Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What's Up Everybody?
Speaker 3: This is Shuga Steve from questlov Supreme and we are
Speaker 3: back with part two of our conversation with the incredible
Speaker 3: James Poyser. We all make fun of each other, but
Speaker 3: James is a dear friend who has been a joy
Speaker 3: to work with over the last twenty I did not
Speaker 3: write this. This is clearly written by somebody else. You
Speaker 3: have heard him join QLs for our Fred Hammond interview
Speaker 3: a few years ago, and he popped into let US's
Speaker 3: Chat earlier this year. But this time James is in.
Speaker 2: The hot scene.
Speaker 3: If you haven't go listen to part one, where he
Speaker 3: talks about growing up in West Philly, his years as
Speaker 3: a gospel musician, and ultimately getting down with DJ Jazzy, Jeff,
Speaker 3: Grandmaster Vic and Gamble and Huff as we celebrate Black
Speaker 3: Music Month. James Poyser has been at the Ebby Center
Speaker 3: of It for nearly thirty five years, and don't enjoy
Speaker 3: and thank you James.
Speaker 4: Your first year of rotation with Professon Ales, I assume
Speaker 4: ninety one ninety ninety three, Yeah, who are you gigging with?
Speaker 4: Because I know probably the number one thing I'm asked,
Speaker 4: like in my d M, it's just like can I.
Speaker 1: Get a gig? Wow?
Speaker 5: Same?
Speaker 4: And you've never had to go through this. You never
Speaker 4: had to Never audition that the guy because I don't
Speaker 4: think I would get to work. I definitely wasn't getting chosen.
Speaker 4: So you hear about the gig and you'd have to
Speaker 4: go to audition. And I remember going to this. I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna say that you audition for Boys to Men.
Speaker 6: You were just about to say it.
Speaker 7: That was incredible, Toll brothers and y'all ready each other's mind.
Speaker 1: It was cute.
Speaker 8: Oh, you were about to say that. But this wasn't
Speaker 8: the Philly band. This was a New York band that
Speaker 8: was doing it. I'll never forget. I took the train
Speaker 8: up here to rehearsal and boys and Men walked in
Speaker 8: and they was like, okay, let's do the song. And
Speaker 8: I was like, I don't know the song and just
Speaker 8: let this go. And I've never heard the song, so
Speaker 8: that everybody's playing and I'm like, and I think boys
Speaker 8: and Men said something walked down the MD was like, yo, man,
Speaker 8: you need to know the music.
Speaker 1: It's like, nobody sent me to music.
Speaker 2: How I was supposed to know what.
Speaker 8: I don't know because we already established I think because
Speaker 8: the MD at the time was just like.
Speaker 1: You messed up. Damn, I got to send you the tape.
Speaker 4: Yes, I thought, now I'll admit that I didn't know
Speaker 4: about like the auditions for that, And after the four
Speaker 4: I was like, Yo, why did y'all call me for it?
Speaker 4: We thought you knew about it? Everybody knew about it, but.
Speaker 1: I didn't know musicians at all, And so like, how
Speaker 1: do you know?
Speaker 8: It's just being in those circles, you know, being around
Speaker 8: you're on the church scene, or around the boys and
Speaker 8: guys in the club scene. You hear about things, Hey,
Speaker 8: so and so looking for a band I put a
Speaker 8: band together or YadA YadA.
Speaker 4: All right, So today, of course, if you're six degrees
Speaker 4: to Blackstone, six degrees to Omar, I don't know who
Speaker 4: else is man man all of them. Yeah right, So
Speaker 4: if your six degrees to them, chances are you're going
Speaker 4: to find some work, because I mean, Adam controls at
Speaker 4: least seventeen acts, so.
Speaker 1: He's looking for it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: But what was the lay of the land in the
Speaker 4: early nineties, Like who should I have known to make
Speaker 4: my dad. My dad wanted me in that session circle thing.
Speaker 4: So who should I have known too? Because even Clayton
Speaker 4: sears like audition for boys and minute I'm.
Speaker 8: Like, yeah, Clay, Clay Clay. So it was just guys.
Speaker 6: I can't really put a you have to play with people.
Speaker 1: Who's the black See. I thought knowing Bill jolly Bill, jolly.
Speaker 6: Jolly Bill, jolly Bill, jolly Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought knowing him would be like, you're in.
Speaker 8: What's crazy is that it seems to me that the
Speaker 8: guys that have those runs as mts are mostly bass players.
Speaker 8: It's kind of funny. Ricky Minor, Yeah, current Kurrent Brantley
Speaker 8: was a guy back in that area that ran pretty
Speaker 8: much put all the bands together and that was that
Speaker 8: was black you know, Black Store.
Speaker 1: So the bass players are Randy.
Speaker 4: Jackson, Randy, Yeah, it makes sense to Rachel, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 8: So just being around and I was so I was
Speaker 8: playing with the wedding bands too at the time that
Speaker 8: if I didn't mention that, oh my god, I was
Speaker 8: playing the wedding bands and that was I was making
Speaker 8: money on the wedding. I would play like I would
Speaker 8: play the opening whatever that is. Then the ceremony and
Speaker 8: the cocktail and then the actual.
Speaker 1: Is there a fake book for the wedding circuit?
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's just the top all the
Speaker 8: top forty stuff, right and the whole. Yeah. Yeah, we
Speaker 8: were played. We were played a hard like shouting music.
Speaker 1: Everybody dancing the drunk, so they.
Speaker 5: Don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: All these city line avenue weddings. Yeah.
Speaker 8: It was now my last wedding that I did. I
Speaker 8: had to drive on a half to this country club.
Speaker 8: I did the opening thing whatever, just a lot of
Speaker 8: stuff is piano only, and then the party is with
Speaker 8: the full band. So I did that, did the ceremony,
Speaker 8: did the cocktail, did the party after us, I'm exhausted,
Speaker 8: carrying my keyboard, I had my black tucks on both
Speaker 8: camera stuff to my car and this little old lady
Speaker 8: dismissively without looking at me, passing me up a valet
Speaker 8: ticket and here get my car from what?
Speaker 5: And I quit the next day?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we pass I wish you would have took the
Speaker 1: car and just took high school teams would have done
Speaker 1: that ship all right.
Speaker 4: So I remember the first time we played together, and
Speaker 4: I've told this story before the last day of Hilladolph
Speaker 4: Half Life.
Speaker 1: DiAngelo came to Philly.
Speaker 4: To record The Knotic The Hypnotic and then we had
Speaker 4: like six hours of spirit. We did a whole lockout,
Speaker 4: but we knocked the Hypnotic out in like ninety minutes.
Speaker 4: Like that's how fast he was with harmonizing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dangelo works really fast.
Speaker 4: Yes, And so we took a food break and then
Speaker 4: it was like, well shit, we got you know, time
Speaker 4: on the clock and we did the whole do you
Speaker 4: know the song? Do you know this song? Do you
Speaker 4: know this song? Do you know this Song's you on
Speaker 4: the song? I was like, oh, damn, all right, he
Speaker 4: knows what he's doing. And that's when Rich said to me,
Speaker 4: well not for nothing, because in my mind I was like, yeah, man,
Speaker 4: this out these types of chords, this is what I want.
Speaker 1: Come on you no no, no, no, no, no no. And
Speaker 1: Rich was like, well not for nothing.
Speaker 4: I said, you got someone does better chords than him
Speaker 4: in Philadelphia, you know, in the backyard. I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: he's like James Poyser. I was like, who's James Spoyser.
