
Speaker 5: kind of curious with your history with everything that you've
Speaker 5: done with this agency. Are you ever present in a moment,
Speaker 5: whether it be an award show, probably an award show,
Speaker 5: probably a music award show, is when it really happens
Speaker 5: when you look around and you see every single band
Speaker 5: and you see them from this background singer to every
Speaker 5: where you have a deep musical connection with, Like you
Speaker 5: could say either I've played with you or I put
Speaker 5: you on this on this gig, Like have you had
Speaker 5: a present moment like that?
Speaker 3: I think like a couple Coachella is in a row.
Speaker 4: I'm like looking at the lineups and I'm like, that's
Speaker 4: my folks.
Speaker 3: That's my folks. That's my folks. That's my folks.
Speaker 4: But I really see the fruit of it, Like Yah,
Speaker 4: when I do something like that Legacy experience where we're
Speaker 4: jam packing five, six, seven hundred people in the room,
Speaker 4: no posting, no ticket sales, and they come out and
Speaker 4: support and love on one another through the gift of
Speaker 4: music spawned by whatever I've done to create that environment.
Speaker 4: And so that's one of the times that or those
Speaker 4: are the times where I really see feel to love.
Speaker 4: I feel genuine, I feel thankful, I feel humbled by
Speaker 4: who comes out, and you know, Stevie hopped on stage
Speaker 4: last week, New Addition, you know before that, Stokely and
Speaker 4: just all these people where you know, they want to
Speaker 4: just say thank you for what I've contributed to music
Speaker 4: in their own way.
Speaker 3: And so those moments feel really good.
Speaker 4: I have to get more into the moment of the preparation,
Speaker 4: and I don't know if I know how to do
Speaker 4: that yet because I'm waiting for it to be over.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately. If I can be.
Speaker 1: Honest, I got a question I'm been drying to ask you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I know you're dealing with a new crop
Speaker 2: of what we call young boys. For instance, I saw
Speaker 2: Omar Edwards's kid that stay to the TI.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, dude, I used to take you bowling
Speaker 1: when you were six, kid, and you're now twenty three.
Speaker 3: Twenty four years old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, twenty four you're drunk, Like what the hell?
Speaker 2: Like you used to put them the boundaries on the
Speaker 2: bowling alley, so you're you're bowling gutter now, Like that's happening.
Speaker 2: So how are you How do you deal with mentoring?
Speaker 2: Because I know that also when you put sometimes you
Speaker 2: can put a pack together and not even step on stage.
Speaker 1: Yes, like you could put you can.
Speaker 2: Put Timberlake show together and not have to be on tour.
Speaker 2: So I guess it's the two part of one. How
Speaker 2: do you deal with artists that expect you to physically
Speaker 2: be there with them as opposed to you just put
Speaker 2: their jew on together? And how do you train the band?
Speaker 2: Like do they hire the band or do you also
Speaker 2: put together the band that you feel can best do it?
Speaker 2: And how do you just how do you deal with like, yo,
Speaker 2: make sure you're on time, make sure you're not late.
Speaker 4: I think the easiest thing bro is for me with
Speaker 4: putting things together. I make sure people have seen me
Speaker 4: lead by example, you know what I'm saying, Like they
Speaker 4: see my work ethic, they see me on time, they see.
Speaker 3: How hard I work in rehearsals.
Speaker 4: They see I'm a no nonsense, guy, Have you got
Speaker 4: to do a little something on the side and all that,
Speaker 4: don't bring it into the rehearsal. Like there's time everybody
Speaker 4: they had their own extracurricular thing. But when we're here
Speaker 4: to work, we're here to work. As far as managing
Speaker 4: the artist's expectations, that just comes with time and comfortability
Speaker 4: and trust. If I get on the phone, I'll be
Speaker 4: just a little baby on filin right. So it's like
Speaker 4: I was in La and I'm talking to baby, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, yo, I got you. I have a set
Speaker 4: of guys. What I'm going to do again, we're talking
Speaker 4: about these sketches. I'm going to send you a sketch
Speaker 4: and a rehearsal recording, so when you walk in, you
Speaker 4: know what it is, or if you hear something that
Speaker 4: you don't like, I can fix it ahead of time,
Speaker 4: so you're not walking in having to try to communicate
Speaker 4: an idea with me not being there. So it's very
Speaker 4: much still myself pre prepping so that when they walk
Speaker 4: in they already know what they're walking into. And then
Speaker 4: as far as the guys are concerned, I'm like, yo,
Speaker 4: if you ain't seen me, do it, don't do it
Speaker 4: on my gig.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. And I know that sounds simple,
Speaker 3: but it's like.
