Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: Honey, we are.
Speaker 3: Take Valoti.
Speaker 1: We are the authorities on R and B ladies and Gentlemen's.
Speaker 1: My name is Tank, I'm Jay Valentine.
Speaker 3: This it's the R and B Money Podcast authority on
Speaker 3: all things R and B. Exquisite, exquisite. The level has
Speaker 3: just gone regal.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: There's R and B Royalty in the building and Royal
Speaker 1: Royalty in the building.
Speaker 3: One of the greatest songwriters of our generation ever walked
Speaker 3: this ever walk this planet. You guys, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 3: and mister John t oh.
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, really yeah, thank you. Yeah, he's here. We
Speaker 1: believe it.
Speaker 4: No ship.
Speaker 1: You are than brother, Thank you you. I wore my
Speaker 1: suit for you.
Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 1: Man, you were doing this when I was trying. I
Speaker 1: was trying.
Speaker 3: I was I saw you you know when when uh,
Speaker 3: I remember, I remember when one of your your first
Speaker 3: big checks. You got one of your first big checks.
Speaker 3: This is probably ninety eight maybe was it ninety eight? Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you you got the Jaguar, the jack Jaguar four door.
Speaker 3: Did everybody wants No, it was the Bens. No the
Speaker 3: Jaguar bubble Eye.
Speaker 1: No, Jazzy had the bubble Lie. I had the five fifty,
Speaker 1: the five fifty. Why did I think you had the No,
Speaker 1: I had the five fifty and I had dubs in
Speaker 1: the ninety ninety eight.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, I remember your car was way better than
Speaker 3: anything i'd ever Thank you. I get and I'm just watching.
Speaker 3: I was just like, yeah, thank you too. If you
Speaker 3: keep writing these songs, man, you too can be like John.
Speaker 1: I want to be like John. Now I'm washing legs,
Speaker 1: then be on the fries.
Speaker 5: It's like the nigga I was. I was just moping
Speaker 5: you had your own McDonald's.
Speaker 1: Absolutely early, yeah, early.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, we gotta go back there.
Speaker 3: We got to go back to the beginning, even even
Speaker 3: before the Sweet Ladies and all these things. Let's go
Speaker 3: back to the beginning.
Speaker 1: Where are you from, bro, I'm from Atlanta. You from
Speaker 1: from the southwest.
Speaker 5: Atlanta, from the Swats. I am from the Swats.
Speaker 1: Is that what it's called. They call it the Swats?
Speaker 1: The Swats? Swats?
Speaker 3: Absolutely well, let's let's go back to the Swats. Okay,
Speaker 3: let's do when somebody said, what up? What John Tey
Speaker 3: brought up? Ben boy boy got something special, something on them.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I started out in church. I think just
Speaker 1: probably like most.
Speaker 5: Of us did, singing, and you know, I was doing
Speaker 5: television stuff like commercials and singing on television.
Speaker 1: No, just like acting. Oh shit, okay, you kids incorporated, right,
Speaker 1: Kids Beat?
Speaker 5: I had Kids Beat and real News for kids on
Speaker 5: Turner Broadcasting on TBS, seeing inn and you know that's
Speaker 5: when Ted Turner was still the head of the company
Speaker 5: and I was thirteen. Yeah, so I did it from
Speaker 5: like thirteen to seventeen.
Speaker 1: How'd you get in that? It was? So I initially
Speaker 1: landed it on open audition.
Speaker 5: My mom just took me, like she saw it, and
Speaker 5: you know, I'd already had a couple of commercials under
Speaker 5: my belt and she took me, you know, to do that.
Speaker 5: And I got the audition and you know, and landed
Speaker 5: the gig. Yeah, and so I was on yeh Saturday
Speaker 5: mornings like so it started with like these little news
Speaker 5: blurbs and you know, like you Ryan Cameron always makes
Speaker 5: fun of me when he sees me. He's like, you know,
Speaker 5: this is John Jay Austin for Kids Be and so
Speaker 5: because that was like the sign off and then you
Speaker 5: were buying out yep.
Speaker 1: Right early and so from there.
Speaker 5: But I always had a passion for music, and I
Speaker 5: was interviewing all these people on the show, you know,
Speaker 5: sports people, entertainment people, and then I ended up being
Speaker 5: able to go on our Senior Hall and he asked me,
Speaker 5: you know what if I wanted to do anything else
Speaker 5: in addition to what I was doing. I said I
Speaker 5: wanted to sing, and so he had me sing with
Speaker 5: the band and then he kept me around for the
Speaker 5: whole show, like I come back from commercial, I'm singing
Speaker 5: with the band and he let me hang out.
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle was on that night, which is a you know,
Speaker 1: you are pouring champagne. Yeah, you know. Yeah, Man's.
Speaker 5: That he did this before us to not just the
Speaker 5: writing thing, but this as well, Like, yeah, I was
Speaker 5: interviewing people.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is kind of what we're doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did this, I was doing that. I was doing that.
Speaker 5: It was you know, like Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan's, all
Speaker 5: of these people.
Speaker 1: You interviewed all of them. Yes, people absolutely came through
Speaker 1: your show. Absolutely absolutely. We got to find the archives man. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So if you see my Instagram, every year on Michael
Speaker 5: Jackson's birthday, I post a picture of me and him
Speaker 5: and it's this, you know, I'm like thirteen.
Speaker 1: These I wore glasses back then, had a silk shirt
Speaker 1: on coming. He was doing the silk shirts then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that's crazy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and from and from there on our Senio Tease Williams,
Speaker 5: who was absolutely Tease Williams saw it and she called
Speaker 5: up to Turner and was like, you know who is
Speaker 5: like got ine And you know, went up to New
Speaker 5: York and met Kenny Ortisse who was at RCA Records
Speaker 5: that was back, and that he had just signed s WV.
Speaker 1: Not just signed, he signed.
Speaker 5: Him and they had done well, like so they had
Speaker 5: done great, and so he was looking to sign you know,
Speaker 5: someone else and so he you know, they flew me
Speaker 5: up and you know, Tease had made that introduction and
Speaker 5: I got my first record deal with RCA Records. I
Speaker 5: was thirteen, you were thirteen. That was before I was.
Speaker 5: That was and that preceded the writing. I was just
Speaker 5: you know, all about the singing. It was, you know,
Speaker 5: and New York back in those days, you know, to
Speaker 5: see it, you know, walk through the office. At the time,
Speaker 5: Rob Walker, who managed the Neptunes, was an assistant to
Speaker 5: this cat named Dino, who was another an R. Steve
Speaker 5: Stout was up there working for Loud under Steve Rifkins.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, just the all of these people back in
Speaker 1: those times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's incredible, bro, Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: So you signed first to RCA or you signed to
Speaker 1: which one?
Speaker 5: I signed the RCA Yeah, OK, yeah, because it was
Speaker 5: RCIVE at that time. No, it was just yeah, everything
Speaker 5: was separate back then. That was before for it kind
Speaker 5: of you know exactly exactly. So I signed and you
Speaker 5: know was recording. That was back when, you know, that's
Speaker 5: that's how I hooked up with you know, the like
Speaker 5: Joe and the Neptunes, like Kenny Kenny Ortiz had founded
Speaker 5: Neptunes earlier. This was back like you know, Chad had
Speaker 5: to leave the sessions because he was still in school,
Speaker 5: like he was going back to college and flying out,
Speaker 5: and you know that was back when.
Speaker 1: You know, so do they work on your first album?
Speaker 1: They worked on the first album.
Speaker 5: I still have like the demo of like a couple
Speaker 5: of the songs and with like with like Joe.
Speaker 1: Singing the demos but to Neptunes.