Speaker 4: He's like, you don't know James Poyser. You know the
Speaker 4: guy He's like describing it wasn't coming to me, and
Speaker 4: he said Philly International And I was like, then, I
Speaker 4: remember the Apollo in London and that stuff. I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: that guy he plays keyboards, and so he said, yeah,
Speaker 4: matter of fact, I'm gonna call him. Kadar want sister
Speaker 4: work with one of his clients, and she's gonna come
Speaker 4: in from Dallas.
Speaker 1: And this was maybe four or five days later. So
Speaker 1: what I do remember.
Speaker 4: Though, is because she was young, fresh and new, he
Speaker 4: going back to uh sugar Steve with doing everything. This
Speaker 4: is the one time I remember Michael D'Angelo Archers showing up, No,
Speaker 4: three hours early.
Speaker 6: Wow, he's fine, still fine.
Speaker 4: He was already back in New York. And I was like, yeah, man,
Speaker 4: I said, we're working with the.
Speaker 1: Girl Eric abad.
Speaker 8: As.
Speaker 1: I said, what what? I said? Yeah, we're working with
Speaker 1: Eric Abadu. When when?
Speaker 4: When I said, uh, I don't know, a couple of
Speaker 4: hours when she gets here. She she's taking the bus
Speaker 4: down and we're gonna work with her. Said oh, we're okay,
Speaker 4: So how long? I said, probably like three days or
Speaker 4: something like that. Oh we're three days. Huh, she's staying there.
Speaker 4: I'm not even knowing. I'm falling trap. I said, she's
Speaker 4: staying down there. I said, I think so, I said, actually,
Speaker 4: I think some convention in town. So she can't even
Speaker 4: I don't know if she's like coming from New York
Speaker 4: or whatever the case. I think she's like gonna crashing
Speaker 4: Tarik's house. I'm not exaggerating what I said. Yeah, because
Speaker 4: she the first week of Batleism, Tarik let her stay
Speaker 4: in his apartment because he was doing something else. Yeah,
Speaker 4: she's gonna stay with Trekan the Motherfuckers was at Sigma
Speaker 4: and so then we had a jam that night.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we I mean we even get the story so well.
Speaker 4: I mean this is that I listened to the work
Speaker 4: cassette of day one. We basically I think the other
Speaker 4: side of the game came within damn near three minutes
Speaker 4: instant aaneously.
Speaker 6: Can you so tell us about the song's workload situation,
Speaker 6: because I'm like, so.
Speaker 8: Can I go back a little bit?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: So at Filly National and I started working with this
Speaker 8: guy's his name is Fatiene Dance. So me and fatimare
Speaker 8: writing songs here and there, doing some gigs. I would
Speaker 8: go to overbook and play and he would say, you
Speaker 8: know whatever, And one day he hit me like, Yo,
Speaker 8: just these girls, I'm writing for it because of Jazzy,
Speaker 8: fat nasty.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, come down.
Speaker 8: So that's when I first met Rich at the house.
Speaker 8: And so he came to the house. Yeah okay, and
Speaker 8: you guys are on the road I think at the time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, So I brought the jazz us to Philadelphia
Speaker 4: to you know, hopefully work with him or whatever.
Speaker 8: So so that's when me and Rich developed this relationship.
Speaker 8: Rich Nichols, Rich Nichols, and and that's why Rich already
Speaker 8: about me.
Speaker 1: What was that?
Speaker 2: So was y'all what's the record? Uncle? Vention?
Speaker 1: Ways?
Speaker 2: Was that?
Speaker 1: Yah? Yeah he did that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nah, I love that record. Man, That was my one.
Speaker 4: But I will still maintain that, you know, of all
Speaker 4: the projects we had our hands in, I felt that
Speaker 4: we went by that project totally wrong. Now, granted, the
Speaker 4: fifth beatle Ms situation was Mercedes' brother Jay Swift, producer
Speaker 4: of the Far Side, and way before I became known
Speaker 4: for being god guy for j Dill's music, the shit
Speaker 4: that he did on their record was and this is
Speaker 4: way before like what's the four to one one? Really
Speaker 4: was the first? Yeah, singers can do what rappers do
Speaker 4: to type of thing, because I remember, like when we
Speaker 4: first got that thing, we just looked at each other
Speaker 4: in the van, like, wait, she an't allowed to sing.
Speaker 1: On No Loops? Like what the fuck?
Speaker 4: It's like a rap record, like singers allowed to make
Speaker 4: you know, like we were.
Speaker 1: I was against it. I was like, no, it's like
Speaker 1: a rap that record.
Speaker 4: No, And you know, but before that just broke me
Speaker 4: down to like, Okay, this is where R and B
Speaker 4: and hip hop really meet, Like the far Side record
Speaker 4: was the far Side. The Jazzy Fat Nasty album, or
Speaker 4: at least the seven songs that he did was just
Speaker 4: like I never heard that level break beat and beat
Speaker 4: chopping and all that stuff. And then they got the Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: And we just undid all day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was cool, but like at one point
Speaker 4: they could have pulled a fantastic Volume one, Volume two
Speaker 4: level of holy shit that's allowed on the record. And
Speaker 4: that's that's the one thing I regret about, like the
Speaker 4: world and not seeing the Jazzy Fat Nasties that I saw.
Speaker 2: Because those j Siff records would never released.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, they weren't. They weren't.
Speaker 4: I think at one point we put like one of
Speaker 4: their songs in that far and give a dog a
Speaker 4: bone was kind of that, like, but yeah, so the
Speaker 4: team brings you to the full, which makes total sense.
Speaker 1: We were on tour, so we really weren't.
Speaker 6: So what's the plan forotball? Doism y'all come?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 6: How do y'all decide what's what needs to be done?
Speaker 6: How her vision she was just.
Speaker 4: Full of like I never saw someone just full of
Speaker 4: a bunch of ideas. And she mentioned like I'm gonna
Speaker 4: I got something that's gonna flip like bad boys, what
Speaker 4: you're gonna do like that sort of thing. And I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, that's cute. Like she always she had
Speaker 4: a lot of courses ready. She was the first person
Speaker 4: I met that like instantly had a clever course ready
Speaker 4: just in the stash. And so I remember when we
Speaker 4: sat down three minutes in instantly, like the first course
Speaker 4: he played was just the beginning, matter of fact, what
Speaker 4: you're going right? I'm sorry, yes, other side of the game.
Speaker 4: So literally, when you hear the work tape and it's
Speaker 4: not like you had it in the chamber or something, it.
Speaker 1: Just you just all right, bridge here and you just do.
Speaker 4: That's dope, and literally we cut that's the take that's
Speaker 4: that's the take. Literally, like yeah, so whatnut, What you
Speaker 4: know is the other side of the game was musically
Speaker 4: a first take and then you and Rich did a
Speaker 4: lot of sweetening it up, like the horns, and so
Speaker 4: I just knew it as a rhythm track me Hub
Speaker 4: and you, and then it came. Yeah, it was like
Speaker 4: a full song by the time I got home off
Speaker 4: the road and oh, this girl is gonna make it,
Speaker 4: you know that sort of thing. And yes, Afro was real,
Speaker 4: it was flat. I was asleep by that point, Like I.
Speaker 9: Don't with Erica, man, I want to talk specifically about
Speaker 9: Mama's Gun. That was your kind of you know, I
Speaker 9: don't say your moment, but that was as I understood
Speaker 9: that they seeing it top the bottom, that was kind
Speaker 9: of your executive you know, this producer decision. Talk about
Speaker 9: that record, man oh man.
Speaker 8: So just know that I had to leave the Voodoo Tour.
Speaker 6: I was I don't even know who did y'all replace?
Speaker 8: Change?
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, okay, JS.
Speaker 4: We started the Voodoo Tour in March first of two
Speaker 4: thousand and all I remember is that we had the
Speaker 4: eighty six Natalie Cole out of the theater for fight I.
Speaker 6: Don't understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I don't understand what the women were.