Speaker 2: But have you had to have a situation where you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I gotta let you go and I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Like, yo, it's not going to work. And then I
Speaker 4: break it down and say, this is what you did.
Speaker 4: Like and mayor me and you are very similar in
Speaker 4: our countenance with people. If you explain to somebody what
Speaker 4: they did and they actually take a step back and
Speaker 4: know who we are to know that we don't want
Speaker 4: to fire them. Really, they'll be like, yo, yeah, I
Speaker 4: really jacked up. So sometimes it's not a hard thing.
Speaker 4: I've learned to in the last five years. Like people
Speaker 4: really want me and so whoever I put on that
Speaker 4: stage represents me right, and if there's anything that goes wrong,
Speaker 4: it's a bad reflection on me and my brand and
Speaker 4: my business that I've worked so hard to bill. You know,
Speaker 4: we talked about spawning, you know, inspiring young young boys
Speaker 4: with the programing and stuff. It's getting easier and easier
Speaker 4: to find out who has studied me and who has
Speaker 4: you know, their Adam Blackstone BB templately already in that laptop,
Speaker 4: but at the same time being a people person.
Speaker 3: You can't teach that. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And so that's one of the one things that I
Speaker 4: would tell the young kids is like, yo, be humble,
Speaker 4: but at the same time, don't be afraid to speak
Speaker 4: and say hello, look people in the face and you know,
Speaker 4: oh yes, talk through ideas and shake hands and it's
Speaker 4: and it's all love because you remember those people who
Speaker 4: have had an impact on you.
Speaker 3: Over there playing yo real t.
Speaker 4: Everybody can plan and sing these days, everybody, and they
Speaker 4: playing circles around me, these young kids now. But at
Speaker 4: the same time, when I'm when I need to talk
Speaker 4: to a justin Timberlake or I need to talk to
Speaker 4: an eminem, they don't know how to do that.
Speaker 3: I think social media has been a crutch. I've been
Speaker 3: saying that and not be.
Speaker 4: Able to actually articulate their ideas verbally and just play,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So who are five of your most pleasurable clients to
Speaker 2: work with. I'm sure you love or with everybody, but
Speaker 2: like when you're like, ah, I man, it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 4: I can't wait for this, like no particular order at all,
Speaker 4: jay Z. I love playing his music. I'm a fan
Speaker 4: of the music as you really. As you see I'm
Speaker 4: married from three on. It's gotten more and more musical
Speaker 4: as well, you know. So I'm gonna have to say,
Speaker 4: I don't know if this is another person or slash,
Speaker 4: but puff Daddy. I did the bad Boy Reunion toward
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, and like I said, I was talking to
Speaker 4: fine Tee like that music spawned how I felt. Sampling
Speaker 4: and hip hop and live bass playing, like what that
Speaker 4: was about for me as a kid, before I met
Speaker 4: the roots and before I was able to, you know,
Speaker 4: kind of do things. It was like the samples alone
Speaker 4: were the music bars that I was like, Yo, I
Speaker 4: gotta I could play this. And when I play this
Speaker 4: at the football game on Saturday morning, oh, they gonna
Speaker 4: go crazy.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: That was a musty tour that year or two. I'm
Speaker 6: so mad i'.
Speaker 1: Jenny Jackson even one verse, one verse penny, like.
Speaker 3: One verse penny.
Speaker 4: Listen when I smack, when I smacked, miss you much,
Speaker 4: just the chorus it's okay you It was, And she
Speaker 4: she taught me that.
Speaker 3: She'd say like, Yo, we're just gonna get in and out.
Speaker 1: You know, I hate that, but go ahead.
Speaker 4: This is a this is this is a You can
Speaker 4: ask me this every day and it might change, So
Speaker 4: I apologize it.
Speaker 3: Sharon, Okay, very musical, he's the White quest Love. He
Speaker 3: don't want no tracks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say.
Speaker 2: Every time I seen Sharing, he's on stage by himself
Speaker 2: with his guitar.
Speaker 3: So he's been doing this looper thing all his life.
Speaker 4: But very recently we just did Tiny Desk and we've
Speaker 4: taken that Tiny Desk show to a bunch of different things,
Speaker 4: whether it be TV shows.