Speaker 5: Yeah that Pharrell had written for me at Dallas, Austin
Speaker 5: at Dark and they and they were here and this
Speaker 5: is back when I mean they had them staying in
Speaker 5: like this holiday inn that was like around it. It
Speaker 5: was like a kick door hotel. This is this, So
Speaker 5: this is early Neptune. That's how I'm giving you the
Speaker 5: picture of out early Neptunes.
Speaker 1: This is and you know, and then you know they
Speaker 1: go on there And how did that process go though?
Speaker 3: I mean, because it's like, you know, you as an
Speaker 3: artist at thirteen, like, yeah, you know, you probably have
Speaker 3: some expectations too. I'm getting ready to I'm getting ready
Speaker 3: to go there, you know, I'm ready to be him.
Speaker 3: I'm getting ready, man, I am.
Speaker 5: I'm thinking like I'm gonna be you know huge, I'm
Speaker 5: about to do this album.
Speaker 1: It's about to drop.
Speaker 5: Because at the same time, you know, a childhood friend
Speaker 5: that I had met around twelve usher, you know, was
Speaker 5: already out doing He had called me a macout. So
Speaker 5: it's like okay, and then he's you know, he's about
Speaker 5: to drop. Can you get with it? It's like, oh man,
Speaker 5: I'm getting you know, I'm next. I'm right behind my guy.
Speaker 5: And then I went through a voice change and then
Speaker 5: the administration that brought me in the acts new administration.
Speaker 1: Came in, like y'all know how y'all. Y'all know how
Speaker 1: that goes. Y'all know how I knew it?
Speaker 5: All right, kids, we got another kid we want to sign,
Speaker 5: and that kid was Tyres. That was so that's how,
Speaker 5: that's how we get.
Speaker 6: To Okay, let's get there. Let's get there, because now
Speaker 6: you are faced with the music business absolutely right, where like, hey,
Speaker 6: we got this new kid, and we want your song
Speaker 6: for this new kid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it wasn't my so sweet lady. Troy Taylor
Speaker 5: when he was with Charles Farah when they were the characters,
Speaker 5: they also worked on my album as well, and so
Speaker 5: and Carl Thomas was writing, and so you know, we
Speaker 5: had had a bunch of songs. So Troy is the
Speaker 5: one who really kind of pushed me into like, yo,
Speaker 5: you ever thought about writing? And I was like, you know,
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, he was like, you should try.
Speaker 5: I hadn't written any song yet, and really, you know,
Speaker 5: I kind of played around with it, but for yourself, no, no,
Speaker 5: like I hadn't you know, all of the songs I
Speaker 5: recorded other people.
Speaker 1: Wrote and the problem yeah right right, I mean didn't
Speaker 1: right for himself. Shit, you know that's where it starts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And so you know, Troy pushed me, and then
Speaker 5: we like landed a couple of things on Jason Weaver
Speaker 5: on seven O two, and so then I get, you
Speaker 5: get deal after I get out of my deal, you know,
Speaker 5: because that was now my way of just staying around
Speaker 5: the business, like you said, the music business, and I
Speaker 5: just wanted to be around it, you know, biding my
Speaker 5: time until I could maybe get another shot at being
Speaker 5: an artist. And so I'm writing and it's you know,
Speaker 5: it's I'm getting some placements here and there, and you know,
Speaker 5: then I get a publishing deal, you know, Valerie Patten
Speaker 5: signs me to Chrysalis. I think I'm like fifteen at
Speaker 5: the time, Like my mom had to sign the contract.
Speaker 1: Everything exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: So, uh but then fast forward, so I'm home and
Speaker 5: you know, I get a call from Troy and he's like,
Speaker 5: you know, listen, I got an opportunity for you, and
Speaker 5: if you're smart, you'll do it.
Speaker 1: And he was like, you know, if you're emotional, you
Speaker 1: won't do it.
Speaker 5: And I was like, okay, but you don't try setting
Speaker 5: up y'all.
Speaker 1: Don't try you know what I mean, Troy setting it up.
Speaker 5: And so he's like, uh, you know, he's like, you know,
Speaker 5: the you know, the record because we had the hook
Speaker 5: for Sweet Lady. He's like, you're a sweet Lady and
Speaker 5: I was like yeah yeah. He was like, you know,
Speaker 5: I need some verses for I need you to, you know,
Speaker 5: finish the verses and.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do it. They wanted for tyres.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I don't want to help that nigga.
Speaker 1: He took my spot.
Speaker 5: Yeah right, you know, but then after you go, after
Speaker 5: you get that out for about ten minutes, realize that,
Speaker 5: you know, he he in Tyreese's mind, this is my spot.
Speaker 5: Like I'm trying to I'm trying to be an artist.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to be successful, just like you had.
Speaker 1: Nothing to do.
Speaker 5: I don't know, you bro, Like yeah right, but you
Speaker 5: know I got a deal. I'm popping, you know what
Speaker 5: I mean, from the commercials to the deal. And so
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, I'm gonna write the verses. I
Speaker 5: wrote the verses. And that was back when you know,
Speaker 5: this is before text.
Speaker 1: You couldn't you know, send songs.
Speaker 5: Nothing, nothing over the phone, right, you couldn't record nothing
Speaker 5: on your phone. So, you know, Troy called me and
Speaker 5: like my answer machine, pick up and let it play
Speaker 5: and so I could hear it on the answer machine,
Speaker 5: and then I wrote the verses and I called back
Speaker 5: and left the melody of the verses on his answering
Speaker 5: machine with the lyrics like that's how we did songs
Speaker 5: over them, That's how we did songs over the.
Speaker 1: Phone back then. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 5: So Sweet Lady was written, you know, the verses, the
Speaker 5: hook was done, but it was done on an answer absolutely,
Speaker 5: and that's your first legitimate hit record, absolutely, absolutely. So
Speaker 5: before that, let's let rewind a little bit. You do
Speaker 5: your first publish, your fifteen What was that deal?
Speaker 1: Like? Do you remember that deal? Do you remember like
Speaker 1: the terms of that deal with the type of bridge
Speaker 1: you got absolute fifteen? I remember.
Speaker 5: So I gotten that deal based on my first commercial
Speaker 5: release was Mona Lisa's Can't be wasting my time going
Speaker 5: to the Wayne's Brother's soundtrack with the Lost Boys. So
Speaker 5: I signed my first publishing deal.
Speaker 1: Was it was for eighty K.
Speaker 6: Okay, fifteen eighty K, all right, how much you got
Speaker 6: it up front?
Speaker 1: Eighty I got on Lady K eighty K up front.
Speaker 1: I got small set of twenty five. Yeah I didn't.
Speaker 6: I made it though, I'm gonna have to sell some
Speaker 6: more dope.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you know I got that up front. It
Speaker 5: was three years, and you know, you have to meet
Speaker 5: your song delivery commitment to get the exactly you know
Speaker 5: what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it was.
Speaker 5: Four holy written songs, which if you write fifty percents,
Speaker 5: that's eight songs. People never people never do that math, right,
Speaker 5: because it's in It's twelve exactly, it's in the contract,
Speaker 5: holy written song.
Speaker 3: Like it's only five songs. I'm about to kill them, like,
Speaker 3: no you're not.
Speaker 1: No, you're not. You need ten.
Speaker 5: You need fifteen released released, not just.
Speaker 1: Release. See we're giving them label on a major label, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I went into suspension my first I did.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean the commitment, right, I didn't need the
Speaker 1: commit Yeah, you know she.
Speaker 5: Guy over here who was actually putting out on his
Speaker 5: own album too, and you.
Speaker 1: Gotta love this, you know, I love it now. It's amazing.