Speaker 6: I know what that means, dude.
Speaker 1: The first week of Voodoo at the House of Blues
Speaker 1: was like Chippendale, and then it got bad.
Speaker 8: It was then halfway through the tour take it.
Speaker 4: Off the first eighteen minutes and mind you, we're preparing
Speaker 4: like this three hour extravaganza of every musical reference in
Speaker 4: the sun. Amazingly, they're looking at they watched it. Okay,
Speaker 4: what song are you gonna take your shirt off on?
Speaker 7: Which is crazy because to me, that at least to
Speaker 7: where he is today and not like that just ran
Speaker 7: him away from wanting to be that person anymore in.
Speaker 1: A way, but he's actually back to that day.
Speaker 6: Oh is it? Look at you?
Speaker 7: No pressure, mister, no pressure, Do what you need to
Speaker 7: do to be comfortable and healthy.
Speaker 6: Sir, good, yeah, mama, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 8: So yeah. That album almost killed me man, like well
Speaker 8: towards the end of it, where we were working in
Speaker 8: four different studios at the same time, and I like
Speaker 8: all three rooms an electric lady, and I was stuck
Speaker 8: in the studio without going to the hotel for a
Speaker 8: few days, and I had a beard I'm a common
Speaker 8: come into this and I want to post a note
Speaker 8: like help. And then I had a stress attack and
Speaker 8: the top half of my body stopped working. I couldn't
Speaker 8: move my own Yeah, I had.
Speaker 1: It was that extreme.
Speaker 8: I went to the hospital. I thought they thought I
Speaker 8: had a stroke, but it was just a stress attacking. Wow,
Speaker 8: it was I was dealing with I was dealing with Erica,
Speaker 8: and I was I was trying to insulate her from
Speaker 8: the label they were, you know, doing it. I was, Yeah,
Speaker 8: I was dealing with all of that, and it was
Speaker 8: it was a lot. What was what were they pushing for?
Speaker 8: Let's get this going now, we need this record now,
Speaker 8: we need to get this record now. And Erica was
Speaker 8: just like, I'm moving to my own speed, you know
Speaker 8: what I mean. And Erica's funny, man, because I don't
Speaker 8: know if y'all knowiced, Well should I say this, yes?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: If you look at the c D, oh the track
Speaker 1: list is wrong?
Speaker 8: No no, no, Not only that, yeah, that, but the color
Speaker 8: if you look at the color on the outside and
Speaker 8: then look at the actual color of the CD, two
Speaker 8: different reds. If you notice that. And that was just
Speaker 8: her being like, ya, ain't tell me what to do.
Speaker 1: That's wait, okay, sidetrack.
Speaker 4: When you buy the forty five of what's going on,
Speaker 4: towards the last thirty seconds, there's this thing where you
Speaker 4: are the fake going on and literally Marvion, that was
Speaker 4: Marvin Gaye's middle finger in the back, like, tell me
Speaker 4: what to do?
Speaker 2: I want to do that right and wow.
Speaker 7: So it doesn't give you warm and fuzzy feelings to
Speaker 7: talk about it?
Speaker 6: Do I really want to ask you about green Eyes?
Speaker 8: It's like, that was one of the greatest experiences I
Speaker 8: had in this business.
Speaker 6: Erica's no, I know that amazing.
Speaker 8: She's called me. I'm a she's my studio wife. I'm
Speaker 8: a studio husband.
Speaker 6: So can you talk about green Eyes? I'm just my
Speaker 6: mom's gonna come just because.
Speaker 1: So green Eyes we wrote in Dallas.
Speaker 8: She has this old beat up green upright piano that's
Speaker 8: out of tune AND's got paint on it and champbell
Speaker 8: wax everywhere and have the piano key sts and we
Speaker 8: wrote the song there. You know, it went down there.
Speaker 7: And it just when did you decide to like, did
Speaker 7: the song always have so many changes in it? Because
Speaker 7: that to me great, That's why it stands out because
Speaker 7: it's like it changes with her mind.
Speaker 8: That's her, that's she's she's super creative and wants to
Speaker 8: you know, she you know, she'll do wherever. You know
Speaker 8: you got to try and you don't want to. You
Speaker 8: can't ring her in, but you just let her do
Speaker 8: what she wants to do, and just trying to help
Speaker 8: her get her ideas out.
Speaker 1: And you know, I remember, was y'all forcing me? I was.
Speaker 4: I was definitely the night of the ok Player, New
Speaker 4: York Show. Were y'all on that tour with us? This
Speaker 4: was old The cover of the Roots Come Alive is
Speaker 4: that the night of.
Speaker 2: I wasn't there that night. I didn't we ain't come
Speaker 2: alongst like old.
Speaker 4: Three ish stell okay, okay later yeah, yeah, Like all
Speaker 4: I remember was that I was throat bleeding level of sickness.
Speaker 8: And you were asleep on the dones well playing dog anything.
Speaker 4: Clever, we're not only tracking in vidual songs like from
Speaker 4: what I remember, Clever kissed me on my neck like
Speaker 4: she wanted to do it as a sweet and I
Speaker 4: was like, look, let's just cut one song. And then
Speaker 4: you know when you go to master like a hatchet
Speaker 4: and make it like no, she's right, Booty and the
Speaker 4: three of them, and she came in gave me a
Speaker 4: barth bucket. There's one point in at the very end
Speaker 4: of Clever, I'm so mad you all to me, you know,
Speaker 4: the anger that you feel on on wake Up when
Speaker 4: we didn't put the delay or what's the last song.
Speaker 1: Waiting for Superman?
Speaker 4: That's all yes, and we didn't put the I'm so mad,
Speaker 4: Like I was trying to sabotage Clever so that y'all
Speaker 4: can say, look, just go home and come back again.
Speaker 1: So this is a point where I started doing.
Speaker 4: Like I was like, I'm drumming bass right now on
Speaker 4: the rim Shot, and I was just trying to funk.
Speaker 1: Up on purpose, and y'all kept all this.
Speaker 5: That's what you get.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: Did your production work as well?
Speaker 9: Man, My probably my favorite projectably both of y'all was
Speaker 9: one of my favorite projects, the Algreen Laid Down album.
Speaker 2: Man, I want to talk.
Speaker 9: I mean, I thought y'all just did just an incredible
Speaker 9: job of, you know, being bringing like his original sound,
Speaker 9: like those all those things we loved about the old records.
Speaker 2: But it didn't feel like just you know, cosplay.
Speaker 9: It wasn't like, oh, let's just make it sound old
Speaker 9: like they really sounded like they were great songs, and
Speaker 9: you know, and I.
Speaker 2: Just I thought y'all did a great job of that.
Speaker 2: What was it like working?
Speaker 1: It was a crazy thing.
Speaker 8: We cut all them songs and what sweet Days?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What?
Speaker 8: Because he would just walk in and start singing whatever
Speaker 8: came that was the song. He was like the kool
Speaker 8: aid man like.
Speaker 4: Matter of fact, if I recall correctly, and I have
Speaker 4: this on tape, I think we were just messing around
Speaker 4: with the idea of the title track, laid down, and
Speaker 4: then he just walked in and started singing.
Speaker 1: Like we didn't meet him yet.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we didn't need him yourror.
Speaker 4: We didn't shake his hand or nothing. He just walked
Speaker 4: in and when we and when we heard his voice,
Speaker 4: I think I was trying to text James like on
Speaker 4: the thing you see me, like like what the fuck
Speaker 4: are right now? But he started singing, So I don't
Speaker 4: want to be like, sir, this is really an honoritive
Speaker 4: the Yeah, he just came in and started freestyling, and then.
Speaker 8: And then walked off the room and saw Sky was
Speaker 8: like Spanky Chamers Alfred.
