Speaker 1: R and B money, Honey, we are thanks take Valoti.
Speaker 1: We are the authorities on all things R and B.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tek Valentine. This is
Speaker 2: the Army Money podcast. The authority.
Speaker 3: It's the fucking authorities on all things R and B.
Speaker 3: There is a brotherhood in R and B. There's lineage,
Speaker 3: there's history in R and B that connects and dates
Speaker 3: back all the way to the beginning of even me.
Speaker 3: And we got a guy here to confirm a talent,
Speaker 3: a gift writer, songwriter, producer, business man. More importantly, my
Speaker 3: loved one man. Uh Papa John's Pizza brother and Domino
Speaker 3: Wings brother.
Speaker 2: What's up? So happy to be here man?
Speaker 3: We had many Papa John's pizza with the garlic butter
Speaker 3: sauce you can only imagine, and.
Speaker 2: The wings all the time.
Speaker 3: What So it's crazy because I knew, you know, we
Speaker 3: always go back to the to the beginning.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go back to your beginning, right.
Speaker 3: But when I, you know, as I became tank, Tank
Speaker 3: was always my nickname, but then I became tank back
Speaker 3: tank again whatever that means. On tour with Genuine and
Speaker 3: Leah because Genuine didn't want to call me the rev.
Speaker 2: He's like, nigga, you ain't got no nickname. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but help me call me.
Speaker 3: That can't be black without you, can't be So as
Speaker 3: I become Tank, my first stop, my first real stop
Speaker 3: into developing whoever this Tank guy is going to be
Speaker 3: is Noontime.
Speaker 2: Wow, the legendary, the legendary legend Atlanta.
Speaker 3: And the first guy they pair me with is this
Speaker 3: guy right here there, it is.
Speaker 2: I believe that. And you wouldn't even believe how that
Speaker 2: pairing occurred, how okay, because it came at a time
Speaker 2: where I wasn't officially signed to Noontime at that time, right,
Speaker 2: I had basically privileged to be in the building and
Speaker 2: to create and shouts out to be Cocks, shouts out
Speaker 2: to to the Noontime family for allowing me that opportunity.
Speaker 2: One but how that opportunity came was an accident because
Speaker 2: there was nobody in the building, if you remember, but us.
Speaker 2: It was just us. It was just me and you.
Speaker 2: And that's really a fast forward into like the whole
Speaker 2: process of our creative relationship because before that, there was
Speaker 2: like a real hard grind going on. But Noontime was gone.
Speaker 2: They were going to New York to work with Aliyah Hyeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: so all of them, they just was like we out.
Speaker 2: Well it wasn't you know. It was a deal happening
Speaker 2: between Blackground Noontime and you know they had a relationship
Speaker 2: where all of the signed producers got an opportunity to
Speaker 2: go work with Aaliyah. Yeah, and I had to stay back.
Speaker 2: And it was such the fortunate experience for me to
Speaker 2: have to stay back because I got to meet you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was just us, bro, It was just a whole studio. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it felt like it was like thirty days. I
Speaker 2: want to say we did some time, bro. It was
Speaker 2: like how many records you think we created? Time? Right?
Speaker 2: So legend has it that we created a record a day.
Speaker 2: We did something like that, And from that came many
Speaker 2: opportunities and shouts out to JQ because I watched his
Speaker 2: podcast and he mentioned one of the legendary records that
Speaker 2: we came up with. I brought it here with me today.
Speaker 2: By the way, we might have to put on the BIB.
Speaker 2: I like to bring some receipts. I like to bring
Speaker 2: some receipts. But the point is is there was a
Speaker 2: time when you know, I was really on the grind,
Speaker 2: and I really didn't have a footing for myself as
Speaker 2: a producer. I really didn't even have a footing for
Speaker 2: myself in Atlanta at the time because I wasn't from Itanta,
Speaker 2: and so getting to know a lot of the Atlanta
Speaker 2: community was like really working up, you know. And so
Speaker 2: I didn't have songwriters who worked with me regularly, So
Speaker 2: I wasn't necessarily writing songs that everybody was really interested
Speaker 2: in here, you know. So it was really a grind.
Speaker 2: But when they dropped you there, it was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: now now's the time to really show them something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that fast forwarded that I think into maybe this
Speaker 2: was my second trip to Atlanta, because ideal was originally
Speaker 2: the reason why I came to Atlanta in the first place.
Speaker 2: Shut yeah, yeah, yeah. My Houston brothers and my family.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to Houston.
Speaker 3: Let's start. Let's go back to Houston. Let's start and
Speaker 3: start there. How do you how do you even get started?
Speaker 3: Like how do you say? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Give me some equipment. I need to figure this shit out.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, well here it goes. Only child, just
Speaker 2: me and my mom growing up, we went to Windsor
Speaker 2: Village Church. Yeah, as many of us, we start out
Speaker 2: in the church. I played drums, study jazz. And there
Speaker 2: was a group of friends that I had made from
Speaker 2: junior high school, right, Wayne Perry, Cedric Cotton, Maverick Cotton,
Speaker 2: Jay Green. This is from junior high school, sixth seventh grade.
Speaker 2: I was the youngest of our crew, and these guys
Speaker 2: were uber talented. I'm talking about like, this is the
Speaker 2: junior high school that Chris Dave went to. Johnston shouts
Speaker 2: out to Johnston Middle School, And this is how it
Speaker 2: all started. Because if you know anything about artist development
Speaker 2: during that time, you know it took years. Right, it
Speaker 2: still should take you, and it should absolutely right. And
Speaker 2: by the time, of course, through our music musical diasp
Speaker 2: or growing up, you know, we sang in the choirs,
Speaker 2: we played in the church bands, we were in the
Speaker 2: jazz bands at school. We were really into music theory.
Speaker 2: All of these guys played an instrument, but they also
Speaker 2: sang too. And so by the time we got to
Speaker 2: high school, Ideal gets signed to Virgin Records. I was
Speaker 2: in tenth grade when they got signed. I was also
Speaker 2: in tenth grade when Chris Dave went to play for
Speaker 2: Man Condition. Wow. So a lot of our musical influences
Speaker 2: that we had grown up around that we had admired.
Speaker 2: You know. Jason Moran was also cut from that cloth too,
Speaker 2: and he's like director of the Kennedy Center Jazz. So
Speaker 2: it's like these types of musical pedigrees was around us
Speaker 2: and this was really inspired us. Now, me being the
Speaker 2: youngest kid, nobody was really listening to me. I couldn't
Speaker 2: sing a lit. My cousin, Charles Ben was in the
Speaker 2: group at the time. Too. Ideal was a five man
Speaker 2: group before it turned into a four man group, and
Speaker 2: they went to Lamar High School, so I kind of
Speaker 2: followed them everywhere they went, right and by the time
Speaker 2: I ended up graduating, which I graduated from the High
Speaker 2: School for Performing in Visual Arts, which is the same
Speaker 2: school be Cos Beyonce, all of it. You know, that
Speaker 2: pedigree went through, but they were already signed to Virgin
Speaker 2: Records and they got put on the shelf. And so
Speaker 2: by the time we get through graduating high school, you know,
Speaker 2: these guys was running around Houston singing, you know, at
Speaker 2: all kinds of events. My mother, who was like a
Speaker 2: socialite in Houston, you know, set them up singing events
Speaker 2: for Winnie Mandela, things of that such, and then they
Speaker 2: got caught the ears of this management company called Mactown Management,
Speaker 2: Too hard to Touch. This management company happened to manage
Speaker 2: this group Htown too hard to Touch. Yeah, shout out
Speaker 2: to Bishop Barrel Stick, Pat Johnson. Those guys, Now, mind you,
Speaker 2: I didn't have any skin in the game. I'm just
Speaker 2: a kid that's rolling with my friends, hoping one day
Speaker 2: that maybe I could just be the drummer to go
Speaker 2: on tour with them. That was my dream because looking
Speaker 2: at Chris Dave and what he's doing, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: this is what I want to do. So are they
Speaker 2: moving with the band or at this point or no?
Speaker 2: Moving with Town.
Speaker 4: No, I'm saying as far as ideal. So, like you said,
Speaker 4: you just wanted to go on a roll, So no,
Speaker 4: you're just really kicking it. You don't even playing drums
Speaker 4: at the shows, nothing.
Speaker 2: None of that, Okay, But we wanted to create music together.