Speaker 5: But my best clause in the contract was I got
Speaker 5: the reversion clause. So everything came back to me in
Speaker 5: ten years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're only fifteen anyway, So it's ten years after,
Speaker 1: you know, because I read up with them a few times,
Speaker 1: you know, Valerie and I stayed in business for a
Speaker 1: while over there at Chrysalis, and but yeah, everything came
Speaker 1: back to me.
Speaker 5: I don't know, I guess about twenty eighteen. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: all of the yeah stuff stuff happens when you're not
Speaker 5: emotional exactly exactly. No, I learned that early. I had
Speaker 5: to relearn it, of course, over and over and over again.
Speaker 5: So sweet Lady drops, Sweet Lady drops.
Speaker 3: I'm newly hanging out with Tyres at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because RCA had signed a group called Elements of Life
Speaker 3: that was on the same production company I was signed to.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, What was my guy that
Speaker 3: was over there, Kevin.
Speaker 5: Oh gosh, gosh, Kevin, because that's who dropped me, Kevin,
Speaker 5: Kevin Evans, Kevin Kevin Evans, and Anthony oh gosh, who
Speaker 5: was right up under him. I can't remember Anthony Morgan.
Speaker 3: Kevin Kevin Evans when he signed EO Element's Life. Then
Speaker 3: he was like I went and sang and performed for him.
Speaker 3: Was like, we want you to next.
Speaker 1: Him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean not to fast forward. But then then
Speaker 3: when Kevin got pushed out, I was I got pushed
Speaker 3: out too. So anyway, you know, it slice two times.
Speaker 1: So this drops.
Speaker 3: It was a meeting Tyreees for the first time. I'm like,
Speaker 3: this dude is different. That's when you had the thing
Speaker 3: right here. And he was mad at because everybody thought
Speaker 3: he was Tyson Beckford.
Speaker 1: Yes he was.
Speaker 3: He was angry, like we were. We was walking the
Speaker 3: streets in New York and oh my god, Tyson man,
Speaker 3: no fucking Tyson.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's not a bad remind me to
Speaker 1: tell you. Let's go.
Speaker 5: We're at a New Year's party, uh for the you know,
Speaker 5: the the Christmas part at the Mayor of Atlanta throws.
Speaker 1: This was in during Cassimes.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: Era and a friend of my wife's, my wife had
Speaker 5: a bachelor party in Vegas and they went to go
Speaker 5: see Tyson Beckford, you know, when he was doing the Chippendale.
Speaker 1: She goes up.
Speaker 5: My wife's goes up to Tyres and it was like, also,
Speaker 5: good to see you. We we loved the show last week.
Speaker 5: You were amazing.
Speaker 1: And Tyres is like looking at her, like, you know,
Speaker 1: she was like in Vegas, we wed to show in
Speaker 1: Vegas and you know in this she goes off. He
Speaker 1: leans over to me. He's like, she thinks I'm Tyson
Speaker 1: Beckford after all, this was old Casinia. Yeah, not too
Speaker 1: long ago, twenty sixteen. Maybe after all these movies still
Speaker 1: haunting him, Tyson back is still haunting you. Just obabe.
Speaker 4: You not?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so so sweet lady drops it's a smash
Speaker 3: because I can tell by the way ty is walking.
Speaker 1: He's walking he has a smash He's talking smashy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what changes?
Speaker 3: I know everything changes, but what but what what can
Speaker 3: you pick out at that moment when it didn't get
Speaker 3: you out of suspensions.
Speaker 5: That by that time I had, Yes, I had had
Speaker 5: a couple of other songs come out, and yeah, so
Speaker 5: I was out of suspension.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I think by that time I hooked up with Noontime.
Speaker 5: You know, we were you know, still like getting our
Speaker 5: collaborations together.
Speaker 1: So it was like a we you know, it felt good.
Speaker 5: It was like a validation cause it's like, man, like
Speaker 5: now I'm turning on the radio all the time, and
Speaker 5: then you watch the song crack the top ten, you know,
Speaker 5: R and B and it's like, you know, I think
Speaker 5: it made it to like number eight and I'm seven
Speaker 5: number eight something.
Speaker 1: Like that, and it's like, wow, this is a real
Speaker 1: bona fide you know record, and.
Speaker 5: You know, I think from there it just it motivated
Speaker 5: me more to want to, you know, put more songs
Speaker 5: on the radio. Then it kind of became about you know,
Speaker 5: you go from I want to write, so I want
Speaker 5: to get placements, then so I want to get placements.
Speaker 1: To now I want to get singles. Yea.
Speaker 5: Now it's like, you know, it goes from I want
Speaker 5: to get singles to now I want to get first
Speaker 5: singles the second you know what I mean, like I
Speaker 5: want to be you know, and then from there it's
Speaker 5: like I want us to be the go to guys,
Speaker 5: Like now you come to us, Yeah, Because.
Speaker 1: It's like before you actually have a hit record.
Speaker 3: Even sometimes when you do have that first hit record
Speaker 3: one or two, you're a guy that people will listen
Speaker 3: and accept records for. But there becomes a point in
Speaker 3: time when it's like, okay, let's book the session. Yes, right,
Speaker 3: there's a process. That's a real process. If John Tay
Speaker 3: in with X, Y and Z.
Speaker 1: Because Johntay's record is going.
Speaker 3: To be he's going to deliver, it's going to deliver
Speaker 3: something exactly. And when did that change? When did that
Speaker 3: happen for you?
Speaker 1: Ah? Man?
Speaker 5: I think that happened, man, it was because it was
Speaker 5: post Sweet Lady. I think we started to get those opportunities.
Speaker 5: It was it was two records when be Cox and
Speaker 5: I did Get Gone for Ideal, Hm, I love thank you.
Speaker 3: That was, you know, I think Lee, yeah alone, pack
Speaker 3: your bags, Yes, get the hell on. Yeah, because I
Speaker 3: don't want you no, no, Yeah, that was the record
Speaker 3: was great.
Speaker 1: I was inspired by a real person. I bet it was.
Speaker 1: It absolutely was, absolutely was before you could block people.
Speaker 2: Yes, this was you know.
Speaker 1: She she also inspired I Miss You for Lee.
Speaker 5: But you know, back in the day when she used
Speaker 5: to try to bring that up, I would be quicker,
Speaker 5: you know, I inspired I miss you.
Speaker 1: I would also be like, you also inspired Get Gone.
Speaker 1: So there's that feel because I married Min I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna do it. Just just let's keep going.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So so it was Get Gone that because that record
Speaker 5: showed like these guys can do records on new artists
Speaker 5: and get a new artist happen, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: So that's one thing, you know, And then for me
Speaker 5: it was like the second time because we had ty
Speaker 5: rees and now we have Ideal.
Speaker 1: But then yeah, be Cox did Get Gone. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: guy one of the guys from ideal is his cousin
Speaker 1: or something? Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, who produced I don't want to, Donnie and
Speaker 5: Jazzy Fair producer.
Speaker 1: I don't want to.
Speaker 5: And then when I don't want to came then it
Speaker 5: was like, Okay, these guys are for real. They're doing
Speaker 5: real hits because you like, I don't want to win
Speaker 5: number two on the charts with no video, and you know,
Speaker 5: and we all from the era of like how important
Speaker 5: videos were and you had to have a video, you know,
Speaker 5: and you know, number two it was on the Next
Speaker 5: Friday soundtrack before it was on Romeo Must Die Socks.
Speaker 5: It was on two soundtracks. It was on Next Friday.
Speaker 5: First you was getting paid? Yeah, yeah, ship, what did
Speaker 5: you buy?
Speaker 1: Man? What's the first? What's the first? Crazy John Ta?
