Speaker 1: Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to q l S Classic Episode
Speaker 1: one to three with I'll Be Sure. From February two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, one of the proprietors of the New Jack
Speaker 1: Swing movement. He came to break bread with us to
Speaker 1: share stories of his journey as an up start from
Speaker 1: Mount Vernon to damn Near getting arrested for simply causing
Speaker 1: riots wherever he stood. You'll imagine that cops trying to
Speaker 1: jail you for making all the ladies swim. Well, all
Speaker 1: that and more on the next I'll Be Sure QLs
Speaker 1: Classic Part one. Let's go Suprema rogue called Sma Primo
Speaker 1: rogue called sam rogue called sub prima primo roll call,
Speaker 1: Turn up the Fader, Yeah night now, not later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course love is chilling. Yeah with the Sony Innovader
Speaker 1: some primo roll. I'm gonna do it, so Frema roll call.
Speaker 1: My name is Fante. Yeah, everybody don't laugh, because I
Speaker 1: came to watch you take a bad Roma roll on.
Speaker 1: My name is Sugar. Yeah. The record shows, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: took the blows. Yeah, and did it my fremo road
Speaker 1: he cut some frima prima rolltiller is here. Yeah for
Speaker 1: another que last show. Yeah, I don't want your girl
Speaker 1: turned out? Better tell he hit the road Freema some subpremo,
Speaker 1: role sub frema some sub prema roll call. It's like
Speaker 1: yeah and worry no more. Yeah, Oh my fucking god.
Speaker 1: Ye call that was actually in a room Frema roll call,
Speaker 1: so prema, so Frema roll call West Love. Yeah his name, yeah,
Speaker 1: Crazy Drum is his game shows sign up, road call
Speaker 1: so Prema son Supremo roll call, so Prema something Suprema
Speaker 1: roll call, so Frema sign something yo. Man Like if
Speaker 1: I believed in picking up phones and answer machines, that
Speaker 1: would be my ow. And the show is over. Lazy joke.
Speaker 1: Thank you for calling Quest Love. No one's in right now,
Speaker 1: so please leave a message after the tune and he'll
Speaker 1: get back to you when he feels like Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I got deep Boys out. News, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome
Speaker 1: to another road trip edition of Questlove Supreme. We are
Speaker 1: still in California here for the rest of the year. Yes,
Speaker 1: he'll be here. We're spending life out here where we
Speaker 1: at Steve East West Studios formerly Western Recorders. That's what
Speaker 1: this building was, home of Frank Sinatra and pet Sounds.
Speaker 1: We're looking at the infamous uh Frank Sinatra podium, podium,
Speaker 1: this whole room is. That's why I was singing my
Speaker 1: way but I get whatever. No, that's that's why you know.
Speaker 1: I wanted you to explain what the deal is. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Uh, I don't even have a proper introduction,
Speaker 1: but I will say that we're here chilling man with God.
Speaker 1: I've been waiting on this. Yes, the original Rappert single.
Speaker 1: Yes he is. I think he's there is like you know,
Speaker 1: fuck your your your Drake dreams. We had the originator
Speaker 1: well themselves lord of the light Skins and what I've
Speaker 1: been seeing lately as hashtag the light Skin general money
Speaker 1: earning money, murdered money earning, Mount Vernon. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please welcome to quest up Sapre. I'll be sure, yes,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for corlor brother, Thank you man,
Speaker 1: thank you for the dream culture for real. Much appreciated,
Speaker 1: much appreciated. Man. I so what do we start come doing? Man?
Speaker 1: Listen when I we're getting the deep cause later all right,
Speaker 1: So let's just let's start. As I called Lee to
Speaker 1: says at the beginning, I'll be where were you born?
Speaker 1: I was actually born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: rock a socks had, but I represent New York so hard,
Speaker 1: only because my dad was in the Coast Guard. Mother
Speaker 1: and father we moved away to New York. So every
Speaker 1: time I see Bobby your new kids or so, I
Speaker 1: get all the ship in the world. You Yeah, I
Speaker 1: represent the Met's, Yankees Nets, you know, Islanders, Rangers, Victory,
Speaker 1: you know Liberty. Excuse me, said Victory and yeah. So
Speaker 1: um so I represent New York all day early day.
Speaker 1: So Mount Vernon, that was where you kind of raised
Speaker 1: and came up. Absolutely, yeah, we call it four square miles. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course we have a few heads that you might
Speaker 1: be familiar with. A gentleman by the name of Dick Clark.
Speaker 1: I was from Mount Vernon. Um. Eb White Chart of
Speaker 1: Charlotte's Webb, which is one of my favorite books of
Speaker 1: all time. Um. In fact, my four year old grandson
Speaker 1: can read the entire book. I'm loving it. Um. Are
Speaker 1: you pregnant? Ye? I wonder how long he gonna hold it?
Speaker 1: All the times they have like this doofy Jim Hinton.
Speaker 1: That's boys of Mine. I can't do that. Wait, let
Speaker 1: me tell you something. First of all, I'm probably the
Speaker 1: biggest Quest fan on planet Earth, to the point where
Speaker 1: when you come to Vegas, I want you to come
Speaker 1: to the residents. I have this cool low res photo.
Speaker 1: I need a new one, but I got this cool photo.
Speaker 1: I got the one photo with you. And we were
Speaker 1: in Houston somewhere ship we did do a show together,
Speaker 1: and I was so nervous because I was nervous, I
Speaker 1: was like, wait, the show is that like the rout?
Speaker 1: We did one of you know joins, the collaborative joins,
Speaker 1: and I'll be sure was one of the forgot what
Speaker 1: use this? And I think our very own Frank Millwalk
Speaker 1: was also there. It was in Houston. It was like
Speaker 1: one of the places with the with the long stage
Speaker 1: and it's like one of them Hennessee shows, like a
Speaker 1: bunch of acts on damn what two thousand four Okay,
Speaker 1: we we could afford a backdrop back then, so maybe
Speaker 1: it's like two thousand five two. It was wait before
Speaker 1: Falance so and I know it was it was after
Speaker 1: the Towers because I was marketing about the Towers phone,
Speaker 1: so that it was after Towers, so it had to
Speaker 1: be like I forgot we did that. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that was that was exciting. But anyway, the point was
Speaker 1: I have this really cool photo, but I had a
Speaker 1: whack ass phone back then state and I've said there
Speaker 1: was no high reds. There was no HD though, was
Speaker 1: just d H. We we can up, we get updating definitely.
Speaker 1: So in Okay, So when when did you move to
Speaker 1: New York? So as as a kid, So I lived
Speaker 1: partly in New Jersey as well. So in a place
Speaker 1: called Leonie in New Jersey. Uh, that's the place where
Speaker 1: you're the mayor complaining because everybody was going through the
Speaker 1: streets to Leoni to get to the city and all
Speaker 1: that craziness. I was going with the bridge and all that,
Speaker 1: you know, with the mayor the governor. Yeah. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: so for the most part, you know, I grew up
Speaker 1: in the streets on the south side of Money earning
Speaker 1: Mount Vernon. Um we call it four square miles, you know.
Speaker 1: We have, like I said, a few heads you may
Speaker 1: may may have heard of of course, the most prominent
Speaker 1: for myself. Um. In fact, we even um uh obviously
Speaker 1: you know Denzel Washington is from Mount Vernon as well.
Speaker 1: Stephanie Mills. Um, you know, I know that Stephanie Mills.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was so excited. I just did a
Speaker 1: show with Stephanie at the Indiana Black Expo and we
Speaker 1: were talking about how that's block wait wait wait wait.
Speaker 1: In fact, we did one in Philly too, we did
Speaker 1: in your city, just we just did at the Convention
Speaker 1: Center and uh but yeah, So what people didn't know is,
Speaker 1: you know how everybody was saying at all it is Michael.
Speaker 1: You know, was he cake or what I'm like now,
Speaker 1: Michael was gangster, Michael. Michael and Stephanie Mills used to date. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is recent. Was like Sam Smith. It said something
Speaker 1: in the interview supposed that he wasn't really a fan
Speaker 1: of Michael Jackson and Stephanie Mill. Oh boy, he inadvertently
Speaker 1: not realized that he's here because of Michael Jackson, like
Speaker 1: all of Okay, but anyway, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: I had no idea as a youngster, when I was
Speaker 1: riding my little BMX bicycle around that Michael Jackson was
Speaker 1: about Vernon. I'd probably lost my mind. Um yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's a beautiful place, you know, uh, just my
Speaker 1: best friend growing up in high school, Eddie f d
Speaker 1: J d F you know, big shots Eddie. Um. I
Speaker 1: used to carry the equipment. I was the engineer and
Speaker 1: he was the DJ, was the best DJ, and uh
Speaker 1: you know, we used to just used to do parties.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of how the whole thing started. We
Speaker 1: just started rocking together. And I saved my worked at
Speaker 1: Gussini Shoes and I worked at this other place that
Speaker 1: exactly like some place on on Fourth Avenue and save
Speaker 1: my little bread and brought for a task cam toto
Speaker 1: for tra tape to set tape. And that's how we
Speaker 1: started all those demos and we would record stuff. And
Speaker 1: this guy used to come over every day when we
Speaker 1: were recording. He would get on the turntable some practice
Speaker 1: and he was, you know, scratching and scratching. He started
Speaker 1: getting really really good. His name is Pete Rock. It
Speaker 1: was amazing and uh and then have played on the
Speaker 1: football team with me and uh so we decided to
Speaker 1: come kibby and then uh so I remember we were
Speaker 1: so I picked up this is the fund story. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've told this one. So we're in the
Speaker 1: basement there's this thing for the youngsters called the Yellow Pages.
Speaker 1: So I reached over to the Yellow Pages and we
Speaker 1: had just finished working on some demos. We cut a
Speaker 1: demo on have called It's a part of y'all. That's
Speaker 1: the first. It was just nine. It was a rolling
Speaker 1: nine o nine with a beat and him it's a
Speaker 1: part of y'all. And he was just spitting, you know,
Speaker 1: spen Mount Burning versus and uh, but it was. It
Speaker 1: was so fly. So I picked up the phone. I call, look,
Speaker 1: and we're Yellow Pages and I found a place called
Speaker 1: death Cham. I said, okay, that sounds familiar. I call
Speaker 1: a few times, you know, get there. Okay, great, al right, great,
Speaker 1: okay great. So I kept being consistent. I called, so
Speaker 1: the guy finally picks up, and you know, I'm having
Speaker 1: this dialogue with him, and I said, you know, I
Speaker 1: speak to Russell Simmons. Please. You know, I had to
Speaker 1: have this new group called Heavy D and the Boys
Speaker 1: for Money Earned Mount Burning. And dude was like, you know,
Speaker 1: you mean the fat Boys. I was like, no, I
Speaker 1: said Heavy D and the Boys for Money. He said,
Speaker 1: you mean you'll whose nigga is up in the Bronx.
