WEBVTT - Donell Jones 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.989 Ladies and gentlemen, this is the R & B Money Podcast, 0:00:21.030 --> 0:00:22.690 and I'm your host, Jay Valentine. 0:00:22.850 --> 0:00:25.930 And today... I got a brother. 0:00:25.690 --> 0:00:27.909 On here I've been chasing down. And, you know, I 0:00:27.930 --> 0:00:29.430 just had to figure out if this is where he 0:00:29.470 --> 0:00:33.710 wanted to be or not. Because, you know, this is 0:00:33.770 --> 0:00:34.570 a special talent. 0:00:35.409 --> 0:00:37.340 I went online. I'm just going to tell y'all this. 0:00:37.409 --> 0:00:41.780 I went online and made a post saying, this man 0:00:41.820 --> 0:00:45.400 had one of the greatest R & B albums of 0:00:46.300 --> 0:00:51.080 all time. And I stood on that. I'm fighting people. 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:53.100 I don't know why I had to fight. Because if 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.020 you understand R & B music, This is part of 0:00:56.060 --> 0:00:58.480 the essence of what we do. I got a great 0:00:58.500 --> 0:01:00.720 brother all the way from Chicago that pulled up on 0:01:00.740 --> 0:01:01.330 me today. 0:01:01.770 --> 0:01:05.990 Listen, man, and he fresh off that Versus. My brother, 0:01:06.010 --> 0:01:09.270 y'all brother, Donnell Jones. What's up, my brother? Come on, man. 0:01:09.330 --> 0:01:12.450 Come on, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I've been chasing 0:01:12.470 --> 0:01:15.590 you down, dog. What's up, man? For a couple years. 0:01:16.150 --> 0:01:18.390 What's up, man? I'm glad I'm here, man. This is beautiful, man. 0:01:18.410 --> 0:01:20.990 For real, man. Man, thank you, bro. Yes. Thank you. 0:01:21.110 --> 0:01:23.630 Thank you, bro. This is an honor for me. Man. 0:01:23.750 --> 0:01:24.429 You know what I'm saying? 0:01:24.470 --> 0:01:28.229 There are artists that are just part of my DNA 0:01:28.590 --> 0:01:31.740 and are part of, really, my livelihood. 0:01:31.980 --> 0:01:34.300 Thank you, brother. That have made music that has really 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.479 resonated with me, man. I appreciate that. For real. Bro, 0:01:37.500 --> 0:01:40.160 you're special. Thank you, brother. You're special, man. And I 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.240 appreciate you pulling up on me, man. Thanks for having me, man. Absolutely. 0:01:43.260 --> 0:01:45.060 How you doing, man? Man, I'm great, man. I'm great. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.040 You know, like you said, just came off that Versus, man. 0:01:47.060 --> 0:01:49.940 It was amazing, man. You know, to celebrate with my 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:50.720 brother Joe, man. 0:01:50.740 --> 0:01:53.340 Absolutely. And, man, just beautiful, man. I'm happy about the 0:01:53.380 --> 0:01:56.280 state that R & B is in right now, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 0:01:56.660 --> 0:01:59.200 So we like to do this thing, man. We like 0:01:59.220 --> 0:02:01.600 to go back. Okay. We like to go back to 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.910 young Donnell. Okay. Little Donnell. Okay. Chicago, man. Take me back. 0:02:07.110 --> 0:02:09.669 Take me back to Chicago, man. Chateau, man. 0:02:10.889 --> 0:02:13.690 I was in a group, man. My group was called Porsche, man. 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:15.400 We did a lot of shows around Chicago. 0:02:16.100 --> 0:02:20.930 Porsche. Porsche. Huh. Okay. The reason why I don't... Not 0:02:20.970 --> 0:02:24.280 Porsche like... Not like the car. Not Porsche. No, not Porsche. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.160 We had a manager at the time and her last 0:02:27.190 --> 0:02:28.340 name was Porsche. 0:02:28.700 --> 0:02:30.359 Oh, so you. And so we called the group Porsche. 0:02:30.380 --> 0:02:31.780 You dealt with some shit that I dealt with as 0:02:31.860 --> 0:02:33.600 a kid. Oh, yeah. So I was in a group 0:02:33.620 --> 0:02:36.209 with my brothers called the Neutrons. Right. Which was my 0:02:36.270 --> 0:02:39.570 father's name. Okay. Backwards. Right. So, yeah, you was in 0:02:39.610 --> 0:02:42.230 somebody else's group. Yeah, we was in somebody else's group. Right, right, right. 0:02:42.270 --> 0:02:44.350 Shout out to Porsche. Yes. Okay, all right. 0:02:44.370 --> 0:02:46.490 So, man, we had the mad shows around Chicago, man. 0:02:46.510 --> 0:02:49.590 We had, we did shows with Art Kelly and Public Announcement. 0:02:50.110 --> 0:02:52.019 It was a lot of groups back then, so. We 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:53.820 never could get signed, man. We never could get signed. 0:02:53.860 --> 0:02:55.380 How old are you at this point? At this time, 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:56.519 I'm maybe 15, 16. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.380 Okay. You're a baby. Yeah, I'm about 16. I'm working 0:03:00.430 --> 0:03:00.970 at McDonald's. 0:03:02.490 --> 0:03:04.750 How I meet the group is I'm coming in McDonald's 0:03:04.770 --> 0:03:07.150 every day and I'm singing while I'm flipping my burgers. 0:03:07.870 --> 0:03:10.169 And the manager, he was like, yo, man, I like 0:03:10.210 --> 0:03:12.250 how you sound, man. You should try for our group. 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:14.300 So I went to try it out for the group, man, 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:14.980 and they put me in the group. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:16.780 They could hear you on the grill. Man, they could 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.810 hear me on the grill, man. Man, I need to 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.990 walk into more restaurants to see if I can find. 0:03:21.830 --> 0:03:23.890 The next Donnell Jones, man. They could hear me on 0:03:23.910 --> 0:03:26.530 the grill, man. You know, I'm flipping and, you know, 0:03:26.610 --> 0:03:29.660 I'm singing, man. And, yeah, man, he heard me. 0:03:29.669 --> 0:03:30.970 He was like, yo, man, you should come try out 0:03:30.990 --> 0:03:33.029 for the group. So I tried out, man. 0:03:33.050 --> 0:03:35.630 They put me in the group, and we just started 0:03:35.650 --> 0:03:36.510 doing a lot of shows around Chicago. 0:03:36.530 --> 0:03:39.000 How many guys? It was four. Four-guy group. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:41.370 This was around the time that, you know, like, Jodeci 0:03:41.390 --> 0:03:43.450 and Boyz II Men like mad groups out at that 0:03:43.470 --> 0:03:46.810 particular time Shy you know so it was that time 0:03:46.890 --> 0:03:49.670 and it was an amazing time in R & B 0:03:49.690 --> 0:03:52.050 man like what kind of music were y'all making obviously 0:03:52.090 --> 0:03:53.690 it was R & B music but like what kind 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:57.580 were y'all like y'all Jodeci vibe aggressive it wasn't aggressive 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.440 we was more on that that fairytale love okay you 0:04:00.460 --> 0:04:02.460 know where you're giving us the sun the moon the 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.440 stars yeah yeah that kind of that's what we were 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.100 on at that time but you said y'all couldn't get 0:04:07.140 --> 0:04:09.100 a deal couldn't get a deal man I mean we 0:04:09.590 --> 0:04:11.940 was in Chicago like It was only like one record 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:13.400 company in Chicago that you could really get a deal from. 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:14.820 And that was a lot of job records that they 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:16.940 had an office there. But R. 0:04:16.940 --> 0:04:18.820 Kelly was already signed to that. Public Analysis was there. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.640 So we really couldn't get it there. So what happened 0:04:21.660 --> 0:04:22.960 was one year we went to. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.669 The BRE. It's called the Black Radio Explicit Convention. It 0:04:27.690 --> 0:04:28.950 was in Washington, D.C. at the time. 0:04:28.990 --> 0:04:32.550 I think it was like 94. And we had a showcase, 0:04:32.570 --> 0:04:33.750 but nobody came to the showcase. 0:04:34.610 --> 0:04:38.070 So we was in that joint like, man, like nobody came. 0:04:38.089 --> 0:04:38.930 You could hear a pin drop. 0:04:39.370 --> 0:04:41.830 So we went outside the hotel the next day and 0:04:41.850 --> 0:04:42.990 was like, yo, man, we're just going to sing for 0:04:43.029 --> 0:04:44.890 anybody who walk out. You know what I'm saying? And 0:04:44.990 --> 0:04:47.849 Eddie F happened to walk out, man. He was like, yo, man, 0:04:48.270 --> 0:04:50.450 I like what y'all brothers doing. Don't sing for nobody else. 0:04:51.050 --> 0:04:52.650 I'm going to sign y'all, you know, so y'all can 0:04:52.690 --> 0:04:54.969 just walk away. You know, don't, we ain't listen. Cause 0:04:54.990 --> 0:04:57.750 it's like, whatever, man, he just talking. But he actually, 0:04:58.370 --> 0:04:59.990 he came back and was like, yo, man, I'm telling y'all, 0:05:00.050 --> 0:05:02.170 I got y'all. So when you first, when it first 0:05:02.210 --> 0:05:04.409 kicks off for you, it kicks off with, with the 0:05:04.430 --> 0:05:04.790 group though. 0:05:04.810 --> 0:05:07.270 So he signs. He signs the group. Yeah. He signs 0:05:07.290 --> 0:05:09.570 the group. So did you. 0:05:09.810 --> 0:05:12.390 Initially, obviously, I know you wanted a deal, but were 0:05:12.430 --> 0:05:15.830 you apprehensive at all that you were signing to a hip-hop. 0:05:16.550 --> 0:05:17.430 DJ, producer? 0:05:17.790 --> 0:05:21.469 We just wanted to get signed. We were signing to, yeah. 0:05:21.850 --> 0:05:24.330 And then, not to mention, we knew Eddie F's work 0:05:24.350 --> 0:05:26.970 because he had just did the stuff with Intro. Yeah. 0:05:27.130 --> 0:05:29.050 And so we knew, like, he knew exactly, like, what 0:05:29.070 --> 0:05:32.610 to do. Right. And we had a sound, but I 0:05:32.650 --> 0:05:33.109 knew going. 0:05:32.990 --> 0:05:34.140 With Eddie F, he was going to give us a 0:05:34.190 --> 0:05:36.260 different type of sound, which was going to be hip-hop 0:05:36.300 --> 0:05:38.880 and R & B. And at that time, Jodeci was out, 0:05:38.900 --> 0:05:41.290 Mary J. Blige was out, so music was changing. You 0:05:41.310 --> 0:05:42.950 know what I'm saying? And we needed that type of vibe. 0:05:42.990 --> 0:05:43.930 You know what I'm saying? 0:05:43.950 --> 0:05:45.610 Yeah. No, he was fully a part of that. Oh, yeah, 0:05:45.670 --> 0:05:48.790 for sure. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you signed as a group. 0:05:48.990 --> 0:05:51.950 He signed as Porsche. Yeah, he signed as Porsche. Obviously. 0:05:52.770 --> 0:05:55.510 Well, I mean, the group ended up breaking up. I mean, 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.380 so what happened was when we got with Eddie, we 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.060 went there, man, and he was doing an album called 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.260 Let's Get It On, the Untouchables compilation. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:06.679 Mm-hmm. 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.400 And so we worked with this producer by the name 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:09.940 of Dave Hall. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.279 Absolutely know who Dave Hall is. Dave Jam Hall. Yeah. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.300 Did all Mary J. Yes, sir. 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.930 And so he did a song for us. And at 0:06:17.970 --> 0:06:20.349 that particular time, we were all in his crib. We 0:06:20.410 --> 0:06:24.510 all stayed at Eddie's house. And the guys got into 0:06:24.529 --> 0:06:26.310 a fight, man. You know what I'm saying? 0:06:26.330 --> 0:06:27.430 The group. The group. 0:06:28.150 --> 0:06:31.650 He had like maybe 15, 16 artists living in his 0:06:31.690 --> 0:06:32.340 crib at the time. 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:32.940 Wait, wait, what? 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.180 He had about 15 or 16 artists living in his 0:06:35.220 --> 0:06:39.179 house at the time. Eddie did. We all living together, 0:06:39.660 --> 0:06:41.099 making this album, making this music. 0:06:41.140 --> 0:06:42.250 It's going to be some fights. 0:06:42.290 --> 0:06:45.080 Man, so they ended up breaking a big-ass hole in 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:45.810 his wall, man. 0:06:45.870 --> 0:06:46.990 So he was like, man, you know what? 0:06:47.029 --> 0:06:50.450 Everybody got to go home. He sent everybody home. And 0:06:50.470 --> 0:06:53.590 about a month later, he called me. He was like, yo, man, 0:06:53.610 --> 0:06:56.849 I want you to come back. I'm doing some work 0:06:57.170 --> 0:06:59.310 for this young kid called Usher. I want you to 0:06:59.350 --> 0:07:01.130 come back and write some songs. He knew I was 0:07:01.170 --> 0:07:03.090 a songwriter. came back, man. 0:07:03.130 --> 0:07:05.930 And, um, she wrote for us. And that's what think 0:07:05.970 --> 0:07:07.770 of you came from. Yeah. Think of you came from that, 0:07:07.870 --> 0:07:08.770 that situation. Yeah. 0:07:09.180 --> 0:07:10.540 I did another song on the album called, uh, you 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.400 took my heart and that was with Eddie, but I 0:07:12.420 --> 0:07:13.280 think if you was with puff. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.820 Yeah. And, uh, this is all around, all around the 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:16.760 same time. Yeah. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.840 All around the same time. I ended up staying out 0:07:18.860 --> 0:07:21.570 there for a little bit. And this is now in, 0:07:21.830 --> 0:07:24.750 this is now, yeah, this is our journey. Well, that, 0:07:24.770 --> 0:07:25.610 that area, that area. 0:07:25.650 --> 0:07:26.130 Yeah. Okay. 0:07:26.250 --> 0:07:28.670 He led right across the bridge. So, so I ended 0:07:28.710 --> 0:07:31.500 up doing some songs. Um, On my first album, I 0:07:31.540 --> 0:07:35.290 did In the Hood. I did Yearning and another song. 0:07:35.310 --> 0:07:37.950 He was like, yo, go home and get your group 0:07:37.970 --> 0:07:39.670 to sing these songs with you, man. I'm going to 0:07:39.690 --> 0:07:41.810 get y'all a deal. So I took the song. 0:07:41.830 --> 0:07:43.430 This is what Eddie says. Yeah. He's like, go home. 0:07:43.450 --> 0:07:45.330 I'm going to send you back home. Because when I 0:07:45.350 --> 0:07:46.430 was in New York, I was working. I was just 0:07:46.630 --> 0:07:49.230 writing songs and I had songs for the group. So 0:07:49.270 --> 0:07:49.780 I played them for him. 0:07:49.790 --> 0:07:52.300 He was like, yo, man, go home. Record those songs 0:07:52.310 --> 0:07:54.300 with the group. I'm going to get y'all signed. Yeah. 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.000 I went home, played the songs for the guys. They 0:07:57.020 --> 0:07:59.040 didn't like them. So. 0:07:59.890 --> 0:08:02.400 I went back. I said, man, they ain't really messing 0:08:02.420 --> 0:08:03.960 with the songs. He was like, all right, fuck it. 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:04.980 I'm going to get you a deal. 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:06.620 And that was it. 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.440 So that is the breakup of the group is that 0:08:10.460 --> 0:08:11.220 they just didn't like the music. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.340 They didn't want to do it. So were you always 0:08:13.380 --> 0:08:14.380 the main writer for the group? 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.260 No, it was me and another guy in the group 0:08:16.510 --> 0:08:18.590 by the name of Tobar, rest in peace. And he 0:08:18.610 --> 0:08:19.750 wrote a lot of songs with me as well. 0:08:20.310 --> 0:08:22.830 Yeah. So now you go back to Jersey. So now 0:08:22.850 --> 0:08:26.070 I go back to Jersey. And I tell Eddie, like. 0:08:26.170 --> 0:08:28.710 How did you feel about being a solo artist? I 0:08:28.750 --> 0:08:31.440 wasn't the lead singer of the group. Okay. And so, like, 0:08:31.620 --> 0:08:33.420 being a solo artist. You was ducked from the fire heartbeat. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:33.780 Yeah. 0:08:34.500 --> 0:08:36.500 I'm like, you know, I mean, I got some parts, 0:08:36.540 --> 0:08:38.360 but I'm not the lead singer. Right. The guy told 0:08:38.380 --> 0:08:40.319 about what the lead singer, you know what I'm saying? 0:08:40.380 --> 0:08:41.750 They not playing my music right. 0:08:44.330 --> 0:08:47.209 So, yeah, I'm like, damn, man, like, it kind of 0:08:47.230 --> 0:08:49.469 put me in a position where, like, damn, man, like, 0:08:49.550 --> 0:08:50.870 it's all me now. 0:08:50.910 --> 0:08:53.750 Like, I got to be in the front. That took 0:08:53.770 --> 0:08:55.080 some getting used to. Yeah. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.240 It took some getting used to, man, because that wasn't 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.370 what I wanted. But I wasn't going to turn it 0:08:59.380 --> 0:08:59.850 down either. 0:08:59.990 --> 0:09:00.550 You know what I'm saying? 0:09:00.590 --> 0:09:02.630 Like, I was going to take whatever was in front 0:09:02.670 --> 0:09:05.350 of me at that particular time. A potential record deal 0:09:05.530 --> 0:09:06.430 or flipping burgers? 0:09:06.530 --> 0:09:10.329 Yeah, I mean, record deal. Record deal. I'm taking it. Yeah. Yeah, man. 0:09:10.350 --> 0:09:12.830 That's how that group thing ended. When you get back 0:09:12.929 --> 0:09:17.010 to Jersey with Eddie F., how long does it take 0:09:17.850 --> 0:09:21.490 to get to LaFace? Well, I had already did the 0:09:21.550 --> 0:09:24.089 record for Usher. That was already on the radio and 0:09:24.110 --> 0:09:24.670 stuff like that. 0:09:24.690 --> 0:09:27.210 So L.A. and them, they were kind of familiar with 0:09:27.250 --> 0:09:29.410 my work. As a writer. As a writer. 0:09:29.429 --> 0:09:32.150 I think probably maybe like six, seven months it took. 0:09:32.170 --> 0:09:35.390 Because we ended up writing some other songs. And he 0:09:35.410 --> 0:09:38.000 set up a meeting with L.A. Reid. And we went 0:09:38.020 --> 0:09:42.780 to Atlanta. And I think I played him Yearning. And 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.580 I think I sung a natural thing to him on 0:09:45.620 --> 0:09:46.260 my first album. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:46.620 Yeah. 0:09:47.140 --> 0:09:49.170 He was like, yo, bro, man, just come back with 0:09:49.190 --> 0:09:51.130 a finished album. We're going to sign you, man. That's 0:09:51.130 --> 0:09:51.650 how it went. 0:09:51.650 --> 0:09:54.250 Had you done... A publishing deal or anything before that? 0:09:54.250 --> 0:09:56.610 I had a publishing deal before. Because I'm like, you 0:09:56.610 --> 0:09:58.290 got a record on the radio. I know it's a 0:09:58.330 --> 0:10:00.069 publishing deal. I had a publishing deal. I had a 0:10:00.070 --> 0:10:02.130 publishing deal. That was already locked in. Did you get 0:10:02.150 --> 0:10:04.290 a couple dollars? You like to give me the R & 0:10:04.130 --> 0:10:04.770 B money, man. 0:10:04.790 --> 0:10:08.210 Look, this was in the 90s, so the money wasn't 0:10:08.230 --> 0:10:09.689 that good. It was good for a young brother in 0:10:09.730 --> 0:10:12.410 Chicago that really didn't have nothing. But if I look 0:10:12.429 --> 0:10:14.000 back today, it was like peanuts, man. 0:10:14.340 --> 0:10:16.260 Come on, man. You got to tell us the number, man. 0:10:16.300 --> 0:10:19.110 What'd you sign? What'd I sign for? What's your first deal? Ooh, ooh, ooh. 0:10:20.690 --> 0:10:22.390 That hurts to even say it. It's like $ 70, 000, man. 0:10:22.429 --> 0:10:24.660 Listen, man, they gave me $ 35, 000. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.780 That went to my pocket. It was for $ 75, 000. 