Speaker 1: Yes, he knew Spanky. Everybody if we talk about songs.
Speaker 7: Can I just throw out one real quick with the y'all,
Speaker 7: I would like to throw out sometimes blow. I would
Speaker 7: like to talk about that song and how that came
Speaker 7: together in such magnificence because it's one of my favorite
Speaker 7: Mirror James collaborations.
Speaker 4: You know, teasing, teasing common wait wait wait we we
Speaker 4: kind of I know we wait wait wait, hang on, okay,
Speaker 4: I literally just found a bunch of the Algreen kind
Speaker 4: of words.
Speaker 1: No, just on just the the demos and stuff.
Speaker 5: Wills Mirror is always like I just found that like
Speaker 5: poof right, like.
Speaker 1: So we tried this once.
Speaker 4: Uh remember we tried to convince him to cover crazy
Speaker 4: uh with Sharon Jones and we played him see Little
Speaker 4: Green's version. He just felt like that sounds like there's
Speaker 4: something about the cords that he's I don't like that.
Speaker 1: That's that's the mind. But typically we would just play.
Speaker 1: We were playing.
Speaker 8: It was the one plan that I think we both
Speaker 8: had was we gotta have and each song have a
Speaker 8: break that somebody would want to sample.
Speaker 5: Right exactly, good plan, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: But literally we were just this is out. Every session
Speaker 1: is with us. We'll just play.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that you're supposed to like pre write Elsewhere, demo.
Speaker 5: Elsewhere, No wonder things go so quickly and then go
Speaker 5: in the studio and do it like we just go
Speaker 5: in the studio and write this.
Speaker 4: I've told this story a few times, but common thought
Speaker 4: that he was going well. He sprung on us that
Speaker 4: he was going to be an actor, and literally we
Speaker 4: were like like behind the.
Speaker 2: Back, like.
Speaker 1: I've heard this, and so uh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he comes in all excited and it's like yeah, man, uh,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do Carmen, Carmen Robert Townsend and Mike uh
Speaker 4: what's his name that used to run the Source doing
Speaker 4: a hip hopera thing, and he's like, yeah, old girl
Speaker 4: from Destiny Shout, it's gonna be like old Girl gonna
Speaker 4: be you know, leading lady and all that stuff. And
Speaker 4: instantly I was like, yo, we're gonna duct her in
Speaker 4: the soul queries.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: Wow, all of At this point, while his relationship flourished
Speaker 4: with his work wife.
Speaker 1: Yes, mine was souring a little bit. I'm not on
Speaker 1: Worldwide Underground.
Speaker 6: I didn't want to say yeah yeah, and so.
Speaker 4: My thing was like okay, so I'm gonna bring more
Speaker 4: energy into the full.
Speaker 1: This is the one time where I was actively.
Speaker 4: Campaigning, like yo, we're gonna bring her into the and
Speaker 4: we were this close, like we were we were close anyway,
Speaker 4: so you know, he came in the audition all excieity.
Speaker 4: He wore like a vest in his Jeff hat, like
Speaker 4: like he's going to the club, like his audition closed
Speaker 4: and everything, and he.
Speaker 1: Goes there and we're like, yo, you gotta do it,
Speaker 1: you gotta do it.
Speaker 4: And he came back and I didn't get it, and
Speaker 4: we just got right and then he said it, and
Speaker 4: then he said most got the role, and instantly a
Speaker 4: four hour session ensues with us any given chance playing,
Speaker 4: Umi says. And then James really brought up the temperature
Speaker 4: where he started singing, and then after two hours of
Speaker 4: doing that ship then Bloud just started singing to it.
Speaker 8: I was like, okay, well it was like a joke, like.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I wish I would have passed that audition, and
Speaker 4: and then suddenly it was like whoa, this is something like.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's how that got made.
Speaker 4: And well Chicken Grease also, Chicken Grease was definitely a
Speaker 4: common song.
Speaker 8: It was a common song. It was studio see Electric Lady.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, up.
Speaker 4: All I remember was that D'Angelo was working on the
Speaker 4: City okay, because CDs can only hold yeah, seventy two
Speaker 4: seventy well, seventy nine minutes for some plants, but d'angelo's
Speaker 4: plant was seventy two, so he had to drop. The
Speaker 4: second song off of Voodoo was a song called the City,
Speaker 4: which was really like a Roy Hargrove tutorial of just
Speaker 4: like amazingness. And I remember de was working on the
Speaker 4: City downstairs, and we were working on chicken grease upstairs,
Speaker 4: thinking it was common shit, And I remember D'Angelo walked
Speaker 4: in and he kind of looked at.
Speaker 1: Me and James like, now, y'all know, like but it
Speaker 1: was the thing, you know. Com was all geeked like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 4: And then when I went to the bathroom, you know,
Speaker 4: like Tupac was waiting for Omar Epps around the locker
Speaker 4: and Juice.
Speaker 1: I got out of the bathroom and he says, yo, man, bro,
Speaker 1: you know good and well, that boy don't know what
Speaker 1: to do with that funk. He's gonna waste that song.
Speaker 1: I was like, what did you say? He said, I
Speaker 1: gotta have that song. That's my song.
Speaker 4: Y'all, y'all, y'all doing me without me in there, and
Speaker 4: I was like, come on, man, like, just let him
Speaker 4: have it. O man, that's my funk, Like, don't give
Speaker 4: him my funk. And then I was like trade off.
Speaker 4: So it just so happens that two days ago before then,
Speaker 4: we were trying to find a song for Miss Hill to.
Speaker 1: Come and do with it. Like it was. It was
Speaker 1: like any day now she'll come off the road. No,
Speaker 1: they had they had they had a quick pro crow arrangement.
Speaker 1: He was gonna do nothing either.
Speaker 6: I remember the story in the time she was gonna do.
Speaker 1: Well. I mean eventually that there was a Diller song,
Speaker 1: didn't do it, she didn't show up it, and then
Speaker 1: what we know is Ghetto Heaven.
Speaker 6: I remember that.
Speaker 4: We just did that that day and I said, look,
Speaker 4: you don't want the Ghetto Heaven's at the times the
Speaker 4: Gang Star song, and so I had the broker the trade.
Speaker 1: Between Common and D'Angelo to take each other's song.
Speaker 9: So yeah, you talk about Common, man, uh, Electric Circus,
Speaker 9: I want you to talk about new wave because I
Speaker 9: swore that was a stereo lab like I thought they
Speaker 9: you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying.
Speaker 9: I got the credits, so I thought it was just
Speaker 9: so dope. How you captured their sound? I mean you
Speaker 9: like it sounded like a stereo lab joint, but you
Speaker 9: captured it perfectly.
Speaker 4: Man, Well that's a mirror. Oh okay, that was no
Speaker 4: I played it, but we had the part that Common
Speaker 4: was rapping over. That was the whole song, and we're like, yeah,
Speaker 4: we're gonna send this the stereo lab and then you
Speaker 4: came in the studio was like, no, man, it needs
Speaker 4: a different hook. Yeah, they got it, like knowing I
Speaker 4: was always listening to dots and loops, and then I
Speaker 4: put Dyla onto it, and so basically I just went
Speaker 4: and brought all their CDs and like, this is the
Speaker 4: kind of happy ship they sing to. So you guys
Speaker 4: gotta find a way to amalgamate that into the song socause.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because Dylan and him did that track together.
Speaker 8: And he walked in, so let me think to change
Speaker 8: your hook and then and then we just created that.
Speaker 8: But if you can go back to Chicken grease. So
Speaker 8: I think we left the studio around five am. I
Speaker 8: left because I was when them two get together, Man,
Speaker 8: they start talking about and they start geeking out about music.