Speaker 1: That's what he so you know, you know, yeah, y'all apolish,
Speaker 1: y'all ain't really get it. Y'all a polished. I'm like, now,
Speaker 1: trust me, I said, you got you don't understand, I said,
Speaker 1: but this is something very different. I said, this is
Speaker 1: something special. I think this young man's stars. You know.
Speaker 1: So we we had gone through our whole process without
Speaker 1: knowing that, you know, that we maybe would know what
Speaker 1: we would know. So we just played it all. So
Speaker 1: the key to his bring a dream into fruition. So
Speaker 1: we just got on the phone and I stayed consistent
Speaker 1: and I Kevin asked, and I'm said, listen, let me
Speaker 1: talk to Russell Simmons. I needed I want to get
Speaker 1: him in this music. Okay, we'll send us another cassette,
Speaker 1: send us another cassette. I call him back. He answered
Speaker 1: the phone, sir, um, I'd really like to talk to
Speaker 1: Russell Simmons. Who is this. My name is Andre Herrella.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to Russell Simmons. So that's that's
Speaker 1: how the whole thing started. And then and yeah, and
Speaker 1: then at that point Andre and Russell were, you know,
Speaker 1: not necessarily partying ways, but creatively because Andre wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of go into that commercial. You know, Russell obviously
Speaker 1: had militant hip hop you know public you know, just
Speaker 1: the Beastie Boys. He had that on the lock. That
Speaker 1: was his system. And Andre kind of wanted to be
Speaker 1: you know, he wanted to be Jack l and I
Speaker 1: he wanted to be armed and uh, you know, and
Speaker 1: at that point, um, you know, myself and Eddie was
Speaker 1: you know, essentially the glue that kind of started that
Speaker 1: whole thing with him. And he just was a brilliant,
Speaker 1: brilliant visionary of putting the collective pieces together too to
Speaker 1: kind of start this whole movement call Uptown. And what
Speaker 1: we did was I called him baby Berry Gudian. He
Speaker 1: would call me Baby Quincy Jones and and it was
Speaker 1: such an amazing time, even though we didn't really understand
Speaker 1: what it would turn into. It was more, um, we
Speaker 1: would pattern ourselves to be more of a boutique version
Speaker 1: of what Motown represented, so the artist would all work together,
Speaker 1: you know, it would be a whole when we've got
Speaker 1: our first offices in Brooklyn and it would be a
Speaker 1: hallway and everybody would And then he put me on
Speaker 1: the train. He told me to go go sit with
Speaker 1: this guy named Teddy Riley and go hitting the projects.
Speaker 1: Here this is a dress and a knocked on the door.
Speaker 1: And I sat there for a year and just Teddy
Speaker 1: taught me to program. It was a core D D
Speaker 1: D one. He had to tape over it though, and
Speaker 1: to all you know, the motto half a millisecond sample
Speaker 1: and so he was recording, you know, he was programming
Speaker 1: all that right. There was we do like ten songs
Speaker 1: a day, um and he Teddy Riley actually just announced,
Speaker 1: as I think of south By Southwest that Albie Shore
Speaker 1: is officially the fourth member of Guy because that's me
Speaker 1: singing one. Yeah. So we did so many demos together,
Speaker 1: you know when we started cutting nine day and off
Speaker 1: on young Girl, and then I would work on you
Speaker 1: know if I'm not your lover, and you can call
Speaker 1: me crazy, and it was just nonstopping. So under the
Speaker 1: tutelage of this young cat who just would make the
Speaker 1: drum machine break your neck, it was just so so amazing.
Speaker 1: He's like quest love with fingers on a drum machine.
Speaker 1: Like he's nice like that. It's like I've never seen someone,
Speaker 1: you know, like obviously when we win quests, you know,
Speaker 1: he's on his his his kid. It's just it's something
Speaker 1: magical in terms of this the rhythm and just it's
Speaker 1: it's magical because he's got probably got every nation under
Speaker 1: a group for lack of better terms. You know, what
Speaker 1: were your folcus doing at the time? Were they supportive
Speaker 1: of your your music? Like, what did your what did
Speaker 1: your folks do? Well? My dad, uh, he's at Cornell
Speaker 1: had a nuclear medicine, so he's doing that. My mother
Speaker 1: was managing a dental office, you know, preachers selling insurance.
Speaker 1: They were divorced when I was four. Um, so you
Speaker 1: know it was me and Mom Dukes, you know, making
Speaker 1: it happen. She kept her foot way way in my
Speaker 1: esophagus to make sure, you know, because I wanted to
Speaker 1: run the streets. I want you to know I thought
Speaker 1: I was. I thought I was gonna be a hustler,
Speaker 1: like because that's when I saw the oho that asked
Speaker 1: my car, you know, on the corner. I wanted that.
Speaker 1: But I was like fourteen, so so you know, I would,
Speaker 1: you know, just get involved with the situations. And if
Speaker 1: I came home with a brand new pair of pumas
Speaker 1: or some of data's, where'd you get them? Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: snatch snatched the curly afro pulled me out the door,
Speaker 1: and I was so grateful that she snatched that snatched
Speaker 1: me up every time like something would go left, because
Speaker 1: then I had this respectful fear of a boy. Let me,
Speaker 1: let me just let me keep a semi in the
Speaker 1: lane where I'm supposed to be and make sure at
Speaker 1: least do my homework and do what I gotta do.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's taught me somewhat of responsibility for
Speaker 1: the most part. But just you you have brothers and
Speaker 1: have three sisters, but you know, after marriage and sup,
Speaker 1: but it was just me and mom and uh yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: so my with my my sister Amber was the younger
Speaker 1: snap but with just to marriage. So but yes, it's
Speaker 1: it was amazing just in terms of she just gave
Speaker 1: me a schedule. I would come home only refrigerator. It
Speaker 1: would be a loosely a piece of paper, three fifteen,
Speaker 1: take off your school close, three starts you man, so
Speaker 1: every day and uh, it was just a schedule. It
Speaker 1: was like you know, sergeant Mom. And she's a little
Speaker 1: five for two things. She swings a heart part. I
Speaker 1: remember one time she tried to swing on me one
Speaker 1: day because I was with this kid named Charlie Peppertone
Speaker 1: and he had given me some marijuana or something or
Speaker 1: some sort of a regular. I thought it was my mother,
Speaker 1: and I got home and mother found it in my
Speaker 1: pocket and I and I went, this is the crazy part.
Speaker 1: I come walking down the hill from school when I
Speaker 1: see this is the all the time, you know, when
Speaker 1: you see your father's car sitting in the afternoon. And
Speaker 1: I was like, and he had hold up, okay, quest
Speaker 1: he had the dots and would folks like the long
Speaker 1: with the wood green man and you know that you
Speaker 1: can't mistake that one. So I'm walking in and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what's going on here? And he was like sit down,
Speaker 1: and that's all my father had to say. And I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: uh sir, you know, and well, what's that? Oh it's
Speaker 1: not mine? Okay, great? Whose is it? And so you know,
Speaker 1: I had they had they confessed, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: what it was because I didn't know anything about that
Speaker 1: at that point. I was just but apparently the cast father,
Speaker 1: you know he was, you know, back in the day.
Speaker 1: And then that's when I started one. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a hustler. That's because you got nice things and
Speaker 1: not a lot of work until I had to switch
Speaker 1: it up and realized I enjoy putting in the work.
Speaker 1: So starting off with you rapping first, like when you
Speaker 1: went d F for cutting stuff, Like what what was
Speaker 1: your role? Okay? So initially, um, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a rapper, and so my favorite rapper was Slick Rick.
Speaker 1: So to me, he's like the greatest storyteller of all time.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody has their favorite j and naas and
Speaker 1: you know, rock him and I'm from the rock Him
Speaker 1: error so um and black thought and like that's that's
Speaker 1: my like, um my man, I'll be sure in effect
Speaker 1: mode for your pleasure. For your pleasure, you know, that's
Speaker 1: my junk right there. Yeah. So yeah, just that was
Speaker 1: the way it started. And in fact, you know when
Speaker 1: we started cutting the demos for have the initial demos,
Speaker 1: it was, uh, you know, I wanted to rap on
Speaker 1: the song, but they're like, no, don't rap, just sing
Speaker 1: and sing sing some some the background. So I became
Speaker 1: like the I wasn't a part of the group per se,
Speaker 1: but I was the background singer. Um and I was
Speaker 1: Eddie's best friend. But what Eddie did for me, which
Speaker 1: is I love him to this day, no matter what
Speaker 1: was going on. As they were getting their momentum, Eddie
Speaker 1: would keep my little cassette tape with him and every
Speaker 1: time he would be around Russell or Andre or anyone
Speaker 1: like that nature, he would pop my cassette over. So
Speaker 1: Andre just told the story. I think it was either
Speaker 1: on her mind sung or he told it on inside
Speaker 1: the label where he said, you know, one day having
Speaker 1: Eddie uh miss studio time or something that easy. You know,
Speaker 1: I said, hey, can I use it? And then uh,
Speaker 1: Kylin that when they laid down night and day and
Speaker 1: he says, oh, this kid got talent. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: and then that's where it all started. It was the
Speaker 1: first song, No, the first song I actually recorded was
Speaker 1: this Love Is and that's the original version that was
Speaker 1: on the four track cas set Roe Shamir just bounced
Speaker 1: the cassette tape to the student and then we try
Speaker 1: to keep most original element because you know, you get
Speaker 1: demo whitis. He's like you in the hood, riding around
Speaker 1: and in the K car joint on Third Street, and uh,
Speaker 1: and it sounds and you get used to that. I studio.
Speaker 1: It's like if it work, it works, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking you somethinking all the health stuff is
Speaker 1: that you singing on? Don't you know? Don't you know?
Speaker 1: Don't you know? Somebody for me money? Under mound burning?
Speaker 1: How old were you around this time? I was younger.
Speaker 1: I had to be seventeen or eighteen at least. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And like what you're singing? Was it something like that?
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't. No, I wasn't a singer. My
Speaker 1: father played piano and my mother's manage a dental office.
Speaker 1: But that was you know, I wasn't really a singer
Speaker 1: or anything. But I was a stylist what you call
Speaker 1: a stylist, meaning I understood structured because I studied, you know,
Speaker 1: song structure and things that that nature to know that
Speaker 1: I was going to be doing that, but I went
Speaker 1: to send it for me. The oars over then like
Speaker 1: you to study engineering. So Eddie and Eddie and I
Speaker 1: right after high school wanted to. We wanted to. I
Speaker 1: really want to be an engineer because I was into
Speaker 1: frequency and sound. I'm a little bit of a straight
Speaker 1: I'm a corn ball in terms of I'm into you know,
Speaker 1: like now which I love everything related to analytics and
Speaker 1: and and just understand a digital footprint of where you
Speaker 1: are as an artists and then just trends and things
Speaker 1: of that nature. So, um, that's what I truly enjoyed
Speaker 1: as well. That's what's that when Um, when y'all did
Speaker 1: the first well so you did Night and Day. You
Speaker 1: and Kyle first off, talk about Kyle Man because he
Speaker 1: nobody knows. When you heard, you knew it's some fires.