Speaker 3: Or whatever like that NFL, and so that's been really cool. Man.
Speaker 4: Like I said, you asked me this any other day,
Speaker 4: it's gonna it's gonna change. But the last one I'm
Speaker 4: gonna say, Kurt Franklin, Marry Mary, Nicki Minaj.
Speaker 1: Justin everybody all right? Number five is everybody.
Speaker 3: Nick Mary Mary Justice to relate.
Speaker 2: How does it feel, too, finally like fulfill your wish
Speaker 2: up making albums?
Speaker 3: Yo?
Speaker 4: I never in a million years, I'm gonna be completely honest,
Speaker 4: thought that I would be an artist.
Speaker 1: And what took you so long?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna be honest with you man, like, well,
Speaker 4: I lost some friends through COVID, Like straight up, you
Speaker 4: know one of them. I lost a cousin forty five
Speaker 4: years old through COVID. A couple of my friends lost
Speaker 4: their parents, but specifically I lost Paris.
Speaker 3: Bonds, who parents.
Speaker 4: That's right, is arguably one of the greatest keyboard players
Speaker 4: and over that, one of the greatest human beings. Right,
Speaker 4: And so when I went to the celebration services, it
Speaker 4: really inspired me because I was like, Yo, Bible says like,
Speaker 4: you know, our day is are numbered, and.
Speaker 3: It's like we don't know the time or the day.
Speaker 4: But I don't want and this is no disrespect to anybody,
Speaker 4: but I don't want my service at the at the
Speaker 4: altar and the screens is showing.
Speaker 3: Me at the super Bowl or like I'm on.
Speaker 4: Support or I'm at you know that's my jam or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 8: Talk.
Speaker 4: I mean, I understand what you're saying. Those are all Listen,
Speaker 4: let me tell you something. Those are all positions that
Speaker 4: I'm so thankful for. People would die to be in
Speaker 4: right now. But I had to leave a legacy of
Speaker 4: something from my family, my children, and the people who
Speaker 4: know and love me to be proud of that I.
Speaker 3: Did on my own.
Speaker 4: I did my album in thirty days man and what
Speaker 4: me and my team have been found have been calling
Speaker 4: relationship equity right, And what that means to me is
Speaker 4: I have poured so much into people un without asking
Speaker 4: for anything in return, just because I value people in
Speaker 4: relationships for the last twenty years. That when I made
Speaker 4: a call to Questlove, when I made a call to
Speaker 4: James Poison, when I called Jasmine Sullivan, when I called Mary,
Speaker 4: when I called Kirk Franklin, when I called Leslie Oldham Junior,
Speaker 4: when I called Queen Latifa, when I called Robert glasper
Speaker 4: they immediately said, whatever you need, we got you.
Speaker 3: You've had us for all this time.
Speaker 4: And I get choked up even thinking about it, because like, nobody,
Speaker 4: nobody in twenty twenty two got the track list that
Speaker 4: I got, Perry, I don't care what maybe.
Speaker 1: Call it all right, Like my track.
Speaker 4: List is crazy, and it's like it's only because I've
Speaker 4: loved on these people.
Speaker 3: I exclaim it. I'm proud of who I love.
Speaker 4: I'm proud of the people that have inspired me, and
Speaker 4: for whatever reason, they also felt like I've inspired them,
Speaker 4: and so they returned that musical favor and we made
Speaker 4: this album called Legacy that I'm so so.
Speaker 3: Proud of That's what took me so long.
Speaker 4: Man, I think you know, you know, seeing loss and
Speaker 4: experiencing joy with my children. I was like, you know,
Speaker 4: it ain't nothing like having my son sing my song
Speaker 4: as one of his favorite songs, hearing him wake up
Speaker 4: and sing fly Me to the Moon.
Speaker 5: Or I was going to ask you what made you
Speaker 5: do the singing because people know you for playing, but
Speaker 5: also on his record as special because we get to
Speaker 5: hear you sing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I sang a little bit.
Speaker 4: You know, I've been inspired by big band music all
Speaker 4: my life. Tony Bennet and rat Pack and Sinatra and
Speaker 4: Sammy and Nat came Cole. You know there's I mean,
Speaker 4: they all can sing, but it was it was the
Speaker 4: swag that made them songs cool too, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, Like Louis Armstrong is like the swag behind it.
Speaker 4: So I was like, you know, man, I got some swag.
Speaker 4: Let me let me throw it on a record.