0:10:27.660 --> 0:10:30.119 Yeah, it was for $ 75, 000, but they only gave me 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:30.840 $ 40, 000 up front. 0:10:30.860 --> 0:10:34.890 See? That's another $ 30, 000. I was with you, man. I'm 0:10:34.910 --> 0:10:37.310 trying to tell you. We all went through this shit. 0:10:37.870 --> 0:10:39.670 But, I mean, when I took that check home, man, 0:10:39.710 --> 0:10:41.430 I showed that check to my father, but he was like, 0:10:42.450 --> 0:10:44.080 he was like, where'd you get all this money from? 0:10:44.100 --> 0:10:46.380 My father had never seen a check like that. Your 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.699 father was a gospel artist, right? Yeah, well, he was 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.460 a gospel singer. He really didn't, him and his brother 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.320 did a lot of gospel singing back in the days, 0:10:54.340 --> 0:10:55.040 you know what I'm saying? 0:10:55.059 --> 0:10:56.660 Really didn't do it professionally, but yeah. 0:10:57.460 --> 0:11:00.059 So him seeing that off music, he like, oh yeah, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.559 we up. Yeah, he was like, man, my pop should 0:11:02.580 --> 0:11:04.540 be like, look man, it didn't work for me, it 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:05.760 ain't gonna work for you. I don't even know why 0:11:05.780 --> 0:11:08.460 you putting this time into it. You know, that's kind of, 0:11:08.580 --> 0:11:10.140 he was like that. You know, you gonna get a job, 0:11:10.980 --> 0:11:13.240 you know, that kind of, Until he saw that check. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.120 He was like, I think you need to go back 0:11:16.140 --> 0:11:16.700 to New York, son. 0:11:17.820 --> 0:11:18.240 Wow. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.819 How did it feel your first time you heard Think 0:11:22.860 --> 0:11:23.520 of You on the radio? 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.540 Like the five heartbeats? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.370 And to be like, yo, man, I couldn't believe it, though. 0:11:30.410 --> 0:11:31.230 Those are my words. 0:11:31.530 --> 0:11:31.770 Right. 0:11:31.970 --> 0:11:33.770 You know what I'm saying? It was just amazing, man, 0:11:33.790 --> 0:11:37.250 just the feeling of it. Yeah. Just to be in 0:11:37.270 --> 0:11:39.130 that environment, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm 0:11:39.150 --> 0:11:42.930 seeing Puffin on TV, Biggie on TV, and now I'm 0:11:42.970 --> 0:11:43.570 in a room with him. 0:11:44.090 --> 0:11:46.469 Now I'm in these places where I see these people 0:11:46.510 --> 0:11:47.770 and I'm working with them. 0:11:47.970 --> 0:11:48.190 Yeah. 0:11:48.290 --> 0:11:50.170 You know what I'm saying? So that alone was amazing. 0:11:50.250 --> 0:11:52.349 I just knew at that particular time I'm on the 0:11:52.390 --> 0:11:52.809 right track. 0:11:52.990 --> 0:11:57.550 Did you identify that Usher was a star then? I 0:11:57.590 --> 0:11:58.050 knew it, man. 0:11:58.090 --> 0:12:00.860 I mean, he had the charisma, man. I mean, real 0:12:00.890 --> 0:12:03.600 playful at a young age. But, I mean, his work 0:12:03.700 --> 0:12:05.380 ethic was, like, amazing, man. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.650 He was... Which is still what... Yeah, man. He wanted it, man. 0:12:08.690 --> 0:12:10.630 He's at the highest level. Yeah, he really wanted it, man. 0:12:10.910 --> 0:12:12.870 You could tell. That's dope, man. All right. 0:12:12.910 --> 0:12:15.270 So now, okay, you got your publishing deal. Got a 0:12:15.270 --> 0:12:17.150 couple dollars in your pocket. You got enough to survive. 0:12:17.290 --> 0:12:19.480 Enough to survive. Enough to survive. At that time, I 0:12:19.500 --> 0:12:22.170 got three kids already. Wait, what? I'm 19, 20. I 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.140 got two kids already. Well, you jumped off the porch early. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.340 We was already in. Okay. It was already in. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:30.220 And that's something I was going to bring up as 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.680 well that I actually was going to tell you, man, 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.300 that I really respect. about how you've carried yourself in 0:12:36.340 --> 0:12:40.910 your career. Donnell Jones, the artist and Donnell Jones, the 0:12:40.970 --> 0:12:43.470 man in the real world are completely. 0:12:43.570 --> 0:12:46.510 Oh yeah. People and people don't know your business. Yeah. Yeah. 0:12:46.690 --> 0:12:49.160 You know what I'm saying? Like quiet, man. I'm the guy. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.239 I think that's cool. I appreciate that. I think that's cool. 0:12:52.260 --> 0:12:53.880 Cause I didn't know you had two kids by 19. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.980 Oh yeah. Already. That was already, I was off the porch. Okay. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:58.960 Real Chicago. Yeah, man. Real Chicago. 0:13:01.110 --> 0:13:03.790 So yeah, man, like, like, Yeah, I came into business 0:13:03.830 --> 0:13:04.429 with two kids. 0:13:04.790 --> 0:13:06.540 Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it was important 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.100 for me to get out here and make it happen. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.459 To get to it. Yeah. So now, y'all go back, 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.040 make the album. So we go back. With no deal, though. 0:13:14.220 --> 0:13:17.250 With just the, when y'all make it, y'all gonna get one. No, 0:13:17.300 --> 0:13:19.470 you talking about... With LaFace. For LaFace. 0:13:19.490 --> 0:13:22.610 No, so when I get with LaFace, I played them 0:13:22.630 --> 0:13:25.490 like three songs. And they like, yo, man, go make 0:13:25.510 --> 0:13:27.590 an album, come back, I'm gonna put you out. Did 0:13:27.610 --> 0:13:30.890 he give you guys some bread? So they signed us. 0:13:31.030 --> 0:13:33.290 Okay. They signed us. But I'm already signed to Eddie's. 0:13:33.490 --> 0:13:37.859 To Untouchables. Yeah. So, I mean, it's Untouchables LaFace at 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:39.280 this particular time. Okay. Now y'all got a label partner. 0:13:39.300 --> 0:13:41.260 Now we got a label partner. And so we go 0:13:41.300 --> 0:13:42.580 back and we record the album, man. 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.560 And this is when hip-hop and R & B was like. 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:47.960 Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did a lot of sample records. Fire, yeah. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.630 You know, so our goal at that particular time was 0:13:50.710 --> 0:13:52.730 to be the male version of Mary J. 0:13:52.750 --> 0:13:53.070 Blige. 0:13:53.890 --> 0:13:56.590 You know, that's the sign we were going for. And 0:13:56.610 --> 0:13:58.470 I think we accomplished that on the first album because 0:13:58.490 --> 0:14:01.870 that's that's the sound. Why do you think or is 0:14:01.890 --> 0:14:04.230 there a reason that Charlton go to Uptown? 0:14:05.630 --> 0:14:06.329 I don't know. 0:14:06.590 --> 0:14:11.070 It probably would have been a great because his relationship 0:14:11.110 --> 0:14:11.890 and he's already there. 0:14:12.030 --> 0:14:12.250 Yeah. 0:14:12.590 --> 0:14:14.630 But I think, you know, and I don't want to 0:14:14.670 --> 0:14:16.930 speak for Eddie, but I think that, you know, he 0:14:16.950 --> 0:14:19.150 wanted to. build his own thing, you know what I'm saying? 0:14:19.210 --> 0:14:21.010 And do something outside of the system. I'm going to 0:14:21.050 --> 0:14:24.050 get Eddie on here. Eddie, you know, I've been calling you. 0:14:24.350 --> 0:14:27.530 He can answer that better. I think he wanted to 0:14:27.570 --> 0:14:29.170 do something outside of that, you know what I'm saying, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.270 to get his own thing started. Sometimes you can do 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.700 some things in-house and you just want. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:34.780 To be outside. For sure. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.400 And I think sometimes when people are too familiar with you, 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.380 they don't really fully see your genius. 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.780 True. That's true. You know what I'm saying? 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.560 I think it goes, I mean, you know, it kind 0:14:46.580 --> 0:14:48.680 of goes back to I always wondered when I was 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:49.740 a kid, I'm like, wow, you know. 0:14:49.780 --> 0:14:52.660 Warren G is not on Death Row. That's crazy. You 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.800 know what I'm saying? You would think so. Yeah. 0:14:55.020 --> 0:14:57.280 Or even, most people don't realize this, and I'm sure 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.890 you realize because you were on this label, Babyface was 0:14:59.930 --> 0:15:00.750 never signed to LaFace. 0:15:01.310 --> 0:15:04.350 That's crazy, too. That's crazy. He was never signed to LaFace. 0:15:04.370 --> 0:15:06.510 That's crazy, yeah. Yeah, the fact that, you know, like 0:15:06.530 --> 0:15:08.910 a Babyface is not signed to LaFace. That's crazy. 0:15:09.170 --> 0:15:12.300 It's wild, but you start thinking about how, like, okay, 0:15:12.340 --> 0:15:14.420 people sometimes are like, oh, well, I'm going. 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.300 To take this here. Right. Don't put all your eggs 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:17.580 in one basket. It'll make more sense over here. 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:17.720 Right. 0:15:18.940 --> 0:15:21.380 The focus will be different. Mm-hmm. You know? And you 0:15:21.420 --> 0:15:24.760 were early, LaFaith. I was. I mean, I was. Well, 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.600 I don't... It would have been a couple years. Yeah, yeah. 0:15:27.620 --> 0:15:30.740 They weren't like an established, established... I mean, they had... 0:15:30.540 --> 0:15:34.950 They had Outkast. They had Goody Mob, Usher, TLC, Tony Braxton. 0:15:34.990 --> 0:15:36.710 You know what I'm saying? So they had the bulk 0:15:36.750 --> 0:15:39.430 of everybody who was there. They had another artist by 0:15:39.450 --> 0:15:40.330 the name of Sam Salter. 0:15:40.350 --> 0:15:41.950 Of course. They had. 0:15:42.210 --> 0:15:45.440 I wrote I Like Them Girls... Obviously, it ended up 0:15:45.500 --> 0:15:46.940 on Tyrese. I wrote it for Usher. 0:15:47.100 --> 0:15:54.880 Really? Sam Salter ended up cutting it when Usher's, because L.A. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:55.540 wanted the record. 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.210 And he wanted the record so bad, they wanted to 0:15:59.230 --> 0:16:02.090 keep it in-house, that then Sam ended up cutting it. Wow. 0:16:02.850 --> 0:16:05.590 And then it ended up, like, something happened with Sam's project, 0:16:05.730 --> 0:16:07.190 and then it ended up on Tyrese. 0:16:07.750 --> 0:16:10.790 That's crazy. Records used to go around like that, though, 0:16:10.830 --> 0:16:13.390 back then. A couple times. So that was good. It 0:16:13.430 --> 0:16:14.770 was the first ever Underdog record. 0:16:15.070 --> 0:16:15.430 Wow. 0:16:15.490 --> 0:16:16.370 The first ever Underdog record. 0:16:16.390 --> 0:16:16.550 Wow. 0:16:16.710 --> 0:16:19.290 Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, and I'm very familiar 0:16:19.310 --> 0:16:22.250 with Sam, man. Rest in peace. Amazing guy. Amazing guy. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.960 So now you got the first project out. For you. 0:16:36.380 --> 0:16:39.859 Are you still in the mindset of, I'm really just 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.060 a writer. This is not. 0:16:43.410 --> 0:16:45.390 What I really want to be doing all the time. 0:16:45.410 --> 0:16:47.690 I don't want to be singing and having to go 0:16:47.710 --> 0:16:49.030 do interviews by myself. 0:16:49.250 --> 0:16:51.210 Yeah. I'm in that mindset. 0:16:51.250 --> 0:16:53.630 Yeah. I like being in front of the camera and 0:16:53.670 --> 0:16:56.020 being on stage and all that because I get to 0:16:56.060 --> 0:16:56.900 be somebody else. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:58.360 Okay. 0:16:58.380 --> 0:17:02.000 But my heart is in the studio, writing and coming 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.990 up with ideas and trying to be creative. You know, so, yeah, 0:17:05.070 --> 0:17:06.730 it was a struggle. But I got to the point, 0:17:06.750 --> 0:17:08.369 I was like, you know what, I can't have one 0:17:08.390 --> 0:17:11.590 without the other. Because for me, what it's grown into 0:17:11.750 --> 0:17:14.030 is I love to be able to create something and 0:17:14.050 --> 0:17:15.909 then go out and see how people really feel about it. 0:17:16.230 --> 0:17:17.230 It's like I. 0:17:17.130 --> 0:17:20.030 See the baby being born and see it all the 0:17:20.050 --> 0:17:21.670 way up until, you know, you send it off to college. 0:17:21.910 --> 0:17:23.930 Right. You know. Yeah, I just took my son to 0:17:23.970 --> 0:17:26.470 college last week, bro. My daughter's going too, man. It 0:17:26.490 --> 0:17:28.790 was tough. Yeah. It was tough. Yeah. This is your first. 0:17:28.890 --> 0:17:30.889 I was stuck in it out, too. I thought I was. 0:17:31.410 --> 0:17:33.109 I thought I was, but then my baby girl, he 0:17:33.130 --> 0:17:36.250 had to drop him off. He let her see me 0:17:36.270 --> 0:17:40.730 like this. Just look straight, nigga. Look straight. Don't, don't 0:17:40.750 --> 0:17:45.530 blink too hard. One came down. Don't blink too hard. Ooh, man. 0:17:45.770 --> 0:17:47.970 I should have thought to you, man. I ain't gonna, 0:17:48.050 --> 0:17:50.260 I ain't gonna hold you. I did. I did. That's 0:17:50.300 --> 0:17:50.960 what's up. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.320 But you know, like you said, you, we're, we're, we're 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.340 taking our, our babies into, you know, putting them in 0:18:00.380 --> 0:18:00.820 the world. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:01.120 Yeah. 0:18:01.540 --> 0:18:06.879 And music is the same way. So I completely understand that, man. 0:18:07.020 --> 0:18:10.619 Do you feel like the first project was what you 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:12.300 wanted it to be as far as just even from 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.460 the acclaim that it got or the success that it got? 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.500 How did that feel for you at the time? I 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.790 thought it could have been more successful. I appreciated the 0:18:21.830 --> 0:18:25.110 fact that LaFace gave me the shot. I just don't 0:18:25.170 --> 0:18:28.010 think we had enough marketing dollars in the budget to 0:18:28.030 --> 0:18:30.860 really do what I felt needed to be done. done 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.620 with that particular project but they gave me the shot 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:35.959 yeah you know i'm saying i was very happy with 0:18:36.020 --> 0:18:40.240 that i think that musically the album was another great 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.340 album it was yeah it was a really good album 0:18:42.460 --> 0:18:44.820 and you're celebrating this year yeah it's my 30 man 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:45.180 yeah it's. 0:18:45.100 --> 0:18:47.260 Been 30 years wow bro 30 years man i. 0:18:47.220 --> 0:18:50.360 Mean time flies man i mean like damn this shit's 0:18:50.380 --> 0:18:53.000 like 30 years makes me look old feel old you 0:18:53.020 --> 0:18:56.739 know nah bro we young bro I'm telling you, man, 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.420 still moving fast. Whose idea was it to do knocks 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.500 me off my feet for you to remake that record. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.159 It wasn't nobody's idea, man. I was produced by the 0:19:05.180 --> 0:19:08.960 name of Darren Winnington. He needed some, somebody to sing 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.300 it for him, for his producer reel. Cause he was 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:12.980 trying to get work. He was like, yo, I just 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.260 want people to hear what I'm doing, man. So won't 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.359 you come over and sing the song for me? And I, 0:19:17.619 --> 0:19:19.619 his wife sang it to me and I sang it 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:21.870 to the, to the, to the recorder. Just like she 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:22.330 sang it to me. 0:19:22.550 --> 0:19:22.720 Right. 0:19:23.180 --> 0:19:24.940 And had no idea it was a Sleepy Wonder song, 0:19:25.020 --> 0:19:26.640 even though I'm a Sleepy Wonder fan. At the time, 0:19:26.660 --> 0:19:28.620 you didn't even know. That particular song, I didn't hear. 0:19:29.010 --> 0:19:31.889 Okay. You had so many. It can do that to you. 0:19:31.950 --> 0:19:34.890 And so I ended up doing the song, man, and 0:19:35.330 --> 0:19:37.570 Eddie heard it. He was like, yo, bro, this got 0:19:37.590 --> 0:19:39.810 to go on your album. I'm like, yo, what y'all doing? 0:19:40.010 --> 0:19:43.290 Yeah. And then LA heard it. They was like, yo, man, 0:19:43.310 --> 0:19:46.450 this is it. The Accident record became the biggest record 0:19:46.470 --> 0:19:49.750 off that project. Really? Yep. That's crazy. That's how that happened. 0:19:49.770 --> 0:19:49.980 I mean, boy. 0:19:50.180 --> 0:19:53.040 It is, you know, if anybody's been in this business 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.220 long enough, things like that happen all the time. 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.969 It'd be the last record you write. Right. The one, 0:19:59.010 --> 0:20:03.869 you know. Yep. So, you get this project out. You 0:20:03.890 --> 0:20:07.030 don't feel like it hit the way you want. Nah. 0:20:07.090 --> 0:20:10.990 What's your mindset going into, Your next project. 0:20:11.630 --> 0:20:15.449 My mindset is, because I'm a little bit upset at 0:20:15.490 --> 0:20:17.090 the fact that we didn't do better. 0:20:17.330 --> 0:20:17.510 Yeah. 0:20:18.050 --> 0:20:21.470 But what made it good was that we did enough 0:20:21.710 --> 0:20:23.370 to make them give me another shot. 0:20:23.570 --> 0:20:26.129 Right. Because sometimes you don't get a second shot. Man, listen. 0:20:26.150 --> 0:20:28.260 You know what I'm saying? Get that first one and 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.959 it's over. Yeah. So we did well enough for them 0:20:30.980 --> 0:20:32.160 to give us another shot, man. 0:20:32.300 --> 0:20:36.000 And my mindset going into this next project was, let's 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.810 try to make it where every song could possibly be 0:20:39.850 --> 0:20:42.510 a single. That's not even played with this record, man. 0:20:43.090 --> 0:20:46.389 Every song needs to sound just as good as the 0:20:46.410 --> 0:20:48.970 last one we did. And that was the mindset going 0:20:49.020 --> 0:20:51.600 into it and that's what we set out to do. Well, 0:20:51.619 --> 0:20:54.220 I'm just going to go ahead and say congratulations because 0:20:54.580 --> 0:20:55.480 you accomplished that. 0:20:55.980 --> 0:20:59.300 Man, that's what we... That album, man. I told you, 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.679 I'd be fighting. The fight ain't even a strong fight 0:21:03.900 --> 0:21:07.109 for me because most people agree with me on that one. 