Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Thanks, take the child. We are the authority on all
Speaker 1: things R and B.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tank Town. This is
Speaker 3: the R and B Money Podcast, the authority on all
Speaker 3: things R and B.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is the Army Money podcast. What it is
Speaker 1: you ful m? Yeah?
Speaker 3: We tap into the new generation. Yeah, the new sign
Speaker 3: a real way, the new gifts, new excellence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might have dreadlocks or something.
Speaker 4: You just see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I mean, die you tips.
Speaker 3: Like like what the brother we got on here now
Speaker 3: has been a superstar since he was.
Speaker 1: A childress man, it's been victorious. He's been victorious as
Speaker 1: a childster.
Speaker 4: You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Now he's an adult child, yes, the children and now
Speaker 3: he's an adult yeh.
Speaker 1: He kicking everybody else makes some doors with and so
Speaker 1: what's so?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was an amazing intro. By the way, thank
Speaker 5: you man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your next album.
Speaker 5: I mean, if you can't.
Speaker 1: Listen, bro, First of all, thank you, thank you for
Speaker 1: your time. You know what I mean.
Speaker 6: We know you are working man, that's what we do
Speaker 6: know man, But thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 6: I've actually been watching the podcast. It's so fucking funny.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you, brother, and and you're we commend you, brother,
Speaker 3: because you know, this is a tough place to grow
Speaker 3: up in, absolutely a very tough place to grow up in.
Speaker 3: And and from the first time we've crossed paths, like
Speaker 3: you can tell that you were raised well.
Speaker 5: Shout out to my mama.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I mean, I just came from a
Speaker 6: really amazing musical tribe that just surrounded me with and support.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's funny.
Speaker 6: I'm around a lot of artists and and and to
Speaker 6: hear that sometimes that parents weren't supportive early on, you know,
Speaker 6: it's kind of crazy to me because I don't know
Speaker 6: a world that that that isn't that. And I feel
Speaker 6: like really having God in my life too has really
Speaker 6: helped just keeping smooth.
Speaker 1: You know, with with with with that in that parental space. Right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think of it like this.
Speaker 3: As as most of us may bee, I know, our
Speaker 3: first generation to this place, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: And so our parents when you start talking about dreaming
Speaker 3: of this kind of life, right, they're like, what are
Speaker 3: you talking about. Walgreens has some openings right now, Walmart,
Speaker 3: they're stalking boxes right now for twenty two dollars an hour.
Speaker 2: There's no openings and artists, no artist, yeah, guarante opening.
Speaker 2: There's an opening to be a superstar.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't. And so we're pulling this out of
Speaker 1: the air by big first generation. That dream sounds so.
Speaker 3: In a real life crazy right to most people, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And the parents that you know
Speaker 3: haveven lived the crazy lifestyle, they just don't get it
Speaker 3: until they see it. And thank god, you know, you
Speaker 3: were surrounded with parents and people who at least had
Speaker 3: the music. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, to nurture
Speaker 3: you and get you prepared. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: let's start there. Let's go back to the beginning.
Speaker 5: You know, it's crazy.
Speaker 6: My grandfather just flew out yesterday and we were talking
Speaker 6: about just this whole journey in music, and he started
Speaker 6: naming names of people that he was around. He was
Speaker 6: talking about cab Calalle, he was talking about Miles Davis,
Speaker 6: you know, he was talking about Leonard Bernstein. You know,
Speaker 6: I mean this guy, he was an amazing opera singer
Speaker 6: in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 5: And to be black and to be.
Speaker 6: Your grandfather, yeah, to be in that place he wasn't
Speaker 6: in that place. Yeah, I was very special around that time,
Speaker 6: John Anthony. Yeah. So, I mean every time he comes
Speaker 6: into town, and even when I traveled to New York,
Speaker 6: you know, I spend most of my time just asking questions.
Speaker 6: I mean, how did he stay saying through all of
Speaker 6: the different changes and and and even being in a
Speaker 6: position where, you know, the civil rights movement was going on,
Speaker 6: and and and genuinely having to kind of keep a
Speaker 6: level head during so much climate, you know, just just
Speaker 6: just a wild climate at that time, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, because your reaction could at that time get
Speaker 1: you killed.
Speaker 3: It could get you straight killed. Yeah, So he was, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was in a place where I mean, of course
Speaker 3: we know he belonged, but and I mean he was
Speaker 3: working with the Poor People's March. And he was telling
Speaker 3: me a story yesterday about how James Brown came through
Speaker 3: to do a free concert in this tenth that they
Speaker 3: set up, and that's just so cool to me, Like
Speaker 3: he was really chopping it up with James Brown back
Speaker 3: in the day, like you know, at his this because
Speaker 3: I mean whenever he comes through and he's in my car,
Speaker 3: I always like to play like some old school funky
Speaker 3: you know, just kind.
Speaker 1: Of vibe out.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so so let's go back to the beginning
Speaker 3: to where you know, you as all things that you are, right,
Speaker 3: somebody was like, man, boy right them, I'm telling you, right, dad,
Speaker 3: if it's gonna be something, or even when you said
Speaker 3: to yourself, I think I think I got something special.
Speaker 6: Well it it's a pretty crazy story because I was
Speaker 6: ten years old and my mom, she's also a singer
Speaker 6: as well, and you know, she was doing a really
Speaker 6: cool show and took me to a rehearsal and her
Speaker 6: friend was like, you should audition for the Lion King,
Speaker 6: And that was my first ever audition. I went in
Speaker 6: and you know, you should audition for the like well,
Speaker 6: I mean I was just a charismatic kid, you know,
Speaker 6: running around and it was a rehearsal, so I'm like
Speaker 6: kind of humming and singing and just being you know, myself,
Speaker 6: and you know, I ended up doing the audition, got
Speaker 6: the first audition, and ended up doing Bray at ten
Speaker 6: years old. And for me, like to go from just
Speaker 6: being a regular kid to like, you know, starring on
Speaker 6: Broadway in front of like four hundred people packed house
Speaker 6: and seeing the reaction of of of the you know,
Speaker 6: people in the crowd. I mean, you can kind of
Speaker 6: see behind the lights, but for the most part, I
Speaker 6: just remember seeing, you know, the front row and just
Speaker 6: seeing the joy on people's faces.
Speaker 5: That was the moment where I knew. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: this is.
Speaker 6: I was doing at that time four but I did
Speaker 6: three Broadway plays in three years, so the other ones
Speaker 6: I was doing, I was doing like eight shows a week,
Speaker 6: and you know, once I kind of got into the
Speaker 6: space of theater, it just made a lot of sense,
Speaker 6: you know.
Speaker 5: Shout out to Linda Twine.
Speaker 6: She was a musical director for a lot of the
Speaker 6: big plays at that time, and she went way back
Speaker 6: with my grandfather too, so there was like a bit
Speaker 6: of a family aspect to it. So it kind of
Speaker 6: felt like fun. It was like a playground for me.
Speaker 6: But Broadway is no joke. You got to you gotta
Speaker 6: show up. You got to show out.
Speaker 1: As well at this time or not.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm going to school, I'm waking up. I'm
Speaker 5: going to school.
Speaker 6: Uh you know, I do my homework in the afternoon
Speaker 6: and I'm you know, going backstage and I'm doing the show.
Speaker 6: I'm waking up and doing it all over again. Sometimes
Speaker 6: I would have a mattenee on Wednesday. I would get
Speaker 6: a half day, got to do homework backstage. It was
Speaker 6: pretty crazy.