Speaker 6: Make me think I'll be sure more of a stylist.
Speaker 3: That's what.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: And even the song that I sang on at the top,
Speaker 4: So yeah, the song I sang on it is called
Speaker 4: back on the Strip, and it's a it's a not
Speaker 4: the Philly in Jersey and do it with Queen Latifa
Speaker 4: and it's going good. So yeah that I'm so excited
Speaker 4: about Legacy. And it's able to showcase many, many different
Speaker 4: like facets of who I am.
Speaker 3: You know. This this is volume one.
Speaker 4: I don't know when or if Volume two happens, but
Speaker 4: it's like at the same time, I had to, I
Speaker 4: had to do it.
Speaker 3: You know. People have been great to me, music has
Speaker 3: been great to me. We blessed what.
Speaker 4: We do and and this is my this is my
Speaker 4: olde and and thank you to the music industry.
Speaker 5: Note for putting Lauren to Lease on there too, because
Speaker 5: everybody might not know her name, but you gonna know
Speaker 5: their voice.
Speaker 4: I feel that's why Philly Cleveland girl right there, that
Speaker 4: the project is on their you know yeah Baylor Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then I you know, made a call to John Schofield.
Speaker 3: He ended up jumping.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see you got Schofield on the record.
Speaker 4: Scholfield on there, Kean, Harold, Wayne Burge, Run, Dante Winslow,
Speaker 4: the Truth, Jilly from Philly, spitting bars, yeah, uh, Swizzy
Speaker 4: on the backgrounds.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, it's it's fire man. I'm so
Speaker 3: so thankful.
Speaker 5: We just kind of went through your whole like crazy
Speaker 5: days and times. What does the rest look like? When
Speaker 5: do you end your day? Is your week seven days
Speaker 5: a week? What are the barriers that you put on
Speaker 5: for your own self and your family?
Speaker 4: That is that is a great question I'm still learning
Speaker 4: at forty years old, like where to say no?
Speaker 3: Where to draw the line. One of the reasons I
Speaker 3: think I haven't said no is, first of all, I
Speaker 3: grew up with the roots.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, we are and I'm mayrior
Speaker 4: you can attest possibly, but I'm so much further along
Speaker 4: in my head in my career than my dreams could
Speaker 4: ever imagine. So sometimes when I get an offer to do,
Speaker 4: I'm be completely honest. Like Stevie called me to day
Speaker 4: and was like, Yo, I need you to mdy his
Speaker 4: house of toys. I can't do it.
Speaker 3: That's the craziest thing for me to say.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, what prestigious person.
Speaker 4: It just happened to me today. It just happened to
Speaker 4: me today, and it happens all the time. But I'm
Speaker 4: speaking of today because Yo, I got I have Super
Speaker 4: Bowl rehearsal right, and I've already committed and I would
Speaker 4: wear myself in my thirties or twenties be like I'm
Speaker 4: doing it all.
Speaker 3: But at the.
Speaker 4: Older I get the more responsibility that these prestigious gigs
Speaker 4: have as well. So the responsibility for me to be
Speaker 4: at a meeting is different than me going to another gig.
Speaker 8: You know, the workload is higher when you like overseas.
Speaker 4: Higher up I get, the more responsibility that workload is on.
Speaker 4: It falls on me, and my team is incredible, do
Speaker 4: not get me wrong. But at the same time, at
Speaker 4: some I gotta show face and I have to implement
Speaker 4: my own knowledge into what makes this show what it is.
Speaker 4: So I had to say no to Stevie, and I
Speaker 4: think that that is is crazy, but it's also a
Speaker 4: testament to being a stand up person and what you've
Speaker 4: already agreed to, and then also knowing the time that
Speaker 4: I spend with my family and my children and my wife.
Speaker 3: That's what makes me a better.
Speaker 4: Musician, because we've all had that moment where you get
Speaker 4: that nod in your stomach and you like, I can't
Speaker 4: even perform today. I'm jacked up. I don't know what's
Speaker 4: going at home or or whatever. The you know, personal
Speaker 4: case may be in some of our lives. But it's like,
Speaker 4: as long as I make sure that routine and that
Speaker 4: home is straight, I'm a better person for the rest
Speaker 4: of the world. And sometimes in this business, unfortunately, the
Speaker 4: world doesn't care if we're greater, if we're better people,
Speaker 4: as long as we're servicing them.