Speaker 2: You know, during that time, you know how much it
Speaker 2: costs to getting studios, So we didn't we didn't have
Speaker 2: the ability to have those types of privileges, especially growing
Speaker 2: up in Houston. It wasn't like an Atlanta scene. It
Speaker 2: wasn't like there was just the music business everywhere. So
Speaker 2: when Htown and Pat Johnson and Bishop Barrell invested their
Speaker 2: time creatively in these guys, they gave them an opportunity
Speaker 2: to write and produce their own stuff. Right. Shouts out
Speaker 2: to g I Jackson, right, because he was one of
Speaker 2: the dudes in Agetown that saw me, that saw me
Speaker 2: and would invite me over to his crib and he's like, hey,
Speaker 2: play with this ASR ten keyboard a little bit. You know,
Speaker 2: let's see what you could do. Couldn't do nothing, couldn't
Speaker 2: do nothing. But it was somebody that in that nucleus
Speaker 2: saw me in a way in which that was different
Speaker 2: from how they saw my guys. And I knew my
Speaker 2: guys were talented, like I was like waving their flag
Speaker 2: like none other. And h Town would take them on
Speaker 2: like spot dates, you know, they might have an you know,
Speaker 2: an open end. Yeah. And this was long before Noontime
Speaker 2: came into the picture, long before the records came into
Speaker 2: the pictures, long before we even took a trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 5: Right, And.
Speaker 2: That thing kind of fizzled after a while. This whole
Speaker 2: time idea was signed to Virgin of the assigned group
Speaker 2: to Virgin, right directly to Virgin, not through any subsidiaries
Speaker 2: or anything like that. And so it was a privileged
Speaker 2: opportunity because we saw this growth. And it took years.
Speaker 2: It took years. It took years to get on the shelf.
Speaker 2: They had a single came out that was a Marvin
Speaker 2: Gay remake on Original Gangsters. I don't know if you'll
Speaker 2: remember that.
Speaker 4: I remember Original Man, all right, Yeah, that was that
Speaker 4: was a real uh West Coast movie.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So that was the beginning, right for me, seeing
Speaker 2: what could potentially occur, right, and I go to college.
Speaker 2: Then when I go to college, everybody's back at home.
Speaker 2: You know. The movie didn't do too good. The soundtrack
Speaker 2: didn't do too good. I think Virgin was changing administrations,
Speaker 2: you know, and so you know, get lost in the
Speaker 2: sauce at a certain point, but we never stopped. And
Speaker 2: so I got into a car accident maybe coming home
Speaker 2: from Houston, I mean coming home from college. And it
Speaker 2: awarded me the opportunity to buy some gear. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I bought an a SR tear and keyboard with Gi
Speaker 2: used to let me come over his crib and play
Speaker 2: with and tinkle with I bought it from Bishop Barrell Stick,
Speaker 2: So he's the guy that produced Knocking the Boots, produced
Speaker 2: all of a Town stuff. So that was my first
Speaker 2: keyboard and then I'm like, okay, we can create something now.
Speaker 2: But I wasn't a keyboard player, but this was a sampler,
Speaker 2: so I learned how to manipulate things, learn how to
Speaker 2: record their vocals into the sampler, stack them up, press
Speaker 2: the one button and it sounds like a bunch of
Speaker 2: bunch of stacks. It's like the first daw So. And
Speaker 2: that was really my first foray into the technical side
Speaker 2: of things because now I felt like I had some
Speaker 2: value to bring to the table.
Speaker 4: And so they had no other main producer at this point.
Speaker 2: No, they had Stick and it was us as a group.
Speaker 2: We called ourselves at that time Abstract Productions, right, I
Speaker 2: know you remember Biyo has it of course. Yeah. It
Speaker 2: was like it was like our first bio hazard production
Speaker 2: company and it was us and we had an opportunity
Speaker 2: to go in and some people gave us. You know,
Speaker 2: we had some guys that threw us a little money
Speaker 2: and it was like the streets, right, So we had
Speaker 2: some guys that throw some money and said go in
Speaker 2: the studio and do some things. So we cut this
Speaker 2: demo and I mean, like one of these songs is
Speaker 2: called Puppy Love, right. I can't wait till y'all hear that. Right.
Speaker 2: Robert Glasper loves this song too, right. But so yeah,
Speaker 2: that was the claim the fame of my contribution to
Speaker 2: them as a group coming out of Houston, still being
Speaker 2: at Howard because I would be coming home from Howard.
Speaker 2: At Howard, I would have relationships with this guy, Eric Roberson,
Speaker 2: my right, he would be going back and forth from Atlanta,
Speaker 2: and he'd be like, man, working with these people down there,
Speaker 2: this one producer Jay Duve. I don't know who Jay
Speaker 2: Dove is until I start reading the my album credits
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh wow. So Eric Roberson would come back,
Speaker 2: play me certain ideas. What you think about this, you know?
Speaker 2: And I'm just a kid, like nobody's still really paying
Speaker 2: attention to the fact that I got a group back
Speaker 2: at home as signed the Virgin Records, even though I'm
Speaker 2: not on no paperwork for nothing that they're privy to, Like,
Speaker 2: it's still us at the end of the day. So
Speaker 2: it gets around to the point to where like they're
Speaker 2: in limbo. They're in limbo. I'm in school. I get
Speaker 2: to mind second semester, my junior year at Howard at
Speaker 2: this point, and they find a way to have someone
Speaker 2: Leslie Bond. Actually, I'm gonna mention that name, Leslie Bond.
Speaker 2: What's up less through one of our cousins, Pete, who
Speaker 2: was a lawyer in Saint Louis, and he was like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm gonna take on this action and
Speaker 2: we're gonna fly off to la and we're gonna see
Speaker 2: what's going on with ideals project. So he came out here,
Speaker 2: he had a meeting with Eric Brooks. Ideal didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: have like a real core manager at this time, and
Speaker 2: they were able to convince them to put some attention
Speaker 2: on the idea. And the minute that that happened, Virgin
Speaker 2: decided that we're gonna fly him out here. We're gonna
Speaker 2: put them up, put them up in the park Librea
Speaker 2: before the grove was there, right, and you thought that
Speaker 2: they was just gonna leave me, right, So now I
Speaker 2: packed my stuff up. His career and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm out. When we leave, you leave school, You're like,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm gone. This is it. I'm going at this
Speaker 2: particular point because at in school, you know, I'm still touting,
Speaker 2: you know, my guys got a deal like these the
Speaker 2: one up next. Yeah, you know, so so come out
Speaker 2: to LA And this had to be in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 2: right nineteen ninety seven to nineteen ninety nine. We were
Speaker 2: out here and I stayed on the couch. Virgin rented
Speaker 2: a van, you know, for us to have to move
Speaker 2: around with. Wasn't a lot of money going around, and
Speaker 2: they were getting like a monthly stipend. I was getting zero,
Speaker 2: and so you know, calling my mom, let me get
Speaker 2: some you know, rolling around money, eating money, whatnot. You know,
Speaker 2: go to Western Union, pick it up, call my dad,
Speaker 2: you know, things would you know, they would help out.
Speaker 2: But virtually, you know, I'm out here figuring it out.
Speaker 2: And so Eric broke at the time, and I'm fast
Speaker 2: forwarding a little bit. But I mean we met with
Speaker 2: like Big John, We met with like, you know, people
Speaker 2: who are at the height of their game and publishing
Speaker 2: or actually getting there. You know, I don't know what
Speaker 2: trajectory when we walked into this meeting with Big John
Speaker 2: and we're playing him all of these demos and whatnot,
Speaker 2: and they're basically like, it's like, nah, these songs suck.
Speaker 2: Come on, tell the truth about the music business.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because everybody thinks we're looking at successful people and
Speaker 4: they've always had good music to everyone.
Speaker 2: It might have been good music to you at the time.
Speaker 2: Oh it was great to us, right.
Speaker 4: But then you start realizing the reality of what the
Speaker 4: big leagues really are. Yes, And we stepped into it
Speaker 4: really quickly with not a lot of representation, basically zero representation.
Speaker 4: Less didn't have experience in the music business, even though
Speaker 4: he was a lawyer, so he knew how to kind
Speaker 4: of look at deals.
Speaker 2: And see what do what terms, but not everything right,
Speaker 2: But we were like really on our own kids in
Speaker 2: this game, like literally kids taking means with our songs,
Speaker 2: taking means with our songs. Nobody liked them. Nobody liked them.
Speaker 2: It was Do you remember the feeling of that though, Yes,
Speaker 2: because it was. I mean it's like a gut punch
Speaker 2: really and a reality check too at the same time.
Speaker 2: Because this group is undeniably talented. They will sing any
Speaker 2: group under the table. Their harmonies will like none other.
Speaker 2: So how could anything that their voices be on not
Speaker 2: be good? Yeah, it happens bro, No, it happened. It happened.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: So even if you like do like I mean when
Speaker 3: you place the stuff, you do like to do a
Speaker 3: deep dive.
Speaker 2: Like I've listened to some of my old records and
Speaker 2: I'd be like, damn, I.
Speaker 4: Was exactly listen nobody, nobody back to a thousand.
Speaker 2: We can still go back and listen to this Puppy
Speaker 2: Love record. And I'm sorry, but that record was fire.
Speaker 2: But were y'all playing Puppy Love for people too? We
Speaker 2: were playing that, but nobody liked it.