Speaker 1: It's about to get real all the way down like
Speaker 1: it when you heard that NI is about to get real.
Speaker 1: It was funny, like go West, break it down, you know, Kyle, Kyle.
Speaker 1: In fact, we just started, We just embarked and started
Speaker 1: on the new album, which which which will be called.
Speaker 1: I figured I was trying to thinking all these slick
Speaker 1: names and I was like, nah, you know what, let
Speaker 1: me just driving my lane. It's in effect mode two,
Speaker 1: in effect mode two point zero one eight, That's all
Speaker 1: it is. Because I'm just driving to my lane. I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to be anybody else, dude, I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to continue with my signature. Well, I just like shut
Speaker 1: them down. The Cash album come out, you probably get
Speaker 1: them calls like the pictures, Well guess so, no, they
Speaker 1: can remix it all day long, you know, for for
Speaker 1: the radio aspect of it. But I truly make music
Speaker 1: from my soul. And you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: sound corny a cliche, but it's it's this is all
Speaker 1: spiritual for me. This has never been about making it
Speaker 1: records because I didn't know what it record was. I
Speaker 1: didn't come from that. So everything for me was just
Speaker 1: whatever I was feeling, whatever I was going through at
Speaker 1: that moment, and interpretating that form of expression, whatever I
Speaker 1: was going and having the vehicle of music to be
Speaker 1: able to reach and travel the globe and and meet
Speaker 1: leaders of nations. And it's really amazing what that vehicle
Speaker 1: can do for you. Um because I didn't realize but
Speaker 1: my mother, my mother told me all my life. Listen,
Speaker 1: you're a citizen of the world. Once you become a
Speaker 1: citizen in the world. And I didn't know to take
Speaker 1: it seriously. I didn't know it's gonna be in Japan
Speaker 1: and Germany and you know, all over the world and
Speaker 1: making a joyful noise. I'm just I'm that's a blessing.
Speaker 1: Anybody who thinks it's not a blessing, better ups is hiring.
Speaker 1: So you and Kyle went from the time y'all made
Speaker 1: Night and Day? How did you? How did it get
Speaker 1: from there till you signing with Warner? Well, I have
Speaker 1: I seen my question before that what was a Sony
Speaker 1: Innovator and was it a real thing? Like I kept
Speaker 1: even before I heard you, I kept hearing on like
Speaker 1: Lee Bailey's radio Scope, So innovator, I'll be sure, Sony Innovator.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I like read Billboard, Sony Innovator,
Speaker 1: I'll be sure. And what the hell is the Sony?
Speaker 1: What was the Sony Innovator? Okay, Sony Innovator was Sony
Speaker 1: Corporation of America. We're looking for new signed and unsigned
Speaker 1: artists who were innovative musically. Um. They had three judges.
Speaker 1: I think it was you know, Tom Joyner, Deborah Crable
Speaker 1: from every Just Showcases and uh and someone else. They
Speaker 1: broke it down. Apparently they broke it down to a
Speaker 1: field of fifty one cassette tapes. The final judges were
Speaker 1: Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones. And Quincy Jones chose Albie
Speaker 1: Show's tape. On that particular tape, I think I had
Speaker 1: with this love it so night and Day and like
Speaker 1: awful young girl on or something but just the demo versions.
Speaker 1: So this is even before the album came This is
Speaker 1: before the album came out. And in fact, Benny mcdina's assistant,
Speaker 1: Karen Jones, is one who submitted me for the for
Speaker 1: the contest um and she's the one who put the
Speaker 1: exclamation point on my name. She kept so yeah, so
Speaker 1: then you know that particular campaign, uh you know, kind
Speaker 1: of gave us to that signature in addition to co
Speaker 1: signing by you know that dude who did that thriller thing.
Speaker 1: You know, so imagine you know that was what a blessing.
Speaker 1: And then you know, we started to rock together and
Speaker 1: you know, came my big brother and and then I
Speaker 1: learned so much from him. Imagine being one of his
Speaker 1: his children. Um, when you're crawling around the living room
Speaker 1: and it's deep Chopra and it's Oprah and so so
Speaker 1: imagine those what those those young people would learn. Just
Speaker 1: in terms of philosophies from around the globe, it's it's
Speaker 1: truly truly amazing. Just so just when you're around Quincy,
Speaker 1: just shut up. Yeah, we just let him talk. I
Speaker 1: have hours and hours Wait wait did he ask you?
Speaker 1: Did he ask you the famous question, what's your gumbo.
Speaker 1: What's what's what? You have to ask him when he's
Speaker 1: those toes? Man to you still got cute toes. I
Speaker 1: showed him a picture of me when we to us
Speaker 1: together when I was like six. People like, did you
Speaker 1: have those toes? Then that's what I just asked. She
Speaker 1: had the cutest little toes. I used to play with
Speaker 1: the toes in the kitchen. We would sit her up
Speaker 1: to sit on the table and Indiana, we should be
Speaker 1: making some food and and literally you pull it to
Speaker 1: who are you going? What are you doing? You know,
Speaker 1: so you knew like when she was a kid, she
Speaker 1: see like he had trying to make like I knew.
Speaker 1: I knew you weren't have his thirteen like trying to
Speaker 1: make me sound like I'm like because because you had
Speaker 1: to be with nine or ten? You know what? Yes,
Speaker 1: I was like, that is correct, I'll be sure. When
Speaker 1: you was like I gotta feel like you know you
Speaker 1: guys waiting for me outside because as like friends, Me
Speaker 1: and him mets like my godmother's friend, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like it was he was an elder of sorts.
Speaker 1: So with me and you, it was like let's go no,
Speaker 1: but you keep throwing the word thirteen in my face,
Speaker 1: like yeah, he was, Oh no, this is not sounding
Speaker 1: good back to exactly, so sorry, this is so wrong, please,
Speaker 1: oh my god. So he was there for like i
Speaker 1: AM's first year, was it the first were here for
Speaker 1: the first year. I was there when Diana made it
Speaker 1: up sitting in the in the in the kitchen, know
Speaker 1: a little breakfast nook that was in there with the
Speaker 1: windows and stuff. When she came up with the whole
Speaker 1: concept and the International met me in the house until
Speaker 1: like nineteen years later you went to the house. I
Speaker 1: don't know, didn't have enough, but she was an intern
Speaker 1: at the International International. Danna allowed me like set up cheers, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so give us So Dana Williams, who is my godmother.
Speaker 1: She founded a she's she's the mother of Black music. Mom.
Speaker 1: She created that. She's a media coach. You see her
Speaker 1: all the time. But she also created one of the
Speaker 1: first music conferences called i AM, which was the International
Speaker 1: Association of African American Music. And every year she would
Speaker 1: bring people together and have had rapped Jack the Rapper,
Speaker 1: Whitney Houston and the new edition she liked. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: when you go to i AM, you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: be there safe. Yeah, you don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: What's crazy is I always tell our story through that
Speaker 1: because I was like when I when I first went,
Speaker 1: you were an intern and then you slowly kind of
Speaker 1: rose up through I am like you did the showcase
Speaker 1: and then you did the tribute to Jazzy Jeff, But
Speaker 1: it was like, yeah, I still didn't get to see
Speaker 1: what the inside of the house. But a very significant
Speaker 1: part of who Dianna Williams is as well as um,
Speaker 1: she is the amazing, amazing mom of uh Mr Kenny
Speaker 1: Gamble's children as well. Um, and you know which is
Speaker 1: Philadelphia International and kind of the blueprint of what we're
Speaker 1: all doing, um, you know, in terms of just that soul,
Speaker 1: true soul, just in your gut, in your soul music,
Speaker 1: spiritual church. She is a subject of a lot of
Speaker 1: those songs. Oh. Absolutely. The question I have about Uptown
Speaker 1: Records is why, well, no, no, no, why because I'm
Speaker 1: just noticing, at least in your case and also uh
Speaker 1: Ultra mcnagg m c's case. Um, you guys weren't on
Speaker 1: m C a proper, So how did you wind up
Speaker 1: on Warner Brothers through Uptown. Great question quest great questions.
Speaker 1: So I remember when they were doing the initial deal,
Speaker 1: Andre was dealing with the thing. Either Mike Halle or
Speaker 1: maybe was Ernie Singleton was there at the time, which
Speaker 1: I usually lives in Vegas. Neared me as well too,
Speaker 1: so um and uh okay, who was our guy over
Speaker 1: so the Ernie Singleton? Um ah, Timmy Regisford. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: just you know that entire conglomerate of executives. Mike Halle,
Speaker 1: I think they brought a group of remember the uptowns
Speaker 1: kicking it so so so they were all the rappers
Speaker 1: and they had all the rappers, so I wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: included in that. Um. And then I just to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, which I think this is a good
Speaker 1: thing that I just think they didn't want to sign me.
Speaker 1: So at that point, so, um, you know, those nose
Speaker 1: are pretty good. You know that it's a more more
Speaker 1: of a motivator than anything else, you know, and they
Speaker 1: didn't want And this is after hearing night and day.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what they heard. I
Speaker 1: kind of at that point, I was more like just
Speaker 1: rocking with Teddy and you know, I was under the
Speaker 1: tutelage of Teddy and just sitting there every day and
Speaker 1: Teddy Studio learning you know, programming and song arrangement and
Speaker 1: structure and and just you know, I was honing in
Speaker 1: on those skills. Um, and Andre stuck me with him,
Speaker 1: So whatever that transaction that was going on was just
Speaker 1: more included in that uptown's kicking a package. Um. And
Speaker 1: then he wound up taking me to l A and
Speaker 1: he said, listen, let's go, let's go get this bread.
Speaker 1: I have an idea. And he brought me to record
Speaker 1: executive Benny Medina and who was senior VP and A
Speaker 1: at Warner Brothers at that point. And um, that's where
Speaker 1: we went, you know initially and then so first and
Speaker 1: foremost they gave us a singles deal. So yes, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, like I had a time, Like I
Speaker 1: had a real you know reason to go. Oh I
Speaker 1: should have been I shouldn't have been happy, you know,
Speaker 1: getting any deal. Um. But but but again you know
Speaker 1: that step mount burning. You know, I should have told him,
Speaker 1: but I was supposed to set you for the deal.
