Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Happy New Year everyone. This is Sugar Steve from Questlove Supreme.
Speaker 2: We are here with Part two or Quest Loves one
Speaker 2: on one interview with Eric Shermon. If you haven't done
Speaker 2: so yet, please check out Part one, where Amir and
Speaker 2: Eric speak about the formation of EPMD, Eric's pioneering rap
Speaker 2: delivery and funky production, and a hometown rivalry between EPMD
Speaker 2: and Eric B and rock Him. It's a great episode
Speaker 2: you can't miss. Now QULS is back with part two.
Speaker 3: Enjoy the Dos Effects album the first album. Who did
Speaker 3: the production on that record? Was that your finger Prince?
Speaker 1: Or was that?
Speaker 4: Now? People talk about God best to day because one
Speaker 4: of the guys is dead, so Chris and Derek was
Speaker 4: they are two people from school, right right, But as
Speaker 4: you can hear the drums, Roger the whole nine of course.
Speaker 1: But everything was Snaps.
Speaker 4: Was used three times because again after I left the
Speaker 4: records in there from what the album, because I used
Speaker 4: snow on Redman, you know the record you know, watch
Speaker 4: a Nugget, those records were there, and then all the
Speaker 4: Roger Troutman that DOS Effects used again.
Speaker 5: So anyway, it was the crew.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't get the credit for it too like that,
Speaker 4: but Christen and Derek was part of their solid scheme.
Speaker 4: Team was the ones who really put the stuff together,
Speaker 4: especially the single Now my voice is some live effects,
Speaker 4: snapper neck for some live effects, but the father them
Speaker 4: getting that James Brown thing going, that was deffly the
Speaker 4: Derek and Chris.
Speaker 3: So when they joined the crew, were they more Team
Speaker 3: Parish or Team Eric? Like, how did you guys discover
Speaker 3: them and brought them into the fold?
Speaker 4: Well, we met them at a rap contest in Virginia,
Speaker 4: Me and Pratts was doing the show and then there
Speaker 4: was an after party. There was a rap contest and
Speaker 4: and they was on it, but we let some other
Speaker 4: two dudes win because the other two dudes was nice too.
Speaker 5: But we knew that we was going to sign dos effects.
Speaker 1: And did they have that style when when you.
Speaker 4: Heard yeah, that was something that they did. They they
Speaker 4: met in the lunch room cafeteria.
Speaker 1: Right, okay, yeah, and Dre.
Speaker 4: Was rhyming on one side and School was vombing on
Speaker 4: one side. I heard the story and said his man
Speaker 4: brung them over and said, yo, my man raps. So
Speaker 4: they start rhyming together, not knowing that dre would be
Speaker 4: like say something like yo, he would be like, oh
Speaker 4: that's dope.
Speaker 5: School was saying, but oh that's dope. Not knowing.
Speaker 4: I don't know who had the iggity style first between
Speaker 4: the two, but the story's never been told.
Speaker 5: And just the fact that they met up and they
Speaker 5: became them.
Speaker 3: And as I said at the top, sometimes a pioneer
Speaker 3: does get there just too. But from your point of view,
Speaker 3: no lyrical style to me came and washed hip hop
Speaker 3: like a tsunami. Then the iggity style of ninety one
Speaker 3: ninety two with DOS Effects.
Speaker 5: You have to make that clear.
Speaker 4: Not because those are my boys, but people can talk
Speaker 4: about who changes different errors or different moments in time
Speaker 4: and hip hop, and their name is not bought up,
Speaker 4: meaning that when it goes to DOS Effects and Rex
Speaker 4: and effect heavy d Laws is the underground ice crew
Speaker 4: called them for check yourself. I mean, I've never seen
Speaker 4: that before Christy.
Speaker 5: It was phenomenal.
Speaker 4: They changed a landscape in the industry and nobody says it.
Speaker 3: The day that they want Effects came out. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like a local Philly Drexel radio show. Shout out
Speaker 3: to Cosmic Kevin aj Shin keV and Man literally like
Speaker 3: that brought hip hop into hyper speed. So not since
Speaker 3: rock Kim have I seen one person literally make everyone
Speaker 3: change their rhyming style. I mean even even uh On
Speaker 3: can't trust it. Chuck Deeven caught a little glimpse of it.
Speaker 3: You know, don't be dumb, thinking dumb.
Speaker 6: And yeah, yeah, the thing that I have grips with
Speaker 6: is like they changed the game and then we just
Speaker 6: disposed of them like it never happened.
Speaker 3: And I always wanted to know did they feel a
Speaker 3: certain way about that, or the ep m D organization
Speaker 3: feel a certain way about that. I didn't see that
Speaker 3: as a fad or a trend. I saw it as
Speaker 3: like really intricate rhyme and I mean, fu jay Z
Speaker 3: came into the game with original flavor, with that tikeny
Speaker 3: tongue twisting.
Speaker 4: He stuttered, I don't know if you want to go
Speaker 4: back to only common sense, go back to Thomson was
Speaker 4: a big DOTS Effects fan totally.
Speaker 5: Oh we all were dude right, right, But why.
Speaker 3: Weren't they able to keep the momentum up? And yeah, look,
Speaker 3: I love what Premo did with them with the real
Speaker 3: hip hop, but I almost felt like we took from
Speaker 3: them and just threw them away right and just never
Speaker 3: gave them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that the pre Rock and the Premo
Speaker 4: Records really kept their stuff going because it could have
Speaker 4: got worse where they could have not made no records
Speaker 4: after that, But that Primo was huge for them to
Speaker 4: at least stay somewhat alive. But I think that once
Speaker 4: the his part broke up, I think it tanged stuff
Speaker 4: because that's like told me one time, you're ed, why
Speaker 4: did you leave us? I said, I left y'all because
Speaker 4: y y'all went with Paris, so I figured that's where
Speaker 4: y'all wanted to be at. So I think that the
Speaker 4: breakup messed a lot of things up on that side.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into it.
Speaker 3: So right now I'm speaking to you from my dressing
Speaker 3: room at the Tonight Show. I happened to know that
Speaker 3: EPMD and dis Effects did microphone checka on The Tonight
Speaker 3: Show with Jay Leno when Jay Leno finally took over
Speaker 3: for Johnny Carson in nineteen ninety two. Obviously, the producers like, yo,
Speaker 3: the first thing we gotta do is start getting on
Speaker 3: our sinios act because our senior was like way ahead
Speaker 3: of the game, like our Senio changed the.
Speaker 1: Game and made the old guard leave. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 3: I believe in jay Leno's first week Night number three
Speaker 3: because even though it was our Senio head, I wanted
Speaker 3: to see what jay Leno was about to do. And yo,
Speaker 3: y'all did Humming coming at you on the Tonight Show.
Speaker 4: I did not know that was a part of that
Speaker 4: politic thing you're saying just now.
Speaker 5: I was I thirty.
Speaker 3: There were no hip hop acts. Y'all were the first
Speaker 3: hip hop act on the Tonight Show.
Speaker 5: I did not know that, yes, And I know that.
Speaker 3: They were trying to cut into our seniors ratings and
Speaker 3: it worked because I was like, oh, epmds on the
Speaker 3: Tonight Show doing humber coming action.
Speaker 4: But but I was and let me tell the politics
Speaker 4: on that, because I'm like, Dag, we have Coursover and
Speaker 4: we got a headbanger, and we got were all these
Speaker 4: other songs. But Doctor pres was so big, yes, that
Speaker 4: they was like, let's put these two together and do
Speaker 4: it like this, you know, for the purpose of it.
Speaker 5: Because I'm glad group and Doctor Prex was the new pop.
Speaker 5: I gotta say pop because they cost.
Speaker 4: You see that new thing that's out right now with
Speaker 4: them at the beach with about eighty thousand people doing
Speaker 4: they want effects.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was like yes on social media, Yo, what
Speaker 1: the hell?
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that came out so people get know,
Speaker 3: so people can know, so people can know.
Speaker 1: Was it the hit Squad first before it was the.
Speaker 5: Depth Squad first? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, So how did y'all come into to Reggie's strateg.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we did the show in New New Jersey
Speaker 4: called Club Sensations, And if people know about Club Sensation,
Speaker 4: you just can't go there. They're gonna rob every they
Speaker 4: gonna disrespect you. Just don't go and perform that Club Sensation.
Speaker 4: I don't care who you are.
Speaker 1: That was another Latin quarter.
Speaker 5: Now it was a small club.
Speaker 4: But but yeah, but and not mean oh yes, yes definitely,
Speaker 4: or the Apollo or whatever you want to say. So anyway,
Speaker 4: that night, Do it All from Lords of the Underground
Speaker 4: comes in my dressing room and he starts rapping, and
Speaker 4: Do it All is dope too from whatever.