Speaker 5: I should have been homeschooled at that time, but I
Speaker 5: was still in public school, just doing me.
Speaker 1: So, so how is how is I mean I was
Speaker 1: never in school and famous, So how is it being
Speaker 1: in school and being on Broadway at the same time?
Speaker 3: Your kids know that yeast.
Speaker 1: In that age group was fourth fifth grade? Yeah, do
Speaker 1: they even know what Broadway is?
Speaker 6: They don't, So, like, you know, for the younger years,
Speaker 6: I'll say, like middle school, it was kind of just
Speaker 6: like whatever. It wasn't until I started doing like movies.
Speaker 6: I did a film with Robin Williams called August Rush
Speaker 6: and whould you do the film with Robin Williams? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: gen Terrence Howard was in that film to man, yeah,
Speaker 6: so like and and that one still like it took
Speaker 6: like two years for it to come out. So I
Speaker 6: was telling my friends like, yea, you're gonna see me
Speaker 6: in the movies and they were like, I ain't gonna
Speaker 6: see you no, you know, so it's still that element.
Speaker 6: And you know, being in Brooklyn too, you know, it
Speaker 6: was just such a grounded situation. You know, I was
Speaker 6: going to a very public school, Like it wasn't one
Speaker 6: of those fancy, you know, art schools or anything. So
Speaker 6: I really got a lot of balancing. My friends were
Speaker 6: always very supportive, and I think once the Nickelodeon stuff
Speaker 6: started happening, I noticed going on the train was different, like,
Speaker 6: you know, people kind of looking at me, or even
Speaker 6: going to school and people treat me different than they.
Speaker 1: Did before on Nickelodeon and still taking the train to
Speaker 1: school and doing.
Speaker 5: The whole man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm not going.
Speaker 4: I thought I was about to get robbed.
Speaker 5: Who is what you got on?
Speaker 7: You?
Speaker 1: Some checks ain't come in?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, bro, just trying to make you know what
Speaker 5: you got on be What's that.
Speaker 3: Did? Bro?
Speaker 1: Like the first couple of.
Speaker 6: Times I got recognized, I really thought I was about
Speaker 6: to get ribbed, but it was all love and that
Speaker 6: was a cool thing I felt.
Speaker 2: Started realizing that the thugs watching Nickelodeon, Yeah, they.
Speaker 5: Really watch Nickelodeon. Man.
Speaker 3: At this point, I'm definitely getting to like, guys don't
Speaker 3: necessary necessarily hot know how to soften up to show love.
Speaker 3: So it's aggression either way, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It all feels the same robbing or salute. You're getting pressed.
Speaker 1: I have to learn that early, right, Dudes would be
Speaker 1: looking at me and I'm like, what did you looking
Speaker 1: at it? Nigga? I love your music, nigga.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, well thank you man too. Maybe I deserved Nigga.
Speaker 3: That's some good ship nigga.
Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe a small brother, something like just a little.
Speaker 3: So it took me a while just to get used
Speaker 3: to that and to be more welcoming. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Somebody looking.
Speaker 1: Like this, what the brother? How you doing that?
Speaker 5: I definitely took time. I'm really from Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: My daughters. My daughters grew up in New York. They
Speaker 1: came up in Harlem and so my my oldest went
Speaker 1: to p p A.
Speaker 5: S Oh yeah, yeah, very school.
Speaker 1: She went to Harlem School of the Yards. She was
Speaker 1: on the Metropolitan Opera. Wow, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So they was catching the train early. I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, so where are you going? We're on
Speaker 1: the train. You're barely a teenager.
Speaker 5: I mean it's just you know, how you get around.
Speaker 1: I've never been on the train in New York. Really
Speaker 1: how to do it? At least my son made me
Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, my son made me do it because
Speaker 1: he said that's what the ninja turtles were. He was
Speaker 1: he was younger, older now he put on blast. But
Speaker 1: you tho you got.
Speaker 5: I mean it.
Speaker 1: Is a little that's funny.
Speaker 2: We're probably not gonna see him. We go see a
Speaker 2: drunk nigga dressed up as a turtle.
Speaker 1: With green handy holds.
Speaker 5: Get different, No, it's definitely different.
Speaker 1: What is that about you as you are in New Yorker?
Speaker 3: What is it about the train that makes niggas get
Speaker 3: and I'm not saying niggas in terms of just men
Speaker 3: women and just get wild and beside themselves.
Speaker 1: What is that about?
Speaker 3: Well, first off, there's like six million people smacked into
Speaker 3: this very small location. So you're dealing with all types
Speaker 3: of cultures and you know, mental health issues, all being
Speaker 3: crammed onto a very small train. You know, it's it's
Speaker 3: very possible that's's gonna get rial, but we want.
Speaker 1: To do It's always there. That's the that's the meetings
Speaker 1: like I mean it, maybe that's the meeting spot. It's active.
Speaker 2: You've done whatever you've done in your job all day
Speaker 2: and maybe you had enough.
Speaker 1: You get on the enough.
Speaker 5: That's really what it is. You're tired and you're dealing
Speaker 5: with a lot of bullshit.
Speaker 1: Man, yeah, it got enough. I just don't I just
Speaker 1: don't want to be on the train and.
Speaker 6: That crack off and that crack off plenty of fights
Speaker 6: because I'm not I'm zero to a hundred, right, I'm
Speaker 6: going straight to a hundred because I want to get
Speaker 6: off the train.
Speaker 5: Word, but you ain't going nowhere.
Speaker 1: You go into the next stop.
Speaker 3: I want to make this Listen. I'm the epitome of
Speaker 3: it's gonna be you or it's gonna be me.
Speaker 1: You heard you. I'm getting off this train. I'm gonna try.
Speaker 1: You just had like a limb. I possess a certain
Speaker 1: certain kind of skills. HiT's me. But I'm getting off.
Speaker 3: I'm just prepared just in case. I know, I got
Speaker 3: some movies coming up. You know what I'm saying. They
Speaker 3: might need a you know what I'm saying, they might
Speaker 3: need an evil guy.
Speaker 1: So, so how is Nickelodeon for you? How is that experience?
Speaker 6: It was a real process, you know, because I think
Speaker 6: Nickelodeon uh signed me to a development deal at like
Speaker 6: thirteen years old. So I had a record deal and
Speaker 6: they were developing a TV show around me. And at
Speaker 6: the same time, I was doing the show on Nick
Speaker 6: Junior called The Backyard Agains, which is like a huge
Speaker 6: show international, right, So there was all these big meetings.
Speaker 6: It kind of felt like the corporate swoop up, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying, And it was it was a
Speaker 6: really interesting thing to finally, you know, be in a
Speaker 6: position where you know, I knew that I was gonna
Speaker 6: actually be on TV in multiple different shows and and
Speaker 6: you know, they they kind of fostered my career from
Speaker 6: a very early age at that time because of the
Speaker 6: movie August Rush. I also got a three picture movie
Speaker 6: deal with a Warner Brothers that was at thirteen, and
Speaker 6: so like there was like this big moment with like
Speaker 6: corporate structures kind of saying like we believe in your talent,
Speaker 6: we know that there's something there and we're gonna build
Speaker 6: something around you.
Speaker 5: The writers strike happened.
Speaker 6: I had three years where I couldn't do anything, no movies,
Speaker 6: no TV shows.
Speaker 5: Strikers, Yeah, the Strikers for three years.