Speaker 3: I've been blessed to be able to. I've been blessed
Speaker 3: to be able.
Speaker 4: To the last two three four years have people that
Speaker 4: want to pour back into me in certain gigs and that,
Speaker 4: and that is a blessing to me. It's a blessing
Speaker 4: when I can say, yo, I need a break, or
Speaker 4: I can't do this, or I got to get home,
Speaker 4: or my son got a soccer game or my daughter
Speaker 4: got swimming lessons. I promise you it's going to be okay.
Speaker 4: I'll be right back. They say, oh, man, we got you.
Speaker 8: It's okay.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So those are the moments that matter to me, which
Speaker 4: in turn supports what why I do what I do
Speaker 4: for them this legacy.
Speaker 1: You know, Adam, if there were a versus for mds, whoa.
Speaker 2: Whoa who would be the Adam Blackstone versus.
Speaker 1: For and someone that you didn't and I don't mean like,
Speaker 1: bro that.
Speaker 3: Do you about the this is that's really good?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 1: No know, well who's an MD out there? That's like okay,
Speaker 1: so I see you.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, you know my West Coast brothers fifteen
Speaker 3: hundred and nothing they're.
Speaker 4: Doing they Yeah, I got like Rant and Mars.
Speaker 8: I got Mars.
Speaker 4: So that a lot of my influence in pop music
Speaker 4: came from Kevin and Tunes. Okay, I'm not sure if
Speaker 4: people are familiar with him, but he did every boy
Speaker 4: band in the nineties, So Backstreet, Incent Id Degrees, Bretty Spears,
Speaker 4: Christina Aguilera, them, Jurassic Park Sounds and all that.
Speaker 3: Like the in Sync was doing that. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Remember when the TVs came over their heads at Massive Squirrelark,
Speaker 4: So like Kevin and Tunes would be another one. And
Speaker 4: then I'm just inspired by so many others. You know,
Speaker 4: Ricky Minor with what he did with Whitney Houston. I
Speaker 4: took a lot of that catalyst and tried to bring
Speaker 4: it to Jill.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: It was like, our live versions of this music is
Speaker 4: almost just as good or hopefully better experience than some
Speaker 4: of the record joints.
Speaker 3: That's how you feel about Whitney. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: He was doing when Ricky was doing Whitney, and so
Speaker 4: like we Jill loved singing live, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: And at that time I hadn't experienced somebody that was.
Speaker 3: Like, Yo, let's go on the stage and were just
Speaker 3: gonna vibe.
Speaker 4: And it's Jill is such a you know, a class
Speaker 4: act when it comes to that and commanding that stage.
Speaker 3: She taught me so much of how to just be.
Speaker 8: In the moment.
Speaker 4: I got a lot of that from watching Ricky and
Speaker 4: with Whitney and all the other TV things he has done.
Speaker 1: And Jill still use colorful metaphors when she wants something.
Speaker 8: I need, I need, I need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. I sent her a song for my album
Speaker 3: that this sounds like that tying down. She said, it's
Speaker 3: not yellow enough.
Speaker 1: Yo, dog.
Speaker 2: Every Jill is the most song rejecting person I know
Speaker 2: in this lifetime.
Speaker 1: And it's always a metaphor.
Speaker 3: It's gotta be green. It's like.
Speaker 1: She's big on synesthesia.
Speaker 3: Yeah she gets it, but but let me write that
Speaker 3: word down.
Speaker 1: Say what now?
Speaker 6: Synesthesia?
Speaker 2: Synesthesia that's when you hear music or sounds, and it
Speaker 2: makes you think of a color. That is all. That
Speaker 2: is all Jill Skoy is about. Yes, and he wanted
Speaker 2: like strawberry moon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and her wanted and her genius allows her to
Speaker 4: convey it right in a way where you like, oh,
Speaker 4: this sound, this chord.
Speaker 3: This feeling, whether you're.
Speaker 4: You're I'm gonna make this up, whether you're a synesthetic
Speaker 4: or not, you understand what she's saying back.
Speaker 1: To right, we play. We can do that, all right?
Speaker 1: So I learned a lot this episode.
Speaker 4: Also listen, I gotta I gotta do this man. I
Speaker 4: gotta give my man quest love his flowers. I continue
Speaker 4: to say in every interview, every problems, I just gotta
Speaker 4: say this, Like every MD also has an m D
Speaker 4: and a mere quest love. Thompson is my forever m D.