Speaker 1: It might have been that Bens. I mean it might
Speaker 1: have been that Ben. It was not on the streets, No,
Speaker 1: it was yeah, it was brand new. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that was it. Yeah, I have to pay the overage
Speaker 1: to be the first. No, no, no, man.
Speaker 5: I found a guy in Athens, Georgia who got one
Speaker 5: for me, and I drove up to Athens and and
Speaker 5: you know, I drove it back.
Speaker 1: I was killing that noontime parking lot. Same way you'll
Speaker 1: travel for a woman, you'll travel for a car. I
Speaker 1: flew to LA to pick up a car once you
Speaker 1: should and shipped it back. But I like, you know,
Speaker 1: I need to see it. Yeah, fly out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When your money get different.
Speaker 3: Even rich for a long time money and your money
Speaker 3: get different, you know you have particular taste.
Speaker 1: Ye, I need I need to Yeah, I need all
Speaker 1: new cars don't smell the sad. I wanted to see
Speaker 1: how because I had just gotten the Black card, and so.
Speaker 5: I wanted to heavy one, the heavy one, right, the
Speaker 5: one that made Now now a lot of cards are
Speaker 5: made out of that, but like the black was the first.
Speaker 1: One, and I just I was just like I wanted
Speaker 1: to see if I can do the whole thing. And
Speaker 1: I handed them and they swipe it, and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's cool that the whole car. That was a whole
Speaker 1: I need to know this. Oh, were you with a
Speaker 1: Black card? And for people that don't understand, he's talking
Speaker 1: about the American Express Vorian right, smell that Centurion.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's the unlimited you can you can go
Speaker 6: purchase a jet. Yeah, they gonna want that jet, like
Speaker 6: they want to jet. Yeah, well, but you go purchase one.
Speaker 1: By the time I got this, I was like twenty five.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, small, small set twenty five, small, twenty five.
Speaker 1: This is you know, we Belong Together is out. This
Speaker 1: is all of it everything. I mean he wrote we
Speaker 1: Belong Together at twenty four Yeah what yeah, around Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we were around that time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, at that time it was yeah know I
Speaker 7: was yeah know, he was in it. I was in
Speaker 7: it for the good and for the bad, for the
Speaker 7: good and for the bad.
Speaker 3: My question, as we go through these progressions with you know,
Speaker 3: so many records, what are you feeling as what is
Speaker 3: the artist John T. Austin feeling like, because there has
Speaker 3: to be moments all of this where you're like.
Speaker 1: These are my children could be this could be broke
Speaker 1: my career as an artists. Yeah, maybe I should.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. I said it a hundred times. I said it
Speaker 5: a hundred times. I you know, I'm conflicted about, you know,
Speaker 5: giving records away. You know, I'm conflicted about it.
Speaker 1: Was almost like.
Speaker 5: You ever see the movie Happy Gilmour, Yes, you know,
Speaker 5: how like he started doing really well at golf, but
Speaker 5: he kept telling people he was a hockey player. Like
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, I'm like, I'm an artist
Speaker 5: and you know, but I'm like, I want to hold
Speaker 5: on to something. And my manager, Chris Hicks, you know,
Speaker 5: he would always have to talk me out, he would,
Speaker 5: you know, but he would say, listen, the only reason
Speaker 5: you hang on to records is if you are not
Speaker 5: confident that you can make another one. But I believe
Speaker 5: you can make another one. So let's give that we
Speaker 5: have an opportunity to place these records and put these
Speaker 5: records on people who are coming out. You'll get your shot.
Speaker 5: I don't know when it's gonna happen, but yes, So,
Speaker 5: like it's it is frustrating. It was frustrating because like
Speaker 5: even though I'm making all of these hits, I'm like,
Speaker 5: you know, man, I you know I can do this,
Speaker 5: Like you know, I'm.
Speaker 1: Singing the demos. They're you know, they're doing my demo
Speaker 1: note for note no for you know, right, So it's
Speaker 1: like you're hearing yourself right the radio. Absolutely absolutely a
Speaker 1: version of yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So it's you know, like to the point where like
Speaker 5: when we were talking about when can't help but Wait
Speaker 5: came out for Trey songs, like getting calls like.
Speaker 1: You wrote that, didn't you. I can tell like it's.
Speaker 3: Your even what you're talking about, because I didn't know. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we were just talking about it. I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: replaying the record of my mind and I just hear
Speaker 3: you you have vibrato. I hear the whole thing. I
Speaker 3: was like, that's for damn sure, John T. Austin record.
Speaker 1: John T. Austin could have diad yes, yeah, could have
Speaker 1: put out easily.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's so it becomes.
Speaker 5: Right right, and you're happy for that, Like you're not
Speaker 5: like I'm I'm not happy that anybody else got to hit.
Speaker 5: It's just kind of like your own personal war that
Speaker 5: you're fighting. It's like, man, what do I have to do?
Speaker 5: You know, like I'm because I'm celebrating their success and
Speaker 5: not jealous of it. But man, I would like to
Speaker 5: be an artist as as well.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: But you know, we kept writing, what's the record that
Speaker 1: you didn't want to give away? Is there one that
Speaker 1: you just like, fuck.
Speaker 5: Man, I'm trying to what's a Then there's one that
Speaker 5: stands out. I'm just trying to think if that's the
Speaker 5: one I want to go with. I think it might
Speaker 5: have been. No, it wasn't can't help but wait because
Speaker 5: we did that specifically for Trey with Stargate.
Speaker 1: I think I don't want to.
Speaker 5: Like at the time because it wasn't for Aaliyah. Okay,
Speaker 5: you know we did it and then Chris heard it.
Speaker 5: Chris Hicks heard it and was like, oh, this is
Speaker 5: this is getting played you know for Aleah.
Speaker 1: I was there too. Yeah, yeah, you were in there
Speaker 1: on a Sony Studios in New York.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We was like that make a cold man, oh man,
Speaker 1: than you fucking rits. You need to write like that.
Speaker 1: You see how you writing like that will copy your
Speaker 1: doubles like view that.
Speaker 3: I need to repeat some stuff, right, okay, and then
Speaker 3: you would you would do the telephone, and so you
Speaker 3: need the telephone.
Speaker 1: Telephone, man, the telephone like all that stuff. Phone kind
Speaker 1: of was like an early auto tune thing. I think
Speaker 1: I was the because when you get excited about the telephone,
Speaker 1: but the telephone, the telephone, the telephone on the telephone. Right,
Speaker 1: I got that from you.
Speaker 6: So I'm telling to interview y'all real real quick, real quick,
Speaker 6: come over, come over. I got I got both, I
Speaker 6: got both of you guys in the room, and for
Speaker 6: a long time, people did not know that that was
Speaker 6: Tank's voice.
Speaker 1: People didn't know that. And because I want to were
Speaker 1: you even credited on there?
Speaker 3: I didn't get credited on there till late That's what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Like, so people people found out right and
Speaker 3: then they I think people themselves just credited me and
Speaker 3: then ended up as but it's not on the project.
Speaker 3: As a fan right now, I need I need the backstory.
Speaker 3: I have to have the backstory. So we give you
Speaker 3: my perspective because this perspective more important.
Speaker 1: But I heard him telling it.
Speaker 3: I love it because this is more important. We're at
Speaker 3: another studio recording, ye me.
Speaker 1: I think Jerry's with me. I don't know if Cliff
Speaker 1: is with me.
Speaker 5: You down at Chunk King right, because we were at
Speaker 5: Son of you guys worrying probably probably, and he was like, uh,
Speaker 5: he was like uh, he's like a leave recording recording
Speaker 5: around the corner.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, shoot, let's go over there, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, check on her and see what's
Speaker 3: going on. And so, you know, we walking the streets
Speaker 3: in New York, run into the LEA session. As soon
Speaker 3: as we walk in, She's like, oh, Tank can do it.