Speaker 5: So he wasn't lost the Underground yet.
Speaker 4: He was just Do it All, you know, trying to
Speaker 4: get on and then he says, oh my DJ rap too,
Speaker 4: and his DJ was Redman really. I heard Redman rhyme
Speaker 4: that night, and I put Regie on stage that night.
Speaker 5: Didn't even know him.
Speaker 4: I was so impressed by his metaphause I put him
Speaker 4: on stage that night. And plus also to be like,
Speaker 4: YO were in this place, I'm gonna put somebody on
Speaker 4: from out here so we can. He's saying so, and
Speaker 4: that's how y'all meant, And God damn. And then I
Speaker 4: gave Reggie my phone number, but he didn't write it down.
Speaker 4: He said it took him two weeks to memorize. Reggie
Speaker 4: memorized my number and called me two weeks.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 4: He said he was writing down the number, writing down,
Speaker 4: writing down to whatever.
Speaker 5: He kept trying, kept trying. Now, what type of determination.
Speaker 1: Is that they talk about? K Solo?
Speaker 5: Na speaks about K Solo. Michael Bimins speaks about K Solo.
Speaker 4: Now speaks about Kevin, saying that Kevin was was before
Speaker 4: his time, his story telling, the way that he put
Speaker 4: it together, the way that he would use third party,
Speaker 4: like you, it wasn't me. The rhyme did it, so
Speaker 4: nobody was doing that before so, but Kevin was.
Speaker 5: I told you it was already Parish's friend. Don't forget.
Speaker 5: He was in that group before with Parish, So that's
Speaker 5: how I met Kevin.
Speaker 1: Got it okay, okay, yeah, man, the whole Telworm name.
Speaker 5: Ship, Yeah yeah, tells the crack side.
Speaker 1: I was say, tells the crack side. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: drums and death, honest.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you do any production on that record? Yeah? The
Speaker 1: spell Bounce Okay, of course the.
Speaker 4: First single I had to get done because they were
Speaker 4: trying to figure out what to go with. So I
Speaker 4: was in there with power Play with Doc and Doc
Speaker 4: had the SB twelve hundred. I'm like, listen, let me
Speaker 4: show you this to program these drums and that.
Speaker 5: Don't forget if you listen to when.
Speaker 4: I did If You Love Me by Brownstone, the bottom
Speaker 4: drums is spell Bound.
Speaker 5: Uh you know? Yeah that's so yeah.
Speaker 1: I know what happens after the fade.
Speaker 4: It's the same that like kept going on you right now, California,
Speaker 4: kd K made that. I don't know what was with
Speaker 4: that record that made K and l A loved that
Speaker 4: song so much. That record was played in LA on
Speaker 4: that station like it was no Tomorrow. It was something
Speaker 4: about that record. I can't I still can't explain it.
Speaker 1: Greg.
Speaker 4: Yes, I gotta say something about Craig Matt real quick
Speaker 4: too too. I'm gonna say somebody crank Matt said. I
Speaker 4: got to go back to when we when we claim
Speaker 4: the records, when I first heard rock Camp. Every weekend,
Speaker 4: Craig Matt's mother would drop him off to my grandmother's
Speaker 4: house and me and Craig was sitting in the living
Speaker 4: room and check out the new records. I heard publicating
Speaker 4: number one with Craig and I heard Nobody Beat the
Speaker 4: Biz with Craig Mac at Grandma's house. Really, yes, that's
Speaker 4: a weird story. People like you used to hang out
Speaker 4: with Craig. Yeah, that was my boy.
Speaker 1: How did Hurricane G getting the squad?
Speaker 5: Was my baby mother? So I know.
Speaker 4: A remether as a girl. I met in the club
Speaker 4: with Llo coo J. Llo Coo J was was dancing
Speaker 4: with her. After after he stopped dancing, I went over
Speaker 4: there and talked to her. So so after that then
Speaker 4: so then?
Speaker 1: But was she always that?
Speaker 4: Like she was Cardi B for Cardi B. Was Cardi
Speaker 4: B exactly? Tone loud right, but she was already rhyming too.
Speaker 4: I was like, are you guys? Said yeah, rhyme And
Speaker 4: then Redman took a whole tour and then they became
Speaker 4: sister and brother. So that's what the whole thing of
Speaker 4: her being in the squad. And then when I went
Speaker 4: to stretch on Barbtos and gave him that milky song,
Speaker 4: they it blew up with them. I'm like, it's a
Speaker 4: demo that she had. So but when I did tonight tonight,
Speaker 4: I wasn't in the session when they was recording, Gloria
Speaker 4: went with Reggie and my cousin Jamel, so you hit
Speaker 4: that the snap background the records, so they was all
Speaker 4: three in there. So whatever happened, Redman didn't want to
Speaker 4: be soft and be like Mike check I can get
Speaker 4: smooth to any group, but let so he stopped it.
Speaker 5: So I guess they came up with that whole thing.
Speaker 4: I was like to take credit for that, but it
Speaker 4: wasn't me, it was them.
Speaker 3: All Right, I'm gonna ask you the million dollar question
Speaker 3: that I never ever got a satisfactory answer belt And
Speaker 3: when I interviewed John Schecter, I've collected almost every copy
Speaker 3: of the Source magazine. Okay, but you gotta tell me
Speaker 3: why and how did EPMD break up the first time?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the first time again? It was the breakup. It
Speaker 5: was the home invasion. So the home in bad was real.
Speaker 5: The home invasion that went down was real. So but
Speaker 5: again it was blamed on me.
Speaker 4: So after you know, you know, if you watch Beef two,
Speaker 4: the stories out there, they blamed.
Speaker 5: It on me.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that.
Speaker 5: Okay, they had the witnesses and the whole non.
Speaker 3: So after a while, like, at what point was it
Speaker 3: ever just like, Okay, you just show up and do
Speaker 3: shows together, y'all friends this whole time.
Speaker 1: Or is it like.
Speaker 5: You're a five year breakup?
Speaker 3: Well I know that, but I'm saying something leads to
Speaker 3: a breakup, is a miscommunication?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 5: Like that was the breakup?
Speaker 4: So if somebody that I robbed them, so that's a breakup,
Speaker 4: was in your house and tied niggas up in the whole,
Speaker 4: not that's a breakup.
Speaker 3: So he literally believed that you orchestrated a breakup or
Speaker 3: a break in.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you went on a record to say that
Speaker 1: was not you, right.
Speaker 5: But it didn't matter.
Speaker 4: No, everybody when you got same to rock Kim shit
Speaker 4: smacked me and I smack you back. Once people are
Speaker 4: already saying this is what it is, and you believe,
Speaker 4: and they giving you all types of things. You believe
Speaker 4: that this is true. So five years of that went.
Speaker 4: That's how it happened.
Speaker 1: It was just like that legacy down the dream, like
Speaker 1: they came and.
Speaker 4: Got me once, they come and get you, and you
Speaker 4: get arrested as old they're coming back from that, and.
Speaker 1: You got arrested for that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I went, yeah, I toldally, they picked me up.
Speaker 1: I'm in the arc about this. That's the thing.
Speaker 3: Like I read a sore story like back in ninety
Speaker 3: three or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, man, It's just like.
Speaker 5: They picked me up. They picked me up, and I
Speaker 5: fled to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: So that's how you wound up in Atlanta, right.
Speaker 3: I remember you telling me a story about like you
Speaker 3: called Dallas Austin and he gave you a look.
Speaker 5: I called that.
Speaker 4: My boy hooked me up with Dallas and brught me
Speaker 4: to Dark Studios and I met Dallas and Dallas like, yo,
Speaker 4: you could have studio beat.
Speaker 5: I didn't know who that. I didn't know who he was.
Speaker 5: My boy Greg knew him.
Speaker 1: Okay, So why did you choose Atlanta?
Speaker 5: Because I went there before.
Speaker 1: I liked it, Okay.
Speaker 4: So and my grandmother was there, My aunts were there,
Speaker 4: so I had family there too.
Speaker 3: But for you to leave New York, like, was that
Speaker 3: a heartbreak or you know I had to leave. He's
Speaker 3: even that to go to jail. So I was, I
Speaker 3: trust so you were on the run, right. I didn't realize.
Speaker 3: I thought you just like, hey, man, I gotta get
Speaker 3: out of New York.
Speaker 1: Shit. I did not know that.
Speaker 4: Yo, that's why you got You got to watch it
Speaker 4: and the guy was like, yo, they at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, they really believed it. So I told
Speaker 4: my mother, I said, my I should go to Georgia.
Speaker 4: I don't want to just sit around here and just wait.
Speaker 4: So I left something you're not supposed to do.
Speaker 3: I did anyway, And so you're making no pressure while
Speaker 3: everyone's looking for you.