Speaker 1: Just run all over me on the st question hard
Speaker 1: to tell, right, Um? Yeah, so you know he brought
Speaker 1: me over to to Benny's Off. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: I finally watched my entire song. I always was always
Speaker 1: afraid to watch it because for the first year, and
Speaker 1: I'll get back to why I was saying it. For
Speaker 1: the first year, Um, I did the voice offers for song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it so that so you're the one that always ends
Speaker 1: wraps career then rap kid. So what happened was so
Speaker 1: the first the first season, when they were just launching
Speaker 1: the show, it was Phillis Hyman, the Clark's sisters, DeBarge,
Speaker 1: and I believe Donnie Hathaway. So those are the first
Speaker 1: four episodes, just as a test run to see how
Speaker 1: it worked out. And then uh, and then they moved
Speaker 1: some of the executives around the TV one and then
Speaker 1: I got you know, somebody's brought in their own person
Speaker 1: to do it. But um but it was it was
Speaker 1: a great experience and I loved doing the voice over
Speaker 1: thinking obviously had been doing radio for many years, and um,
Speaker 1: so just it was a great opportunity. But the show
Speaker 1: for me was like you're dead and jumped off a building,
Speaker 1: or you heroin out or you know, you tweaked out
Speaker 1: or something. So so I was asked to do it
Speaker 1: a few times, and I was like, no, maybe not
Speaker 1: a good idea. I'm not dead. I don't think y'all
Speaker 1: know how I still live out in Vegas. So um
Speaker 1: so you know. So then as time went on, it
Speaker 1: turned into me it turned into more of a docuseries
Speaker 1: type style of show. Um, you know, depicting the artist's
Speaker 1: life and and then you know the ups and downs
Speaker 1: and so and so forth. So it wasn't necessarily there's
Speaker 1: you know, death part, because a lot of times casts
Speaker 1: will get like we'll see a kind of resurgence in
Speaker 1: their music, um, like a brother like the interest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and then and then what it was great about
Speaker 1: it too is you know, cats like to get their
Speaker 1: little we can't bread up a little something. I'm on TV.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a new series. It's great, it's
Speaker 1: the same record whatever. But um yeah, So so I
Speaker 1: enjoyed it as well. And then at that point I had,
Speaker 1: you know, I tasted a little bit in terms of
Speaker 1: like production. So I've I've always wanted to direct and
Speaker 1: and and to us I had an opportunity to, Um,
Speaker 1: I'm executive producer on the Jamie Fox HBO special. I
Speaker 1: might need security, so I started doing those things like that,
Speaker 1: and I said, listen, this is this is something and
Speaker 1: again a quincy thing is looked. I'll be uh you know,
Speaker 1: there's a point in your life when there's anything available
Speaker 1: to do, you just do it, you know, and just
Speaker 1: make it. You know. So he was just always honing
Speaker 1: in on that don't be one dimensional um aspect, and
Speaker 1: uh I just wanted to Uh, I wanted to experience that.
Speaker 1: But I really really like that. And then we started
Speaker 1: working on like I think I was working on Clint
Speaker 1: Eastwood was working on a new network called the Back
Speaker 1: nine network was a competition to the Golf Channel, and
Speaker 1: uh so I was in that aspect of it. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm always trying to do it. I love Anteller revenue streams.
Speaker 1: So so it's not about you know, it's not a
Speaker 1: flatwear but and you understanding, very specifically as an artist
Speaker 1: with a very strong brand um pray significantly you there's
Speaker 1: a market out there too, you know that is truly
Speaker 1: interested in what your brand has to offer, whether it's
Speaker 1: toothpaste or whether it's you know, a drum pad or
Speaker 1: you know anything. You know, yeah, but anything, yes, all
Speaker 1: flat Yeah, Now that's just that's the George Foreman. I think,
Speaker 1: to think about it, you think about it. There's a
Speaker 1: generation who has no idea he can punch your lights out.
Speaker 1: All they know is fish, you know. And how cute
Speaker 1: is he? Look at this? Look at that man with
Speaker 1: the bull head. He cute? He could say, he's a
Speaker 1: lovely You don't know. George was a beast. George a
Speaker 1: movie yourself, A gets you. He does he does inventors,
Speaker 1: inventors dot com or whatever? That absolutely and and and
Speaker 1: what's what's significant? And this is something I would tell
Speaker 1: any of these new artists very specifically, what invent help?
Speaker 1: And then help you? Um calling Ben help? That's my
Speaker 1: friends of my friends. Um. And what very specifically what
Speaker 1: I would suggest to some of the newer artists out
Speaker 1: there who obviously the record industry is defunct in terms
Speaker 1: of the way it used to be so um, obviously
Speaker 1: it's mostly social media driven. Like if there's a major
Speaker 1: role in the Spielberg has a major role, obviously, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, if Justin Bieber and Tom Cruise, Justin Bieber
Speaker 1: just might get the role because he's gonna guarantee them
Speaker 1: far and he's gonna guarantee them number one at the
Speaker 1: box office. Now maybe Tom Cruise, maybe you know, a
Speaker 1: more accomplished and a better actor, But right now it's
Speaker 1: about the shareholders. So so right now, if you're a
Speaker 1: new artist and you're coming in with a following, and
Speaker 1: you have a significant social media following, and you've generated
Speaker 1: your your your personal grind is generated millions of followers. Um,
Speaker 1: you can for the most part write your own ticket
Speaker 1: and you basically they just want you to do all
Speaker 1: the work for them. There you go, there you go,
Speaker 1: and and but the key to it is if you
Speaker 1: do come with that as as part of your arsenal
Speaker 1: or your portfolio, make sure that you do what's called
Speaker 1: Arnold Palmer business. And with the way Arnold Palmer does
Speaker 1: business is the same significance of like how Shaquille does
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. Instead of endorsing a brand, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let me get this bread here, give me you know
Speaker 1: that's great, give me ten million, so and so forth. No, No,
Speaker 1: that's cool, give me that ten stack. But also I
Speaker 1: need an equity state in addition to I need to
Speaker 1: be a part of the excess strategy of this company.
Speaker 1: So when it goes public, we're in the money. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go. And it's funny. I that was my
Speaker 1: first meeting with the rock in Chicago with Diagio Brand Liquors,
Speaker 1: and I remember that when they offered me that deal,
Speaker 1: I guess somebody better got it. I'm gonna come on,
Speaker 1: I'm proud because come on, straight up money. And I
Speaker 1: am so proud of people. Don't realize. Let's set the
Speaker 1: record straight right now. I am so proud of dude
Speaker 1: in terms of first of all, being from you know,
Speaker 1: the streets of Mount Vernon and and and it's come
Speaker 1: up and I used this. It's funny cause I used
Speaker 1: to always. That's why I told kim Us to tell Kimberly.
Speaker 1: I said, well, Kimberlina, that's my baby. High Kim, I
Speaker 1: missed you kill you know, so no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: first you know that was my that was my my sweetheart.
Speaker 1: That was moved it from Columbus, Georgia, and I put
Speaker 1: in a nice apartment with my sister up in the
Speaker 1: river day. Yes. Actually I just started writing the book
Speaker 1: to book. Yeah, it's called From Mount Vernon to the
Speaker 1: Moon and back. So I'm looking for a publisher eventually,
Speaker 1: and and my life story as well, because you know,
Speaker 1: Bobby's just coming out. This Bobby Brown's coming Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it too, because it's so much, it's
Speaker 1: so much more than just you know, the guy who
Speaker 1: made this is funny because curly lights can do made
Speaker 1: night and day. It's it's only only listen. I have
Speaker 1: to say that my introduction to you was sort of
Speaker 1: semi backwards because I'm a cousin that you might have
Speaker 1: went out with her exactly, but I was told she
Speaker 1: told me that you were regularly, regularly get accosted by police,
Speaker 1: like threatened for just walking down the block. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: just to walk down the block would cause such a commotion.
Speaker 1: They were like, we will arrest you if you continue
Speaker 1: to walk in this morning, I got arrested Virginia on
Speaker 1: Virginia Beach. Wait a minute, you Oh, I got it,
Speaker 1: got it? What quest I got it? You know what
Speaker 1: happened was so I didn't even understand the magnitude of
Speaker 1: what was transpiring at this point. So we would we
Speaker 1: so back and remember I just got a dollar over
Speaker 1: lunch money, and you know I had to go get
Speaker 1: that new maximum with the rims on it right to
Speaker 1: me and my boys. We got into Maximum we drove
Speaker 1: down because because the big thing was spring break, either
Speaker 1: Howard home Coming or whatever, not even that we were
Speaker 1: really old enough at that point, but we just want
Speaker 1: to be in the mix. So that's where the girls are.
Speaker 1: So we would I'm sorry, well this is this point
Speaker 1: and then right here because we would go down and
Speaker 1: it would just you know, just be a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, really nice looking at and some joints. Right
Speaker 1: so now so now afterwards, so I guess my boys
Speaker 1: wanted to play a joke because I didn't realize what
Speaker 1: I didn't realize what happened. Let's let's rewind slightly. Let's
Speaker 1: go to Madison Square Garden. There was a tournament going
Speaker 1: on and I believe it was like either McDonald's or
Speaker 1: something going on. And my cousin Akbar said, hey, let's
Speaker 1: go to this thing that you know, the radio station
Speaker 1: there is promote this thing. So I don't know how
Speaker 1: we got tickets, but he got tickets and we went
Speaker 1: there and it was either halftime and I think Shaquille
Speaker 1: O'Neill was playing in the year I think it was
Speaker 1: on l s U at that point or something like that.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was way back then, so I remember going
Speaker 1: up to go get um some beverage and the hot
Speaker 1: dog or something, and I had going up. Now, I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that Ralph McDaniel video Music Box had been
Speaker 1: playing my video for like a week or two weeks.
Speaker 1: So mine you. I go up, I go get my
Speaker 1: hot dog. I turned around and I didn't know this
Speaker 1: is half time, I mean halftime, you know, like so
Speaker 1: it's full of like schoolgirls and people. I turned around
Speaker 1: and they started screaming, that's that boy. Oh that's that's
Speaker 1: all I heard. That's and then they all jumped on
Speaker 1: top of me. He's dreams. I don't even think. I
Speaker 1: don't even it's funny because I don't even think I
Speaker 1: could afford those yet, Like I didn't get a budget
Speaker 1: or nothing that I had. I may have had some
Speaker 1: pro kids with the strife on the South, but but
Speaker 1: but it was it was such a scary situation for
Speaker 1: me because what happened was I got snatched up by
Speaker 1: security saying I started a fight. So everywhere I would
Speaker 1: go to a mall, I would go to different places
Speaker 1: and the security coup. Like so let's passed forward to
Speaker 1: Virginia Beach. We're on Virginia Beach, That's how I met Mookie,
Speaker 1: who used to body gulf for LLL and run DMC
Speaker 1: because he was there with a bunch of New York
Speaker 1: giants and so on and so forth. So we get there,
Speaker 1: we park and we decide, you know, we're gonna walk
Speaker 1: on the beach. That was such a mistake. So all
Speaker 1: I know is that it started, and the running started
Speaker 1: and the screaming and saw something. I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what's like dead, I'm dead ass what is going on?
