WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Usher 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.800 Of Course Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:10.240 classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.440 and Gentlemen, Welcome to QLs Classic Episode twenty four with 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:18.320 Persuer May twenty seventeen. He's one of the brightest stars 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.239 of the post MJ generation and we get to chop 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.720 it up with Usher about his life growing up in 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.280 the spotlight, not to mention to the pressures of keeping 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.880 that light bright. We get confessional about doing it his way. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.120 We hope you enjoy Usher QLs Classic. 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:52.120 Thank you, Supremo Supremo. Roll Call, Suprima Supremo. Roll Call, Suprima, Supremo. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:57.800 Roll Suprima, supremos Que. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:12.680 Yeah, st yeah, l O v E Yeah, roll roll 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.039 the name. I got so many tricks. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:16.600 Yeah. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.880 I should have won that oscar for in the mix. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:23.680 Some real. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:35.040 Sugar, Sugar Steve. Yeah, this is my confession. Yeah, I 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:44.240 love we already that st roll call Supremo Supremo. Role 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.760 this boss Bill. Yeah, I'm about to have some fun. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:48.440 Yeah. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:50.960 I've been away for a while. Yeah, I had to 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:56.440 get the guns roll. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:01.640 Bill. 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.320 Yeah, so what's the deal. Yeah, I've been watching The 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:05.800 West Wing. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.200 Yeah, it's real Supreme. 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:16.519 Supreme roll Supremo, Supremo roll. 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.400 Yeah, I'm already caught up. Yeah, my bo was Usher. Yeah, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:23.640 I don't give a fun. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:28.200 Supremo roll. 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:35.040 Okay, Suprema, Yeah Supremo. My name is Yeah, I'm here 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:35.920 with Team Supreme. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:37.239 Yeah. 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.840 What y'all doing in here? Yeah? 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:44.600 Man, I don't know what the hell. 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:45.839 Oh yeah, Suprema. 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:53.639 So Supremo. Role called Supremo, Supremo roll call Supremo. 0:02:53.800 --> 0:03:02.680 Hey, Supremo roll. That was cool. Yes, we made it, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:11.080 We did it. I'll admit that Usher is the first guess, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.560 of course Love Supreme to actually have known of the 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.040 theme before it was unleashed. You know, for those that 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.560 are wondering about the themes, we never tell our guests 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.560 what the theme is, like, we just you know, I was. 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.480 Trying to think some funny ship to say the whole time, 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.000 wrote down a whole bunch of shit that I didn't 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:30.480 use them. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.440 Like you, just writing words like maybe if I just 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.120 have a few catch words, it'll just come to me somehow, 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.440 some way. Some of the best moments of quest Love 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.400 Supreme is when we mess up. Well, in case you 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.520 haven't guessed, ladies and gentlemen, uh, in the ongoing tradition 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.560 of adding members to the roots as if they're not 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:58.200 enough uh members already. I think ushers is going to 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:09.720 be probably remember number seventeen were still yeah growing out. 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.520 I want residuals on everything. 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.240 In line with the rest of the roots. Son. No, 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:21.080 Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. Friend of the show, uh, 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:26.960 friend of the roots, friend of of music, music, Yeah, 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:33.400 of music, Usher, Aloisious Raymond the Fourth. What's your middle names? 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.679 I don't know. I mean, you know, like they're killing 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.400 they're killing all my Cosby dreams, But I don't know, 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.280 like Field's middle name, Aloisious Huxtable. Really you didn't know that? 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.720 What's what's the symbolic meaning or word that wording? 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:50.599 I don't know. It just means that you put a 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.720 lot of thought into the middle name if you need. 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:54.600 That's what I mean I'm saying it. 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.440 Could it could be like attached somewhere to like the 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:58.520 family roots or something. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.280 Well, yeah, if I don't know the person, I'm just 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.000 saying that you. I mean, you're first of all. Ladies 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:04.640 and gentlemen, please welcome Usher Ring. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.200 We got right, so you said it just as it is. 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.640 I don't have a middle name for real. No, I 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.400 don't have a middle name, Usher, Raymond, the four. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.479 I not know how many people our fourths there you go, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:21.200 let's talk about it, like, yeah, that means you're you're 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:29.160 your grant, your whole linears escaped. Hell, I know, I know, yeah, joking, 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.480 but serious? Who your son is five? 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:33.760 Who was the first usher? 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.400 What did he do first? I mean he worked in 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:37.600 the theater, I guess. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:38.760 I don't know theaters back then. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:45.600 In my mind, I'm like, obviously, no, we all were 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.039 obviously given names by our slave owners, so you know, 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.320 or either within the trade of what it is that 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.000 was significant in that time. So I think that maybe 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.680 it had something to do with, you know, being a 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:57.520 server or something. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:57.919 I don't know. 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:05.280 But late on that joke, like. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:06.479 I don't even have a sound effect. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.960 So my entire career, you thought it was a joke, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:11.080 Like my name really wasn't. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:12.480 No, No, No, I knew Usher was your name, but I 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.680 didn't think about Usher being a given name and it 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:16.560 really being like maybe it was somebody who was the 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.520 usher in church from back in the day, or we. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.240 Just know they were having church back then. 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.200 You know what I'm saying, They're using. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.480 That's how we found Jesus. 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:33.480 Yeah, absolutely so, even though your freestyle on this, I 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.279 would almost lean towards believing that's. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.200 Probably how that's some truth to it. I don't know. 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.400 Yeah, but I become curious within the last two years. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.600 You know what I'm saying, I did I did, like 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.200 about to say you did, I. 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.440 Did the twenty three and me and also to have 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.240 been doing a lot of you did that? Yeah, why 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.719 not necessarily with you knowet it. But but the point 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.560 is just to understand where I come from. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:06:59.479 What are you? 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:06.320 I'm West African? We all are, isn't that true? I 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.640 mean the research that comes back on every person that 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.920 I've had, like West or either you. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.840 Haven't chosen to look have you? 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.640 I have not not yet yet. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.080 That's good because that gives you an opportunity to do something. 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.200 The initial I'm scared of giving DNA like it just 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.200 feels like I feel like I've given DNA. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:28.360 And opportunity to kill the next I'm kind of fucked up, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.400 But but I have looked at it. I'm you got 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.000 some kids off the books, you know, did. 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.800 You give DNA to make money many years ago? 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:40.120 At some point I give DNA I gave plaid. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.880 Yeah, it was real. It was a rough time, but 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:45.720 you know I got it back. You know, I got 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:52.600 the blood. You got a TV back center. It was real. 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:59.520 Bumpings his first album on my Way to the Clinic, Well, yeah, 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.360 I did that test and uh I found out they 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.640 told me that both my parents were from Sierra Leon. 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.120 But I'm gonna I'm gonna do Skip. Gates is one. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.240 Uh he had a show on PBS. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.720 I guess Henry Lewis Gates Henry Wow. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:22.840 Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, or to. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.200 Just kind of at least have some track. I mean, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.679 none of us are, you know, pure blood from Africa. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.520 There were a lot of different places that kind of 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.360 were mentioned in My My Pie Tricks, because there's like 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:33.760 a pie trick that they give you and you kind 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.000 of look and then you can determine, like where you 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.760 want to go from there with it, Like, say you 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:40.760 decide you want to go back to that village, what's 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:41.160 the truth? 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:42.800 What's what is? What truth? 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:44.880 Will you find there? Where you find the village that 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.600 you were originally from. A lot of those places, a 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.880 lot of the places that we would go, they've now 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.240 adopted the idea of being modernized and being colonized, so 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.080 English is now applied. The true tongue of the place 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.960 is not there. So I'm, if anything, I'm hoping that 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.920 I'll go back there and there will be some facial 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:03.000 features that I could see of. 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:04.319 You know, potential people. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.360 But for the most part, they also to have been 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.720 mixed so many times that they're not the original. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.360 Right, it's been cut well. 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:21.480 I strongly recommend that you need to cut it. I 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.839 know this way too well, you need to cut it. 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.600 I strongly recommend that you contact Henry Lewis Gates because 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:36.160 like the level, the thorough level of research they do. 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.800 You know, I'm gonna like for those who don't know, like, uh, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.439 I guess for four or five seasons they were doing 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:47.480 like all the black celebrities because of course, you know, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.960 you're gonna get a glorious story out of that. But 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.079 then when they did the Afflecks, once they started doing 0:09:55.080 --> 0:10:00.240 white people, Henry said that we're gonna have to to 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.959 tell you the truth of yes, yes, yeah, And it 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.559 was just that Ben Affleck in casey Afflecks family, they 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.680 came from a lineage of like some probably the meanest 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.640 slave owners on They ran Candyland, for real and real Candyland. 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.400 You know, it's like, you know, they didn't want that 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.000 information getting out, and then controversy happened, so SKIP was 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:23.679 just like, well, I'm canceling the show then if you 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.520 guys are going to censor me, and you know PBS 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.640 didn't want to broadcast that episode. Now it's bad. 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.040 Let's talk about the fact that technology has now allowed 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.880 us to investigate our own lineage. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:37.520 And that's good. 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.200 You know what I'm saying schools because schools back when 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.800 I was in high school or middle school or elementary school, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:45.240 we were immigrants in the. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:46.760 Books, you know what I'm saying. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:53.160 So still, but I'm saying, like the gross perpetuation of 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.600 what has going on in this country has just continued 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.079 to just cycle and to the point where it's like 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.360 you can't even really get it education about who you are, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.160 You can't who's gonna talk to you? Or we should 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.160 talk about it doing Black History Month? Well, why the 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.920 fuck should we relegate our entire history to a fucking month? 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.520 You serious? Enough? Like, how about how about how about. 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:16.480 We take the time to get the information ourselves, or 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.600 either at least do some investigation along the lines, even 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.200 just giving people an idea of what their lineage is. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.920 Who knows it might it might or might not be true. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:30.240 But the point is it's information, and I'm happy. I'm 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.720 happy that somebody decided to do that. But why is 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.280 it that we as black people didn't come together and 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.880 figure the shit out by ourselves, Because and say, listen, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.000 let's put let's put this money together to begin, like, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.480 let's do a collective, right, We'll go around, You'll go 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.240 to any motherfucking church in the world, and there's a 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.080 collection plate there to keep that stopicility going. But we 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.280 don't figure out a fund for ourselves to begin to 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.319 even understand our lineages and begin to like build ourselves up, 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:56.040 build our state. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.199 That's that's why I asked you, how did you feel 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.760 when you got the information back? I felt great. I 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.840 felt great. I released like, oh I came from somewhere. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.400 Because I don't think people understand the fact. That's what 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.200 I was about to say. I don't think people I 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.760 was over it is you know, I was overwhelmed the 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.280 most because I grew up in a time period where 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.960 if you called me African African booties crab, that was 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.960 like you get to class, not really so no, no, no, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.400 I'm just saying that in the early seventies when you 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.560 called somebody African, like on the playground, I got that. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.880 Hip hop though, because hip hop made me appreciate Africa. 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.160 That's because you were born what you was born seventy eight. 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:34.439 So in the eighties, see. 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.079 That five year gap, that five year I was born 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.640 in seventy more made different? Ye different? See me being 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.240 born in seventy one and being of age at nine 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.440 and like eighty eighty one. That's how shame we were 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.960 to even be called that because but you know you 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.720 you became of age at eight or nine in eighty five, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:55.760 eighty six, eighty seven. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.480 Well by that they were manipulating your mind to celebrate 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.559 everything but who you were, right, But. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.040 I'm just saying that those seven years between you and 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.920 I of the seventies, that's a generation different of thinking. 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.920 Whereas you know, but everything you become of age when 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:13.760 public enemy is. 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:15.679 Like, but did you travel to Africa when you were 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:20.120 that age? No, did you see pictures of Africa when 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:20.800 you were when. 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.600 You were but they are like the world, the world. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.840 So my point is you were being manipulated. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:28.320 You know this. 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.679 I'm just I ain't telling you nothing that's rhetorical, but 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.360 I'm just saying, like, to be perfectly honest with you, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.560 it was hip hop that basically decided to use that 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.240 as a form and it spoke to us. Was it relevant, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:42.920 you know enough to be like, all right, we're gonna 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:44.800 lift up from this and continue to keep it going. No, 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.920 y'all were They were courageous as hell to even have 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.120 the conversation. And what happened after that was, Okay, we 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.440 can continue to talk about Africa and talk about the 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.040 things that are gonna lift us up and talk about 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.000 being connected as the community. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.920 Then it was drugs. Then it was the opulence of drugs. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.680 Then it was the disconnect from anything that had anything 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.560 to do with being smart at all. 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:06.160 So now here we are. 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:08.400 And then some of our artists that came from that era, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.079 like the whole even with the whole collective of Daylight 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.719 and everybody else, Like people got older, they got into. 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.520 Making money and brands things like that too. 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:21.080 So as we have so clearly noticed within our generation 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:26.360 that we don't live long enough in order to celebrate 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.520 what we started fighting for the most of the most 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.600 of the people who were advocating before they got official jobs, 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.600 so now they're insult ferment they got they got government jobs, 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.040 you know what I'm saying, and they're trying to survive. 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.480 And then whatever the hell they got they trying to 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.520 hold on to. So it's like they can't go too deep. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:48.800 And then they realized, oh man, this is a trap, which. 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.120 Is the not to not for nothing. 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.440 But that was the argument with some of the public 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.360 and the Grammys versus Golden Globes, because it was like, oh, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:56.520 we show we is quiet. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.400 We got to protect dog brand. But meanwhile it was 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:00.160 at the other one and. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.040 It was like, ah, but I'm just it's just interesting 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:04.320 in that way, very. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:05.880 Interesting protecting if you want to talk. 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:08.080 About that, I mean, if you want to talk about. 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:12.840 It being as though you're you're in Atlanta Native Okay, 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.080 as we get further into your story, I'm curious to 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:19.880 ask you how your your current mind state, your evolution 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.880 correlates with the culture that Atlanta has now as far 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.480 as hip hop culture is concerned. But okay, great, now 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.360 I'm gonna sound like the cliche, but I want to 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.040 start back in the beginning. Let's go back. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:34.640 You're gonna take you way back. 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:42.440 So were the hits. So you were born in Atlanta, Georgia. 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.280 I was born in Dallas, Texas. Really, I was born 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.400 in Dallas, Texas. Fort Worth, Yes, fort Worth, Texas, which is. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.800 Dallas, Dallas, Texas on usher Riem in the fourth. Yeah. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.440 How long did you live in Dallas? 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:54.880 A year? 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:56.040 I don't count. 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:58.960 I mean that's why a lot of people were born 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.960 and you were actually went to military brats. But my 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.040 father and my mother, they they left Chattanooga, Tennessee, which 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:08.840 is where I would ultimately end up. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.040 So and that's where I was actually from. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.680 But my mother and father went to Dallas, Texas to 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:16.440 really started, you know, to start a new life. 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:18.240 He played basketball. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.520 She you know, she was she played basketball as well, 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.680 but she was an intelligent woman your mind. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:25.120 Played ball. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:26.480 Yeah, my mother played basketball. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:30.760 Yeah, I mean in a college way, like, oh, neither 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.960 of them made it to college because they had me, 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.040 so they kind of that kind of was the rude 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:38.120 of waken it for both of them. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.840 High school, high school. My father would have. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.040 Went on to have played basketball. He was an incredible 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.440 basketball player, noteworthy to this day, like everybody still remember 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:49.280 Urkie that was his name. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.440 But they moved to Dallas. They had me. 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.400 Relationship was obviously, you know, not able to survive. And 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.000 they broke up. They broke up. She brought me back 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.800 to chatting Tennessee and that's where I'm from. 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:09.919 Okay. Yeah, were any of them musically inclined or it 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.840 was just a matter of just playing you a whole 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:12.800 bunch of stuff in the house. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.440 And I think my mother is the person who's most 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.840 responsible for introducing him, introduced me to music. But after 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.280 I met my father, I heard him and I realized 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.680 he had a voice. He was a man of conviction, 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.119 but not he couldn't get the shit together, you know 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.160 what I'm saying. He spent most of my childhood high 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.840 and a substance abuser, and he never was around, never anything, never, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.280 no connection, nothing Until I think I was like maybe 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.720 thirteen or fourteen years old, did I really make a 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.919 connection with him where I could see him in a 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.880 positive like he was a pastor for like that time 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.560 that summer and then he disappeared again. 