Speaker 4: No, I made that when I got there, like later on,
Speaker 4: like like when Russell called me and said no, first
Speaker 4: I got to call from Puffy to make a record
Speaker 4: for Who's the Man. That's when I made Hitting Switches
Speaker 4: my first single. After Russell heard that, Russell was like, Yo,
Speaker 4: you want to.
Speaker 3: Make an album it switches. I forgot that with that
Speaker 3: into with the beat box, right.
Speaker 4: So then when Russell came Russell said, you want to
Speaker 4: make an album. I said, yeah, sure, because you knew
Speaker 4: that the group wasn't getting back together. So I made
Speaker 4: the album. I spent new years in the studio by
Speaker 4: myself at Dark so I was just happy just to
Speaker 4: be there without having that pressure on me.
Speaker 5: So then I started making the album. Afterwards, no pressure
Speaker 5: got it.
Speaker 3: So I mean, at the time, when you're making this,
Speaker 3: what's your thoughts about what a solo Eric sermon?
Speaker 1: The album sounds.
Speaker 4: Like, Oh, I wasn't even worried about dang a lot
Speaker 4: of you. I knew what I was. I knew that
Speaker 4: I knew how to make I was making the beats.
Speaker 4: I knew that, you know, Red Men had success. I
Speaker 4: knew that Keith Murray was coming, you know, like I
Speaker 4: knew like I had things. So I wasn't really worried
Speaker 4: about what the people are going to say. Because again,
Speaker 4: he wasn't worried about selling records or seeing who was
Speaker 4: the top person or who was out or what was coming.
Speaker 4: Even though the chronic had came, everything was out there came.
Speaker 4: I was so comfortable and so relaxed. I really didn't care.
Speaker 5: I just was making it. Because Russell asked me to
Speaker 5: make an album, so I did it.
Speaker 4: I wasn't worrying about people asked me what it's going
Speaker 4: to sound like or not or mad because EPMD broke up.
Speaker 5: I was just doing what I thought. As long as
Speaker 5: it was hip hop, I was okay.
Speaker 4: And once Hitting Switches came out and I went home
Speaker 4: and DJ Twrimmer was like, Eric, you were on fire
Speaker 4: out here, and I was like, for real, It's like yo,
Speaker 4: his switch is doing fire.
Speaker 5: So that was it so I needed.
Speaker 3: Even though I like Stay Real, My join was Eric sermon,
Speaker 3: that whole bit I want to know if you want
Speaker 3: to know you that to me?
Speaker 5: That song like yeah, ah.
Speaker 4: You know what's the buck down to I was those
Speaker 4: songs I had that first when Redman told me to
Speaker 4: turn and I made Hitting Switches. I had those songs
Speaker 4: before that, but I thought that was more Eric's sermon
Speaker 4: because the hey ever I was doing on so.
Speaker 5: I was trying to make sure that.
Speaker 4: I kept it, and all Stay Will was was a
Speaker 4: new crossover. It's the same subject, you know, So I
Speaker 4: was trying to keep it into play to where even
Speaker 4: though his Hitting Switches was so hard, even though I
Speaker 4: wasn't a West Coast person, I was doing the hitting
Speaker 4: switches as the off is on, but not knowing that
Speaker 4: the West Coast took it for this, I'm doing this,
Speaker 4: So I'm like, okay, because now they're thinking I'm I'm
Speaker 4: hitting switches, but I'm really talking about off and on
Speaker 4: is on?
Speaker 3: Right, I see so, but they felt you were talking
Speaker 3: about Yeah, yo, did I hear correct? Did you open
Speaker 3: up a car business in Atlanta?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: The rim shot. The rim shot was the biggest thing
Speaker 4: happened at the time, you know, And that's how everybody
Speaker 4: got this. See that room shop was so huge that
Speaker 4: once it came out and stay real video and people
Speaker 4: saw it. So don't forget. I was doing Shaquille in
Speaker 4: the shop. I was doing Jam and Rose in the shop,
Speaker 4: Chris Webber. So then I would Jake, Dave Justice would
Speaker 4: be in the shop. Tupac would be in the shop,
Speaker 4: don't forget. And back in the back of the shop
Speaker 4: was one twelve Jagged in Goodie Mob outcast Usher Raymond
Speaker 4: David Banner. These people was not even famous yet. My
Speaker 4: place where everybody came to chill at. And if I
Speaker 4: was a person that wasn't it wasn't secure. I could
Speaker 4: have had half of them all this signed to me.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So when we first went to Atlanta, our street rep,
Speaker 3: you know, the guy that takes you to the college
Speaker 3: stations and takes you to radio or whatever, takes you
Speaker 3: to the record stores. There was a record store that used
Speaker 3: to be a gas station. I forget the name of it.
Speaker 3: They shut down. There's like a big record shot there. Okay,
Speaker 3: but he was like, yo, we got to take you
Speaker 3: to Eric's. And I think we were there at a
Speaker 3: time when it wasn't open.
Speaker 1: It was like after hours or something. We never got
Speaker 1: to go in there.
Speaker 3: But okay, what year was that, ninety four, ninety four,
Speaker 3: ninety five.
Speaker 4: I think, so it was still popping, that was it
Speaker 4: was still on fire at that time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we were like on tour and had to
Speaker 3: leave and couldn't go by there. But we always heard
Speaker 3: that you gotta go buy the restrict spot. And of
Speaker 3: all the businesses, why was that the one that called
Speaker 3: you the most?
Speaker 5: It wasn't.
Speaker 4: It was the guy I met from Detroit and Detroit,
Speaker 4: my boy G from Detroit. He had this shop. So
Speaker 4: when I met him, I met the girl that was
Speaker 4: with his girl. So by the shoping, me and G
Speaker 4: got closed. But but not knowing that. Again, being Memphis
Speaker 4: in the shop every day, I didn't know who Big
Speaker 4: Meach was. But now it makes sense because she and
Speaker 4: them was Detroit people. So the dude with the poontytail
Speaker 4: was always meet in the shop. I didn't even know that.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, and that was a lucrative business you back.
Speaker 4: Then, Nah, I didn't care about that money that was
Speaker 4: I was. Don't forget, I'm a producer. I'm on death chair,
Speaker 4: so everything is mine. Reggie's mind epm D is mind
Speaker 4: from his mind then all of a sudden run of
Speaker 4: Memphis mind.
Speaker 5: So that wasn't where I made the money.
Speaker 4: For money was being made, but that wasn't what I
Speaker 4: I wasn't doing. I was just making sure that this
Speaker 4: was I was in something that was new, it had
Speaker 4: the hype attached to it, so fucking oh you know.
Speaker 3: All right, So probably the second most important thing I'm
Speaker 3: a mention in this interview. I want to talk about
Speaker 3: the Rockefeller remix and also Man Above and Man Above
Speaker 3: on double or nothing. So you know, as I told you,
Speaker 3: we connected at Clark Kent's homecoming services, right, and I
Speaker 3: told you, I was like, dog, you don't know how
Speaker 3: important Redman's Rockefeller Remix and Man Above on your Double
Speaker 3: or Nothing record, right, was what I call the movement,
Speaker 3: and the movement I was speaking of was the soul
Speaker 3: quarium movement and the amount of times where like Dyla
Speaker 3: and I would talk about how you really pioneered, like
Speaker 3: the texture that both of us really put our feet in,
Speaker 3: and it made our living, you know, that was our bread,
Speaker 3: that texture, and as dope as it was, it's also
Speaker 3: a very radical left turn for hip hop, a genre
Speaker 3: which thrives on high testosterone, you know, this aggressive.
Speaker 1: Energy.
Speaker 3: Okay, so let's start with the Rockefeller remix because the
Speaker 3: polar opposite of it, the the the the album version
Speaker 3: of Rockefeller, which was the first single from Redman's There's
Speaker 3: Dark Side record, was Redman Eric Sermon one on one
Speaker 3: like a chunky, heavily sampled.
Speaker 4: Dense But but don't forget that was Reggie got it
Speaker 4: by himself. And while I told him, don't do it
Speaker 4: because g thing, he was like, don't do it, but
Speaker 4: Reggie did anyway.
Speaker 3: And I want to talk about There's a Dark Side
Speaker 3: as an album, but that remix though, But what was
Speaker 3: on your mind when you did that?
Speaker 1: Shit?
Speaker 3: Because that was just probably the same way that shut
Speaker 3: him down. Shut me down when I heard it, like
Speaker 3: looking at the stereo, like, what the fuck is this?
Speaker 1: I've never like that.
Speaker 3: Shit called me like, this is your destiny for the
Speaker 3: next thirty years of your life.
Speaker 1: This style of production what made you want to go esoteric.
Speaker 4: It was a keyboard in there, right, and the keyboard
Speaker 4: had no regular keyboard, but it was a rose keyboard.