Speaker 5: It's like I love music, but it's like lost Supreme
Speaker 5: episode without I feel like I know this feeling.
Speaker 8: You love music, but I love music, but I don't
Speaker 8: love it like y'all love it.
Speaker 4: So I was like, I'm taking a cab to the hotel.
Speaker 4: So I get in the cab, I have to walk
Speaker 4: out the eighth Street at five in the morning. Finally
Speaker 4: got a cab and I get out in the hotel
Speaker 4: and these range over pulls up with him in the
Speaker 4: mirror and and they're like yo.
Speaker 8: I was like, what cause I'm dead tired. They getting
Speaker 8: back seat and I was held hostage in that back
Speaker 8: seat for like another two hours while they listened to
Speaker 8: that song.
Speaker 1: Over over over which one chicken grease. Yes, yes, this
Speaker 1: is vocals on it, This is no, this is just
Speaker 1: the just the track.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 1: Them two get together and I'm on the.
Speaker 8: Tour bus and voodoo. Them two will be at the front,
Speaker 8: like watching James Brownie. Look he moved his left knuckle
Speaker 8: and the band and the band went to gh and
Speaker 8: I'll be like, I'm going to the I'm going to the.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing though, I don't know if you remember this, man,
Speaker 4: but speaking of new wave, you know that was the
Speaker 4: last thing that Mary sang one. Really she the bike accident,
Speaker 4: she did her vocals, She went to the studio to
Speaker 4: do her vocals on that bike ride home.
Speaker 8: Oh, I didn't know what.
Speaker 6: Is talking about.
Speaker 9: This is Mary Mary Han, Mary Hanson of stere to
Speaker 9: Vote Mary Hanson. Yeah and yeah, Mary, she died in
Speaker 9: the biking accident. I didn't know that was her last record.
Speaker 9: That was one of her last records.
Speaker 4: It wasn't after she did it was it was something
Speaker 4: related either like Dubley had to communicate with like either
Speaker 4: her check or something like that. But all I remember
Speaker 4: was that like Doubly had dealt with her hours before
Speaker 4: and then as soon as we got to the studio.
Speaker 1: It was like she passed away. I have a question,
Speaker 1: shut up stage.
Speaker 5: I know, I feel like we haven't done that much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was time for one. We've heard a lot
Speaker 3: of about Amir's relationship with Dyla. What was your like
Speaker 3: when did you meet him? And this was, uh like
Speaker 3: water for chocolate, you know.
Speaker 8: Com was like, yo, man, we gonna go to Detroit
Speaker 8: and uh, I'm working with Dylan and I've never met Dyla,
Speaker 8: never seen him. And of course I love the music,
Speaker 8: but in my mind, I'm like Dyla was six eight
Speaker 8: three hundred pounds.
Speaker 1: I remember. I remember going to the private and they
Speaker 1: opened the door and I'm looking up like.
Speaker 5: Oh that's true.
Speaker 8: What's up man?
Speaker 1: Yep yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 8: So that same that day we wonte Literally the same
Speaker 8: thing happened, just instantly. Questions and I forget what else but.
Speaker 9: Questions, Yeah, cold blood.
Speaker 1: Question uh no doing it yeah not We're doing it funky.
Speaker 8: For you, all right? So I mean I was just
Speaker 8: a fan again, the not only his approach to drums,
Speaker 8: but what I loved about him being a piano player,
Speaker 8: his approach, the way he would put samples together. Changes, Yeah,
Speaker 8: the changes. It was almost like he instead of twelve
Speaker 8: notes and it was like there was like eighteen notes
Speaker 8: in it. Because just the way that things would mesh
Speaker 8: that you wouldn't imagine. And you can try and play
Speaker 8: the stuff, but your fingers can't really do its, you know.
Speaker 8: So I love that about him, and you know that
Speaker 8: was that was my guy.
Speaker 1: When the Anthenyum was a five star hotel, oh.
Speaker 8: I stayed the Infinium Hotel all the time.
Speaker 1: Infinium now is like a one and a half star hotel.
Speaker 7: Can I ask y'all to a question sol aquarians how
Speaker 7: I don't even know where to start, but I kind
Speaker 7: of want to say, in twenty twenty twenty four, how
Speaker 7: do y'all see the sol aquarians?
Speaker 6: And what do you in retrospect?
Speaker 1: Like, Man, it's weird, all right.
Speaker 4: So Roch called me yesterday, Roch Common and he's been
Speaker 4: getting poached by you know, Hollywood connection on that stuff.
Speaker 4: And you know, the idea of it is nice. But
Speaker 4: I'm really at a place now where I want a
Speaker 4: stress free existence.
Speaker 5: In some friends.
Speaker 6: But y'all are older people. Okay, I got you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But it's just like, you know, maybe just do
Speaker 3: an updated photo shoot and be dumba there we go.
Speaker 1: But even that would take twelve years. That would take
Speaker 1: twelve years.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not trying to be like overly dramatical,
Speaker 4: like talk a bunch of shit and then cut to
Speaker 4: all right, guys, let's organize and do it together.
Speaker 1: But it's just like I, for one, similar to you.
Speaker 4: I'll say that I've had four secret hospital trips in
Speaker 4: the last twenty years. Four of them were always sold
Speaker 4: queer and related just the stress the stress of you know,
Speaker 4: and I can't.
Speaker 6: Do that anymore.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but no, no, no, not to this level. So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: I love the history of it. And plus it's also
Speaker 4: like I went through so much drama after that photo
Speaker 4: was taken, where really the story was like.
Speaker 6: Look left out.
Speaker 4: I remember that yet not left out, but it was
Speaker 4: just like the territorial pissing part of it. You know,
Speaker 4: that story should have been in a mere story. But
Speaker 4: because I was in a place where I didn't want
Speaker 4: to own or whatever, the whole anti Flower ship, I
Speaker 4: was like, put everybody in it because it's all it's
Speaker 4: like all of ours and yeah, it's just.
Speaker 6: What's the James translation?
Speaker 4: What was your James had a nice coat? I was like, wait,
Speaker 4: why am I the dn't asked Marie Malone's T shirt Erica,
Speaker 4: Like I got you this shirt, but.
Speaker 1: James got a hair coat, Like.
Speaker 8: Hey. That whole experience to me was was funny because
Speaker 8: I always I was looking at like I am I
Speaker 8: am very happy to be here, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: It's just me, Like it was like just everybody around,
Speaker 8: even the musical side of it. Before this, I was like,
Speaker 8: you gotta understand what what I've said a lot of
Speaker 8: the stuff was created instantly, So to me it was like,
Speaker 8: oh man, I'm just playing and it's people like it.
Speaker 8: So it was. It was everything was a bit of
Speaker 8: a surprise to me at that time, like I'm just here,
Speaker 8: you know, everything was. I was right out and bushytailed
Speaker 8: and everything.
Speaker 4: So mind beautiful when it works, it's beautiful, but it's
Speaker 4: just lead.
Speaker 6: But it's still working a little bit. For James and
Speaker 6: way like you, y'all, love of my life was postal.
Speaker 8: I'm just talking about all that, like the drama and stuff.
Speaker 8: I wasn't really that's what I'm I saw it was
Speaker 8: affecting him, but I was like, I am just here.
Speaker 2: I'm just a piano man.
Speaker 1: You look like, oh, I'm just the money you meant
Speaker 1: in the bus. And to be honest with you, like
Speaker 1: we've never broken up.
Speaker 4: I mean at the moment that the wants to go
Speaker 4: in the studio, chances are he's gonna hit me up
Speaker 4: or something like that. And ship we just started working
Speaker 4: on even though the small steps.
Speaker 1: Actually none of those Pete.
Speaker 8: Uh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: Oh, I mean he's edited himsel because he said something shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Go ahead it right?