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.640 But which is most which is the case? 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.719 So that that's another story about we're talking about history. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.520 We're talking about Africa and the idea what that was, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.200 but also too, fathers of that time, like most of 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.959 the people, my peers that I talked to, they felt, 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.399 you know, some of the same reality. And then for 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.879 those who didn't, you know, they became kind of the reference. 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:14.520 Like I was one of those kids who hung out 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.600 with my friends to see how you know that his 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.760 relationship was with his father as an idea what I 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.840 was or either it was The Cosby Show or something 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:26.800 like that, or Fresh Prince of bel Air. 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.360 It kind of figure at least between like up to ten, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:36.479 who was the guy you could talk to you about 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:37.480 my grandfather. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:39.800 I had a lot of uncles, so my uncle Darryl, 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.120 my uncle Bruce, uncle Gary. 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.199 He lived in DC. I didn't really talk to. 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:48.760 Him that much, but he wasn't my mother's brothers, but Bruce, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.280 Darryl O'Neill. I never met my grandfather, which I felt was, 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.639 you know, looking at pictures in him, you knew his 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.200 name was John Henry. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:58.640 That's a hard black name. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:05.879 Yeah, but but yeah, man, you know, I didn't really 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.600 I ain't have a reference. I just kind of looked 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.880 around and it was a collective of people that kind 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.360 of just invested into me because they realized I ain't 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.800 have a dad either. And I mean I turned out 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.359 pretty much, you know, all right, But you know, it 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:23.080 wasn't like I was pulling from the source. 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:24.920 I was actually pulling from the lack thereof. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.840 So not having a dad made it like a task 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.800 for me to you know, know, to be in my 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.520 child's life, to be there for them to understand who 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:33.840 they are. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.119 And I'm telling me raptors around, So you understand. 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.080 Part of the reason, one of the reasons why twenty 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:40.560 three and meters was so important is there was a 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.680 lot of things that were kind of like egging me on, 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.000 like about not knowing who I was and not and 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.160 us not knowing you know, you know, being introduced. When 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.800 I went over the overseas to different you know, types 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:55.480 of spirituality, Yoruba century and all these other things that 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.040 I just saw it was just around. 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:58.679 I was like, man, it's crazy. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.280 All these people who my great from Africa to these 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:03.480 neighboring islands. 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:05.520 They preserved the idea of what. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:09.479 Our original spirituality was or our connection to spirituality was. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:11.160 So I went to. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.800 School and they and they wanted to do a lineage, 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:19.000 like they wanted our kids to offer something from a 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.080 place that they were from. So you have kids who 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:24.920 were from Italy. You have kids who are from all 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.600 these you know, this is a school in Atlanta. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.320 I don't want to. I don't want to. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:30.919 That's so interesting. 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.119 They know, they no, but they but okay, so this 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.560 is not a public school. It's a private school, and 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.840 it's for all the right reasons, right. And when I 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.080 asked my son where he was from, he said, I'm 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:45.800 from Atlanta. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.920 I'm Georgia. I was like, actually, so you're not from Georgia. Yeah, 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.159 i am. I'm from Africa and I ain't from Africa. 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.000 And that was the beginning. And it was like, you 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.320 know what, this matters. 0:20:57.840 --> 0:20:59.440 This matters, and I got I gotta, I gotta go 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:01.439 ahead and go through do with this, and I've been 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.360 talking about it. And I went ahead and they did 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.800 the swab and went through the whole process of giving 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:07.679 him like and that that that was just like the 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:08.960 I gotta get this right. 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.320 So what's his mentality? Now? Does he have a deeper understanding? 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.399 He has eight? He has a deeper understanding. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.919 And even even though he does, we actually, you know, 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.280 we put to the following year, because they have it 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:25.320 every year. We put together his thing and that was 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:28.280 all these things that you know, they made from West 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.560 Africa or Mali, which is where we kind of claim. 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.520 But he still wanted to bring macaron and cheese to school. 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:37.400 That's part of it though. 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:39.960 And by the way he showed it to me said no, 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.680 this is actually something that was made there. 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.080 I was like, all right, okay, cool A teaching you? 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:51.320 So at what point are you finding your your voice, 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.280 your your actual singing? Boys? Like, were you raised in 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:56.040 the church or was it? 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.199 It was my mother, My mother, she was a you know, 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.960 she was a youth director of her choir in church. 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.560 So outside of listening to what was on the radio, 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.720 and you know, just the same the same way as 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.480 you know, y'all had ciphers in hip hop or either 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.439 had bands and shit like that, right, we had ciphers 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.560 to a singing. So if you came to school and 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.360 you couldn't sing like what was on the radio, then 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:20.800 you was kind of whack, you know what I'm saying. 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:22.439 So so I to listen to the radio, and I 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:25.520 listened to how people were singing and what that reaction was. 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.120 And then you know, I was listening to my mother 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.240 preparing her you know, whatever she had to do to 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:33.879 teach her students and I asked her, I said, you know, 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.119 can I be in your you know, choir? She was like, 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.399 you can be in my choir, but if you act up, 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:40.640 I'm gonna kick you out. So don't think that I'm 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.080 gonna give you any like I'm gonna lay off you 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.879 just because you know you my son. Of course, I 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:47.639 got kicked out the choir about two three times, but 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:50.600 you know, she let me do my solo, you know 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:51.639 what I mean every so often? 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:55.520 One question, ohld you talk about just singing a question? 0:22:56.000 --> 0:23:01.080 Your first vocal coach? Yeah, apparently she had break down 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.000 like certain songs and you have to learn the harmonies 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:05.399 and it was like really advanced. 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:07.600 Yeahuff talk about that all right. 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:12.119 So she made me listen to Take six. 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.720 And she would say, how old are you at this point? 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.080 I'm about well, the first Take six record came out 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.439 that was eighty eight. 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:24.920 Yeah, so I'm fourteen. 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.439 I'm fourteen, And I mean I didn't have a vocal 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:33.320 coach as an artist until I was signed, right, That's 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:37.320 when it really started. But before I didn't really need one, 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:39.120 you know what I'm saying. I mean, I don't think 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:43.640 I was perfect, but singing all the time repetition basically 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:45.879 began to prepare me for it, and anything that was 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:48.439 on the radio, I would try to beat it so 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:50.560 if I could sing better than it or either ad 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:53.400 libbing between little spots to kind of make it my own. 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:55.520 I do that, but I was singing it to the 0:23:55.640 --> 0:23:57.399 tune like exactly the way that it was. 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.440 Gotcha. You know what, I have a theory about Usher, 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:06.199 which is it was there was I think this is 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:10.719 when you make me want. A video came out and 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:14.119 we were like we were in the studio recording and 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:16.399 the video came on the monitor, like the volume was 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:23.399 down whatever, and my manager rich Uh said that you 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:28.119 know what you're watching is He said that Usher was 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:33.520 the beneficiary of the first of the what I call 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:35.760 the VCR generation. And I was trying to figure out 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:38.760 what he meant, and he was like, you see the 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:43.480 mechanical way he's dancing, And I was if you remember 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:46.199 the way, like how mechanical the dancing Wasn't you make 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.879 me wanna? He was basically explained to me that Usher 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:54.840 grew ut and like did that is what I always 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:58.080 wanted to ask. Did Motown twenty five have an effect 0:24:58.359 --> 0:24:59.760 on you? Did you see it? The first time he 0:24:59.840 --> 0:25:02.000 came So, I mean it came on in eighty three, 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:04.800 so I guess you were like five or six, Like, 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:07.560 did that performance mean anything to you? Because basically what 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:10.560 he was trying to say was that in your formative 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:13.880 years of getting entertainment, you had a VCR to keep 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.320 rewinding and watching over because it. 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:23.119 Was more important to my cousins and my older. 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:26.600 Trickle down, Like it wasn't a first thing with you 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:29.680 with No, I wasn't it. But I would have never 0:25:29.720 --> 0:25:31.359 guessed that in the skillion years. 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:37.960 Well, everybody loved Michael Jackson, but that was that was 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:41.199 just off of you know, Off the Wall and all that. 0:25:41.280 --> 0:25:44.520 So I could appreciate Off the Wall a little bit 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.680 later in my life, and he wasn't really the person 0:25:47.680 --> 0:25:51.760 who influenced me. Michael Jackson overall was as a presence 0:25:51.760 --> 0:25:55.600 because he was the biggest, right, But it was guys 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:57.840 like Bobby Brown that connected. 0:25:57.920 --> 0:26:00.000 Yeah, okay, you know what I'm saying. 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:03.600 And yes, looking back at that, it was special to me, 0:26:03.680 --> 0:26:06.399 but it was like I can't I can't obtain that, 0:26:06.440 --> 0:26:09.960 I can't reach that. That's not that that doesn't necessarily 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:13.320 I can emulate it. I love thrillers. I was deal 0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:17.200 with everybody watching thriller right, and that that phase, Yes, 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:21.600 everybody was completely crazy fanatic over Michael Jackson. 0:26:21.680 --> 0:26:24.600 But even still, I was trying. I was trying. 0:26:24.920 --> 0:26:28.080 I tried to emulate what I knew I was, and 0:26:28.119 --> 0:26:30.520 I was more of a street dancer and a singer. 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:34.800 And I listened to New Audition Bobby Brown and in 0:26:34.880 --> 0:26:35.320 that world. 0:26:35.400 --> 0:26:37.080 You know what I'm saying, just saying from the fact 0:26:37.080 --> 0:26:46.600 that no, I'm just saying that you none of your 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:52.879 experiences are firsthand church you know, uh, talent shows. 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:55.280 Yeah, yes, that started. 0:26:56.280 --> 0:27:02.040 Well, I just meant in terms of like radio plays 0:27:02.080 --> 0:27:07.320 a big part of your experiences, whereas like a lot 0:27:07.359 --> 0:27:09.479 of the people that traditionally. 0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:10.920 Start my ship was Donnie Simpson. 0:27:12.400 --> 0:27:15.120 I'm saying, so it's like that was my generation, right, 0:27:15.840 --> 0:27:18.960 I'm from Yeah, Sherry Carter and Donnie Simpson. That was 0:27:19.000 --> 0:27:23.639 my generation. And that's basically how I made the connection. 0:27:23.720 --> 0:27:26.440 But dance was it the thing like mom, I want 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:28.600 to sing and all this thing. It was just like, oh, yeah, 0:27:28.600 --> 0:27:31.800 I could do that. I can dance. But I mean, 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:35.080 were you thinking, like eleven, that's what I want to 0:27:35.119 --> 0:27:35.880 be when I grow up? 0:27:35.960 --> 0:27:38.960 Like it was Michael that made me feel like, that's 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:41.399 what I want to do. It was Bobby Brown that 0:27:41.440 --> 0:27:43.360 made me feel like that's what I can do. 0:27:44.240 --> 0:27:47.399 So Bobby Brown was more accessible to you everybody, So 0:27:47.560 --> 0:27:50.840 he's your hero. Yeah, wow, damn. Now I want to 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:58.320 get your feelings on the New Edition movie. So at 0:27:58.359 --> 0:28:03.360 what point are you, I mean, at what point does 0:28:03.400 --> 0:28:06.159 this become a thing where you become serious about it? 0:28:06.200 --> 0:28:08.720 Because you you the first group was when you were 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:12.560 like eleven, right, eleven and twelve. I was twelve, Well, 0:28:13.000 --> 0:28:14.120 talk about that experience. 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:19.680 So there was a they were youth anti uh, they 0:28:19.720 --> 0:28:22.719 were anti youth drug group who came to high schools 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:27.280 to talk about drug abuse, gang violence. 0:28:26.920 --> 0:28:27.600 And stuff like that. 0:28:27.760 --> 0:28:29.960 Right, And this is back in the time when I 0:28:30.000 --> 0:28:32.320 was like in talent shows, just trying to find my way. 0:28:32.640 --> 0:28:34.399 So if I wasn't singing in church, I was singing, 0:28:34.640 --> 0:28:37.880 you know in the yard. You know, in my neighborhood. 0:28:38.080 --> 0:28:40.480 You know, my cousin he used to dance, so he 0:28:40.520 --> 0:28:42.239 would battle and stuff, and he had me come in 0:28:42.320 --> 0:28:45.200 like like the little kid from you know, b Street 0:28:46.000 --> 0:28:48.680 and breaking and I'd be like the special guest, the 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:51.400 cat who would come in and just slaughter because you know. 0:28:51.400 --> 0:28:53.680 No one expected you and you right, so I like 0:28:53.760 --> 0:28:57.680 three card the dancer versus like the random person in 0:28:57.680 --> 0:28:58.120 the crowd. 0:28:59.160 --> 0:29:04.520 But yeah, it was it was, it was, it was. 0:29:04.600 --> 0:29:07.120 It was more Bobby Man. It was more Bobby Brown 0:29:07.160 --> 0:29:11.920 than anything. But finding my way to my voice. It 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:13.480 was just kind of try to never listen to that 0:29:13.600 --> 0:29:17.680 damn radio and then watching those videos. And then I 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:21.320 met this manager by the name of Darryl Wheeler, right, 0:29:21.960 --> 0:29:23.280 and he was like, I really want you to be 0:29:23.360 --> 0:29:25.000 in it. I want you to, you know, audition for 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:28.120 the group, and he said, I want you to come 0:29:28.120 --> 0:29:30.240 to the show. And we just so happened to be 0:29:30.400 --> 0:29:33.240 in the talent show. Me and another cat, another two cats, 0:29:33.920 --> 0:29:36.320 and the talent show was over and then they were 0:29:36.400 --> 0:29:39.240 to perform. So while they started their gig, I was 0:29:39.280 --> 0:29:40.840 in the back of the room just kind of looking, 0:29:41.640 --> 0:29:43.560 you know, looking, and I'm and I'm watching all these 0:29:43.560 --> 0:29:48.600 people go crazy over these guys. So I just got up, 0:29:48.760 --> 0:29:50.400 ran to the middle of the floor, like, ran all 0:29:50.440 --> 0:29:53.040 the way down the island, just started dancing in the 0:29:53.080 --> 0:29:53.800 middle of the shit. 0:29:54.960 --> 0:29:57.240 He just jacked rude. Yeah, I mean, but. 0:29:57.360 --> 0:30:00.160 That was it was like I wanted it I wanted to. 0:30:00.280 --> 0:30:02.480 I wanted to be a part of it, and him 0:30:02.560 --> 0:30:04.640 leaving that little door open, which was my It was 0:30:04.640 --> 0:30:07.800 my best friend named Damikus who introduced me to Darryl 0:30:08.880 --> 0:30:13.320 at in our auditorium at my my elementary school or 0:30:13.480 --> 0:30:17.960 middle school something like that now elementary school. But after that, man, 0:30:18.000 --> 0:30:19.960 I just kept I just kept, you know, going wherever 0:30:20.000 --> 0:30:22.120 they were they had to, you know, performance downtown. 0:30:22.680 --> 0:30:22.800 You know. 0:30:22.840 --> 0:30:26.120 Eventually they start having rehearsals in the gymnasium in the neighborhood. 0:30:26.440 --> 0:30:28.320 So I started coming in and just kind of trying 0:30:28.320 --> 0:30:30.120 to look looking at what they were doing to try 0:30:30.160 --> 0:30:31.960 to figure out what their dance steps and things were. 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:34.479 And I would just sing. I would just I used 0:30:34.520 --> 0:30:41.280 to sing ready or not after seven, remember that. And 0:30:41.440 --> 0:30:43.880 I was like, you know, just use my use my talent. 0:30:44.000 --> 0:30:45.640 Let me figure out how to get in whatever I 0:30:45.640 --> 0:30:48.320 gotta do. They run heels and have all these drills 0:30:48.320 --> 0:30:50.400 that they would do, you know, to kind of prepare 0:30:50.440 --> 0:30:53.200 themselves and make themselves better performers so they could, you know, 0:30:53.280 --> 0:30:55.400 not they wouldn't be tired on stage or whatever. 0:30:55.680 --> 0:30:57.080 So I did it. I was like, all right, I'll 0:30:57.080 --> 0:30:58.480 do all of that. That's what. 0:31:00.560 --> 0:31:03.400 I think the oldest oldest guy in at Anthony Bird 0:31:03.640 --> 0:31:08.080 was he had to be like sixteen or seventeen, maybe seventeen. 0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:11.240 So there was three other guys, Adrian Red and another 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:13.400 guy by the name of Chocolate, So they were all 0:31:13.440 --> 0:31:17.320 in this. We were in this group together and it 0:31:17.360 --> 0:31:20.960 wasn't really going because the reality was they were built 0:31:21.000 --> 0:31:23.280 to be what they were and you. 0:31:23.360 --> 0:31:24.320 Were meant to be so low. 0:31:24.480 --> 0:31:25.440 No, it didn't. 0:31:25.520 --> 0:31:27.280 That didn't happen until little bit later. Actually it was 0:31:27.320 --> 0:31:29.520 I'll tell you my mother was the reason that it happened. 0:31:30.000 --> 0:31:34.000 But we then became a real group and we went 0:31:34.040 --> 0:31:39.040 to Forsyth County in Florida, and we signed with this 0:31:39.080 --> 0:31:42.400 record company for Side Records, and we started, you know, 0:31:42.560 --> 0:31:44.720 building songs. So I had this song dream Girl. That 0:31:44.760 --> 0:31:46.680 was the first record that I ever had in that group. 0:31:47.200 --> 0:31:47.720 So then it. 0:31:47.760 --> 0:31:50.200 Gave me like a voice, because otherwise I was just 0:31:50.240 --> 0:31:53.640 trailing trailing behind playing or and dancing to the records 0:31:53.680 --> 0:31:56.960 and shit that they had. And every so often I 0:31:57.160 --> 0:31:59.960 kind of you know, up to try to upstate somebody else. 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:01.560 Just doing riffs and ship like that. 0:32:02.120 --> 0:32:05.840 But my mother was like, you're not really getting to 0:32:06.640 --> 0:32:08.840 you know, I'm not my son's not getting the benefit 0:32:08.920 --> 0:32:11.400 because he's never on stage. You keep putting in, putting 0:32:11.480 --> 0:32:15.320 him in the back, and you know she just wasn't happy, 0:32:15.840 --> 0:32:18.960 you know, So he tried to do whatever he could. Eventually, I, 0:32:19.160 --> 0:32:21.400 you know, I left the group. She wanted me to 0:32:21.400 --> 0:32:22.760 get out of group. Of course I didn't want to 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:23.920 get out of it. I actually ran away. 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:24.560 It's crazy shit. 0:32:24.600 --> 0:32:31.040 Ever, I ran right away from from. 0:32:30.600 --> 0:32:32.080 Run away from home, but never do it. 0:32:32.360 --> 0:32:33.600 I tried to run away from my own. 0:32:34.440 --> 0:32:35.760 Oh, black kids don't run away from all. 0:32:35.760 --> 0:32:37.320 I think we all do. 0:32:37.320 --> 0:32:39.560 You get to ask me when you come back to 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:48.200 our black parents, they be like, good. 0:32:44.880 --> 0:32:45.800 All that ship in there is mine. 0:32:46.160 --> 0:32:48.800 Exactly what you're talking about, Bill Steve Yard. Ever run 0:32:48.840 --> 0:32:50.680 away from to run away from my sister. 0:32:53.640 --> 0:32:56.000 My sister ran away from hom like all the time. 0:32:56.200 --> 0:33:00.440 So she'll be back tomorrow. Yeah yeah, See, like benches 0:33:00.520 --> 0:33:00.960 are crazy. 0:33:02.040 --> 0:33:05.560 Hey, man, come on, So what year was that when 0:33:05.600 --> 0:33:06.680 you old you you ran away? 0:33:06.760 --> 0:33:10.600 I mean I was twelve thirteen, and this is around 0:33:10.640 --> 0:33:13.280 the time that my mother had moved me to Atlanta, 0:33:13.640 --> 0:33:16.080 and I was like, you know, you destroyed my world, man, 0:33:16.800 --> 0:33:17.800 this is everything to me. 0:33:18.280 --> 0:33:19.920 To see what your mother said oh, I just look 0:33:20.000 --> 0:33:20.680 forward to it. 0:33:20.920 --> 0:33:23.120 She was like, I hear you. 0:33:23.680 --> 0:33:28.280 Oh okay, She's like, but she said, you're not going 0:33:28.360 --> 0:33:30.480 to go where you want to go in this group. 0:33:31.040 --> 0:33:33.680 So I'm gonna I promise you, I'm going to put 0:33:33.720 --> 0:33:36.040 you in every situation that I can to be able 0:33:36.080 --> 0:33:38.200 to help you, to show you that you're worth it, 0:33:38.240 --> 0:33:40.640 that you are a solo artist. So she started me 0:33:40.680 --> 0:33:44.640 and entering me into talent shows, auditioned for the Apollo 0:33:44.960 --> 0:33:48.200 audition for a Star search. I got into a talent search, 0:33:48.320 --> 0:33:52.600 a talent show by the name of Atlanta Talent Search. 0:33:52.600 --> 0:33:56.840 In Atlanta, I was recognized by Ali Reach's brother, Brian Reid, 0:33:57.040 --> 0:34:01.000 who then introduced me to l a guy by the 0:34:01.080 --> 0:34:02.920 name of A. J. Alexander. He was kind of all 0:34:02.960 --> 0:34:04.960 in the middle of this shit. Who actually was a 0:34:04.960 --> 0:34:08.600 bodyguard for Bobby Brown. So Bobby Brown, he saw. 0:34:08.560 --> 0:34:17.680 Me Brown's bodyguard situation. Yeah, it's serious, Sue Knight. Yeah, 0:34:17.760 --> 0:34:21.600 So wait, why did she move to Atlanta from Chattanooga. 0:34:21.880 --> 0:34:25.160 She moved because just you know, they she wanted more man, 0:34:25.200 --> 0:34:26.439 she wanted more out of her life. 0:34:26.520 --> 0:34:29.680 What was in Chattanooga, Like, what was your observations of 0:34:29.760 --> 0:34:30.799 Chattanooga was there. 0:34:31.600 --> 0:34:35.640 I mean, it's not much different now than it was 0:34:35.719 --> 0:34:40.520 then in terms of opportunity for you know, advancement, Like 0:34:41.239 --> 0:34:46.440 it's very that there's if you have the confidence that 0:34:46.520 --> 0:34:49.799 comes from elsewhere, you will wander into other areas. But 0:34:49.840 --> 0:34:52.000 if you don't, black people stay away from white people, 0:34:52.920 --> 0:34:55.239 and as a black side of town, damn near in 0:34:55.280 --> 0:34:57.560 a white side of town or a progressive side of town. 0:34:58.040 --> 0:35:00.280 And whenever I'm there, I kind of go with between 0:35:00.280 --> 0:35:02.200 them both, and I'm like, Yo, have y'all ever been there, like, 0:35:02.880 --> 0:35:03.479 we don't go over. 0:35:03.360 --> 0:35:06.880 There with you? Have you you returned to Chattanooga to 0:35:06.880 --> 0:35:07.560 do so? Since? 0:35:07.719 --> 0:35:07.799 No? 0:35:07.960 --> 0:35:11.000 No, no, I've returned to Chattanooga to do do you 0:35:11.040 --> 0:35:12.080 know philanthropic work? 0:35:13.600 --> 0:35:13.880 Right? 0:35:14.080 --> 0:35:15.719 Yeah, it's what area is that in? 0:35:16.080 --> 0:35:17.480 It's in front of the school that I was telling 0:35:17.480 --> 0:35:20.240 you about. Deal would It's like, it's like right down 0:35:21.600 --> 0:35:22.200 right in front of it. 0:35:22.239 --> 0:35:23.640 Now. I want to know if he had his Chris 0:35:23.680 --> 0:35:30.920 Rock sign moment y'all all of us before? Yeah? Yeah, 0:35:31.200 --> 0:35:35.880 So she went to Atlanta just to get you a 0:35:35.920 --> 0:35:36.680 better opportunity? 0:35:36.760 --> 0:35:40.000 Was you went to Atlanta because it offers something better 0:35:40.080 --> 0:35:43.239 for her? My stepfather at the time, he worked for 0:35:43.280 --> 0:35:48.239 this trucking company and it was better for him to 0:35:48.320 --> 0:35:50.840 be there, and also too, it was an opportunity for 0:35:50.880 --> 0:35:52.040 her to be able to move forward. 0:35:52.280 --> 0:35:53.920 So what were you when you moved to Atlanta. 0:35:54.360 --> 0:35:57.279 I was eleven eleven twelve, so I was kind of 0:35:57.280 --> 0:36:00.040 going back and forth from Chattanooga to Atlanta working with 0:36:00.080 --> 0:36:03.640 the group. And when we worked on that album, you know, 0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:07.040 it's you know, I was kind of just moving wherever 0:36:07.040 --> 0:36:09.759 I could, man, because I at the age of eight, 0:36:09.960 --> 0:36:11.480 that's when I decided what I was going to do. 0:36:12.280 --> 0:36:16.560 I had this vision and from that vision, it was like, Okay, 0:36:17.680 --> 0:36:20.040 I want to be an entertainer. I want to I 0:36:20.080 --> 0:36:22.560 want to be on stages. I want to perform for people, 0:36:23.160 --> 0:36:24.600 and that's what I want to do. I don't want 0:36:24.640 --> 0:36:26.480 to play football. I know all y'all played football and 0:36:26.560 --> 0:36:30.560 basketball and baseball, because my entire family is comprised as 0:36:30.600 --> 0:36:33.480 like all star athletes. My uncle played for the Kansas 0:36:33.480 --> 0:36:37.719 City Chiefs. My my cousin he played at Duke. You know, 0:36:38.040 --> 0:36:40.879 all these guys that kind of gave me some kind 0:36:40.920 --> 0:36:42.600 of idea where I wanted to go. And I was like, Nah, 0:36:42.680 --> 0:36:45.200 that's not me. I want to I want to perform. 0:36:45.200 --> 0:36:45.920 I want to entertain. 0:36:46.120 --> 0:36:47.799 But how problem must they have been when you did 0:36:47.840 --> 0:36:50.879 the Cavaliers move, because that's like the perfect combination, like 0:36:51.239 --> 0:36:51.960 they must have been. 0:36:52.120 --> 0:36:53.040 Oh that's great. 