Speaker 3: It was like it was jazzy. It was like, it's
Speaker 3: also called puffy Love. We gotta I want your.
Speaker 2: Grown nigga to play me puppy love.
Speaker 5: Right here.
Speaker 2: This is really hot called puppy Love.
Speaker 3: Niggas is twenty three guys. Oh, we're just talking about
Speaker 3: all the puppies.
Speaker 2: And we're not thinking we've nurtured over over the years.
Speaker 2: We're thinking we some real musicians out here, and you know,
Speaker 2: we are adding some value to puffy Love. What had
Speaker 2: happened was is Ideal found someone in Virgin Records, right,
Speaker 2: and they asked her to come and manage them. Okay, right,
Speaker 2: And so now there was someone who spoke the language
Speaker 2: of the business, who probably didn't have any experience managing
Speaker 2: at that time, but who worked in there that worked
Speaker 2: in that building. Her name was Carmenic Roberts. Carmen. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm saying that shouts out to Karmeny, because the moment
Speaker 2: that she started to speak for the group, then we
Speaker 2: started to see things happening. You know. It was somebody
Speaker 2: who believed in the group, somebody who was willing to
Speaker 2: take their time and energy and speak on the behalf
Speaker 2: of right those who can't necessarily speak for themselves a
Speaker 2: certain kind of way, right. And she happened to Winter
Speaker 2: to go to Howard and so back channel. Now I
Speaker 2: got my little cousin b Cox calling me too while
Speaker 2: he's at Clarke Atlanta University, because there was a period
Speaker 2: of limbo before we moved to LA where I was
Speaker 2: working at Mars Music, right, and he was in Clarke
Speaker 2: Atlanta and trying to figure it out, right, And part
Speaker 2: of his story is he's walking around, he finds this
Speaker 2: flyer on the ground, right, and he calls them up,
Speaker 2: and he's trying to get over there and go in turn. Hey, look,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be paid. Just give me studio time, right,
Speaker 2: guy from Houston, PVA well trained musically, right, So back
Speaker 2: channel Cox and them already knew Idea was signed, like
Speaker 2: since we were in high school. He was an underclassman
Speaker 2: to us, right, so we're like seniors. He was like
Speaker 2: a sophomore, right, and he worked at the Guitar Center,
Speaker 2: and so we just, you know, we just try to
Speaker 2: figure out ways that how we can really just make it.
Speaker 2: So by the time we get to LA, things start moving.
Speaker 2: Carmenique starts moving. He's in Atlanta. Carmenique sets up this meeting. Well,
Speaker 2: here's how it happened. Jay Dubb submitted some tracks and
Speaker 2: before we got to Atlanta, he came to LA and
Speaker 2: I think that there was something going on between the
Speaker 2: Noontime relationship. But Jay Dub was out here rolling with
Speaker 2: tr and they went to the Music Grinder studios talk
Speaker 2: about the music the Music Grinder studios, right, and recorded
Speaker 2: this that we all set in the Circle in the
Speaker 2: Park Librea and we wrote about a breakup that my
Speaker 2: cousin Pete had. Right. A song called tell Me Why.
Speaker 2: It's on the Ideas first album, right, This Ja Doub
Speaker 2: produced track. This was before we got to Atlanta and
Speaker 2: started to realize that our songs were trash, right, But
Speaker 2: this song actually made it yah because it was on
Speaker 2: a jaduve B and the five of us in the
Speaker 2: room wrote it, and so we were like, yeah, we
Speaker 2: could do this thing. Start feeling ourselves a little bit.
Speaker 2: We worked with Jay Dubb, you know. And so now
Speaker 2: on the other side of the management's back channels, Carmanique
Speaker 2: is on the phone working out, well, how can we
Speaker 2: come down and get some more noontime records? Right, so
Speaker 2: they work out a chunk of a deal. You know,
Speaker 2: there was a lot of money going around in the
Speaker 2: music business back then, all right, And they they flew
Speaker 2: down to Atlanta. I wasn't on that ticket because, mind you,
Speaker 2: I'm not the guy that anybody's let's just get what
Speaker 2: do you what are you even doing? The guy is
Speaker 2: the guy, you know. And and there was you know,
Speaker 2: ran around LA working with a bunch of songwriters and
Speaker 2: producers here, and you know, things just weren't sticking, you know,
Speaker 2: for them. But I was also making relationships too, and
Speaker 2: I remember making a relationship with this one producer and
Speaker 2: who would invite me over to his studio and to
Speaker 2: do some drum programming for him, and I just learned
Speaker 2: a lot about the technical aspect of it. And I
Speaker 2: was really just sewing my oats. You know. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: just lay on the couch just waiting for ideal to
Speaker 2: to do something.
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 2: I was going to use the best of my time
Speaker 2: out here in LA the best way I could, and
Speaker 2: that was making, you know, relationships with other producers who
Speaker 2: could teach me things, because people were telling me all
Speaker 2: this one little keyboard that you're working on, it's not
Speaker 2: industry standard enough, so you got to get your game up.
Speaker 2: That's crazy that they will say that, right, Yeah, but
Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about sound design.
Speaker 3: Well, no, the A s R ten was just I mean,
Speaker 3: at that time, we're talking Timblin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are talking like.
Speaker 3: We're talking like a game changing machine, like like.
Speaker 2: It was a game changing talking big tank. But if
Speaker 2: you didn't know how to manipulate it like a sound
Speaker 2: if you have to, and if you knew about sound design,
Speaker 2: then right, getting sounds wasn't like going on splice today. Right, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what people the speedy, speedy, we just couldn't afford.
Speaker 2: Speedy was walking around like you can't afford.
Speaker 3: Its like I got, I got two, I got two
Speaker 3: for three or three before you got to.
Speaker 2: Limit know what you want to do, because Speedy was
Speaker 2: like at least five grande no joke, no joke, Okay,
Speaker 2: I was like, where are you kidding this?
Speaker 3: Speedy taught me a lot, though, so he told all
Speaker 3: of us, I just want to throw that out there.
Speaker 2: Great guy, Yeah for sure. So back channels, Carmenig's figuring
Speaker 2: out how Ideal could get some more great songs, right,
Speaker 2: and I'm skipping over some things, and you can imagine
Speaker 2: how much time is passing in between, you know, all
Speaker 2: of this stuff that's going on, right, So it's you know,
Speaker 2: some months, maybe even the year, you know, and we're
Speaker 2: trying to figure it out. And I'm not officially not
Speaker 2: in the noontime, but I could still go over there
Speaker 2: and work. I could still get my bones in, and
Speaker 2: I do appreciate. I am so appreciative of the ability
Speaker 2: to do that at that time because when they left
Speaker 2: me behind to go to New York while they were
Speaker 2: negotiating this bigger lie A deal. Before they left, Chris
Speaker 2: Hicks comes into the sea room because there was this
Speaker 2: group seven mile who was working who was scheduled to
Speaker 2: work but everybody was gone. He's like, can you make
Speaker 2: this track like this with these elements? Kevin's gonna be here.
Speaker 2: He'll get you some guitars, you know, woo woo whoo.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, cool. So I make this track
Speaker 2: and seven Mile loved it. They cut a song to it.
Speaker 2: Sony Music cuts a check for it. I get a check,
Speaker 2: they get dropped. You got to check. I got to check.
Speaker 2: Shouts out to seven Miles. But I was there in
Speaker 2: noontime studios alone, and then you fly in. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: shut out the goosebumps. I swear that's where a lot
Speaker 2: of my advanced money went. And I guess the inspiration
Speaker 2: for this legendary record that we ended up cutting. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it was the first record we cut.
Speaker 3: It's absolutely the inspiration, though, I promise you it is.
Speaker 3: I remember that forty dollars. Oh man, I stretched it out.
Speaker 2: I kept flipping it over. Your advance was gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I fucked that up.
Speaker 2: But he got seven Mile money. He got yeah, seven
Speaker 2: money money.
Speaker 3: But we wasn't like, we wasn't balling by no means.
Speaker 3: It was all work in Pisa by that's it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, and I still wasn't signing noontime And I
Speaker 2: keep saying that because what magically occurred, and I think
Speaker 2: it occurred by accident, was afternoon Times Trip was up
Speaker 2: with recording with Aleah in New York. Nobody could figure
Speaker 2: out who did this one track that Aliah just so
Speaker 2: happened to cut too, because on the CDs, on the dats,
Speaker 2: the names of the producers, just the music, the music
Speaker 2: and what I remember of the story. And you know,
Speaker 2: I could I could have it a little bit botched
Speaker 2: because I wasn't there is Jazzy heard the track. Jazzy
Speaker 2: Fay heard the track, and it was like, oh, I
Speaker 2: want to write to this one for Leah, and Blackground
Speaker 2: loved the track too, and Leah loved the track, and
Speaker 2: so Johntay and Jazzy jump on the record and John
Speaker 2: Tay writes the first verse, Jazzy writes the second verse,
Speaker 2: and it comes back to be I don't want to
Speaker 2: wow and yeah, so when they find out that it
Speaker 2: was me, we gotta sign, we gotta sign it. Let's
Speaker 2: all I need to talk to you. And it didn't
Speaker 2: even happen like that just yet, because there were some
Speaker 2: other things that were occurring in the business side of it.