Speaker 6: So from you know, I want to say thirteen to fifteen,
Speaker 6: there was just kind of a bit of a lull
Speaker 6: and they found a show, and it was done by
Speaker 6: this executive producer, Dan Schneider, who did like all the
Speaker 6: big shows at that time, Keenan and Kel, car Lee,
Speaker 6: you know, just just huge shows. So I was really
Speaker 6: looking forward to to being on one of his, you
Speaker 6: know shows, because Keenan and Kel for me as a
Speaker 6: black kid watching you know kids kind of look like me,
Speaker 6: you know, kind of be goofy and fun was just
Speaker 6: so tight. And you know Dan really opened, you know,
Speaker 6: open his doors creatively, and you know let me kind
Speaker 6: of be on one of his biggest shows, Victoria, which
Speaker 6: I got to work with a young Ariana Grande and
Speaker 6: and just kind of be around like the who's who
Speaker 6: of like who's going to be next in our young
Speaker 6: Hollywood at that time, And moving my family from New
Speaker 6: York to LA to pursue that you know three at
Speaker 6: sixteen sixteen, Yeah, whole family, I mean, and you know,
Speaker 6: the network knew that I was based in New York
Speaker 6: and we're willing to put something in my you know
Speaker 6: contract to make sure that I can move my family
Speaker 6: with me because I needed that. You know, can't move
Speaker 6: to Hollywood at sixteen in that situation and not be corrupt.
Speaker 5: So I was like I needed my family, like, we
Speaker 5: need we need some home cooked meals and some strong discipline.
Speaker 3: Years old, some money in my Yeah, I was about
Speaker 3: to go bro like, and I had other friends who
Speaker 3: were roommates, you know, no parents around, Like they would
Speaker 3: definitely have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Out of you get these you have this three picture deal? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got this TV show? What do you buy? Did
Speaker 1: your mama let you touch some of the cat?
Speaker 5: I'll be completely honest with you. I was a very
Speaker 5: humble kid.
Speaker 6: The way that I looked at it was, you know,
Speaker 6: my parents had sacrificed so much of their personal business.
Speaker 6: They were running a very successful club date band at
Speaker 6: that time, which meant they were doing like huge weddings
Speaker 6: for billionaires and you know, opening up for Shaka Khan
Speaker 6: and all these really cool people. And they really put
Speaker 6: a lot of their stuff on pause to be able to,
Speaker 6: you know, travel, Like I did a tour in Los
Speaker 6: Angeles and San Francisco with one of the Broadway plays
Speaker 6: and was doing TV shows and always had to fly.
Speaker 6: So my mom really put their business on hold.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: I decided I was like, you know, anything that came
Speaker 6: in from this time period, yo, that's that's for y'all.
Speaker 6: Let me just take a fifteen percent, you know, mark
Speaker 6: and just put that away for college or if I
Speaker 6: want to start a business at eighteen or nineteen. And honestly,
Speaker 6: I want to just kind of live below my means,
Speaker 6: you know, because I just saw a lot of my
Speaker 6: other friends, you know, they got they little chat. It
Speaker 6: was just like it kind of got real, you know,
Speaker 6: mom and his bands and this and here's that, and
Speaker 6: I was just like I I saw them also fall
Speaker 6: off after a certain point. You know, watch that Ben's depreciate. Like,
Speaker 6: I saw a lot of things happen that didn't really
Speaker 6: make sense to me. And I knew just also from
Speaker 6: doing some research watching documentaries like how I needed to
Speaker 6: move in order to kind of get out of this unscathed.
Speaker 3: Wowright, bro, Wow what I'm.
Speaker 2: Clack for that, because that's amazing for you to have
Speaker 2: that type of foresight to see, like, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: not the first one that this has happened for nah.
Speaker 5: And this is yeah, see what turn that route exactly?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like I'll end up you know,
Speaker 1: in you know, in a situation.
Speaker 6: Absolutely me, absolutely so you know at that time, you know,
Speaker 6: my mom was trying to start a couple different businesses.
Speaker 6: You know, I was trying to see how we could
Speaker 6: maybe you know, pivot some of the money into some
Speaker 6: of the things you're trying to build as well as
Speaker 6: even for me, you know, saving money for my artist
Speaker 6: career as well. And you know, I was really getting
Speaker 6: into production a lot, because I mean they were putting
Speaker 6: me when I was in New York. I was working
Speaker 6: like Bob Power and Oak and Toby Gadd and like
Speaker 6: all these really great songwriters and producers, and I really
Speaker 6: fell in love with the process of making music.
Speaker 5: So a lot of my money went towards like gear
Speaker 5: and stuff like that.
Speaker 6: Just to kind of like have something that kind of vibe,
Speaker 6: you know, it's something I could kind of pay me
Speaker 6: back later on hopefully what you did.
Speaker 5: And yeah, that's really really.
Speaker 2: Dope, man, because, like I said, people just don't they
Speaker 2: don't understand.
Speaker 1: That this is truly a marathon.
Speaker 5: It is a marriage, and I'm yeah, I have to
Speaker 5: be able to survive it.
Speaker 6: I've seen so much, man, And I mean I've also
Speaker 6: seen some amazing you know, like victory stories, you know,
Speaker 6: like seeing people really get across the finish line and
Speaker 6: really be able to just like do what they gotta do.
Speaker 6: I mean, me and Keiky we started at the same time.
Speaker 6: We were some of the only like young black faces
Speaker 6: you know, doing our things. So I mean to be
Speaker 6: able to see her key Palmer, I'm sorry, Palmer me,
Speaker 6: but like we were in similar situations where we were
Speaker 6: really doing a lot of what we were doing to
Speaker 6: also support the families that were supporting us as well.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, that's great. That's great, bro. It's just like
Speaker 1: I'm a perfect example of what not to do. I'm perfect.
Speaker 1: I am God? So what did you do?
Speaker 5: What's going on?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 3: The first thing I did is you know with strip club? Okay,
Speaker 3: first thing I did. I'm mad at you.
Speaker 1: No, I became a member.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, So I would I would, you know, help
Speaker 3: the girls pick out out fits before the club even open.
Speaker 1: He thought he was down a bill Okay, he thought
Speaker 1: he was down and in this place because I had
Speaker 1: this money.
Speaker 5: I was like, god right, I was sought after exactly.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't got me a car, are all right?
Speaker 8: Then?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: No, Lexus three hundred platinum Edition, the Black on Black
Speaker 3: Bubba Lia and I bought me a gun.
Speaker 5: That makes sense. The strip club a lot. I feel you, brother,
Speaker 5: I ain't. That's literally where my boy just got robbed.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 4: Strip clubs are dangerous.
Speaker 1: I say, no, you got cash? Yeah, you know, just
Speaker 1: let them know. Don't let the church, don't let the
Speaker 1: church kid food come on. How long is the cash last?
Speaker 1: I don't know, not that long.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: The good thing, the good thing I had done is
Speaker 3: with my money when I when I was on tour
Speaker 3: Virginia Wine and Leah, I paid off all my bills.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: So that was the first thing. My mama made me
Speaker 3: pay off all my bills. But then when I got
Speaker 3: my you know, record deal advance and my publishing deal advance.
Speaker 1: That's that. That's when it went left.
Speaker 3: That's what Frank the tank came out the tank, I
Speaker 3: love it, and started getting acted. I'm talking about crab
Speaker 3: legs as big as your back right forstall case you couldn't.
Speaker 5: Tell you real you get no record out, huh, with
Speaker 5: no record.
Speaker 1: No record? No I was, I was. I was a
Speaker 1: thousand air background.
Speaker 3: Was a thousand air back with a record deal with
Speaker 3: a record listen I had, I had what I had,
Speaker 3: like like about two fifty on me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, in ninety eight. He realized that I
Speaker 1: didn't know how want everything.
