WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Bilal 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:10.600 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.200 Welcome to another episode of Quest Love Supreme. I'm your 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:19.239 host Questlove with Me. Today is the Team Supreme family, 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.840 featuring our newly minted Gotta operatee Sugar Steve. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:27.560 I'm the New York. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:30.000 How was the Steve? 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.800 And you know it was really a joke, Like I mean, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:34.720 it was supposed to get a joke. 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.080 Me just campaigned to try to get on the float, 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.159 and then you got me on the float, and then 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.240 it was a matter of like sort of figuring out 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.400 what the hell was going on that day it was 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.680 pouring rain, and it just ended up, long story short, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.519 just ended up being so much more enjoyable and so 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.200 much more heartwarming than I thought my heart could get. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.360 You know, like, I'm so jaded at this point. And 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.120 you know, being from New York, you never think you 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.760 can see uh, you're supposed to be Jaden new right, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:04.600 you know. 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.280 Just yeah, and I'm there. 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:08.320 I was, and I was just just waving at kids 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.760 and just taking it all in. Seeing the city from 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.639 that perspective, it was just it was kind of magic. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.160 Yeah. I have to say that if you're a generation 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:22.000 person raised on like faris Muler's day off. I highly 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.400 recommend getting in a parade by hook or crook. 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.080 Yeah, so now I'm just looking around for people with parades, 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:29.920 you know, So if you know. 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:35.280 You're available for parades, good birthday boy, Bill Houses, sir, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:36.839 how are you great? 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.120 I'm so jada. I don't even go to the parade anymore. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.880 How about that? That's like next level jadedness that anyway. 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.360 You once got me on a parade float. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:46.760 Honestly, my favorite part about the parade every year is 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.520 seeing you guys, because you always are the float that's 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.640 right next to the same street float, and so there's 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.600 always like something, there's always something happening. But then one 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:56.240 year you were on ours, which is like a weird 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.320 kids Midtie meeting of all the worlds, which is super cool. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.200 My favorite part of being on your float was that 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:05.280 was Carol Spinny's last time being on a float. Carol Spinny, 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.120 who played Big Bird Spending at the time, was like 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.360 at least eighty eighty eight, right, so still playing Big Bird, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.920 and they were concerned that him being inside that hot 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.240 ass costume would be too much for him to handle 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:22.680 at eighty eight years old. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.600 And so he was like, nah, I'll do it. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.160 I'll do it, and then maybe like two hours in 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.400 he was sort of like, Okay, I need some mayor. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:31.800 And I know that one of the main things that 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.560 you guys are vigilant about is not letting kids see 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.560 a lifeless muppet, because the second that the characters out 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.760 of him, it just looks dead like. And so the 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.920 way that they had to cover this entire bird, this 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.560 eight foot bird, so that he could unzip himself and 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.080 get some breath was hilarious because they didn't do it 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.800 all the way. So there's like people on his on 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.320 the west side of the float that could clearly see 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.160 a slumped over, dead big bird light yep, and. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.480 There was like one or two kids like but that 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:12.120 was the most. 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:16.160 Hilarious thing ever dream crushed. How was your vacation, your 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:17.040 your Thanksgiving? 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:19.640 Oh it was good, Yo. I just gotta say, I'm 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.360 so proud of y'all. Y'all talk about people being off 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.679 floats like this is a regular person thing, like on 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.880 your be on my float, on your float, like it's 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.679 a moment chill, but like, uh, and to really celebrate 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.480 all of y'all, that's really dope. But plans was great. 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.960 It was DC, it was great. Now I'm in Cardagena, Colombia. 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.560 You're in Columbia right now, Jesus. I was like, man, 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.360 I'm not even going to talk about her house because 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.200 I was like, that's the room I've never seen before. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.720 Said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, y'all got to get into this. 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.800 I'm like, Colombia is a beautiful place. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:58.120 So, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to say, our 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.760 guest needs no introduction. Yes, but I also write, I 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.440 also realize that whenever you have such a unique talent, 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:14.960 oftentimes that particular being might be the favorite of your 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.839 favorite singer. This might be one of the rare situations 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:25.560 in which our guest today might be the favorite singer 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.520 of your favorite singer's favorite singer, Like. 