0:36:53.320 --> 0:36:56.640 Yeah, yeah that was That was pretty cool, right, like 0:36:56.680 --> 0:37:00.360 you even you did it either way? Yeah, yeah, you know, 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:05.480 oddly enough, man. You know, once my grandmother passed, we 0:37:05.560 --> 0:37:08.759 don't really get together the way we used to, and 0:37:08.840 --> 0:37:12.040 I wish that we did more. But everybody's growing up. 0:37:12.040 --> 0:37:14.480 Either they have kids, there's some of them back in Chattanooga, 0:37:14.560 --> 0:37:16.640 some of them moved to other you know states, some 0:37:16.680 --> 0:37:19.040 people got married, you know, some people live in Atlanta. 0:37:19.440 --> 0:37:21.400 Some people you know, move and moved to d C. 0:37:22.440 --> 0:37:27.960 But we don't talk as much as we used to. Yeah, yeah, 0:37:28.040 --> 0:37:28.880 I gotta work on that. 0:37:29.280 --> 0:37:30.040 I work on that. 0:37:30.400 --> 0:37:32.600 Big Mama's the one that keeps the family together always. 0:37:32.760 --> 0:37:33.240 She goes. 0:37:34.400 --> 0:37:35.759 You can't go all the way to West Africa and 0:37:35.800 --> 0:37:37.040 I go to Chattanooga, you know what I mean. 0:37:37.440 --> 0:37:38.040 You got to get there. 0:37:38.080 --> 0:37:45.120 Somebody gotta pick up a few people anyway. 0:37:45.200 --> 0:37:48.480 So okay, so by the time you're eleven, it's like 0:37:48.800 --> 0:37:55.160 the nineties, early nineties, ninety two, I guess by this point, 0:37:55.280 --> 0:38:00.960 I mean Atlanta's officially put its stamp on being a 0:38:00.960 --> 0:38:03.480 black music mecca. I mean, is that fact lost on 0:38:03.520 --> 0:38:06.480 you or is that something you're not thinking about, like, oh, 0:38:06.560 --> 0:38:09.200 this could be a better opportunity for me because. 0:38:09.080 --> 0:38:11.480 No part of my mother's plan. It was a part 0:38:11.480 --> 0:38:14.120 of my mother's plan. She even mentioned she says, you 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:17.160 know that La Reading babyface. You know, they just started 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:22.839 a record label in Atlanta, and you know, I hear that. 0:38:22.960 --> 0:38:24.920 You know you could get you know, if we put 0:38:24.960 --> 0:38:28.840 you in talent shows, you can get recognized. So she 0:38:28.920 --> 0:38:31.280 put me in this That was his brother's a distinction. 0:38:31.360 --> 0:38:32.640 I think it was the name of the name of 0:38:32.640 --> 0:38:35.120 the group that was putting together this thing. And somehow 0:38:35.280 --> 0:38:37.160 La Read's name was attached to it. A Bryant Reid's 0:38:37.239 --> 0:38:39.920 name was attached to it. And that's I'm telling you, 0:38:39.960 --> 0:38:41.359 that's why I made a connection. But it was really 0:38:41.440 --> 0:38:45.359 aj Aj Alexander the that's the dude who discovered me. Man, 0:38:45.400 --> 0:38:48.160 out of all the people who could claim and say, 0:38:48.800 --> 0:38:52.000 you know, I found him, I saw him first. That 0:38:52.080 --> 0:38:54.919 was a dude who really recognized my talent and was like, yo, 0:38:55.800 --> 0:38:58.160 let work with me, he tweet. Man, this dude took 0:38:58.200 --> 0:39:01.280 me everywhere. Man this dude took me to meet Bobby 0:39:01.320 --> 0:39:03.080 for the first time. I thought I was gonna be 0:39:03.120 --> 0:39:11.920 Bobby Brown's artist. That didn't happen, I said, I mean, 0:39:12.160 --> 0:39:16.680 I may dodge the bullet you definitely, but also too man, 0:39:16.719 --> 0:39:18.880 And I can remember way back he'd had me in 0:39:18.880 --> 0:39:23.640 the parking lot of one twelve Keith Sweat coming out. 0:39:23.760 --> 0:39:25.520 I have to perform for him right there in the 0:39:25.560 --> 0:39:30.120 middle of the parking lot, Dallas, Austin in the parking lot, Jamaine, 0:39:30.560 --> 0:39:33.600 all of these people like just trying to get Yeah 0:39:33.719 --> 0:39:37.240 that on another level, where is is he still? He's 0:39:37.280 --> 0:39:41.680 in Atlanta. He goes in between Miami and in Atlanta. Okay, yeah, 0:39:42.080 --> 0:39:44.879 so you were he's a photographer now, man, that's dope. 0:39:44.960 --> 0:39:49.120 Yeah so you were allowed out after hours to sort 0:39:49.160 --> 0:39:52.320 of casey spots and perform. 0:39:52.520 --> 0:39:55.279 And without a doubt, I was not the kid that 0:39:55.320 --> 0:39:58.320 you told no, because I wouldn't accept it. I'd say, Okay, 0:39:58.400 --> 0:39:59.800 if you don't want me, if you don't want me 0:39:59.840 --> 0:40:00.640 to do what I'm doing. 0:40:00.480 --> 0:40:10.520 It, guess what should You're still I much job. Your 0:40:11.160 --> 0:40:17.120 favorite least word is no. For those For those of 0:40:17.280 --> 0:40:19.959 new context, you know usher in the roots are working 0:40:20.200 --> 0:40:23.440 together now so whenever I want usher to do something, 0:40:24.239 --> 0:40:26.480 I now have to present it in a positive context 0:40:27.000 --> 0:40:29.200 just so he can say no. And that can be like, 0:40:29.960 --> 0:40:35.640 but I guess I've been that now, thank you. 0:40:35.719 --> 0:40:36.759 Now I know what you're doing. 0:40:39.400 --> 0:40:41.440 You know what? Yeah, I'm sure you're right. We should 0:40:41.440 --> 0:40:43.799 we should do a twelve minute version of you got 0:40:43.800 --> 0:40:46.680 it bad right? You are so right, man. 0:40:47.040 --> 0:40:48.680 But this must have been a really hard job for 0:40:48.719 --> 0:40:51.720 your mom because like your mom evolved into like supermanager, 0:40:51.800 --> 0:40:55.359 like she was like Matthew Knowles before Matthew Knowles. And 0:40:55.400 --> 0:40:57.760 at the same time she had to keep you confident 0:40:57.880 --> 0:41:00.200 as an artist but humble as a man. 0:41:01.160 --> 0:41:03.239 How why did y'all? 0:41:03.560 --> 0:41:05.360 I wanted to know what kept you out of trouble? 0:41:05.600 --> 0:41:08.360 Because say that again, I said, confident as an artist, 0:41:08.400 --> 0:41:10.640 but kind of like humble as a man, like not not. 0:41:18.920 --> 0:41:20.359 A dickhead, because as. 0:41:20.239 --> 0:41:23.120 We're sitting here talking to you, and I've seen throughout 0:41:23.120 --> 0:41:25.000 the years, you're not a dickhead, Like you're a very 0:41:25.080 --> 0:41:27.120 humble individual. But like a ma just said, you know 0:41:27.160 --> 0:41:29.160 what you want, you won't say no, but you know 0:41:29.400 --> 0:41:30.520 it's a fine line. 0:41:31.360 --> 0:41:35.160 The confidence was the confidence came for me, right, and 0:41:35.200 --> 0:41:37.960 it came from the security of having someone who I 0:41:38.000 --> 0:41:41.080 knew had my back, which was my mom. So as 0:41:41.120 --> 0:41:44.200 long as she was able to focus on the business, 0:41:44.680 --> 0:41:47.680 I could focus on the art and the creative part 0:41:47.719 --> 0:41:50.040 of it right, which made it all right. And then 0:41:50.120 --> 0:41:52.240 the rest of it was like I just never wanted 0:41:52.280 --> 0:41:56.120 to be in some ship that I felt like that 0:41:56.280 --> 0:41:57.160 I couldn't control. 0:41:57.680 --> 0:41:58.279 You know what I'm saying. 0:41:58.280 --> 0:42:00.600 I never wanted and so many people were getting caught 0:42:00.640 --> 0:42:04.279 out there, So those references was like, I'm not I 0:42:04.280 --> 0:42:06.560 can't let none of that ship be the reason that 0:42:06.640 --> 0:42:08.120 I don't make it to where I want to be. 0:42:08.719 --> 0:42:12.360 And I'm definitely not gonna let you know I'm not 0:42:12.360 --> 0:42:14.400 going to because and I had so many little heels 0:42:14.400 --> 0:42:16.319 to climb, Like I lost my voice as soon as 0:42:16.320 --> 0:42:19.880 I got signed, Like imagine that right when you signed 0:42:19.880 --> 0:42:22.279 the first deal, when I signed, when I signed a 0:42:22.320 --> 0:42:24.520 deal to the Face Records, I lost my voice. 0:42:24.520 --> 0:42:25.160 For how long? 0:42:25.400 --> 0:42:31.000 I lost my voice like puberty or like PUBERTYOC puberty 0:42:31.719 --> 0:42:34.239 for about two muths. It was like that, and you 0:42:34.280 --> 0:42:36.279 didn't know what, you know, what the hell was getting 0:42:36.320 --> 0:42:38.200 ready to go on? The label was talking about dropping 0:42:38.239 --> 0:42:43.120 me before this was after Portos, I couldn't perform the record. 0:42:43.280 --> 0:42:47.640 They put the record on had Yeah, they had a 0:42:47.680 --> 0:42:50.759 showcase for me, and I couldn't perform the record at all. 0:42:51.400 --> 0:42:54.200 Puff Puffy was there. I think it was entertaining. 0:42:54.120 --> 0:42:57.839 Him, him being my my executive producer at the time. 0:42:58.600 --> 0:43:02.919 But yeah, man, it just it went away. What was it? 0:43:03.000 --> 0:43:06.560 Wow? Okay, because nothing I have Wait, can I I 0:43:06.600 --> 0:43:07.399 know what you say? 0:43:07.520 --> 0:43:12.240 I know, I know sabotage, that's his favorite theory for everything. 0:43:12.800 --> 0:43:17.520 But I'm saying like black people rarely delve into psychological 0:43:18.520 --> 0:43:22.799 matters or whatever. Like I know that me personally. For 0:43:23.000 --> 0:43:29.759 anything that I'm trying to overcome, you know, and something happens, 0:43:29.800 --> 0:43:35.960 like an injury or something, it's you know, I'm sometimes 0:43:35.960 --> 0:43:37.799 I think like, Okay, how do you really feel about 0:43:37.800 --> 0:43:40.680 are you scared at this moment? Whatever? Like the mind 0:43:40.760 --> 0:43:47.000 does have a way of crippling you and while you're 0:43:47.040 --> 0:43:54.320 facing the exactly now in theory, was it eight weeks 0:43:54.360 --> 0:43:58.360 laryngitis or did you feel afraid in theory? What do 0:43:58.400 --> 0:44:00.680 you think in theory? 0:44:00.719 --> 0:44:05.760 Did I feel afraid? I felt like it was over. 0:44:07.200 --> 0:44:10.040 And I felt like okay, if I just I mean, 0:44:10.080 --> 0:44:12.720 I did what I knew to do at the time, 0:44:12.960 --> 0:44:13.760 which was prey. 0:44:15.080 --> 0:44:19.200 Did you feel it with psychosomatic Yeah, well I subconsciously. 0:44:19.520 --> 0:44:20.040 No, I didn't. 0:44:20.040 --> 0:44:23.080 I didn't sabotage myself. It wasn't fear or something like that. No, 0:44:23.640 --> 0:44:25.520 you mean in terms of just having to go through 0:44:25.560 --> 0:44:29.080 that at that moment, because sometimes your body can do No, 0:44:29.280 --> 0:44:31.000 it had nothing to do with that. I was working 0:44:31.040 --> 0:44:32.839 my ass off and I wanted it. 0:44:33.040 --> 0:44:36.440 Yeah. Yeah, Okay, there's an un there's an artist that 0:44:36.480 --> 0:44:39.840 I can't name right that so it's the same artists. 0:44:42.120 --> 0:44:43.080 I just figured it out. 0:44:43.760 --> 0:44:45.200 Everybody in the room can know, but me. 0:44:45.840 --> 0:44:49.320 No, it's not that artist. It's not it's not the 0:44:49.320 --> 0:44:50.320 fourth letter alphabet. 0:44:50.440 --> 0:44:53.359 Yeah no, it's hell No, it's you know, okay, yeah, 0:44:53.400 --> 0:44:58.680 because that's always him. Okay, yeah, I keep racking him 0:44:58.719 --> 0:45:02.520 under the No, there's okay. There was there was an 0:45:02.640 --> 0:45:11.360 artist that uh we were working with and a situation happened. 0:45:11.560 --> 0:45:15.200 Oh god, these are so good. Okay, a situation happened 0:45:15.719 --> 0:45:21.280 in which, let's play guess there. Always get so frustrated. 0:45:22.239 --> 0:45:25.400 I know, because I'm not I'm not trying to be 0:45:25.520 --> 0:45:28.000 gossipy or ride somebody on the bus. But I think 0:45:28.040 --> 0:45:31.279 this is a classic case of their teeth started to 0:45:31.280 --> 0:45:36.719 fall out. Now, it wasn't like, oh they've got like 0:45:36.960 --> 0:45:38.480 literally they're. 0:45:38.400 --> 0:45:39.160 Saying that the truth. 0:45:39.480 --> 0:45:42.560 There's a pressure that comes with No, that is a pressure. 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:45.080 You're right, Okay, so now i'll follow you what you're saying. 0:45:45.120 --> 0:45:49.880 But I had a different destiny and I was connected 0:45:49.880 --> 0:45:51.960 to it, and the moment that I decided that that 0:45:52.120 --> 0:45:54.000 was what I was going to do, I wouldn't let 0:45:54.040 --> 0:45:55.759 anything come in between me and that. 0:45:56.280 --> 0:45:56.480 Right. 0:45:56.800 --> 0:45:59.880 But you're right, there are tons of people who sabotage themselves, 0:46:00.000 --> 0:46:03.080 who got caught up on you know, and drinking and 0:46:03.080 --> 0:46:07.160 then eventually you know, moved an upgraded to you know, heroin. 0:46:07.360 --> 0:46:09.400 But I don't even think that's thinking like, Okay, a 0:46:09.400 --> 0:46:12.440 big moment's about to happen for me tomorrow, Let my 0:46:12.480 --> 0:46:15.239 teeth fall out right now, or you know. But I 0:46:15.280 --> 0:46:20.359 do believe that subconsciously we are able to create obstacles 0:46:20.400 --> 0:46:25.520 without even purposely wanting to do that. Yeah, which, yeah, 0:46:25.560 --> 0:46:26.160 I'm away with. 0:46:26.280 --> 0:46:28.960 First of all, how was he she? 0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:29.040 She? 0:46:31.400 --> 0:46:32.879 You know the story? You like? Yah? 0:46:33.160 --> 0:46:34.760 I mean I'm putting some things together. 0:46:35.000 --> 0:46:36.000 Ooh damn. 0:46:39.120 --> 0:46:43.600 Mid twenties, so that's far more advanced than a child. 0:46:43.800 --> 0:46:46.480 You know what I'm saying so the reality of probably 0:46:46.480 --> 0:46:48.960 the disappointment that led up to that moment had everything 0:46:49.000 --> 0:46:51.080 to do with the pressure that was going on with her. 0:46:52.000 --> 0:46:53.839 So like so when you so you lost, so you 0:46:53.880 --> 0:46:56.760 cut y'all cut, uh call me a back, and then 0:46:57.280 --> 0:46:59.200 you lost your voice because that point that. 0:46:59.120 --> 0:47:02.560 Was what ninety three three nine? Ye was ninety three? 0:47:02.640 --> 0:47:04.400 So how did you get on that soundtrack? Because that 0:47:04.520 --> 0:47:06.760 wasn't even the face related. 0:47:06.480 --> 0:47:08.200 It was no La reading baby face. 0:47:08.239 --> 0:47:11.080 They actually it was on Epic but like till C 0:47:11.239 --> 0:47:15.560 was on the soundtrack too, So oh okay, I mean. 0:47:15.440 --> 0:47:18.279 But was that a face slash Epic thing or. 0:47:18.520 --> 0:47:20.000 It was an LA reading baby face thing? 0:47:20.040 --> 0:47:22.200 I think I think they had something to do with 0:47:22.239 --> 0:47:24.640 the like organizing of the album. 0:47:24.719 --> 0:47:25.600 Oh okay, gotcha. 0:47:26.080 --> 0:47:28.080 They didn't produce all the songs like Boomerang and all 0:47:28.120 --> 0:47:31.160 this shit. But yeah, man, that was that was kind 0:47:31.160 --> 0:47:33.440 of like my lunch. But at the rate that I 0:47:33.480 --> 0:47:36.399 was working my voice, I mean, I had saying till 0:47:36.400 --> 0:47:38.920 I actually you know, lost my voice plenty of times, 0:47:39.440 --> 0:47:41.600 but this time when I woke up the next day, that. 0:47:41.520 --> 0:47:42.560 Shit just didn't come back. 0:47:42.800 --> 0:47:45.160 It was so the next day came and then the 0:47:45.200 --> 0:47:47.960 weekend was there, and then it was the next week. 0:47:48.000 --> 0:47:50.160 I'm like, what's going on? 0:47:50.480 --> 0:47:51.240 How did you feel? 0:47:51.880 --> 0:47:54.320 I mean, I felt like my window of opportunity was closed, 0:47:54.360 --> 0:47:55.640 and I felt like, Okay, what. 0:47:55.680 --> 0:48:01.799 Were people saying around you at that point? Like tisk? Yeah, 0:48:01.840 --> 0:48:07.239 they were like, Okay, well, what what's gonna happen now? 0:48:07.440 --> 0:48:11.400 Because you know this kid, he's lost his voice and 0:48:11.440 --> 0:48:13.480 he can't perform this song, so we'll just kind of 0:48:13.520 --> 0:48:15.840 ride it out with him. You know, I signed a 0:48:15.880 --> 0:48:17.560 contract with him, so at least I had the you know, 0:48:17.600 --> 0:48:19.200 the length of the deal, you know what I'm saying. 0:48:19.760 --> 0:48:22.120 But at that point, the fear of man, they're not 0:48:22.120 --> 0:48:24.439 gonna put any more money into me if I don't 0:48:24.440 --> 0:48:26.080 get if I don't do my part. So I had 0:48:26.080 --> 0:48:28.640 to do whatever I could to try to fix a 0:48:28.760 --> 0:48:30.000 remedy the problem. 0:48:30.160 --> 0:48:32.440 This was before you even started recording the fast album 0:48:32.640 --> 0:48:32.920 I had. 0:48:33.239 --> 0:48:35.319 I had well, I went through a stint where I 0:48:35.320 --> 0:48:38.279 worked with the Dungeon family and I worked with these 0:48:38.280 --> 0:48:40.279 producers out of Detroit by the name of Tim and Bob. 0:48:40.320 --> 0:48:44.239 That's when oh my god, oh wow, Okay, so I 0:48:44.239 --> 0:48:44.759 don't know that. 0:48:45.080 --> 0:48:47.439 No, I'm sorry about Tim and Ted. Tim and Bob 0:48:47.480 --> 0:48:48.960 Are from peoriah. 0:48:48.440 --> 0:48:54.560 Tim and Ted the Characters. Yeah so Characters, Yeah, that 0:48:54.640 --> 0:48:57.120 was Troy Taylor. 0:49:02.120 --> 0:49:08.160 Faith Anyway, Tim said they worked on a couple of 0:49:08.200 --> 0:49:10.200 records with me and I lost my voice, man, and 0:49:10.239 --> 0:49:12.440 I just it just went away. 0:49:12.200 --> 0:49:13.680 And I had to figure that shit out. 0:49:13.760 --> 0:49:15.759 So now I'm dealing with the fact that the label 0:49:15.800 --> 0:49:17.960 was getting ready to drop me, and Puff was like, nah, 0:49:18.000 --> 0:49:19.160 y'all can't do this kid like that. 0:49:19.280 --> 0:49:22.080 Let me take him to New York. So he took me. 0:49:22.600 --> 0:49:25.000 He started putting, He put me with vocal coaches out 0:49:25.040 --> 0:49:27.440 here to try to, you know, kind of change the 0:49:27.520 --> 0:49:30.160 direction of it. And then his idea wasn't about me 0:49:30.239 --> 0:49:33.040 being this perfect singer, even though I had like, you know, 0:49:33.160 --> 0:49:39.080 Kenny from uh Intro and Missy and I mean like 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:42.440 great singers, Faith Evans, all these great singers around me, 0:49:43.000 --> 0:49:45.080 you know, and they were supporting me too, like now 0:49:45.120 --> 0:49:47.640 you're gonna be alright, just keep going. I'll be sure. 0:49:47.680 --> 0:49:50.799 He worked on my first album. Yeah. 0:49:50.840 --> 0:49:54.080 So wait, so Puffy took an interest in your career 0:49:54.280 --> 0:49:57.440 even though you weren't signed the bad Boy or his 0:49:57.520 --> 0:49:58.360 management company. 0:49:59.640 --> 0:50:02.520 I mean, okay, So the reality of how the business 0:50:02.560 --> 0:50:05.080 works is odd. Right, So if you have an artist 0:50:05.160 --> 0:50:09.200 like me, there's an open budget, and if you're attempting 0:50:09.200 --> 0:50:12.400 to establish a record company, that damn Nick gives you 0:50:12.560 --> 0:50:15.000 free range to do whatever you want to do doing 0:50:15.040 --> 0:50:15.680 them sessions. 0:50:16.239 --> 0:50:21.359 So so I was not, but. 0:50:21.520 --> 0:50:24.920 By the way, a genuine relationship was bond was was 0:50:24.960 --> 0:50:25.560 built in that. 0:50:25.719 --> 0:50:27.799 But don't get it sucked up. I knew what was 0:50:27.800 --> 0:50:28.239 going on. 0:50:28.440 --> 0:50:30.759 What I'm saying, Like, if Craig Mack is walking out 0:50:30.760 --> 0:50:33.080 of my walking out of my session, you know, I'm 0:50:33.120 --> 0:50:42.120 like no, But I mean, but by the way, that 0:50:42.239 --> 0:50:43.920 was what it was in that time. That's the nineties, 0:50:43.920 --> 0:50:44.520 you know what I'm saying. 0:50:44.640 --> 0:50:56.319 So budget played for some bad boys stuff. Boy, So 0:50:56.400 --> 0:50:57.160 like what was that like? 0:50:57.239 --> 0:50:59.360 Because from what I understand what I read before, that 0:50:59.440 --> 0:51:01.360 was like Boot like for you, like he had you, 0:51:01.480 --> 0:51:04.359 And like what was that ship like with Puff during 0:51:04.400 --> 0:51:04.719 that time? 0:51:04.760 --> 0:51:08.319 I mean like, yeah, to say the least, did you 0:51:08.360 --> 0:51:10.719 moved to New York by yourself or like your mom 0:51:10.760 --> 0:51:12.600 came with you? I moved to New York with my 0:51:12.719 --> 0:51:16.240 cousin and shortly after that, Puff was like I got him, 0:51:16.480 --> 0:51:20.600 my cousin left, and that's what No, Yeah, all right, 0:51:21.520 --> 0:51:22.880 how old were you at this time. 0:51:24.000 --> 0:51:25.400 Around this time, I'm fifteen. 0:51:26.040 --> 0:51:36.480 Oh, how going we're living with puff? 0:51:36.640 --> 0:51:39.040 Hey man, listen, what were your mother's rules? 0:51:39.440 --> 0:51:40.640 What was her did she? 0:51:42.280 --> 0:51:46.360 I mean, thank god she raised a sensible child, you 0:51:46.400 --> 0:51:49.000 know what I'm saying. Because it was readily available whatever 0:51:49.040 --> 0:51:50.839 you wanted to do. You know what I'm saying. It was, 0:51:51.400 --> 0:51:54.279 it was, it was. It was pretty crazy and for 0:51:54.360 --> 0:51:56.239 the average kid, they would look at it like, Yo, 0:51:56.360 --> 0:51:58.480 this is the greatest shit ever. But for me, man, 0:51:58.520 --> 0:52:00.000 I was a bit sheltered, you know what I'm saying, 0:52:00.120 --> 0:52:03.560 Like I really hadn't been exposed to sex and ship. 0:52:03.480 --> 0:52:06.200 Like that like I was. I'm from the South, you 0:52:06.200 --> 0:52:06.759 know what I'm saying. 0:52:06.760 --> 0:52:09.279 I came in with a fucking ruffled jacket on, looking 0:52:09.280 --> 0:52:10.439 like I was an earth wind and fire. 0:52:10.480 --> 0:52:11.120 You know what I'm saying. 0:52:11.960 --> 0:52:12.600 You know what I'm saying. 0:52:12.640 --> 0:52:14.920 So and Mark Pitts picked me up from the airport 0:52:14.920 --> 0:52:16.480 and was like, Yo, we got you. 0:52:16.480 --> 0:52:18.280 You know what I'm saying. Here on out, we gotta. 0:52:18.080 --> 0:52:20.600 Get this fucking jacket off you. 0:52:21.160 --> 0:52:24.239 Youre just wrong with the bad boy posse like it was. Yeah, man, 0:52:24.400 --> 0:52:28.960 I was with you, Biggie new Yep. Yeah, how did 0:52:28.960 --> 0:52:29.319 he have you? 0:52:29.400 --> 0:52:31.640 Working like what was the I guess the boot camp, 0:52:31.680 --> 0:52:33.640 Like what was that training regiment? 0:52:33.760 --> 0:52:46.040 Like we take your budget. He's ready to die now. 0:52:42.400 --> 0:52:44.799 But he but he had me in the studio with Davante. 0:52:45.360 --> 0:52:48.520 I worked with I'll be sure. I worked with Kenny 0:52:48.560 --> 0:52:52.680 from Intro. I worked with be Heaven. 0:52:52.800 --> 0:52:54.719 You gotta tell the story. I don't mean like a 0:52:54.760 --> 0:52:55.520 slation story. 0:52:55.560 --> 0:52:58.480 But it's like no, because like faced backgrounds on that 0:52:58.520 --> 0:52:59.800 app like she's nuts. 0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:00.640 Oh my god. 0:53:00.880 --> 0:53:02.720 Yeah, yeah it was crazy. 0:53:02.760 --> 0:53:02.880 Man. 0:53:02.920 --> 0:53:04.560 What did I teach? Yeah? 0:53:04.560 --> 0:53:06.320 I'm like, y'all got questions? What did I'll teach you? 0:53:06.320 --> 0:53:08.320 When you're talking about Whispers? You know what I'm saying. 0:53:09.120 --> 0:53:09.319 Man. 0:53:09.440 --> 0:53:10.600 He said, that's one of your favorites. 0:53:10.760 --> 0:53:11.720 No, that's my favorite. 0:53:12.200 --> 0:53:15.800 Yeah, that was my favorite on that album, Whispers Final Goodbye. 0:53:17.640 --> 0:53:21.120 I'll show yeah, because at the time, think of you. 0:53:21.280 --> 0:53:23.800 We like to think of you because that was Junkie. 0:53:23.800 --> 0:53:29.880 He flipped the who got the problem Ronnie Ronnie Loss 0:53:30.120 --> 0:53:31.600 So it was like I was like, oh, he's singing 0:53:31.640 --> 0:53:32.520 over the black woman ship. 0:53:33.000 --> 0:53:37.160 But but yeah that record because I was and I'm oblivious. 0:53:37.200 --> 0:53:41.960 I don't know none of you. I'm just that album 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:42.960 spoke to you. 0:53:43.600 --> 0:53:48.680 What too Yeah, Okay, I get it. 0:53:49.440 --> 0:53:52.200 That's another generational thing between the two of you and 0:53:52.280 --> 0:53:58.719 me because again I assume were seventy eight seventy nine. 0:53:58.760 --> 0:54:02.799 Yeah, I'm seventy eight and Bill again that that that 0:54:03.280 --> 0:54:09.839 difference like pre seventy five, seventy one to seventy five cats, 0:54:10.200 --> 0:54:12.560 we have a chip on our shoulder about R and 0:54:12.600 --> 0:54:14.040 B you know what I'm saying. 0:54:14.520 --> 0:54:18.760 So we're not that receptive. Like even when I'm at D'Angelo, 0:54:18.880 --> 0:54:21.720 I was like dismissive, like R and B cat whatever. 0:54:21.760 --> 0:54:23.640 I mean, I was just a Nazi that way, So 0:54:23.680 --> 0:54:27.439 I would have been more dismissive to it, whereas we were. 0:54:28.040 --> 0:54:29.759 Hops flew out on the R and B tip with 0:54:30.239 --> 0:54:31.920 felippeel to it. 0:54:32.120 --> 0:54:35.279 Yeah, because y'all were sixteen when it came yea were 0:54:35.280 --> 0:54:38.800 open and at the time, I mean, because I always 0:54:38.800 --> 0:54:42.640 thought was strange at that record, uh, in hindsight like 0:54:42.680 --> 0:54:44.560 it kind of you know, people thought that he was 0:54:44.760 --> 0:54:46.600 that you were too young to be singing. 0:54:46.360 --> 0:54:48.080 About singing mature ship. 0:54:48.160 --> 0:54:51.080 Yeah, but but it was right in time where we 0:54:51.080 --> 0:54:55.080 were developing, right exactly, That's what was going on record. 0:54:55.200 --> 0:54:57.920 That was my cake. It's time for you give me 0:54:58.360 --> 0:55:02.759 give me a doing it? Did you get whispers? Look man, 0:55:02.840 --> 0:55:04.239 the run? Look man, let me tell you something. 0:55:04.560 --> 0:55:12.920 The run. So if the love was here. 0:55:10.239 --> 0:55:14.000 The Many Ways, The Many Way Calm Crazy, that is 0:55:14.280 --> 0:55:22.399 pham Bone Gold taking my apron is on making right now, 0:55:24.680 --> 0:55:28.200 let me all right? 0:55:30.040 --> 0:55:37.560 And was on my tape. Okay, if you're just joining 0:55:37.640 --> 0:55:41.319 us at the right time. If you're just joining us, 0:55:41.320 --> 0:55:43.680 we're talking to Usher him in the fourth and uh 0:55:44.360 --> 0:55:49.200 Fante's phone Boom Classics on his first record, which apparently 0:55:49.840 --> 0:55:53.600 as a guy who studied all his music, I need 0:55:53.600 --> 0:55:57.840 to revisit. So if if you're in the audience watching 0:55:58.800 --> 0:56:04.440 the the Usher Room, uh yeah, yeah, the experience. What 0:56:04.680 --> 0:56:08.279 song you like? Yo? That's my y'all gotta do this one. 0:56:09.760 --> 0:56:11.120 They're gonna determine the last two. 0:56:11.800 --> 0:56:15.720 I mean something of the first record, The Many Ways 0:56:15.920 --> 0:56:20.440 was I think that one was dope? Uh, what's trying 0:56:20.440 --> 0:56:22.520 to think another one that people would like that well? 0:56:22.880 --> 0:56:24.520 Because I'm trying to think of like songs that were 0:56:24.560 --> 0:56:26.880 like good, but now even now I think we appreciate 0:56:26.880 --> 0:56:29.719 it more. The Many Ways is just a gorgeous song, 0:56:29.800 --> 0:56:31.720 Like I just I just think that's just a very. 0:56:31.560 --> 0:56:35.919 Well right, can I can I rock many hit the post, 0:56:36.000 --> 0:56:41.560 Hit the post. This question Love Supreme with Foam Boom 0:56:41.640 --> 0:56:46.640 Classic number one by Usher Raymond the Fourth. That's right, 0:56:46.640 --> 0:56:50.320 it's gonna make you say. This is the many ways 0:56:52.400 --> 0:56:57.200 you need to work on that. I'm disappointed. 0:56:57.960 --> 0:57:01.400 Only herd was Usher moaning anyway, love. 0:57:01.280 --> 0:57:06.480 That you're more baby? What's going on? 0:57:08.320 --> 0:57:10.400 I've seen you around my way a couple of times. 0:57:11.200 --> 0:57:12.480 You message just moving around the. 0:57:12.480 --> 0:57:16.160 Way, right, I see all the fellow's my personally for 0:57:16.200 --> 0:57:19.880 your number. I like to get your number. 0:57:20.840 --> 0:57:22.959 So you do this with some time. 0:57:23.080 --> 0:57:24.640 I'm sten talking to phone or something. 0:57:25.120 --> 0:57:52.560 Anyways to say anyways, soup bad you're surprised. I got 0:57:52.760 --> 0:57:54.000 conse shin. 0:57:55.800 --> 0:57:59.920 She ain't shacking for the kids, I swing. 0:57:59.480 --> 0:58:06.280 We no can wait? Please get past depression? 0:58:08.360 --> 0:58:09.720 What a few for you? 0:58:10.640 --> 0:58:21.840 Swell slunchy, your girls sell your watching me say Ochi 0:58:22.920 --> 0:58:30.800 and bread they don't know well, well Jesus. 0:58:30.240 --> 0:58:34.720 Want That was the Many Ways by Usher Rim and 0:58:34.760 --> 0:58:39.680 our special guests on Questlove Supreme. So are you are 0:58:39.720 --> 0:58:41.880 you one of those people that cringe when you hear 0:58:42.280 --> 0:58:46.840 your older material or the people salivating over stuff that 0:58:46.920 --> 0:58:51.280 you made fifteen years ago like here, yeah, yeah, so 0:58:53.360 --> 0:58:56.080 I record now it's like it's it's nice, Like what 0:58:56.120 --> 0:58:58.600 are you thinking of when you I'm gonna like you 0:58:58.640 --> 0:59:01.080 could have spilled pizza on your shirt and you're like, man, 0:59:01.080 --> 0:59:03.440 that's when I wore you know, Like, what are you 0:59:03.440 --> 0:59:04.960 thinking of when you hear. 0:59:04.840 --> 0:59:08.360 That one that I had lost my voice? Because I 0:59:08.360 --> 0:59:10.479 can hear it. I'm like, damn, I was fighting trying 0:59:10.480 --> 0:59:11.160 to get through that ship. 0:59:12.080 --> 0:59:12.959 Yeah, So what. 0:59:12.920 --> 0:59:15.120 Was it like when you finally got full control of 0:59:15.120 --> 0:59:17.200 your voice back? And it was like, oh I can 0:59:17.280 --> 0:59:17.720 talk again? 0:59:17.760 --> 0:59:20.520 Oh shit, yeah, like it was actually after I left 0:59:20.560 --> 0:59:20.959 New York. 0:59:21.840 --> 0:59:24.960 When I left New York, then I began to slowly 0:59:25.000 --> 0:59:25.840 but surely get. 0:59:25.640 --> 0:59:26.439 It getting back. 0:59:26.520 --> 0:59:28.240 Came to New York to record this record. 0:59:28.320 --> 0:59:30.680 I recorded that new and you didn't have your voice, fully, 0:59:30.840 --> 0:59:31.800 did not have my voice. 0:59:32.400 --> 0:59:34.600 So how long could you sing before the crack starts? 0:59:35.760 --> 0:59:36.840 The cracks in your voice? 0:59:39.200 --> 0:59:40.880 No, ladies and gentlemen, I have never done crack. 0:59:44.240 --> 0:59:46.120 I think it, you know, because I started trying to 0:59:46.120 --> 0:59:46.880 promote the album. 0:59:46.920 --> 0:59:49.520 You know what I'm saying. I was there's another time 0:59:49.600 --> 0:59:51.600 that you got which will bring you the new edition. 0:59:51.680 --> 0:59:56.280 But I was being managed by Brooke Payne, Whoa and 0:59:56.440 --> 0:59:57.640 Jeff Dison at the time. 0:59:58.480 --> 1:00:03.480 Wait a minute, you are a brook Paen student. Yeah, 1:00:03.560 --> 1:00:06.200 Jesus Christ, that's that's that explains a lot. 1:00:06.440 --> 1:00:08.240 I wonder if that was doing the break Wait when 1:00:08.320 --> 1:00:08.560 was that? 1:00:08.640 --> 1:00:08.680 No? 1:00:08.920 --> 1:00:14.520 Okay, So so now I started performing the records, but 1:00:14.520 --> 1:00:17.600 every time I hear them songs, I'm like, damn, that's 1:00:17.600 --> 1:00:20.440 just crazy. You know, how how how far that? Because 1:00:20.440 --> 1:00:22.880 you're living all of it, you know, and my voice 1:00:22.880 --> 1:00:25.560 has changed about five different times throughout the entire process. 1:00:26.000 --> 1:00:27.440 Can't tell you some funny that you don't know? 1:00:28.120 --> 1:00:29.200 Tell me, all right. 1:00:29.320 --> 1:00:31.240 So when I first signed on the First Records, I 1:00:31.280 --> 1:00:35.360 wanted to do an album with Babyface and La Reed. Right, 1:00:35.480 --> 1:00:39.040 I signed specifically for the reason why, because of End 1:00:39.040 --> 1:00:41.640 of the Road, because of Bobby Brown. The hero that 1:00:41.680 --> 1:00:45.320 I my hero was produced by these two dudes, right. 1:00:45.640 --> 1:00:49.440 So you didn't see him as like older Calder Bobby Brown, 1:00:49.480 --> 1:00:51.400 that's it, that's not Bobby. 1:00:51.800 --> 1:00:53.080 Yeah, but he like they made that music. 1:00:53.160 --> 1:00:54.000 They made that music. 1:00:54.080 --> 1:00:56.600 So that's all I knew. And I knew that Babyface 1:00:57.200 --> 1:00:58.920 was still doing it La Red. I didn't know if 1:00:58.960 --> 1:01:00.600 he was in the studio. I didn't know that he 1:01:00.720 --> 1:01:03.400 had stopped completely producing. But I was like, as long 1:01:03.400 --> 1:01:07.360 as I can get a record by y'all. So La 1:01:07.480 --> 1:01:09.960 Reid wanted Babyface to work on me, and they were 1:01:10.000 --> 1:01:12.480 going through, you know, a lot of drama at the time. 1:01:12.880 --> 1:01:15.120 They were kind of severing their ties or either he 1:01:15.200 --> 1:01:17.960 just didn't want he wasn't comfortable and Atlanta and. 1:01:17.880 --> 1:01:19.680 By the way, we talked about this ship. So it's cool. 1:01:19.720 --> 1:01:21.240 I can I can tell you this, but it was 1:01:21.280 --> 1:01:26.840 it's kind of like private. Anyway, he got mad and 1:01:26.960 --> 1:01:31.480 he built an entire album with an artist that we know. 1:01:31.880 --> 1:01:34.720 Oh yeah, and he built an entire album for me, 1:01:35.280 --> 1:01:39.840 and he gave the entire album to that dude. 1:01:42.560 --> 1:01:47.400 This is okay, let's guess it's like a mirror moment. 1:01:48.400 --> 1:01:50.560 Who got mad? This is this is baby Face? 1:01:51.520 --> 1:01:57.840 Baby Face was upset and gave the whole album. 1:01:58.560 --> 1:01:59.640 It's not Dremine Jackson. 1:02:00.960 --> 1:02:02.959 Another one young guy period in that time. 1:02:03.040 --> 1:02:06.120 What year I'm saying, what is this? Three ninety three? 