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.600 You know what I mean? I think You know, I 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:11.580 go a little wild sometimes when I start. 0:21:11.900 --> 0:21:15.570 Yeah, because it is this. All right, bro. I get it. 0:21:15.660 --> 0:21:20.449 I'm like, no, because where I want to be, bro, is. 0:21:20.470 --> 0:21:24.090 It's just at such a high level for me. 0:21:24.470 --> 0:21:25.490 I appreciate that, man. 0:21:25.530 --> 0:21:30.179 You know, and listen, I've had conversations with people that 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.500 share remain nameless, but people that were a part of, 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:33.619 you know, that whole world. 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.120 I'm like, listen, it's the greatest album ever that came 0:21:36.180 --> 0:21:39.820 out of the face. Wow. Wow. It's my opinion. And 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:41.280 you know, to be honest with you, man, it, it, 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:42.840 and they go, they're going to attack me. Some people 0:21:42.859 --> 0:21:44.500 are going to attack me. It's cool. It's fine. 0:21:44.820 --> 0:21:47.460 The funny thing is, you know what, man? Like I 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.800 couldn't believe when our LA say that LA said that too. 0:21:49.820 --> 0:21:50.740 I was like, wow, man. 0:21:50.810 --> 0:21:53.629 I mean, that just, that says a lot, man, especially 0:21:53.650 --> 0:21:55.590 with him being involved in so many projects on that 0:21:55.609 --> 0:21:58.010 particular label, man. I mean, for him to say that, man, 0:21:58.070 --> 0:22:00.330 I mean, that, that was really touching to me, you know? 0:22:00.369 --> 0:22:03.010 Yeah. Yeah. No, bro. Like, come on. You know what? 0:22:03.050 --> 0:22:05.000 I'm just going, I'm a, I'm a, you know, we're going, 0:22:05.020 --> 0:22:06.460 we're going to go through it. We're going to really 0:22:06.500 --> 0:22:11.169 go through it, man. Um, We're going to get to 0:22:11.190 --> 0:22:11.790 where I want to be. 0:22:11.890 --> 0:22:14.050 Okay. Because that one we got to really dissect. Okay. 0:22:14.490 --> 0:22:17.330 But we're going to start with You Know What's Up. Ah, man. 0:22:17.550 --> 0:22:19.990 That record right there, man. When I heard the track, 0:22:20.770 --> 0:22:23.430 I was like, man, this record is so dope. 0:22:23.670 --> 0:22:26.530 Yeah. But it wasn't called You Know What's Up. Okay. 0:22:26.570 --> 0:22:28.859 It was called something else at the time. It was 0:22:28.890 --> 0:22:30.880 called When You Hear the Car Horn Blow. 0:22:31.619 --> 0:22:35.880 What? That's what it was called. That's what it was called. 0:22:35.900 --> 0:22:37.540 It's literally what it was called. That's what it was called. 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.960 When You Hear the Car Horn Blow. Blow. Yeah. And 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.440 it wasn't, you know, it was cool, but it wasn't, 0:22:44.460 --> 0:22:45.500 you know, what's up. 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:49.050 And I think Eddie knew that when we started doing 0:22:49.210 --> 0:22:51.689 the demo for it, I know he kind of knew 0:22:51.710 --> 0:22:53.690 that I wasn't really into it because I wasn't really 0:22:53.710 --> 0:22:54.350 giving it my all. 0:22:54.630 --> 0:22:54.870 Yeah. 0:22:55.050 --> 0:22:56.450 He was like, no, no, no, we got to get 0:22:56.470 --> 0:22:58.510 something that really fits him. So they went back in 0:22:58.550 --> 0:23:00.190 and rewrote it a couple of times. 0:23:00.630 --> 0:23:03.190 Oh, it needed rewrites. Yeah, it needed a couple of times. Okay. 0:23:03.350 --> 0:23:05.650 And then they ended up with, you know, what's up, man. 0:23:05.820 --> 0:23:10.160 And that was it. So the fun fact of Anthony Hamilton- Yeah. 0:23:10.300 --> 0:23:11.060 Being a writer on it. 0:23:11.060 --> 0:23:11.240 Yeah. 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:13.780 This is back in his uptown days. Yes. Obviously. Yep. 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:16.380 And my brother Belay with Muhammad. Yep. Yep. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.340 Bro, I'm like, I didn't know that he was a 0:23:20.380 --> 0:23:24.020 co-writer on it, Anthony, until he came on the podcast. Yep. 0:23:24.340 --> 0:23:26.920 Anthony was definitely in the room, man. No way. 0:23:27.190 --> 0:23:28.390 Yeah. Yep. 0:23:29.390 --> 0:23:33.389 But he originally probably was part of when the Carhorn came. 0:23:33.900 --> 0:23:39.400 I can't even say it. When you hear the car 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:45.100 horn blow. Man. No, guys. No. I mean, it was 0:23:45.140 --> 0:23:45.240 a no. 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.040 You know what I'm saying? Because we ended up going 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:48.720 back and rewriting it a couple of times, man. 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:49.200 Yeah. 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:51.460 And so we got it right. And no, some records 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:52.879 take that, man. Some records take for you to go 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:54.859 back in and redo it again. 0:23:55.140 --> 0:23:56.700 Now, y'all got it right. You did it. We got 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:58.120 it right. I got it all the way right. Y'all 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:00.320 got it all the way right. And then, so y'all 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:00.689 cut it. 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:04.250 And that was the last song we did on the album. Yeah, 0:24:04.270 --> 0:24:05.990 that was the very last song we did on the album. 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:12.300 Another jam. Yep. When does Left Eye become a part 0:24:12.340 --> 0:24:13.680 of the record? Left Eye. 0:24:13.700 --> 0:24:15.960 Because obviously it wasn't from the jump that y'all was 0:24:15.980 --> 0:24:18.080 just going to do a record together. Left Eye becomes 0:24:18.260 --> 0:24:22.550 part of it. I think now they want to put 0:24:22.590 --> 0:24:27.489 the record out. They're doing their white labeling, sending it out. 0:24:27.510 --> 0:24:30.050 Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? And they were like, 0:24:30.090 --> 0:24:31.310 but we need something for the mix shows. You know 0:24:31.330 --> 0:24:33.560 what I'm saying? We ain't got nothing for the mix shows. yo, 0:24:33.580 --> 0:24:34.740 who we going to get to get on this joint? 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:40.050 And I guess Eddie flew down to Atlanta and they 0:24:40.130 --> 0:24:42.410 brainstormed and came up with Lisa, man. 0:24:42.630 --> 0:24:44.790 Yeah. And she went in there and did her thing. 0:24:44.810 --> 0:24:46.990 She went crazy. Yeah. She went crazy, bro. 0:24:47.170 --> 0:24:48.650 And then, you know, I think what helped it too 0:24:48.670 --> 0:24:51.410 was the fact that they had just came off of that, 0:24:51.490 --> 0:24:54.070 you know, where she had burned Andre House down. 0:24:54.150 --> 0:24:56.670 Oh, yeah. And it was real big. 0:24:56.690 --> 0:24:58.449 Yeah, yeah. And she jumped on that record and they just, 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:00.919 It just, all the chaos and everything that was involved, 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:04.040 it just made it bigger. Like the marketing you had 0:25:04.100 --> 0:25:08.840 always been looking for. Man, exactly, man. And it worked out, man. 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:09.580 It really worked out. 0:25:09.859 --> 0:25:12.420 Did y'all have a chance to perform the record together? 0:25:12.480 --> 0:25:13.020 We did. 0:25:13.060 --> 0:25:16.460 We did the BET Awards. We did, no, not the 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:18.119 BET Awards. We did the Soul Train Awards. 0:25:18.590 --> 0:25:22.510 Okay. And then we also did the Mobile Awards in London. Okay. 0:25:22.810 --> 0:25:24.810 That is really dope. Okay, so you know what's up? 0:25:25.150 --> 0:25:28.010 Shout out to Darren Lighty. Eddie F. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:25:28.050 --> 0:25:29.290 The producer's on it. Brother, man. 0:25:29.670 --> 0:25:34.260 Shorty got her eyes on me. We've been talking since two. 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:35.480 What you going? 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:38.200 Listen, sometimes you have to put it on the table 0:25:38.260 --> 0:25:39.859 and say, hey, listen. What you doing? I'm going to 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:41.000 get up out of here. Yeah. 0:25:41.380 --> 0:25:43.399 And either you coming with me or you not. Yeah, 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:48.050 you better do something because. We've been talking a long time. So, 0:25:49.030 --> 0:25:52.149 were you, are you in the mode with these songs 0:25:52.190 --> 0:25:55.439 where it's, this is your life? Was it that for you? 0:25:55.540 --> 0:25:57.210 We live in it. Yeah. We live in it. 0:25:57.640 --> 0:26:03.520 This was written and produced, co-produced with Wes and Eric Williams. 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:08.500 Okay. From Blackstreet. Yeah, yeah. And... Kyle West? No. Oh, what? 0:26:08.580 --> 0:26:11.330 You said... Wes. Produced by the name of Wes. Oh, 0:26:11.330 --> 0:26:13.429 produced by Wes. Okay, okay. Because I know Kyle West. Oh, yeah, 0:26:13.450 --> 0:26:15.310 Kyle West. I worked with him. Yeah, yeah. So we 0:26:15.350 --> 0:26:16.609 got in the studio. We in Atlanta. 0:26:16.869 --> 0:26:19.530 And it just happened. Tommy Martin was the guitar player. 0:26:20.390 --> 0:26:21.350 He's a really good guitar player. 0:26:21.369 --> 0:26:21.990 He's got a guitar. 0:26:22.210 --> 0:26:22.370 Yeah. 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:27.500 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that legendary cover. Right. You're on 0:26:28.060 --> 0:26:32.310 the stool with a guitar. Yeah, man. And this is 0:26:32.330 --> 0:26:37.630 a very guitar-heavy album. Oh, yeah. You wasn't playing the guitar. No. 0:26:38.230 --> 0:26:41.550 And you don't play the guitar. I don't play the guitar. 0:26:41.609 --> 0:26:46.250 It may appear like I play the guitar. I'm like, man, 0:26:46.310 --> 0:26:50.610 that's Donnell. When Donnell get on that guitar, it's crazy. Yeah. 0:26:51.540 --> 0:26:53.219 And we weren't going to say nothing otherwise. You know 0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:53.619 what I'm saying? 0:26:53.640 --> 0:26:55.379 We were going to let everybody feel like they want 0:26:55.400 --> 0:26:57.180 to feel or think what they want to think. 0:26:57.660 --> 0:27:00.699 But no, I wasn't playing any of it. The cover 0:27:00.800 --> 0:27:04.100 feels very Chicago. Yeah, man. It feels very Chicago. Like, 0:27:04.180 --> 0:27:05.360 when I look at it, I'm like, oh, yeah, he 0:27:05.380 --> 0:27:08.260 from the shot. Yeah, yeah. It was intentional, man. It 0:27:08.280 --> 0:27:11.260 was intentional. We wanted it to look like blues, like 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:15.620 an old blues shot, you know? Yeah. And we accomplished that, man. 0:27:15.800 --> 0:27:17.780 It was fun doing it. And yeah, man, I remember. 0:27:17.800 --> 0:27:20.310 Because you actually play piano. Yes. Yes. You didn't want 0:27:20.330 --> 0:27:22.970 to sit at the piano? No, man. That guitar shot 0:27:22.990 --> 0:27:27.179 was just everything. You know what I'm saying? 0:27:27.220 --> 0:27:27.380 Yeah. 0:27:27.460 --> 0:27:29.640 That was great, bro. That is great. Okay, so Shorty 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:31.840 got eyes on me. Talking to his two, what you 0:27:31.880 --> 0:27:34.480 going to do? All right. Have you seen her? Have 0:27:34.520 --> 0:27:37.660 you seen her? Now, that is Eric Williams and Wes. 0:27:38.240 --> 0:27:38.720 They did that. 0:27:39.070 --> 0:27:42.210 I had nothing to do with that record, but the vibe, man. 0:27:42.330 --> 0:27:45.109 It's just one of them records, man. You can just 0:27:45.130 --> 0:27:48.149 sit back, man, and close your eyes and visualize a 0:27:48.170 --> 0:27:50.939 video without even seeing it. You know, it was the 0:27:50.980 --> 0:27:53.780 storytelling and the way he did it, man, was just immaculate. 0:27:54.460 --> 0:27:57.030 And the fact, though, too, is that you being a 0:27:57.050 --> 0:28:01.310 songwriter and a producer, that you were open-minded enough to 0:28:01.350 --> 0:28:02.010 be like, listen, if. 0:28:01.970 --> 0:28:04.810 A record is great, it's great. I got to cut this. Man, 0:28:04.869 --> 0:28:05.790 that's how I am, though. 0:28:05.869 --> 0:28:08.570 I mean, if I don't do nothing on the album 0:28:09.230 --> 0:28:12.430 and I got a whole bunch of dope-ass records, I'm, yeah, 0:28:12.490 --> 0:28:13.389 I take that over anything. 0:28:13.430 --> 0:28:13.570 Yeah. 0:28:13.590 --> 0:28:16.730 Because, I mean, it's not about me doing everything or 0:28:16.750 --> 0:28:20.260 me doing it. I just want the end goal would be, man, 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:21.820 let's get the best records we can get. Like, it 0:28:21.840 --> 0:28:24.020 doesn't matter who do it. I just want the fans 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:27.360 to be happy. Made the fans happy, bro. I appreciate that, man, 0:28:27.380 --> 0:28:29.360 for real. We knew exactly what we wanted to do, 0:28:29.520 --> 0:28:32.600 but nobody knows what, you know, what people in the 0:28:32.619 --> 0:28:33.459 world gonna think, you know. 0:28:34.560 --> 0:28:36.480 This love. This love. 0:28:37.240 --> 0:28:40.360 Oh, man, co-produced with, with Sheldon Good, man. I mean, 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:43.600 another great guitar player, man. 0:28:43.660 --> 0:28:45.060 I made a lot of matches together. 0:28:45.100 --> 0:28:47.960 He came in with that, with that, that guitar lick, man. 0:28:48.020 --> 0:28:50.010 And I mean, it was, Amazing, brother. 0:28:50.370 --> 0:28:50.690 Amazing. 0:28:50.790 --> 0:28:54.110 Yeah. And then, you know, lyrically, I was living it. 0:28:54.110 --> 0:28:55.310 You know what I'm saying? Do you mind if I 0:28:55.330 --> 0:28:57.950 take this seat right here? I mean, it was just 0:28:59.050 --> 0:29:00.710 that time in New York was like that. You know 0:29:00.730 --> 0:29:02.800 what I'm saying? We'd be going to the tunnel. We'd 0:29:02.820 --> 0:29:03.340 be partying. 0:29:03.560 --> 0:29:07.400 It's almost every night. And life was like that, man. 0:29:08.080 --> 0:29:11.060 Once you get there, you stay in New York. I 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:13.660 stay in New York. You know what I'm saying? I 0:29:13.680 --> 0:29:17.010 left Chicago in 1995 when I officially moved. 0:29:19.340 --> 0:29:22.520 Yeah. To New York. Because everybody else on the label 0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.920 was pretty much in Atlanta. Yeah. But I mean, but see, 0:29:25.980 --> 0:29:28.780 Eddie was from New York. Right. I was on his 0:29:29.080 --> 0:29:31.380 squad up there. Yeah. And so, you know, we just 0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:33.870 come down to Atlanta, you know, and just, you know, 0:29:34.690 --> 0:29:36.330 come down and play our records and stuff like that. 0:29:36.350 --> 0:29:39.150 But we we lived in New York. Yeah. Yeah. So 0:29:39.170 --> 0:29:41.950 that's why the vibe feels like that too. Yeah. Yeah. 0:29:42.010 --> 0:29:43.230 Very hip hop. 0:29:43.370 --> 0:29:46.960 I think that you guys, like, in my opinion, is it, 0:29:47.070 --> 0:29:50.430 the marriages from R & B and hip hop, it's 0:29:50.830 --> 0:29:51.709 absolutely perfect. 0:29:52.150 --> 0:29:54.090 I appreciate that. Absolutely perfect, man. 0:29:54.130 --> 0:29:56.430 Like, and you can, like you said, now that you 0:29:56.450 --> 0:29:58.350 explained it to like, man, we at the tunnel every 0:29:58.390 --> 0:30:01.570 other night, we partying, we, Man, we really live in 0:30:01.620 --> 0:30:05.650 this life. And that's something that I have conversations with 0:30:05.730 --> 0:30:10.250 artists now where they're just like, oh, you know, sometimes 0:30:10.310 --> 0:30:12.590 I get stuck in the inspiration. So let's go outside. 0:30:13.330 --> 0:30:14.410 Go go live life. 0:30:14.490 --> 0:30:18.060 Yeah. Go get rejected. Yeah. And that's why, you know, 0:30:18.080 --> 0:30:19.480 some people say, why it takes so long for you 0:30:19.520 --> 0:30:21.830 to come out with albums. Because I got to live. 0:30:22.010 --> 0:30:22.890 You got to live. I got to go through some 0:30:22.930 --> 0:30:23.990 things first. You know what I'm saying? I got to 0:30:24.010 --> 0:30:26.190 have something to talk about. Yeah. Sometimes you got to 0:30:26.230 --> 0:30:27.900 go run up on a girl where you know. 0:30:27.740 --> 0:30:31.719 You punching above your weight class and get that rejection. 0:30:31.740 --> 0:30:34.700 Right. Or you'll be like, oh, shit. Yeah. Or she's 0:30:34.740 --> 0:30:37.560 going to go with you. You know what I mean? Right. 0:30:37.800 --> 0:30:40.340 But you got to have those experiences when you're creating 0:30:40.360 --> 0:30:42.140 this music, man, because. 0:30:43.220 --> 0:30:45.920 The people are experiencing life. Yep. And there are more 0:30:45.960 --> 0:30:48.470 people going through what you're going through than you think. True. 0:30:48.870 --> 0:30:49.470 That is so true. 0:30:49.770 --> 0:30:52.650 Instead of, you know, And as a writer, because, you know, 0:30:52.670 --> 0:30:54.310 I've gone through it as well, where you're just trying 0:30:54.330 --> 0:30:57.469 to write the most poetic, you know, make people have 0:30:57.490 --> 0:31:00.560 to think about it, the double entendre metaphor. 0:31:00.720 --> 0:31:02.959 Right. Other than just being like, hey, man, you know 0:31:02.980 --> 0:31:05.280 what's up. Yep. Yep. I mean, the simplest. 0:31:05.300 --> 0:31:08.120 Because I think, man, I think the reason why simplicity 0:31:08.140 --> 0:31:11.060 works so much is because it's like, you know, you 0:31:11.080 --> 0:31:12.100 don't have to think about it too much. 0:31:13.420 --> 0:31:16.760 And some of the best songs have been like ABC. Yes. 0:31:17.100 --> 0:31:19.920 You know, just the one, two, three. Yeah. It's very simple. 0:31:19.940 --> 0:31:20.680 Sing along. Yeah. 0:31:21.690 --> 0:31:24.810 You got to do music, man, that people can sing 0:31:24.870 --> 0:31:25.370 along to. 0:31:25.710 --> 0:31:30.610 Here's where we're going to get deep. Uh-oh. All Her Love. Hey, man. 0:31:31.130 --> 0:31:35.060 That was somebody else's woman, man. You know what, man? 0:31:37.760 --> 0:31:39.800 The reason I wrote that song, man, is because I 0:31:40.380 --> 0:31:42.880 was like, you know what? There's so many women that 0:31:42.920 --> 0:31:44.980 go through this. You know what I'm saying? But I'm 0:31:45.000 --> 0:31:47.260 going to write it from a male's perspective. Oh. 0:31:47.540 --> 0:31:48.100 You know what I'm saying? 0:31:48.120 --> 0:31:50.120 It wasn't something I went through. But I was like, 0:31:50.140 --> 0:31:51.540 you know what, man? I'm going to try to. The 0:31:51.560 --> 0:31:53.120 statute of limitations is probably over, bro. 0:31:53.140 --> 0:31:55.960 You can say. You know what? It's fine. It's fine. 0:31:55.980 --> 0:31:56.460 Nah, nah. 0:31:56.500 --> 0:31:58.740 But for real, man, it was one of those things 0:31:58.780 --> 0:31:59.600 where I was like, you know what? 0:32:00.700 --> 0:32:04.050 I know women going to love this record because what 0:32:04.070 --> 0:32:05.120 I'm talking about. 0:32:05.810 --> 0:32:07.470 But they're going to hear it from a male perspective. 