Speaker 1: And it was me the police on social media to
Speaker 1: let you know that. Yeah, no, I had no idea.
Speaker 1: So so the police came. And then what happens. I
Speaker 1: got trapped in either eye hopped or whatever was there
Speaker 1: at that point, whatever was on that part of the beach.
Speaker 1: I got trapped in the store and they were shaking
Speaker 1: the windows and breaking the window and trying to get
Speaker 1: to me. Um, and then I remember it was helicopters.
Speaker 1: We were you down there. But I've heard this story
Speaker 1: and I thought this has to be an exaggeration. The
Speaker 1: fact that you're actually verifying it, I can't believe. Like,
Speaker 1: so I went thirty years not believing the story. So um.
Speaker 1: So then they came and they put me in. They
Speaker 1: tried to get there. It was a whole. It was
Speaker 1: like a riot. And they finally got to me and
Speaker 1: they put me in the car and they took me
Speaker 1: to jail because I said I incited a riot and
Speaker 1: I'm like, sir, I don't know what. I don't know
Speaker 1: what a riot is, Sir, I'm not of that nature.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. On for Mount Vernon comprehend that
Speaker 1: you were celebrity, and I guess it's weird to say that,
Speaker 1: like guys, I'm sort of a big deal or like yeah,
Speaker 1: but because I have right but different. But the whole
Speaker 1: of a BT was everywhere, so you know, video soul
Speaker 1: and BT and the music box and what I say, um,
Speaker 1: I don't even remember, to be honest with you, yeah
Speaker 1: sometimes no but but no. But but the point was
Speaker 1: that they were actually right and doing what they were
Speaker 1: doing because they didn't know. All they know is that
Speaker 1: whatever I did started like literally they broke all the
Speaker 1: windows in the gas station. Women, this is this is
Speaker 1: some dudes too, and what was it was crazy. So
Speaker 1: once we started seeing that happen, Um, so I remember,
Speaker 1: I think it's funny. Andrea tells the story I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get I'll get you the clip. Andrea tells the story.
Speaker 1: And because I went to the office, to the uptown office,
Speaker 1: and I said, and that's when we got an office
Speaker 1: on fifty seven Street. And I said, Trey, come with me.
Speaker 1: He says what I said, just come with me. Just
Speaker 1: come walk down the street with me. I want to
Speaker 1: show you something. He's like, okay, So we we go
Speaker 1: and go outside. We're walking. It turns into a slow job.
Speaker 1: It turns in people screaming from buses from this, and
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to figuet like and I look at
Speaker 1: it like this, and as you know, from a child,
Speaker 1: I don't have a bean bone in my body. So
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out how do we market this.
Speaker 1: I didn't know back then, but that's what my thought process,
Speaker 1: because even even when I would go to Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: I remember trying to make sure I educated some of
Speaker 1: the staff there as it related to I would see
Speaker 1: a commercial and I would see who that who? I
Speaker 1: want some candy? Give me some of that. Can't you
Speaker 1: know it's funny that you had some sweets to me
Speaker 1: because I because because okay, no, don't play with me.
Speaker 1: I got some alma eminem. I don't play him. You
Speaker 1: know what, No, I can't happen, you know, because I
Speaker 1: just lost eighty pounds. And the way I did it
Speaker 1: was I cut out sugar, rice, bread, pasta, and I
Speaker 1: don't drink soda anymore. So and then and then you
Speaker 1: know all the other stuff I did because because I
Speaker 1: you know, I guess I could. We're getting it right here.
Speaker 1: I'm giving it the quest right now because I never
Speaker 1: talked about this, because you know, that's why, that's why
Speaker 1: you don't see me all over reality. She was playing
Speaker 1: myself except for one you know. But but what I
Speaker 1: did was I really just decided just to take this seriously.
Speaker 1: I was turning fifty and all the stuff I was
Speaker 1: supposed to do as a black man in terms of
Speaker 1: you know, colonoscopy, all this stuff. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: rule book. Okay, you're black man, so you need to
Speaker 1: do this, this, this, and let them put the camera here.
Speaker 1: I'm like, at least buy me some flyers there. So
Speaker 1: it's a big pain in the butt. So but but
Speaker 1: but you have exactly right, um, but you have to,
Speaker 1: you know, something you're supposed to do. And so I
Speaker 1: waited until I was turning fifty to do it. So
Speaker 1: I took off like six months and then they went
Speaker 1: in with the cameras calling out to the E U K,
Speaker 1: element O, P whatever, just whatever, what's just everything? So
Speaker 1: we went in look check on X y Z and
Speaker 1: then you know whatever, we'll just say whatever they saw.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, whatever I don't need after fifty, just
Speaker 1: take it out, just leave my heart and we're good.
Speaker 1: So um, so I went through that process and you know,
Speaker 1: and went in and said, listen, I need to I
Speaker 1: need my health. I'm dealing with diabetes type two. My
Speaker 1: grandson the most important. I don't even get old the
Speaker 1: motion right now because my grandson is everything. That's my
Speaker 1: little too right there. So um, he came over to
Speaker 1: me and said, pop ups, because you can't call me
Speaker 1: grandfather like A's pop ups. And he says, you know, popps,
Speaker 1: uh that's you. You like Santa Claus saying you can't
Speaker 1: bring me gifts and everything. Right. So when he said
Speaker 1: that to me and I looked at him, I was
Speaker 1: like from the mouth of Babes and I was like wow,
Speaker 1: And I said and for me, because it's not because
Speaker 1: what's crazy? And I've never said this before, but the
Speaker 1: weight Gaine and all the other stuff was me running
Speaker 1: from that sexy ship because I wasn't happy with that
Speaker 1: because I'm straight in New York street cat from Mount Vernon.
Speaker 1: Don't let them, don't let the love songs full you.
Speaker 1: I'm still that straight from Mount Vernon, like and and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm zall brown like you know, just that's
Speaker 1: what I grew up. So all that putting me in
Speaker 1: that category and in that lane I was. I've always been.
Speaker 1: You've always been uncomfortable being a celebrity, like everywhere I go,
Speaker 1: it's like, and I'm truly you hated that at the time.
Speaker 1: After a while they lost his luster and people just
Speaker 1: know I was just I was just scared, right, I
Speaker 1: was scared to go anywhere and do anything that was
Speaker 1: technically enjoyed it. It sounds like they're the closest thing.
Speaker 1: Is funny, because Drey would say it all the time.
Speaker 1: He said, this is the closest thing to Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: he's ever seen. He said, he said, as much as
Speaker 1: we've been everything like I had Elvis and then I
Speaker 1: guess you know that's quoting him on the on one
Speaker 1: song and it was, like I said, but this gave
Speaker 1: me an opportunity to have my vehicle of expression, which
Speaker 1: is my music reached the masses and the planet and
Speaker 1: so and so forth, and and and I had my
Speaker 1: little niche that. Mind you, I'm not Michael Jackson, I'm
Speaker 1: not Tom Cruise. You know, most cats gas themselves and
Speaker 1: they think they're too big. And it's like, no, I
Speaker 1: know where Albi Shure is, and I know I gotta
Speaker 1: I know my sweet spot in terms of my core audience,
Speaker 1: and and I and I focus on them. I don't
Speaker 1: try to go to outside of it. But what I
Speaker 1: do is I love all types of music. So that's
Speaker 1: why I enjoy working with David Bowie, Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart,
Speaker 1: Al Green. You know, I'm saying so so because I
Speaker 1: saw that's what I listened to on AM radio growing
Speaker 1: up as a kid in my back of my father's
Speaker 1: Color Supreme he would have on CBS radio. So I'm listening.
Speaker 1: So I'm listening to the Eagles, I'm listening to Journey,
Speaker 1: I'm listening to uh Chicago. You know, I'm listening to
Speaker 1: all you know, an eclectic version of what music is.
Speaker 1: So there was no color to it for me. So
Speaker 1: that's why I love, like one of my favorite artists
Speaker 1: on the planet, this thing what I love. Can I
Speaker 1: ask a question since you mentioned that, sir, do you
Speaker 1: remember the first record you ever purchased, your very first record?
Speaker 1: It had to be a Jackson five record. It had
Speaker 1: to be UM or Stevie Wonder record. Maybe maybe it was.
Speaker 1: It could have been well, you know what, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: it might have been a Pastel the Bell record. And
Speaker 1: let me tell you why. Because the record player whatever
Speaker 1: my mother was playing on the record players or something.
Speaker 1: So I would do rehearsals in the in the living
Speaker 1: room and I would but see, I remember, I got
Speaker 1: a whoop him because I used to try to take
Speaker 1: everything apart. I thought was an engineers. I would take
Speaker 1: the record play apart. It would take the TV apart.
Speaker 1: My mother would care, but mother would come in and
Speaker 1: the TV be apart. Don't take the cutless supreme apart
Speaker 1: man man. So eventually, so eventually you had to realize
Speaker 1: that you needed an entourage just to protect you and
Speaker 1: protect you from the public, because I mean, I can
Speaker 1: imagine and what you mentioned about like just not wanting
Speaker 1: to be known for just like the pretty boy at
Speaker 1: the moment that stuff, and that you're a real artist.
Speaker 1: And that's thing I know that that whereas that that
Speaker 1: grows old quick fast. Yeah exactly. I was about to say,
Speaker 1: d has the same story. And you know, like looking
Speaker 1: it always seems like the grass is greener on the
Speaker 1: other side. Because I was just like, yo, man, like
Speaker 1: at the snap of a finger, you could be Prince
Speaker 1: I Kim all right, and the royal petis is clean.
Speaker 1: But to hear you say it, you know, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm human and I have the artistic expressions
Speaker 1: and those things, and so it wasn't all right. I'm
Speaker 1: like you, I take this seriously, like I consider this
Speaker 1: a blessing. And there's no you know, there's like I said,
Speaker 1: there's no I have. I don't have a veinbone in
Speaker 1: my body outside of my love for the music. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's my wife. The music is my wife, and anyone
Speaker 1: in my life is the mistress. So it's always going
Speaker 1: to be that way. And and and the reason I'm
Speaker 1: related to this day, and this is something I mentioned frequently,
Speaker 1: is the reason the digital footprint for this particular music,
Speaker 1: whether it be New Jack Swing or R and b music,
Speaker 1: and I try to be at the forefront. That's why
Speaker 1: I do radio, and I create as many media platforms
Speaker 1: I can to keep it out there and and make
Speaker 1: it do what to do. But um, the reason is
Speaker 1: so significant because we were at it's music is malnutrition
Speaker 1: right now. And and I'm saying that from the standom.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, because I don't knock anyone's hustle
Speaker 1: because I love what technology has allowed other forms of
Speaker 1: their craft to be introduced to the world. So I
Speaker 1: don't knock that. It's not something I'd be listening to
Speaker 1: make love and so so both, you know. But the
Speaker 1: reason this music is so prominent and what we do,
Speaker 1: it's because there's a generation of women who were starving
Speaker 1: to be told I love you again. Talk about it?