1:02:06.880 --> 1:02:09.040 I can't even around the face. 1:02:09.240 --> 1:02:11.120 I'll just tell you on the face he was. It 1:02:11.160 --> 1:02:12.400 was Tevin Campbell. 1:02:14.840 --> 1:02:22.320 That can we talk exclusive? 1:02:22.360 --> 1:02:24.680 Its just me and this is a. 1:02:24.720 --> 1:02:25.919 Song for your settlers right there? 1:02:26.840 --> 1:02:31.240 Take it back some reclaiming. Can we talk take that 1:02:31.360 --> 1:02:34.160 song back? Can we talk? Yeah, don't take a bad girl? 1:02:34.440 --> 1:02:36.480 Always in my heart, always in my heart, damn all 1:02:36.520 --> 1:02:37.440 those Yeah. 1:02:37.480 --> 1:02:38.560 He got mad. He was there. 1:02:38.600 --> 1:02:40.680 They were just they was fighting in puff in him. 1:02:40.760 --> 1:02:43.640 They had words or something like that. And then you 1:02:43.680 --> 1:02:48.040 know whatever, Can I ask because he couldn't understand, like 1:02:48.040 --> 1:02:50.400 why why wouldn't you do? Why would you give an 1:02:50.440 --> 1:02:53.520 album like that to this dude? You know what I'm saying, 1:02:53.520 --> 1:02:55.280 Like you got your own artists and they was having 1:02:55.280 --> 1:02:57.200 this ship. So he was like, I do his album? 1:02:57.240 --> 1:02:57.840 You know what I'm saying. 1:02:58.240 --> 1:03:05.600 Wow, all right? Can I ask? Okay? Wait? Did because hold? 1:03:05.680 --> 1:03:07.240 Did you record the songs? And then like just. 1:03:09.640 --> 1:03:11.160 I never got in the studio with him, and I 1:03:11.200 --> 1:03:15.040 couldn't understand. It wasn't until Bedtime. That's that was my 1:03:15.080 --> 1:03:18.880 first record with him. That was the next album. That 1:03:19.040 --> 1:03:19.600 was My Way. 1:03:20.520 --> 1:03:25.720 So, okay, was Bedtime presented to you already and it's 1:03:25.800 --> 1:03:26.560 completed for him? 1:03:28.320 --> 1:03:28.480 No? 1:03:28.760 --> 1:03:32.680 It was. It was primarily worked on the spot right 1:03:32.680 --> 1:03:33.160 in front of you. 1:03:33.240 --> 1:03:36.400 It was worked on in the studio and I was 1:03:36.440 --> 1:03:38.560 there and then I came, I went into booth and 1:03:38.600 --> 1:03:39.280 there and cut it. 1:03:39.520 --> 1:03:40.760 Okay, I'm doing it. 1:03:40.840 --> 1:03:42.640 I don't think it was a song like that he 1:03:42.760 --> 1:03:44.000 just pitched me. Now, Wasn't that. 1:03:44.280 --> 1:03:46.520 Because I'm doing a journalistic no, no, But I have 1:03:46.560 --> 1:03:53.560 a theory because I'm very obsessed with the process of 1:03:53.840 --> 1:04:00.760 how the water just went dry for Babyface after two 1:04:00.880 --> 1:04:05.200 thousand and one, really nineteen ninety eight. You know, they're like, 1:04:05.240 --> 1:04:13.280 there's the period the of La Babyface, and then there's 1:04:13.360 --> 1:04:19.360 the ninety five Babyface by himself shit, and then it's like, 1:04:19.360 --> 1:04:21.920 oh he with the neptunes like that, just hanging on. 1:04:23.200 --> 1:04:29.040 And the thing is is that I had a theory 1:04:29.400 --> 1:04:37.760 that the real La and Babyface was as yet Okay, 1:04:37.880 --> 1:04:41.560 because what many people don't know is that again, these 1:04:41.560 --> 1:04:44.520 are all my theories. I'm not trying to throw last 1:04:44.600 --> 1:04:48.919 Night this song like the group yet exactly, but I'm 1:04:48.960 --> 1:04:51.600 saying that what many people don't know, especially people not 1:04:51.640 --> 1:04:54.120 involved in the industry, is that a lot of these times, 1:04:54.120 --> 1:04:58.080 when you're working with these super producers, you're really just 1:04:58.240 --> 1:05:02.200 leasing their name workers. Really, I mean a person that 1:05:02.200 --> 1:05:05.960 we know is for the terrible Doctor d Right, So 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:08.360 when you're when you're giving Doctor Dre a quarter of 1:05:08.360 --> 1:05:11.560 a million dollars for Dr Dre song, chances are is 1:05:11.600 --> 1:05:13.800 that he has minions and people working, like, yeah, he's 1:05:13.840 --> 1:05:16.919 there to instruct that, but as far as actually doing 1:05:16.960 --> 1:05:22.520 the layman's work, I always felt you're crushing me right now, Well, no, no, no, again. 1:05:22.600 --> 1:05:25.440 These are my theories. These are my theories, and I 1:05:25.480 --> 1:05:26.920 don't want to put you in the position where you 1:05:26.960 --> 1:05:30.520 have the confirmer deny it. But I'm just saying that 1:05:30.600 --> 1:05:35.080 when you are between nineteen ninety four, in nineteen ninety nine, 1:05:36.040 --> 1:05:43.080 Babyface Ling, Babyface combined or solo had at least ten 1:05:43.440 --> 1:05:47.720 to fifteen bangers per per year, and then everything stopped, 1:05:48.080 --> 1:05:51.480 and then a scientific life and everything and then hip 1:05:51.520 --> 1:05:52.600 hop happen, life happen. 1:05:54.400 --> 1:05:55.160 Now, life happen. 1:05:55.240 --> 1:05:57.840 He got a divorce, he got married, all of that shit, 1:05:58.000 --> 1:06:02.000 and then he probably just wasn't as hungry for it. 1:06:02.000 --> 1:06:04.840 You know what I'm saying, Like, I'm weally great friends now, right, 1:06:04.960 --> 1:06:07.200 He's the guy that I can call at four o'clock 1:06:07.200 --> 1:06:08.440 in the morning, He'll pick up the phone, you know 1:06:08.480 --> 1:06:11.720 what I'm saying, right, And I've asked I'll go back, 1:06:11.720 --> 1:06:14.360 and I'm listening to all of those old school like 1:06:14.880 --> 1:06:18.160 well what is old school now? But listening to those records, 1:06:18.160 --> 1:06:20.640 I'm like what the hell were y'all doing? Like like this, 1:06:20.880 --> 1:06:22.760 there's a feeling of this shit in the mixture, like 1:06:22.800 --> 1:06:25.520 the like the science of what this was, Like, how 1:06:25.560 --> 1:06:26.640 y'all were mixing shit together? 1:06:26.640 --> 1:06:27.320 What were y'all thinking? 1:06:27.360 --> 1:06:28.960 He was like, man, we had that song for like 1:06:29.000 --> 1:06:32.400 six years that was just sitting in there, like Ronnie 1:06:32.520 --> 1:06:34.439 that had just been sitting in there. I'm like, for real, 1:06:34.520 --> 1:06:36.800 He's like, yeah, man, way before we gave it to Bobby. 1:06:37.760 --> 1:06:41.200 But next to Prince's genius streak of eighty two to 1:06:41.560 --> 1:06:46.280 eighty seven eighty eight, I felt like Babyface's output of 1:06:46.400 --> 1:06:49.680 songs was unparallel and then it just stops like that. 1:06:50.000 --> 1:06:51.160 So what do you think it was? 1:06:51.800 --> 1:06:57.520 Well, I kind of want you to insinuate or not insinuate. Yeah, 1:06:57.800 --> 1:07:02.960 fuck just because I I I know that Pharrell writes 1:07:03.320 --> 1:07:05.000 all of this stuff and does his work alone. I 1:07:05.000 --> 1:07:08.640 know Premiere produces all this stuff, like really just solo 1:07:08.720 --> 1:07:13.320 by himself. I can't even imagine that Babyface had the 1:07:13.520 --> 1:07:16.680 work ethic where he's up night and day, just effortless 1:07:17.480 --> 1:07:21.160 churning out hit hit after hit like he has thirty 1:07:21.240 --> 1:07:24.680 five to forty Like, oh, I'm invest I'm invest on. 1:07:25.600 --> 1:07:29.800 So what I'm saying, is once as yet left the 1:07:29.800 --> 1:07:35.040 premises and the divorce and the yab young versus face 1:07:35.880 --> 1:07:41.520 whatever went down today. Man, come on, man, you're the 1:07:41.560 --> 1:07:47.520 cat of the Canary. I did tell me You're not 1:07:47.520 --> 1:07:49.280 gonna tell me, are you? 1:07:49.400 --> 1:07:49.560 Nah? 1:07:49.560 --> 1:07:51.960 I mean I'm saying that, By the way, at that age, 1:07:52.120 --> 1:07:53.960 I don't think I was thinking of any of that shit. 1:07:54.080 --> 1:07:55.640 I was just like, I want to get in the 1:07:55.680 --> 1:07:58.480 studio and actually get one out of him, because I 1:07:58.480 --> 1:08:00.200 haven't had any record period it. 1:08:00.520 --> 1:08:02.480 So did you physically see him work? Like does he 1:08:02.560 --> 1:08:06.479 have a paper? And I did? That's all I wanted. 1:08:06.680 --> 1:08:09.080 That's all I wanted. I didn't know if I didn't 1:08:09.200 --> 1:08:12.640 La La and Babyface was a bit like did they 1:08:12.680 --> 1:08:14.320 just come to you with these songs or was it 1:08:14.400 --> 1:08:16.760 like you saw them sitting there or discord that chord? 1:08:16.800 --> 1:08:19.760 And what do you think? I just can't I never 1:08:19.880 --> 1:08:24.880 got the now Rogers and that wards like it wasn't that. 1:08:25.720 --> 1:08:28.200 He presented the one that I can tell you that 1:08:28.280 --> 1:08:30.160 was one record that he presented to me, And that's 1:08:30.160 --> 1:08:32.960 I think that that's what kind of like really made 1:08:33.040 --> 1:08:35.320 him not funk with me at all period or l 1:08:35.360 --> 1:08:38.320 A read with regards to me because he also too 1:08:38.360 --> 1:08:40.519 he didn't believe in me as He's like, I don't really, 1:08:40.760 --> 1:08:44.600 I don't really lac la red babyface. He was like, 1:08:44.640 --> 1:08:48.719 I don't really, I don't get him. And he presented 1:08:48.800 --> 1:08:52.920 a record and Puff he he rejected the record and 1:08:53.560 --> 1:08:53.960 that was it. 1:08:54.360 --> 1:08:56.479 It was like, all right, well then I'm not gonna 1:08:56.479 --> 1:08:57.639 have nothing to do with it at all. 1:08:57.760 --> 1:08:58.519 How did you feel? 1:08:59.200 --> 1:09:00.200 I was devastated it. 1:09:01.120 --> 1:09:04.320 I actually signed the deal to work with those two producers, 1:09:04.600 --> 1:09:06.880 and I to this day still ain't got to wring 1:09:06.960 --> 1:09:07.400 it from him. 1:09:07.400 --> 1:09:08.960 You know what I'm saying? Like so together, So. 1:09:09.040 --> 1:09:11.200 Puff oversaw the first time he made the call in 1:09:11.320 --> 1:09:11.880 terms of what was. 1:09:11.920 --> 1:09:13.160 He ep the first album? 1:09:13.280 --> 1:09:16.840 Yeah? Gotcha? Gotcha? How now how did it go from? 1:09:16.920 --> 1:09:18.479 Because you know you were talking about when you lost 1:09:18.479 --> 1:09:20.280 your voice, they were thinking of dropping you. So then 1:09:20.320 --> 1:09:23.560 the first album comes out and it doesn't do you know, 1:09:24.000 --> 1:09:27.760 it doesn't sell. I guess you know whatever, what did you? 1:09:28.040 --> 1:09:30.040 What did the first album wind up doing? 1:09:30.520 --> 1:09:34.840 I mean, I think and it's probably greatest. It maybe 1:09:35.320 --> 1:09:39.439 got up to about maybe gold maybe like now yeah 1:09:39.479 --> 1:09:40.479 maybe it might be gold? 1:09:40.640 --> 1:09:43.240 Really that single carry that joint? 1:09:44.000 --> 1:09:46.920 Okay, So how did you go from that to my 1:09:47.320 --> 1:09:49.720 getting dropped, yeah, to my way, like, how did you. 1:09:51.320 --> 1:09:51.519 Well? 1:09:51.680 --> 1:09:55.559 I started working with Dallas Austin on my next album, 1:09:55.880 --> 1:10:01.400 and you know, I bought him lamberg because that was 1:10:01.439 --> 1:10:02.640 what the exchange. 1:10:02.240 --> 1:10:03.200 For doing my album. 1:10:04.160 --> 1:10:05.200 Damn, how did you guy? 1:10:08.840 --> 1:10:10.360 They was killing my budget? 1:10:10.400 --> 1:10:10.479 Bro? 1:10:10.640 --> 1:10:10.880 I was. 1:10:11.000 --> 1:10:14.160 I was of that of that group of artists who. 1:10:14.120 --> 1:10:16.400 Really you know, the hype Williams budgets. 1:10:16.960 --> 1:10:18.760 Nah, but it wasn't that. It was that. That was 1:10:19.160 --> 1:10:19.800 that was that time. 1:10:19.880 --> 1:10:21.439 So they had to find ways to kind of move 1:10:21.520 --> 1:10:23.600 and work their own ship. And the artists they just 1:10:23.680 --> 1:10:25.439 had to absorb that. And plus I knew what it was. 1:10:25.520 --> 1:10:27.439 We understood and if you think about what you're gonna 1:10:27.479 --> 1:10:30.280 end up paying a producer, it would be the equivalent 1:10:30.360 --> 1:10:31.200 of that, you know what I'm saying. 1:10:31.240 --> 1:10:34.000 So he made money too, right, No, he did the 1:10:34.080 --> 1:10:35.560 album for Lamborghini. 1:10:35.800 --> 1:10:37.280 Yeah, well he was. It didn't happen. 1:10:37.520 --> 1:10:40.439 So wait, it didn't happen because he and I didn't 1:10:40.720 --> 1:10:43.080 We didn't blend. So I was gonna work on this 1:10:43.160 --> 1:10:45.720 album called A Book of Love with him and this 1:10:45.920 --> 1:10:50.200 is with Dallas awesome, and the motherfucker just wouldn't show 1:10:50.280 --> 1:10:52.439 up to the studio. I'll be sitting there for hours. 1:10:52.600 --> 1:10:55.839 I'd come there be sitting in the front. Then eventually 1:10:55.840 --> 1:10:58.160 I started picking up instruments and start trying to build 1:10:58.160 --> 1:10:59.880 the album of damnselfs was this amount of time when 1:10:59.920 --> 1:11:02.960 he was he was playing with it around that time. 1:11:03.560 --> 1:11:06.080 I think it was yeah, yeah, But I just think 1:11:06.120 --> 1:11:08.960 that he really didn't. He didn't He ain't believe in 1:11:09.040 --> 1:11:10.200 me like that, you know what I'm saying. I think 1:11:10.240 --> 1:11:11.920 it was more or less of a favor for l A. 1:11:12.560 --> 1:11:15.320 And I wasn't a priority and he's trying to get 1:11:15.360 --> 1:11:19.759 his label off the ground to run that yeah illegal 1:11:19.880 --> 1:11:24.920 illegal yeah, and Monica Yeah he was. He really just 1:11:25.080 --> 1:11:27.640 wasn't focused. So instead of us continuing to do that, 1:11:27.800 --> 1:11:31.800 I mean, it was just disrespectful, like he wouldn't show 1:11:31.840 --> 1:11:33.840 up to the studio, like hey man, the session starts 1:11:33.880 --> 1:11:35.479 at this time, and he was like, Yo, man, you 1:11:35.520 --> 1:11:37.080 gotta get this dude to chill out. Like you know 1:11:37.080 --> 1:11:38.640 what I mean, I'm a vibe or dude, you know 1:11:38.680 --> 1:11:40.439 what I'm saying, Like I like to just do things 1:11:40.479 --> 1:11:42.760 in the club. I'm like, funck that, man, We're gonna 1:11:42.760 --> 1:11:44.360 work on that. We're gonna work on the home. Let's 1:11:44.400 --> 1:11:46.639 do it, you know what I'm saying. So I was like, fucking, 1:11:46.680 --> 1:11:47.719 I'm not coming to the studio. 1:11:47.840 --> 1:11:51.679 I'm done. And that was it. That was the history 1:11:51.720 --> 1:11:51.920 of that. 1:11:52.200 --> 1:11:56.519 And you know that's like in my mind, I'm thinking, 1:11:56.640 --> 1:11:59.439 like you're in Atlanta. I imagine how to funk out 1:11:59.479 --> 1:12:03.479 feel the climax of like the Atlanta movement. Like I'm thinking, 1:12:03.600 --> 1:12:06.920 like it's like the New Motown where you know, TLC's 1:12:06.960 --> 1:12:10.360 in the house and all these accounts and everyone's family 1:12:10.560 --> 1:12:11.000 that happened. 1:12:11.200 --> 1:12:13.320 All of that is still true, but the reality is 1:12:14.160 --> 1:12:16.000 like certain things ain't meant to happen. 1:12:16.120 --> 1:12:16.160 You. 1:12:16.280 --> 1:12:18.880 I mean, I seen this guy and I was the fuller. 1:12:19.840 --> 1:12:21.840 I was a very very special artist, you know what 1:12:21.880 --> 1:12:25.240 I'm saying. Like back then, I had the confidence of 1:12:25.720 --> 1:12:27.559 like ten billion people. 1:12:27.880 --> 1:12:34.000 No, I'm in up stop. 1:12:35.280 --> 1:12:37.800 So look the dude passed up on me, man, like 1:12:38.560 --> 1:12:40.680 he's seen me before. I performed for him and he 1:12:40.840 --> 1:12:42.960 was like, yeah, give me a call tomorrow, man. You 1:12:43.040 --> 1:12:45.680 know like that, I was like, all right, cool, you 1:12:45.720 --> 1:12:48.240 know what I'm saying, I see you again, man, damn. 1:12:48.640 --> 1:12:51.280 And you know, so I'm still holding on a little 1:12:51.280 --> 1:12:53.120 bit of that by you know, sitting in that lobby. 1:12:53.200 --> 1:12:54.360 You know, I was like, man, fuck it, I'm not 1:12:54.400 --> 1:12:55.320 coming back to dude. 1:12:55.360 --> 1:12:58.840 This explains everything because I'm seeing I'm getting to know 1:12:58.960 --> 1:13:02.599 you as a person and as an artist, and really, 1:13:03.320 --> 1:13:07.600 you know, I purposely especially for this interview. Normally, you know, 1:13:07.920 --> 1:13:10.320 I'm Google and start renal interviews just to see where 1:13:10.320 --> 1:13:15.960 you're want. But I know that you have this tireless 1:13:16.360 --> 1:13:21.920 work ethic about you, and now this is starting to 1:13:22.000 --> 1:13:24.280 make sense because now I feel like you really got 1:13:24.360 --> 1:13:26.760 something to prove. Even though yeah, you might be cool 1:13:26.840 --> 1:13:29.960 with Face and Dallas now and you'll see each other 1:13:30.000 --> 1:13:34.680 give each other pound or whatever. But now I'm feeling like, 1:13:34.840 --> 1:13:37.760 oh way, they get a load of me because you 1:13:37.840 --> 1:13:41.480 want I'm just feeling like the joker, Like now you're feeling. 1:13:42.960 --> 1:13:45.320 That's another chapter to that that we haven't got to yet. 1:13:45.360 --> 1:13:48.880 But I'm just saying, because oh ship, I'm sorry. 1:13:51.840 --> 1:13:53.920 I wasn't even I wasn't even trying to go there 1:13:53.960 --> 1:14:01.439 you want, No, No, let's go there anyway. I'm just 1:14:01.520 --> 1:14:07.320 saying that as an artist, I'm thinking that you now, oh. 1:14:07.360 --> 1:14:11.559 Wow, you sound like me over there. 1:14:12.320 --> 1:14:12.360 No. 1:14:19.640 --> 1:14:22.280 No, we're not trying to turn this into that. 1:14:22.439 --> 1:14:24.400 No, it's not the Gossip Hour or not not that, 1:14:24.600 --> 1:14:26.800 but you know, I mean, but there's certain truths that 1:14:26.960 --> 1:14:28.479 actually make it fun, you know what I'm saying. 1:14:28.479 --> 1:14:29.200 And we all grown. 1:14:29.280 --> 1:14:32.280 We passed it now, but we've passed it. So I 1:14:32.320 --> 1:14:36.000 mean the reality is yeah, yeah, that's cool. 1:14:36.080 --> 1:14:43.920 Ship embrace the pity. Yeah. Okay, So how did so 1:14:44.680 --> 1:14:48.439 how did you come across the high hat king? You mean, 1:14:51.920 --> 1:14:56.720 I'm sorry, so think for the record, Rick Rubin has 1:14:56.760 --> 1:15:01.000 the loudest scratches on hip hop records, but bar none, uh, 1:15:02.120 --> 1:15:06.000 Jermaine Dupriez high hat high hats, Like when you're spending 1:15:06.720 --> 1:15:10.600 records sometimes your needle can be sensitive to grooves on 1:15:10.680 --> 1:15:15.519 the record and his Germaine dupre Yeah, it's like it 1:15:15.560 --> 1:15:18.200 could affect He has the loudest hip hop high hats 1:15:18.240 --> 1:15:22.200 of all time. I mean, I respect it, but you know, 1:15:22.640 --> 1:15:24.679 I mean back then was frustrating his health to spend 1:15:27.000 --> 1:15:29.320 because the high hats will always skip the records sometimes. 1:15:29.479 --> 1:15:34.479 Well anyway, so how did you wind up with Jermaine Dupree. 1:15:34.600 --> 1:15:37.160 He did a remix for Think of You and that 1:15:37.360 --> 1:15:39.800 was the that was the beginning of me kind of 1:15:39.880 --> 1:15:42.880 working with him. And he was like, you know, if 1:15:42.920 --> 1:15:45.040 you work you know, let's work together. I was like, man, 1:15:45.080 --> 1:15:45.519 I really do. 1:15:45.680 --> 1:15:47.720 I think it was like, you really did a great job. 1:15:48.600 --> 1:15:50.920 He came in the studio, he produced it from scratch 1:15:51.479 --> 1:15:53.320 and said we created it right there. You know what 1:15:53.360 --> 1:15:56.160 I'm saying, And he he was just dope. I was like, man, 1:15:56.160 --> 1:15:57.519 when I work on my next album, I really want 1:15:57.560 --> 1:15:59.000 you to I really want you to be a part 1:15:59.080 --> 1:16:02.479 of it. And you know l A Reid put us 1:16:02.520 --> 1:16:06.920 together after Dallas and that was when you were working 1:16:06.960 --> 1:16:07.320 in l A. 1:16:07.600 --> 1:16:10.439 Right that we did any songs with Dallas? 1:16:10.800 --> 1:16:11.040 None? 1:16:12.120 --> 1:16:12.920 Damn okay? 1:16:13.560 --> 1:16:17.760 Yeah none that came out? You mean like did we 1:16:17.840 --> 1:16:19.080 actually the song? 1:16:19.160 --> 1:16:23.000 Like yeah, I had a song called water Falls versus whatever? 1:16:23.120 --> 1:16:26.320 I mean, like, did you ever work in a song 1:16:26.360 --> 1:16:26.719 with Dallas? 1:16:26.760 --> 1:16:30.719 I think he was working with Deborah kill Feel Debora Cox. 1:16:31.160 --> 1:16:32.880 So there's a couple of records on Debor Cox. They 1:16:32.960 --> 1:16:36.160 probably slid from my project to her to her project, 1:16:36.200 --> 1:16:37.960 and I think it was that Montel. 1:16:40.320 --> 1:16:44.000 Baby you have the first. 1:16:46.479 --> 1:16:49.280 No, I didn't do the record, but I'm saying I 1:16:49.320 --> 1:16:51.760 would have potentially had had that song if I weren't 1:16:51.800 --> 1:16:54.320 around them. And not to say that it wouldn't you know, 1:16:54.400 --> 1:16:56.240 he had his process man, it just didn't work with me, 1:16:56.400 --> 1:16:56.920 you know what I'm saying. 1:16:56.920 --> 1:16:57.160 All right? 1:16:58.840 --> 1:17:01.960 Anyway, So so I I ended up, you know, being 1:17:02.040 --> 1:17:04.400 put with j D and we just started working. I 1:17:04.479 --> 1:17:05.840 just started kicking it with and we worked on it 1:17:05.920 --> 1:17:06.880 in Atlanta in his basement. 1:17:07.000 --> 1:17:10.920 Oh wow, okay, yah about that man, you will Seal 1:17:11.720 --> 1:17:13.200 talk to me about him because he was like I 1:17:13.200 --> 1:17:15.880 would always see him working with j D. He was 1:17:15.960 --> 1:17:19.320 like one of my favorite songwriters and what was his process? 1:17:19.520 --> 1:17:19.560 Like? 1:17:19.920 --> 1:17:23.360 So j D had a manual still working at the time, 1:17:24.120 --> 1:17:26.800 and Kawan Prayer the k Yeah, KP. 1:17:27.280 --> 1:17:34.200 That's the name, Kawan Prayer. Yeah, he's uh, he's KP. 1:17:34.360 --> 1:17:37.640 You know, KP. He's independent. He works with for real now, 1:17:37.760 --> 1:17:42.720 but he he he worked with Parental Advisory at the time. 1:17:42.920 --> 1:17:45.840 P A right, I got the official name he was. 1:17:46.080 --> 1:17:52.040 He was R Kelly. Thank you, okay, God, I'm back 1:17:52.040 --> 1:17:52.840 to my quiet place. 1:17:54.680 --> 1:17:55.800 That's our first lady over there. 1:17:59.520 --> 1:18:07.639 No, that was put p a yard in the graveyard 1:18:08.560 --> 1:18:10.360 pepitone the I think the. 1:18:12.120 --> 1:18:12.559 R Kelly. 1:18:16.040 --> 1:18:19.320 That's correct, Kelly. 1:18:20.520 --> 1:18:21.960 That's so sorry. 1:18:25.720 --> 1:18:28.479 Nah. So KP he was over there with me and 1:18:28.600 --> 1:18:30.280 we just started working on the album. You know what 1:18:30.280 --> 1:18:32.720 I'm saying, and the rest is kind of like it 1:18:32.800 --> 1:18:36.360 became history. I just worked day in day, but JD 1:18:36.520 --> 1:18:38.720 had such a weird fucking way of working. And after 1:18:38.800 --> 1:18:42.560 dealing with uh Dallas Sauce and it was like, you 1:18:42.600 --> 1:18:44.040 want me to come to the studio and sit and 1:18:44.080 --> 1:18:47.200 watch you playing video games. I can't do that, man, 1:18:47.200 --> 1:18:48.920 I don't play that. I just didn't play video I 1:18:48.960 --> 1:18:51.280 just wasn't a kid who played video games. I stopped 1:18:51.320 --> 1:18:53.639 and was like, I can't catch back up. I'm sorry, 1:18:54.439 --> 1:18:57.880 I put I put the joystick down, so I'm here 1:18:57.960 --> 1:18:59.479 to work. I was that serious, you know what I'm saying. 1:18:59.479 --> 1:19:01.920 So I was like, you know, let's pay pool, man. 1:19:02.080 --> 1:19:04.000 You know, at least that's a game that I can play. 1:19:04.360 --> 1:19:06.240 So we started playing Pool for push ups and ship 1:19:06.360 --> 1:19:08.640 like that, and then before you know it, I was 1:19:08.720 --> 1:19:11.080 doing crunches and ship and I just third forming God 1:19:11.120 --> 1:19:11.800 damn six packs. 1:19:12.960 --> 1:19:18.280 So that became apply. 1:19:15.960 --> 1:19:18.160 Trying to get you in shape all of that ship 1:19:18.680 --> 1:19:23.560 but his is missing a good one. So what was 1:19:23.600 --> 1:19:24.680 the first song y'all worked on? 1:19:25.560 --> 1:19:26.640 First record we worked on? 1:19:29.120 --> 1:19:33.080 Oh man, what was the first one. I don't think 1:19:33.120 --> 1:19:36.240 it was a song that made the album, And I 1:19:36.240 --> 1:19:38.000 don't think it was a record that made it. I 1:19:38.000 --> 1:19:39.400 don't even remember the damn name of it. 1:19:39.560 --> 1:19:43.200 Man, uh okay. I was like, well, the album is 1:19:43.240 --> 1:19:43.800 called My Way. 1:19:46.280 --> 1:19:49.400 The first album we worked on was called My Way. 1:19:50.160 --> 1:19:53.000 But the first song, the first song I do not remember. 1:19:53.640 --> 1:19:55.720 Yeah, I remember my Way that hit my That was 1:19:55.880 --> 1:19:59.639 my freshman year of college, and you make me want 1:19:59.680 --> 1:20:00.559 to like it was like. 1:20:00.560 --> 1:20:02.080 The last record of the entire album. 1:20:02.560 --> 1:20:04.920 Why is that always because it's always like we're missing 1:20:05.479 --> 1:20:06.920 we need, we need to sing, we need a single. 1:20:07.200 --> 1:20:09.719 Was it was that thing someone like we're missing something? 1:20:09.960 --> 1:20:13.240 I think it was. No, I think it was. 1:20:13.680 --> 1:20:15.599 It's my favorite joining was one Day He'll be Mine, 1:20:16.160 --> 1:20:17.960 and it wasn't because of the Iley sample. But just 1:20:18.080 --> 1:20:18.240 like Me. 1:20:18.320 --> 1:20:19.920 I think just like Me was the first record that 1:20:20.600 --> 1:20:21.160 we worked on. 1:20:22.600 --> 1:20:26.160 But what was the song that you were like, all right, 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:30.760 I'm bad now now I'm forced to be reckoned with or? 1:20:31.760 --> 1:20:34.560 I think it was nice and Slow. That was the 1:20:34.640 --> 1:20:36.160 one that was like, oh shit, we got something, but 1:20:36.280 --> 1:20:38.200 come back. It was another record that we worked on. 1:20:39.200 --> 1:20:44.240 And so, how how's JD directing this? Because I mean, 1:20:44.360 --> 1:20:46.920 at that point, I'm thinking of a strictly from hip 1:20:46.920 --> 1:20:52.679 hop context. So as a producer. What is his process 1:20:53.000 --> 1:20:58.320 in the studio. He's sitting there coaching you on vocals. Yo, 1:20:58.600 --> 1:21:01.240 I'm so glad. Look, I hate vocals. I will be like, 1:21:01.240 --> 1:21:04.880 all right, he does back at this point. Now he does. 1:21:05.000 --> 1:21:06.920 Now he'll actually sit in the studio with me. Now. 1:21:07.439 --> 1:21:09.880 But back then you had to literally like sit. 1:21:09.800 --> 1:21:12.559 In the living room or like his little living room 1:21:12.640 --> 1:21:15.559 area downstairs in the basement, and they would just play 1:21:15.680 --> 1:21:17.200 video games for hours. 1:21:17.439 --> 1:21:19.080 So who's coaching your vocals on this stuff? 1:21:19.840 --> 1:21:22.760 Eventually it was Emmanuel and a guy this is back 1:21:22.840 --> 1:21:27.000 with Phil Tan, who was his his engineering engineers. 1:21:27.000 --> 1:21:27.920 Always the vocal coach. 1:21:28.360 --> 1:21:30.960 He would he would actually go through a vocal production 1:21:31.080 --> 1:21:35.040 with me, but it was mostly emmanual because he would 1:21:35.120 --> 1:21:37.679 he would put it down piece by piece. 1:21:37.520 --> 1:21:38.880 And then I kind of go in and and work 1:21:38.920 --> 1:21:40.200 on it. We wrote certain things. 1:21:40.160 --> 1:21:43.080 Were you guys, were you guys co writing together or yeah? 1:21:44.360 --> 1:21:47.680 I would basically, you know, talk to JD about just 1:21:47.760 --> 1:21:50.280 different ship and before you know what, he started writing. 1:21:50.360 --> 1:21:53.240 I hadn't I hadn't developed my my writing. I hadn't 1:21:53.240 --> 1:21:54.280 picked up a pen yet. 1:21:54.320 --> 1:21:56.320 I'm just kind of like talking about things and he's 1:21:56.439 --> 1:21:58.680 taking it in writing it and before you know it, 1:21:58.880 --> 1:22:00.640 I'll come back to the studio. He'll hit me at 1:22:00.680 --> 1:22:02.320 three o'clock in the morning, like, come to the studio. 1:22:02.360 --> 1:22:02.640 I'm like. 1:22:04.640 --> 1:22:07.800 Sleepy, I've been I was out there all day waiting 1:22:07.840 --> 1:22:10.200 on you Todamn to do something, and then you didn't. 1:22:10.840 --> 1:22:13.040 Now you are you a daytime studio person. 1:22:13.439 --> 1:22:14.000 At that time? 1:22:14.040 --> 1:22:16.320 I was, because I mean if I was still in school, man, 1:22:16.439 --> 1:22:19.200 like I'm still I'm still in school, trying to figure 1:22:19.200 --> 1:22:23.680 out how to balance between two worlds. And you know, I, 1:22:23.880 --> 1:22:27.479 uh yeah, I come out there three o'clock in the morning, 1:22:27.640 --> 1:22:29.439 tired his hell, and he wanted to work. 1:22:29.520 --> 1:22:30.479 I had to start to go. 1:22:31.040 --> 1:22:33.799 So you went to physical school like you weren't tutor 1:22:33.920 --> 1:22:36.840 and the the celebrity. 1:22:36.880 --> 1:22:38.880 Now wait, man, I'm fucking up. No, I was out 1:22:38.920 --> 1:22:41.599 of school then I was taking my nineteen. 1:22:41.720 --> 1:22:43.840 But the craziest shit is I was the family driver 1:22:43.960 --> 1:22:45.759 in addition to being a nighttime artist. 1:22:46.320 --> 1:22:48.920 So I had to drive my. 1:22:49.000 --> 1:22:51.479 Mom to work, drive my girl to Wait, was your 1:22:51.479 --> 1:22:54.040 mom still working? My mother was still working. I had 1:22:54.040 --> 1:22:55.960 to drive my mom to work. I had to drive 1:22:56.080 --> 1:23:01.200 my girlfriend to Spelman and then drop my brother. Girl, yeah, 1:23:02.280 --> 1:23:05.960 drop my brother off, and then get my ass back 1:23:06.160 --> 1:23:08.720 to the house for just a second. Go pick my 1:23:08.760 --> 1:23:11.360 little brother up, Go pick my mom up, bring them 1:23:11.400 --> 1:23:13.800 back home, Go pick my girlfriend up, come back home, 1:23:13.880 --> 1:23:15.160 and then drive to the studio. 1:23:16.160 --> 1:23:23.560 I'm glad the story I was the original. You just 1:23:23.720 --> 1:23:28.400 wanted to show you just want more chauffeur than Usher. Wow, 1:23:31.800 --> 1:23:37.360 she's the original, yo. I'm actually glad you said that, 1:23:37.479 --> 1:23:43.080 because even as at least I'm even as the as 1:23:43.120 --> 1:23:46.639 an established artist, at least in the eyes of people 1:23:46.680 --> 1:23:49.760 that don't know the industry, you're still blue collar with it, 1:23:50.040 --> 1:23:52.240 and you're still like your mom's still keeping the job. 1:23:52.360 --> 1:23:55.120 She's not like, Okay, I'm managing full time or none 1:23:55.120 --> 1:23:57.719 of that stuff. Wait, is Brooke still in the picture? 1:23:57.880 --> 1:24:01.080 Brook is no longer in the picture. I now am. 1:24:02.560 --> 1:24:04.080 I'm just working on the album, so I really need 1:24:04.120 --> 1:24:07.400 a manager. My mother she basically, you know, helped me 1:24:07.520 --> 1:24:10.679 find an attorney that then kind of handled my business 1:24:10.760 --> 1:24:14.479 or whatever per album to album and you know, just 1:24:14.560 --> 1:24:16.880 kind of focused on once again getting that album, getting 1:24:16.920 --> 1:24:17.439 that I'm done. 1:24:17.520 --> 1:24:21.360 Can you describe Brooke as a person, because for those 1:24:21.439 --> 1:24:26.479 that don't know, you know, thank god the New Edition 1:24:26.640 --> 1:24:29.960 movie went down and I love the way like he 1:24:30.160 --> 1:24:32.599 was my favorite character in a New Edition movie only 1:24:32.720 --> 1:24:37.160 because of at least the lesson that he taught New Edition, 1:24:37.200 --> 1:24:39.760 which was basically, I'm gonna teach you how to be professional. 1:24:40.600 --> 1:24:42.320 I'm not going to make you stars, but i will 1:24:42.360 --> 1:24:43.800 teach you how to be professional. 1:24:44.280 --> 1:24:49.640 He's like that uncle or that granddad that makes you 1:24:49.760 --> 1:24:51.960 scared because you don't know what the fuck he's thinking 1:24:53.240 --> 1:24:55.400 good and you're like, I just don't want them to 1:24:55.439 --> 1:24:56.360 be disappointed in me. 1:24:57.439 --> 1:25:02.040 No, look, dude, I spoke to him about that whole process, 1:25:02.160 --> 1:25:06.200 and he like confirmed that he he was, like, not 1:25:06.360 --> 1:25:09.040 exactly the black version of what's his name in Whiplash, 1:25:10.000 --> 1:25:12.559 but he did believe. He believed. I know that Brook 1:25:12.600 --> 1:25:16.080 told me that he he's a too much praise is 1:25:16.439 --> 1:25:19.639 almost damage into an artist because that'll make them relaxed. 1:25:20.160 --> 1:25:23.800 And it's weird that I'm not saying that slave mentality 1:25:24.000 --> 1:25:28.360 like the like to keep keep the workers uh in 1:25:28.600 --> 1:25:33.000 in in a plot. Yeah, but I mean, but it 1:25:33.120 --> 1:25:36.160 keep it makes them work harder, and you know, next 1:25:36.200 --> 1:25:39.200 to like Charlie Atkins, like I consider Brook paying one 1:25:39.200 --> 1:25:44.519 of the greatest uh or yeah, proprietors of of just 1:25:44.720 --> 1:25:47.080 that spirit of like when he's working with you, is 1:25:47.160 --> 1:25:49.640 he strictly just a manager from a manager center, or 1:25:49.720 --> 1:25:51.559 is he working with you on dance moves? 1:25:51.600 --> 1:25:54.519 And at that time, he wasn't working on choreography anymore. 1:25:55.280 --> 1:25:56.960 So were you asking him to work with you? 1:25:57.120 --> 1:25:59.560 Or I'm always meeting people, you know, when they just 1:25:59.600 --> 1:26:00.639 step in out of their space. 1:26:00.760 --> 1:26:03.760 I can't get a fucking record from babyfacing in LA, 1:26:04.360 --> 1:26:07.880 can't get the pain that goddamn teach teach me a 1:26:07.920 --> 1:26:08.360 step now. 1:26:08.800 --> 1:26:11.080 But I mean he had wisdom, at least I hope 1:26:11.120 --> 1:26:11.719 he had wisdom. 