Speaker 3: Exactly, so I like, you know that, And then moving
Speaker 3: to l A, you know, with I think at that
Speaker 3: point I kind of blew the money. And yeah, I
Speaker 3: had a thousand dollars when I first moved to LA
Speaker 3: and the same car. I still had the car. I
Speaker 3: didn't bring the gun. That's a good thing, and no,
Speaker 3: and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna figure
Speaker 3: this out. And I came with my NPC and my
Speaker 3: XP eighty keyboard, my rolling and I figured it out.
Speaker 3: Listen said, so when you say investing in that gear, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's one thing I did do. I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: buy this NPC, I'm gonna buy this Mackie mixer. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna buy these and I'm just gonna I'm gonna work
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna figure this out.
Speaker 1: Don't know where these songs are gonna go.
Speaker 3: I gonna come out exactly, but I'm gonna know how
Speaker 3: to do this so that when the time comes, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be able to feed somebody m hopefully yourself, hopefully myself.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: When you so you mentioned when you first did the
Speaker 2: Nickelodeon deal, they also gave you a record deal.
Speaker 1: What label?
Speaker 5: I was at a Columbia, Columbia record So.
Speaker 1: They had a partnership with Nickelodeon.
Speaker 6: They had a really good collaboration with them, and they
Speaker 6: had signed a bunch of people from like Glee and stuff.
Speaker 6: So I mean there was like an element of like
Speaker 6: kind of trying to figure out how to convert a
Speaker 6: lot of the actors from some of their big, you
Speaker 6: know shows into stars and music. And it was an
Speaker 6: interesting journey, you know, because it was their first run
Speaker 6: with this partnership Colombia Nickelodeon, So I was definitely kind
Speaker 6: of like it.
Speaker 5: It was very experimental, but you.
Speaker 1: Know, we it was.
Speaker 6: It was really cool because I was able to do
Speaker 6: a couple of songs that actually ended up on the
Speaker 6: show that I wrote when I was like fourteen. It
Speaker 6: just taught me the process of writing a song and
Speaker 6: like that, that that feeling of people singing something back
Speaker 6: that I helped write and co produce was like special. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I was performing those songs on the show and we
Speaker 6: were doing like big.
Speaker 1: Big shows too. Well.
Speaker 5: That's the thing.
Speaker 6: As as a cast, we didn't all want to tour
Speaker 6: because we were around the time when the song started becoming,
Speaker 6: you know, really successful.
Speaker 5: We were like seventeen, you know, eighteen listening to Frank
Speaker 5: Ocean this and that, and it's like stuff for kids.
Speaker 6: And it started to feel like, Okay, if we start
Speaker 6: touring now, we're setting ourselves up to be doing this
Speaker 6: for the next two and a half years and specifically
Speaker 6: in this one market. And you know, Arianna and I
Speaker 6: and and even a couple of the other actors on
Speaker 6: the show all knew that. Afterwards, we were definitely trying
Speaker 6: to like take a stab at this music stuff in
Speaker 6: a very real way, and we knew brand was a
Speaker 6: big part of it. Mind you, we missed out on
Speaker 6: millions of dollars, but we also made millions of dollars
Speaker 6: after the fact by having a brand that was true
Speaker 6: to us.
Speaker 1: So was there a Disney and Nickelodeon beef? Not at all.
Speaker 6: We all actually used to kick it on Disney niggas. Nah,
Speaker 6: everybody was like kicking it, yo. Everybody was just vibing.
Speaker 6: I mean, we were all young, and this was essentially
Speaker 6: like our high school. You know, all of us were
Speaker 6: homeschooled at that point because we had full time jobs,
Speaker 6: to the point where our schedules were insane, so.
Speaker 1: It was really yeah, understood each other.
Speaker 6: Yeah, those were the kids who got us, who kind
Speaker 6: of understood what we were going through with that too.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 3: You know, so now is your movie TV, all of
Speaker 3: this is landed? What is your progression musically that gets
Speaker 3: you into this? You know, seventeen eighteen year old? I
Speaker 3: mean for you, it's like grown space where you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't want to chase the Disney sound or the
Speaker 3: Disney thing Nickelodeon apologies, right, we're chasing that. I need
Speaker 3: to you know, as you're listening to Frank Ocean, these
Speaker 3: guys like I need some of that. What is that
Speaker 3: progression like? And are you still with Columbia?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm still with Columbia at that point, and they
Speaker 6: set me up with a life change in session.
Speaker 5: They sat me down with Babyface and growing up, like
Speaker 5: listening to Babyface was everything, Like my dad's a huge.
Speaker 6: Fan all so like, and I was a huge fan,
Speaker 6: so like. To even just just to be in a
Speaker 6: studio with him was like such a blessing. And he
Speaker 6: really took a liking to, you know, what I was
Speaker 6: doing as an artist, and you know, really opened his doors.
Speaker 6: He did something that I don't think I've ever seen
Speaker 6: any other big producer do for me, which was open
Speaker 6: his doors and say you can use this twenty four
Speaker 6: hours a day, just like keep making great music and
Speaker 6: you're good to go, and gave me a room that
Speaker 6: I could just kind of vibe out with. There was
Speaker 6: younger producers there that I ended up working with a lot.
Speaker 6: There's a producer Chris Riddick times that I started a
Speaker 6: production duo with called the Rascals, And I mean I
Speaker 6: went from going there like once every couple of months
Speaker 6: to like being there every day and being around the
Speaker 6: elements of R and B that really made me even
Speaker 6: want to make music, like seeing like a line of
Speaker 6: Richie Walking or Stevie Wonder do a Christmas record. You know,
Speaker 6: just like just to be around legends and giants, you know,
Speaker 6: to always feel humbled and know that like there's there's
Speaker 6: there's more to it. I didn't go to the school
Speaker 6: for music, so that was the closest thing to like class.
Speaker 3: You know, your face is like a it's like a godfather,
Speaker 3: yeah to so many people, absolutely, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And he has he has the space and the infrastructure
Speaker 3: and the information you know what I mean, And he
Speaker 3: does not mind paying it forward by studios. Like after
Speaker 3: I played for him, he just called me out of
Speaker 3: the blue one day and had me play for him
Speaker 3: on a Christmas thing. But this Christmas thing he was
Speaker 3: doing for these people, rich people in the hills that
Speaker 3: they do every year, and he performs and he's like,
Speaker 3: I want you to sing a couple of songs as well. Fine,
Speaker 3: and so you know, by the time, I kind of
Speaker 3: over exaggerate anytime I talk about Babyface. So by the
Speaker 3: time the message got back to my parents, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: Babyface called me. He said, most amazing singer's ever heard
Speaker 3: his fife. He said, there's no way he could do
Speaker 3: this Christmas thing without me. I played the very beethoven Ish.
Speaker 3: He thinks my fingers are magic. But you know, he's
Speaker 3: he's that. He's that guy that you would you would
Speaker 3: love and approval from that you would love, uh, some
Speaker 3: encouragement from, and that's gonna fuel you to just do whatever.
Speaker 5: Absolutely man.
Speaker 6: I mean knowing that the underdogs came from under his
Speaker 6: wing as well. And it was like some of the
Speaker 6: first guys that I actually worked with when I started
Speaker 6: doing R and B. Just kind of let me know that,
Speaker 6: like I had a lot to learn from the source
Speaker 6: of like where they even learned a lot of what
Speaker 6: they do from and and and he really genuinely taught
Speaker 6: me a lot. And at that time, you know, I
Speaker 6: was really close with Arianna. I'm still close with her
Speaker 6: to this day. But she was working on her first
Speaker 6: album and I had thrown like a little party at
Speaker 6: the studio, you know, just real chill and played her
Speaker 6: some records. And next thing we knew, we were doing
Speaker 6: like half of her first album. And I pulled baby
Speaker 6: Face in because I knew she was kind of doing
Speaker 6: like a nineties theme, and it just.