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no, I was gonna say Oh, by the way,
Speaker 4: none of our interludes made it because.
Speaker 1: It is my record. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So, James, you look like the soul Quarian's pimp. It's
Speaker 5: like it's like they're all dressed for something cool. He's like,
Speaker 5: better pay me, bitch.
Speaker 6: He looks expensive.
Speaker 7: I'm just ask the question as safe and as possible, James,
Speaker 7: what was the biggest lesson you learned, especially coming from
Speaker 7: a finance background and your experience working on the album
Speaker 7: that should not be named Ah because you touched it?
Speaker 2: What is the album that should not be named.
Speaker 1: Oh, got you Miss Lady?
Speaker 7: The mis education of Lauren Hill Jack education.
Speaker 1: I mean, the finance thing is if you're gonna look.
Speaker 6: At it from that, keeping it safe, so but you
Speaker 6: can go.
Speaker 8: I'm just saying, if you're looking from that point of view,
Speaker 8: it's like, be careful what you're invest in.
Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: Some things that you think you're investing in, the returns
Speaker 8: don't come back the way they're supposed to come back.
Speaker 5: If you want to talk, Yeah, that ambiguous and fantastic going.
Speaker 8: I'll say the really so it started with uh one
Speaker 8: day will all make sense for common.
Speaker 1: You know what I asked doing those those Common sessions.
Speaker 4: I was like, dog, do you not realize like back
Speaker 4: then we heard that ship and I was like, oh man,
Speaker 4: it was like a Calvin got a job moment. I said,
Speaker 4: but you do realize that that's one of the most
Speaker 4: tune death Like, yeah, it really doesn't have Every time
Speaker 4: it started playing, we thought we thought it was like.
Speaker 6: Two hundred and fifty dollars work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, we laughed and he's like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: realized I was going it started.
Speaker 8: So with that song, you know, Common was in the
Speaker 8: in the session in New York with No ID and
Speaker 8: they were like, yo, when I'm working on a song
Speaker 8: with Lauren Hill, but the vibe ain't right, can you
Speaker 8: come up? So I took the train up sort of
Speaker 8: reworked the song with him, and it came out great,
Speaker 8: and Long was excited. Yeah. So I get a call
Speaker 8: a couple months later and Long was like, can you
Speaker 8: come up to Jersey? So I go up to Jersey
Speaker 8: to our house and I met We'll never forget this conversation.
Speaker 8: Sitting there, she's eating breakfast. Yeah, I want you to
Speaker 8: come in and help me work on this album. Play
Speaker 8: some stuff, write some stuff, produce, some stuff on the album.
Speaker 6: Those three things play right produce so.
Speaker 8: Cool chicks, so you know, and we developed a relationship.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: It was like yo, ell el boogie, you know, learn
Speaker 8: what up. I'll go up there. I would Spade stay
Speaker 8: days at the house I was. This was when I
Speaker 8: was staying in Sion's bedroom the baby at the time,
Speaker 8: you know, working in the studio. She she already had
Speaker 8: a crew of guys that she's working with, the Newark guys,
Speaker 8: Vader and them, and also my brother Chay Pope was
Speaker 8: working on some stuff also, So me and Chay, who's
Speaker 8: still like he just text me, you know, we're still together.
Speaker 8: But we were working on things for I was playing
Speaker 8: on some things. It was just a lot of moving
Speaker 8: parts and a lot of stuff happening, even though some
Speaker 8: of the other projects she was working on, like Aretha
Speaker 8: Franklin Rose, you know, I remember her calling me. I
Speaker 8: think it was like because it's you too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I was in my studio in Philly and I think
Speaker 8: it was eight o'clock at night, Can you come to
Speaker 8: New York? So I jumped to my car, drove out there,
Speaker 8: played on the Rose and still the Rose, you know,
Speaker 8: crashed at the crib crib whatnot. So those kind of
Speaker 8: things was happening at all times. So was the end
Speaker 8: of when the albums being wrapped up. That's when things changed.
Speaker 8: That's when I couldn't get along on the phone without
Speaker 8: the manager being on the phone. And it was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 8: you you did agree to that work for hire thing.
Speaker 8: I was like, what what youre talking about? Willis?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Long story shirt?
Speaker 8: I uh, you know, I did follow a lawsuit, but
Speaker 8: then I dropped the lawsuit because I just I was
Speaker 8: at the time, I wasn't strong enough to deal with
Speaker 8: it because it was a lot of stress. You know,
Speaker 8: it was a lot of and you know, I chalked
Speaker 8: it up to a loss and a learned experience.
Speaker 7: And while the urban legend goes that James Foult, he
Speaker 7: did and he won. He got a lot of money.
Speaker 7: I just need you to know that that was the
Speaker 7: urban legend.
Speaker 1: No, no, he was. He was part of the He
Speaker 1: was the.
Speaker 7: One that start, the first one that started the legitious situation,
Speaker 7: and so nobody did anybody ever.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it took him a while a few years, right, yeah,
Speaker 8: But I was like, I'm just washing my hands of
Speaker 8: it and move on. I've been cool ever since you know,
Speaker 8: I'm good. So, yeah, it happened, you know, learning experience.
Speaker 4: Do you feel in general, because I hear a lot
Speaker 4: that like everyone's writes a passage or trial by fire
Speaker 4: thing is like the getting gang story. Yeah that it
Speaker 4: is absolutely, absolutely it is. Well someone's gonna get jerked.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, So what is the thing that you now
Speaker 7: do different you had started doing different from that moment,
Speaker 7: Like even is it a paperwork thing, is it a
Speaker 7: conversation that you now have before or.
Speaker 5: A lawyer or if it's a lawyer.
Speaker 8: Here's the thing, though, everything that I did in that
Speaker 8: situation is what I've done with other artists and have
Speaker 8: continued to do, and it's all been cool.
Speaker 1: It was just that it was just that kind.
Speaker 4: Of thing, not not that my two senses needed in
Speaker 4: this matter. But I think a lot of the unspoken
Speaker 4: elephant in Room of it All is that perhaps maybe
Speaker 4: she was under the impression of you know, this whole
Speaker 4: like the Stevie the Prince written and produced the arrange
Speaker 4: and da da da da dad like that.
Speaker 1: But I don't know any.
Speaker 4: Situation that doesn't require a village, Like even all the
Speaker 4: Prince's stuff was you know, here revolution members now saying
Speaker 4: I wrote that baseline and that sort of thing, you know.
Speaker 4: I wish that she knew that, because I often wonder
Speaker 4: if she's punishing herself by stalling.
Speaker 1: As a means to.
Speaker 4: If it was humiliating to get caught out there with
Speaker 4: the hand and her cookie jar, Like does she think, like, see,
Speaker 4: we told you she wasn't no real producer, da da da.
Speaker 4: She had people to do it for, but it's like
Speaker 4: dude like productions literally giving your two cents to what
Speaker 4: you think the musicians should do, and the you know,
Speaker 4: that sort of thing. But I don't know, I feel
Speaker 4: like if she has a better relationship that like, I'm
Speaker 4: not judging her because of that.
Speaker 1: It's like surprise, everyone works on everyone's records, and.
Speaker 9: That doesn't take away from my enjoyment of those records
Speaker 9: by knowing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: If it's dope, it's dope.
Speaker 1: But almost feel as though, like.
Speaker 4: The the insular side of her story starts with you know,
Speaker 4: the revolution, you know, because the way that she initially
Speaker 4: I guess she initially won the case, and then and
Speaker 4: then the last minute, eleventh hour videotape revelation of the.
Speaker 6: Proof that they were doing other people were right.