Speaker 2: Now Notontime went up there and cut a bunch of
Speaker 2: records with A LEA right, and during that time, I
Speaker 2: guess whatever deal that they had going on didn't work out,
Speaker 2: And from what I understood of it is that Blackground
Speaker 2: didn't want any of those I LEO records anymore, including
Speaker 2: I don't want including I don't want it. But when
Speaker 2: it came back down, while the deal was still moving on,
Speaker 2: I was trying to make sure that I secured the
Speaker 2: potential for this record to be the greatest record that
Speaker 2: it could be. So I was like, Teddy, can you
Speaker 2: help me on it? Brian, can you help me on it?
Speaker 2: Every help finish it? Yeah, to help finish it, and
Speaker 2: so you know, I think we came up with like
Speaker 2: maybe another version of it, and then Chris was like, Nah,
Speaker 2: they like the record the way it is. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: that's great, and so, you know, things were moving forward
Speaker 2: until it wasn't until we got word that Blackground didn't
Speaker 2: want any of those records. But somehow, and I don't
Speaker 2: know how, shouts out to Chris Hicks for whatever magic
Speaker 2: that he did during that time, But somehow that record
Speaker 2: got on Priorities Desk Priority Records, and they were doing
Speaker 2: this movie next Friday, and they wanted Aaliah so bad
Speaker 2: to be on this soundtrack, right that they were willing
Speaker 2: to pay whatever Blackground wanted for Leah's appearance, and this
Speaker 2: was the record that they chose. And I was like,
Speaker 2: thank you Jesus. Yeah. So the song was never on
Speaker 2: her album then, not yet, Okay, okay.
Speaker 6: Because she wasn't working on any albums that put on
Speaker 6: two different projects. She was working on an album, she
Speaker 6: was doing movies. I think she had tooken hiatus from
Speaker 6: like making music, and she was doing movies. She did
Speaker 6: Romeo Must Die and then she did Queen and the
Speaker 6: damn right, and there was no Alia music out there
Speaker 6: until this Next Friday soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And you know it, it was fortunate because
Speaker 2: they paid whatever her appearance fee was. I'll tell y'all
Speaker 2: how much that what I know of it was it
Speaker 2: was two hundred thousand dollars just to get the record,
Speaker 2: just to get her, just for her. Yeah yeah. And
Speaker 2: it was forty three thousand dollars for the track twenty three.
Speaker 2: I don't know that's I'm not pressure I was seventeen five.
Speaker 2: I don't know what. I don't know what that's at
Speaker 2: least dope prices. But what three is like.
Speaker 3: Somebody took seven, somebody was probably hey man, hey it
Speaker 3: was forty three thousand.
Speaker 2: Somebody definitely we're not because they're like, you're not complaining
Speaker 2: forty three or you have to give new Time noontime
Speaker 2: there their piece, but in their piece again because they
Speaker 2: had publishing too. But I'm talking about the cash. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Well when I said they had publishing, like we when
Speaker 2: we did the deal with Noontime, they did you a
Speaker 2: production deal and a publishing so they gave you an
Speaker 2: advance right, and I guess to kind of buffer what
Speaker 2: the recruitment process was, they'd only recoup like maybe one thousand,
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars. They take the twenty percent, you know,
Speaker 2: for the Noontime management side, in which at that time
Speaker 2: I didn't think I was managed by Noontime. I thought
Speaker 2: I was managed by by Carmenique. Yeah, okay, you know,
Speaker 2: so it was a lot of other things that were
Speaker 2: in play at this particular point that I had. But
Speaker 2: what happened was you got the noontime price. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: got the noontime.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they you know, their stock is what got
Speaker 3: you and you're ten all in, you're definitely yeah.
Speaker 2: Exactly right.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so your prices got bumped up so it
Speaker 4: was all justified.
Speaker 2: Yeah, more for sure. There was no gripes. It wasn't
Speaker 2: so what you buy. Did you buy anything stupid? Yes?
Speaker 2: I bought some five hundred dollars product boots that I
Speaker 2: wore like twice. Okay, I call that stupid because you know,
Speaker 2: it was just like, you know, why did I do it?
Speaker 2: The little sports joints that everbody had? No, it wasn't smart.
Speaker 2: It was like it was like, you know what's ones
Speaker 2: I'm talking about? It was the ones that came out
Speaker 2: after those. It was like the like the big big
Speaker 2: toe boots, like how they wear them big shoes now, Yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah it looks like those. But did you feel good
Speaker 2: when you had them all for the first couple of times? Yeah,
Speaker 2: But then I didn't. I didn't really care much after that,
Speaker 2: that's all.
Speaker 4: At first, they didn't get the reaction you were looking for.
Speaker 2: He's gonna kill They didn't kill you. Nobody nobody ever
Speaker 2: looked down. And I liked my vands and my shelters. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I was cool with that.
Speaker 3: I couldn't and just knowing you like the product, just
Speaker 3: it's not me and the product.
Speaker 2: I don't know music videos, but I remember I remember
Speaker 2: actually taking Ryan I want to say it was Ryan Nooney.
Speaker 2: They took me out on Rodeo Drive. When we went
Speaker 2: and got him, I was like, what y'all want to
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I shouldn't have did that either. Nonetheless,
Speaker 2: it happens, brother, it happens. It happens. You were feeling uh,
Speaker 2: you were feeling grateful, feeling grateful, but I still wasn't
Speaker 2: officially signing Noontime and me and b Cox took a
Speaker 2: trip to New York City and I started to have
Speaker 2: meetings and I had this lea song in my pocket,
Speaker 2: and Sony Music offered me three hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 4: Come on, come on, three fifty yeah, uh huh, okay,
Speaker 4: all right now we're talking about yeah, yeah, we went
Speaker 4: from we were from thirty all in till forty three.
Speaker 2: Was seven missing yeah, Sony Music. Now, Now let me
Speaker 2: tell you there's a catch to this. If there's always
Speaker 2: a cat catch, you know, some guys down at Noontime
Speaker 2: called window those Yeah, I bet they did. I got
Speaker 2: a phone call. That's a record. You're gonna get a
Speaker 2: phone call. You might get a visit. It started with
Speaker 2: a phone call, started with the like, hey, so we
Speaker 2: a we heard you had this meeting. So look, you
Speaker 2: could take that deal if you want, but you won't
Speaker 2: having a LEO record. And it could have happened like that.
Speaker 2: I mean, John T wrote the record, Jazzy wrote the record,
Speaker 2: Kevin played guitar on the record. Fully capable of recreating it,
Speaker 2: you know. But it wasn't that I didn't want to
Speaker 2: be signed the noontime at all. I had an opportunity
Speaker 2: to see what the value was, right, My heart was
Speaker 2: definitely one I wanted. I wanted to be accepted by
Speaker 2: these guys, and I wanted to be in their system
Speaker 2: because what you saw happening in that building was pure magic.
Speaker 2: Special It was pure magic. But you know that it
Speaker 2: came with a cost. It came with some sacrifices, and
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of people don't know what those
Speaker 2: sacrifices might look like because people are so enamored when
Speaker 2: they do hear the numbers. When they do, you know, oh,
Speaker 2: you could have got three to fifty're like, yeah, but
Speaker 2: at the same cost.
Speaker 4: But let's break this down too, right, let's break this down.
Speaker 4: Most people think you signed publishing deals for them to
Speaker 4: actually help you get music on more projects.
Speaker 2: That part.
Speaker 4: You ultimately do a publishing deal because you need the
Speaker 4: bread and they're kind of a bank, the same kind
Speaker 4: of thing that you did these record deals.
Speaker 2: It's really a bank, right. That doesn't mean.
Speaker 4: That the people that work at these publishing companies are
Speaker 4: going to actually land you placements or have a system
Speaker 4: to even put you in that will get you placed.
Speaker 4: Right now, they may see, what's what's the ship they
Speaker 4: used to send out, what's the sheet?
Speaker 2: What was it called Who's Looking? Who's Looking? List? You
Speaker 2: have that? How many times have you landed a song
Speaker 2: off of Who's Listening? I've led it none Who's Looking?
Speaker 4: So that's you know, at the R and B Money
Speaker 4: podcast where we're about the information and the understanding, when
Speaker 4: you say I could have went and done that deal,
Speaker 4: but that might have just only been.
Speaker 2: For the three fifty, right, and I'd have been in limbo,
Speaker 2: in limbo, stuck in stuck in some crazy It would
Speaker 2: have been blown.