0:32:07.530 --> 0:32:10.130 Like what a man would go through if he was 0:32:10.590 --> 0:32:13.650 dealing with somebody else and waiting around for her to 0:32:14.010 --> 0:32:14.810 finish with her man. 0:32:14.850 --> 0:32:16.070 You know what I'm saying? He got to come. Like 0:32:16.110 --> 0:32:17.820 it was. I was like, you know what? I think 0:32:17.860 --> 0:32:19.460 that's going to be kind of cool to do. Side 0:32:19.480 --> 0:32:22.340 nigga anthem? Yeah, side nigga anthem. You know, which was some, 0:32:22.780 --> 0:32:26.700 I mean, can we curse him here? That was some 0:32:26.720 --> 0:32:30.760 fuck nigga shit. You know what I'm saying? I didn't 0:32:30.780 --> 0:32:33.090 want to say anything. Let's break it down. I mean, like, 0:32:33.110 --> 0:32:34.450 for real, like, who does that? 0:32:34.770 --> 0:32:37.310 What nigga sitting around waiting on, you know, like, I mean, 0:32:37.390 --> 0:32:39.390 it's somebody out there doing it now. I mean, it's 0:32:39.410 --> 0:32:42.510 somebody out there doing it, but I just felt like, man, 0:32:42.530 --> 0:32:44.650 I needed to write a record like that, man, because 0:32:45.030 --> 0:32:48.830 nobody was doing it From a male's perspective. 0:32:48.930 --> 0:32:52.390 Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. She gives me all her love, 0:32:52.410 --> 0:32:55.230 but only half the time. Half the time. Man, that's crazy. 0:32:55.250 --> 0:32:59.370 That's more than enough. No, it's not, nigga. Wake up. No, nigga. 0:33:00.850 --> 0:33:10.050 It's not. But, it is real life. Yeah, it's real life, man. 0:33:10.070 --> 0:33:11.410 Some guys out there living like that. 0:33:11.450 --> 0:33:12.110 And you know what? 0:33:12.590 --> 0:33:14.030 You get that from a lot of females, though. A 0:33:14.030 --> 0:33:15.760 lot of females out there living like that, you know? 0:33:15.930 --> 0:33:18.630 Yeah. Like, Yeah, he got a wife at home, but, 0:33:18.730 --> 0:33:21.430 you know. Yeah. I'm the side chick. I just get 0:33:21.450 --> 0:33:24.250 what I can take. That's a tough spot. Yeah, it is. 0:33:24.410 --> 0:33:26.030 That is a tough spot. That's a real tough spot 0:33:26.050 --> 0:33:26.250 to be in. 0:33:26.250 --> 0:33:30.290 But I commend you as a writer to put yourself 0:33:30.350 --> 0:33:33.850 in that position and say, hey, let me flip this. 0:33:34.190 --> 0:33:35.290 Let me flip this on its head. 0:33:35.330 --> 0:33:37.250 Because you could have just wrote a song saying, I 0:33:37.310 --> 0:33:39.990 got a girl that's waiting on me. Right. 0:33:40.910 --> 0:33:44.070 But to put yourself in that vulnerable position— I think 0:33:44.110 --> 0:33:47.370 that's why it resonated the way it did and still does. Yeah, 0:33:47.470 --> 0:33:48.770 I think so too. Great songwriting. 0:33:48.830 --> 0:33:53.050 I think a lot of guys don't wear their hearts 0:33:53.110 --> 0:33:53.670 on their sleeves. 0:33:53.890 --> 0:33:54.050 Right. 0:33:54.070 --> 0:33:55.950 They'd probably be afraid to talk about something like that 0:33:55.970 --> 0:33:57.980 because it kind of takes a little bit of macho 0:33:58.620 --> 0:33:58.959 off of you. 0:33:59.000 --> 0:33:59.680 You know what I'm saying? 0:34:00.060 --> 0:34:02.400 Yeah. No, it's interesting you said that, man, because I 0:34:02.440 --> 0:34:05.780 feel like we've kind of gone through a bit of 0:34:05.820 --> 0:34:09.399 a drought in our genre of music for a minute 0:34:09.420 --> 0:34:09.779 with that. 0:34:10.520 --> 0:34:16.790 You know, but to hear... a Chris Brown do a residuals. Yeah, man. Yeah. Like, yo, 0:34:16.830 --> 0:34:20.089 that's not my girl no more. Right. Like, cause you 0:34:20.110 --> 0:34:22.109 still feel that, you know what I'm saying? You feel that, 0:34:22.469 --> 0:34:23.400 you know what I'm saying? Yeah. 0:34:23.600 --> 0:34:27.120 And to see someone at his level to still sing 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:31.200 and speak from a perspective of, I lose too. 0:34:31.400 --> 0:34:34.540 We all, this is life. Cause everybody thinks from the 0:34:34.600 --> 0:34:36.580 outside looking in, oh, you got all this and you 0:34:36.600 --> 0:34:37.180 get this and that. 0:34:37.790 --> 0:34:39.850 Hey, man, it'd be that one. Yeah, I heard the same. Yeah, 0:34:39.950 --> 0:34:42.330 it'd be that one that you'd be like, ah, nigga, 0:34:42.370 --> 0:34:43.779 the one blocked me. 0:34:43.840 --> 0:34:45.580 Right. What did I do? 0:34:45.640 --> 0:34:45.879 Yeah. 0:34:46.260 --> 0:34:47.560 You know what I mean? That's real. What am I 0:34:47.580 --> 0:34:51.660 going to do? Yeah. Are you watching the residuals of that? Oh, 0:34:51.700 --> 0:34:53.529 she didn't want to marry somebody else. Yeah. She got 0:34:53.550 --> 0:34:56.750 somebody else, baby, now. Yeah, man. That hurts. It's cooked. Yeah, 0:34:56.830 --> 0:34:58.489 that hurts. I mean, I don't care who you are. 0:34:59.090 --> 0:35:02.250 That's what we do is built on. Mm-hmm. 0:35:03.210 --> 0:35:04.730 R & B music is built on emotion. 0:35:04.870 --> 0:35:07.930 Real feelings, man. I said it the other day online, man. 0:35:07.969 --> 0:35:12.880 I'm like, sex songs and popping your shit, like, that's cool. 0:35:13.620 --> 0:35:17.740 But, like, real emotions. We got to do those records. 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:20.089 Because that ain't going nowhere. I mean, real life shit, 0:35:20.110 --> 0:35:23.109 that's going to happen all the time. I mean, make-ups, break-ups. Um, 0:35:23.130 --> 0:35:24.290 you know what I'm saying? I got to go work 0:35:24.310 --> 0:35:26.870 this job. It's nine to five, come home and, and 0:35:26.930 --> 0:35:28.730 come home. And my wife got to do run out 0:35:28.750 --> 0:35:33.609 the back door. Like those things happen. So I mean, 0:35:33.630 --> 0:35:36.050 we got to, we got to write about it. 0:35:36.250 --> 0:35:43.339 Oh man. I hope I never experienced that. 0:35:43.520 --> 0:35:46.460 I'm just saying, but I mean, those things happen in 0:35:46.500 --> 0:35:49.040 real life, man. And you know, I mean, it's got 0:35:49.060 --> 0:35:50.920 to write about it, man. And, and get it out there, 0:35:50.960 --> 0:35:54.330 even though, you know, uh, some men, they wouldn't, they 0:35:54.350 --> 0:35:56.250 wouldn't say it. They wouldn't speak about it. You know 0:35:56.290 --> 0:35:57.790 what I'm saying? Cause it's like, you know, again, it 0:35:57.830 --> 0:36:00.000 makes you less of a man, but, but, uh, I 0:36:00.040 --> 0:36:02.279 think when you put songs out like that, people can, 0:36:02.840 --> 0:36:04.520 like you said, resonate, it resonates with those. 0:36:04.760 --> 0:36:07.219 And, um, absolutely. And, uh, yeah. And I, and I 0:36:07.239 --> 0:36:09.540 just hope that we get back to that. 0:36:09.920 --> 0:36:14.090 That is my one hope in, in, in music period, 0:36:14.150 --> 0:36:16.510 not even just our genre music, but in music period, 0:36:17.110 --> 0:36:20.089 that we get back into that space of emotions. Because 0:36:20.130 --> 0:36:23.190 it's like I said, I have a teenage son. I 0:36:23.210 --> 0:36:26.469 have a preteen daughter. I want them to experience life 0:36:26.489 --> 0:36:29.680 through music as well. And not just, it's all good 0:36:29.719 --> 0:36:32.980 and we partying all the time, are super toxic. 0:36:33.219 --> 0:36:36.580 Right. It's kind of like, you know, two ends of 0:36:36.600 --> 0:36:37.180 the spectrum. 0:36:37.280 --> 0:36:41.460 Yeah. I'm like, no, there's this other part of life that, 0:36:41.540 --> 0:36:45.260 you know, where the emotions are involved, where you can feel, 0:36:45.440 --> 0:36:48.880 you know, like something either made you really happy or 0:36:48.920 --> 0:36:51.340 really sad or whatever it is. Like we had to 0:36:51.380 --> 0:36:53.240 have that in our, in our music as well. 0:36:53.660 --> 0:36:54.759 I agree. You know what I mean? 0:36:54.820 --> 0:36:57.580 And I think those are the songs that like, you know, 0:36:57.760 --> 0:37:00.460 like we seen with you and Joe doing the verses, bro. 0:37:00.480 --> 0:37:05.000 Like when them records kick off, the crowd goes crazy. 0:37:05.460 --> 0:37:09.600 You guys have been able to sustain your careers, be 0:37:09.660 --> 0:37:13.780 on the road, still pack out venues, still have everybody 0:37:13.820 --> 0:37:17.000 stop their lives and want to watch. y'all perform these 0:37:17.060 --> 0:37:21.339 records because the emotion is in these songs yeah man 0:37:21.380 --> 0:37:24.340 I mean it was so beautiful man just to watch 0:37:24.530 --> 0:37:27.450 the crowd come out man and support and I know 0:37:27.469 --> 0:37:29.810 they wanted a battle but it wasn't a battle for 0:37:29.850 --> 0:37:32.230 me it was more about a celebration. 0:37:31.870 --> 0:37:34.150 I appreciate it I appreciate the. 0:37:34.750 --> 0:37:36.210 I love his music I love what he's done for 0:37:36.230 --> 0:37:38.950 the culture you know what I'm saying so to make 0:37:38.989 --> 0:37:41.489 it like we going at each other I really didn't 0:37:41.510 --> 0:37:43.069 want to have that type of energy you know what 0:37:43.090 --> 0:37:44.569 I'm saying I wanted to have the energy of man 0:37:44.590 --> 0:37:48.250 this is a It's my brother, man, and we appreciate 0:37:48.270 --> 0:37:51.150 what each other have done with our careers, and that's 0:37:51.170 --> 0:37:52.330 what that felt like to me. 0:37:52.550 --> 0:37:55.029 I really pulled up as a fan, bro. Appreciate that, man. 0:37:55.570 --> 0:37:57.209 I'm like, yo, y'all ain't got to do nothing special 0:37:57.230 --> 0:38:00.740 for me. It's all good. Like, can't get a parking spot? Right. 0:38:00.760 --> 0:38:02.919 Other than that, you know what I mean? Right. 0:38:03.140 --> 0:38:06.140 I'm really in there, bro. I was in the crowd 0:38:06.820 --> 0:38:07.799 next to the DJ booth. 0:38:07.920 --> 0:38:10.160 I see, yeah. Singing every song, right? 0:38:10.200 --> 0:38:21.520 Yeah. Estelle, we end up running to each other in 0:38:21.540 --> 0:38:23.820 the crowd. And she's like, will you come do an interview? 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:28.160 I'm like, I can't tell you no. I love you, Estelle. 0:38:28.219 --> 0:38:29.300 You're my sister. 0:38:29.320 --> 0:38:31.580 I love you. So yes, I'll do it. So I 0:38:31.600 --> 0:38:34.140 come back there and they asked. 0:38:33.980 --> 0:38:37.489 Me about that. You know, about like, you know, what 0:38:37.530 --> 0:38:42.690 did I think of y'all verses? And you were already gone. 0:38:42.730 --> 0:38:44.170 So I'm going to tell you what I said. 0:38:44.670 --> 0:38:47.950 I said, y'all actually have my favorite verses. Oh, wow. 0:38:48.850 --> 0:38:49.069 Wow. 0:38:49.290 --> 0:38:54.310 Because of what you just said, the celebratory aspect of it. 0:38:55.450 --> 0:38:57.280 And it was funny because it was me and Swiss. 0:38:57.700 --> 0:38:58.580 Swiss was right next to me. 0:38:58.580 --> 0:39:02.219 And I was like, well, because of the name, I 0:39:02.340 --> 0:39:05.900 think artists get into this battle mindset because it's called Versus. 0:39:06.180 --> 0:39:09.279 Right. And I was like, I get that. I said, 0:39:09.340 --> 0:39:14.730 but to me, sometimes the banter becomes too much. Right. 0:39:14.870 --> 0:39:18.310 And it overshadows the greatness of the two artists. Right. 0:39:18.650 --> 0:39:21.980 That are there for the people to truly enjoy what 0:39:21.980 --> 0:39:23.370 they've done and do. 0:39:23.370 --> 0:39:23.630 Right. 0:39:24.010 --> 0:39:27.350 And I said, for me, y'all versus was about the 0:39:27.430 --> 0:39:30.410 hits and about y'all and about what y'all brought to 0:39:30.430 --> 0:39:34.149 the culture. And I just got caught in a moment, man. 0:39:34.190 --> 0:39:37.710 Like I was literally, I'm talking about, bro, I'm in there. 0:39:37.750 --> 0:39:41.779 Sweet. A little D dog. I'm in it all the 0:39:41.840 --> 0:39:43.469 way in it, which we're going to get to. Cause 0:39:43.489 --> 0:39:46.299 that's a wild part to say after this girl. 0:39:46.640 --> 0:39:50.390 But, But with the verses, man, it was one of 0:39:50.430 --> 0:39:53.899 those moments where I just was like, oh, this is incredible. 0:39:53.920 --> 0:39:57.060 And I've been a part of multiple verses. You know 0:39:57.080 --> 0:39:58.940 what I'm saying? Obviously, I came out and sang with 0:39:58.960 --> 0:40:02.040 Tank for our record Slow. I came out and sang 0:40:02.080 --> 0:40:04.270 with Pleasure P when I did Up with him. And 0:40:04.810 --> 0:40:08.250 then he played Up against... Am I right? Against, no, 0:40:08.310 --> 0:40:09.930 when it was B2K against Pretty Ricky. 0:40:09.969 --> 0:40:11.969 Okay. The last song that played was my song. I 0:40:12.010 --> 0:40:14.530 was like, oh, this is great. So you, yeah. Yeah, 0:40:14.570 --> 0:40:17.080 I've been part of three versions, dog. I'm up. I'm up. 0:40:17.140 --> 0:40:18.939 I was going to speak on y'all stage and sing 0:40:18.960 --> 0:40:19.879 background or something last night. 0:40:19.900 --> 0:40:20.960 I don't know, I was going to do something. 0:40:21.000 --> 0:40:25.160 But even the ones that I've been a part of, like, 0:40:25.239 --> 0:40:26.520 it got to a point where I was just like, ah, 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:33.300 it's just, it's going there. Nah, like, The banter and 0:40:33.380 --> 0:40:36.609 the aggression. And I'm like, that's cool because it's showing 0:40:36.650 --> 0:40:37.129 another side. 0:40:37.150 --> 0:40:39.770 Yes, R.B. Niggas is wild. Oh, yeah. R.B. Niggas is wild. 0:40:39.810 --> 0:40:44.549 You know what I'm saying? It's different backstage. But like 0:40:44.570 --> 0:40:46.980 I said with you guys, man, it made me smile. 0:40:47.660 --> 0:40:49.060 But we talked before. You know what I'm saying? We 0:40:49.080 --> 0:40:50.760 talked before and we were like... They all talked before. 0:40:50.780 --> 0:40:54.549 You know what I mean? Listen... Don't be confused, brother. 0:40:54.570 --> 0:40:56.640 I ain't the only one that did that. Right, right. 0:40:56.969 --> 0:40:59.180 They talk and they get in front of that crowd 0:40:59.200 --> 0:41:04.340 and it's like, oh, yeah, I'm going to show you niggas. Right. 0:41:04.360 --> 0:41:05.359 Because I think. 0:41:05.280 --> 0:41:06.540 It was important for us to get on the phone 0:41:06.560 --> 0:41:10.060 with each other, man, you know, and it was just like, 0:41:10.080 --> 0:41:11.940 you know, man, we have an opportunity, man, to do 0:41:11.960 --> 0:41:13.900 something really good for the culture, man. Let's just go 0:41:13.960 --> 0:41:17.360 out here, man, and let's make this about love. Quite naturally, 0:41:17.420 --> 0:41:19.779 we knew it was going to be once it went 0:41:19.820 --> 0:41:21.680 out to the public, like everybody was going to start. 0:41:21.700 --> 0:41:24.200 They're going to make their own narrative about what they 0:41:24.219 --> 0:41:26.440 think it should be about. But that's cool, man. Let 0:41:26.460 --> 0:41:27.920 the fans do what they do, man. But let's go 0:41:27.980 --> 0:41:30.219 up there, man, and really celebrate each other. 0:41:30.280 --> 0:41:30.500 Yeah. 0:41:30.640 --> 0:41:33.049 No, it was great, man. And it was great to 0:41:33.070 --> 0:41:35.129 be in that building and to feel the love that 0:41:35.150 --> 0:41:35.830 was in that building. 0:41:36.150 --> 0:41:36.790 It was amazing, man. 0:41:36.830 --> 0:41:40.049 Like, bro, it was major artists in there that was 0:41:40.110 --> 0:41:41.690 just in there to be fans. 0:41:41.870 --> 0:41:45.580 Wow. That was amazing, man. Gangsta rappers. You know YG 0:41:45.600 --> 0:41:47.140 was there last night. I seen that, man. I seen that. 0:41:49.000 --> 0:41:52.160 In there having a time, though. You know what I'm saying? 0:41:52.180 --> 0:41:55.540 Tyrese doing Tyrese. You know Tyrese going to be Tyrese. 0:41:55.739 --> 0:42:00.009 Tyrese at all times. All day. He in there. 50. Yeah. 0:42:00.180 --> 0:42:01.850 I heard it when he even told you. He was like, bro, like, 0:42:01.930 --> 0:42:05.270 I'm in there backstage just singing the word out. Right. 0:42:06.090 --> 0:42:07.589 That was crazy, man. That was kind of dirty, though, 0:42:07.630 --> 0:42:10.710 how they did me, man. Well, you know. I expected it. No, 0:42:10.710 --> 0:42:12.230 they jumped you. Yeah, they jumped me real bad. We 0:42:12.270 --> 0:42:14.890 jumped Tyrese. You know, we brought out Jamie Foxx. Yeah, 0:42:14.930 --> 0:42:17.660 we jumped Tyrese. Yeah, they tell me, man. But you 0:42:17.680 --> 0:42:21.160 know what? I expected it. But I loved it, man. 0:42:21.200 --> 0:42:24.239 I mean, it just made it real more hype, man. 0:42:24.300 --> 0:42:27.200 And it was dope, man. It was dope. Yeah. You 0:42:27.239 --> 0:42:31.970 did bring out 707. Oh, man. Love them girls, man. 0:42:32.330 --> 0:42:34.690 I told them as well. When I saw them, I said, listen, 0:42:35.870 --> 0:42:38.570 I can't do this show without y'all coming on there. 0:42:38.739 --> 0:42:41.440 Man. Like, we've been trying to. I said, no, no, no, no, no. 0:42:41.480 --> 0:42:44.600 Yeah. I'm going to give y'all my phone number. We're 0:42:44.620 --> 0:42:48.210 going to make this happen. Y'all are important to this coach. 0:42:48.230 --> 0:42:51.410 Man, those girls are incredible, man. Yeah. Incredible, man. It 0:42:51.630 --> 0:42:52.670 was dope, man. 0:42:52.730 --> 0:42:58.220 Those moments of nostalgia, of what y'all brought to the game, 0:42:58.940 --> 0:43:01.420 and even y'all having y'all big pun moments. 0:43:01.800 --> 0:43:03.940 Oh, yeah. Oh, that was great, bro. Yeah, man. 0:43:04.330 --> 0:43:07.250 That was great, bro. I wish Joe could have been there, man. 0:43:07.290 --> 0:43:09.209 You know, Joe was out celebrating his birthday, man. 0:43:09.250 --> 0:43:11.270 Shout out. Yeah. Shout out Fat Joe. 0:43:11.290 --> 0:43:11.830 Yeah. Yeah. 0:43:11.989 --> 0:43:13.969 Shout out Fat Joe. I'm waiting for him to put 0:43:14.010 --> 0:43:16.820 me on one of them boxes, man. I'm still cracking, baby. 0:43:16.840 --> 0:43:23.770 Sponsorship over here, man. You know what I'm saying? You know, 0:43:23.790 --> 0:43:25.630 he took Tyke off the box. Really? Yeah, he took 0:43:25.670 --> 0:43:27.330 Tyke off the box. Oh, come on, man. He got 0:43:27.350 --> 0:43:30.830 kicked off the box. Come on, man. But Nori. But Nori. 0:43:33.150 --> 0:43:35.529 Nori grew his hair back. He got kicked off the box. 0:43:35.550 --> 0:43:38.840 Just so he can get on the box. Yes. And 0:43:38.880 --> 0:43:41.339 kicked Tyke's ass off the box. No, that ain't right, man. 0:43:41.380 --> 0:43:43.800 No, that portion of the show was really cool, man. 0:43:44.120 --> 0:43:49.060 And that record. Bro, like, when you really listen to 0:43:49.100 --> 0:43:53.230 that record. nothing really makes sense on that record. It's 0:43:53.250 --> 0:43:56.029 so hard, but it's amazing. Yeah. 0:43:56.330 --> 0:44:00.230 Yeah. You being on the record, niggas want to take 0:44:00.270 --> 0:44:03.790 my life. Niggas want to take my wife. Like what? Yeah. 0:44:04.510 --> 0:44:08.490 Then he's talking in the middle of it. He's like, loser, 0:44:08.770 --> 0:44:12.009 go battle. I'm like, nothing on that song makes sense. 0:44:12.110 --> 0:44:13.600 It is absolutely perfect. 0:44:13.739 --> 0:44:15.700 Yeah, man. It's, it's one of the ones, man. 0:44:15.739 --> 0:44:17.980 Like, you know, when I first heard it, man, uh, um, 0:44:18.700 --> 0:44:20.270 I was like, damn, man, this is going to be, 0:44:20.290 --> 0:44:24.209 I don't know what I'm doing right now, but this 0:44:24.230 --> 0:44:25.910 shit sounds like it's going to be dope, man. And then, 0:44:26.510 --> 0:44:30.210 I mean, unfortunately, man, he passed away, man. I was like, man, man, 0:44:30.310 --> 0:44:32.009 I thought it was never going to come out. And 0:44:32.050 --> 0:44:33.600 then they called me up, like, we're still going to 0:44:33.620 --> 0:44:35.140 do the video and, you know, this is how we're 0:44:35.160 --> 0:44:37.100 going to do it. And, man, it just came out 0:44:37.120 --> 0:44:38.799 to be a really dope record, man. Rest in peace, pun. 0:44:39.020 --> 0:44:41.200 Yeah. Y'all did the record in the studio together? Yeah, 0:44:41.219 --> 0:44:43.100 we did it in the studio together, man. How was it? 0:44:43.100 --> 0:44:45.690 It just felt like a party, man. Awesome guy, man. 0:44:45.710 --> 0:44:50.220 I mean, like, the Terror Squad period, man, like, Bottles popping, man. 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.760 It was like a party in the studio, man. So 0:44:52.840 --> 0:44:55.210 I'm in there doing my part. Everybody coming in. It 0:44:55.230 --> 0:44:57.030 was beautiful, man. 0:44:57.070 --> 0:44:58.110 Yeah. It was a moment. 