Speaker 5: Really worked out.
Speaker 6: It just became like a really cool Eventually we did
Speaker 6: like four or five songs on that on that first album,
Speaker 6: and it went really well.
Speaker 1: She yes was facing and.
Speaker 6: Tony Dixon, Yeah, and I mean Tony Honestly, I spent
Speaker 6: a lot of time working with Tony Dixon. Man. I
Speaker 6: really got to give him his flowers because he's like
Speaker 6: just an amazing producer and a good human. And he
Speaker 6: would always talk about the cautionary tales of being in
Speaker 6: R and B and all of the things that he's seen,
Speaker 6: and I mean just kind of learning from from the
Speaker 6: experiences that he's been around, kind of helped me steer
Speaker 6: away from a lot of things that he was in
Speaker 6: the trenches with us.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's funny you said that because he's he gave
Speaker 2: you his example of what he's been around. Because Tony
Speaker 2: is a guy who kind of stands back. He watched
Speaker 2: everything going on exactly. So like Tony just wasn't the
Speaker 2: guy who was jumping in it, exactly. He's just that's
Speaker 2: not that, it's not his thing.
Speaker 1: He'd be like, get out of here. Don't get out
Speaker 1: of here, guys, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like and but he's been able to move in his
Speaker 2: business without being caught up. Absolutely, I mean in whatever situations,
Speaker 2: because there are a lot of them.
Speaker 5: He should do this really cool thing.
Speaker 6: I mean I only participated once or twice, but he
Speaker 6: have like like once, I want to say, every couple
Speaker 6: of months he would he would do like a suit
Speaker 6: day when we would coming to the studio, everybody being
Speaker 6: suits making music.
Speaker 5: I thought that was so cool.
Speaker 1: Also a photographer. Now that's where the money has taken you.
Speaker 1: It was tight. I love also putting the young fellas
Speaker 1: onto something.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, you used to go to these events. You
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. I'm definitely a big street with you.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying. So it was fun to,
Speaker 5: you know, switch it up.
Speaker 3: Because he didn't invite us to suit that he didn't
Speaker 3: invite us to suit that he know I got them suits.
Speaker 1: Come on, you know I got that gassed haveing Steve Harvey,
Speaker 1: the original Steve Harvey. Though Steve Harvey suits were awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, man, what absolutely no, I definitely agree.
Speaker 1: You know what's funny.
Speaker 5: You know there's this old picture. It was my color purple.
Speaker 6: They did the big premiere for the Broadway play, and
Speaker 6: I told my mom I wanted color.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, color color purple.
Speaker 1: But but.
Speaker 5: I wanted I wanted to be in a zoop suit man.
Speaker 5: But the closest thing I could find was Steve Harvey.
Speaker 5: So there's a picture of me.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 5: Please pull it up to the Steve Harvey purple pinstripe
Speaker 5: suit like it was bad.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something.
Speaker 4: It was a bad look for me.
Speaker 3: But the Steve Harveys was a great's day was listen,
Speaker 3: Eve fly.
Speaker 1: No trash back then, it was it was not I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna let you do this to Steve. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna let you do this right now. Steve ben had
Speaker 1: it super fly ball head.
Speaker 5: Steve is fly, but I mean hair.
Speaker 1: Steve was.
Speaker 3: He had his own line, Jay, he had his own
Speaker 3: his own line. That's how holded he was. I walked
Speaker 3: into a warehouse nothing but Steve suits I picked out,
Speaker 3: like six up.
Speaker 1: This is personal? Really is personal?
Speaker 5: What's up?
Speaker 2: Because those were the part of the closet that I
Speaker 2: told him he had to burn When I started what
Speaker 2: the sick Steve Harvey suss In there said, let him go.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to tell him that. See this thing.
Speaker 3: I held onto the suits a little too long. It's okay,
Speaker 3: it's okay. You know, appreciation for they had sentimental value.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 3: Steve told me personally, right these suits are for you
Speaker 3: and you could have fit a twenty inch rim into
Speaker 3: one of them pants legs.
Speaker 1: Man, that's how we was waiting.
Speaker 3: It's a lot going on. I don't like the disappointment
Speaker 3: on some of your faces, like this is this is
Speaker 3: how we was trapping back then.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, man, Like you could definitely have an A K
Speaker 1: forty seven.
Speaker 5: The definitely trapping.
Speaker 3: They said you just started listing credits, man, that they
Speaker 3: first got out of control, you know, just starting with
Speaker 3: the Ariana Grande. You know, of course, you know, a
Speaker 3: good friend of ours, Harmony Samuels, sharing company with.
Speaker 5: He's a great He's a legend.
Speaker 1: I would I would like.
Speaker 3: For you too, if you don't mind, Yeah, just start
Speaker 3: listing some of some of the credits if you don't work.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, started with Arianna and then I think,
Speaker 6: you know, we really went through a nice R and
Speaker 6: B moment. So then I think from there it was
Speaker 6: like l m A you know, Chris Brown, uh, and
Speaker 6: then you know, Drake has been a really big one tie.
Speaker 5: Dollars something.
Speaker 1: Because we have multiple records.
Speaker 6: Drake has definitely been been an amazing addition. Yeah, gold Roses,
Speaker 6: I did pipe down in the Bible, yeah, man, certified, Yeah, certified, certified.
Speaker 1: What is your What did y'all record that? Y'all like
Speaker 1: the Bahamas or so?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So that whole story was interesting, man, because all right,
Speaker 6: so love All, which is one of the records I
Speaker 6: didn't name, was one of the first songs that that
Speaker 6: we did forgot so many, but that was one of
Speaker 6: the joints we did.
Speaker 1: A while ago.
Speaker 5: It was like it was like the first song, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, let me start you back at the beginning, how
Speaker 1: do you get to drink? Boy?
Speaker 5: I got a shout out to my boy Wonder.
Speaker 6: Boy Wonder is definitely easily one of my you know,
Speaker 6: biggest mentors right now, especially because you know, I'm working
Speaker 6: with him very closely on a lot of big projects.
Speaker 5: And boy Wondered just kind of he just took a
Speaker 5: liking to christ and I. He's so nice.
Speaker 1: He's one of the nicest humans on the planet.
Speaker 5: And he just you know, started working with us.
Speaker 6: And you know, he was working on a management situation
Speaker 6: around that time called Island Management, and you know, shout
Speaker 6: out to Simon and and e K. They came in
Speaker 6: and offered us a deal to start working with them,
Speaker 6: and they're very connected to Drake and his whole team.
Speaker 6: And you know, that was after we did Gold Roses
Speaker 6: kind of naturally just vibing with some of their producers, yea,
Speaker 6: And over time, you know, things were being sent around
Speaker 6: to Drake's team and Love All was one of the
Speaker 6: first songs that came out of it from the Certified
Speaker 6: lover Boy album and the whole album it leaked at first,
Speaker 6: so that was a part of the first batch of records.
Speaker 6: But he loved that song so much and it had
Speaker 6: gotten so much love online from the league, he decided
Speaker 6: to keep it and you know, flew me out to
Speaker 6: Bahamas to to kind of start cooking up some more
Speaker 6: stuff and you know, to really kind of be around
Speaker 6: him and kind of absorb his energy and like who
Speaker 6: he is as a human being.