Speaker 4: Of course, at that age, with nobody to actually go
Speaker 4: and pitch your records where they're not actually coming to
Speaker 4: a studio like noontime to hear these debt tapes that
Speaker 4: are putting you in a position to make way more
Speaker 4: than three fifty.
Speaker 3: Because it's walking into that building that was just whatever.
Speaker 3: Once you walked into that building, whatever was presented to you.
Speaker 3: It just makes sense, right, right.
Speaker 2: He was leaving the right and so I mean, I
Speaker 2: made the sacrifice, but I also felt like I was
Speaker 2: paying my way up. Of course, I said, I don't
Speaker 2: know how much of my talent really spoke for it,
Speaker 2: outside of the fact that these stars aligned for me
Speaker 2: in a way in which that allowed me an opportunity
Speaker 2: to get a Liah song on the next Friday soundtrack.
Speaker 2: My dream was to work with Alia. It felt like
Speaker 2: I manifested there's some kind of way, you know, and
Speaker 2: noon time was the catalyst to do that, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm still in there, you know, grinding and really
Speaker 2: just trying to be accepted by any and everybody up
Speaker 2: in there. Right So they signed me, Hm, got signed,
Speaker 2: I got sign sign We're official, We're signed. Were the
Speaker 2: numbers anywhere closed? No? That number was thirty five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars it was ten percent of three fifty yeah, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: all right, but I got a forty three thousand dollars
Speaker 2: Alijah check. Okay, okay, So now we are seventy eight
Speaker 2: if you want to add that onto it. Like I
Speaker 2: worked for that, do that. That's all it all counts.
Speaker 2: I was in the studio day in and there for free,
Speaker 2: for free, working for right, So all of these factors
Speaker 2: played into it. And of course, as a kid got
Speaker 2: the record placed, they got the record place. You're not
Speaker 2: thinking about this stuff though as a kid, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: and you're not thinking about what they're going through on
Speaker 2: the other side of their businesses for other certain things
Speaker 2: to happen. Right, So I get the front half of
Speaker 2: that thirty.
Speaker 4: Five thousand, and this is an advance, right, let's talk
Speaker 4: about that. Okay, So right, because of be paid back,
Speaker 4: it got to be paid back, but check it out.
Speaker 2: It wasn't that much to pay back. Right. But that's
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So you're going to be in the
Speaker 2: black very very soon, right, you know if that black
Speaker 2: you know what that black looked like for noontime was
Speaker 2: maybe taking out a thousand here off of this check.
Speaker 2: You know two thousand here, you know it. It was
Speaker 2: a process. Yeah, it was a process. And you know,
Speaker 2: again they were a production company. So knowing what I
Speaker 2: know now, again you don't know what was going on
Speaker 2: in the back end of their business practices. But I
Speaker 2: only got paid the front half of that thirty five.
Speaker 2: I never got paid for seventeen five. I never agreed.
Speaker 2: I never got paid to second seventeen to five. However,
Speaker 2: that Aliachek came in, that seven mile check came in.
Speaker 2: You know. So now as an adult, when I'm looking
Speaker 2: at certain things, it's like, you know, maybe one hand
Speaker 2: washes the other. Maybe I felt slighted then as a kid,
Speaker 2: you see what I'm saying, Maybe I felt like the outcast.
Speaker 2: Maybe I felt like Cinderella in the room because there
Speaker 2: was nothing that I was privy to until this official
Speaker 2: signing happened. Right, But what I'm thankful for is the
Speaker 2: way in which things still happened, because if it happened
Speaker 2: like I wanted to happen, I wouldn't have been with you.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have had that opportunity need to see the
Speaker 2: greatness that you were and have a part to play
Speaker 2: in the legend of who Tank was in Atlanta because
Speaker 2: after that, after people started hearing what we were creating,
Speaker 2: then they were like, oh my god, more work, more
Speaker 2: work came, more work came. Yeah, And that was like
Speaker 2: the pinnacle of where our brotherhood messed right and collaboration
Speaker 2: came back into the forefront. For me, it was like,
Speaker 2: my goodness, now I'm creating with somebody that wants to
Speaker 2: create with me one, you know, two, and we're creating
Speaker 2: great music and people are liking it, right, and so
Speaker 2: that leads us to moat yeah yeah, you know, my god,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah, and being he's getting those DreamWorks checks too, yeah,
Speaker 2: dream work, yeah, you know. And that's that's when I
Speaker 2: started to learn about what else had to happen. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: come on, man, I'm gonna get you thirty. But now
Speaker 2: you know what happened we smoke on a little bit earlier.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, It's called a kickback kick. So what happens
Speaker 2: is the kickback is.
Speaker 4: I'm going to put it, I'm going to invoice it
Speaker 4: for a little bit higher than what you probably would
Speaker 4: make normally, and then once you get it, you kick
Speaker 4: that extra back to me period period. And that was
Speaker 4: that was an industry standard. Back in the day for
Speaker 4: n RS.
Speaker 3: Wh's is kind of what it was because they controlled
Speaker 3: the pocketbook, they controlled the you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: they controlled the checkbook, and you have to decide, you
Speaker 3: know how bad you wanted it, right, And to me,
Speaker 3: it was always worth that sacrifice. Always you need it.
Speaker 3: You need a little five from this, that's it. From
Speaker 3: a thirty five, absolutely right, because I usually only make twenty.
Speaker 3: You also need you need fifteen the on the pub
Speaker 3: absolutely here you go.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah you was, he was making it.
Speaker 3: I need all seven songs, right, all seven I need
Speaker 3: all seven.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, when you were putting them out the way
Speaker 2: you which you were putting them out.
Speaker 3: There because I was cheating. I was cheating the game
Speaker 3: seven songs. I'm one hundred percent, so I'm cheating right.
Speaker 3: So to me, I'm that math. I'm going to dropping
Speaker 3: an eighty five. Ain't really, I'm doing long term math.
Speaker 3: I'm like I can do these all day, days, all day.
Speaker 2: But it's not just that one that came. It was
Speaker 2: fooling around. Yeah, fooling around. Yeah, we went out and
Speaker 2: we did tear shit up rocked joint. Yeah yeah, damn
Speaker 2: fooling around. What so did any of the records make
Speaker 2: me your first album. Nope, nope, Like I said, none
Speaker 2: made the album.
Speaker 3: So the relationship, like you said, the relationship between Noon
Speaker 3: Time and Black Row, went sour because okay, okay, And
Speaker 3: so when it went.
Speaker 2: Sour, none of it. No, I won't need none of that.
Speaker 2: I was like, none of it. Wow, ye none. So
Speaker 2: a lot of those records went on the you know,
Speaker 2: on the shop list, and so I got my own
Speaker 2: room in Zach's studios after that, and then Zach. It
Speaker 2: was it was a time where I felt like everything
Speaker 2: was an urgency for me because you know, I had
Speaker 2: my child in the world at this point, you know,
Speaker 2: and because things were so inconsistent for me at that time.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm it wasn't the best relationship with my
Speaker 2: son's mother. I did have the ability to provide as
Speaker 2: consistently and as good as I should have at that point,
Speaker 2: you know, but I was working my ass off. So
Speaker 2: I named my production company State of Emergency at this point.
Speaker 2: State of Emergency. State of Emergency was the angst of
Speaker 2: everything that was going on with me in Atlanta at
Speaker 2: that point, and I started putting rock guitars in everything,
Speaker 2: and I started like, really just you know, utilizing my
Speaker 2: creative community as much as I could of people who
Speaker 2: really wanted to work with me at that point. And
Speaker 2: so I had guys like Chris Dave in the studio
Speaker 2: with me. I had guys like PJ Morton in the
Speaker 2: studio playing on tracks. And you know, PJ attests to
Speaker 2: it himself, like he you know, he used to come
Speaker 2: into the studio with me and play on keys, and
Speaker 2: he attributes me to teaching him how to make beats
Speaker 2: and things of that such like out of his own mouth.
Speaker 2: This was a whole nother learning process. But I wanted
Speaker 2: to create this band state of emergency. And there was
Speaker 2: this producer, well, he was a rapper at first, and
Speaker 2: it was somebody that I saw a talent in that
Speaker 2: was remarkable because I saw the work that he did
Speaker 2: with Jim Crow and I'm like, bro, you're really producing.
Speaker 2: But he didn't necessarily know how to navigate the equipment right,
Speaker 2: but he would move around between me or between bea Cox,
Speaker 2: or between whoever he could to learn how to work
Speaker 2: this equipment right. And coming out of their situation, he
Speaker 2: was like, I really want to be I want to
Speaker 2: take my shot of this production thing. And so I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, okay, cool, and we did this
Speaker 2: thing out of my apartment, right and he would bring
Speaker 2: street dudes through the crib and you know, Rent would
Speaker 2: get paid. You know what I'm saying. Things would come through,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was a cool little relationship for
Speaker 2: that process. During this process, I was building up State
Speaker 2: of Emergency and Seasac dropped like twenty twenty five grand
Speaker 2: to have their opening party in Atlanta, and they wanted
Speaker 2: State of Emergency to be the band of this performance.
