Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode
Speaker 1: was produced by the team at Pandora. So last week
Speaker 1: we lost a giant in music and in culture, brother
Speaker 1: Rorieers passed at the age of eighty four. Almost eight
Speaker 1: years ago, Quest Love Supreme sat down with Roy at
Speaker 1: the Electric Lady Studios at New York City. You know,
Speaker 1: with this interview, this means so much to Quest Love
Speaker 1: Supreme and the members of Team Supreme. Roy did say
Speaker 1: a lot, and he spoke about as many movements, and
Speaker 1: it was so special. Happened him back in the room
Speaker 1: where he made history. You know, at the time when
Speaker 1: we recorded at Electric Lady, you know we chose Electric Lady.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm in Electric Lady's history, So I
Speaker 1: guess you can say that even DiAngelo bringing us all
Speaker 1: to the attention of Electric Lady Studios, I really wasn't
Speaker 1: where the history of the place until you know, maybe
Speaker 1: the first week of Voodoo back in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: But even then, I'm never thinking like history. I'm just
Speaker 1: thinking of home because that's kind of where we planted
Speaker 1: our black However, I believe it was Sugar Steve that
Speaker 1: reminded me it's like you realize that this is where
Speaker 1: you recorded Everybody Loves the Sunshine and then even pointed
Speaker 1: to the vibraphones that were over in the corner. But
Speaker 1: that's the thing about electricating studios is that what's notable
Speaker 1: about it is the artwork and the equipment. Bear has
Speaker 1: been there since day one, since nineteen seventy. So yes,
Speaker 1: the very keyboards and the very drum set and the
Speaker 1: very mics and all those things we used on Voodoo
Speaker 1: were the same things used on you know, Stevie Wonders
Speaker 1: for filling his first finality and inner visions and Roy's
Speaker 1: Everybody Loves the Sunshine. That's kind of crazy that the
Speaker 1: roads that made the Angelo's Voodoo is the same roots
Speaker 1: that made Everybody Loves the Sunshine, which the same roots
Speaker 1: that made it ain't no use by Stevie Wonder. It's
Speaker 1: kind of weird, like how much history that place holds,
Speaker 1: so it's rather apropos of having him back there. Please
Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode of Quls Rest in Peace, Warriors.
Speaker 2: Supremo Suprema Ro Calm Supremo, Suck, Supremo ro Suprimo, Supremo
Speaker 2: ro Suprima Supremos.
Speaker 1: Love and the Sunshine. Yeah, the Summer's Sun. Yeah, should
Speaker 1: we do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Supremo roll Calm Suprema Sun Sun Supremo Rome.
Speaker 1: My name is Fonte. Some say I'm crazy, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: we live in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3: Baby Supreme Son Son Supremo, Roll Cal Suprema So Supreme,
Speaker 3: roll came.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm a little moody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a month since. Yeah, I got some star Booty.
Speaker 4: Supremo Supremo roll Lost Bill is not crazy yeah or
Speaker 4: cuckoo aha, Yeah, but let me kiss you on your
Speaker 4: poo Pool.
Speaker 3: Son Supremo, Roll Cal Suprema Son Supremo.
Speaker 1: Roll Call paid Bill, Yeah, came to share.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love the Sunshine and Roy Supreme Supremeo roll Call.
Speaker 6: Yeah, what's your infatuation?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: What Roy is?
Speaker 6: It's the Vibration.
Speaker 8: Song.
Speaker 1: So we know you still doing too many.
Speaker 9: Roll call.
Speaker 1: My name is Roy. You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to forget that I'm not playing roll Call.
Speaker 3: Supremo, Roll Call Suprema, Ya Supreme, roll Call Supreme, So Supreme.
Speaker 1: Roll Call Suprema something something Supreme roll call, damn you.
Speaker 1: Steve the Road prop Comedy, Steve actually had a copy
Speaker 1: of Roy Start Steve. I've been thinking about that for
Speaker 1: a long time, even waiting.
Speaker 10: I wont.
Speaker 1: You've been winning.
Speaker 11: He's been winning for like the Beast, like, let's move
Speaker 11: on You doesn't like you, don't like the Sunshine, Spotlight
Speaker 11: you the next.
Speaker 10: Transition, of course that album was was done here.
Speaker 9: So yes, we know Bate Famous and Juice here. Wait
Speaker 9: a minute, we'll find out.
Speaker 1: Hello, this is your show? Can I get him in
Speaker 1: a degree? Ladies, Welcome to another classic informative episode of
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme. Yeah, I am quest Love, I'm your host.
Speaker 1: I am on the pictures now. And we have Fico
Speaker 1: on first base. We got Boss Bill on the catcher's position.
Speaker 1: What more of a cash No, no, no, no, you
Speaker 1: know anyway, we got Sugar Steve in the center field,
Speaker 1: like the left field. Yeah, unpaid Bill is our third basement.
Speaker 1: Nice and we got a k Margaret. She is our shortstop.
Speaker 1: You're a sports We are on it and with us
Speaker 1: the day. He's a quarterback. Who's the quarterback and with
Speaker 1: us today is a gentleman who has quietly stood the
Speaker 1: test of time for starting out in the burgeoning jazz
Speaker 1: era of the sixties, Los Angeles to the jazz funk
Speaker 1: fusion of the seventies to the electro funk boogie of
Speaker 1: the eighties, just to come full circle and to watch
Speaker 1: his work come back in the form of classic hip
Speaker 1: hop samples that have stood the test of time in
Speaker 1: the nineties and then to the neo soul era of
Speaker 1: the early aughts and and tens, and basically, our guests,
Speaker 1: Roy Airs to me is the black music world's jeans
Speaker 1: and t shirts. He sold music's tuxedo, something that will
Speaker 1: never ever ever go out of style. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please welcome back home to Electric Lady. This is how
Speaker 1: you doing. Yes, all right, so we okay, all of
Speaker 1: us have been dying to know, because we are in
Speaker 1: the a room of Electric Lady Studios in the village
Speaker 1: of New York. When's the last time you were here? Well, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you've been here a few times recording,
Speaker 1: you know, with Erica and Kanye. But I mean, like
Speaker 1: during the Polydor years, Like how often did you use
Speaker 1: the studio?
Speaker 8: I can't even remember, But now I can vaguely remember.
Speaker 8: I used the studio so much that that I wore
Speaker 8: engineers out. Really, I wore engineers out because people like
Speaker 8: Jerry Jerry Solomon, my god, Jerry Solomon and his wife
Speaker 8: they said, wait, Roy, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 7: Jerry Solomon and his wife.
Speaker 8: They decided they were gonna go okay, and so it's
Speaker 8: I said, get another engineer.
Speaker 1: So you would how long would your sussons be?
Speaker 7: Sometimes?
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, a day, the whole the whole day.
Speaker 1: So in true jazz mode, you would record an entire
Speaker 1: album within the three day, you know, No, no, I would.
Speaker 7: I would do about three songs. Oh, okay, three songs
Speaker 7: A lot, a.
Speaker 1: Lot, that's a lot. Yeah, And what the song? Would
Speaker 1: you write them in the studio at that time or
Speaker 1: would they be pre written? Usually they were.
Speaker 7: Written written right right out.
Speaker 8: H I paid it played everything, you know, like everybody
Speaker 8: loves the sunshine, just made it up. Really most of
Speaker 8: my most of my compositions were spontaneous. Really they want
Speaker 8: to sponsor, Yeah, a spontaneous key. Everybody else is doing
Speaker 8: doing whatever they do.
Speaker 1: But that's what I did. It was really a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Is it something about this room that makes
Speaker 1: people just write on the spot and not prepare right?
Speaker 1: That seems to be a running thing. That's the only
Speaker 1: good narrative of studio am I I'm assuming that did
Speaker 1: you record in Studio A or Studio B or but
Speaker 1: they'd both both studios, both studios they were really fantastic, really,
Speaker 1: And what made you want to choose Electric Lady of Like,
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of artists that have chosen
Speaker 1: the studio for the folklore Jimmy Hendrix and just the
Speaker 1: location in the village.
Speaker 7: Was it was Jimmy for Jimmy is right. Jimmy was
Speaker 7: a wonderful person.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: So even as a jazz guy, you you had respect
Speaker 1: for the folklore of Oh.
Speaker 8: Yeah really, oh yeah, but you knew him, right, Yeah,
Speaker 8: I knew Jimmy, but I didn't know him that well,
Speaker 8: you know, I knew.
Speaker 1: Him, Okay, So knowing that you grew up in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles part of my ignorance. But it's like for me,
Speaker 1: I've I've already studied I've always studied the history of
Speaker 1: most jazz guys that came to New York, right, But
Speaker 1: I never always knew that like most guys in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles felt similar to hip hop, that New York was
Speaker 1: a real snobby place for the culture, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was slow to give respect to them. So tell me,
Speaker 1: especially in the sixties when you were coming up in
Speaker 1: in in the jazz world, Like, what was the jazz
Speaker 1: scene like in Los Angeles? Was there a scene similar
Speaker 1: to New York like what New York had in the forties?
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 8: It was a very very cool scene. You know, people
Speaker 8: like Teddy Pendergrass. I'm sorry, Teddy Edwards.
Speaker 7: Okay, I'm sorry, excuse me, Teddy Teddy Edwards and Haroland
Speaker 7: and the.
Speaker 8: Jeral Wilson Big Band. My god, those all those, all
Speaker 8: those guys were just fantastic.
Speaker 7: And I worked with Curtis Curtis Amy, uh and and
Speaker 7: I worked did records with Jack Wilson, did Jack Wilson Quartet.
Speaker 7: Oh man, it was really a great thing. Uh. It
Speaker 7: was a great experience for me, truly a great experience.
Speaker 1: But was there I mean, as far as the scene
Speaker 1: was concerned, I know, like here you know cats, we
Speaker 1: were hardcore. As far as like you being up on
Speaker 1: your chops and and they're quitd down you. I mean,
Speaker 1: most people know the story of Bird getting the symbol
Speaker 1: thrown at him? Do you know the story? No?
Speaker 7: You know, I don't.
Speaker 1: Okay, now just seeah, I want to verify if you
Speaker 1: know it, then I can explain Charlie Parker, who's you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the virtuos is of all time
Speaker 1: of sex. When he was first I forget not Men's playhouse,
Speaker 1: I forget the name of the club that he was in.
Speaker 1: But cats thought he was so bad that at one
Speaker 1: point the drummer just took the riot symbol and through
Speaker 1: it apper to get him to stop playing. To him,
Speaker 1: that was like, oh, I got to go back and practice,
Speaker 1: and then he came back murdered a monster. He came
Speaker 1: back a monster. So what was it was?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 1: Was there any other viberphone players that was like, you know,
Speaker 1: eye in your spot, Like, okay, Bobby Urchison, he's also
Speaker 1: La based.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Pasadena, Pasada, California. I'm getting ready to go do
Speaker 7: a what do you call it? A predude to hiss
Speaker 7: uh uh his demise he died, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: you know did you didn't you know that? No?
Speaker 1: No, I knew he passed away, right, yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: but I didn't know he was from Los Angeles.
Speaker 8: Pasadena, that's right, Pasadena, California. But when they have the
Speaker 8: Rose Parade and he was like a genius man, he's
Speaker 8: a genius as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so was was receiving Linald Hampton's drum You
Speaker 1: told me the story before of Lonald Hampton giving you
Speaker 1: a pair of vibr right, was that? What is that?
Speaker 1: What determined you to play vi phones? Or were you
Speaker 1: a drummer or did you do others?
Speaker 8: I was I was really stuck on the vibes. You know,
Speaker 8: I wanted to play the vibes. So Lionel Hampton gave
Speaker 8: me a set of vibraal phone malice, and of course
Speaker 8: that that was I was five years old.