0:44:58.190 --> 0:45:01.089 We're going to reel this thing back, man, because we 0:45:01.110 --> 0:45:02.850 went through some of the songs, my favorites. 0:45:03.310 --> 0:45:05.450 We got to go through that title record. Where I 0:45:05.489 --> 0:45:10.270 Want to Be. Where I Want to Be, brother. It 0:45:10.730 --> 0:45:19.230 is the nicest, shadiest song maybe of all time. Wow. 0:45:20.810 --> 0:45:23.069 It's shady, too, though. It's shady as a motherfucker, dog. 0:45:23.090 --> 0:45:26.469 I ain't gonna lie, bro. When I wrote that song, man, 0:45:26.570 --> 0:45:28.709 that's exactly what I was living. Yeah. 0:45:28.910 --> 0:45:30.600 You know what I'm saying? I told you I came 0:45:30.640 --> 0:45:33.520 into business. I had two kids at the time. At 0:45:33.540 --> 0:45:37.379 the time I'm making this particular record, I got four 0:45:37.420 --> 0:45:38.020 kids now. 0:45:38.620 --> 0:45:42.629 Okay. You know, I think I'm about 25. You like 0:45:42.670 --> 0:45:45.089 my brother Bob. Yeah, I got four kids now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:45:45.170 --> 0:45:50.410 He had five by 25. You know. He got eight now. Yeah, 0:45:50.430 --> 0:45:55.890 my pull out game wasn't strong. So we was having babies. 0:45:56.230 --> 0:46:01.799 So after the My Heart album, you know, things are 0:46:01.820 --> 0:46:02.560 starting to pick up. 0:46:02.600 --> 0:46:04.380 You know what I'm saying? You're on the road. Yeah, 0:46:04.400 --> 0:46:06.819 I'm on the road. You know, these women coming at me. 0:46:06.840 --> 0:46:09.080 Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Telling me to knock 0:46:09.100 --> 0:46:12.069 you off your feet. Yeah, I'm saying some different things. But, 0:46:12.090 --> 0:46:14.779 you know, I'm not married, but I'm going on to 0:46:14.820 --> 0:46:15.419 a married life. 0:46:15.440 --> 0:46:16.170 Got you. 0:46:16.180 --> 0:46:18.040 You know what I'm saying? Because we live together. You know, 0:46:18.060 --> 0:46:20.980 I got the kids. So, life started to change, man. 0:46:21.020 --> 0:46:23.819 I started to see some things different. And I want 0:46:23.860 --> 0:46:25.920 to write about it, man. Because I really didn't want 0:46:25.940 --> 0:46:28.590 to be in the relationship anymore, but I can't leave. 0:46:29.250 --> 0:46:32.149 Had you had that conversation with her before you wrote 0:46:32.190 --> 0:46:35.270 about it? No. So, that's how she found out about it? 0:46:35.310 --> 0:46:39.570 Yeah, that's how she found out about it. But at 0:46:39.610 --> 0:46:41.529 that point, I was already cheating. You know, I was 0:46:41.570 --> 0:46:45.210 already cheating. I was already gone. You know what I'm saying? 0:46:45.810 --> 0:46:49.250 But when that record came out, I never left. You 0:46:49.270 --> 0:46:49.770 know what I'm saying? 0:46:49.790 --> 0:46:50.810 I never left. We stayed together. 0:46:51.630 --> 0:46:53.189 After Where I Wanted Is Out. After Where I Wanted 0:46:53.270 --> 0:46:55.469 Is Out, we stayed together. We stayed together like five 0:46:55.510 --> 0:46:58.279 years after that. You know what I'm saying? So as 0:46:58.360 --> 0:47:00.100 much as she was mad about the record and her 0:47:00.140 --> 0:47:02.100 family had to hear the record and all these things 0:47:02.120 --> 0:47:03.560 like that, it was kind of bad. 0:47:04.219 --> 0:47:06.549 But we spent that money together. That heartache, that went 0:47:06.570 --> 0:47:08.870 away real fast. Was there a certain gift or something 0:47:08.890 --> 0:47:11.830 that you had to get? Was there anything that you 0:47:11.870 --> 0:47:13.950 just like, you know, I mean, at that point, it 0:47:13.969 --> 0:47:15.649 was whatever you want. You know what I'm saying? 0:47:15.670 --> 0:47:19.300 Because, I mean, you know, life has completely changed. Now, 0:47:19.320 --> 0:47:20.660 I'm a star now. 0:47:20.760 --> 0:47:23.700 Cracking. Yeah, I'm cracking. It's on and popping. And so, 0:47:23.739 --> 0:47:26.840 you know, it was whatever you want at that point. Oh, man. 0:47:27.000 --> 0:47:28.719 It wasn't good, man. But it was, that was the 0:47:28.760 --> 0:47:31.440 life I was living. You know, life had changed. You 0:47:31.460 --> 0:47:34.040 know what I'm saying? And, you know, sometimes you want 0:47:34.060 --> 0:47:36.299 to move in a different direction, but You don't know 0:47:36.320 --> 0:47:38.089 how to do it. So my best way to do 0:47:38.130 --> 0:47:39.310 it was to write a song about it. 0:47:39.930 --> 0:47:42.170 You know what that song reminds me of? What's that? 0:47:44.489 --> 0:47:51.680 It reminds me of Harlem Nights. When he was such a... 0:47:50.640 --> 0:47:59.040 Tell your mama I ain't coming home. Wow. I'm sorry. No, 0:47:59.080 --> 0:48:01.650 that's real. My bad, dog. Right. That scene in that song... 0:48:05.860 --> 0:48:08.089 That's how my mind works, though. My mind works wild. 0:48:08.170 --> 0:48:08.770 I can see that, though. 0:48:08.790 --> 0:48:12.930 That scene and that song have always connected to me. 0:48:12.810 --> 0:48:15.290 Where I'm like, oh, here you go. This is the 0:48:15.310 --> 0:48:17.529 video right here. Right. This is the Where I Want 0:48:17.550 --> 0:48:21.330 to Be video right here. That's funny, man. That record, bro, 0:48:23.150 --> 0:48:25.150 it is an all-time, it's a copyright. 0:48:25.510 --> 0:48:27.310 The funny thing is I get a lot of women 0:48:27.890 --> 0:48:30.270 that they don't like me because a lot of guys 0:48:30.330 --> 0:48:33.109 play the record or put it on an answer service or, baby, 0:48:33.130 --> 0:48:33.649 check this out. 0:48:33.770 --> 0:48:35.569 I want you to listen to this. That's how they 0:48:35.590 --> 0:48:35.989 broke up. 0:48:36.710 --> 0:48:38.950 So a lot of women, they come to me, but 0:48:38.969 --> 0:48:40.239 it's also the opposite, too. 0:48:40.260 --> 0:48:43.100 A lot of women did that to their guys, too. Like, y'all, 0:48:43.160 --> 0:48:45.980 I need you to listen to this. Those both ways. Yeah. So, 0:48:46.060 --> 0:48:48.040 I mean, I get a lot of that, man. 0:48:48.160 --> 0:48:50.520 What made you, after you said all that wild shit 0:48:51.060 --> 0:48:58.700 in the first verse, what made you go sweet-a-dee-dee-dee-dee? 0:48:58.739 --> 0:49:01.300 It felt good. It felt good. 0:49:01.420 --> 0:49:03.200 And, you know, to be honest with you, man, like, 0:49:03.920 --> 0:49:08.140 I had got that from my grandmama, man. I don't 0:49:08.180 --> 0:49:09.660 even know how they go together. 0:49:09.780 --> 0:49:12.750 What you grandmama got to do with this, dog? Because 0:49:12.770 --> 0:49:14.870 she used to love jazz. You know what I'm saying? 0:49:14.910 --> 0:49:16.930 So you just start scatting. I just start scatting. You 0:49:16.950 --> 0:49:18.870 know what I'm saying? I'm like, you know what? This 0:49:18.910 --> 0:49:21.940 will sound good right here. I just did it. I 0:49:21.960 --> 0:49:22.360 just did it. 0:49:22.600 --> 0:49:24.600 I think there's a young lady that might have like 0:49:24.620 --> 0:49:28.600 made a post online about like, so he going to 0:49:28.640 --> 0:49:33.140 say all that shit and then he going to tweet it. 0:49:33.460 --> 0:49:35.779 Shout out to that young lady, man. We can find 0:49:35.820 --> 0:49:38.060 that clip. Y'all clip it and post it and make 0:49:38.120 --> 0:49:38.480 it happen, man. 0:49:39.670 --> 0:49:40.770 Yeah, man. That's crazy. 0:49:41.330 --> 0:49:42.840 The video didn't do no better, though, man, because they 0:49:42.860 --> 0:49:45.380 got me outside beating on windows. And, you know, when 0:49:45.400 --> 0:49:47.700 she finally gets a chance to get out and meet 0:49:47.719 --> 0:49:49.719 some guy, I'm back on her neck again. 0:49:49.739 --> 0:49:52.600 Because that's usually what... Yeah, that's what happens. I mean, 0:49:52.660 --> 0:49:58.089 I can leave, but you can't. Oh, man. Oh, man. Yeah, man. 0:49:58.950 --> 0:50:03.009 And that... Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so now you cracking. Yeah. 0:50:03.330 --> 0:50:03.930 You cracking. 0:50:04.350 --> 0:50:06.709 Is there something that you bought? Because I was telling 0:50:06.730 --> 0:50:07.730 somebody this the other day. 0:50:08.210 --> 0:50:10.250 I said... a lot of. 0:50:10.290 --> 0:50:16.340 People have opinions about what we do as a culture, 0:50:17.000 --> 0:50:20.560 what we purchase, how we live, the things we get that, that, um, 0:50:20.900 --> 0:50:21.839 that make us feel good. 0:50:22.520 --> 0:50:22.739 Right. 0:50:22.820 --> 0:50:25.560 And I'm like, there are certain people who have attained 0:50:25.680 --> 0:50:29.790 at a level where they're shooting for something when they 0:50:29.830 --> 0:50:30.270 wake up. 0:50:30.530 --> 0:50:33.790 Right. It's like, okay, I got the nice car. I 0:50:33.830 --> 0:50:34.670 got to get a plane. 0:50:36.410 --> 0:50:40.600 And to me, there's nothing wrong with, having a motivational tool. 0:50:40.840 --> 0:50:41.259 That's true. 0:50:41.540 --> 0:50:45.460 And I'm tired of seeing that bullshit post with Bill 0:50:45.520 --> 0:50:51.080 Gates and which other nigga, Warren Buffett, don't want. 0:50:50.900 --> 0:50:55.069 No Gucci belt. Them niggas can't dress anyway. Right, right. 0:50:55.090 --> 0:50:58.130 Niggas ain't fly. Right. Niggas been paying for the thing 0:50:58.510 --> 0:51:02.029 for a long time. Right, right. You know what I mean? Right, right. 0:51:02.110 --> 0:51:03.910 I'm getting mine off the muscle. I feel you, brother. 0:51:03.930 --> 0:51:06.050 You know what I mean? So when I see that, 0:51:06.710 --> 0:51:11.049 I get it. But preaching that to our culture that 0:51:11.140 --> 0:51:14.719 we shouldn't celebrate or shouldn't want to work toward things 0:51:14.739 --> 0:51:15.960 that we just like. Exactly. 0:51:15.980 --> 0:51:17.859 You should have whatever you want to have. I mean, it's, 0:51:18.540 --> 0:51:19.810 and don't let somebody dumb it down for you. 0:51:19.820 --> 0:51:23.580 You should have it your way. Exactly. Ain't nobody going 0:51:23.600 --> 0:51:26.510 to tell me how I got to have it my way. Exactly. Yeah. 0:51:26.750 --> 0:51:28.730 You're like, oh man, you know, you could have bought 0:51:28.770 --> 0:51:33.270 the replica of that. Wow. I ain't a replica nigga. Right. Right. 0:51:33.310 --> 0:51:35.850 If I can't afford it, I ain't buying it. Right. 0:51:36.469 --> 0:51:38.250 But when I can't afford it and I want it. 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:40.020 I'm getting it. You can't tell me I shouldn't have 0:51:40.040 --> 0:51:42.020 got it. Mm-hmm. You know you could have put that 0:51:42.060 --> 0:51:47.290 in a bond. Man. Could have. I could have. You 0:51:47.330 --> 0:51:49.250 put yours in a bond. 0:51:49.290 --> 0:51:54.680 Right. Because also, I need to be motivated every morning 0:51:55.360 --> 0:51:56.940 to get up and go get it. 0:51:56.960 --> 0:52:00.910 Mm-hmm. And that's how I look. That's real. So speaking 0:52:00.930 --> 0:52:01.850 of that, what. 0:52:01.730 --> 0:52:04.629 Did you go get when you got where I want 0:52:04.650 --> 0:52:10.580 to be as the song that's controlling the world, Craig? 0:52:11.020 --> 0:52:13.279 You had to get something. I want to get a house, man. 0:52:13.300 --> 0:52:14.140 Come on. Come on. 0:52:14.180 --> 0:52:15.780 I want to get a house, man. You know, I'm 0:52:16.260 --> 0:52:20.040 from Chicago, man. And we had living apartments all out. 0:52:20.060 --> 0:52:21.799 Right. You know what I'm saying? Is it the one, though? 0:52:21.840 --> 0:52:23.400 It's the one you wanted. Yeah, man. I want to 0:52:23.440 --> 0:52:24.580 get me a house, man. 0:52:24.640 --> 0:52:24.710 And. 0:52:25.960 --> 0:52:27.540 built it from the ground up and put everything in 0:52:27.560 --> 0:52:30.279 it that I wanted in it. Yes. You know, I 0:52:30.300 --> 0:52:31.459 was very happy with that, man. 0:52:31.500 --> 0:52:33.520 Like, and it just, it made me feel like I 0:52:33.560 --> 0:52:36.910 accomplished something, you know, all that hard work had really 0:52:36.969 --> 0:52:39.569 done something. And not to mention, like I'm, I'm, I'm 0:52:39.610 --> 0:52:42.290 like one of the first generations in my family, man, to, 0:52:42.410 --> 0:52:44.770 you know, to accumulate this type of money, you know? 0:52:45.030 --> 0:52:48.230 So, you know, it's, it's just a beautiful thing. What 0:52:48.250 --> 0:52:50.279 pop say when he seen that? Oh man. I know 0:52:50.300 --> 0:52:53.770 he seen the check early on. Yeah, man. Well, I mean, the, Check, 0:52:53.810 --> 0:52:55.489 I mean, you know, he got his little portion out 0:52:55.530 --> 0:52:56.440 of that. Yeah, come on, come on. 0:52:56.450 --> 0:52:58.669 You got to give him his tunes and pews. Yeah, man, 0:52:58.690 --> 0:53:00.670 but my pa's very proud of me, man. I mean, 0:53:00.690 --> 0:53:02.250 he passed away last year, man. 0:53:02.410 --> 0:53:05.350 My condolences. But, yeah, my pa's real proud, man. 0:53:05.510 --> 0:53:07.410 Just love the fact that I was able to stick 0:53:07.430 --> 0:53:11.040 with music and never give up, even though, you know, 0:53:11.440 --> 0:53:12.880 in the beginning, he was like, man, this ain't going 0:53:12.900 --> 0:53:15.580 to work, man. I tried it, you know, but he 0:53:15.600 --> 0:53:17.279 was going off of what happened to him. 0:53:17.320 --> 0:53:19.739 His own experience. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So he didn't see 0:53:19.780 --> 0:53:20.880 it the way I saw it. 0:53:20.880 --> 0:53:20.980 Yeah. 0:53:21.719 --> 0:53:24.920 You know, and that's why I tell every young artist 0:53:24.980 --> 0:53:27.410 out there right now, man, just your dream is your dream. 0:53:27.640 --> 0:53:29.490 You got to live it. You know what I'm saying? 0:53:29.510 --> 0:53:29.590 Yeah. 0:53:29.610 --> 0:53:31.370 I can help you with it, but you got to 0:53:31.410 --> 0:53:33.069 live it. You got to make it happen for yourself. Absolutely. 0:53:33.090 --> 0:53:35.089 And wait for somebody else to do it for you. Yeah. Yeah. 0:53:35.110 --> 0:53:40.529 All right. So now you cracking. Mm-hmm. Tours. Touring. Round 0:53:40.550 --> 0:53:41.050 the world. 0:53:41.170 --> 0:53:41.450 Yeah. 0:53:42.110 --> 0:53:42.370 Yeah. 0:53:42.690 --> 0:53:45.089 Are you seeing, with a record like Where I Want 0:53:45.110 --> 0:53:49.040 to Be and an album of that magnitude, are you 0:53:49.140 --> 0:53:50.560 seeing the audiences shift? 0:53:51.040 --> 0:53:56.620 As far as just singing for more cultures. I am, man. 0:53:56.719 --> 0:54:01.320 I'm singing to younger people. At that time, I'm like 25. 0:54:01.300 --> 0:54:03.469 So I'm getting the 25 and younger, but I'm also 0:54:03.510 --> 0:54:05.649 getting the 45s too. 0:54:05.730 --> 0:54:10.089 Cause I mean, I guess that song was mature. Yes. 0:54:10.270 --> 0:54:13.910 You know, mature song. So I'm, I'm seeing like mamas and, and, 0:54:13.989 --> 0:54:15.509 and daughters in the audience. You know what I'm saying? 0:54:15.530 --> 0:54:17.969 So that, that, then I'm, then I'm, now I'm overseas. 0:54:18.390 --> 0:54:21.170 Now I'm touring different countries. And, you know, so, That 0:54:21.290 --> 0:54:22.969 album definitely took me to places that I never thought 0:54:22.989 --> 0:54:23.250 I'd be. 0:54:23.890 --> 0:54:24.810 Definitely. Yeah. 0:54:24.930 --> 0:54:25.810 And that's what I was going to say. I was 0:54:25.969 --> 0:54:28.300 going to ask you about that. Did you even envision? 0:54:28.320 --> 0:54:30.940 Because like you said, you were in a group. You 0:54:30.980 --> 0:54:31.860 weren't the lead singer. 0:54:31.880 --> 0:54:34.120 No. You're really the writer. So you're like. 0:54:34.980 --> 0:54:38.320 Man, my life was based around four square miles in Chicago. 0:54:38.660 --> 0:54:40.380 That's all I knew. You know what I'm saying? I 0:54:40.400 --> 0:54:44.260 go to school, come back home, play with my homeboys 0:54:44.280 --> 0:54:45.759 in the neighborhood. That was it. 0:54:45.960 --> 0:54:48.799 I hadn't even really been around Chicago like that. 0:54:49.440 --> 0:54:50.879 Let alone, you know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, 0:54:50.900 --> 0:54:52.839 we'll go downtown a little bit. Right. Every now and then. 0:54:52.860 --> 0:54:55.190 But we, my whole life was based around that four 0:54:55.210 --> 0:54:57.750 square miles. So going from that to now I'm in 0:54:57.790 --> 0:55:00.609 New York. Now I'm coming down to Atlanta. Now I'm, 0:55:00.730 --> 0:55:01.690 I got a passport now. 0:55:01.750 --> 0:55:07.030 You know what I'm saying? So my, everything changed, man. Everything. Yeah. Wow, bro. 0:55:07.130 --> 0:55:09.890 And that's the part that I like to highlight at 0:55:09.930 --> 0:55:13.870 times too, man, is where this can take you. Where 0:55:13.890 --> 0:55:16.190 this music can really take you if you focus in 0:55:16.989 --> 0:55:18.549 and go after it the way you should. 0:55:19.030 --> 0:55:19.549 You know? Yeah. 0:55:20.110 --> 0:55:22.610 Cause like going back to the things we want to 0:55:22.650 --> 0:55:26.170 attain and, you know, just feeling good about things, but 0:55:26.210 --> 0:55:31.570 just the experiences in themselves, that music, something. 0:55:31.350 --> 0:55:34.689 That I think you would agree with me on. Music 0:55:34.730 --> 0:55:38.070 is magic. It is definitely. It's really magic. 0:55:38.110 --> 0:55:40.030 And I don't know if you've ever had this moment, man, 0:55:40.050 --> 0:55:43.219 where I had to start to understand the mind of 0:55:43.260 --> 0:55:46.480 people who didn't do music and maybe some of the 0:55:46.560 --> 0:55:50.650 expectations of, are the doubts they had put on me. 0:55:52.750 --> 0:55:54.910 You know what I mean? And I was like, oh, 0:55:54.969 --> 0:55:59.870 it's because you don't believe in magic. Wow. 0:56:00.710 --> 0:56:04.089 You don't believe that I can pull something out the air. 0:56:04.890 --> 0:56:06.069 It's really what we're doing. Yeah. 0:56:06.370 --> 0:56:08.590 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they got, my dad's got to 0:56:08.630 --> 0:56:10.450 come from somewhere. You know what I'm saying? 0:56:10.570 --> 0:56:13.359 And so, and that's the funny thing about that quote 0:56:13.610 --> 0:56:14.700 that Michael Jackson said. 0:56:15.090 --> 0:56:17.150 I got to get it before Prince get it. You 0:56:17.170 --> 0:56:18.670 know what I'm saying? Because, I mean. It's out there. 0:56:18.690 --> 0:56:21.230 It's out there. It's out there. It's out there. You better, man, 0:56:21.330 --> 0:56:23.469 focus and grab it because, I mean, it will be 0:56:23.489 --> 0:56:26.150 given to somebody else. Yeah. Or something you thought about 0:56:27.610 --> 0:56:31.989 and didn't apply. And you'd be like, man, I could have. 0:56:32.690 --> 0:56:35.910 And I had that same song. Yep. The same idea. 0:56:35.930 --> 0:56:36.009 Yep. 0:56:37.050 --> 0:56:39.750 You wanted to flip this. Ah, man, they did it. Yep. 0:56:40.330 --> 0:56:42.379 That's how this go. That's how it go, man. That's 0:56:42.390 --> 0:56:42.760 how it go. 0:56:43.180 --> 0:56:45.280 What we get an opportunity to do with our lives 0:56:45.800 --> 0:56:49.360 being musicians and being in the music business, man, is 0:56:49.540 --> 0:56:50.700 really magical. 0:56:51.380 --> 0:56:52.960 It is. It is. 0:56:52.980 --> 0:56:57.779 I mean, from the beginning, man, I, like I said, man, 0:56:57.840 --> 0:57:00.480 I was a young kid, man, watching all these people 0:57:00.560 --> 0:57:02.260 on TV, watching award shows. 0:57:02.469 --> 0:57:06.550 Yeah. And then to, to be in the room. Yeah. 0:57:06.570 --> 0:57:10.169 You know what I'm saying? And, and be around these people, man, 0:57:10.230 --> 0:57:15.080 it's like, damn, man, I'm, I'm one of them. Yeah. 0:57:15.460 --> 0:57:16.720 I'm one of them. I'm one of them. You know 0:57:16.740 --> 0:57:17.040 what I'm saying? 0:57:17.080 --> 0:57:20.010 So it's to go from being a young kid and 0:57:20.110 --> 0:57:22.240 to where I'm at now, man. I mean, it's been 0:57:22.260 --> 0:57:24.870 a journey, man. It's been a journey, man. But I 0:57:24.910 --> 0:57:27.770 wouldn't change anything, man. Because, I mean, like everything has 0:57:27.810 --> 0:57:28.470 taught me a lesson. 0:57:28.990 --> 0:57:33.730 Yeah. And what you've given to music, man, is really special. 