Speaker 2: And I got to choose the artist that would be
Speaker 2: on this stage, all right, And it was at Club
Speaker 2: eleven fifty and literally all of Atlanta came out. It
Speaker 2: was packed house, packed house. One artist that was on
Speaker 2: that stage was Jay Holliday. Another artist that we performed on,
Speaker 2: which happened to be like the headlining artists that we
Speaker 2: performed with, was Leela James all right. Chris Dave was
Speaker 2: on drums. Shout out to John John Tracks on guitar.
Speaker 2: It was a remarkable situation. It was like we was
Speaker 2: a fifteen hundred and nothing to Atlanta, right, and it
Speaker 2: felt good because we was getting you know, we was
Speaker 2: getting some traction and we were making some records, and
Speaker 2: we had this one front person that I put a
Speaker 2: lot of energy into and her name was Carrie Hilson.
Speaker 2: She was my lead a state of emergency, and you know,
Speaker 2: watching Carrie's interviews, it was just kind of like things
Speaker 2: weren't so a random, you know, they were very like
Speaker 2: intentional on my part when it came to her specifically.
Speaker 2: And this was the first time that I think anybody
Speaker 2: had seen her on a stage in Atlanta, first time
Speaker 2: anybody would have seen Jay Holliday on stage in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: And the type of music that was behind them, this
Speaker 2: was real intentional music, like real musicians playing on these tracks,
Speaker 2: like at this point, pulling from the Donnie from Houston
Speaker 2: that all I had was my spirit of collaboration at
Speaker 2: that point, you know, And I took up engineering right
Speaker 2: because I wanted to learn all the technical aspects of it.
Speaker 2: So I was a damn good engineer too as well,
Speaker 2: mixing my own stuff all of the above. So people
Speaker 2: heard these and there was like, yeah, these records they
Speaker 2: can't go nowhere but for these artists. So we weren't
Speaker 2: shopping any records, Like I wasn't trying to shop these songs.
Speaker 2: I was trying to make this a group a thing.
Speaker 2: And so at the same time I was working with
Speaker 2: this producer who was a rapper at first. His name
Speaker 2: is Polo to don A Right. One thing that came
Speaker 2: out of my relationship with was Pimping all over the World.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, right, So Ludacris hit record Pimping all over
Speaker 2: the World. And to add some clarity, because I think
Speaker 2: in Carrie's interviews she said that she cut that record
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, she actually cut that record in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: It was on a trip that me, Polo, rich Boy,
Speaker 2: and Carrie took to LA and we worked in ron
Speaker 2: Fairs Studio and we created that track there and she
Speaker 2: sang the hook, Polo wrote the hook, and we had
Speaker 2: the track. Polo came with the brilliant idea that did
Speaker 2: should go to Ludacris. Right, this trip was us as
Speaker 2: a unit at this point. This was us as a unit,
Speaker 2: I think because I had the band state of Emergency,
Speaker 2: and I called my production company state of and see.
Speaker 2: Me and Polo had one little debate that was like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call my ship's own four and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm in Atlanta. I don't have no problem with that like,
Speaker 2: if this was the Neptunes, right, you could be for real,
Speaker 2: I'll be chat you know, that's fine. And we were
Speaker 2: a unit, at least in my eyes, we were a unit, right,
Speaker 2: And so when it came to certain things that were
Speaker 2: because Polo had he was very charismatic in making relationships,
Speaker 2: so when the Jim Crow thing fizzled with in the scope,
Speaker 2: he was able to secure his relationship, his management relationship
Speaker 2: with dj J and that was a very beneficial relationship
Speaker 2: because it allowed access. Still, we still had access, and
Speaker 2: I'm using the term we very loosely at this point
Speaker 2: because in my mind, you got the production team together. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So so we got a unit and I got all
Speaker 2: these great records with carry and State of Emergency. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was a little it was a little triggering watching
Speaker 2: the recollection of how the story was told, because nobody's
Speaker 2: really going to tell your story the way in which
Speaker 2: you are. You know you're going to tell it, and
Speaker 2: you know that's why I just have to offer the
Speaker 2: opportunity for the clarification for certain things to be there,
Speaker 2: especially with my relationship with Carrie to speak, because a
Speaker 2: lot of things didn't happen as randomly as she recalled them,
Speaker 2: you know, granted, like I think that she had it
Speaker 2: all planned out in her mind the way in which
Speaker 2: she described it, you know, from you know, not necessarily
Speaker 2: wanting to be in those girl groups that she was
Speaker 2: in and all of those things. And Anthony Dent actually
Speaker 2: brought Carrie to me, right, Carrie was running around the
Speaker 2: streets of Atlanta doing the things that she was She
Speaker 2: was a very talented songwriter. Everybody knew it, but Carrie
Speaker 2: really wanted to be a solo waters And that's the
Speaker 2: interest that I took in her is I want to
Speaker 2: make you the front of you having your own lane,
Speaker 2: and we're doing this crazy sound in music that I
Speaker 2: think is yours. So you know, it came out. You
Speaker 2: know that there were certain things that happened between men
Speaker 2: Polo that didn't necessarily work out the way in which
Speaker 2: I thought it should work out, But there was there
Speaker 2: was a relationship he developed with Carrie where and Carrie
Speaker 2: recalls it in her meeting with Timberland about how she
Speaker 2: was approached and talked about what producer would get your
Speaker 2: music right? And I think she tried to recall whether
Speaker 2: or not me or Polo had said that I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have never said that because I got Carrie's music, I
Speaker 2: understood what it was, I understood who she was as
Speaker 2: an artist, at least I thought I did at that time.
Speaker 2: And the introduction to Timberland came into play, and that
Speaker 2: was a relationship that Polo had, And so again I
Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily privy to how all of that transpired within that,
Speaker 2: but I did get a call because there were demos
Speaker 2: that were being played in the Four Seasons hotel, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if Carrie recalls, but I was also
Speaker 2: in that meeting. I was in that Four Seasons meeting
Speaker 2: with Timberland, and I got the call from Polo. Hey,
Speaker 2: Timberland is hearing these songs y'all did why don't you
Speaker 2: bring the files down to that strange Angel joint because
Speaker 2: I think Timberland want to put his hands on it.
Speaker 2: Not me. I'm like, oh my god, Timberland likes my shit,
Speaker 2: right right, this is one of my favorite producers ever, right,
Speaker 2: enamored by the opportunity. Right And even though you know,
Speaker 2: me and Polo had some differences that were going on
Speaker 2: during the constructs of what he was building with DJ,
Speaker 2: I was still happy to be a to not only
Speaker 2: see him flourish, but to see an opportunity happened for
Speaker 2: Carrie to flourish too, And it was just it was
Speaker 2: something that I wasn't going to say no to, So
Speaker 2: of course I went with your files, went with the files,
Speaker 2: went down to the meeting. I had my boy DJ
Speaker 2: Rogers with me, right, And this was a random phone call,
Speaker 2: just as random as Carrie said she had gotten a
Speaker 2: phone call that morning or when she had her beats
Speaker 2: braids in or however. Right, I got that same call,
Speaker 2: and I rushed down to the Four Seasons to have
Speaker 2: a meeting with Timberland and Polo and Carrie. But they
Speaker 2: were there before I got there, and I'm not sure
Speaker 2: what was said in the room before I got there,
Speaker 2: but when I walked into the room, I was introduced
Speaker 2: as Polo's engineer, and I was like, oh, okay, there's
Speaker 2: a different dynamic plan here now. Totally threw me off guard.
Speaker 2: And because I had the opportunity to meet Timberland, I
Speaker 2: wanted to, you know, fit get you know, I wanted
Speaker 2: to meet my idol on a.
Speaker 3: On a level that positive. I didn't want to start shit, right, but.
Speaker 2: At the same right, you know, it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 2: like I was. I was just Polo's engineer at that time,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what the agenda was specifically, but
Speaker 2: I still wanted to play whatever part that needed to
Speaker 2: be played for that scenario to go the way. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but nobody's going to speak for you the way that
Speaker 2: you're going to speak for you. And I had never
Speaker 2: had anyone speak up for me in any situation, and
Speaker 2: so in that situation, I felt like it was necessary
Speaker 2: for me to say, you know, hey, those records y'all
Speaker 2: listening to I produced those records, yeah right, And I
Speaker 2: also produced to Leah. I don't want to. I do
Speaker 2: not know how that rubbed on Timbland because he's like,
Speaker 2: so what at that point, and I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 2: feel like it was well received. And it was just
Speaker 2: like another gut punch for me, just meeting my idol
Speaker 2: in this type of fashion, and but he's loving my records.
Speaker 2: So it was like it's a high and a low.