Speaker 3: And then Johntay's like, can do it?
Speaker 1: You have no music out at this point. No, okay,
Speaker 1: but we knew he was a sang right, but my
Speaker 1: background singer anymore?
Speaker 3: Are you still a back kind for genuine? I'm fighting
Speaker 3: to be you still want to do it? I'm damn right.
Speaker 1: I mean to this day you still I still want
Speaker 1: to sing backgrounds?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: I want to sing background And Johnny was like getting
Speaker 1: the booth, I was like, this is wow. I just
Speaker 1: want to say here right, yeah.
Speaker 3: Getting the booth and John Tay of course, John Tay sings.
Speaker 3: He gives me the notes, just think me, give me,
Speaker 3: give me the.
Speaker 1: And sing that. I think we spent about like five
Speaker 1: ten minutes or that sing that like that's a stack
Speaker 1: head because he then he put like a mid no,
Speaker 1: it's mad crazy.
Speaker 3: I just come out the booth and I'm like, that's
Speaker 3: it cool and we're just talking and listen of it.
Speaker 3: Liz is talking to me about my style and what
Speaker 3: I need to do and you need to dress like
Speaker 3: and you know you're like a one man Josy and
Speaker 3: you better and john Day's like, yeah, you're do the thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But Johnsy was like, you know when we listen to
Speaker 3: the record like I'm in there taking notes because I
Speaker 3: had already heard this record. I'd already heard the record.
Speaker 3: And then when she's when he put her on it,
Speaker 3: I was just like this, Ninka is cold.
Speaker 1: Because I was in line, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It was him and it was static.
Speaker 3: So for my label, you know, even at Blackground, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, their go to was we need
Speaker 3: static or we need John Tea. So I was in line,
Speaker 3: just kind of waiting my turn to be sick, waiting
Speaker 3: for my again, I would say, for my writing to
Speaker 3: get on that level because I wasn't there yet, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. So these were the guys that
Speaker 3: I was just kind of like watching, kind of in
Speaker 3: awe of, you know what I'm saying. So when they
Speaker 3: put me in the studio on that on that, I
Speaker 3: didn't think nothing of it. But then you know, as
Speaker 3: as it looks in twenty twenty three, wow, thank you.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, thank you, thank you. Yeah. Now okay, now give
Speaker 1: us the before he gets to the studio. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we were in there she so Alia had cut
Speaker 1: most of the record, and you know, hearing this part,
Speaker 1: it's like okay, like you know, it's got to be
Speaker 1: some somebody that asked, because she was like, I think
Speaker 1: somebody else should do this. And so we was like okay, because.
Speaker 5: It was you know, the story of come On. So
Speaker 5: she's calling you know, her dude, her dude, and so
Speaker 5: it's like, okay, she just touched story wise right too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 5: We thought like okay, at this point of the story,
Speaker 5: it's you know, him participating now, like you know what
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 1: And so it was like a call out back to her, okay.
Speaker 1: And so it's like, you know, and who is saying
Speaker 1: this ship like who you know?
Speaker 5: And we're going through like you know, I think Usher
Speaker 5: might have come up. You know, we're throwing people out,
Speaker 5: and then Tank walks in.
Speaker 1: And we're like like Tank can do it. That's crazy,
Speaker 1: And we said I think we said g I think
Speaker 1: we did say genuine. So it was like, but you
Speaker 1: never walked check on your friend. I mean like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy.
Speaker 5: But that's like such, that's the yeah, that's the juice
Speaker 5: of the song, right, Like that's the you know that part,
Speaker 5: Like that's the sing along part.
Speaker 1: That's the you know, that's the flavor and then what
Speaker 1: two years ago, three years ago, you get another check
Speaker 1: for it?
Speaker 5: Because Kaylannie, yeah yeah, can I absolutely which is k
Speaker 5: Lonnie that you didn't call Chief to come and do
Speaker 5: his part again?
Speaker 1: He might have done it for you. Yeah, come on
Speaker 1: stage sometimes sold up shows, stole out show, yes, yeah no,
Speaker 1: because that's and that leads me to my next question.
Speaker 5: How does it feel to be sampled at this younger
Speaker 5: age that you are, like, you're not seventy eighty years
Speaker 5: old when you got to clear the.
Speaker 1: Sam being like, oh, who want to like what he's singing?
Speaker 1: I don't like what he's saying on that my wholesome
Speaker 1: song into a whole song. Yeah, you know you're still
Speaker 1: a young dude.
Speaker 6: Man, they're sampling your music, Kaylane Bryson Tiller, like they're
Speaker 6: sampling your records already.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, No, it's a it's a great feeling. I mean
Speaker 5: it makes me, you know, it like makes you feel
Speaker 5: sing because it's like, okay, the younger generation. You know,
Speaker 5: it's funny that you say, like the seventy year old guy, right,
Speaker 5: because you like you don't.
Speaker 1: Want to be that. I had to call a couple
Speaker 1: of them stuff. So that's why. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry they feel like, you know, but I don't
Speaker 5: want to be the person that's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 5: you know music should be this way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you got to have more respect than
Speaker 1: blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: Because when I meet young writers, young artist, young producers,
Speaker 5: what I've learned.
Speaker 1: Is they do respect it. They know it. They follow
Speaker 1: it like they have nothing but respect and the admiration.
Speaker 5: That's why they're sampling like they they're paying you a compliment,
Speaker 5: you know to me, so like and a check.
Speaker 1: So when it comes through, like you know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's I always listen for the creativity of it, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: have you ever not clear something I'm trying to see?
Speaker 5: I don't think so, yeah, I don't think so you
Speaker 5: know what, No, I think there might have been like
Speaker 5: an ed M version of I can't remember of something
Speaker 5: I might not have cleared.
Speaker 1: I love EDM, but it wasn't for whatever reason. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it felt like you know, something that I'm hearing
Speaker 5: in just like a one way bar in Amsterdam, you know,
Speaker 5: like off that, but not but not in the Flyway,
Speaker 5: not the fly Amsterdam that we're talking.
Speaker 6: Nothing that I love going to sample John say as records.
Speaker 6: Make sure it's fly, you know, make sure its music
Speaker 6: is flying.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, I want to talk about I want to
Speaker 3: talk about your experience with Mariah Carey.
Speaker 1: Okay, because that's you know, before we get to Maracay.
Speaker 1: I do have to let y'all know for I don't
Speaker 1: want to You know, Aliyah didn't want to cut that. No,
Speaker 1: I did not know that. She didn't want to cut
Speaker 1: that one. She wasn't sold and I don't want to.
Speaker 1: She wanted to cut I Miss You. That was what
Speaker 1: got us to New York.
Speaker 6: And you know, so how do you sell because now
Speaker 6: the writers need to see this. How do you sell
Speaker 6: a major superstar? How do you sell them the record
Speaker 6: that they don't want but you know that they need.
Speaker 5: Right, So you know, I can't take credit for that.
Speaker 5: That was all Chris Hicks who made that. He was like,
Speaker 5: I tell you what, let's make a deal. You can
Speaker 5: cut I Miss You, but you have to cut this
Speaker 5: one as well.
Speaker 1: That's the deal. And she was like okay, And then
Speaker 1: when she got on it, it was Chris has always
Speaker 1: been good with conversations. Yea, I know, yeah, absolutely is
Speaker 1: from the area. You know what this feels feels, right,
Speaker 1: I like the way you're talking to me. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: so you know, so that's how that's how we got
Speaker 1: her on it. Wow, that was it. So Mariah Carey, Yes,
Speaker 1: what is that call?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: So the call comes from j D. Jay's like, you know,
Speaker 1: come to uh, you know, come to studio tonight.