1:26:12.120 --> 1:26:15.680 Yeah, he had man wisdom his record. It wasn't that. No, 1:26:15.840 --> 1:26:16.599 I didn't leave him. 1:26:17.040 --> 1:26:20.560 What happened is new addition they got back together was 1:26:20.680 --> 1:26:23.679 home again and and this is right before everything happened 1:26:23.720 --> 1:26:23.880 for me. 1:26:24.040 --> 1:26:24.599 You know what I'm saying. 1:26:24.640 --> 1:26:30.280 I'm like, and he's like, you know, I'm like, I'm like, 1:26:30.400 --> 1:26:33.840 you can't leave man, And he and Jeff Dyson was like, 1:26:34.280 --> 1:26:35.839 we got to go back and work on this project. 1:26:35.840 --> 1:26:37.080 I was like, well, maybe I can open up for 1:26:37.160 --> 1:26:37.800 y'all or something like that. 1:26:37.840 --> 1:26:40.519 He's like, nah, I gotta give it my undivided attention 1:26:40.800 --> 1:26:42.960 as I would if it were you. So I was like, 1:26:43.160 --> 1:26:45.200 all right, you know what, I gotta respect that and 1:26:45.240 --> 1:26:46.800 if there's an opportunity for us to work again. 1:26:46.840 --> 1:26:48.400 And that's when my mother became my manager. 1:26:49.840 --> 1:26:57.400 Now what is that like because you're approaching adulthood? Like, 1:26:58.040 --> 1:27:04.160 is it easy the Joe Jackson Matthew Knowles of it all, Like, 1:27:05.680 --> 1:27:08.360 is it easy to separate the hats of the two 1:27:08.960 --> 1:27:11.439 when your mom's your manager? Like? Is she traveling on 1:27:11.520 --> 1:27:14.439 the road with you as your managers are? Like? Yeah, 1:27:15.680 --> 1:27:17.920 so how hard is that? Because you're I mean, you're 1:27:18.000 --> 1:27:19.160 becoming of age. 1:27:19.439 --> 1:27:22.960 I'm a grown man in theory because I've always been 1:27:23.040 --> 1:27:23.400 the manager. 1:27:23.479 --> 1:27:26.280 You're driving people to work, so how now? 1:27:26.320 --> 1:27:27.760 But in my mind i'm also too. 1:27:27.960 --> 1:27:31.040 I've elected to be the provider of the family, even 1:27:31.120 --> 1:27:34.920 though my mother is the protector, right, And in many 1:27:35.000 --> 1:27:38.960 ways I think that she kind of she crippled me 1:27:39.040 --> 1:27:42.080 a little bit for a minute because my focus wasn't 1:27:42.160 --> 1:27:43.280 it had nothing to. 1:27:43.320 --> 1:27:46.280 Do with business, had everything to do with art. 1:27:46.520 --> 1:27:49.000 And think I thank her for that because I wouldn't 1:27:49.040 --> 1:27:52.040 have I wouldn't have established the focus that I have 1:27:52.360 --> 1:27:56.840 now if I couldn't have just focused on music, music, music, music, dance, dance, dance, dance. 1:27:56.720 --> 1:27:58.360 Performance, performance, performance performers. 1:27:58.720 --> 1:28:01.080 If I was always kind of going to figure out 1:28:01.080 --> 1:28:03.320 who's trying to take money, where the money is coming from, 1:28:03.760 --> 1:28:05.040 I would have been petty, you know what I'm saying. 1:28:05.040 --> 1:28:06.640 I would have I would have lost sight of what 1:28:06.960 --> 1:28:11.519 what the goal was. And you know another thing, my 1:28:11.640 --> 1:28:18.720 mother never My mother was never the extremely. You know, 1:28:20.280 --> 1:28:23.000 I can't do anything. I can't go anywhere, you can't. 1:28:23.040 --> 1:28:23.479 She let me. 1:28:23.720 --> 1:28:25.280 I got into ship, you know what I'm saying, And 1:28:25.439 --> 1:28:27.519 she understood that's just things. 1:28:27.640 --> 1:28:29.519 That's what men do. Boys do that, you know what 1:28:29.560 --> 1:28:32.240 I'm saying. But if you're going to do it, do 1:28:32.400 --> 1:28:34.680 it in the safety of your house. Be protected, you 1:28:34.720 --> 1:28:35.240 know what I'm saying. 1:28:35.560 --> 1:28:42.120 Like, Okay, yeah, wow, I'm trying to go here. 1:28:44.760 --> 1:28:52.360 Home, pull up. Don't make me go. 1:28:52.479 --> 1:29:05.960 There, not right now. Okay. So when you finished the 1:29:06.040 --> 1:29:10.120 record and you're mastering your sequence, and at this point, 1:29:10.200 --> 1:29:13.800 are you like, Okay, this is it. I'm gonna show 1:29:13.840 --> 1:29:15.600 everyone that I'm the ship or. 1:29:18.360 --> 1:29:20.360 No, it's just the work. I ain't even about to 1:29:20.400 --> 1:29:21.960 accolade at that point. I just want to work. 1:29:21.960 --> 1:29:24.040 I want to get back on the road, I want 1:29:24.080 --> 1:29:25.760 to get back out there and perform. I want to 1:29:25.840 --> 1:29:27.320 just continue to grow. You know what I'm saying. It's 1:29:27.360 --> 1:29:30.240 like it ain't got nothing to do with showing nobody up. 1:29:30.320 --> 1:29:31.280 I'm better than anybody. 1:29:31.439 --> 1:29:34.600 But it's like, no, it's not over for me, and 1:29:34.640 --> 1:29:36.360 I'm gonna keep working because I got more to do. 1:29:36.680 --> 1:29:37.240 I still ain't. 1:29:37.320 --> 1:29:39.599 I still haven't fulfilled what I saw when I was eight. 1:29:39.760 --> 1:29:43.080 Well, MTV like grasped oranty like crazy, because I mean 1:29:43.200 --> 1:29:48.400 everything every video that I know was played ungodly doing 1:29:48.439 --> 1:29:51.160 that point. I think by this point, you're this this 1:29:51.880 --> 1:29:52.840 the well? 1:29:52.880 --> 1:29:52.920 No? 1:29:53.000 --> 1:29:55.720 No, is this the Merry Usher tour? Was that during 1:29:55.800 --> 1:29:56.560 that period. 1:29:57.760 --> 1:29:59.280 Or seven to one? 1:30:00.000 --> 1:30:02.640 Okay? So what is what is the what is your 1:30:02.720 --> 1:30:03.599 live show like now? 1:30:03.840 --> 1:30:03.880 Like? 1:30:05.400 --> 1:30:08.000 Yeah, my way was like I had a little bit 1:30:08.000 --> 1:30:13.400 of Philly with me. I had, you know, let me see, 1:30:14.479 --> 1:30:16.120 that's when I brought it was a little bit of Detroit. 1:30:16.160 --> 1:30:21.519 You remember, you know Kerran and Voudas Brinley, they had 1:30:21.560 --> 1:30:23.400 of Detroit. That's who played with Mary. 1:30:23.960 --> 1:30:28.720 The current kurrent was EP for, I mean was MD for. 1:30:29.760 --> 1:30:31.559 They work with the Dream as well. 1:30:32.240 --> 1:30:33.320 I'm not sure if they do or not. 1:30:33.479 --> 1:30:36.880 Okay, I'm trying to figure out who else they worked with. 1:30:37.040 --> 1:30:39.760 Okay, but anyway, so I had a band, and I 1:30:39.920 --> 1:30:41.840 was comfortable with performing with a band. 1:30:42.720 --> 1:30:43.640 Now are you like you are? 1:30:43.760 --> 1:30:43.920 Now? 1:30:44.160 --> 1:30:47.559 Like you're aware and you know what you want to convey? 1:30:47.760 --> 1:30:49.520 Like who's conveying your ideas? 1:30:49.800 --> 1:30:51.880 Hearing me? That's it seeing me? 1:30:52.320 --> 1:30:59.040 And is he listening to you a way I don't 1:30:59.160 --> 1:31:06.960 listen to you? And we won? So what what are 1:31:07.000 --> 1:31:10.479 you trying to? What are you trying to convey as 1:31:10.479 --> 1:31:12.920 an artist? By this by this time period? Like what 1:31:13.040 --> 1:31:14.800 are you at this point? 1:31:14.840 --> 1:31:18.320 I'm trying to live out everything that goes with this 1:31:18.400 --> 1:31:20.080 album because it is the first time that I've actually 1:31:20.120 --> 1:31:23.400 made songs that are relative to my life, what I've 1:31:23.479 --> 1:31:26.839 gone through, what I've experienced. So now I'm trying to recreate, 1:31:26.920 --> 1:31:29.320 recapture those moments that you know, that idea. 1:31:29.479 --> 1:31:31.000 It's a little bit it's. 1:31:30.840 --> 1:31:32.479 A little bit country, you know what I'm saying, because 1:31:33.080 --> 1:31:34.760 and I had to deal with what I had access to. 1:31:35.120 --> 1:31:38.120 But you know, you know, when I came on stage, 1:31:38.120 --> 1:31:40.240 I had a tribute to Bobby that I did every night. 1:31:41.920 --> 1:31:46.040 Now you you you do you have a close relationship 1:31:46.080 --> 1:31:48.840 to Bobby Brown? Or was it like, oh you're mind 1:31:48.960 --> 1:31:52.799 or a nice kid like the knowledge Joe Green commercial. 1:31:54.760 --> 1:31:55.599 Now we were cool. 1:31:55.640 --> 1:31:57.920 We're cool now, you know, there was a moment where 1:31:58.640 --> 1:32:01.479 we weren't cool and it was because he was he 1:32:01.640 --> 1:32:04.439 was really, he was really just like he was on 1:32:04.560 --> 1:32:05.040 the drugs. 1:32:05.120 --> 1:32:05.280 Man. 1:32:05.320 --> 1:32:06.160 It was just too much. 1:32:06.439 --> 1:32:09.760 But okay, So what I'm saying is is we had 1:32:09.800 --> 1:32:11.920 a follow out. So he tried to fight me in 1:32:12.040 --> 1:32:14.360 the club and it was and I was thinking, I 1:32:14.439 --> 1:32:15.679 was going to ask you, what do you feel threat? 1:32:15.720 --> 1:32:17.519 And you think he felt I wasn't a threat though, 1:32:17.520 --> 1:32:19.040 I think it was just the drugs. It's just, you 1:32:19.080 --> 1:32:21.839 know what I'm saying. Sometimes you know, sh it just happened. 1:32:22.600 --> 1:32:24.560 How do you feel about meeting your artists? Because I 1:32:24.640 --> 1:32:30.519 have never meet your idols, never meet them because was crushed. 1:32:31.400 --> 1:32:33.200 I was crushed, and I think that he just read 1:32:33.280 --> 1:32:34.759 me wrong. I never give my birthday. 1:32:34.840 --> 1:32:37.599 He showed up to this birthday party that I had 1:32:38.040 --> 1:32:40.800 in Los Angeles and I introduced him my first time. 1:32:41.840 --> 1:32:43.559 I knew him when I was a kid because because 1:32:43.560 --> 1:32:45.840 of a j Alexander so he I spent time at 1:32:45.840 --> 1:32:46.240 his house. 1:32:46.680 --> 1:32:48.720 I spent time at Boston. Time he cooked for you. 1:32:49.760 --> 1:32:52.240 No, no, no, But for the record, Bobby Brown was 1:32:52.280 --> 1:32:54.840 like one of the best cooks of all time all 1:32:54.920 --> 1:32:55.679 right back to the show. 1:32:56.520 --> 1:32:58.200 So now I knew him, you know what I'm saying. 1:32:58.240 --> 1:33:00.600 I drove driven in car with him a kind of 1:33:00.600 --> 1:33:01.800 sad well. I was kicking it with him, you know 1:33:01.800 --> 1:33:03.799 I'm saying. And when I got signed to the Face Records. 1:33:04.439 --> 1:33:06.320 You know, I was always like a part of the crew. 1:33:06.400 --> 1:33:08.240 I was a part of the you know betwn crew. 1:33:08.880 --> 1:33:13.280 And plus his kid, uh hakem with his nephew. He 1:33:13.320 --> 1:33:14.760 went to school with me, so I would always kind 1:33:14.760 --> 1:33:18.680 of be around with them. But anyway, I had a 1:33:18.720 --> 1:33:21.360 birthday party and he was in the house, you know 1:33:21.400 --> 1:33:22.920 what I'm saying. So I got on the mic and 1:33:22.960 --> 1:33:24.599 I was like, ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce 1:33:24.640 --> 1:33:27.519 you to the original King of R and BR and B. 1:33:27.960 --> 1:33:30.320 I said, the original King of R and B in 1:33:30.479 --> 1:33:33.560 respect and at the time sarcasm. 1:33:33.760 --> 1:33:35.720 I think he thought I was trying. It was out there. 1:33:35.920 --> 1:33:39.080 I was like, you the original, but I'm the new king, right. 1:33:39.920 --> 1:33:40.840 So he caught me in. 1:33:40.920 --> 1:33:43.000 He was like, it's like that little nigga, he said, 1:33:43.040 --> 1:33:45.519 for real, nigga, don't get He was like, don't get 1:33:45.520 --> 1:33:46.160 sucked up or something. 1:33:46.200 --> 1:33:49.040 I was like, yo, hold up, man, for real like that, 1:33:49.280 --> 1:33:49.920 So you know what I'm saying. 1:33:49.920 --> 1:33:50.920 We you know, so I. 1:33:52.680 --> 1:33:55.240 Yikes, I kind of liked this, and then he kind 1:33:55.280 --> 1:33:58.080 of squared up with me and then they jumped in between. 1:33:58.120 --> 1:34:00.240 It was crazy, man, And I'm looking at them like, 1:34:01.240 --> 1:34:06.920 but I idolize you, you my idol like real, so 1:34:07.439 --> 1:34:09.400 you remember that, Like I don't think you remember that. 1:34:10.560 --> 1:34:14.920 I'm celebrating he and my mother and them. 1:34:14.960 --> 1:34:16.400 They trying to pull me out of the place, and 1:34:16.479 --> 1:34:18.600 he like fuck, he like he going off on me. 1:34:18.680 --> 1:34:21.840 And I'm like, Bobby is me? 1:34:22.600 --> 1:34:25.000 Like come on, man, and what year is this? What 1:34:25.160 --> 1:34:27.160 year is that when that happens? What year is this? 1:34:27.320 --> 1:34:28.040 August seventh? 1:34:32.120 --> 1:34:34.080 This was this was after My Way. 1:34:34.360 --> 1:34:35.760 It had to have been at least two years after 1:34:35.840 --> 1:34:40.120 My Way, so I predict it's August seventh. Yeah, it 1:34:40.160 --> 1:34:43.400 was after my damn man, this after Candy Girl too, right, 1:34:45.200 --> 1:34:48.320 like decades. I can't feel you. 1:34:49.160 --> 1:34:57.320 Wow, you can join us? So My Way with that record? 1:34:57.520 --> 1:35:00.559 When just My Way happens and then you do the record, 1:35:02.240 --> 1:35:02.840 how did you know? 1:35:03.080 --> 1:35:03.800 Like when did you know? 1:35:03.920 --> 1:35:05.320 Did you said that you make me want it was 1:35:05.360 --> 1:35:09.000 the last one you did? Did you know that that 1:35:09.160 --> 1:35:10.680 one was the hit? It was like, Okay, this is 1:35:10.720 --> 1:35:12.160 the one or did that just happen? 1:35:12.280 --> 1:35:12.439 Later? 1:35:12.600 --> 1:35:14.960 It just happened, you know what I'm saying. You know, 1:35:15.280 --> 1:35:16.920 for me, it was never about a hit record. It 1:35:17.000 --> 1:35:18.240 was about getting back to the stage. 1:35:18.360 --> 1:35:18.600 That's it. 1:35:18.960 --> 1:35:20.400 You will get back. I need to get back to it. 1:35:20.400 --> 1:35:21.360 I need to get back to the stage. 1:35:21.360 --> 1:35:22.280 That was it gotcha. 1:35:22.439 --> 1:35:23.800 Rather it was a hit record or not. You know, 1:35:24.040 --> 1:35:25.840 La Reid, he had a job, you know, KP. 1:35:26.400 --> 1:35:28.120 They had a job to bring me the best records 1:35:28.160 --> 1:35:30.519 and help, you know, kind of tell my story because 1:35:30.520 --> 1:35:32.960 they knew that I really wasn't allowing just anybody to 1:35:33.040 --> 1:35:34.080 just kind of write, you know what I mean. 1:35:34.200 --> 1:35:36.160 Like we got getting the studio and got to work 1:35:36.200 --> 1:35:36.360 on it. 1:35:37.520 --> 1:35:40.600 But let me ask, I mean, before my before you 1:35:40.680 --> 1:35:43.400 make me want to when you're listening to the album 1:35:43.479 --> 1:35:45.120 in progress, what's Ellie retain? 1:35:46.520 --> 1:35:49.799 We just need that one, that one, that last record. 1:35:49.920 --> 1:35:52.280 So even with nice and Slow and My Way, so 1:35:52.439 --> 1:35:53.599 I was established hits. 1:35:53.720 --> 1:35:55.760 So now we wanted to come out with My Way. 1:35:55.800 --> 1:35:57.840 We wanted to come out with nice and slow. My 1:35:58.000 --> 1:35:58.920 Way wasn't even on this. 1:35:59.000 --> 1:36:00.240 You want to nice and slow first. 1:36:00.320 --> 1:36:03.560 I wanted nice and slow first. So he was like, 1:36:03.680 --> 1:36:04.840 now you got to have an up tempo. 1:36:05.920 --> 1:36:06.439 So JD. 1:36:06.600 --> 1:36:09.160 He produced his beat and I just rolled with the beat. 1:36:09.280 --> 1:36:09.920 Roll with the beat. 1:36:10.120 --> 1:36:11.599 You know what I'm saying, because I can now. At 1:36:11.640 --> 1:36:12.920 that point, I was like, I'm all right, you know 1:36:13.000 --> 1:36:15.439 what I'm saying, because it just take him. It just 1:36:15.520 --> 1:36:18.640 take him a minute to get to it. And he 1:36:18.760 --> 1:36:20.439 was going through some ship. I was going through some 1:36:20.520 --> 1:36:22.920 shit in relationship. Were talking it up, and then one 1:36:23.040 --> 1:36:25.600 day at three o'clock in the morning, he hit me 1:36:25.760 --> 1:36:27.479 up and I came over and the rest is history. 1:36:30.000 --> 1:36:32.720 After that record, when you went into eighty seven old one, 1:36:32.800 --> 1:36:34.479 that was that was the one that came after that one. 1:36:35.880 --> 1:36:37.920 How did the Neptunes come into the picture? 1:36:38.760 --> 1:36:43.160 For I think so, I've seen for Real a lady 1:36:43.160 --> 1:36:46.120 by the name of Candy Tooks. She introduced me to 1:36:46.960 --> 1:36:49.799 for Real when he back when they were on Future. 1:36:49.840 --> 1:36:51.479 I think it's the name of that uh, when they 1:36:51.520 --> 1:36:58.559 were with Teddy so they were they was like studio producers, 1:36:58.560 --> 1:37:00.720 you know what I'm saying. And I met him, but 1:37:00.920 --> 1:37:03.160 there was no connection. I actually worked on a couple 1:37:03.200 --> 1:37:07.280 of songs. I think, yeah, I think it was my 1:37:07.439 --> 1:37:09.479 I think it was before My Way and I had 1:37:09.560 --> 1:37:13.240 seen him, but I didn't necessarily at the connection, so KP. 1:37:14.320 --> 1:37:16.800 He began to you know, he came in with these 1:37:16.880 --> 1:37:19.400 records and I was like, okay, you know, let's let's 1:37:19.439 --> 1:37:20.280 try to get in with them. 1:37:20.360 --> 1:37:22.080 Let's try to you know whatever. He was like, yeah, 1:37:22.240 --> 1:37:26.240 I think I got I got something, and I think it. 1:37:26.360 --> 1:37:27.240 Was I don't know. 1:37:27.760 --> 1:37:30.600 I don't know if I'm not sure if fronting was 1:37:31.000 --> 1:37:32.400 out or not. He was trying as hard as to 1:37:32.439 --> 1:37:35.479 get that record. He's China's hardest to get that record. 1:37:35.560 --> 1:37:37.920 Yeah, you know, because it was one I think I 1:37:37.960 --> 1:37:39.679 think it was for eighty seven on one that didn't 1:37:39.720 --> 1:37:41.160 make it Sweet Lies. 1:37:43.080 --> 1:37:46.439 Yeah, there's like ten I love two songs. Yeah, yeah, 1:37:46.960 --> 1:37:48.080 I still love that song. 1:37:48.160 --> 1:37:50.519 Yeah, man, was it is it? Was it any truth 1:37:50.840 --> 1:37:53.800 that you don't have to call? Was originally for Mike 1:37:54.120 --> 1:37:56.600 or was that just is that fan fix that I 1:37:56.680 --> 1:37:56.960 don't know. 1:37:57.320 --> 1:37:59.800 All I know is when I got it, l A 1:38:00.040 --> 1:38:02.519 went crazy and he was like, you gotta cut this record, 1:38:02.560 --> 1:38:04.680 and I was like, all right, I cut it, no problem. 1:38:06.080 --> 1:38:11.400 Are you easily. The thing is because the the the 1:38:11.520 --> 1:38:16.120 folklore of the Neptunes, especially when they're in glory in 1:38:16.200 --> 1:38:21.360 their glory period everybody wanted the Neptunes cut. But you know, 1:38:21.520 --> 1:38:23.840 initially hearing the Neptunes, it was a hard pill for 1:38:23.960 --> 1:38:25.519 me to swallow. No, it was a hard pill for me. 1:38:25.800 --> 1:38:27.760 I think the first beat I heard was I Can't Make. 1:38:29.439 --> 1:38:32.320 I didn't know about s W. I mean, I knew nah, 1:38:32.400 --> 1:38:35.479 but that wasn't like behindset Tunes. It was I can't Make. 1:38:35.520 --> 1:38:37.880 The mistake was the first Neptune sounding song, and I 1:38:37.960 --> 1:38:40.560 was like, okay, My first one was Mace. They was 1:38:40.640 --> 1:38:43.280 looking at me, You're right, okay, looking at him. I 1:38:43.360 --> 1:38:45.040 was like, what in the hell is it? And it's 1:38:45.120 --> 1:38:48.760 really sparse, you know, like it it's weird because for 1:38:48.880 --> 1:38:55.439 all for the for the folklore of how it took 1:38:55.600 --> 1:39:01.120 music listeners uh a minute to accept and digest when 1:39:01.160 --> 1:39:05.080 doves cry, like you'll you'll hear people in hindsight speak 1:39:05.120 --> 1:39:08.280 of like Warner Brothers was upset that Prince took the 1:39:08.280 --> 1:39:11.320 baseline out of it. D D D. I mean, when 1:39:11.400 --> 1:39:14.000 doves Cry didn't feel that foreign to me. But yet 1:39:14.240 --> 1:39:17.160 when I heard the Neptune stuff, I was just like, 1:39:17.280 --> 1:39:19.439 something's missing, like it, I don't know what it is. 1:39:19.680 --> 1:39:23.679 It's like a lot of drums and they were using 1:39:23.760 --> 1:39:26.400 and like the stocks that keyboard sounds. Yeah, it was 1:39:26.479 --> 1:39:28.720 just like I not a kind of plastic between them 1:39:28.920 --> 1:39:31.280 and Swiss like the era of the keyboard beats. 1:39:31.360 --> 1:39:34.040 It sounds like demos, like how to. 1:39:34.080 --> 1:39:36.760 Hit demo on the Casio is like, right, that's it. 1:39:37.120 --> 1:39:39.479 So how are they convincing you? 1:39:40.200 --> 1:39:40.320 Yo? 1:39:41.400 --> 1:39:42.360 This is the ship? 1:39:42.520 --> 1:39:43.040 They didn't. 1:39:43.840 --> 1:39:46.479 I got it from KP. So I was using KP's 1:39:46.560 --> 1:39:49.760 ears and when you don't have to call came on. 1:39:49.920 --> 1:39:55.200 It was it was hard that beat was They played 1:39:55.200 --> 1:39:58.120 it loud for you tell man, that ship was hard. 1:39:59.040 --> 1:40:02.960 Another thing Pharrell's world famous for how he sells you 1:40:03.040 --> 1:40:03.400 a song. 1:40:03.640 --> 1:40:06.439 No he did, He wasn't there. KP played the record. 1:40:06.760 --> 1:40:09.960 He I didn't meet them until after in the studio, 1:40:10.120 --> 1:40:11.200 you know what I'm saying. And then that's when they 1:40:11.240 --> 1:40:13.000 were like, yeah, we met you before we met. 1:40:12.880 --> 1:40:16.680 You back in lyrics on the original memo before you 1:40:16.840 --> 1:40:18.680 got it, he did, So I seen it. 1:40:19.640 --> 1:40:25.360 It was real like straight Way shines well rise in 1:40:25.520 --> 1:40:26.680 our life, but. 1:40:29.439 --> 1:40:30.280 Real simple. 1:40:31.600 --> 1:40:33.599 Was that Around the same time, it was another record, 1:40:33.960 --> 1:40:38.560 It's a Sweet Lies Certified, Certified happened after that? 1:40:38.680 --> 1:40:41.759 Okay? That was that? Okay, okay, give you three hundred. 1:40:43.400 --> 1:40:46.880 That was back when he started working with Robin Thick, 1:40:47.840 --> 1:40:50.200 because Robin and him worked on that record, and me 1:40:50.200 --> 1:40:51.519 and Robin had always been like this. 1:40:51.640 --> 1:40:53.080 Because I met him, I did it. 1:40:53.160 --> 1:40:55.160 That's back when I was like interviewing people and ship 1:40:55.280 --> 1:40:58.320 on MTV and I interviewed and introduced him to to 1:40:58.439 --> 1:40:59.080 the to the world. 1:40:59.520 --> 1:41:02.280 I was like, and he had long he looked like Jesus. 1:41:03.360 --> 1:41:06.280 I was like, man, you look like Jesus what they 1:41:06.360 --> 1:41:10.040 told me. He looked like, yeah, man, so well. 1:41:10.080 --> 1:41:16.000 Also, we should know that uh eighty seven on one 1:41:16.160 --> 1:41:23.200 also contains the most unlikely departure sound of Jam and Lewis. 1:41:23.240 --> 1:41:25.639 I was about to say, yeah, what uh you remind me? Yeah, 1:41:25.640 --> 1:41:28.160 you remidy Yeah, because I almost feel like you remind 1:41:28.240 --> 1:41:32.320 me starts the period of them. I call it witness 1:41:32.360 --> 1:41:33.479 protection Jam and Lewis. 1:41:34.000 --> 1:41:34.200 I know. 1:41:34.560 --> 1:41:38.640 Okay, no, no, no, no, let me go back. 1:41:38.720 --> 1:41:38.920 Y'all. 1:41:39.040 --> 1:41:40.920 Y'all getting this all wrong because Terry's. 1:41:42.520 --> 1:41:42.720 Wrong. 1:41:42.880 --> 1:41:45.160 You're getting this all wrong. Nope, you're getting this all wrong. 1:41:45.200 --> 1:41:47.120 I gotta stop you. School is bro okay. 1:41:47.320 --> 1:41:49.640 So a guy by the name of butter it Is 1:41:49.680 --> 1:41:52.960 who produced You Remind Me, and he wrote it, and 1:41:53.080 --> 1:41:56.120 he wrote it with his sister. So he wrote it 1:41:56.280 --> 1:42:01.599 with his sister in mine and I got that record. Wait, yeah, 1:42:01.640 --> 1:42:03.840 this one, Mark, this one, Mark. 1:42:03.880 --> 1:42:11.320 I'm sorry you didn't write it, So I'm sorry on 1:42:11.400 --> 1:42:14.679 another level. Now, yeah, the boss Bill want to sack 1:42:15.280 --> 1:42:17.840 the Black Coffee right now, go ahead tell you. 1:42:18.040 --> 1:42:19.360 But it wasn't. But it wasn't. 1:42:19.439 --> 1:42:24.200 Necessarily it was his production from the aspect of producing 1:42:24.280 --> 1:42:26.800 my vocals and also to kind of leading the record. 1:42:26.840 --> 1:42:28.320 But the record was pretty much what it was. 1:42:28.960 --> 1:42:32.479 I just it was so comfortable working with him as 1:42:32.520 --> 1:42:34.160 a vocal producer that I wanted him to be a 1:42:34.240 --> 1:42:38.000 part of that song. Okay, yeah, so that's the truth 1:42:38.040 --> 1:42:41.360 about the record. Butter is the original producer of that record. 1:42:41.760 --> 1:42:44.360 Wow, there was an album before eighty seven to one 1:42:44.400 --> 1:42:46.400 that got scrapped because I guess it got leaked on 1:42:46.479 --> 1:42:48.760 the internet. How much did that actually wound up on 1:42:48.920 --> 1:42:50.320 eighty seven on one and how much of it the 1:42:50.400 --> 1:42:51.400 rest of it's just kind. 1:42:51.280 --> 1:42:52.840 Of eighty seven o one. 1:42:54.760 --> 1:42:57.000 Because there was a single, was a poppy collar that 1:42:57.160 --> 1:42:58.080 came out and then. 1:42:58.520 --> 1:42:59.880 It was back when you could actually put out of 1:43:00.120 --> 1:43:02.560 and then just scrapping an entire album, right right, So 1:43:03.240 --> 1:43:05.360 that was a single that came out eighty seven, Yeah, 1:43:05.400 --> 1:43:08.160 eighty seven on one right. So I had worked on 1:43:08.240 --> 1:43:10.280 a gangastan Ganga songs I worked on. 1:43:11.720 --> 1:43:14.400 I didn't know that popul Collar was an official It 1:43:14.560 --> 1:43:15.120 was official. 1:43:16.640 --> 1:43:18.600 This is back when you could send a record overseas, 1:43:19.160 --> 1:43:20.519 you know what I'm saying. And then that was the 1:43:20.760 --> 1:43:22.280 they and then they worked it from overseas and you 1:43:22.400 --> 1:43:24.439 just kind of got off of it in America. So 1:43:24.680 --> 1:43:26.599 it came out here in America and they just deaded 1:43:26.640 --> 1:43:30.480 it real quick and it became a record. It's huge overseas. 1:43:30.479 --> 1:43:32.760 It's crazy when I whenever I play that record, how 1:43:32.760 --> 1:43:38.360 they go crazy. I'm like, I hate this song really yeah. 1:43:38.640 --> 1:43:41.080 I mean I love it for the idea of what 1:43:41.240 --> 1:43:43.800 it represents in my career, but I'm like, I don't 1:43:43.800 --> 1:43:45.200 want to sing this song ever. 1:43:46.040 --> 1:43:49.200 Are there any other songs like that you just don't want? Nah? 1:43:50.040 --> 1:43:53.120 Not really, I mean I'm cool, but I mean that's 1:43:53.200 --> 1:43:55.880 there's certain things that I have tried that works, and 1:43:55.920 --> 1:43:57.920 I'm like, why the fuck did this song work? 1:43:57.920 --> 1:43:59.560 Because now I got to perform it forever, you know 1:43:59.600 --> 1:44:00.000 what I'm saying. 1:44:00.080 --> 1:44:02.280 It was a short lived term popular college feel like 1:44:02.360 --> 1:44:03.519 it didn't last long enough. 1:44:03.680 --> 1:44:06.120 Yeah, people didn't want to hear that. They didn't they 1:44:06.120 --> 1:44:07.000 didn't want to hear that one. Here. 1:44:07.080 --> 1:44:08.519 I was going to ask you talk about songs that 1:44:08.560 --> 1:44:10.519 you never want to perform again, and I was looking 1:44:10.880 --> 1:44:11.599 one of those songs. 1:44:12.640 --> 1:44:16.240 No it's not oh no, no, you know, and you'll 1:44:16.280 --> 1:44:22.040 be happy to hear this, you know. I love that record. 1:44:22.360 --> 1:44:24.519 I think I think that's the one record that I'm like, 1:44:24.760 --> 1:44:25.000 you do. 1:44:25.439 --> 1:44:26.080 Yeah, I love it. 1:44:26.920 --> 1:44:27.320 I love it. 1:44:27.520 --> 1:44:28.000 It's cool. 1:44:28.520 --> 1:44:32.200 I heard a story that apparently it was similar to 1:44:32.360 --> 1:44:34.920 I Guess what you make you want to wear? Y'all 1:44:34.960 --> 1:44:38.160 had finished Confessions and that was the last one that 1:44:38.240 --> 1:44:40.160 you felt it didn't fit the record. Yeah, ain't have 1:44:40.240 --> 1:44:41.920 shit to do with that whole album. But they was like, 1:44:42.040 --> 1:44:43.400 this is a hit. Fuck it, like you got to 1:44:43.479 --> 1:44:43.920 keep this shit. 1:44:44.160 --> 1:44:47.840 Well, they brought me to record. It was Shakir and 1:44:48.720 --> 1:44:52.240 La Reid at the time. Yeah, and they were working 1:44:52.280 --> 1:44:56.080 with Sean Garrett at the time. So they bring me 1:44:56.160 --> 1:44:58.639 the record and I'm like, Yo, this record don't sound 1:44:58.680 --> 1:45:00.920 shit like my record. And I I spent an entire 1:45:01.640 --> 1:45:04.200 however long it took six seven months working on this album. 1:45:04.240 --> 1:45:05.760 You want me to just throw this song on there? 1:45:06.760 --> 1:45:10.240 And he was like, yeah, it's a hit. I'm like, so, 1:45:10.360 --> 1:45:13.639 I took the record and I played it for KP. 1:45:13.920 --> 1:45:15.840 I was like, yo, man, I don't want to do 1:45:15.960 --> 1:45:18.240 this song. I said, but tell me what you think 1:45:18.320 --> 1:45:21.760 I should do. He was like, man, you crazy, he said, 1:45:21.760 --> 1:45:23.200 you're crazy if you don't cut this record. I said, 1:45:23.200 --> 1:45:24.840 you think so. He's like, yeah, man, you should cut 1:45:24.920 --> 1:45:25.360 this record. 1:45:25.720 --> 1:45:26.200 It's a hit. 1:45:26.520 --> 1:45:28.519 It's a smack. I was like, but doesn't it sound 1:45:28.640 --> 1:45:30.400 like he trying to be Michael Jackson, you know what 1:45:30.400 --> 1:45:32.360 I'm saying. And he's like, don't sing it like him, sing. 1:45:32.360 --> 1:45:34.200 It like you? So who who did the demo vocal? 1:45:34.240 --> 1:45:35.000 Who was singing one? 1:45:35.600 --> 1:45:35.680 Oh? 1:45:35.800 --> 1:45:36.880 Sean was singing that's right. 1:45:36.960 --> 1:45:38.599 Yeah, he was killing me, dude. 1:45:40.080 --> 1:45:42.639 But I mean, we're skipping records. But I will say 1:45:42.720 --> 1:45:48.080 that when I listened to Confessions, well, I mean eighty 1:45:48.120 --> 1:45:51.120 seven on one questions, I said, but I'm just saying 1:45:51.160 --> 1:45:54.880 that the way that I hear Confessions, Yeah, to me, 1:45:55.000 --> 1:45:59.000 it's almost like the movie preview, Like in my mind 1:45:59.200 --> 1:46:03.320 the album still with throwback Yeah. Yeah, so just like, okay, 1:46:03.400 --> 1:46:05.320 you put a little preview at the top, kind of 1:46:05.360 --> 1:46:10.400 like snoops record. The Doggie style with rage starting off yeah, 1:46:10.600 --> 1:46:12.760 like okay, there's a little preview what you're gonna get, 1:46:12.800 --> 1:46:15.960 and then it really starts with the juice. That's how 1:46:15.960 --> 1:46:18.400 I always felt that year was like. 1:46:18.640 --> 1:46:21.880 The sequencing on it was perfect, right because it didn't 1:46:21.920 --> 1:46:24.040 make sense in theory to have a song like that 1:46:24.240 --> 1:46:26.479 that had nothing to do with what I was talking about. 1:46:26.520 --> 1:46:29.360 And I was so like theme oriented because I kind 1:46:29.400 --> 1:46:32.000 of got into like I really want to say this, 1:46:32.840 --> 1:46:35.599 like I want us to talk about real hard shit, 1:46:35.840 --> 1:46:37.880 Like let's talk about all the shit that nobody will 1:46:37.920 --> 1:46:40.280 talk about. It was eminem. I was listening to his 1:46:40.400 --> 1:46:42.960 albums and listening to his records, and I'm like, how 1:46:43.080 --> 1:46:44.600 is it that he can take the liberty to just 1:46:44.640 --> 1:46:46.519 say whatever the fuck you want to say on the record, 1:46:46.840 --> 1:46:47.439 and it worked. 1:46:47.600 --> 1:46:49.040 I was like, I want to do that, and I 1:46:49.120 --> 1:46:50.200 was one lot of guess. 1:46:52.120 --> 1:46:52.920 I got one guess. 1:46:53.000 --> 1:46:56.080 But so then I was listening to country music to it. 1:46:56.120 --> 1:47:00.120 I'm like, it's honesty in country music, the honest, So 1:47:00.240 --> 1:47:02.160 let's tell stories. I was like, let's just let's just 1:47:02.200 --> 1:47:05.080 sit around all five of us and let's just talk 1:47:05.080 --> 1:47:06.800 about all of the ship that has happened to us 1:47:07.479 --> 1:47:09.120 and We was all just putting it in the pot 1:47:09.160 --> 1:47:11.240 and it was like that's a song, this is a song, 1:47:11.479 --> 1:47:13.000 right then we're gonna do this. We say this, and 1:47:13.240 --> 1:47:16.240 then you know, we and a lot of it was shared, 1:47:16.240 --> 1:47:17.200 you know what I'm saying, because a lot of them 1:47:17.240 --> 1:47:19.040 stories weren't necessarily mine, you know what I'm saying. 1:47:19.040 --> 1:47:21.120 I was going to ask you to talk about John Tay, 1:47:21.160 --> 1:47:23.200 Austin man like him as a writer. 1:47:23.200 --> 1:47:25.360 So Johntay as an artist. 1:47:26.240 --> 1:47:29.519 We worked together when I was younger and you know, 1:47:29.640 --> 1:47:33.200 kind of making that round circle back and you know, 1:47:33.400 --> 1:47:37.720 just just finding our way, uh, you know, through through 1:47:37.760 --> 1:47:40.680 whatever it was. Rather it was a contribution as a 1:47:40.800 --> 1:47:45.000 motivation or either vocal production or whatever it may have been. 1:47:45.640 --> 1:47:51.080 We really didn't make our connection until until here I stand. 1:47:52.320 --> 1:47:54.920 It was on here I stand that we really like 1:47:55.400 --> 1:47:57.439 he did this song for me called something Special that 1:47:58.520 --> 1:48:00.320 I mean it might not be a hit, but it 1:48:00.479 --> 1:48:02.600 really is something special. Like you gotta go back and 1:48:02.640 --> 1:48:06.479 listen to that album like people people I want to skip, 1:48:06.600 --> 1:48:07.120 but yeah. 1:48:12.240 --> 1:48:15.880 Right, just give to the ship. No, No, well two things. One, 1:48:16.680 --> 1:48:19.439 it's listen to you like describe your stuff. I'm now 1:48:19.520 --> 1:48:23.040 realizing most of my favorite usher songs are always the 1:48:23.200 --> 1:48:25.679 jams that like were not singles. 1:48:25.760 --> 1:48:28.599 So like my favorite jam off Confessions. 