Speaker 7: I always wanted to play the vibes. Lionel Hampton was
Speaker 7: my was my he was my mentor.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Everything was wonderful man. Okay, so how would you were
Speaker 1: you how were you able to even practice or that?
Speaker 1: Because the vibraphones are not the things that are easily
Speaker 1: transportable in that time period. I know now you have
Speaker 1: devices that you can pack up and you know, electronic
Speaker 1: vibraphones or whatever. But how what was your practice method? Like?
Speaker 7: Uh, I played for quite a while, but I was
Speaker 7: just on the piano. I had a piano there. My
Speaker 7: mother played piano and taught piano lessens. But I played
Speaker 7: the piano because I didn't have a set of vibes.
Speaker 7: My folks bought me a set of vibes when I
Speaker 7: was like seventeen years old. I drove them crazy.
Speaker 11: So for the instrumental dummies though, miss Airs, let me
Speaker 11: ask you, what's the big What are the differences between
Speaker 11: the vibes and then the piano? Like, how hard was
Speaker 11: it to transition to the same keyboard?
Speaker 7: It's as xylophone, you know. The xylophone is the same
Speaker 7: as as a keyboard.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 7: So it's black keys, white keys, you know, same thing.
Speaker 1: You grew up in South Central?
Speaker 7: Correct, it's right, South Central, La.
Speaker 1: So knowing what I well, knowing what movies have told
Speaker 1: me about South I don't know if I can trust
Speaker 1: the information or not. You know if a lot of times,
Speaker 1: you know the problem is that most people get their
Speaker 1: views of black people's lives via entertainment, the music they
Speaker 1: produced and the movies and the television shows and any
Speaker 1: think that's real life. What was South Central like?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 1: During your childhood growing up?
Speaker 7: It was uh, basically a drag. South Central was was
Speaker 7: you know? I mean South Central? If you look at
Speaker 7: all the guys like h and I never met a
Speaker 7: lot of the young guys, the young younger, younger guys.
Speaker 7: It was quite different, man. It's quite different because I
Speaker 7: wasn't even exposed as as far as I got the
Speaker 7: exposure during the time I was with Joe Wilson and
Speaker 7: Jack Wilson and and and and It's really crazy.
Speaker 1: Growing up in your early childhood. What was south was
Speaker 1: South Central Plague with gang activity was South Central mired
Speaker 1: in trouble as as what I've known it to be
Speaker 1: in the eighties or nineties, Like did you guys have
Speaker 1: or were Did your parents take you out of that
Speaker 1: and constantly keep you in music?
Speaker 7: My folks they loved me.
Speaker 8: They spent four four four four hundred dollars on my
Speaker 8: on a on a record that I did. People don't
Speaker 8: even know about it.
Speaker 10: Really exclusive.
Speaker 8: Wow, no, no, but they don't even know that I
Speaker 8: whether the singer. Okay, I sang you know, I sang
Speaker 8: at a young young, young age.
Speaker 1: I was like, so even before the Atlantic record, oh
Speaker 1: you you were saying way before right? Oh damn, I
Speaker 1: did not know about it. Nobody nobody knew that where
Speaker 1: are these records at? Oh?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 7: Source?
Speaker 1: It was the Vowels of Love. The group was called
Speaker 1: the Vowels of Love and uh.
Speaker 7: The Latin Latin lyrics with the Vowels of Love and
Speaker 7: it's on Embassy Embassy Records.
Speaker 1: So was this close to uh like do wop or do? Okay? Okay,
Speaker 1: I see, Roy Man, I see. So what what drove
Speaker 1: you to jazz music? I mean, did you improvisation? Yeah?
Speaker 7: You know, improvisation I was.
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 7: I was good. So you know, I kept I kept
Speaker 7: playing and and uh kept grooving. Deucey Williams. Do you
Speaker 7: remember Ducy Williams? Familiarize He was a producer on that album.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 7: Uh, we did the Vowels of Love and uh we
Speaker 7: did a song called Stranded in the Jungle. Okay, god
Speaker 7: my god, it was very nice. We did one record.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you still have copies of those records?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 1: I have one copy still in your possession right now.
Speaker 7: I have one copy. Right somebody sent it to me.
Speaker 10: It's like a forty five record.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's a forty five right, okay.
Speaker 1: Which one of us is going to volunteer to go
Speaker 1: digitize it? So I imagine it could be preserved in history.
Speaker 1: I got that. I want to hear it. I want
Speaker 1: to I want to hear this. So, so when did
Speaker 1: you get serious about jazz music? Like leaving leaving doop?
Speaker 7: And I was always serious about jazz, you know, so
Speaker 7: I you know, I was always serious, serious about it.
Speaker 7: It was very very personal to me, you know. Uh
Speaker 7: as a as a matter of fact, h.
Speaker 1: I had Uh.
Speaker 7: I had most most, not not everything, but most of Linohampton's.
Speaker 1: Records, Okay, and of course the MG a Q and.
Speaker 8: Uh Bobby, she said, Bobby. Bobby did very well with me.
Speaker 8: He was a very progressive vibeist.
Speaker 7: As a matter of fact, I looked at looked at
Speaker 7: this plane, I looked advanced, its performing and it was fantastic.
Speaker 8: He was a year younger than me. Oh really when
Speaker 8: he passed in that even seventy five, seventy five years old.
Speaker 8: I'm seventy six.
Speaker 7: So it's kind of weird.
Speaker 8: It seems like I'm getting all the work now. No,
Speaker 8: I'm serious, but I'm getting so much work, which is good.
Speaker 8: I'm not complaining. I'm just saying I'm getting all of
Speaker 8: it now. But it's all right, it's all right, it's cool.
Speaker 6: But what's that like a seventy six though, what is
Speaker 6: that like like now? You you tour a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean it's great, tour all the time, that right
Speaker 1: to all the time.
Speaker 7: I just came back from Australia.
Speaker 6: Wow, what is that like though for you? Now that
Speaker 6: you getting just so popular and.
Speaker 1: Like, I'm tired.
Speaker 7: No, no, no, but I'm tired when I'm when I
Speaker 7: when I when I'm good tired. But you know, so
Speaker 7: I'm awake. When I'm awake, I'm kicking ass. I'm serious.
Speaker 6: You know I've seen you.
Speaker 7: I know you are.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 9: You know you came to my city. This was I
Speaker 9: think it was a year or two ago. You played
Speaker 9: the Article Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and I came
Speaker 9: and saw you. It was it was amazing.
Speaker 7: It was amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just say that. Even we did a show
Speaker 1: with you once. The Roots did a show with you
Speaker 1: in Brighton, England, and there was a trick that used
Speaker 1: to do with the solos where you know, all of
Speaker 1: you stopped playing your instruments and you just start scatting
Speaker 1: the solos. The Roots try that once once again. No,
Speaker 1: it's just because you. One thing we didn't know was
Speaker 1: that you are easily out of breath after nineteen seconds
Speaker 1: of scatting. And you know, these guys were doing an
Speaker 1: efforts effortlessly for like six minutes. So yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that was a short lived you know, I understand that
Speaker 1: that was hard to do. So how did you hook
Speaker 1: up with Herbie Ben a friend of mine, Reggie Workman
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia? Yeah, Ressie, Reggie Workman from Philadelphia. He said, Roy,
Speaker 1: Herbie Mann's in town. He needs a by player. I
Speaker 1: called him up his got in touch with him. He said, hey,
Speaker 1: can you can you come play with me tonight?
Speaker 7: I said, no problem. I hooked up the gig. The
Speaker 7: rest was straight ahead. It was great with Herbie Mann.
Speaker 7: It was wonderful.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: How many years did you I did four years? Really
Speaker 1: four years.
Speaker 7: I was also his roadie, also a member of this band.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're also the roadie and.
Speaker 7: Yeah, whichy'all helped me to understand the road. The road
Speaker 7: understand it's very complicated. Sometimes it can be very confusing.
Speaker 1: You know. So you would also drive the trucks in
Speaker 1: the equipment and well, you know, whatever we had to do,
Speaker 1: we flew everywhere.
Speaker 7: Okay, Herbie did very well.
Speaker 1: Okay, now explain this to me because again like with
Speaker 1: the way that I tour. Now there are backline rental companies.
Speaker 1: They're at your beck and call to set things up
Speaker 1: for you and to have it there. How like did
Speaker 1: you live in a fifth story walk up apartment?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: How would you get your viberphones two and from gigs
Speaker 1: effortlessly or would they already be that? Because it's not
Speaker 1: like a piano, it's not like it's something that's just
Speaker 1: commonly there. So how do you get your your your
Speaker 1: instruments to and from gigs?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yep, we'd have a special truck, a special guy
Speaker 7: to transport it. They would actually put put it away,
Speaker 7: you know, put everything away based based drums, piano, guitar,
Speaker 7: and Herbie Mann. And sometimes we would add other individuals
Speaker 7: like you know, Jimmy Owens, who on whoever?
Speaker 1: You know? Wow?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah it was it was nice.
Speaker 10: So did you play on any Herbie Mann albums?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 10: Yeah, he was on Atlantic, right.
Speaker 7: He's on Atlantic. Yeah, I did this?
Speaker 1: How you got your deal with Atlantic? Initially Picnic and
Speaker 1: all that stuff? I was.
Speaker 7: I was performing with Jack Wilson the first time, Jack
Speaker 7: Wilson Quartet.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then we do we did Herbie Mann with
Speaker 1: with h the organization.
Speaker 7: It was very nice.
Speaker 1: Did you have a relationship with I met Urdigan and
Speaker 1: Jerry Wexley, like the Cats Atlantic Like, yeah, I knew,
Speaker 1: I knew both of them, but uh, because you only
Speaker 1: stayed for like three records, And I always wondered because
Speaker 1: you know, they they seem like, at least from my perspective,
Speaker 1: a jazz friendly label. But for some reason, I always
Speaker 1: noticed that a lot of their artists would leave after
Speaker 1: somewhere between three to five years to go somewhere else
Speaker 1: to do right, you know, the same a Coltrane like,
Speaker 1: you know, to have a fruitful career exactly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that.
Speaker 1: So was it that you just felt that they were
Speaker 1: more of a soul label and really not adapt to
Speaker 1: marketing jazz? I believe that they could everything. They could
Speaker 1: do everything.
Speaker 7: They did everything everything, okay, jazz, blues, soul, whatever, they
Speaker 7: did a lot of stuff, man, you know, you know
Speaker 7: it was. It was a good record company, man, very
Speaker 7: good company.
Speaker 1: Okay. So what made you what made you go to
Speaker 1: Polydor in the early seventies, I.
Speaker 7: Left the company. I went to another company. It was
Speaker 7: a better deal. Oh okay, it was a bunch better deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say you and James Brown I
Speaker 1: believe were the first James Brown, Yeah, you, James Brown
Speaker 1: and mandrou I believe were the first signees to Polydor Records,
Speaker 1: and I was there before him in nineteen seventy correct. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So for you it was just a better deal business wise,
Speaker 1: and yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was very nice. It was a very nice deal.
Speaker 1: I guess. Infusing funk music into your jazz, I mean,
Speaker 1: it seemed like a radical idea at the time. So
Speaker 1: can you talk about the effects of the idea of
Speaker 1: fusion not playing straight ahead jazz, but more or less
Speaker 1: cats starting to infuse rock music into their as and
Speaker 1: soul music into their jazz, and you know where people were.