Speaker 5: At this point, you know, obviously JD has such a
Speaker 5: long history with her, you know, starting would always be
Speaker 5: my baby, going back to that, right and and you know,
Speaker 5: now be Cox has done you know, songs with her,
Speaker 5: so they're like a nucleus.
Speaker 1: And but I was excited.
Speaker 5: So he's like, you know, Mariah's gonna be here tonight,
Speaker 5: you know, come down, and you know, she gets there
Speaker 5: and Mariah doesn't show up till like midnight. That's her session.
Speaker 5: Session starts at midnight. She likes to She's a night out,
Speaker 5: absolutely likes to likes to write and work you know late.
Speaker 5: So you know, at the time, I didn't I have
Speaker 5: I've had to learn that.
Speaker 1: The first day I showed up, I was there at
Speaker 1: like six p m. Just six hours. Yeah, what she had.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm like, you know, let me know, now,
Speaker 1: let me know when she comes in, you know, let me.
Speaker 6: And this is levels right, because I'm sure at this
Speaker 6: point you have massive records by this point, yeah, you
Speaker 6: don't have a Mariah.
Speaker 5: We don't have them or this is still Mariah. So
Speaker 5: what is interesting is that this is Mariah, I mean
Speaker 5: off of Glitter movie in this.
Speaker 1: And so there were a couple of people around me
Speaker 1: who were like, why are you gonna spend your time
Speaker 1: on this? Like and they thought the ship itself, thought
Speaker 1: the ship itself.
Speaker 5: I have a fast rule about legends, like legends stay legends,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. It's like that right, you've
Speaker 5: earned that, You've earned that, and you're always one hit away.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you ain't.
Speaker 5: Had a hit in ten years if you call you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. That's how I feel about legends.
Speaker 5: And at that point, you know, this is once we
Speaker 5: dy walking through the door, like what do you mean?
Speaker 1: We don't write and we're gonna look into these cameras.
Speaker 1: That's what it should be.
Speaker 6: They've earned it, absolutely, and if you are a hit maker,
Speaker 6: go give them that hit worker one hundred percent one
Speaker 6: hundred percent.
Speaker 5: So Mariah gets there and I'm just sitting in the
Speaker 5: corner just quiet her and Jamaine and Brian are catching
Speaker 5: up and you fly on the wall, just fly on
Speaker 5: the wall, just you know, just sitting because again this
Speaker 5: is so, this is after Aliyah, this is after Chris Brown,
Speaker 5: this is after you know what I mean, this is yeah.
Speaker 1: This is only popping, this is yo yo yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So you know, after about thirty minutes we're sitting there.
Speaker 5: The first song that Jamaine played so can I get
Speaker 5: your number? And they already had that him and Brian
Speaker 5: already had that hook, and so he was like okay.
Speaker 5: She was like, oh, I want to start with this,
Speaker 5: like do some verses, and so then you know, she turns,
Speaker 5: She's like, and who are you? Starts that way she
Speaker 5: was like and she was like who are you? She
Speaker 5: was like I'm guessing. She's like are you a part
Speaker 5: of this? And I was like I look at Jamaine
Speaker 5: and Jamaine is like yeah, yeah, he writes with us.
Speaker 5: And she was like, okay, all right, let's rite. Let's
Speaker 5: start like it wasn't no what have you done? Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, just like okay, I just need to know
Speaker 5: who you were, and now we're good, and then you know,
Speaker 5: we hit it off from there and Mariah is like
Speaker 5: a brilliant songwriter in her own right, so, you know,
Speaker 5: being able to collaborate with someone like so the experience
Speaker 5: of someone who can write for themselves, like she doesn't
Speaker 5: really need anyone to write, you know, but throwing out ideas,
Speaker 5: the way that she hears things, the way that she
Speaker 5: rhymes words and melodies.
Speaker 1: And then you're also hearing her sing, and so it's
Speaker 1: like one of those moments.
Speaker 5: The first time I had a moment like that, we
Speaker 5: go back to Tony Braxton, but it was like the
Speaker 5: second time when I first worked with Tony and Tony
Speaker 5: walks into booth and you like, hear that voice come
Speaker 5: over the mic and you're like, I said, this is
Speaker 5: Tony Brax and the same thing so before Mariah even won,
Speaker 5: Like just her sitting there with the pad writing and
Speaker 5: she's humming, and I'm like trying not to like smile,
Speaker 5: but I'm like, damn, this is Mariah Carried.
Speaker 1: I think I had that moment when we worked on
Speaker 1: ron Isley. Yeah, yeah, man, I was like, he hit
Speaker 1: one of them. This is a dream come true. He's
Speaker 1: really in the booth singing one of my records. When
Speaker 1: did you have that moment any artist? For you?
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm like the fan you are, you know,
Speaker 3: so everybody when they get into yeah, because it's like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, I don't It's an unexplainable feeling.
Speaker 1: It's just like to have these type of people singing
Speaker 1: rect just to have.
Speaker 3: The voice, like you've heard this voice everywhere, You've heard
Speaker 3: this voice on massive records. You're saying this voice, and
Speaker 3: now this voice in a sense belongs to you.
Speaker 1: You're a part of this voice. Now you're sharing in this.
Speaker 1: That's a great one. Yeah, that's a great one. That's Gladys.
Speaker 3: That was my first time where I was just like,
Speaker 3: no way, Like, first of all, she's singing in one
Speaker 3: take and that's literally one top to bottom.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: She studied it for about ten minutes, ten fifteen minutes,
Speaker 3: played it over and over so and she said I'm ready, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: will say it all, set it all up. She went
Speaker 3: top two bottom, no auto tune stuff, you know, just
Speaker 3: some slight verb raw top to bottom. What else would
Speaker 3: you like?
Speaker 1: That's how they I looked at it then there I
Speaker 1: was like, you don't even know what to say, Like
Speaker 1: maybe we should tell her to do it again. I
Speaker 1: feel like I did something here, right, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: tell her. You're not gonna call me back. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell her do it again?
Speaker 3: Great, great, Yes, let's just let's get one more, one more, like,
Speaker 3: let's just get one more and and and you see
Speaker 3: where we end up. See what we gotta She did
Speaker 3: one more.
Speaker 1: Top to bottom, flawless. That's crazy. It come out, come on, out,
Speaker 1: come on, thank you, coming by God, bless you. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Do you right? Shake it off? In that
Speaker 1: first session, so we did. Can I get your number?
Speaker 1: The first night? Second night was shake it off? Okay,
Speaker 1: second night was shaking. So we had the mic on
Speaker 1: the demo. It was me, Mariah and Mariah's assistant. Whose
Speaker 1: idea was that? Was Mariah because that's the classic ship,
Speaker 1: that's Mariah. I got to give her. I gotta give her.
Speaker 1: I've never written a song with any of those old
Speaker 1: like everybody in never written a song with that.
Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, man, that's all that's classic. M
Speaker 5: see all day, all day. So can't I get your numbers?
Speaker 5: Shake it off?
Speaker 1: It's like that. Yeah, and then and then we were
Speaker 1: done like that. Those were all in those sessions. And
Speaker 1: you know, so l A.
Speaker 5: Reid, you know who was ahead of death jam at
Speaker 5: the time, he was like, listen, like, I feel like
Speaker 5: we got something. I feel like, you know, shake it
Speaker 5: Off can probably be our first single. But I think
Speaker 5: y'all got one more in you, so I'm gonna send
Speaker 5: her back down.
Speaker 1: And that was the We Belong Together session. That was
Speaker 1: the you know, so it started with la It's like,
Speaker 1: I think y'all got one more and sent her back down.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: This time it was Manuel Seal for your Seal. Hey, listen, listen.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because unless unless you're in the music business, don't
Speaker 6: really know that name. It's not like you know, he
Speaker 6: never really came outside like that. No, but if you
Speaker 6: in this music business.