Speaker 1: Made it really.
Speaker 6: Possible to then go back to La and like start
Speaker 6: really crafting records that kind of matched his vibe, you know,
Speaker 6: And it was such a blessing. But a lot of
Speaker 6: it all happened in La but Bahamas was like more
Speaker 6: so research me than anything else we.
Speaker 5: Made to music.
Speaker 1: And had you ever been before, No, it's my first time.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: I don't really travel for fun a lot. I'm a
Speaker 6: bit of a workaholic and if I am traveling, it's
Speaker 6: usually for work. So but that was one of those
Speaker 6: situations where I was working, but we were also vibing,
Speaker 6: you know. And it was like during COVID too, so
Speaker 6: I was a little afraid of like doing too much,
Speaker 6: but we're definitely just chilling by the beach, kicking it.
Speaker 1: So that's cool.
Speaker 3: Then you started to mention another you know, another certified homie,
Speaker 3: super gifted tid dollar you'd use but you're about to say,
Speaker 3: tie dollar.
Speaker 5: Sign to dollar Sign. Yeah, Ty Dollar.
Speaker 6: I mean he's like my monster, my brother, you know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying. He's really held it down. And I
Speaker 6: started playing some of my music. Yeah, yeah, I started
Speaker 6: playing some of my music early on when he was
Speaker 6: working on his album featuring Ti dollar Sign. I was
Speaker 6: doing some stuff on that and he just really took
Speaker 6: a liking to the music and always spoke so much
Speaker 6: power into what I was doing as an artist. And
Speaker 6: that was a really cool moment for me, because a
Speaker 6: lot of artists, when you know, they know that you're
Speaker 6: a producer songwriter, kind of liked it keep you in
Speaker 6: that place.
Speaker 5: But he always like, let me know, he.
Speaker 1: Thought he thought cold.
Speaker 5: So I was really cool, and and I was.
Speaker 6: I was about to put my project out independently, you know,
Speaker 6: and you know, I met with Sean Barron to see
Speaker 6: if he knew any like A and RS and maybe
Speaker 6: I could hire for a little bit just to kind
Speaker 6: of get some things together and like put a good
Speaker 6: marketing team around what I was doing independently. And he
Speaker 6: was like, listen, we got a venture we're doing right now.
Speaker 6: And you know, at that time, Baby Keem and Kendrick
Speaker 6: were like just dropping their stuff together, and I was like.
Speaker 5: We've never seen that in R and P.
Speaker 1: That's a good dude.
Speaker 6: What if that kind of happened where you kind of
Speaker 6: cross pollinating, you know, both worlds and and kind of
Speaker 6: like creating a platform and a bit of a co
Speaker 6: sign essentially in the space. And I mean it's it's
Speaker 6: you know, proving to be pretty successful, man. And I'm
Speaker 6: excited to keep putting these records out because it definitely
Speaker 6: means a lot to me. Being on stage is such
Speaker 6: a big part of what I do, coming from Broadway,
Speaker 6: so like, I'm definitely excited to get out the studio.
Speaker 1: A bit and get back on the stage. I want
Speaker 1: to see.
Speaker 5: I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Man. Would you rather have.
Speaker 2: If you had to choose, which you don't because you're
Speaker 2: talented in all these spaces, which one would mean the
Speaker 2: most to you? A number one record, a number one movie,
Speaker 2: or I number one TV show?
Speaker 3: I think a number one record, yeah, because yeah, I've
Speaker 3: been on a number one TV show before. I think
Speaker 3: a number one record would be special because of just
Speaker 3: how much work I've put into it, you know, like
Speaker 3: I was signed my first deal at thirteen, you know,
Speaker 3: twenty nine now, you know, it's been a long time
Speaker 3: of like cooking up records and stopping and starting and
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out and surviving through production and
Speaker 3: songwriting and finally getting my shot right now just really
Speaker 3: means a lot to me. And knowing that I have
Speaker 3: fans who have literally grown up with me, you know,
Speaker 3: I want to do that for them just as much
Speaker 3: as I want to do it for me, because know
Speaker 3: they've been rooting from the sidelines and wondering, like what's
Speaker 3: going on, you know, Like, so I'm really hoping for that.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna work hard for it.
Speaker 1: I love. Yeah. No, that number one record is just
Speaker 1: because there's so many more things that are connected to that.
Speaker 5: It's just different and it's your story.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a writer, you know, it's the direct
Speaker 1: connection to you.
Speaker 5: It's yeah, it's not.
Speaker 3: A character, it's not a it's not it's not an
Speaker 3: ensemble cast. It's exactly any of that.
Speaker 1: It's a direct line to you, my soul, Yeah, in
Speaker 1: your true artistry and individuality. Exactly.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's to the music that's it's really the only
Speaker 2: way you can do that absolutely and have that is
Speaker 2: to you know, go to the artist route with it.
Speaker 2: I just always wonder, you know, when you know we
Speaker 2: have triple threats on the show, you know, Twisted.
Speaker 6: I definitely want to keep acting, and I mean this
Speaker 6: is the year where I'm like definitely getting back to it.
Speaker 6: I've just been like I wanted to approaching on this
Speaker 6: next run with more tools, like learning Meisner, like like
Speaker 6: just like really studying and like coming back with the
Speaker 6: ability to.
Speaker 5: Cry on command and and just do different things.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: Meisner is a technique in acting. It's like a cousin
Speaker 6: to method acting. And I think it's important now for
Speaker 6: me to really step into a space that's that's all encompassing.
Speaker 6: You know, like when you see Denzel play a character,
Speaker 6: you forget it's Denzel, you know, Robert Downie Junior specifically,
Speaker 6: you forget it's Roberts sometimes, you know. And and I
Speaker 6: want that ability to kind of dive into characters.
Speaker 1: And that's my deeper level.
Speaker 6: I don't know exactly what they study, but I just
Speaker 6: know that it's just a style of acting that that
Speaker 6: I'm just because.
Speaker 1: The method acting is literally you coming as that character.
Speaker 6: You're coming in and it's it is Now, it's not that,
Speaker 6: but it's just it's just the art of being, you know.
Speaker 6: It's it's it's it's the art of being because I
Speaker 6: think there's so much thinking that goes into acting, and
Speaker 6: and I feel like just kind of listening more is
Speaker 6: like a big thing that I've always struggle within acting
Speaker 6: because I'm so line focused and worried about my faces
Speaker 6: and what my body language is doing and things like that.
Speaker 6: So I think now it's just like being, you know,
Speaker 6: and genuinely being in that scene and and just not
Speaker 6: being afraid to fuck up and just have more fun.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: But Misner is pretty pretty next level. So I'm still learning,
Speaker 6: you know, still getting it locked in. But that's one
Speaker 6: of the things I've been trying to just kind of
Speaker 6: like put in my pocket so I can come through
Speaker 6: it and go crazy.
Speaker 1: And she studied, crush, you studied. I have not study.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of book away.
Speaker 7: You have.
Speaker 1: The book is going to kill me. You know.
Speaker 3: I have a lot of great methods that I used
Speaker 3: to approach my acting. You know, he's amazing. You've seen Okay,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I mean.
Speaker 1: You talk about TV one BT you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: v H one and the didn't tell.