Speaker 1: Did you see this as the future adding more rhythm
Speaker 1: to your jazz as opposed to just straight ahead shuffle,
Speaker 1: which you know, I mean, there was no evidence of
Speaker 1: that by the time you got to If anything, I
Speaker 1: think you planted the seeds of what will be neo
Speaker 1: soul absolutely twenty years later. So I'm gonna just explain
Speaker 1: what was your philosophy as far as the music you
Speaker 1: wanted to present, Like just with the whole mysticism and
Speaker 1: the vibes, and just like what was your philosophy, Like,
Speaker 1: what were you trying to present to the people that
Speaker 1: was way different than your straight ahead jazz stuff.
Speaker 8: I was just trying to present the music that I
Speaker 8: love and I can tell that it was it was
Speaker 8: represented through the trials and tribulation of the music to that.
Speaker 1: I felt the vibe.
Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying, Yeah, I can get it.
Speaker 7: I felt the vibe.
Speaker 8: It was just the vibe, the vibe to teach, especially
Speaker 8: to teach like the songs like searching and and and
Speaker 8: the beautiful things that I'd said, I'd set it musically.
Speaker 12: So besides jazz stuff, what what what other types or
Speaker 12: what other bands were you listening to at the time
Speaker 12: that you were nick in the early seventies, were in
Speaker 12: the sixties, Well, you know, I.
Speaker 8: Was listening to Herbie Hancock and to uh, you know,
Speaker 8: check Korea, several different styles, and of course I always
Speaker 8: had my favorite Miles Davis.
Speaker 7: If Miles Davis is my favorite artist, you know, So at.
Speaker 1: The time when uh like on the corner and a
Speaker 1: lot of Miles is more deeper like post bitches and stuff.
Speaker 1: Were you digging that? Because I know a lot of
Speaker 1: jazz heads were like, I don't know, Miles, you might
Speaker 1: have felt the deep end, but did that speak to you?
Speaker 7: I was checking him out.
Speaker 8: Of course. Of course that did teacher teach me. He
Speaker 8: taught me a lot, taught me a lot about music.
Speaker 8: You know, Miles was the innovator man.
Speaker 7: He was great. Miles Davis was one of the great
Speaker 7: ones as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 6: Did you ever get a chance to meet him or
Speaker 6: talk to him?
Speaker 7: Ye?
Speaker 1: Did.
Speaker 8: The great thing about it is that Herbie Hancock told me,
Speaker 8: you know, when you meet Miles, Miles will hit you
Speaker 8: in the stomach.
Speaker 7: And he hit me in the stomach. He knocked, knocked
Speaker 7: the funk out of me. I knew it was coming,
Speaker 7: but he didn't know I was coming. He said, oh,
Speaker 7: you're in shape.
Speaker 1: So so it was funny.
Speaker 7: So Miles Davis was so great.
Speaker 1: Uh oh he was.
Speaker 7: He was wonderful.
Speaker 8: But when I went to his house, I wanted to
Speaker 8: film him because I wanted to film, get get him
Speaker 8: on film, and he didn't didn't let me. I bought
Speaker 8: a camera in but.
Speaker 7: I told the cat take it home.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 7: He was. He was magnificent. He's a great guy.
Speaker 1: What's the concept of the ubiquity albums because some of
Speaker 1: your albums were straight up roy Airs and then there
Speaker 1: were roy Airs Ubiquity, right, like was it meant to
Speaker 1: b side projects? Also? Was Edwin Birdsong a part of that?
Speaker 1: Or was he just so cleaver?
Speaker 7: Edwin Burthsong was part of that? That's right, okay, part
Speaker 7: of the whole ubiquity family.
Speaker 8: But by god, Evan Birdsong is in California also with
Speaker 8: Marta Williams, and Marta Williams is the individual.
Speaker 1: That told me.
Speaker 7: Get get got me interested in in ubiquity And I said,
Speaker 7: what does that mean? She said to me the state
Speaker 7: of being everywhere. At the same time, m M, and
Speaker 7: I said, all right, so I can tell people I
Speaker 7: can be everywhere if you you had one of my elbows.
Speaker 7: So you know, no, it's caught on very well, it's
Speaker 7: very it's a very good line. Uh, you know, it's uh,
Speaker 7: it's interesting. I used the ubiquity now now I use
Speaker 7: roy Or's production period.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: Uh, I guess we changed with all the all the Enlightenment,
Speaker 8: Enlightenment everything of everything else.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, right, Bill? Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: have on an old logo earth winding fire T shirt.
Speaker 1: You told me it's relevant to today. Yes, Why why
Speaker 1: is your your old logo earth Winding Fire?
Speaker 4: It would actually be more relevant if I was wearing
Speaker 4: some white shorts and some white sneakers because it's a
Speaker 4: reference to the song.
Speaker 6: Oh yes, because just when he was.
Speaker 4: To do the Earth, because he says what he's wearing
Speaker 4: and the song that he's talking about, he was wearing
Speaker 4: his white white t shir with with earth Winding Fire
Speaker 4: inscribed on the front, and his white shorts and some
Speaker 4: white sneakers.
Speaker 1: And you couldn't tell you. You couldn't tell you wasn't clean.
Speaker 6: Steve, he beat you.
Speaker 1: You couldn't. Yeah, Steve, we gotta take it back technically.
Speaker 10: Let's how you guys roll take it back.
Speaker 1: I get it now. You got way deep on that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you still tell that every every show you do to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do it, do it every every I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that record. I love that record.
Speaker 7: It's it's pretty difficult because you have to do it.
Speaker 7: You add on things to it.
Speaker 6: I thought you were God.
Speaker 7: So somebody says you do I'm not gonna do that
Speaker 7: one tonight, And I do that one tomorrow night, and
Speaker 7: they'll let you audience cool out.
Speaker 11: That's right, okay to night not being the audience like no,
Speaker 11: I want tonight, tell me about it.
Speaker 1: Add on to it like the aristocrats joke like have
Speaker 1: more things? Okay, yeah, something else. I mean that I
Speaker 1: have so many questions about your your your songs in particular.
Speaker 1: First of all, was it what was your what was
Speaker 1: your ideology as far as trends were concerned, Because when
Speaker 1: I really got familiar with you, I was six or
Speaker 1: seven years old when Freaky Deey was like immensely popular
Speaker 1: and unavoidable on black radio. And you know, it's like
Speaker 1: I thought of you as a disc artist. I mean
Speaker 1: because again I'm seven years old, that's you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like you be on soultry and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I didn't realize of your jazz background and none
Speaker 1: of that stuff. And really like not until hip hop
Speaker 1: did I really put all the pieces together that you
Speaker 1: just morphed into, right whatever. But you know, by the
Speaker 1: time the mid seventies came around, h did you I
Speaker 1: mean was it label? Was it label pressure like okay,
Speaker 1: you got to come up with something or was it
Speaker 1: just like you wanted to hear your clubs and disco
Speaker 1: you want to hear your music and discos now.
Speaker 7: And.
Speaker 8: Uh, I don't know, you know, it's a it's it's
Speaker 8: it's a versatility is like is my key this being
Speaker 8: versatile and very creative? And uh, I guess when you
Speaker 8: look at it, the whole the whole spectrum, the whole
Speaker 8: spectrum of music, you just gotta just deal with it.
Speaker 8: As as far as I'm concerned, you gotta deal with
Speaker 8: the fact the facts of grooving.
Speaker 7: You know, just the groove is is in the ansense
Speaker 7: of when I'm talking talking.
Speaker 1: About so disco was not a four letter word to you,
Speaker 1: not like well, you know everything everything is relative to me,
Speaker 1: Everything is related. All the stuff is related.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: I've I've seen a lot of artists, uh uh play
Speaker 8: play funk. When when Herbie Hancott plays funky, it's it's funk.
Speaker 8: But if you if you check him out, everybody's been
Speaker 8: with me several times, several times on several albums, and
Speaker 8: he is it's so so fantastic with his creativity. His
Speaker 8: creative level is so immense. It's it's it's seems it's
Speaker 8: it's it's crazy. I mean when you when you when
Speaker 8: you think about Herbie Herbie had Herbie Hadcott and and
Speaker 8: you really talk about his music, he's he's enormous. It's
Speaker 8: it's it's incredible. So uh, you know, it's it's so fantastic.
Speaker 1: All right. So you know, if you're familiar at all
Speaker 1: with my story, and I've said it a million times over,
Speaker 1: I assume that most of you know that at the
Speaker 1: top of ninety four, the Roots relocated to live in
Speaker 1: London because we felt that if we made London our hub,
Speaker 1: we could take advantage of Europe, who was latching on
Speaker 1: quickly to the Roots more than America was at the time.
Speaker 1: So we felt it was best to live in Europe
Speaker 1: and really work it so that way, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like going to the gym, coming back home and being
Speaker 1: well toned, well exercised, ready for prime time. So we,
Speaker 1: you know, lived primarily in Europe, in London specifically for
Speaker 1: you know, between ninety three to we gave our apartment
Speaker 1: up I think around like nineteen ninety eight. Anyway, that said,
Speaker 1: we got a call from the Red Hot Organization. Red
Speaker 1: Hot Organization was an organization that I believe back in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety figured out ways to raise money for AIDS research,
Speaker 1: which at the time, you know, was pandemic levels of urgency,
Speaker 1: even though our administration back in the eighties, the Reaken
Speaker 1: and Bush administration, didn't treat it as serious as or
Speaker 1: quickly as we treated COVID in twenty twenty. But that said,
Speaker 1: there were definitely you know, Tinto's on the ground as
Speaker 1: far as like doing service work and raising money and
Speaker 1: advocacy and whatnot. So there were various albums coming out
Speaker 1: under the Red Hot organization. The first one, of course,
Speaker 1: was Red Hot and Cool, which was like an interpretation
Speaker 1: of Cole Porter song. So by nineteen ninety four, I
Speaker 1: think Red Hot and Cool was our project which to
Speaker 1: to pair like jazz musicians with modern contemporary artists. So
Speaker 1: Leave the Far Side was on that record, and The
Speaker 1: Roots were asked to be on that record, and they
Speaker 1: asked us to do a collaboration with Roy Ayres. At
Speaker 1: the moment in nineteen ninety four, which we were kind
Speaker 1: of as a band readjusting to what the reality was,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of hope that this thing of
Speaker 1: ours was going to take off and be successful, you know,
Speaker 1: something new, this band's going to take the world by storm,
Speaker 1: and that didn't happen. So I'll say that around the
Speaker 1: time when we were doing this, there was kind of
Speaker 1: a murky we might not make it sort of thing.
Speaker 1: At least that was my standpoint. Let me speak for myself,
Speaker 1: that we may make it, we might not make it.
Speaker 1: But that said, I almost felt like any trip to
Speaker 1: the studio was almost like a chance to prove ourselves.
Speaker 1: Helps And we got a call that Roy Airs was
Speaker 1: in town. We were doing dates with him. We'd Probably
Speaker 1: the best show that the Roots ever did in their lives,
Speaker 1: according to our manager, was with Roy Airs in Brighton, England.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Steve Rohn of the Average White Band. Brighton,
Speaker 1: England was sort of where we learned the power of volume,
Speaker 1: the power of effects, and watching Roy Air's show, like
Speaker 1: there's a point where he did this trick from Sli
Speaker 1: the Family Stone where he would do a solo and
Speaker 1: then the band will break down. Instead of playing their instruments,
Speaker 1: they would just scat their instruments. The guitar player is
Speaker 1: going to scat like the guitarist, and the drummer is
Speaker 1: gonna like a drummer, and Roy is gonna like it
Speaker 1: was really cool and innovated. The audience just ate it up. Man,
Speaker 1: it was awesome watching him. So the Red Heart organization
Speaker 1: people said, you know, why don't you guys get with
Speaker 1: Roy tomorrow and come up with something for this red
Speaker 1: hot and cool thing. In soundcheck, I believe that Hubb
Speaker 1: was messing around on the keyboards with these chords and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, what are you doing? He did
Speaker 1: these three chords and I was like, Yo, that's something.