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, you know and very significant, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you very much much. Uh, there's you know, there's a
Speaker 1: generation of women who were starving to be told I
Speaker 1: love you again. So they gravitate towards this music, whether
Speaker 1: it's they don't even have to be me, whether Alby Shore,
Speaker 1: Bobby Brown, Earthwin and fire, let's even go there. Let's
Speaker 1: go the organic feeling. Um, there's an organic feeling. That's
Speaker 1: that's a necessity, that's that's that's medicine that's needed. Like
Speaker 1: do you realize what this world would be like with
Speaker 1: no music? Wouldn't be here about and outside of outside
Speaker 1: of just the the where it creates continuity as it
Speaker 1: relates to my way out of the hood. And so
Speaker 1: that's not it. It's so much more. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: for a generation that has access now you know it
Speaker 1: can turn miracles for you, but you have to take
Speaker 1: it seriously as something you know, you can't take it
Speaker 1: for granted. It will take advantage of it. It's a woman,
Speaker 1: the same thing I would tell my sons about a woman.
Speaker 1: If you don't love her, leave her alone. Oh damn.
Speaker 1: It was like several questions just came from that last statement,
Speaker 1: but just ask one. Actually, I want to get to
Speaker 1: the music because I think it should be noted that
Speaker 1: with an effect mode literally with and I had to
Speaker 1: look it up, um, with the exception of Naturally mind
Speaker 1: and just to Taste of Love and literally I mean
Speaker 1: it was borderline neck and neck with Thriller with every
Speaker 1: song was and even if not officially a single, like
Speaker 1: Philly Radio even played the not like you know, kill
Speaker 1: me softly in this lovesode like album cut didn't relive me?
Speaker 1: So how do you feel as though you've gotten your
Speaker 1: just deserve? Just as far as like the acknowledgement that
Speaker 1: this album with seven known sas the line between single,
Speaker 1: single and filler, how important it is? And and how
Speaker 1: do you feel about the tag for New Jack Swing?
Speaker 1: It's you know, new Jack Swing pioneers sort of do
Speaker 1: you shrug it off as do you feel a date
Speaker 1: you or just under well? No, you know, I appreciate
Speaker 1: it because new Jack Swing. First of all, let's let's
Speaker 1: let's get um, let's give the just do where to do?
Speaker 1: Teddy Riley Theodore is the inventor of New Jack Swing.
Speaker 1: He took uh what he was influenced by. I mean,
Speaker 1: people don't realize Teddy did Duddy first the show, you know,
Speaker 1: like I mean obviously you guys would know it here.
Speaker 1: But um, that's one of the first swing records. Um.
Speaker 1: But the phrase the term was coined by a gentleman
Speaker 1: by the name of Babbitt Barry Michael Cooper, who was
Speaker 1: the contributor to all of those cult classic movies of
Speaker 1: the nineties, you know, the New Jack Swing, New Jackson,
Speaker 1: I mean New Jack Swing, Jack City, Jason's lyric above
Speaker 1: the Rim, you know, all of those those classic cult films. UM.
Speaker 1: And in fact, he's the one that I reached out to.
Speaker 1: We we we keep in touch frequently and UM dialogue
Speaker 1: about what this means so much to the point where
Speaker 1: he endorsed me. He just finished doing Spike Lee's on Netflix. Um,
Speaker 1: she's gonna have it right. So he and I agreed
Speaker 1: that he would be the author of my life story
Speaker 1: because he was you know, which is truly a blessing
Speaker 1: because he was there, he lived it, he understands it.
Speaker 1: It's organically from him. UM. Going back to your question quest,
Speaker 1: the Teddy Riley invented the genre. UM, and what we
Speaker 1: did was we created derivatives of it. So Eddie f
Speaker 1: had his version of what it was. Andre is funny.
Speaker 1: Andre just said and in an interview maybe it was
Speaker 1: the same one with south By. Only three people who
Speaker 1: really know how to do New Jack swingers, Eddief, I'll
Speaker 1: be showing Teddy Riley. I don't know. I think there's
Speaker 1: more than that, but I appreciate being a part of that.
Speaker 1: The from your question quest, I think I've never walked
Speaker 1: with my own flag. I didn't understand the marketing aspect
Speaker 1: of walking my own flag saying hey, you know this
Speaker 1: is from my next gig. You know, yeah I did this.
Speaker 1: What happens. I let a lot of people take credit
Speaker 1: for for my work. And I wasn't necessarily concerned about
Speaker 1: it because I wasn't concerned about being popular in that aspect,
Speaker 1: because that was already there, Like I was already out
Speaker 1: of me sure, So I wasn't worried about, oh, you
Speaker 1: know I did this, I wrote this, I wrote this.
Speaker 1: I was just more concerned about being popular city bank
Speaker 1: at this moment. Can you beat yourself up for a
Speaker 1: second real quick, because there might be some things that
Speaker 1: people don't know writing wise that you're like, yeah, but no,
Speaker 1: but now but seeven now. And that's the whole purpose
Speaker 1: of this whole you know, metamorphosis of turning fifty and
Speaker 1: now connecting reconnecting with my body, mind and spirit. Um
Speaker 1: my book, doing the book from mom running to the
Speaker 1: moon and back, and then also embarking on I'm looking
Speaker 1: for a home for my life story, you know. So,
Speaker 1: And I was gonna say that should the book get optioned,
Speaker 1: who would be Yeah, I was gonna say, would be
Speaker 1: the captain and obvious Chris Brown playing. That's a question
Speaker 1: from a singer standpointcause I don't know What'squincy can sing,
Speaker 1: because yeah, no, he gets down now, did you hear? So?
Speaker 1: You know, we did the remake Quincy and I remade
Speaker 1: Night and Day. Yeah, we have to guess what's so
Speaker 1: anybody listening if you want to see the video right now,
Speaker 1: we made a mini movie a Secret Garden Radio dot
Speaker 1: com forward Slash, Big and Strong. So we had the
Speaker 1: video we almost had. I think we probably over a
Speaker 1: million views now. But yeah, he remade that, but he
Speaker 1: did a new version to it, um and I was
Speaker 1: so proud because he called me your box came meet
Speaker 1: me in l A. I got surprised for you. So
Speaker 1: he started him and his man started working on it.
Speaker 1: And his man started working on it, and so I
Speaker 1: came in and I said, okay, just leave me alone here,
Speaker 1: let me just get this, get it together. So I
Speaker 1: took all the stems and so I had to flip,
Speaker 1: you know, and I put all the backgrounds on it
Speaker 1: and and then so yeah, so we we had fun
Speaker 1: with it. It was an amazing time because this is
Speaker 1: something that I've told my my young man, I said, listen,
Speaker 1: take pops catalog and use it as a springboard. Do you?
Speaker 1: But you utilize that this? You know, these songs played
Speaker 1: in in over a hundred countries, people who may not
Speaker 1: even have English as their first language, but they can
Speaker 1: recite the most Probably the most enlightening and the most
Speaker 1: humbling experience for me was coming from a studio apartment
Speaker 1: in Mount Vernon with me and moms and writing some
Speaker 1: of these songs on the back of my notepad, finding
Speaker 1: myself in Tokyo, Japan and from the ten thousand Japanese
Speaker 1: citizens singing every lyric to the song. That's not normal?
Speaker 1: What's normal about that? How does that work? How does that?
Speaker 1: How does that happen? I'm was just in my room
Speaker 1: trying to do new edition steps, playing the record player,
Speaker 1: and so now sudden I'm in front of ten tho
Speaker 1: Japanese citizens singing every word. And then when you finished,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't clap, but they would look at you. So
Speaker 1: I was like, what did I do wrong? But they
Speaker 1: were being polite so to promote uh in effect mode,
Speaker 1: you were part of the Any Heartbreak tour right, and
Speaker 1: I'm the first platinum artists on Uptown Records. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you are. Okay, so you're the first you're the first
Speaker 1: prize horse out the out the stable with a million
Speaker 1: units sold. Um, how with such three heavy weights on
Speaker 1: the tour and I guess we saw I'll be sure
Speaker 1: and Bobby Brown, Oh that's right, okay? How with all
Speaker 1: of you as heavy weights? And I know there was
Speaker 1: there was at least from the the b t story.
Speaker 1: Have you seen have you seen? Have you seen it yet?
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the Bobby because because they mentioned again,
Speaker 1: I thinking the Bobby one, but that's coming up as well.
Speaker 1: So how what was that touring experience like for you
Speaker 1: in general? Well, the the Any Heartbreak Tour um something
Speaker 1: that Al Hayman put together because he was doing our
Speaker 1: tour and the Michael Jackson tour as well. So I
Speaker 1: think we were probably like two of the highest grossing
Speaker 1: tours of that genre and that in that particular time period. Um.
Speaker 1: For me, Um, I was that guy. So it was
Speaker 1: a great idea to put me on that tour? Did
Speaker 1: I know I was that guy? Had no idea because
Speaker 1: I'm just the biggest Bobby Brown fan on Planet Earth
Speaker 1: and New Additions, So I grew up wanting to be
Speaker 1: the six member of New Edition. You know, you know
Speaker 1: so so. But there was that Mount Vernon, Mount burning Ish,
Speaker 1: whatever was going on in me that said I'm in here,
Speaker 1: so let's do it, you know, let's let's do it.
Speaker 1: So was I intimidated. A part of me was intimidated
Speaker 1: because I'm like, man, this is Bobby Brown and New Edition.
Speaker 1: And then I had to say and I'm I'll be
Speaker 1: sure because I had to keep saying it to myself
Speaker 1: again in again, because I didn't believe it, so so
Speaker 1: so literally, so I had to psych myself up because
Speaker 1: I'm seeing imagine, I'm like again, I'm coming from the
Speaker 1: studio apartment, singing in the mirror trying to rehearst to
Speaker 1: it or whatever. And Madison Square Garden four nights in
Speaker 1: a row, twenty five thousand people. I'm scared to death,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, But but I'm an autopilot
Speaker 1: because this is what I've always wanted to do. So
Speaker 1: my philosophy now is when I talk to these young
Speaker 1: people that said, look, if you want to get by
Speaker 1: the train, you gotta be on the train tracks. And
Speaker 1: if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready,
Speaker 1: so that's all I did was rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsal that.