Speaker 1: Man, you seal.
Speaker 5: It's fucking special. I hope you see this, brother, Absolutely,
Speaker 5: you are, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: You're special. That guy is special. Those records that he's
Speaker 1: been a part of incredible, Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 6: So yeah, you know we we we give real have
Speaker 6: to respect shoutouts flowers like yeah, man, yeah, we respect
Speaker 6: the game up here.
Speaker 1: No, no, you have to.
Speaker 5: And that's why, I mean, that's why it's important for
Speaker 5: me to bring him up too, like, you know, cause
Speaker 5: it's there is you know, these big songs. I feel
Speaker 5: like there could probably be some temptation to like want
Speaker 5: to hoard credit for yourself, but there's enough for it.
Speaker 5: Everybody made such a significant contribution. Like you know, I
Speaker 5: tell people like, you know it's Mariah and I wrote
Speaker 5: we Belong Together.
Speaker 1: Together, like you know what I mean. So like she
Speaker 1: was just as much.
Speaker 5: You know, it wasn't like a word here, a word there.
Speaker 5: No Mariah's in the studio writing the records. We wrote
Speaker 5: a song together, Manuel and JD you know, produced it,
Speaker 5: and so we worked on this record. It was like
Speaker 5: we worked till like five six in the morning, and
Speaker 5: I laid the demo for it and demo to there's
Speaker 5: a John Te demo to we Belong Together.
Speaker 1: There is an n F T. I want.
Speaker 5: You know who probably has it is La because he
Speaker 5: told me later he was like I knew she was
Speaker 5: gonna have something because she left Atlanta from the studio,
Speaker 5: landed in New York and l A was like she
Speaker 5: woke me up and was like, you have to hear
Speaker 5: this record. She came by and played him my demo
Speaker 5: Like that's how excited she was about the record, Like
Speaker 5: you got to hear this song.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go pick up my son after this and
Speaker 1: we're gonna roll today.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that guy is turning his piano.
Speaker 5: Yeah, were about to put some pressure on the pressure
Speaker 5: man himself, because I mean he wrote that too. Oh
Speaker 5: yeah yeah yeah, come on, like I don't know s
Speaker 5: yeah yeah, we're still writing hits to this day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look shout out to all right Lynx. That's the home.
Speaker 1: You've written a lot of songs. Man, we haven't probably even.
Speaker 2: Got to have them.
Speaker 3: We haven't gotten to a third things you've done. There
Speaker 3: were a lot of songs written before you. Oh yes,
Speaker 3: it might have inspired you to become.
Speaker 1: The man you are.
Speaker 3: We would like to tap into the greatness that you
Speaker 3: consider great. Oh yes, by understanding your.
Speaker 4: Top five, your top five, top five, your top five, horsing.
Speaker 2: All and be sold. You got to have, you got
Speaker 2: to know you got John Yeah, Ron yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 2: know with.
Speaker 1: The Teddy Teddy pindagras.
Speaker 2: Yeah you.
Speaker 8: Five, John, take Austin, your top five R and B singers,
Speaker 8: Stevie Wonder start off, come on, come on, come on,
Speaker 8: come on, come on.
Speaker 1: Otis Redding, whoa Sam Cook? No, come on now, come
Speaker 1: on with anything like this, Whitney Houston. The voice, the voice, right,
Speaker 1: the voice of all voices. Right, I'm riding with the
Speaker 1: home team. I'm going usher come.
Speaker 2: On, I'm going with.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm going with the squad, rocking with the squad. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: not bad, not mad at you at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Top five R and B songs.
Speaker 5: As by Stevie Wonder kick it off absolutely, When a
Speaker 5: Woman's fed up.
Speaker 1: Lot of now, yeah, I don't want to find had
Speaker 1: Listen to the song. Listen to the song on the record, please. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So let's see as when a woman's fed up. Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson's Lady in My Life. Yes, yes, I think that's
Speaker 1: that's made it to the top five a few times
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm gonna give you the last two, but real quick.
Speaker 5: I told I asked JD one time, if Michael came
Speaker 5: to you to work, you know, would you work? When
Speaker 5: he was like, man, nah, I tell him to go
Speaker 5: back to quick see that's where he belongs. And he
Speaker 5: I was like, you know, but we can do some
Speaker 5: records for Michael. He was like, not like they can
Speaker 5: do him. I say, you don't think we could do
Speaker 5: like we've done a Lady in My Life. JD goes,
Speaker 5: when the hell we did one of them?
Speaker 1: Every day? I haven't seen I ain't seen one of
Speaker 1: them get out the door. When when they got out
Speaker 1: of door, I said, oh ship just yeah, so uh,
Speaker 1: lady in my life, never too much Luther Vandra Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: What's that sound in the beginning of that?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: What is that? What is it.
Speaker 1: Before kick in? It's this sound that comes in in
Speaker 1: the beginning of that song. Could be as a basis
Speaker 1: something like, man, it's the call out to me? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a door?
Speaker 2: What a song?
Speaker 1: What a record? An artist? But I got something else
Speaker 1: for him, Chief, I got something else for him. We've
Speaker 1: never done this. What haven't you done? I want to
Speaker 1: know your top five songwriters because you are who you are, brother, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would like to know your top five songwriter.
Speaker 5: One of my pix is going to be controversial, so
Speaker 5: we'll save him at the end.
Speaker 1: I've already named one of his songs, I guess, but
Speaker 1: uh so Stevie Wonder babyface line. Now Richie the man
Speaker 1: who bought Beverly Hills.
Speaker 6: Off the Pin, off the pin talking about Pimp and
Speaker 6: your pen Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Pimp r Kelly yeah, m hm mm hmm.
Speaker 9: Jermaine Dupree, everybody in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hall of Fame, say what you won't.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, yes, that's a great list. Yeah, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 5: because you know we're we're all fans. Yeah, no matter
Speaker 5: what if we do it or not, we're all fans.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So for you as how I look at you.
Speaker 5: As a songwriter, for you to tell me who your
Speaker 5: five guys are, five women, whatever it is, that's amazing, amazing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I like your list.
Speaker 3: We're gonna make the voltron Okay, Okay, We're gonna assemble
Speaker 3: your R and B artists, the greatest, the super who
Speaker 3: are getting the vocal from the performing style, from the styling,
Speaker 3: from the passion of that artist, and who's gonna write
Speaker 3: for that artist?
Speaker 1: Okay? Vocal vocal Stevie wonder again.
Speaker 5: Stevie is Temples, Steve Ballads, yes, right, achappella, straight ahead
Speaker 5: vocal acrobatics, what however you want?
Speaker 3: Does it all performance style? Michael Jackson, that's gonna be fucking.
Speaker 1: Nuts voice Michael Nuts. Yeah, he's not gonna be He's
Speaker 1: not gonna be alien.
Speaker 5: Because you also get Stevie playing to because his voice
Speaker 5: play that's how he sings.
Speaker 1: Get on the hard mountain. Yeah, yeah, okay, it's the styling,
Speaker 1: the styling Frank Sinatra. Yeah yeah, Frank was a my friend.
Speaker 1: They called me, they call me absolutely absolutely yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: The passion of the artist hard mm hmm mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It's hard working. No one works hard.
Speaker 5: Dilegit absolutely, roller skates and things like well, how many
Speaker 5: hours do you need to prepare?
Speaker 1: You need ten thousand hours?