Speaker 3: You know, but I mean, I just finished the movie
Speaker 3: which was a really really cool movie and it was
Speaker 3: it was the cool It was directed by Robin Gibbons,
Speaker 3: which was really cool because she's an act guitar absolutely
Speaker 3: like that's that's despion, Like her choices are infinite, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And so we have been in
Speaker 3: a play together uh many moons back, but this was
Speaker 3: different because she was actually you know, it's it's hard
Speaker 3: to know if a great actor can can lead actors
Speaker 3: into great acting, you know what I mean, because every
Speaker 3: great player ain't a great coach, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: They don't necessarily have the gift of distributing information and
Speaker 3: not correctly anyway, you know what I'm saying. And that
Speaker 3: journey was crazy because it's like, as I'm dancing and
Speaker 3: into different choices and here comes this other really cool
Speaker 3: perspective like, oh, I didn't think about that, but you
Speaker 3: have a director who understands like it can also show
Speaker 3: you an example and I was getting there and can
Speaker 3: show you like what do you think about here?
Speaker 1: What do you think about being right here, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's nice. Let's do that exactly. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Now, let's play like now you haven't pun that was
Speaker 5: a vacation. Yeah, we having a good time.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at you, You're looking at my piano. It's
Speaker 3: just unlimited, man, It's unlimited how you can make music now,
Speaker 3: you know. And since it's so unlimited, we understand you
Speaker 3: got some understanding of where a lot of this music has.
Speaker 1: Comfortable come from.
Speaker 8: And absolutely you got artists that you love and you
Speaker 8: grew up on and protect producers and I let you know, Leon,
Speaker 8: we just want to know your.
Speaker 7: Top five, your top five? What we want to know
Speaker 7: top five? Leon's top five R and B autists? Oh wow,
Speaker 7: R and B songs?
Speaker 4: Who are they? Who are the top five?
Speaker 5: Leon? Come on, brother, that was beautiful.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I think you drew it a little bit.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 6: All right, so my top that's pretty easy. That's that's
Speaker 6: that's super easy. Stevie Wonder if it's.
Speaker 5: Magic just the artist, just the artist, like yeah, like
Speaker 5: this man here we go.
Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, cool, So Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Prince
Speaker 6: Michael Jackson, Damn, and then I'm gonna I'm gonna try
Speaker 6: to find a new school D'Angelo.
Speaker 5: Yes, that's my top five straight. I'm just basing it
Speaker 5: off of what I listened to you.
Speaker 3: You ain't no way you not making good music, Ain't
Speaker 3: no way. Now with that top five, you have no choice.
Speaker 3: Absolutely ship, impeccable taste, impeccable taste.
Speaker 1: Parlor of the gods.
Speaker 5: Man, appreciate at you.
Speaker 1: What about your song? What about your song?
Speaker 5: See the songs. I'm gonna do some deep cuts.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 6: If it's Magic by Stevie Wonder. It's just one of
Speaker 6: those records that I just started going back to. It's
Speaker 6: very simple, it's just him and a harp, just vibe now.
Speaker 6: But it's just so dope, like how he wrote that,
Speaker 6: and we have so many songs about about love, and
Speaker 6: this was about life.
Speaker 5: I thought that was really tight, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Marvin Gaye, what's going on? Once again?
Speaker 6: A record that like talked about life like things that
Speaker 6: were going on at his time. I thought that was
Speaker 6: really special. Sam Cook, Change is Gonna Come? I felt
Speaker 6: like that once again was like talking about something like
Speaker 6: really like taking us there, you know, a studied man.
Speaker 6: And then this is a is off the cuff one.
Speaker 6: But Prince he has this album called Dirty Mind of course,
Speaker 6: and like record head Head.
Speaker 5: Is one of my favorite Prince records because it's just nasty.
Speaker 1: You could tell Prince was up there just viving.
Speaker 6: I feel like he was just at the crib going
Speaker 6: crazy or wherever he was, but at the crib just five,
Speaker 6: and I thought that was really dope. And then.
Speaker 5: Michael Jackson human nature.
Speaker 3: Listen, let me tell you something that human nature timeless.
Speaker 3: It's you can't get away from it.
Speaker 1: You really can't.
Speaker 3: Human nature has been in the top five for countless
Speaker 3: people who've come on the army, you know.
Speaker 6: Quincy says, you know, we're always chasing chills, you know.
Speaker 6: And that's one of those records.
Speaker 5: Man, Like the first time you hear it, like bro,
Speaker 5: like yeah, always get.
Speaker 1: G man. Okay, all right, you've dazzled with me, young man.
Speaker 1: Is that great feeling games planning?
Speaker 5: I think it might be he was.
Speaker 1: I put nothing past Greg feeling games.
Speaker 5: Greg is actually a really good friend of Babyfaces. How
Speaker 5: we know, Bro. He would come out of studio and
Speaker 5: just like tell the stories, like guy, the stories Man.
Speaker 1: Were the coolest guy. You know. He thought that Juvenile
Speaker 1: was saying Greg filling games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm no, lie, I'm I'm eighteen years old and
Speaker 2: I'm in the studio with Babyface in Greg feeling Games.
Speaker 2: And he thought that they were saying his name or
Speaker 2: back then up and I said, no, sir, no, sir,
Speaker 2: he yo, I don't I don't know, sir, juvenile.
Speaker 1: But.
Speaker 5: There's no way. Yeah, my boy was a wilent.
Speaker 1: Y'all would never listen to that record the same again next, Yeah, Greg,
Speaker 1: you gotta stop this year. Now, that's crazy. This is
Speaker 1: out of control, I promise the guys saying Greg feeling gangs.
Speaker 1: Yeah on the record. I just never forgot that. That's
Speaker 1: buddy we gotta have on the podcast when he comes.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, there's a rumor going on that Jason started, that's great.
Speaker 1: Okay, alright, le okay, you think you you think you
Speaker 1: got all your ship together? What's up? We going? We're
Speaker 1: gonna do an R and B voltron. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that is, but let's go.
Speaker 5: Okay. Oh like if we could get a bit like
Speaker 5: a band together.
Speaker 1: That's no, it's not a band, that's all right. I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, okay, young man, young.
Speaker 4: Man, vault it was transformers, No, it's it was five lions.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, five machine lions got red, black, blue, yellow, and.
Speaker 1: I said black, black, blue, yellow, red, and white. It
Speaker 1: was a white green green and they all were on
Speaker 1: their own lion machines and everybody. And there were five
Speaker 1: people that operated the lions, and they would go and
Speaker 1: fight evil all throughout the universe. And then when they
Speaker 1: came against the big monster, they would form a big
Speaker 1: line the big person that looked like a human being.
Speaker 1: All the lions. Two lines with the arms, got another
Speaker 1: two lines was it was defeat, and the middle line
Speaker 1: was the body. It's not that those I know in
Speaker 1: the middle lines. The middle line was the body and
Speaker 1: they had a sword drop.
Speaker 3: Anyway, word the Vultron is you putting your superhero r
Speaker 3: and b artists together where you're getting the vocal from,
Speaker 3: the performance style, the styling, and the passion.
Speaker 1: Here we go. Who are you getting the vocal from
Speaker 1: for your Vultron transformer?
Speaker 6: The vocal from, I would say Jasmine Sullivan right now, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, yep, yep, all right, I'll see what you're doing.
Speaker 3: Performance style, performance style, on that stage. I would have
Speaker 3: to say Prince for sure, absolutely, because he takes from everybody.
Speaker 3: FREDI stare James Brown and he's also playing all those instruments. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if I could get that with the James Jasmine Sullivan voice.
Speaker 1: What else? All right? What else? How you feel styling?
Speaker 5: Styling?
Speaker 1: Steve drip? Huh, disrespect the drip, Steve? I love you.