Speaker 4: That came into play and then it's you know, and
Speaker 4: I almost felt like, wow, she probably feels like we're
Speaker 4: judging it and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But no, didn't Michael Jackson scrubs someone's name off off
Speaker 3: the credits or something like that.
Speaker 4: Or.
Speaker 9: Great feeling games writing the bridge on everybody.
Speaker 1: It's listen.
Speaker 8: It's like, you know, I didn't write one hundred percent
Speaker 8: of the song. I will be the first submitted. She
Speaker 8: absolutely it is supremely talented. But you know, my little
Speaker 8: played a small part. Just give me that credit. The
Speaker 8: small part.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 4: Damn this is I feel like this is a special
Speaker 4: episode of good Times when nig Mamas just passed and whatnot.
Speaker 6: Just happy. James felt comfortable having that conversation.
Speaker 4: So this is what I always want to know, because
Speaker 4: you know, you could tell the fiber of America based
Speaker 4: on interactions and airports and yeah, to this day, that's.
Speaker 5: Not what I thought you were gonna say.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but not that I agreed, like I
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. No, I'm just saying.
Speaker 4: Man Yay once famously said that you know, he'll sit
Speaker 4: in airports like when he designs an easy sneaker. He
Speaker 4: hints the not like the whatever the medicine shoes or
Speaker 4: the geriatric shoes or whatever they call it. But you know,
Speaker 4: everyone always comes up to me and says, hey, I
Speaker 4: love your CNN special on racism and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I know post thank you notes.
Speaker 4: I know that post thank you notes, your life might
Speaker 4: have to be somewhat hellish of people.
Speaker 2: Nelson George, shut up. I never seen Nelson George and
Speaker 2: James poising.
Speaker 1: The same room.
Speaker 6: That is hilarious.
Speaker 1: That's going to live rent for you my head. No,
Speaker 1: that is crazy.
Speaker 8: That's funny.
Speaker 5: I never thought about it between pimp Aquarius and.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 4: But I'm just saying that. You know, and I know
Speaker 4: this is very weird to say, but you being.
Speaker 1: That is you? Yes, you forgot what he looked like.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's you.
Speaker 5: Okay, sorry you, but you.
Speaker 4: Being uh highly utilized and recognizable Jiff.
Speaker 1: It's actually not none of the scot fat either.
Speaker 2: Because that's new celebrity now.
Speaker 1: That's yeah. I'm not a Jiff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: You are.
Speaker 1: I'm a gift, but I'm not a go.
Speaker 6: To like James.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if it's shade or citizens this space comes up first.
Speaker 4: Is that a weird feeling for you?
Speaker 2: It is to be because you.
Speaker 1: I get recognized.
Speaker 8: It's crazy that I get recognized. And it's the funny
Speaker 8: thing is always older grandmother.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they love Nelson, Joe.
Speaker 1: They watched the Tonight Show. They watched the Tonight Show.
Speaker 8: And I can hear I'm walking up here and I
Speaker 8: hear James shut. So when I hear that, I'm instantly
Speaker 8: I noticed it, Like, Hey, I don't like, I don't know, that's.
Speaker 9: Like the new sampling. Like it really like means that's
Speaker 9: like the new sampling. Like it totally just exposes you
Speaker 9: to a new audience that never would have got to
Speaker 9: you otherwise.
Speaker 7: So yeah, on a follon note a mirror, I just
Speaker 7: like to ask you, like, why did you feel like
Speaker 7: you had to.
Speaker 6: Have James on this this ride?
Speaker 4: Mostly we wanted to double down on every instrument because
Speaker 4: one person as a keyboard player, then if James is sick,
Speaker 4: you know, our parents are up there in age anything,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, we need to double down.
Speaker 4: So there's always like two keyboard players, two drummers.
Speaker 6: Two drummers.
Speaker 1: Wait, Elliott, Okay, I'm in a band called The Root.
Speaker 7: But okay, don't do that because this people don't think
Speaker 7: drummer Strow.
Speaker 6: Okay, because they see Strow, I don't do that. They
Speaker 6: see him on a little thing.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of what happens on the Tonight
Speaker 3: show is kind of like live scoring of like what's
Speaker 3: whatever's happening on the stage. And so James is good
Speaker 3: at that.
Speaker 6: I thought that's what he was going. What's that where
Speaker 6: I thought he was going to go with more with I.
Speaker 3: Mean, there's other reasons, but that's one of the reasons
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: Well, besides, he could play his ass off obvious things.
Speaker 1: I thought we knew that already. You're reading, right my
Speaker 1: reading think necessary? No, Well, so I can.
Speaker 5: I can write piano music, but I can't play it
Speaker 5: for the ship like two staffs at the same time. Nope,
Speaker 5: not happening.
Speaker 8: The guys that can read, is it worth it?
Speaker 5: It depends on your profession in my opinion.
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, I feel like, I mean, once
Speaker 4: I found the Philadelphia school curriculum is dropping cursive writing
Speaker 4: and penmanship, Well that's different.
Speaker 6: They can't get rid of it. Come on, imagine Kaplain
Speaker 6: and I haven't it.
Speaker 1: They don't have it. They're not reading music.
Speaker 7: No, no, oh yeah, no, I know the chur curses
Speaker 7: a rape.
Speaker 1: Is there anything we didn't cover?
Speaker 6: It was just too much.
Speaker 4: You're doing it now, like talk about talk about the
Speaker 4: TV shows. Yeah, like your your life as a score
Speaker 4: and thank you for totally awesome by the way, I
Speaker 4: think you could.
Speaker 1: That movie was hilarious.
Speaker 2: That movie that was like a.
Speaker 9: Spoof movie with Chris Chris I think it was Chris
Speaker 9: the Brand directed.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Neil, Neil.
Speaker 2: This is.
Speaker 5: James's current job is the Jason Siegel character on whatever
Speaker 5: that show is. He just plays low tones and like actually.
Speaker 1: He said in front of TV.
Speaker 4: Say it was frustrating for me because they never know
Speaker 4: what they want.
Speaker 1: They know what they don't want.
Speaker 8: That's it. That's the thing. You got to learn to
Speaker 8: break the notes writing whatever they tell you. You know, I've
Speaker 8: had to learn that.
Speaker 1: Take a huge broke you.
Speaker 9: I learned that you were a big part of teaching
Speaker 9: me that when we did that Fame record, because you know,
Speaker 9: you talk about me telling you the truth, like I
Speaker 9: would send the joint and you came back. It was like, okay, man, Yeah,
Speaker 9: this is dope. But I think, you know this part
Speaker 9: you should change and do a little bit whatever. And
Speaker 9: that was the thing that taught me of like listen, man,
Speaker 9: like this is not yours.
Speaker 2: You're working in service of something bigger. So if they
Speaker 2: want more cowvill, just give them more for exactly. That's
Speaker 2: the end of it.
Speaker 8: I had to you know, I didn't realize I had
Speaker 8: an ego, but that part the first time you hear
Speaker 8: when somebody says that's cool, but no, wow, when.
Speaker 4: You get the equalizer, how is it fed to you
Speaker 4: when you're giving scenes like we need something here?
Speaker 8: Yeah. So I'm co scoring that with a guy named
Speaker 8: Robert Duncan, who's done who did it from the beginning
Speaker 8: for the first free seasons. I came on on the
Speaker 8: third season. I'm in season four now. So he was
Speaker 8: a true vet at the stuff. So I'm he's been
Speaker 8: teaching me a lot.
Speaker 4: Uh. Dana and Sha called me when I was like,
Speaker 4: I really want to do the scoring thing. I reached
Speaker 4: out to a lot of people like, hey.
Speaker 8: If you need music for anything, I'm trying to do it.
Speaker 8: And hit me back.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a whole the brain side.