Speaker 4: But if you listen to the record, the record is
Speaker 4: off a cassette. That's why it doesn't sound like nothing
Speaker 4: like for you to hear it and it's hissing like
Speaker 4: that and there's no bottom or nothing like. It was
Speaker 4: so weird that it was even taken as a rem
Speaker 4: mix because.
Speaker 1: You did that remix on a cassette.
Speaker 5: I made it live to a cassette.
Speaker 1: There was no lady, and you mastered it from the cassette.
Speaker 4: Yes, oh wow, that's why it sounds like that. It's
Speaker 4: gritty as it's not. It wasn't done on purpose. It
Speaker 4: comes from off of a cassette. So when I lined
Speaker 4: it up to the regular one, I'm like, oh, ship,
Speaker 4: this does sound kind of cool. But the boom boom boom,
Speaker 4: But the the the road things was not really a
Speaker 4: road sounds. I'm not really a player. I learned how
Speaker 4: to play later on. So I heard what I wanted
Speaker 4: to hear by you press the keys and you be okay, Okay,
Speaker 4: I found the court.
Speaker 5: Okay, here's the chord boom.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna do that same thing with the most
Speaker 4: beautifulness when when I did the Assie butters over, it's
Speaker 4: still what I wanted to hear. My version of what
Speaker 4: make sheets sound like? What keyboard was that it was
Speaker 4: something that ate, something like the the Roland, the whatever
Speaker 4: it was out that was out in ninety two.
Speaker 3: That patch show I could never billions of times I've
Speaker 3: tried to.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a lead. I thought it was
Speaker 1: you know what.
Speaker 5: You know what?
Speaker 4: That might be what see it was one of the
Speaker 4: popular name It could have been that, it could have
Speaker 4: been a too could have but listen.
Speaker 1: Because it's just the text.
Speaker 4: It probably was you know what. You probably definitely right.
Speaker 4: It probably was the Great Norley. It probably was a
Speaker 4: black one. But the drums were programming the W thirty,
Speaker 4: so I already had the drums going, and my W
Speaker 4: thirty doesn't have a baseline sound like that.
Speaker 5: All roads, so.
Speaker 4: The keyboard were just sitting there. So I said, I'm
Speaker 4: just gonna do this live. I'm gonna do the base.
Speaker 4: I don't forget. I didn't have no looping. All the
Speaker 4: stuff you hear and accept the drums is played live
Speaker 4: all the way through the whatever four minutes I played
Speaker 4: at the time, it's you.
Speaker 1: Just played the keyboard. All the cores in the.
Speaker 5: Everything is live. I didn't lay nothing down.
Speaker 4: I was recording to cassette, ah Man, so it was
Speaker 4: made and it was being programmed at the same time.
Speaker 4: So once it was being programmed, all I did was
Speaker 4: like one, two, three, four, and then press play on
Speaker 4: the no lead whatever that was, and then play on
Speaker 4: the W thirty and that that was it.
Speaker 3: How much production did you have in the hand of
Speaker 3: Redman's first record versus There's a Dark Side?
Speaker 5: Yeah, mostly all of it, even high the blunt was
Speaker 5: Pete Rock. The second one.
Speaker 4: I didn't do it second one. I did you know?
Speaker 4: Mine's Rockefeller remix. I can't wait exactly.
Speaker 3: In your opinion, what do you think of there as
Speaker 3: the dark side? As far as Reggie's whole canon is concerned.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm put like this. People on the the ground
Speaker 4: loved that album. They chose There's a Dark Side underground
Speaker 4: hardcore people. They chose that record. Now there's a dark side.
Speaker 4: The stuff on that I love was the intro was
Speaker 4: one of my favorites. But again, that's why Muddy Waters
Speaker 4: was so effective because because people people did not like
Speaker 4: There's a Dark Side, as far as it's not.
Speaker 3: That I didn't like it, but there was something missing.
Speaker 3: And now I feel like what was missing was your input.
Speaker 5: Yeah I didn't do it. No, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Did you not want to do that record? Or he's
Speaker 1: just like, I want to do it on my own.
Speaker 4: I want to do it because Reggie had got the
Speaker 4: NPC and then he met Rockwaller two, so he figured that,
Speaker 4: you know, he had this sound and he was nice
Speaker 4: of what he did or.
Speaker 5: You know whatever, this what he was making.
Speaker 4: Because again, it ain't like I didn't think that There's
Speaker 4: a Dark Side was dope. I don't think to me
Speaker 4: that's my favorite album, but to other people's is I
Speaker 4: know that what the album? And when it did come out,
Speaker 4: Muddy Waters hit so hard because people was waiting for it.
Speaker 3: Okay, I was lukewarm on There's a Dark Side, like
Speaker 3: I didn't think it held up to what the album. However,
Speaker 3: when Muddy Waters came out, I was so shocked that
Speaker 3: it was like beyond I know, yep, oh shit. The
Speaker 3: funny thing was, so when I got Muddy Waters, when
Speaker 3: I first heard the intro.
Speaker 1: Right it is it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I was like, way it up? Man?
Speaker 1: Yeah, But between the intro and is he for real?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: I got admit. Man.
Speaker 3: I was so happy that we got sampled because the
Speaker 3: thing is is that by that point, the Roots have
Speaker 3: made three records, right, and you know, everybody was like, well,
Speaker 3: y'all band, so y'all gonna put out records, and motherfucker's
Speaker 3: gonna sample for y'all. You know, I was like leaving
Speaker 3: drums here and there and not stuff like okay, and
Speaker 3: let me let this part bear because people want to
Speaker 3: take that, and nobody was taken to us. And you know,
Speaker 3: by third time around, I was like, yo, we might be.
Speaker 1: Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer of hip hop.
Speaker 3: Like I don't know if motherfuckers are fucking with us
Speaker 3: like that because no one's grabbing these drums, no one's
Speaker 3: grabbing the loops or whatever.
Speaker 1: So when we heard our song section.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, sample Anyboddy artists joined me personally, I was
Speaker 3: so happy to be acknowledged that, like, yo, like all right,
Speaker 3: so real hip hops know who we are?
Speaker 1: Is shit? Like That's what it felt like that I.
Speaker 4: Was understand, man, you got to understand when you play
Speaker 4: what we do. To me, it's crossover as far as
Speaker 4: just the fact that we're telling people that this right
Speaker 4: here is not right, this is not what you should
Speaker 4: be doing this year. Right here is crazy. All y'all
Speaker 4: doing is talking about the same bullshit, same stuff, the
Speaker 4: same whatever like that. So y'all was bold. Now I
Speaker 4: thought you was getting ready to tell me yo, Eric,
Speaker 4: since we went that route, people like, yo, these.
Speaker 5: Motherfuckers, is this in the game?
Speaker 4: So I thought, I know, But I thought that's what
Speaker 4: made it kind of for y'all. But again I thought, no,
Speaker 4: I'm the same because listen, nobody did what y'all did
Speaker 4: at that time to put the industry on blast. No
Speaker 4: matter what you say, y'all put the industry on blasts.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: It's funny though, when we made that video for first
Speaker 3: of all, it was like we came at the train
Speaker 3: platform a little too late, Like we were raised on YOMTV.
Speaker 1: Raps and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: So had like the YOMTV raps stratosphere lasted another like
Speaker 3: five years, like really like it ended in like ninety
Speaker 3: six ninety seven, right, But the effect where something new
Speaker 3: could come on MTV and instantly get picked up. We
Speaker 3: didn't have that tailwind that a lot of groups had
Speaker 3: between eighty eight and ninety six at the height of
Speaker 3: your TV raps, and so it was hard for us
Speaker 3: to get on BT. I mean, you know, we do
Speaker 3: rap City or whatever, but like we moved to Europe.
Speaker 3: So the thing is is that our approach to videos
Speaker 3: by that point it was such a kind of a shrug, man,
Speaker 3: motherfuckers ain't going to catch this anyway, so okay whatever.
Speaker 3: So it was almost like we told all right, and
Speaker 3: I explained this before on the show. Do you remember
Speaker 3: in Boomerang when Eddie Murphy was so depressed about Jacqueline
Speaker 3: he told Jeffrey Holder to make whatever he wants to
Speaker 3: on that strong Z thing, like he didn't approve it, just.
Speaker 1: Like, hey, dude, do whatever you want. I don't give it.
Speaker 5: Buck And he came back with all that shit, so so.
Speaker 3: Kind of and I know it seems like a cop out,
Speaker 3: like a word, y'all just gonna tell us someone hell
Speaker 3: to gun to your head and said make this video.
Speaker 3: Like really, it was more like we showed up, all right,
Speaker 3: show us where we stand, all right, roll it, cut
Speaker 3: be out. But what they do was not the And
Speaker 3: that's the thing people come up all the time like, yo, man,
Speaker 3: I'm glad y'all took a stand.