Speaker 2: So I'm sitting in this meeting and I'm hearing them
Speaker 2: talk around these records and Timberland's like, yeah, Carrie, that's strange, Angel,
Speaker 2: that's your cry me a river everything Carrie said. I'm
Speaker 2: like yeah, in my mind, like, oh my god, Templand
Speaker 2: can't lift a finger to this guy, but he's fucking
Speaker 2: with my shit. Right. So the end of the meeting comes,
Speaker 2: Timlin's like I want you to come to Miami tomorrow
Speaker 2: and he's looking at Carrie and Polo and we're gonna
Speaker 2: do this record strange angel, and I'm like, word, so
Speaker 2: I raised my hand like I'm in class, literally raise
Speaker 2: your head literally like why the fuck am I raising
Speaker 2: my hand? But I'm like, hey, guys, like, since you
Speaker 2: guys are gonna go do my record in Miami, you
Speaker 2: think I could come along too, right? Timerlin looks at
Speaker 2: Polo and then carry dapts him up and walks out
Speaker 2: out the room. Oh shit, And I'm like wow, right,
Speaker 2: so we're talking about R and B money, right, it
Speaker 2: ain't always the highs. It's not always the highs, and
Speaker 2: so you know, and you could just think of the
Speaker 2: mental load that that that could have taken on someone.
Speaker 2: And DJ was there, he saw the whole thing happen,
Speaker 2: and Carrie was silent the whole time, and it just
Speaker 2: hurt me that she was silent. It just hurt hurt
Speaker 2: me to the to the core. So I remember I
Speaker 2: sent carry alone message, I sent Polo loan message Skytel
Speaker 2: two a's I think was in this right, and basically
Speaker 2: that was it. But I did get a phone call
Speaker 2: from Miami from Carrie. I don't know if she remembers
Speaker 2: this either, and I think mbling it came around to
Speaker 2: the point of saying, hey them State of Emergency guys
Speaker 2: you was working with, why don't we bring them down
Speaker 2: to Miami let them play on some stuff. But they
Speaker 2: had already done Strange Angel, they had already redid it.
Speaker 2: Carrie came back to Atlanta played it for me, was
Speaker 2: banging amazing, right, Like come on, it's a Timblin beat.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, that's dope, you know, it's a dope
Speaker 2: remix of what we had already came with. I got
Speaker 2: those records too, if you want to hear them. But nonetheless,
Speaker 2: the beauty of it was in that phone call. I
Speaker 2: felt like I had to regain whatever power that I could,
Speaker 2: and so I told her, I was like, if we
Speaker 2: can come down there and co produce on them records,
Speaker 2: just like how he does with the other co producers
Speaker 2: that he currently works with. Specifically for you, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think my guy as would all be for it.
Speaker 2: And this was a collaborative effort, so it wasn't just me.
Speaker 2: State of Emergency was not just me. It was John
Speaker 2: John Tracks on guitar, Chris Dave on drums. This was
Speaker 2: like my creative community, and so they wanted to hear
Speaker 2: back from me positive news that we could do this,
Speaker 2: and it just didn't come out like that. After I
Speaker 2: told Carry that on the phone, I never got that
Speaker 2: phone call back. And so the next thing that happened
Speaker 2: is I think Carrie had a first single come out
Speaker 2: and it was the way I are. And now I'm
Speaker 2: making up all kinds of scenarios in my mind. I'm like,
Speaker 2: come on, man, Like, you know, Timberland is like my
Speaker 2: favorite producer of all time, Like there's no way, like
Speaker 2: I can't hold a finger to him for nothing, you know.
Speaker 2: So but I listened to this record and on the
Speaker 2: big ending of the record, I heard Timberland saying anonymous voice,
Speaker 2: state of Emergency. I don't know why he said that,
Speaker 2: but I'm making up in my mind like wow, why
Speaker 2: would he say that? And I'm like I cannot I
Speaker 2: just had all these kind of scenarios running around in
Speaker 2: my mind. I can imagine why would he say, I
Speaker 2: can imagine, you know, so just another gut punch And
Speaker 2: I'm like Timberlin, don't need to be gut punching me?
Speaker 2: Like who am I? I have not even the minuscule
Speaker 2: amount of hit records to even match up to this
Speaker 2: guy's statue, and all the records that he's coming out
Speaker 2: with is crazy. The single that he came out with
Speaker 2: would carry yeah, crazy, But just it goes to show
Speaker 2: when the mental starts getting messed with, where your mind
Speaker 2: could really go with a hole. Yeah, you start connecting
Speaker 2: things that may not even that might that might not
Speaker 2: even be relevant relevant. I moved back to LA and
Speaker 2: maybe there was some years and stuff in between that,
Speaker 2: but we missed a whole lot of success stories, like
Speaker 2: even being in hit CO at that time, had an
Speaker 2: opportunity to engineer. Yeah, got flew to La Usher's vocals,
Speaker 2: got Grammy nominated for that.
Speaker 4: You're the actual engineer for yeah? Yeah, Okay, okay, yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: who's the engineer for?
Speaker 2: You? Read the credits, You're the engineer, Read the credits. Okay.
Speaker 2: It's a money business. It's a money business. All I
Speaker 2: got to say, is read the credits. No, no, no, for sure,
Speaker 2: I don't know who said what. Yeah, you know, but
Speaker 2: it's in the engineer cut the demo and the song
Speaker 2: at Larabie out here in l A. Downed his vocals
Speaker 2: in did all of those you cut him? I got
Speaker 2: the picture. I got they're going to receive. They gotta
Speaker 2: receive for that as me, Sean Garrett, Little John and Usha,
Speaker 2: we were the only four in the studio here in LA.
Speaker 2: That doesn't take away what j q's contribution to it was.
Speaker 2: It didn't take away the night. You know, Carrie and
Speaker 2: I were in the studio working on carry stuff and
Speaker 2: you know, Sean Garrett brings out the Little John CD
Speaker 2: and they ended up writing Red Light HM together on
Speaker 2: Confessions as well, which was the bonus track. So there
Speaker 2: was a lot of opportunity and a lot of time
Speaker 2: that created a lot of plays. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 2: you know from that, there was a lot of positive
Speaker 2: things that happened, and there was a lot of things
Speaker 2: that weren't necessarily perceived as positive for me. And that's
Speaker 2: just the side that I would like your audience to
Speaker 2: understand that there's ebbs and flows in this thing, and
Speaker 2: you really have to be on top of your decision
Speaker 2: making skills and your ability to represent yourself certain kinds
Speaker 2: of ways so that you know, you could you know, thrive.
Speaker 4: So looking back on it and looking back on some
Speaker 4: of these instances, do you feel as if.
Speaker 2: You should have done a little more music business? Definitely?
Speaker 2: I take full responsibility for not doing the business the
Speaker 2: way in which the business was being done. Then. Yeah,
Speaker 2: right now, maybe I didn't have the resources. I do
Speaker 2: remember going to DJ and asking DJ, can can you
Speaker 2: please also manage me too? He said yes, But then
Speaker 2: there was a I might not can do this conflict interest? Right,
Speaker 2: But I wonder where that conflict of interest was. You know,
Speaker 2: rich boys started in my apartment, Carrie started with the
Speaker 2: whole culmination of the thing. There was a relationship there
Speaker 2: that was fractured, and I didn't know how to manage that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Just honestly speaking, I didn't know how to manage that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that was something that I have to take to
Speaker 2: the chin. And I think that, you know, even throughout time,
Speaker 2: you know, Paolo and I still work together. After that,
Speaker 2: you know, I ended up mixing the whole Lloyd King
Speaker 2: of Heart's album. I ended up actually really becoming Polo's
Speaker 2: engineer at one point. You know, if you really want to,
Speaker 2: just look at it hindsight twenty twenty like, and we
Speaker 2: made good money off of that. Yeah, this is bleeding.
Speaker 2: This is blood that runs store fucking veins. So blood,
Speaker 2: sweat and tears is from it.
Speaker 3: All is you as you love it. The operative word
Speaker 3: is loving you. Keep loving it and keep doing the work.
Speaker 3: It'll it'll. It's Jay said, make all the room for you,
Speaker 3: and at the end of the day makes all the difference.
Speaker 2: And it has made all the room. Come on, man,
Speaker 2: it has made up. Man.
Speaker 4: Now you've had it. You've had and you have an
Speaker 4: amazing career.
Speaker 2: Bro. Yeah, I agree. It's still going. It's still going. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what what you got over there? Show? It just tapped
Speaker 2: into my you know, to my talented mind. We got
Speaker 2: talented people here we do. He brought it, He brought
Speaker 2: a camera with Yeah, yeah, do a few things. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He talking about going on the road and I went
Speaker 3: on and road musician, you know, I went on and
Speaker 3: road as the background singer.
Speaker 2: That was my dream, you know, to be an m
Speaker 2: D brother.
Speaker 3: Donnie Scants, Yes, sir, you've been doing music a real.
Speaker 2: Long long long, long long time, a long time.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of things about music, and all
Speaker 3: of your journeys are making music.