Speaker 1: Mind you, I wasn't Luther Andrews or even Johnny Gail
Speaker 1: or you know I was, or Stevie Wonder. So I
Speaker 1: was more of a stylist in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: strong structure and melody because Keith, everything is because something
Speaker 1: Quincy said to me many years ago that I always stuck.
Speaker 1: And then when I when I'm creating, UM, melody is
Speaker 1: something that doesn't have a science or a technique to it.
Speaker 1: It comes straight from God's mouth to your ears, and
Speaker 1: so it's a there's a philosophy behind it that's not UM.
Speaker 1: Can you repeat that again? That was melody is something
Speaker 1: that doesn't have a science or a technique to it.
Speaker 1: It comes straight from from God to your ears and
Speaker 1: through your lips, and you know, And I've always remembered that.
Speaker 1: So that's why everything, if you listen to any of
Speaker 1: the songs I've ever done, I've never focused on a
Speaker 1: commercial hit per se. But I've focused on trying to
Speaker 1: make a four minute movie. The peaks and valleys, the excitement,
Speaker 1: the sadness, the happiness I tried to encompass every emotion,
Speaker 1: even like when I was working on Joe to see
Speaker 1: jow to see what I would do is I made
Speaker 1: them sing. That's why if you listened to the first album,
Speaker 1: I recorded an engineered the whole first album along with
Speaker 1: the guys and along with Mikozowski and maybe two of
Speaker 1: the other other engineers, but handcrafted that entire you know,
Speaker 1: that was that was my question, you would understand this
Speaker 1: and producing a project like besides maybe an effect mode, um,
Speaker 1: you know, along with the help of Teddy Riley and
Speaker 1: and just and you know, Eddie and just the conglomerate
Speaker 1: of our little click. Um, that was my thriller. So
Speaker 1: every every producer has that, you know, right right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know people don't realize. Yeah, you know I
Speaker 1: wrote for my lady, right my lady, and you know
Speaker 1: part of come and talk to Me Stay all if
Speaker 1: you listen to Stay Stay is just a slow version
Speaker 1: of that day. So um oh ship. Yeah. So what
Speaker 1: happened was what happened was how that came about? Um.
Speaker 1: I was on tour on the Any Heartbreak tour where
Speaker 1: obviously when you know, people don't realize. Also, Charlie Mack
Speaker 1: picks you out to Charlie. Charlie mac was actually the
Speaker 1: founder of Boys and Men. Michael got him on tour
Speaker 1: and um, you know, it was that type of thing.
Speaker 1: But I was so busy being I'll be showing tour
Speaker 1: that I ran into them, I think even the Carolinas
Speaker 1: or Virginia. They came, and they came, and at that point,
Speaker 1: my security guards were big Weston showed shoot night, so
Speaker 1: they were my security guys, hang on what so. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so we went around. That's a little brother he basically
Speaker 1: he you know, we went around the world together. Um.
Speaker 1: And and so they came and they said they sang
Speaker 1: for me. Um. I think it was some hotel may
Speaker 1: it was. The thing was Virginia because we had already
Speaker 1: gone through Charlotte at that point in Greensboro whatever, and
Speaker 1: so I sent them to go to New York. So
Speaker 1: they got in a little white car and no money
Speaker 1: and I just got, you know, Andre, yo, these cats.
Speaker 1: And then I went on BT, as told Donny, and
Speaker 1: I'll send you that clip as well, so y'all have it.
Speaker 1: But we went on and I started telling I said, Jealousie,
Speaker 1: and he was like, who I said? Jealous I said,
Speaker 1: was a combination and the fellow's names Joe, Joe, DeVante,
Speaker 1: Casey and Dalvin, you know, and he's like Joe Doze like,
Speaker 1: you know, so I remember that, And so when people forget,
Speaker 1: I think it's called there's a disease called selective amnesia.
Speaker 1: Oh those people think, you know sometimes No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying necessarily group er say, but just you
Speaker 1: know the point is that now I'm enjoying the aspect
Speaker 1: of reveal at this point in my life, at fifty
Speaker 1: years old, where you know, I'm so interested in now
Speaker 1: finally telling because I know where all the bodies are buried.
Speaker 1: We was me myself, you know, Andre, Eddie, f Teddy,
Speaker 1: like you know that core group. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to leave anyone out because it was so everybody,
Speaker 1: Dave holl you know, it's so significant, um, the producers
Speaker 1: and so and so forth, and it was like a
Speaker 1: boutique version of Motown, can you yeah? Yeah? And the
Speaker 1: ll ll Hodge you know that he that's him on
Speaker 1: somebody for me, he was an incredible in fact Novelle Hodge,
Speaker 1: myself and this girl named Lisa Lewis were in a
Speaker 1: singing group before the whole heavy d thing. This is
Speaker 1: back in ninth grade and tenth grade, so he was
Speaker 1: the keyboard playing. That was a songwriting and singing, and
Speaker 1: Lisa it was a singer as well. Can you can
Speaker 1: you talk a little bit too about like Christopher Williams,
Speaker 1: because I just remember it was a time when y'all
Speaker 1: seemed to be having a certain relationship and since it
Speaker 1: was the whole Uptown thing, and I remember seeing y'all
Speaker 1: together in the crucis that happened when that would happen
Speaker 1: as well? Yeah, Christopher. In fact, we just finished filming
Speaker 1: his unsunged. Oh wow, And there's a reveal on the
Speaker 1: show about because everybody as LaToya Michael um, Yeah, just
Speaker 1: too lightsning curly here opposite because Chris is like, you know,
Speaker 1: he always said that you were like you said you
Speaker 1: would into your art. He was like, I would have
Speaker 1: his tea, he'd be ready. He was like, I would
Speaker 1: just go smoke a blondie rady. But but again that's
Speaker 1: only because that cat can sing a parking ticket. Like
Speaker 1: to this day, I don't care what he does. He can.
Speaker 1: He's just one of those really gifted singers with that
Speaker 1: big old Luther andels Teddy Pendergrass type of voice. Um,
Speaker 1: and I had to work a little harder. But but
Speaker 1: but the point was is that the biggest mistake, and
Speaker 1: I think I talked about this in Unsung, the biggest
Speaker 1: mistake that they made with Christopher because he was so talented,
Speaker 1: his team is ancillary team. I guess I don't even
Speaker 1: want on the uptown side of it. Instead of them
Speaker 1: trying to chase and knockdown I'll be Sure, which was already, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a big bulldozer, like you're not gonna
Speaker 1: stop that. You're not gonna stop that machine just because
Speaker 1: he has considered a bigger singer or you know, better
Speaker 1: vocalists and so and so. Whether you're not gonna stop
Speaker 1: the machine because it's the whole package. So focus and
Speaker 1: stay on his lane. And what they were trying to
Speaker 1: do was trying to like that. Even the album covers that,
Speaker 1: duplicating my private times like and it's like for him
Speaker 1: like and and and it was like, okay, how do
Speaker 1: we how do we bulldoze over I'll be Sure? Instead
Speaker 1: of you know, let's just like I'm maybe it's just
Speaker 1: the old school of me. If I see somebody that
Speaker 1: maybe competition I'm gonna approach you, and I'm gon say,
Speaker 1: how can we get some money together? I'm not going Yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, two heads are better than one. Let's you
Speaker 1: know so. And I was a Christopher fan and that's
Speaker 1: my man, fifty grand, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: you know he's from the co op. You know I'm
Speaker 1: from Mount Vernon. You know. We we rocked together, you
Speaker 1: know we and what we did. We did have a
Speaker 1: major discrepancy at one point because I took the heat
Speaker 1: for something that that was real, real major right after
Speaker 1: one of the American Musical Well for Best New Artists,
Speaker 1: and I took the heat for something. And you know,
Speaker 1: being a cap on in the street, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't tell you just you just roll with it and
Speaker 1: you just deal with it. So finally I think we
Speaker 1: he and I talked about it and uh, but they
Speaker 1: asked me about it on that was the reveal on. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to push it along a little bit. This
Speaker 1: is a question I always wanted to know. Well, actually, no,
Speaker 1: you already set an emotion that your your palate was
Speaker 1: wide open for different types of genres. I always wanted
Speaker 1: to know, was it Benny Medina's idea for you to
Speaker 1: do Hotel California. No idea. Yeah, he already revealed that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was riding my bike around the neighborhood and
Speaker 1: this kid next door, so I had this little it
Speaker 1: was like the little rascals. So my little neighborhood it was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was the black kid. I
Speaker 1: had these two twins named Darmish and Nimish. They were
Speaker 1: the Indian kids. And this kid named Anthony was an
Speaker 1: Italian kid, and Brendan Pheley was the Irish kid. And
Speaker 1: we used to all ride a bike together. So it
Speaker 1: was like a little melting pot. And this was actually
Speaker 1: in Jersey when I was younger, younger, and you know,
Speaker 1: we would stick the radio on the window and we
Speaker 1: would play, just play those songs. And then he used
Speaker 1: to scare us. This kid used to scare us about
Speaker 1: the Hotel California song and says, you know this is
Speaker 1: about drugs and a spooky song as kids. But but
Speaker 1: I always remember the song, and then, um, it was
Speaker 1: just one of the songs I remember, so I just
Speaker 1: wanted to remake it. In fact, no, the reason I
Speaker 1: remade I think it was no. I remember I think
Speaker 1: it was killing Me Softly, the and everything Killing Me
Speaker 1: Softly song. That's because I was trying to do natural
Speaker 1: high and I didn't understand the lyrics Bloodstone and I
Speaker 1: didn't understand the lyrics, so we just scrapped it and said,
Speaker 1: let's do Killing Me Softly. That is one day, this
Speaker 1: random and so in effect mode that was just that
Speaker 1: was you and Kyle. That's just you and Kyle guy.