Speaker 1: Da da da da da, And you know, I'd just.
Speaker 5: Be like, sure, yeah, it wasn't about that. Why you
Speaker 5: had me food to.
Speaker 1: Tell you the truth?
Speaker 5: Bro?
Speaker 3: The director had did a similar video that was more
Speaker 3: humorous for a rock group, and the rock group rejected
Speaker 3: it and we went in the reject pile of get
Speaker 3: from records, like, yo, what about this video?
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I could do that for you now.
Speaker 3: I'm certain for him it was a chance to sort
Speaker 3: of take a dig at the industry and even then
Speaker 3: seeing the final thing because we were in Europe so
Speaker 3: much and it's not like they can email you or
Speaker 3: look on your dropbox. It's not like now where I
Speaker 3: could send somebody a clip and get you to approve it.
Speaker 3: It was just basically like all right, we shot a
Speaker 3: video and all right, the video's ready and we thought
Speaker 3: we were trying to be funny in a fish out
Speaker 3: of waterway, and it turned out that we were being
Speaker 3: like instigators and suddenly we got beefour on our hands
Speaker 3: because Biggie thought we were even that one more chanshit,
Speaker 3: Like I didn't know that was the one more Champion shit.
Speaker 3: So yes, I do believe in integrity in your artistry.
Speaker 3: But we weren't really on the soapbox preach in the
Speaker 3: way that I think people thought we were. We were
Speaker 3: just lazy and didn't know what the video was about.
Speaker 3: It was just like, why make a video. It ain't
Speaker 3: like I'm going to play us anyway. All Right, We
Speaker 3: done and we left. So that's kind of where we
Speaker 3: went with it. But no, but in the terms of
Speaker 3: money with waters. But like one of the funniest stories
Speaker 3: I have in embarrassment. So when we got the credit
Speaker 3: for a section on the is he real?
Speaker 1: Join? Is he for real? On the intro?
Speaker 3: That was the first time I ever got a gold record.
Speaker 3: Girls used to come out of the crib. You worked
Speaker 3: on that Redman record.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, well, yeah, you know he kind of
Speaker 1: sampled this.
Speaker 3: Yay, Hey, this was like it wasn't it wasn't until
Speaker 3: two thousand in which we finally started going golden platinum.
Speaker 3: But like between the Redman record and who am I
Speaker 3: sim Sima? Who got the people they sampled it as well?
Speaker 3: Like right, the amount of people that have sampled.
Speaker 4: That that that intro thing of course, But nah, man,
Speaker 4: I'm thinking y'all for that, so that you know that
Speaker 4: yo dog for me that.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ, those two songs along like the wave that
Speaker 3: Dylan would talk about.
Speaker 5: Why you said Man Above.
Speaker 3: Man Above had the same texture, right, the same sort
Speaker 3: of bounce. I assume that was made on the same
Speaker 3: instrument or the same keyboard.
Speaker 5: That was made in a different place, because that's why
Speaker 5: it's more cleaner.
Speaker 1: But Man Above, production wise, same shit, right.
Speaker 5: It was crazy. I was doing the Mary J. Blige
Speaker 5: remix from the Dead for the.
Speaker 1: Man but ah, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 5: So this all my life. I was gonna do a
Speaker 5: my life remix.
Speaker 4: So that's how I had those acapellas because there wasn't
Speaker 4: no acapellas back then.
Speaker 5: I was getting ready to do my life remix.
Speaker 1: That's the music that it was going to be for.
Speaker 4: I don't know, I just know that I never ended
Speaker 4: up doing the remix, but I had them vocals.
Speaker 5: I used them.
Speaker 3: Of all your productions outside of yourself, EPM D, what
Speaker 3: what do you feel are your top five all time
Speaker 3: Eric Sermon productions outside of yourself and in your group.
Speaker 4: I know the best beat is gonna be so what
Speaker 4: you're saying, though, but I'm gonna get off of that.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say, of course, how High. I'm gonna say,
Speaker 4: the most beautifulest.
Speaker 1: There's two versions of how High? I did both of them.
Speaker 3: Why was the other version, the non the non silver
Speaker 3: connection version pushed more like I didn't even get the
Speaker 3: version that we now know as how High until like
Speaker 3: maybe a month later.
Speaker 1: Like all we heard was the.
Speaker 4: First or on the Russell Simmons the show documentary that
Speaker 4: was on the show first, and I heard they wanted
Speaker 4: to shoo a video I called Lee. I was like,
Speaker 4: oh wait, wait a second, let me you're going see
Speaker 4: the video. Let me change the beat up, because you know,
Speaker 4: there was this rhymen. You know how many bars there
Speaker 4: was this rhymen and this ship was just it wasn't
Speaker 4: If I'm gonna I'd rather met on the record. I
Speaker 4: want to make sure that I gave them an opportunity.
Speaker 4: I wasn't about radio. It was just making a better
Speaker 4: record to me, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 4: made a better record, speaking of which you gotta talk about.
Speaker 4: Buy you some yo, We're too Short. I didn't have
Speaker 4: no idea that I was gonna come home in New
Speaker 4: York and it's gonna be just as big as Atlanta.
Speaker 4: I brung Too Short to the Apollo with me that night,
Speaker 4: and he almost was crying, like Eric, I'm like, short,
Speaker 4: they gonna love you out here, man, you you were
Speaker 4: selling artists. And he didn't believe it until he hit
Speaker 4: that stage and it was pandemonium. I get me in, Short,
Speaker 4: who's playing guitar on that?
Speaker 1: Like that's a guitar?
Speaker 4: A guy named it was too short boy started jay,
Speaker 4: but one or two short boys from the from the
Speaker 4: Dangers Click he played it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, very unorthodox. That's basically live correct live.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all of the drums, the whole nine, the base,
Speaker 4: the whole nine.
Speaker 5: His name is Shorty be Shorty Beef did it.
Speaker 4: And got it and me and short was just in
Speaker 4: Atlanta as guests.
Speaker 5: Short had a lab the East Coast, West Coast.
Speaker 4: Beef was at the height of the time and we
Speaker 4: thought that we can do something just to ease up,
Speaker 4: ease up to talk, you know, to one guy from
Speaker 4: the west, one guy from the east, and and that
Speaker 4: and that came into play.
Speaker 5: I did that thing that night, one take and that's it.
Speaker 4: And I was like, yo, next thing, you know, Greg
Speaker 4: Street had it and it was over and the last
Speaker 4: I was jealous.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: It lasted in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: For like at least told about, like talking about seven years,
Speaker 4: six years, seven years straight of it being constantly played
Speaker 4: every single day.
Speaker 1: My boy used to rip me.
Speaker 3: He's like, yo, man, how are you gonna let Eric
Speaker 3: Sermon come in with a broken junkie sounded drum set
Speaker 3: and I have to.
Speaker 1: Guitar and out do the roots?
Speaker 3: Like literally, My manager was like, he was like, remember
Speaker 3: when y'all used to sound that raw?
Speaker 1: I was like, what should you talking about?
Speaker 3: It's like many y'all trying to do all these intrigate
Speaker 3: jash it, but you need to get back to a
Speaker 3: broken sound and drum set and a fucked up guitar
Speaker 3: sound and ship and that's it.
Speaker 5: I couldn't but believe me, I'm just as shocked as you. Man.
Speaker 4: I was just doing the beat because it was me
Speaker 4: and short. So I just did a rhyme. Man, I'm
Speaker 4: not thinking this record's gonna do something. And then I
Speaker 4: get home and fun Master Flex got it and it's
Speaker 4: just as big as New York as it isn't and
Speaker 4: you saying you had a Philly I'm like, man, this is.
Speaker 3: Crazy cos mccaff used to always play that ship and
Speaker 3: and you know with the with the DMZL remix coming
Speaker 3: after that.
Speaker 4: Oh listen, listen, David Sigerson said, Eric, dreamy Eys is
Speaker 4: not doing well.
Speaker 5: So what do you mean?
Speaker 4: He said, Yo, it's not moving the way we thought
Speaker 4: it was to be moving. It was it was a
Speaker 4: thing called R and R back then on that whatever whatever.
Speaker 4: So he said, can you remix it for me? So
Speaker 4: automatically when I tell you a quest, it wasn't even
Speaker 4: no thought. I knew what I was using, you know,
Speaker 4: I didn't know that that was gonna take off neither,
Speaker 4: but I go grab my partner, your Reggie.
Speaker 5: I knew you real quick. You see, I grab Readie
Speaker 5: for everything you're read yo, right whatever.
Speaker 4: So after that, it was like, you know, and and
Speaker 4: don't forget the music that was in the original record,
Speaker 4: the band ban Then I had that sample to go on.