Speaker 1: So the music of pro Seed too, Yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: hub Spotlight. Hubb wrote that entire that entire bit and
Speaker 1: the next day this is pre Kamal. Kamal had not
Speaker 1: graduated high school yet. So there's a jazz sensation. Nikki
Speaker 1: Yo y e o h who came to our attention
Speaker 1: courtesy of Anthony tid of quite saying, Anthony TI has
Speaker 1: done a lot of work with the Roots on Things
Speaker 1: Fall Apart in Phrenology and since then relocated to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: But you know, there was like a buttoning underground jazz
Speaker 1: scene in London and Nikki Yo was on keyboards, Treika
Speaker 1: Mallick of course on vocals, like I also believe that's
Speaker 1: like one of the last times that we recorded a
Speaker 1: song in real time, in real time meaning my preferred
Speaker 1: method of recording Root songs is sort of individually, which
Speaker 1: is not recommended if you're trying to establish a synergy spoil.
Speaker 1: There are a few songs on this new Roots album
Speaker 1: which we actually go back to the old method are
Speaker 1: playing together because there's an energy there, but in terms
Speaker 1: of like maticulation and timing and all those things. Playing
Speaker 1: to a click track, I was a drummer that just
Speaker 1: wanted to play to the click track alone and add
Speaker 1: each part on afterwards. But Proceed two is probably the
Speaker 1: last time in which we all recorded together, and Roy
Speaker 1: was just such a burst of fresh air and came
Speaker 1: in on Happy, which you know, his energy sort of
Speaker 1: wore off one to us, and we were happy at
Speaker 1: a time period in which we didn't know we had
Speaker 1: a future or not, and we were recorded it. As
Speaker 1: far as the videos concerned, that to me was like
Speaker 1: an especially very crucial weekend in the development of the Roots.
Speaker 1: We did that video in January of nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: and the only thing I remember about that time period
Speaker 1: was the Roots had just come back to the United
Speaker 1: States for the first time, like after living in England
Speaker 1: for the longest, to do a series of shows. Now
Speaker 1: that our album, do you Want More was out and
Speaker 1: we did a show at Irving Plaza and all the
Speaker 1: rap luminaries like Wu Tang showed up and Skills showed up.
Speaker 1: And that's the first night I met this guy named
Speaker 1: j D. And I was very disappointed that JD was
Speaker 1: producing the Far Side and not Q Tip, so I
Speaker 1: was rather dismissive to JD. Next morning, we had to
Speaker 1: be up early to go to the Tommy Boy Records
Speaker 1: offices shout out to Monica Lynch to shoot a video
Speaker 1: on their rooftop. Tommy Boy granted us permission to shoot
Speaker 1: on the rooftop of their headquarters. And what's notable, Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, it was freezing on that video. If
Speaker 1: you watch it, proceed to the roots and Roy ayers,
Speaker 1: we're just kind of just having a cipher on the rooftop.
Speaker 1: It was very easy to shoot, although it was cold.
Speaker 1: It was so cold that whenever we weren't shooting, we'd
Speaker 1: run back downstairs in the offices of Tommy Boy. And
Speaker 1: when you go down from the rooftop and re enter
Speaker 1: the Tommy Boy building, there's a photo of four young
Speaker 1: women that we look at and you know, beautiful women
Speaker 1: walking in the streets of Los Angeles, and I was like,
Speaker 1: who are they. They're like, there are new signees. They're
Speaker 1: the Jazzy Fat Nasties, And I was like, huh, They're
Speaker 1: like yeah, Jay Swift from the Far Side producing them. Hey,
Speaker 1: you want to hear something? And I sat in that
Speaker 1: room and listened to like five songs and in a
Speaker 1: way that I hadn't been gobsmacked, like before my Slum
Speaker 1: Village Jay Dilla sort of championing, you know, I just
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that all the rules that Jay Swift,
Speaker 1: the producer of The Far Sides first album and brother
Speaker 1: of Mercedes Mercedes Martinez. Yeah, but the amount of rules
Speaker 1: they were breaking was stuff that I didn't know that
Speaker 1: one could do. Of course, now like anything goes in music,
Speaker 1: but back then, you know, hearing Mary j Bliges my
Speaker 1: life and wondering like our singer is allowed to sing
Speaker 1: over loops like a rapper does whatever you felt for
Speaker 1: the if you were of age and you were just
Speaker 1: mind blown to the Far Sides first record. Imagine someone
Speaker 1: singing with the zany energy of the Far Sides first album,
Speaker 1: like they were just breaking rules that I didn't know
Speaker 1: could happen. I was like, I got I have this demo,
Speaker 1: and I stalked them and next thing you know, I
Speaker 1: was flying the four of them to live in my
Speaker 1: house and they never left. They came in late nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety five and I worked on our ladelph Half Life
Speaker 1: record and the Things Fall Apart record, and eventually we
Speaker 1: got a deal for them. But yeah, we shot that
Speaker 1: video with Roy Airs and then you know, there's a memorable,
Speaker 1: memorable weekend. So sorry for this long winded recapitulation of
Speaker 1: our time with roy but yeah, that's that's the memories
Speaker 1: that spark with shooting the Proceed two video and recording
Speaker 1: that song with him in London.
Speaker 9: It's funny you mentioned I mean you was talking about
Speaker 9: your first time you remember hearing his music was with
Speaker 9: Freaky Dicky. I think my first roy A song I
Speaker 9: can remember hearing on the radio. I was God, I
Speaker 9: couldn't been hi one of five years old, but it
Speaker 9: was actually it was program for low Man and and
Speaker 9: and I didn't put it together until later on that like,
Speaker 9: oh this is the same guy that did everybody loved
Speaker 9: the Sunshine like it was because you know, when you
Speaker 9: talk about how everything was relative to you. The thing
Speaker 9: I always thought was about your music, was that you
Speaker 9: never you always seemed to wherever the trends were or whatever,
Speaker 9: like the younger cats were doing. I always like that
Speaker 9: you seem to embrace the younger generation, like just from
Speaker 9: what I could tell, I mean, even with a record
Speaker 9: like Program for Love at that time that was like
Speaker 9: a drum machine record, but it had you still playing
Speaker 9: and it sounded current. It sounded like something that was
Speaker 9: on the record that was like eighty five eighty six
Speaker 9: like that. But yeah, I always thought that was dope.
Speaker 9: Has that always been just a driving philosophy of yours
Speaker 9: to look at the youth and try to help them or.
Speaker 7: Well that was produced by produced by James.
Speaker 1: To me, ah, it makes perfect sense. Wait, so it's
Speaker 1: something I went hot. Yeah, I'm trying to program It's
Speaker 1: like a slow Jowin when he was on Soul Training.
Speaker 1: That was the second song change the two weeks That's
Speaker 1: my Ship.
Speaker 9: But that was that was the first bo As record
Speaker 9: I remember like hearing as a kid and uh, yeah, man,
Speaker 9: it's crazy a gas man.
Speaker 7: He's a great guy. Man, he's a great, wonderful guy.
Speaker 1: So on on your on your earlier records, the a
Speaker 1: lot of the themes of afrocentricity are definitely uh uh,
Speaker 1: just prevalent throughout all all of your works, you know,
Speaker 1: with speaking of Africa and and and confusing red, black
Speaker 1: and green imagery and and you know, black skin and
Speaker 1: those things like for you, like what made you even
Speaker 1: want to go in that direction when you know the
Speaker 1: idea of afrocentricity was rarely a thing heard. I know,
Speaker 1: like a lot of you know, maybe the Earth where yeah,
Speaker 1: like self discovery was just coming into play, but you
Speaker 1: know that the idea of afro centricity was still brand new.
Speaker 1: Like what means you, especially with those first five records
Speaker 1: on Polyador.
Speaker 8: Go there, Yeah, Africa that that's that's it. The key
Speaker 8: is Africa. Africa is in the center of the world.
Speaker 8: The world is rounding and.
Speaker 7: Stuff like that. But it's Africa is so beautiful, man,
Speaker 7: it's so so so beautiful. Fella kute he is in
Speaker 7: the mind.
Speaker 8: He grabbed your mind, He grab grabbed my mind, certainly, man,
Speaker 8: it was so wonderful. I mean, you have to understand
Speaker 8: everybody doesn't relate to Africa, but they relate to Africa, but.
Speaker 7: They don't they don't really go to Africa. They don't
Speaker 7: go there I've got When did you first go there? Man?
Speaker 7: First time I went there? My god, Wait a minute,
Speaker 7: that's a good question.
Speaker 8: Okay, I went there in nineteen seventy nine, seventy seventy eight.
Speaker 1: The first time you went with FLA, I was with
Speaker 1: the Paila with oh Man, what was.
Speaker 6: That I went to Nigeria? Is that straight in Nigeria?
Speaker 1: The shrine? I went to Nigeria and I went to
Speaker 1: say that again? What was it like at this I
Speaker 1: assume you went to the shrine? Yeah? What was that
Speaker 1: experience like to go to the shrine in its prime? Like?
Speaker 1: What was it like? Heavy? And how did you too
Speaker 1: hook up? Like? Who hooked you to up?
Speaker 8: I had an attorney, an attorney that was dealing with
Speaker 8: the Africans, African people, and he is from from uh
Speaker 8: He's from from Nigeria, Nigeria, right, he's from. He said,
Speaker 8: you you should go to Africa, Roy, you should go
Speaker 8: to Africa because there's a musician I want you to meet.
Speaker 7: And I went over there to meet Fella and I
Speaker 7: paid for the whole trip con ghetto, the musician and
Speaker 7: the engineer. My god, I paid for all that. It
Speaker 7: was very expensive.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 1: You went there a sight unseen, like just based on it,
Speaker 1: I just yet, it was based on conversation with him,
Speaker 1: with the African, the African brother.
Speaker 7: But it was it was wonderful. I mean when when
Speaker 7: when I when I met Fella, he gave me.
Speaker 1: A big hug. It was like it's like it was like.
Speaker 7: It very very very weird when you when you saw
Speaker 7: these people and all the people he bought about seventy
Speaker 7: people and everybody, this is my family. Oh oh man,
Speaker 7: it was, it was, it was, it was. It was fantastic.
Speaker 7: You can't imagine. Well, my head was was spinning, man,
Speaker 7: it was. It was a motherfucker. My language it was
Speaker 7: something else.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 7: Uh, it's it's heavy when you think about it, you know,
Speaker 7: and you think about the thoughts that think about the craziness.
Speaker 7: And then I did a rehearsal with with Fella.
Speaker 8: Oh man, these all these musicians, they don't read any music,
Speaker 8: but they conceptually, the saxophonists, all all of everybody, the dances,
Speaker 8: the dances, all his wives are dancing. It's it's it's
Speaker 8: it's it's it's unbelievable. When you see it, you say,
Speaker 8: oh ship because you can't believe it. It's unbelievable. It's
Speaker 8: unbelievable because this guy was really a genius.
Speaker 7: Man he was. I couldn't believe how you could teach
Speaker 7: teach everybody their parts. Oh man, Oh wow, it was amazing.
Speaker 7: It was amazing.
Speaker 1: So how can songs go for it? Like? How long
Speaker 1: was the average show?
Speaker 8: Sometimes when the power goes out, Oh, the drums, the
Speaker 8: drums remained playing, the drums playing, So they wait till
Speaker 8: the power goes back on, and then he keeps on.
Speaker 8: He played for at least three hours.