Speaker 4: I he can or cannot. I set three in the
Speaker 4: morning and I say, Yo, what you think about D
Speaker 4: D D D D or what the cord for this?
Speaker 3: Or how should I do this?
Speaker 4: Or like I'm still asking and gaining knowledge and and
Speaker 4: and hopefully you know, you know, bro that what you've
Speaker 4: spawned in me is so many other Now the people
Speaker 4: you say I've inspired, they got to know that where
Speaker 4: I get it from. And so between you and James
Speaker 4: and Rich and and and just the whole crew, it's like,
Speaker 4: I appreciate you for taking a chance on me. Literally
Speaker 4: Philadelphia changed my life and you know here we are QLs.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much, thank you. Yes, I'll take
Speaker 1: these damn flowers.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now you know what I learned. You know what I
Speaker 1: learned this episode.
Speaker 2: And I was quasi joking when it came to me,
Speaker 2: but now realize, like, damn, Adam's right, like I gotta
Speaker 2: control my my deaths is a real Yeah. I don't
Speaker 2: want nobody showing that damn Like every time I go
Speaker 2: to sports events, they always show the damn Justin Bieber
Speaker 2: drum battle.
Speaker 3: Yeah you like you know, listen, I gotta say.
Speaker 1: Man, like, no offense is just to biberm only.
Speaker 3: No, no, we're not talking.
Speaker 4: It's not about Beber, but what we've done in our
Speaker 4: lives that what has made the you know, the impact on.
Speaker 3: People, because you don't you know that casket.
Speaker 4: Man is real and we don't want to be like,
Speaker 4: oh he was an asshole, look at him up there
Speaker 4: with like you know what I'm saying, like that, ain't
Speaker 4: we want to. We want to know when you freaking
Speaker 4: started playing drumming jungle and drumming based on you got me? Like,
Speaker 4: whoa how? That just was like what the like? Those
Speaker 4: are the things? You know what I'm saying, that's.
Speaker 6: My moment to Adam, that's my favorite quest.
Speaker 1: It's called a legacy.
Speaker 3: Legacy, Baby, it's.
Speaker 2: Called a legacy left that you've yet to do that
Speaker 2: you want to do.
Speaker 4: Winning that in me, bro let me know that Egot
Speaker 4: was was stop playing very much was very much a
Speaker 4: real thing, and it's attainable. It's very much attainable. Watching
Speaker 4: you get two in one year, it was like okay
Speaker 4: and there you go and inspira And sometimes we just
Speaker 4: need to see our own whether it's our own color,
Speaker 4: or our own people or our own friends, like do
Speaker 4: it because you know that you can do it. What
Speaker 4: I want to do is inspire kids to know that
Speaker 4: follow your dreams and it could happen like I. You know,
Speaker 4: earlier I might have thought I wanted to be in
Speaker 4: the NBA or play baseball. Now I'm like doing halftime
Speaker 4: at the NBA All Star Game every year. I'm like,
Speaker 4: if this is if the music is what got me
Speaker 4: to the NBA. Thank your you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: But I don't know if there's anything else. Man, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna just take it day by day and you know,
Speaker 4: gig by gig and you know, just be super thankful, yo.
Speaker 3: Thankful music.
Speaker 4: Music has the power to take to do anything and
Speaker 4: heal and take us anywhere.
Speaker 5: Inspire and grown ups to just so you know a
Speaker 5: lot of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you gave question Love all his flowers. Now
Speaker 3: to tell everybody who your favorite you.
Speaker 4: Is Mandell Mix, don't get in trouble'd be right.
Speaker 3: That's a hard question, a rough question.
Speaker 6: About the day.
Speaker 1: We are chilling and ship everybody.
Speaker 11: We love every God No, Adam, I yo, man, I
Speaker 11: couldn't be more proud of you man and I and
Speaker 11: just to see your growth, this is awesome.
Speaker 2: I thank you for doing this and it's it's amazing
Speaker 2: to see your work.
Speaker 1: I can't see what you have in the future.
Speaker 2: And thank you for spending this time with us on
Speaker 2: behalf of Unpaid Bill who's working on his umteeenth Tony
Speaker 2: and Sugar Steve, our favorite person of all time, voniglo.
Speaker 3: An inside joke between me and.
Speaker 1: Adam and and my year. This is another great episode
Speaker 1: of Quest Love Supreme. You know we will see you
Speaker 1: on the next go round, all right? What's Love Supreme?
Speaker 1: Is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.