Speaker 6: That's interesting. His R and B has went through some
Speaker 6: waves styling wise. I'm trying to think, who's really been consistent,
Speaker 6: you know what I say, somebody who's been consistent through
Speaker 6: multiple generations. Beyonce, let's go. I really feel like I'm
Speaker 6: trying to just build build a real strong move here,
Speaker 6: let's go.
Speaker 1: I like, I like, let's go, let's go. Okay, alright, alright,
Speaker 1: watch yourself now, all right? Okay.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The passion of the artists, part of the artists.
Speaker 5: Passion mm hmm hm hmm. Yeah, that's James Brown.
Speaker 1: Passion.
Speaker 5: So passion because half the time we didn't even know what.
Speaker 1: He was talking about, bro, and we didn't care.
Speaker 5: We give a fun because of the passion we really
Speaker 5: cared about, Like how he delivered it.
Speaker 1: He said chicken change.
Speaker 5: Ticket DAGs what, no idea what it means? But like
Speaker 5: yo and felt gun, don't do no damn squealing. No
Speaker 5: you heard him, you heard it, but you heard him.
Speaker 1: Rappers heard him.
Speaker 5: You rappers heard him, And.
Speaker 1: No damn squealing. I ain't saying no names. I ain't
Speaker 1: saying no names. I ain't saying no names. I ain't
Speaker 1: saying no name. Where you was?
Speaker 5: Who was weird?
Speaker 3: What you did?
Speaker 1: Don't say? She ain't sharing.
Speaker 5: No, you're saying, of course that's beautiful. Man.
Speaker 1: So this segment, what's it's called? I ain't saying, can
Speaker 1: you tell us a story? Funny? Fun up? Okay, funny
Speaker 1: and fucked up? All right? The only rule is Leon Thomas.
Speaker 2: I cannot say no names. And I just said both
Speaker 2: of your names. You got two first names? Or is
Speaker 2: that two last names?
Speaker 1: What you got? Because you could be Thomas Leon too, Thomas.
Speaker 3: You could be Thomas Leon Leon, Thomas Leon came through here.
Speaker 3: Man shook this the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Man, she got crazy. You know your first and last,
Speaker 1: your last and first either one? Just don't say theirs?
Speaker 5: Okay, got you?
Speaker 1: So this is all that? Are you ready?
Speaker 5: I'm ready yet?
Speaker 1: This is Leon Thomas Leon Leon the Victorious man himself,
Speaker 1: the Lion King himself show up as the color of purple.
Speaker 3: Go on.
Speaker 1: Now I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 6: Okay, So this was my first ever production session with
Speaker 6: a really huge artist. And they get to the studio
Speaker 6: and we're working hard on the record. We finally get
Speaker 6: to the point where they're about to record and while
Speaker 6: they're singing, they'll stop and all I hear is they
Speaker 6: start doing push ups in between every take.
Speaker 1: Dang.
Speaker 6: I was like, man, this is this is something else,
Speaker 6: but I'm talking about like intense push ups.
Speaker 5: Man. Throughout the entire session, we had to cut like
Speaker 5: breathing out of some of some of the lines.
Speaker 6: But yeah, just really just like going going, And I
Speaker 6: was like wow, And it was my first time ever, like,
Speaker 6: you know, producing you know, a big artist, and it
Speaker 6: was definitely different for me, to be honest with you, Yeah,
Speaker 6: but it was kind of cool because the show.
Speaker 5: Is I mean that finished journey. Yeah it matters you
Speaker 5: feel me. Might take some hints.
Speaker 1: I like that, of course you do.
Speaker 6: Like that.
Speaker 3: Take some hits show because I was I was intense
Speaker 3: and listen because after about you know, you have to
Speaker 3: get to twenty five thirty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, whatever you got to do after that. And
Speaker 1: but the crazy thing is it actually opens up the
Speaker 1: vocal course too. Though.
Speaker 2: It opens up when you're doing your push ups and
Speaker 2: ship it opens up your voice, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because you're pushing, You're pushing through.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's exercise. I was just
Speaker 1: doing it to make sure. I just want to be
Speaker 1: this nigga here, just want to You can take your
Speaker 1: shirt that's from a Testavie, right, got you listening? Everybody
Speaker 1: not taking their shirt off at the show man?
Speaker 5: You know why not?
Speaker 3: We're gonna sell something on man, tell you on that
Speaker 3: to tell you that melody is a titty you you go,
Speaker 3: you don't enjoy one of them.
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying. Come on, I love it.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 1: Mockers for real.
Speaker 5: Leon something my brother.
Speaker 3: Thank you man, Thank you bro, Thank you for for
Speaker 3: represent man. You know what I'm saying. Thank you for
Speaker 3: just like you know, everything about you is solid.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: And you could have taken your music in a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of different directions, but you stayed true to this
Speaker 2: R and B thing. Man, You know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because you had You've had the opportunity to go to
Speaker 2: other genres of music because of what you what you
Speaker 2: worked for and were afforded by being in that space. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: you could have clearly been like, yeah, yeah, I'm about
Speaker 2: to go do and took this immense and amazing talent
Speaker 2: that you had and took it somewhere else, but you
Speaker 2: stayed true to R and B.
Speaker 1: Bro Man, and we commend you for that, man.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's a genre that I love, I grew
Speaker 6: up in, you know, and it's a it's really the
Speaker 6: art of storytelling, you know. So I genuinely want to
Speaker 6: continue to do R and B and find new ways
Speaker 6: to add some of the elements that I've taken from
Speaker 6: some of the other genres I've worked in and mix
Speaker 6: them in.
Speaker 5: But yeah, R and B is always going to be
Speaker 5: be home base for me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that.
Speaker 3: And thank you Army Money. Army Money podcast is always
Speaker 3: home for you, that love.
Speaker 5: Man, Thank you so much for sharing your platform you
Speaker 5: need from us.
Speaker 1: We show up. I love it, we show up and.
Speaker 5: We cheer for real man, Thank for it.
Speaker 1: Thanks likewise, Yeah, it's it's about it.
Speaker 3: It's about continuing to to to establish maintain that bridge
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like, it's important that we
Speaker 3: are all connected.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's important that.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, that the things we've learned
Speaker 3: and whatever fuel we have to feed into you to
Speaker 3: keep this thing going at a level that we do
Speaker 3: that it is important for us to do that.
Speaker 5: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 6: I mean, obviously, I've been a fan of y'all for
Speaker 6: a long time, you know, so, I mean just even
Speaker 6: being here and kicking it. I mean, we've met a
Speaker 6: bunch of you know, a bunch of times in the past,
Speaker 6: but you know, this really means a lot to me.
Speaker 1: So thank you, man. I appreciate bro.
Speaker 5: I like, it's love.
Speaker 1: That's a young man right there. Your grandmam say, do
Speaker 1: you know that nice young man? You should be more
Speaker 1: like him. That's who you should be like with your
Speaker 1: raggedy ass ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5: Name is.
Speaker 3: And this is the R and B Money podcast, the
Speaker 3: authority on all things R and B. His name is
Speaker 3: Leon Thomas. His name is Leon Thomas. His name is
Speaker 3: Leon Thomas.
Speaker 1: And he's a superstar. Thank you, Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 3: R and B Money.
Speaker 1: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to subscribe to and Radar Show and you
Speaker 2: can connect with us on social media at Jay Valentine
Speaker 2: and at the Real Tank.
Speaker 1: For the extended episode, subscribe to YouTube dot com or
Speaker 1: slash r and b Money