Speaker 7: Oh man, it was, Oh it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was great. I wish I had a time and
Speaker 1: scene just to go back to see that. What did
Speaker 1: you guys ever record and you got to see that?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 1: Did you record it on your own personal I have
Speaker 1: something I'm cool with it. I get the feeling that
Speaker 1: your story's unit. I know for a fact that your
Speaker 1: storage unit has magic in it. Because the first time,
Speaker 1: the first time I met you, and you were just
Speaker 1: so casual like, yeah, I gotta you said to me, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got about sixty yeels that poly door and never
Speaker 1: seen I was like this is right before yeah, and
Speaker 1: he was just like, yeah, I got it. I got
Speaker 1: a lot of artifacts you know that people haven't seen yet.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yo, man, you know, do you
Speaker 1: need historians to rummage through those things?
Speaker 7: Just you? I hear you.
Speaker 1: So you would record stuff and then just not turn
Speaker 1: it into the labels. Is that how you? Is that
Speaker 1: how you work?
Speaker 7: Exactly?
Speaker 1: That that's how I did work. Yeah, that's what's up, man,
Speaker 1: word up finess.
Speaker 7: You got to really understand the whole industry. It's like,
Speaker 7: it's real fucked up. It's real fucked up.
Speaker 1: Up, is it right?
Speaker 7: Hey man, it's very.
Speaker 6: Fucking bullet The most fucked up about it.
Speaker 7: But they take all the money is that they take
Speaker 7: all the money.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a law in your uh in your business? Like,
Speaker 1: was there ever a time where it's like, damn, I
Speaker 1: can't get no work? Or I always felt like you
Speaker 1: were constantly I mean because you did projects of Wayne
Speaker 1: Henderson and the Crusaders, I believe, And so I'm thinking
Speaker 1: that you're always working, like, well.
Speaker 7: I'm I'm I work most of the time.
Speaker 1: So a down period where it's like Okay, I don't know,
Speaker 1: this might be the end of the road, and.
Speaker 7: Well that's a down period. But the down period it
Speaker 7: gets better and it continues to get better as you
Speaker 7: as you will probably grow in your life, you'll see
Speaker 7: you to get better.
Speaker 9: I see, how did your records, how would they selling
Speaker 9: and pola at the time, and what was the standard
Speaker 9: for what they considered a successful record.
Speaker 7: Oh, it's interesting.
Speaker 8: Uh, you know, I was making two hundred two hundred
Speaker 8: thousand dollars some damn two hundred two hundred period four
Speaker 8: hundred thousand of the year for every time you turn,
Speaker 8: every time a record, right, every time I turned the record,
Speaker 8: they had it so fucked up. Excuse me, but they
Speaker 8: had so fucked up, and I was I was sitting
Speaker 8: on the record and the promotion people said, hey.
Speaker 7: He's got another album coming out, and we haven't finished
Speaker 7: with this single, which is the other single.
Speaker 1: They were crazy, So you're moving too fast for them.
Speaker 8: Well that's right, they were moving too fast. Seriously, they
Speaker 8: were moving too fast, and I was fucked up.
Speaker 7: You know this, oh ship, this is great.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So you were basically saying you were basking in the
Speaker 1: glory of that time period and kind of glory of
Speaker 1: the dollars. I see, right, every day everything was cool.
Speaker 8: But they started getting too organized and then they fucked
Speaker 8: it all up.
Speaker 7: Well, they fucked it up. They fucked it up.
Speaker 1: That leads me to your production projects, because there's two
Speaker 1: side projects that you worked on that, although it didn't
Speaker 1: make initial noise when they came out. Uh, both of
Speaker 1: them found life years later once hip hop both discovered them. Uh,
Speaker 1: Sylvia Straplan and It's Stripling, I'm sorry, and the Ramp project.
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: So is Ramp basically the Royers you Bigger Ubiquity record
Speaker 1: minus roy Airs or was that a total?
Speaker 7: Actually r a M P. Roy As Music Productions right?
Speaker 1: Right? But that particular band was Was that also the
Speaker 1: band that you utilized for your projects or you they
Speaker 1: were separate from I got.
Speaker 7: A completely separate band and I used them to to
Speaker 7: create the group.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know because in my head I just thought
Speaker 1: that they were the band that you would use on
Speaker 1: Running Away and all the other stuff without you on it,
Speaker 1: per se.
Speaker 7: Right, But but let's go there.
Speaker 1: They were a whole nother entity.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Could you explain those projects and why you chose to
Speaker 1: work with them. Are they from Ohio?
Speaker 7: They're from Ohio?
Speaker 1: Okay. I discovered them on social media recently and they're
Speaker 1: you know, like they're from Ohio, right, doing tours and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. So how did you how did
Speaker 1: you run into those guys? I met him.
Speaker 8: I can't I can't even remember when I met her,
Speaker 8: But I know I met the the leader of the band.
Speaker 8: It's named John. Uh uh yeah, John. I met him
Speaker 8: and and and he agreed with me, John Manuel Manuel.
Speaker 8: Damn right, that's supreme.
Speaker 1: We do our home. We did we Google?
Speaker 3: You did?
Speaker 1: I don't even Google, that's he added, like Google, Google,
Speaker 1: You're Google, right, fingers Joan Manuel.
Speaker 7: But I met him and he produced helped me produce
Speaker 7: the records. Man, I signed a contract with U.
Speaker 1: A, B C. ABC Records, right, So yeah, so what
Speaker 1: was what was the deal? Why did why didn't you
Speaker 1: bring that project to Polydor as opposed to another Why
Speaker 1: did you bring into another label? Or you just had
Speaker 1: a separate production deal with a separate production deal with
Speaker 1: with uh what's that guy's name?
Speaker 7: ABC?
Speaker 1: Black Bob the president of ABC. The vice president just
Speaker 1: passed away.
Speaker 7: Damn Now I need I wrote, did you say you
Speaker 7: say the vice president A president?
Speaker 1: Well, I know that he this particular guy was fond
Speaker 1: of the project, even though it didn't sell all that
Speaker 1: well for him on the label. But I'm forgetting his
Speaker 1: name right now, but he recently just passed away. Damn,
Speaker 1: I'm bad. This is this is a fail for quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. We'll go back to it.
Speaker 7: I have no problem.
Speaker 1: But uh, it was a good deal. It's a great deal.
Speaker 7: As a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: H I don't I don't think did you did you
Speaker 1: feel vindicated like once hip hop had discovered it and
Speaker 1: really brought it to life, because I felt that that
Speaker 1: album really didn't.
Speaker 7: Oh didn't it really didn't do the max or whatever?
Speaker 1: So were you were you shocked in the nineties when
Speaker 1: suddenly like it's you know, it became I'll say that
Speaker 1: of the Holy Grail Records to to own or obtain
Speaker 1: that ramp to find you know, a copy of that
Speaker 1: ramp record Everybody Lives the Century, right, Yeah, that that
Speaker 1: was like they like, yeah Daylight right, Well they had
Speaker 1: a copy of They had a version yeah, kwai as it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the brand Ubie version of Everybody Loves Sunshine on that ramprick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's paid hundreds for that, So.
Speaker 8: It sold sold a lot of records. They sold a
Speaker 8: lot of records. They didn't tell you guys whatever, but
Speaker 8: they sold a lot of records.
Speaker 1: I know because I paid a lot for it, exactly.
Speaker 7: That's what I'm saying. They sold a lot of records.
Speaker 1: So talk about the Sylvia, uh, the Sylvia Strepplin album,
Speaker 1: Like what was at the time, How did how did
Speaker 1: you you guys? Was she always a part of your
Speaker 1: camp or how did you guys meet?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 8: I met her and she was she was working in
Speaker 8: the Wiz and uh, Stephanie Mills. Stephanie Mills never ever
Speaker 8: got sick at all. She was Stephanie Mills assistant and
Speaker 8: she was going on stage. She never she never went
Speaker 8: on stage. She never ever went on stage period, because
Speaker 8: Stephanie was never ill, ill or anything.
Speaker 1: For the Wiz but the Wiz okay.
Speaker 7: I didn't know she was. So so what happened is that.
Speaker 1: She died.
Speaker 7: She died. I didn't even know that she died. This
Speaker 7: is only a few more few she died.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, I was a manager and she died.
Speaker 8: But this is all when when when I took place
Speaker 8: what you got on the label? Oh, man, I didn't
Speaker 8: even know that she died.
Speaker 1: So said, so what were those sessions, Like, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: the sessions with Sylvia, Oh, they.
Speaker 7: Were wonderful she Oh she was great. She was great.
Speaker 7: She was a very unique, very unique artist. And a
Speaker 7: lot of people are still requesting, did I sell sell
Speaker 7: those sell those things?
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I mean Chicago alone considers give classic. That
Speaker 1: has saved me many a night out of Chicago DJ Gig.
Speaker 1: I learned early like if you're if you're set is failing,
Speaker 1: you turn that on and Blamo, your party comes alive. Oh,
Speaker 1: it comes super alive. You signed to Sony? I believe CBS.
Speaker 1: Did Lark and Arnold signed you to uh? Say that again,
Speaker 1: Lark and Arnold? Did he sign you to your Columbia
Speaker 1: deal in eighty three?
Speaker 7: It? No, I never did work with Arnold? Okay, okay,
Speaker 7: I never worked with him.
Speaker 1: How did you come to Sony or Sony Columbia? Back then?
Speaker 1: Barly Door signed to Sony. Really, I never even knew
Speaker 1: about it until until I found out. I was Oh, ship,
Speaker 1: I'm on another label. I'm on another label. So they
Speaker 1: just transferred to you to Sony.
Speaker 7: They didn't give a damn.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's crazy, I know.
Speaker 7: But that this is intermingling is up there of the industry.
Speaker 6: Sucked up right?
Speaker 1: I did not know that. Yeah, it's crazy, man, the
Speaker 1: things I learned when quest Love Supreme. One one question
Speaker 1: I had, well, see, I felt that they were super
Speaker 1: supportive of you because there's a moment and Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: is the way you make me feel video and which
Speaker 1: they used your your hot song. Yeah that was hot
Speaker 1: songs like freaking thirty seconds like in the beginning, and
Speaker 1: notice like have you seen so the first thirty seconds
Speaker 1: right when Michael's like, hey, I complained about it, complained
Speaker 1: you didn't think that was great? Wait?
Speaker 8: No, I complained about it because they didn't pay me
Speaker 8: to any money.
Speaker 7: Whoa oh that said, where's the money?
Speaker 1: I see it's it's see that's where in my head.
Speaker 1: I was like wow, like because you know, back they
Speaker 1: were still running Michael Jackson's yeah they would stop TV
Speaker 1: right And I felt like, oh man, this is really
Speaker 1: a good look for roy erres not if they ain't
Speaker 1: pay that man no money.
Speaker 7: They ain't give me no money. It ain't funny. It
Speaker 7: ain't funny, man, they ain't give me the money.
Speaker 1: I said, oh shit, you didn't see it as Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm getting exposed to new artists or to a new
Speaker 1: audience and exposed. Man, I put all my cousins down
Speaker 1: with them. I'm like, oh, this is Roy Airs who
Speaker 1: and like explained to him what hot was because you know,
Speaker 1: and also like how you said James and too many
Speaker 1: produced that entire record.
Speaker 7: No, no, he produced one, two, three, four songs? Okay,
Speaker 7: four songs, that's right.
Speaker 1: Who produced the hot single? The lead single Hot?
Speaker 7: I'm trying to think, what's what song you say?
Speaker 1: Did you say, uh hot? All that hot? James them
Speaker 1: to me, that's what I'm saying, Yeah, okay, did it
Speaker 1: feel good to have that?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 1: Man, well that was a comeback single for you at
Speaker 1: the time, so we had a groove. Damn.