Speaker 4: So I had some of the stuff, the ingredients from
Speaker 4: the original Dreamy Eyes to put into my version. Not
Speaker 4: that the angel is gonna be like yo, nigga, God
Speaker 4: damn nigga.
Speaker 5: Like I mean he was. He was like, you know, yo,
Speaker 5: thank you, whatever you need, I got you.
Speaker 3: So I mentioned to him like a year ago, like yo, man,
Speaker 3: I said, Yo, how can we never thought about redoing
Speaker 3: that live yo? And he was just like I forgot
Speaker 3: about it. That that one's with the record books, but
Speaker 3: wait where are the other for.
Speaker 5: Four three two one?
Speaker 4: And that's outside because I would say Headbanger too, because
Speaker 4: that because when I sampled the Boosy Collins you know
Speaker 4: again that yeah, yeah, you know, I sampled Boosi also
Speaker 4: in Most Beautifulness too. But I made Headbanger for ice Cube.
Speaker 4: I couldn't get it to him. So doing the last
Speaker 4: two records, the last two records on business the person
Speaker 4: that was Crossover and Headbanger because Russell said, if y'all
Speaker 4: dropped that album the way it is, you're gonna fail.
Speaker 4: So I so I went back and made Crossover and Headbanger.
Speaker 3: Last, did you trust Russell's ears on that one?
Speaker 5: I trust more Leo but Russell for some.
Speaker 4: Reason, Conder knew, and I gotta give him praises because
Speaker 4: I heard that before I heard that that's not something
Speaker 4: that Russell will do.
Speaker 5: Like, so you what a record and then you would
Speaker 5: go with what he said.
Speaker 4: But believe me, he was adamant about if you in
Speaker 4: Paris drop that album the way it is now, you're
Speaker 4: gonna be in trouble.
Speaker 1: All right, let me ask you about crossover now.
Speaker 3: And you know, once bad Boy comes into play, all
Speaker 3: rules early bad Boy, all rules out the window. I
Speaker 3: was under the impression that if you sample something, it
Speaker 3: has to be at least twenty years old, thirty years old,
Speaker 3: like it has to be the vintage, a whole generation
Speaker 3: before it can be sampled.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: However, so I used to work in a record shop,
Speaker 3: so I was very much familiar with Roger Trautman's girl
Speaker 3: You Should Be Mine, of course, which was like his
Speaker 3: new Jack Swingey attempt, which weird enough. Also like him
Speaker 3: sampling Boutie Collins' Rubber Band r U B B e er.
Speaker 3: You know it's a contemporary song right with samples in it.
Speaker 3: Look after I met Dylan, he told me all bets
Speaker 3: are off like anything could be sampled. It could be
Speaker 3: made yesterday. Yes, I'll flip it.
Speaker 1: Yes. But back in the early nineties, I thought a record.
Speaker 5: Had to be old it did it?
Speaker 6: Did it? You?
Speaker 3: Basically sampled in crossover a somewhat Newish Roger Troutman song
Speaker 3: that wasn't wanted new it was It wasn't even two
Speaker 3: years old yet yet, so it was in the record store.
Speaker 3: It wasn't old, the body wasn't warm yet. Like, what
Speaker 3: made you want to sample that?
Speaker 4: I'm a fan of. I resembered watching my whole life.
Speaker 4: So after I get picked up from Bron Guidry from
Speaker 4: Sony whatever, he has the Sipus Hills album on him.
Speaker 4: So from the airport were playing Cypus Hills. That's how
Speaker 4: I caught Q and Cube knew about them, and how
Speaker 4: Cube got in the video. Cube know by siplus to me.
Speaker 3: So he came to the Apollo to shoot just kill
Speaker 3: a man because.
Speaker 4: Yo, yeah, but I think he heard don't forget I've
Speaker 4: brung the cassette tape to a Q video in Cali,
Speaker 4: and He's like, holy shit.
Speaker 5: So when I got home, who was in New York
Speaker 5: shoot in the video. But but anyway, got it you
Speaker 5: was asked me about.
Speaker 3: Let me explain to our listeners what I'm asking him
Speaker 3: is basically for him to sample. You got to chill
Speaker 3: for EPMD. That to me is a vintage song that
Speaker 3: we all know, and if it's vintage, that means it's
Speaker 3: been oven long enough to be sample. However, we're crossover.
Speaker 3: That song was like not even two years old yet,
Speaker 3: and you know, like I was like wow when I
Speaker 3: heard it. I was like, yo, are we allowed to
Speaker 3: sample something that's brand new, that isn't even vintage yet
Speaker 3: before it's ready to be sampled. And for you, there
Speaker 3: wasn't a difference.
Speaker 4: Well, I thought it was new because I didn't. I
Speaker 4: never saw it yet, so to me, I think it
Speaker 4: probably was even a year old. But I saw the
Speaker 4: hem on the thing with the globe all I saw
Speaker 4: so on the cover, So it wasn't my intentions to sample.
Speaker 5: I just saw a new Roger album, don't forget.
Speaker 4: When I got to the hand the album then Russell
Speaker 4: was like, if you hand the album then y'all gonna fail, right,
Speaker 4: So I went and made crossover. Happened to have the
Speaker 4: consette tape on me, right, and I went through it
Speaker 4: and baby with you be mine? I let it play.
Speaker 4: It said, well, I'm bearing back to you whatever you are.
Speaker 5: I said, holy ship.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing though, and this is another deal with
Speaker 3: thing now, anyone else me included, I would have thought
Speaker 3: that first part, the baby won't you be My like
Speaker 3: if my boss is telling me my album's gonna fail
Speaker 3: if I don't have a hit single. Of all the
Speaker 3: parts to sample on that record, I would have never
Speaker 3: thought sample the bridge. I would have sampled the other part.
Speaker 3: What made you choose the the lesser of two evils?
Speaker 3: The part that I wouldn't think the sample. You just
Speaker 3: wanted the texture. You wanted the texture quarter. It was,
Speaker 3: that's Roger. So when you hit a more.
Speaker 4: Balanced you got the chill, but both boom boom bow quarter.
Speaker 5: So I got to bring that back. That's the whole thing.
Speaker 3: And all of your bass assault songs, especially the way
Speaker 3: you flip the Adriz mohammed shit, that to me is
Speaker 3: like whatever you cooked up for the verse, that is
Speaker 3: prime Eric SimMan like perfection to me, man, that that's
Speaker 3: just that's my ship, all right.
Speaker 1: So what are your last.
Speaker 5: Two reservoir dogs?
Speaker 3: You did res dogs Man, No, the Reservoir Dogs on
Speaker 3: Jay's record.
Speaker 5: Me and Rock Waller did ves Dogs.
Speaker 4: Yes, you look at the credits of Eric Sermon and
Speaker 4: pop rock name not even on that on there.
Speaker 5: But he did it with me.
Speaker 1: Damn. I didn't even know that shit. Yo. Talk about
Speaker 1: the four three two one session.
Speaker 5: There was no session. I did that with nobody being there.
Speaker 4: It was a record that was done by track masters
Speaker 4: at first though quest and the record I didn't like it,
Speaker 4: and they had look going first and whatever go on
Speaker 4: this part, this is going that part. It wasn't nothing
Speaker 4: that you heard. So I told Kevin Lows, Yo, give
Speaker 4: me the song.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna make.
Speaker 4: Let me see if I could do something with it.
Speaker 4: And put your hands were so hot. So I made
Speaker 4: my own version of push your hands while forty two
Speaker 4: one came out. See if you listen to forty two
Speaker 4: one and put your hands, it's the same drum pattern.
Speaker 5: I followed the same drum pattern. Set it going. Oh,
Speaker 5: I tell you're going, but boom boom. I did boom
Speaker 5: boom boom. That's it. I did nothing different.
Speaker 1: A I didn't realize that till right the fuck now.
Speaker 3: Damn. So by the time you got it, they all
Speaker 3: did their verses already.
Speaker 4: Did their verses and the only one that we added
Speaker 4: on was cannabis and then the master p. But the
Speaker 4: verses were done, so of course I got to put
Speaker 4: retting MEP together. They didn't have running MEP together. I
Speaker 4: put reverting MEP together. And then I'm like, Yo, the
Speaker 4: new kid dnx, I gotta make sure that it comes
Speaker 4: in so farward.
Speaker 5: Stay out the door.
Speaker 4: So whoever, so when he comes, I got to make
Speaker 4: sure that this is highlighted because I.
Speaker 5: Know he's the next of the next. So and then llokuja.
Speaker 4: You see how I was putting in the ll cooj
Speaker 4: or stopping because Llo first didn't go like that. He
Speaker 4: was rhyming so fast through the whole verse. I was
Speaker 4: breaking it up for it to make sense to me.