0:57:33.750 --> 0:57:34.850 Appreciate that. 0:57:34.870 --> 0:57:37.650 It's really special, man. I just want to say that 0:57:37.810 --> 0:57:38.450 I appreciate it. 0:57:38.510 --> 0:57:39.210 Thank you. Thank you. 0:57:39.270 --> 0:57:41.650 And I speak for, I feel like I speak for 0:57:41.670 --> 0:57:44.020 the masses. It definitely speaks for, you know, me and 0:57:44.040 --> 0:57:45.760 my family because my sister told me to tell you 0:57:45.780 --> 0:57:46.280 she loves you. 0:57:46.910 --> 0:57:48.910 That's what's up, man. Shout out to my sister Chyna, dog, 0:57:48.930 --> 0:57:51.950 because she's like, listen. Shout out, baby. Thank you. She's like, wait, 0:57:52.110 --> 0:57:54.790 you doing it? Tell him I love him. That's it. 0:57:54.810 --> 0:57:57.870 I appreciate that. I'm going to tell him. You know 0:57:57.890 --> 0:57:58.350 what I mean? 0:57:58.430 --> 0:58:00.890 And, you know, just what you brought to the culture, man, 0:58:01.310 --> 0:58:03.930 from you as an artist, but you as a writer 0:58:03.950 --> 0:58:06.030 and producer as well. And I know we spoke about 0:58:06.070 --> 0:58:07.580 it earlier, you bringing 702 out. 0:58:08.200 --> 0:58:11.970 But, bro, get it together. Yeah, man. Can we get 0:58:11.990 --> 0:58:12.640 it together? 0:58:14.550 --> 0:58:19.669 That's another one. It's so simple. So was that for you? 0:58:20.210 --> 0:58:20.970 No, no. 0:58:21.110 --> 0:58:22.770 I had a girl group at the time. I was 0:58:22.810 --> 0:58:26.630 living in Jersey, and I had a girl group, and 0:58:26.730 --> 0:58:27.390 that was their song. 0:58:27.410 --> 0:58:28.370 Oh, shit. 0:58:28.650 --> 0:58:31.750 And so Eddie had came over to the crib one day, 0:58:32.450 --> 0:58:33.850 and he was like, man, let me hear what you're 0:58:33.890 --> 0:58:34.190 working on. 0:58:34.770 --> 0:58:36.650 So I had played that record for him. He was like, yo. 0:58:37.820 --> 0:58:39.560 make me a copy of that record. 0:58:39.780 --> 0:58:42.580 You know what that means. You know what that means 0:58:42.620 --> 0:58:44.860 in the music business. So I made him a copy 0:58:44.900 --> 0:58:48.050 of the record. And like the next day he called 0:58:48.070 --> 0:58:48.690 me like, he was like, yo. 0:58:48.690 --> 0:58:52.170 702 want the record. What you going to do with it? 0:58:52.170 --> 0:58:53.490 I'm like, that's for my girl group. 0:58:53.510 --> 0:58:55.110 He was like, yo, so you want the record to 0:58:55.130 --> 0:58:56.750 come out now or you want the record to wait 0:58:56.790 --> 0:58:57.910 until they come out? 0:58:58.190 --> 0:58:59.410 Did you have a deal for them? No, I didn't 0:58:59.430 --> 0:59:02.560 have a deal for them. It was early. So he 0:59:02.600 --> 0:59:06.440 was like, which one you want? I was like, I'm 0:59:06.480 --> 0:59:07.760 going to break the news to him and tell him 0:59:07.780 --> 0:59:10.290 that I got to get this record up. Sorry. I 0:59:10.330 --> 0:59:11.010 ended up giving it to 702. 0:59:11.010 --> 0:59:23.480 Okay, so now we're writing and producing for other artists, right? 0:59:24.120 --> 0:59:27.780 What's the biggest producer check you got? You know, your 0:59:27.800 --> 0:59:30.350 producer fees, when you... Now you got this big album 0:59:30.410 --> 0:59:32.310 and people are just trying to get you in the 0:59:32.330 --> 0:59:37.209 studio with it. Producer check. I mean, I wasn't really 0:59:37.250 --> 0:59:39.150 a big producer like Tim and them. You know what 0:59:39.210 --> 0:59:42.970 I'm saying? My biggest producer check probably was like maybe $ 50, 000. 0:59:42.250 --> 0:59:45.570 That's a nice check though, brother. That's still a nice check. 0:59:45.610 --> 0:59:49.790 And like $ 120, 000. They was getting like a million. 0:59:50.110 --> 0:59:53.700 Listen, I had a conversation with one of my really good, 0:59:54.000 --> 0:59:54.419 one of my. 0:59:54.340 --> 0:59:57.020 Brothers, and they sure remain nameless. They was telling me 0:59:57.060 --> 1:00:01.170 how they was charging up. They were charging jewelry to 1:00:01.210 --> 1:00:03.570 the food budget. Man. I said, wait, what? 1:00:04.850 --> 1:00:06.830 Oh, man, we was getting Jacob DeJulio to come down, 1:00:06.870 --> 1:00:09.430 and it's $ 5, 000 for a little bracelet that we didn't 1:00:09.450 --> 1:00:11.480 put on the food budget? 1:00:11.520 --> 1:00:13.660 Yeah, in the 90s, that money was flowing. So, man, 1:00:13.680 --> 1:00:16.760 it was... I was like, oh, y'all was going crazy. Yeah, man. 1:00:17.120 --> 1:00:19.100 It was different, man. That money was different. 1:00:19.120 --> 1:00:21.120 For you, though, it was never like where you was 1:00:21.180 --> 1:00:23.260 on a producer run for you, though. No. 1:00:23.600 --> 1:00:26.000 No, not like that. So, was the mindset to keep 1:00:26.040 --> 1:00:28.040 the records for yourself for the most part? Yeah, I mean, 1:00:28.080 --> 1:00:28.560 I was. 1:00:29.290 --> 1:00:32.110 that was my thing, man. For me, it was, it 1:00:32.130 --> 1:00:34.660 was hard to give some of them records up. Like, 1:00:34.680 --> 1:00:37.550 when I'm writing, I'm really thinking about myself sometimes. Not unless, 1:00:37.590 --> 1:00:40.150 you know, I'm in the studio and somebody, like, my 1:00:40.170 --> 1:00:41.910 little brother, Jacquees, I did a song with him. 1:00:43.280 --> 1:00:45.850 Him called 23. That's my guy, man. Yeah, man. He's 1:00:45.870 --> 1:00:48.130 a damn fool. Yeah, he is, man. He always starts 1:00:48.150 --> 1:00:51.030 some shit. Wait, why do you always start shit, dog? 1:00:52.330 --> 1:00:54.490 He does start shit. I just heard about that. I 1:00:54.490 --> 1:00:57.490 love him, dog. Yeah, man. My guy. I don't give 1:00:57.570 --> 1:00:59.610 a fuck. I don't care who feel the way. That's 1:00:59.670 --> 1:01:01.690 my homie. I fuck with him every moment, man. You 1:01:01.710 --> 1:01:02.250 know what I'm saying? 1:01:02.290 --> 1:01:04.190 But hey, man, but he believe that, man. And so 1:01:04.230 --> 1:01:06.830 you got to appreciate that, man. You got to appreciate 1:01:06.850 --> 1:01:09.210 the fact that, hey, man. man, throw it out there, man. 1:01:09.230 --> 1:01:10.660 You know what I'm saying? Hey man, if you believe it, 1:01:10.690 --> 1:01:11.770 then hey, that's all that matters. 1:01:11.890 --> 1:01:13.530 Yeah. You know, so I love him for that, man. 1:01:13.590 --> 1:01:16.290 But Mike, when I did a record with him called 23, 1:01:16.290 --> 1:01:18.730 I got in the studio with him and he was 1:01:18.750 --> 1:01:20.410 telling me about, you know, what he was going through. Like, 1:01:20.450 --> 1:01:22.050 you know what I'm saying? Like, I got, I got 1:01:22.070 --> 1:01:23.770 this chick and you know what I'm saying? Like, but 1:01:23.790 --> 1:01:25.430 I really don't want to be in a relationship right now. 1:01:25.510 --> 1:01:29.110 And this was back in the day. And I say, man, 1:01:29.130 --> 1:01:29.830 I'm gonna write a song. 1:01:30.390 --> 1:01:34.490 And I say 23. And the song basically is about 1:01:35.100 --> 1:01:37.280 You know, not really wanting to settle down. Mm-hmm. Because 1:01:37.300 --> 1:01:38.760 I'm too young to do that. I'm too young. Yeah. 1:01:39.440 --> 1:01:43.600 And so that was specifically written for him. So that's 1:01:43.620 --> 1:01:45.360 how I write. If I'm able to get in the 1:01:45.380 --> 1:01:47.480 studio with you and talk to you and get in 1:01:47.500 --> 1:01:49.600 your head, I write something for you. But for the 1:01:49.640 --> 1:01:52.160 most part, when I'm writing, I'm writing with me in mind. 1:01:52.740 --> 1:01:56.530 So at this stage now, is that something that you 1:01:56.550 --> 1:01:59.530 would even be willing to do with a lot of, like, 1:01:59.570 --> 1:02:00.350 the artists that are around? 1:02:00.370 --> 1:02:02.810 Like, writing for them and producing for them? Yeah. 1:02:02.850 --> 1:02:07.560 That's my goal now is to to get back out and, and, uh, 1:02:07.680 --> 1:02:09.260 and producing right for other artists, man. 1:02:09.320 --> 1:02:11.970 I got, I got so much stuff in the can, man, that, 1:02:11.990 --> 1:02:14.210 you know, cause I'm out. That is why I've been 1:02:14.230 --> 1:02:16.790 chasing you for these years. What's up, man? Trying to 1:02:16.830 --> 1:02:19.690 get you here because what happens, and this is, this 1:02:19.730 --> 1:02:22.770 is something that I found. A lot of the. 1:02:22.790 --> 1:02:28.510 Newer generation don't realize that the. 1:02:27.510 --> 1:02:32.110 Legends in our game are accessible to them. They don't know. 1:02:32.720 --> 1:02:35.380 They really be like, Bro, I would love to work with. 1:02:36.580 --> 1:02:38.160 And then when I get y'all here and I tell 1:02:38.180 --> 1:02:40.340 y'all that, y'all be like, man, I'm with it. 1:02:41.180 --> 1:02:43.300 Definitely. But they really don't know. Definitely. 1:02:43.420 --> 1:02:44.960 You know what I mean? So that's why I asked you. 1:02:44.970 --> 1:02:48.070 I'm like, yo, would you be willing to work with 1:02:48.110 --> 1:02:51.090 different people? I think, man, I think where we're at 1:02:51.150 --> 1:02:54.450 right now, man, especially it's almost like basketball, you know, like, like, 1:02:54.490 --> 1:02:57.169 like back in the days, you know, we had people 1:02:57.190 --> 1:03:01.490 who played basketball, but now the players are so much better. Like, 1:03:01.530 --> 1:03:04.010 they can sing so much better, man. I mean, it's just, 1:03:05.090 --> 1:03:06.650 it's different, man. You know what I'm saying? 1:03:06.810 --> 1:03:09.170 Yeah, man. It's like, I don't know what's going on, man, 1:03:09.190 --> 1:03:11.770 but I mean, like, riffs and all these things. 1:03:11.790 --> 1:03:13.990 But they've been studying. Yeah, they've been studying. So they 1:03:14.010 --> 1:03:15.610 got a lot of the stuff. And I would love 1:03:15.630 --> 1:03:16.590 to tap into that, man. 1:03:16.750 --> 1:03:16.970 Yeah. 1:03:17.190 --> 1:03:19.960 Would you tap into that, man, and give them some lyrics, man, 1:03:19.980 --> 1:03:21.760 that they can, would they do some things with me? 1:03:21.760 --> 1:03:23.480 Because I think that's a lot of what we're missing 1:03:23.500 --> 1:03:25.480 right now is just the lyrical content. Yeah. 1:03:25.500 --> 1:03:26.900 You know what I'm saying? I think that the lyrics 1:03:26.920 --> 1:03:30.930 could be a lot stronger. Yeah. and more storytelling, you know? Yeah. 1:03:31.050 --> 1:03:33.090 No, me and Sean Stockman talk about that a lot. 1:03:33.130 --> 1:03:36.230 That's like one of my best friends. And, um, and obviously, 1:03:36.250 --> 1:03:38.690 you know, they've sold more records than we could think of, 1:03:39.310 --> 1:03:40.630 but you know, he's just. 1:03:40.530 --> 1:03:46.280 Like, bro, like they need these just little tweaks. Yep. 1:03:46.920 --> 1:03:47.820 From our generation. 1:03:48.380 --> 1:03:51.600 And I agree with him wholeheartedly where it's just like, man, like, 1:03:52.040 --> 1:03:56.440 but we on our side of it, on the other 1:03:56.480 --> 1:03:56.840 side of 30, 40. 1:03:56.820 --> 1:04:00.040 Yeah. have to say, hey, we got to reach out 1:04:00.060 --> 1:04:01.950 to them and say, you know what? I want to 1:04:01.990 --> 1:04:04.070 pull up on you. Yeah, that's true. You know what 1:04:04.090 --> 1:04:05.610 I mean? And not just feel like, oh, they're going 1:04:05.630 --> 1:04:07.470 to brush me off. No, no, no, no. Hey, man, 1:04:07.490 --> 1:04:08.570 I'm going to come by your session. 1:04:09.350 --> 1:04:13.090 I'm talking about from Kehlani to Coco Jones to, you know, 1:04:14.610 --> 1:04:16.260 J-Don and Papa J Young. 1:04:16.520 --> 1:04:18.340 Like, and just been like, I'm just going to be 1:04:18.360 --> 1:04:19.440 a fly on the wall. I just want to come 1:04:19.460 --> 1:04:20.560 support y'all. Oh, wow. 1:04:20.580 --> 1:04:22.460 I just want to hear what y'all doing. And then 1:04:22.480 --> 1:04:24.260 if you ask me, I'm going to tell you what 1:04:24.280 --> 1:04:24.500 I think. 1:04:24.580 --> 1:04:27.250 Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. but we have 1:04:27.290 --> 1:04:32.510 to really create, you know, that, um, that, that community. 1:04:32.830 --> 1:04:33.970 That's true. That's true. 1:04:33.990 --> 1:04:36.090 We have to create that community, man. Like I had 1:04:36.110 --> 1:04:38.020 that conversation with Joe. I had that conversation. 1:04:38.040 --> 1:04:39.680 You know what I mean? Like me and Tank live 1:04:39.720 --> 1:04:42.080 by it. You know what I mean? That brother on 1:04:42.100 --> 1:04:45.660 tour right now with. That's so dope, man. Supporting our brothers. Yeah, man. 1:04:45.680 --> 1:04:48.260 You know what I mean? So it's like, we got 1:04:48.280 --> 1:04:49.960 to lead by example in that. 1:04:50.120 --> 1:04:52.510 And it's honestly something I said when I, you know, 1:04:52.970 --> 1:04:55.600 when I was talking to Ebro and Nadeska and, um, 1:04:56.390 --> 1:04:58.970 In the Apple interview where I'm just like, we got 1:04:58.990 --> 1:04:59.990 to be collaborative. 1:05:00.590 --> 1:05:02.850 Yeah. And we got to keep showing up for each other. Yeah. 1:05:02.950 --> 1:05:05.980 I was like, I'm just here. Yeah. I agree. Y'all 1:05:06.020 --> 1:05:08.439 asked me to come talk. Yeah. But I'm really just 1:05:08.500 --> 1:05:10.980 here in support of the culture. But you're in the room. 1:05:11.000 --> 1:05:12.720 And these brothers. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. 1:05:12.760 --> 1:05:15.900 Because when we on that stage too, we need to 1:05:15.920 --> 1:05:18.320 look out and see each other. It doesn't have to 1:05:18.360 --> 1:05:21.720 be the proverbial stage. Just talking about in our business. 1:05:22.110 --> 1:05:23.370 We got to look out and be able to see 1:05:23.390 --> 1:05:25.560 each other and be like, oh man, you know what? Bro, 1:05:25.600 --> 1:05:29.020 I love the fact that, wildly enough, man, I probably 1:05:29.040 --> 1:05:30.260 talk to Keith Sweat once a week. 1:05:30.700 --> 1:05:35.890 Wow. Wow. Life, stock tips. You know what I mean? Like, 1:05:35.930 --> 1:05:38.390 he on them stocks. What? Wow. He was giving me 1:05:38.410 --> 1:05:40.010 stock tips during the pandemic. I reached out to Keith, man. 1:05:40.690 --> 1:05:42.570 You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know, I've been 1:05:42.610 --> 1:05:43.750 that baby since about, you. 1:05:43.650 --> 1:05:46.470 Know, I got that motherfucker, you know, I'm on that 1:05:46.530 --> 1:05:47.740 NASDAQ and shit, baby. 1:05:47.780 --> 1:05:49.420 You know what I mean? What you doing out there? 1:05:49.440 --> 1:05:52.600 You still sleeping, nigga? No, nothing's coming to sleep but 1:05:52.640 --> 1:05:55.390 a dream. I'm like... Nick, you tell me this every 1:05:55.470 --> 1:05:58.530 other day. I remember. Don't nothing come to a sleeper 1:05:58.550 --> 1:06:00.070 but a dream. I had to get my ass up, K. 1:06:00.110 --> 1:06:01.010 I'm up. Right. 1:06:01.190 --> 1:06:05.010 But the fact that I can call upon him on 1:06:05.030 --> 1:06:07.450 that and I can have real conversation with him about 1:06:07.490 --> 1:06:11.110 the business, about ownership, about what to do when you 1:06:11.210 --> 1:06:12.430 actually have your masters. 1:06:12.450 --> 1:06:15.990 Because everybody talks about attaining them. I want my masters. 1:06:16.300 --> 1:06:18.300 What are you going to do? How are you going 1:06:18.320 --> 1:06:21.500 to get those licensed? Are you teaming in place? 1:06:21.520 --> 1:06:23.480 Do you have a team in place to help you 1:06:24.630 --> 1:06:30.050 really grow your business and being able to have legends 1:06:30.140 --> 1:06:34.240 like that as one phone call away, it's invaluable. 1:06:34.500 --> 1:06:37.980 It is. There are certain younger artists that are younger producers, 1:06:38.080 --> 1:06:40.939 are executives that may look at me that way. 1:06:40.960 --> 1:06:43.510 And I want to be that for them as well, 1:06:44.010 --> 1:06:47.330 because that's the only way that we really make this 1:06:47.410 --> 1:06:50.450 thing right. I mean, sharing knowledge, man, don't try to 1:06:50.910 --> 1:06:52.990 be a gatekeeper and hold everything to yourself, man. 1:06:53.010 --> 1:06:55.410 Just, you know, Give these cats what they need, man. 1:06:55.430 --> 1:06:57.210 I mean, it may be something. 1:06:57.230 --> 1:07:00.670 That they can use that you've been doing that you 1:07:00.690 --> 1:07:02.210 can give to them and it can help. 1:07:02.350 --> 1:07:05.990 You know what I'm saying? What's your thoughts? And this 1:07:06.050 --> 1:07:14.010 is fully left field. What's your thoughts on AI? For me, 1:07:14.240 --> 1:07:17.060 I feel like it's cheating. Okay. Do you feel like 1:07:17.100 --> 1:07:19.540 autotune is cheating? I feel like it's cheating too. Okay. 1:07:19.560 --> 1:07:22.459 You know what I'm saying? I do. Performance enhancements. Yeah. 1:07:22.480 --> 1:07:24.900 That's what I call it. It's steroids. Yeah. Okay. 1:07:25.200 --> 1:07:28.160 I think where we're at right now with AI, I 1:07:28.180 --> 1:07:30.450 can immediately tell an AI song when I hear it. 1:07:31.530 --> 1:07:33.170 And I can tell an AI voice when I hear it. 1:07:33.350 --> 1:07:33.510 Right. 1:07:33.530 --> 1:07:35.630 Because, I mean, it's way too clean. It is way 1:07:35.650 --> 1:07:35.990 too clean. 1:07:36.050 --> 1:07:40.410 And it's doing stuff that... There's no soul behind it either. Yeah, man. 1:07:40.470 --> 1:07:42.150 And I feel like AI right now is. 1:07:43.810 --> 1:07:46.220 Every song... kind of is in the same key. It's 1:07:46.260 --> 1:07:49.080 in the, it's, it's a, I don't know, man. It's frequency. Yeah, man. 1:07:49.140 --> 1:07:51.820 It's just, uh, you can tell. 1:07:52.220 --> 1:07:56.400 So what are your thoughts on it being an assist 1:07:57.720 --> 1:08:00.760 in the creation process? Other than just being like, okay, 1:08:00.900 --> 1:08:06.120 I just did an AI record more. So being like, okay, shit, 1:08:06.140 --> 1:08:08.910 I'm about to date me. And I'm sure they, you too. 1:08:08.930 --> 1:08:10.310 I used to have a thesaurus. 1:08:11.530 --> 1:08:16.460 Yeah. Yeah. Keep one with me. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yep. And now, Chad, 1:08:16.500 --> 1:08:17.580 GPT is that. 1:08:17.700 --> 1:08:18.000 Yeah. 1:08:18.680 --> 1:08:21.060 Yep. You know what I mean? Or, you know. I 1:08:21.080 --> 1:08:22.960 think if you're doing it in that way. And that's 1:08:22.979 --> 1:08:25.340 why I asked. If you're using it in this thing. Yeah. 1:08:25.380 --> 1:08:27.729 But if you got it where it's like, okay, well. 1:08:28.510 --> 1:08:32.890 And see, I hate these kind of conversations. But if 1:08:32.930 --> 1:08:34.690 you got it where, well, come up with this bass 1:08:34.729 --> 1:08:37.550 line and come up with this string line and come 1:08:37.590 --> 1:08:37.970 up with this. 1:08:38.750 --> 1:08:39.070 I think. 1:08:40.010 --> 1:08:42.260 I think the human element is always going to be 1:08:42.300 --> 1:08:44.540 better because you're pulling from somewhere else. 1:08:44.560 --> 1:08:46.200 Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Even if you go 1:08:46.240 --> 1:08:50.460 back and replay it? I'm just asking. 1:08:51.640 --> 1:08:54.630 Because I've heard some dope AI parts and all that 1:08:54.650 --> 1:08:55.390 stuff like that, man. 1:08:55.410 --> 1:08:57.070 You're not going to get away from it. No, we're 1:08:57.090 --> 1:08:58.090 not going to get away from it. It's here now. 1:08:58.130 --> 1:08:59.590 We're not going to get away from it. I just 1:08:59.610 --> 1:09:01.460 feel like... like... It's like a nigga that don't like Uber. 1:09:01.540 --> 1:09:02.340 I just feel like it's going to put a lot 1:09:02.360 --> 1:09:03.559 of people out of work, too. You know what I'm saying? 1:09:03.580 --> 1:09:05.340 Because now I don't have to call that session player. 1:09:06.000 --> 1:09:06.410 I could just get. 1:09:06.420 --> 1:09:08.540 You know what I'm saying? I could just get AI 1:09:08.560 --> 1:09:10.100 to do it. And I think it's going to put 1:09:10.120 --> 1:09:11.620 a lot of people out of work like that. Because, 1:09:11.689 --> 1:09:15.430 you know, again, you don't have that human element. You 1:09:15.450 --> 1:09:17.370 know what I'm saying? Like, okay, that AI part got 1:09:17.410 --> 1:09:17.950 played like that. 1:09:18.010 --> 1:09:21.460 But somebody... that's a human is going to have a 1:09:21.479 --> 1:09:24.000 different type of feel. Absolutely. It's going to be different. 1:09:24.540 --> 1:09:26.620 But I do believe that we have to teach the 1:09:26.660 --> 1:09:28.519 new generations, especially us. 1:09:28.920 --> 1:09:29.500 We have kids. 1:09:30.140 --> 1:09:31.860 Our kids are interested in this space. 