Speaker 7: That was very very nice. I was being fantastic with
Speaker 7: James and to me and then uh uh what's sash phone?
Speaker 1: Oh Darry No, no, Trump, Trump's right. They were both good,
Speaker 1: good producers. Man, very very good. And Rick James is
Speaker 1: very good. I was gonna say, because you did a
Speaker 1: lot of work right on everyone else's records. I believe
Speaker 1: that's you scatting at the end of the Fire and
Speaker 1: Desire on Street songs. That's right, on the fade out
Speaker 1: Street songs. That is that you do.
Speaker 8: That's right, that's right. I played played on that and
Speaker 8: that was real nice. And he told me, uh Rick
Speaker 8: James told me. He said, he said, because this, he said,
Speaker 8: this guy's this.
Speaker 1: This works with me.
Speaker 7: He says, you gotta watch this, watch this guy because
Speaker 7: he would stab you in the back. I got a
Speaker 7: contract with him before he died. My god, did he die?
Speaker 7: I didn't that damn it died just so quick.
Speaker 11: Man.
Speaker 1: You two were going to do a project together.
Speaker 7: No, we already did a project. We did. We got
Speaker 7: got the The music is being sold right now.
Speaker 1: Double trouble. I think it was. Hey, wait, you've heard this.
Speaker 1: They got a version of Everybody Loves the Sunshine, Man James, he.
Speaker 7: Got version version of Everybody Loves such it's the best.
Speaker 1: Version of all of all? Is this available?
Speaker 5: I have it?
Speaker 7: I have it available. No, I'll give you a record,
Speaker 7: take the record. I should have bought it today. Damn
Speaker 7: fucked up?
Speaker 1: Wow that damn?
Speaker 7: How did this?
Speaker 1: How this sneak bast because it's.
Speaker 8: Interesting, right, people don't even know what's happening, right, I
Speaker 8: got a copy of.
Speaker 7: You got copies?
Speaker 1: I don't. I do not have a copy. I don't
Speaker 1: like a copy. I don't have a copy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: uh Bill has a copy. Wow, shocker. So when did
Speaker 1: you When did you first meet rick James?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 7: Years ago?
Speaker 1: That was he the villain. This is gonna be the
Speaker 1: best story you're gonna tell.
Speaker 7: It's probably been very good. It's a very good story.
Speaker 7: But uh he was Uh my god, is that research?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 1: He was very aware of aware of.
Speaker 7: He was very defiant.
Speaker 1: M hmm.
Speaker 7: Defiant. They didn't want to funk with him, the motile
Speaker 7: they do that, they have to kill him. I'm serious,
Speaker 7: I'm serious, man.
Speaker 1: He was a rebel. Sorry, it was some very freaking ship.
Speaker 7: I'm serious, man.
Speaker 6: I believe you.
Speaker 7: Because he said, Hey, don't funk with me, let me
Speaker 7: chain because I'm Ricky James. That's right, I'm serious man.
Speaker 7: He was serious.
Speaker 1: Man. What other what other albums have you or songs
Speaker 1: have you appeared on that we might not know of?
Speaker 1: At least during that time period. I appeared on a
Speaker 1: very a very very very good guy. Uh yeah, what's
Speaker 1: this guy named Sony?
Speaker 7: He's crazy? But that's almost only saying that he looks
Speaker 7: a little crazy.
Speaker 1: But uh uh, who's Who's who's the the guys.
Speaker 7: On Sony Uh Sony Records.
Speaker 1: It's a big artist, big big Who was that no,
Speaker 1: said Billy Joel, Billy Joe. What's this?
Speaker 7: What's Billy Joe?
Speaker 6: What you want to add?
Speaker 7: What happened to him?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, Steve was joking about Billy Joe. He's on Sunday.
Speaker 7: No, dude, Dud's the guy that it plays on. Sony plays.
Speaker 1: I think keyboard John Legend, uh keyboards Sony?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 4: Is he is?
Speaker 7: He a young he's young, young, young, He's probably about
Speaker 7: twenty years old, twenty twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Right now? Wait, man, wait, I play I play his
Speaker 1: wrong room. Wait? We have this guy like, how can
Speaker 1: I this is? This is he's twenty he's a young guy.
Speaker 1: Now this is today.
Speaker 7: Maybe he's twenty two, you know, twenty three or something
Speaker 7: like that. But you know what, and he plays, Wait,
Speaker 7: I know that you are on Tyler the Creative Yre
Speaker 7: we go again.
Speaker 1: That's right, damn okay, that song is dope.
Speaker 7: He called me, he said, he said, they said I
Speaker 7: want you. He said, let me, let me, let me,
Speaker 7: let me, let you play some music. I'm good.
Speaker 1: Let you. I'm sorry. When when Tyler was on The
Speaker 1: Tonight Show, I remember him running up to me saying, yo, man,
Speaker 1: in the same sort of ambiguous puzzling way. He just
Speaker 1: mad to me like ran off and I was like okay.
Speaker 1: And then later on and now now suddenly the circle
Speaker 1: the story comes full circle four years later, like oh
Speaker 1: that's what.
Speaker 11: Wait, how did Tyler get the golden ticket to get you?
Speaker 11: Because I'm sure he's not the first young dude.
Speaker 1: He called me up.
Speaker 7: He had people called me up and I said, yeah,
Speaker 7: this is Roy. He said, Roy did yeah, you could
Speaker 7: you do some something on my album? I said, sure,
Speaker 7: you send it up. He sent me the record. It
Speaker 7: was three songs. He said to put it on all
Speaker 7: of them. I put it on all of them, all
Speaker 7: of them, and I played it. He's a very he's
Speaker 7: a very nice artist, he said. I liked him.
Speaker 1: He's interested. Wait now, now I think about it. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of every Rick James production ever known that
Speaker 1: we're vibrantphones on it. So I guess I can also
Speaker 1: assume that that's you on all night long at the
Speaker 1: end of yeah, the vibephone. Yeah, well, the.
Speaker 7: Song the songs I played on is I forgot the
Speaker 7: name of it.
Speaker 1: You're definitely all on it along. I mean, assuming that
Speaker 1: you're that viberphone it's doing the same time period. Yes,
Speaker 1: I believe that is you. You are also on the
Speaker 1: Jasmintaz project with gour that's the first time I'm at you.
Speaker 1: What I didn't know was the the the album, the
Speaker 1: first time that you collaborate with the roots when we
Speaker 1: did proceed for the Red Hottive sing right, yeah, I remember.
Speaker 7: I want to know why I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Man, I have done that, man, you know it was
Speaker 1: put on as the last minute. But what I didn't
Speaker 1: know was that time magazine declared that album album of
Speaker 1: the year. Oh it did the Red Hot and Cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I did my research, I.
Speaker 6: Was like, oh, that was an awesome album like that
Speaker 6: proed yeah, ship, thank you'll.
Speaker 1: Starving years so yeah, I meant for you know, we
Speaker 1: were slumming in London at the time, but no, it
Speaker 1: was it was that that to me, that that whole
Speaker 1: experience that was the That was the first time. I mean,
Speaker 1: excluding Cassandra Wilson, and and and Steve Coleman, who even
Speaker 1: though they were jazz monsters in their own rights, like
Speaker 1: we all, we almost felt like they were more family
Speaker 1: than anything. Like I didn't know how powerful Cassandra Wilson
Speaker 1: was until I really did the research so like, in
Speaker 1: my eyes, like the first true like star guest that
Speaker 1: we've ever done anything with was, you know, working with
Speaker 1: roy Ayres that that was a masterful moment. When you're
Speaker 1: discovering that hip hop is sampling your work. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's two ways to look at it. I've known some
Speaker 1: guys that were just like, well, you know, it's not
Speaker 1: art and it's theft and it's whatever, it's not really art.
Speaker 1: And then I know some people that are just like, wow,
Speaker 1: now my music is now expanded to another audience. Was
Speaker 1: what side of the fence did you fall on? Once?
Speaker 1: I fall on both sides, like I love this? Where
Speaker 1: are my money?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But that's I fall on both sides.
Speaker 7: I'm serious, man, I follow everybody's side. We're just a musician.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 7: The musicians are usually, you know, kind of fucked up.
Speaker 7: They are kind of fucked up as far as the
Speaker 7: business and stuff that's concerned. Man, they are they all
Speaker 7: fucked up. Make sure they're into music. They're into music,
Speaker 7: you know, So the musicians, you know, I talked to
Speaker 7: George and I said, George, what's up? What we what
Speaker 7: we're gonna do? He said, Prince princes got killed. I said, oh, okay,
Speaker 7: fuck that.
Speaker 1: You know these sounds the original meme. All right, so
Speaker 1: this is where I really get to give some flowers
Speaker 1: to King brit King Brit is to me the person
Speaker 1: that really opened my eyes to a possibility of a
Speaker 1: world I never knew existed. You know, I just turned
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, you know, I've been graduated school, and
Speaker 1: Tika and I were trying to figure out what we're
Speaker 1: doing this before like the Roots started busting on South
Speaker 1: Streets and really became the roots. So it's like a
Speaker 1: year before if the roots started, as you know it
Speaker 1: the roots, like in the summer of ninety two. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to like nineteen ninety one, so there was
Speaker 1: a counter culture vibe happening in Philadelphia where like if
Speaker 1: you wanted to go to a night club or whatever,
Speaker 1: I mean, you could go with what was hitting as
Speaker 1: far as modern music was concerned. And you know, by
Speaker 1: no means did I have complaints of what was musically
Speaker 1: happening in nineteen ninety ninety one. But like, if you're
Speaker 1: going to a modern club, yeah, you're listening to like
Speaker 1: whatever the songs at the moment you know they're playing,
Speaker 1: Like in Vogue, R and B. They're playing Tony Tony Tony.
Speaker 1: Radio and clubbing, I mean they weren't. Clubbing wasn't as
Speaker 1: anti hip hop as radio was, but radio was definitely
Speaker 1: you know, you know, more more music, less rap. That's
Speaker 1: that that would be the tagline of like most of
Speaker 1: the radio stations back in like eighty eight, eighty nine
Speaker 1: to ninety, like there was this backlash against rap music
Speaker 1: and it's and it's violence. So that said, I kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to find a place in Philly that like
Speaker 1: catered to the music that I dug, and that was,
Speaker 1: you know, like the left of center hip hop, like
Speaker 1: where can I hear a trip call? Quest? Where can
Speaker 1: I hear leaders in the New School? So King Britt
Speaker 1: and his partner Jeff Nett used to have these parties
Speaker 1: called like back to Basics, but the difference is they
Speaker 1: were bringing in like old music and I'd look through
Speaker 1: their crates and I'm like, wait a minute, this is
Speaker 1: my dad's record collection, Like you're gonna play BT Express
Speaker 1: in this club in like nineteen ninety, Like this came
Speaker 1: out in seventy four, and this James Brown record came
Speaker 1: out in seventy four, and this Roy Airs album came
Speaker 1: out in seventy six. Like, I've just never seen a
Speaker 1: club in which people like me would come into it
Speaker 1: and they would dance and respond to music as if
Speaker 1: it were new music. But this stuff was like twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five years old, you know, some like ten years
Speaker 1: old be you know, it was nineteen ninety, so, you know,
Speaker 1: playing stuff from fifteen years ago. And I couldn't wrap
Speaker 1: my head around the fact that if I wanted to,
Speaker 1: I could go through my dad's three thousand records and
Speaker 1: join these guys. And that's exactly what happened. They were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: bring your old records down and play the good stuff,
Speaker 1: and you know, so that kind of birthed, you know,
Speaker 1: my dreer. But I gotta say, like Roy Airs to me,
Speaker 1: his music, to me represents sort of the first steps
Speaker 1: into the unknown of rediscovery, like back in eighty six,
Speaker 1: when hip hop is first starting. A sample, like when
Speaker 1: you're hearing like Eric being Rock him used James Brown
Speaker 1: and Public Enemy use James Brown. A lot of the
Speaker 1: music from eighty six to like eighty eight eighty nine
Speaker 1: was kind of used via what I call a cheat sheet,
Speaker 1: and the cheat sheet is called Ultimate Beats and Breaks Compilation,
Speaker 1: and that's a compilation started by the legendary break beat
Speaker 1: Lou Flores, who was smart enough to make a compilation
Speaker 1: of all the breakbeats that DJs would use back in
Speaker 1: the first wave of hip hop. So you know, if
Speaker 1: you're seeing an African Membata spin, if you're seeing Grandmaster Flashpin,
Speaker 1: they're wiping the label off. You can't szam it. You
Speaker 1: don't know where that drum break is coming from. It's
Speaker 1: a secret. So eventually, like by nineteen eighty six, Luke Flores,
Speaker 1: who became a you know, like a record collector, made
Speaker 1: a compilation and what he would do is he'd make
Speaker 1: these EPs. He'd put six songs per record and it's
Speaker 1: a twenty five volume set. And if you're making hip
Speaker 1: hop back in this period, that's what you're using. So
Speaker 1: this is why like a lot of James Brown funky
Speaker 1: drummer gets used, or think by Link Collins or impeach
Speaker 1: the President, by what I call like the meat and
Speaker 1: potatoes of hip hop break beats and a lot of
Speaker 1: that various combinations of those breaks is what makes an
Speaker 1: eric being rock Him record or an ultra mat Netticum
Speaker 1: Ces record, or you know, Bookie Down Productions or whoever.