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.960 Your favorite singer's mama likes this guy too. 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:40.520 Yes, you know, I'm working on less hyperbole, but having 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:46.080 been a witness to our guest today some twenty five 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.600 twenty six years ago in my living room, like I've 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.480 never had someone literally like you remember the moment and 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.920 back to the future when Martin McFly starts doing a 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.080 modern guitar solo and nineteen fifties and you know, the 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:07.479 entire band stops playing Johnny be Good and they're like, oh, 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.040 I've never had a musician literally stopped me in my tracks. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.240 I remember we were playing in my living room and 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.560 I think Anthony Tidd was next to me, and I 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.320 was just like, yo, who. The only time I ever 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:28.120 said like yo, who the fuck is that? Is usually 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.760 like some girl that blows my mind. I've never had 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.080 an artist just make me like what the hell is this? 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.440 And more than that, how can I be down? And 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:45.760 I'd stay consistent in saying that I absolutely squander no 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:51.400 time to collaborate or work with this artist simply because 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.560 like it gives me the best seat in the house 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:58.800 sometimes just to really display a level of performance that 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.839 you rarely, rarely truly get to see. Where we are 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.920 and this sort of well rehearsed, well curated, instagram filtered 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:13.159 perfected kind of creative cycle that we're in in which 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.080 you know, you're not allowed to see any of the 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.520 flaws or the bendit notes or whatever, and we're here 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.920 to celebrate, of course, is his latest album of Just 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.240 Brightness really is the entire history, Ladies and Gentlemen, one 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.880 of my favorite. It's almost a disservice to call him 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.600 a performance artist, because I can't say a singer. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:34.680 I can't say an artist. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:43.680 I can't even say people are beings like exotic answer, Maybe. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:49.120 May we all truly channel in our creative energy. I 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.440 have not even channeled in half the creative energy that 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:53.960 our guest today has displayed. 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:56.240 Please welcome belowd. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.200 Thank you very much. 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.960 Can we say our favorite sick? Our favorite? 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.159 Yes? I felt bad making this personal introduction like it 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.360 was just about me. Yes, but this far beyond giving 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.520 you your flowers. My voice has been shot for the 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.560 last like nine days. I assume that, yes, when you 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:25.240 sing it's zero to one thousand on the autobond. As 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.520 far as dynamics and wherever you think your voice should 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.040 go at that particular moment, do you have a ritual 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:33.680 to take care of your voice? Like how do you 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.800 prevent what you're hearing right now? 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.360 Me talking like I don't usually get vorse like that, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:44.640 but I've got different concoctions that I made to stop it, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.120 like different teas like when I'm on the road, I 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.360 got to tea it I make every time because it's 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.560 like I can be good all the way up until 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.440 like maybe if I'm on the road for like a month. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.160 The last eat I start. It's not that I'm getting 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.760 a horse, but I get like that. Uh. I can't 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.840 sing soft no more, and I like to sing soft, 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.440 so it's like I can't do nothing soft. I'm just 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:19.920 straight power. But I boil Ginger, Limon and Kanye and 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:25.480 Pepper got it, got it yeah, and the honey, Yeah 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.320 for sure. When I'm mad horse, I put garlic in 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:34.320 there and it works. Sometimes it works every time, like 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:36.760 brand new voice. 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:38.200 Damn. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.120 That's like if I'm horse and I don't have no voice. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.280 But if I'm like good, I still got my voice. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.400 Just the Kanye, Pepper, Ginger, Lemon things, got it ended 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.040 up just making perfect. But if I sound like you, 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.719 I put like a big ass piece of garlic in there, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.240 but a little bit of garlic in Man. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.760 Everyone tells me garlic a reguano, But I'm so anti 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.880 bad breath, i'd really suffer. 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.760 No. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.319 No, But it's it's like a tea, so it's not 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.840 like you're eating it, so it's like you had something, 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:16.800 some superor something. 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.120 It's always the next day, man, I wake up with 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:19.720 the dragon. 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:25.560 So I'll never eat gard like in my life. 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:34.200 I'm that serious. So like the next day, the dragon just. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.760 Completely I completely understand. I mean I grew up with 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:43.560 the name Beloud when they had the movie A House 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:48.880 Pardon and Right, and Martin was Stank breath Aloud, So 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.760 like umble fifth grade to eighth grade, I was Bank 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.440 breath Aloud and I was the singer. So like every 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:00.600 time I sang, the whole auditorium was like, oh, I'll 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.560 just smell it. It was just a movie. It like 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:05.600 ruined my life till high school. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.360 All right. So for the benefit of audience members that 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.640 don't know anything about your history, I'm gonna ask you 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:19.000 some basic questions. Could you please tell us the glorious 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.319 city what you first came to this earth? 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.840 Philadelphia? Of course, yeah, German can't. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:29.520 I can't do the siren noise? 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.400 Thank you. What was your first musical memory? 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:43.000 First musical memory is probably in my pops house acting 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:49.360 out Thriller, but shortly after that, like that's just me 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.959 acting out music by myself. The Sterly used to always 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.080 kind of scare me a little bit, but the video 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:05.080 video scared and Ship, but also the album itself who 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.960 all of that kind of Ship used to scare me. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.640 My pops used to play it. It kind of scooped 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:12.000 me out. 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.120 I was wondering when the fact did that song have 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:20.960 on kids, Like at a young age when my dad 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.640 used to always play Curtis Mayfield's If There's Hell below, 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.200 We're all going to go Oh Yeah, which is essentially 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.320 just a bunch of psychedelic echoes and yelling like I 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.040 We're in hell. But to this day it scares me, 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.480 you know what I mean? Like I always wondered if 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.720 Thriller truly scared people to that level where they just 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.640 don't want to because also Michael Jackson makes it appear 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.560 like fun, like hey, zombies are fun, But you know. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.360 No, that's scared. That's all scared me. Before the video 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.440 came up. I was just that whole talking part in 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.480 the intro. Scared needed to scare me and my brother 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.480 ski the hell out of it. It's like my first musical, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:12.480 like early music memory. But then I've been singing shortly 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.040 after that, like on a church choir, Like I've been 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.640 singing on church choir since a really long like little kid, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.280 like maybe four years old. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.520 So when did they hear it in you? When did 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.679 everybody else go wait minute? What's that your family? 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.320 Every I think I got like the lead vocal. Like 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.640 the day I joined the choir, I went to a 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.080 church where everybody in my family had to be on fire. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.800 Like the whole church was my family. Anyway, Like what 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.360 church is this? There was a second Baptist church in 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:52.079 Franklin and it was just a little church. And I 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.600 would say on the other side of Brower Street toward 0:12:54.640 --> 0:13:00.600 there because you go keep going down. But literally, everybody 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:05.080 in the church is my family. My grandmam had thirteen kids, 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.840 so I got a big ass family. And everybody in 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.600 the church around that time, like the eighties, you know, 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:12.400 everybody went to. 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:14.640 Church around there had to go to church. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.400 Yeah, like everybody had to go church or passed through there. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.320 Like the only person that didn't go to the church 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:28.200 was my uncle, and he was always like he was 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.320 like the black Panther. He was Nation of Islam. I 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.280 mean really, nobody messed with him on that. But yeah, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.680 I was on a Sunbeam choir since four years old. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.199 So if everybody could sing, then the family wasn't easily 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.280 impressed by your voice. Then everybody was like. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.720 No, everybody couldn't say okay. It was just on the choir. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:50.960 You had to be on the choir even if you suck. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:53.840 Just so that adults would know where you were twenty 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.439 four to seven or Okay, So you mentioned Thriller, which, incidentally, 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.400 by the way, as of this recording, today is the 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:08.600 forty first anniversary of Thriller debuting on MTV, and also 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.200 today's the forty second anniversary of Thriller the album. Well 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.840 technically some say November thirtieth, some state December first, but yeah, 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:25.080 we're Thriller's almost fifty, a full grown adult with some kids. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:25.840 Wow. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.840 But the thing that you mentioned now my church experience, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:37.120 especially in nineteen eighty three, that was the period where 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:42.240 kind of two years after Ronald Reagan's kind of very 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:48.640 conservative America agenda was really settling in. You know, a 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:54.560 lot of the hedonistic seventies adults were air quote atoning 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.760 for their sins by becoming bored against Christians. So I 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.160 once went to a church in which, like he had 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.600 copies of Thriller in nineteen ninety nine and saying this 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.160 demonic music you're letting your kids listen to, and. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.440 Da da da da da. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.240 So you grew up in a church heavy household and 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.800 which secular music was allowed. 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.400 Well, my pops was Muslim, so when I went to 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.480 visit my pops, I was just listening to his but 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.760 mom around my mom, she listened to everything. Even though 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.040 we was going to church. I wouldn't say my mom 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.360 was like even to this day, even though she's like Christian, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:39.520 she was, she was never like super heavy in the 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:45.000 church like that. She got into the church heavy because 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.240 you know, I started to sing on everybody until at 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.960 a certain point I was just in the church sing 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.040 in Philly. So my mom was like she became Joe 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:56.920 Jackson after that. 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:04.200 So you have one siblings I got, You're for Philadelphia, 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:05.920 so I know some are on the books and off 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:06.440 the books. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:11.000 So yeah, like from my mother, there's my older brother 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:15.840 and my my younger sister, my cops. Uh. I got 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.800 a few brothers and sisters all right. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.400 But in general, and I guess you could even count 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.640 your cousins as whatever. I had cousins that were just 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.160 as close to me and siblings. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.960 Was it pretty clear cut that. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.520 You had a gift that was beyond what the other 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.400 kids of your ilk or age had mm hmm. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.200 Yeah. From early on, like as soon as I started 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.800 to get in and on acchore by by the time 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:56.040 I was and I was directed acquire yes. 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.640 Me, Like, how did you discover you had this voice 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.640 where you just always crying with someone notating a note 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.399 to you, He's like. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:14.200 I don't know, I just it became apparent in church 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.159 that I could, like, I guess I could really sing 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.639 or like do leaves and stuff when I was good. 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:26.800 But before, man, I don't know, I was just always 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.200 the weird one. My little sister is a musician, and 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:36.000 my brother he's he does he's just I would say gifted, 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.240 But I don't know. I was always called like the 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:45.520 weird cousin. I guess he's out. I always had that. 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.200 It's the thing often, especially in the seventies and eighties, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:56.720 at least my observation and my personal experience. Usually you know, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:04.200 if you display a gift, you're automatically ostracized, and depending 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:13.600 on your kind of your capacity to withstand attention, it's 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:15.680 sort of up in the air of how it develops. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.399 Like for me, I would pretty much say, like, up 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.080 until the age of seven, I was a well rounded 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.320 artistic person. Like first of all, like before they taught 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.040 me to play drums, I had to learn to tap 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.560 dance and like all this other stuff. But when it 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.640 came to singing, yeah, I could tap my ass off, 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:36.040 like I. 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:36.360 Was like. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:45.760 Us too, yeah killing oh tap dancing really okay? 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.320 Right, But the thing was is that I could sing. 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:58.159 But then just because I got relentlessly ostracized for artistic ability, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.879 I tried to squash it or as we say today, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.480 like you dim your light. So the one thing that 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.679 I sacrificed on the altar was my singing voice, which 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.040 I believe that I could have been. Probably singing would 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.960 have been my north star, but I was like, okay, 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.919 I got drums well, but I think by eight I 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:28.200 psychologically killed my voice. I'm I can hold a tune. 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.199 But being the oddball cousin of the black Sheep, how 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.840 did you handle it? Or were you just like breakout 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.600 in song? And I don't give a fuck I can sing. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:44.359 It was my cousins who everybody kind of didd like 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.560 my brothers. The thing was to be able to dance 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.120 real good, and I couldn't dance. I sucked. I could 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.919 never like really dance well. So my brothers were the 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.920 super stars because they can fucking dance all the dance 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.800 is the running Man the wip like they would go 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.120 to the parties and kill it, and I would always 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.359 like clam up. So it's like the only time people 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.800 even knew I could do anything was when we was 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.000 in church, like that's where I was shying. But when 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.240 we would go out and we was just kids, like 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.840 it never it never really stood out. I could never 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.360 really get it out or if somebody would be like, hey, 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.760 you sing for me, I couldn't like do it like 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:31.159 if it's just us like as kids, you know, even 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.680 when like a song would come on, I had aunts 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.760 that would just be like, oh, hey, boy, dance you 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.760 know what I mean? Should I would even clam up 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.480 in front of them, you know, But my brothers would 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.880 push me aside and do all the moves they could sing, 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.480 do all the Michael Jackson shit. I was always shy. 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.800 I don't know I could. It could only come out 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:57.119 when it was like a real audience, and then I 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:00.360 was just like I felt like I was pretending or 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:02.760 like escaping even though I was doing it. 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:04.720 What is your go to song that you would sing? 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.800 If adults made you, hey, sing something bloud? 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.720 Like it would be like some Michael Jackson shit. 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:17.159 You know from four to seven or eight? Who were 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:18.639 your north stars? 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:23.840 Four to seven? I think I'm By then, I was 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:26.760 just listening to pop music shit, Like I was just 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.679 watching him TV and whatever was on TV. You know, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.959 I didn't really have like a I would say, Michael 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:38.679 Jackson and French you know, okay, or like whatever. I 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:43.040 wasn't really I wouldn't say I was like so into 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.359 music until like it really didn't hit me until I 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.600 would say, like around seven. But by then I was 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:55.840 like deep into church, like singing on white Like by 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.080 the time I got to ten years old, I think 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.800 that's fifth grade, right, yeah. Yeah. By the time I 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.359 went to fifth grade, I had started to go to 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:11.040 a Catholic school, and so I was just that was it. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.840 I went to Saint Maleky's right over there by break 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.639 Brighthole Baptist Church, and I had this lady come into 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.359 my like mother Brown and Mother Brown. 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:27.040 She was the one that was like this motherfucker can say, like, 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:32.600 you know, do. 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:33.680 You remember would you preach them? 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:38.560 Oh my god, come on, please obey your parents. Now. 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:40.919 I don't know. I was just trying to work it 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.080 all up to the park where you get to the 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:49.440 bluesy part and the ogan gott to join in. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:55.520 If social media was out, then you would have been 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.640 like one of these kids. I would have been liking, 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:07.359 hell yeah, is there any documentation of you? Pretend like 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:09.520 on taple or yo? 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:12.040 Yeah. I was just at a concert the other day. 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.399 I played at the Kimbel Center with Lauren Evans, a 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:20.719 big band, and a lady came backstage was like, yo, 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:23.680 I got a video tape, but you I think you're 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:28.639 like nine years old, look oh younger singing that some 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.200 church you was like so just like you do now. 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.439 I was like, I need to fucking get that tape. 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.960 It's like it's so hilarious. Yeah. 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:46.399 So the way that I think I first heard of you, 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:50.919 there was a girl that I was seeing and she 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:56.360 might have graduated Kappa before your time, and maybe her 0:23:56.400 --> 0:24:00.480 younger sister went there. Whatever the case, was about the 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:02.919 point when I had your demo and I was playing 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:08.320 it in her car and never wanted to like people 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:11.119 love their opportunity to dunk on me, like if I 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.520 don't know something about music, and her dunk was like 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:19.040 I know that out And the next week she brought 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:23.800 in a cassette of you singing back when you were 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.480 like ten years old or whatever. And the thing was 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:29.920 that there wasn't a difference in I was like, there's 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:32.280 no way you're telling me this person's ten eleven years old, 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:36.800 Like he sounds like a fully formed range, like I 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:41.280 hear three to four octaves already. And she was like, yes, 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:43.800 he goes to my church. I wish I remembered her name, 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:51.280 but for you, like poor girl, I wish I remember 0:24:51.359 --> 0:24:51.680 her name. 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:56.480 Yeah, for you? Was there any other option? 0:24:56.600 --> 0:24:58.960 Did you have any other desire to do something in 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:01.280 life besides singing? 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:05.840 Yeah, I wanted to be an architect. I liked to 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:09.280 draw cars as low as a little kids, So I 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.320 wanted to be some type of life building. But it 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:18.119 was always on the creative side. But yeah, I wanted 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:19.760 to make cars. 0:25:20.400 --> 0:25:24.840