Speaker 4: And that's why I was add living and cannabis. Got mad,
Speaker 4: said Yo, man, I thought you was. I thought I
Speaker 4: was squawed. You know you added on everybody only verse
Speaker 4: you add libble doing with Llo cujas verse. I said,
Speaker 4: I was add living to fill the holes in Ah.
Speaker 1: I got it. I got it.
Speaker 3: So did you realize like what was brewing underneath as
Speaker 3: far as like what was happening between l and and Cannabis.
Speaker 1: At the time.
Speaker 4: Nah, I didn't realize. I thought that Cannabis would never
Speaker 4: dissed him. But Llokoj is like that.
Speaker 3: Ll explained like on this podcast that okay, I might
Speaker 3: have taken it too far.
Speaker 4: And I think that LLOJ got us on Rampage too.
Speaker 4: You think he's busting shots females rappers too. I don't
Speaker 4: give a fuck fool he got fucking Foxy on u Shota.
Speaker 5: Like it don't matter be Lookoja is a battle rapper
Speaker 5: at heart.
Speaker 1: So even though in his own posse cut that's.
Speaker 4: Benefiting him, Yes, you and your squad, but to face
Speaker 4: the real guard, the undertaking that's in Rampage, it's only
Speaker 4: one squad and that's the hit squad.
Speaker 5: There's no other person calling them selves squads but that.
Speaker 4: And again, if you look at Paris when he says,
Speaker 4: I know they all met Dick l but that's okay. See,
Speaker 4: somebody would take take it like Paris is telling Ello
Speaker 4: Cuja that see what I'm saying, you gotta watch what
Speaker 4: the what the people do. I know you don't look
Speaker 4: at it like that, but they do.
Speaker 3: Damn man, you're gonna make me go back and listen
Speaker 3: to your entire canvon to see subliminal digs. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking that if someone's on your record that y'all family,
Speaker 3: y'all squad, I don't know it.
Speaker 5: Don't go like that.
Speaker 4: I just told you what the Foxy Brown with with
Speaker 4: who shot you? Nigga like yo, like he might not
Speaker 4: say it again. But two you're saying that.
Speaker 5: I'm not mad at him. That's the He's the battle
Speaker 5: ultimate battle rapper.
Speaker 4: Wow, that's why he came back and probably detracted to cannabis.
Speaker 4: Cannabis loved that. Why would he just llokoja? He wouldn't
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 3: At the time when he Burray came to you, did
Speaker 3: he have an actual MC name? Because I love the
Speaker 3: fact that.
Speaker 5: And then it was Keith it Keith.
Speaker 3: But what made what made him use his government name
Speaker 3: instead of his his MC name me. I mean, I
Speaker 3: thought it was smart. I thought it was ironic.
Speaker 4: He said, he said, Eric, I'm gonna use my name,
Speaker 4: you use your name. I'm calling myself Keith Murray. Sounded
Speaker 4: like an R and B artist exactly.
Speaker 1: Yep. The irony of it, yep.
Speaker 3: Okay, So what's the decision behind with the Insomnia Project
Speaker 3: and the Erico NASA's album. Oh my god, man, hey man,
Speaker 3: I'm like Ard War You're you're Eric servant.
Speaker 1: I have to ask.
Speaker 5: But I wish I could go back.
Speaker 4: I wish I could not with funk Orama because I
Speaker 4: love that Q Tips showed up and met them in
Speaker 4: the video. Was so dope like that. But I just
Speaker 4: think that I was on in the scope and Jimmy
Speaker 4: I Bean was playing the record for Dre back and forth,
Speaker 4: and Dre were like, Yo, not yet, not ready yet,
Speaker 4: not ready yet, not yet ready yet?
Speaker 5: So when when the product that you heard, Dre okay it?
Speaker 4: But when I go back, I'd be like, man, I
Speaker 4: could have made it more like the Chronic where it
Speaker 4: had me. I could have made it more like my
Speaker 4: production as far as like what I really wanted to
Speaker 4: make for it and not make records for the groups
Speaker 4: that I had. I could have did the Chronic and
Speaker 4: then had those rappers on the type chronic, type of mode.
Speaker 4: And that's all I felt about that funk Orama was
Speaker 4: where I was supposed to go the whole album.
Speaker 1: Got it? Yo? Did you do any production on Jamal's
Speaker 1: record at all?
Speaker 5: I just did. I told you I did situation and
Speaker 5: I did keep it real.
Speaker 1: Jamal's you Didn't You didn't do Jamon did you?
Speaker 5: Mom? Was on My Rockwaller.
Speaker 4: Jamal's album is one of the most underrated for him
Speaker 4: having Diamond.
Speaker 1: D say it, Eric Simon say.
Speaker 4: It, Rockwader Man, Mike Dean, I mean he it was.
Speaker 4: It was put together man, Jesus Christ, it was put together.
Speaker 4: Phill Duphies was doing Molly Jim Yo. Why do you
Speaker 4: think he was on Buster? He was on on Junior
Speaker 4: markea like, but he Reggie, he was a problem.
Speaker 1: Oh he should have been way bigger, should have been
Speaker 1: way bigger.
Speaker 5: Way, bigger way, bigger.
Speaker 3: Music just came out of nowhere. No one saw music
Speaker 3: coming right. No, no cats was ready to count you out.
Speaker 3: And I don't mean like personally counts you out. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just like you know, with you don't expect someone
Speaker 3: that was first hitting like thirteen years ago to be
Speaker 3: even a big to be even a a bigger factor.
Speaker 5: I know, I know. It was crazy.
Speaker 4: It was again, man, I still again, but No, I saved,
Speaker 4: gave me all that life again for him, still in
Speaker 4: that record, for my basement, and trusting that the world
Speaker 4: had to.
Speaker 5: Hear it because I didn't make it for the world.
Speaker 4: I made it because Midnight Love was my favorite albums,
Speaker 4: and I was just saying that if I was had
Speaker 4: Marvin Gate, here's what I would make on him.
Speaker 5: That's what I was doing. I was saying that I
Speaker 5: would make something like this with him.
Speaker 1: She said music was not supposed to come out.
Speaker 5: It was stolen from my basement. It was not supposed
Speaker 5: to come out.
Speaker 1: How people stealing ship from your basement and bringing.
Speaker 5: It on it It was it was my best friend.
Speaker 4: The fact that I played it for him and he
Speaker 4: took it, and then like I didn't know that he
Speaker 4: took it. And when I got to the w Hotel
Speaker 4: it was a clear channel music seminar and Steve was like, yo,
Speaker 4: he played it for him, And when they all came
Speaker 4: back into your eric, your new song with Marvin Gate
Speaker 4: is fantastic.
Speaker 5: So it was he stole it. It was never going
Speaker 5: to leave my basement.
Speaker 3: How hard was it to clear the or at least
Speaker 3: to get blessings from.
Speaker 4: I paid them. I paid two one thousand dollars. I
Speaker 4: paid one fifty to the state and fee down to
Speaker 4: the lawyer. Well, I knew that the time of Toler
Speaker 4: Clive Davis was battling on the table. So once Tommy
Speaker 4: came with his off and we went to climb and said, Yo,
Speaker 4: time you offer X, Y and Z. So I knew
Speaker 4: that that four million was coming. So again the best
Speaker 4: thing to do is to pay for it.
Speaker 3: Got it okay? And talk about working with just Blaze
Speaker 3: for uh for React?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, this is some stuff.
Speaker 1: But you missed did you see did you.
Speaker 5: See the right I ain't right back with it.
Speaker 1: Did you see the post about React?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: Okay, send it to me. There's I gotta find it.
Speaker 3: But and I always wanted to know, so I don't
Speaker 3: know exactly what's happening. So the part that you got
Speaker 3: sampled like whatever she says, and now I'm mean whatever
Speaker 3: y'all sampled is And I don't know the language or whatever,
Speaker 3: but it is. It is a very depressing song. I
Speaker 3: heard about heartbreak. It's like the opposite of it, and
Speaker 3: I get it. Like with hip hop, you can take
Speaker 3: anything and make it. But there was someone's like, you know,
Speaker 3: like Eric Sermon, just happens to choose like the most
Speaker 3: depressing song about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know about death suicide. I know I heard
Speaker 4: about that. I heard about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy, So yeah, how did you look up
Speaker 1: with Just Blaze?
Speaker 5: After music dropped?
Speaker 4: People was like, yo, you know again to come back
Speaker 4: with another one after something like Marvin Gabe Man, like
Speaker 4: I said for and I know Just Blaze got in
Speaker 4: trouble from Dame Dash with that, Like yo, you how
Speaker 4: you gonna give somebody say without putting it past us?
Speaker 4: Nigga Jermaine Duprix had that beat where Meth had that beat.