Speaker 2: You've been inspired buy a lot of music. Today. The
Speaker 2: R and B Money Podcast will like to inquire what
Speaker 2: you want to know about.
Speaker 3: Your musical knowledge, your musical information. Uh uh, the music
Speaker 3: that makes sense to you. Mm hmm, that touches your
Speaker 3: heart your.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Top fun, your top five.
Speaker 5: Top five, your top five A repe singers are and
Speaker 5: the songs.
Speaker 2: We know, you know, we know you rolled gen Mere tube.
Speaker 2: You see what's your top five?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, yeah, top five, your home top f.
Speaker 2: This niggas before.
Speaker 4: I bet ninety different times, ninety different ways.
Speaker 2: This is insane. It never gets old. This is great,
Speaker 2: joyous Donnie Scance Scantana, Yeah, that was one of them.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, Top five R and B singers living
Speaker 2: undead your world? You call it? Marvin Gaye A Donnie Hathaway, Yes,
Speaker 2: I not. I mean you can't leave out Stevie Wonder
Speaker 2: you better not, you better not. They're going down that
Speaker 2: road now. But I'm gonna add some new guys open
Speaker 2: there too. I'm really messing with Dixon. Shut the building
Speaker 2: down at the R and B money line. He went crazy,
Speaker 2: shout out to Dix, so yeah, put him on them.
Speaker 2: He acted up. Y'all need to go listen. Yeah, man,
Speaker 2: you do here, you do okay, and uh, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: just throw a left curveball because I need to put
Speaker 2: you said R and B singers, this was your world. Whatever,
Speaker 2: go crazy. This young girl Malaya. Are y'all familiar with her? No,
Speaker 2: I'm not. Y'all need to check her out. She's on
Speaker 2: Kean Harold's new album, mhmm Forever Land. Y'all should definitely
Speaker 2: check him out. Robert. Yeah, her name is Malaya Malaya.
Speaker 2: We shall do that. Yeah, my goodness, the.
Speaker 3: Army money community will do that. Top five R and
Speaker 3: B songs h son mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Sparrow by Marvin Gaye. Okay, that's interesting. You know that one? No,
Speaker 2: it was on the Here My Dear album I Love
Speaker 2: You for Life? Is that the name of that? Yes?
Speaker 2: One of them? Yeah, what a song. I know where
Speaker 2: I was when I heard that. Yeah, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: with a lee. I don't want to. I'm definitely gonna
Speaker 2: put one of mine on that. Okay, that's three. I
Speaker 2: belong to you, Lenny Kravitz.
Speaker 4: Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, very special.
Speaker 2: Oh don't get enough R and B credit. Lenny don't
Speaker 2: get enough credit. Bro, Lenny is R and B, R
Speaker 2: and B star. He's an R and B rock star. Man.
Speaker 2: Ain't nobody fucking with Lenny Man? Mm hmmm. I love
Speaker 2: Lenny Kravits, bro Man, And I'm not even gonna lie
Speaker 2: with be Cox in them. There were made for me
Speaker 2: with money long I'm not gonna not yet. Yeah. My
Speaker 2: peoples up in that piece. Yeah, special record for the guys.
Speaker 2: And the release of that, the BT version of it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: know they cooking, they cooking. They all right, here we go.
Speaker 2: What what else you got? I got some mother, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because I know this because he did. He did. He
Speaker 2: said some names right was here. So this is this
Speaker 2: is gonna be a little bit different for you. Brother.
Speaker 8: Okay, I ain't saying no next, I ain't saying no names,
Speaker 8: A saying no names, saying no Nigga was.
Speaker 2: One three. Yes, he got them president vocals. Now you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 4: He was taking out the White House and ship man
Speaker 4: Skinny been at the White House making policy, say the
Speaker 4: Secretary of the fifth Yeah, they need the general to
Speaker 4: do general, Yes, yes, generally. Yeah, So this segment of
Speaker 4: the show, very important segment. We save it for last.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, cart, I ain't saying no names.
Speaker 4: Will you tell us a story funny or fucked up?
Speaker 4: Are funny and fucked up? Along the journey.
Speaker 2: Again? It's already just got more. I know you got
Speaker 2: more and some ones you don't want to put. I'm
Speaker 2: saying who you second's saying no name. Second thing. We
Speaker 2: was in New York. Okay, okay, so right now, I
Speaker 2: like your attitude. I like you first. He went from
Speaker 2: I don't know you know so one time.
Speaker 4: So listen right now, this is Donny's scam, the scam
Speaker 4: man himself.
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no names. We were in New York City.
Speaker 2: That's a place. That's the place. Who we went to
Speaker 2: go drink saki at a saki bar in New York City.
Speaker 2: I didn't know how saki hits after you drink so
Speaker 2: many shots. I ain't saying no names. But we was
Speaker 2: at the Renaissance Hotel in Manhattan. One you have to
Speaker 2: take an elevator to get up to the lobby. And
Speaker 2: God forgive me because we were so oh man, I
Speaker 2: don't even know if I should tell this one. Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness. Well, security had to help me in this
Speaker 2: other individual up to our rooms because we kind of
Speaker 2: passed out in that one floor elevator going up after
Speaker 2: the cab dropped us out and we get up to
Speaker 2: our rooms. And New York, you had a whole lot
Speaker 2: going on during this time, Like, yeah, I fell out
Speaker 2: in the hotel room, only to wake up to see
Speaker 2: in the room full of disarray, knowing that some things
Speaker 2: happened around me at God put me to sleep for
Speaker 2: mm hmm. Didn't want you to witness it, didn't want
Speaker 2: me to up participate or even think of being a
Speaker 2: part of And I can just remember seeing things around
Speaker 2: me that were used and the hangover is real. And
Speaker 2: I ain't saying no names who was used on ship
Speaker 2: not used on. But that wake up is different. That
Speaker 2: wake up is different. I'm glad I was sleep now
Speaker 2: that I'm forty seven, but I could think about it
Speaker 2: because when I wasn't forty seven and I woke up,
Speaker 2: I was mad.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm telling you listen on forty eight and I'm
Speaker 3: still mad. I ain't got over that night I fell asleep,
Speaker 3: I have not, but that's the only sleep that only
Speaker 3: God could. Only God, only only God could have knocked
Speaker 3: me out and kept me out of that because I
Speaker 3: needed it.
Speaker 2: No, boy, no, only you know who that story is.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I tolt you. I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 3: tell me. I ain't saying no names and tell my
Speaker 3: story like that.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, But the names are so legendary in
Speaker 2: the story. Oh yeah, good job, good job, good job, Lord,
Speaker 2: good job. Thank you, thank you, thank.
Speaker 3: You, brother, Donnie Skance. You have been my relative for
Speaker 3: quite some time. My brother, it is. It is really
Speaker 3: good to see you. Yes, it is, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, after so long, so long, it's really dope,
Speaker 3: you know, talking down memory lane and being able to
Speaker 3: put myself back back there as a kid, you know,
Speaker 3: twenty We were kids, three year old kids on our own.
Speaker 2: Because kids get on their families insurance till they're twenty six,
Speaker 2: now right. I wasn't on none of that. But that's
Speaker 2: just to show you the level in which you're still.
Speaker 4: Side.
Speaker 2: I guess I was grown for a long time and
Speaker 2: have no insurance. I don't even know what we were
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 3: We were outside outside, literally, we were outside in Atlanta
Speaker 3: by ourselves, trying to figure out and you know it's
Speaker 3: it's I mean, I couldn't tell you enough how much
Speaker 3: I love you and appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: Thanks having the beginnings? Are you know or why we
Speaker 3: are who we are and what we are man? And
Speaker 3: while we will continue to be absolutely it's the love.
Speaker 3: It's the love for it. It is the love for
Speaker 3: ourselves that will continue to drive us. And that's what
Speaker 3: we teach. Yeah, that's what we continue to preach and teach.
Speaker 2: And I hope your audience was able to take away
Speaker 2: a lot from what they needed to hear from this. Well,
Speaker 2: they hear the journey man, and that's and that's the
Speaker 2: most important y'all are doing. Y'all are doing God's work here, sir.
Speaker 2: Trust that trust that the information is important. The information
Speaker 2: is very very important. And I think people could utilize
Speaker 2: this and take from our experiences and make this world
Speaker 2: a better place, sir. That's what Michael said, just you
Speaker 2: and me. That's the only purpose. Man. Thank y'all so much.
Speaker 3: My name is and this is the Yay Money Podcast,
Speaker 3: the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 2: This has been the journey. This has been been to health,
Speaker 2: this has been music, this has been everything our brother
Speaker 2: talent Donnie scat Yes, R and B Money.
Speaker 4: Money R and B Money is a production of the
Speaker 4: Black Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
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Speaker 4: your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate
Speaker 4: our show, and you can connect with us on social
Speaker 4: media at j Valentine and at the Real Tank. For
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