1:48:28.160 --> 1:48:32.320 Is follow Me. Yeah, Like that's the fucking one. Yeah, 1:48:32.400 --> 1:48:34.040 I mean, I mean the other songs. I mean it's 1:48:35.479 --> 1:48:36.439 so follow me is. 1:48:37.880 --> 1:48:40.200 That's a marker for true artists though, like, yeah, it's 1:48:40.280 --> 1:48:43.200 never the hits, it's the filler that yoh, but it 1:48:43.360 --> 1:48:44.120 was the jam. 1:48:44.280 --> 1:48:46.479 It was so strategic, you know what I'm saying. La 1:48:46.640 --> 1:48:48.799 was a master at that ship rather it was in Atlanta, 1:48:49.000 --> 1:48:52.640 or rather was record man. He's the greatest record man. 1:48:53.160 --> 1:48:57.240 And is it because but you're also on Arister Records, 1:48:57.400 --> 1:48:59.920 So do you have any relationship to Clive Davis? What's 1:49:00.800 --> 1:49:02.960 at that time? I'm a period, I mean you were 1:49:03.000 --> 1:49:03.760 on arrest to that. 1:49:03.960 --> 1:49:06.000 I was on Arister Record at that time, but I 1:49:06.160 --> 1:49:07.880 was La Reid's artists, you know what I'm saying. 1:49:07.920 --> 1:49:11.599 So, so there's not a point where as to remove La. 1:49:11.640 --> 1:49:14.320 And here's the great here's the greatest reality. 1:49:15.120 --> 1:49:17.640 That was the greatest moment and the worst moment that 1:49:17.720 --> 1:49:21.519 could ever happen to La Reid because why because La 1:49:21.600 --> 1:49:24.160 Reid's ambition was to come to New York and to 1:49:24.320 --> 1:49:27.639 leave the legacy of what Atlanta had created, and while 1:49:27.680 --> 1:49:30.280 there was some there was some great shit that happened 1:49:30.320 --> 1:49:33.280 in it. I think that that legacy belonged to him, 1:49:33.320 --> 1:49:34.960 and I think that he should have never left Atlanta, 1:49:35.000 --> 1:49:38.200 because Atlanta lost everything when it lost to La Reid. 1:49:38.400 --> 1:49:40.839 It gained a lot in terms of confidence because Atlanta 1:49:40.840 --> 1:49:43.720 ain't ever lacked in confidence in being able to kind 1:49:43.720 --> 1:49:46.840 of be installated by its own world. And it's just 1:49:47.000 --> 1:49:51.160 this this inflated sense of delusion that that that comes 1:49:51.200 --> 1:49:53.719 from that place that makes whatever you say the shit. 1:49:54.240 --> 1:49:55.160 Now you believe it, you. 1:49:55.160 --> 1:49:57.759 Know what I'm saying, Well, being as though he believed 1:49:57.800 --> 1:50:00.920 in you from the very beginning. Like what is your 1:50:00.960 --> 1:50:05.479 relationship with him? Like? Is he the Barry Gordy father 1:50:05.600 --> 1:50:08.840 figure that you kind of didn't have or like, or. 1:50:08.880 --> 1:50:11.720 Is he just really it really depends on what day, 1:50:11.800 --> 1:50:12.400 you know what I'm saying. 1:50:12.439 --> 1:50:14.640 But he's but he's when he's mad at you, Like, 1:50:14.720 --> 1:50:15.439 what is it? 1:50:15.640 --> 1:50:16.679 He's He's never. 1:50:16.640 --> 1:50:18.080 Really mad at me. You know what I'm saying. I 1:50:18.080 --> 1:50:20.120 don't really give you a reason to be upset with 1:50:20.240 --> 1:50:21.640 me and then hold on to it, you know what 1:50:21.640 --> 1:50:24.080 I'm saying. I just seen him in a spin class, 1:50:24.520 --> 1:50:27.240 in Los Angeles. He sat next to me. I was 1:50:27.360 --> 1:50:31.639 busting his ass. But you know, we have a real 1:50:32.000 --> 1:50:38.240 odd relationship because you know, in his transition, I've always 1:50:38.280 --> 1:50:40.120 wanted to be supportive him, and I've always listened him 1:50:40.160 --> 1:50:43.080 up because I believe in supporting you know, black executives 1:50:43.120 --> 1:50:44.360 and also to being supportive. 1:50:44.479 --> 1:50:45.320 Now I had a deal. 1:50:45.400 --> 1:50:47.280 This is the crazy, This is how much I believe 1:50:47.400 --> 1:50:52.680 in supporting black like business and also to black entrepreneurs. 1:50:53.320 --> 1:50:56.679 So I had to deal with Clive Davis. 1:50:57.080 --> 1:50:59.680 Like I actually formed my own relationship with Clive, and 1:50:59.720 --> 1:51:02.360 he actually supported a lot of my business, a lot 1:51:02.400 --> 1:51:04.439 of my business venture. You know, I wanted to have 1:51:04.479 --> 1:51:06.720 a record label, of course, I mean, who wouldn't give 1:51:06.720 --> 1:51:07.960 me a record label with all the money that I 1:51:08.040 --> 1:51:08.519 made for him? 1:51:08.680 --> 1:51:09.280 You know what I'm saying. 1:51:09.360 --> 1:51:13.840 But but the point was he he probably should have 1:51:13.920 --> 1:51:17.040 been the person to have collected or either been the 1:51:17.080 --> 1:51:22.640 recipient of Justin Bieber. But I took him to La 1:51:22.760 --> 1:51:26.160 Read because the legacy of what that represents needed to 1:51:26.160 --> 1:51:29.920 stay intact, you know what I'm saying. So wow, so 1:51:30.240 --> 1:51:33.240 but but but greater than that, It's like I just 1:51:33.280 --> 1:51:36.160 think he should have never left Atlanta. Man you know, 1:51:36.280 --> 1:51:39.960 and I know it's hard because Atlanta's you know, if 1:51:40.040 --> 1:51:41.920 you look back at it now, it's like, damn, well, 1:51:42.080 --> 1:51:43.600 I want to be able to do more, so I 1:51:43.640 --> 1:51:45.960 got to go to La I gotta move other places Miami. 1:51:46.680 --> 1:51:47.640 Yeah, but he had it. 1:51:47.840 --> 1:51:49.400 Confession is the last thing he worked on. 1:51:49.560 --> 1:51:50.880 That was the last record he worked on. 1:51:51.720 --> 1:51:56.360 It should be noted that Confessions also represents to me, 1:51:57.600 --> 1:52:06.200 probably the last product that people purchased, the last blockbuster. Yeah, 1:52:06.240 --> 1:52:10.160 because I mean at this what was the final numbers? 1:52:10.200 --> 1:52:17.959 Like eleven million? Okay, okay, okay, I know in hindsight 1:52:18.040 --> 1:52:20.080 it probably sold eleven twelve million. 1:52:20.560 --> 1:52:27.679 But in the States, right, nigga, I'm not talking about. 1:52:29.600 --> 1:52:38.200 All right, list Okay, I'm just saying that at the 1:52:38.320 --> 1:52:42.880 time Wing Confessions is out in you know, on Wax 1:52:43.479 --> 1:52:47.479 two thousand three, two thousand and four, you know, there 1:52:47.640 --> 1:52:50.240 was a nine next to that triangle in Billboard, which 1:52:50.400 --> 1:52:52.639 you know, after that period, after two thousand and four, 1:52:52.640 --> 1:52:55.599 it's a wrap like people are now like the internet 1:52:55.880 --> 1:52:59.919 is well with uh Spotify. 1:53:00.320 --> 1:53:03.080 You know, I think maybe it was Nelly and me 1:53:03.240 --> 1:53:04.360 that was it. That was the last time. 1:53:04.400 --> 1:53:09.839 But did you expect for you to be the final 1:53:11.439 --> 1:53:14.519 that final like in the final tornado of what we 1:53:14.640 --> 1:53:17.800 know as the music business, the old music business, like 1:53:17.920 --> 1:53:20.599 you're the you're the period at the end of that sentence. 1:53:21.200 --> 1:53:26.360 Straight up, I think that all things right are inevitably 1:53:26.479 --> 1:53:28.960 going to come to an end. Nothing is going to 1:53:29.080 --> 1:53:33.439 last forever. And I think that record companies really did 1:53:33.800 --> 1:53:35.600 take it, take for granted. 1:53:35.920 --> 1:53:40.719 The the potency of what was getting ready to happen. 1:53:40.920 --> 1:53:42.479 I think they looked at it as, all right, we'll 1:53:42.520 --> 1:53:44.200 give you these free goods because it just gives us 1:53:44.200 --> 1:53:47.240 an opportunity to exploit and promote, you know, our product. 1:53:47.280 --> 1:53:49.880 But they ain't realize that, you know, and they this 1:53:50.120 --> 1:53:52.439 was crazy. I can remember the time when they were 1:53:52.479 --> 1:53:56.920 taking the meetings to go to go to Arista and 1:53:57.520 --> 1:53:59.800 other record companies to try to partner with them. 1:54:00.040 --> 1:54:00.519 In front of it. 1:54:00.720 --> 1:54:02.680 They wanted to partner with them, and they were like, Nah, 1:54:02.720 --> 1:54:04.360 we don't want to partner with you. We have our 1:54:04.439 --> 1:54:07.320 own solution. We know we're going to continue to create content. 1:54:07.400 --> 1:54:09.280 You guys, just do your thing. You know, it's just 1:54:09.360 --> 1:54:12.320 a little server, what you got. Whatever, it's done, it's 1:54:12.400 --> 1:54:17.960 gonna die right fifteen years later, right, it's like, nowad 1:54:18.240 --> 1:54:21.120 it's done. Okay, So now how do they feel to 1:54:21.160 --> 1:54:22.639 be the last? That's the question you asked, right. 1:54:22.640 --> 1:54:26.080 Well, not that, but like at the rate where it's like, okay, 1:54:26.400 --> 1:54:28.720 it was seven million, nounced nine million. Oh shit, now 1:54:28.760 --> 1:54:32.560 it's eleven crap, now it's thirteen million. What are you feeling? 1:54:33.320 --> 1:54:37.000 Pressure? Pressure to live back up to me? What is 1:54:37.120 --> 1:54:39.280 that like the pressure of living up to that? 1:54:40.240 --> 1:54:42.400 Like did you expect this album to sell thirteen million? 1:54:43.440 --> 1:54:45.800 I didn't expect to sell thirteen million, you know, but 1:54:45.960 --> 1:54:50.720 I but I expected to, you know, try to speak 1:54:50.760 --> 1:54:52.960 to the next chapter of what my life was, because 1:54:53.040 --> 1:54:56.600 everything had been about creating the chapters of what it was, 1:54:56.760 --> 1:54:59.680 not to go back to what worked before, you know, 1:55:00.000 --> 1:55:02.280 and even that meant, you know, not working with some 1:55:02.360 --> 1:55:04.080 of the same producers, you know what I'm saying, and 1:55:04.200 --> 1:55:06.320 leaving the door open for a new opportunity, a new 1:55:06.760 --> 1:55:07.400 a new story. 1:55:07.560 --> 1:55:09.400 So when you have a record like that, one thing 1:55:09.720 --> 1:55:12.800 I've always wanted to ask, like, there's you talk about 1:55:12.840 --> 1:55:15.240 the pressure, but is there a point where you just 1:55:15.360 --> 1:55:18.040 have just like I guess, kind of common sense where 1:55:18.040 --> 1:55:21.240 it's just like, you know what, this is never gonna 1:55:21.240 --> 1:55:22.840 happen again, like kind of like you know, we talk 1:55:22.880 --> 1:55:26.360 about Prince a lot where he had purple rain and 1:55:26.440 --> 1:55:29.760 he's performing for like a bunch of white audiences and 1:55:29.920 --> 1:55:32.480 like he's doing stadiums and you know, all this shit 1:55:32.800 --> 1:55:35.360 and he tells his man like listen, y'all, just soak 1:55:35.440 --> 1:55:35.680 this up. 1:55:35.720 --> 1:55:37.760 Now, come a little hippie. Yeah, Like this shit is 1:55:37.840 --> 1:55:38.800 never gonna happen again. 1:55:38.960 --> 1:55:41.280 Like, do you have that thought of like there's no 1:55:41.480 --> 1:55:45.840 way artistically I may top this album, but sales wise, 1:55:45.960 --> 1:55:49.120 like who the fuck is gonna sell thirteen million albums twice? 1:55:50.120 --> 1:55:50.360 Yeah. 1:55:52.000 --> 1:55:54.560 If there's anything in hindsight that I do wish is 1:55:54.600 --> 1:55:56.640 that I would have exploited at that moment a little 1:55:56.680 --> 1:55:58.280 bit more why it was happening. 1:55:58.360 --> 1:55:59.280 How so what would you doing? 1:55:59.360 --> 1:56:00.960 I mean, just more a business more. 1:56:01.040 --> 1:56:02.880 I was trying my hardest to just kind of build 1:56:02.880 --> 1:56:05.800 a conglomerate around me, you know, and probably made some 1:56:05.960 --> 1:56:09.800 decisions being overly ambitious and losing people who were very, 1:56:10.560 --> 1:56:12.720 very important in the structure of who I was. But 1:56:12.840 --> 1:56:14.440 also too, I was moving into a space where I 1:56:14.480 --> 1:56:16.760 began to care more about business and I had a 1:56:16.800 --> 1:56:21.440 better understanding and comprehensive, comprehensive, you know, idea of how 1:56:21.560 --> 1:56:25.480 the industry was growing and I needed like my thinkers 1:56:25.560 --> 1:56:29.840 or people around around me, and you know, I you know, 1:56:29.960 --> 1:56:31.640 I just but I would have. 1:56:31.720 --> 1:56:34.240 Man. I can remember the last show, the last show 1:56:34.560 --> 1:56:35.360 for Confessions. 1:56:35.960 --> 1:56:38.400 I was on the Truth Tour. I had Kanye West 1:56:38.480 --> 1:56:44.040 opening up for me and I I was in Puerto 1:56:44.120 --> 1:56:47.960 Rico and I had this promoter. It was like, Yo, 1:56:48.000 --> 1:56:49.160 you got to come to South America. 1:56:49.680 --> 1:56:50.120 You got to go. 1:56:50.200 --> 1:56:53.760 You know, You've done Europe, You've done America, you know 1:56:54.600 --> 1:56:56.520 you got to do Australia. You gotta do South America, 1:56:56.600 --> 1:56:58.520 Gotta do Asian. I was like, man, I'm really tired, 1:56:59.160 --> 1:57:01.520 Like I really have like bust my ass and I 1:57:01.640 --> 1:57:04.480 work hard. So I was having really really, really really 1:57:04.560 --> 1:57:07.360 bad back problems. So I was like, I gotta just 1:57:07.480 --> 1:57:09.800 I gotta go sit down. And the day that I 1:57:09.840 --> 1:57:14.200 don't wish I would have kept going like shit, but 1:57:14.320 --> 1:57:15.960 I mean, and my numbers are good, you know what 1:57:15.960 --> 1:57:19.720 I'm saying. But but but that moment and what that meant, 1:57:20.160 --> 1:57:23.520 you know, it was it's it's actually it's my personality, 1:57:23.520 --> 1:57:25.160 you know what I'm saying, Like I'm I'm never the 1:57:25.240 --> 1:57:27.120 guy who is going to rest in the success of 1:57:27.200 --> 1:57:29.040 the moment. I just can't do it, you know what 1:57:29.040 --> 1:57:32.600 I mean. I'm not I'm never. I don't want to 1:57:32.640 --> 1:57:35.560 be complacent. I have become a little bit complacent in 1:57:35.640 --> 1:57:39.400 times around you know, the type of the type of 1:57:39.480 --> 1:57:41.280 work and focus that I put around what I was 1:57:41.360 --> 1:57:44.280 doing and used other aspects to just kind of, you know, 1:57:44.400 --> 1:57:45.360 do creative ship. 1:57:45.880 --> 1:57:50.640 But for the most part, I never. I can't just 1:57:50.800 --> 1:57:51.560 rest in a moment. 1:57:51.600 --> 1:57:54.440 I'm like, okay, so what's next, Like, wait a minute, 1:57:54.520 --> 1:57:57.200 let's exploit the ship out of this moment. This moment, 1:57:57.640 --> 1:58:00.440 let's let's go build a fucking clothing line was too 1:58:00.520 --> 1:58:03.920 close Confession Fragrance. 1:58:04.600 --> 1:58:07.880 By Calvin Corr. But wait, I mean, how much more 1:58:07.960 --> 1:58:10.800 could you exploit it? Because the confessions with six singles? 1:58:11.240 --> 1:58:12.000 Seven singles? 1:58:12.600 --> 1:58:15.320 I mean in terms of music, yeah, I mean, I 1:58:15.440 --> 1:58:17.720 wasn't going to create another album, but I could have. 1:58:17.920 --> 1:58:19.720 I could have went to I never. I have never 1:58:19.880 --> 1:58:20.960 toured South America. 1:58:21.240 --> 1:58:21.440 Never. 1:58:22.000 --> 1:58:24.280 I have never to this day. 1:58:25.080 --> 1:58:27.320 Hey, I suld guess what, let's go to South America? 1:58:29.000 --> 1:58:29.480 Have you ever? 1:58:29.720 --> 1:58:32.240 So what are the continents that you haven't Australia either? 1:58:32.280 --> 1:58:34.680 Still? Yeah, done Australia to time and then you went 1:58:34.720 --> 1:58:35.520 to Man. 1:58:35.560 --> 1:58:37.160 I know you went for your own but have you've done. 1:58:37.080 --> 1:58:37.720 Africa at all? 1:58:38.120 --> 1:58:41.400 Yes, I did Africa. I did tour Africa. I'm not 1:58:41.520 --> 1:58:42.400 really toured Asia. 1:58:43.680 --> 1:58:48.640 What's your what's your favorite places to travel? Like as 1:58:48.680 --> 1:58:53.040 far as like you get excited to go, Like, what's 1:58:53.120 --> 1:58:55.839 a good city? Like, I mean major city. 1:58:55.760 --> 1:58:58.320 Suck, major city suck well. 1:59:01.200 --> 1:59:04.920 And kind of get off cities are the best cities 1:59:04.960 --> 1:59:07.840 you can experiment? I think the roots, don't overthink it, 1:59:07.960 --> 1:59:08.880 and we just have fun. 1:59:09.160 --> 1:59:12.760 There's something really incredible about Paris, man, Like, I really 1:59:12.840 --> 1:59:15.600 do enjoy Paris. And once I got married, man, I 1:59:15.720 --> 1:59:17.760 begin to enjoy all the places that I that I 1:59:17.880 --> 1:59:20.840 go more because now I got a significant other that 1:59:21.000 --> 1:59:23.760 really does understand how to enjoy life and how to 1:59:23.840 --> 1:59:26.440 make sure that I am my kids enjoy life. 1:59:26.520 --> 1:59:28.520 So your family travels with you on the road, now. 1:59:28.640 --> 1:59:31.000 Yeah, well they did. They don't need more. 1:59:31.520 --> 1:59:34.280 I actually haven't traveled in a long time, brou Like, 1:59:34.800 --> 1:59:36.280 it's been a minute since I've been on tour. 1:59:36.960 --> 1:59:39.120 Uh And the last one that I went on they 1:59:39.160 --> 1:59:39.600 were with me. 1:59:40.560 --> 1:59:45.960 But yeah, yeah, it's it's there's a handful of places 1:59:46.160 --> 1:59:49.680 like and I'm really looking forward to going to Zanzibar. 1:59:50.400 --> 1:59:58.880 I love Africa. Let me see, uh Marrakesh, really, I 1:59:58.960 --> 1:59:59.800 really enjoyed there. 2:00:00.800 --> 2:00:07.280 Cuba, Cuba, Son, Cuba, now, not later, right now always, 2:00:07.320 --> 2:00:09.400 I mean even then, there's so much. 2:00:09.800 --> 2:00:13.920 I know, but I mean like now, not later, right yeah, now, yeah. 2:00:14.240 --> 2:00:21.320 Right now. If you're just joining us, we're talking to 2:00:21.640 --> 2:00:26.560 Usher Raymond, the family man who is here to go 2:00:26.680 --> 2:00:32.720 to Now I'm playing, I feel like I would be remissed. 2:00:33.480 --> 2:00:36.560 Uh if remiss I'm sorry. There's no tea on remiss 2:00:37.080 --> 2:00:39.760 boss Bill so Bro, we got you. Yes, I was 2:00:39.880 --> 2:00:48.840 remissed by cal said she missed me. Put that she 2:00:49.040 --> 2:00:57.760 missed me. I left her again, I was remissed. Okay, 2:00:59.040 --> 2:01:04.520 that was fantastic. Knew it about your your spouse any 2:01:04.600 --> 2:01:10.760 anytime I'm in Gracie's presence, there's not twenty people that 2:01:11.800 --> 2:01:16.600 i'd run to in point that your wife is Benita Applebum. 2:01:17.080 --> 2:01:21.400 Absolutely she hates great, great, great Gracie used to be 2:01:21.560 --> 2:01:28.640 my product manager at Universal. Come on, dude, I mean, 2:01:29.200 --> 2:01:32.440 I feel like it's a badge of honor as far 2:01:32.520 --> 2:01:37.520 as being I mean so so just playing. She was 2:01:37.680 --> 2:01:41.600 the one is literally yes, she's literally the person who 2:01:41.640 --> 2:01:43.960 inspired Apple. 2:01:44.640 --> 2:01:50.120 She has a lovely backside. Well as a woman, I 2:01:50.120 --> 2:01:52.120 would just like to say, I know you removed the pic, 2:01:52.560 --> 2:01:55.720 but I saw the pick. I appreciate it, help could 2:01:55.840 --> 2:01:57.640 help it and wow. 2:01:58.560 --> 2:02:06.000 But she obviously she's artistic. 2:02:06.440 --> 2:02:07.320 It was artistic. 2:02:07.960 --> 2:02:08.840 It wasn't the fool. 2:02:09.240 --> 2:02:11.440 So what's crazy is that I got all that that 2:02:11.720 --> 2:02:14.960 that grief behind it. But you know it's it's okay. 2:02:15.040 --> 2:02:15.680 We appreciate it. 2:02:18.040 --> 2:02:24.640 I mean, I'm not even playing like no, I've worked 2:02:24.680 --> 2:02:27.440 with Gracie for the longest and she's one of the Like, 2:02:28.400 --> 2:02:30.160 I think she's one of the best things to happen 2:02:30.240 --> 2:02:30.360 to you. 2:02:30.520 --> 2:02:31.640 I'm in love with my wife. 2:02:32.480 --> 2:02:34.840 We love your wife too, respect. 2:02:34.520 --> 2:02:37.560 For Yeah, man, I'm in what did you learn from 2:02:38.200 --> 2:02:40.520 the first marriage going into the second marriage? 2:02:42.400 --> 2:02:44.440 And this is also the divorce clubs here, so you're 2:02:44.480 --> 2:02:49.240 your monks? Yeah, brother, yeah, we got to come home? 2:02:49.440 --> 2:02:50.120 What did I learn? 2:02:51.720 --> 2:02:54.000 I mean paying this is my next album now. But 2:02:54.240 --> 2:02:56.240 I mean, it's like you can't write a book on 2:02:56.360 --> 2:02:56.680 that ship. 2:02:56.720 --> 2:02:57.280 You know what I'm saying. 2:02:57.480 --> 2:03:00.960 No, I heard Raymond versus Raymond. You know, I mean, well, yeah, 2:03:01.320 --> 2:03:05.360 can you get too confessional? Like, now, what does here 2:03:05.440 --> 2:03:06.400 my deear mean to you? 2:03:06.520 --> 2:03:10.280 As far as everything, everything, the honesty and the music 2:03:10.440 --> 2:03:15.720 is beautiful. I mean, it's it's the it's the curator 2:03:15.920 --> 2:03:18.280 and the holder of our greatest emotions. You know what 2:03:18.320 --> 2:03:20.760 I'm saying, both good and bad, you know what I'm saying. 2:03:21.360 --> 2:03:24.080 And there's a lot of people are hurting and a 2:03:24.120 --> 2:03:26.280 lot of people that are looking for guidance in music, 2:03:26.400 --> 2:03:29.560 and we don't realize how much like one simple message, 2:03:30.040 --> 2:03:31.920 you know, not it might not sell a whole bunch 2:03:31.920 --> 2:03:33.840 of albums, but it could be one person's life that 2:03:33.920 --> 2:03:36.480 that shit just you know says, or one person that's 2:03:36.560 --> 2:03:37.840 just like trying to figure. 2:03:37.600 --> 2:03:39.560 Out, Man, should I do this? Should I be here? 2:03:40.040 --> 2:03:41.360 How should I be living my life? 2:03:41.440 --> 2:03:41.640 And that? 2:03:41.920 --> 2:03:42.120 You know? 2:03:43.000 --> 2:03:47.400 But yeah, man, you can't. You can't overdo it at all. 2:03:47.520 --> 2:03:49.840 Be honest, be truthful. You got to kill the truth. 2:03:49.960 --> 2:03:54.320 Well you talk about you know in papers. He was like, 2:03:54.360 --> 2:03:57.120 you know, I damn near lost my mama. What did 2:03:57.160 --> 2:04:00.400 your mom think about your first wife? You get And 2:04:00.440 --> 2:04:02.560 it's the reason I'm asking this. Did she give you 2:04:02.720 --> 2:04:05.600 the like, no, don't do this, Like what does she mean? 2:04:06.160 --> 2:04:09.880 Much? The funniest ship in the world is how we 2:04:09.920 --> 2:04:11.240 could go through all this ship? 2:04:11.600 --> 2:04:11.760 Right? 2:04:12.120 --> 2:04:12.480 My mom? 2:04:12.640 --> 2:04:15.640 She she wouldn't show up at my first wedding that 2:04:15.720 --> 2:04:18.000 I canceled. She wouldn't show up at the second when 2:04:18.040 --> 2:04:20.280 she didn't fuck with my ex wife. She didn'ton't have 2:04:20.400 --> 2:04:22.080 nothing to do with her, but she didn't want to 2:04:22.080 --> 2:04:24.040 have something to do with the kids, of course, and 2:04:24.120 --> 2:04:26.520 then they fuck up, and they fucking up best friends. 2:04:26.840 --> 2:04:28.880 I'm like, so, your mom and the ex wife for 2:04:28.960 --> 2:04:30.080 now cool? Nah, they cool. 2:04:30.160 --> 2:04:32.800 I don't know if they they got their own odd relationship, 2:04:34.720 --> 2:04:37.680 but they but they but their friends from the from 2:04:37.720 --> 2:04:40.200 the perspective that she at least talks to her now 2:04:40.280 --> 2:04:42.480 and they actually are cool, which which is healthy. 2:04:43.000 --> 2:04:44.840 I mean some progress. I mean that's a lot for 2:04:44.920 --> 2:04:47.840 her too. Man, She like she like nails, you know 2:04:47.880 --> 2:04:48.360 what I'm saying. 2:04:49.160 --> 2:04:52.480 Boy, Yeah, funny. I always wonder who's hard, like who 2:04:52.560 --> 2:04:52.840 she is? 2:04:53.360 --> 2:04:55.240 Absolutely who she is? 2:04:55.960 --> 2:04:56.320 Your mom? 2:04:57.080 --> 2:04:59.440 What was she very much? I mean, I'm a grown 2:04:59.480 --> 2:05:01.120 ass man. Now she can't really you. 2:05:01.160 --> 2:05:06.240 Know, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, no matter. 2:05:06.520 --> 2:05:10.360 But yeah, she's gonna always be extremely protective of me, 2:05:10.840 --> 2:05:11.480 probably too. 2:05:11.680 --> 2:05:14.040 You know what I'm saying, Well, I know your pen 2:05:14.200 --> 2:05:18.080 game is okay, not to play on the pun of confessional, 2:05:18.440 --> 2:05:21.640 but I'm sure by this period at least between a 2:05:21.680 --> 2:05:25.680 period of here I stand Raymond Versus Raymond Versus and 2:05:26.160 --> 2:05:27.600 and the four albums. 2:05:27.280 --> 2:05:32.200 That uh that just real quick, here I stand, I'm 2:05:32.200 --> 2:05:34.000 may you know, I'm making like a big these are 2:05:34.000 --> 2:05:35.200 big words to me. 2:05:35.560 --> 2:05:38.120 That is his secret life of plans. 2:05:38.280 --> 2:05:44.960 Like yes, I agree, yeah, like that was, And so 2:05:45.000 --> 2:05:46.560 I wanted to hit on that a little bit because 2:05:46.720 --> 2:05:48.200 to me, that was the record and this is just 2:05:48.240 --> 2:05:51.320 from ours and I appreciate it like you because you 2:05:51.560 --> 2:05:52.920 kind of did like you were doing like some E 2:05:53.000 --> 2:05:53.600 d M stuff. 2:05:53.720 --> 2:05:55.400 Well, I think that was. I think before that you 2:05:55.640 --> 2:05:59.000 had a couple that DJ No, that was it was 2:05:59.040 --> 2:05:59.640 after that it. 2:05:59.760 --> 2:06:02.000 Was there was none of that that That record was 2:06:02.120 --> 2:06:04.240 pure right, and there's any. 2:06:04.400 --> 2:06:08.560 Did you rush it? Because when I first got I 2:06:08.640 --> 2:06:11.880 think I got service with the white label. I don't 2:06:11.880 --> 2:06:15.000 know if this ain't sex or I got service with 2:06:15.080 --> 2:06:15.720 the white label. 2:06:15.880 --> 2:06:18.280 This ain't sex was on it, right, And then that 2:06:18.440 --> 2:06:21.200 got camp And it's not that I rushed it. It's 2:06:21.320 --> 2:06:24.320 like they had an idea and you get right first. 2:06:24.360 --> 2:06:24.680 Correct. 2:06:25.560 --> 2:06:29.200 Yeah, they understood what it was that worked. 2:06:30.280 --> 2:06:34.840 I was being honest in where I was so not 2:06:35.040 --> 2:06:38.560 being considerate of what I knew would work, I went 2:06:38.640 --> 2:06:39.840 with what I knew was real. 2:06:40.800 --> 2:06:43.040 So I mean that's a compromise. 2:06:43.160 --> 2:06:47.360 And yeah, it didn't sell as many albums, but it's 2:06:47.400 --> 2:06:49.880 the most truthful album that I think I have in 2:06:50.040 --> 2:06:53.760 terms of a cohesive thought from top to mottom. It's honest, 2:06:53.880 --> 2:06:58.000 it's like and it's probably my vulnerable it's my most vulnerable. 2:06:58.080 --> 2:06:59.560 Title track as a mother. Yeah. 2:07:00.400 --> 2:07:02.440 Yeah, man, that's the one. 2:07:02.480 --> 2:07:05.000 When you were talking about songs and lyrics moving people, 2:07:05.040 --> 2:07:06.080 I thought about here. 2:07:06.000 --> 2:07:08.840 I stay in was like, so was that your It 2:07:08.960 --> 2:07:10.680 wasn't clear P in terms of. 2:07:11.520 --> 2:07:13.480 It wasn't cool to have a wife, you know what 2:07:13.520 --> 2:07:15.360 I'm saying. And at that time, and I was like, 2:07:15.600 --> 2:07:18.640 but I do. And if y'all fuck with that, then 2:07:18.760 --> 2:07:21.120 that's cool, you know what I'm saying. But eventually you're 2:07:21.120 --> 2:07:23.400 gonna get it. You're gonna get that party because you 2:07:23.480 --> 2:07:25.920 can't party forever. You're gonna eventually have to go home, 2:07:25.960 --> 2:07:27.480 and you want to go home with somebody that you 2:07:27.600 --> 2:07:30.320 want to be with. The ladies got it because they 2:07:30.360 --> 2:07:32.280 wanted it, well, some some of them, and then some 2:07:32.480 --> 2:07:34.120 of them just was like, I don't want you to 2:07:34.200 --> 2:07:34.600 be married. 2:07:34.680 --> 2:07:35.680 Us especially to her. 2:07:38.960 --> 2:07:42.840 Yeah, and you know the reality of it that you 2:07:42.920 --> 2:07:43.160 know that. 2:07:43.400 --> 2:07:46.080 That marriage and that relationship you know, was gonna come 2:07:46.120 --> 2:07:47.640 to an end or what was. But it served its 2:07:47.640 --> 2:07:50.760 purpose in my life, and I think I became appreciative 2:07:50.800 --> 2:07:52.000 of that, you know what I'm saying. And no matter 2:07:52.080 --> 2:07:53.920 what my mother was attempting to tell me, and a 2:07:53.960 --> 2:07:55.480 lot of people were trying to tell me about that, 2:07:56.000 --> 2:07:57.320 I think a lot of it had to do with 2:07:57.760 --> 2:07:59.880 my lack there of a father, you know what I'm saying. 2:07:59.880 --> 2:08:02.520 Like when I got into the idea of what I 2:08:02.640 --> 2:08:05.000 didn't want to be, I did not want to be 2:08:05.120 --> 2:08:07.400 a person who would just you know what I'm saying, 2:08:07.600 --> 2:08:09.839 just roll out, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, anybody 2:08:09.920 --> 2:08:12.280 could do that. But you know, and I tried, you 2:08:12.320 --> 2:08:13.960 know what I'm saying. I tried everything that I could 2:08:14.000 --> 2:08:15.920 before I decided to, you know, throw in the towel. 2:08:15.960 --> 2:08:18.760 I mean, should I even tried afterwards, probably broke a 2:08:18.800 --> 2:08:20.760 lot of girl's heart still fucking around, but you know 2:08:20.760 --> 2:08:21.200 what I'm saying. 2:08:21.880 --> 2:08:25.920 But you know, it's it it, Yeah, it was. It 2:08:26.080 --> 2:08:27.680 was a phase that that needed to happen. 2:08:28.320 --> 2:08:30.800 So part of it was a part of the evolution 2:08:31.400 --> 2:08:33.960 and then in that I begin to understand what I 2:08:34.080 --> 2:08:37.000 really wanted and the kind of partner that I needed 2:08:37.200 --> 2:08:39.960 and the kind of support that I needed for my life. 2:08:41.240 --> 2:08:45.880 She showed up, Yeah, showed her when I wasn't even 2:08:45.880 --> 2:08:48.840 looking to. It's just you ain't even asked for I pray, 2:08:49.160 --> 2:08:51.280 this is here's the reality. 2:08:51.960 --> 2:08:52.120 You know. 2:08:52.160 --> 2:08:53.800 I was going through a lot, you know what I'm saying. 2:08:53.800 --> 2:08:55.680 I was like, here's at the point where I was 2:08:55.760 --> 2:08:57.360 like living out of my office, Like I ain't never 2:08:57.440 --> 2:08:58.000 want to go home. 2:08:58.080 --> 2:09:00.440 I just wanted to just like just there. You know 2:09:00.480 --> 2:09:00.840 what I'm saying. 2:09:00.880 --> 2:09:02.320 I didn't want to go home because what you just 2:09:02.360 --> 2:09:05.760 didn't want to face that like being alone or. 2:09:06.040 --> 2:09:08.520 It's just I just I ain't want to Yeah, I 2:09:08.920 --> 2:09:11.640 didn't know. I didn't want to be there. I just 2:09:11.720 --> 2:09:13.960 did not want to be at the crib by myself. 2:09:14.280 --> 2:09:15.360 I just was fucked up. 2:09:15.440 --> 2:09:21.160 Man. I wasn't even working at that time. 2:09:21.240 --> 2:09:24.960 I was like I was just Raymond was out. 2:09:25.080 --> 2:09:29.480 So yeah, but but then you know, after. 2:09:29.720 --> 2:09:33.040 I got a divorce, it was like, man, like I 2:09:33.160 --> 2:09:34.960 put it all on the line, you know what I'm saying, 2:09:35.000 --> 2:09:37.160 and this is the right thing to do. I did 2:09:37.200 --> 2:09:38.880 it for all the right reasons. I wasn't trying to 2:09:38.960 --> 2:09:41.520 get like some odd respect for what I was doing. 2:09:41.600 --> 2:09:44.800 I was just doing what was honest and what was 2:09:44.920 --> 2:09:47.560 about the art. And I begin to understand the idea 2:09:47.680 --> 2:09:49.040 of the art at that moment. 2:09:50.320 --> 2:09:51.000 But I didn't want to. 2:09:51.160 --> 2:09:51.480 I didn't. 2:09:51.480 --> 2:09:52.960 I didn't want it, you know what I'm saying. I didn't. 2:09:53.000 --> 2:09:55.120 I didn't want to face none of it because I 2:09:55.160 --> 2:09:58.000 felt like, I don't know, man, I felt like, should 2:09:58.000 --> 2:09:58.680 I just put my. 2:09:58.720 --> 2:09:59.800 Neck out there way too much? 2:10:00.640 --> 2:10:03.720 It didn't work. We did in jail really public. It 2:10:03.840 --> 2:10:05.800 was really really public, you know what I'm saying, And 2:10:06.920 --> 2:10:09.120 it was what it was. But anyway, I tell my story. 2:10:09.200 --> 2:10:11.680 So my grandmother was like, you know, you should just 2:10:12.640 --> 2:10:15.240 you should pray. I was like, what did I pray for? 2:10:15.400 --> 2:10:16.880 She was like, I want you to pray for grace. 2:10:18.480 --> 2:10:20.520 And I was like, okay, I'm gonna just pray for 2:10:20.640 --> 2:10:22.800 grace because this moment is just hard to get through this, 2:10:22.920 --> 2:10:25.800 you know what I'm saying, Like, I just it's a lot. 2:10:26.560 --> 2:10:29.720 And I prayed and she showed up. 2:10:31.840 --> 2:10:33.360 I don't have a good sound effect for that. 2:10:37.320 --> 2:10:38.040 That's all I got. 2:10:38.560 --> 2:10:41.840 That's all I got loaded. I can't. Yeah, I can't. 2:10:41.960 --> 2:10:45.640 Oh god, I got why they don't make a sound. 2:10:46.000 --> 2:10:53.280 Well here you go, by Kelly, Well you you will 2:10:53.360 --> 2:10:58.680 destroy you. You mentioned him earlier, but you know, I 2:10:59.640 --> 2:11:05.760 feel the significance of you being behind uh want to 2:11:05.960 --> 2:11:10.320 want to pop music's biggest stars and the route that 2:11:10.480 --> 2:11:14.000 you took him biber Velly, I mean not since Marie 2:11:14.120 --> 2:11:17.800 starred taking new kids on the block, the orchestrating their career. 2:11:18.760 --> 2:11:23.800 How did you manage to gain the trust of the 2:11:23.880 --> 2:11:28.680 beavers and have them listen to you and for you 2:11:28.880 --> 2:11:31.360 to take them because you know, sometimes when you get 2:11:31.400 --> 2:11:36.120 an artist, it doesn't necessarily you know, workout as planned. 2:11:36.280 --> 2:11:38.080 Like if you if you can look at all the 2:11:38.280 --> 2:11:41.240 artists that have, oh I have a new protege and 2:11:41.320 --> 2:11:44.160 you're going to you know, sometimes it just doesn't work. 2:11:44.360 --> 2:11:46.400 And there was a war from what we heard between 2:11:46.480 --> 2:11:49.320 you and Justin Timberlake to where is he going to go? 2:11:49.360 --> 2:11:50.040 Where's he going to go? 2:11:50.200 --> 2:11:50.320 Right? 