Speaker 8: It's not It's not like a whole d M. I
Speaker 8: was like, yo, if so, she hired me for Cherished
Speaker 8: Today and I did. I did the first three episodes.
Speaker 1: We got fired.
Speaker 8: You got listen when I got fired, my agent said,
Speaker 8: you're officially in a composer.
Speaker 1: Wow, oh what's that like? It sucks?
Speaker 8: It sucks, but it is, it is what it is.
Speaker 6: You learn from You are so blessed. That's beautiful. That
Speaker 6: was a beautiful question.
Speaker 5: I got fired before I got fired by Terry Gilliam,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did some like weird it was like some
Speaker 5: NASCAR thing and it just wasn't happening. I got the uh,
Speaker 5: it's going on away different, like a whole different direction.
Speaker 1: I know it was.
Speaker 2: It was for me.
Speaker 5: I just didn't have it.
Speaker 3: I got fired from Schizzler for stealing Fried Trimp.
Speaker 2: So the scoring you do that pretty much from the crib.
Speaker 8: Yeah, from from the house. Yeah, you're working on Equalizer.
Speaker 8: Started a new show which I can't really talk about
Speaker 8: right now, comedy. It's actually a crime drammer, a bunch
Speaker 8: of actually it's not that's more Equalized. This is more
Speaker 8: string quartet, right yeah.
Speaker 2: And a lot of stuff.
Speaker 6: When can we talk about it?
Speaker 8: When it comes out because you don't know when you're
Speaker 8: gonna get fired.
Speaker 5: Preach you like writing for strings that it's it's something new,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 8: Again, I'm pretty much educated and a lot of that stuff,
Speaker 8: but I had to YouTube. University is a beautiful place.
Speaker 1: What's the crunch education version of scoring? Like what did
Speaker 1: you have.
Speaker 8: To learn the it's not and it wasn't anything musical Again,
Speaker 8: It's what we talked about, losing the ego and learning
Speaker 8: really really truly learning that you got to do what
Speaker 8: they want period right period, So you can be as
Speaker 8: musical as you want to be. If that ain't it,
Speaker 8: that ain't the picture.
Speaker 1: Stick to the picture.
Speaker 8: You have to stick to what they what they want.
Speaker 4: Well, I always you know, the first thing they always
Speaker 4: lose when I got called was no drums.
Speaker 5: So you're like.
Speaker 1: Because it gets in the way of the dialogue, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I'm not this is not for me.
Speaker 8: It's funny though that I've read and seen that there's
Speaker 8: a lot of like really heavyweight producers that try to
Speaker 8: do this and they can.
Speaker 9: They don't like being told no, yeah, and to like
Speaker 9: doing working on TV that's a different timeline, Like you
Speaker 9: don't have time to sit and talk for two hours
Speaker 9: about It's like we need this ship now, Yeah.
Speaker 4: That's what it is, all right, So we got to
Speaker 4: get you past Ludwig. Like for me, Ludwig is the
Speaker 4: try that has to Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean he started a community and then he did
Speaker 1: all He's Cold lover stuff.
Speaker 4: He's amazing, and then he did Black Panther and behind
Speaker 4: it just one Gordons and the composer.
Speaker 6: I got context clues I figured out about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know him.
Speaker 8: Chris Bowles is another one that's.
Speaker 4: Just like, ah, yeah, Chris, So those are the mountains
Speaker 4: you have to climb to get to the prime stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is it that you want to score?
Speaker 8: I would love to do some big budget Hollywood John
Speaker 8: Williams ship.
Speaker 6: Action, action, don't matter.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know I love all kinds of film, you
Speaker 8: know I love.
Speaker 3: Maybe you want to circle back to common or maybe
Speaker 3: maybe a question the guy who you made fun of
Speaker 3: not getting the gig, maybe you should call him.
Speaker 1: Movies these days?
Speaker 4: Like for you is besides the never released Randy Watson record?
Speaker 1: Is there? You've done everything? Now?
Speaker 4: Like, what is your preferred method of creativity? Do you
Speaker 4: prefer live ship? Do you prefer creating a record from
Speaker 4: Souper Nuts.
Speaker 8: It's a combination of all of it.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean doing it? You wish you
Speaker 1: were doing what's over there.
Speaker 8: For me, if I do too much of one thing,
Speaker 8: I get kind of cranking. It's like I gotta go.
Speaker 8: I need to go to a jam session or go play.
Speaker 8: You know, it's crazy. We only play. We play less
Speaker 8: than ten minutes of music on the show. Really, so
Speaker 8: you want to play.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: That's why we started doing those jazz gigs around town
Speaker 8: just so we could.
Speaker 7: Did you could just pop up at all.
Speaker 4: He was at Djengo at the Django, which was like
Speaker 4: a really hip New York jazz jazz in the ground spot.
Speaker 1: But now Chief has Uncle Chiefs have you guys.
Speaker 8: Don't get played. I played that before. It's great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, Dave Guy and Ian Hendrickson and James.
Speaker 1: James is really uh.
Speaker 4: He downplays his actual piano ability. Let me find out
Speaker 4: that James doesn't think that he's a good piano player.
Speaker 6: I'm still learning, as you should. There's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 6: but not.
Speaker 4: Even like he's a very capable piano player, because we
Speaker 4: wouldn't utilized them all these decades.
Speaker 8: Shut up but the best thing is the balance of
Speaker 8: sitting in front of a computer screen doing whatever, playing
Speaker 8: with the band, playing live, you know, just the combination
Speaker 8: of all of those things, doing session work. You know,
Speaker 8: that's just I love it all. I love it.
Speaker 6: What's the next record that you are working?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 6: Artists wise, I'm working with Tank, Tanking, the Bankers.
Speaker 8: Poetry album, Tanking, the Bangers.
Speaker 6: But first of all, either way, I'm good, okay, but Tank, I.
Speaker 1: Feel like you're given I feel like you were given
Speaker 1: other tank energy.
Speaker 6: I was given other Tankery because I was just jameson.
Speaker 8: If she's listening, what up be that's my that's my
Speaker 8: New Orleans as she hates.
Speaker 6: She's been on this show.
Speaker 5: Sounds Jamaican does That's what she said.
Speaker 4: Okay, So before we wrap up, Stevens, there anything else
Speaker 4: you want to add?
Speaker 3: James Poison is a legend, totally.
Speaker 1: No real bro.
Speaker 8: Thank you, thank you man.
Speaker 4: You know I will say that you know, of all
Speaker 4: the keyboard players in the world from West Philly, Kate Bourne,
Speaker 4: extremely specific.
Speaker 5: Like Nelson George, Yes exactly, I wouldn't.
Speaker 6: You in a room. No, that's that's a bit though,
Speaker 6: that Nelson George saying.
Speaker 4: I gotta find that on my damn so now, thank
Speaker 4: you for doing this and you know taking flowers and serious.
Speaker 1: Thank you man, thank you for always being a big
Speaker 1: brother man.
Speaker 8: Appreciate it.
Speaker 7: In the film the TV world like that's dope, like
Speaker 7: that theis of that is like, oh no, that was.
Speaker 1: My first you guys except for.
Speaker 4: James and Phil and like in Fanto and Sugar uh
Speaker 4: this of course Love Supreme will see you all next week.
Speaker 1: This is Sugar Steve.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. This podcast
Speaker 3: is hosted by a mere Quest Love Thompson, Saint Clair,
Speaker 3: Ponte Colman, Sugar Steve Mandel, and unpaid Bill Fairman. The
Speaker 3: executive producers are a mere Quest of Thompson, Sean Ge
Speaker 3: and Brian Calvin, produced by Britney Benjamin, Jake Payne and
Speaker 3: Liiah Saint Clair, edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart
Speaker 3: by Noel Brown and.
Speaker 1: What'stlum. Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 4: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.