Speaker 5: He's hitting the same handstanding the one time where the
Speaker 5: one time where the dancer bumped into him and he
Speaker 5: turned it into a move.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like no, I'm not gonna fall on these skates
Speaker 1: like that. These people, I'm too nice. I'm about the
Speaker 1: robots sweetness, sweetness, Yeah, I'm nice with it. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: I think he kind of turned into like a half split,
Speaker 5: like I said, come on, I'm sick of all the point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who's writing for this artist? I know who I
Speaker 1: want to write that.
Speaker 5: So man, that's say you better not give it away.
Speaker 5: That that's kind of, uh a toss up of what
Speaker 5: but you know, can I say I'm writing.
Speaker 1: You get what you Listen. I was ready to fight you.
Speaker 1: You got this mega artist and you ain't gonna write
Speaker 1: God do right? You better write it? Like, man, I
Speaker 1: don't want to give away my song I'm starting to
Speaker 1: frustrate man right before. Yeah, I'm writing for them, yeah.
Speaker 5: Man, yeah, writing an all timer all timer for the
Speaker 5: third or fourth and third or fourth thank you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what you got, Chief? What you got? I ain't
Speaker 1: saying no, nat to pay. I ain't saying no nation.
Speaker 1: I ain't saying no Nick, ain't saying no names. Where
Speaker 1: you was?
Speaker 4: Who?
Speaker 2: What you did?
Speaker 1: Don't say she. I ain't saying no. Yeah, we hear that.
Speaker 1: We're here, now, we hear now. Okay, so you know
Speaker 1: you watched the show. You know you know how this
Speaker 1: thing goes. Man, we're here.
Speaker 5: This is the I ain't saying no name segment. Will
Speaker 5: you tell us your story? A story funny or fucked up?
Speaker 5: A funny and fucked up in the travels in the
Speaker 5: times of John T.
Speaker 1: Austin. Okay, here we go. Hold on, this is John T. Austin.
Speaker 1: Kids Beat. Oh God, if you've ever.
Speaker 6: Met a young lady that you wanted to be a
Speaker 6: sweet lady, jeez, he started with kids beat.
Speaker 5: Huh.
Speaker 1: Cocaine is involved in this story. Ship. Ship ain't be
Speaker 1: without you. You know, you can't be without the you feel. So.
Speaker 5: I ain't saying no names, but so we're in well,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say a couple of names, but it has
Speaker 5: nothing to do with you know. But we're in Vegas
Speaker 5: working on the Raymond Versus Raymond album. This is the
Speaker 5: formation of the whole Oceans thing and whatever. And I
Speaker 5: was beefing with someone else in the music business. They
Speaker 5: were not in Vegas with us beefing, though I was beefing.
Speaker 1: Old a lady. I was in my I was emotional.
Speaker 1: I was Carl Thomas Thomas emotions.
Speaker 2: Look at me. I can't stop crying my hardest.
Speaker 1: I was reaching for rain. I'm grasp yes, you know,
Speaker 1: Jess and I had you know, was in the you know,
Speaker 1: the heights of just a really stellar drug problem. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's one for the books.
Speaker 5: I went through a period where I did enough cocaine
Speaker 5: to probably kill a Kentucky Derby level thoroughbred horse.
Speaker 1: But so I'm, you know, just upset at this person.
Speaker 1: And we go out to Dre's.
Speaker 5: And you high, I'm high, and I'm rifling shots someone
Speaker 5: you know, and I'm just venting. I think j d
Speaker 5: Or be Cox makes a joke about it. I storm
Speaker 5: out of dres By myself. I've left everybody in there
Speaker 5: and I and you can't just storm out of dres
Speaker 5: because elevated.
Speaker 1: St the hallway a lot of breath.
Speaker 2: But I have.
Speaker 1: Stormed out of this place, but you also have performing
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. I get it. So then I go to
Speaker 1: the Spearmint Rhino. Why not?
Speaker 5: And I'm in the Spearmint Rhino, just me and my
Speaker 5: lonesome in the vi P and you know, I start
Speaker 5: to feel sick. I go to the bathroom and.
Speaker 1: I throw up, and then I feel better.
Speaker 5: And what would really make me feel better is if
Speaker 5: you know, I did another bump, and that would like
Speaker 5: get me back to where I was right And.
Speaker 1: So now I'm in the zone. And so this was
Speaker 1: the era of two ways, not two ways blackberries. I
Speaker 1: send off an email.
Speaker 5: H at about five o'clock Vegas time, and you know,
Speaker 5: talking about how you know, I need people around me
Speaker 5: who are solid.
Speaker 1: I need people arriving me who are going to ride
Speaker 1: for me. And if you are not for me, then
Speaker 1: you are against me. Send it to all of the
Speaker 1: crew in Vegas. Send it to Mark Pitts. Send it
Speaker 1: to Barry Weiss, who's that like a couple of other executives.
Speaker 5: Send it to everybody but the person I'm mad at
Speaker 5: who has no idea that I'm mad at him, by
Speaker 5: the way, and yeah, and then fired off of you
Speaker 5: know that text. I won't say who the person was,
Speaker 5: but and then the next day just rolled into the
Speaker 5: studio like like nothing happened. Well, first I had to
Speaker 5: the aforementioned black card. I left that in the spearmitt rhino,
Speaker 5: so I had to.
Speaker 1: Go back and hit that.
Speaker 5: But I wasn't the only one because the person I
Speaker 5: was like, you know, I left my MX here last night.
Speaker 1: You know which one is. I'm like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the black card that doesn't narrow it down.
Speaker 5: And I'm like wow, So there was there was. I
Speaker 5: didn't feel bad. And so I go and see the
Speaker 5: next day like nothing happens. Usher comes in and you know,
Speaker 5: sits down. We're at the board and all he does
Speaker 5: is he goes.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I'm like, yep, He's like okay. So that's
Speaker 1: why I ain't gonna say you said. I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm gonna say that somebody, Oh my gosh, what
Speaker 1: was wrong with me? I was tripping matters of the heart.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: It happened right, and cocaine and cocaine make the heart explode.
Speaker 1: We're glad that your heart didn't explode me too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: crazy enough. I never knew it was okay, brother, thank you.
Speaker 1: I never knew that. I never knew that. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: welcome back, thank you? No, yeah, off it by the way,
Speaker 1: just you know, for years, so there you go. We
Speaker 1: need you, man.
Speaker 5: Yeah, brother, yeah, I'm and I'm running and doing jiu
Speaker 5: jitsu so you know things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, things you need your heart for. So mister John T.
Speaker 3: Austin Sinatra, Yeah, now you really are you are Sinatra boy? Yes,
Speaker 3: thank you, brother. I mean we've we've been great. We've
Speaker 3: been doing this for too long, man, and you know,
Speaker 3: just outside of friendships and brotherhood, man, just just what
Speaker 3: you've done. Thank you as a peer, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, Like you are ship, you're him.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys having me.
Speaker 1: I've been looking forward to doing it. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: we needed we needed to have. It's the R and
Speaker 1: B Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and
Speaker 1: B Absolute. How do we not have you? Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you for having me. You're on the
Speaker 1: You're on the board of authorities. Oh wow, I appreciate you,
Speaker 1: aboy to start sending the names to you like yo.
Speaker 1: You think they could come on there?
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 3: Right quite.
Speaker 1: That once wig that passed up on that record. You
Speaker 1: can't come over here, Come come. I love you, guys,
Speaker 1: you the greatest. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3: My name is thank This is the R and B
Speaker 3: Money Podcast, the authority on all things R and B
Speaker 3: and we've just.
Speaker 1: Had our brother and one of the peace rating songwriters
Speaker 1: of all time. It's John Tet. Thank God.
Speaker 3: R and B Money.
Speaker 6: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 6: Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 6: and you can connect with us on social media at
Speaker 6: jy Valentine and at the Real Tank. For the extended episode,
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Speaker 6: Money