2:11:50.480 --> 2:11:52.320 Yeah, wait, Timberlake was in the picture. 2:11:52.520 --> 2:11:54.960 Yes, there's a lot of people who I did not 2:11:55.120 --> 2:11:57.000 know this. There were a lot of people who had 2:11:57.120 --> 2:12:00.400 interest in Justin. I think that you know Scooter, you know, 2:12:00.520 --> 2:12:03.720 once he found Justin online, he began to kind of 2:12:03.760 --> 2:12:07.240 shop him around Atlanta, you know, because he wanted to 2:12:07.440 --> 2:12:10.120 get with the specific type of artists from Atlanta. He 2:12:10.200 --> 2:12:13.400 wanted to have like some credibility, and I was at 2:12:13.440 --> 2:12:15.560 the top of the list. But he and I were 2:12:15.600 --> 2:12:16.120 at odds. 2:12:16.680 --> 2:12:17.680 He and I. We had had. 2:12:19.080 --> 2:12:19.600 Me and Scooter. 2:12:19.720 --> 2:12:23.040 I ain't no Justin yet, so he and I were 2:12:23.120 --> 2:12:25.360 at odds. But there was a conversation about this kid 2:12:25.520 --> 2:12:26.840 that Scooter was shopping around. 2:12:27.640 --> 2:12:27.800 You know. 2:12:28.040 --> 2:12:31.080 You know they say success has a million fathers. 2:12:31.120 --> 2:12:33.400 There ain't enough people that I could think, you know, failures, 2:12:33.400 --> 2:12:35.080 write and failures and orphan. 2:12:35.680 --> 2:12:38.520 It's not enough people. I never heard of that idiom 2:12:38.600 --> 2:12:39.200 in my life. 2:12:39.480 --> 2:12:43.000 Oh, success has a million fathers and failures and orphan. 2:12:43.160 --> 2:12:45.720 This is literally the first time I ever heard that too. Yeah, 2:12:45.880 --> 2:12:47.240 Chris Love Supreme open doors. 2:12:47.280 --> 2:12:50.680 Wow, got a sound effect for that. 2:12:52.640 --> 2:12:54.680 Someone failed. I feel like someone failed me by not 2:12:55.280 --> 2:13:01.480 giving me that I learned. So wait, what is it 2:13:01.560 --> 2:13:02.120 one more time? 2:13:02.560 --> 2:13:05.840 Success as the main fathers and failure as an orphan? 2:13:06.680 --> 2:13:08.800 Okay, I'll marinate on that. 2:13:09.520 --> 2:13:12.240 No, but you know, he and I really didn't. 2:13:12.280 --> 2:13:14.760 We went we want seeing eye to eye and it 2:13:14.920 --> 2:13:17.520 was over some It was like fifteen thousand dollars, some shoots, 2:13:17.600 --> 2:13:18.520 some stupid ship like that. 2:13:18.600 --> 2:13:21.720 It happened back in the day when he was promoting clubs. 2:13:21.960 --> 2:13:24.000 And so you had a relationship with Scooter before. 2:13:24.160 --> 2:13:25.800 I had a relationship with Scooter way before. 2:13:26.120 --> 2:13:27.200 Oh what was he like? 2:13:27.320 --> 2:13:27.440 Who? 2:13:27.840 --> 2:13:31.520 He worked with Jamain dupri and he also to work 2:13:31.560 --> 2:13:33.640 with Ludacris and go back and look at it. 2:13:33.800 --> 2:13:34.680 So he's from Atlanta. 2:13:35.120 --> 2:13:36.840 He was in Atlanta. I think he was at Emory 2:13:36.880 --> 2:13:37.280 at the time. 2:13:37.440 --> 2:13:39.840 I've only heard of Scooter once Justin came on the scene, 2:13:39.840 --> 2:13:43.520 so I didn't realize that he existed as a business 2:13:43.560 --> 2:13:46.360 person before. You know, yep. 2:13:46.880 --> 2:13:49.120 So, but he was actually managing an artist by the 2:13:49.200 --> 2:13:50.800 name of Asher Roth at the time. 2:13:51.640 --> 2:13:56.040 So I loved College Pennsylvania. But still I claim him. 2:13:56.120 --> 2:13:59.960 So he introduced Asher Roth, and he had this kid 2:14:00.080 --> 2:14:01.880 that he was interested in, but he didn't really know 2:14:01.960 --> 2:14:02.680 what to do with him. 2:14:03.200 --> 2:14:05.400 So he was, you know, kind of shopping him around. 2:14:05.560 --> 2:14:08.040 He had Justin intro interested in him. 2:14:08.560 --> 2:14:10.480 You know, they were trying to get the kid, and 2:14:10.680 --> 2:14:11.960 he was like, but I really want to you know, 2:14:12.080 --> 2:14:14.760 I really want to fuck with Usher. So I think 2:14:14.880 --> 2:14:17.360 that it was Terrence Carter, who was my road manager 2:14:17.400 --> 2:14:19.680 at the time. My homeboy was with me, Keith Thomas, 2:14:21.680 --> 2:14:25.120 Sherry Hughgley or Sherry Riley. Now, by the way, incredible 2:14:25.160 --> 2:14:28.200 book Exponential Life. She just introduced that book. I wrote 2:14:28.200 --> 2:14:29.960 the ford and it, so y'all, y'all checked that out. 2:14:29.960 --> 2:14:37.440 But Exponential Life anyway, No Exponential Living, my bad. So anyway, 2:14:39.000 --> 2:14:40.440 all of these people are like, you need to meet 2:14:40.480 --> 2:14:43.560 this kid, and I'm like, well, who is he? They're like, 2:14:43.640 --> 2:14:46.200 you know, he's he's just a special kid and everybody's 2:14:46.200 --> 2:14:47.520 trying to get at him. He's you know, he's a 2:14:47.600 --> 2:14:50.040 little white kid that school to guy and everybody love him. 2:14:50.400 --> 2:14:52.800 I'm like, all right, man, look I said, you know, 2:14:52.880 --> 2:14:54.800 I'm cool, man, I'm just I don't want to be 2:14:54.880 --> 2:14:56.720 in business with dude because I'm just you know, we 2:14:57.120 --> 2:14:59.120 we just had words. We almost came to blows one 2:14:59.240 --> 2:15:02.000 time because we just can't. We angry at each other. 2:15:02.680 --> 2:15:07.400 So I decided that I was going to know. I 2:15:07.520 --> 2:15:11.200 was going to studio, and this little kid comes out 2:15:11.240 --> 2:15:15.080 of the studio at JD's studio and I'm like, okay, 2:15:15.200 --> 2:15:17.640 what's up. There's like, I'm the kid they've been telling 2:15:17.640 --> 2:15:20.400 you about. I'm justin Bieber. I'm like, well, nice to 2:15:20.440 --> 2:15:20.680 meet you. 2:15:20.880 --> 2:15:21.040 Justin. 2:15:21.040 --> 2:15:22.760 He said, can I sing for you? I was like, no, 2:15:23.000 --> 2:15:23.400 you can't. 2:15:24.640 --> 2:15:29.120 See that's how it always it should work. Yeah, so 2:15:29.280 --> 2:15:29.760 I said no. 2:15:30.040 --> 2:15:32.160 I said, but what I will do is I'll reach 2:15:32.200 --> 2:15:33.920 out to your manager and make some time maybe to 2:15:33.960 --> 2:15:34.720 meet you sometimes. 2:15:34.760 --> 2:15:35.000 Cool. 2:15:35.080 --> 2:15:37.040 He was like yeah, I said, if it's meant to happen, 2:15:37.480 --> 2:15:39.960 then i'll see you again. He's like, okay. 2:15:40.360 --> 2:15:40.640 Cool. 2:15:40.800 --> 2:15:42.600 So I went to the studio and. 2:15:43.280 --> 2:15:48.520 Did you have inten on really seeing him again? No? Yo, 2:15:48.640 --> 2:15:49.080 that's real. 2:15:49.200 --> 2:15:49.280 Yo. 2:15:49.480 --> 2:15:51.320 I didn't. I did. 2:15:51.480 --> 2:15:54.520 I didn't because I still was like, you know, I 2:15:54.560 --> 2:15:56.600 don't want to. I don't even want to invest in it. 2:15:57.120 --> 2:15:59.840 But it was it was two things even no. It 2:16:00.320 --> 2:16:03.000 It wasn't that I didn't plan on seeing him again. 2:16:03.520 --> 2:16:08.240 I didn't plan on rushing to hit uh to call Scooter. 2:16:08.640 --> 2:16:10.640 Because I seen him and I saw it, I was like, 2:16:12.800 --> 2:16:15.240 I was like, na, this kid got something. So I 2:16:15.320 --> 2:16:18.120 was like, but I'm good. So I went in the 2:16:18.200 --> 2:16:20.680 studio and I was like, you know, I mean it 2:16:20.760 --> 2:16:22.480 was that kid and they were like, oh man, that's 2:16:22.720 --> 2:16:24.200 some some artists a Schooter guy. 2:16:24.280 --> 2:16:26.560 I was like, y'all gonna do anything? With that kid, 2:16:26.640 --> 2:16:29.160 and they were like, nah, man, it just I was 2:16:29.240 --> 2:16:30.360 like cool. 2:16:31.640 --> 2:16:34.920 So then I walked out after my session and I 2:16:35.080 --> 2:16:37.920 played because I then looked on Once I saw the kid, 2:16:37.959 --> 2:16:39.960 I went and looked them online. I was like, oh, 2:16:40.080 --> 2:16:44.080 this kid he got something. So then I called my homie. 2:16:44.080 --> 2:16:45.960 I was like, yoh, y'all right, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, 2:16:46.680 --> 2:16:49.400 So I went home, showed it to my wife at 2:16:49.440 --> 2:16:52.840 the time, and Perry Reid was there. She was like 2:16:54.040 --> 2:16:58.080 pebble pebbles. She was like, are you crazy? Have you 2:16:58.200 --> 2:17:01.280 lost your mind? I was like, I don't really fuck 2:17:01.320 --> 2:17:02.440 with him like that. You know what I'm saying. I 2:17:02.520 --> 2:17:03.960 just I don't even want to get into business because 2:17:03.959 --> 2:17:07.200 it's gonna be She's like, if you don't sign this artist, 2:17:07.720 --> 2:17:10.400 you are the stupidest person ever. 2:17:11.680 --> 2:17:12.400 Are you crazy? 2:17:12.480 --> 2:17:13.640 So I was like for real? 2:17:13.720 --> 2:17:14.240 She was like yeah. 2:17:14.280 --> 2:17:14.920 I was like I get it. 2:17:15.000 --> 2:17:16.480 She said, yeah, you can get past all that. You 2:17:16.520 --> 2:17:18.800 should get pasted all that for this artist because he 2:17:18.879 --> 2:17:23.320 needs you. So I then reached out to Scooter. He 2:17:23.480 --> 2:17:25.640 was like, all right, cool, we had to fly fly 2:17:25.800 --> 2:17:27.959 his mom, him and his mom back down to Atlanta. 2:17:29.320 --> 2:17:31.160 He came to my studio the next day he sang 2:17:31.240 --> 2:17:33.920 for me, and I was like, you know, let's take 2:17:33.920 --> 2:17:35.600 a picture because it's be a part of history. 2:17:35.760 --> 2:17:37.280 If it was intended for it to happen, then it 2:17:37.280 --> 2:17:38.840 will happen, right. He was like yeah, cool. 2:17:39.720 --> 2:17:41.959 So that night I was like, listen, ain't nobody else 2:17:42.040 --> 2:17:44.440 that you could have this artist work with this artist 2:17:44.480 --> 2:17:46.760 with I'm the guy period, you know if you He 2:17:46.840 --> 2:17:48.800 was like, well, I got Justin and you know interested 2:17:48.920 --> 2:17:50.160 they put, you know, put the on the there. 2:17:50.160 --> 2:17:51.600 I said, I'm not gonna put nothing on the table. 2:17:52.040 --> 2:17:54.000 I said, it's on you to make the right decision, 2:17:54.640 --> 2:17:57.520 but be clear that can only be one Justin. 2:17:58.879 --> 2:18:08.800 Oh up, Shade. Wait can I ask? But no, that's 2:18:08.840 --> 2:18:13.400 really and I'm I'm I'm literally going against my rules 2:18:13.480 --> 2:18:17.320 of this show to not be sensationalists and gossipy. But 2:18:17.480 --> 2:18:23.359 I never asked, like what is your standing with your contemporaries, 2:18:23.520 --> 2:18:27.920 Like I'm just saying with us, It's like, okay, I'm 2:18:28.240 --> 2:18:31.560 down with common, I'm down with most and you know 2:18:31.800 --> 2:18:35.400 my contemporaries like are you you beefing with Chris Brown? 2:18:35.560 --> 2:18:37.320 I got beef with How could I be? 2:18:37.840 --> 2:18:41.960 He's yeah, I'm about to say, I mean, come on, like, 2:18:42.000 --> 2:18:44.640 who else is singing and dancing like usher? I just 2:18:44.760 --> 2:18:47.280 meant like, I don't know what you're I've never seen 2:18:47.320 --> 2:18:50.560 you and together or so. 2:18:50.760 --> 2:18:53.840 There's there's always those stories, those things that people say, well, damn, 2:18:53.879 --> 2:18:56.320 I wish I had had you been smarter, been the 2:18:56.440 --> 2:18:58.720 right time, not passed up on this artist, not do 2:18:58.800 --> 2:19:01.039 this thing, not do that right. So there's one thing 2:19:01.120 --> 2:19:05.560 in my career that I definitely regret one thing, and 2:19:05.760 --> 2:19:08.039 to this day I battle with it, which is why 2:19:08.120 --> 2:19:11.680 I always show support for this artist whenever he asks, 2:19:11.800 --> 2:19:14.560 and I've always kind of like it ended up being 2:19:14.600 --> 2:19:16.440 more of a relationship. There's a reason why I'm drawing 2:19:16.480 --> 2:19:17.279 it out like this anyway. 2:19:17.640 --> 2:19:22.520 But so. 2:19:24.200 --> 2:19:26.600 Mark Pitts comes to me and he's like, I got 2:19:26.640 --> 2:19:31.560 this artist. And I'm like, well, you know, I'm just 2:19:31.640 --> 2:19:33.480 really focused on myself and he's like, I know that, 2:19:33.600 --> 2:19:35.200 but I got this artist that I really think you 2:19:35.240 --> 2:19:38.800 should see and I want him to be your first artist. 2:19:39.240 --> 2:19:41.879 So I'm like, all right, well, let me see him. 2:19:42.840 --> 2:19:47.520 So his manager comes in, they have him, you know, 2:19:48.080 --> 2:19:48.760 they show him to me. 2:19:48.879 --> 2:19:49.400 I meet him. 2:19:49.840 --> 2:19:52.000 I was doing this album at the time. They want 2:19:52.080 --> 2:19:56.080 him to perform on this album. I was like, okay, cool, Yeah, 2:19:56.520 --> 2:20:01.440 that's cool. But I just I didn't get it. It 2:20:01.600 --> 2:20:03.840 wasn't that I didn't get it. I was I was 2:20:03.879 --> 2:20:07.160 a bit like, I'm gonna be honest. I was intimidated. 2:20:08.120 --> 2:20:11.320 Let me get these sound listen. I was intimidated by 2:20:11.480 --> 2:20:15.520 what it meant to move to the place of mentoring 2:20:15.680 --> 2:20:18.440 artists and not be the artist. So I felt like, 2:20:19.760 --> 2:20:21.360 I don't want to fuck that up, and I don't 2:20:21.400 --> 2:20:23.200 want to stop what I think I'm doing right now 2:20:23.800 --> 2:20:25.920 and do it too early. It was a it was 2:20:26.000 --> 2:20:28.199 a mature thing, but not clear, you know what I'm saying. 2:20:28.600 --> 2:20:31.000 And then I went to I went to my team 2:20:31.080 --> 2:20:32.320 and I was like, I really want to work with 2:20:32.360 --> 2:20:33.480 this artist, and they was like, I don't think you 2:20:33.480 --> 2:20:33.920 should do it. 2:20:34.280 --> 2:20:36.119 I don't think you should. You know you you should 2:20:36.120 --> 2:20:40.879 work with this artist. And then he left. 2:20:43.280 --> 2:20:48.240 Wait wait wait, whoa all right? I got my sound effect? Ready? 2:20:48.440 --> 2:20:49.800 Who Chris Brown? 2:20:54.640 --> 2:20:56.119 Wait? He's Mark Pinson's artist. 2:20:56.160 --> 2:20:58.120 He was, He was a Mark Pitts artist at the time. 2:20:59.080 --> 2:21:00.960 But I just think it's like when I think about 2:21:01.000 --> 2:21:01.560 all if. 2:21:01.480 --> 2:21:03.880 You had a chance to do you even think you 2:21:03.920 --> 2:21:05.600 would have had an impact. I'm just trying to tell 2:21:05.600 --> 2:21:09.480 you if yeah, well that makes sense because Chris Brown, 2:21:09.800 --> 2:21:13.000 really it was like the next in lineage of Bobby Brown. 2:21:13.080 --> 2:21:18.920 He Bobby Bage, so it's like he's the next. No 2:21:19.200 --> 2:21:26.480 that would make no, it makes sense why they would 2:21:26.480 --> 2:21:30.360 reach out to you too. I get it. Wow, but 2:21:30.440 --> 2:21:33.560 I passed man. So if so, had you, well, okay, 2:21:33.720 --> 2:21:38.960 Now in hindsight, do you feel you were why? Because 2:21:39.280 --> 2:21:39.760 here's the thing. 2:21:39.840 --> 2:21:41.520 I think that every artist has something to go through, 2:21:41.640 --> 2:21:43.600 all right, because if you even look at the success 2:21:43.680 --> 2:21:47.640 of what Justin is right because they went through similar ship. 2:21:47.720 --> 2:21:51.080 But the reality is having the right people around, having 2:21:51.120 --> 2:21:53.800 the right support, that changes the dynamic of how it 2:21:54.000 --> 2:21:54.480 pans out. 2:21:54.680 --> 2:21:59.920 You're an anomaly though, because I just I don't believe. 2:22:00.120 --> 2:22:02.640 I mean, I don't believe it. I don't believe in 2:22:02.680 --> 2:22:05.600 the artists being I don't believe in artists being their 2:22:05.640 --> 2:22:08.640 own managers. And I know there's a git. I know 2:22:08.720 --> 2:22:11.960 there's a grip of artists that are in my inbox, 2:22:12.120 --> 2:22:14.800 in my DM, on Twitter and all over. 2:22:15.680 --> 2:22:17.600 There's a ton of shit that I I wasn't the. 2:22:17.640 --> 2:22:19.680 Four things in my life and I got lucky with it. 2:22:19.920 --> 2:22:22.200 And I'm not saying I'm responsible for Jill whatever. But 2:22:22.280 --> 2:22:26.440 it's like Jill's slum village. Blow. I don't. Maybe there's 2:22:26.520 --> 2:22:30.800 one Cody, I guess, but I've made a life of 2:22:30.920 --> 2:22:32.640 avoiding that moment. 2:22:32.720 --> 2:22:35.280 While you smiling, I'm smiling at Bill, Please don't look 2:22:35.280 --> 2:22:35.440 at me. 2:22:35.959 --> 2:22:38.119 You're just like, I guess, Yeah, because. 2:22:37.920 --> 2:22:38.640 Cody was a real person. 2:22:38.680 --> 2:22:39.960 We were just like, yes, Cody, Oh no, no, no, 2:22:40.080 --> 2:22:40.760 I mean, I don't. 2:22:40.879 --> 2:22:44.440 Know what the level of it's intimidating to get out 2:22:44.480 --> 2:22:46.560 of the comfort zone to where you are and begin 2:22:46.720 --> 2:22:48.360 to have the responsibility of other people. 2:22:48.440 --> 2:22:49.840 Man, it's a lot of Man. 2:22:50.879 --> 2:22:54.360 I just think artists make horrible business, Like you're either 2:22:54.440 --> 2:22:56.280 going to be a business person or you're going to 2:22:56.320 --> 2:22:56.959 be an artist. 2:22:57.240 --> 2:23:01.560 And listen off the heels of having three artists that 2:23:01.640 --> 2:23:04.280 didn't necessarily fly, you know what I'm saying. You know 2:23:04.600 --> 2:23:07.880 I was, I had it was an artist by the 2:23:08.000 --> 2:23:11.240 name of Melinda Santiago, a group by the name of 2:23:12.480 --> 2:23:13.880 One Chance in Rico Love. 2:23:14.600 --> 2:23:15.640 Those were my first three. 2:23:15.520 --> 2:23:17.720 Artist I was about to say I knew that. 2:23:20.120 --> 2:23:22.280 And think I mean that ended up panning out to 2:23:22.400 --> 2:23:26.320 be a great investment because I felt something different than him. 2:23:26.320 --> 2:23:29.320 I was like, I just think that you're an incredible writer, Like, 2:23:29.440 --> 2:23:31.160 and this is not a discredit to who you are, 2:23:31.280 --> 2:23:34.480 but you you really do know your way around melodies 2:23:34.640 --> 2:23:37.200 and you know your way around storytelling, so you should 2:23:37.200 --> 2:23:39.920 be a writer. He was like artists, it's like, let's 2:23:40.000 --> 2:23:42.280 let's just let's focus on so we got him a 2:23:42.840 --> 2:23:45.879 publishing deal and yeah, okay. 2:23:46.840 --> 2:23:52.800 So that's why I feel like, had you take it on, Chris, 2:23:53.879 --> 2:23:57.280 do you think he would have listened to you? I 2:23:57.360 --> 2:24:00.480 do you know? Prince actually went on record to you know, 2:24:00.680 --> 2:24:06.920 and and Loeus death. Uh, he kind of sort of 2:24:06.959 --> 2:24:09.360 went public and saying that he really wanted to mentor 2:24:10.560 --> 2:24:15.880 Chris Brown, and you know, but I don't know. 2:24:16.040 --> 2:24:20.920 I don't think Prince would have I don't think that's 2:24:21.000 --> 2:24:21.600 too far. 2:24:21.840 --> 2:24:26.360 I just feel like there's a difference between generations and 2:24:27.760 --> 2:24:33.440 the post can't tell me nothing syndrome would have would 2:24:33.480 --> 2:24:37.600 have would have been like his Bobby Brown. I mean, 2:24:37.680 --> 2:24:40.000 like that would have been you know, I still think 2:24:40.040 --> 2:24:42.520 I am, but I think Bobby Brown was the aggressive. 2:24:44.120 --> 2:24:47.240 It ain't a matter of was. I still am. 2:24:47.520 --> 2:24:49.680 And that's why I'm consistent and I am a great 2:24:49.760 --> 2:24:52.960 friend of his, even through the complication and all of 2:24:53.000 --> 2:24:53.360 this ship. 2:24:53.480 --> 2:24:55.400 So do you mentor him now, I mean. 2:24:55.400 --> 2:24:56.520 As much as he'll alive. 2:24:58.000 --> 2:24:59.680 Like, who are you close to now that you're not 2:25:00.240 --> 2:25:04.400 to business wise that they you know you're there one 2:25:04.440 --> 2:25:07.560 am call like yo, man, like I need some advice 2:25:07.640 --> 2:25:08.480 on some like who? 2:25:09.600 --> 2:25:11.280 I mean it could be it's a ton of like 2:25:12.160 --> 2:25:17.560 business people and young entrepreneurs, people whom I just make 2:25:17.640 --> 2:25:20.440 myself available for. Here's the reality, right, if we really 2:25:20.480 --> 2:25:23.200 want to begin to remedy some of the issues that 2:25:23.280 --> 2:25:26.000 we have, we got to be more discipline ourselves to 2:25:26.120 --> 2:25:29.720 be people who share our information. I had this conversation 2:25:29.840 --> 2:25:32.320 with everybody, and I ain't talking about just mentoring people 2:25:32.360 --> 2:25:34.920 in your company or because it's a company duty and 2:25:35.000 --> 2:25:38.680 responsibility to do that shit. No, find people to mentor 2:25:38.840 --> 2:25:41.280 and talk to them, bring them together, create groups, talk 2:25:41.320 --> 2:25:41.760 to them. 2:25:41.640 --> 2:25:45.120 As a collective because you got insight and off of that. 2:25:45.280 --> 2:25:48.080 You know what I'm saying, I'm I'm really tired of 2:25:48.360 --> 2:25:51.960 the reality of what we are, what we are, and 2:25:52.120 --> 2:25:54.760 how behind we are, and the fact that we don't 2:25:54.800 --> 2:25:58.000 allow ourselves to come together because we just don't come together. 2:25:58.160 --> 2:26:00.480 We're not community, We're not community or oriented. 2:26:00.600 --> 2:26:01.840 We don't share. 2:26:01.920 --> 2:26:05.600 We think that it's better to continue to climb individually 2:26:05.800 --> 2:26:07.480 and not as a collective. 2:26:07.879 --> 2:26:12.120 Okay, I think now I will insert the modern day 2:26:12.400 --> 2:26:15.720 atl question that it was kind of saving us a 2:26:15.760 --> 2:26:24.400 snowball earlier. But the climate that is Atlanta now which 2:26:25.240 --> 2:26:34.080 very very active almost at its at least it's commercial peak. 2:26:35.920 --> 2:26:38.480 I don't know about creative peak. Of course, that could 2:26:38.480 --> 2:26:43.880 be agism old agism me speaking. But are you are 2:26:43.959 --> 2:26:50.440 you the character and things fall apart, that is, looking 2:26:50.520 --> 2:26:53.040 at the land and kind of have a single tear 2:26:53.080 --> 2:26:56.600 in your eye, like what's going? Are you a stranger 2:26:57.080 --> 2:27:00.440 on a strange land? Which is your Yeah? You see 2:27:00.520 --> 2:27:04.240 the environment that is Atlanta now? Like are you relating 2:27:04.280 --> 2:27:07.440 to the stuff? Do you want to be politically correct 2:27:07.480 --> 2:27:10.840 and be like, well, Quincy Jones, is you know has 2:27:10.920 --> 2:27:16.000 embraced another generation? Or like what is your feeling towards 2:27:16.879 --> 2:27:18.040 at least Atlanta? 2:27:18.160 --> 2:27:19.840 Why don't you just say it exactly? 2:27:19.920 --> 2:27:21.000 What say it? 2:27:21.120 --> 2:27:22.520 Niggas like just what he does? 2:27:23.040 --> 2:27:23.080 This? 2:27:23.320 --> 2:27:24.000 What he like? 2:27:24.240 --> 2:27:27.560 Just say it, like I'm an answer to how do. 2:27:27.680 --> 2:27:32.480 You feel about the ever changing environment of what Atlanta 2:27:32.600 --> 2:27:35.360 is now compared to what it was twenty years ago? 2:27:35.560 --> 2:27:37.160 By the way, it's always been that it's just needed 2:27:37.160 --> 2:27:39.000 a curator, a person who could bring it all together 2:27:39.120 --> 2:27:40.600 and create some integrity in it. 2:27:41.120 --> 2:27:43.920 And what I was leading to is, are you now 2:27:44.200 --> 2:27:49.680 La Reid and are you realizing that you now need 2:27:49.800 --> 2:27:55.520 to be La Read of Atlanta? Or is that too 2:27:56.240 --> 2:27:57.800 a lofty of an idea. 2:27:58.000 --> 2:28:01.119 It's not too lofty of an idea because in theory, yeah, 2:28:01.959 --> 2:28:06.160 that might, that might have some I may there may 2:28:06.240 --> 2:28:09.160 be some influence in that to the people who are 2:28:09.200 --> 2:28:11.640 looking at what my career is. But what I'm talking 2:28:11.640 --> 2:28:14.760 about is more significant than just being one man who 2:28:14.840 --> 2:28:17.480 comes and takes advantage of all of the talent that's 2:28:17.560 --> 2:28:18.879 there and brings it together. 2:28:18.959 --> 2:28:20.240 I'm talking about a collective. 2:28:20.320 --> 2:28:23.000 I'm talking about a group of people who decide that 2:28:23.200 --> 2:28:25.400 our business is important, of a group of people who 2:28:25.520 --> 2:28:28.240 understand that our culture is important, and as a way 2:28:28.280 --> 2:28:31.440 to introduce it. And yes, it does take it right, 2:28:31.760 --> 2:28:33.960 but no, but it starts with a collective of people 2:28:34.040 --> 2:28:36.480 being on the same page because it ain't nothing worse 2:28:36.520 --> 2:28:38.720 than having a plan. And then you have other people 2:28:38.800 --> 2:28:42.520 compromising your efforts, which is going to be the case period, 2:28:42.600 --> 2:28:44.279 But it can't happen from inside. 2:28:44.360 --> 2:28:44.959 You know what I'm saying. 2:28:45.280 --> 2:28:48.680 If you have if we can just come together, man, 2:28:48.760 --> 2:28:52.360 and just start like supporting each other, not just getting 2:28:52.400 --> 2:28:54.840 on the record with each other, but like really helping 2:28:54.920 --> 2:28:57.680 and engaging in each other and understanding that the idea 2:28:57.760 --> 2:29:01.200 of growth isn't sharing. If you guys, if you got 2:29:01.240 --> 2:29:03.600 five hundred thousand dollars and two million dollars, that ain't shit. Man, 2:29:04.560 --> 2:29:06.840 Gotta you gotta tell these kids like, look, you think 2:29:06.920 --> 2:29:09.720 you got something, but you ain't got nothing yet. It's 2:29:09.760 --> 2:29:11.880 not until you begin to bring all that shit together, 2:29:12.520 --> 2:29:14.560 aggregate and then and then build. 2:29:14.920 --> 2:29:16.160 Are they listening to you? 2:29:16.280 --> 2:29:19.040 They slowly but surely listening. But I'm only one person trying. 2:29:19.040 --> 2:29:21.440 I'm only one person doing my part in it and 2:29:21.840 --> 2:29:23.680 in a perfect world, but you need who you need 2:29:23.720 --> 2:29:28.879 to gathering. Who are you gathering too in a perfect world? 2:29:29.040 --> 2:29:34.400 Who what figures are you gathering at least locally to 2:29:36.280 --> 2:29:39.920 at least make this a sembilance of a reality. It's 2:29:39.959 --> 2:29:42.720 a common conversation with everybody that I come in contact with. 2:29:42.879 --> 2:29:45.800 It ain't just one person, it's people who are in business. 2:29:46.320 --> 2:29:48.680 That's the one thing that Atlanta has to have right 2:29:49.360 --> 2:29:51.720 in order to be respected as a major city and 2:29:51.800 --> 2:29:54.440 in business and culturally, it has to bring all of 2:29:54.520 --> 2:29:56.800 those elements together in order to make it. And that's 2:29:57.000 --> 2:29:59.880 oddly what La Reed was able to do at that time. 2:30:00.840 --> 2:30:03.480 The dynamic of what it is and what success is 2:30:03.560 --> 2:30:04.199 it's changed. 2:30:05.160 --> 2:30:08.000 It's changed. So now you got to figure out, Okay, 2:30:08.720 --> 2:30:10.199 you know, do you get politics. 2:30:10.280 --> 2:30:13.280 So it's a matter of getting cashm read in the room, 2:30:13.800 --> 2:30:15.160 you know, managing to get. 2:30:17.879 --> 2:30:24.560 Oh wait a minute, that was a paradigm because it's 2:30:24.560 --> 2:30:27.119 a lot of property he has speak. 2:30:27.600 --> 2:30:29.360 Yeah, is he a presence or is he just a 2:30:29.440 --> 2:30:30.520 studio in Atlanta? 2:30:31.320 --> 2:30:35.480 Nah, Tyler Perry is most certainly a presence, but there's. 2:30:35.440 --> 2:30:37.680 More active in the community. 2:30:39.040 --> 2:30:43.000 Or you don't know, I'm he know who? No, I 2:30:43.000 --> 2:30:46.200 ain't gonna bite my tongue. I'm not that guy. No, no, 2:30:46.280 --> 2:30:46.879 I ain't that guy. 2:30:47.400 --> 2:30:48.760 And you're in the community, So. 2:30:49.000 --> 2:30:50.400 I ain't looking at the right to make sure the 2:30:50.520 --> 2:30:51.560 job is not going to stop it? 2:30:52.800 --> 2:30:54.440 No, No, it's not that. 2:30:55.320 --> 2:30:58.360 There's a certain expectation that comes with stepping into that 2:30:58.480 --> 2:31:02.040 space and no one wants to compromise what they have 2:31:02.200 --> 2:31:03.920 in order to do it. So it's like we were 2:31:03.920 --> 2:31:07.320 talking about it, Yeah, getting people to understand that as 2:31:07.360 --> 2:31:09.520 a collective, if you come together if you bring it 2:31:09.640 --> 2:31:12.200 all together, you're stronger and then you don't have to 2:31:12.240 --> 2:31:13.959 compromise anything, right, But it's. 2:31:13.879 --> 2:31:15.600 That one person who's going to step out and take 2:31:15.640 --> 2:31:18.119 the chance with the other person and who's But why 2:31:18.200 --> 2:31:21.279 not it be Atlanta's the home of like black wealth 2:31:21.480 --> 2:31:22.959 right now in that entertainment? 2:31:23.120 --> 2:31:23.640 Does it still? 2:31:24.200 --> 2:31:26.360 And I just mean an entertainment type way it is? 2:31:26.520 --> 2:31:28.600 Is not in an opportunistic way because you see a 2:31:28.640 --> 2:31:30.800 city that's growing like we can. 2:31:31.560 --> 2:31:34.720 I mean, but is it really you feel there's really 2:31:34.760 --> 2:31:38.760 in Atlanta right now? As it? At least I was perceived. 2:31:38.879 --> 2:31:45.320 I thought between between eighty four with people Bryson and Cameo, 2:31:46.080 --> 2:31:50.360 that class of Atlanta and Brick like the Arm, between 2:31:50.400 --> 2:31:53.120 that first migration between seventy nine and eighty four of 2:31:53.160 --> 2:31:56.240 all these artists moving to Atlanta and two when you 2:31:56.360 --> 2:31:59.920 guys were the new Jacks between eighty eight and ninety five. 2:32:00.040 --> 2:32:04.960 I always felt that there was a community Like Eric Simmons, like, yo, 2:32:05.040 --> 2:32:07.720 so I'm moving to Atlanta like everybody was moving to Atlanta. 2:32:09.120 --> 2:32:11.960 Is there a community still or is it just like 2:32:12.920 --> 2:32:15.240 every man for hisself and every. 2:32:15.120 --> 2:32:19.560 Man for himself because there's no formula, there's no business. 2:32:21.440 --> 2:32:26.720 There's no Clarence Avon in Atlanta. 2:32:28.400 --> 2:32:32.160 Mhmm, okay, I'll straight up ask you, do you desire 2:32:33.440 --> 2:32:36.160 the stress and the headaches and the gray hair and 2:32:36.320 --> 2:32:42.080 the sacrifice of your personal career to try to be 2:32:42.600 --> 2:32:43.240 that clar. 2:32:43.520 --> 2:32:46.000 I'm not trying to be Clarence Aan, though I want 2:32:46.000 --> 2:32:47.480 to explain who Clarence is. 2:32:48.959 --> 2:32:54.440 Clarence A Taboo Records, This is your show too, and 2:32:54.760 --> 2:33:02.840 Clarence Avant was the guy who go ahead and finish no. 2:33:03.120 --> 2:33:05.320 I mean, well, you know, my regret about. 2:33:07.760 --> 2:33:09.080 Records Records. 2:33:09.240 --> 2:33:13.879 My regret about him is that I feel as though 2:33:13.920 --> 2:33:17.879 the way he was painted in the documentary uh, Searching 2:33:17.920 --> 2:33:21.080 for sugar Man, Searching for Sugarman really painted him in 2:33:21.120 --> 2:33:25.160 a bad which I feel his you know, when we 2:33:25.200 --> 2:33:28.520 get to the Jam and Lewis episode, you know you'll 2:33:28.600 --> 2:33:33.720 see how important next to Don Corneli's and Barry Gordy, 2:33:33.800 --> 2:33:37.680 he was like one of the most important in stan Lathan, Like, 2:33:37.959 --> 2:33:40.480 you know, he's part of the power for that actually 2:33:40.640 --> 2:33:44.400 had power and resources in the sixties and seventies to 2:33:44.640 --> 2:33:49.720 make shit happen. And so you know, if you had 2:33:49.760 --> 2:33:52.640 a problem, you went to Clarence Avons to smooth it out. 2:33:52.840 --> 2:33:57.200 You know, he's almost like music industries Jesse Jackson or 2:33:57.280 --> 2:33:59.600 Al Sharton like be to go to guys to smooth 2:33:59.680 --> 2:34:00.240 ship out. 2:34:00.480 --> 2:34:03.160 But everybody comes to Atlanta to take the peace of it, 2:34:03.240 --> 2:34:06.720 but they don't leave the structure that helps to continue 2:34:06.760 --> 2:34:07.160 to build it. 2:34:08.080 --> 2:34:12.400 He's learning the black lily lesson, He's learning the black lily. 2:34:12.320 --> 2:34:13.119 At least more people. 2:34:13.240 --> 2:34:16.160 At least more people stay and build their wealth in Atlanta, 2:34:16.200 --> 2:34:17.680 because that's like one of the you know, that's the 2:34:17.720 --> 2:34:19.599 difference between in Atlanta. 2:34:19.320 --> 2:34:21.120 Because now I'm here in North Carolina might be the 2:34:21.160 --> 2:34:25.600 new spot for sports people. It's Phoenix, like I'm here, 2:34:25.720 --> 2:34:29.160 I now Like there was a point where Atlanta was 2:34:29.200 --> 2:34:30.680 like the place to move, but then you know, it 2:34:30.800 --> 2:34:34.080 got overpriced and now it's hard to maintain a life 2:34:34.120 --> 2:34:38.440 there now here Atlanta. People going elsewhere to the Carolinas too, 2:34:39.640 --> 2:34:45.880 you know, to start again. So you know, it's I know, 2:34:46.000 --> 2:34:49.720 I know it's sacrificial. So in some sense, yeah, where 2:34:49.760 --> 2:34:53.840 do you where do you see? What's your next step? 2:34:54.400 --> 2:34:56.760 I'm not saying your last step, but what's your next step? 2:34:59.760 --> 2:35:02.959 Are really do want to make an album with y'all? 2:35:04.600 --> 2:35:07.959 Quest loves to problem about it? Yeah, I feel okay 2:35:08.040 --> 2:35:11.600 for those that don't know. When when the Roots do 2:35:12.320 --> 2:35:19.120 the Roots Picnic, our annual festival in Philadelphia, we like 2:35:19.200 --> 2:35:23.440 to do collaborative, community based projects because you know, we 2:35:23.520 --> 2:35:26.720 feel as though that's really the spirit of Philadelphia, the 2:35:27.000 --> 2:35:30.440 collaboration spirit, that's where the Roots really shine. We're working 2:35:30.520 --> 2:35:34.800 with other people. And I'll say that all the collaborations 2:35:34.840 --> 2:35:37.760 that we've done year after year, like we've done John 2:35:37.840 --> 2:35:40.440 Legend one year, we did Naughty by Nature, one year, 2:35:40.480 --> 2:35:42.120 we did Public Enemy, we did not as we did 2:35:42.200 --> 2:35:46.600 Wu Tang. I mean, we did the usual suspects. When 2:35:46.640 --> 2:35:50.400 we did our ninth year, we wanted to I wanted 2:35:50.400 --> 2:35:54.680 to pull kind of a non predictable move, and for me, 2:35:55.040 --> 2:35:59.080 that move was to you know, I was like, we 2:35:59.120 --> 2:36:01.480 should get a singer. You should just shock everyone, like 2:36:01.520 --> 2:36:04.360 who's that singer that people be like, wait, what the 2:36:04.440 --> 2:36:09.240 hell is this like? And we realized that Usher is 2:36:09.320 --> 2:36:15.680 really the voice of I mean kind of the voice 2:36:15.760 --> 2:36:20.320 of his generation that really speaks to people. And so 2:36:20.480 --> 2:36:23.600 it seemed kind of weird on site, but then it 2:36:23.720 --> 2:36:27.000 started to make sense, and you know, I just feel 2:36:27.080 --> 2:36:32.720 like there there was race. I mean, you even kind 2:36:32.760 --> 2:36:34.400 of reached your eyebrother, like, what's I did? 2:36:34.720 --> 2:36:37.120 I was like, sure, had the roots picnic, but then 2:36:37.160 --> 2:36:39.880 when the when when the music started rolling, everybody was 2:36:40.000 --> 2:36:41.840 like it was like a shock to your system. 