Speaker 1: It's me and Kyle, but but myself as a collaborative
Speaker 1: effort of myself, Kyle and Teddy Riley as well. And
Speaker 1: and how can he wasn't listened as producer. I know
Speaker 1: that he was listed as Yeah, he mixed and he
Speaker 1: played like instruments, right, he plays him his right because
Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily bright because what we did was it
Speaker 1: was more Teddy under Teddy's tutelage. And I was worked
Speaker 1: with him so much to the point where they sounded
Speaker 1: like Teddy Riley records. So where But even from a
Speaker 1: marketing standpoint, like Andre wasn't like yo, his name well
Speaker 1: it was eighty seven, so he wasn't rightly proven yet, right,
Speaker 1: he wasn't at all. And what happened was it was
Speaker 1: also more of a Teddy and Jean Griffin and I'll
Speaker 1: be sure Andre Herrell forget right. So but but again,
Speaker 1: but Teddy was just Teddy was everything, Like just to
Speaker 1: be around him and his creativity and and just being
Speaker 1: under the tutelage. I mean, I'll be forever grateful because
Speaker 1: it's just something about that cat's rhythm that it's just
Speaker 1: unlike any other um and just learning that style and
Speaker 1: um that lends itself to so much UM. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, I was, and this is what I was
Speaker 1: saying before. So Teddy was the creative new Jack swing
Speaker 1: phrase coined by Barry Michael Cooper, the Great Barry Michael Cooper,
Speaker 1: and we did a derivative of it. So Eddie f
Speaker 1: did his version of it, kind of like with the
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones stuff, which is actually that's actually Kyle West Also,
Speaker 1: oh say what say? Was? That's why I sound like
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder because Kyle's basically Stevie Wonder. So okay, So
Speaker 1: Kyle what did he played? Plays keys? Plays keys, but
Speaker 1: just brilliantly like his coloring and his is progression, it's
Speaker 1: just something else. It's like he's extraterrest. Did you guys
Speaker 1: have anything to do or were you around for the
Speaker 1: making of the intro album the first with Kenny Green? Yeah, okay, right,
Speaker 1: but again you see the signature. It's that all that
Speaker 1: eight away kid, that rolling eight away stuff in the
Speaker 1: D fifty and a D seventy, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: that kind of in the Juno one oh six, that
Speaker 1: all analogy t x A D one z with the
Speaker 1: bouncing bass and um but just none of that was
Speaker 1: on d X seven at all. Yeah. I was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what was your weapon of choice as
Speaker 1: far as keyboards for like Nilon, Atmosphere, future pad, you
Speaker 1: know all that. And what's crazy is as much as
Speaker 1: we called it R and B, it was more ambient
Speaker 1: R and B than anything else because I loved voices.
Speaker 1: Oh right, what oh? This all the oldest love is
Speaker 1: so Quincy coined. Though the progression from this love is
Speaker 1: so the French blues. So that's all that progression is
Speaker 1: called the French blues now, mind you that the genre now,
Speaker 1: and this is something that I'm about to launch at
Speaker 1: Albi show dot net, which is gonna be um the
Speaker 1: the the derivative of what New Jack Swing represented because Teddy,
Speaker 1: like I said, as the King of New Jack Swing,
Speaker 1: and the inventor, Eddie had his version of it, and
Speaker 1: then Kyle and I had another version of it, which
Speaker 1: now we coin New Jack Sexy. So it's new Jack Swing,
Speaker 1: which is Teddy, Kyle and I New Jack Sexy, and
Speaker 1: Eddie is like kind of you know, like his version,
Speaker 1: but Eddie had a real slick you know, production as well.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's just it was a great launching pad
Speaker 1: in terms of bringing the streets to Wall Street. How
Speaker 1: long did it take you out to record in effect?
Speaker 1: M hmmm, I want to say maybe three months, three
Speaker 1: my or so. Um. And it only sped up because
Speaker 1: after sitting around Teddy for so long, Teddy would do
Speaker 1: records in twelve minutes. Teddy would do a record bridge
Speaker 1: chorus and he said, okay, go ahead to get depending
Speaker 1: and right, and then you know Timmy Gatlin and so
Speaker 1: absolutely I was gonna do you ever think that there
Speaker 1: will be I mean, I'm not going to ask the
Speaker 1: obvious concert question, but it is the time of reuniting.
Speaker 1: Do you think there would be a project, a documentary,
Speaker 1: a something that will bring these people back together like
Speaker 1: the whole New Jack Swing moment movement. I think probably
Speaker 1: the most important outside of you know, selfishly me wanting
Speaker 1: to do the I'll be short story, um, because that
Speaker 1: encompasses so much more than just um. I'll be sure
Speaker 1: because I've been involved with so many you knows, like
Speaker 1: yourself like questions, like it's been involved with working with
Speaker 1: so many different artists from different genres. Um. But probably
Speaker 1: the most important story. And I like I like the
Speaker 1: the introduction of what inside the label was for on
Speaker 1: BT because it kind of gave you a little taste
Speaker 1: of you know, Rockefeller Uptown, you know, so so deaf,
Speaker 1: you know, just a little bit of everybody. But the
Speaker 1: most important modern day story, I believe it's the Uptown story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and and I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: this recently in the press because you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I try to stay out the out of the mix.
Speaker 1: And you know, those relates to controversy stuff because that
Speaker 1: in the dollar fIF ticket to downtown on the train.
Speaker 1: But but but like you know, when I would hear,
Speaker 1: you know, the Fellows would talk to me about them
Speaker 1: doing the Jodice story, and so apparently that's been going
Speaker 1: on for the last three or four years. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if the fellas are green. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what the politics are about it, but I
Speaker 1: did make a statement and say, because it's interesting how
Speaker 1: some deal has been made for them to make this
Speaker 1: story and no one has contacted I'll be sure about
Speaker 1: the story now, mind you. And that's just my new
Speaker 1: version of me because normal, because normally I just let's
Speaker 1: tell the story. Let's it's cool. I'm glad you. So
Speaker 1: what was so with you being so involved in Forever,
Speaker 1: my lady? What was DeVante's? Oh No, DeVante is brilliant.
Speaker 1: Let me tell that cat. He's he's the second coming
Speaker 1: to Teddy Riley for lack of better terms, but meaning
Speaker 1: for DeVante was an extremely talented musician that played several instruments.
Speaker 1: He's another one with that rhythm that you can't teach.
Speaker 1: It's it's all part of his DNA and his spirit
Speaker 1: and he's incredible. Um and at that point, all of
Speaker 1: my demo singers. Let's let's go back to how the
Speaker 1: Jodie things started. So we are on tour. One thing,
Speaker 1: that's another. They get to uptown. They as soon as
Speaker 1: they get it off, as they get signed, Bob Celeston
Speaker 1: and Andre and Jimmy Love and that whole uptown office.
Speaker 1: Um boom they do. They go to do the album,
Speaker 1: they work on stuff, they start singing to different different
Speaker 1: songs and doing stuff. Right. But Casey and Joe Joe
Speaker 1: were my demo singers. So the reason why Usher and
Speaker 1: why why Kevin Campbell? All that stuff sounded so crazy
Speaker 1: because my demo singers get this. This everybody's either living
Speaker 1: my house or with my demo singers a word, So
Speaker 1: I had in one house Casey Joe, Joe, Dave Hollister,
Speaker 1: Faith Evans, Mon case Um, Anthony, Anthony Hamilton's I had
Speaker 1: had to come to some respect on this one. That's
Speaker 1: really what's really nice. In fact, big shout out congratulations
Speaker 1: to my little sister so In Faith and Stevie j
Speaker 1: so Um they met at my house because everybody ever
Speaker 1: in Kimora Camara, least Simmons, like every like oh did
Speaker 1: I say that? No, not in a disrespectful way. She
Speaker 1: was just she was another one who was going to
Speaker 1: figure it out. Like she was that you know, she
Speaker 1: was friends, you know, she dated you know, a family
Speaker 1: members so on and support. But she was around in
Speaker 1: the mix all the time. But she was you could
Speaker 1: just tell she just she's going to be something special,
Speaker 1: like she's creative and all those things. Obviously she's gorgeous,
Speaker 1: beautiful lady the whole thing where she and right, so
Speaker 1: she you know, she turned it into something. So I'm
Speaker 1: really really, oh absolute gorgeous and I'm very proud of
Speaker 1: to see where you know, where she's taking it. Uh
Speaker 1: But yeah, so every everyone and more. And you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, Steve, so so I built I built
Speaker 1: an aid that studio up there with all those Mackie
Speaker 1: boards and stuff, and I've had it up. So we
Speaker 1: used to do short, short time recordings. That's so so
Speaker 1: and it was so much fun. So you had Martin Lawrence,
Speaker 1: you had Chris Rock because I gave Chris's first job.
Speaker 1: Chris used to open up for me on tour. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I forgot to ask, we we gotta ask? Is Chris mentioned?
Speaker 1: All right? So Chris has this hilarious story about the
Speaker 1: first time that Bobby gave you a cop be of
Speaker 1: Don't Be Cruel the album and he says, like it
Speaker 1: just froze you. Well, let me give Actually know who
Speaker 1: tells the story best is Tony Rock. He Tony tells
Speaker 1: me the story just recently again because he was in
Speaker 1: Vegas just recently. And so he says, he says, man,
Speaker 1: he says, I remember the first time, he says, you
Speaker 1: in the studio and my brother was with you. And
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't have a car, so you drove
Speaker 1: him to Brooklyn and your white M three you just
Speaker 1: got the white and faces. He drove Moley to Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: drove him home, and he came inside and was my mother.
Speaker 1: You know, they were sitting around whatever. He says. He says, Yo,
Speaker 1: I'll be sure to drop me off outside. And Tony
Speaker 1: was like, so he came out and he said, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: I'll be shut outside in the car with a car
Speaker 1: full of girls. You gotta hear Tony tell us that's
Speaker 1: the funniest sting. And it's so funny and uh and
Speaker 1: uh and then but Chris was something so special about Christopher.
Speaker 1: Chris was like, so he would open up. We were
Speaker 1: doing a small you know the hotel toll. You know,
Speaker 1: he start if you're doing a hotel to a little
Speaker 1: little ballroom and stuff like that, and Chris, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Crystal coming there and just he just had this whole
Speaker 1: quirky like funny like this humor like it was just
Speaker 1: something organic from him that just was going to tell you,
Speaker 1: this cat is brilliant. He was like brilliant. So you know,
Speaker 1: we just loved him and uh, and it was just
Speaker 1: amazing just to watch this the culmination of just his
Speaker 1: his entire career just go through the roof. I mean
Speaker 1: just the massive global you know, you know, before the
Speaker 1: Kevin Harts and before you know that that that sort
Speaker 1: of you know, vehicle with without the social media aspect
Speaker 1: of behind it. You know, he was just just brilliant cat.
Speaker 1: And what's really nice is that I got so much
Speaker 1: love for Chris because number one, remember his first movie.
Speaker 1: You know, the first movie was The Strictly Business, right
Speaker 1: I think he did I'm I'm music was that's well,
Speaker 1: that's who the song Natalie's about. Yeah, because the fact
Speaker 1: that still have the tattoo, Hellie's tattoo of Mom. So
Speaker 1: I come to watch. Uh. That's part one of our
Speaker 1: episode with I'll be Showa. Uh. Just stay tuned for
Speaker 1: part two coming up next time. Quls Classic I'll be
Speaker 1: Sure crazier stories we promise see all of course Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: It's a production of I Heart Radio. This classic episode
Speaker 1: was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.