Speaker 1: Like the Class of eighty eight was Salt and Pepper
Speaker 1: public getemy and so the first kind of renaissance period
Speaker 1: of hip hop, which basically means music we're gonna use
Speaker 1: but isn't on the ultimate beats and breaks, because by
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety it was like a fatigue, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess the example one could use now is if
Speaker 1: you're scrolling on social media, like, okay, like we've everyone's
Speaker 1: using like this particular song or this song of the moment,
Speaker 1: like and over using it, like everyone's using it, so
Speaker 1: it's not fun anymore because it's being overused. That's how
Speaker 1: hip hop was. It's like how much James Brown can
Speaker 1: you make sound new, fresh and exciting. So as a result,
Speaker 1: there's a generation of producers that are finding other ways
Speaker 1: to get records. For a lot of us, we go
Speaker 1: to our aunts and our uncles' houses and take their
Speaker 1: records and there's always going to be a roy Airs
Speaker 1: record in the in their collection. And roy Airs to
Speaker 1: me is the he is the godfather of neo soul,
Speaker 1: even though Earth Wind and Fire kind of planted the
Speaker 1: flag in terms of like an afrocentric joy music. They
Speaker 1: clearly had their eyes on the crossover, you know, the
Speaker 1: landing strip, which basically means that they wanted to make
Speaker 1: their music palatable for an international audience, not just their
Speaker 1: black audience. Whereas roy Airs, who came from the school
Speaker 1: of jazz, I would say roy Airs kinda put a
Speaker 1: more less kind of what Grover Washington Junior pioneered of
Speaker 1: which we will call smooth jazz. I will say that
Speaker 1: roy Air was less smooth jazz and more funk jazz.
Speaker 1: Not to say that Grover Washington wasn't funky like his
Speaker 1: Grover Washington Live at the Biju is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest examples of where funk and jazz meet. But the
Speaker 1: sound of roy Airs is just the sound of comfort.
Speaker 1: A lot of that stuff recorded an electric lady. The
Speaker 1: Fender Rhodes was sort of his weapon of choice, his
Speaker 1: viper phones, and they sang about, you know, like kind
Speaker 1: of metaphysical the stuff that earth, wind and fire was
Speaker 1: singing a belt, but there really wasn't any pop songs
Speaker 1: on it, so it's almost like you felt he was
Speaker 1: speaking to us. So your idea of the person that's
Speaker 1: burning incense with the zodiac post sexual position posters on
Speaker 1: their wall, smoking a little j like, that's the audience,
Speaker 1: that's the demographic of roy Aers' music. So after a
Speaker 1: tribe called Quest comes out, who probably is the group
Speaker 1: that best made use of roy Airs' music, then we
Speaker 1: all just went rummaging through any roy Airs record and
Speaker 1: there was always a treat on there, no matter what
Speaker 1: for you to utilize. So you know, he is essentially
Speaker 1: the father of neo soul. So for you were you,
Speaker 1: was it a relief to see that suddenly your catalog
Speaker 1: was was there was a renewed interest in it and
Speaker 1: then people were going back to it and discovering you.
Speaker 1: And you know because when I really started seeing you
Speaker 1: on the circuit, especially at Ronnie Scott's, you know, there
Speaker 1: was there was this what was the genre they tried
Speaker 1: to put us in the first not Neil soul? Like
Speaker 1: like for you, when the nineties came, was there ever
Speaker 1: a fear like okay, well you know, will I still
Speaker 1: be a thing? Or or is this it?
Speaker 7: And well, you know what, there's so many so many
Speaker 7: people have died that it just.
Speaker 1: It's just a release because.
Speaker 7: Now I'm working my ass off. Do you understand what
Speaker 7: I'm saying, I'm working my ass off. I'm not complaining
Speaker 7: about it, but I'm working my ass off.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you are, which which is? Which is?
Speaker 8: And I'm glad too, But I'm talking about I'm working
Speaker 8: my asshof. So so it ain't nobody out there, ain't
Speaker 8: nobody out there. The motherfuckers is dead man, the groups
Speaker 8: have died, have died, you know.
Speaker 7: But you know what.
Speaker 1: That that may be true, but your music is going
Speaker 1: to last right forever. Thank you, and that that to
Speaker 1: me is the most important thing because thank you. You're right.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you're not getting work because everybody else is dead.
Speaker 10: You're getting work because you're a legend.
Speaker 7: Right because I'm still alive.
Speaker 1: I'm still alive. I'm still still alive. That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 6: But what does it feel like now?
Speaker 11: Because I was talking to somebody about you the other
Speaker 11: day and I said, wow, like Roy, you can go
Speaker 11: to a show. It may be a grandparent, a parent
Speaker 11: and a kid.
Speaker 6: And they all late.
Speaker 11: You are still cool, Like your music is still You
Speaker 11: go to a club in any ages and you might hear,
Speaker 11: you know, see people dancing to it.
Speaker 6: What does that feel like?
Speaker 7: Happen?
Speaker 6: Years old? And not a lot of people that can say.
Speaker 1: That if they work and ain't not alive.
Speaker 7: They worked the record, They worked the hell out the record.
Speaker 7: I mean Probaly Door Group, they worked the records.
Speaker 6: But you made the record.
Speaker 7: I made. I made it, But they worked it. You know,
Speaker 7: they worked, they worked hard.
Speaker 8: And you know, you know, I may be seventy six
Speaker 8: years old, but hey, I'm glad I'm still here.
Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm serious, Yeah, it's serious.
Speaker 9: One question I had regarding your song the Third Eye,
Speaker 9: is that you're singing. Yeah, that's that's is Would the lyrics?
Speaker 9: Would you write those like in the studio at the
Speaker 9: time or.
Speaker 7: Maybe exactly exactly almost every song, almost every song beautiful.
Speaker 7: I just like that, just sponsored spontaneous feeling. It's wonderful.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 7: You gotta try it sometimes.
Speaker 1: It's all right.
Speaker 7: I mean, you gotta try it on once or twice.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 12: I have a question sure about one of your songs. Uh,
Speaker 12: we live in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn, were you living in
Speaker 12: Brooklyn when you wrote that?
Speaker 7: Oh? No, Harry Whittaker wrote wrote the song Harry Whittaker,
Speaker 7: and he died.
Speaker 1: I'll be.
Speaker 6: Still here. You and George said, I was assuming you
Speaker 6: made Clinton.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, yeah, that's right, he said, Edwin birds
Speaker 1: song is stilled bird song. Yeah, yeah, he is. He's
Speaker 1: still wrong occasionally.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: There his daughters in Vegas, but when I play there,
Speaker 1: sometimes they come to the gig.
Speaker 7: They come to the gig.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One time I played, uh, what was the deaf
Speaker 1: punk sample? Coca Cola More Time Babies. Yeah, I played
Speaker 1: that once and uh, you know, like how I can't
Speaker 1: be bothered when I'm dejaying, So someone keeps tapping on
Speaker 1: the t.
Speaker 6: That's my daddy's sample.
Speaker 1: Okay, sorry, sorry, So that's great. Yeah, everyone's still here
Speaker 1: and going strong. There's a there's a DJ.
Speaker 9: There's a new artist out now named Kate Trinada who
Speaker 9: is a he's a DJ producer. I went to his show.
Speaker 9: He did a show at what's the place across street
Speaker 9: from Brooklyn Bowl via.
Speaker 1: The Hotel No Output.
Speaker 9: He did a show at this club this is maybe
Speaker 9: like two months ago, and he played Chicago by You.
Speaker 1: I love that record with Chicago and that song.
Speaker 9: I mean it was a room full of twenty yeah,
Speaker 9: twenty year olds like these are kids and they were
Speaker 9: going crazy over your song.
Speaker 4: And I heard that at a club one night, like
Speaker 4: about ten years ago, and I lost my mind. It
Speaker 4: was the first I ever heard it. The record still goes, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I play whatever I can too.
Speaker 1: So what are your what are your personal favorite songs
Speaker 1: of your catalog that you've done?
Speaker 6: Like what?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah? What?
Speaker 1: What's near and dear to your heart? What's your favorite?
Speaker 1: Roy is.
Speaker 7: Searching?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 7: What? What?
Speaker 1: What is it about searching that you love?
Speaker 8: Say, butterfly up in the sky. I got a story
Speaker 8: to tell you. I'll tell you why I'm searching. You see,
Speaker 8: my friend, I.
Speaker 7: Need someone who feels the need to save his I
Speaker 7: I'm searching, searching, searching, searching, searching, searching for inspiration, searching
Speaker 7: for communications, searching.
Speaker 1: For a better way, searching for a better day. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, that's wonderful. Doesn't work great words?
Speaker 11: Man?
Speaker 7: When you when you live that live that life, you
Speaker 7: know it's it's wonderful when you get it to that
Speaker 7: search searching, it is wonderful.
Speaker 11: Do you have a favorite like sample roy Air song
Speaker 11: and song? And when you heard your song and it
Speaker 11: you were like.
Speaker 1: Whoa married Mary?
Speaker 7: J flies?
Speaker 1: You see too?
Speaker 6: The song of the checks?
Speaker 1: So did you like my life when you heard it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I loved it. I said, why didn't not take
Speaker 7: those lyrics?
Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking, you know, marriage, that was
Speaker 1: such a controversial day I felt. I mean, I've told
Speaker 1: the story before, but I just felt at the time. Yes, Now,
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, I consider that song and the album
Speaker 1: of which it came from a classic song and an album.
Speaker 1: But during the time when I heard it, right, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I never that was a historical first, because
Speaker 1: I'd never heard a singer just totally take a song
Speaker 1: and redo it as their own. I mean, it's one
Speaker 1: thing for rappers to do it, but I never ever
Speaker 1: considered like singers could have the same rules as MC's right.
Speaker 1: So in my head, we were we didn't like the
Speaker 1: first month I heard the first month of the first two,
Speaker 1: but you know, you you you dug it. I mean,
Speaker 1: but you were also like ten, What did you know
Speaker 1: it's ten? No, I wasn't my life. I was like fifteen.