2:36:41.959 --> 2:36:43.920 Like, oh, yes, now that makes sense me because usher 2:36:43.959 --> 2:36:45.760 got jams, you know what I mean? And I ain't 2:36:45.800 --> 2:36:47.440 saying that just because you know you're sitting here. 2:36:48.120 --> 2:36:51.320 I just think that there's a revolutionary sound that compliments 2:36:51.879 --> 2:36:54.680 all of what you've been building and I really feel 2:36:54.720 --> 2:36:56.840 like I'm the voice to carry it out. Wow, I 2:36:56.920 --> 2:36:59.879 feel like there's a mission that is bigger than all 2:36:59.920 --> 2:37:01.440 of the ship that I've done in the past. 2:37:02.800 --> 2:37:03.760 Damn. Now I feel like. 2:37:05.680 --> 2:37:08.480 But it's not it's not pleasure, it's not pressure, it's pleasure. 2:37:08.920 --> 2:37:12.120 Like you really should understand that it took all of 2:37:12.200 --> 2:37:15.480 that to get to this place where I'm open enough 2:37:15.640 --> 2:37:18.960 and I'm capable of carrying out what needs to be 2:37:19.080 --> 2:37:23.520 done and said both as a standard of business and 2:37:23.640 --> 2:37:27.720 also to a standard of music that leads to the 2:37:27.840 --> 2:37:34.720 next chapter. It has textures of our roots, Africa, Cuba, 2:37:36.000 --> 2:37:38.960 percussions music tying the reality of all of what that 2:37:39.120 --> 2:37:41.760 is and then also to the truth. And it's almost 2:37:41.840 --> 2:37:45.480 like a project that's liked the songs and songs in 2:37:45.480 --> 2:37:48.720 the Kia Life like it. It's gonna be something incredible. 2:37:48.959 --> 2:37:49.480 I believe it. 2:37:49.760 --> 2:37:50.360 This is the record. 2:37:51.520 --> 2:37:53.640 I think it's a record that I think it's a 2:37:53.720 --> 2:37:56.600 record that we're gonna work on. I mean, but it's 2:37:56.640 --> 2:38:00.000 gonna happen naturally. I think that we've been we've been working, 2:38:00.120 --> 2:38:02.640 you know, working together, rocking together. But and now we 2:38:02.760 --> 2:38:08.359 get into a place where we're communicating. This is communicating community. 2:38:08.640 --> 2:38:11.280 We're communicating in a in a way that you know, 2:38:11.280 --> 2:38:14.680 what I'm saying gets us down in the space of 2:38:14.920 --> 2:38:16.959 just being creative if you're. 2:38:16.800 --> 2:38:19.400 Just join us. In the final minutes of The Usher Raemen, 2:38:19.480 --> 2:38:22.640 the fourth episode of Quest Love Supreme, U, Usher Raemon 2:38:22.920 --> 2:38:25.200 is now proposing that the Roots and the Usher do 2:38:25.320 --> 2:38:27.240 an album together, and everyone seems pretty. 2:38:27.040 --> 2:38:30.879 Much excitedly what he's saying, like if. 2:38:30.800 --> 2:38:32.800 You go back to the Root, what he's like that 2:38:33.240 --> 2:38:34.920 it's all of it, though you no I knew. 2:38:34.959 --> 2:38:36.600 I knew from the gate it was going to lead 2:38:36.640 --> 2:38:39.000 to this, but part of me is like scared out 2:38:39.000 --> 2:38:40.640 of my mind, Why. 2:38:42.000 --> 2:38:42.520 What do you want? 2:38:44.520 --> 2:38:45.520 But you can't. 2:38:45.959 --> 2:38:47.760 But you can't look at it that way because it's 2:38:47.800 --> 2:38:50.720 something that Okay, let me give you the reality. 2:38:50.800 --> 2:38:53.160 The reality is in the process of making all of 2:38:53.800 --> 2:38:57.560 the albums that I have and having the platform I've 2:38:57.600 --> 2:39:02.400 been I've been living vicariously through a lot of other 2:39:02.480 --> 2:39:06.440 people's reality. So even though they've been telling my story, 2:39:06.600 --> 2:39:11.800 I've been helping the world through like poems and through 2:39:12.120 --> 2:39:15.200 like the ideas of things, and then I've lived things. 2:39:15.240 --> 2:39:18.160 But I also to need to support musically to be 2:39:18.280 --> 2:39:21.360 able to tell that story and it not feel like 2:39:21.600 --> 2:39:25.040 it's just a product for sale, even though it may work, 2:39:25.720 --> 2:39:28.119 you know what I'm saying, But being able to understand 2:39:28.160 --> 2:39:31.480 somebody who understands all those textures, you get it, you understand, 2:39:31.520 --> 2:39:32.560 but you can't be afraid. 2:39:32.600 --> 2:39:35.040 You gotta just allow us to just go in it 2:39:35.160 --> 2:39:40.760 and just and get it going. Because he's around, like 2:39:40.800 --> 2:39:41.800 this is a fucking intervention. 2:39:45.040 --> 2:39:50.400 We have a plane ticket ready for you to go. Literally, 2:39:50.560 --> 2:39:56.440 the entire room is looking at me at this point in. 2:39:56.520 --> 2:39:58.960 Your in both of y'all's careers, right, But I mean, 2:39:59.360 --> 2:40:04.160 you know, with you like you, this is in my opinion, 2:40:04.280 --> 2:40:07.600 you know, you really have nothing else to prove, so 2:40:07.720 --> 2:40:10.320 to speak. So it's like, if you want to make 2:40:10.360 --> 2:40:12.360 that quote unquote art record with the roots, which I 2:40:12.400 --> 2:40:15.920 don't think I'm just using that term loosely, but you 2:40:16.120 --> 2:40:18.920 have nothing else to prove, Like we know you can sing, 2:40:19.120 --> 2:40:21.240 we know you can dance, we know you can make hits. 2:40:21.560 --> 2:40:24.360 And it ain't about it's like, understand that it's not 2:40:24.480 --> 2:40:29.640 a It's about including all of the different textures in 2:40:29.720 --> 2:40:32.119 places that we both have gone to make it. It's 2:40:32.200 --> 2:40:35.400 not like just one specific thing, you know what I'm saying, Like, 2:40:35.640 --> 2:40:37.640 use all of it. You see all of the examples 2:40:37.680 --> 2:40:39.680 of things that I've been able to do and you 2:40:39.800 --> 2:40:41.640 guys have been able to do. Let's bring it all 2:40:41.680 --> 2:40:44.760 together and bring the textures because there's a story that's 2:40:44.840 --> 2:40:47.200 way deeper. I may not even figure out what the 2:40:47.640 --> 2:40:50.560 actual words to articulate it right now are, but I 2:40:50.680 --> 2:40:53.240 hear you out and clear when you hear the textures 2:40:53.280 --> 2:40:55.760 of what you know is relevant in the sound and 2:40:55.840 --> 2:40:57.480 the energy of what it is, and then you can 2:40:57.560 --> 2:40:59.280 go and put the soul behind it and then go 2:40:59.560 --> 2:41:01.920 also to put the right production behind it and the 2:41:02.000 --> 2:41:04.280 right ideas and the right ears on it. We know 2:41:04.440 --> 2:41:06.520 that we understand that, and we understand it in a 2:41:06.560 --> 2:41:08.080 way that they need to be taught. 2:41:08.800 --> 2:41:11.080 You know what it is though, and maybe this is 2:41:11.280 --> 2:41:13.800 coming forward. I see Bill looking at me because he 2:41:13.879 --> 2:41:18.920 knows I'm about to reintroduce the self sabotaged uh analogy, 2:41:19.920 --> 2:41:23.520 self sabotaged analogy coming up? No, okay, you know, like 2:41:24.720 --> 2:41:26.440 when and I had to place this old woman. You know, 2:41:26.560 --> 2:41:31.800 like when women choose a toxic relationship, Like it's easy 2:41:31.959 --> 2:41:36.320 to choose a toxic relationship because you know subconsciously it's 2:41:36.360 --> 2:41:38.000 going to fail and not going to go anywhere, so 2:41:38.080 --> 2:41:41.360 you don't have that expectation. That's accountability on your right. 2:41:41.560 --> 2:41:44.040 But if you choose a real relationship, it's going to 2:41:44.160 --> 2:41:45.120 hurt some work. 2:41:45.640 --> 2:41:47.400 And thank you for doing the work already, because you 2:41:47.440 --> 2:41:49.000 were already doing it. We wouldn't even be in this 2:41:49.080 --> 2:41:50.480 fucking room right now if you weren't doing. 2:41:50.400 --> 2:41:52.240 The work fucking right Thank you for doing the work 2:41:52.280 --> 2:41:53.480 so we could be in this fucking room. 2:41:55.040 --> 2:42:02.080 I just thought, tell where you're at, you're doing it, 2:42:02.400 --> 2:42:04.440 you're doing it, and the and the reality is it's 2:42:04.480 --> 2:42:05.920 gonna it has to organically. 2:42:06.200 --> 2:42:11.480 This really became a freaking mirred intervention. That's what every show. 2:42:12.040 --> 2:42:14.760 But you always preface that you're afraid of something. That's 2:42:14.879 --> 2:42:18.480 we've had this discussion number of times books. Man, I'm sorry, 2:42:18.560 --> 2:42:20.840 I know, but I don't know. I don't feel like 2:42:20.920 --> 2:42:22.800 knowing you as a person, would think that you're afraid 2:42:22.840 --> 2:42:25.200 of anything. Yeah, it just seems like more of like 2:42:25.240 --> 2:42:26.039 an opportunity that you. 2:42:26.080 --> 2:42:28.040 Just need to think of a more competent person to 2:42:28.200 --> 2:42:28.880 carry that out. 2:42:29.040 --> 2:42:32.480 I'm afraid a lot, I but I'm also wise enough, 2:42:32.840 --> 2:42:36.120 as I've staying in other episodes, I'm wise enough to 2:42:36.160 --> 2:42:41.320 listen to my ledge talkers, you know, and despite whatever 2:42:41.400 --> 2:42:46.440 the fault leader jokes that you guys have, I mean, 2:42:46.640 --> 2:42:48.840 so wait a minute, the reason why Bill is here 2:42:49.200 --> 2:42:52.000 leading as a producer, even though you know he's a 2:42:52.080 --> 2:42:56.240 musical genius and all that stuff and his organization, I'm 2:42:56.360 --> 2:43:01.440 just saying that I trust you enough and your musical 2:43:01.520 --> 2:43:05.560 wisdom to also not kiss my I mean, because it's 2:43:05.640 --> 2:43:08.800 easy to have some employees that I have employees that 2:43:08.879 --> 2:43:11.520 will just that are afraid of me and like I 2:43:11.760 --> 2:43:13.840 want to make me upset. But I'm just saying that. 2:43:15.879 --> 2:43:16.760 So then we need to write. 2:43:16.879 --> 2:43:18.680 So we need to write ears and the right coaches 2:43:18.760 --> 2:43:20.879 around us to manage our expectations. 2:43:20.920 --> 2:43:22.800 That's how you said you just need you need in it. 2:43:22.920 --> 2:43:25.680 You need what I call in life, you need as 2:43:26.520 --> 2:43:32.520 oh what what's that? A non nigga advice? You need 2:43:32.640 --> 2:43:36.280 some when you there you just write, you just need 2:43:36.400 --> 2:43:40.640 when you're like, yo, son, what you think, nigga? You 2:43:40.800 --> 2:43:43.600 need your nigga advises to keep it with you? 2:43:47.760 --> 2:43:50.480 Did you come up with that on your own? Sous? 2:43:50.640 --> 2:43:50.920 We have? 2:43:53.520 --> 2:43:56.520 All right? Quick? What good kissing man? I wouldn't I 2:43:56.520 --> 2:44:01.480 sh on the album? What is up? All right? All right? Record? 2:44:01.520 --> 2:44:03.480 What is that? With a string of singles that you 2:44:03.560 --> 2:44:08.160 put It's almost like Gangster with BBD, like these really 2:44:08.200 --> 2:44:10.760 good singles that didn't quite make the record, like. 2:44:12.240 --> 2:44:15.160 Okay, well, what happened was good? 2:44:15.240 --> 2:44:17.160 Canser was a great I love that. 2:44:17.959 --> 2:44:18.920 What had happened was this. 2:44:20.520 --> 2:44:25.840 I started working on the album and my son almost 2:44:25.959 --> 2:44:28.119 drowned the day that I started working on it. Right, 2:44:28.360 --> 2:44:31.840 So the album that I was working on then stopped, 2:44:33.320 --> 2:44:36.360 and then I started back up, and then I had 2:44:36.360 --> 2:44:38.520 to shoot a movie. And then in the middle of 2:44:38.600 --> 2:44:42.440 shoot Roberto durm movie, right, and then I decided to 2:44:42.800 --> 2:44:44.840 take a quick moment and I went to the voice 2:44:44.879 --> 2:44:47.640 and I did I did that. So all of these 2:44:47.800 --> 2:44:51.600 moments that stopped in between created like a different spot. 2:44:51.640 --> 2:44:54.320 I couldn't just pick back up where I was from 2:44:54.360 --> 2:44:56.879 the from the aspect of building the music. 2:44:57.360 --> 2:44:59.840 Rather I write it, or rather I collaborate and write it. 2:45:00.000 --> 2:45:02.360 Because the second single was she Came to Give It 2:45:02.440 --> 2:45:05.520 to You with with for Real, and I performed that 2:45:05.680 --> 2:45:11.800 record on MTV. You know, part of it was I'm 2:45:11.800 --> 2:45:14.800 not I'm not sure. I'm not sure it was. It 2:45:14.959 --> 2:45:16.879 was the record that everybody wanted. 2:45:16.800 --> 2:45:18.800 Right that one was to me, that one felt like 2:45:19.000 --> 2:45:20.320 a post blurred lines. 2:45:20.360 --> 2:45:23.880 It was kind of like that was It felt like 2:45:23.959 --> 2:45:26.520 for real, kind of hell I left in the tank. 2:45:26.640 --> 2:45:32.080 That's weird because as a DJ, I cherish any song 2:45:32.200 --> 2:45:35.320 in the key of E minor that's one hundred and 2:45:35.400 --> 2:45:38.160 nineteen bpms. That's very. 2:45:40.080 --> 2:45:40.120 No. 2:45:40.240 --> 2:45:43.680 But that's how things okay. It's like, she came to 2:45:43.760 --> 2:45:46.960 give it to you is my okay, I need a 2:45:47.040 --> 2:45:49.040 one to twenty year that's an E minor that will 2:45:49.120 --> 2:45:52.880 lead me to a different Well, long story short, I 2:45:52.959 --> 2:45:53.680 still spent it to that. 2:45:53.760 --> 2:45:56.240 That was such a that was such a disconnecting between 2:45:56.440 --> 2:45:58.440 the work that I was working on there and then 2:45:58.480 --> 2:46:02.120 where the album went. That in telling that story, it 2:46:02.280 --> 2:46:04.080 just felt like it stuck out like a sore thumb. 2:46:04.200 --> 2:46:07.080 It had already served its purpose. It was a hit record. 2:46:07.200 --> 2:46:09.200 People liked it, it did get I mean, I don't 2:46:09.200 --> 2:46:10.400 know if it was as big of a hit as 2:46:10.400 --> 2:46:12.080 I wanted it to be, but it was a number 2:46:12.120 --> 2:46:12.680 one record. 2:46:13.240 --> 2:46:15.920 And what is a hit for you? Now in light 2:46:16.040 --> 2:46:19.400 of in the age of like, does confessions even exist 2:46:19.480 --> 2:46:20.120 to you anymore? 2:46:20.320 --> 2:46:21.960 Is it just like what do you mean which aspect 2:46:22.000 --> 2:46:22.440 of confession? 2:46:22.480 --> 2:46:25.280 Well, I just feel now that you're about making artistic 2:46:25.360 --> 2:46:30.440 statements more than dealing with man, I got it. 2:46:30.640 --> 2:46:34.680 The only way to make a cohesive Okay, no, no, 2:46:34.879 --> 2:46:37.480 I'm gonna answer your question. It does not matter to 2:46:37.600 --> 2:46:40.680 me to make a record that is like confessions, like 2:46:40.840 --> 2:46:43.400 I need to have confessions because confessions is never going 2:46:43.480 --> 2:46:44.039 to happen again. 2:46:44.920 --> 2:46:45.720 It is what it is. 2:46:45.840 --> 2:46:48.120 It was for that moment. Jermaine Dupree and all of 2:46:48.160 --> 2:46:51.240 the producers who were part of it were right where 2:46:51.240 --> 2:46:53.320 they needed to be and right at that moment. And 2:46:53.440 --> 2:46:56.200 I can't go back and get that. But what I 2:46:56.280 --> 2:46:59.200 can do is move to the next chapter and do 2:46:59.400 --> 2:47:02.160 something that feels like a cohesive body of work, that 2:47:02.400 --> 2:47:08.360 is valuable, that feels musical, that feels like it's leading 2:47:08.440 --> 2:47:09.600 that feels like it's. 2:47:11.240 --> 2:47:12.440 It's pushing the lines. 2:47:12.600 --> 2:47:12.920 It is. 2:47:13.280 --> 2:47:15.240 And by the way, the idea of what music is 2:47:15.320 --> 2:47:18.560 for me now has expanded. Like, Okay, some people may like, 2:47:19.240 --> 2:47:21.320 you know, the older records that I did, but then 2:47:21.320 --> 2:47:22.760 there's some people that like some of the new shit 2:47:22.800 --> 2:47:24.480 that I do too. They like DJ got Us, fall 2:47:24.560 --> 2:47:26.359 in Love, they like OMG, and they like the original 2:47:26.440 --> 2:47:28.280 version of it too, of Quesse, you know what I'm saying. 2:47:28.320 --> 2:47:32.080 So it's like shots fire, shots fire. 2:47:32.560 --> 2:47:35.840 So but my point is it's like, so now I'm 2:47:35.920 --> 2:47:39.480 forced with the reality that I have a stadium of 2:47:39.520 --> 2:47:42.440 people waiting to come, and I don't have music to 2:47:42.520 --> 2:47:43.279 serve everybody. 2:47:43.560 --> 2:47:43.880 Right now. 2:47:44.120 --> 2:47:46.400 I only have one record that works here, one record 2:47:46.400 --> 2:47:48.080 that works there. And while we're in a time where 2:47:48.480 --> 2:47:50.800 I can't put out a song here, a song there, 2:47:50.840 --> 2:47:53.240 and it's fragmented. That's the reality of where we are, 2:47:53.959 --> 2:47:56.360 you know what I'm saying. Like, Unfortunately, even if people 2:47:56.440 --> 2:47:59.200 have an entire holbum, the people listen to a single 2:47:59.240 --> 2:48:01.000 they like this song, that song, and you don't even 2:48:01.040 --> 2:48:03.480 know what album it comes from. So what's necessary, what's 2:48:03.560 --> 2:48:05.480 necessary to create a cohesive body of. 2:48:05.560 --> 2:48:08.080 Work that from the beginning of the beginning to end. 2:48:08.480 --> 2:48:09.280 You feel the connection. 2:48:09.520 --> 2:48:11.640 It might feel like it's a little bit rocky and 2:48:11.680 --> 2:48:13.400 all over the place, and text is taken from all 2:48:13.400 --> 2:48:16.520 over the place, but it's a cohesive body of work, 2:48:16.920 --> 2:48:19.880 meaning we need to go get in the studio, lock 2:48:19.959 --> 2:48:22.280 the door, bring in our interne what do you say, 2:48:24.080 --> 2:48:29.120 bringing your inna board. And it's just because there's a 2:48:29.160 --> 2:48:30.959 couple of them, you know what I'm saying. Because there's 2:48:31.000 --> 2:48:33.680 a lot of perspectives to be considered, and it is 2:48:33.800 --> 2:48:36.720 a progressive sound. It ain't gonna sound and feel like 2:48:37.800 --> 2:48:42.199 anything but it, but it requires everything to make it happen. 2:48:49.120 --> 2:48:53.920 Well, mister Raymond the fourth, I know this was painful. No, 2:48:54.040 --> 2:48:54.360 I wasn't. 2:48:54.360 --> 2:48:55.480 Actually I really enjoyed it. 2:48:55.959 --> 2:49:02.720 You must have because from yeah, I'm sorry, I lie 2:49:02.760 --> 2:49:05.840 to you time of the time of the hour. I 2:49:05.920 --> 2:49:08.000 told you how it's gonna be like forty five minutes 2:49:08.040 --> 2:49:08.760 to an hour. Nothing. 2:49:08.959 --> 2:49:10.480 He'sbing his head. He's not looking at you right now, 2:49:10.760 --> 2:49:11.840 attention his head. 2:49:13.879 --> 2:49:18.320 No, but thank you very much. I share I hope 2:49:18.360 --> 2:49:22.680 for a great fruitful relationship, uh in which we listen 2:49:22.760 --> 2:49:23.959 to it is like speed dating. 2:49:24.320 --> 2:49:25.160 Wait to see what y'all do. 2:49:27.040 --> 2:49:29.879 No, I mean, come on, man, it's not pressure. It's 2:49:29.959 --> 2:49:31.480 like it's just well I can imagine. 2:49:31.480 --> 2:49:34.200 I won't say it's not pressure, but we have confidence 2:49:34.280 --> 2:49:36.279 that this ship would be dope based on your record 2:49:36.360 --> 2:49:36.960 and your record. 2:49:37.160 --> 2:49:39.000 It's not like y'all going to make a just good friends, 2:49:39.040 --> 2:49:44.800 you know what I mean? It's that should be the 2:49:44.840 --> 2:49:51.120 closing song, right right? Or get it? I like getting no, No, 2:49:51.640 --> 2:49:54.800 you don't like get it? Hell no, there we go. 2:49:55.240 --> 2:50:02.080 Like Michael Jackson, Steve never made record toge besides help it, 2:50:02.120 --> 2:50:03.920 they knocked it out the part, but get it and 2:50:04.040 --> 2:50:04.640 just good friends. 2:50:05.680 --> 2:50:08.400 It takes a little bit more discipline on your part, 2:50:08.600 --> 2:50:09.240 right to just. 2:50:09.280 --> 2:50:12.600 Get prepared and then and then you know, let it 2:50:12.760 --> 2:50:16.000 happen because I can carry it out, you know what 2:50:16.000 --> 2:50:16.360 I'm saying. 2:50:16.400 --> 2:50:17.280 I can carry it away. 2:50:17.360 --> 2:50:19.600 And some of the ideas and the things that I 2:50:19.680 --> 2:50:23.040 think we should add in are gonna be foreign to people. 2:50:23.160 --> 2:50:25.360 It's gonna feel odd when they first hear. It's gonna 2:50:25.400 --> 2:50:29.000 feel they're gonna feel some connection to it, but they're 2:50:29.040 --> 2:50:30.960 not gonna know what it is. They're not gonna know 2:50:31.080 --> 2:50:32.840 why they are moving the way that they're moving. They're 2:50:32.840 --> 2:50:36.440 not going to understand that it's something different. It's something 2:50:36.480 --> 2:50:39.320 that's intended to nurture their soul. They don't get it. 2:50:39.760 --> 2:50:42.080 Nurture soul. I love those two words together. 2:50:43.280 --> 2:50:46.119 Uh this this is the wrap of the show. 2:50:46.320 --> 2:50:50.600 But I'm telling you because I'm speaking into existence until 2:50:50.640 --> 2:50:51.160 it happens. 2:50:52.000 --> 2:51:07.000 It's what did you learn? Brother? 2:51:07.080 --> 2:51:07.160 Yo? 2:51:07.280 --> 2:51:07.440 Man? 2:51:08.120 --> 2:51:09.640 I learned as a real dude. Man. 2:51:10.040 --> 2:51:15.080 One last question your studio session residents, No no, no question, 2:51:15.280 --> 2:51:18.280 your real question, your food exit shot my man exit 2:51:18.360 --> 2:51:19.360 mark exit good child. 2:51:19.560 --> 2:51:21.560 Uh a record engineer. 2:51:22.160 --> 2:51:26.520 He was telling me about your studio session rider and 2:51:26.600 --> 2:51:29.560 what you eat in the studio, Like like apparently your 2:51:29.560 --> 2:51:30.840 ship is like crazy discipline. 2:51:31.200 --> 2:51:34.640 Like what do you eat? We just stopped by dunking 2:51:34.720 --> 2:51:39.600 dinners before the interview ahead now, but. 2:51:41.200 --> 2:51:44.360 I eat fruit. I like vegetables. You know what I'm saying. 2:51:44.400 --> 2:51:54.080 It's like bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, beats. Uh Like yeah, 2:51:54.120 --> 2:51:57.760 it's boring and ship, but but what's crazy is that 2:51:58.040 --> 2:52:01.120 that keeps you. It's a lot, man, and you get 2:52:01.160 --> 2:52:01.960 beneath the apple bam. 2:52:02.240 --> 2:52:05.199 Hey, but I've learned that's the best dessert. 2:52:07.280 --> 2:52:07.720 Anywhere. 2:52:08.080 --> 2:52:10.000 I've learned that usher is like, you know a real 2:52:10.120 --> 2:52:12.040 dude and listens to his story, there's a lot of 2:52:12.080 --> 2:52:14.800 similarities and my story as a young kid growing up 2:52:14.800 --> 2:52:16.800 in the South, and I'm just happy to just be 2:52:16.840 --> 2:52:17.880 able to see a job of that with you. 2:52:17.959 --> 2:52:20.560 I'm a fan and you know, always support what you 2:52:20.640 --> 2:52:22.760 do with it. He appreciate your brother for real. 2:52:22.840 --> 2:52:23.360 Thank you man. 2:52:25.160 --> 2:52:26.360 What did you learn? 2:52:27.240 --> 2:52:29.640 It's been an amazing ride growing up with you number one, 2:52:29.680 --> 2:52:32.400 because that's how it feels that way, uh, and to 2:52:32.440 --> 2:52:35.520 see your evolution. But I also learned that, like Usher, 2:52:35.680 --> 2:52:38.240 is not only hella woke, but hella up to doing 2:52:38.320 --> 2:52:41.160 something about it. And I know that you're very community active, 2:52:41.440 --> 2:52:43.280 but you just took it to another level tonight. 2:52:43.440 --> 2:52:45.320 And so I'm just letting you know with some soldiers 2:52:45.360 --> 2:52:46.200 out here, be ready. 2:52:46.440 --> 2:52:49.040 That's all. That's what I learned to I'm going to 2:52:49.120 --> 2:52:50.959 move my money to a black bank as well. 2:52:51.360 --> 2:52:54.119 Well fine is in industrial. Would you need some suggestions? 2:52:54.200 --> 2:52:54.400 Hey? 2:52:54.800 --> 2:53:01.039 Yeah, Wait, why are you looking at me like. 2:53:01.240 --> 2:53:02.920 You said you needed back bank. I was just saying, 2:53:02.920 --> 2:53:04.400 I got some suggestions. 2:53:04.120 --> 2:53:06.560 Okay, and I'm going to take your suggestions when we 2:53:07.440 --> 2:53:10.480 off the air. So these niggas don't know what my money. 2:53:12.320 --> 2:53:18.600 You know what I'm saying, Bill? Oh what did I learn? Yeah, 2:53:18.640 --> 2:53:19.600 so what did you learn today? 2:53:19.840 --> 2:53:21.560 I hate I don't want to say that I learned something, 2:53:21.640 --> 2:53:25.160 But it's just always refreshing when you meet somebody like Usher, 2:53:25.640 --> 2:53:27.960 someone in his status, and you realize that they're not 2:53:28.120 --> 2:53:30.200 crazy and they're not they're actually down to earth, and 2:53:31.680 --> 2:53:32.600 you know, like. 2:53:33.320 --> 2:53:35.560 Every reason not to be Yeah, it has everything, like 2:53:35.600 --> 2:53:39.320 a million records, like, yeah, i'd be completely You wouldn't 2:53:39.320 --> 2:53:40.840 want to be around me. If I sold thirteen million 2:53:41.120 --> 2:53:42.720 or thirteen million rerecord, I couldn't. 2:53:42.400 --> 2:53:45.240 Tell you nothing. Six now, you couldn't you. You couldn't 2:53:45.240 --> 2:53:47.520 tell me if I sold six hundred rerecor now sixty 2:53:47.600 --> 2:53:52.119 eight sixty eight eight million, million, sixty eight million worldwide. 2:53:52.200 --> 2:53:54.600 He is one of the top Billboard artists up the 2:53:54.800 --> 2:53:57.680 center something like that. I know it's twenty five something. 2:53:57.920 --> 2:54:01.480 The numbers don't lie. Yeah, so that's how do you 2:54:01.480 --> 2:54:04.760 stay humble? Man? This is I couldn't do it. I 2:54:04.800 --> 2:54:05.280 couldn't do it. 2:54:06.120 --> 2:54:06.640 Ain't doing it? 2:54:08.879 --> 2:54:11.520 Fired all right, unpaid bill? 2:54:12.800 --> 2:54:12.920 Uh. 2:54:13.160 --> 2:54:14.920 I think Usher and I are about the same age, 2:54:15.160 --> 2:54:17.119 and I was just sort of wondering the whole time 2:54:17.200 --> 2:54:20.000 what the hell I was doing. I was fifteen, right, 2:54:20.240 --> 2:54:23.200 and uh and Uh, it wasn't that. It wasn't what 2:54:23.360 --> 2:54:25.440 Usher was doing. And Usher, I don't know if you 2:54:25.480 --> 2:54:27.600 know this. We've worked tangentially on a number of different 2:54:27.640 --> 2:54:30.240 things Sesme Street and the otherwise, and we've never actually 2:54:30.240 --> 2:54:33.520 met Street. He was He's sang the ABC's like motherfucker. 2:54:33.560 --> 2:54:36.000 It's one of the coolest things in many years i've 2:54:36.040 --> 2:54:36.320 worked there. 2:54:36.360 --> 2:54:38.520 That's great. Yeah, but on paid Bill has a lot 2:54:38.560 --> 2:54:41.039 of jobs to one of them is being a key 2:54:41.160 --> 2:54:42.440 Sesame Street songwriters. 2:54:43.320 --> 2:54:52.400 Yeah, that sounds terrible, I would get but it makes 2:54:52.480 --> 2:54:54.200 sound like I have an ego. So that's great. Thank 2:54:54.200 --> 2:54:56.720 you very much for that. But it's it's very humbling 2:54:56.720 --> 2:54:57.320 to beach as well. 2:54:58.480 --> 2:55:01.960 All Right, the ABC, the movie you should it should 2:55:01.959 --> 2:55:03.279 definitely have wanted something. 2:55:03.520 --> 2:55:08.080 Yeah, yeah, yeah, Sugar Steve, what did you learn? Bro? 2:55:09.680 --> 2:55:10.920 First of all, I think I know better. 2:55:11.879 --> 2:55:14.600 I think I worked with him had electrically back in 2:55:14.640 --> 2:55:16.680 the early two thousands. I can't I'm trying to remember 2:55:16.720 --> 2:55:21.360 what project it was. But it's a terribly interesting story 2:55:21.440 --> 2:55:26.320 starting so young. And you know, I've I've come to 2:55:27.200 --> 2:55:30.240 I've come to respect your music and you from working 2:55:30.800 --> 2:55:32.879 on all this, on all this stuff with the roots 2:55:33.480 --> 2:55:37.600 and I think I think a collaboration with the Roots 2:55:38.480 --> 2:55:40.160 would be a great idea, and I think it falls 2:55:40.160 --> 2:55:42.760 in line nicely with the rest of their collaboration albums, 2:55:43.200 --> 2:55:46.800 you know, as far as I think it would work, well, 2:55:47.200 --> 2:55:47.680 it sounds like. 2:55:47.680 --> 2:55:50.320 A lot of work, but just to add on something 2:55:50.360 --> 2:55:54.119 after seeing the Roots in Usher perform at Brooklyn Bowl, Like, however, 2:55:54.200 --> 2:55:56.560 many months ago, i'd buy an album of just you guys, 2:55:56.600 --> 2:55:57.440 you know, doing the old thing. 2:55:57.520 --> 2:55:59.880 Yeah, that was that was my question, that can be 2:56:00.200 --> 2:56:01.400 is it gonna be? I was going to say, I 2:56:01.480 --> 2:56:04.440 felt like we always cut me off when I'm trying 2:56:04.480 --> 2:56:04.879 to say. 2:56:11.440 --> 2:56:11.800 No, I was. 2:56:11.840 --> 2:56:16.760 I was wondering, if you imagine you're clearly imagining original 2:56:16.840 --> 2:56:18.760 material for the for an album. 2:56:19.120 --> 2:56:24.520 Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's gotta be original, you know. 2:56:24.680 --> 2:56:28.360 And maybe there are moments where maybe there's a song 2:56:28.440 --> 2:56:31.400 that that's so significant that we have to remake it 2:56:32.560 --> 2:56:34.960 and do it in a way that makes it feel 2:56:35.040 --> 2:56:37.160 like it was done for the first time by us. 2:56:37.920 --> 2:56:41.440 But it would be nice to have to have didn't 2:56:41.440 --> 2:56:46.320 you record that Brooklyn Bowl show? Like yeah, yeah, be 2:56:46.440 --> 2:56:49.320 nice to you want to put that out available, But 2:56:50.320 --> 2:56:53.680 we could in case we get we can. 2:56:53.600 --> 2:56:57.200 Set the stage similar to the Picnic, which did brook Ball. 2:56:57.320 --> 2:56:58.039 It was tighter though. 2:56:58.920 --> 2:57:02.000 Yeah, well well okay we might leave with a taste 2:57:02.040 --> 2:57:06.080 of what we're doing. Let's do that. Yes, but yes, 2:57:06.240 --> 2:57:09.600 I mean there's there's the stuff is properly recorded on 2:57:09.800 --> 2:57:15.200 two inch tape. And you know, I have to say 2:57:15.280 --> 2:57:18.840 that what you what you won't know about Boss Bill 2:57:18.920 --> 2:57:20.600 or Frante is that, you know, we all come from 2:57:20.640 --> 2:57:25.959 the Okay player community and uh, you know, I kind 2:57:26.000 --> 2:57:29.160 of felt that Bill was losing losing faith in us 2:57:29.240 --> 2:57:33.640 for a good decade or so. But in the roots, 2:57:34.480 --> 2:57:39.000 well yeah, I mean, it's not like we could surprise 2:57:39.080 --> 2:57:41.840 you anymore. Like you know, I was, I was, I was, 2:57:42.440 --> 2:57:47.520 I was with y'all up until undone. Okay, well that's 2:57:47.720 --> 2:57:52.640 that's way, that's that's way more than I expect. No, 2:57:52.760 --> 2:57:56.920 that's only one record. His cousin was undone and cousin 2:57:56.959 --> 2:58:00.440 record it's only Yeah. Well okay, I'm just saying that 2:58:01.160 --> 2:58:05.400 I was shocked that you really liked the Brooklyn Bowl shows. 2:58:06.240 --> 2:58:09.520 So that was my Richard Nichols moment, like, oh it 2:58:09.600 --> 2:58:12.880 didn't suck like the Dame Dash. Oh it's not whack. 2:58:13.440 --> 2:58:14.920 I was like, oh, I still got a future here. 2:58:15.800 --> 2:58:18.760 Maybe I should investigate this. I should think I learned 2:58:18.800 --> 2:58:23.840 a lot. I learned that you're probably the most thoughtful 2:58:25.480 --> 2:58:30.280 singer I've ever meant, because I'm not saying most singers 2:58:30.320 --> 2:58:36.880 are clueless. They're clueless. Yeah. I meet a lot of 2:58:37.000 --> 2:58:41.640 clueless singers that rely on their management and and uh 2:58:42.400 --> 2:58:46.720 there there weed carriers to kind of advise them on 2:58:46.879 --> 2:58:50.760 what to do. And you you clearly have a mission. 2:58:51.120 --> 2:58:55.440 I do believe that you are going to be the 2:58:55.520 --> 2:59:01.760 mayor of Atlanta, Georgia musically speaking. Uh not now, maybe 2:59:01.800 --> 2:59:04.720 when you're sixty or seventy, I don't know, but uh, 2:59:05.080 --> 2:59:09.200 I feel that you will take that leadership role. That's yeah, yeah, 2:59:09.640 --> 2:59:13.120 I hope politically a little bit. Oh yeah, I could 2:59:13.160 --> 2:59:17.680 totally see Usher being a politician. I mean Russia. Oh no, 2:59:20.120 --> 2:59:23.640 you're gonna come back on you anyway. Going that note 2:59:24.160 --> 2:59:28.199 on behalf of Sirtain Steve and Unpaid Bill and bost 2:59:28.280 --> 2:59:34.160 Bill and Liah and fn Tigelow and Usher even the 2:59:34.240 --> 2:59:40.920 fourth uh. This quest Loves signing off of West Love 2:59:41.000 --> 2:59:44.880 Supreme is a production iHeart Radio. This classic episode was 2:59:44.920 --> 2:59:51.320 produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from 2:59:51.360 --> 2:59:55.240 iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or 2:59:55.240 --> 2:59:56.880 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.