1:09:32.020 --> 1:09:33.700 They got to learn how to prompt. Oh, yeah. They 1:09:33.720 --> 1:09:34.720 got to learn how to prompt. 1:09:34.880 --> 1:09:36.440 You got to write things in there to get what 1:09:36.479 --> 1:09:38.680 they want because it's going to matter. 1:09:38.700 --> 1:09:41.690 It's moving fast. Yeah, that matters. It's moving fast. 1:09:41.770 --> 1:09:43.729 I'm not going to say I wouldn't use AI because 1:09:43.790 --> 1:09:44.400 I would use it. 1:09:45.010 --> 1:09:48.030 But, you know, again, I'm at that point right now where... 1:09:49.970 --> 1:09:52.910 I still have to be at least 90% human. Yeah. 1:09:53.130 --> 1:09:54.950 You know, and 10% maybe you have right now. 1:09:55.090 --> 1:09:58.269 No, and I ask because it's a hot topic right now, bro, 1:09:58.290 --> 1:10:01.260 especially in our business. I mean, obviously they asked us 1:10:01.360 --> 1:10:04.260 when we were on Breakfast Club about it. And, you know, 1:10:05.360 --> 1:10:08.700 people had certain things to say about it. For me, 1:10:08.900 --> 1:10:14.490 I'm just open-minded, right? Because I believe when you close 1:10:14.530 --> 1:10:15.430 your mind to things. 1:10:16.070 --> 1:10:17.950 You learn less. That's true. That's true. 1:10:18.350 --> 1:10:21.670 So, you know, you have to at least start to 1:10:21.710 --> 1:10:22.840 truly understand it. 1:10:23.290 --> 1:10:24.250 And then. 1:10:25.830 --> 1:10:30.550 You have your own gauge of what you want to use, 1:10:30.590 --> 1:10:32.210 what you don't want to use, what you. 1:10:32.110 --> 1:10:35.480 Believe is fully cheating. I remember... It makes our life easier. 1:10:35.500 --> 1:10:40.980 Bro, we were really early with the underdogs with Auto-Tune. 1:10:42.500 --> 1:10:43.679 Harvey Mason Jr. 1:10:43.740 --> 1:10:44.439 Probably. 1:10:45.330 --> 1:10:48.030 was one of the first guys to have people record 1:10:48.150 --> 1:10:48.360 in it. 1:10:49.350 --> 1:10:49.650 Really? 1:10:49.950 --> 1:10:52.210 That was part of the underdog sound, honestly, with the 1:10:52.270 --> 1:10:55.320 vocal sound of it. And I remember the first time 1:10:55.420 --> 1:10:57.900 I sang with it on and I was pissed. Man, 1:10:57.939 --> 1:11:01.139 take that shit off my voice. I was pissed because 1:11:01.420 --> 1:11:04.419 I also came from this very old school way of thinking. 1:11:04.900 --> 1:11:06.540 My daddy used to tell us we need to sing 1:11:06.560 --> 1:11:08.469 and you got to walk it down. 1:11:08.479 --> 1:11:10.130 You got to sing it from the top to the bottom. 1:11:10.729 --> 1:11:15.269 And even punching. Punching is cheating. I mean. Punching vocals 1:11:15.290 --> 1:11:17.670 is cheating, bro. I mean, yeah. But you know what, though? 1:11:17.930 --> 1:11:18.570 I'm not going to lie, man. 1:11:18.870 --> 1:11:21.260 I'm the kind of person where it's at. I don't 1:11:21.300 --> 1:11:25.380 give a fuck, man. I'll punch that one part for 1:11:25.439 --> 1:11:27.360 two hours until I get that motherfucker, man, because I 1:11:27.360 --> 1:11:29.120 want it to sound a certain kind of way. And 1:11:29.160 --> 1:11:31.440 if I'm not getting it, I'll sit there, man. Try 1:11:31.860 --> 1:11:34.689 telling that to James Brown or Gladys Knight. 1:11:35.860 --> 1:11:37.750 No, you ain't. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, they 1:11:37.770 --> 1:11:39.150 want to take it. They're like, wait, wait, you want 1:11:39.170 --> 1:11:41.059 me to do what? Yeah. Hey, baby, get off the studio. No, 1:11:41.070 --> 1:11:42.170 play that from the top again. Hey, baby, get off 1:11:42.189 --> 1:11:45.229 my studio. Yeah, no, that's real. That's so real. 1:11:45.250 --> 1:11:48.590 So we're coming to that point where now we have 1:11:48.630 --> 1:11:51.000 to decide how much of it we want to be 1:11:51.020 --> 1:11:52.900 a part of, or don't want to be a part of, you. 1:11:52.840 --> 1:11:54.019 Know, and I don't want to sound like the old 1:11:54.060 --> 1:11:55.560 man either. You know what I'm saying? Like in the 1:11:55.600 --> 1:11:58.120 back of your head. Cause your sweatsuit and your jewelry 1:11:58.420 --> 1:12:01.930 and your glasses is very fly. And you're on your, 1:12:01.950 --> 1:12:04.330 you're YN right now. So I don't want you to 1:12:04.350 --> 1:12:05.150 feel like that neither. 1:12:05.170 --> 1:12:05.430 Right. 1:12:05.530 --> 1:12:05.790 Right. 1:12:05.830 --> 1:12:07.210 No, I don't want to feel like the old man, like, nah, 1:12:07.229 --> 1:12:10.269 they shouldn't do it. Um, I mean, I embrace everything, man. 1:12:10.310 --> 1:12:13.790 It's just right now. I just feel like, um, I 1:12:13.830 --> 1:12:15.110 just love the human element, man. 1:12:15.229 --> 1:12:15.750 Yeah. 1:12:15.870 --> 1:12:18.220 I think AI is on to something. I think it's 1:12:18.240 --> 1:12:19.820 going to be really big. It already is. 1:12:19.820 --> 1:12:20.880 It already is. It already is. 1:12:20.939 --> 1:12:23.059 I told niggas they need to give Milli Vanilli their 1:12:23.080 --> 1:12:23.560 Grammy back. 1:12:24.000 --> 1:12:26.800 Yeah, they do. Anyway. Get them niggas their Grammy back. 1:12:26.820 --> 1:12:30.430 They still had to go out and sell that shit. Yeah. 1:12:30.600 --> 1:12:33.890 I hear y'all, oh, they wasn't in. But without that look, 1:12:33.910 --> 1:12:36.349 it wouldn't have happened. You know what I'm saying? You 1:12:36.370 --> 1:12:39.310 hear me? Yeah. So, especially where we're at in the 1:12:39.330 --> 1:12:43.070 business now. Mm-hmm. What they call it is, is it retract? 1:12:43.150 --> 1:12:45.229 I don't know the word on the top of my 1:12:45.250 --> 1:12:48.139 mind right now, but whatever that is, the reversion of it. 1:12:48.790 --> 1:12:51.809 Get them niggas that Grammy back, man. Yeah. Yeah. Especially 1:12:51.830 --> 1:12:53.550 where we going with this business. For real. Yeah. 1:12:53.750 --> 1:12:57.809 Because what I've learned by having kids, they don't care. 1:12:58.130 --> 1:13:01.689 Nah. Yeah. Nobody does. They just want to dance. Yep. 1:13:02.060 --> 1:13:03.740 Or they just want to do their little jump up 1:13:03.780 --> 1:13:06.540 and down in the crowd of them. Yep. And they 1:13:06.560 --> 1:13:09.540 just want to feel good. Mm-hmm. And I get it. 1:13:09.570 --> 1:13:11.490 The purists, listen, there are a lot of purists that 1:13:11.530 --> 1:13:14.810 watch this show. And I respect the purists. But I 1:13:14.890 --> 1:13:18.189 also respect evolution. Yeah, man. I mean, it's going to 1:13:18.210 --> 1:13:20.790 happen with or without your consent. You know what I'm saying? 1:13:21.670 --> 1:13:23.570 So you better get used to it. So speaking of 1:13:23.640 --> 1:13:25.940 new things, what's new for Donnell Jones? 1:13:26.479 --> 1:13:28.820 I'm ecstatic, man, to get back in the studio and work. 1:13:28.939 --> 1:13:31.309 We're going on a project right now. Yeah? Yeah, man. 1:13:31.320 --> 1:13:34.260 We're getting an album. Yeah, man. I'm going to do it, man. 1:13:34.280 --> 1:13:38.160 You know, it's been a while, man. But maybe... five 1:13:38.180 --> 1:13:40.040 six years i think it's been okay i'm not really. 1:13:39.930 --> 1:13:42.490 Sure what the time period but man i'm just ecstatic 1:13:42.530 --> 1:13:45.310 man about just getting back in there and just writing 1:13:45.330 --> 1:13:47.330 man i mean i've been through a lot i recently 1:13:47.350 --> 1:13:49.600 got divorced a couple of years ago you know so 1:13:50.260 --> 1:13:51.800 took some time off and i got a lot to 1:13:51.820 --> 1:13:54.360 write about and a lot to speak about you. 1:13:54.280 --> 1:13:57.280 Know yeah how far along are you into the album 1:13:57.340 --> 1:14:00.530 is it is it close it's it's it's we're fresh Oh, 1:14:00.550 --> 1:14:02.410 you're just starting it? Yeah, we're fresh. Okay. We're fresh. 1:14:02.430 --> 1:14:03.849 So we're not getting it. I've been talking about this 1:14:03.890 --> 1:14:06.089 project for a while, man. But again, you know, I 1:14:06.310 --> 1:14:07.530 had to live a little bit and I went through 1:14:07.560 --> 1:14:10.980 some things. And I'm on the other side of it now, man. 1:14:11.020 --> 1:14:14.420 So I'm feeling really good and ecstatic about where R & 1:14:14.120 --> 1:14:15.790 B is and my place in it. 1:14:16.140 --> 1:14:19.620 Yeah. Yeah. Are you looking to be collaborative in it? 1:14:19.680 --> 1:14:21.480 Or do you want a lot of features? Do you want, 1:14:21.500 --> 1:14:23.000 you know what I mean? I want some features, man. 1:14:23.020 --> 1:14:25.600 I want to collaborate. You know, I'm open. Your camera's 1:14:25.620 --> 1:14:29.180 right there. Your camera. Tell us. The artists out here 1:14:29.200 --> 1:14:31.060 that love Donnell Jones, that would want to do a 1:14:31.120 --> 1:14:34.400 record with Donnell Jones. Man, her. Yeah. I love her. 1:14:35.350 --> 1:14:38.390 Summer Walker. You know what I'm saying? Definitely Summer. I mean, Chris. 1:14:38.729 --> 1:14:41.910 Come on, Chris. Yeah. Eric Bellinger. Tank. 1:14:42.310 --> 1:14:42.510 Yeah. 1:14:42.650 --> 1:14:43.490 I mean, come on, man. 1:14:43.530 --> 1:14:45.219 Like, there's so many artists out there, man, that I 1:14:45.229 --> 1:14:47.639 would love to do something with, that I love their work. 1:14:47.840 --> 1:14:49.860 And, man, if they could participate, man, it'd be great. 1:14:50.060 --> 1:14:52.220 That has to happen, bro. Yeah. And we all have 1:14:52.260 --> 1:14:54.580 to be a part of that. You know what I mean? 1:14:54.600 --> 1:14:56.420 And I'm telling you, you on this show right now, 1:14:56.460 --> 1:14:58.080 anything I can do to help. Man, I appreciate it. 1:14:58.080 --> 1:15:00.139 Even if it's just a phone call. Oh, yeah. Bro, 1:15:00.220 --> 1:15:03.350 I got you. I stick by my word. I appreciate you. 1:15:03.370 --> 1:15:04.849 You know what I mean? And I'll tell you, listen, 1:15:05.110 --> 1:15:09.710 I can't get to them. Right. Right. Right. I've been trying, dog. 1:15:11.310 --> 1:15:13.950 I've been trying. Right. But I will at least attempt. 1:15:14.130 --> 1:15:15.370 You know what I'm saying? I appreciate that. 1:15:15.410 --> 1:15:17.990 It's just because everybody always wants to tell you when 1:15:18.010 --> 1:15:20.150 there's a problem. Nobody actually wants to be the solution. 1:15:20.310 --> 1:15:20.530 Right. 1:15:20.729 --> 1:15:23.800 I try to be a solution-based person. I try to 1:15:23.920 --> 1:15:29.450 be helpful and of service. of some kind in, you know, 1:15:29.650 --> 1:15:32.259 in my relationships and the people that I really rock with. 1:15:32.280 --> 1:15:35.120 You know what I mean? And with somebody like. 1:15:35.000 --> 1:15:37.580 You, man, who I have the utmost respect for in 1:15:37.600 --> 1:15:39.580 this game and what you've done in this game and 1:15:39.600 --> 1:15:42.620 what you're doing, I would love to say, man, you 1:15:42.660 --> 1:15:42.960 know what? 1:15:43.240 --> 1:15:45.620 I made a phone call for Donnell Jones. That'd be dope. 1:15:45.760 --> 1:15:47.740 I got him a feature. Such and such. 1:15:47.800 --> 1:15:50.310 Or, you know, put him on to a new writer 1:15:50.890 --> 1:15:53.310 or producer that had a record that his voice fits. 1:15:54.510 --> 1:15:56.290 That is what we have to do, bro. 1:15:56.550 --> 1:15:58.170 Man, I appreciate it. We have to do it. For real. 1:15:58.350 --> 1:16:00.750 For real. Yeah. Look at it, man. I don't want 1:16:00.770 --> 1:16:02.110 to do everything. You know what I'm saying? 1:16:02.189 --> 1:16:04.670 I do want to open it up and get some 1:16:04.689 --> 1:16:05.900 sounds from some other people, man. 1:16:05.910 --> 1:16:08.960 I mean, of course, you know, people want to hear 1:16:09.939 --> 1:16:10.780 what I do. Of course. 1:16:10.800 --> 1:16:12.180 But at the end of the day, man, I think 1:16:12.240 --> 1:16:15.220 it's more importantly that we open up this project and 1:16:15.460 --> 1:16:16.480 get some other sounds on there. 1:16:16.640 --> 1:16:20.540 Yeah. Yeah. Now, that's exciting, bro. Yeah. That's really exciting. 1:16:21.160 --> 1:16:21.540 For sure. 1:16:21.560 --> 1:16:24.040 Do you, in your mind, because you've been on all 1:16:24.060 --> 1:16:29.000 sides of business with it, is it something that you 1:16:29.040 --> 1:16:31.040 feel like you would want to do with a label 1:16:31.120 --> 1:16:34.700 or are you, are you a purely ever independent mindset now? 1:16:35.320 --> 1:16:36.429 I'm neither. Okay. 1:16:36.470 --> 1:16:38.550 I'm saying like, it doesn't matter to me. I just 1:16:38.590 --> 1:16:40.729 want to make something really good. And I think the 1:16:40.770 --> 1:16:42.290 cards will fall where they may. 1:16:42.310 --> 1:16:42.810 Of course. 1:16:42.830 --> 1:16:44.910 You know, I would love to have a label because, 1:16:44.930 --> 1:16:48.600 you know, you're working with their money, their team, you 1:16:48.610 --> 1:16:49.189 know what I'm saying? 1:16:49.310 --> 1:16:50.500 And if you can get them to do what you 1:16:50.540 --> 1:16:52.560 need them to do. We like OPM, man. Yeah, man. 1:16:52.680 --> 1:16:53.660 We like other people's money. 1:16:53.840 --> 1:16:55.000 I mean, but at the end of the day, if 1:16:55.120 --> 1:16:57.809 it's something that I have to do, I'm, I'm, I 1:16:57.820 --> 1:16:58.810 got enough to make it happen. 1:16:59.110 --> 1:17:00.750 Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm having enough to 1:17:00.790 --> 1:17:03.290 make it happen. I respect that. Yeah. 1:17:03.410 --> 1:17:03.610 Yeah. 1:17:03.689 --> 1:17:05.830 Cause you know, you be on that road, brother. Oh yeah. 1:17:05.890 --> 1:17:07.950 We working. And you wrote them songs. You know what 1:17:07.970 --> 1:17:09.850 I mean? So, you know, I know, I know it's 1:17:09.870 --> 1:17:10.559 still pulling up. 1:17:10.600 --> 1:17:10.720 Yeah. 1:17:10.760 --> 1:17:12.340 We, yeah, we good, man. You know what I'm saying? 1:17:12.360 --> 1:17:15.700 Like it's the, the funny thing is, is, um, these 1:17:15.720 --> 1:17:18.140 records be getting sampled, man. Like that 702 record has 1:17:18.180 --> 1:17:20.700 been sampled so many times, man. It's like, and that's 1:17:20.720 --> 1:17:22.060 the beauty about music, man. 1:17:22.280 --> 1:17:23.820 Did you write that? Never stopped sampling, y'all. I wrote 1:17:23.939 --> 1:17:25.190 that for you. Did you write that a hundred percent? 1:17:25.350 --> 1:17:25.590 Yeah. 1:17:26.729 --> 1:17:30.520 Oh man. Oh, yeah. I need to borrow $ 5 before 1:17:30.540 --> 1:17:33.140 you leave. I need to hold something. Those records, man. 1:17:33.280 --> 1:17:37.950 They be sampling, man. They be sampling, bro. You clearing them? 1:17:38.270 --> 1:17:41.870 When you get the request, you clearing them? Oh, for sure. Okay. 1:17:41.890 --> 1:17:46.270 Me ain't turning nothing down. You never know. You never know. 1:17:46.290 --> 1:17:48.070 You never know what that record become. You never know, man. 1:17:48.130 --> 1:17:48.729 You never know. 1:17:49.010 --> 1:17:51.550 Just so y'all know, all you young producers and artists 1:17:51.610 --> 1:17:54.010 out there that want to flip a Donnell Jones. 1:17:53.729 --> 1:17:55.930 Record, he said he going to clear it. Oh, we 1:17:55.950 --> 1:17:57.630 clearing it? Yeah, he said he going to clear it. 1:17:59.530 --> 1:18:04.150 He might ask for 85%. He's going to clear it. 1:18:04.729 --> 1:18:06.810 He is going to clear it. 1:18:06.990 --> 1:18:09.520 And it's funny, man, because I've noticed, too, that your 1:18:09.610 --> 1:18:10.530 fan base. 1:18:12.060 --> 1:18:16.260 Has been skewing younger. What do you attribute that to? 1:18:16.280 --> 1:18:18.280 I don't know. I think, you know. 1:18:19.060 --> 1:18:22.660 You got some TikTok shit cracking, bro. They got someone 1:18:22.680 --> 1:18:26.350 on TikTok called Donnellaholic. Now I know a harlot. 1:18:26.470 --> 1:18:30.750 Yeah, man. And it's young. We did a, what do 1:18:30.790 --> 1:18:31.930 you call it, a study or whatever. 1:18:32.790 --> 1:18:35.509 And the funny thing is, most of my fans now 1:18:35.750 --> 1:18:41.370 are from 35 down to like 18. And what's tripped 1:18:41.390 --> 1:18:43.189 out about it is, I think what's going on is 1:18:43.210 --> 1:18:44.970 the fact that, you know, back in the days, our 1:18:44.990 --> 1:18:47.670 mothers played records. And like, that's why I love the 1:18:47.750 --> 1:18:49.550 Ozzy Brothers so much, even though I'm not part of 1:18:49.570 --> 1:18:51.990 that generation. but I listen to that music, you know 1:18:52.010 --> 1:18:53.470 what I'm saying? And I think that's what's going on. 1:18:53.810 --> 1:18:56.990 I think that their parents played the music, yeah, man, 1:18:57.030 --> 1:18:58.809 and they heard it and now they play it for 1:18:58.830 --> 1:18:59.900 their kids and so on and so forth. 1:18:59.910 --> 1:19:01.700 I consider myself a good parent because my son can 1:19:01.720 --> 1:19:04.160 sing where I want to be. You know what I mean? Like, ah, 1:19:04.200 --> 1:19:05.820 calm down, dog. Calm down. 1:19:05.840 --> 1:19:07.200 You might not want to sing that to a girl. 1:19:07.240 --> 1:19:09.140 I think that's what it is, man. I think, you know, 1:19:10.240 --> 1:19:12.050 As we get older, you know what I'm saying? We 1:19:12.060 --> 1:19:14.150 play that music and their kids pick it up and 1:19:14.170 --> 1:19:14.830 their kids pick it up. 1:19:14.830 --> 1:19:18.309 Yeah. So I think that's what it is. Yeah. Nah, bro. 1:19:18.330 --> 1:19:22.520 Like I said, man, what you've done in this game, man, 1:19:22.680 --> 1:19:25.520 it shows. I appreciate that. It shows, man. And I'm 1:19:25.560 --> 1:19:29.189 glad that we're able to celebrate you on this platform, bro. 1:19:29.200 --> 1:19:30.030 Thank you. Thank you. 1:19:38.740 --> 1:19:42.059 But, you know, while you're here, man, let's get into 1:19:42.479 --> 1:19:43.680 the mind of Donnell. 1:19:43.700 --> 1:19:45.439 Okay. You know what I'm saying? 1:19:45.540 --> 1:19:48.439 And what, you know, your inspirations are and have been 1:19:49.020 --> 1:19:50.740 to get you to this spot, man. 1:19:51.520 --> 1:19:54.090 Don, can you play something for me, man, that the 1:19:54.270 --> 1:20:02.450 good brother Tank sent in, please? Top five. You here. 1:20:02.890 --> 1:20:14.150 You here. Your top five. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. R & 1:20:13.350 --> 1:20:17.530 B singers. R & B songs. 1:20:17.570 --> 1:20:21.439 We've got to know. 1:20:21.460 --> 1:20:27.380 Come on. Before you go. Here on this show. Everybody 1:20:27.420 --> 1:20:32.740 want to know. Here on Top 5. Yes. Top 5. 1:20:32.720 --> 1:21:03.620 Top 5. Yeah, man. Oh, man. Oh, yeah, man. 1:21:04.580 --> 1:21:06.190 Now it's time for you to tell us your top 1:21:06.290 --> 1:21:11.190 five R & B singers and top five R & 1:21:10.910 --> 1:21:11.490 B songs. 1:21:12.430 --> 1:21:16.620 Okay, my top five R & B singers can't... Do 1:21:16.640 --> 1:21:20.250 whatever you want. Donnell Jones, brother. Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. 1:21:20.689 --> 1:21:24.710 Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder. Donny Hathaway. Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:21:26.270 --> 1:21:30.790 Teddy Pendergrass. Mm-hmm. You got the zip down, too. Okay, 1:21:30.850 --> 1:21:32.650 I see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not 1:21:32.689 --> 1:21:34.300 quite a button doll, you know what I mean? But 1:21:34.320 --> 1:21:39.800 you got the zip down. Prince, man. Teddy P. Prince, man. Prince. Yeah, man. Prince, man. Yeah, yeah. 1:21:40.140 --> 1:21:43.840 Killer vocals. Yeah, man. Killer vocals. Prince, man. Okay, okay. 1:21:44.729 --> 1:21:46.130 Is that five or that's four? It's five. 1:21:46.150 --> 1:21:52.439 Wait, you said Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, Teddy P. 1:21:52.479 --> 1:21:55.920 Teddy P. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. And 1:21:55.939 --> 1:21:57.860 I can go on for days, man. I mean, listen. 1:21:57.880 --> 1:21:58.820 I can go on for days. 1:21:58.840 --> 1:22:00.880 What are some other names? I ain't going to stop you. 1:22:00.939 --> 1:22:03.320 And we said, would that R & B single, would 1:22:03.340 --> 1:22:05.660 that male? You want females to get a win in 1:22:05.689 --> 1:22:05.940 that too? 1:22:06.020 --> 1:22:12.269 Come on. Oh, Jane Karn. What's her name? Aretha Franklin. Yeah. Yeah. 1:22:12.510 --> 1:22:18.920 Patrice Russian. Yeah. Uh, Tin Marie. Oh, I love Tin Marie. 