Speaker 7: The very.
Speaker 6: They release every black woman at the age of fifteen.
Speaker 1: Was like stop because the first day we ever met
Speaker 1: was the day that you were also in this van.
Speaker 11: Maybe I was just saying that because I was amongst
Speaker 11: the hip hoppers, you know, and I was just going
Speaker 11: to love.
Speaker 1: Your asshole it did okay, nobody, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: Sorry.
Speaker 1: I like my life. I liked it too. I liked
Speaker 1: it too. I like us really like I was you and.
Speaker 3: You were me.
Speaker 1: That's just crazy. I didn't do I didn't develop those
Speaker 1: rules until later. See I was the way you are
Speaker 1: now when I was twenty. Then I got leanient.
Speaker 9: Anyway, where there any times that rappers wanted to sample
Speaker 9: your stuff and you denied it for any reason?
Speaker 1: No, I let let him travel it.
Speaker 7: I've gone over that.
Speaker 1: Uh, that's some horrible things that I said. Damn, what
Speaker 1: is this?
Speaker 4: What is this?
Speaker 1: Everything?
Speaker 5: Fu?
Speaker 1: I said, put it out, put it out. I put
Speaker 1: it out, put it out, every every word. That's what
Speaker 1: your people were like, We don't know if you should.
Speaker 1: Your people were sort of cautious about maybe you should
Speaker 1: pass on this or no.
Speaker 7: I was passing on it. I was, you know, I
Speaker 7: was passing on it. I said, no, let them put
Speaker 7: it out. It was it was only one person, be
Speaker 7: I wasn't you published?
Speaker 1: I mean every group of people just put it out. Wow, okay, hey,
Speaker 1: put it out, put it out, put it out, put
Speaker 1: that ship out.
Speaker 9: It's that the same Is it the same way? Like now,
Speaker 9: like if someone want to sample your music now to
Speaker 9: just go through you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but but I know that they're they're not gonna
Speaker 7: play this stuff anyway. They're not gonna play it, and
Speaker 7: they're not gonna play certain things well not they won't.
Speaker 7: Radio station won't play it.
Speaker 1: So it's un the radar team. I'm gonna think the
Speaker 1: check and it'll.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 11: At this point in your career, is it anybody that
Speaker 11: you see that you're like, you know what, it'd be
Speaker 11: interesting to do something with them? Are you just like,
Speaker 11: is it any like new blood out there? You're like,
Speaker 11: because I know people choo for real?
Speaker 1: Right for reals?
Speaker 7: Oh man, you name this name this couple of kids
Speaker 7: that me or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Wow, And y'all still have never worked together.
Speaker 8: We haven't done it. He wants me to come to California.
Speaker 8: I just I can't get out there. You know, at
Speaker 8: the time, I couldn't, you know, Okay, that's right.
Speaker 6: It's never too late though, well, it's.
Speaker 1: Never too late as long as I'm still alive. You
Speaker 1: He need to come to you, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He needed to come to wherever you at, I hear
Speaker 1: you up. That's right to Royal Nigga talking about right,
Speaker 1: I forgot the U of the triplets. One of them
Speaker 1: his name airs Wow, but I believe the second one
Speaker 1: is either named after one of your compositions or or right, yeah,
Speaker 1: talk about a tribute. But but no, he is now
Speaker 1: You're gonna live forever because well he was on the stage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: after a concert.
Speaker 7: I did a concert and he did a concert, and
Speaker 7: he was walking off stage and I walked up to
Speaker 7: him and I said, Pharrell, and so for he dropped
Speaker 7: on the man.
Speaker 1: He did the worship thing he does.
Speaker 7: He did the worship thing man. I said, come on, man, come.
Speaker 1: On, that's all. He's a humble cat, he said, humble,
Speaker 1: very humble, very humble. So all right, what's what's what's
Speaker 1: the future for roy Ares? What's your your next your
Speaker 1: next project? And you tour more your I'm.
Speaker 7: Planning on doing the album. Okay, it's about just about playing, playing, playing, playing,
Speaker 7: playing playing, Okay, playing, that's an album about playing by playing,
Speaker 7: about playing. Okay, about playing.
Speaker 11: You're gonna give us some of the unreleased stuff you
Speaker 11: got in the Yeah, we got plans on well, yeah, you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna let us go to the stories. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: like you know it, I'm just saying.
Speaker 9: Today today, man, One question, one question I have. How
Speaker 9: involved was weed in the records?
Speaker 1: It was like marijuana like smoke? Was that reef?
Speaker 3: Was that?
Speaker 1: Presidents? Did you allow that that? Again, it's all right,
Speaker 1: didn't come How How was that was that allowed and
Speaker 1: encouraged in your recessions back in the day? We we
Speaker 1: oh mad, it's in.
Speaker 3: We.
Speaker 1: Weed is in.
Speaker 6: We just in My god, they' never stopped at stopping.
Speaker 1: Man, they're gonna crazy with all the broadcast and everything.
Speaker 6: Man, But were you cool with it in your studio
Speaker 6: sessions back in the day? He was cool with it.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, it was cool man. It was cool. Everybody smoked, everybody.
Speaker 9: Everybody because that because that was like the memories that
Speaker 9: I have, like of your music as a kid, Like
Speaker 9: I remember seeing like the album covers and hearing the
Speaker 9: music and the smell of marijuana.
Speaker 1: They smoke to your they were I like that you
Speaker 1: could hear the smell of marijuana. That's an interesting It's
Speaker 1: called synaesthesis. Really it is. I was expected that word. Okay,
Speaker 1: who it is? It absolutely is well mister Ayres. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think we've we've we've tagged on
Speaker 1: everything all right as we wrapped up, Uh, I just
Speaker 1: want to say, you know, it's kind of weird because
Speaker 1: a lot of people that are in my particular area
Speaker 1: of music. Of course, okay, I'll take it that I'm
Speaker 1: lumped in and called neo soul, but I mean you
Speaker 1: are considered the godfather of of our our our genre,
Speaker 1: and so I just want to thank you for you know,
Speaker 1: providing us with the the roadmap for which you know
Speaker 1: it's still being used to this very day. You know,
Speaker 1: your your your influence, and your art will be here forever,
Speaker 1: long after everyone in this room is going, even this
Speaker 1: building is gone, your work will still be here. So
Speaker 1: we thank you for coming on. Of course, love supreme
Speaker 1: and yes, yes, one last question. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about scoring the movie coffee? That experience
Speaker 1: was like? Yeah, what that experience was like for you?
Speaker 7: Oh? That was that was wonderful.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 7: As a matter of fact, I thought about that that
Speaker 7: uh meeting meeting Pam Grid, I met Param Grier and
Speaker 7: uh I was trying to wrap wrap my arms around but.
Speaker 1: The breast was so big.
Speaker 7: I couldn't even get my hands together.
Speaker 1: But no, no, I said, oh.
Speaker 7: I was so wonderful. I said, you are from param Grier.
Speaker 7: I said, I made you a star through my music.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: I'm telling you as I did that after I did
Speaker 8: that film. That that really made me think about how
Speaker 8: mad she was or aggravation. It was aggravation.
Speaker 1: It was horrible.
Speaker 7: So she was wonderful. She was she was a dream,
Speaker 7: a wonderful, wonderful actress, a wonderful person.
Speaker 1: And I love that hug.
Speaker 7: That hug with something else.
Speaker 1: Man solls more about.
Speaker 7: Oh man, it was. It was wonderful, wonderful.
Speaker 1: Alright, Steve, Steve, Yeah, I got.
Speaker 10: One more question. Did you ever meet Milt Jackson?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mid Milton.
Speaker 7: Milt was wonderful. Man.
Speaker 8: His his touch, his touch was is one of the
Speaker 8: greatest things in the world, the touch and the Bible phone.
Speaker 8: If you listen to all it records, the touch, it's
Speaker 8: it's a magic it's a magic touch.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 10: What about Cayle Jada?
Speaker 1: I met Cal Jada.
Speaker 7: I met Cal. He died. Damn all those cats died.
Speaker 1: My question, I'm sorry you're still here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, is there anybody in the jazz scene right now
Speaker 4: that you're you're really excited about.
Speaker 7: No, I wanted to play it with al Ja. Oh my,
Speaker 7: he died together.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 11: It's great because I was about to ask you about Dennis,
Speaker 11: but I can't even talk about it.
Speaker 6: It's just too just.
Speaker 7: Answer the question.
Speaker 11: Yeah, No, I was just gonna ask you to, you know,
Speaker 11: kind of break down because for me, my Mike Spanish
Speaker 11: experiency with you went through Dennis who was your drummer
Speaker 11: for for a couple of decades.
Speaker 1: And then died, you know, last year.
Speaker 6: That's her cousin, Yes, Dennis Davis. Dennis Davis acologized Dennis.
Speaker 7: Yes, but I checked this out. Dennis Davis worked with me,
Speaker 7: He was working with me all those years, and he
Speaker 7: was also working with Stevie Want with Stevie Wonder and
Speaker 7: also David Boy. That's right, David Boy.
Speaker 1: And he did two, two or three.
Speaker 8: Different gigs the same time. Really, it was amazing, it
Speaker 8: was amazing. It was amazing he was able to do that.
Speaker 1: How long was he your drummer? Oh maybe since she
Speaker 1: was very young, so since the very beginning.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, wow, he just left and came back right
Speaker 11: and come back. He will always have a home.
Speaker 1: You remember Dennis is, the infamous Dennis Is playing by
Speaker 1: himself on on Nothing Do I Do? Do I do?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: Okay? Well wait? That also leads to uh Stevie's bass
Speaker 1: player what's his name? Nathan or the bass player was
Speaker 1: Nathan East? Did he play with you for a second?
Speaker 1: The guitar player, the bass player Nathan Nathan? He did
Speaker 1: not Nathan E. Nathan Wat Did he ever play for you?
Speaker 7: For he didn't? He didn't play with me.
Speaker 1: I could have sworn I saw a concert of you
Speaker 1: with Nathan Watched, because Nathan Watch's built like a full back.
Speaker 7: So yeah, he's a big gag he.
Speaker 1: There was a similar bass player that played with you,
Speaker 1: A big guy that I thought was was was Nathan Okay.
Speaker 7: There might have been John Johnna somebody.
Speaker 1: Also, the great Philip Wu also played with you. Yeah
Speaker 1: he did. He did play with me. He's in uh
Speaker 1: your pant I know how did you hook up with?
Speaker 1: He's been with you forever?
Speaker 7: It's from Seattle, Washington.
Speaker 1: Oh okay? Is that where the title of your song
Speaker 1: I did it in Seattle? Is Philip playing on that?
Speaker 7: Yep?
Speaker 1: Wow? I got it nice? Nice all right? So uh
Speaker 1: on behalf of Oh right, I'm sorry, should we do reflections?
Speaker 1: I know, I'm sorry.
Speaker 10: Well, I just want one more, one more thing, mister.
Speaker 12: People who worked at the studio and past and president
Speaker 12: just wanted me to thank you for coming here so
Speaker 12: many many times, recording so many records here over the years.
Speaker 7: It's a pleasure to do it doing this. This is
Speaker 7: really wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 10: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That is quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: We will be back next week with another great informative
Speaker 1: episode of course Love Supreme. Also, don't forget to dig
Speaker 1: in the crates and check out past episodes and catch
Speaker 1: up with us on Behalf of Sugar, Steve Unpaid, Bill Boss,
Speaker 1: Bill Lady layah uh Aka, Margaret Fon, Tigolo, and The
Speaker 1: Great Boy as Love Supreme signing off West. Love Supreme
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from
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