Speaker 5: Nobody knew what to do with the record. If you
Speaker 5: watch the jay.
Speaker 4: Z documentary from Redder Mephis in the limousine, you couldn't
Speaker 4: hear that record in the background.
Speaker 5: They had to be playing, but again, nobody knew what
Speaker 5: to do with it.
Speaker 4: I just heard it and was like, yo, whatever she
Speaker 4: said that, I'm not so once I had a concept.
Speaker 5: I'm ready to go, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And the verse that that Reggie's that you hear Reggie,
Speaker 4: It was an old verse. I put Reggie on the
Speaker 4: record like I always do, and then when Reggie heard it,
Speaker 4: he did the verse over. But that was a demo
Speaker 4: that I played for Clide Davis after the music for
Speaker 4: the second album. I played it with a demo Reggie
Speaker 4: and then Reggie did the verse so over for the
Speaker 4: South Cleara.
Speaker 3: You know what, I feel like, I'm Hot should have
Speaker 3: been even further than music, Like, why wasn't I'm Hot
Speaker 3: fully promoted?
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 4: I think that, you know, it wasn't just you, man,
Speaker 4: I think that Clive and then was getting ready to
Speaker 4: jump to the second album really quick because music had
Speaker 4: did what it did. And then I'm Hot came and
Speaker 4: we shot the video and the twin towers had got hit.
Speaker 4: So the video started with the fire, the fire truck,
Speaker 4: the whole nine.
Speaker 5: So the politics of I'm Hot, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I'm hot, just like so, you know, with the
Speaker 4: people burning up the whole nine.
Speaker 5: I think that's what stopped it from going.
Speaker 4: I really think that because because the video was banned
Speaker 4: and the record was just bad timing. But but again
Speaker 4: I thought too, and I thought that maybe I said, Okay,
Speaker 4: well he going back to the Marvin Gaye again. It's
Speaker 4: not that and this, But I felt how you felt.
Speaker 4: I think it was more politics.
Speaker 3: Got it, yo, man, there's so much of your remixes.
Speaker 3: I want to ask, but you know, it's already three.
Speaker 5: Hours, it's already a part to us. Three hours. But listen.
Speaker 4: I did three and a half hours with Drink Champs too, Like,
Speaker 4: no matter what, No, you wouldn't the same thing you doing.
Speaker 4: He's like, Eric, I could still keep going. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you're right. This is thirty seven years of me being
Speaker 4: this game, doing what I do and producing almost half
Speaker 4: the entire hip hop industry and the third of R
Speaker 4: and B music. I produced it, so I get it.
Speaker 4: I know it's I know you can go. You can
Speaker 4: keep going because I put it in.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to ask you the usual like
Speaker 3: are you still hungry? I know you're still hungry because
Speaker 3: even the records we'd have mentioned, like the esp Joint hitting,
Speaker 3: the breath of fresh airs you even then, like like
Speaker 3: what keeps you?
Speaker 1: What keeps you going?
Speaker 5: I feel like Nas.
Speaker 4: You know how Nas just put the Fall five albums
Speaker 4: out and nobody again. No, Like he didn't get the
Speaker 4: response that he wanted, but he didn't want that response.
Speaker 4: He just wanted the rhyme. He felt like, I got
Speaker 4: this rude with hip boy. I'm gonna do four albums
Speaker 4: with him, do one whatever, And That's why I'm at.
Speaker 4: I'm at though, two yo. I like what I'm doing.
Speaker 4: I like this craft. I like making records, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Of course, if I was in it
Speaker 4: where I had to make money from it and survive, oh,
Speaker 4: I'll be brought up a little bit more different. But
Speaker 4: right now like like I still I like, you know,
Speaker 4: making records and being able to do certain stuff and
Speaker 4: then being able to be like, Okay, well I watched
Speaker 4: my colleagues and I'd be like, yo, listen, question.
Speaker 5: You ain't gonna tell me to stop, nigga. I know
Speaker 5: when it's over.
Speaker 4: I know when the shit there than when when our
Speaker 4: colleagues and went too far and it's over for them.
Speaker 4: But you ain't gonna tell me that, you know, I
Speaker 4: would know that, like when I dropped Brunner in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 4: I was ahead of my time. I know the fact
Speaker 4: that when it comes down to it, I'm blessed with
Speaker 4: what I know how to do, and that's.
Speaker 5: Make records and do music. So I choose not to
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 4: If I choose not to, but nobody gonna stop me,
Speaker 4: and nobody gonna know you and being gonna tell me
Speaker 4: that's over for me.
Speaker 5: I tell myself is over.
Speaker 1: You tell the truth, Like.
Speaker 5: You said that age stuff.
Speaker 4: You can write, nigga write a rhyme, enough with you,
Speaker 4: Nigga's mad because you still here nigga.
Speaker 3: Right, rhyme, how do you exercise the muscles in the gym?
Speaker 3: Like making beats? Like how many do you make a day?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't make this many productions as that dude
Speaker 4: like I used to. But I stayed with the rhyme.
Speaker 4: My sister even say, yo, my brother's always exercising, meaning
Speaker 4: that no matter what, like I still keep the rhymes going.
Speaker 5: And she was like, you're ericant.
Speaker 4: I've been around you a long time, and I tell
Speaker 4: it everybody. I said, my brother keeps the exercise on
Speaker 4: that mic, like, no matter what, he always constantly writing rhymes.
Speaker 4: I make beats when I have to, and I want
Speaker 4: to get back into that in twenty twenty five where
Speaker 4: I'm making the least a couple of beats today, I
Speaker 4: really really stopped doing that, Like right now. I got
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of shit that I got called for
Speaker 4: just today, que someone Walker, Beyondce, a couple of others
Speaker 4: the game everybody that called in for records, and I'd
Speaker 4: be like, Okay, what damn do I have it? Or
Speaker 4: do I not have it? And if I don't have it,
Speaker 4: then I gotta go make it. So that's when you
Speaker 4: know too. But I did so much stuff in between,
Speaker 4: because you see COVID was here, that was three years
Speaker 4: of making music before that.
Speaker 5: Jazzy Jeff says something that was so prolific.
Speaker 4: He says, get everything out of your laptop because it's
Speaker 4: doing shit in there. So that whole mentality now though
Speaker 4: two quest is like I'm letting all this shit go.
Speaker 5: You know about that?
Speaker 4: If I have to make volumes to put out on
Speaker 4: the web for niggas just to have, it's not gonna
Speaker 4: do me no good inside that laptop.
Speaker 3: You right, you are right, yo, man, Just with I'm
Speaker 3: trying to figure out that there's anything you.
Speaker 5: Can always get me again.
Speaker 4: You gotta come back, you know, you do, I know,
Speaker 4: I know, I know, I know, But I feel like
Speaker 4: it's one of the moments where it's like someone's going
Speaker 4: to be like you, what the fuck you ask him about?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I think that you started off with the
Speaker 4: correct answers and you ended off with everything that I
Speaker 4: didn't expect the records to mention, the ones you brought up.
Speaker 5: All of it is difference.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be very different from every other interview I
Speaker 4: did because the questions that you asked.
Speaker 1: Well, those are my favorite. Man.
Speaker 3: But thank you, bro. Like you're you're definitely one of
Speaker 3: my aspirations. Like not not just like empty talker, Oh
Speaker 3: you a leged, you legend, like literally, man, the amount
Speaker 3: of times that I've heard your ideas and like, yo, man,
Speaker 3: I gotta try that ship out. But do man, You're
Speaker 3: you're such an inspiration to us in the movement. Man,
Speaker 3: I just want to I want to thank you for that, man,
Speaker 3: And I'm.
Speaker 4: Glad you told me about the Jay Diller thing because
Speaker 4: I would never thought that again. I hear people Jay
Speaker 4: Diner speak about other people's names.
Speaker 5: I never heard him talk about me. And I'm baseline driven.
Speaker 4: But for you to say, Eric, nah nigga, the neo
Speaker 4: soul movement was started by you.
Speaker 5: This other movement was started by you.
Speaker 4: You making these records, made these sounds, and we was listening.
Speaker 3: You were the guy of that man and we we
Speaker 3: we thank you for that ship.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: So okay on behalf of the squad, y'all. I hope
Speaker 3: you have a good year until the next time. Question Love,
Speaker 3: Eric Servant, question of Supreme check out thank you for
Speaker 3: listening to Question of Supreme posted by air Quest, Loft Thompson,
Speaker 3: Liah Saint Clair, Sugar, Steve Mandel, and unpaid Bill Sherman.
Speaker 3: Executive producers are Amir Quest, Love Thompson, Sean g and
Speaker 3: Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne and
Speaker 3: Liah Saint Clair. Edited by Alex Convoys. Produced by iHeart
Speaker 3: by Noel Brown.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.