1:22:18.960 --> 1:22:22.120 I mean, man, so many, man. I mean, Delise Williams. Yeah. 1:22:22.700 --> 1:22:26.559 Shirley Murdoch. Okay, now you going crazy. I mean, Kelly Price. 1:22:26.660 --> 1:22:26.800 I'm 75. 1:22:26.800 --> 1:22:30.820 I mean, Minnie Houston. You know, I mean, it's so many, man. 1:22:30.939 --> 1:22:33.380 It's like, it's a very hard list to do. 1:22:33.900 --> 1:22:35.920 It is, man. It's tough. It's a very hard list. 1:22:35.939 --> 1:22:38.400 I mean, we talking about all times, man. Yeah. We 1:22:38.460 --> 1:22:41.099 ain't even done yet. No. You know, we still going. 1:22:41.120 --> 1:22:45.980 You know? There's a Jasmine Sullivan. Oh, man, man. She 1:22:46.000 --> 1:22:49.320 just smokes everything and everybody. Well, she probably is the 1:22:49.360 --> 1:22:52.040 best of the best. Oh, my God. You know, like, yeah, 1:22:52.060 --> 1:22:54.809 you got to have another list for her. Like, that's 1:22:54.850 --> 1:22:58.950 a whole nother list. She's special. Yeah, man. Incredible. Yeah. Okay. Okay. 1:22:58.970 --> 1:23:03.470 So you gave me the top 70,000, five. Top five 1:23:03.710 --> 1:23:07.009 R & B songs. Lady In My Life, Michael Jackson. 1:23:08.439 --> 1:23:12.130 Before I Let Go. Blackstreet. Blackstreet. My sister was in 1:23:12.210 --> 1:23:13.570 that video. Another sister. Yeah. 1:23:13.590 --> 1:23:16.610 She was, she was like, she played, she's in a, 1:23:16.810 --> 1:23:18.490 like a, I don't know if it's not a coffee. 1:23:18.520 --> 1:23:19.979 She's like outside of a coffee shop. It looked like 1:23:19.990 --> 1:23:20.479 she's like on a. 1:23:20.450 --> 1:23:20.950 Date or something. 1:23:20.979 --> 1:23:23.560 But yeah, my sister was just randomly in that video. 1:23:25.780 --> 1:23:28.180 She gonna kill me too. Cause she's a full movie 1:23:28.220 --> 1:23:28.900 executive now. 1:23:29.040 --> 1:23:31.700 They gonna be, they gonna go look for it. They 1:23:31.720 --> 1:23:36.800 gonna look for it. Watch. Yeah. Ever my lady. Yeah. Uh, Jodeci. Yeah. 1:23:36.920 --> 1:23:44.570 It's like a dream. Um, Always and Forever. That was... 1:23:44.510 --> 1:23:47.580 Whose version? Heat Wave. Heat Wave. Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, 1:23:47.680 --> 1:23:50.639 Heat Wave. Okay, all right. And what's another one, man? 1:23:51.979 --> 1:23:55.599 One more. You can always say one of yours. Okay, well, 1:23:55.620 --> 1:23:58.020 where do I want to be? Where do I want 1:23:58.040 --> 1:24:01.339 to be? I didn't want to put me in there. Hey, man, listen, bro. 1:24:01.420 --> 1:24:02.720 I don't want to do that, but yeah, where I 1:24:02.720 --> 1:24:05.580 want to be. Man. Yeah. I told you that that 1:24:05.620 --> 1:24:08.640 record just has a special place in it. Yeah, man. 1:24:08.700 --> 1:24:14.600 But y'all should add this on. Okay. Producers. Because. You 1:24:14.640 --> 1:24:15.400 want to tell me the producers? 1:24:15.420 --> 1:24:15.900 Yeah, man. 1:24:15.920 --> 1:24:21.080 Come on. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, man. Jam and Lewis. Babyface, man. Babyface. 1:24:21.400 --> 1:24:23.640 Teddy Riley, man. Teddy. I got to go with my 1:24:23.680 --> 1:24:27.030 man Eddie F., man. And I got to put R. 1:24:27.080 --> 1:24:30.400 Kelly in there, man. Rob. R. Kelly, man. You are 1:24:30.420 --> 1:24:33.229 from Chicago. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. 1:24:33.360 --> 1:24:35.500 I get it. I get it. Now, that list of 1:24:35.540 --> 1:24:41.549 producers is. Oh, and you can't. You can't. Gambling Huff, man. Gamblin' 1:24:41.570 --> 1:24:47.290 Huff out of Philly. Yeah, they made some incredible records. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:24:47.430 --> 1:24:49.340 I mean, he can't name it. He and I talk 1:24:49.360 --> 1:24:51.560 about Gamblin' Huff. Yeah, and then, you know, the all-time 1:24:51.680 --> 1:24:53.820 is Quincy. Quincy your all-time? 1:24:54.400 --> 1:24:58.760 I mean, because he spanned so many genres and did 1:24:58.800 --> 1:24:59.400 it for so long. 1:24:59.640 --> 1:25:02.510 I have this argument. Is Quincy from Chicago or Seattle? 1:25:03.310 --> 1:25:07.640 I think he's from Chicago. I'm going to always say Chicago. 1:25:07.660 --> 1:25:10.620 I do that with all my Chicago homies. They be like, 1:25:10.640 --> 1:25:12.740 Quincy Jones. We got Quincy Jones. I was like, Quincy 1:25:12.780 --> 1:25:16.480 Jones from Seattle, right? No, he not. And we ain't 1:25:16.500 --> 1:25:18.380 going to fact check that either. We going to keep 1:25:18.420 --> 1:25:19.080 it Chicago. 1:25:20.600 --> 1:25:22.780 They be pissed at me when I say that, too. 1:25:23.040 --> 1:25:24.269 And I'll just do it to fuck with him. 1:25:24.580 --> 1:25:26.160 Right. I'll just do it to fuck with him. Because 1:25:26.240 --> 1:25:29.979 it's like, yeah, y'all have arguably the greatest producer of 1:25:30.080 --> 1:25:35.290 all time. Yeah, man. He's one of them, man. For real. Now, he's... Special, special, special. 1:25:35.410 --> 1:25:42.620 Okay, now you're going to build the ultimate R & 1:25:42.160 --> 1:25:48.099 B artist. Your Voltron. Your R & B Voltron. We're 1:25:48.120 --> 1:25:51.479 going to do the vocals. We're going to sing. We're 1:25:51.500 --> 1:25:54.470 going to be the voice for this artist. And this 1:25:54.490 --> 1:25:57.050 can be male, female. You can mix it. Who's going 1:25:57.070 --> 1:25:59.990 to be the voice for this artist? Who's going to 1:26:00.030 --> 1:26:02.790 be the performer, the stage performer? Who got the coldest 1:26:02.810 --> 1:26:06.930 stage performance? Who got the flyest style? Who going to 1:26:06.950 --> 1:26:11.250 put that shit on? Then who got the passion? Who's 1:26:11.270 --> 1:26:13.790 the most passionate artist you can think of? And since 1:26:13.850 --> 1:26:19.059 you are a very top tier, elite level songwriter, I 1:26:19.100 --> 1:26:20.480 need to know who going to write the songs for 1:26:20.500 --> 1:26:24.180 this artist. But first, for Donnell Jones, Voltron, R & B, 1:26:24.220 --> 1:26:28.320 Voltron artist, who's the voice? The voice is going to 1:26:28.340 --> 1:26:30.670 be a mixture of Aretha Franklin. 1:26:31.510 --> 1:26:32.030 Are you doing Hybrids? 1:26:32.050 --> 1:26:32.150 Yeah. 1:26:32.720 --> 1:26:37.259 Whitney Houston. Oh, golly. And it's going to be probably 1:26:37.340 --> 1:26:39.960 mixed with a little Stevie. Okay. You're the first one 1:26:39.979 --> 1:26:42.430 to add three. Yeah. Yeah. 1:26:42.439 --> 1:26:45.349 I don't know how that's going to happen. 1:26:45.400 --> 1:26:51.570 Listen, you know. Yeah. Okay. So Aretha Whitney Stevie is 1:26:51.610 --> 1:26:54.970 the singer. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Stage performance. 1:26:55.910 --> 1:26:58.809 Stage performance, I would say, is going to be Michael 1:26:58.870 --> 1:27:03.769 Jackson mixed with Man, I got to mix it. Because 1:27:03.790 --> 1:27:05.330 I got to, because the guy, no, because the guy, 1:27:05.390 --> 1:27:06.849 it's with Chris Brown. 1:27:06.950 --> 1:27:10.310 It's yours. That's it. Mike and the Chris. Mike and 1:27:10.330 --> 1:27:13.110 the Chris, man. So you're saying if Michael Jackson could 1:27:13.140 --> 1:27:16.480 do backflips, it would just all be Michael Jackson. And 1:27:16.500 --> 1:27:19.140 Gangsta Walk. Yeah. That's why I got to go with 1:27:19.180 --> 1:27:20.979 Chris too, man. Because I mean, Chris is doing some 1:27:21.000 --> 1:27:24.750 amazing things, man. So aggressive. Yeah, man. He just looked different. 1:27:24.910 --> 1:27:27.190 Did you see where he slipped on stage and he 1:27:27.229 --> 1:27:30.110 flipped back up? He half-flipped it in perfect time. I 1:27:30.130 --> 1:27:34.099 was like, come on, dog. That half-flipped in perfect time, too? 1:27:34.189 --> 1:27:36.500 And then the nigga just kind of laughed it off. 1:27:36.900 --> 1:27:39.420 You can't really say performance without putting his name. He's 1:27:39.439 --> 1:27:40.790 that guy. Yeah, yeah. And he's flying around the stadium now. 1:27:40.820 --> 1:27:42.880 He's like 200 or 300 feet in the air. Yeah, man. 1:27:48.240 --> 1:27:49.920 be scaring them up a good. I think I'd be 1:27:49.939 --> 1:27:52.259 scared on the road coasting that high. Yeah, I'm afraid 1:27:52.280 --> 1:27:54.470 of heights too, man. I couldn't do that. I'm cool, bro. 1:27:54.560 --> 1:27:58.650 I'm cool off that. Okay, who's style? Style-wise. 1:27:58.770 --> 1:28:01.010 Who the fly artist, man? You putting, you know, you putting, 1:28:01.110 --> 1:28:02.689 you putting they fit on this artist. 1:28:02.970 --> 1:28:05.150 I would say Michael. 1:28:06.030 --> 1:28:08.970 I mean, some glittery, you know, some, some, you know, some, yeah. 1:28:09.520 --> 1:28:11.100 I got on glowing socks right now. 1:28:11.740 --> 1:28:17.040 Yeah. Oh, you do? You do? Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen. Okay. 1:28:17.120 --> 1:28:20.800 It's real. Okay. Everything you're saying, I believe. Yeah, I 1:28:20.820 --> 1:28:24.290 do Mike, man. Mike Glitter, yeah. Yes. Yeah, come on. 1:28:24.300 --> 1:28:29.689 You got to have some glitter socks, man. Yeah. All right. Passion. 1:28:30.010 --> 1:28:34.910 The passion of the artist. Passion. Curtis Mayfield. 1:28:36.350 --> 1:28:40.420 You know, I think what he did, he had to 1:28:40.460 --> 1:28:41.299 have a lot of passion. 1:28:41.479 --> 1:28:45.040 Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I don't think 1:28:45.060 --> 1:28:47.519 he gets mentioned enough, you know. He does not. Yeah. 1:28:48.060 --> 1:28:48.660 He does not. 1:28:49.700 --> 1:28:54.790 Incredibly talented, incredibly passionate. And what he was writing and 1:28:54.890 --> 1:28:55.650 singing about. 1:28:55.689 --> 1:28:57.240 Yeah. Tell me about it. 1:28:57.650 --> 1:29:01.309 He's talking about Writing your life, your reality, the reality 1:29:01.330 --> 1:29:02.850 of the streets and what was going on. 1:29:03.850 --> 1:29:05.860 Oh, yeah. And they did a damn good job at it, man. Yeah. 1:29:06.080 --> 1:29:11.400 Amazing job. Curtis Mayfield. Absolutely. Okay. Who's the songwriter for 1:29:11.420 --> 1:29:13.500 this artist? I got to go with two. Two people again. Okay. 1:29:13.660 --> 1:29:17.250 Come on. I'm going with Babyface and R. Kelly, man. Oh, 1:29:17.290 --> 1:29:20.510 my God. Yeah. I'm going with, yeah. Because I can 1:29:20.550 --> 1:29:22.530 do it with just Babyface, though. You know what I'm saying? 1:29:22.570 --> 1:29:23.530 Do it with just Kels, too? 1:29:23.550 --> 1:29:25.910 Yeah. Do it with just Kels, too. They were both 1:29:25.950 --> 1:29:28.150 on Tony's album, man. I mean, and they both did 1:29:28.170 --> 1:29:30.170 a couple songs. I forget which album it was, but... 1:29:30.370 --> 1:29:31.330 And that album was dope as hell. 1:29:31.890 --> 1:29:34.969 So I would... Yeah, it was due for Tony Braxton. 1:29:35.050 --> 1:29:35.809 I gotta go back to that. 1:29:35.830 --> 1:29:38.379 Yeah, he did a record on that same album that 1:29:38.410 --> 1:29:40.219 she had, I Don't Wanna Sing. 1:29:40.120 --> 1:29:44.400 Another Love Song. Okay. Yeah, I gotta go look into that. Yeah, man. 1:29:44.439 --> 1:29:48.040 And that was a dope album. I think them two would... 1:29:48.000 --> 1:29:49.320 It would be a great competition. 1:29:49.340 --> 1:29:50.860 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. 1:29:51.100 --> 1:29:54.260 And I think, you know, Babyface is... I seen him 1:29:54.320 --> 1:29:56.900 in concert, man. I was like, damn, man, like, all 1:29:56.920 --> 1:29:57.700 these damn records, man. 1:29:57.720 --> 1:30:00.160 You see how he's still running across the stage? Man, man, 1:30:00.180 --> 1:30:04.500 it's crazy, man. I mean, what, he like in his 60s? Yeah. Man, 1:30:04.560 --> 1:30:08.900 he got it, man. Babyface sprinting across the stage. Yeah, man. 1:30:09.280 --> 1:30:12.309 It's amazing and hilarious. It's funny, too. Yeah, it is. 1:30:12.550 --> 1:30:14.970 You can tell he out of breath. But he killing it. 1:30:14.970 --> 1:30:19.470 Because you don't have any songs that validates you running 1:30:19.510 --> 1:30:20.150 across the stage. 1:30:20.350 --> 1:30:22.530 Sprinting. Right, right, right. Sprinting. 1:30:22.770 --> 1:30:22.920 Oh, man. 1:30:23.330 --> 1:30:24.770 He like, I'm going to show y'all. 1:30:24.810 --> 1:30:25.010 Yeah. 1:30:25.910 --> 1:30:27.580 That's all it is. It's just a flex. Yeah. It's 1:30:27.640 --> 1:30:29.800 really a flex. And killing it. It go crazy though. 1:30:29.820 --> 1:30:30.360 Yeah, man. 1:30:30.520 --> 1:30:33.640 It's a full flex. Yeah, man. Shout out to Face, man. 1:30:33.780 --> 1:30:36.260 I love Kenny, man. Shout out to Face. One of 1:30:36.280 --> 1:30:39.040 the first people I worked with when I came to 1:30:39.120 --> 1:30:44.810 LA and had the pleasure and, you know, I was 1:30:44.870 --> 1:30:47.870 honored to write with when I first got to LA. Wow, man. 1:30:47.910 --> 1:30:49.000 It must have been something, man. I. 1:30:50.420 --> 1:30:52.060 I was on the face for many years, man, and 1:30:52.080 --> 1:30:53.580 people would think that I got a chance to work 1:30:53.600 --> 1:30:54.460 with him, but I never got a chance. 1:30:54.479 --> 1:30:59.040 Y'all never worked together? Never, man. Face, man. Let's do something, man. Grace, 1:30:59.100 --> 1:31:01.309 what are you... Yeah. Man, if you don't come do 1:31:01.350 --> 1:31:06.630 a record with Don L. Jones... Yeah, man. That's crazy. Yeah, man. 1:31:07.890 --> 1:31:12.270 Never knew that. That's on my bucket list. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 1:31:12.410 --> 1:31:17.600 It's like that, too, though, when you are pretty much self-contained. Mm-hmm. 1:31:18.100 --> 1:31:19.760 it's one of those things where like, oh, let him 1:31:19.800 --> 1:31:21.390 do what he do. Yeah. I don't want to get 1:31:21.439 --> 1:31:22.090 in the way. Yeah. 1:31:22.150 --> 1:31:23.770 And that's what they did, man. You know, and I 1:31:23.790 --> 1:31:26.189 appreciate the fact that they, they allowed me to do that. 1:31:26.370 --> 1:31:29.550 Cause I mean, it definitely, um, it helped my career 1:31:29.570 --> 1:31:30.870 in a way. Whereas that, you know, I was, I 1:31:30.890 --> 1:31:33.259 was able to like, I took a lot of stuff 1:31:33.340 --> 1:31:36.560 from them and listen to a lot of music, but 1:31:36.880 --> 1:31:38.479 them allowing me to be me, man, I think it 1:31:38.820 --> 1:31:41.540 definitely shaped my career and shaped my music. Um, and 1:31:41.560 --> 1:31:43.680 I think that's when you, that's why when you hear 1:31:43.700 --> 1:31:46.850 a Donnell Jones record, you can tell, that the songs 1:31:46.880 --> 1:31:49.120 that I've done and the song that's, that's other people's. 1:31:49.300 --> 1:31:53.120 Right. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Okay. We got one more, 1:31:53.540 --> 1:31:55.700 we got one more segment, man, before I let you 1:31:55.780 --> 1:31:56.340 out here. Okay. 1:31:57.400 --> 1:32:00.059 People, you know, this, this, this segment, man, people love this, 1:32:00.140 --> 1:32:02.460 this part of the show, brother. So, you know, when 1:32:02.580 --> 1:32:03.780 you hear this song, you have to, you have to 1:32:03.800 --> 1:32:08.139 think about what, you know, story you're going to tell. 1:32:08.160 --> 1:32:09.360 Play that for me real quick, dad. 1:32:12.710 --> 1:32:16.939 So, we had a very important part, like I told you, where.... 1:32:42.270 --> 1:32:46.570 You tell us a story. Funny or fucked up? Or 1:32:46.710 --> 1:32:50.009 funny and fucked up? The only rule to the game 1:32:50.270 --> 1:32:51.349 is you can't say no names. 1:32:53.030 --> 1:32:59.400 Hmm. Okay. I love when the light bulb go off. 1:33:04.400 --> 1:33:07.019 I know this particular, we was in a situation where, 1:33:07.040 --> 1:33:08.860 you know, this particular artist was. 1:33:10.530 --> 1:33:14.729 Was telling me about this female that he just met. Okay. 1:33:14.790 --> 1:33:16.530 And he just, you know, just hook up with her. 1:33:16.770 --> 1:33:18.130 Come on. Sounds very R & B. 1:33:18.310 --> 1:33:21.440 And he was like, yo, man, she dope as hell, man. Like, 1:33:21.479 --> 1:33:24.320 she really dope, but she got a foot fetish, man. 1:33:25.180 --> 1:33:26.960 She has a foot fetish? She has a foot fetish. 1:33:27.320 --> 1:33:27.400 Okay. 1:33:27.420 --> 1:33:28.680 Like, man, you know what I'm saying? 1:33:28.700 --> 1:33:30.360 Like, every time I go over there, man, like, she 1:33:30.400 --> 1:33:34.340 want me to take off my shoes. But he was like, 1:33:34.380 --> 1:33:38.400 this particular time, bro, she put my whole foot in 1:33:38.420 --> 1:33:45.110 her mouth. And, I mean, he was like, yo, bro, like, 1:33:45.630 --> 1:33:50.349 he ain't got no little foot. He was like, yo, bro, 1:33:50.370 --> 1:33:54.290 she put my whole foot in her mouth, man. And 1:33:54.710 --> 1:33:57.110 I just couldn't stop thinking about that, man. But, yeah, 1:33:57.150 --> 1:34:00.870 that happened in real life, man. Yeah, that's my story. 1:34:01.070 --> 1:34:02.270 Did he keep dealing with it? 1:34:02.750 --> 1:34:05.070 I mean, he liked it. He liked it. I mean, 1:34:05.090 --> 1:34:07.270 he kept going back. He obviously liked it, too, though. 1:34:07.290 --> 1:34:08.220 He liked it. I mean. 1:34:08.380 --> 1:34:10.940 He just walk over and do this. I just couldn't 1:34:10.960 --> 1:34:12.960 imagine it, man. It wasn't no size eights. 1:34:13.420 --> 1:34:15.120 I'm trying to. 1:34:15.120 --> 1:34:18.120 Figure out how she get her whole foot. 1:34:18.800 --> 1:34:22.000 That whole foot in her mouth. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. 1:34:22.080 --> 1:34:24.680 So there's some women out here eating a full foot. 1:34:24.800 --> 1:34:27.380 A full foot. A full foot, man. I mean, if 1:34:27.400 --> 1:34:28.620 they tell you to take your shoes off, man, you 1:34:28.640 --> 1:34:31.340 better be careful, man. They might have a foot fetish. Oh, 1:34:31.380 --> 1:34:36.830 my God. Yeah. Yeah. That's wild. That's wild. That's wild. Yeah. 1:34:37.830 --> 1:34:41.670 All right. Okay. You know what? I didn't want to 1:34:41.729 --> 1:34:50.090 say it, but yeah, it happens. So listen, brother, this 1:34:50.110 --> 1:34:52.490 has been an honor and a pleasure, bro. Thank you, man. 1:34:52.600 --> 1:34:56.120 I really appreciate your time. Thank you. People have been 1:34:56.180 --> 1:34:59.679 asking for you to come on here. I appreciate that. Yeah. 1:34:59.800 --> 1:35:03.130 They've been, they've been, man, when is Donnell Jones coming on? 1:35:03.650 --> 1:35:05.970 I'm trying, guys. I'm trying. 1:35:06.330 --> 1:35:08.050 We had to get out here to L.A., y'all. I mean, 1:35:08.070 --> 1:35:11.670 you know what I'm saying? I've done it. I've done it. Yeah. 1:35:11.710 --> 1:35:12.090 I've done it. 1:35:12.090 --> 1:35:15.520 Listen, when I accomplish these things where I get the 1:35:15.660 --> 1:35:19.040 artists that everybody wants that I personally want on as well, man, 1:35:19.120 --> 1:35:21.600 it makes me feel great. Man, thanks for having me, man, 1:35:21.620 --> 1:35:24.220 for real, man. I've always wanted to do this podcast, man. Like, 1:35:24.760 --> 1:35:26.540 it's one of the ones that's high on my list, man. Like, yo, 1:35:26.580 --> 1:35:28.540 we got to do this. So I appreciate you guys 1:35:28.560 --> 1:35:29.260 having me, man, for real. 1:35:29.280 --> 1:35:30.460 Of course, bro. 1:35:30.500 --> 1:35:32.280 Listen, and like I told you before, we are in 1:35:32.380 --> 1:35:35.099 full support. all things that you got going on. 1:35:35.229 --> 1:35:37.260 Thank you. We're waiting on the Elevator album. Will we 1:35:37.280 --> 1:35:38.500 get that this year or is it going to probably 1:35:38.520 --> 1:35:41.479 be next year? I mean, we kind of on mid-ground 1:35:41.500 --> 1:35:44.540 right now. Yeah. Probably early next year. Okay. Okay. Well, 1:35:44.560 --> 1:35:48.840 we're waiting on it and we're sending out the signals. Oh, yeah. 1:35:48.860 --> 1:35:50.640 We're going to send out the bad signals, man. If 1:35:50.680 --> 1:35:52.340 y'all want to be a part of it, man, let 1:35:52.360 --> 1:35:54.019 me know, man. Let's get to work, y'all. 1:35:54.180 --> 1:35:58.780 Yeah. For real. Yeah. Now, man. Amazing, bro. Hey, y'all. 1:35:59.620 --> 1:36:01.720 This has been the R & B Money Podcast. I'm 1:36:01.740 --> 1:36:06.350 Jay Valentine. and the incredible, the legend himself, Donnell Jones.